Investigating Patterns of Reciprocal English-Persian Translation of Collocations by Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

This study investigated patterns of reciprocal English-Persian translation of collocations by Iranian EFL learners. The participants of the study were 20 intermediate and advanced level students at different private language schools in Tehran city. The instruments used in the study was a researcher-made questionnaires used for translating collocations and involved 60 items including ten collocation types. The questionnaire was translated into Persian. Then, the English and Persian versions were given to the participants to complete. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS software. The results showed that there were meaningful differences between the two translations in ‘verb + noun’; ‘prepositions of time, place and manner; ‘verb + adverb’; and ‘adjective + preposition’ correlations. The most frequently used strategy used for translation of collocations in English-Persian and also in Persian-English translations was literal translation which is a type of direct translation. These findings indicate that collocational differences between Persian and English bring about errors in the production of Iranian EFL learners and a good number of errors in translations of collocational errors are directly caused by interference of learners’ mother tongue.