Proverbs Translation in Enhancing Cultural Competency in EFL A Case Study of 2nd Year Students of English at Mila University Center

Abstract

Having a good cultural competency is a requirement for EFL learners, it is build up by serious work on the part of the students, and appropriate instruction on the part of the teachers and trainers. EFL teachers use different strategies to teach learners about culture, one is the exposure to cultural items like proverbs. In this research work we aim at investigating the effectiveness of translating proverbs on the enhancement of the students of second year LMD cultural competence, it is hypothesized that introducing proverbs to EFL learners in a proper way in translation module can improve their cultural competency. On the basis of a questionnaire that is administrated to second year students of English at Mila University Center, and an interview that is conducted with two teachers of translation module at Mila university. The questionnaire was followed by an interview which was conducted with teachers of translation, to strengthen the reliability of the results. The two research tools enabled the collection of the quantitative and qualitative data. The questionnaire aimed at knowing the impressions of the questioned students about their experiences in translation and learning about culture at the same time. The analysis of the data gathered and the interpretation of results enable to confirm the hypothesis that was laid at the very beginning, learners can improve their cultural competency, via translating proverbs, however, the results cannot be over generalized for the sample of the study was limited in number.