The effects of students’ employment of translation principles and techniques on English-Chinese sight translation performance: An eye-tracking and interview study

Abstract

This study investigated how undergraduate students with different levels of translation proficiency employed translation principles and techniques in English-Chinese sight translation tasks, and how this affected their cognitive processing and performance. Participants were grouped into high-, intermediate-, and low-levels based on placement tests, and completed pre- and post-tests after a translation course. Their use of three translation principles (fidelity, fluency, and elegance) and techniques (segmentation, conversion, and addition) was measured using EyeLink eye tracking, and participants were interviewed to evaluate their metacognitive reflections on their translations. The results show that the high- and intermediate-level groups completed the sight translation post-test faster than the pre-test. The use of segmentation, restructuring, and conversion techniques was found to benefit students the most in sight translation tasks, and the intermediate-level group outperformed the other groups by making a greater cognitive effort in restructuring and refining their translations to achieve a higher level of competence in the elegance principle. The study provides pedagogical implications and scholarly significance for the application of translation principles and techniques in sight translation between Chinese and English.