Open Source Corpus as a Tool for Translation Training

Abstract

Building a sentence into Arabic is rather difficult for amateur translators. Similarly,is the case for Malay students who particularly learn how to build sentences in writing. Usage of dictionaries also is not enough to convey the translation, especially in translating phrases and sentences from the Malay language into Arabic. Students are incapable of building sentences in Arabic because of lack of exposure to the structure of Arabic sentences. This weakness is discovered by most schools and universities in their writing exercises (Rosni, 2012), Ab. Halim Mohamad (2009), Che Radiah (2009). Generally, the dictionary is very suitable to be used in the search for meaning in the words but not the meaning of the sentence. This paper proposes a method of comparing comparable text of both languages through comparable corpora of both. It can also be called as a tool for translators. In addition to using the dictionary, students are guided to understand the structure of the original Arabic sentences with the comparative method, then apply it in the form of a writing exercise. In this process, teachers, students and amateur translators need to use the computer as a tool and open access data corpus in websites as the ingredient. Translated texts or guide texts for writing exercises are based on Aker and colleagues (2012) method of selection. Text is filtered using Webcorp open corpus engine http://www.webcorp.org.uk/live/ and also through Google open database https://www.google.com. Through this method, the search for similarities between the first and the second language can be exploited. Any text that is identified as having the closest comparable will be used in the classroom. It helps students and translators to build sentences into Arabic by comparison and evaluation of the original text in the corpus. At the same time students are also able to understand and recognize indirectly the structure of the original Arabic sentences. Hopefully this method will help amateur translators and students improve their quality of translation and writing in Arabic.