In an academic context where English increasingly serves as the dominant language of scholarly communication, the quality of dissertation abstracts translated from French into English is crucial for the international visibility and credibility of research produced in francophone institutions. This study identifies the translation techniques used by DIPES II student-teachers of the Department of French Language and Literatures of HTTC Maroua in rendering dissertation abstracts from French into English. Using a qualitative approach, the research analyses a parallel corpus of French abstracts and their corresponding English translations, applying Molina and Hurtado Albir’s (2004) taxonomy to identify the strategies employed. The analysis reveals a dominant use of calque, characterised by literal transfer of French structures into English, alongside less frequent and often inconsistent instances of modulation, transposition and omission. These findings indicate strong L1 interference, limited mastery of English academic discourse conventions, and insufficient control of translation strategies. The study concludes that translation quality remains hindered by structural and rhetorical weaknesses, and recommends explicit training in translation techniques and academic writing to improve the clarity, fidelity, and overall linguistic accuracy of English abstracts produced by student-teachers.
Grand et al. (Wed,) studied this question.