The Effectiveness of A Suggested Program Based on Pragmatics in Developing Some Translation Skills of Palestinian English Majors at Al-Aqsa University

Abstract

The present study aimed at developing some translation skills for English majors at Al-Aqsa university in Gaza, through using a suggested program based on pragmatics. The study adopted the experimental pre-post test control and experimental group design. The study sample consisted of (200) English students from the English department at Al-Aqsa university in Gaza, and the sample was divided into two groups: an experimental group and control one. English majors of the experimental received training through the proposed program based on pragmatics while English students in the control group received regular instruction. The researcher used many instruments that include: a checklist of translation skills, interview, pre-post test of translation skills and satisfactory questionnaire. The study results revealed the suggested program based pragmatics was effective in developing the identified translation skills. Moreover, that there were statistically significant differences at 0.01 level between the mean scores of the control and the experimental groups on the post test in favor of the experimental group in the identified translation skills. Also there were statistically significant differences at 0.01 level between the mean scores of the experimental groups on the pre-post test in favor of the post test in the identified translation skills. The results of the study also showed there were statistically significant differences at 0.01 level between the mean scores of female English majors and males in favor of females in the post test. Furthermore, the study indicated that English majors and professors were satisfied towards the scores of the post test in particular and the whole suggested program in general. Keywords: pragmatics, translation skills, satisfactory questionnaire, suggested program, checklist, results.