Approaches to Assessing Translation Proficiency

Abstract

Introduction. An important component of the system of specialized translation competence development is the assessment of its proficiency level, which should be based on the latest developments in the field of translator training methodology, the translation service industry requirements, and current national and international academic standards. The purpose of this paper is to analyze approaches to translation competence assessment and to distinguish those relevant to assessing specialized translation proficiency of 4th-year Philology students. The author applies theoretical research methods: analyzing research papers referring to translation assessment and academic standards namely the CEFR and the PETRA-E Framework, collating and generalizing their key ideas and provisions as well as synthesizing them in order to outline the approaches to specialized translation competence assessment. Discussion. The level-based approach should be implemented through defining the initial and target levels of specialized translation proficiency separately for English-Ukrainian and Ukrainian-English language pairs and taking into account the CEFR global scale descriptors concerning translating a written text in writing, modified with regard to text type, translation variation (full, fragmentary, summary, abstract), and ICT skills; as well as the PETRA-E Framework competence-based descriptors, altered in accordance with specialized translation features, in particular, terminology and subject matter knowledge and relevant skills. The process-oriented approach is better manifested during formative assessment, the purpose of which is to receive feedback on the effect of specialized translation knowledge acquisition and skill formation. It is implemented through the check-list method and translation text analysis. The product-oriented approach involves evaluating the target text using holistic, analytic (analytic proper, error count, check-list, and norm-referenced) and combined methods depending on translation variation, type and purpose of assessment. Conclusions. Assessing specialized translation competence of 4th-year students majoring in Philology is a complex multifaceted process that is grounded on the level-based, process-oriented and product-oriented approaches. Their implementation relies on the modified CEFR and PETRA-E Framework proficiency descriptors and depends on translation variation, assessment type and purpose.