Think Aloud Protocols in Translation: Iranian English Translation and Non-Translation Students’ Translation Strategies

The present study investigated the translation strategies used by Iranian students majored in English translation, English literature, and TEFL during translating English-Persian texts. In so doing, Kiraly’s (1997) model employed that is based on the introspective data collected from the experiment of Think-Aloud Protocols. The participants divided in two groups of Translation and no-Translation students for a fair comparison. The analysis of the data revealed that the translation process between two groups only differ through six strategies, namely Attempt syntactic reconstruction, Employ mnemonic aid, Identify problem, Proposed dictionary solution, Consider the expected translation, and Read the full text. Moreover, they both employed seven new strategies for translation; Scanning the entire text, Short segments first, TL TechDictionary, English-English Dictionary for E-P texts, TL Online Dictionary, Taking notes for unfamiliar, difficult, and important words, and Moving TL words. Finally, the findings of the study can be contributed to the translation teaching and translator training.

Keywords:

Translation strategies , Iranian students , Kiraly’s (1997) model , Think-Aloud Protocols , Translation and non-Translation students