Abstract

This study aims to examine and compare the abilities of university students from diverse academic backgrounds—Chinese, Science, Social Science, and Health Science—in translating scientific and technological content from Chinese to Thai. The objective is to assess how disciplinary knowledge influences translation performance in the context of Thailand’s increasing economic and educational ties with China. A comparative analysis was conducted using translation tasks assigned to students enrolled in programs related to Chinese, Science, Social Science, and Health Science. Participants were assessed based on criteria such as language proficiency, scientific accuracy, and organizational clarity. The performance of each group was evaluated to identify strengths and gaps related to their respective academic training. The findings revealed that students from Science and Social Science programs outperformed others in Chinese-to-Thai translation tasks. Science students excelled in scientific accuracy and terminology, while Social Science students demonstrated better fluency and structure in written translations. In contrast, students from the Chinese language program showed lower performance in translating scientific content, highlighting a lack of scientific foundation that affected their comprehension and coherence. The study suggests that disciplinary background has a significant impact on translation abilities in science and technology contexts.