Journal of King Saud University - Languages and Translation最新文献

This study assesses whether multimedia-based concept-mapping and online reading before writing affected the quality of students’ compositions and their writing apprehension. The study made use of the Dally and Miller (1975) scale as a measure of writing apprehension and the TOEFL Writing Test Scoring Guidelines as a tool for assessing writing quality. The experimental method of research was utilized, with an experimental design of pre-test–post-test, control group, consisting of two experimental groups and a control group, each of which comprised of 36 students equated on socio-economic and educational status, as well as on language achievement level. Each student wrote three drafts of opinion essays under conditions of multimedia-based concept-mapping, utilizing Blackboard facilities, online reading before writing, and no treatment in the control group. Besides, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used to address the questions raised in the study regarding the effect of the treatment conditions on the dependent variables, with a Schefé test as a follow-up test for post-comparisons to identify the directionality of significant differences. Results showed no statistically significant differences overall in the writing under the three conditions. However, students were found to write longer and richer drafts in the conditions of online concept-mapping and online reading before writing, yet poorer, shorter drafts after teacher-led talk in the traditional, no treatment group. The results also revealed that both treatments had significant effects on improving the students’ writing quality; however, they increased the students’ writing apprehension. The study finally bore out recommendations, suggestions and implications for curricular and pedagogical applications.

This is a stylistic analysis of an extract from Dickens’s Great Expectations. The focus is on impoliteness incurred in a convivial setting of a Christmas dinner among low class people. As a result of the analysis of the text, I propose to establish another variety of impoliteness, namely “underpoliteness”. This is impoliteness exercised without malice or spite which occasionally appears to be incidental and a result of socializing habits. Nevertheless, similar to other types of rudeness it creates feelings of discomfort, disharmony and even revenge.

The analysis is made at the micro level of single utterances. Occasionally, more than one utterance is taken into consideration for the reconstruction of the speech activity to assist determining the exact degree of offense incurred. The method of analysis depends on positive and negative impoliteness strategies as proposed by Culpeper (1996, 2003). This is complemented with a reversal of Leech’s 1983 politeness maxims.

The heart of this paper comprises analysis of interaction in the Christmas dinner in Great Expectations.

This paper has emerged out of the conviction that linguistic theory has more to offer to translation theory than is so far recognized and vice versa. As Gutknecht (2001) claims, the translation theorists have made little systematic use of the techniques and insights of contemporary linguistics. However, two points must be emphasized: (1) although translation has existed for many centuries, it was not until the second half of this century that ‘Translation Studies’ developed into a discipline in its own right, and (2) although translation has taken on concepts and methods of other disciplines, “it is still conceived as a subdiscipline of applied linguistics” (Schaffner, 2004, p. 2). On the other hand, the past fifteen years or so have seen the focus of translation studies shift away from linguistics and increasingly to forms of cultural studies. There has also been a shift towards studies that have incorporated models from functional linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, locating the text within its sociocultural context. More recently, technological advances, which have transformed the working conditions of professional translators and researchers and have spawned new forms of translation, have also produced new areas of research, some linked to the effects of globalization and some to forms of intersemiotic translation.

The present study, therefore, attempts to outline the scope of the discipline of translation studies (TS), to give some indication of the kind of work that has been done so far. More importantly, it is an attempt to demonstrate that (TS) is a vastly complex field with many far-reaching ramifications.

The historical, social, and economic contexts that led to the birth of the Harlem Renaissance strikingly resemble those in the Third World that led to the anti-colonial, independence movements. It is not the interest of this paper to merely state the similarities between the two movements, but rather to study their effect on each other and how, considering their relationship helps us understand both the Harlem Renaissance and the Third World anti-colonial movements in broader historical contexts. This relationship is by no means unilateral but in many ways bilateral. Three main issues are discussed:

• 1.

  The rise of socialism as a social trend in the Third World and the Harlem Renaissance and its implications in both movements.

• 2.

  Nativism (or primitivism) as an element in reconstructing the pre-colonial national heritage to stand against the hegemony of the colonizer’s culture.

• 3.

  The realization of belonging to two conflicting cultures, hybridity, and the adaptation to this knowledge in both movements.

This study investigates the reading interests of Saudi EFL teacher–college students’ reading interests in English, the obstacles hindering their reading efforts, the persons who help them choose their reading materials, the factors which determine their choice of reading materials and the reasons why they read. The statistical analysis of the questionnaire returned by 460 respondents revealed that the students have a wide range of reading interests, the top of which are stories, adventure books, books about religion, magazines about the internet, newspaper world events, magazines about computer, magazines about new advances in technology, sports magazines, newspaper local interests, newspaper sports sections, books about the internet, picture magazines, books about computers, novels, poetry, and plays. On the other hand, they are found to dislike books about economics. The findings also showed that the obstacles that hinder their reading efforts are rare visits to the library, inability to get books quickly, unavailability of reading materials, time constraints, lack of local libraries, beliefs of having better things to do than reading, difficulty of reading materials provided by English departments, beliefs that improving reading is not as important as improving other language skills, beliefs that there is no relationship between reading and other language skills, and lack of family interests in reading. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the student choose their reading materials by interest, teacher’s request, the main character, length, literary quality, and cost. They also showed that the students read for improving their language, learning something, improving their academic achievements, keeping in touch with the local, economic, cultural, scientific, and political developments, improving their local status, keeping in touch with what is happening around the world, and entertainment. In addition, the students depend on themselves, their teachers, and their friends for choosing their reading materials.

The concept of equivalence is believed to be a central issue in translation although its definition, relevance, and applicability within the field of translation theory have caused heated controversies. Several theories on the concept of equivalence have been elaborated within this field in the past fifty years. Vinay and Darbelnet, 1995, Jakobson, 1959, Nida and Taber, 1982, Catford, 1965, House, 1977, Baker, 1992. Indeed, “Equivalence” has provided a useful theoretical and pragmatic foundation for translation processes. However, the notion of equivalence has also been criticized as “asymmetric, directional, subject-less, unfashionable imprecise and ill-defined” (Bolaños, 2005, Snell-Hornby, 1988, Nord, 1997).

This paper argues that if equivalence is the essence of translation, non-equivalence constitutes an equally legitimate concept in the translation process. The rationale for this position is that languages articulate or organize the world differently because “languages do not simply name existing categories, they articulate their own” (Culler, 1976, p. 21). Further, non-equivalence in translation is discussed and substantiated by evidence and examples in the process of translating from Arabic into English, a point that has not been adequately discussed in researches dealing with equivalence. Many researchers have discussed equivalence in translating mainly from English into Arabic (Ghazala, 2004). These two languages belong to two different cultures and hence, provide good evidence for the possibility of translating what is sometimes referred to as “untranslatable” due to non-equivalence or lack of equivalence. For example, Arabic is rich in culture-specific terms and concepts that have no equivalents in English. Yet, these terms can be translated into English using one of the strategies suggested for translating non-equivalence to convey their conceptual and cultural meanings to the English speaking readers (Baker, 1992).

In such cases, I argue that equivalence or translating using equivalence is not necessarily the best strategy, i.e., it does not produce a meaningful rendering of the source term [ST] into the target term [TT]. Rather, purposefully using non-equivalence results in a “better” translation. Non-equivalence becomes more relevant than equivalence. In other words, “non-equivalence” becomes more equivalent than “equivalence.” It is a better strategy in these cases. Hence, it is quite legitimate to discuss non-equivalence and its applicability in translating culture-specific terms and concepts including idioms, metaphors and proverbs.

This paper focuses on the investigation of English apology strategies as employed in various social situations by Arab learners of English studying in India. These strategies are compared and contrasted against the strategies elicited in the same situations from Indian English speakers, American English speakers, and British English speakers. Pragmatic transfer from Arabic is also examined. The study findings reveal that the religious beliefs, concepts and values are responsible for many deviations in the Arab learners’ language from that of the native speakers. Moreover, Arabs using English are more keen on taking on responsibility, whereas the English native speakers are more keen on formulaic offers of repair or verbal redress. Interesting similarities in the selection of arrangement patterns of the major apology strategies are found between the Arab learners’ data and the data elicited from Indian English speakers. This is interpreted as a result of some aspects of cultural similarities. Finally, some pedagogical implications are highlighted.