Comparability of difficulty levels of translation tasks in CET-6 parallel test forms: evidence from product and process-based data

Liu, Yanmei; Zheng, Binghan

Abstract

This study investigates the comparability of three parallel translation tasks selected from a College English Test Band-6 (CET-6) and explores the major linguistic features contributing to translation difficulty. Data obtained from the participants’ subjective rating, eye-tracking, and performance evaluation were triangulated to measure the comparability of difficulty levels of parallel translation tasks. Data of word translation entropy, translation errors, and participants’ retrospective reports were correlated to examine the difficulty triggers. The results show that: (i) the text comparability was evidenced by eye-tracking indicators and performance measurements, but not supported by subjective ratings; (ii) the domain content words (DCWs) were reported by the participants as the major cause of translation difficulties and the unequal number of DCWs among the three tasks led to inconsistent ratings for the task difficulty. Our findings suggest that test-takers’ subjective perception and their cognitive skills deserve serious consideration by test designers, as these two factors can better demonstrate difficulty levels among parallel tasks. Our study postulates a new direction to establish a relationship between task characteristics and test validity, and provides suggestions for the CET-6 committee and other examination boards with practical methods to be able to compare the difficulty levels of parallel translation tasks.

Citation

Liu, Y., & Zheng, B. (2022). Comparability of difficulty levels of translation tasks in CET-6 parallel test forms: evidence from product and process-based data. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 16(4), 428-447. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399x.2022.2036938

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 29, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 14, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 15, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 15, 2022
• Journal: The Interpreter and Translator Trainer
• Print ISSN: 1750-399X
• Electronic ISSN: 1757-0417
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 428-447
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399x.2022.2036938
• Keywords: Difficulty levels; Chinese-English translation; CET-6; domain content words; parallel test forms
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1215411