The significance of context in translating idiom from English into Arabic

Abstract

This study is about achieving the importance of context in translating idiomatic expressions from English into Arabic. It aims to know the extent of the importance of using this strategy in knowing the appropriate meaning of idioms at the FFEES. In this regard, a separate test is presented in two parts consisting 20 sentences, the first part involves sentences containing idioms out of context, and the second part contains the same expression but placed in context. The results show that English that English language female students actually finding great difficulties in guessing the appropriate meaning of idiomatic expression, especially unfamiliar expression, and they consequence fail in giving the suitable Arabic equivalent. Furthermore, the findings show that the using the context enables English language students to guess the proper meaning of idioms. They also, confirm our hypothesis that FFEES use limited translation techniques and on the other hand they adopted literally translation.