Comparing the Usage of Two Methods of Footnote and Explicitation in Translation of Children's Literature and Investigating the Performance of these Two Methods in the Memory of Children

Abstract

Few researches have studied the issue of footnote and explicitation in the translation of children's literature. Therefore, in the present descriptive-inferential research, two elementary classes were selected. Students received the short translated paragraph from the book "Big foot-Little foot" by "Ellen Potter" in which the strange word "Sasquatch" was used. In each school, one class received the explanation of the word Sasquatch through the use of footnote strategy, and the other class received it through the use of explicitation. After a few hours, the students were asked to answer the questionnaire. The results show that students who received the explanation of the word through the use of the footnote had more correct answers than students who received it through the use of explicitation. Then, three weeks later, to check the performance of these two methods in the long-term memory of the students, a questionnaire which contained three sentences explaining the word, was provided to students. According to the results and the chi-square test, the students who received the explanation of the word in the form of a footnote remembered the definition of the word more completely.