Investigating the Difficulties Encountered by Students in Translating Collocations from English into Arabic and Vice Versa

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the difficulties encountered by students in translating collocations from English into Arabic and vice versa. The data were collected by using test tool. The study focused on the difficulties that face high diploma translation students in translating collocations from both English and Arabic and vice versa. The researcher used the descriptive method. The sample of the study comprised of 30 high diploma translation students from Bahri University, College of Graduate studies, Department of General Translation. The data were analyzed by using the statistical package for social sciences program (SPSS). The analysis of the data showed that high diploma translation students were not able to identify the different types of collocation in both English and Arabic and they do not adopt new techniques for translating collocation from English into Arabic and vice versa. The study is ended in some recommendations and suggestions for further studies, including; teachers should teach students using appropriate techniques to translate the collocations from English into Arabic and vice versa.Teachers of English have to explore to students different types of collocations in both English and Arabic. Also, the researcher suggested to investigate similarities and differences between English and Arabic lexical collocations and to explore students’ awareness about English and Arabic grammatical collocations.