A Comparative Study of the Readability of English Textbooks of Translation and Their Persian Translations

Abstract

The main concern of the present study was to compare the readability level of English textbooks of translation and their Persian translations using the Gunning Fog Index. To this end the corpus of the study comprised five translation textbooks written in English and their Persian translations. The reason behind choosing these textbooks is that they are the only translation textbooks translated into Persian. Two hundred and eighty four sample texts were chosen randomly and examined in terms of readability levels; 142 sample texts from English textbooks of translation and 142 sample texts which were the translations of the respective English sample texts. Based on the outcomes of the research the average Fog Index of English textbooks of translation was 16.4 while the average Fog Index of their Persian translations was 20.1. This means that Persian textbooks of translation are 3.7 grade levels above their English originals in terms of readability level. The higher the Fog Index, the less readable the text is. The findings of the study showed that translation textbooks which have been translated into Persian are less readable than their English originals.