The Effect of Individual Differenceson Iranian Learners’ TranslationStrategy Use in EFL Learning

The present experimental study aimed to explore learners’ attitudes towards using translation strategies and the effect of two variables of individual differences, risk taking and tolerance of ambiguity, on translation strategy use. The participants of the study were 120 EFL learners homogenized through Oxford Placement Test. They received three questionnaires of translation strategy use, risk-taking and ambiguity tolerance. All questionnaires were in Likert-scale and their internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha. By analysis of Chi-square (goodness of fit), the attitudes of learners towards using translation strategies were measured. In order to determine the effect of risk taking and ambiguity tolerance on translation strategy use, two independent samples t-test were run. The findings show that participants had positive attitude toward using translation strategies. The results also show negative effect of risk-taking on translation strategy use. In other words, risk-averse learners were found to use translation strategies more than risk-takers. Findings of the study on the effect of ambiguity tolerance on translation strategy use show that this individual characteristic had no effect on learner’s translation strategy use in EFL learning.