Code Switching: A Close Study of Translating English Linguistic Terms into Arabic

Translating linguistic terms has taken little concern from translation researchers and scholars. This research paper discusses the attempts made by senior students of the English department, University of Benghazi, at EL-Marj Campus when they translate linguistic terms (or names of their department courses). In order to examine their translations, the researcher hypothesizes that if English undergraduate students at Benghazi University learn certain strategies which they use as tools when translating the list of their courses and they are aware of the equivalence of some of these courses’ names, they will not find difficulties in translating these linguistic terms. To check this hypothesis and to achieve the aims of this study, translation test, questionnaire, and semi-structured interview are used as data collection in this study. A qualitative study is used to deal with twenty six senior students from the department of English, in the academic year 2018/2019. The results show that the students use code switching intentionally, as adding local color to when they speak. Others could not know their translation equivalents in the target, Arabic. Accordingly, they apply code switching in order to overcome their translation inability. The findings of the study also revealed that the most frequently used translation strategy is equivalence translation. This study will also be useful everywhere else.