Translation as a Foreign Language Proficiency Assessment Tool

Abstract

Objective: To determine if translation can be successfully used as Proficiency Assessment Tool for differentiating the proficiency level of English Second Language Learners (ELL). On the whole, most research into issues in translation concentrates only on one Area i.e. evaluation of translations of literary and sacred texts and little research has been done on translation as a proficiency assessment tool. In this study, First Year (N=30) and Fourth Year (N=30) English majors at King Faisal University, KSA were selected for the assessment. One paragraph each was randomly selected for English to Arabic translation and vice versa. Similarly 10 words each were randomly selected for English to Arabic translation and vice versa. Each group was given the same set of paragraph and vocabulary for translation. A Five-Point Scale was used for the criteria of evaluation of student translation, based on The CASAS Functional Written Assessment for Translation. Out of 30 first year students, 17% were high advanced ELL, 10% were low advanced ELL, 13% were high intermediate ELL, 17% were low intermediate ELL and 43% were beginning ELL. Out of 30 fourth year students, 20% were high advanced ELL, 30% were low advanced ELL, 30% were high intermediate ELL, 13% were low intermediate ELL and 7% were beginning ELL. Assessment in adult ESL is complicated by the fact that it requires measurement of skills in two domains: English language proficiency and literacy ability. The first year students are likely to have limited English skills and low proficiency so, as compared to fourth year students they are lowproficiency ESL Learners. The administered translation test was significantly (p value= 0.002) able to differentiate between the proficiency level of first year and fourth year students..