Methods and Strategies of Process Research: Integrative approaches in Translation Studies(94 Benjamins Translation Library)

The volume includes contributions on the cognitive processes underlying translation and interpreting, which represent innovative research with a methodological and empirical orientation. The methodological section offers an assessment/validation of different time lag measures; discusses the challenges of interpreting keystroke and eye-tracking data in translation, and triangulating disfluency analysis and eye-tracking data in sight translation research. The remainder of the volume features empirical studies on such topics as: metaphor comprehension; audience perception in subtitling research; translation and meta-linguistic awareness; effect of language-pair specific factors on interpreting quality. A special section is dedicated to expertise studies which look at the link between problem analysis and meta-knowledge in experienced translators; the effects of linguistic complexity on expert interpreting; strategic processing and tacit knowledge in professional interpreting. The volume celebrates the work of Birgitta Englund Dimitrova and her contribution to the development of process-oriented research.

Table of Contents:
1. Foreword; 2. Methods and strategies of process research: Integrative approaches in Translation Studies (by Alvstad, Cecilia); 3. Part I. Conceptual and methodological discussions; 4. Interpreting in theory and practice: Reflections about an alleged gap (by Wadensjo, Cecilia); 5. Reflections on the literal translation hypothesis (by Chesterman, Andrew); 6. Tracking translators' keystrokes and eye movements with Translog (by Jakobsen, Arnt Lykke); 7. Seeing translation from inside the translator's mind (by Mossop, Brian); 8. Metonymic language use as a student translation problem: Towards a controlled psycholinguistic investigation (by Vandepitte, Sonia); 9. Sight translation and speech disfluency: Performance analysis as a window to cognitive translation processes (by Shreve, Gregory M.); 10. Time lag in translation and interpreting: A methodological exploration (by Timarova, Sarka); 11. Part II. Process research in interpreting and translation; 12. A new pair of glasses: Translation skills in secondary school (by Shlesinger, Miriam); 13. Are primary conceptual metaphors easier to understand than complex conceptual metaphors?: An investigation of the cognitive processes in metaphor comprehension (by Fougner Rydning, Antin); 14. Innovative subtitling: A reception study (by Kunzli, Alexander); 15. Errors, omissions and infelicities in broadcast interpreting: Preliminary findings from a case study (by Gile, Daniel); 16. On cognitive processes during wordplay translation: Students translating adversarial humor (by Norberg, Ulf); 17. "Can you ask her about chronic illnesses, diabetes and all that?" (by Angelelli, Claudia V.); 18. Part III. Studies of interpreting and translation expertise; 19. Effects of linguistic complexity on expert processing during simultaneous interpreting (by Hild, Adelina); 20. Process and product in simultaneous interpreting: What they tell us about experience and expertise (by Tiselius, Elisabet); 21. Developing professional thinking and acting within the field of interpreting (by Vik-Tuovinen, Gun-Viol); 22. Results of the validation of the PACTE translation competence model: Translation problems and translation competence (by Beeby, Allison); 23. "This led me to start thinking about how this happened, and what the process behind it would be": An interview with Professor Birgitta Englund Dimitrova (by Tiselius, Elisabet); 24. Publications by Birgitta Englund Dimitrova; 25. Notes on contributors; 26. Index

Review :
The volume comprises an impressive overview of and well-founded insights into current translation and interpreting process research and methodologies, with a particular and welcome emphasis on empirical studies. It should prove very valuable indeed for all who wish to understand and research the cognitive processes of translating and interpreting. There’s no greater tribute to the importance of Birgitta Englund Dimitrova’s work than this long-overdue, state-of-the-art collection of papers from scholars around the world who have been seminal in the development of process studies and observational approaches to translation and interpretation. It’s a must read for anyone interested in understanding or doing descriptive research in our field. This collection of papers is at the same time a testimony to the significance of Professor Englund Dimitrova’s work as a translation process researcher and teacher and a snapshot of state-of-the-art methodological development and critique within this area of translation and interpreting research. The success in combining these two objectives is a considerable achievement on the part of the editors. Methods and Strategies of Process Research presents the latest empirical findings in process-oriented research by influential translation and interpreting scholars from twelve countries. Its innovative methodology and extensive research scope make the volume highly relevant to students and researchers and encourage them to build on them in their own further investigations. It should be acknowledged that process-oriented research has gained considerable momentum and can be expected to become a subdiscipline in its own right within the wider framework of translation studies. Generally speaking, the volume has fulfilled its purpose of elaborating on methods and strategies of process research through different approaches. It is a must-read for anyone interested in this field. [...] the editors should be applauded for their effort in publishing this rich collection of papers that are of interest to all those who want to investigate the cognitive processes that influence translation behaviour. It offers fine illustrations of the wealth of innovative techniques that have become available in recent years to study the nature of cognitive processes when translating. The editors have succeeded in safeguarding the link with process research throughout the book, and the diverse selection of topics and methods renders the book suitable for those entering the discipline as students as well as for established scholars. In a time when translation studies is not yet recognized as an autonomous discipline in most countries (as deplored by Professor Englund Dimitrova herself in the interview that constitutes the book’s closing chapter, p. 358), this volume is much needed and will surely add to the field’s significance with its thorough investigation of what can be considered the psycholinguistic division of the domain of translation studies.