Forign learners' difficulties in translating the Arabic discourse Marker 'Fa' into English

Abstract

Theaim of this studyisto examine the effectof the awareness of the Algerian EFLlearners of the conjunctive deviceson their translations, and, particularly, the translation of the Arabic conjunction ‘fa’ into English. Thetranslation ofthis conjunction seemsto pose many difficulties because it is of a multifunctional nature andhas many semantic properties. That is why we supposed that if EFL learners do not assume that Arabic ‘fa’ is a mono-functional conjunction, they will produce accurate translations in terms of both cohesion and coherence.So, in order to achieve thisobjective, data have been collected through the administrationof a test and a questionnaire for a group of third year students of translation at the University of Constantine.The resultshave revealedthat,because of the students’ unawareness that ‘fa’ is a multifunctional conjunction,their translation productshave lacked the necessary cohesion.Therefore,thisstudy recommends explicit teaching of the various types of conjunctions, their categories and their functions across the two languages in ordertohelp students overcome these difficulties