Translation strategy and procedure analysis: a cultural perspective

Abstract

Translation scholars have investigated culture as a problematic issue for both novice and professional translators. Within this line of research, the present study focuses on students’ use of translation strategies and procedures when rendering English cultural references into Arabic. A questionnaire and a translation task were used to track the students’ behaviors during the translation process. The sample of the study was composed of forty undergraduates in English as a foreign language aged 22–24 in their final year of studies. The findings revealed low percentages of students using translation strategies and inadequate use of translation procedures, which may lie behind students’ failure to meet the standards of accepted translation set by the study. Their translation could not reflect a full understanding of the writer’s intention and recognize the boundary of the ST meanings. The study puts forth a model for translation strategy and procedure analysis that can be applied to a translation course to tackle the students’ deficiencies in strategic and cultural competences.