The Effectiveness of a Suggested Specific Course on Developing Third-year University Students‟ Skills in Translating Culture-specific Items

This study aimed at helping students to deal systematically and effectively with culture-specific items. This was treated through designing and applying a specific course based on sixteen strategies adopted from what Newmark(1988), Hariyanto (1997), and Harvey (2003) suggested. The course was designed in light of these strategies. It included different cultural topics with various cultural items in both English and Arabic. The course was applied in seven weeks to a sample of third-year university students at Al-Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University, College of Languages and Translation, during the first seven weeks of the second term. Students were asked to answer a pre-test on culture-specific items. The same test was distributed to students after the treatment, which was represented in teaching the specific course. A Wilcoxon test was used to compare students’ scores in each item and in the test as a whole. The results showed the effectiveness of using the specific course in developing third-year students’ skills in translating culture-specific items. However, the change that happened for students was not very high, as only one got an excellent degree, and just four got a very good degree. The percentage of unsuccessful students reached 25% and the percentage of students with a fair degree reached 40%. This reflected the fact that the time was not enough, as students needed more practice. In general, strategy teaching is very important, but it is not sufficient to create professional or good translators.