An Error Analysis Guide to Translation

The present book was conducted to analyse the most common errors in translation from Arabic and Kurdish into English by students majoring in English at Duhok University, Iraq. It aimed to identify and classify these errors in an attempt to explain their possible causes. Most of the errors made by Iraqi students are typical of systematic intralingual errors which are found in numerous case-studies of errors of students from different language backgrounds as reported by Richards (1974), Jain (1974), Ellis (1994), Gass and Selinker (1994) and Coelho et al. (2004). They illustrate some of the general characteristics of L2 acquisition such as over-generalization, simplification, faulty learning and incomplete application of rules. It is hoped that the findings of the study will lead to recommendations that will improve the English language teaching – learning process at Iraqi universities. It is also hoped that this piece of research will help English language teachers and syllabus designers adapt their teaching methods and curriculum to students’ needs in order to reduce their errors and provide them with corrective feedback and remedial measures based on the frequency of errors.