Important Issues for Translation Consultants


1. Written/visual versus audio/aural medium considerations

Written translations

o Designed to be seen and read

o Static

· Readers can easily control information flow (can stop, pause, reread)

· Relatively easy access to larger contexts

o If desired readers can more actively engage with the information in a text (e.g. highlight info in the text, make notes in the text, etc., stop and ponder what they have read, etc.)

o Checking includes attention to formatting (visual) components - cues that help the reader process information in meaningful ways

o Abundance of paratextual aids

· Sub-headings; sentence & paragraph breaks (i.e. visual discourse markers); punctuation marks

· Footnotes, cross-references, glossaries

o Practical consultant checking & revision benefits

· Ability to search; perform consistency checks; make comparisons

· Relatively easy to pinpoint and revise small portions

o Translators are usually anonymous with regard to the printed text

Audio translations

o Designed to be heard

o More difficult for listener to control information flow (especially if listening in a group, but even for individuals listening to their own devices). If a listener hears something that they don’t understand and stops to think about it, they miss the part of the message that follows the thing they didn’t understand.

o Listeners have less control of information; more difficult to actively engage with the message

o Difficult to access larger contexts (much higher dependence on the listener's memory)

o Added potential benefits and dangers inherent in voice communication

· Benefits

        • Meaning can be 'encoded' in intonation, stress, pauses, amplification, emotion, alternating speakers, etc.
        • Life/living aspects of human speech
        • A speaker’s voice, especially in a small language community, can be recognized and can be beneficial if there is no danger to the speaker and if the speaker has a good reputation
      • Dangers
        • It is difficult for a TC (and TA) to ascertain the impact of paralinguistic features of a translation unless very fluent in target language
        • Ways to mediate/have some control of paralinguistic features - better native speaker reviewer training and producing final recordings using selected speakers
        • A speaker’s voice, especially in a small language community, can be recognized and can be a danger in a sensitive situation or if the speaker has or later receives a bad reputation

o Practical consultant checking & revision challenges

      • Clarity and naturalness issues are extremely important

· Revisions much more difficult than for written (also a tendency to introduce new omissions and errors when rerecording large passages)

· Need for ongoing awareness that meaning encoded in written formatting (sentence & paragraph breaks; punctuation marks; etc.) may not be coming across in the spoken version

· Working with audio recordings

· Dependence on aural vs visual reference points

· Presenting adequate context for checkers to be able to respond to questions

2. Back translations

o Producing useful back translations requires ongoing training (best provided by or a least guided by the consultant)

o Most consultants (especially expat) want a transcribed version of the oral back translation in Render.

o Some practical reasons

a. audio back translations are cumbersome to work with

b. difficult to compare the translation with a source (original & other)

c. most consultants tend to view one of their primary duties to be ensuring accuracy

o Consultant-translation team interaction via recorded notes can feel very inefficient

o Some options currently being used (these assume the presence of a Translation Adviser who serves as an intermediary between TC and translators)

1. Render produced transcriptions of audio back translations pasted into a Paratext back translation project and the TC interacts with the team via PT notes

2. Emailed written notes (with MS Word attachments, etc.)

3. WhatsApp and/or Zoom conversations

o Some options for producing back translations outside of Render

1. Paratext interlinearizer applied to a transcribed (using even an ad hoc orthography) version of the audio translation

2. Directly typing the back translations into Paratext or a Word doc and then into Paratext

o Misc.

o Literal back translations can be especially important for OBT consultants who usually don’t have a copy of the written text of the translation to refer to during checking.

3. Testing in the community

o Importance of training the translation teams for effective comprehension and acceptability testing of the translation in various speaker communities, first in a workshop setting and then outside the workshop setting

4. Translation Adviser

Note: the following probably apply equally to written or oral translation

o A consultant's indispensable advocate in the field

· Translation-wise; personnel-wise, etc.

o Contributions by importance

i. Motivation

ii. Interpersonal relations

iii. LWC and target language expertise

iv. Translation expertise

5. Importance of checking larger discourse units

o Due to the tendency for the audio source to be served up (translated) in discrete pieces that can appear to be disconnected to the larger context

o Especially important in OBT projects due to the need for a high degree of clarity and naturalness in the oral translation

6. Generally higher level of consultant involvement at least in the beginning

o OBT projects emphasize just-in-time, on-the-job training best done with TC involvement

o General lack of available exegetical & translation expertise

TC needs to reinforce and follow-up initial traini