Challenges Faced by EFL Learners while Translating the Text into the Source Text
1- Introduction
The translation is a part of the creative process. It is a means of communication, so it cannot be separated from writing because, in such a case, it is a means both to begin and continue the writing process. Writing plays an essential role in any translation. For this reason, translation is a challenging process since it happens in a context and implies the transposition of a source text into a target text. The researcher, as an EFL learner, has noticed many difficulties faced by EFL students in translation, especially in written texts at the university level.
1.1- Difficulties facing EFL Students in Translating Written Texts
Difficulties facing EFL students in translating written texts in English and Arabic belong to different language families. English is Germanic, while Arabic is Semitic. So, they are supposed to have more differences between them than similarities.
Those differences would be on different levels: phonological, grammatical, lexical, cultural, stylistic, and so on. When an Arab student of English is trying to do an English-Arabic translation, he is expected to find the difficulty of various types as a result of the differences existing between English and Arabic. The researcher has classified such problems into three categories: grammatical, lexical and stylistic. The phonological problem is excluded since the study is concerned with writing.
1.2- What is Translation?
There are many definitions of the word "translation," but all of them are almost the same. Newmark (1995:11) states that "translation is a re-writing of an original text". Also, he states that "it is rendering the meaning of the text into another language in the way that the author intended the text." According to Catford (1965:20), “translation is the act of replacing textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)." Translation, as defined by Bell (0990:6), "is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language". All the above definitions reflect the nature of translation and the way translators view it. So, it is not an easy process and the translators should bear in mind that the idea of transformation from the source 17 language text to the target language text requires awareness and great knowledge about translation. Also, translators should know that the idea of exact equivalence cannot be attained. So, some expressions and words have no equivalents at all, and this leads to the idea that languages are different from each other in many ways and forms. Thus, every language has its own culture.
Related article: Machine Translation & Its Advantages and Disadvantages
1.3- The Purposes of Translation
The five main purposes and uses of translation, as suggested by Newmark (1991:43), are:
a. To contribute to understanding and peace-creation between nations, groups, and individuals.
c. To explain and clarify ethnic cultures and their differences.
d. To translate the world’s great books and universal works.
to facilitate foreign language learning. This fifth purpose has always been controversial.
2- Statement of the Problem
Translating written text seems to be an easy task because it is not more than finding the equivalents in the target language. However, this is not always the case since there are many problems which were observed by the researcher as an EFL learner, such as the wrong choice of words, lack of equivalents, and interference with the mother tongue.
3- Objectives of the Study
1. To investigate the difficulties that EFL students encounter in translating written texts.
2. To find suitable means and techniques to tackle these difficulties.
3. To explore the role played by translation in improving EFL students’ performance in written texts since writing can be measured through translation and vice versa.
4- Questions of the Study
1. What are the difficulties that face EFL students in translating written texts?
2. What are the appropriate techniques to solve the problem of translating written texts?
3. To what extent can translation help in improving EFL students’ performance in writing skills in both languages (English and Arabic).
5- Hypotheses of the Study
1. University EFL students face difficulties in translating written texts such as grammatical, lexical, and stylistic problems.
2. There are many acceptable and suitable techniques that can be adopted for solving translation problems, such as overteaching, and practising intensive and extensive reading.
3. Translation plays a vital role in improving EFL students’ performance in written texts in both languages (English and Arabic).
6- Significance of the Study
The result of the study is expected to benefit EFL learners, English language teachers, lecturers, translators, syllabus designers and material writers.
7- Methodology of the Study
A questionnaire will be adopted as a tool for collecting data. It will be distributed to 20 lecturers. In addition, data will be obtained by the analysis of the student's real work in examinations of (41) students from the Faculty of Education –Hantoub, University of Gezira, batch (31). They will be chosen randomly. The data of this study will be analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Programme (SPSS).
8- Limits of the Study
The study will be limited to investigating the difficulties facing EFL students in translating written texts only. It will be limited to translation students of the University of Gezira, Faculty of Education Hantoub, Batch (31).
9- Theories of Translation
Translation theory is concerned with translating the text into the source text through different theories and methods.
There are several theories related to translation, which are given below:
a) Linguistic Theory
b) Theory of Meaning
c) Sociolinguistics Theory of Translation
a) Linguistic Theory
This theory is derived from comparative linguistics. This concerns semantics. All questions of semantics concern the translation theory. All the ambiguities in semantics or syntax come under this theory.
b) Theory Of Meaning
This theory was introduced in Paris in 1962 by ESIT. This is related to the shift away from the linguistic aspect of language toward cultural and communicative factors shared by language.
c) Sociolinguistics Theory Of Translation
This theory of translation is related to social settings and extralinguistic factors, which are translated into the target language in relation to social settings.
10- Methods Of Translation
These translation methods are given by theorists and might be helpful in translation studies.
a) Literal Translation
b) Free Translation
c) Smart Translation
d) Semantic Translation
a) Literal Translation
Literal translation can be explained as a word-to-word translation and related to sentence translation. It includes style, grammatical functions, and correctness. In this translation, the method by which the translator tries to understand or translate the author's thoughts is known as a literal translation.
b) Free Translation
In this method of translation, the equivalent shifts freely into content or message, whether it's a phrase, sentence, or paragraph.
c) Smart Translation
This type is also called intelligent translation, where the translator tries to understand the styles of the content and then re-writes the text into the target language, called smart translation.
d) Semantic Translation
This method of translation is the author's centric translation. It is more powerful and informative. In this method, the translator translates text through styles, and grammar and is mainly concerned with the meaning of the text.
11- Translation Problems
Translation involves many problems which involve linguistic translation, cultural translation, and semantic meaning translation.
1.1- Linguistic Translation
It is concerned with semantic, pragmatic, syntax and phonetic and phonological translations.
1.2- Cultural Translation
Cultural Translation deals with the norms and face-reading translations. It is concerned with the good and bad deeds and norms of any particular culture.
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