Translation Students Research Articles

Online Collaborative Translation in Translation Classrooms: Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes

Technological advancements have made it possible for translation projects to be completed collaboratively. As a result, collaborative translation is becoming one of the trends in translation classrooms, particularly in tertiary education. Thus, this study aims to explore the practical use of online collaborative translation practices in translation classrooms and investigate the student’s perceptions and attitudes toward such activities. It also provides a clear description of the processes to conduct the online collaborative translation tasks and attempts to discuss the concept of collaborative translation from the perspective of the learners as active participants. More specifically, this study seeks to answer the question: ‘How do the student translators perceive and approach online collaborative translation projects?’ The research participants were 57 students enrolled in a 14-week translation course offered to students of an undergraduate program in a Malaysian public university. The student translators performed collaborative translation tasks on Google Docs. After the completion of the collaborative translation tasks, the students were asked to answer an online questionnaire on Google Forms to probe into their perceptions and attitude toward the activities performed. The findings revealed that the students had an overall positive perception and attitude toward online collaborative translation tasks. Online collaborative translation can be seen as the way forward in translation classrooms, and it works best with the younger generation who are generally ready to work with online platforms and resources to do translation works

Cooperative Training of Undergraduate Translation Students: Trainee Perceptions and Job Market Alignment

The study examined the cooperative training course at an undergraduate English translation program at a public university in Saudi Arabia with the aim of tapping into the perceptions of a sample of undergraduate translation students regarding their cooperative training experience. The study also aimed to identify the extent to which the students’ university training is aligned with job market needs. To achieve these aims, a qualitative study was conducted, and 87 undergraduate students were surveyed using a questionnaire designed for the purpose of the study. The findings indicated that the students generally had positive perceptions towards cooperative training. The findings also indicated that the students’ undergraduate training is aligned with job market requirements in some respects while there is room for improvement in others

A Qualitative Analysis of Language and Culture Barriers Confronting Student Translators

Translators’ primary responsibility is to faithfully convey the original message from the source text into the target language. This study’s initial observation revealed that many beginning translator students frequently represent texts word for word without first reading them. Therefore, insufficient translation procedures can lead to translation errors in student work. This study aims to analyze translation issues in academic essays written by students. The data for this study were gathered using the qualitative approach. Mathieu’s (2003) theory of translation concerns analyzing the linguistic and non-linguistic challenges that can be identified in the translations of students’ essays. The results reviewed that translation issues involved numerous linguistic aspects, such as grammar, vocabulary, rhetoric, and pragmatics. Moreover, culture as well.

Project Based Learning: Promoting Cross-Cultural Understanding using Android Application at an Indian University in Gujarat

Students in a project-based learning environment get experience with actual, hands-on projects. In this article, we present the experience obtained in a Mobile Application Development course. In addition, available multi-country criteria of this research enable us to investigate probable cross-cultural variances. The purpose of this project was to design and create apps (or simply app) for Android-based devices. The chosen methodology, based on Project-Based Learning, boosted both cooperation and rivalry among students. This research offers the outcomes from a heuristic assessment by students at Indian university in Gujarat for the students of three nations. Total 120 students are recruited for this research from a university in Gujarat. "It was established that a project-based learning approach is an effective and engaging way for translation students to experiment with their translation skills and different translation theories, achieve linguistic and cross-cultural understanding of different cultures while participating actively in various organised learning activities.'' More significantly, they have elevated their intercultural awareness and strengthened their intercultural communication ability. As students engage in this kind of project-based, introspective, and exploratory learning, they grow in their confidence as communicators (both verbally and in writing), their willingness to take intellectual risks, and their awareness of cultural variety. Its educational ramifications are examined.

Accuracy of Nursing Term Translation from Indonesian to English by Nursing Students

Translating the accuracy of source language into target language in specialized language requires high appropriation that retains of the original meaning. This study aims to discover the accuracy of nursing term translation from Indonesian to English by nursing students. This research is a mixed-method research with content analysis method to analyze the accuracy of translation. The accuracy of the translation results will be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The research subject was the translation of Indonesian – English abstracts of nursing articles by nursing students of STIKES Surya Global Yogyakarta. The object of research was nursing special terms in the form of words and phrases. The data collection technique used was the documentation method used to find related data that has been determined. The results of this study showed that the accurate translation of nursing terms was 65.29% while the inaccurate translation was 34.71%. In addition, there were about 25% of accurate translations was plagiarism. It is considered plagiarism because the student's translation of the abstract was exactly as same as the original writer's English version of the abstract, not only the specific language but also the whole sentence. It can be concluded from this study that overall the translation of nursing students into the special language of nursing is accurate. There are only a few translations is still in low inaccuracy level.
 Keywords: Accuracy, Nursing term, Translation

Evaluating linguistic comprehensibility of Persian healthcare translations in multilingual contexts: a case study of health translations website from the Victorian Government of Australia

ABSTRACT Health translation has gotten considerable attention recently because language diversity in multilingual societies often leads to language barriers. The present study evaluates the linguistic comprehensibility of translations in the “Health Translations Website” from the Victorian Government of Australia using the patient-oriented and culturally-appropriate health translation model (POCA). Seven documents were randomly chosen from the website with their translations and were analysed based on the six categories of the linguistic comprehensibility section of the POCA model. Then, they were given to the senior translation students in Iran to be translated again. After that, the same chunks of the two translations were put to the vote using the Telegram platform, and 132 lay people participated. The analysis revealed that senior students’ translations were more understandable than the website's in all six categories. Due to the sensitive nature of the healthcare field, this study suggests that the authorities in multilingual communities collect their audience's opinions, as ultimate users, to discover the language barriers and then take appropriate measures to remove them. Domestic translators can also enhance the translation quality and, subsequently, comprehensibility since they are more familiar with the culture of the intended language, which in this case is Persian.

Students’ emotional experiences in learning translation memory systems: A narrative-based study

In recent years, a growing number of translation programs have introduced a technology module into their curriculum. Yet students’ reflections on their interaction with translation technologies remain largely under-researched. This exploratory study examines students’ initial emotional experience in learning and using translation memory (TM) systems after three weeks of direct exposure. Seventy-five postgraduate translation students completed an emotional-narrative task in which they were invited to write either a “love letter” or a “breakup letter” (out of their own choice) to one of the TM systems with which they had experimented. As reflected in the “love letters” (n = 39) and “breakup letters” (n = 36), the students had both positive and negative emotions when learning different TM systems. A thematic analysis shows that the student translators expected the software tools to be learnable, productive, and user-friendly. Based on the emotional patterns and their expectations of TMs, we present a discussion of learning translation technology through discovery and reflection. The emotional-narrative activity in this case was applied as a pedagogical tool to engage students in the discussion of technology, its usage, and the learning experience. It further allowed the teacher to understand the students’ perspectives.

Investigating Students' Strategies and Methods in Translating English Text into Indonesian

In this era, England plays an important role in all fields, especially in education. Someone demanded to know the meaning and function of an English word. Thus, translation is also one of the four skills of mastering the English language, in addition to listening, speaking, reading and writing, translation also has a main function. The purpose of this work was to find out if students are committed to translating an English text, to describe the method used by students in translating an English text, to observe the ability of the students to translate an English text. Therefore, this study seemed very suitable for a case study because it tried to explore and explore student strategies in one class of 23 students. In this study, the researcher administered the test to students. In the test technique, the researcher gave an English text and asked the students to translate the English text as best as possible. There are four criteria to evaluate a student's translation, they are accuracy of message content, distinctiveness of message, appropriateness of language use and lastly mechanical appropriateness. The researcher also interviewed the translation teacher who was considered a key informant who really knew how far the student's ability to translate an English text was. The result of the interview was given to the teacher; showed that the students of the 4th semester still had many difficulties, they used only one technique for translation. In particular, these words are rarely found in English textbooks. In addition, the lecturer must be creative to find a suitable translation method for the students of the 4th semester to translate the English text into Indonesian, also the lecturer always motivates the students to understand the text by translating the source language into their target language. Right in Indonesian. At the same time, the students also needed a longer time to practice the translation of the text from the English text to the Indonesian language, because they do not have the right method to translate the English text and the lack of vocabulary, although the lecturer. Had already practiced the practice of the English text, but it was not enough to interest the students in practicing the translation of the English text.

Building Intercultural Communication Competence in Translator Training: A Metacognitive Approach

Intercultural communication competence and skills have become increasingly essential for translators to succeed in the global language industry. While some university translation programs offer a specific course explicitly covering intercultural communication, others teach it implicitly, embedding it in other practical courses. The main aim of the study is to shed light on the ways of adapting intercultural communication courses for translation and interpreting students by uncovering student perceptions of the relationship between intercultural awareness and translation and discussing the role of cross-cultural interaction-oriented assignments with a metacognitive approach, giving impetus to the aspiration of self-improvement and life-long learning. For this purpose, we conducted this research at a state university in Turkey during a 14-week Intercultural Communication course in the 2021/2022 spring semester. Our data-gathering method is based on focus group discussions and qualitative content analysis on student assignments using MAXQDA 2020. Following the analysis, three main themes have been identified: experiencing intercultural interaction, building intercultural awareness, and developing intercultural competence and skills. The results of the study show that an interpersonal and practical assignment contributes to translation students’ intercultural competence in several aspects: gaining self-confidence, improving their intercultural sensitivity and mindfulness, noticing cultural stereotypes, and reflecting on cultural similarities and differences. Furthermore, benefiting from a self-reflexive approach, students realized that being aware of the effects of cultural differences, as well as commonalities in mindset, language, and certain behaviors is a necessary skill for future translators.

Extent of the Use of Computer-Aided Translation Tools in French to Igbo Language Translation among French Language Students in Colleges of Education in South-Eastern Nigeria

Due to the global orientation of the international economy, the availability of data in several languages, and the creation of previously unheard-of communication channels, there has been a significant increase in the need for professional translation services in recent years. Manual translation techniques are no longer sufficient for translators to fulfill the expanding demands of clients and companies. As a result, several translation technologies have been created to aid both experts and students of translation in creating high-quality translations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the extent of the use of computer-aided translation tools in French to Igbo language translation among French language students in Colleges of Education in South-Eastern Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design in which a validated 10 items questionnaire termed the ‘Scale for Measuring the Effectiveness of Computer-aided Translation Tools (SMECTT)’ was developed by the researcher in line with the research questions, and was used to elicit information from respondents in the zone. Cronbach alpha was used to determine the instrument's dependability. Data were collected from 130 participants. Analyzing the data produced from the study will involve using descriptive statistics. The findings reveal variations in tool exposure and usage among students, with preferences for specific tools such as Google Translate. However, limitations are observed in addressing grammar and syntax errors. The study highlights the importance of training and guidance in tool utilization, suggesting potential improvements in language education and translation practices for French language students in South-Eastern Nigeria.

From Jiří Levý’s model of translatorial decision-making to Optimality Theory: an application to legal translation

ABSTRACT Jiří Levý’s article Translation as a decision process (1967), one of the earliest contributions to the topic of decision-making in translation, anticipates a model that was proposed more than two decades later: Optimality Theory. This linguistic theory offers a framework for resolving conflicts in grammar by replacing absolute rules with violable constraints whose interaction leads to the selection of an acceptable output. The philosophy of Optimality Theory can be successfully applied to the process of translatorial decision-making, which consists in proposing a set of candidates and selecting the best one by virtue of constraints imposed by the translation strategy adopted. The article shows how such a constraint-based approach can be used in legal translation. A tentative set of constraints (Minimum equivalence, Near-equivalence, Literal, Identity, Functional, Transparent, Neutral) is used to evaluate French translation candidates for an English legal term, applying two different strategies: documentary (source-culture oriented) and instrumental (target-culture oriented). The formalism of Optimality Theory, while mimicking real-life decision-making processes, makes the selection of optimal equivalents more transparent and coherent. However, it is only one of the possible tools that legal translators and translation students have at their disposal.

Investigating the Iranian Translators’ Subtitling and Dubbing Strategies in Translation of Allusions in the Animated Movies from English into Persian

The allusions are cultural terms and the translation of them in AVT is a difficult task for translators, especially in distant cultures such as English and Iranian. Because, the translators needed to be analyzed allusions according to the ıts type and the categorization to which they belong. The present study aimed to identify the allusions, in particular PNs and KPs, based on Leppihalme’s (1997) classification model in animated movies. It tried to investigate Iranian translators’ strategies for subtitling and dubbing the allusions in four animated movies including Mr. Peabody and Sherman (2014), Shrek 2 (2004), Rio (2011), and The Simpsons (2007) based on Leppihalme’s (1997) model and to determine the differences between the strategies used in the dubbing and subtitling of the allusions. For this purpose, the researcher adopted a quantitative method with a comparative descriptive approach. Then, the mentioned animated movies were examined to collect and classify allusive elements. After analysis, the results showed that there were found 60 allusions including 30 KP and 30 PN based on Leppihalme’s (1997) taxonomy. As well as, the findings of strategies analysis related to subtitling indicated that the Retention Name and Literal Translation were the first and second most frequent strategies with 38.3% and 36.7% respectively. While Omission was the least frequent strategy with 3.3%. Furthermore, the findings of strategies analysis related to dubbing illustrated that the Omission name was the first and most frequent with 21.7% while Recreation was the least frequent strategy with 1.7%. The findings of this study can provide a pedagogical implication for translation students so that they can recognize the translations of allusions with subtitling and dubbing strategies and can be utilized as a guideline for fans in the subtitling and dubbing industry.

Транслатологическое обоснование создания многоязычных ресурсов Интернета

The article analyses the determined character of forming multilingual Internet space in terms of the status of language in the system of world languages and in the set of languages of website content. Multilingualism is considered as a new stage in the development of web communication, replacing the brief periods of English dominance and the emergence of Internet segments in national languages. The tendency towards representation of content in different languages reflects an attitude towards considering users as participants in institutional discourses. The study uses the examples from material that has undergone a detailed interpretation stage in translation classes and during the preparation of final qualification papers by students in translation. The basis of translatological logistics of a multilingual resource consists in the fact that a site hypertext is objectively conditioned by a set of linguistic characteristics of the original content and the pragmatics of creating translated versions. Therefore, creating a global version in English involves not only changing the site structure, reducing texts and neutralising linguistic and cultural markings, but also ensuring that content is understandable to a wide audience owing to appropriate translation techniques application. Translation into German may be driven by marketing factors, French versions occur in response to high demands of linguistic "purism" in the state and society, while translation into Russian allows expanding the audience of potential users. It is revealed that the use of machine translation in the material reviewed is restricted by the purposes of the discourse and the sociopragmatics of the recipient of the translated version. The refusal to translate using a built-in browser extension reflects the sender's focus on effective communication and his desire to meet the recipient's "horizon of expectations". It is stated that the Internet space development is not determined by regulatory mechanisms, but by the orientation of resources towards the objectives of discourses and the needs and capabilities of their participants.

Challenges in Translating Puns in Some Selections of Arabic Poetry Into English

The present study investigates the challenges translators may face when translating pun expressions in some selections found in Arabic poetry into English. The study examines the strategies employed to translate puns, the choice of pun’s sense, and the perseverance of the aesthetic function of puns in English. The study analyses the translation of a sample of ten Arabic-English puns by twenty-five MA translation students grounded on Delabastita’s (1993) model, the graded salience hypothesis and back-translation method. The study has revealed that the familiarity of the pun’s overt meaning and the ignorance of its covert one constitute a major challenge for inadequately translating puns, thereby distorting the pun’s aesthetic function in the target text. Two out of Delabastita’s translation strategies are shown to be employed in the translation of the given puns, among which pun to non- pun is the most prevalent one. The study has suggested editorial techniques and related rhetorical device as a potential means for adequately rendering the respective puns.

Investigating the Translators’ Strategies in Subtitling and Dubbing of Taboos in American Drama Television Series The Big Little Lies (2019)

One of the most difficult tasks that translators deal with when dubbing or subtitling an audiovisual product is translating offensive terms or expressions such as taboos. Translators must handle the translation of taboos with care, as their equivalents may be contrary to the religion and cultural norms of the target country. To that end, some strategies should be employed by translators to choose appropriate equivalents based on the cultural and religious norms of the target language. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate the strategies employed in subtitling and dubbing English taboos in seven episodes of one American television series using Davoodi’s (2009) model. This was corpus-based research that has a qualitative-quantitative method with a comparative approach. To conduct the study, the American English drama crime TV series The Big Little Lies (2019) season two was chosen as the study corpus. 174 taboos, specifically Sh*t and F*k word, were found based on Sharifi and Darchinian's (2009) model in the above- mentioned TV series. Descriptive statistics have been run to examine the frequencies and percentages of implemented translation strategies in subtitling and dubbing the taboos. The results revealed that “Substitution”, and “Censorship” were the commonly most frequently used strategies in Persian subtitled and dubbed versions of taboos. Moreover, the findings of the Chi-square test indicated that no significant difference was identified between the strategies of Iranian translators in subtitling and dubbing taboos. The findings of this research can be useful for subtitlers, dubbers, and translation students in Iran who specialize in translating English TV series.

Musykilātu Tarjamati Al-Nushus Al-‘Arabiyati wa Mu’ālajatuha

This study discusses the problems faced by Islamic Boarding School students of Al-Azhar Pegasing Takengon in Arabic script translation skills. The problem is how to transfer speech from the source language to the target language without changing the original meaning and therefore it can be understood by the readers of the target language properly and correctly. Consequently, there is a need for a communicative translation theory, namely a theory that departs from understanding the writing and language aspects of the target language reader. The research method employed in this article is a descriptive approach, while the method of collecting data and research information uses two methods, including library research methods and field research methods. The problems faced by students in learning translation are: (1) weak vocabulary understanding, (2) weakness in understanding morphology and syntax rules, (3) weakness in understanding the use of verb changes, (4) lack of repetition of Arabic text material independently , (5) Difficulty in constructing Indonesian sentences, (6) poor ability to distinguish between idhafah and conjunctions. Several solutions are offered which include students developing motivation to learn translation because translation is one of the important lessons in our religion (understanding Islamic and Sharia law), and they must enrich themselves with a wealth of language rules so that they can easily translate texts. Arabic text and they should learn the translation well.

Building translation competence of translation students through supporting courses: A suggested writing course at the university level

Building translation competence is an issue of key concern to translation programmes at university level. To achieve this objective, a host of factors should be considered. This study aims at suggesting a writing course which is supposed to be a supporting course to the major ones on practical translation at the Department of Translation, College of Languages, University of Duhok in Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The study dealt with the problem of teaching the writing course among other courses with no relevance to the building of translation competence. To design a relevant writing course, the study posed two questions which are related to the reason behind teaching writing in the department in the first place and how this course should be taught. The researcher defined her writing course objective through examining the department’s mission, vision, and objectives, as well as institutional and non-linguistic constraints. The approach decided on is Task-Based Language Learning together with its theory of language and theory of learning. The study also tackled the instructional design in terms of syllabus, types of learning, and teaching activities. Finally, the procedure explained how the theoretical issues can be put into actual practice in the classroom. The study questions were answered. Writing is taken to be a supporting course that aims at building the student’s bilingual sub-competence and extralinguistic sub-competence with the ultimate objective of building translation competence with the help of the other major courses on translation.

Transferring implied values of the Latvian source text diminutives into English: Piloting translation guidelines with novice translators

During ongoing research on linguistic means and translation solutions for transferring into English the implied values of Latvian diminutives in literary translations, Guidelines for translators, which might assist them in their decision-making process, have been drafted and piloted. The aim of the present paper is to find out what revisions of the draft Guidelines devised for transferring implied values of the Latvian source text diminutives into English may be required on the bases of analysis of the feedback and translation solutions chosen by novice translators piloting these Guidelines. The draft Guidelines were piloted during a student translation experiment, where its participants worked in pairs or groups of three, translated selected fragments from Latvian prose texts, and recorded their Dialogue Think Aloud Protocols (DTAPs). Afterwards, they completed a questionnaire, reflecting on their translation process and the usefulness of the draft Guidelines in their decision-making process. The analysis of the anonymously coded and processed experiment data (translations, DTAPs, questionnaire answers) shows that the participants considered and took into account the advice of the draft Guidelines. They used various stylistically marked parts of speech and other linguistic means, thus being able to convey the nuances expressed by source text diminutives in almost 85% of the analysed cases. As a result, it can be concluded that, from the experiment participants’ perspective, no major revisions of the draft Guidelines are required. The next stage of this research is obtaining the opinion of translator trainers on the draft Guidelines in the translator training process.

EXPLORING STUDENTS’ TRANSLATION STRATEGY ON THE GLIMPSE OF US SONG BY JOJI

Translating texts from one language to another is often used as a resolution to overcome many challenges nowadays, allowing individuals to understand content that they may not have been able to otherwise. In the case of song lyrics, translation can be particularly useful in helping individuals understand the meaning and emotion behind the words. This study explored the translation strategies employed by ten Translation and Interpretation (TI) students in translating the lyrics of Joji's Glimpse of Us song, and investigated their translation products whether they meet the criteria of good translation. Using a qualitative-descriptive research design, the study analyzed 23 sentences from the source text, finding that the most common strategy used was the use of a more general word (44%), followed by paraphrasing with unrelated words (21%) , by paraphrasing using related word (18%), by addition (9%), and omission (4%). The least common strategy was the use of loan words or loan words with explanations (3%). The study also evaluated the accuracy, naturalness, and clarity of the students' translation products based on Mona Baker's theory and the criteria of good translation proposed by Larson (1984) out of 230 total data collected, the study found 148 acceptable translations (64%) and 82 unacceptable translations (36%). These findings can inform future teaching practices in TI programs and contribute to the field of translation studies.

Undergraduate Translation Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Aim. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges at all levels of education. Higher education institutions across the globe had to move traditional campus-based learning online as it was the only available option to continue academic activities. Students’ perceptions of online learning during the Covid-19 crisis have been investigated in many fields of study, however, little known research has been conducted in the field of Translation studies. To fill in the gap, small-scale research was carried out at a University in Lithuania. It aimed to examine undergraduate translation students’ perceptions of learning online during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods. To carry out the research, qualitative methodology was used. The data was drawn from 23 translation students’ essays and analysed using inductive content analysis. Results. The study resulted in the identification and description of two major categories and five subcategories that revealed the students’ experience of online learning during the pandemic and their perceptions of its positive and negative impacts. Conclusion. The results demonstrate that all study participants perceived online learning both as a positive and negative experience with the number of the student-reported negative impacts being slightly bigger than that of the positive ones. The findings of this research are important; yet they do not allow for wide scale generalisations as the study was conducted on a small sample. Originality. The present study contributes to the research in the field by providing new insights into the impacts of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic as seen from the students’ perspective.