Difficulties and Problems Facing English Students in Translating Culture-Specific Items from English to Arabic and their Solutions

Abstract

Translation of CSIs in literary texts poses many problems for the translator. This study explores problems faced undergraduate students of English language when translating culture-specific items from English to Arabic. To achieve this aim, the researcher selected 38 undergraduate students randomly, level four, who were registered for the B.A program in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Thamar University that exists in the Republic of Yemen. The study took place during the second semester of the academic year 2016/2017. The researcher carried out a translation test that consisted of 20 relatively short sentences which the learners were required to translate from English into Arabic. The findings show that the students encounter different kinds of problems when translating culture-specific items. These problems ar e mostly related to: Unfamiliarity with some of these culture-specific items; Failure to achieve the equivalence in the Arabic language; Ambiguity of some cultural items; Lack of knowledge of translation techniques and translation strategies; The incompetence of students in their mother tongue, i.e. Arabic language. At the end of the study, the researcher offered numerous recommendations that may help in overcome the problems of translating culture-specific items.