Results of PACTE group’s experimental research on translation competence acquisition. The acquisition of the instrumental sub-competence

Abstract

During the second decade of the twenty-first century, documentation in electronic format has come to form a normal part of the workplace for all professional translators. The aim of this article is to present the results of the acquisition of the instrumental subcompetence, which is based on the use of electronic resources. These results are part of empirical-experimental research carried out by the PACTE group on Translation Competence Acquisition. In this study, the evolution of the acquisition of this sub-competence for five groups of translation students, from the first year of their degree course to their entry into the labour market, was measured using a methodological design that simulates a longitudinal study. The experiment was carried out in 2011 with 130 students on the Translation and Interpreting degree course. Five indicators related to the direct and inverse translation processes are analysed: number of resources, time taken on searches, time taken on searches at each stage, number and variety of searches. These indicators are then correlated with the quality of the final product of the translation process: translation acceptability. The results produced by the translation students are compared with those obtained in the Translation Competence experiment, carried out by the PACTE group in 2005-2006 with 35 professional translators i .

Using electronic information resources to solve cultural translation problems

“…The students in 2012 preferred employing online resources and felt that paper-based resources were not sufficient to translate, since their access was more restrictive and time consuming. Kuznik and Olalla Soler (2018) investigated the acquisition of instrumental sub-competence in five groups of students from the first year of the degree in Translation and Interpreting at UAB to their entry into the labour market and observed that the students from all the years preferred to employ online resources. In addition to that, the students formed a homogeneous collective, since a very small variation was recorded in relation to the variety of resources used.…”

“…This variable is intended to collect data on the use of information resources during the translation of a text to acquire cultural knowledge and solve cultural translation problems. In our study, only data on the use of electronic information resources were collected, since in PACTE's translation competence acquisition experiment (Kuznik and Olalla-Soler, 2018) it was found that students hardly used paper-based resources (a 2 per cent of a total of 3,459 queries were performed using paper-based resources).…”

“…A solution provided by the search engine was accepted and used to correct the outcome of the initial search. These categories were employed so that it would be possible to compare the results obtained in this study with those of PACTE (Kuznik and Olalla-Soler, 2018). However, we consider that all these categories are not equally likely to be employed when translating, as they are dependent on the resource that has been accessed.…”

“…The emergence of online information has increased the available resources with which translators can seek information, it has made the information-seeking process more efficient (by using Boolean operators, querying specialised databases, etc.) and has almost left behind all use of paper-based information resources when translating (Massey and Ehrensberger-Dow, 2011;Hirci, 2013;Kuznik, 2017;Kuznik and Olalla-Soler, 2018).…”

Digital Portfolio in The Development of Documentary Competence in University Students [El portafolio digital en el desarrollo de la competencia documental en estudiantes universitarios]

“…For Kuznik & Olalla-Soler (2018), the new generation that has grown hand in hand with rapid access to information and communication technology from a wide range of computing tools and devices seems to be less expert. Electronic and online documentation has also created serious difficulties to this group already familiar with the use of technology resources.…”