AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume3, Number4. October 2019 Pp.

118-129
DOI: [Link]

Errors in Arabic-English Translation among Saudi Students: Comparative Study Between

Two Groups of Students

Islam Ababneh
Department of English, University of Hafr Al Batin
Saudi Arabia

Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to identify the translational errors made by Arab natives. The
study is an Arabic to English translational skills' comparison between two Saudi groups in two
separate areas of Saudi Arabia: Tabuk and Hafr Al Batin. The study investigated how Arabic
cultural, religious, and other factors influenced the production of such errors by the two groups.
Each group consisted of selected female students majoring in the English language and attending
two regional universities. The students were all of the Saudi nationality and they had obtained their
school education within their region before joining a public university. A newly designed quiz was
attempted by the students in each group to translate words and phrases categorized into four parts:
syntax, spelling, word choice, and singular/plural. It was concluded that lack of English
knowledge, unfamiliarity with some English terms, cultural and religious factors, and literal
translation are the leading causes of wrong translations. Also, the Tabuk students slightly
performed better than Hafr Al Batin students; and this is maybe due to better literacy infrastructure
in the city of Tabuk, vibrant cultural diversity in the city with more expatriates working and
residing in the region and having more private schools.
Keywords: Arabic, English, Saudi Arabia, Translation

Cites as: Ababneh, I. (2019). Errors in Arabic-English Translation among Saudi Students:
Comparative Study Between Two Groups of Students. Arab World English Journal for
Translation & Literary Studies3 (4)118-129 .
DOI: [Link]

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Introduction
One must know the appropriate context of various situations to transfer the correct meaning of
sentences and phrases from one language to another. The use of selected words in their right
meanings distinguishes translations of phrases and expressions. The content, conventions,
grammar, idioms, context, and style must be transferred from one language to another. Therefore,
some terms and words might be confined to a specific field. The translator must be aware of the
various vocabularies and terms to contextually translate phrases from a source language into a
target language. Also, a translator must be very familiar with a specific culture to transfer cultural
meanings from a source language into a target language. Hermans (1999) stressed that translation
is considered as a cultural practice. Later, Gaber (2005) states that culture-bound words are
translated using five techniques:

• Cultural equivalence: equivalences of words and phrases translated to a target language.

• Functional equivalence: words and phrases translated to a target language using the same
function in the source language.
• Paraphrasing: words and phrase meanings are translated from the source language.
• Glossing: additional information included in a footnote or within the text to explain the
cultural words and expressions.
• Borrowing: a word or phrase is borrowed from the source language and included into the
target language.

Savory(1968) explains that translation can be achieved by the equivalence of thought that lies
behind its different verbal expressions. Newmark (1981) states that translation is a craft that
consists of an attempt to replace a written message or statement in one language by the same
message and/or statement in some other language. Later, Newmark (1988) explains that foreign
cultural expressions include ecological, material, and social cultures, social organizations
expressions, political, religious, artistic, gestures and habits. He elaborates that cultural
expressions can be found in collocations, proverbs, phrasal verbs and figures of speech including
metaphors. On the other hand, Catford (1965) defines translation as merely the replacement of
textual content in one language by equivalent textual material in another language. This research
highlights the Arabic cultural factors influencing students' English translations. The study aims to
present the translations by two Saudi students groups and gives the numerical percentages of errors
in translations in several categories.

Literature Review
In making cultural connections, various researchers around the world have affirmed that translation
is culturally related. Qurashi (2004) states that translation plays a vital role in transferring
knowledge from one culture to another. Akan (2018) says that unlike translation between two
languages from the same origin, translation from English to the Semitic Arabic or vice versa is
difficult because the two languages are of "different and distant origins". Nida (1964) states that
the role of a translator is to facilitate the transfer of messages and their meanings, with the cultural
elements from one language into another one, and create an equivalent response to the receivers.
Specifically, in the Arab world, many researchers have contributed to the study of how the Arabic
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culture is influencing the translations of English into Arabic and vice versa. Many of the
researchers have asserted that translation of Arabic terms and expressions to the English language
should take into account the Arabic cultural context. However, not all researchers think that culture
must be considered when tackling translation aspects.

Bahumaid (2006) used a translation test with contextualized collocations of different types.
The test included thirty sentences attempted by four Arab university instructors. The results
indicated poor participants' performance. Similarly, in this study, two groups of students'
translations are investigated.

Dweik and Abu-Shakra (2011) create a translation test of forty-five short religious
sentences to study the mistakes made by thirty-five master of art students in three Jordanian
universities. The test is based on verses and expressions that came from the Quran, Hadith, and
the Bible. The researchers showed that the students had difficulties in lexical and semantics
collocations of items related to the Arabic culture. Also, the study revealed that there were
disparities between Arabic concepts and metaphors when compared to Western ideas and
metaphors.

Alousque (2009) investigated the difficulties in translating cultural items that have different
meanings/implications both in the source and target languages. He also studied the range of
translation procedures used to explain cultural meaning through the analysis of the lexis from the
French cultural domain of cooking. The study revealed that there are some cultural translation
challenges and constraints in the translation strategies used to transfer the meaning of cultural
items into the target language (loan, functional equivalence, descriptive equivalence, approximate
equivalence).

Badawi (2008) uses a cultural bound expression test and a translation strategy awareness
questionnaire to study how forty-three Saudi fourth year EFL students translated cultural phrases
and expressions. The study revealed that the students tended to give literal translations of the
cultural phrases rather than attempting to give their equivalent meanings. The study also concluded
that the students used wrong strategies for translating cultural expressions.

Abdel-Fattah and Zughoul (2003) use a two-form test (Multiple choices and free translation
forms) to study how sixteen graduate and undergraduate English students translated English
collocations and rendered their meaning. The researchers concluded that the learners faced
problems in translating collocations with cultural expressions in the two form translation test.

El-Nashar and Mohamed (2016) investigated the explicitation techniques employed while
translating from English into Arabic. The researchers used the official document of "Policies and
Procedures Manual for Support Staff" (Office of Human Resources, the American University in
Cairo, April 2012) (21,937 words). They devised an eclectic 10-tool explicitation framework and
concluded that explicitation does not necessarily lead to longer translations.

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Al Shehab (2013) chose six English legal sentences validated and entered them into Google
Translator to be translated into Arabic. He concluded that Google English translation of legal
sentences partially gives their Arabic equivalence. But, it poses several problems in translating
archaic English terms, in dealing with passive voice, and, in translating the "modal shall." In short,
Google translation provides a quick translation from English into Arabic, but it is not as good as
"professional translators." Therefore, there is a lack of studies in culturally closed tribal societies
such as in the ones in Saudi Arabia. This study will shed some light on translation errors by native
Arabic students in their natural environments.

Method
A large number of researchers in the field of translational research adopt the method of distributing
a translation test of some phrases and expressions among some groups of students; then they try
to analyze the results based on the collected answers. Similarly, this research employs a custom-
designed quiz administered to Saudi students majoring in English to investigate their translational
errors. Uniquely, the quiz questions are based on translational errors observed on printed material
such as signs and documents of establishments in the city of Tabuk. Some of those phrases were
also confirmed to exist in other cities in Saudi Arabia including the city of Hafr Al Batin. Thus,
the quiz questions reflect some existing problems in the translation of specific terms and phrases.
Also, the study is mainly a quantitative study where the students are given a translation test, and
the quantitative results are obtained and compared among the two groups without investigating the
backgrounds of the students.

Sample
The research selected one hundred students in the Department of Languages and
Translation at the University of Tabuk and one hundred students at the Department of Languages
and Translation at the University of Hafr Al Batin in their 3rd and 4th-year levels to take the newly
designed translation quiz. The test was conducted in the academic year 2016/2017 in Tabuk while
it was administered in the academic year 2018/2019 in Hafr Al Batin. The age of the students is
between 20 and 25 years. Also, the gender of the students is female since the universities in the
two areas are segregated into only male and only female sections as required by the Ministry of
Education in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. All students selected are of tribal Arabic Saudi
background who have always lived in their local areas all their lives and have never or rarely
visited other countries. Also, almost all students have never been to any western native English-
speaking country. The students have studied in the Tabuk region or Hafr Al Batin region for their
elementary/secondary education attending public or private schools and have never joined any
international school. Thus, the students in these two areas of Saudi Arabia have only learned
English skills during English classes in their secondary school years; and sometimes they have
acquired some new English skills from their university courses.

Regions
The two areas where the students live, and study are far from each other in distance and
have mainly different Arabic tribes of people, but with similar Arabic tribal customs and ways of
Bedouin lives. The Tabuk area tends to have more people with exposure to expatriates from other
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countries working as doctors, university professors, or industry engineers. Both areas have large
military bases and facilities and therefore a large number of the local people work as servicemen,
police, or army officers. Also, a good number of those people are government employees or school
teachers.

Data collection
A newly designed quiz was compiled by observing common errors posted on shops,
universities, hospitals, and other establishments' signs in the region of Tabuk for two years. The
quiz also included errors identified in printed material such as newspapers, magazines, flyers, and
other written documents within the city of Tabuk. Then problematic phrases and expressions were
compiled, printed on paper, and distributed to the students inside a classroom within a university
campus environment. The students' identities remained anonymous by not writing their names or
any other identifying information on the quiz papers. The students were allocated enough time to
write down their English translations to all parts of the quiz. The investigated errors were tabulated
and categorized into four types:

• Singular/Plural: using singular/plural nouns in place of one other.

• Syntax of sentences: dividing a word, mixing verbs and nouns, possessive errors, wrong
nouns, mixing adjectives and adverbs, and improper word order.
• Word choice: incorrect word use, the substitution of antiquated forms for more common
ones, using words together that do not typically appear with each other.
• Spelling: wrong writing of words.

Data Analysis
The answers of the students were collected and analyzed. Each section of the quiz was
evaluated separately. Each item of the quiz was marked with two scores: score one was given for
providing somewhat correct translation and score two was allocated for providing accurate
equivalent Arabic translation. For example, in the singular/plural section, translating the word "
‫ "التقارير‬as the singular form "Record" was accepted for score one even though only the English
translated word "Records" was recognized as the correct plural translation for score two. Similarly,
in the Syntax part of the quiz, the phrase "‫ "األحذية المخفضة‬was translated with "discount shoes" or
"discounted shoes" but only "discounted shoes" was recognized as the correct syntactic translated
form. The score averages were calculated for each section and each group of students.

Results and Discussion

Overall, there were many translational mistakes that reflected the students' poor skills and lack of
understanding of various language elements. Based on the analysis and categorization of the errors,
the students made mistakes in singular/plural nouns, the syntax of sentences, spelling, and picking
the wrong religious and cultural English phrases for their Arabic equivalents. Tables 1-4 give the
comparative percentages of students who correctly translated each item of the three types of
translation errors (Singular/Plural, Syntax, and Word choice) by the students in the Tabuk area and
Hafr Al Batin area. The tables also show the average percentages of the correct translations in each
category.
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Similar translational errors were spotted based on the answers of the students in the two
regions of Saudi Arabia and there were many mistakes in each category of the quiz. Surprisingly,
a large number of the students in the two groups could not translate many of the phrases and
expressions are given in the quiz; and many of them made a lot of spelling mistakes. Finally,
spelling mistakes were not taken into account when other errors were investigated.

singular/plural
Many of the students confused singular with plural nouns and vice versa. Table 1 shows
the percentages of the students who gave the correct singular/plural noun translations for each
item. The table demonstrates that the students in Tabuk performed slightly better than the students
in Hafr Al Batin in selecting appropriate translation of singular/plural nouns. The table also shows
some examples of the students' errors. Additionally, even though approximately 68% of the
students in Tabuk wrote down somewhat acceptable translation for all seven items in table 1, only
37% of the students selected the proper singular/plural noun for all words. Similarly, 60% of the
students in Hafr Al Batin wrote down somewhat acceptable translations, but only 33% of them
gave the right singular/plural noun for all seven items. Therefore, a good number of the students
knew how to translate simple common words but failed to give the correct singular/plural form.
For example, for the word "‫التقارير‬," many students failed to include the plurality indicator "s" letter
and translated the word as only singular "report". Similarly, a large number of the students could
not give the correct plural translation form for the word "‫ "الحوادث‬and they wrote down only the
singular form "emergency". Besides, for the simple word "‫"الزبائن‬, many of the students gave the
wrong singular translation as "customer" and not "customers". Many students gave the plural
"services" in translating "customer services". Expectedly, the majority of students in both regions
failed to give any translation for the unfamiliar word " ‫"الحواالت‬. Finally, it was observed that the
students translated familiar plural Arabic words into the single English nouns; for example, a good
number of the students translated the familiar plural Arabic word "‫ " الشيكات‬into the singular English
word "check".

Table 1. Singular/Plural correct percentages [Overall accepted translation: (Tabuk =68%, Hafr
=60%)]
% %correct
Arabic English Example of errors correct - Hafr
Tabuk
‫للعائالت‬ Families, For Family, fymaly 61 56
families
‫التقارير الطبية‬ Medical records Record midical 40 30
‫الحوادث‬ Accidents Accident, eccidents 51 46
‫الطوارئ‬ Emergencies Emergency, emargence 36 29
‫خدمة الزبائن‬ Customers Service Customer services 14 20
‫الحواالت‬ Remittances, Sendings 19 18
transfers
‫الشيكات‬ Drafts or checks Check, chacks, cheek 38 34
Averages 37 33

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Syntax
Table 2 shows the percentages of students who demonstrated acceptable English grammar
in their translations. Minor spelling and word choice errors were ignored. Many students could
not translate the phrases or wrote completely inappropriate translations. Table 2 shows that only
45% of the students in Tabuk gave a correct syntactic structure of the six items in this section while
40% of the students in Hafr Al Batin wrote down acceptable syntactic translations. Unfamiliar
words and phrases such as "‫ " إغتنموا فرصة‬were the most difficult for students to translate.
Table 2. Syntax percentages of errors

%correct %correct
Arabic English
Tabuk Hafr
‫القسم النسائي في مستشفى الوالده‬ Women section(department) at the maternity 43 35
hospital
‫مركز العمليات و الموظفين في‬ Center of Operations and Staff (employees) at 37 25
‫الجامعة‬ the University
‫إغتنموا فرصة األحذية المخفضة‬ Seize (grab) the opportunity of discounted shoes 19 21
‫إتجه إلى قسم المواليد واالطفال‬ Go to the department (section) of Infants and 68 70
Children
‫سوق ابو لاير في مدينة تبوك‬ One rial market in Tabuk 47 42
‫حفل !فتتاح البنك السعودي‬ Saudi Dutch Bank opening ceremony 35 25
‫الهولندي‬
Averages 45 40

There were many structure errors in the syntax section. Table 3 shows the percentages of errors
within the syntax category. As table 3 illustrates, the syntactic errors were analyzed and fell into
six subcategories: dividing a single word into two, using possession (s) wrongly, mixing nouns
with verbs, mixing adjectives with verbs, wrong word order, and propositions. Most of the errors
were in the subcategory of "word order". For example, for the phrase "‫" مركز العمليات و الموظفين‬
some students mixed the order of the words such as " employ center and operation" or "center
process" or even the students failed to give the equivalent English meaning such as writing
"newborn and children center"; many students had difficulties with their spellings such as
translating " ‫ " مركز العمليات و الموظفين‬into English as the "senter employ and operation". Also, there
were many errors in other syntactic subcategories. For example, a good number of the female
students in both regions translated the phrase "‫ "قسم المواليد واالطفال‬using the possessive "s" as
"infant's and children's section". Similarly, many students translated the phrase "‫ " القسم النسائي‬as
"ladies section" or "women's section"; both words "women" and "ladies" were accepted as a
translation of "‫" النسائي‬. In addition, some students could not give the full propositional phrase such
using "front of" instead of " in front of". There were some students who misplaced the nouns in a
phrase or used the wrong noun; for example, some students translated the phrase " ‫قسم المواليد‬
‫ "واالطفال‬as " child and new birth section ". Additionally, there were problems of misusing
adjectives; for example, some students translated "‫ " حفل !فتتاح البنك السعودي الهولندي‬as "openning
Saudian Holandi Bank party". Finally, many students tried to "Arabacize" some terms such as
translating "‫ " الهولندي‬as "Holandi" and translating "‫ "ابو لاير‬as merely "Abo rial"; and thereby,
avoided coming up with English equivalent terms.
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Table 3. Syntax subcategories and their percentages of errors with examples

subcategory %errors %
Tabuk errors Examples of errors
Hafr
Dividing- 7 4 every thing, Every thing 1 Riyal
word
Possessions 9 8 sale's shoes, women's section, Ladie’s hospital section, baby’s
and children’s section
verb/noun 27 30 speed the sale, is open, sell shoes, now opened, shopping one,
shopping rial, shoes is on sale, bank saudi open party
Adjectives - 8 6 discount shoes, run shoes, low pricing shoes, Saudian Holandi
Adverbs Bank, offer shoes
Word-order 32 36 Bank Saudi Holandi, section women, section the babies, the
shoes discoun, Saudi Bank Holandi, centre operation, level
women, part the kids and child, part baby and children,
Operation center and employment, shop one rial, the shoes
discount
Proposition 17 16 shopping of the one riyal, part of the women, the section of the
women, shoes with sales, the shoes, operation centre on
university, shoes in sale, shop for ryial, store of ryial

wrong word choice

The students had most of their translational difficulties in the category of "wrong word
choice". It was clear that a good number of the students in both regions attempted to use direct
word for word transfer and not contextual meaningful translations. As table 4 shows, 44% of the
students in Tabuk and 39% of the students in Hafr Al Batin wrote down acceptable and appropriate
English equivalences for the phrases. The table illustrates some examples of inappropriate
translated words. For example, some students translated the phrase "‫" اقتضت طبيعة البحث‬as " forced
to research ". Expectedly, almost all the students in the two regions could translate complex
familiar terms from their curriculum but had major difficulties with less complex unfamiliar
phrases; for example, a large number of the students gave the correct translation for "‫الجملة و اساليبها‬
"as "sentence and its styles" but all of the students could not translate the word "3‫ " المحور‬and only
a few students could translate the phrase "‫"سالمه المنشاة‬. Most notably, the students had problems
with English names of countries and English religious terms; for example, many students in both
regions translated the word "‫ "الهولندي‬as "Holandi" and not as "Dutch" and many translated the
religious term "‫ "السور المكيه‬as "Meccan suras" instead of "Meccan verses". It might be
understandable that Muslims would recognize the meaning of "sura" as a "verse," but this term
might not be well understood by those of non-Muslim faith.

Similarly, a good number of students translated the religious phrase "‫ "الى يوم الدين‬as "until
day of Al-deen" and not as "until the day of judgment". Many students chose various
translations of "‫ "الى يوم الدين‬that reflected their religious understanding of the term and generally
a Mulism's own faith such as "until the final day", or "to religion day", or "the end of the world".
The students also had difficulties with medical terms; for example some students translated " ‫ما‬
‫ "هي الوصفة الطبية‬as "what is the recipe" using "recipe" instead of "prescription." Additionally,
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few students translated the phrase "‫ "العيادات الخارجية‬appropriately as "outpatient clinics" and
variably the students translated the phrase using simple vocabulary such as "outside department",
"foreign clinics", "outdoor clinics", or "external hospital". Finally, the students described
positive and negative phrases in a positive or negative way but they did not always choose the
appropriate English words; for example many students translated the phrase "‫" افخر انواع الحلويات‬
positively as "great sweets" or "fancy sweets" and they translated the phrase "‫" البيت االنيق‬as "nice
house" or "beautiful home" or" classic home" or "unique home". Similarly, some students
translated "‫ "ممنوع الوقوف امام المنزل‬as relatively negative but not appropriate phrases such as
"forbidden to stay in front of home".

Table 4. Word choice correct percentages [Overall accepted translation: (Tabuk =44%, Hafr
=39%)]
% %
Arabic English Example of errors correct correct
Tabuk Hafr
‫قسم اللغه العربيه‬ Department of Arabic Servise arabic, part of Arabic, 77 68
Language Arab level, chapter of Arab,
Arab unit
‫اقتضت طبيعة البحث‬ The nature of the Search warrant-nature, forced to 46 28
research required research, research nature rolled
‫الجملة و اساليبها‬ Sentence and its Wholesale and methods, 55 46
methods (Styles) sentences and techniques, whole
sales with thier styles, sentences
and its forms, nature of the
event, sentences and its ways,
sentences and chracter
3‫المحور‬ Theme III; Axis III part3; the main-center; the third 6 4
sourcse; scale three; hub-point
‫الوقوف على اسراره‬ Stop at some of its Stand on some of its secrets, 34 36
secrets standing on his walls
‫البنك السعودي‬ Saudi Dutch Bank Saudi Hollandi Bank, Saudi 55 60
‫الهولندي‬ Holland
‫ما هي الوصفة الطبية‬ What is the What is the Recipe, medical 29 22
prescription paper
‫العيادات الخارجية‬ Outpatient clinics Out patient department, clinical 20 24
out, hospital outside, foreign
clinics
‫افخر انواع الحلويات‬ Finest kinds of I am proud types of Desserts, 58 52
sweets Royal sweets, kind of sweets,
nice sweets
‫الى يوم الدين‬ Until day of On the debt, day islam, day final 35 26
judgment
‫السور المكيه‬ Meccan verses Fence Meccan, alsoar, The royal 17 14
lines, holy quran, the meccan
wall

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‫أنا ال أكل لحم الخنزير‬ I do not eat pork I do not eat porker, I not eat 81 64
meat
‫الدور الثالث‬ Third floor Third round, three floor, third 51 36
role, third stairs, high 3
‫ممنوع الوقوف امام‬ No parking here No parking hear house, not drive 66 58
‫المنزل‬ here, no stop front home,
barking no
‫سالمه المنشاة‬ Establishment safety Safety of origin, The saftey of 20 12
starting, the safty of passengers,
facility safty, help for us
Averages 44 39

spelling
Unfortunately, the students made a significant number of spelling mistakes in all sections
of the quiz; Table 5 shows words and examples of writing errors. The spelling problems were in
two vowel words, names, unfamiliar terms, silent letters in words..etc.

Table 5. Words and examples of writing errors

Words Examples of errors
Children "cheldren", "Ghildren", "childrn","childrean","chalderan","childeren"
Women "wemon","wamen","womeen"
Check "chek","sheak","shakes","cheeik","sheacks","shecat"
Shoes "shous", "chooes", "choses","shoas","shose","chosses"
Employees "empoles", "emploeeys","emploies"
Family "femaili", "famliy","famely","famailys"
Saudi "soudi", "Sawdy","suid","sudie","sudia"
Customer "custmer", "costomer","cosutm"
Service "serves", "serrvec", "servese","sirves","serve","serveis"
Emergency "emargence","imarjancy"
Accident "accedent","accedint","acident","acacedent","eccidents","accedant","excedent
Medical "midecin", "midical", "madcal", "madecal"
Report "reboret","rebarts"
Babies "bibyes","babys","beaby"
Third "thered", "thierd",
Behind "behiend",
Security "securit",
House "Howes", "Haus",
Floor "floore","flaor"
Safty "Safity","Safte",
Home "Hom",
Sentence "sentense","sentens","sintins","sentes"
Judgment "judjment","judment"
Section "Sekction","sexchen","cection","sextion","sacshen"
Building "Bilding",
Level "Livel", "Leavel",
Department "Dipartment",debartment"
Sale "seul"
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Bank "pank"
Style "stayls"
Female "famele","femail"
Discounted "discaon"

One reason that the students made many spelling mistakes is due to their incorrect
pronunciation of English words; for example, the word "medical" is mispronounced with an "i"
sound instead of an "e" sound resulting in "midical". Also, two vowel words were of difficulty
such as the confusion between the word "hear" and "here". Additionally, the students had
difficulties to in the use of the "b" letter or the "p" letter; and that is due to not having a "p" sound
in the Arabic language. Some students translated "‫ "الوقوف‬that means "stop or park" with
"barking". A number of the students translated "‫ "التقارير‬as "reports" instead of "reports"; or
translated "‫ "العمليات‬as "operation". Furthermore, a good number of students confused using
similar-looking words; for example, writing "customs" in place of "customers" or "incident"
instead of "accident". Additionally, the students had difficulties in the with silent letters; for
example, writing the "g" in "judgment". Numerous students used some Arabicized English
translations; for example, translating " ‫ "الشيكات‬with "shakes".

Limitations
The results of this study are only applicable to the sample of the female students in the two areas
of the study and not necessarily a reflection of students' translational skills of all regions in the
kingdom of Saudi Arabia; even though the results can identify the specific problems with
translating Arabic phrases and terms into English by students who might become English teachers
in public and private schools. The study can be extended by the Ministry of Education in Saudi
Arabia to include more male and female students in various regions of the country, and only then
a general statement can be made on the current status of university students' English translational
skills in Saudi Arabia.

Conclusion
In this study, the students in both regions of Saudi Arabia made numerous translational errors:
incorrectly used singular/plural nouns, wrongly used nouns and verbs, inappropriately used
English words, used Arabicized words, and made numerous spelling mistakes. The students made
most of the errors in the word choice part, which reflected some Arabic cultural and Islamic
influences that resulted in the tendency to pick inappropriate English vocabulary in translations.
Also, it can be deduced that students fail to translate contextually as long as they do not use English
for their communication on a daily basis. Even though some students knew a lot of vocabulary,
they failed to appropriately use it in the right context. In general, it can be concluded that
translation failures are due to various reasons: not having enough English vocabulary, Arabic and
confusing Islamic terms, unfamiliarity with English names of countries and cultural terms, lack of
knowledge of correct sentence structures, and the inability to distinguish singular from plural
nouns.

Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 128
ISSN: 2550-1542 | [Link]
 AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Volume, 3 Number 4. October 2019
Errors in Arabic-English Translation among Saudi Students Ababneh

About the author:

Islam Ababneh is currently an assistant professor in the department of English at the University
of Hafr Al Batin where she is teaching various courses in the department. She has more than six
years of experience in teaching and research activities. Currently, she is working on research
projects of English errors for Arab university students and Arabic cultural influencing factors that
affect acquiring English at the university level.
ORCiD [Link]

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