Relationship between Acculturation Attitude and Translation of Culture-Bound Texts

Abstract

Acculturation attitudes, referred to as “sojourner reactions to adaptation into new language and cultural communities” (Culhane, 2004: 51), can be a predictor of translators’ level of intercultural competence during educational sojourns. Intercultural competence, defined as a “complex of abilities needed to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself” (Fantini 2006: 12), can accordingly be a predictor of translation quality. To assess the actual relationship between acculturation attitude and quality of translation of culture-bound texts, the current study was conducted on 82 Iranian postgraduate students of Master of English translation at universities in England. The East Asian Acculturation Measure (EAAM), developed by Berry (2001), was adapted to assess translation students’ level of acculturation attitudes toward English culture. Some news excerpts adopted from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) were also selected to assess the quality of translation of culture-bound texts. The analysis of Spearman rank order correlation (rho) revealed the significant positive relationship between acculturation attitude and quality of translation of culture-bound texts. The pedagogical implications of the findings suggested encouraging and providing language learners with opportunities to assimilate or integrate into the host country culture to be able to develop their intercultural competence to an optimal level.