Détails de l’article

Many translations by Ghanaian students from English into French are rife with errors. Therefore, there is the need to carry out a study on the students’ translations to help solve some of the problems they encounter in the translation process. The objective of this study is to scan the translations of the students to establish the types of translation errors and how we can solve them. The findings may be used to enhance the translation course at the Department of French. The students sampled were 20 Level 300 students and 7 MA students of the Department of French of the University of Ghana. The researcher gathered his data from the student’s exercises and examinations and through interviews to establish the various errors and their causes. We subsequently analyzed the results establishing the frequency and percentage of errors. The results indicate that the most prominent errors are grammatical errors (75.1%), followed by semantic errors (13.1%), and assorted errors (11.8%), respectively. There is the need therefore to enhance students’ competences in French grammar in previous classes before they are introduced to translation proper. The causes of errors were also identified as poor translation procedures, carelessness, lack of concentration and poor analytical skills. It is recommended that lecturers should take into consideration three approaches, or three organising principles in designing translation courses: (1) the inductive approach, (2) the deductive approach, or (3) the functional approach.