FROM MUSEUM TRANSLATION TO AUTHENTIC MATERIALS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION: TRANSLATING JAVANESE ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE INTO ENGLISH THROUGH MUSEUM SONOBUDOYO'S BILINGUAL TEXTS
Aug 2026· F1000Research· Vol 15, pp. 1356· 0 citations· 35 references
Abstract
Museum bilingual texts play an important role in communicating cultural heritage to international audiences while offering potential resources for English language education. However, limited research has integrated translation strategies, the representation of archaeological and historical meanings, and the pedagogical value of bilingual museum texts within a single analytical framework. This study investigates the English translation of Javanese archaeological heritage texts in Museum Sonobudoyo, Yogyakarta. Specifically, it examines (1) the translation strategies employed, (2) how archaeological and historical meanings are represented in the English translations, and (3) how the bilingual texts can be utilized as authentic materials for English language education. Adopting a qualitative case study design, the study analyzed bilingual Indonesian–English museum texts collected through document analysis and purposive sampling. The findings reveal three translation tendencies: resistance, negotiation, and a combination of both. Resistance generally produces strong representation by preserving culture-specific terminology, Negotiation tends to generate weak representation through descriptive adaptation, and the combined tendency results in partial representation by balancing cultural authenticity with readability. Furthermore, the bilingual museum texts demonstrate significant potential as authentic materials for English language education by integrating archaeological, historical, and cultural knowledge with real-world English communication. This study contributes an integrated framework linking translation strategies, heritage representation, and English language education, providing practical implications for museum translation, heritage communication, and authentic language learning.
Against the backdrop of globalization and the “going global” of Chinese culture, the English translation of museum cultural relics acts as an important carrier for the cross-cultural communication of regional culture. As a core platform for the display of Chu culture, the quality of English translations of cultural relics in Hubei Provincial Museum directly influences the international communication effect of the distinctive culture in the Yangtze River Basin. Supported by Skopos theory of the German functionalist translation approach, this paper conducts a case analysis of the English translations of typical cultural relics such as bronzes, ceramics and lacquered wooden artifacts in the museum, centering on the three principles of the skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. This paper shows that the museum’s translations generally achieve a balance between information transmission and linguistic standardization, but there are still problems such as the lack of key information, mistranslation of culture-loaded words and inconsistent translation of craft terms. Looking at both positive and negative translation examples, this paper puts forward an optimization strategy that’s guided by communication goals, balances cultural authenticity and natural English phrasing. It can give practical pointers for standardizing the English translation of Hubei Provincial Museum’s cultural relics, plus provide solid empirical support for the translation of promotional materials about unique cultural content from local museums.
Fei-Fei Mao, Yang Liu· Journal of Education and Cul...· 0 citations
Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted translation is increasingly used in tourism and hospitality education to help students produce English texts for international audiences. Previous research has mainly examined grammatical accuracy, fluency, lexical choice, and user perceptions, while the treatment of culture-specific meaning in tourism discourse has received less attention. This study examines the linguistic features and cultural representation found in Gemini-assisted English translations of Balinese tourism texts. It does not seek to establish Gemini’s effectiveness or improvement in students’ independent writing. Using a qualitative descriptive design, the study analyzed seven Indonesian-English text pairs purposively selected from a classroom dataset of twenty student texts, together with student reflections. The seven cases were chosen as information-rich examples representing ritual, agrarian heritage, religious practice, culinary culture, and local philosophy. Analysis was informed by Nababan et al.’s dimensions of accuracy, acceptability, and readability and Molina and Hurtado Albir’s translation techniques. Four main strategies were identified among seven focal culture-specific items: explanation (three items), retention (two items), semantic adaptation (one item), and generalization (one item). The English outputs generally displayed readable sentence organization and tourism-oriented lexical choices. However, because no independent student translation or control condition was available, these features cannot be interpreted as evidence of writing improvement. Textual comparison also showed that some local labels were retained, while others were replaced with broader descriptions. Such changes indicate differences in lexical specificity, but their effects on readers’ cultural understanding require further empirical validation. The findings support using Gemini as a classroom comparison and revision resource rather than as evidence of autonomous translation quality.
Putu Dian Yuliani Paramita, Utik Kuntariati, Ni Made Rinayanthi· Journal of Language and Appl...· 0 citations
It is argued that NLP becomes most valuable for the Iraqi humanities when computational methods are combined with cultural knowledge, philological care, translation ethics, and close literary interpretation.
Tetyana Panyok· Iraqi Literary and Cultural...· 0 citations
Translation plays an important role in helping EFL students comprehend English texts; however, many junior high school students still experience difficulties in translating narrative texts accurately due to linguistic and contextual challenges. This study aimed to identify the translation strategies used by eighth-grade students in translating English narrative texts into Indonesian and to explore the challenges they encountered and the references they used during the translation process. This study employed a descriptive qualitative research design involving 52 eighth-grade students of MTs Al-Hidayah, Bitung Jaya. Data were collected through observation, translation tasks, and semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s Interactive Model, consisting of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings revealed that students employed four translation strategies: literal translation, idiomatic translation, addition, and omission. Literal translation and addition were the most frequently used strategies (26 occurrences each), followed by idiomatic translation (25) and omission (10). Students also encountered challenges related to limited vocabulary, grammatical confusion, and sentence construction, while relying on dictionaries, Google Translate, AI-based applications, teachers, and peers to support their translation process. These findings contribute to translation education at the junior high school level by providing insights into students’ translation practices and may assist English teachers in designing more effective instructional strategies to improve students’ translation competence, vocabulary mastery, and grammatical awareness.
Putri Maulina, Siffa Annisa Fitri Ramadhani, Muh. Khaedir Lutfi· Teaching English as a Foreig...· 0 citations
This study demonstrates that the primary challenge in translating Indonesian literary works into Arabic lies in the cultural elements embedded in metaphors, proverbs, and local expressions. Employing a qualitative textual analysis of Hamka’s Di Bawah Lindungan Kaʿbah, the research reveals that differences in worldview between Indonesian and Arab societies influence lexical choices and stylistic expressions, making literal translation insufficient. The findings highlight the necessity for translators to grasp the cultural context of the source text to ensure comprehensive meaning transfer. The study contributes to translation studies by formulating strategies that integrate semantic and stylistic approaches, including transliteration with explanatory notes, functional equivalence in the target culture, and the preservation of social metaphors. These strategies prove effective in maintaining cultural authenticity while ensuring readability for Arabic audiences. Overall, the research reinforces the view that literary translation is an act of intercultural mediation, synthesizing linguistic, semantic, and cultural dimensions to preserve meaning, aesthetic nuance, and cultural resonance in the target language.
Literary translation involves more than linguistic conversion; it also entails the reconstruction and re-encoding of cultural meanings. From the perspective of cultural translation theory, this study takes Liu Cixin’s original Chinese novel The Three-Body Problem and its Spanish translation El problema de los tres cuerpos by Javier Altayó as the objects of analysis. Drawing on Nida’s framework of cultural classification, culturally embedded elements in the source text are grouped into five categories: ecological, material, social, religious-philosophical, and linguistic. Through a comparative reading of the Chinese and Spanish versions, the paper examines the translator’s shifting strategies among foreignization, domestication, and cultural negotiation. The analysis suggests that the translation does not rely on a single or fixed strategy. When dealing with culture-specific elements that carry strong historical or regional specificity, the translator is more likely to preserve foreignness through transliteration, literal translation, or brief explanatory additions. In contrast, for expressions that may hinder comprehension or lead to cultural misinterpretation, freer rendering, generalization, or contextual adjustment tend to be adopted in order to reduce the cognitive burden on target readers. Overall, the Spanish translation of The Three-Body Problem reveals a flexible negotiation process, in which cultural difference is retained to varying degrees while comprehension is facilitated and narrative flow is maintained. This case offers a useful reference for the Spanish dissemination of Chinese science fiction and more broadly for the cross-cultural transmission of heterogenous cultural elements.
Yueyang Zhang· Journal of Language, Culture...· 0 citations
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