L1-L2 Translation Research Articles

A study of L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition through different translation tasks

To date, most studies have focused on IVA through reading, speaking and listening, with few research on the function of translation tasks. This study investigates the effectiveness of different translation tasks on college student L2 IVA and retention. 60 Chinese College students taking English as L2, were divided into 2 parallel groups, finished different translation tasks (L1-L2 and L2-L1) respectively, and then underwent immediate and delayed vocabulary post-tests. The results showed that (1) both translation tasks facilitate learners’ L2 IVA with L1-L2 translation task performing better; (2) L1-L2 translation task generates a higher level of productive vocabulary knowledge; (3) the IVA of both tasks decrease dramatically over time, and the advantage of L1-L2 in promoting higher level of vocabulary knowledge gradually vanishes. The findings enrich the scope of IVA study, verify the value of translation exercise on L2 IVA and provide useful and practical implications for IVA teaching and learning.

Translation directionality and translator anxiety: Evidence from eye movements in L1-L2 translation.

While considerable research on the impact of anxiety on second language learning has been carried out in international contexts, the impact of anxiety on the translator's undertaking L2 translation, a sort of anxiety arising from the translation directionality, as well as the structure of cognitive mechanism for translational anxiety, remain under-explored. Adopting the eye-tracking and key-logging approach to data collection, this study implemented an eye-tracking experiment with EFL learners at a Chinese university to probe into how the participants responded to L1 and L2 translation-tasks and the mechanism involved in these processes. It is found that translation directionality does have a great impact on the processing of translation, which causes the change of cognitive load and then leads to the change of levels in translator anxiety. The finding further confirms the key premises of the Processing Proficiency Model and the Revised Hierarchical Model with attendant implications for translation processes.

Non-selective language activation in L2 lexical inference and text comprehension: Comparing skilled and less-skilled readers

Non-selective language activation refers to the automatic co-activation of L1 and L2 information. In L2 reading, the activated L1 information can be utilized to different degrees to facilitate lexical inference and text comprehension. The current study examined the contributions of L1-L2 translation and lexical inference to text comprehension. Hierarchical regression models showed that in general, lexical inference contributed to text comprehension over L1-L2 translation. The results indicated that L2 learners did not use activated L1 information mechanically. That is because successful lexical inference incorporates learners’ ability to strategically utilize contextual information and integrate word meanings to update the context. The study further classified the participants into two groups using k-means cluster. Among the less skilled group of participants, L1-L2 translation was related to both lexical inference and text comprehension. However, lexical inference was not significantly related to text comprehension. Among the more skilled group of participants, lexical inference predicted text comprehension only after school, grade to start English learning, and L1-L2 translation were controlled for. The results of the two groups demonstrated that while L1 information was utilized in both groups, strategic and effective usage of information in two languages differentiated skilled L2 readers from less skilled L2 readers.

Vocabulary Teaching Practices of L2 English in Upper Secondary Vocational Classrooms

This qualitative study investigates language teaching practices relating to L2 English vocabulary instruction in upper secondary school vocational classrooms in Norway. It builds on previous research describing technical vocabulary as an area of particular importance for vocational students’ English language development and relies on observation data from eight vocational classrooms. The study found that vocabulary work has a strong presence within vocational orientation (VO) instruction, across whole-class instruction, group or pair work, and individual work. Most target vocabulary could be classified as words relating to work practices and vocational content knowledge. Many instances of L1–L2 translation tasks were observed. Target words were not practiced across the four language skills and were rarely utilized in productive tasks. The study concludes that observed practices can be improved by prioritizing ways of combining target vocabulary with students’ language production and by including more opportunities to practice independent language strategies.

Novel metaphor translation is modulated by translation direction

AbstractPrevious translation process research has pointed to an increased cognitive load when translating metaphoric compared to literal language. Yet, studies conducted thus far have not examined the role of translation direction (i.e., L1–L2 vs. L2–L1) in novel metaphor translation and have not tested whether and how this process might be modulated by the linguistic form of a novel meaning. In the present study, Polish (L1) – English (L2) translation students translated novel nominal metaphors (A is B), novel similes (A is like B), and literal sentences, in either L1–L2 or L2–L1 translation directions, while their translation behavior was recorded using a keystroke logging method. The results revealed longer translation durations for both metaphors and similes relative to literal utterances. Furthermore, we found slower translation times for novel nominal metaphors compared to novel similes and literal sentences, yet only in the L2–L1 translation direction. Such results might indicate that novel meaning translation is more cognitively taxing in the case of novel nominal metaphors, which require a more robust activation of comparison mechanisms, relative to novel similes. Importantly, this effect might be stronger when translating in the direction in which access to semantic representations is potentially more automatic (i.e., L2–L1 translation).

Semantic Prosody in Translation: Slovene and English ADV-V combinations

Semantic prosody is perhaps the most elusive meaning component established to date, and the present paper is a corpus-driven attempt to elucidate the meaning-forming process in some of the most frequent lexical items in Slovene and English. The underlying methodology is based on the novel top-down approach, which provides a semantically unmotivated point of view and is based on raw data, i.e., frequency of occurrence. The paper features a comparison of the pervasiveness of evident semantic prosody in high-frequency lexical items in Slovene and English, respectively. In closing it also deals with the problems involved in L1-L2 translation of the observed extended units of meaning, where possible translation equivalents exhibit varying levels of (mis)match in their semantic prosodies.

Language-related Episodes Patterns Engendered in L2 Classrooms: Pedagogical Translation Tasks Versus Monolingual Writing Tasks

This classroom-based longitudinal study examines the language-related episodes (LREs) engendered by pedagogical translation tasks and monolingual tasks. Specifically, the study investigated the discourse features and discussion patterns of LREs yielded in discussions of the two different types of tasks in L2 classrooms. The present study was conducted in an authentic class environment and consisted of two experiments. One group participated in class discussions after being assigned L1-L2 translation tasks, while the other took part in class discussions after working on L2 writing tasks. The LREs elicited in the two group’s class discussions over ten sessions of class discussions were scrutinized. Inductive thematic analysis shows that LREs produced in the concerned experimental tasks included ‘concern-based LREs’ and six different types of ‘response-based LREs’. Striking difference was observed in LRE patterns produced by the translation group and the writing group. The findings revealed that pedagogical translation tasks engendered LREs with deeper level of engagement and more enduring discussions than L2 monolingual tasks. The concern-based and response-based LREs arisen in this study contributes to a new framework for LRE categorization.

TRANSLATION IN AN ES(A)P COURSE – CHOOSING AND USING TEACHING/LEARNING MATERIALS

The paper deals with L2-L1 translation as used in different phases of an ES(A)P (English for specific academic purposes) course for different purposes – namely, as a complementary class activity carried out throughout the course, as well as one of the means of assessing students’ reading comprehension. It foregrounds the importance of selecting adequate materials, and elaborates on the different factors that this selection is dependent on. An extensive analysis of translations by students of the humanities and social sciences at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade has been carried out, the results of which have been used to substantiate the rationale behind the use of translation as a learning and assessment tool, while indicating the kind of translation materials most appropriate for the two purposes. The paper also aims to contribute to the reevaluation of the use of translation in ESP, since it has for a long time been “ostracised” from language teaching practice, while placing this activity/tool in the context of the humanities and social sciences, which have also been undeservedly neglected in EFL/ESP studies.

Task-specific signatures in the expert brain: Differential correlates of translation and reading in professional interpreters

Insights on the neurocognitive particularities of expert individuals have benefited from language studies on professional simultaneous interpreters (PSIs). Accruing research indicates that behavioral advantages in this population are restricted to those skills that are directly taxed during professional practice (e.g., translation as opposed to reading), but little is known about the neural signatures of such selective effects. To illuminate the issue, we recruited 17 PSIs and 15 non-interpreter bilinguals and compared behavioral and electrophysiological markers of word reading and translation from and into their native and non-native languages (L1 and L2, respectively). PSIs exhibited greater delta-theta (1–8 ​Hz) power across all tasks over varying topographies, but these were accompanied by faster performance only in the case of translation conditions. Moreover, neural differences in PSIs were most marked for L2-L1 translation (the dominant interpreting direction in their market), which exhibited maximally widespread modulations that selectively correlated with behavioral outcomes. Taken together, our results suggest that interpreting experience involves distinct neural signatures across reading and translation mechanisms, but that these are systematically related with processing efficiency only in domains that face elevated demands during everyday practice (i.e., L2-L1 translation). These findings can inform models of simultaneous interpreting, in particular, and expert cognitive processing, in general.

Can masked synonym priming replicate masked translation priming?

This study examines whether synonyms are represented similarly to translation equivalents in the bilingual mind. In particular, this study investigated whether there is masked synonym priming such that it will simulate masked translation priming in the L1-L2 direction. Given that masked translation priming studies consistently show priming in the L1-L2 direction, it was predicted that synonyms should show a masked priming effect if the prime was higher in frequency than the target. Contrary to what Bilingual Interactive Activation models would predict, there was no priming for synonyms in the high-to-low frequency (HF-LF) condition or in the low-to-high frequency (LF-HF) condition in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 only tested the HF-LF condition to ensure that previous exposure to LF words within the experiment did not affect the results. Again, no HF-LF synonym priming was observed. The effect sizes of these synonym priming effects were comparable with that of L2-L1 translation priming, all of which were weak. This is not surprising given that semantic interpretation of a given word usually occurs post-lexically and requires partial awareness. What is surprising is that there is robust evidence showing strong L1-L2 masked translation priming effect, which bilingual lexical processing models should attempt to explain, thereby uncovering the relations between L1 words and their L2 translations.

Competition Model and Contrastive Lexical Competition

The Competition Model (CM) embraces lexicalist and functionalist approach to language structure and function. What is highly emphasized in this model is a lexicalist functionalism through which syntactic patterns are directed and controlled by lexical items. CM tenets resemble to that of Haliday’s systemic-Functional linguistics in that it only deals with form-meaning relations within a text and not in the real world. A new Competition Model needs to be introduced which is more pragmatic-oriented through taking formulaic sequences as forms to be mapped onto real world pragmatic functions. CM must free itself from the mere focus on sentence processing studies and involve itself with more pragmatic manifestations of form-function relations. It is claimed that within the models in which there is an architecture that utilizes lexical categories to build “valence bridges”, L1-L2 translation equivalents facilitate crossing valence bridges which helps in discovering forthcoming elements and filling syntactic slots.

An Empirical Study of EFL Learners' Dictionary Use in Chinese–English Translation

This article reports on the results of a study which investigated English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners' use of an electronic dictionary in a L1–L2 translation task. Forty-seven university graduate students from a Chinese university were asked to translate a Chinese passage into English on computers with the support of an embedded dictionary. Screen recorders were used to record their dictionary use behavior and a follow-up interview was conducted to tap into the thinking processes behind their behavior. The results of the study show that when translating, EFL learners demonstrate preferences for L2 equivalents and content words in their lookups, and reveal specific problems such as a preoccupation with L2 equivalents and lack of awareness of other lexical information, which may hinder correct application of dictionary information. This study suggests that dictionary use behavior may affect the development of students' ability to translate and requires attention from both EFL learners and teachers. It is further suggested that translation teachers should alert learners to the importance of checking other lexical information in a dictionary in their translation practice.

L2-L1 Translation Priming Effects in a Lexical Decision Task: Evidence From Low Proficient Korean-English Bilinguals.

One of the key issues in bilingual lexical representation is whether L1 processing is facilitated by L2 words. In this study, we conducted two experiments using the masked priming paradigm to examine how L2-L1 translation priming effects emerge when unbalanced, low proficiency, Korean-English bilinguals performed a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, we used a 150 ms SOA (50 ms prime duration followed by a blank interval of 100 ms) and found a significant L2-L1 translation priming effect. In contrast, in Experiment 2, we used a 60 ms SOA (50 ms prime duration followed by a blank interval of 10 ms) and found a null effect of L2-L1 translation priming. This finding is the first demonstration of a significant L2-L1 translation priming effect with unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals. Implications of this work are discussed with regard to bilingual word recognition models.

Asymmetric Cross-language Activation of Translations in Korean-English Bilinguals

This study tested the predictions of the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM) and the Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus (BIA+) model through a translation recognition task in which low-intermediate Korean-English bilinguals decided whether the second word of a two-word sequence was the correct translation of the first. In the critical distractor conditions, the second word was not a correct translation of the first, but phonologically related to the first word (i.e., phonological neighbors), or phonologically related to the correct translation (i.e., translation neighbors). Results showed that the participants experienced interference for related distractors in both L2-L1 and L1-L2 translation directions. However, an interaction with distractor type was only found in the forward (L1 to L2) translation direction, with a larger interference effect for the translation neighbors. The results of the present study support and extend the predictions of the BIA+ model by showing nonselective phonological activation for different-script bilinguals, while also supporting the predictions of the RHM regarding translation asymmetry. We suggest previous assumptions regarding the mechanisms of the translation recognition task and interpretation of its data may be flawed, and propose a fundamental rethinking of these issues.

Vocabulary acquisition and young learners: Different tasks, similar involvement loads

AbstractLaufer and Hulstijn (2001) suggest that the motivational-cognitive construct ofinvolvementmay explain and predict different levels of effectiveness for vocabulary-learning tasks. Drawing on their original work and on later research on theinvolvement load hypothesis(ILH), this study set out to compare the effectiveness of carefully-designed tasks for incidental vocabulary acquisition in children. Thirty-eight EFL elementary-level 10-year-olds from a public school in Warsaw, Poland, participated in the experiment. Divided into three groups, the participants performed three different sequences of tasks, each sequence inducing similar levels of involvement load. In order to measure receptive lexical learning and retention of meaning and spelling, the children were tested with an orthography test, an L2-L1 translation test, and a multiple-choice test immediately after the treatment, and one week later. In support of the ILH, the MANOVA results showed no significant differences between the treatments (irrespective of them being input- or output-based) in any of the test measurements, either in the immediate or in the delayed posttest. We discuss the results in light of the ILH, and outline some limitations and possible implications for pedagogy.

L1-L2 translation versus L2 writing tasks

With growing interest in the relationship between translation and language learning, a number of studies have begun to examine the pedagogical value of translation and explore the best ways to utilize it in L2 classrooms. Some may doubt the need to include translation in L2 classrooms when language pedagogy is a far more wellestablished discipline. An answer to this concern requires empirical research on the role of translation in the L2 classroom. To this end, this study compares how L2 learners react to particular translation tasks and writing tasks. The findings suggest that translation tasks can yield better results than direct L2 writing tasks in encouraging and facilitating students to improve their lexis and grammar. The results also suggest that both translation and writing tasks have greater potential to prompt lexical than grammatical improvement. These findings offer new insights into alternative writing instruction and contribute to an increasing body of research on the pedagogical value of translation in L2 classrooms.

Non-cognate translation priming in masked priming lexical decision experiments: A meta-analysis

The masked translation priming paradigm has been widely used in the last 25 years to investigate word processing in bilinguals. Motivated by studies reporting mixed findings, in particular for second language (L2) to first language (L1) translation priming, we conducted, for the first time in the literature, a meta-analysis of 64 masked priming lexical decision experiments across 24 studies to assess the effect sizes of L1–L2 and L2–L1 non-cognate translation priming effects in bilinguals. Our meta-analysis also investigated the influence of potential moderators of translation priming effects. The results provided clear evidence of significant translation priming effects for both directions, with L1–L2 translation priming significantly larger than L2–L1 translation priming (i.e., effect size of 0.86 vs. 0.31). The analyses also revealed that L1–L2 translation effect sizes were moderated by the interval between prime and target (ISI), whereas L2–L1 translation effect sizes were modulated by the number of items per cell. Theoretical and methodological implications of this meta-analysis are discussed and recommendations for future studies are provided.

L2 primes L1 – translation priming in LDT and semantic categorisation with unbalanced bilinguals

ABSTRACTThe aim of the study was to test whether proficient L2 users living in an L1-dominant environment would exhibit significant L2–L1 translation priming in a lexical decision task (LDT) and in a sematic categorisation task (SCT). Only a few previous studies have found significant L2–L1 priming in LDT whereas significant results have often been recorded in SCT but only for exemplars. In the present study, significant L2–L1 priming has been found in both tasks. Furthermore, in SCT L2–L1 priming was significant not only for exemplars but also for non-exemplars. However, the effect was stronger for exemplars than for non-exemplars. Such a pattern of results is discussed with respect to current models of lexical representation and language processing in bilinguals.

Directionality and context effects in word translation tasks performed by conference interpreters

AbstractProfessional interpreters employed by international institutions usually work into their L1 from their L2, while freelance interpreters tend to work both into and from their L1. A study was devised to see if the long-term interpreting unidirectional practice (in the L2–L1 direction only), in contrast to bidirectional practice (in the L2–L1 and L1–L2 direction), influences the speed of lexical retrieval manifested through shorter translation latencies. Forty-eight professional conference interpreters produced oral translations of nouns presented in isolation, in high context constraint sentences and in low context constraint sentences. Contrary to predictions, unidirectional interpreters did not manifest directionality asymmetry and their L2–L1 translation latencies were not shorter than L1–L2 translation latencies. Surprisingly, the L2–L1 direction advantage was found in the group of bidirectional interpreters. The data suggest that the dominant directionality in interpreting practice has little impact on the strength of interlingual lexical links in the interpreter’s mental lexicon or that other factors (such as language use, exposure and immersion) might offset any such impact. The study also revealed an expected context effect, which shows that interpreters use semantic constraint to anticipate sentence-final words.

Learning by Stimulation: Investigating the Effect of tDCS on Repetition Priming and Incidental Foreign Language Vocabulary Acquisition in Healthy Young Adults.

Learning by Stimulation: Investigating the Effect of tDCS on Repetition Priming and Incidental Foreign Language Vocabulary Acquisition in Healthy Young Adults.