Advance Translation as a Means of Improving Source Questionnaire Translatability?

Findings from a Think-Aloud Study for French and German

Brita Dorer

Cite this publication as

Brita Dorer, Advance Translation as a Means of Improving Source Questionnaire Translatability? (2020), Frank & Timme, Berlin, ISBN: 9783732994021

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Description / Abstract

It is widely recognised that optimum translation quality is often difficult to achieve owing to problems in the source text. For large-scale cross-cultural surveys source questionnaires need to be translated into multiple target languages in order to produce comparable data across participating countries and cultures. ‘Advance translations’ have been applied in such surveys to improve the translatability of source questionnaires.
The author used a think-aloud study to test the usefulness of advance translation into French and German. The study involved experienced professional questionnaire translators and applied qualitative and quantitative analysis.
The study confirmed the usefulness of advance translation, at least for the languages and source texts used.

Description

Brita Dorer is a translation scholar specialising in questionnaire translation and translation process research in particular. A trained translator for French, Italian and English, holding a PhD in translation studies, her research builds on many years of work as a translator and university lecturer.

Table of content

  • BEGINN
  • Contents
  • Overview of Appendices
  • List of Tables
  • Acknowledgements
  • Abbreviations used
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Translatability versus untranslatability
  • 3. Enhancing the translatability of source texts in practice
  • 4. Source questionnaires translated into many languages: translatability assessment and improvement methods
  • 5. Practical implementation: Advance Translation in rounds 5 and 6 of the European Social Survey (ESS)
  • 6. Translation process research and thinking-aloud: methodological aspects
  • 7. Think-aloud study for testing the usefulness of the advance translation method58
  • 8. Analysis of the think-aloud sessions: Did advance translation improve the translatability of source questions?
  • 9. Discussion
  • 10 Conclusions
  • 11 Limitations and outlook
  • References
  • Appendices

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