A Self Systematic Review of Translation Error Studies (2000–2025): The Case of Students’ Errors in English–Arabic and Arabic–English Translation

Abstract

Despite the plethora of empirical studies on students’ translation errors, no systematic reviews (SRs) or meta analyses (MAs) have been conducted in this area. Existing reviews are largely narrative or theoretical, leaving a clear gap in synthesizing evidence on English–Arabic and Arabic–English translation errors produced by student translators. This study addresses this gap by conducting a self systematic review of the author’s empirical research published between 2000 and 2025. It aims to identify translation error types, strategies, and causes, and to map the linguistic and cognitive factors that shape students’ translation performance. A corpus of 19 studies was compiled and organized into five thematic clusters: (i) nonliteral and culturally bound expressions, (ii) scientific and technical terminology, (iii) lexical and collocational errors, (iv) grammatical and syntactic errors, and (v) human vs. AI comparative translation studies. Across these clusters, the review reveals consistent patterns in students’ translation behavior. Recurring error types include literal translation, avoidance, partial translation, transliteration, substitution by synonyms, and paraphrase. The most difficult structures for students were opaque metaphors, culture specific idioms, ibn/bint expressions, polysemes, chemical common names, complex SVO/VSO patterns, and grammatical agreement. Moderately difficult items included binomials, numeral based expressions, om/abu expressions, neologisms, and collocations, while transparent metaphors, simple kinship terms, basic plurals, and straightforward SVO/VSO sentences were comparatively easier. Error sources include limited L1 and L2 lexical knowledge, insufficient exposure to domain specific terminology, restricted cultural knowledge, inadequate collocational competence, and weak morphosyntactic competence in Arabic. Additional causes involve structural interference from English, limited ability to analyze complex source structures, and insufficient awareness of fixed expressions as holistic semantic units. Collectively, the studies highlight the need for explicit instruction in metaphorical mapping, collocational behavior, semantic disambiguation, domain specific vocabulary, scientific nomenclature, and cultural understanding. They also underscore the importance of contrastive analysis of English–Arabic structures and training in discourse level translation strategies that move beyond literal meaning. This review provides the first structured map of translation error patterns in this language pair, filling a critical gap in SR and MA research and supporting the development of more effective, data driven translator training programs in Saudi Arabia.