Broadening the scope of error categories in translation assessment through screen recording

Abstract

To date, the assessment of student translations has been largely based on configurations of error categories that address some facet of the translation product. Focal points of such product-oriented error annotation include language mechanics (punctuation, grammar, lexis and syntax, for example) and various kinds of transfer errors. In recent years, screen recording technology has opened new doors for empirically informing translation assessment from a more process-oriented perspective (Massey and Ehrensberger-Dow, 2014; Angelone, 2019). Screen recording holds particular promise when tracing errors documented in the product back to potential underlying triggers in the form of processes that co-occur on screen in their presence. Assessor observations made during screen recording analysis can give shape to process-oriented error categories that parallel and complement product-oriented categories. This paper proposes a series of empirically informed, process-oriented error categories that can be used for assessing translations in contexts where screen recordings are applied as a diagnostic tool. The categories are based on lexical and semantic patterns derived from a corpus-based analysis of think-aloud protocols documenting articulations made by assessors when commenting on errors made in student translations while watching screen recordings of their work. It is hoped that these process-oriented error categories will contribute to a more robust means by which to assess and classify errors in translation.

Colour as a Metacognition Enhancing Strategy in Scientific Translators’ Education

“…By reflecting on errors and classifying them, learners are allowed to abstract their guiding principles and find links between product and process. Yet, because the error categories available are not always suited to the learning goals and outcomes envisaged in specific modules, researchers are striving to find renewed and updated categories of errors that help students focus on translation both as a product and as a process, and recognise a broader number of error categories (Angelone, 2019(Angelone, , 2021. In the case of scientific translation, Brugué and Giró (2015) used quantitative and qualitative correction scales to assess the errors made by students, but the categories they used were not specifically related to scientific and technical translation.…”