Two decades of Swedish empirical process- oriented research on translation and interpreting

1. TwodecadesofSwedish empirical process-oriented research on translation and interpreting Birgitta Englund Dimitrova, Stockholm University Presentation at TREC seminar, Barcelona, June 2013 Birgitta.Englund@su.se

2. Period 1, 1993-1997Beginning the beguine • Several projects start (Englund Dimitrova, Jonasson, Williams) • Data collection – TAPs, keystroke logging, recorded interpreting • Data analysis – how to make sense of the data??

3. Semanticchange in translationEnglund Dimitrova • Initial research question (rephrased and simplified): How is the translator’s semantic representation of the source text reflected in the target text? • Russian>Swedish • Participants with different experience of translation: professionals, translation students, language students • TAPs, keystroke logging (Scriptlog), video recordings (not analysed), retrospective interviews (not analysed)

4. Developmentoftranslationcompetence over timeEnglund Dimitrova, from 1997 Azbel Schmidt • Russian-Swedish • Translation students, doingtranslation tasks thatwere part oftheirtraining; re-recorded 4 yearsafterfinishingtheirtraining • TAPs, keystrokelogging (Scriptlog)

5. Translationability and translatorialcompetence- developmentoftranslationcompetence over timeKerstin Jonasson • French-Swedish • Professional translators, translation students • TAPs • Intended as a combined cross-sectional and longitudinal study, but is in effect a cross-sectional comparison between professional translators and translation students • Published analyses of participants’ textual awareness

6. Processes in simultaneousinterpretingSarah Williams (deceased 1996) • Audio recordingsofprofessional interpreters and of students in conference interpreter training over time • English> Swedish • Connectingtheories from Second LanguageAcquisitionwithinterpreting studies

7. Period 2, 1998-2002Increasing the pace: analysing data and networking • 3 PhD students join their projects to the research environment (Azbel Schmidt 1997, Künzli 1997/1999, Norberg 1999) • Dedicated PhD seminar for (general) Translation Studies 1999-2001 • Englund Dimitrova member of EXPERTISE network from 2000

8. Project Semanticchange in translation(Englund Dimitrova) develops in twodirections • Focuses on one type of ”semantic change”, explicitations • Compares also more general similarities and differences in the translation process of participants with different translation experience, with a special focus on self-revisions

9. Publicationofpapers from international symposium on interpreting, 2000, Benjamins

10. Period 3, 2003-2007Fruit ripening – and some new sprouts • Three doctoral dissertations published • One monograph published • Künzli has new project on other-revision (French>Swedish, French>German, TAPs), 2005-2006 • Master’s Thesis in bilingualism on process and product in simultaneous interpreting (Tiselius 2007)

11. 2003 Ulf Norberg dissertation • Prof. translators with long vs short experience • TAPs • Two different skopoi; German > Swedish • Results: • Differences in attitude in process • Short experience > evenbettertarget texts! • Substantialindividualdifferences in process

12. 2003 Künzli dissertation • Prof. translators vs translation students • French>German, French>Swedish, technical text • TAPs • Results: • Experience and language combination influence choice of translation strategies • Conflict between verbalized and actual translation principle in students’ processes /

13. 2005 Azbel Schmidt dissertation • Longitudinal studyoftranslation students in training and after 4 years • Russian>Swedish • TAPs, ScriptLog • Results: • Individualconceptualframeremainsduringtraining • Writing skills in TL ofimportance for translation process and performance

14. 2005 Englund Dimitrova • Prof. translators, translation students, language students • Russian> Swedish • TAPs, ScriptLog • Cross-sectionalcomparisonof process ofparticipantswith different experience • Elaboratesmethod for combined process and productanalysis

15. Period 4, 2008-2013 The new sprouts • PhD thesis to be submitted, any moment now, June 2013…. Tiselius Experience and Expertise in Conference Interpreting. An investigation of Swedish conference interpreters • MA thesis 2010 on text types in the translation process (Raphael Sannholm) • MA thesis 2011 on idioms and fixed phrases in the translation process (Tanja Leirvåg)

16. And also… • A continuedinterest in different research methods, e.g. retrospection (Englund Dimitrova & Tiselius) • A continuedinterest in relating the process to the product(Englund Dimitrova)

17. And another publication (surprise, surprise…)

18. Taking stock and lookingahead - somecharacteristicsof Swedish process-oriented research • Mostly individual projects, designed and carried out by the resp. researcher • Most have a combined process and product perspective, incl. analysis of textual aspects; • Recurrent topics: • experience and expertise in the translation and interpreting process, studied both cross-sectionally and longitudinally; • Revision (both self-revision and other-revision) important focus for some projects; • Also studies of the cognitive processes of interpreting. • Methods include think-aloud-protocols, retrospection, keystroke logging and audio recordings (of interpreting);

19. Three years from now? • Elisabet Tiselius will have results from her planned study on naïve translation, children as interpreters • Birgitta Englund Dimitrova will have results from her project The translator’s individual space: a combined process and product study of translators working into their TL from more than one SL, linking elements of textual translator style to elements of their process profile

20. A bibliography of Swedish empirical process-oriented research can be found under Bibliographies at http://su-se.academia.edu/BirgittaEnglundDimitrova/Bibliographies

21. Thankyou! Birgitta.Englund@su.se