Culture-Bound Web-Based Institutional Academic Texts. The Case of Some Romance Language University Websites in English

Abstract

The internationalisation process of European higher education over the past years largely encouraged the translation into English of many university websites. However, the (deliberate or nondeliberate) presence of culture-bound terms on the English version of university websites represents an issue of debate, considering the worldwide provenance of visitors accessing the websites and the purpose of these texts. The main goal of this article is to analyse the appropriateness of translation strategies used for the culture-bound terms on university websites. The practical part of this research uses Aixelá’s classification of translation strategies for the analysis of the culture-bound terms identified on some Romance language university webpages translated into English, allowing a series of suggestions and recommendations in each case. The study results have demonstrated that the strategy of conservation through repetition is used most often. Last but not least, this paper intends to raise awareness as to the translator’s role and the impact of the quality of translations of university webpages into English as a lingua franca.