This study tries to propose using questionnaires in L1 and L2 as a method for investigating awareness of the translation relationship between L1 and L2 sentences by EFL learners at the intermediate level. The participants in this study were Jordanian university students majoring in computer science with Arabic as L1 and English as L2. They were given two versions of a questionnaire; one in Arabic and another in English, to elicit their attitudes towards technology. Then, they were interviewed to find out if they were aware of the translation relationship between the two versions of the questionnaire. The results show that the correlation between the students’ responses to most items on L1 and L2 questionnaires was not generally high. The results also show that the students' responses in the interview indicated that few of them were aware of the translation relationship between the two questionnaires. These results support the Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis regarding the relationship between L1 and L2 reading comprehension, and they indicate that questionnaires can be used as a method for investigating the translation relationship between L1 and L2 sentences. The results also indicate that L2 questionnaires can be a particularly challenging genre for L2 learners.
Zahra Mustafa