Linguistic and Cultural Knowledge as Prequisites to Learning Professional Translation

THE PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

UNIVERSITY OF COLONNEL EL HADJ LAKHDAR, BATNA

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMAN SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL

KNOWLEDGE AS PREREQUISITES

TO LEARNING PROFESSIONAL

WRITTEN TRANSLATION

THE CASE OF FIRST AND THIRD YEAR TRANSLATION
STUDENTS AT BATNA UNIVERSITY

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PART REQUIREMENT FOR A DEGREE OF
MAGISTER IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Presented by: Mrs. Fedoua MANSOURI Jury Members: 1. Chairman: Dr. Omar GHOUAR 2. External Examiner: Dr. Nabil MENNANI

Supervised by: Pr. Med Salah NEDJAI

70 DfE MEMORT

09

MY FAD[ER

I would like to express my deep gratitude to:

My supervisor, Pr. M. S. NEDJAI, to whom I owe every forward step of my way.

My husband, my mother and brothers, whose support was beyond all my expectations.

My friends, whose kind words and deeds were of valuable help to me.

- The staff of the Translation Department of Batna University, for their constant assistance and encouragement.

70 DfE MEMORT

09

MY FAD[ER

I would like to express my deep gratitude to:

My supervisor, Pr. M. S. NEDJAI, to whom I owe every forward step of my way.

My husband, my mother and brothers, whose support was beyond all my expectations.

My friends, whose kind words and deeds were of valuable help to me.

- The staff of the Translation Department of Batna University, for their constant assistance and encouragement.

iv
List of Figures

Number			Title Page

Figurel: The ex post fact design 98

Figure 2 : Correlation Between Language Scores

and Translation Scores 114

Figure 3: Distribution of Observed English Competence Levels 130

Figure 4 : Distribution of Observed Arabic Competence Levels 134

Figure 5: Overall Students' Performance on the English General

Culture Test 135
Figure 6: Overall Students' Performance on the Arabic General

Culture Test 138

Figure 7: Distribution of Arabic-English Translations Levels 150

Figure 8: Distribution of English-Arabic Translations Levels 157

V

List of Tables

Number			Title Page

Table 1: Gender proportions in the ex post facto sample 100

Table 2: Means, Standard Deviations and T-values 108

Table 3: Summary of the Correlational Analysis 113

Table 4: Distribution of Observed English Competence Levels 129

Table 5: Distribution of Observed Arabic Competence Levels 133 Table 6: Classification and Quantification of English Culture Answers 134 Table 7: Classification and Quantification of Arabic Culture Answers 137 Table 8: Description of Arabic-English Translations levels 143 Table 9: Examples of Level One Translations of Some

Arabic Source Text Items 144

Table 10: Examples of Level Two Translations of Some Arabic

Source Text Items 146
Table 11: Examples of Linguistic Errors Found in Level Two

Arabic-English Translations 147

Table 12: Examples of Level Three Translations of Some

Arabic Source Text Items 148

vi

Table 13 : Examples of Linguistic Errors Found in Level

Three Arabic-English Translations 149

Table 14: Examples of Level Three Adequate Translations

to Some Arabic ST Items 149

Table 15: Distribution of Arabic-English Translations Levels 150

Table 16: Description of Arabic-English Translation Levels 152

Table 17: Examples of Linguistic Errors Found in Level One

English-Arabic Translations 153

Table 18: Examples of Meaning Transfer Inaccuracies in Level Two English-Arabic Translations 154
Table 19: Examples of Level Three Inappropriate Translations

of Some Source Text Items 155

Table 20: Distribution of English-Arabic Translations Levels 157