“A TROUBLE SHARED IS A TROUBLE HALVED” THE ROLE OF DICTIONARIES AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN TRANSLATION TROUBLES

Translator training has dramatically increased the world over for the past decades. In Palestine, translator-training institutions are singularly increasing in strength to arm the considerably large and robust job market with qualified translators. However, the demand for translators has outstripped the supply of translators, and it continues to thrive. Most embryonic translator training in Palestine traditionally starts under the umbrella of the departments of English Language and Literature whereby a ‘one-offʼ translation module is offered. The present article aims to explore whether or not the student translators are emboldened by the beneficent effects of the application of dictionaries in translation classroom, to reach a saturation point at the discourse level. The article examines randomly selected translations of forty student translators, enrolling on an undergraduate translation course offered on the fringes of Al-Quds University for the school year 2016-2017. The article shows that expected user-friendly dictionaries seem to have turned out to be user-unfriendly in terms of discernible grammatical errors and perceptible discoursal errors, mainly due to a lack of (1) pedagogic issues addressing dictionary use; (2) training on non-translation aspects (e.g., Computer-Aided Translation CAT tools); (3) linguistic and cultural congruity between Arabic and English; and (4) higher-level knowledge in dealing with text beyond the borders of grammar, semantic and pragmatic dimensions.