STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING MEDICAL TERMS IN SCIENTIFIC TEXTS

Abstract

The present study aims at tackling the difficulties of translating medical terms from English into Arabic by third year students of English at Mohammed Sedik Ben YahyaUniversity. This study adopts qualitative and quantitative approaches. In order to investigate and identify the difficulties, a test was given to sixty third year students; it contains thirteen sentences that include different medical terms. The analysis and results of the test reveal that the students’ level is roughly acceptable, and that they face some difficulties in translating medical terms such as complexity and ambiguity, due to the lack of practice. Also, the study shows that the students are not interested in this kind of translation. This paper offers some solutions to help students translate medical terms successfully.