Approaching Translation Competence: the effect of vocabulary instruction on translated word learning among EFL Master Students at Saida University

Abstract

This research work is an attempt to investigate the effects of vocabulary instruction on translated word learning. The experimental group was assigned to vocabulary instruction through group work enhanced by short text context, definitions and examples. However, the control group was assigned to the same treatment without examples. The main objective of the present study, therefore, was to approach the students’ translation competence with regard to two task conditions: a) isolated-word translation vocabulary. b) Phrase translation within a sentence context. The subjects of the study were First year EFL Master Students of science in didactics at Saida University. The students were divided into four homogenous groups (that consist of 5students for each) according to their performance in the pretest, two of which form the experimental group and the others form the control group. The study indicated the existence of a strong and statistically significant correlation between the two tasks. The findings demonstrated also the existence of statistically significant differences in favor of the experimental group in the post test between the means of the two test scores in the first task. However, there were no statistically significant differences between the two test scores in the second task.