Translation Competence

The questions which this volume seeks to address include: what is translation competence? How can it be built and developed? How can the product of the performance be used to measure levels of competence? These questions are addressed with specific reference to the training situation. They are arranged in three sections, the first focusing on the identification of subcompetences.

This book offers a systematic and comprehensive account of translation competence (TC), reflecting on its different models and conceptualisations throughout its development and outlining future directions for both theory and practice. The volume charts the evolution of TC in line with related findings in empirical product- and process-oriented research. In critically examining the different models of translation competence, Quinci explores a wide range of connected issues of ongoing debate within Translation Studies, including translation quality, the revision process, and translator self-assessment. The second section of the book investigates these themes at work in the design, conduct, and results of an award-winning longitudinal research project which analysed the acquisition and development of TC in a sample group of translation trainees and professional translators. The volume builds on the outcomes of this project to offer practical activities for translator education, informed by theory and empirical research, toward encouraging continued reflection and new directions for translation competence research and practice. This book will be of interest to scholars in Translation Studies, as well as translation trainees and active translation professionals.

This volume is a compendium of PACTE Group’s experimental research in Translation Competence since 1997. The book is organised in four main parts and also includes eight appendices and a glossary. Part I presents the conceptual and methodological framework of PACTE’s Translation Competence research design. Part II focuses on the methodological aspects of the research design and its development: exploratory tests and pilot studies carried out; experiment design; characteristics of the sample population; procedures of data collection and analysis. Part III presents the results obtained in the experiment related to: the Acceptability of the translations produced in the experiment and the six dependent variables of study (Knowledge of Translation; Translation Project; Identification and Solution of Translation Problems; Decision-making; Efficacy of the Translation Process; Use of Instrumental Resources); this part also includes a corpus analysis of the translations. Part IV analyses the translators who were ranked highest in the experiment and goes on to present final conclusions as well as PACTE’s perspectives in the field of Translation Competence research.

Experience in translation does not always correlate with the quality of the target text. Also, the evaluations of translation work vary considerably among evaluators. Why not shifting the focus of attention from the final translation to the underlying translation process when assessing translation competence? Iryna Kloster applies a multi-method approach to model the translation competence based on empirical parameters, such as gaze behavior, dictionary use, revisions as well as subjective evaluations of comprehension and translation difficulty. Eye tracking, keystroke logging, screen recording and retrospective interviews were applied to collect data in the experimental groups consisting of novice and semi-professional translators. As a consequence, the author suggests using language contrasts for researching translation competence. She draws conclusions based on hypotheses testing, provides justification by triangulating quantitative and qualitative data and discusses the results in the light of empirical translation studies as well.

The Development of Translation Competence: Theories and Methodologies from Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Science presents cutting-edge research in translation studies from perspectives in psycholinguistics and cognitive science in order to provide a better understanding of translation and the development of linguistic competence that translators need to be effective professionals. It presents original theories and empirical tests that have significant implications for advancing the field of translation studies and what researchers know about the development of linguistic competence. The book is divided up into three Parts. Part I consists of a state-of-the-art introductory chapter which serves to frame the subsequent studies in Part II which explore the development of translation competence by reporting on topics such as translation expertise, cognitive ergonomic issues in translation, translation ambiguity, standards and metrics for translation, processing speed and production time, among others. Part III then hones in on specific data collection methodologies from cognitive science that highlight innovative ways to gather and analyze data. Some methods discussed include tasks looking at processing speed, brain imagining techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation (fMRIa), language switching, eye tracking, keystroke and mouse logging, and retrospection, among others. This book effectively demonstrates that psycholinguistic and cognitive approaches to studying the development of translation competence promise to diversify traditional perspectives of translation studies and to improve the quality and generalizability of translation research in general. This title will serve as a valuable reference for scholars, practitioners, translators, and anyone who wishes to gain an overview of current issues and methods in translation studies solidly grounded in psycholinguistics and cognitive science.

This book sheds new light on translation competence and its development. After reviewing recent theoretical and empirical perspectives, the author presents the methodology and results of one of few comprehensive, longitudinal, combined process/product studies of translation competence acquisition, which has cognitive and pedagogical implications. Carried out among translation students with varying levels of foreign language proficiency before and after their first 7.5 months of translator education, the study investigates translation product quality, the strategicness of the translation process, the strategicness of external resource use, and translation principles. It also examines perceived translation difficulty and quality as well as the impact of directionality and foreign language proficiency.

This book offers a systematic and comprehensive account of translation competence (TC), reflecting on its different models and conceptualisations throughout its development and outlining future directions for both theory and practice. The volume charts the evolution of TC in line with related findings in empirical product- and process-oriented research. In critically examining the different models of translation competence, Quinci explores a wide range of connected issues of ongoing debate within Translation Studies, including translation quality, the revision process, and translator self-assessment. The second section of the book investigates these themes at work in the design, conduct, and results of an award-winning longitudinal research project which analysed the acquisition and development of TC in a sample group of translation trainees and professional translators. The volume builds on the outcomes of this project to offer practical activities for translator education, informed by theory and empirical research, toward encouraging continued reflection and new directions for translation competence research and practice. This book will be of interest to scholars in Translation Studies, as well as translation trainees and active translation professionals.

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