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Translation of survey instruments

Alisú Schoua-Glusberg, Ph.D.

Research Support Services

DC/AAPOR Presentation – 7/7/04

Translation methods for survey instruments

This presentation will focus on:

problems involved in questionnaire translation
methods and approaches for the translation of survey instruments,
use of qualitative methods to assess translation quality and the performance of the translated instrument,
providing survey translators the information they need.

Research Support Services - 2004

When is Questionnaire Translation Necessary?

Cross-national studies
Cross-cultural studies
National studies by Federal Statistical Agencies
Studies of special populations
Studies where sample falls in areas with significant concentrations of speakers of other languages

Factors to Consider to Define the Target Audience of Translated Instruments

Language minorities
Immigrant populations
Monolingual (or at least not

bilingual)

Language different from designers’
Lower level of education
Age at immigration
Hybrid culture
Different degrees of acculturation

Source & Target Question Characteristics to Consider

Meaning
Style
Complexity
Source flexibility
Cultural aspects
Existence of equivalent realities

Using Previous Translations of Questions vs. Translating Anew

Issues:

Maintaining longitudinal comparability vs. improving questions
Is priority to compare with past translations or with English questionnaire?

Questionnaires are a Complex Text Type

Little context to clarify ‘intended meaning’
Ambiguous
Measurement properties lead to ‘surveyspeak’ and ‘scalespeak’ (Harkness 1996)
Translators thus often not versed in questionnaire discourse ‘rules’
Special kind of conversation

Question ‘Equivalence’ is Expected in Translation

Expectation that the translated question…

Says the same thing
Means the same thing
Measures the same thing
Measures equivalently (e.g. scales)
Imposes same burden on respondents
Meets reliability and validity requirements

Translators make decisions about:

Semantics

Syntax (structure)

Pragmatics

They need to understand:

Intended “meaning” in order to translate

Covert (measurement) intention and requirements

Translators’ Job

Have little context and co-text

Have little supporting documentation

Often have no questionnaire ‘author’ to consult

May experience uncertainly about what to “match”

May make decisions based on their experience with other types of text

Translators therefore…

Risks of Overly Close Translations

Focus on meaning of words rather than meaning of questions
Rs are inadvertently asked a different question
Processing is more complex
Translated questionnaire sounds unidiomatic

Steps in producing and testing quex translations

Translation
Translation review
Decisions/Adjudication
Quality control
Qualitative research
Pretesting
Documentation

Survey Translation Approaches

One translator - one translation (direct translation)
Multiple translators – one translation (split committee)
Multiple translators – multiple parallel translations (parallel committee)

Committee Approach

Three translators prepare translations independently (split or parallel)
Reconciliation meeting with referee
Qualitative research with monolinguals (focus groups and/or cognitive interviews)

Committee Approach: Reconciliation Meeting

Question-by-question review
Reaching consensus when possible
Providing alternatives if no consensus possible
Identifying terms/items for qualitative research

Committee Approach: Referee’s Role

Resolves style disagreements
Manages interaction
Brings survey researcher perspective
Keeps an eye on source version
Pushes for global decisions
Liaison with research team for consultation and documentation

Committee Approach: Cognitive Interviews

Allow to administer all or part of instrument
Give a glimpse into thought processes
Allow to see how different alternative terms work

Committee Approach: Focus Groups

Permit to distinguish what is idiosyncratic
Allow us to listen to how Rs. use language
Allow to include more people in a shorter time
Allow to include different national origin Rs and see if they reach consensus

Advantages of Committee/ Team Approaches

Group process benefits
Include different varieties of language in translation team
Qualitative research that follows allows to incorporate the target population into process
Relatively low cost
Relatively quick

selected committee translations 2000 2004

NSFG (U. Mich.)

ATUS (BLS)

NHSDA (RTI)

ICARIS (Battelle)

NMHS (Battelle)

SLAITS Asthma Q. (Abt)

Job Corps Student Q. (Battelle)

Survey of Consumer Attitudes (U. Mich.)

Catholic Voters Political Attitudes (BRS)

McNair Program Evaluation (DIR)

L.A. Latino Eye Study (USC)

Women’s Health Initiative Q. (U. Mich.)

WHO Health & Performance Q. (Harvard)

PHDCN (Harvard)

Project Bread (UMass-Boston)

California Safe Schools (RAND)

CAHPS Dialysis Center (RAND)

National Children’s Study Pilot (Battelle)

Survey of Bioterrorism Pre-paredness (N.Y. Academy of Medicine)

Selected Committee Translations: 2000-2004

Assessing Translations: some procedures(Harkness, Pennell, Schoua-Glusberg – ASA, 2003)

Textual assessments

Translation appraisal
Holistic approaches, e.g., TRAPD, committee
Back translation

Pretesting with bilinguals, e.g.,

Splits
Double administrations

Debriefings
Probe interviews
Think alouds with Respondent or Translator
Focus groups with sample population

Backtranslation

One person translates from source into target language.
A second person translates the target language version back into the source language.
A third person compares the original and the backtranslated source language versions.
Discrepancies are investigated.

What is wrong with backtranslation?

It is a black box: we know what went in, we know what came out, yet we know nothing about the adequacy of the target language version.

Why give Q-by-Q specs to translators?

In the absence of question-by-question specifications, translators make their own decisions…

to resolve ambiguities
to figure what “they” mean

These are most often not documented or even explicit. They happen in the translator’s mind.

Research Conducted

Goal: to examine translators’ decision processes
Vehicle: Recorded a translators’ Committee meeting
Method: Listened to tape searching for decisions made during discussions

Why this design?

Committee discussion involves:

Review
Translation
Adjudication

Makes decisions verbally explicit

Transcription Detail:

2 hours of committee meeting
11 pages of questionnaire
110 questions

Example 1

How would your parents feel if they found out you drank alcohol sometimes?

Not at all upset
A little upset
Pretty upset
Very upset

Discussion about “upset”

Did “they” mean…

Angry?

Perturbed / Bothered?

Given context, committee decided to translate upset as angry.

Example 2

I think sometimes it’s okay to cheat at school.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Discussion about ‘cheat’

Original Item: I think sometimes it’s okay to cheat at school.

First translation:

Creo que a veces está bien hacer trampa en la escuela.

Referee: “¿Hacer trampa? Everyone agrees?”

Orig. Tr.: To me it refers to copying in exams.

Tr2: “You can also copy when you are doing homework or other schoolwork, that is cheating too, not only in exams.” “And you could cheat in sports, so we need to be specific. In this case this refers to school work, not to playing volleyball.”

Resolution: Creo que a veces está bien copiar o hacer trampa en mis exámenes y tareas escolares.

(I think sometimes it’s okay to copy or cheat in my exams and schoolwork.)

Example 3

How do you feel about your ability to care for your teen when they are sick or upset?

Discussion about ‘upset’.

In this case, the discussion centered around whether ‘upset’ meant angry, not feeling well, or bothered by something.

The committee went with the latter option.

(‘upset’: molesto)

Example 4

How do you feel about your ability to discipline your teen?

Discussion about ‘discipline’. Do “they” mean:

Punish?
Teach them to behave properly?
Set rules for them?

Checked with client who opted for ‘punish’.

Example 5

How do you feel about your ability to obtain needed resources for your teen?

Discussion about ‘resources’. Did “they” mean...

Material resources?

Assistance/help?

Client asked to preserve the ambiguity as much as possible. Translated as ‘recursos’.

Example 6

During the past week, how often did you let this teen know you really care about him/her?

Discussion about ‘care’. Did “they” mean…

love?

concern?

Committee decide to include both:

… how much you love him/her and are concerned about him/her

Providing Specifications:Ideal Model

Three steps:

Deliver question-by-question specifications
Review original text with translation team member
Ask translators to make their decisions explicit and submit them for review.

Format for Documentation

Recent/Current Efforts to Standardize Translation Procedures

U.S. Census Bureau translation guidelines
International Social Survey Programme’s translation methods’ work
European Social Survey Implemented Procedures in 20+ countries
European Social Survey and Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe analyzing translation and documentation outputs
CAHPS Cultural Comparability Task Force
NCHS Translation Issues Forum
CSDI (Comparative Survey Design and Implementation Translation Task Force)

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