Investigating Pragmatic Problems of Communication in English-Arabic Translation

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the pragmatic problems of communication in English-Arabic Translation. M. A. Students of translation tend to translate the direct and literal meaning of words and utterances rather than translating the intended meaning of the speakers or writers which necessitates understanding the way that pragmatic aspects of the source language in particular are processed. This study also attempts to investigate the importance of including pragmatics as a discipline on the bachelor and M. A. Levels for the problems it represents when it comes to translating English text into Arabic. The researcher used a questionnaire and a test to confirm the hypotheses of this study. The samples of this study questionnaire ware 30 teachers with experience in teaching translation for M.A. students. They are staff members at six Sudanese universities. The samples of this study test were the M.A. students in translation. In this study the statistic programme for social studies (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. The results of this study show that students of M.A. in translation are unable to translate pragmatic aspects when they translate from English into Arabic which results in poor translation. They also tend to translate the literal meanings. The study also reached into results that proved the necessity of including pragmatics in English language syllabuses in both bachelor and M.A. levels. Based on the results of this study, the researcher recommends the following: the administrations at the concerned colleges and departments are strongly recommended to include pragmatics with its different aspects as a separate course. Teachers are also advised to make sure that their students are able to go beyond denotation to connotation, and they should also be taught the principles of using pragmatics, training them on related expressions, as well as showing them the areas where beginner translators are expected to fail in providing the appropriate meanings.