DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE CONCEPTS OF TRANSLATION PROCEDURES, STRATEGIES, METHODS

AND TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES

“Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.” -
Anthony Burgess

Translation typically has been used to transfer written or spoken SL texts to equivalent written or
spoken TL texts. In general, the purpose of translation is to reproduce various kinds of texts—
including religious, literary, scientific, and philosophical texts—in another language and thus making
them available to wider readers.
In contrast to translation strategies (the translators’ global approach or plan of action on a given
text, according to their intention), translation procedures are used for sentences and smaller units
of language within that text.

Translation procedures are methods applied by translators when they formulate an equivalence for
the purpose of transferring elements of meaning from the Source Text (ST) to the Target Text (TT).
Newmark (1988) mentions the difference between translation methods and translation procedures.
He writes that, "while translation methods relate to whole texts, translation procedures are used
for sentences and the smaller units of language" (p.81). He goes on to refer to the following methods
of translation.

It can be claimed that the best translation method seems to be the one which allows translator to
utilize 'notes.' Furthermore, employing 'notes' in the translation, both as a translation strategy and
a translation procedure, seems to be indispensable so that the foreign language readership could
benefit from the text as much as the ST readers do.

Many studies suggested a positive and facilitative role of translation (Omura, 1996). Shiyab and
Abdullateef (2001), for instance, consider translation extremely important for L2 teaching simply as
it allows conscious learning and control of the target language in an explicit manner, and as a
consequence, it would reduce language interference.

Translation is a suitable manner to include explicit language teaching in the L2 class. Liao (2006)
states some positive aspects of the use of translation in L2 teaching:

a) it might help students to comprehend the L2;

b) it might help students to evaluate whether their comprehension is correct;

c) it eases memory barriers in learning new items, idioms, syntactic structure and grammar in
general;

d) it may help students to develop and express ideas in the L2; e) it can reduce learning anxiety and
improve motivation to learn L2.