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Process research into the development of translation competence: Where are we, and where do we need to go?
Abstract and Figures
This paper gives an overview of the methods employed in process-oriented investigations of translation competence and its development and describes their advantages and drawbacks. Furthermore, it provides a survey of the findings gained in this field of re-search so far. It then focuses on desiderata. Special emphasis will be placed on the contras-tive evaluation of methods, on longitudinal studies, as well as on the documentation and dis-semination of process data. The design of one longitudinal study, TransComp, which inves-tigates the development of translation competence in 12 students of translation over a period of three years and compares it to that of 10 professional translators with more than 10 years of experience, will be introduced. Furthermore, asset management systems will be sug-gested to make translation process data accessible to the scientific community and lay the foundations for a platform for information exchange between scholars working in the field of translation process research. At the end of the article, the contributions collected in this volume will be introduced.
... Not many discussions are available to compare and contrast translation competence and translator competence although translation competence has been described by a great many authors so far (Pym, 1992;Lörscher, 1996;PACTE, 2000;Eruz, 2008;Neubert, 2000;Schäffner, 2000;Akbulut, 2005;Yazıcı, 2007;Göpferich and Jääskeläinen, 2009;Korkmaz, 2019). It is thought that translation competence incorporates the components of what is herein called translator competence and "is a prerequisite for, but not identical with, translatorial competence" (Englund-Dimitrova and Jonasson, 1999, p. 2). ...
... It can be concluded from these conceptualizations of translator competence that translation competence and translator competence are related but different and even though the latter is claimed to occur with several socio-cultural skills added to translation skills typical of translation competence, there are some components, e.g. use of tools and information (Kiraly, 2000) and psychophysiological competence (Kelly, 2002)", purported to be peculiar to translator competence are also observable in various models of translation competence, e.g. of PACTE (2000;, Yazıcı (2007), and Göpferich and Jääskeläinen (2009). Therefore, this paper considers translator competence "an umbrella term" (Eser, 2015) and "a macrocompetence that constitutes the set of capacities, skills, knowledge and even attitudes that professional translators have" (Kelly, 2002, p. 14). ...
The task of translation schools should not be reduced to that of vocational schools, which can be claimed to favor ‘practice-intensive training’ over ‘theory-bound education’. However, this proposition does not annul the fact that practice is an integral component of translation education. Therefore, translation students should be offered real-world/authentic activities. In this sense, the present paper presents a situated-learning project conducted by the author and 62 first-year undergraduate students to investigate how a project-based situated learning approach can help translation students develop translator competence with particular focus on social competences. The students were asked to visit the restaurants in the City of Çanakkale, Turkey, and to identify translated menus in need of editing. They worked in 14 groups of three to six members. At the end of this two-week project, they were requested to provide the commissioner with an edited version of the menu and to submit the author a report. The contents of the reports were phenomenologically analyzed in view of Kiraly’s (2013) three social competences – professional etiquette, negotiation, and teamwork – and Eser’s (2015) interpersonal skills. The obtained results suggest that the project helped the participating students raise an awareness that translation is not only the production of a target text based on an assumed source text but also a process that entails acquisition and possession of efficacious interpersonal skills for the satisfactory completion of a translation task and observance of professional codes of behavior as a member of a professional community.
... Despite clear evidence that translation competence develops with training (e.g., Göpferich & Jääskeläinen, 2009;Toury, 2012), it is also generally acknowledged that bi-and multilingual individuals have an innate predisposition for translating and can learn it without explicit training (e.g., Toury, 2012). Research has suggested that professional translator training is not the only path for achieving expertise (e.g., Jääskeläinen et al., 2011;Sirén & Hakkarainen, 2002). ...
... The results also confirm previous observations that those without formal translation training often have a relatively narrow view of translation competence with a focus on linguistic aspects and cultural background knowledge (Göpferich & Jääskeläinen, 2009;Toury, 2012). However, a single and relatively short course seems to be able to bring about changes in the students' approach: rather than viewing translation as automatic linguistic transfer, they began to see it as a creative and problem-solving endeavour embedded in complex social/cultural/ ideological contexts (Baynham & Lee, 2019). ...
Károly, A. (2024). The pedagogical value of translation : experiences from a newly introduced elective course. In A. Károly, L. Kokkonen, M. Gerlander, & P. Taalas (Eds.), Driving and embracing change : learning and teaching languages and communication in higher education (pp. 67-98). University of Jyväskylä. JYU Studies, 1. https://doi.org/10.17011/jyustudies/1
... Due to practical considerations, we chose to observe the translation process through a mock translation task. However, in order to ensure the ecological validity of this empirical research, we opted to use screen recording-which has little effect on expert translators' translation activities (Ehrensberger-Dow, 2013;Göpferich, 2009)-to observe the actual process of professional English-Chinese translation as performed by expert translators. The screen-recording method can reduce the impact of external factors on the real translation environment of the translators and make the translation activities of expert translators in the experiment match, as closely as possible, translation activities in real practice; this allows research to obtain high-quality ecological validity (Risku, 2017). ...
The study of translation quality self-evaluation represents a shift of focus from product to process in the field of translation quality research. As this is a new and rarely explored field of investigation, a complete description of the research object will serve as a strong foundation for its future development. This research uses screen-recording software as an instrument to observe the phenomena of translation quality self-evaluation as manifested by expert translators. The results of the observation prove that translation quality self-evaluation is an essential part of any translation process, and that it takes place not only in the revision stage but also in the very first stage of meaning generation. The research also sheds some light on the content, criteria, and external and internal resources used in the process of translation quality self-evaluation.
... Translation competence -which coexists with similar theoretical concepts such as expertise, performance and professionalism within academe -started to spark interest in the late 1980s in search of a better understanding of what translators need to master in order to become fully competent professionals. Among the scholars who have produced models of translation competence are Krings (1986), Ammann (1990), Gile (1995), Hurtado Albir (1995), Kiraly (1995Kiraly ( , 2000, Kussmaul (1995), Cao (1996), Risku (1998), Neubert (2000), Robinson (1991Robinson ( , 1997, PACTE (1998PACTE ( , 2018, Kelly (2002Kelly ( , 2005, Pym (2003), Alves and Gonçalves (2007), Angelelli (2009), Göpferich (2009, Göpferich and Jääskeläinen (2009), EMT Expert Group (2009, Muñoz Martín (2014), PETRA-E (2017), and Yang and Li (2021). ...
This book explores the intersections of education and technology in audiovisual translation, unpacking the evolution of AVT ecosystems and looking ahead to future directions for the role of technology in the translation industry and higher education.
The volume begins by outlining a holistic account of audiovisual translation scholarship, which includes work on subtitling and dubbing but which has grown to encompass a wider range of practices in light of new technologies, before looking at the current landscape of translator education, including greater interest in distance education and AVT-centered curriculum design. These foundations set the stage for an examination of technological inroads which have permeated AVT practice, including the rise of cloud-based technologies and their use by major media companies. Bolaños draws parallels between these developments to demonstrate the ways in which new tools can help the ever-evolving needs of both the translation industry and higher education and in turn, foster industry-academia collaboration and the growth of new technologies through investment at the pedagogical level.
This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners in translation studies, particularly those working in audiovisual translation, translation technologies, and translator training.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Link to Open Access version of the book:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003367598/practices-education-technology-audiovisual-translation-alejandro-bola%C3%B1os-garc%C3%ADa-escribano
... A close look at various translation competence models (TCMs) shows that they all cover languaculture (LC) competence one way or another. As regards the language side of the coin, knowledge of two languages has been pinpointed using different terms, including 'linguistic competence' by Bausch (as cited in Rothe-Neves, 2007), 'source and target language competences at discourse and style levels' (Honig, 1991), 'source and target texts processing' (Hatim & Mason, 1997;Stolze, 1997), 'source and target language knowledge' (Bell, 1991;Kastberg, 2007;Kiraly, 2000;Russo, 2000;Schäffner, 2000;Sim, 2000), 'grammatical competence' (Beeby, 1996), 'language competence' (EMT Expert Group, 2009;Neubert, 2000), 'language awareness' (Fox, 2000), 'proficiency, being related to certain special bilingual skills' (Campbell, 1991), 'communicative and textual sub-competence' by Kelly (as cited in Brala-Vukanovic, 2016, p. 226), 'bilingual sub-competence' (PACTE, 2005, p. 611), 'communicative competence in at least two languages' (Göpferich, 2009), 'comprehension and production strategies' (Forte, 2012), 'listening and analysis of source speech and production of target speech' (Gile, 2009), 'absolute command of the source and target languages' (Gouadec, 2007, p. 150), 'language skills' (Pöchhacker, 2000), 'pre-process competence, including language proficiency and terminology management' (Albl-Mikasa, 2013), 'perception, decoding, recoding, encoding, and expressing skills' (Ma, 2013), and more recently 'language and culture competence' (Beikian, 2020;EMT, 2017). ...
It is evident that the most important competence emphasized by any translation competence model (TCM) is mastery of source and target languages and cultures. On the other hand, languages and cultures are always closely tied, a fact highlighted more than ever by Agar's (1994) proposed concept of 'languaculture'. The present two-phase qualitative study was conducted with the purpose of investigating how the curricula of B.A. and M.A. English translation programs offered by Iranian state universities cover language and culture competence as compared to overseas peer programs and how they can be improved in terms of the said competence. To this end, content analysis of the relevant curricula as well as semi-structured interviews with Iranian experts were used to gather the required data. The principal finding of the present research is that it emphasizes the necessity of revising the current curricula in line with the maximum coverage of topics contained in a proposed list of Persian language and culture topics, English language and culture topics, and joint language and culture topics. The said list of language and culture topics, being another valuable finding of the study, may also be used for designing new autonomous translator, interpreter, and audiovisual translator training programs, or at least concentrations with specialized tracks and strands. Further, the detailed findings of the study, gained through an atomistic approach to language and culture competence, may be availed of by researchers who intend to conduct further studies on each and every element of this competence.
... Este método permite observar lo que sucede en la pantalla del ordenador. En consecuencia, resulta de utilidad para visualizar las acciones de búsqueda, las fuentes electrónicas y páginas web que consultan los sujetos mientras traducen (Göpferich y Jääskeläinen, 2009). Igual que los programas que registran los movimientos en el teclado y los lectores de movimientos oculares, los programas que graban las pantallas pasan inadvertidos para el sujeto (Ehrensberger-Dow y Massey, 2008b) y garantizan, por lo tanto, una mayor validez ecológica (Hansen, 2013b). ...
En este artículo se presentan los resultados de un estudio del proceso de traducción que compara y describe el comportamiento de estudiantes, que transitan etapas distintas de formación, ante un problema y en la toma de decisiones durante la traducción escrita del inglés al español. Para este objetivo, se diseñó una investigación cuasiexperimental, con fines exploratorios. Se observó el proceso a través de grabaciones de pantallas, verbalizaciones simultáneas y cuestionarios postareas; y se evaluó la aceptabilidad del producto. Se llevó adelante el análisis inductivo de los datos del proceso y un análisis deductivo de los datos del producto. La generación de códigos y categorías mediante procedimientos de codificación de la Teoría Fundamentada permitió elaborar, desde un enfoque procesual, taxonomías de problemas, de criterios de toma de decisiones y de decisiones. A partir de las categorías analizadas y de una serie de atributos se describieron los comportamientos y perfiles de acción, de búsqueda y resolutorio de traductores en formación. Palabras clave: perfil de acción, perfil de búsqueda, perfil resolutorio, comportamiento
... Competence models started to appear in the late 2000s as a schematisation to combine students' competences together. In (Göpferich & Jääskeläinen, 2009), the translation competence is associated with skills on communication, domain, strategy, psychomotricity, and translation-specific tools. Similarly, the European Master's in Translation (EMT) (Toudic & Krause, 2017) is a framework for selecting European universities that offer translation courses satisfying a set of evaluation criteria in five competence areas: language and culture, translation, technology, personal and interpersonal, and service provision. ...
This research aims to address the current gaps in computer-assisted translation (CAT) courses offered in bachelor’s and master’s programmes in scientific and technical translation (STT). A multi-framework course design methodology is proposed to support CAT teachers from the computer engineering field, improve student engagement, and promote computer-supported education, together with a balanced coverage of the most relevant topics in the CAT domain. STT is currently in high demand in many fields, requiring translators with sector-specific language skills and considerable computer literacy in order to manage translation projects with complex structures, and format heterogeneity. However, many STT curricula often lag behind current market demands, focusing primarily on language and translation theory, with less emphasis on CAT technologies and tools. Moreover, the lack of shared course design guidelines hinders the introduction of innovative teaching approaches based on collaborative learning. A novel multi-framework CAT course design methodology, named CATDeM, is proposed, based on the integration between an official European translation competence framework, real-life-mimicking laboratorial activities, and computer-supported collaborative learning, enriched with discussion case studies and role-playing experiences. A real-life case study is examined to illustrate and evaluate the implementation of CATDeM in two consecutive editions (2020/2021 and 2021/2022) of a one-semester compulsory CAT course in a M.A. degree in STT at the University of Salento (Italy). Students’ perceptions of translation technology and role-plays, as well as their attitudes towards the proposed CAT course are evaluated through a post-grading self-assessment questionnaire. Achieved results indicated successful student engagement and self-assessed improvement in translation, technical, and interpersonal skills. The importance given by students to role-playing experiences mimicking professional scenarios was also highlighted, paving the way for CATDeM to be adopted in similar contexts.
... The overarching objective of these projects was to delve into translation processes and the progression of translation competence. The TransComp project at the University of Graz, initiated in 2007, shared a similar focus on investigating translation processes and the acquisition of competence (see, e.g., Göpferich, 2009;Göpferich and Jääskeläinen, 2009). The TransComp project specifically examined the employment of resources for translation problem solving. ...
This article delves into the evolution of web search query behavior among translation trainees over a semester, using a repeated measures design. While prior research in Translation Studies has predominantly focused on information seeking patterns and types of resources used, a crucial gap remains in understanding the web search query behavior of diverse translation practitioners. Specifically, this investigation analyzes intra-subject and inter task level changes in web search query behavior within a group of 19 first-year master's students enrolled in an English-to-Chinese translation course, building upon key literature in the field. The statistical analysis conducted reveals changes in the examined variables-query time, complexity, and language-highlighting the importance of targeted research and training to enhance web search skills and search engine proficiency. These findings carry relevant implications for translation practitioners, particularly as new AI technologies continue to expand and enhance their search toolbox and skillset.
... The widely accepted view posits that in translation studies, competence is invariably structured through models featuring various sub-competence areas. While there are certain divergences between these models, most integrate sub-competences relating to language proficiency, research abilities, textual understanding, cultural awareness, and technological skills (e.g., Neubert 2000;Schäffner 2000;Pym 2003;Kelly 2005;Yazıcı 2007;Beeby et al. 2009;Göpferich and Jaaskelainen 2009;Bengi-Öner 2011;6 EMT 2017 7 ). In this context, Catherine Way highlights that recent pertinent literature centered around translator education (Kiraly 2014(Kiraly , 2015Way 2014Way , 2016 suggests that the instruction and assessment of all subcompetences inherent in the proposed competence models aimed at the cultivation of translation expertise are not practicable processes (cf. ...
This study readdresses translator competence in light of the transformation in the translation profession, with a particular focus on Türkiye’s “National Occupational Standard: Translator/Interpreter—Level 6” (“NOST/IL6”). Motivated by the need to readdress translator competence given the technology-induced transformation in the translation profession, the study argues that embracing ‘entrepreneurship competence’—which is versatile, unstable, and based on ‘adaptive expertise’ and ‘lifelong learning’—in translator competence is crucial for translators to provide value-added products and services. The study suggests that incorporating entrepreneurship competence into translator education may bridge the alleged ‘skill gap’ between industry demands and translator education and contribute to a demand-oriented, functional, and added value-focused education prioritizing innovation, value creation, and entrepreneurship. In this regard, the study also analyzes the “NOST/IL6”—reported to display, as a standard, the required translation-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes and reflect the current needs and future trends in the translation market on the education system in Türkiye—with a focus on entrepreneurship competence. The analysis results indicate that the document underrepresents entrepreneurship competence and may not suffice to address what is brought by automation and digitalization, not attributing a proactive stance to translators. Hence, the study concludes that a reconsideration of the standard document, with an emphasis on entrepreneurship competence and considering the evolving roles and areas, could instigate a pivotal mindset shift. “In a new turning point where new questions come to the fore” (Bengi-Öner 1997, 8), such a transformation could help view technology-induced uncertainties as opportunities rather than threats, potentially restoring ‘human’ at the core of translation—a field increasingly perceived as ‘dehumanized’ due to growing technological domination—and significantly contribute to building a strong professional self-concept among translators for them to enjoy the opportunities that are likely to arise in the unpredictable and unclear future.
... What is more, expert translators pay mostly their attention to the translation problems that are deemed substantial to translation process, while non-expert translators exert unnecessary effort on inappropriate detail [55: 407]. Also, expert translators have multitasking skills; they look for appropriate equivalent terms, identify translation problems and critically monitor their output concurrently [27]. ...
This paper addresses the relation between explicitation and translation expertise in the rendition of nominalisation and participles in the legal Qurʾānic verses specific to purification and prayer. It uses a corpus-based method: The Qurʾānic Arabic Corpus. The paper argues that most of the expert Qurʾān translators explicitate in rendering nominalisation and participles in the legal verses specific to purification and prayer into English in the said corpus. They explicitate in the form of both addition and specification with varying degrees as the former is adopted twice as much as the latter. The paper claims that most explicitations specific to the rendition of nominalisation and participles in the legal Qurʾānic verses peculiar to purification and prayer in the corpus have been superfluous, albeit justifiable. This may confirm the relation between explicitation and translation expertise in The Qurʾānic Arabic Corpus in the sense that although the meaning of nominalisation and/or participles is wholly translated into English, the Qurʾān translators still explicitate through addition or specification to further facilitate the comprehension process. This paper offers a baseline for examining explicitation exercised on nominalisation and participles in the legal Qurʾānic verses particular to purification and prayer, which may have implications for future studies conducted on the same topic in other similar legal contexts.
... thinking aloud ideally implies that subjects' verbalisations are not monitored while talking aloud refers to subjects making verbalisations about their thought or cognitive process either simultaneously or retrospectively. The implications of these verbal protocol types are discussed in Göpferich and Jääskeläinen (2009). The scholars contend that monologue seems to be a somewhat artificial method of verbal reporting since some subjects may find it embarrassing speaking to themselves while working. ...
... Research into translation competence has used a variety of methodologies borrowed from neighboring disciplines, such as eye-tracking, keyboard logging, retrospective interviews, TAPS, and contrastive performance of novices and experts. One of the main debates in this paradigm has also been the appropriateness, validation and adaptations of the methodologies employed (Göpferich and Jääskeläinen 2009;Massey and Ehrengsberger-Dow 2013;Orozco and Hurtado 2002). Nevertheless, today it can be said that translation competence research represents one of the most successful transfers of knowledge between the Pure and Applied Branch in the discipline. ...
... Therefore, translation competence frameworks (Göpferich & Jääskeläinen, 2009), such as the EMT model (Toudic & Krause, 2017), have been proposed to foster students' competences in: language and culture; translation; technology; personal and interpersonal; service provisioning (EMT Expert Group, 2009). However, only 73 (of more than 2k EU universities (uniRank, 2020)) were ranked EMT-compliant for the 2019-2024 period (European Commission, 2019) and they will have their compliance assessed again after every 5-year validity period. ...
Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to adopt more systematically the collaborative learning dimension in the technical translation teaching at Master Degree level. In order to do so, a computer-supported skills lab approach is targeted. This approach is aimed at enhancing traditional courses on Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) so that student competences and soft skills are enhanced. Background: In traditional CAT courses, laboratory sessions complement theoretical lessons, thus providing students mainly with tool-oriented operational knowledge, while nowadays more intertwined competences are required by the labor market. Moreover, this sector lacks skills labs which engage students in collaborative activities mimicking professional workflows, thus not exploiting team-based learning potential effectiveness. Methodology: In this paper, therefore, a design methodology to deploy and operate an enhanced skills lab as a remote Computer-Supported Collaborative Simulated Translation Bureau (CS2TB) is proposed and validated. The proposed methodology is based on a set of intertwined methodological frameworks that address: 1) student competences and educational requirements, 2) collaborative aspects, 3) regulatory policies as well as functional and interactional guidelines for the simulated fieldwork. The overall effectiveness of the proposed methodology has been assessed by using pre-post questionnaires to ascertain student feedback. The improvement in technology skills has been evaluated by collecting and examining student help requests as well as system error logs. Contribution: The CS2TB provides a technology-enhanced simulation-based learning environment whose aim is twofold: first, enriching traditional approaches with a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) experience and, second, incorporating widely adopted approaches for the translation-teaching domain as the required grounding knowledge. Findings: Results demonstrate the effectiveness of CS2TB in improving students’ competences (specifically in the IT area but also in the technical translation area), students’ willingness to operate in a fieldwork-like context and cooperative learning efficacy. Recommendations for Practitioners: The educational implications of the proposed approach concern the development of a full range of competences and soft skills for students in the technical translation teaching at the higher education level, ranging from language and translation proficiency to the usage of IT platforms as well as personal and interpersonal interactional soft skills. Recommendation for Researchers: This study offers a wide overview of all the aspects entailed by the design, implementation, management, and evaluation of a skills lab for technical translation teaching. Researchers may benefit from the rigorous modelling approach as well as from the adopted assessment techniques. Moreover, the study stresses the pivotal role of a tight collaboration between language/translation teaching and computer engineering. Impact on Society: Higher education institutions that already have courses on computer-assisted translation may benefit from the proposed CS2TB approach, which allows them to design new thematic activities leveraging team-based learning, collaborative learning, and fieldwork-situated simulation. Moreover, the presented broad range of assessment approaches can be used to measure the impact of CS2TB on learning outcomes of the involved students. Future Research: Future research activities will be dedicated to examining the impact of a different set of enabling IT platforms on the collaborative learning perspective, to evaluate alternative scaffolding approaches (e.g., chatbots or augmented reality), and to increase simulation fidelity further, so that even more student competences can be fostered.
... The foregoing discussion eventually points to and necessitates a high level of information literacy. It is already an indispensable component of the multicomponential translation/translator competence models yet named differently, i.e., (re)search competence (Schäffner, 2000), instrumental sub-competence (PACTE, 2009), researchoriented knowledge and skill (Yazıcı, 2007), tools and research competence (Göpferich and Jääskeläinen, 2009), information mining competence (European Master's in Translation Expert Group, 2009), general information handling and information skills (Calvo, 2011), and research sub-competence (Eser, 2015). These competencies "include the routine use of standard translation tools and established resources, but also go beyond this to encompass the identification of translation problems and problem types, the location and evaluation of appropriate language and knowledge resources, and the ability to make adequate problem-solving decisions about the use of those resources" (Massey and Ehrensberger-Dow, 2011: 194). ...
This study is the first paper to investigate Turkish translation students’ information literacy, with particular focus on the steps ranging from problem detection to (un)acceptable solutions to detected problems. The paper investigated the construct
of translation students’ information literacy by describing their information retrieval trajectory in view of (1) need for
information, (2) search locations by gender, source type, and search items’ structures, and (3) search results by search items,
participants’ genders, search items’ structures, and search locations. Due to the recent prominence of electronic media
as translators’ workbenches, this research was primarily focused on online information retrieval skills. A screen-recording
program, Camtasia Studio, was employed to monitor the participants' information mining process. SPSS – a statistical
software program – was used to gain insight into the relationships between the operationalized parameters. The sample
comprises ten fourth-year translation undergraduates, selected through convenience sampling.
... The construct of translation competence has caught continuous scholarly attention over the past decades (e.g., Cao, 1996;PACTE, 2003PACTE, , 2005PACTE, , 2008PACTE, , 2015Pym, 2003;Göpferich and Jääskeläinen, 2009), among which the empirical research results from PACTE have received considerable support. According to PACTE, translation competence is comprised of bilingual, extralinguistic, knowledge of translation, instrumental and strategic as well as psycho-physiological components. ...
While translation competence assessment has been playing an increasingly facilitating role in translation teaching and learning, it still failed to offer fine-grained diagnostic feedback based on certain reliable translation competence standards. As such, this study attempted to investigate the feasibility of providing diagnostic information about students’ translation competence by integrating China’s Standards of English (CSE) with cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) approaches. Under the descriptive parameter framework of CSE translation scales, an attribute pool was established, from which seven attributes were identified based on students’ and experts’ think-aloud protocols. A checklist comprising 20 descriptors was developed from CSE translation scales, with which 458 students’ translation responses were rated by five experts. In addition, a Q-matrix was established by seven experts. By comparing the diagnostic performance of four widely-used cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs), linear logistic model (LLM) was selected as the optimal model to generate fine-grained information about students’ translation strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, relationships among translation competence attributes were discovered and diagnostic results were shown to differ across high and low proficiency groups. The findings can provide insights for translation teaching, learning and assessment.
... Over the past decades, translation competence (TC), as one of the vibrant streams of research in Translation Studies (TS), has been studied by scholars from different theoretical paradigms and perspectives (e.g., Albir et al. 2020;Campbell 2014;Kumpulainen 2016Kumpulainen , 2018Neubert 2000;Pym 2003Pym , 2013PACTE 2000PACTE , 2003PACTE , 2005PACTE , 2008PACTE , 2014PACTE , 2017Wilss 1976). It used to be defined as a summation of linguistic competencies (e.g., Daniel 1983;Harris & Sherwood 1978), but is now generally conceptualized as a multi-componential competence (e.g., Göpferich 2009Göpferich , 2013Göpferich & Jääskeläinen 2009;PACTE 2000PACTE , 2003PACTE , 2005PACTE , 2008PACTE , 2009PACTE , 2014PACTE , 2017, which shows the tendency to explore an ideal translation competence, mainly focusing on language, textual, subject, cultural, transfer as well as research competence. Meanwhile, some scholars (e.g., Kiraly 2001Kiraly , 2014Mackenzie 2004) asserted that the focus should be transferred from translation competence to translator's competence, and accordingly presented a range of TC for professional situations within a humanist and social constructivist framework. ...
This article aims at exploring translation competence (TC) from the perspective of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), and developing a HOTS-oriented TC model accordingly. The underlying assumption is that the translation competence needed to solve ill-structured translation problems is highly integrated HOTS in essence. Based on this assumption, a framework for HOTS-oriented TC is presented, using features from the PACTE group’s TC model, and combining it with HOTS-specific features. Subsequently, a HOTS-oriented TC model is constructed, which consists of three interrelated parts: HOTS (i.e., translation problem-solving ability, translation decision-making ability, translation creative-thinking ability, and translation critical thinking ability); translation knowledge, and translation thinking dispositions. Additionally, two other assumptions are made as scaffolding to support our HOTS-oriented TC model. Finally, implications for TC studies and translation pedagogy are provided.
... Surveying translation competence models, it becomes evident that translation competence emanated from linguistic-oriented transfer ones to strategic models, from static to dynamic, functional and communicative models. As a result, self-regulation represents a major component in translation competence and consequently it defines aims and order among sub-competences (Göpferich & Jääskeläinen, 2009). ...
... One of them, which focuses on human cognition, has attracted an increasing number of researchers over the past fifty years. There are several terms that refer to this subfield of TS: translation process research or TPR (Shreve and Koby, 1997;Göpferich and Jääskeläinen, 2009;Jakobsen, 2014), cognitive translation studies (Halverson, 2015), cognitive translatology (Muñoz Martín, 2010). Despite the different labels, the common goal is to better understand human cognition during the act of translation. ...
Scholars in Translation Studies (TS) have attempted to define and categorize different kinds of translation difficulty in various ways. In Translation Process Research (TPR), a subfield of TS, some researchers operationalize translation difficulty as the amount of cognitive effort one needs to expend during a translation task. They often adopt behavioral measures derived from cognitive psychology (e.g., gaze duration, fixation counts, etc. in eye-tracking) to evaluate cognitive effort, but new quantification methods, unique to TPR, have also been developed in recent years. However, while numerous types of translation difficulty have been proposed in TS, cognitive effort is generally considered to be a uniform entity no matter which measure is utilized in TPR.
This exploratory study attempts to refine the discourse on translation difficulty from a cognitive point of view. It first discusses some terminology issues regarding translation difficulty, and provides a more systematic view by operationalizing it as amount of cognitive effort expended. Then, associations of sixteen characteristics (five from the source text, five from the target text, and six from the translator) with nine measures of cognitive effort are statistically examined in the context of English-Japanese translation. For each of the forty-eight significant associations observed, possible explanations are explored as to why a certain characteristic is associated with a given measure of cognitive effort in a particular way. Finally, the differences among different measures are discussed. For English-Japanese translation, this study suggests that the product-based measures developed in TPR, which are calculated from different target texts produced from a single source text, may better serve as a predictor of cognitive effort, rather than a measure of cognitive effort.
... The thinking behind this is that if you know two languages you will surely be able to replace words from one language with words from another language, which is then linked again to the first misconception. Yet, translation studies show that translation novices tend to translate on a word-by-word basis rather than taking into account important context or project information (purpose of translation, target group, and so on; Göpferich & Jääskeläinen, 2009;Jääskeläinen, 2010;Shreve, 2002). Furthermore, translation requires more than "mere" language competence and, in fact, draws on a number of different competencies, including translation competence as such (translating in line with project specifications), linguistic and textual competence in the source and target language, cultural knowledge, competence in the substantive domain as well as in research, information acquisition and processing, and eventually in information and communications technology (ICT). ...
Comparative surveys are surveys that study more than one population with the purpose of comparing various characteristics of the populations. The purpose of these types of surveys is to facilitate research of social phenomena across populations, and, frequently, over time. Researchers often refer to comparative surveys that take place in multinational, multiregional, and multicultural contexts as “3MC” surveys. To achieve comparability, these surveys need to be carefully designed according to state-of-the-art principles and standards.
The main purposes of this task force report, commissioned jointly by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) are to identify the most pressing challenges concerning data quality, promote best practices, recommend priorities for future study, and foster dialogue and collaboration on 3MC methodology. The intended audience for this report includes those involved in all aspects of 3MC surveys including data producers, data archivists, data users, funders and other stakeholders, and those who wish to know more about this discipline.
... Translation competence models always include the underlying translation process. The translation competence models proposed by Risku (1998), the PACTE Group (2003, 2007, and Göpferich (2008) and Göpferich and Jääskeläinen (2009) describe the translation process, which is controlled by the translator's competence and the endpoint of which is the production of a translation that meets the commissioner's requirements. Gaps in the process or defects in the product occur when the translator lacks competence or a subcompetence (Hansen 2006, 27). 1 There is general agreement that legal translation requires special translation skills and, therefore, also special training, because during the whole translation process legal translators must be able to build a bridge between two legal systems, unless the translation takes place within a single multilingual legal system. ...
In order to ensure successful subprocesses within the overall legal translation process, a correct and comprehensive understanding of the source text is crucial. Legal translators must be able to grasp all the legal, linguistic, communicative, and situational dimensions of the text. The focus of this study is on the cognitive processes involved in the first reading phase of the legal translation process and, in particular, on the question of whether legal translators and lawyers have different text reception processes. By analysing the think-aloud protocols recorded in a mixed-methods study, legal meta-comments (LMCs) from translators and lawyers are examined and compared. The results suggest that the two groups approach the text from different angles, which leads to some suggestions for further developing the training of legal translators.
... One possible explanation is the effect of a competence ceiling: Unlike in L1 translation, 10 the global success of L2 translation does not improve with practice, probably as a consequence of a lack of feedback and the resulting competence fossilisation (Duběda 2018). Theoretical work on translation competence acquisition (for a review, see Göpferich and Jääskeläinen [2009]) emphasises the positive impact of experience, while the risk of competence fossilisation, described for L2 acquisition by Selinker (1972), has hardly been discussed in literature on translation. The crucial point here is that, all other things being equal, an improvement was observed for L1 translation, but almost no improvement for L2 translation. ...
The article reflects on the problem of L2 legal translation, paying specific attention to the role of L1 revision and its impact on the overall quality of the final product. Twenty non-native translations (Czech–French) of a legal text were subjected to a two-stage assessment procedure: First, by two native revisers without legal training (revision stage), and second, by two native experts (metarevision stage). In the revision stage, the average quality of the translations was rated between B (good) and C (borderline). During the metarevision stage, the experts identified a higher number or errors, especially in the domain of legal meaning. No less than 84% of the revisions made by the non-expert revisers were confirmed by the expert revisers, while the remaining cases were mostly under-revisions (12%), and, less frequently, over-revisions (4%). In situations where L2 translation is inevitable, L1 revision, even when carried out by professional revisers with little or no legal background, seems to be a viable option. However, all stakeholders should be aware of the risks associated with this practice, bearing in mind the specific nature of legal translation.
... • research-informed and competence-based: ensuring pedagogy is well-grounded with translation theories to enhance learners' competencies such as the ability to work responsibly to complete the assigned tasks or to function collaboratively within a team (Göpferich & Jääskeläinen, 2009;Hatim, 2012). ...
Traditional methods of lecture-based teaching are still pervasive in many Vietnamese translation courses at Higher Education (Pham, 2016). This study presents an alternative, practical and a more efficacious way to improve the quality of translation training in Vietnam. It examines a novel flipped classroom approach aimed at providing dynamic and novel instructional learning of two Translation modules in a Vietnamese public university. The alternative approach inverts the traditional teacher-learner roles, and makes it culturally-appropriate and contextually-relevant to the local context. This approach was adapted from the three-stage framework of Zhai et al. (2017), taking careful consideration of all the relevant factors within the implementation process based on Activity theory. Using a case-study research design proposed by Yin (2014), this study aims to: (1) provide a deep insight into how the flipped classroom approach can be applied in an actual scenario to demonstrate how relevant factors were exploited in the translation training process; (2) exemplify the educational benefits of this flipped classroom approach towards learners’ improvement in translation competence over the course via various assessment task types; (3) investigate how this flipped classroom approach could re-orientate learners’ translation habits to use professional strategies appropriately; (4) examine learners’ perceptions towards the educational benefits of this new approach on their translation improvement; (5) explore learners’ perceptions towards different elements within the flipped classroom approach on learners’ skill mastery; and (6) find out the challenges that are encountered by Vietnamese learners during the implementation of the flipped classroom approach. A total of 79 junior students that was conveniently selected at a public university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam participated in the study from February to July of the 2018-2019 academic year. The research used content analysis of one specific learning scenario, assessment analysis to describe how learners’ skills competence was fostered over the course, and semi-structured interviews to examine the benefits and challenges of the flipped classroom approach, paying special consideration to various elements of Activity theory (instruments, rules, community and division of labour). The collected findings revealed that this approach based on a research-informed framework could not only bridge the gaps in the relevant literature of flipped learning, but also could help learners improve various aspects in translation studies. Moreover, learners were able to develop better translation habits while completing their assignments, as well as enhance their perceptions towards the translation training process. Finally, challenges faced by learners during the implementation were mitigated by a careful consideration of the contradictions within the flipped classroom approach identified through the analytical lens of Activity theory.
... A substantial amount of research in this sphere focuses on the psycholinguistic aspects of the said process. The objects of research have included comprehension and memory mechanisms in translation and interpreting (Bajo et al., 2001), methods and problems of the translation process research (Lӧrscher, 2005;Dam-Jensen & Heine, 2009;Göpferich & Jääskeläinen, 2009;Martin, 2014), monitoring skills and self-awareness in the said process (Tirkkonen-Condit, 2005), a theoretical framework for situating translation expertise within empirical translation studies (Shreve, 2006), the correlation between the source and target texts parallel and sequential processing (Balling, Hvelplund & Sjшrup, 2014), the role of metaphor in the translation process research (Schaffner & Shuttleworth, 2015), micro and macro translation units of the said process (Alves & Goncalves, 2015), evolution of its effi cacy in the translation competence acquisition (PACTE, 2019), mechanisms of targeted translation nominations (Rebrii, 2012). ...
The aim of the paper deals with the preliminary verification of the hypothesis concerning the impact of the source text structure on the choice of translation strategy (form-oriented or sense-oriented) in the process of rendering a text in a native (Ukrainian) into a foreign (English) language by university students majoring in Translation.
The methods of the research included a comparative analysis of the target texts (English) translated (within a predetermined time limit) from the source text (Ukrainian) related to the domain of economics. The structure of the source text, while remaining grammatically acceptable in the Ukrainian language, had been deliberately made structurally non-congruent with that of the direct word order, which is most frequently used in English. The subjects, the fourth-year BA students majoring in Translation, whose command of English ranged between B2 and C1 levels within the CEFR classification, had been properly motivated to achieve the maximum possible result. The analysis of the target texts was based on a number of parameters, which included the preservation of the source text information and its structure in them.
Results. It was established that in translating from a native into a foreign language, the subjects have a tendency to replicate the structure of the source text at the levels of clauses and sentences. However, it does not always result in the distortion of the source text sense or/and the violation of the target language norms as the subjects often managed to render the said sense and to keep to the said norms by means of changing the functions of the words in the sentence. The probability of the subjects’ abandoning the source text structure increases when the latter is evidently unsuitable for replication, in which case they switch over to the sense-oriented strategy. The correlation of the two strategies in translating sentence segments is generally identical to the one related to clauses and sentences, while the form-oriented strategy generally prevails in rendering phrases.
Conclusions. The source text structure has a certain impact on the choice of translation strategy increasing the share of the form-oriented approach. However, this impact is not unequivocal and may depend on a number of factors, which require additional study. The paper outlines the prospects of further research.
In the ever-changing language industry, translation experts are required to be ‘adaptive agents’. This study uses metaphors of self-concepts (i.e. personal metaphors) to access the cognitive aspects of the self that are enacted by students and professionals before and after performing a task. Translators whose metaphors show richness are expected to perform better, with their metaphors changing as they are exposed to different tasks. Such metaphor dynamicity is thus thought to be related to adaptability.
Personal metaphors were collected via linguistic prompts and naturally in questionnaires/interviews about participants’ backgrounds and professional opinions. While the study found a relation between metaphor dynamicity and performance, no definitive conclusions could be drawn on metaphor richness. This led to the hypothesis that dynamic personal metaphors of adaptability (e.g., a translator is a chameleon; a jack of all trades) can be linked to better performance. The study also suggests that incorporating metaphors and self-concepts in translator training could enhance adaptability in translation.
Translation process research is almost four decades old. Translator cognition is one of the most complex translation research areas to study. This complexity stems mainly from the difficulties involved in collecting and analyzing translation process data. The Element reviews and discusses the developments in translation process research. Specifically, it highlights the key terms in translation process research, its data sources, the developments this area has witnessed in four decades, and the efforts made in modelling the translation process so far. The work also proposes a translation process model which shows the central role monitoring plays in managing other translation subprocesses and evaluating the information being processed. Based on the issues reviewed and discussed, it is concluded that translation process research is still maturing. Making further developments in this translation research area requires addressing some contextual and methodological gaps, and investigating particular neglected research dimensions.
Different cultures have distinct conceptions of knowledge and ways of defining, generating and communicating knowledge. Therefore, multilingualism in academia has been shown to be instrumental in preserving the various systems of knowledge, equality of opportunity in science and enhancing the international competitiveness of scholars whose native language is not the lingua franca. The actors of translation and the strategies they work with (domestication and foreignisation) play a unique role in this, as their decisions may foster or hinder linguistic and epistemic diversity. Despite its pronounced significance, however, relatively little is known about the stereotypical competences required for academic translation. As translation in science is not merely a philological issue, this conceptual study follows a consilient approach and integrates the outcomes of research from several disciplines and research perspectives to propose a theory‐based, multi‐componential model of academic translation competence as a macrocompetence. Based on the model, a conceptual definition of the construct of academic translation competence is provided to identify what exactly is to be observed and measured for its study and to generate preliminary hypotheses related to the construct. The study has implications not only for the theory, practice and training of academic translation but also for the disciplinary training of researchers.
The status quo in higher education around the globe has shifted from teacher-centered approaches to learner-centered ones. Yet, researchers in the field of translation teaching argue that advances made in teaching and learning in other educational areas are not apparent in translation classrooms. Although translator educators embrace learner-centered approaches, more efforts are required to make translation training classrooms more learner-centered. Translator educators must meet this challenging transition if they wish to achieve the goals of 21st-century education. Research in the field of education has shown that metacognition can help learners be in charge of their learning. Thus, this study seeks to develop translation trainees’ strategic sub-competence through the use of metacognitive questionnaires. The results of this study confirm the positive effect of metacognitive questionnaires on the development of translation trainees’ strategic sub-competence. The findings also show an increase in planning and evaluation strategies and a shift from focusing on individual words to paying more attention to the target text.
For those interested in the immanent relation between languages and cultures, and the importance role translation plays in it .
This article provides an overview of legal translator competences, qualifications and other professional requirements set in the ISO 20771:2020 standard. References to existing frameworks, such as European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and some research, complementary ISO standards (notably ISO 17100:2015 ) and current industry best-practice offer relevant context and background information, and identify the gap that has been filled by this important standard.
The author demonstrates that ISO 20771:2020 is a good example of a requirements standard developed for the translation industry that is up-to-date, reflects actual industry best-practice, and addresses a need for standardization of legal translator requirements for the purpose of certification. It is posited here that ISO 20771:2020 is a valuable resource for all stakeholders as it not only provides accurate information about standard market requirements for legal translation (and translation in general) but also contributes to translators’ professionalization by setting objective professional benchmarks. Additionally, ISO requirements standards are, by definition, pragmatic and operational, and therefore easier to validate through conformity assessment and certification than any other resources, and hence both the industry and academia can only benefit from increased ISO standards uptake.
The overview of legal translator competences, qualifications and other professional requirements set in the ISO 20771:2020 standard reflects the ISO approach to setting translator requirements, and outlines some of the practical implications of translation industry standardization and certification in the hope that it might become the starting point for more discussions on this subject in the future.
This volume provides a comprehensive treatment of telecollaboration as a learning mode in translator education, surveying the state-of-the-art, exploring its distinctive challenges and affordances and outlining future directions in both theoretical and practical terms. The book begins with an overview of telecollaboration and its rise in prominence in today’s globalised world, one in which developments in technology have significantly impacted practices in professional translation and translator education.
The volume highlights basic design types and assessment modes and their use in achieving competence-based learning outcomes, drawing on examples from seven telecollaboration projects. In incorporating real-life research, Marczak draws readers’ attention to not only the practical workings of different types of projects and their attendant challenges but also the opportunities for educators to diversify and optimize their instructional practices and for budding translators to build competence and better secure their future employability in the language service provision industry.
This volume will be a valuable resource for students and researchers in translation studies, particularly those with an interest in translator education and translation technology, as well as stakeholders in the professional translation industry.
See the publisher's website to preview the book:
https://www.routledge.com/Telecollaboration-in-Translator-Education-Implementing-Telecollaborative-Learning-Modes-in-Translation-Courses/Marczak/p/book/9781032539942
The aim of this study is to examine the employment opportunities of the students
of Applied English Translation programs and to determine the positions and sectors
where the students can be employed. Thus, by increasing the functionality of the
program, it will be possible to train semi-skilled staff who can speak languages for
different sectors.
Translation shifts (i.e. linguistic changes at lexical, syntactic and expression levels) naturally occur with the use of translation techniques in the process of translating a source text (ST) into another target text (TT). However, previous scholars mostly focused on analyzing translation products but hardly investigated translation shifts through translation process research (TPR) methods. Therefore, the pilot study combining screen-recording and retrospective verbalization methods aims to explore the causes and types of translation shifts made in three undergraduate students' web-searching process in the hope of summarizing some implications for translator training. The preliminary findings are as follows. Firstly, the combination of screen-recording and retrospective verbalization methods could detect the causes of undergraduate students' dissatisfying translation shifts, such as their over-reliance on online dictionaries or insufficient background knowledge in the ST. The results of the pilot study also show the implications of both recalling students' application of internalized translation techniques and prompting them to reflect on how to make better translation shifts through the consultation of relevant background knowledge in the ST. Secondly, despite the usefulness of web resources, students should be taught to cross-check reliable web resources for refining TT expressions with personal translator's style as another implication of translation shift analysis.
Translation shifts (i.e. linguistic changes at lexical, syntactic and expression levels) naturally occur with the use of translation techniques in the process of translating a source text (ST) into another target text (TT). However, previous scholars mostly focused on analyzing translation products but hardly investigated translation shifts through translation process research (TPR) methods. Therefore, the pilot study combining screen-recording and retrospective verbalization methods aims to explore the causes and types of translation shifts made in three undergraduate students' web-searching process in the hope of summarizing some implications for translator training. The preliminary findings are as follows. Firstly, the combination of screen-recording and retrospective verbalization methods could detect the causes of undergraduate students' dissatisfying translation shifts, such as their over-reliance on online dictionaries or insufficient background knowledge in the ST. The results of the pilot study also show the implications of both recalling students' application of internalized translation techniques and prompting them to reflect on how to make better translation shifts through the consultation of relevant background knowledge in the ST. Secondly, despite the usefulness of web resources, students should be taught to cross-check reliable web resources for refining TT expressions with personal translator's style as another implication of translation shift analysis.
Chapter 3 describes major advances in translation technologies and explains how these have influenced our understanding of translation, particularly the concept of translation quality and the translation production process. Sakamoto argues that these changes have created a rift between translation studies theories and a new notion of translation circulating in the industry. The chapter identifies new trends in translation studies research which seek to develop new knowledge to address this rift.
Purpose
Before COVID-19 pandemic, translation students in higher education attended courses on computer-assisted translation to acquire operational knowledge of professional software, without experiencing collaborative/interactive learning. In few European universities skills labs were introduced to offer fieldwork-like activities, but without shared modelling standards and mainly held in presence for few consecutive days. As the COVID-19 pandemic further deprived students of crucial educational experiences, the purpose of this paper is to present an online collaborative learning environment exploiting a customised combination of information and learning applications the students already experienced during the pandemic to smoothen their learning curve and increase the educational effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi-framework methodology to build and operate a computer-supported online collaborative skills lab for translation students is proposed. Reference standards and guidelines are leveraged to provide participants with a common knowledge ground, to activate the computer-supported collaborative learning perspective, and to ensure an appropriate simulation fidelity.
Findings
An end-to-end implementation of the proposed approach along with educational effectiveness analysis performed via complementary assessment strategies is presented. Achieved outcomes highlight significant participation rate, consistent improvement in technical and soft skills at both individual and collective levels, and clear activation of collaborative learning dynamics.
Practical implications
Every master degree in translation teaching can adopt this approach by complying with the proposed guidelines.
Originality/value
The proposed multi-framework approach is novel and applied to a teaching sector where it is highly needed to fill a pre-existing gap.
This article describes the methods for investigating th е process of translation. It sets out the cognitive approach to translation and choice of vocabulary. Based on the existing models of translation, this require s careful analysis of correlation between cognitive processes, working memory and long-term memory. Phases of translation are identified and analysed. The interdisciplinary nature of translation as a process and data drawn from different related sciences are demonstrated. The translators’/interpreters’ own processes during translations are highlighted and their importance shown. The article describes the methods of researching the process of translation. The specific objectives are a) to analyse the range of cognitive translation- related researches and b) thus to show characteristic features of cognitive models of translation. Abstract . This article describes the methods for investigating th е process of translation, sets out the cognitive approach to translation and acquisition of vocabulary. Based on the existing models of translation, this require s careful analysis of correlation between cognitive processes, working memory and long-term memory. Phases of translation are identified and analysed. The interdisciplinary nature of translation as a process and data drawn from different related sciences are demonstrated. The translators’/interpreters’ own processes during translations are highlighted and their importance shown. The article describes the methods of researching the process of translation. From the analysis it is suggested that there are six cognitive models to evaluate the role of cognitive processes involved into translation or interpretation. They can be classified into three groups: interpretive theory of translation (Seleskovitch (1968) and Leder (1981), psycholinguistic and cognitive model (Bell, 1991), cognitive and translation model (Kirally (1995). The problem-solving and decision-making model (Wills (1996) considers the process of translation as one of decision making, including mental activity based on schema. Particular efforts needed during the process of translation are discovered. Within the cognitive approach to translation process the new perspective are expected to become established and any problems with it to be solved. This will involve searching the new models for further insights into the process of translation, finding the new related methods, discovering ways to enlarge the translator’s memory, and researching the mental processes associated with machine translation.
This paper focuses on the development of online information literacy in translator training. First, it highlights the important role that information skills, especially web searching skills, play in translation as a cognitive activity requiring information and constant decision making, among others. Second, it argues that if we are to train translation students to work in different subject areas, text types and topics, our focus needs to shift from the acquisition of specialized knowledge in several domains to the development of information skills that can be used for problem solving in any field of expertise. Third, given that the need to seek, use and generate translation-related information depends on the type of users and translation tasks performed, it emphasizes the need for empirical studies that focus on real users and learning contexts. To illustrate the potential benefits of such an approach, this paper draws on the results obtained in a multiple-case study of the web search behaviours of a small cohort of postgraduate translation trainees in their first year of studies.
World-wide development made of that large universe a global village,
facilitating intercommunication and inter-culturality among people to share ideas,
conceptions, sciences and knowledge. Knowledge variety led to the emergence of
diverse specialized languages and raised the need to their fast learning and mastery,
for the warranty of a successful communication among individuals of different
cultural and civilizational backgrounds. Hence, the importance of specialized
languages incites learners to think about cognitive approach of translation
contribution in specialized languages acquisition and mastery. This paper
investigates the contribution of cognitive approach of translation in raising learners
capacities to learn specialized languages and impact on their specialized linguistic
performance in a globalized age; as well as the manner educators and syllabi
designers use to raise learners’ awareness of the importance of not only learning
specialized languages but also how to use the cognitive approach of translation to
reach that aim.
Eye-tracking aided research on the sight translation process.
The article focuses on empirical research of the cognitive aspect of the translation pro-cess that provides new research possibilities arising from the rapid technological advancement.After presenting a historical overview and discussing the latest technological approaches to this kind of research, the author concentrates on the possibilities and prospects of the eye-tracking analysis in translation studies, especially as regards the sight translation process analysis. The author justifies the need for research using measurement and brain imaging technologies which will help understand the cognitive processes that occur in the translator’s brain and the way that information is processed and reproduced.
Eye Tracking Supported Research Into Sight Translation. Lapsological Conclusions.
In the article, the author, on the basis of eye tracking research, indicates the linguistic elements that posed the greatest difficulty for the test subjects in sight translation from Polish into Russian. She explains what the difficulty of these elements is and what causes problems in translating them. Interestingly, other types of translation difficulties were revealed by eye tracking research (in fact, objective research of increased mental effort), while others were indicated by the respondents themselves in questionnaires when answering the question - what do they think will be the biggest problem for them.
Next, the author presents in tables the most frequent mistakes that the respondents made in sight translation. Most of them were interference errors (51% of the total number of errors) due to the very strong influence of the visual stimulus in this type of translation, which is the source text lying all the time in front of the translator. On the other hand, when it comes to specifying the nature of interference errors, they were predominantly lexical errors (78% among the interference errors), while interference at the grammatical level constituted 22%.
This paper reports on an empirical experiment in which a group of MA student translators justified their translation solutions. The aim of the work was to determine to what extent students rely on their theoretical knowledge of translation in their justifications and use the metalanguage of the field. The data consists of transcribed retrospections which were carried out immediately after the students had completed the translation task, with screen recordings of translation processes as the cue. In the retrospection, students commented on their translation processes. The results indicate that approximately one third of all justifications are based on a gut feeling, and the use of metalanguage is scarce. The results point to the need to practice the skill of justifying one's solutions orally during translator training. ARTICLE HISTORY
Translation Process Research defines translation as a decision-making process, but a plethora of studies has demonstrated that there is high individual variation in the translators’ styles of making decisions. The present interdisciplinary empirical study combines the theory of personality types and translation process research in order to identify the behavioural indicators that characterise translators’ decisional styles at the stage of end revision, where final decision-making takes place. As based on previous research, such indicators as the duration of end revision, pause length and number, the number of deleted characters and the types of corrections introduced at the stage of end revision may comprise the behavioural variables that define the translators’ styles of decision-making. The analysis of the data shows that two distinct behavioural styles may be distinguished, and their nature lies in the translators’ individual preferences for one of the two dichotomous psychological functions responsible for decision-making.
The present paper focuses on the translation process, particularly on the features of the expert translation process, viewing expertise in translation as a specific case of expertise in general. It utilises conceptual and methodological tools developed in cognitive psychology. In this paper, translation is conceptualised as problem-solving and translation tasks as ill-defined problems. We argue that professionalism does not equal expertise. Four criteria of expertise are discussed with special reference to expertise in translation. The work of experts is viewed as progressive problem-solving. Translation problems are defined as entire translation tasks, rather than single textual elements or contextual issues. Translation tasks are defined as ill-defined problems, as they are not unambiguous with only one possible solution. In addition, there is no clear solution path from the initial to the final state. Think-aloud experiments were conducted with four expert and two non-expert translators to study how different competence profiles affect the translation process and its outcome. The findings support earlier research indicating that translation does not become easier with growing experience and expertise. We suggest that a productive line of research might be investigating the constraints which direct the translation process.
Translation process research has been gaining momentum in recent years. One of the major research methodologies is Think-aloud Protocols (TAPs), with the aim of uncovering the "black box" (the mental activities) of translators. While most TAPs studies on the translation process have had research subjects translate alone and hence verbalise their thinking alone (i.e., monologue verbal reporting), there have also been studies designed in such a way where two research subjects translate together and hence verbalise their thinking together in their discussions (i.e., dialogue verbal reporting). For instance, both House (1988) and Matrat (1992) argued for joint verbal reporting based on their studies. However, others disagreed, pointing out, for example, that "joint translating does not provide access to the solitary translation process" (Jääskeläinen 2000: 78). We therefore would like to join the debate by investigating the perceptions of research subjects: what are their thoughts of the two modes of translating cum verbal reporting. For that purpose, we recently surveyed the research subjects' views in this regard by administering two questionnaires with them in our TAPs experiments, and found that: a) different students had different experiences and opinions about the two modes of translation; b) however, students had more positive experiences with joint translating than individual translating; and c) joint translating may be considered more conducive for participants, especially those from more reserved cultures, for instance some Asian countries, to speak out their thoughts. Based on these findings, implications for future TAPs studies are discussed.
The PACTE group uses empirical-experimental research methods to investigate transla- tion competence and how it is acquired. This article presents the design of our Transla- tion Competence research project and the first results of a pilot test carried out to evaluate our research design and the instruments that will be used in the experiment. The first results of the pilot test are related to decision-taking in the translation process and the interrelation between the use of internal and external support. The results point to differences in the processes followed by professional translators and other language professionals. Furthermore, the pilot test has proved the reliability of our instruments.
Proposes that verbal reports are data and that accounting for them, as well as for other kinds of data, requires explication of the mechanisms by which the reports are generated, and the ways in which they are sensitive to experimental factors (instructions, tasks, etc). Within the theoretical framework of human information processing, different types of processes underlying verbalization are discussed, and a model is presented of how Ss, in response to an instruction to think aloud, verbalize information that they are attending to in short-term memory (STM). Verbalizing information is shown to affect cognitive processes only if the instructions require verbalization of information that would not otherwise be attended to. From an analysis of what would be in STM at the time of report, the model predicts what could be reliably reported. The inaccurate reports found by other research are shown to result from requesting information that was never directly heeded, thus forcing Ss to infer rather than remember their mental processes. (112 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
To contribute to systems that reason about human attention, our work empirically demonstrates how a user's mental workload changes during task execution. We conducted a study where users performed interactive, hierarchical tasks while mental workload was measured through the use of pupil size. Results show that (i) different types of subtasks impose different mental workload, (ii) workload decreases at subtask boundaries, (iii) workload decreases more at boundaries higher in a task model and less at boundaries lower in the model, (iv) workload changes among subtask boundaries within the same level of a task model, and (v) effective understanding of why changes in workload occur requires that the measure be tightly coupled to a validated task model. From the results, we show how to map mental workload onto a computational Index of Opportunity that systems can use to better reason about human attention.
Investigation of translation processes has intensified over the past two
decades largely due to the application of the introspective verbal reporting
method known as think aloud. In this paper, a less widely used method of
research into translation processes is examined: the collaborative
translation protocol (CTP). References are also made to integrated problem
and decision reporting (IPDR) and choice network analysis (CNA). The
paper reviews the main issues concerning CTP, reporting on the author’s
experiences in using the method to investigate translation processes.
In empirical process-oriented translation research with different kinds of introspection, two important questions are raised repeatedly: 1. Does concurrent verbalization, like Think-aloud, have an influence on the translation process and 2. What do we actually learn from introspective methods like think-aloud and retrospection? Based on ideas from modern psychology and brain research, it is argued that think-aloud must have an impact on the translation process. Furthermore, it is suggested that it is not only spontaneous, unmodified thoughts about the actual task that are verbalized, but also memories, reflections, justifications, explanations, emotions and experiences.
The superior skills of experts, such as accomplished musicians and chess masters, can be amazing to most spectators. For example, club-level chess players are often puzzled by the chess moves of grandmasters and world champions. Similarly, many recreational athletes find it inconceivable that most other adults – regardless of the amount or type of training – have the potential ever to reach the performance levels of international competitors. Especially puzzling to philosophers and scientists has been the question of the extent to which expertise requires innate gifts versus specialized acquired skills and abilities.
One of the most widely used and simplest methods of gathering data on exceptional performance is to interview the experts themselves. But are experts always capable of describing their thoughts, their behaviors, and their strategies in a manner that would allow less-skilled individuals to understand how the experts do what they do, and perhaps also understand how they might reach expert level through appropriate training? To date, there has been considerable controversy over the extent to which experts are capable of explaining the nature and structure of their exceptional performance. Some pioneering scientists, such as Binet (1893/1966), questioned the validity of the experts' descriptions when they found that some experts gave reports inconsistent with those of other experts. To make matters worse, in those rare cases that allowed verification of the strategy by observing the performance, discrepancies were found between the reported strategies and the observations (Watson, 1913).
This article reviews nine different cognitive conceptions of expertise: (a) a general-process view, (b) a quantity of knowledge view, (c) an organization of knowledge view, (d) an analytical-ability view, (e) a creative-ability view, (f) an automaticity view, (g) a practical-ability view, and (h) a labeling view. The article then proposes a ninth synthetic view, according to which expertise is a prototypical concept, and the person is more expert to the extent that he or she possesses more of these eight qualities.
This article addresses the problem that data collected in investigations into translation processes is not made available to the scientific community in most cases, with the consequence that findings based on such data cannot be reproduced and verified and that the data cannot be re-used in other investigations. The article suggests (1) a text annotation system based on the Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), which have been adapted to the specific requirements of translation process research, and (2) the use of asset management systems (AMS) to make translation process data accessible on the Internet. AMS are electronic systems for storing, archiving, annotating, and analyzing digital resources of any type. The advantages and functionality these systems offer are described both from the perspective of researchers and from the perspective of translation pedagogy. The text annotation system is illustrated using transcription examples from a longitudinal study of the development of translation competence in students of translation. Special emphasis is placed on the meta-data required for translation-process transcripts and the different phenomena to be transcribed.
Verbal accounts of the translation process have in the past been used almost exclusively to shed light on language learning activities, focusing primarily on lexical search strategies in second language acquisition studies. This paper reports on the use of such accounts to identify broader strategies in the translation process and, more specifically, to assess what distinctive characteristics community translation for ethnic minority groups may have. Twelve community translators provided verbal accounts of their strategies while completing translations of a short leaflet from English into one of seven community languages. Their comments were invited on any issue which arose, but specifically on the way in which they dealt with the cultural terms relating to British society and institutions. Rather than rely on theoretical ground rules for translation, the translators adopted approaches wholly oriented to the needs of the particular community they knew best and served, and the translation model which emerges from their accounts is markedly socio-cultural. It aims not only to ensure efficient transfer of information across languages and cultures, but also to increase the autonomy of minority language communities within British society, inter alia by retention of some English terminology. It also highlights the need for 'user education' for those using translation services.
La methode de raisonnement a voix haute, qui consiste a enregistrer les pensees verbalisees par des sujets lors de l'execution d'une tâche, peut etre utilisee pour l'analyse du processus de traduction. L'A. propose ici de faire le tour des ecrits sur les applications de ce protocole a la traduction et nous donne une bibliographie multilingue complete sur le sujet. Les 108 ouvrages mentionnes sont resumes en quelques phrases et parfois commentes.
This article first presents widely accepted definitions and models of the translation process and translation competence and notes the lack of a fully developed model of translation competence acquisition (TCA). The Input-Interaction-Output Model of second language acquisition (SLA) is introduced, after which these various models are combined into a proposed model of translation competence acquisition. Each stage in the model is then explained from the point of view of SLA, TCA and translation pedagogy with special attention to meta-cognition and cognitive conflict. Finally, some of the limitations of the model and fields for future research are presented.
Despite the economic importance of translation work, research can hardly keep pace with current developments, especially the use of electronic resources. A growing body of literature on writing processes in various languages and domains (e.g. journalism, education) has provided insight into how professionals and students use language and language resources. However, the questions of how translators use electronic, non-electronic, and internal linguistic resources and of how novices and experts differ in this regard remain to be investigated in detail. A multi-method approach called rogression analysis, which combines ethnographic observation, interviews, computer logging, screenshot recordings, and cue-based retrospective verbalizations, has been used to explore differences between novice and expert journalists and lends itself ideally to the domain of translation. Progression analysis captures diverse aspects of translation processes as students and professionals translate and revise their texts and allows us to access their metalinguistic awareness in order to gain insight into their translation competence. The realization of this awareness in different strategies for translating to and from the translator’s dominant language is highlighted for the language combination German and English, and differences between novices’ and experts’ awareness of their revision processes and resource use are identified.
Although generally agreed to be an essential part of translation, revision receives little attention in translation studies with only a few exceptions such as Breedveld (2002) and Englund Dimitrova (2005). This study aims to establish what revision means to practicing translators, and their views as to what revision involves, in terms of the numbers of revisions they do, the length of their drawer-time (how long they put their draft away) and the aspects they check for in revision. Data show that translators typically claim to revise their draft translation once or twice. They do not normally have extended drawer-time. If they do, it would be overnight at most. They also describe themselves as having certain specific aspects in mind when they revise.
Eye‐tracking has been used as a methodology for some time in various disciplines, but it has not been applied to date in translation studies. This paper presents results from a preliminary investigation which seeks to answer two questions: Firstly, is eye‐tracking, in general, a useful research methodology for investigating translators' interaction with Translation Memory tools? Secondly, what can eye-tracking data tell us about cognitive load when translators deal with different match types in Translation Memories? The results demonstrate that eye‐tracking data, including pupil dilation measurements and gaze replays, in association with retrospective protocols promise to be a very effective methodology for future research into translation processes. The results also suggest that the cognitive load for exact matches in Translation Memory tools is much lower than for other match types, that cognitive load for machine translation matches is close to fuzzy matches of between 80‐90% value, and that “no matches” require the highest level of cognitive load.
the study of expert performance (perceived experts vs consistent expert performance, identifying and capturing expert performance, description and analysis of expert performance, think-aloud protocols and task analysis in research on expert performance, immediate memory of perceived situations, perceptual-motor skill in expert performance, general comments on the structure of expert performance) / acquisition of expert performance (evolution of domains of expertise and the emergence of specialization, minimum period of attainment of expert performance, practice activities to attain expert performance, acquiring elite performance, individual differences in expert performance, the structure of practice in the daily lives of elite performers, expert performance from a life span perspective, implications for designers of artificial intelligent systems) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Since the publication of Ericsson's and Simon's book Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data in 1984, thinking-aloud has found its way into the exploration of (interlingual) translation processes. To gain deeper insight into translation processes, the method of thinking-aloud has been combined with the use of the software TRANSLOG developed by Jakobsen and Schou. This software records (logs) all keystrokes and mouse clicks during writing processes as well as the time intervals between them without the user of this programme realizing this. In my paper, I will describe how the method of thinking aloud combined with the use of TRANSLOG can be used to determine the comprehensibility of non-instructive texts. It focuses on an experiment in which fi ve subjects were asked to optimize a popular science text using TRANSLOG. During this intralingual translation process, the subjects had to think aloud. The paper will focus on the method I used and present what it reveals about the comprehensibility of the popular science text.
This 2006 book was the first handbook where the world's foremost ‘experts on expertise’ reviewed our scientific knowledge on expertise and expert performance and how experts may differ from non-experts in terms of their development, training, reasoning, knowledge, social support, and innate talent. Methods are described for the study of experts' knowledge and their performance of representative tasks from their domain of expertise. The development of expertise is also studied by retrospective interviews and the daily lives of experts are studied with diaries. In 15 major domains of expertise, the leading researchers summarize our knowledge on the structure and acquisition of expert skill and knowledge and discuss future prospects. General issues that cut across most domains are reviewed in chapters on various aspects of expertise such as general and practical intelligence, differences in brain activity, self-regulated learning, deliberate practice, aging, knowledge management, and creativity.
Against the background of a wider research project that aims to investigate the correlation, if any, between post-editing effort and the presence of negative translatability indicators in source texts submitted to Machine Translation (MT), this paper sets out to assess the potential of two methods for measuring the effort involved in post-editing MT output. The first is based on the use of the keyboard-monitoring program Translog; the second on Choice Network Analysis (CNA). The paper reviews relevant research in both machine translatability and MT post-editing, and appraises, in particular, the suitability of think-aloud protocols in assessing post-editing effort. The combined use of Translog and CNA is proposed as a way of overcoming some of the difficulties presented by the use of think-aloud protocols in the current context. Initial results from a study conducted at Dublin City University confirm that triangulating data from Translog and CNA can cast light on the temporal, cognitive and technical aspects of post-editing effort.
Die vorliegende Fallstudie beleuchtet verschiedene Variablen der Übersetzungskompetenz. Zwei Berufsübersetzer mit technischer Ausbildung wurden gebeten, eine Bedienungsanleitung aus dem Französischen ins Schwedische zu übersetzen und dabei laut zu denken. Im Mittelpunkt stand die Erforschung der Interaktion zwischen ihrem linguistischen und extralinguistischen Wissen anhand der bei der Übersetzung einer komplexen Nominalphrase verwendeten Übersetzungsstrategien und Übersetzungsprinzipien. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass extralinguistisches Wissen den Übersetzungsprozess nur erleichtern und mangelndes linguistisches Wissen kompensieren kann, wenn Letzteres ein Mindestniveau erreicht. Mangelndes linguistisches Wissen lässt sich auch nicht kompensieren, indem Übersetzer auf Übersetzungsstrategien und – prinzipien zurückgreifen, die sich bei der Übersetzung aus einer Sprache, in der sie über grösseres Wissen verfügen, erfolgreich erwiesen haben. Ebenso wenig stellt eine technische Ausbildung eine Garantie für Qualität bei der Übersetzung von technischen Texten dar. Die Ergebnisse sind aufschlussreich für Forschung und Ausbildung.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2006.
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