The Effect of Translation Strategy on Lexical and Grammatical Errors of Chinese Language Learners Writing Persian Texts

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

The most important and practical phase of analyzing the linguistic errors of second language learners is to find the solutions to decrease these errors. To that end, the present study examined translation strategy to decrease the number of grammatical and lexical errors of Chinese language learners learning Persian. Twelve Chinese language learners were asked to write a text in two stages. First, they wrote a text in Persian, and next they wrote a text on the same topic in Chinese and translated it into Persian after two weeks. The analysis of written texts showed that although translation strategy increased the number of vocabulary items of in translated texts, it did not have any effect on lexical and grammatical errors. Translation strategy decreased three types of grammatical errors and one type of lexical error. However, it increased six other types of grammatical and lexical errors. Further, although translation strategy decreased the number of “spelling errors” and increased the number of simple and compound sentences, it decreased “cohesive devices”. These findings suggest that despite its positive effect on some grammatical, lexical, and spelling errors, translation strategy does not seem to be an effective method to reduce lexical and grammatical errors of Chines language learners who write Persian texts.

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References

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Journal of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages
Volume 3, TOME 6 - Serial Number 6
April 2015
Pages 137-161

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  • Receive Date: 04 January 2016
  • Accept Date: 04 January 2016

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