Teaching and Learning Scientific Translation: Problems, Challenges, and Solutions

Abstract

Scientific translation is not a kind of knowledge that could be gained by practice, or byimplementation of certain techniques. Therefore, teaching scientific translation does notinvolve the demonstration of its techniques and strategies only. However, it also involvesthe awareness of the requirements for this type of translation such as the expertise neededin this area, the consequences of neglecting linguistic and grammatical rules whentranslating scientific prose, the different barriers encountered, and the preliminary stepstaken before engaging in the translation. Similarly, learners of scientific translation shouldnot only learn the rules of scientific translation, but also be aware of the scientifictranslator’s job which is not the mere replacement of the source lexical terms with targetones. They should be learned that the translation of scientific prose, though non-literal,should render as directly as possible the exact meaning of the original. Accordingly, thispaper highlights the problems encountered when teaching and learning English-Arabicscientific translation. One of them is the students’ neglecting of the grammatical rules inscientific translation, which affects their translation of other text-types and influences andother modes of translation such as subtitling. The paper also attempts to offer solutionsand establish possible factors that may lead to a methodology of teaching and learning thistype of translation.