The Challenge of Culture-Specific Phrases in English-Arabic Subtitling

Abstract

This article explores the main challenges that translators face in the subtitling of English language films into Arabic and addresses key issues by examining the common features hindering audio-visual translation and highlighting particular cultural limitations intrinsic to translation for Arabic speaking audiences, assuming that particular fundamentals of translation theory can help overcome cultural challenges. A quantitative approach is adopted in the study. The quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire involving students at the Translation Department of Tripoli University to gauge their views about the current quality of English into Arabic subtitles. The findings of this study have practical contributions in enhancing the quality of subtitling. They also benefit academic research through expanding the literature in the field of subtitling which in turn will benefit future researchers.