The TICQ: a comprehensive, validated tool for assessing translation and interpreting conference

SCHAEFFER, MORITZ; HOFFMAN, SASCHA; HERRERA, EDUAR; GARCÍA, ADOLFO M.; HANSEN-SCHIRRA, SILVIA; KOGAN, BORIS; IBÁÑEZ, AGUSTÍN; HUEPE, DAVID; MUÑOZ, EDINSON; SEDEÑO, LUCAS

Germersheim

Congreso; 2nd International Congress on Translation, Interpreting and Cognition, Interdisciplinarity: the Way out of the Box; 2019

Center for Translation & Cognition (TRA & CO), Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz

Despite the growth of research on translation and interpreting,measures of competence in such activities typically stem frominformal, non-validated instruments. This scenario casts doubts onthe ensuing findings and hinders comparability across studies. Toaddress the issue, we introduce the Translation and InterpretingCompetence Questionnaire (TICQ), an online tool for collectingrelevant quantitative and qualitative data. The instrument comprisesthree sections. Section A covers demographic data and aspects oflanguage history and multilingual abilities. Sections B and C focus ontranslation and interpreting competence, respectively, via self-ratingscales on modality-specific skills and questions about procedural,declarative, and otherwise professional factors. A stringent validationprocedure based on data from 284 participants (including itemreliability estimations, principal component analyses, and multigroupdiscriminant function analyses) revealed that the TICQ can robustlyclassify subjects in terms of their actual status (laymen, students,professionals) in the translation and interpreting communities ?withan accuracy of roughly 80%. Importantly, the TICQ is available inthree languages, it is fully customizable, and it can be administeredonline, locally or in pen-and-paper format. Briefly, this user-friendlytool provides comprehensive information for empiricalinvestigations in the field, offering unprecedented opportunities toenhance sample selection, between-study comparisons, and metaanalytic research.