2011 Dept et al., 2017 the consortia implementing the OECD studies PISA Footnote 1 and PIAAC) already operate according to the principles referred to in this chapter. Major players in multilingual research (e.g., Upsing et al. With the help of these frameworks, I will outline major decisions in multilingual survey design and challenges that can arise when translating questionnaires for computerized surveys (Sect.
Survey questionnaire translation and assessment software#
I will then introduce frameworks from software localization and transfer these to the survey research field (Sect. In the following, I will provide a brief overview of good practices in questionnaire translation in general (Sect. I should add that the content of this chapter is applicable to multilingual computerized survey research in general, whether it is migration, cross-cultural or cross-national research. It is the explicit aim of this chapter to draw on frameworks from software localization to foster knowledge transfer. Localization hereby refers to the processes of “adapting content linguistically, culturally, and technically” (Gambier, 2016, p. ( 2011), who describe processes for large-scale competency assessment with reference to standards in software translation and adaptation – typically called “software localization” – using PIAAC as an example, the OECD Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. Although highly informative, these recent works do not attempt to build on and connect to related research in other disciplines, such as in translation studies. It is only recently that challenges resulting from the interplay between translation and survey software have been brought to the fore (Pan et al., 2020 Wang et al., 2017).
However, technical aspects related to translation often remain in the background, even though they can become quite crucial for data quality (Wang et al., 2017). General translation approaches and requirements can be found in various publications on questionnaire translation (e.g., Behr, 2018a Behr & Shishido, 2016 Harkness et al., 2010b Mohler et al., 2016). This chapter aims to tackle the topic of questionnaire translation in migration research mainly from this technical perspective of multilingual survey implementation.
While computerized surveys facilitate certain processes, such as reaching the target population (Pötzschke & Braun, 2017), the typically multilingual and multicultural character of migration surveys adds a layer of complexity to computerized implementation. The trend towards computerization also applies to migration research. On the design side, the computerization comes with an increased interplay and interconnectivity between questionnaire and survey software (e.g., through the use of fills or placeholders, complex routing, automatic pop-up error messages, etc.), which has to be carefully considered when implementing computerized surveys. Among the great advantages of computerized surveys is the fact that the collected data is immediately digitized and does not require further processing. In the following, I will use the term “computerized surveys” for all these scenarios. In the digital age, surveys are often conducted computer-assisted, which can either be administered by an interviewer or self-administered in the presence of an interviewer, or online without any interviewer present. The main goal of this chapter is to raise awareness of the additional technology layer that impacts translation and adaptation, with an ultimate goal to improve translation and adaptation processes, and the outcomes of migration research. Real-life examples come from our own experiences in international and migration research, as well as from a review of existing reports and research articles. Frameworks from the software localization field are consulted and transferred to the context of computerized multilingual surveys with respect to their impact on source questionnaire design and on translation and adaptation. In line with the technology-based focus of this book, the second part focuses on computerized surveys and on the interplay between technology, language, and culture.
The first part outlines good practices in questionnaire translation. This chapter examines the technical challenges involved in translating and adapting measurement instruments, i.e., questionnaires, for migration research.
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