Translation Quality Assessment Research Articles

Quality Assessment for The Translations of Museum Texts: A Case Study of The Archaeology and Ethnography Museum of Edirne

Museums have significant roles in promoting and presenting cultural heritage and cultural values in various ways. An intrinsic part of intercultural communication in museums, bilingual museum texts (e.g. labels, brochures, explanatory texts etc.) have become an important field to be investigated within the framework of Translation Studies. In order to make a contribution to the analysis of translation of museum texts, this study aims to provide a quality assessment of English translations of texts in the Archeology and Ethnography Museum of Edirne. Even though English translations of different texts types such as labels, brochures and explanatory texts are available in the museum, this study specifically focuses on the translation of explanatory texts presenting the ethnographic identity and archeological findings of the city. For this purpose, twenty-three texts displayed in information boards have been selected and their translations have been analyzed according to translation quality assessment model of Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MMQ). As a result of a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the selected texts, the type, distribution and frequency of translation errors encountered in the selected corpus have been described according to eight dimensions of the metric. Based on this text-based and linguistically-oriented methodology, the functionality of the translated museum texts has been evaluated. It is concluded that this study will provide a theoretical framework and methodological guide to improve the quality assessment competences of lectures and students at the departments of translation studies as well as professional translators and researchers working in the area of museum translation.

The neural network algorithm-based quality assessment method for university English translation

ABSTRACT These results highlight the transformative potential of neural network algorithms in providing consistency and transparency while reducing the inherent subjectivity in human evaluations, revolutionizing translation quality assessment in academia. The findings have significant implications for academia, as reliable translation quality evaluations are crucial for fostering cross-cultural knowledge exchange. However, challenges such as domain-specific adaptation require further investigation to improve and maximize the effectiveness of this novel approach, ultimately enhancing the accessibility of academic content and promoting global academic discourse. The proposed method involves using neural network algorithms for assessing college-level English translation quality, starting with data collection and preparation, developing a neural network model, and evaluating its performance using human assessment as a benchmark. The study employed both human evaluators and a neural network model to assess the quality of translated academic papers, revealing a strong correlation (0.84) between human and model assessments. These findings suggest the model’s potential to enhance translation quality in academic settings, though additional research is needed to address certain limitations. The results show that the Neural Network-Based Model achieved higher scores in accuracy, precision, F-measure, and recall compared to Traditional Manual Evaluation and Partial Automated Model, indicating its superior performance in evaluating translation quality.

Translation Quality Assessment of Literary Texts: A Critical Analysis of Two Recent Arabic Translations of Orwell's Animal Farm (1945)

This article aims to assess and evaluate the quality of two recent Arabic translations of George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), the first one by Mohammed Hasan Alawi (2019) and the second one by Hiba Fathi (2020) using House's (2015) Translation Quality Assessment model. A mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed. The qualitative method involved conducting a comparative analysis between the profiles of the source text and the two translations employing House's model (2015) to identify mismatches at the register parameter. The quantitative method was employed to quantify the overtly erroneous errors and determine whether statistically significant differences exist in the mean number of these errors between the two translations. The findings of the study show numerous mismatches, particularly at the three dimensions of register (field, tenor, and mode) which to some extent affected the ideational and interpersonal components of the textual function in both translations. The findings also indicate statistically significant differences between the two translations in terms of the frequency of overtly erroneous errors. The second translation exhibited a higher number of such errors compared to the first translation, primarily resulting from the breach of the target language system. The study concluded that the second translation was less adequate compared to the first translation.

Recreating relevance: translated Arabic idioms through a relevance theory lens

This study uses relevance theory as an insightful heuristic model for translation quality assessment. As translation inherently involves communicating across contextual boundaries, the notion of relevance optimization continues to be a fruitful approach for research and practice. This investigation illuminates idioms as culturally embedded linguistic conventions, semantically abstruse, yet structurally crystallized. Idioms accrue fixed meanings within a speech community rather than by compositing constituent denotations. Classical Arabic poetry extensively harnesses idioms, not as ornamental substitutes for literal statements, but as intensive versions thereof. Losing idioms risks muting tonal intensity. By examining an Arabic verse exemplifying two idioms, and assessing thirteen English and French translations, this study reveals that an effective idiom translation requires looking beyond lexical equivalence. Rather, contextually unraveling connotative lexicons and reconstituting the idiom to achieve equivalent effects and optimal relevance is key. Thereby, successful idiom translation is defined not by formal correspondence, but by conveying implicated meanings and intended impacts. This work elucidates idiom translatability through an interdisciplinary relevance prism, advancing theory and equipping practitioners to navigate the interlingual labyrinth.

STYLE IN TRANSLATION AS A PARAMETER IN TQA: A PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE

Style in translation can be a parameter in translation quality assessment (TQA). The style in translation refers to the translation having the same perspective as the source text. In assessing style in translation, translation does not only focus on the meaning but also the relevance of utterance. The article discusses the translation style based on pragmatic studies. The study used the utterances in the tourism text Solo Calendar of Event 2018 as data since the text has a communication function. The function of the text should be represented in the translation to achieve the same perspective of translation. The style in translation also considers the translator's effort to achieve the equivalence in meaning and relevance of utterance. The style in translation of a pragmatic perspective requires a relevance of communication. The study indicates that the there are two relevance degree, namely translation with strong and weak relevance. Translation with strong relevance indicates that translation can preserve the style of source text. The maintaining of style of source text contribute to the high quality of translation.

Applying Juliane House’s Translation Quality Assessment Model on Audio-Visual Political Translations of Arab Intermediate Translators

Modern translation devices cannot achieve the expected accuracy as they cannot make up the target text as original as the source text on either the cultural or linguistic level. Translation quality is expected to be a critical academic area, especially concerning audio-visual translation, as it cannot be generated by a machine-translator due to its multidimensional nature. The reason for applying political translation in this study is the linguistic and cultural richness of political discourse, as many political texts are defined and understood in terms of ideology, culture, and political circumstances. The present paper adopts a qualitative aspect. It will be applied through a comparative approach as the study will compare both source text (discourse) and target texts (discourse) according to Juliane House’s model. House’s model is applied due to its comprehensiveness, which analyzes translation according to many aspects including lexical, syntactic, and textual meanings. In addition, House’s model applies the communication theory of “sender-receiver” to the text for defining the accuracy of translation in terms of the relationship between the sender and the receiver. Here, the significance of the study is to testify and examine Juliane House’s as a translation quality assessment model and its efficiency assessing and evaluating audio-visual political translations of Arab intermediate translators.

Translation Quality Assessment of the Analysis of Deixis Made by Indonesian EFL Undergraduate Students Abstract

This study investigates the translation quality in terms of accuracy, acceptability, and readability of the translated text of the abstract titled "Analysis of Deixis made by Indonesian EFL Undergraduate Students" which serves as the research's source material. It is descriptive-qualitative. Two approaches were taken to collect the data: content analysis was used to extract information from the source and target texts, and a questionnaire was utilized to collect information regarding readability, acceptability, and accuracy. Three raters evaluated the translated text's acceptability, readability, and accuracy. The data analysis results indicate that: (1) The average score of accuracy is 2.6. (2) The acceptability score average is 2.7. (3) The readability score is 2.4 on average. Given that the three factors had an average score of 2.6, it can be said that the Indonesian EFL undergraduate students' translation of the Analysis of Deixis was of good quality.

Study on the Textual Coherence Function of Conjunctions in Political Texts and Their Translation Reconstruction

The assessment of translation quality in political texts is primarily based on achieving effective communication. Throughout the translation process, it is essential to not only accurately convey the original content but also effectively transform the structural mechanisms of the source language. In the translation reconstruction of political texts, various textual cohesion methods are often employed, with conjunctions serving as a primary means for semantic coherence within text units.

Challenges of Setting up a Legal Translation Quality Assessment System

This article explores the challenges of setting up a coherent legal translation quality assessment system at a national – Romanian, and international – European level. It begins by providing an overview of the importance of accurate legal translation and its impact on legal procedures. It then delves into the current state of legal translation quality assessment in Romania and Europe and suggests the establishment of a legal translation control body, insisting on a number of responsibilities that it may have and challenges that it may face.

SUBTITLING STRATEGY AND READABILITY OF DIRECTIVE SPEECH ACT IN GENSHIN IMPACT PROLOGUE CHAPTER SUBTITLE

The phenomenon of gaming easily accessible online getting popular leads to the advancement not only on technological aspect of game, but also on the interaction of the game and users. Accordingly, subtitling strategy and readability of directive speech act in genshin impact prologue chapter subtitle becomes the main concerns of this study. Based on subtitling strategy by Gottlieb (1992), translation quality assessment by Nababan (2012), and directive speech act theory by Searle (1976), this study aimed to identify and analyze those aspect in video game Genshin Impact prologue chapter subtitle. The data were gathered from subtitle of prologue chapter of video game Genshin Impact. This research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative and quantitative method, also with total sampling method for answering the research questions. The results showed that there are 5 types of directive speech act that found, 7 of 10 strategies of subtitling that applied, and the readability level of the translation was readable. The study concluded that the data were utterances between the characters are explanations and introductions of the game since the data were on the prologue chapter. Then, the quality of readability in subtitle was considered readable due to most frequently used strategy was paraphrase. Keywords: translation, subtitling strategy, directive speech act, readability, genshin impact

Quantitative Assessment of Translation Quality in Education, Certification, and Industry: An Overview

Quantitative Assessment of Translation Quality in Education, Certification, and Industry: An Overview

Study on Chinese-English Translation Quality Assessment Based on Corpora

Study on Chinese-English Translation Quality Assessment Based on Corpora

Research on the Translation of Indirect Expressive Speech Acts Identified in the Novel It Ends With Us

<p class="Abstract">This study aims to find all indirect expressive speech acts in the <em>It End With Us</em> novel, classify them, examine if they underwent a shift in the translation, and assessed the quality of the translation. This is a descriptive qualitative research and used purposive sampling technique. The data were later analyzed using content analysis method and were verified in Focus Group Discussion. It was discovered that this novel contained 33 indirect expressive speech acts with the following classification: boasting (10), deploring (8), complimenting (5), lamenting (5), forgiving (2), condoling (1), thanking (1), and apologizing (1). No data underwent a shift in indirectness. It can be concluded that the difficulty of translating indirect expressive speech acts is affected by several factors such as the cultural disparity between the source and target language, finding the equivalent words in the target language, and the minimum understanding on the context of the work. Additionally, the score for accuracy and acceptability is 2,81 and 2,55, while the final score of the Translation Quality Assessment is 2,68, indicating that despite the translation being imperfect, the translator has overall successfully translated the indirect expressive speech acts into the target language.</p>

The Applicability of House’s (2015) Translation Quality Assessment Model on Fiction: Evidence from Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley

Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) is a central concern for both translation practice and academic research. However, the very limited studies assessing the translation quality (TQ) of literary texts, especially fiction, have not accounted for the distinction between the narrative and the character’s dialogue in the assessment. The present study is an attempt to investigate the applicability of House’s (2015) TQA model in assessing the TQ of fiction and to propose modifications. In doing so, we scrutinized the translation quality of Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz, translated from Arabic into English, utilizing House’s (2015) TQA model to capture the applicability of the model. The findings reveal that House’s (2015) TQA model accommodates the TQA of fiction. The proposed modifications have implications for both translators and trainers.

Review of Translation Quality Assessment Research: Current Studies and Development

The development of computer automatic assessment and corpus linguistics has provided a new research idea for translation quality assessment. This paper reviews the current situation of translation quality assessment at home and abroad and its application in translation teaching. Findings are that most of the current translation quality assessments are static, and the empirical research applied in translation teaching is not sufficient. Therefore, how to make the assessment model of translation quality keep pace with translation teachers and learners’ needs is an unavoidable issue that cannot be ignored in the future translation quality assessment research.

The Application of the Combined Corpus in C-E Translation Teaching

In recent years, corpora have become increasingly sophisticated and are popular among linguists and widely followed by academics because of their powerful functions. This paper investigates the combined use of single and bilingual corpora in teaching translation quality assessment. Using single and bilingual corpora as research objects, the empirical method explores the path of efficient use of combined corpora in translation teaching, and the results show that the combined use of corpora can provide strong support for translation learners in vocabulary selection, comparison of synonyms and conducting translation quality assessment, and this study aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning in translation courses.

RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF TRANSLATION AS A COMPONENT OF THE PROCESS OF FORMING THE RESEARCH COMPETENCE OF FUTURE TRANSLATORS

The article attempts to reveal the problem of research in the field of translation as a component of the process of forming the research competence of future translators. The aim of the article is to study the peculiarities of translation studies and their role in the development of future translators’ research competence. The relevance of the study is substantiated, which is determined by the fact that the profession of translator is currently one of the most prestigious and popular professions in the world; there is the demand for new types of translators – fixer translators and military translators, which is due to the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is noted that the subject of translation studies is the study of the regularities of the translation process and the factors that affect the course of the translation process and determine the result of the translation. The features of the areas of research in the field of translation are considered. It is established that foreign scholars distinguish the following areas of research in translation studies: text analysis and translation; translation quality assessment; genre translation; multimedia translation; translation and technology; history of translation; translation ethics; terminology and glossaries; interpretation; translation process; training of translators; and the profession of translator. It is noted that translators have the opportunity to conduct their research in several fields with different directions and orientations. Some translators choose one of the areas of comparative research, while other translators use different types of questionnaires and interviews to measure the relationship or importance of a specific translation-related issue. Another important area of research in the field of translation is considered – research in the field of training future translators, since conducting high-level translation research requires a translator to have developed research competence. It has been proved that a higher education institution should train a specialist researcher who tries to disseminate and explore new methods of work, who should form new ideas and is able to put them into practice. The future specialist should develop the skills of independent creative scientific work, form a circle of their scientific interests, master the norms and scientific and methodological principles of experimental and research activities. The basis of the research competence of future translators is the ability to identify the problem in time, formulate a hypothesis, select and analyse the necessary information for the study, select the necessary methods of research and data processing, focus not only on the final but also on intermediate results of the study, discuss the possibility of interpreting the results of the study, and use the results of the study in practical activities. These characteristics determine the ability of future translators to conduct scientific research in the field of topical issues of modern humanities, linguistics, literary studies, translation studies and are an important indicator of the high qualification of these specialists. The study organizes and systematizes the available knowledge on the problem of the essence and directions of translation studies, allowing, after appropriate adaptation, applying it in the process of forming the research competence of future translators. The prospects for further research on this issue include the development of pedagogical conditions for the formation of future translators’ research competence, taking into account the peculiarities and directions of translation studies.

Translation quality assessment practices of faculty members of colleges of languages and translation in Arab countries: an exploratory study

The investigation and understanding of the process of assessing translation quality in translation courses have attracted some attention. However, only a few studies have explored general assessment (GA) and specialised Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) practices used by different translation instructors. This study explores the assessment practices of 98 faculty members of the translation departments of various universities in Arab countries. In this exploratory study, data were collected using an adapted version of the Approaches to Classroom Assessment Inventory instrument. In addition, the authors designed a Translation Quality Assessment Practices Inventory aimed specifically for the investigation of TQA practices adopted by the faculty members. Data collected from the three-part survey were subjected to descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, one-way analysis of variance, an independent samples t-test, and the chi-square test. The study reveals that the participants highly endorsed GA and TQA practices equally. The results indicate that three major TQA themes are particularly prioritised: the significance of errors; the use of particular assessment methods; and the primacy of objectivity. This research shows that there is an urgent need for more training aimed at improving TQA literacy among faculty members teaching translation courses. It contributes to the efforts to improve translation training and to design more effective curricula.

Innovative Research on Translation Quality Assessment Models in the New Era

Innovative Research on Translation Quality Assessment Models in the New Era

EVALUATING THE TRANSLATION QUALITY OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN THE LET’S READ MOBILE APPLICATION USING ANGELELLI'S SCORING RUBRIC TO ASSESS SOURCE TEXT MEANING ACCURACY

This study aims to comprehensively evaluate the translation quality of a children's story, "Dive", featured in the Let's Read mobile application. Utilizing Angelelli's scoring rubric, the research focuses on assessing the accuracy of source text meaning in the translated children's literature, examining elements such as fluency, readability, cultural adaptation, and style. By conducting an in-depth analysis of the Indonesian translation of "Dive," the study uncovers the strengths and weaknesses of the translation process, as well as any challenges encountered in adapting the text for a young Indonesian audience. The research methodology involves selecting the story "Dive" and its Indonesian translation, "Menyelam," from the Let's Read mobile application, and assessing the translation using Angelelli's scoring rubric, which ranges from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). The findings from this study contribute significantly to the ongoing discourse on translation quality assessment, particularly in the context of children's literature. The results offer valuable insights for improving the translation process and enhancing the reading experience for young audiences accessing the Let's Read mobile application. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of accurately conveying the source text meaning to maintain the educational and entertainment value of translated children's literature, while also emphasizing the need for cultural sensitivity and adaptation in order to create an engaging and relatable reading experience for children from diverse backgrounds.