Browsing by Author "Nwachukwu, Jeremiah Felix"

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    Identifying and improving reading comprehension in the translation process : a visualisation approach
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Nwachukwu, Jeremiah Felix; Feinauer, A. E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The experiment described in this dissertation is based on three basic assumptions, all of which were derived from research findings providing explanations relevant to the requirements of translation as performance process (Lörscher 2005; Wolf 2017). The first assumption is the obvious fact that “success in translation is predicated upon an ability to operate literately in more than one language” (Malmkjær 2004:4). This at least underscores the continuous relevance of translation in second-language learning and vice versa. The second has to do with the recent general acceptance among translation scholars that the type of reading involved in translation is more challenging than the one meant for other forms of communication (Jakobsen & Jansen 2008; Scott 2012:15; Boase-Beier 2014:214). Finally, considering the special nature of reading for translation, it has become expedient to identify certain skills that can enhance source-text (ST) comprehension in translation and to teach these skills to trainee translators (Hurtado Albir, Alves, Englund Dimitrova & Lacruz 2015:17). The methodology of the present study involved the recruitment of 14 students of French who were divided into two groups of seven each. Group A members initially received training on the use of Sowa’s (1984) conceptual graphs (CG) formalism in the analysis of selected news articles for the purpose of translation. CG is a visualised graph grammar derived from a phrase-structure grammar. The rationale behind the use of this formalism was based on the relationship identified between CG and the cognitive linguistic principle of flexibility and the dynamic nature of language as a meaning-making tool to enhance text visualisation. The experimental process involved the participants reading a ST written in French, answering a number of text-comprehension questions about it and translating the text. The performance of these tasks was monitored with the aid of Flashback®, a screen-recording software program that performs video and audio recordings of both on-screen and off-screen activities in order to examine how the performance of one group differs from that of another. The analysis was based on three research questions and seven hypotheses, which compared the two groups on the quality of ST comprehension in their translations, task time and dictionary use. A visualised presentation of the results reveals outcomes indicative of an overall tendency towards better ST-comprehension performance by Group A than by Group B. Tasktime results show that the group trained in the use of CG completed the experimental tasks relatively quicker than the other group. On dictionary use, a review of the process data shows that the untrained group had more dictionary lookups than the group trained in text visualisation. The conclusion is that, since training might hold a key to the development of expert tendencies in student translators, the use of text visualisation as a tool is advocated.