Difficulties encountered in the translation of medical texts

Abstract

This study tackles the problems of translating medical texts from English into Arabic. It uses an evaluative approach to investigate and discuss the problems and intricacies of translating medical texts from English to Arabic. The purpose of the study is to show the difficulties of translating medical terms and how they are tackled by first year master students of English. It also attempts to identify the importance of reading comprehension in achieving a good translation of medical texts. Accordingly, it is hypothesized that if students manage to use reading comprehension strategies to generate inferences that can help them understand medical texts; their translation will be more efficient. To give consistency to the evaluative phase, two questionnaires have been used, a questionnaire for fifteen teachers and a questionnaire for fifty students. The teachers’ questionnaire aims to collect information on the Teachers’ perceptions of the strategies adopted in the translation of medical texts. The students’ questionnaire aims to collect information on the students’ knowledge concerning the features of medical texts and the strategies allocated to their translation. A pre- post experimental design has also been used. The aim of the pre-test is to depict the students’ translation and elicit the terminological difficulties encountered in the translation of medical texts. It also attempts to evaluate the strategies used by students in the translations of medical texts. The post-test aims to evaluate students’ use of reading comprehension strategies to achieve a good translation of medical texts. The result of the analysis revealed that students’ use of reading comprehension generate inferences that enhance their understanding of a source medical text and the production of an effective translation of it.