Lost in Translation: Case Study of Interpreting American SBUs by Russian EFL Learners Majoring in Linguistics

The paper investigates difficulties Russian EFL learners have in interpreting American situation-bound utterances (SBUs). A case study involving 75 linguistics students translating SBUs is described. Their acceptable translations and mistakes in the interpretation of SBUs are analyzed and recommendations to improve teaching translation are given. A classification of SBUs is worked out for this purpose.