Integrated Problem and Decision Reporting Retrospection into the Translation Process

Abstract

Over the years, many scholars and researchers have been interested in finding out what happens in translator's mind during the translation process. Similarly, instructors and students in the field of translation are interested to know the sources of translation problems. The traditional methods would allow the instructors to examine the translation on the basis of product. However, nowadays the traditional approach is outdated by the advent of several methods which can capture the translation process, the student's decisions, problems, solutions and etc. One of these methods is Integrated Problem and Decision Reporting (IPDR) applied for examining translations (Gile, 1979). Resorting to IPDR, the present study aims at investigating the translation process, finding out the main problems occurred in the translation, and the techniques used by the subjects during the translation process. In this regard, tenM.A students studying at Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch were selected through convenience sampling. They were asked to translate three pieces of informative texts distributed among them in three sessions. They were also asked to retrospectively report about their translation problems and techniques they used to solve them. The analyses revealed that the subjects had problems in all three categories i.e. lexical, structural and pragmatic. However, the main translation problems were lexical problems and the most frequent technique used for solving lexical problems was 'description'.