"Translation difficulties are often the reflection of the differences between the source and target cultures and linguistic systems. This research is a practical step towards identifying cultural and linguistic difficulties in English/Arabic translation. The researcher chose Al Azhar University-Palestine as a case study in order to base the recommendations of this research on actual difficulties encountered by students learning English/Arabic translation. The researcher chose 26 texts dealing with different Western cultural subjects. Ten texts were devoted to political subjects in Western, and particularly British, culture. Another ten texts dealt with different Western, and particularly British, social subjects. Six texts were related to important concepts in Christianity. Seven students from the English Department at Al Azhar University-Palestine were asked to translate these texts. The researcher analysed 177 translated texts and identified various linguistic and cultural problems in their translations.
Students' choice of word order, connectors, active and passive, the emphatic particle C) , tenses, transliterations and loan words, proper-noun equivalents, singular and plural, definiteness and indefiniteness, classifiers, punctuation, acronyms, metaphors, puns, collocations, polysemy, adverbs, use of colloquial Arabic and other grammatical and stylistic errors are discussed. The above linguistic difficulties were often the result of differences between the English and Arabic linguistic systems. Other translation issues such as layout and use of alternative translations are also analyzed in detail. Results indicate that cultural difficulties are typically the result of differences between Western and particularly British, culture and Arab Palestinian culture. Students' choice of cultural transplantation, literal translation, translation by omission, translation by addition and the tendency of some students' to reflect their own experiences, religion and culture in their translations are also discussed.
On the basis of this research, I make practical recommendations to improve translation teaching at Al Azhar University-Palestine. These recommendations are mainly related to providing practical and wider pedagogical perspectives inEnglish/Arabic translation. The researcher suggests practical techniques and exercises to overcome each area of linguistic, stylistic and cultural difficulties in English/Arabic translation."
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