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Investigating the Difficulties and Problems Faced by the English Language Students
of Al Quds Open University in Legal Translation Process
Abstract
Fo llowing experimental descript ive method, the paper explores the difficult ies and
problems faced by the English language students of Al Quds Open Universit y in lega l
translat ion process; that is, while translating legal terms/documents from Arabic to
English and fro m English to Arabic. A test was designed by the researcher in order to
explore and invest igate the difficult ies and problems faced by the students. The test
included four questions: 1) Translat ing English legal paragraph, 2) Translating Arabic
legal paragraph, 3) Translat ing ten Arabic legal terms and 4) Translat ing ten English legal
terms. The test was applied on the English language students of Al Quds Open Universit y
in Gaza Region in Palest ine during the second course of the academic year 2010/2011.
The samples o f the study were chosen and selected rando mly. Following suitable
statist ical methods, the paper offers the obtained results with crit ical discussio n. Possible
solut ions, recommendat ions and suggestions to overco me these difficult ies and problems
also form important parts of the discussio n in the paper.
Key words: Legal translat ion, Difficult ies of Palestinian students, translation st yle, cross-
cultural bilingual communication, court interpreters
Suggested Citation:
Al-Nakhalah, A. M. (2013). Investigating the Difficult ies and Problems Faced by t he
English Language Students of Al Quds Open Universit y in Legal Translat ion Process .
International Journal of English Language & Translational Studies Vol-1, Issue-3 , 166-
185. Retrived fro m http://www.eltsjournal.org
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1. Introduction
Every translat ion act ivit y has one or more specific purposes and whichever they may be;
the main aim o f translat ion is to serve as a cross-cultural bilingual co mmunicat ion vehicle
among peoples. In the past few decades, this activit y has developed because of rising
internat ional trade, increased migration, globalizat ion, the recognit ion of linguist ic
minorit ies, and the expansion o f the mass media and techno logy. For this reason, the
translator plays an important role as a bilingual or mult i-lingual, cross-cultural transmitter
of culture and truths by attempting to interpret concepts and speech in a variet y of texts as
fait hfully and accurately as possible. Most translat ion theorists agree that translation is
understood as a transfer process fro m a foreign language-or a second language-to the
mother tongue. However, market requirements are increasingly demanding that translators
transfer texts to a target language, which is not their mother tongue but a foreign language,
often described as ‘service translat ion’.
Translat ion is also the gateway for understanding others and their civilizat ions. Therefore,
these days, universit ies are interested a lot in the courses of translat ion to train and
graduate competent and efficient translators as mis takes in this field may be grievous. That
is, translat ion errors on the job may very well lead to disasters. In chemical texts, they can
cause fatal po isoning or terrible explo sio n. In aeronautics, they may bring a plane down
fro m the sky on people's heads. In legal translat ion, they can unlawfully make a defendant
lose a crazily expensive law-suit. The poor performance o f an interpreter can spo il the
proceedings o f a who le internat ional conference. Thus, these possibilit ies deserve worth
attention by the universit ies o ffering courses in Translation and Interpretation and the
universit ies in Gaza are not except ion to this.
Despite the importance o f the translat ion courses in B. A. English programs in Gaza
universit ies, the object ives o f these courses have eit her been misunderstood or are difficult
to achieve. Virtually all English language departments’ course descript ions state that the
aim of each course is to introduce students to translation theory and train them to translate
fro m Arabic into English and vice versa. However, there is a wide consensus amo ng
lecturers of translat ion that the training falls short of its expectations as mo st of the
students face various difficult ies while translat ing, particularly in legal translat ion. This
problem has been explored and investigated in the fo llo wing sect ions of this paper.
2. Literature Review
As survey o f exist ing literature, related to the problem invest igated, forms an important
aspect of any research work, this section will o ffer a brief review of literature related to the
topic invest igated.
2.1 Difficulties in Translation process
Translat ion is often defined as an act ivit y co mprising the interpretation o f the meaning
of a text in one language – the source- and the other language the - target. Legal
translat ion, thus, is the translat ion based on or concerned wit h the law, permitted by law.
According to Farhat y (2008) Legal translation is bound by each language’s culture and
system; it is not merely transcoding between the source language (SL) and the target
language (TL) but it is also ‘a translat ion fro m one legal system into another- fro m the
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source legal system into the target legal system’ (Sarcevic, 1997:13). It invo lves all the
legal texts that are used in various legal settings be it a court, a national or internat ional
organizat ion, a law book, a legal report, a birth certificate, a contract, etc. Farhaty (2008)
discusses legal translat ion in theory and practice offering a historical review o f lega l
translat ion in the Western and Arabic tradit ion and discussing the mo st common
difficult ies of legal translat ion with examples from English/Arabic/English legal texts.
Ludmila Stern’s (2004) study has also explo red difficult ies experienced by court
interpreters and the strategies they adopted in dealing wit h legal deliberat ions at the
International Criminal tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). After giving an outline
of interpreting practices at ICTY, the author considers interpreting approaches used in this
context. Problems created by the use and transfer of cognates, syno nyms and neo logisms
in legal language are highlighted. The author shows why paraphrasing and other
techniques of explicit ation are often the most effective in an internat ional legal context.
Asma Abd-Allah Halahla’s (2010) study also focused on problems faced by translators
during their translat ion o f Islamic Religious texts. This problem can be better understood
focusing on the associated meaning of a word and its accurate or nearest meaning exist ing
in target language. In this case, English lacks the equivalents and hence forces translators
to interpreting rather than translating and perhaps risking or making co mpro mise wit h the
original spirit or beaut y of the original text or even the accuracy o f this translat ion and this
creates a sort of misunderstanding and raising post-translat ion issues over authent icit y o f
the translat ion work.
Bader S. Dweik & Mariam M. Abu Shakra (2011) study also invested the most serious
problems that translators face when rendering cultural co llocat ions in three religious texts
namely, the Holy Quran, the Hadith and the Bible. It was postulated that collocations
present a major hurdle for M. A. students majoring in translat ion particularly when
translat ing co llocat ions in religious texts. The results of the study revealed that (i)
translators encountered difficult ies in lexical and semantic collocations (ii) translators of
religious texts should be deeply aware of the nature of lexical and metaphoric collocations,
should realize the disparit ies between Arabic concepts and beliefs and Western ones, and
should always avo id lit eral translat ion by taking the context into considerat ion.
Łucja Biel (2008) study also discussed termino logy mining on a small scale as used by
legal freelance translators in practice, and recent developments in this area. All these
studies discussed various issues related to legal translat ion. Wit h these background, the
present study is an attempt to show the difficult ies faced by t he students o f Al Quds Open
Universit y in choosing the most suitable legal terms from English to Arabic and vice
versa. It also deals wit h the difficult ies in choosing the suitable legal st yle in English and
Arabic Languages.
2.2 Legal Translation: history and nature
The translation o f legal texts is a practice boast ing a long history. The best known artefacts
in this field include the peace treaty between Egypt and the Hittite Empire in1271 BC as
well as the translat ion o f the Corpus Iuris Civilis into numerous languages after its init ial
translat ion into Greek. The translators of these and other legal texts from past centuries –
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order for the descript ive model to funct ion. Since this fact has generally been
acknowledged, a call emerged for a metalanguage as the descript ive “instrument” for the
individual legal languages. References were made in this regard to civil law theory,
comparat ive law and the exemplary descript ion of all legal systems in order to produce a
usable object for denotation. The denotation and connotation of legal terms thus enable the
determinat ion of the feasibilit y o f funct ional equivalence.
Another model for technical translat ion is the translat ion into a metalanguage as the
universal descriptive language for the proposit ional content of legal texts. The framework
for developing this language is found in co mparat ive law, which examines basic terms and
legal structures in an internat ional context. By taking into account the legal-linguist ic
components of the legal languages – in part icular, the syntactic and pragmat ic meanings of
legal texts, a metalanguage will emerge not only containing a few succinct legal words,
but also represent ing a thesaurus of the legal language. A metalanguage already exists
with regard to legal termino logy for fundamental problems of contemporary continental
civil law: the Lat in of Roman law. At most, however, the Lat in allows only for an
understanding of certain basic problems relating to legal dogma which are seldo m the
topic o f legal translat ions. This has lent increasing support to arguments for a
metalanguage based on co mparative law as the best medium for legal translat ion. An
ant ithet ical concept of technical legal translat ion could be based on the basic structures of
colloquial language. If informal language offers an adequate guarantee for the meaning of
the words, then why should it not qualify as the universal descript ive language of the law?
This especially ho lds true for areas such as int ernat ional legal relat ions that are st ill
wrestling with their own language. However, this concept has not been given much
consideration in research to date.
2.3 The role of comparative law
The discussio n o f the problems o f legal translation from a co mparat ive law perspect ive
revo lves around the term “denotation”. A legal term under legal system A, understood as a
systemic term, is transformed into another term under legal system B by finding a term
that corresponds with the funct ion o f the legal term under legal system A. This allows, for
example, the English legal term trust to be translated into German as Treuhand in certain
instances. In the translat ion of legal terms, one often resorts to pairs of terms which appear
somehow connected by a relat ionship of equivalence. The legal denoters which have to
date been applied in the descript ive model – e.g. Versäumnisurteil (German for “default
judgment”) and yksipuo linen tuomio (Finnish for “ex parte decision”) have the same lega l
“meaning”, but the quest ion is what do they denote? The difficult y o f answering this
question may provide more fertile ground for further analys is than the eventual answer
itself. At the very least, the difficult y may illustrate that the two designated terms might
lack a co mmo n denoter. They funct ion differently than syno nyms; the terms “mean” the
same thing to jurists, even though they are not ident ical. They are also not really similar
because they exist in the context of different legal and language systems, but still they
remain co mparable. It can be safely said that the funct ional method of co mparat ive law
has proven the co mparabilit y of such legal terms. The aforementioned terms can also be
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amount of technical vocabulary that derives from it, including many basic words in the
English legal system, such as "agreement," "arrest," "estate," "fee simple," "bailiff,"
"council," "plaint iff, " and "plea." Through the middle ages, the legal professio n made use
of three different languages. During the rest of 17th century, Lat in and legal French
continued their slow decline.
In 1731, Parliament permanently ended the use o f Latin and French in legal proceedings;
however, it became difficult to translate many French and Lat in terms into English.
Tiersma ment ioned that once established, legal phrases in authoritative texts take on a life
of their own; you meddle wit h them at your own risk (1999:39). He adds that, in
authoritative written texts, the words will remain the same even if the spoken language and
indeed the surrounding circumstances have changed, and lawyers will use the same
language even if the public no longer understands it. Once this happens, the pro fessio na l
class that is trained in the archaic language o f the texts beco mes indispensable (Tiersma
1999: 40) .
All these developments throughout history have led to an obtuse, archaic and verbose legal
language in English which is one of the main reasons o f the difficult ies encountered by
Turkish translators in translat ing legal texts written in English.
2.5 Bases of the Arabic Legal System
The Ho ly Quran (the ho ly book of Muslims), certain rules and provisio ns set by sources
other than Quran including the Ho ly Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), called as
the "tradit ions" or "fatwas," or " Hadeeth" , diversified and often contradictory provisions
and interpretations are called as "Islamic Law," under which the Khilafas ruled throughout
the centuries. Ho ly Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) words are general
principles o f justice and equit y, wit h a high degree of objectivit y and essent ially primary
regulat ions necessitated by the social nature and structure of the Arab co mmunit y of that
time. It must be ment ioned that not only the Holy Quran, but also the other sources of
Muslim jurisprudence were essentially created to meet the needs of the co mmunit y
exist ing during and after Holy Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) era (Timur
1956:85). After the fall o f Islamic State (Khilafa), all Arab and Islamic countries were
ruled by Brit ish and French laws in addit io n to Islamic law.
2.6 General Features of Legal Language (Arabic and English)
Law is a pro fessio n of words. The general features of legal languages that apply to both
English and Arabic legal languages are the fo llowing:
1) It is different from ordinary language with respect to vocabulary and style. The
prominent feature of legal style is very lo ng sentences. This predilect ion for
lengthy sentences both in Arabic and in English is due to the need to place all
informat ion on a particular topic in one co mplete unit in order to reduce the
ambiguit y that may arise if t he condit io ns o f a provisio n are placed in separate
sentences.
2) Another typical feature is jo ining together the words or phrases wit h the
conjunct ions "and, or" in English and "wa" (meaning "and," "or") in Arabic.
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Tiersma suggests that these conjunct ions are used five times as often in lega l
writing as in other prose styles (1999: 61).
3) Thirdly, there is abundant use of unusual sentence structures in both languages. The
law is always phrased in an impersonal manner so as to address several audiences
at once. For example a lawyer t ypically starts with "May it please the court"
addressing the judge or judges in the third person (Tiersma 1999:67) while in
Arabic court decisio ns begin with "Atofa- Saadat " (the necessary penalt y has been
decided on) when a judge sentences somebody to a certain penalt y.
4) Another feature is the flexible or vague language. Lawyers both try to be as precise
as possible and use general, vague and flexible language. Flexible and abstract
language is t ypical o f const itutions which are ideally written to endure over time
(Tiersma 1999: 80).
5) The features of "legalese" that create most problems are its technical vocabulary and
archaic termino logy. Both Arabic and English legal languages have retained words
that have died out in ordinary speech, the reasons of which have been explained
above. Historical factors and st ylist ic tradit ion explain the character of present-day
English and Arabic legal languages. Many o ld phrases and words can be traced
back to Anglo-Saxon, o ld French, and Medieval Latin, while in Arabic they can be
traced back to the Islamic culture and old classic Arabic terms.
6) Archaic vocabulary and the grammar of authoritative o lder texts cont inue to
influence contemporary legal language in both Arabic and Britain because, just as
the Holy Quran or the Bible is the authoritative source of religio n for believers,
documents such as statutes, constitutions, or judicial opinio ns are the main sources
of law for the legal professio n (Tiersma 1999:96).
7) Legal language is conservat ive because reusing tried and proven phraseo logy is the
safest course of act ion for lawyers. Archaic language is also authoritative, even
sounds majest ic both in Arabic and English. As Tiersma suggests "using ant iquated
termino logy bestows a sense o f t imelessness on the legal system as so mething ...
deserving of great respect" (1999:97).
8) There are also syno nyms in legal languages of both Arabic and English, i.e.,
different words with the same meaning. One o f the features of legal language
which makes it difficult to understand and translate (for an ordinar y
translator/reader) of course is its unusual and technical vocabulary. Some o f its
vocabulary such as "tortfeasor," "estoppel" in English and "Yastakbel" (take and
receive) "Ymt ho l" (appear) in Arabic, which do not even suggest a meaning to an
ordinary person, is a co mplete mystery to non-lawyers.
9) Another feature of the English legal language is the modal verb "shall." In ordinar y
English, "shall" t ypically expresses the future tense, while in English lega l
language "shall" does not indicate futurit y, but it is emplo yed to express a
command or obligat ion (Tiersma 1999:105). However, in Arabic legal documents,
the way of expressing legal obligat ion is using simple present tense as "Ala".
2.7 Some lexical features of English legal language
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Using such words in legal language is quite different from using them in ordinary one.
The word ‘the same’ usually implies co mparison to a similar object or person, but in legal
use it refers to sameness of reference. (Tiersma: 88) For example:
- The tenant shall pay all the taxes regularly levied and assessed against Premises and
keep the same in repair.
Apparent ly, the phrase ‘such order’ signifies ‘this order’. So, here, Such acts in the same
way as the demo nstrative pronoun ‘this’.
We conclude that the trial court’s order constituted an abuse of discretion in the
procedural posture of this case which compels us to set aside such order.
Concerning the funct ion of the word said in legal draft ing, it is used as an article or a
demonstrative pronoun (Sabra: 43).
Lessee promises to pay a deposit. Said deposit shall accrue interest at a rate of five
percent per annum.
2.7.6 Frequent use of doublets
Actually, there is a co mmon use of such co llocations in which syno nyms or near-
synonyms are co mbined in pair “doublets” (Alcaraz & Brian, 2002, P. 9). Such words can
be eit her nouns, verbs, adject ives or even prepositions. An important remark is required
here, legal drafters, nowadays, do not normally use such pairing o f words as a dist inct ion
fro m simple st yle o f expressio ns, but it is merely a tradit ion adopted when draft ing legal
documents (Sabra: 36).
2.7.7 Legal English as a technical language
Another noticeable feature of legal English is it s technical termino logy. According to
Tiersma (1999) “if a word or a phrase is used exclusively by a particular trade or
professio n or if that professio n uses it in a way that differs fro m its normal meaning and
the term has a relat ively well-defined sense, it should be considered a technical term” p.
108.
This reveals that a technical term is an unshared term used exclusively by a specific trade
or profession.
3. Background to the study
This sect ion of the paper gives brief methodological details of the present study.
3.1 Research Questions
The researcher aims to invest igate the difficult ies and problems faced by the English
language students of Al Quds Open Universit y in Legal Translation process fro m English
to Arabic and Vice Versa. While attempt ing this, the study will try to seek answers to
questions such as-
What are the difficult ies and problems faced by the English language students of Al
Quds Open Universit y in legal translation process?
What is the difficult y level in choosing the suitable legal translat ion st yle fro m
Arabic to English?
What is the difficult y level in choosing the suitable legal translat ion st yle fro m
English to Arabic?
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What is the difficult y level in choosing the suitable terms in legal translat ion fro m
English to Arabic?
What is the difficult y level in choosing the suitable terms in legal translat ion fro m
English to Arabic?
Are there any statist ical significant differences in the difficult ies and problems faced
by the English language students of Al Quds Open Universit y in legal translat ion
process fro m English to Arabic and vice versa wit h reference to gender?
3.2 The importance of the study
The importance of such study lies in the fo llowing points:
1-The research formulates a list of useful techniques and procedures for legal translat ion to
overcome such problems.
2-The study will upgrade the level o f legal translation process fro m English language to
Arabic language by adopting suitable techniques and procedures for accurate legal
translat ion.
3-The research will attempt draw the attention of the concerned part ies to the importance
of providing suitable procedures and requirements to improve legal translat ion process
fro m English language to Arabic language and vice versa.
4-The study will draw the attention of persons in charge and the officials to the importance
of student’s role in achieving and carrying out effect ive procedures and techniques legal
translat ion fro m English to Arabic for the purposes to create and produce accurate and
perfect legal translat ion.
3.3 The Objective of the Research
The main object ives of the study are:
Improving and developing students by using the skills, techniques and procedures of legal
translat ion that may enrich and assist the students’ abilit y o f legal translat ion.
Adopting suitable legal translat ion strategies for different kinds of legal translat ion such as
laws, decrees, terms, resolutions, contracts, lease contract, articles ...etc.
To enable students to learn a range of linguist ic and translation skills, including how to
deal wit h the legal dimensio n o f translat ion, for the differences between the English and
Arabic languages and to handle translated texts in specialized areas (e.g. law, contracts,
articles and convent ions).
To bring students to a level o f pract ical proficiency that will enable them to be
linguist ically and analyt ically equipped to complete extended legal translat ion assignments
and deal wit h linguist ically and culturally-related problems in legal translat ion, increasing
their confidence as practicing language professio nals.
4. The Method of Study
To achieve the stated aims and object ives o f the research, the analyt ical descript ive
method was fo llowed. The details of the methodology and part icipants are presented
below-
4.1 Samples of the study
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The samples of study were 60 English language students studying English Language at Al
Quds Open Universit y in the Regio n o f Gaza, Palest ine during the academic year
2010/2011. They were chosen rando mly to maintain the object ivit y o f the study.
Table (1) Distribution of Sample Study according to Gender variable
Variable Number Category Percentage
Gender 20 Male 33.3
40 Female 66.7
60 Total 100.0
4.2 The instrument of Study
The researcher designed a test consist ing of four questions which included 20 items and
two paragraphs. Each question represented and dealt wit h a kind o f translat ion to
investigate the level o f difficult y o f each kind (the style and terms).
4.3 The Validity of the test
4.3.1 Agreement of referees
The test was introduced to a group of English language specialized universit y tutors and
lecturers at Gaza Governorate. They provided their recommendations and suggest ions
about the validit y of the items of the test. The researcher amended and modified test upon
the suggestions and recommendat ions o f the referees.
4.3.2 The Stability and Reliability of tests’ Internal Consistency
The stabilit y o f the test was est imated by using Person method. The coefficient correlation
of each item is (0.01) and (0.05). The test is proved to be reliable. The used Alpha
Cronbach coefficient is (0.72). This indicates that the test can be applied in the study and
the test is highly enjo yed wit h high stabilit y and liabilit y which may give the researcher
confidence to apply the test on the subjects of study.
4.3.3 Statistical Method used in the Study
The researcher discharged and analyzed the test by using (SPSS) program. The fo llowing
statist ical methods were used in the study:
Repetit ions, mathemat ical calculat ions and percentages.
Alpha Cronbach coefficient.
5. Data Analysis and Discussion
In this sect ion, the data will be analyzed focusing on the responses received for each
question asked to the participants.
Question 1: What is the difficult y level in choosing the suitable legal translat ion st yle
fro m Arabic to English for English language students at Al Quds Open Universit y?
The researcher used means std. Deviat ion, percentage and rank. Table (2) shows these
things.
Table (2) the total answers, means, standard deviations and the percentage of first
question.
Total Standard Percentage
Field mean
answers deviat ion %
Choosing the style in 452 7.53 1.295 24. 67
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The figures presented in the table above shows that the percentage o f error in select ing the
appropriate style in legal translation fro m Englis h to Arabic o f first paragraph o f the study
sample equals 24.33%, the second paragraph equals 25.76%, and the total value equals
24.5%. This indicates that 24.5 % of study sample individuals co mmit errors in select ing the
suitable legal translation from English to Arabic. This percentage is middle and this shows
that level of difficult y faced by the part icipants in selecting the suitable legal st yle fro m
English to Arabic is middle.
Question 3: What is the difficult y level in choosing the suitable terms in legal translat ion
fro m English to Arabic for English students at Al Quds Open Universit y?
For the analysis o f the obtained data for this question also the researcher used means std.
Deviat ion, percentage and rank. Table (4) shows these:
Table (4) the total answers, means, standard deviations and the percentage of third
question.
Total Standard Percentage Rank
The term Mean
answers deviat ion %
28.00 0.47 1.29493 53. 33 3
46.00 0.77 0. 43 23. 33 5
50.00 0.83 0.38 16. 67 6
54.00 0.90 0.30 10 7
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statist ical significant. The third field select ing the most suitable term of legal translat ion
fro m English to Arabic" shows that "T" value was 0.05, it means that the result is in favor
of the male students. The fourth field, selecting “the mo st suitable term o f legal translat ion
fro m Arabic to English", shows that "T" value was 0.01, it means that there is a statist ical
significance. The total degree was in favor of male students. This means that there is a
statist ical significant difference in legal translat ion between the male and female students
at Al Quds Open Universit y. The results indicate and show that male students surpassed
female students and did excellent work in select ing the suitable st yle and terms in legal
translat ion fro m Arabic to English and vice versa. Generally speaking, male student
showed superiorit y and excellence more than female in legal translat ion.
6. Conclusion
The study aimed at invest igat ing the difficult ies faced by the students of English language
department of the Al Quds Open Universit y in Gaza region of Palestine in legal translat ion
process. Selecting 60 participants , both male and female and by fo llowing the analyt ica l
descript ive method, it was observed that the participants faced various difficult ies in the
process of translat ing legal documents, terms from English to Arabic and fro m Arabic to
English. It was also observed that some difficulties were related to the gender of the
participants. As the study aimed not only at the investigating the difficult ies but also
making useful pedagogical suggest ions, the researcher believes that fo llowing
recommendat ions may help in overcoming the difficult ies faced by the students.
1) Simplifying legal translat ion for the students.
2) Teaching and introducing all legal translat ion difficult ies and problems in details.
3) Paying the attention for cultural, conceptual/semant ic, idio mat ic and grammat ical
difficult ies in legal translat ion.
4) Boosting and encouraging translat ing o f different kinds o f legal subjects from
English to Arabic and vice versa.
5) Adopting and designing courses for translat ion focusing on various topics in legal
translat ion such as- tenses in law for the students of the universit y as the variet y
and diversit y are very important and are considered a basic issue for the students of
the universit y. Such course will o ffer wide range of experience for the students.
6) Encouraging the students to write essays and paragraphs in law ( in both languages)
and discussing the committed errors.
7) Teaching the students the principles as well as techniques of legal translat ion.
8) Encouraging students to write English legal co mposit ion keeping in mind English
culture and by avo iding the interference of mother tongue.
9) Teaching English by comparing and contrasting it with Arabic wit h reference to
style, tenses, vocabulary, structure and culture etc.
10) Teaching the importance of context while carrying out legal translat ion as well as
encouraging them consult with teachers and co-practit ioner.
The researcher also understands the limitat ions of this study as it restricted itself with the
limited samples fro m the Al Quds Open Universit y in Gaza region. However, it certainly
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paves the way for more thorough study in future on various aspects of legal translat ion and
problems faced by the Arab learners of English in general.
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Appendices
Translation Test
Q 1-Translate the fo llowing into Arabic :-
Article 2
The emplo yment of any child or young person under eighteen years o f age on any vessel,
other than vessels upon which only members o f the same family are emplo yed, shall be
condit ional on the production of a medical certificate attesting fit ness for such work, signed
by a doctor who shall be approved by the competent authorit y.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
Translation Test
Q 1-Translate the fo llowing into Arabic :-
Article 2
The emplo yment of any child or young person under eighteen years o f age on any vessel,
other than vessels upon which only members o f the same family are emplo yed, shall be
condit ional on the production of a medical certificate attesting fit ness for such work, signed
by a doctor who shall be approved by the competent authorit y.
2 اﻟﻤﺎدة
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إن ﺗﻮﻇﯿﻒ أي ﻃﻔﻞ أو ﻣﺮاھﻖ دون ﺳﻦ اﻟﺜﺎﻣﻨﺔ ﻋﺸﺮ ﻋﻠﻰ أي ﺳﻔﯿﻨﺔ ﺑﺨﻼف اﻟﺴﻔﻦ اﻟﺘﻲ ﯾﻌﻤﻞ ﻋﻠﯿﮭﺎ أﻋﻀﺎء اﻟﻌﺎﺋﻠﺔ اﻟﻮاﺣﺪة
ﻣﻮﻗﻌﺔ ﻣﻦ ﻗﺒﻞ ﻃﺒﯿﺐ اﺧﺬ اﻟﻤﻮاﻓﻘﺔ ﻋﻠﯿﮭﺎ ﻣﻦ، ﯾﻜﻮن ﻣﺸﺮوﻃﺎ ﺑﺎﺳﺘﺨﺮاج ﺷﮭﺎدة ﻃﺒﯿﺔ ﺗﺜﺒﺖ اﻟﻠﯿﺎﻗﺔ اﻟﺒﺪﻧﯿﺔ ﻟﻤﺜﻞ ھﺬا اﻟﻌﻤﻞ،
.ﻗﺒﻞ اﻟﺴﻠﻄﺔ اﻟﻤﺨﺘﺼﺔ
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