The effect of pretranslation techniques in developing EFL students' translation ability

• Published in: Journal of applied research in higher education Vol. 16; no. 4; pp. 1176 - 1187
• Main Authors: Bin-Hady, Wagdi Rashad Ali, Al-Ahdal, Arif Ahmed Mohammed Hassan, Abdullah, Samia Khalifa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bingley Emerald Publishing Limited 09.07.2024; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: College students; Cross Cultural Studies; Cultural Awareness; Educational Strategies; English (Second Language); Evaluators; Instructional Materials; Interpreters; Language; Language Teachers; Learner Engagement; Linguistics; Literature Reviews; Negative Attitudes; Researchers; Semantics; Semitic Languages; Sentences; Skills; Specialization; Syntax; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Text analysis; Translation; Translations; Undergraduate Students; Learning; Pretranslation techniques; Pre-experimental design; Yemeni EFL students; Syntactic parsing; Teaching
• ISSN: 2050-7003; 1758-1184
• DOI: 10.1108/JARHE-04-2023-0167

Purpose English as a foreign langauge (EFL) students find it difficult to apply the theoretical knowledge they acquire on translation in the practical world. Therefore, this study explored if training in pretranslation techniques (PTTs) (syntactic parsing) as suggested by Almanna (2018) could improve the translation proficiency of Yemeni EFL students. Moreover, the study also assessed which of the PTTs the intervention helped to develop.Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a primarily experimental pre- and posttests research design, and the sample comprised of an intake class with 16 students enrolled in the fourth year, Bachelor in Education (B.Ed), Hadhramout University. Six participants were also interviewed to gather the students' perceptions on using PTTs.Findings Results showed that students' performance in translation developed significantly (Sig. = 0.002). All the six PTTs showed development, though subject, tense and aspect developed more significantly (Sig. = 0.034, 0.002, 0.001 respectively). Finally, the study reported students' positive perceptions on the importance of using PTTs before doing any translation tasks.Originality/value One of the recurrent errors that can be noticed in Yemeni EFL students' production is their inability to transfer the grammatical elements of sentences from L1 (Arabic) into L2 (English) or the visa versa. The researchers thought though translation is more than the syntactic transmission of one language into another, analyzing the elements of sentences using syntactic and semantic parsing can help students to produce acceptable texts in the target language. These claims would be proved or refuted after analyzing the experiment result of the present study.