Examining the key factors affecting teachers' translation of a theoretical framework from english into a native language: The Turkish case

Abstract

This study was aimed at exploring the key factors affecting postgraduate students-teachers' translation of a theoretical framework from English into their native language. The research was carried out with 21 Turkish postgraduate students who were also mathematics teachers, based on the theoretical framework of the documentational approach to didactics. The research was designed as a case study. The data were obtained from postgraduate students' weekly translation papers, the recordings of collective translation sessions, and the researchers' and the postgraduate students' reflective notes over a period of 7 weeks. The data were analyzed using descriptive and content analysis in order to investigate the factors influencing difficulties the postgraduate students had while translating. The analyses showed that the task of translating a theoretical framework at the postgraduate level led student-teachers to work on the meaning of the concepts and the unity of the framework and to reinterpret the source text. The research showed that the translation of the theoretical framework was strongly influenced by syntactic, sociocultural, and academic/educational differences, and these factors were interrelated.