Relation LexTALE score - translation process data

As stated earlier, this section wishes to explore whether any relation could be observed between a participant's LexTALE score and his/her translation process data, regardless of the paparp/npaparp condition. To that end, the averages per participant were calculated for all four variables and these were combined into one Excel file. Since the resulting table was too big to incorporate in this section, it can be consulted in Appendix D.

Based on the findings from Lemhöfer and Broersma (2012), the following hypothetical question could be formulated:

If (1) there is a correlation between a higher LexTALE score and a higher overall level of proficiency in English and (2) considering that a good command of English is an important requirement in the translation of English texts, could it then be expected that participants with a high LexTALE score encounter fewer lexical and grammatical issues and are, by consequence, able to translate faster?

If any such relation would exist, this would be visible in terms of shorter translation times, lower numbers of pauses and shorter pause durations for participants with a higher LexTALE score. In order to investigate this, the participants' LexTALE scores were analysed together with their translation process data. Note that, in the appendix, the highest LexTALE scores are marked in green, whereas the lowest are marked in orange. Furthermore, low averages for any of the process variables are highlighted in blue, while high figures are marked in yellow.

Six out of fifteen participants scored over 90% on the LexTALE test: two trained students (P05, P20), three untrained students (P06, P12, P19) and the professional translator (P01_PRO).

These six participants will be referred to as the ones with the highest LexTALE scores. Only two participants scored under 80%: one trained (P07 = 77.5%) and one untrained student (P22

= 67.5%). These participants will be referred to as the ones with the lowest LexTALE scores.

Studying the results of the two participants with the lowest LexTALE scores, two completely different patterns can be observed. Whereas P22 (LexTALE: 67.5%) displays high averages for the majority of the variables in comparison to the other participants, the averages of P07 (LexTALE: 77.5%) are quite moderate and often even rather low compared to most of the other participants. This contrastive pattern may purely be the result of chance, but two other factors could be at play as well. Firstly, despite being the two lowest LexTALE scores, there is still a considerable difference of 10% between the two. P22, who scored the lowest on the LexTALE task, may have struggled much more with lexical (and potentially also grammatical) issues, which could have cost the participant a substantial amount of time. Secondly, it should be noted that P22 was untrained, while P07 was trained. By consequence, the trained student

had more experience with translating paragraphs, dealing with translation problems and applying translation strategies, whereas for the untrained student the translation task may have been more of a challenge because of his/her lack of experience.

Remarkably, when examining the results of the participants with the highest LexTALE scores, it becomes clear that none of these six participants display high averages for any of the variables. In other words, their averages are all moderate to low compared to those of the other participants with lower LexTALE scores. Participant P06 particularly stands out: he/she obtained a very high LexTALE score (96.25%) and displays very low averages for all variables, which means that he/she translated very fast. However, since the translations themselves were not the object of this study, we do not know whether these fast translation process data resulted in a qualitative translation product. Moreover, it must be stressed that it could just be a coincidence that the participant with the second highest LexTALE score obtained the lowest averages for almost all variables, especially since the participant (P12) with the highest LexTALE score of all (97.5%) did not seem to translate any faster than the average participant.

That is, the results of P12 do not show any extremely low averages for any of the variables.

The professional translator had the third highest LexTALE score of all participants (93.5%). His averages for the different variables can be situated in the middle to lower range. Particularly at clause level, his averages stand out as part of the lowest translation times, total pause durations and single pause durations.

For three participants, high to extremely high averages were recorded for all variables at both sentence and clause level. The participants in question are P03 (untrained), P04 (trained) and P23 (trained) and they obtained a LexTALE score of 83.75%, 82.5% and 87.5% respectively.

The reason why these participants' process data differ that much from those of the other participants, despite their relatively high LexTALE scores, remains a matter for conjecture. So many factors could be at play, amongst which are typing skills and personality traits such as indecisiveness. The researcher noted, for example, that P23 showed quite a few hesitations and sometimes changed his/her translation up to three times, even when his/her initial translation was adequate. An example of this behaviour can be found in Figure 3 (next page), which shows P23's pauses in milliseconds (blue values) and revisions for the translation of the control sentence in paparp paragraph 36. The source sentence was the following:

"The angel told me he was from France originally, and I immediately regretted not having paid more attention in my French classes."

·{9781}[LSHIFT]De{5569}·{1638}[LEFT][BACK][BACK][BACK][LEFT]{2122}[BACK]nde·engel[RIGHT]

[RIGHT][RIGHT]{1435}[LSHIFT][LSHIFT]Mijn·redder·{4321}vertelde{1326}·dat·hij·{6224}{1233}[LE FT][LEFT][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][LSHIFT]De[RIGHT]{1591}[LEFT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT]{3057 }[RIGHT][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK]dder{2 824}{1076}[RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][BACK]nde·engeld[BACK]{4305}{1170}[RIGHT]{2824}van

·[BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK]{6677}van·[LSHIFT]Frankrijk·kwam·en·ik·{14555}

had·metee{1014}n·spijt·dat·ik·{1560}niet·meer[BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK]beter·had·opgelet

·{1513}in·de·les·[LSHIFT]Frans[LSHIFT].{2184}[BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BACK][BA CK][BACK][BACK][LSHIFT]Franse·les[LSHIFT].[UP]{6771

Figure 3. Translation of the control sentence in paragraph 35 by P23 as recorded by Inputlog

Especially at the start of the translation, it can be seen that P23 pauses very frequently and seems indecisive about the best way to translate The angel, as he/she changes it two times (Mijn redder > De redder > De reddende engel).