Browsing by Subject "Translating and interpreting--Study and teaching."

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Open Access
Guidelines for establishing criteria for the assessment of translation tests at YADIM, Çukurova University
(1999) Türkmen, Melek
The assessment of the quality of a translation has long been an issue under discussion both in the field of translation studies and in the teaching of translation in second language curriculum. Variables such as the purpose, type and audience of the translation, viewpoint of the assessor and the context of the act of translating are intricately connected. A combination of these variables leads the assessors to adopt specific criteria for the assessment of each translation. As is the case with the marking of translation tests at The Center for Foreign Languages (YADIM), assessment requires standardisation of the criteria adopted by different assessors. The necessity of achieving standardisation among assessors introduces the problem of establishing clearly-defined criteria for assessing translation. The purpose of this study was to suggest guidelines for establishing criteria for the marking of translation tests given to intermediate level students at YADIM, Çukurova University. To collect data, ten translation teachers were interviewed and observed once and then they marked eight mock-exam papers. The course outline for the translation courses in the institution was analysed. In the interviews, questions about the institutional and course aims, teachers’ priorities regarding the translation process and formative evaluation and the problems perceived in summative evaluation were asked. In the observations, the teaching stages and their sequencing and the distribution of teachers’ feedback on various aspects of students’ translations were observed. In the mock-exam markings, the same teachers marked eight student translations. To analyse the data collected through interviews, a coding technique was used. The frequencies and percentages of the themes under each category were quantified for each teacher and teachers’ priorities were identified individually. The frequencies of teachers’ feedback on various aspects of students’ translations in the observed courses were quantified. The mock-exam papers marked by teachers were analysed, error categories were identified and teachers’ priorities regarding the errors were determined. The results revealed that teachers differed in the ways they approached translation. Four teachers favoured information translation which took contextual elements of the source texts into consideration and six teachers favoured literal translation which mainly took the structures in the source text into consideration to the exclusion of contextual elements. In accordance with the methods they favoured, their materials selection criteria and evaluation priorities also differed. To minimise the discrepancies among teachers in the marking of the translation tests, an analytic scoring scale and guidelines for testing and marking were suggested.
Open Access
Rethinking translation in language teaching: a needs assessment to prepare curriculum guidelines specific for the translation course at YADIM, Çukurova University
(1996) Şat, Figen
The role of translation in language teaching has long been questioned; it has alternatively been encouraged or restricted. Recently educators and methodologists have expressed their doubts about ignoring the role of translation in language teaching and have suggested use of translation at all stages, particularly as a "fifth skill" at advanced levels. This study aimed to prepare curriculum guidelines to redesign the current translation course at YADIM (The Center for Foreign Languages), Cukurova University in line with these current views. To help prepare these guidelines, the views of students, teachers and departments were sampled; a needs analysis covering 50 graduate students, 50 undergraduate students, 20 teachers, and 15 departmental representatives from various departments was conducted at Cukurova University. Two parallel questionnaires were given to the subjects: one to the students and the other to the teachers at YADIM. Interviews with departmental representatives were conducted to investigate departments' expectations from the translation course given at YADIM. Data gathered through questionnaires and interviews were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques, and the following results were found. First, translation is perceived as a very important language skill in departmental study, and it is indicated both by students and teachers that translation significantly contributes to language proficiency, which can be used as a basis for reconsideration of the role of translation in general language development. Second, the results show that the current translation course at YADIM does not meet the students' needs and administrators' expectations which are to be prepared for departmental study by translating subject area texts, and practicing extensive (main idea) translation rather than intensive (sentence by sentence) translation. Third, the results show that the use of translation in departmental study for graduate and undergraduate students differs; while graduate students use translation primarily to review the literature written in English for their thesis, projects and so forth, undergraduate students use translation during the lessons to note down what they understand. Based upon these findings, curriculum guidelines for the design of the translation course given at YADIM were prepared and included in the study.
Open Access
The role of translation in L2 reading
(1997) Çanlı, Müzeyyen Hülya
Translation has been used for a variety of purposes in foreign language teaching including teaching reading. Foreign language readers frequently complain that they do not understand or fully comprehend a second language (L2) text even though they know the vocabulary and context. In this research study it was proposed that translating an L2 text would help learners better comprehend it and would also help them in the retention and recall of text content. This hypothesis was tested by conducting an experimental study on two groups of students.The participants were 20 Turkish EFL freshman students at an advanced level of proficiency from varying academic departments of Bilkent University. The first group (experimental group) was asked to translate an L2 text and the second group (control group) was asked to read the same text and write the main ideas for each paragraph. Both groups were given a monolingual glossary to help them with the vocabulary. Their comprehension of the text was evaluated with a comprehension post-test given immediately after the translation and/or reading of the text. The retention of the text among the two groups was measured through a retention post-test given after a two-week time period. In addition, think-aloud protocols were obtained from two subjects from each group to determine if there was any unconscious translation being done by the reading group and to determine the different translation and reading strategies each group used. The two subjects from the experimental group were asked to translate a reading passage while the two subjects from the control group were asked to only read it. Subjects in both groups were also given the choice of using different dictionaries (monolingual or bilingual). The comprehension and retention post-tests were analyzed and evaluated by three English teachers to ensure more objective and reliable scoring. The results were compared by T-tests. The think-aloud protocols were analyzed by transcribing the conversations of the subjects who had been audio-taped. Later, these transcriptions were coded and the researcher compiled a list of translation and reading strategies the subjects used while completing their tasks. The researcher also formed a list of the common cognitive processes used by the four subjects. The four subjects were interviewed after the think-alouds to obtain their views on the task and to make the protocols more reliable and objective. A questionnaire was given to all the subjects as a last step of the research study. This was conducted to have the subjects' opinions regarding translation and whether it had any positive or negative effects on their L2 reading comprehension. The results of the post-tests indicate that the group who translated the text instead of only reading it, gained a better comprehension and retention of the text. The analysis of the think-aloud protocols suggests that all subjects translated certain words and sentences into L1 whether consciously or unconsciously. Results also suggest that the experimental group took longer to complete the test tasks than did the control group. This confirms the more general hypothesis that, in translation of L2 texts, there is a relationship between better reading comprehension and retention and greater time on task. The findings of this study suggest that translation has a positive effect on the comprehension and retention of subjects reading L2 texts. The results suggest therefore that translation should be a part of the curriculum in EFL courses, and students should not be consistently discouraged from using translation in the classroom.