Think-aloud protocols in translation research

Target ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Bernardini
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Experimental Methodology ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Translation Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Experimental Validity ◽  
Process Oriented

Over the last decade, Think-aloud Protocols (TAPs) have been used extensively in process-oriented Translation Studies (TS). The serious questions regarding the experimental validity of this research methodology when applied to translation have nonetheless often remained unspoken. This paper surveys the breakthroughs as well as the limits of the growing body of literature dealing with TAPs in TS, points at the necessity to take issues of experimental, theoretical and environmental validity more seriously, and offers suggestions for improvements. The claim is that the risks involved in the adoption of a lax experimental methodology in TAP studies, often underestimated in the past, may invalidate not only the results obtained in the single projects, but, crucially, the method as a whole.

Broadening the scope of error categories in translation assessment through screen recording

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-157
Author(s):  
Erik Angelone
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Translation Product ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
Recording Technology ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Error Annotation ◽  
Recording Analysis ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
Made In

Abstract To date, the assessment of student translations has been largely based on configurations of error categories that address some facet of the translation product. Focal points of such product-oriented error annotation include language mechanics (punctuation, grammar, lexis and syntax, for example) and various kinds of transfer errors. In recent years, screen recording technology has opened new doors for empirically informing translation assessment from a more process-oriented perspective (Massey and Ehrensberger-Dow, 2014; Angelone, 2019). Screen recording holds particular promise when tracing errors documented in the product back to potential underlying triggers in the form of processes that co-occur on screen in their presence. Assessor observations made during screen recording analysis can give shape to process-oriented error categories that parallel and complement product-oriented categories. This paper proposes a series of empirically informed, process-oriented error categories that can be used for assessing translations in contexts where screen recordings are applied as a diagnostic tool. The categories are based on lexical and semantic patterns derived from a corpus-based analysis of think-aloud protocols documenting articulations made by assessors when commenting on errors made in student translations while watching screen recordings of their work. It is hoped that these process-oriented error categories will contribute to a more robust means by which to assess and classify errors in translation.

Who said it? Voices in news translation, from a semiotic perspective

Semiotica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (207) ◽  
pp. 411-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rovena Troqe ◽  
Jacques Fontanille
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
News Production ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
General Method ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn Translation studies, it has long been understood that when translation is integrated into journalism, concepts such as equivalence and authorship become highly problematic. However, there is still no reference to a general method that might explain why news production impacts the very process of translation and affects the translated texts themselves. In this paper, we introduce a new semiotic approach that measures shifts in translated texts by using semiotic modalities and relates these shifts to axiologies by actants of the practice of translation. Translated texts by an Italian weekly magazine are adopted as a case study and an analysis of the textual corpora is coupled with think-aloud protocols by editors. The semiotic approach reveals that the actantial dynamics are conflictual: while the translators’ performance is compatible with the equivalence value, journalists endorse values that result in the content of the original being altered. The divergence between the axiology of the actant initiating the practice and the axiology pursued by the translators affects the way the concept of translation is generated.

Affective and Attitudinal Factors in Translation Processes1

Target ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Laukkanen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Translation Research ◽  
Affective Dimension ◽  
Affective Factors ◽  
Attitudinal Factors ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Process Oriented

Abstract The role of affective and attitudinal factors in translation has lately attracted increasing attention within process-oriented translation research. Think-aloud studies show that affective factors play an important part in the decision-making processes of translation. In the present TAP study the affective dimension of translation was researched via evaluative utterances produced by the subject.

Zu den didaktischen Konsequenzen der prozessorientier ten Übersetzungsforschung

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maha El-Askary
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
Oriented Research

AbstractThe aim of the present article is to show how gaining insights into the mental processes activated during translating through process-oriented research of translation and the use of think-aloud-protocols could provide a contribution to the didactic of translation and allow a development of teaching methods of translation. The article starts with a background about the process-oriented Research of translation and then presents the steps and results of an empirical study. The subjects of the analysis in the study were 8 egyptian advanced learners of German. Finally some consequences for the pedagogy of translation are briefly sketched.

Vertalen Als Revisie

1998 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 109-115
Author(s):  
Hella Breedveld
Keyword(s):  
Writing Process ◽  
Language Translation ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Cognitive Activities

The study of translation processes tends to focus on the local processes involved in finding translations for words or expressions in the source text. In order to find out which processes are involved in the production of a target text based on an existing source text in another language, translation studies may profit from models that have been developed in research on the writing process. Certain categories of cognitive activities found in research on the writing process can be used in the analysis of think-aloud protocols of the translation process. Especially the notion of revising, as developed in writing research, can help to understand how translators proceed in order to produce a good text in a target language.

scholarly journals Trajectories of Research in Translation Studies

2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1082-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Tymoczko
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Translation Research ◽  
The Third ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The article sums up the principle trajectories of research in translation studies that are likely to be productive in the coming decades. I focus on six broad areas. The first encompasses attempts to define translation: this includes research as diverse as examinations of particular linguistic facets of translation, corpus studies of translation, descriptive historical studies, and analysis of think-aloud protocols. The second area of research pertains to the internationalization of translation, which challenges basic Western assumptions about the nature of translation and generates new case studies that shake the foundations of translation theory and practice as they are known at present. Changes in translation theory and practice associated with emerging technologies and globalization constitute the third research area to be discussed. The fourth strand is the application to translation of various interpretive perspectives based on frames from other disciplines. The last two branches of research have to do with the relationship of translation studies to cognitive science and neurophysiology. The article closes with some general observations about the implications for translation research as a whole and the structure of translation studies entailed by the six areas discussed.

scholarly journals Experience and Emotion in Empirical Translation Research with Think-Aloud and Retrospection

2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyde Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Brain Research ◽  
Empirical Process ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Research ◽  
Modern Psychology ◽  
Concurrent Verbalization ◽  
Process Oriented

Abstract 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.

scholarly journals Theater Translation Research Methodologies

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 160940692093714
Author(s):  
Dominic Glynn
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Research Methodologies ◽  
Translation Research ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
Conducting Research

Theater translation is an emerging area of research. However, to date, there has been no detailed consideration of the type of methodologies required to conduct such research. This article examines methods and practices in both theater and translation studies in order to discuss their applicability to study theater translation specifically. It categorizes existing research into output-oriented and process-oriented elaborating the specificities of each. The methods include comparative analysis of the translated texts with their source texts and production reviews. This article also outlines ethical issues in conducting research into theater translation.

scholarly journals The Return of Sense on the Scene of Translation Studies in the Light of the Cognitive Blending Theory

2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 392-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atin Fougner Rydning
Keyword(s):  
Mental Image ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Theory Model ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
School Model ◽  
Online Process

Abstract The aim of this paper is to revitalize the Paris school model of deverbalization and reverbalization of sense in translation, i.e. the representation of sense as a mental image, in light of the cognitive blending theory. Through sample examples of online process data taken from the concurrent think-aloud protocols of two experienced professional translators and the keylogged files on their writing processes, I will give evidence of the imaginative and creative work pertaining to their construals of sense, before showing that the blending theory model represents sense as the result of mapping concepts into other concepts and as relations between mental spaces.

scholarly journals Pénétrer la boîte noire du traducteur

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antin Fougner Rydning
Keyword(s):  
Think Aloud ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Process Oriented

A combination of the two process-oriented approaches to studying profes-sional translation online: (i) verbal reporting, better known as TAP (think-aloud protocols), and (ii) Translog, a program used for logging keyboard activity, yields interesting data about what goes on in the translator ’s mind during a translation task. Assuming that our interpretation of metaphorical expressions depend upon conceptual metaphors, examples selected from the online data of two experienced professional Norwegian translators are used to show how the translation of metaphorical concepts are handled. Possible ways of using the above-mentioned online data qualitatively to test the hypothesis according to which translation is more than an interlinguistic comparison, requiring the mobilisation of cognitive complements in the reformulation phase, are also suggested.

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