What You See Is What You Get?

1. What You See Is What You Get? Access to Visual Informationin Translation Interfaces: A Pilot Experiment José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group of Research Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

2. What You See Is Waht You Get? Outline • Intro to a problem • Pilot experiment design • Results • Conclusions José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

3. What You See Is Waht You Get? 1. Intro to a problem José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

4. What You See Is Waht You Get? Translation Interfaces A definition: A translation interface is the visual environment that translators see on screen as they “edit the text”. José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

5. What You See Is Waht You Get? A Bit of Text Linguistics A text is made up by verbal and non-verbal information elements. • Verbal elements: the characters • Non-verbal elements: • Images • Layout • Space distribution of information(tables, headings, paragraphs, etc.) José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

6. What You See Is Waht You Get? The Problem In many translation interfaces, the non-verbal information elements are not present or displayed as they are displayed in the source text, or will be displayed in the target text. José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

7. What You See Is Waht You Get? Hypotheses • Filtering out the non-verbal information of texts when students translate using a non-WYSIWYG translation interface affects negatively on the quality of the target texts produced, and on the production speed. • Texts translated using WYSIWYG translation interfaces include fewer errors than those translated using non-WYSIWYG interfaces. • When translators use WYSIWYG translation interfaces, they work faster than when they use non-WYSIWYG interfaces. José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

8. What You See Is Waht You Get? 2. The Pilot Experiment José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

9. What You See Is Waht You Get? Experiment Design I Informants: • 6 Postgrad Students • En >> Es language combination • Semi-professionals • Limited expertise using TM tools José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

10. What You See Is Waht You Get? Experiment Design II Tools: • Trados + Word: WYSIWYG Interface • Trados TagEditor: non-WYSIWYG Interface • Same Tool • 2 Translation Interfaces José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

11. What You See Is Waht You Get? Experiment Design III Texts: • 2 Texts (En >> Es) • User manuals • Comparable length and structure • Adapted to evaluate the informants’ performance in specific situations: • Punctuation errors and foreign rules • Unclear syntax • References to images • Homonymy José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

12. What You See Is Waht You Get? Experiment Design IV Data Compilation: • Translated Texts • Direct Observation (researcher present during translation) • Screen-recording videos of the computer activity • Analyze decisions • Evaluate time devoted to the activities José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

13. What You See Is Waht You Get? 3. Results José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

14. What You See Is Waht You Get? Punctuation All the informants had the same or fewer errors when they translated with the WYSIWYG interface. Total errors • WYSIWYG: 12 • Non-WYSIWYG: 20 José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

15. What You See Is Waht You Get? Images, Homonymy, Syntax • Subject-matter knowledge more relevant than visual information • Little subject-matter knowledge + non-WYSIWYG interface = More risk of errors • No clear group patterns • Qualitative data from each informant • References to images in text José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

16. What You See Is Waht You Get? Other Observed Issues • Inconsistent marking of button names with punctuation marks. • Inconsistent use of capitalization. • Problems not detected because the informant focused on another confusing element of the same segment. José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

17. What You See Is Waht You Get? Timing No clear time difference between time needed and the interface used. When they used the non-WYSIWYG interface, informants worked faster in the “easy” parts, and needed extra time to make “complex” translation decisions. José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

18. What You See Is Waht You Get? 4. Conclusions José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

19. What You See Is Waht You Get? Final Thoughts I Lack of visual information in the translation environment is directly related to: • punctuation problems • inadequate translation decisions because of lack of awareness of a problem (in some scenarios) • extra time needed to make right translation decisions (when aware of a potential problem – in some scenarios) José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

20. What You See Is Waht You Get? Final Thoughts II Lack of visual information in the translation environment may also involve faster translation decisions in low-risk parts of the text (fewer distraction elements). Translation strategies changed depending on the tool used. Training on tools for translators should go beyond the technical know-how. José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)

21. What You See Is Waht You Get? Discussion José Ramón Biau Giljoseramon.biauATurv.cat Intercultural Studies Grouphttp://isg.urv.es Universitat Rovira i VirgiliTarragona (Spain) José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)