| Do advanced L2 speakers who translate from a third language into their L2 have the requisite "language proficiency" to engage in the translating activity? The answer to this question is frequently in the negative, inasmuch as L2 or L3 speakers are generally assumed to have a language proficiency which is inferior to and easily distinguishable from that of native speakers who translate from a second language into their L1. A corollary of this assumption is that advanced L2 speakers who attain the highest levels of language proficiency in translation are considered exceptional cases (Thiery 1978; Lederer 1984).; The present investigation aims to disprove the above assumption and its corollary on the grounds that there are external factors (such as the interpretive nature of discourse analysis, familiarity with the subject matter and the specific discourse that goes with it) which influence the assessment of language proficiency via written texts. It is, therefore, hypothesized that (i) given that language proficiency is not a mathematically precise system with objective norms; (ii) given that the assessment of language proficiency via written texts reflects the idiolect(s) of the evaluators; and (iii) given native speakers' different and conflicting interpretations of the built-in ambiguities in natural languages, it would be difficult for native speakers/evaluators to distinguish advanced L2 speakers from native speakers.; To test the above hypotheses, university professors were asked to evaluate different translations of the same originals in order to identify the native speakers. Ten other subjects were given "pragmatic" (i.e., technical) texts to translate: six from French into English, and four from English into French. The two groups included advanced L2 speakers of English and French respectively.; All the evaluations conclusively demonstrated that the non-native speakers could not be separated from the native speakers, thus confirming the above hypotheses. Two significant findings emerge from the experiments: (i) language proficiency assessment in texts is heavily influenced by the evaluator's idiolect(s) and ideology and (ii) language proficiency is inextricably linked to knowledge of the subject matter and the specific discourse which goes with it. Language proficiency assessment is subjective and controversial. |
