The Effect of Target-Language Metalinguistic Awareness on Textual Features of Translation from English to Persian: Persian Writing and The Structure of Persian Language in Focus

From among the necessary competencies for translators is an awareness of the source and target languages. For this purpose, some courses, including The Structure of Persian Language and Persian Writing are included in the Iranian B.A. program of English Translation. In the current study, the researchers investigated the effect of these two courses on the quality and textual features, including accuracy and complexity, of Persian translations from English. The sampling was purposive and the type of research was ex-post facto. Four groups were selected: one group (N=19) had passed The Structure of Persian Language, one group (N=15) had passed Persian Writing, one group (N=41) had passed both, and one group (N=20) had passed none of the courses. After the administration of a placement test, a text was given to the four groups of participants to translate. The quality of translation and measures of accuracy and complexity were examined in the Persian translation texts to see if there were any significant differences among the four groups. The results indicated that the quality of translation was not significantly different among the four groups. In accuracy measures, the group which had passed none of the above courses showed a significantly lower performance on correct verb forms as compared to the three other groups, but there were no significant differences between the four groups in terms of the other measures. Based on the results, it seems that these two courses are taught with the aim of increasing the linguistic knowledge of the students and not increasing their strategic sub-competence and, in general, had no significant effect on the translation of the participants.