Adequacy, fluency and cognitive processes: evidence from translating English news articles into Arabic

Abstract

This article reports on an empirical study on cognitive processes [i.e. (dis) fluency, temporal management of the translation process, and revision] and their relationship with fluency and adequacy. Based on Jakobsen and Schou’s (1999) computational model of human translation, the author utilizes keylogging data retrieved from a Translog-II-based task to investigate the cognitive processes behind Arab translator trainees’ translations of an English news article into Arabic and unfold whether these processes predict fluency and adequacy (N = 32). Results demonstrate trainees’ segmentation of a news article into frequent short lexical segments manifested in the mean translation units (M = 141.34, SD = 44.37), reliance on online revision over end revision, and temporal delay in the drafting stage. Multiple-line regression analysis shows that translation quality is predicted by revision time, orientation time, and translation speed in addition to a positive association between translation units and translation adequacy. According to the findings, translation trainees should be equipped with ST comprehension, and TT production and revision skills.