Challenges of Translating the Arabic Qur’an into English A Comparative Study of Eight Leading Translations

Any translation of the Arabic Qur’an in English or any European language is likely to be imperfect. This is primarily due to the differences in the language, semantics, idiom, style and culture. Almost fifty such translations have appeared in the last fifty years, both by Muslim and other scholars, but none can claim any perfection in imaging the Arabic Qur’an. Nevertheless, there are some that are faithful to word-by-word (literal) or sense-for-sense (free) translation, but most lack the flavor of the Qur’anic essence and image either due to the translating approach, or inadequate understanding of the meaning of Sacred Arabic Text, or constraints of eloquence of the English language. This paper examines eight of the leading translations and draws conclusions relating to the use of translation techniques and literary devices and concepts that add beauty to the eloquence of Arabic Qur’an and makes it a living and literary masterpiece. It is found that the meaning of the lexical expressions have been maintained to a high degree in the process of translation and the use of literary devices has been adequately captured by the selected translations.

Teacher Educators Perceptions of the Existing Instructional Strategies in Pre-Service Teacher Education

Teachers' perceptions play an important role in developing their conceptual understanding of instructional methods. According to Marland (1994), the classroom actions of teachers are guided by internal frames of references, which are deeply rooted in personal experiences, especially in school and are based on the interpretation of those experiences. This study explored teacher educators' perceptions about the instructional strategies currently used in Diploma Education Programmes. Teachers' perceptions about instructional strategies are important to be considered and studied if we are to understand the context and dimension of their classroom practices. In the light of the literature on teacher education, the current Pre- or In- Service Teacher Education Programmes seem to be influenced mainly by teacher education orientations, but the majority of the programmes are grounded in academic orientations. Teacher education in Pakistan seems to have gone through many changes, however the lecture method still seems to dominate teacher education programmes. Findings from the study also support the view that teachers tend to use more than one instructional approach, but the lecture method seems to be dominant. Although, they also seemed to have theoretical knowledge of different methods such as discussion method, lecture-cum-demonstration method and hands-on learning approach, they lack the skills for using them in the classroom. Teacher educators do have a conceptual understanding about all the instructional strategies but their implementation, or a lack of it, is based on many factors such as; familiarity with the strategy, maximum coverage of the syllabus and exam oriented beat. Finally, certain limitations of the study are presented with some recommendations, lessons learnt and areas for future study.