AN INVESTIGATION OF GOOGLE’S ENGLISH-ARABIC TRANSLATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS
Many EFL learners resort to Google Translate (GT) to check meanings of difficult words. The aim of the present study is to check the breadth of coverage and accuracy of the Arabic translation equivalents that GT gives to technical terms. It also aims to discuss the semantic, contextual, syntactic, morphological and orthographic deficiencies in the Arabic equivalents to technical terms that GT yields. A random sample of technical terms with different Greek and Latin roots and different prefixes and class-changing suffixes was collected. The Arabic meaning of each word with its derivatives was looked up in Google Translate. It was found that GT gives Arabic equivalents to the full range of meanings of some terms such as ‘mobilization’ and ‘technical’, but it is inconsistent in translating terms with varying prefixes, roots combined with the same suffix, compounds and blends. A team of linguists or specialists is needed to revise, add and supervise scientific terms included in the Google English-Arabic translation dictionary. Students wishing to use the Google English-Arabic translation tools need to be cautious and are advised to verify meanings obtained from GT with their teacher or a specialist.