Using electronic information resources to solve cultural translation problems

Abstract

Purpose. This study investigates the use of electronic information resources to solve cultural translation problems at different stages of acquisition of the translator's cultural competence. Design/methodology/approach. A process and product-oriented, cross-sectional, quasiexperimental study was conducted with 38 students with German as a second foreign language from the four years of the Bachelor's degree in Translation and Interpreting at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and 10 professional translators. Findings. Translation students use a wider variety of resources, perform more queries and spend more time on queries than translators when solving cultural translation problems. The students' information-seeking process is generally less efficient than that of the translators. Training has little impact on the students' use of electronic information resources for this specific purpose, since all students use them similarly regardless of the year they are in. Research limitations/implications. The study has been conducted with a small sample and only one language pair from a single pedagogical context. The tendencies observed cannot be generalised to the whole population of translation students. Practical implications. This paper has implications for translator training, as it encourages the development of efficient information-seeking processes for the resolution of cultural translation problems. Originality/value. Unlike other studies, this paper focusses on a specific translation problem type. It provides information related to the students' information-seeking strategies for the resolution of cultural translation problems, which can be useful for translation training.

Evaluating the impact of digital library database resources on the productivity of academic research

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Extralinguistic Consultation in English–Chinese Translation: A Study Drawing on Eye-Tracking and Screen-Recording Data

“… Zheng (2014) compared professional translators with novice translators and found that the former made a higher percentage of decisions using predominantly internal support than the latter. Olalla-Soler (2018) reports that, even when student translators already possessed knowledge of a problem, they preferred to double-check by consulting external resources, whereas professional translators tended to rely on their internalized knowledge. These findings can be explained with Pym’s (2015) model of risks and efforts in translation, which suggested that translators might devote different amounts of effort while encountering different levels of risk.…”

Trainee translators’ research styles: A taxonomy based on an observation study at the University of Silesia, Poland

“…In the field of translation studies, translators' research behaviour is still a relatively new area of study, with practically all investigations presenting generic data (e.g., by Cui & Zheng, 2020;Désilets et al, 2009;Enríquez Raído, 2014;Gough, 2017;Hirci, 2013;Hvelplund, 2017Hvelplund, , 2019Massey & Ehrensberger-Dow, 2011;Muller-Spitzer et al, 2012;Olalla-Soler, 2018;Pinto & Sales, 2007Pinto et al, 2014;Sales & Pinto, 2011;Shih, 2019;White et al, 2008;Zapata, 2016;). Some references to individual differences can be found in the studies investigating translation process (e.g., by Carl et al, 2011a;Dragsted & Carl, 2013;Heinstrom, 2003;Huang, 2018;Hubscher-Davidson, 2009;Lehka-Paul & Whyatt, 2016;Tirkkonen-Condit, 2005).…”