Exploring Plurilingual Competence of Iranian EFL Students Through Speaking Tasks: An Innovative Approach Using Film Posters in Language Testing

Acquisition of plurilingual and pluricultural competence (PPC) has gained considerable attention in recent years as an area of research in language teaching. This competency is particularly significant in multicultural communication and can be enhanced through the incorporation of L1 and translation in the classroom. However, there is limited research on how to incorporate this knowledge in language testing.

To address this gap, this study first examined translation strategies for Persian-to-English poster titles. The study analyzed 100 Persian posters translated into English between 2000 and 2022, using the model proposed by Gabrić et al. (2017) to identify three strategies: free translation, direct translation, and transcription in the translation of movie titles.

The findings revealed that direct translation was the most commonly used strategy, often without regard for the cultural and linguistic differences between Persian and English. In the second phase of the study, a speaking test was designed based on the translation of movie titles and administered to a group of 20 Iranian EFL students. The participants found some equivalents unnatural due to cultural and linguistic differences, but overall, they found the test to be quite motivating.

This study has important implications for EFL testing and the design of language proficiency tests at the national and international levels.