Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Assistant professor in Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Farhangian University, P.O. Box 14665-889, Tehran, Iran.
2 Assistant professor in Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Farhangian University, Iran, Tehran
Abstract
Some educational and linguistic literature suggests that the teaching of translating Arabic news texts in some educational contexts may still tend towards traditional, literal approaches, which highlights the need to utilize more comprehensive (or holistic) approaches. This research aims to investigate the effect of the synergy of three key components—namely the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), the top‑down processing approach, and the vital role of the reader’s cognitive presuppositions—on improving students’ translation skills in the course ‘Reading and Translation of Arabic Newspapers and Magazines’. The present research method was quasi‑experimental with a pretest‑posttest design. The statistical population consisted of 50 third‑year undergraduate student‑teachers in the field of Arabic language teaching at Farhangian University of Qom, who were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group received training based on social interaction according to ZPD and analysis of the overall text structure (top‑down processing), taking into account their prior cultural and linguistic knowledge, while the control group was trained using traditional methods. The results showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group in terms of semantic accuracy, textual coherence, and reading comprehension speed. When the learner was placed in their zone of proximal development and processed the overall text structure before details through the activation of cognitive presuppositions, their ability to manage ambiguities in Arabic news texts increased. There is a significant difference in the test results of the two groups in the post‑test phase, indicating that the synergy of the Zone of Proximal Development and the top‑down processing approach, with a special emphasis on the role of cognitive presuppositions, has led to the progress of translation learners in the domain of Arabic press texts.
Keywords
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