A Corpus-Based Study of the Linguistic Errors Committed by the Iranian EFL Learners in English Translation of MA Research Abstracts of Educational Management Based on Liao’s (2010) Model

Abstract

Given the importance and the precision required in the translation of research abstracts, this descriptive quantitative research made an attempt to investigate the analysis of the type and frequency of the linguistic errors occurring in the English translations of 40 academic MA research abstracts in the field of educational management. To this end, 40 academic MA thesis abstracts in the field of educational management from 2009 to 2019 were gathered from Shiraz Azad University through the saturation method. Then, the errors were categorized based on the classification of error types adapted from Liao’s model (2010). The results of the study revealed that based on Liao’s categorization (2010), the frequencies of possible linguistic errors by educational management include grammatical mistake or ungrammatical syntax of target language (F = 190), excessive literal translation, which leads to ambiguous translation (F = 30), awkward expression, including ambiguous meaning, mismatch, redundant words, and unnecessary repetition, (F = 29), incorrect character, improper punctuation marks, or inconsistency in term translation (F = 26), excessive free translation, which differentiates the translation from the original text (F = 6), and inappropriate register (F = 6).