Language-related Challenges Faced by Sudanese Translators When Translating Legal Contracts between English and Arabic

Abstract

This is an exploratory descriptive study which is primarily intended to investigate Sudanese translation practitioners' perceptions and views about difficulties, problems and challenges that they encountered when translating legal contracts between English and Arabic. It attempts to investigate and explore those practitioners' perceptions and views about these difficulties in the Gulf context, more specifically in Oman and the UAE and compare them with related findings from empirical literature. To achieve the study objectives, quantitative methodology was used to collect data and interpret the outcomes. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to (33) Sudanese translation practitioners. Questionnaire's validity and reliability were tested and established via a pilot study. Additionally, relevant literature was reviewed to pinpoint the gaps in this area and support the main tool of data collection which is questionnaire. The findings showed that translation practitioners' perceptions about legal contracts translation challenges are consistent with findings in the empirical literature. The study concluded that the most apparent challenges are: language-related challenges, followed by style-related challenges, and culture-specific challenges, respectively. The study concluded with some relevant recommendations: First, legal contracts should be translated by well-trained and certified translators and they should have the legal background so that it could help them do their jobs successfully. Second, workshops and training on legal translation should be conducted periodically and training should be one of the requirements for practising and joining legal translation industry. Moreover, translators of legal contracts should be accredited individually and that should be conducted by experts and specialized bodies. Further, legal translation practitioners should collaborate with legal document drafters and lawyers