Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 10. Number 2. June 2019 Pp. 196-212
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol10no2.16
Using Awareness Raising in Syntactic and Semantic Errors to Foster Translation
Performance among Majmaah University EFL Students
Eman Abdel-Reheem Amin
Department of English, College of Education Zulfi
Majmaah University, Majmaah, Saudi Arabia
Abstract:
The present study aimed at developing English as a foreign language (EFL) college students’ translation performance through raising their awareness of related syntactic and semantic errors. During the pilot study, the researcher analyzed fifty translated passages from students’ assignments. The aim of this systematic analysis was necessary to build a list of their most frequent errors. Besides, a checklist was used to determine students’ level of awareness of these errors. As a result, a program based on some metacognitive strategies was developed to raise students’ awareness of syntactic and semantic errors to improve their translation performance. Metacognition awareness went through five stages of preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and expansion. Students worked together in the process of translation to translate the given passages. They worked in pairs to proofread their translation by identifying their errors, correcting them, and finally editing their final copy. A pre-post translation test was developed to assess students’ translation performance. Data obtained from the test was dealt statistically with SPSS software. The results indicated improvement in students’ translation performance.
Key words: error analysis, metacognition awareness raising, metacognitive strategies, syntactic and semantic awareness, translation performance
Cite as: Amin, E. A. (2019). Using Awareness Raising in Syntactic and Semantic Errors to Foster Translation Performance among Majmaah University EFL Students. Arab World English Journal, 10 (2) 196-212.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol10no2.16