JAITS＜Article＞

Why translator competence in information searching matters:
An empirical investigation into differences in searching behavior
between professionals and novice translators
Nanami Onishi and Masaru Yamada(Kansai University)
Abstract
ISO17100 defines the “professional competences of translators,” five skills required
to be a professional translator. One of the skills described relates to translators’ “researchcompetence,” which can be defined as searching skills pertaining to the additional
linguistic and specialized knowledge necessary to understand the source language content
and to produce the target language content. This paper presents a detailed investigation
into this competence by comparing professional and novice translators’ online searching
behaviors during translation using both quantitative and qualitative measures. The
authors asked five university students and four professional translators to translate thesame source text. As they translated, their searching behaviors on the computer screen
were recorded for quantitative analysis. Retrospective interviews were also conducted to
identify the motivation of each search activity for the purposes of qualitative investigation.
The results of the analysis show that the time spent on searching, the content of search
queries, and the number of websites visited for a given search all differed significantly
between professionals and students. The interviews suggest that those differences may
arise from varying motivations for searching, motivations that fall into three categories: 1)
seeking information that is as reliable as possible, 2) understanding context, and 3)
avoiding mistranslation.
1. Introduction
Becoming a professional translator entails developing a distinct skillset. The
European Master’s in Translation (EMT) Competence Framework 2017 provides 35
detailed items for translators-in-training to acquire over the course of their graduate
OHNISHI Nanami, YAMADA Masaru, “Why translator competence in information
searching matters: An empirical investigation into differences in searching behavior
between professionals and novice translators,” Invitation to Interpreting andTranslation Studies, No.22, 2020. pages 1-23. ©by the Japan Association forInterpreting and Translation Studies

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

program in translation. ISO 17100 (2015, p. 6) broadly defines professional translators as
demonstrating five essential competences: a) linguistic and textual competence in thesource and target languages; b) competence in research, information acquisition, andprocessing; c) cultural competence; d) technical competence; and e) domain competence.
This delineation of competences, openly shared among the translation/localizationindustries, is, on one hand, useful to the extent that it provides a framework for successfultranslation training. On the other hand, the competence descriptions are vague. Concerning“research competence,” for instance, ISO 17100 reads:
Competence in research, information acquisition, and processing: the ability toefficiently acquire the additional linguistic and specialized knowledge necessary tounderstand the source language content and to produce the target language content.
Research competence also requires experience in the use of research tools and theability to develop suitable strategies for the efficient use of the information sources
available (p. 6).
The lack of granularity as to exactly what the “suitable strategies” are leaves student
translators with ambiguous targets for learning. This perspective informs one of theauthors’ aims in this study: to describe more precisely the components of professionaltranslation competence – specifically, competence in research, the searching skill.
Searching is considered one of the most important skills in translation as it involves
complex cognitive activities such as information-processing and constant decision-making,among others (Enríquez Raído, 2013). Enríquez Raído (ibid.) argues that, since translators
work with diverse subjects and text types, it is essential that student translators develop
information-mining skills applicable to any field.
The present research focuses on online “searching skills” and identifies specificsearching behaviors of qualified professional translators who meet the ISO 17100
standards. The researchers in this study have assumed that professional translators exhibitskilled searching behaviors during the translation process that can be captured byestablished translation process research methods. In order to differentiate professionalfrom novice behaviors, the study was designed to compare the searching performance ofprofessional and student translators.
2. Empirical Investigations into Searching Competence
Translation competence in general is a central concept in translation studies according
to leading researchers such as Schäffner, Nord, Alves, and Ehrensberger-Dow; however,the number of studies that empirically investigate the components of competences,including searching competence, is limited.
2

Why translator competence in information searching matters

Enríquez Raído (2013) observed and analyzed searching behaviors of student
translators and found that participants skilled at using search engines spent more time
searching online during translation and produced higher-quality translations than did lessskilled participants. The more successful translators performed more non-dictionary
website searches than dictionary-based searches and spent more time searching overallithan those who produced poorer translations did. These findings suggest that one of thespecific research behaviors associated with professional translation is greater depth of
searching that depends more heavily on non-dictionary websites.
Enríquez Raído (2013) also found a relationship between translation quality and theamount of background research, that is, research that does not involve lexical searches andcomplements a lack of familiarity with the topic of the source text. In Enríquez Raído’s
study, the trainee who produced the best translations was interested in backgroundinformation and spent the longest time researching it.
Paradowska (2015) analyzed students’ web searching skills before and after afour-month intervention. The students were enrolled in a three-semester undergraduatetranslation course in western Poland. The research questions the author addressed arewhether and how the professional searching skills developed by the students influenced
their search speed and accuracy. As expected, the participants showed improvement intheir web searching performance. However, the number of successful searches failed toincrease despite the fact that the participants followed desirable web searching behavior
patterns. These results indicate that the student translators were attempting to implement
the web searching competency techniques presented by the instructor. However, at thesame time, some participants did not learn searching skills as well as the rest of students,and overall they were nowhere near expert competence in terms of web searching accuracy.
Onishi et al. (2017) investigated the mechanism of mistranslation errors made by
novice translators and its relationship with their general behaviors during the translation
process. While the main cause of mistranslation errors was students’ lack of target
language knowledge, it was found that the translators who made the most errors had tried
to match their translations to the target language register and context by searching for
better translation choices. Detailed observation of each translator’s behavior also revealeda distinction between the searching behaviors of the translators who exhibited errors due toelaborating their translation further and those of the rest of participants. These translators
performed extended searches by looking up not only the dictionary definitions of words orphrasesbut

also

seekingout

non-dictionary

information

in

their

translation

decision-making process, considering holistic translation over simple word-for-wordequivalencies. However, they ultimately failed to translate the word accurately. Thispattern suggests that solutions to this problem among aspiring professional translators may
3

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

rest in developing effective searching strategies other than attention and second language
knowledge.
Gough (2019) studied the translation-oriented research activities (TRAs) of 16
freelance professional translators during a translation task in their natural working
environment. The investigation into their translation behaviors included identifying thetype of resources used (i.e. dictionary, non-dictionary, etc.), research direction (i.e. query
typed in the source or target languages), and research strategy (i.e. top-down, contextual vs.
bottom-up, dictionary-based searches). The findings demonstrated that, although TRAs arecomplex, multidimensional, and idiosyncratic, certain behaviors can be systematized, aresult that is relevant to translator trainers seeking to teach competences associated withinformation acquisition and utilization during the translation process.
In summary, when using different types of sources, translators with different levels of
expertise exhibit different kinds of searching behaviors in terms of dictionary-based vs.
non-dictionary-based sources, depth of searching, and frequency of utilizing backgroundresearch (Enríquez Raído, 2013; Gough, 2019). To a certain degree, those skills can betaught to students through training, but accuracy in searching may not reach an expert
level (Paradowska, 2015). Onishi et al. (2017) indicates the root causes of translation
errors are largely lack of mastery in professional searching skills. The above studies
indicate that while it is important for students to master expert-like searching competences,
the training needs to demonstrate both what experts do and why they do it. To investigate
this matter, both quantitative (as to what) and qualitative (as to why) analyses need to be
carried out. Therefore, the present study aims to identify professional translators’
searching behaviors and compare them with behaviors of translators with less expertise in
the hope of contributing to the development of finer-grained descriptions of searchingcompetence.
3.

Research Questions
As described above, this study focuses on online search behaviors displayed byprofessional translators and student translators in the course of the translation process.
Based on previous literature, various aspects of searching were measured both
qualitatively and quantitatively in a holistic manner to identify expert search behaviors. To
reveal these aspects of the translation process, the research question and sub-questions
were formulated as follows.
Main research question: How do translator web searching behaviors differ based on
the level of expertise in translation? Do professional translators exhibit distinct web
searching strategies from which translators-in-training can learn?
4Why translator competence in information searching matters

Differences in search strategies between professional and novice translators were
quantified as time spent and resources used, yielding sub-question 1.
Sub-question 1: How do the amount of time researching and the type of sites useddiffer between professional and novice translators?
The amount of time, or “search session,” was operationalized as the portion of the entire
translation process spent researching online (Enríquez Raído, 2013). Categorization of
website types used were based on Onishi et al. (2017). On top of these measures, more
specific actions were investigated for this sub-question, including the frequency ofsource-oriented or target-oriented searches and the number of “jumps” from the searchengine results. Based on findings from previous literature, it was hypothesized thatquantitative differences in search behaviors would be observed based on level of expertise.
Additionally, potential differences in information-gathering strategies were explored
qualitatively by investigating the translators’ motivations behind their search behaviors.
Sub-question 2: Do professional and novice translators report different motivations
for acquiring information to support their translation process, particularly in the areaof conducting background research?
To answer this question, the quality of online searching among professionals and novices
was observed. These data, along with the quantitative data addressing sub-question 1, were
triangulated with excerpts from retrospective interviews with participants conducted after
the experiment, assuming that professional translators have already acquired the searchingcompetence.
4. Experiment Design
The participants in this study were five university students as novice translators andfour professional translators. All of the students were English majors with advanced
English proficiency (the least proficient had a TOEIC score of 810 while the mostproficient had an IELTS Band score of 7.0). All had taken one or two courses in translationand interpreting offered in their university department. In that they had some experience intranslation, they were considered novice translators.
As for the professional translators recruited for comparison, all had more than three
years of work experience (with the most experienced having 28 years) in professionaltranslation. Their specializations varied, ranging from IT manuals and technical documents5

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

to non-fiction books.
The source text used in this study was an article originally from Science about thediscovery of a dinosaur’s color. Excerpted and edited, the text was shortened to 62 words
to ensure that the participants could complete the task within an hour. The appropriatenessof the translation task, including the time allotted to complete the task, was evaluatedthrough a pilot study: asking a student who had also taken translation courses and aprofessional translator to translate in the experiment setting, and calculating the timespent.
Prior to performing the translation task, participants were given instructions about thetask and the content of the study, and signed a consent form. Participants could elect tocomplete an additional paper-based questionnaire about their English ability (for the
student translators) and work experience and specialties (for the professional translators).
The test process was basically the same as in Onishi et al. (2017), comprising atranslation task and a retrospective interview that were expected to take approximately twohours total. For the translation task, participants were asked to translate the text without atime limit. All participant actions on the PC were recorded with the software BB
FlashBack Pro. After finishing their translation, participants watched the video recordingwith the experimenter and were interviewed about their translation process, with a focus
on research strategies.
5. Data Collection and Methods of Analysis
5.1 Data collection: BB FlashBack Pro
In this study, BB FlashBack Pro was utilized to collect recording data that then served
as a stimulus for retrospective interviews. Unlike Translog, the software is not exclusively
designed for the translation process, but it has an established use in translation-process
research (Yamada, 2011; Enríquez Raído, 2013). This software can record participants’behaviors on the PC, including keylogging, mouse clicks, and cursor movements withtimestamps. All collected data can be exported into a Microsoft Excel file (Figure 1), towhich the authors added sub-categories of searching behavior such as typing, deleting,modifying, pausing, and searching to timestamps.

6

Why translator competence in information searching matters

Figure 1. Sample of logging information on spreadsheet

5.2 Search session
This section defines search session based on Enríquez Raído (2013). A search session
is a translator’s series of search actions on the PC, including typing keywords into thesearch engine query box, browsing search engine results, and scanning or reading website
content. The search session, as defined by the authors in the present study, starts when atranslator leaves Microsoft Word to select a web browser application to look for the
information and ends when they return to translating in Word. A search session isconsidered to continue if no distinctive actions that delimit the searching operation are
observed. However, when it was clear that there were technical or operation-related
problems, for instance the online connection being stuck, the time and the action were notcounted as part of the search session. In addition, when a search session continued eventhough movements between the web browser and MS Word were captured, as when thetranslator checked the source text or searched other words before returning to the original
searching, the actions were recorded as a single search session with the time spent on MS
Word subtracted from the session time. Moreover, when a movement from MS word to web
browser occurred after the previous search session had ended, but the aim of searching was
unclear either from observation or from the interview, the movement was not counted as asearch session. Hence, there will be some discrepancies between total search time andsearch session time.
While Enríquez Raído (2013, p. 364) stated that “session length […] wascomplemented by the number of online actions taken by the participants,” this study does7

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

not count “online actions.” Instead, the study counts steps using the indicator of a newpage loading such as clicking a link to move away from a search engine results page to a
specific linked website. Steps also include moving from one website to another andmoving from a web browser to MS Word. However, jumps between or among pages on thesame website page are not counted as additional steps.
5.3 Interview data
Interview data collected through retrospective interview was analyzed to reveal
participants’ reasoning for their actions since quantitative data analysis does not provide
information about each translator’s inner state. Precisely for this purpose, retrospective
interview data were used to uncover some elements, including the participant’s motivation
for searching, what type of information was sought, and why they took those steps inrelation to the target text.
6. Results: Quantitative Analysis
6.1 Relation between total translation time and searching time
In response to sub-question 1 regarding quantitative aspects of the searches, thissection describes the relationship between total translation time and searching time instudents and professional translators. The authors’ assumption is that the results will
confirm the findings of Enríquez Raído (2013), namely that participants with highweb-searching expertise, which in this paper means professional translators, will spend
more time on web searching during translation than participants with lower expertise, here
referring to students. Hence, professional translators will exhibit extensive searching
behaviors compared to students.
Table 1 shows participants’ total translation time including time spent on each of thethree translation phases: pre(-drafting), draft, and post(-drafting) (for more on translation
phases, see Jakobsen [2002] and Yamada [2011]). Table 2 shows searching time for eachparticipant, indicating the time spent in each phase, corresponding to the three phrases inTable 1.
Students a through e were university students, and professional A through D were
professional translators. Looking at each translator’s translation time in each phase reveals
that individual participants seem to have their own approach to doing a translation.
However, when the average total translation time in Table 1 is considered, it becomes clearthat professional translators as a group took longer to complete the whole translation taskwith none of them taking less time than the students’ average. However, the difference intotal average time is not significant (Wilcoxon signed-rank test: W = 3, p > 0.05).
When it comes to searching time, individual styles among the professionals again
8Why translator competence in information searching mattersemerge. Still, professional translators on average spent about twice as much time on
searching as students on average. Specifically, professional translators on average took
about nine minutes longer to complete their task (0:30:56 [pro] vs. 0:21:59 [student]) andabout eight minutes longer on searching than students did (0:15:45 [pro] vs. 0:07:58[student]). Thus, the difference in time spent searching accounts for most of thestatistically significant difference in total translation time between the professionals andthe students (Wilcoxon signed-rank test: W = 1, p < 0.05).

Table 1. Translation time of each participant

Table 2. Searching time of each participant

6.2 Websites visited and time spent
Most of the searches started with queries typed into a search engine. After that,participants visited other websites, sometimes modifying the contents of their query andsearching again, or finished searching only after looking at a search engine results page.
This section describes search behaviors with regard to website types visited, time spent on
the visited site, and also time spent viewing search engine results pages.
Websites visited were categorized into three types for analysis: dictionary,
non-dictionary, and search engine results. Taking the categories from Onishi et al. (2017),
9

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

websites were first sorted into dictionary websites and non-dictionary websites. In addition,some translators’ searching behavior consisted only of browsing the search results, which
was counted separately as a category of search engine.
Tables 3 and 4 show the types of websites each participant visited. They also indicate
the time spent on the website or viewing search engine results pages along with thepercentage of the total time spent in each category. The values in the Search Engine
column represent the time spent viewing the search engine results, as mentioned above.
Dictionary sites such as Weblio, Eijiro on the Web, Google Translate, and Eigo-box are
categorized as dictionary websites, as they only provide lexical information. The following
websites were considered to be non-dictionary websites: Wikipedia, National Geographic,
Google Image, Logmi, the Page, Kyoryu-zukan (the Dinosaur Guide), Blog.etsuterm, How
to Pronounce, Discovery, American Museum of Natural History, University of Bristol, andNature Research.
“Original text” in the table represents the website of the original article from which
the source text was taken. The URL of this original website was provided at the bottom of
the task text so that participants could refer to it any time during their translation task.
This website is also categorized as non-dictionary.
Non-dictionary websites such as Wikipedia, the Dinosaur Guide, and American
Museum of Natural History describe biological characteristics of the dinosaur that appears
in the source text of the task. Google Images, which could be thought of as a search engine,is also sorted under non-dictionary because the visual information retrieved does notcontain descriptions provided by true search engine results pages. The rest of thenon-dictionary websites are considered parallel texts because articles in those websites
provide text style information as well as contextual information about the source text.
Comparing total searching time, the results show that the students on average spent32.13% of their total searching on viewing search engine results while the professionaltranslators spent a comparable 32.18%. Although time spent on search engine results isnearly the same for both groups, their search terms and information sought differed.
Looking at component percentages in Figure 1, the students’ distribution of time
between dictionary websites and non-dictionary websites diverged from that ofprofessionals. The students spent 30.96% of their searching on dictionary websites
whereas professional translators only expended 11.40%. Conversely, the professionaltranslators spent over half of their search time (56.43%) on non-dictionary websites, whilestudents engaged with non-dictionary websites for only 36.90% of their total search time.
Although the professional translators used dictionary websites as frequently as the student
translators, the students spent more time on each visit, resulting in dictionary websites
occupying a greater proportion of their total searching time.
10Why translator competence in information searching matters

Type of Website

Name of Website

Total

Ave.

search total
Search engine% (search engine/whole)
Dictionary

WeblioEijiro on the web
Eigo-box
Google Translatetotal% (dictionary/whole)

Non-Dictionarya0:03:41
0:03:01
81.90%
0:00:40b
0:07:44
0:02:0827.59%
0:00:01
0:01:39
0:00:45

0:00:40
18.10%

0:02:25
31.25%
0:00:210:01:36

Original text
Wikipedia
National Geographic
University of Bristol
Logmi
Tow to Pronounce
Google imagec
0:08:48
0:02:3930.11%

0:00:32
0:00:210:00:53
10.04%
0:01:24
0:00:27
0:02:57d
0:11:24
0:03:48
33.33%e
0:08:13
0:01:1214.60%

0:03:47
0:00:44

0:03:51

0:04:3139.62%
0:01:24
0:01:06
0:00:35

0:03:5146.86%
0:02:55

0:07:58
0:02:34
32.13%

0:02:2830.96%

0:00:04
0:01:10
0:00:15total% (non-dictionary/whole)

0:00:00
0.00%

0:03:1141.16%

0:00:28
0:05:1659.85%

0:03:05
27.05%

0:03:1038.54%

0:02:56
36.90%

Table 3. Websites visited and time spent (students)

Type of Website

Name of Website

Total
search total

Search engine% (search engine/whole)
Dictionary

WeblioEijiro on the webtotal% (dictionary/whole)

Non-Dictionary

Original text
Wikipedia
National Geographic
University of Bristol
google image
Discovery
Nature Research

Ave.
A
0:10:32
0:03:53
36.87%
0:03:39
0:03:3934.65%
0:01:53

0:00:140:00:16
0:00:37

American Museum of
Natural History

B
0:11:39
0:06:30
55.79%

0:00:00
0.00%
0:01:23
0:02:01C
0:20:44
0:06:40
32.15%
0:03:08
0:03:08
15.11%
0:01:43
0:01:42
0:06:48
0:00:43

D
0:20:07
0:03:1416.07%
0:00:24
0:00:241.99%
0:07:40
0:01:29
0:02:00

0:15:45
0:05:04
32.18%

0:01:48
11.40%

0:01:10

0:00:35

The page
Kyoryu-zukan
Blog.etsuterm
total% (non-dictionary/whole)

0:03:00
28.48%

0:05:0944.21%

0:10:56
52.73%

0:03:40
0:01:26
0:00:140:16:2981.94%

Table 4. Websites visited and time spent (professionals)

11

0:08:53
56.43%

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

Figure 1: Percentage of time spent by website type

6.3 Number of search engine query box entries and types
In this section, search engine queries – what translators typed in the search engine andin which language – will be analyzed as evidence to supplement the aforementioned
results.
The results of this analysis are shown in Table 5. The “entry into query box” column
shows the total number of entries typed into query boxes by each participant. Comparing
the students’ average (7.4) with that of the professionals (9.3) shows that their use of thesearch engine in terms of the number of entries was almost the same with no statisticalsignificance (Wilcoxon signed-rank test: W = 7.5, p > 0.05).
However, subcategorizing the query contents into source or target language reveals a
different feature. The source language entry (“SL entry”) column represents the number ofparticipants’ searches in the source language. For instance, a participant copies a wordfrom the source text and pastes it directly into the query box. In contrast, when aparticipant types something in the target language into the query box while translating thesource text, it is counted as a target language entry (“TL entry”).
When the number of each entry type was compared, students showed a tendency toenter source language into the query box more frequently than target language, whereas
professional translators entered target texts or related words with almost equal frequency
to source words. This does not mean that professional translators did not perform SL entry
searches. SL entry searches were performed by both novices and professionals, with nosignificant difference (W = 14, p > 0.05).
However, since professional translators searched in the target language more
frequently, they may have found more information to support accurate target language
renditions than students, whose TL entries on average comprised less than 11% of theirsearch queries (0.8 out of 7.4 times). The difference of TL entry on average between
students and professionals shows statistical significance (TL entry: W = 0, p < 0.05).

12

Why translator competence in information searching matters

Table 5. Search engine query box entries and types* Includes queries designed to open a dictionary website rather than search for a specific word,

which are not sorted as SL entry or TL entry but still contribute to the total number of entries .

6.4 Jump s from search results to individual website
After typing entries in the search engine query box, participants visited various
websites from the search result lists. The behavior analyzed in this section is the number ofjumps from search engine results after query entry.
As shown in Table 6, the greatest number of jumps observed was three. One jumpmeans that a participant typed the keyword into the query box of the search engine, saw the
search engine results page, then clicked the hyperlink for a website shown on the results
page. If the participant returned to the search result page after browsing that site and thenopened another link to a different website from the same search results page, it would
count as two jumps.
Looking at the number of jumps in Table 6, we can see that the students never jumped
to more than one website from the search results page, except for Student c, who visited
two websites in one of the searches. In contrast, all the professional translators jumped tomore than two websites in one or more of their searches. Professional translator B andProfessional translator D even visited three websites once. This result implies thatprofessional translators look for more information than students during translation.
Considering the results in 6.2 and 6.3 pertaining to types of websites the professionaltranslators visited, which show a large number of target-language oriented websites as well
as dictionary sites, it is inferred that professional translators are concerned withinformation in the target language and may require more jumps to gather the proper
information for selecting a suitable translation.

13

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

Table 6. Number of jumps from a search engine results page

6.5 Summary of quantitative analysis
To answer sub-question 1, “How do the amount of time researching and the type ofsites used differ between professional and novice translators?”, from the results of 6.2,
which describes the types of websites translators visited, the types of websites used were
found to be remarkably different among translators. First, the study categorized websites
into three types: search engine results, dictionary, and non-dictionary. Despite the fact thatstudents divided their time almost equally on each type, professional translators spent thelongest time on non-dictionary websites and the shortest time on dictionary websites. This
result suggests that professional translators spend more time on non-dictionary related
websites than students.
Second, the results of 6.3, number of search engine query entries and types, and 6.4,
jumps from the search engine, showed that the professional translators’ search queries
comprised a larger number of target-text oriented searches accompanied by more jumps tolinked sites than were observed among students. That is to say, professional translators’
searches were more intensive and concerned with target-text oriented information(non-dictionary websites) that also possibly led translators to find parallel texts by typing
target text-related keywords into a query box.
The overall differences that have been captured in this section may be characterized
as “shallow searching” vs. non-shallow searching. According to Nicholas et al. (2006,p.14), shallow searching “might suggest an unsuccessful, uninformed, or lazy form of
behavior.” In a shallow search session, users briefly look at a few items before they leave
the page (Nicholas et al., 2004). Enríquez Raído (2013) investigated translators’ searchsessions, concluding that shallow searching “primarily involves easy, fast, and more orless cursory visits” (p. 393) to a few websites, mainly dictionary related websites, withshort search session lengths. Given the data collected, a short length search session withfew jumps (no more than three jumps in this case) can be categorized as a shallow search.
In contrast, non-shallow searching corresponds to a long search session with multiple
steps, including non-dictionary websites or search engine results. When a translator
engages with a website (excluding dictionary websites) for a long time, it is also14

Why translator competence in information searching mattersconsidered non-shallow searching.
In this study, the professional translators overall carried out non-shallow searching interms of the time spent on the sites and the number of search sessions, whereas students
tended to rely on shallow searching, easy and fast access to information.
7. Results of Qualitative Analysis: Interview data
7.1 Background Research
In addition to the quantitative analysis results explored above, we carried out aqualitative analysis of translators’ searches to examine the motivations behind thetranslators’ search behaviors. In response to sub-question 2, as to whether professional andnovice translators report different motivations for acquiring information to support theirtranslation process, particularly in the area of conducting background research, this section
examines the interview data which were collected through retrospective interviews during
which participants were asked about their motivations while watching the video recordingof their own translation process. The interview data excerpts in Japanese are translated by
the authors into English.
In order to reveal motivations other than finding out the meaning of words andexpressions, the researchers decided to target the parts of the search sessions in which
participants sought background information, the so-called “background research”(Enríquez Raído, 2013), which is a search session that does not involve lexical searches
and complements a lack of familiarity with the topic (ibid.). In the analysis of the present
study, background research is defined as searching for contextual information relevant tothe source text (i.e., non-dictionary search), apart from lexical searches (dictionary search).
Therefore, we focused on searching non-dictionary websites and search engine results as
categorized in our study, and carried out interviews to obtain the qualitative data analyzed
in the following sections. By doing so, we expect to elucidate translator’s motivations andreasons as to why they carried out background research.
7.2

Background research process and reasons for the behavior
Before illustrating the detailed processes of searching performed and comments madeby translators explaining the reasons for each background research, the main findings
observed in professional translators’ “strong motivations” for searches are summarized asfollows: 1) translators seek the most reliable information by comparing multiple
information resources, 2) they try to fully understand the original text in context, and 3)
they take great care in avoiding mistranslation. To shed light on the first and second
features, we focus on professional translators C and D, who conducted longer backgroundresearch, and student c, who is the only student to have conducted background research.
15

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

7.2.1 Professional translator C
First, let us look closely at one instance of a search process, which represents
background research particularly well, performed by professional translator C to determine
the how to transliterate the proper name of a person mentioned in the source text, “Jakob
Vinther.” Choosing any reasonable transliteration of the name in Japanese characterswould be unlikely to be viewed as an error, yet professional translator C spent sevenminutes over ten search steps to determine how this individual’s name could be accurately
rendered in Japanese, the most of any participant.
Professional translator C started with reading the source text and then visited theJapanese National Geographic website, where a parallel text of the original text appeared.
On her reasoning for visiting the website, professional translator C stated in the
retrospective interview:
I opened this website to check the name of this academic to see how it is spelled inJapanese. Before opening this Japanese website, I found several spellings for thename. At that moment, I thought “ジェイコブ” should be right. But I was not sure
about the spelling of “Vinther” […], whether it is “ヴィ (vi)” or “ビ (bi)”, and also
is “th” “ザ” or something else.
This comment confirmed that professional translator C was looking for the correct spellingof the name in the target language from several options. By locating the article on areliable website, professional translator C found “ジェイコブ・ビンザー氏” and thentyped this spelling in the target text. However, she went back to National Geographic andthen changed her own translation from “ビンザー” to “ヴィンザー.” In her interview,professional translator C explained why the change was made:In this article, “ヴィンザー” and “ビンザー” were inconsistent in spelling, for“Vinther.” I wished I could search to make sure which spelling was correct, but I
stopped searching once I considered the time [because this was an experiment].
Normally I type “ヴィ (vi)” for “V,” so I applied this strategy here in mytranslation.
As professional translator C says, the translation remained tentative. Since thespelling was inconsistent throughout the article, she became uncertain of her own
transliteration. Hence, in the revision phase, she again searched for the name and foundthere were more choices for rendering the name. The finding of inconsistent spelling bycomparing multiple pieces of information led her to seek more specific information. After
16

Why translator competence in information searching matterslooking at those websites, professional translator C opened a new search engine tab, typed“Jakob Vinther” (in English), and added “paleontologist” to identify the exact person in
the source text. Through this step, she opened the website for the University of Bristol,where the professor works, and perused his biography. She explained, “[By looking at two
types of descriptions: ‘ヤコブ’ and ‘ジェイコブ’,] I wondered where he is from. He is a
professor at the University of Bristol, but he might be originally from other country.” Byvisiting the university website, she finally succeeded in locating information that was morereliable than the information she had found in the parallel text. After finding where he isfrom, she typed “デンマーク語 Jakob” (in Danish Jakob) into the query to confirm how
his name is properly pronounced in Japanese for a person from Denmark. Finally, sheapplied this spelling, “ヤコブ” to finalize the transliteration.
This searching behavior is characterized by a commitment to verifying information
using multiple reliable sources to ensure an accurate transliteration. Professionals are
persistent in their searches because they will not settle for a possible error, thus making
it acceptable to the target audience as well as the target context.
7.2.2 Professional translator D
Similar in-depth background research was observed from professional translator D,
who took a total of 16 steps in 0:14:12. His background research time accounts for about
40% of his total search. This time commitment suggests that professional translator D
finds background research important. His search session started with reading over theentire original article. According to professional translator D, he read the original article“to confirm the context of the short task text. […] I was not clear about the last sentence,
so I checked the original article, and understood how the passage progresses.” This
comment shows that professional translator D tried to understand the context before
translating the article.
Then the translator visited 恐竜図鑑 (A Dinosaur Guide) “to check […] how it wasspelled in Japanese […] I also checked what kind of dinosaur it is. What the color of thedinosaur’s body is like.” The comment shows that the motivation for the backgroundresearch was to grasp general information about the dinosaur, including body color. This
page was referenced several times to compare information found on other websites. Afterlooking at the website, professional translator D typed プシッタコサウルス

体の色(psittacosaurus body color) into the search engine query. About this step, professionaltranslator D said,“By searching for the name of the body color in Japanese, I found articles
in Japanese.” Professional translator D made a conscious choice to look for related
Japanese articles to gather more detailed information, opening and checking a total ofthree Japanese articles. Regarding this choice, professional translator D commented:
17

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

I always check several articles. [T]he article from National Geographic spelled “ヴィンター” for “Vinther,” and the other was “ヴィンサー.” This kind of fact won’t
be found unless several articles are compared.
This comment indicates an awareness of the pitfalls of depending on a single source for
information. This behavior corresponds to the finding from 7.2.1, seeking reliable
information. On this initial series of search sessions, professional D explained:
First of all, the aim of original article has to be understood. So I check a source if
available. And then I look for related news, if available as well. I do those things
first, and move on Japanese information.
Like professional translator C, translator D tries to translate on the passage level,
researching to understand the original text and the meanings of source text words incontext.
7.2.3 Student c
Only one student translator, student c, conducted background research. Despite
student c being a learner, the motivation behind this translator’s search session is similar
to that of professionals, as explained in the interview:At first, I wondered about the name of the dinosaur [so I typed it into search engine
query] . . . and since the source text mentioned the color, I wanted to see pictures ofthe dinosaur to check what the color is like.
The translator visited the Japanese Wikipedia entry for “psittacosaurus,” commenting, “Isearched to get information about psittacosaurus.” We can see that student c demonstrated
behaviors to find background information pertaining to the dinosaur, as seen among theprofessional translators.
She also went through a step of typing “プシッタコサウルス (psittacosaurus)”into
the query box to locate a parallel text, explaining: “I was looking for an article relating to
the dinosaur and found one which seemed to be a parallel text.” The motivation for thisbehavior overlaps those of professional translators C and D, which is indicative of student
c being a professional-like researcher compared to the other student participants.

18

Why translator competence in information searching matters

7.2.4. Observed features of background research
According to the interview comments on the background research process, themotivation of background research seems the same regardless of translation expertise.
These translators conducted background research to gather information in order to grasp
the contextual meaning of the text and to seek reliable information. In fact, although thiswas not mentioned above, professional translator A also conducted background research byreading through the original text while comparing it with the source text. It appears thatprofessional translators are more likely to conduct background research.
Even though the motivation for searching is similar regardless of translation expertise,differences remain between professionals and novices. The characteristic of backgroundresearch that distinguishes professionals from students is depth. Unlike the professionaltranslators, student c did not read over the original article. In addition, her total time spenton background research was 0:02:17, which is much less time than professional translators
C and D, and each step of that searching was shorter as well.
However, every participant who conducted background research tried to grasp thecontext and general information about the topic until ambiguous areas of the source text
(i.e. the descriptions of the dinosaur’s appearance) were clarified. Therefore, the key tobackground research is to find and triangulate several sources of information, requiring
multiple search steps and time to read and evaluate each source.
In addition, background research seems to affect the number of subsequent searchsessions during the translation. As Enríquez Raído (2013) explains, when a translator has ahigher level of domain knowledge, the need for additional information decreases.
Professional translator D, who spent the most time on background research andpresumably developed the strongest domain knowledge, needed only four search sessions,
including background research, to complete the task. This implies that professionaltranslator D did not have to conduct as many shallow searches while translating as students
commonly did because he had gathered most of the needed information in advance.
7.3 Additional Captured Motivations of SearchingThis section describes the professional translators’ reported motivations for theirsearching behaviors in addition to findings on 7.2. From the data, professional translators’
motivations for searches are understanding the context, as we have seen in 7.2.2 and 7.2.4,
and avoiding mistranslation. On the drive to understand context, professional translator C
comments: “I cannot translate without searching. Through searching, I understand what the
English (source text) is trying to convey, and I can come up with what kind of scene I
translate into Japanese.”
This imperative of using searches to understand the context of the original article
19

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

echoes comments made by professional translator D concerning background, with the
motivation for searching extensively being to understand and translate “pigmentation”
accurately. Professional translator C also foregrounded the importance of understanding:“I carry out as much searching as possible with the aim of clear understanding of thesource text rather than reflecting what I have researched in the translation.” These
comments show that the professional translators invested as much effort as was needed tounderstand the source context to their satisfaction, reflecting their intention to make theirtranslation convey meaning beyond transcoding texts word-for-word.
The other category of motivation behind searching is avoiding mistranslation. In theircomments, the professional translators expressed great care in avoiding mistranslationeven on the individual word level. Professional translator C, for example, mentioned, “Isearch words even when I already know them. There are so many words I assume I know
but actually I don’t.” For every translation decision, professional translator C has to becertain about understanding the source text, checking renditions against information
retrieved through searching rather than basing them on her own experience or knowledge
alone.
In addition, professional translator D explained his concerns when he conducted asearch for the term “horned dinosaur”:
I wondered if it’s okay to translate horned into “角 (literal translation of ‘horn’ into
Japanese)” [because the dinosaur, psittacosaurus, actually does not have a horn but
the source text says it is a “horned dinosaur”]. In real life, I would have liked totake some more time to decide on the translation, but for today, I was concerned
about making a translation that would be considered an error. I kept in mind
avoiding mistranslation, to make it as acceptable as possible.
The translator was wary of making a translation error even though the translator did nothave as much time in the experiment setting compared to his normal working environment.
In this case of the translator browsing through images of the dinosaur, a question arises
about using the word “horned” to describe the dinosaur. All the comments examined aboveshow that professional translators are careful about avoiding errors in translation, or atleast about attaining a level of translation quality that is at least acceptable.
Among the students’ interviews, we often encountered comments like “I was not sure,but…” and “It might be okay,” which were uncommon conclusions among theprofessionals. Students may have similar motivations for searching as professionals do but
occasionally settle for translating without ensuring understanding of the source text,
perhaps due to underdeveloped searching skills.
20

Why translator competence in information searching matters

In summary, the professional translators’ strong motivation for achieving a fullunderstanding of source text context and cautious attitude toward translation errors havebeen identified as factors driving translators to search more thoroughly. Professionals are
persistent in their searches because they will not settle for a translation they feel might bean error, thus making it at least acceptable to the target audience as well as in the context
of the given source text. From the comparative analysis, it is concluded that professionaltranslators engage in deeper searches for background information to find an acceptable
solution before translating the source text, as supported by observed behaviors such as
thorough checking, confirming, and comparing.
8. Summary of qualitative analysis
In response to sub-question 2, the combined analysis of this research drawing on bothscreen recording and interview showed that the professionals consciously soughtbackground information, taking time for deep understanding and even attaching conscious
weight to it. In contrast, only one student translator out of five conducted similar searchingto grasp contextual information needed to make an accurate translation.
The results from the interview data showed that motivation for searching is asignificant factor differentiating professionals and novices. The professional translators
conducted searches to understand context and avoid mistranslation, driving extensive
searching behaviors such as referring to reliable information and checking and comparing
multiple sources of information. We can deduce that professional translators continue tosearch until they fully understand the content or at least find an acceptable solution,
whereas novices often stop despite uncertainties remaining unresolved. Information
gathered through background research helps professionals find solutions to translate
holistically rather than word-for-word or by sentence. This would explain why
professional translators take more time on non-dictionary websites to support translating
accurately with context in mind.
9. Conclusion
This study has investigated how translators’ web searching behavior differs according
to their level of expertise in translation. Do professional translators exhibit any expert web
searching strategies from which translators-in-training can learn? The analysis of bothquantitative and qualitative data from this study exhibits that professional translators’
search behaviors differ from those of novice translators, or students.
The results showed that time spent on translation and searching was greater amongprofessionals than among students. Professional translators typed words related to both thetarget and the source texts into the search engine query box. Moreover, professional21

『通訳翻訳研究への招待』No.22 (2020)

translators, at least once, jumped to two websites, or occasionally even three, from thesearch result page of an entry, whereas students seldom jumped to two and never jumped tothree. The difference in searching behaviors between professional translators and students
was characterized using the concept of shallow vs. non-shallow searching. Professionaltranslators conducted non-shallow searching as well as shallow whereas students engaged
primarily in shallow searching. By observing details of each search through interviews, it
was found that professional translators tended to search in order to (1) seek informationthat was as reliable as possible, (2) understand context, and (3) avoid mistranslation. These
specific behaviors constitute elements of competence in information-gathering thattranslators-in-training can perform to be more like professionals.
There are several limitations in the present study. A larger sample and a variety of text
genres should be analyzed to support generalizability since only a magazine text was used.
Professional translators were likely to display a translation style specialized to their
domain, which should also be considered when selecting texts for future iterations of thisstudy. Their experiences as professional translators may also have affected the outcome. In
addition, as the authors did not give the participants strict criteria for the end product,
participants’ motivation might not have been comparable. For the data analysis, thequantitative data may contain some bias since the session divisions were judged by theauthor alone.
Acknowledgement
This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 19H05660.
About the authors
Nanami ONISHI is a Ph.D. student in the Graduate School of Foreign Language Education
at Kansai University in Osaka, Japan. Her research interest is translation process research(TPR), including translation quality evaluation, translators’ searching behavior, andmachine translation plus post editing (MTPE).
Masaru YAMADA is Professor in the Faculty of Foreign Language Studies at Kansai
University in Osaka, Japan. He specializes in translation process research (TPR), including
human-computer interaction (HCI) and machine translation plus post-editing (MTPE), andtranslation in language teaching (TILT). His publication includes “The impact of Google
neural machine translation on post-editing by student translators,” JoSTrans 31, 87-106.

22

Why translator competence in information searching matters

References
Enríquez Raído, V. (2013). Translation and web searching. London: Routledge.
EMT Board. (2017). European Master’s in Translation: Competence framework 2017.
Retrieved on June 1, 2020 fromhttps://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/emt_competence_fwk_2017_en_web.pdf.
Gough, J. (2019). Developing translation-oriented research competence: What can welearn from professional translators? The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 13(3),342-359. DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2019.1656404.
ISO (2015). ISO 17100 Translation services — Requirements for translation services. First
edition 2015.
Jakobsen, A. (2002). Translation drafting by professional translators and by translation
students. In G. Hansen (Ed.), Empirical translation studies: Process and product.
Copenhagen Studies in Language 27 (pp. 191-204). Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur.
Nicholas, D., Huntington, P., Williams, P., & Dobrowolski, T. (2006). The digital
information consumer. In A. Spink & C. Cole (Eds.), New directions in human
information behavior (pp. 203-228). Dordrecht: Springer.
Onishi, N., Yamada, M., Fujita, A., Kageura, K. (2017). Honyaku gakushusha ga goyaku osuru riyu: MNH-TT no koetsu category “X3” kara miru gakushusha no yakushutsu
process to gakushu kouka. [Causes of mistranslations made by student translators:
investigation into X3 in the MNH-TT revision category through retrospective
interviews]. Invitation to Interpreting and Translation Studies,18. 88-106.
Paradowska, U. (2015). Expert web searching skills for translators: a multiple-case study.
In P. Pietrzak & M. Deckert (Eds.), Constructing translation competence (pp.
227-244). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Yamada M. (2009). A study of the translation process through translators’ interim products.
Interpreting and Translation Studies, 9, 159-176.
Yamada, M. (2011). Revising text: An empirical investigation of revision and the effects ofintegrating a TM and MT system into the translation process. Unpublished Ph.D diss.,
Rikkyo University.

23