Working Styles of Student Translators in Revision and Post-editing: an Empirical-Experimental Study with Eye-tracking, Keylogging and Cue-based Retrospection

Abstract

In today’s translation profession, being skilful at revision (including self-revision and other-revision) and post-editing tasks is becoming essential for translators. The exploration of the working styles of student translators in the revision and post-editing processes is vital in helping us to understand the nature of these tasks, and may help in improving pedagogy. Drawing on theories from translation-related studies, cognitive psychology, and text comprehension and production, the aims of this research were to: (1) identify the basic types of reading and typing activity (physical activities) of student translators in the processes of revision and post-editing, and to measure statistically and compare the duration of these activities within and across tasks; (2) identify the underlying purposes (mental activities) behind each type of reading and typing activity; (3) categorise the basic types of working style of student translators and compare the frequency of use of each working style both within and across tasks; (4) identify the personal working styles of student translators in carrying out different tasks, and (5) identify the most efficient working style in each task.
Eighteen student translators from Durham University, with Chinese as L1 and English as L2, were invited to participate in the experiment. They were asked to translate, self-revise, other-revise and post-edit three comparable texts in Translog-II with the eye-tracking plugin activated. A cue-based retrospective interview was carried out after each session to collect the student translators’ subjective and conscious data for qualitative analysis. The raw logging data were transformed into User Activity Data and were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively.
This study identified seven types of reading and typing activity in the processes of self-revision, other-revision and post-editing. Three revision phases were defined and four types of working style were recognised. The student translators’ personal working styles were compared in all three tasks. In addition, a tentative model of their cognitive processes in self-revision, other-revision and post-editing was developed, and the efficiency of the four working styles in each task was tested.