Back Translation Activity
- Give your taped
translation of “The Gift” by Bobbi Jordan to a classmate.
- The classmate
must not review the script or check against your own notes.
- The classmate
will voice the signed translation onto a recorder. The voicing may be
“literal” rather than idiomatic. The purpose here is if the translation
faithfully preserved the content of the source text. So that is fine.
4. Now, you will only listen to the
voiced interpretation and sign onto a
blank videotape (the practice tape
for ITP 163). Do not check or review your original
translation yet.
5. After completing your signed
interpretation of the voiced interpretation, you are to compare
the original sign translation
against the second sign translation. Use the transcript for “The
Gift”. Check against every chunk.
0 The
thought is missing, nothing was signed.
1 Too
much information, or too many facts, or data are missing. There are some major
grammatical errors. It is unintelligible due to major sign production errors or
poor grammar.
2 Some/A
little information, facts, or data are missing. There are minor grammatical and
some minor sign production errors.
3 All
there in good form and clearly understood
6. and write down the errors on
each chunk of information using the taxonomy of errors below:
·
3 for Not serious: an
error that does not skew the message; usually reformulation.
·
2 for Somewhat serious:
an error that does not skew the message; omission of detail or production error.
·
1 for Quite serious: total
skew of the message due to following English syntax instead of target language
syntax
·
0 for Very Serious: total
skew of the message due to comprehension problems.
7. Then total
the number of errors in each category. Look at the errors made, what kind of
errors
was made?
- If an error
occurs early in the translation process, at the analysis stage then it is
likely there will be more serious errors in the remaining stages of the
process.
- If you do not
correctly understand the message you will not be able to transfer or
reformulate it.
- If you can
understand the message but can not transfer it, you will have difficulty
reformulating it.
- If the error
occurs at the comprehension stage, the error would be classified as very
serious.
- If the error
occurs at later stages in the translation process it is likely to be
categorized as less serious.
- Awareness of
where in the process errors can occur can lead to improved translations in a
systematic fashion.
8. What you are
looking for in a translation are:
- Accuracy:
an accurate translation conveys all of the information that is justified by
the source text. i.e., including information that is not justified in the
source text. That is, the translation must convey the intended message without
extraneous information.
- Clarity:
the translation must be understandable to the people who are depending on it
for information. It is possible for a translation to be accurate without being
clear. An unclear translation generally contains ambiguity. Ambiguity is
present when a phrase or sentence could have more than one meaning in a
specific context. A chunk of information may be accurate but present in a
confusing manner so the meaning was not clear.
- Naturalness:
a translation can be accurate and clear and still not be natural. A natural
translation is idiomatic and uses the grammatical forms ordinarily used in the
target language. Does the translation “flow” easily? Does it “sound right” to
speakers of the language or does it sound “foreign”? Ideally the translation
does not sound like a translation, instead it sounds like a text originally
created in that language.
9. Doing this
assignment will help you determine the kind of errors and help you find the
weak
areas of your
work and use that information to develop your ASL and English improvement plan.
10. Submit a final
transcript of “The Gift” outlining areas that need improvement. This activity is
due Tuesday,
January 20, 2009.