Problems of Translating English Relative Clauses into Arabic Among EFL Sudanese Universities

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze relative clauses errors in English- Arabic translation made by under graduate students at Omdurman University of Science and Technology. All students at this university are studying English as university requirements as their majors are in applied science. Relativization system in English was observed to have constituted such a drastic hurdle for them. For this reason, a contrastive analysis approach was adopted by the researcher to explore the possibility of addressing the problem. Contrastive analysis, needless to say, involves an element of translation as examples from the languages involved arranged in paradigms. So the students are not doing translation proper as a prerequisite course. To conduct the study, a diagnostic test of specifically designed sentences containing English and Arabic relative clauses in five categories. The first three categories were English relative clauses (defining-non-defining and sentential), then the Arabic relative clauses in two categories (defining and non-defining) The data of the study were analyzed using SPSS. T-test was used to measure statistical differences in means between students in terms of academic level, gender and the direction of translation. The results indicated that the most difficult domain of relative clauses types was Arabic non- defining relative clauses. Based on the study findings, the researcher recommended a reconsideration of English and Arabic teaching objectives and curricula as the grammatical problems in translation are not only the responsibility of English teachers but also Arabic grammar teachers. Finally, English tutors should pay special attention to the semantic role of relative clauses teaching and any grammatical category in general. This will have the effect of changing the students’ attitudes towards grammar as a harsh subject to learn and will accordingly make its learning fun.