Analysis of Translation Errors in Student's translations (English-Sinhala)

Abstract

Translating a sentence can be a challenging process as it should imply the context that the original language wants to imply and it must have the same meaning. If a translator cannot translate the message accurately, the readers will have difficulty in understanding the message. There can be many translation errors even in translations done by professional translators. So it is crucial to translate perfectly. These errors should be corrected at the beginning. That means, if it is possible to regularize the translation errors made by students, it will help to make a good translator in the future. The research study aims to describe and analyse the kinds of translation errors in students‟ translations. There are 3 objectives of this research study. Those 3 objectives can be formulated as (1) what kind of translation errors are made by students? (2) what is the most dominant error in translation? (3) what are the causes for those errors and strategies to overcome them?. A quantitative method was used in the research study. Twenty students were taken for this reasearch study and they were given an English text to translate into Sinhala. Many errors were found in the process and those errors were categorized into five; less precision or less accuracy, addition, omission, less cohesive, misusing of phrases. The results of the research study revealed that the most dominant error was, misusing the phrases. The causes of errors found in this study were, less awareness of the translation procedure and the translation theories, lack of language knowledge, carelessness and confusion. In conclusion, discussing the confusions and problematic points with an expert in the field, improving language knowledge, studying translation theories and procedures proved vital in avoiding translation errors.