Testing and Assessment in Translation and Interpreting Studies: A call for dialogue between research and practice(XIV American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series)

Testing and Assessment in Translation and Interpreting Studies examines issues of measurement that are essential to translation and interpreting. Conceptualizing testing both as a process and a product, the collection of papers explores these issues across languages and settings (including university classrooms, research projects, the private sector, and professional associations). The authors have approached their chapters from different perspectives using a variety of methods, some focusing on very specific variables, and others providing a much broader overview of the issues at hand. Chapters range from a discussion of the measurement of text cohesion in translation; the measurement of interactional competence in interpreting; the use of a particular scale to measure interpreters’ renditions to the application of a specific approach to grading or general program assessment (such as interpreter or translator certification at the national level or program admissions processes). These studies point to the need for greater integration of research and practice in the specific area of testing and assessment and are a welcome addition to the field.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction. Testing and assessment in translation and interpreting studies: A call for dialogue between research and practice (by Angelelli, Claudia V.); 2. Part 1. The development of assessment instruments: Theoretical applications; 3. Using a rubric to assess translation ability: Defining the construct (by Angelelli, Claudia V.); 4. Moving beyond words in assessing mediated interaction: Measuring interactional competence in healthcare settings (by Jacobson, Holly E.); 5. Part 2. The development of assessment instruments: Empirical approaches; 6. The perks of norm-referenced translation evaluation (by Eyckmans, June); 7. Revisiting Carroll's scales (by Tiselius, Elisabet); 8. Meaning-oriented assessment of translations: SFL and its application to formative assessment (by Kim, Mira); 9. Assessing cohesion: Developing assessment tools on the basis of comparable corpora (by Baer, Brian James); 10. Assessing software localization: For a valid approach (by Dunne, Keiran J.); 11. Part 3. Professional certification: Lessons from case studies; 12. The predictive validity of admission tests for interpreting courses in Europe: A case study (by Timarova, Sarka); 13. Getting it right from the start: Program admission testing of signed language interpreters (by Bontempo, Karen); 14. Standards as critical success factors in assessment: Certifying social interpreters in Flanders, Belgium (by Vermeiren, Hildegard); 15. Assessing ASL-English interpreters: The Canadian model of national certification (by Russell, Debra); 16. Author index; 17. Subject index

Review :
[...] the variety of the topics and approaches chosen in the volume faithfully reflects the current trends of research in translation and interpreting studies, all of the with a common focus on assessment. [..] most contributions als state their limitations, implications and future research potential, three aspects which may be highly appreciated by those readers currently doing research in the field of assessment of translation and interpreting. The quality and orginality of the selected papers is perceived throughout the volume, which may certainly be of special interest to trainers, graders abd researchers, especially to those working in professional certification projects. Last but not least, the extensive references provided at the end of each paper will undoubtedly be of great value to those lay to the topic of testing and assessment and wishing to continue reading on it. The articles may include different approaches to testing [...], but they all share a common purpose: that of initiating dialogue between theory and practice and improving the assessment methods currently used. And they are generally written in a style accessible to all those who should be interested in the topic of testing and assessment in translation and interpreting studies: professors of translation and interpreting, professional translators and interpreters, even students of translation and interpreting. This work is a must-read for all those interested in the professionalization of translation and interpreting. This volume is a valuable and enlightening one in the empirical studies on university translation and interpreting programs. [...] The findings in this volume will provide insights into the understanding of thestatus quo in certification tests and admission tests, and also into the improvement of evaluation methods and development of new testing tools forquality assessment. This volume is a stepping stone for researchers, practitioners, test designers, course instructors and other stakeholders toblaze a new trail to rethink their test constructs and test methodologies in summative, formative or diagnostic assessments.