A Comparison between the Difficulty Level (Readability) of English Medical Texts and Their Persian Translations


  •  Ali Akbar Jabbari    
  •  Nazanin Saghari    

Abstract

Using foreign written materials in Iran's healthcare industry is very common, but it seems that there is a significant difference between the difficulty level of original texts and their corresponding translations. This study compares the readability level of English medical texts and their corresponding Persian translations. In this study, 50 translated booklets and their corresponding texts in English were assessed – all these booklets are translated versions of BMA publications and kept in Iran's National Library. Comparisons of these texts were made using Gunning Fog Index and SMOG Readability Index Grade. Then, significant difference between the data obtained from English medical texts and their Persian translations were made. A significant difference was observed between the number of multi-syllables words and readability scores in English medical texts and their corresponding Persian texts, but no significant difference was observed between the number of words and sentences in these two groups. Therefore, it is necessary to omit needless words, use fewer complex (multi-syllabuses) words, and use shorter sentences.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
  • ISSN(Print): 1923-869X
  • ISSN(Online): 1923-8703
  • Started: 2011
  • Frequency: bimonthly

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