What You See Is What You Get?
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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)
Outline
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
1. Intro to a problem
2. Pilot experiment design
3. Results
4. Conclusions
1. Intro to a problem
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
Translation Interfaces
A definition:
A translation interface is the visual environment that translators see on screen as they “edit the text”.
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
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.)
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
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.
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
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.
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
2. The Pilot Experiment
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
Experiment Design I
Informants:
• 6 Postgrad Students
• En >> Es language combination
• Semi-professionals
• Limited expertise using TM tools
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
Experiment Design II
Tools:
– Trados + Word: WYSIWYG Interface
– Trados TagEditor: non-WYSIWYG Interface
• Same Tool
• 2 Translation Interfaces
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
Experiment Design IIITexts:• 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
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
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
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
3. Results
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
Punctuation
All the informants had the same or fewer errors when they translated with the WYSIWYG interface.
Total errors– WYSIWYG: 12 – Non-WYSIWYG: 20
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
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
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
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.
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
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.
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
4. Conclusions
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
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)
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
Final Thoughts IILack 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.
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)
Discussion
José Ramón Biau Giljoseramon.biauATurv.cat
Intercultural Studies Grouphttp://isg.urv.es
Universitat Rovira i VirgiliTarragona (Spain)
What You See Is Waht You Get?
José Ramón Biau Gil 2007Intercultural Studies Group
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain)