Reading and Reception of Mediated (translated) Text: The Read Me Project (2021-2025) financed by the National Science Centre (UMO – 2020/39/B/HS2/00697)

What is the aim of the project?

The aim of the Read Me Project is to compare the process of reading and reception of non-translated texts which were originally written with the process of reading and reception of mediated texts, that is for example, translated from another language (hence Read Me stands for reading mediated texts). At present we know a lot about the translation process and about how the translator makes decisions to reformulate the meaning and sense of the source text in its translated version for a different target text reader. We also know that the translation process is very complex and the translator needs skills and expertise to produce adequate translation which is accessible to the target reader. We also know that mediated (translated) texts have some features which are absent from their source texts and do not occur in non-translated language. For example, they tend to be lexically less diverse, have simplified syntax and might have structural calques and unnatural expressions. Which translation specific features make translated texts easier to understand and which make comprehension more difficult for the reader? For example, is the translation of a novel by Olga Tokarczuk (the Polish Nobel Prize winner in 2019) into English or Italian read in the same way as its Polish original? How do readers behave when translated texts contain language errors? These are examples of research questions which we want to answer in out project.

Why we believe that this study is important?

There are virtually no reception studies of how mediated, e.g. translated texts are read and understood, although eye-tracking has been used to study the reading process of sentences for quite a long time. The only exception in Translation Studies is limited research on how viewers read subtitles in audio visual translations. Yet, reading text is probably the most frequent way of searching for information. In today’s globalized world, many of these texts have been translated for us by one translator, a team of translators or by a machine and later post-edited – they have been mediated. We should know whether, as readers, we will access the information we need quickly and accurately from such texts.

What is our research plan?

We plan to carry out our research in three stages with a large number of participants so that we can draw statistically significant conclusions when answering the question whether mediated texts are read differently that non-translated texts. The participants will read the following texts: 1) publicly available texts in Polish (translated and non-translated); 2) texts which were translated in our previous projects; 3) translations of texts (used in 1 and 2) into English and Italian – this stage is planned in cooperation with our colleagues at the MC2 Lab in University of Bologna. We will use an eye-tracker to record the data from the reading process to compare objectively the eye movements – fixations and re-fixations are taken as correlates of cognitive processes in the mind of the reader. The record of eye movements will allow us to see how attention is distributed and which elements of the text are difficult to process. Since the process of reception (sense-making) takes place in the reader’s mind we also intend to ask comprehension questions and conduct short interviews with selected participants. In this way we can triangulate objective and subjective data. Our participants will also take a range of tests to help us understand how they differ in their reading skills and language skills.

What do we expect to find?

We expect that certain features of mediated language (simplified syntax and frequent words) facilitate access to information when reading mediated texts but some features (language/translation errors) hinder the speed and accuracy with which we access information from such texts. We are convinced that the results of our studies will prove to be relevant for Translation Studies (quality and recipient-oriented approach) but also for linguistics (processing information from language) and cognitive psychology (the role of the reader’s cognitive background in construal of meaning).