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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 23:2 (2011) ► pp.251–271

Flow in translation

Exploring optimal experience for translation trainees

| Sheikhbahaee University, Esfahan
| Washington State University
| Ferdowsi University Of Mashhad

The study reported here examined the amount and quality of flow experienced by trainee translators while translating different text genres. Flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1975) is an optimal experience, characterized by intense focus, control, interest and skills-challenge balance that leads to enhanced performance on a task. Although investigated in areas such as professional sports, surgery, and music, Flow Theory has not yet been tested in the area of translation. This study aimed at identifying which discourse genre would induce most flow in trainee translators while translating. Fifty-six Iranian English Translation majors studying at the University of Kashan translated three 180-word texts of narrative, expository, and descriptive genres. After each translation, they responded to a Flow Perceptions Questionnaire (Egbert, 2003) in the Likert format to report their perceptions of flow. Using repeated measures ANOVA, the researchers investigated flow differences among genres. The results indicated that flow existed in the translation classroom and that there were significant differences in the flow scores engendered by different genres. To support the findings drawn from the numerical analysis, four participants, selected from the population of subjects from the first phase, were interviewed, and the analysis of the interviews generally corroborated the statistical findings.

Keywords: flow, discourse genre, optimal experience, skills-challenge balance, translation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • The concept of flow
  • The dimensions of flow
    • Skills-challenge Balance
    • Attention
    • Interest
    • Control
  • Flow in translation and in foreign language learning
  • Methodology
    • Participants
  • Instruments
    • Tasks and Texts
    • Flow Perceptions Questionnaire
    • Flow-Dimension-Open-Ended Form
    • Interview
  • Procedure
  • Results and discussion
    • Statistical findings
      • Descriptive Statistics
      • Interpretive Statistics
    • Qualitative findings
  • Conclusions
    • Pedagogical implications
    • Suggestion for future research
  • References
Published online: 22 December 2011
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.23.2.06mir
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