On The Think-Aloud Protocol And Its Application To The Internal Translation Process

The study of translation process is mainly concerned with a research of all the activities involved in the act of translating. This process is of two layers: the external process and the internal process. The former manifests itself physically at two aspects—mechanic and procedural—it begins when a translator is commissioned to translation and usually ends when the translation product is completed; whereas the latter is triggered by the external process at an appropriate junctures and consists of the cognitive processing of information and then manifests itself physically as a translation product (Wen Jun, 2006: 249). Translation process study mainly focuses on the internal process of translation, and its dominant research method adopted at present is the Think (Thinking) - Aloud Protocol (TAP), one of the research methods in descriptive translation study. In the experiment of translation studies, TAP will typically involve the subjects verbalizing everything that comes into their minds and all the actions they perform as they work on the creation of a target text. The verbal report thus produced is recorded/ videoed and analyzed for the insights which reveals into what goes on inside the "black box" of the translator's mind.Traditional translation study has not been perfect for its focus is often on the translation products instead of the translation process. As a result, a number of shortcomings have emerged: (1) Most of the past translation studies are prescriptive and product-oriented rather than descriptive or process-oriented; (2) Though we have had various translation theories, few of them could interpret clearly the translators' inner mental process during translation; (3) Translation theories are, not satisfactorily put into practice, not well interrelated to experimental researches, thus lacking the empirical features; (4) By now, though some researches have been made about TAP, a systematic experiment design has not been given full to its scale, what's more, the study on variables and limitation of TAP that may influence the results of experiment is not yet adequate or thorough; (5) Little research has been done on the correlation between the strategy, the unit of translation and the translator's bilingual level, cultural knowledge and translation competence; nor has there been much study made on the influence of translation brief and translation manner upon the effect of translation.In order to overcome those limitations of the traditional translation studies, this thesis employs the TAP to explore the inner process of translation. Translation is a special cognitive activity, for its inner processes can be displayed by the protocols of subjects. Its advantages lie in that it is descriptive, objective and process-oriented. By means of TAP, the subjects verbalize all their mental activities including the potential strategies during the process of translation, in order to make faithful and detailed records to be utilized to analyze the protocols and to draw findings.This thesis presents a detailed account of the TAP, including the demonstration, argumentation and criticism systematically. It first introduces the historical development of TAP generated from two American scholars' - Ericsson and Simon's experimental standard and operation instructions in psychological study during the 1980s, pointing out that more and more researchers have been taking an increasing interest in the improvement and refinement of it ever since then. Moreover, it argues that the dialogue mode of TAP can be complementary to the monologue mode, and that some supplementary methods such as questionnaire and interview approach after the TAP experiment can be used to check its efficacy. Next, this paper goes on to illustrate the operation procedure in detail, offering a comprehensive analysis of the major variables of TAP and raising hypotheses with respect to the TAP. In addition, the paper claims that only by controlling those variables, especially the important dichotomies among them, can the purpose of ensuring the maximum validity of TAP experiments be realized. Following that is a discussion on some disputable comments on the limitations and prospects of TAP, with some feasible proposals offered to overcome its deficiency. Then, a sample TAP experiment design and the issues related to practice are addressed in an all-around way. Finally, the paper, based on the TAP theories, has made a case study on translation process. With its findings highlighted, the hypotheses raised in a preceding chapter are proved and conclusions are drawn in the end. Meanwhile, the paper also emphasizes that though some researchers holding different opinions and even queries against the reliability of TAP, most recent experiments have testified that TAP is the just way to make research into the inner process of translation.On the whole, this dissertation compares how individuals differ in dealing with the E-C and C-E translation in translation process both mentally and physically through the TAP by combining theory and practice together, discusses the relationship between subjects' translation strategies, units they adopt and their knowledge, experience and translation competence. In addition, the thesis demonstrates the significant role TAP plays in helping to discover the nature of translation process, to shed light on the methodology in translation, and to contribute to the training of interpreters and translators. Such a study, a good attempt to study TAP and its application to C-E and E-C translation practice, yet has its confinements because of the strictly demanded experiment condition as well as the limited time and resource, therefore, this study of TAP remains open to criticism and needs further and widely research.