The Role of Background Knowledge in Translation Quality

It is well established that knowledge has strong effects on text comprehension and memory. There are a few studies about the role of background knowledge on translation quality. The major aim of the present study is to investigate the role of background knowledge in translation quality of drama. For this aim, the literary translations of two groups were compared. There were one experimental group and one control group in the present study. The participants in both groups were given a pretest. The pretest examined the quality of translation. Based on Farahzad’s model of translation quality assessment (Farahzad, 1992), the qualities of the translations were studied. Then, the students in the experimental group received special treatment (Farahzad, 1992). They acquired good background knowledge of the play of An Enemy of the People based on Strangman and Hall's model of activation of background knowledge (Strangman et al., 2009). They studied the play and analyzed its different aspects. The students in the control group did not improve their background knowledge about the source text. They did not receive any treatment. After the treatment, the two groups were given a post-test and were asked to translate the text which was extracted from the play. The results of the present study show that having access to background information and subject matter knowledge has an effect on translation quality.