The Ability of Translation Students in Translating English Proverbs into Arabic and Vice Versa at Jadara University in Jordan

Abstract

This paper aims at examining the ability of translation students in translating English cultural expressions “proverbs’ into Arabic. For achieving this purpose, the researcher selected a random sample of 20 translation students who enrolled during the academic year (2015-2016) in the Department of English Language and Translation at Jadara University in Jordan. The final reliable and validated test of 25 proverbs was set. These English proverbs were taken from Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs edited by John Simpson and Jennifer Speake. Translation students were asked to translate them into Arabic. The collected data were analyzed and investigated quantitatively and qualitatively. The results revealed unaccepted level of students in translating these proverbs; in addition to low extend in dealing with their functional meaning circulated by a number of problems. The most committed problems were related to students’ unfamiliarity with English proverbs, in addition to their failure in achieving the exact Arabic equivalence of English proverbs listed in the translation test.

Keywords: English Cultural expressions, Arabic proverbs, students’ translation.