Translation Quality Assurance Research Articles

The impact of specialised translator training and professional experience on legal translation quality assurance: an empirical study of revision performance

ABSTRACT The relevance of translation and law degrees as pathways to professional legal translation is the subject of persistent debate, but there is limited research on the relationship between legal translators’ backgrounds and competence levels in practice. This study compares the revision performance of several groups of institutional translators (44 in total) according to their academic backgrounds (legal translation specialisation, translation degrees with no legal specialisation, law degrees or other degrees) and legal translation experience (more or less than three years). The scores of justified, missing and over-corrections, among other indicators, corroborate the crucial impact of legal translation specialisation and subject-matter knowledge in ensuring legal translation quality, while experience can serve to partially fill certain training deficits. Qualified translators with a legal specialisation stood out as the most efficient revisers, followed by law graduates, translation graduates without a legal specialisation and other translators. A subsequent holistic assessment of the revised target text yielded results globally in line with the revision scores, as well as mixed perceptions of the target text as potential machine output. The findings support the added value of legal translator training, and are of relevance for translator recruitment and workflow management. They also challenge the rationale behind ISO 20771:2020 qualification requirements.

Translation quality management in the AI Age. New technologies to perform translation quality assurance operations

This article presents a selection of some of the latest technologies to perform translation quality management operations such as quality assurance and translation quality assessment using artificial intelligence and machine learning; it also discusses the impact of these technological advances in the latest academic research trends and the translation industry.

Terminology as a source of difficulty in translating international legal discourses: an empirical cross-genre study

Abstract Despite the persistent focus on terminology in legal translation studies, to date, no large-scale research has empirically explored the difficulty of terminology in translating legal genres. Approaches to translation difficulty in translation studies more broadly remain limited in scope. To fill this gap, a study was conducted to measure the difficulty associated with the translation of legal terminology and phraseology, as well as with terminology of other domains, in the LETRINT 1+ corpus, including nine representative genres of three institutional settings (the European Union, the United Nations and the World Trade Organization). For comparative purposes, four levels of translation difficulty were assigned to multiple terminological features by a group of specialized translators through a consensus-building process of annotation based on the cognitive effort estimated for translation decision-making. The difficulty scores obtained confirm the correlation between legal singularity and higher translation difficulty, as well as the connection of more commonly used legal terms and phrasemes, and core economic terms, with lower difficulty levels. The findings also provide evidence of the prominence of non-legal specialized terminology in institutional legal discourses, and the aggregate terminological difficulty levels of each genre examined, which can be particularly useful for informing translation quality assurance, project management and translator training.

Harmonization of TIQA standards for specialized texts

This research explores translation and interpreting quality assessment standards (TIQA), selecting those fit for the purpose of specialized translation quality assurance, with the aim to systematize them into a step-by-step framework, referred to as “the TIQA pyramid”, a framework that provides valid and reproducible benchmarks that are endowed with universal features and reflected in codes of ethics and professional standards. The TIQA standards may be subdivided into two major groups: text-oriented and ethical-deontological ones. Such classification is based on the notion of translation quality which is the projection of a translator (interpreter)’s personality (inchoate quality assurance arising out of a system of ethical and deontological precepts), or of textual requirements (choate quality assurance arising out of a system of text-oriented criteria). The “pas-de-trois” in a translated interaction among the commissioner of a specialized translation, its performer and end-user is grounded in the presumably existing mediated communication contract (typically a translation brief). Its positive upshot is manifested in the confidence-imbued multi-party polypragmatic interlingual and intercultural behaviour; the negative, however, is underscored by its implicit nature which leads to the absence of a concerted system of quality criteria, resulting in a lack of satisfaction and mutual trust.

Two approaches to quality in institutional settings

This paper addresses translation quality assurance and revision policies in two institutional contexts: an intergovernmental organisation (Institution A) and the Swiss Confederation (Institution B). It is based on 20 semi-structured interviews with heads of department, translators and revisers. The analysis is organised in two parts. First, the main aspects of the quality assurance models in place are described and categorised based on the models defined by Joanna Drugan (2013). Second, extending Gabriel González Núñez’s (2016) translation policy concept to revision, the paper describes and compares the revision policies of the two translation departments and highlights some advantages and disadvantages of each as put forward by participants. The analysis shows that the organisation of work and the approach to revision is very different in the two institutions. The comparison brings to light significant differences in practice but also notes several beliefs regarding revision shared by both teams. Other findings are that the hierarchical structure in place in Institution A can be burdensome and that discussions organised in Institution B are appreciated overall.

Learners’ Difficulties in Self-evaluation in English Vietnamese Translation Quality Assessment

The field of English translation and interpretation has shown an increasing popularity in Vietnam in the context of globalization. However, translation in the target culture still has a certain number of problems in transferring the equivalence between two languages, which causes some ambiguities and misunderstandings for readers (House, 2015). Hence, translation quality assurance is significant in ensuring the degree of suitability of the texts as a post-translation process (Munday, 2016). This paper aimed to investigate the difficulties of English majors of translation and interpretation in assessing the quality of texts translated from English to Vietnamese during the learning process on an independent basis. The study employed the mixed method with 50 fourth-year students at Nguyen Tat Thanh University via questionnaires. The findings revealed that those majors had to deal with five main groups of troubles including (1) time constraints, (2) non-equivalence between English and Vietnamese, (3) insufficient cultural understandings, (4) inadequate supports from lecturers, and especially (5) the lack of official framework for translation quality assessment. This paper also proposes the fundamental for university curriculum developments from the learners’ perspectives.

Facing Translation Errors at International Organizations: What Corrigenda Reveal About Correction Processes and their Implications for Translation Quality

AbstractCorrigenda issued by international organizations provide a most relevant source for the analysis of translation errors and what they reveal about institutional translation quality control and correction processes. This study examines corrigenda published in three settings (the European Union institutions involved in law-making, the United Nations and the World Trade Organization) in three years over a decade: 2005, 2010 and 2015. It reviews the procedures used to introduce translation corrections in these institutions before presenting the results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of translation-triggered corrigenda in two target languages, French and Spanish, per setting, year, genre, error type and severity. A distinction is made between content reformulation corrections and minor formal corrections for the comparison of diachronic changes and semantic impact levels of corrected errors between the institutions considered. The findings confirm that minor formal errors may have meaning-distorting effects that are as serious as content reformulation errors; when this is not the case, they rarely trigger single-correction corrigenda. The UN recourse to “reissues for technical reasons” for translation corrections and the growing number of corrigenda to EU legal acts and their implications for translation quality assurance and legal certainty are further contextualized and discussed drawing on both corpus analysis and consultations with institutional informants.

Reconfiguring Universities for the Future: E-learning Resources and Instructional Designs in Training Translation

Background: This study attempts to understand the importance of applying E-learning resources through evaluating the importance of said-resources in the differences appearing in the translation quality of texts trained to the students through various educational references. Objectives: To achieve the purpose, the study was conducted at Islamic Azad University-Tehran Science and Research branch during the second semester of academic year 2018 - 19. Methods: The evaluation of translation quality of the students who trained translation via traditional references and E-learning resource tools was conducted at the textual level according to the Sager’s general classification for three levels of gravity of errors considering distortion of sense, omission, and minor errors using one way ANCOVA to determine a statistically significant difference in the learner’s outcome through controlling the potential effect of translation pretest. Results: For both traditional and E-learning references in translation training, the scorings of the two translation raters were consistent since the intraclass correlation (α) was 0.933 (> 0.70). The two groups of the study were significantly different from one another via obtaining the mean of 15.51 in the E-learning resources group of the participants in comparison with the mean obtained in the traditional references group which was 13.75 in the early observation of the descriptive statistics. Besides, the P value of 0.001 (< 0.050) retrieved from the result of One-way ANCOVA, represented the significant effect of training translation via applying E-learning in comparison to the traditional referenced training. The significance value of .001, which was smaller than 0.050, indicated the fact that our groups were significantly different. The proof to the claim was given strength from the results of the post hoc test for the dependent variable of the study (translation posttest), in which the means of 15.547 (for the control group) and 16.073 (for the experimental group) in the multiple measurements of P value (0.001) was calculated based on the 95% of confidence interval and standard error of 0.175. Accordingly, the translation training via E-learning resources made a statistically significant difference in the learning outcome of the students, the quality of students’ translation, while controlling the effect of the pretest. Also, the effect size of 0.244 revealed the strength of independent variable as an appropriate numerical value for indicating the efficacy of the treatment-training translation via applying E-learning resources. Conclusions: The consistency of quality assurance in translation could be achievable via E-learning resources; however it is not possible to consider all the resources as the appropriate material within all educational contexts with various instructional designs. Thus, the use of E-learning resources, as the necessary factor in reconfiguring the universities for the future through updated instructional designs should be preserved by the teachers and students regarding the necessary adaptations required in the local contexts of training translation. The research implications are basically referring the stake holders in developing instructional designs to consider the importance of E-learning resources in the training procedures applied by the instructors to provide various courses including translation. However, it is necessary for the policy makers to pave the grounds to settle the required platforms for the use of such resources within educational contexts concerning their applicability in the local context.

Ascertaining The Quality Of The Translated Version Of The New Cameroon Penal Code

This article has a three-fold objective – to identify and describe revision-related errors found in the New Cameroon Penal Code. It also attempts to determine the degree of semantic shift per error type. Finally, it proposes a solution to each characteristic category of errors identified. The exercise relies on the Translation Quality Assessment models of Gouadec (grammatical correctness), Waddington (contre-sens) and Juliane House’s Functional Pragmatism. These models are supplemented by Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies model by which the excerpts are chronologically analysed against the backdrop of a 10-point tabular grid. Findings reveal that of the 372 sections which comprise the new Cameroon Penal Code, 45 (0.001+%) had errors. Four main translation errors were found - omission, contre-sens, inadequacy and inconsistency . Of these, inadequacies had the highest frequency with 51.11+%. Both omission and contre-sens had the same frequency (17.77+%) while inconsistency had the lowest frequency (13.33+%). Subsequently, five (5) excerpts selected from the 50 translation errors discovered in the new Cameroon Penal Code have then been effectively evaluated, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to determine the potential causes of deviation. In this vein, the translator’s reliance on the communicative instead of the socio-linguistic translation approach proved counterproductive. Notwithstanding, identified translation shortcomings do not invalidate the document’s usability, pedagogically and professionally speaking. On the whole, this exercise underscores the importance of revision in not only with regard to translation quality assurance in general but equally to the New Cameroon Penal Code as a case study.

Revisiting Translation Quality Assurance: A Comparative Analysis of Evaluation Principles between Student Translators and the Professional Trans-editor

Evaluation is of paramount significance in the teaching and learning process. So is true with translation teaching andlearning. This study uses in-depth interview to qualitatively examine in which ways the student translators and theprofessional trans-editor, two important stakeholders in the learning process, evaluate the work of translation. It thensubsequently compares student translators’ and the professional trans-editor’s evaluation criteria in order to analyse thedifferences. This study also compares students’ pitfalls encountered during the translation process, providing studentswith invaluable resources to reflect on their own translation and then to improve their translation quality. Animplication of this study is that the interaction among students, professional trans-editor, and university lecturers mayultimately be beneficial to translator training.

What to expect from Neural Machine Translation: a practical in-class translation evaluation exercise

ABSTRACTMachine translation is currently undergoing a paradigm shift from statistical to neural network models. Neural machine translation (NMT) is difficult to conceptualise for translation students, especially without context. This article describes a short in-class evaluation exercise to compare statistical and neural MT, including details of student results and follow-on discussions. As part of this exercise, students carry out evaluations of two types of MT output using three translation quality assurance (TQA) metrics: adequacy, post-editing productivity, and a simple error taxonomy. In this way, the exercise introduces NMT, TQA, and post-editing. In our module, a more detailed explanation of NMT followed the evaluation.The rise of NMT has been accompanied by a good deal of media hyperbole about neural networks and machine learning, some of which has suggested that several professions, including translation, may be under threat. This evaluation exercise is intended to empower the students, and help them understand the strengths and weaknesses of this new technology. Students’ findings using several language pairs mirror those from published research, such as improved fluency and word order in NMT output, with some unpredictable problems of omission and mistranslation.

Quality Assurance in Translation. A Process-Oriented Approach

Abstract The paper underpins a process-oriented approach to translation with a view to quality assurance at the internal level, i.e. raising translation trainees’ awareness of the recurrent problems associated with referential, grammatical and lexical accuracy and, last but not least, compliance with stylistic conventions (text/discourse specificities, pragmatic use, etc.). Therefore, we advocate feedforwarding instead of feedback, acting prospectively rather than retrospectively.

The Role of Formalized Structured Translation Specifications in Translation Quality Assurance of Public Signs in China

A survey was conducted of public signs in a famous river town in China. A variety of translation problems were observed including (1) the wrong use of fonts, (2) inconsistency of terminology, (3) typesetting, and (4) lack of consumer awareness. The solution to such problems, it is argued in this paper, involves cooperation on the part of translators, translation agencies, and universities training translators. Furthermore, it is argued that an effective vehicle for promoting such cooperation is the use of formalized structured translation specifications (FSTS). Translation project FSTS should be developed in conjunction with a translation project and kept with the project materials for use in future additional work. The paper explains how FSTS is developed and how they can be used to improve the results of translation projects, including the translation of public signs and many other types of projects.

Reliably Measuring Something That Isn't Completely Objective: The Quality Triangle Approach to Translation Quality Assurance

The article introduces the first hybrid language quality assurance (LQA) methodology for translated texts, the Quality Triangle. This methodology was developed to assess original translated materials, with no available reference translations. It combines holistic and analytical approaches and provides the most flexible solution for a wide variety of applications and subject areas. Special attention is paid to the proposed approach detailing how holistic quality factors can be taken into account given the challenge they represent: these factors need to be assessed, but are at the same time not completely objective by definition. The resulting Quality Triangle methodology provides a reliable model for incorporating semi-objective, holistic factors into quality assurance metrics and can serve as the foundation for building models applicable in real production processes and serving a multitude of purposes.

Analysis of Efficiency of Translation Quality Assurance Tools

This study analyzes the efficiency of such computer programs and applications as translation quality assurance tools. These tools may be used by a translator in order to improve the quality of translation. In order to elicit advantages and disadvantages of each of them, several texts of technical and scientific subject matter were checked by means of these programs. In these texts spelling, grammatical, terminological, and other mistakes were made deliberately. General results of the research are summarized.