Moving toward Objective Scoring: A Rubric for Translation Assessment

Abstract

Setting standards for translation assessment has usually been problematic for authorities, theoreticians, and most commonly instructors. It is often difficult to tell the difference between translation evaluation, criticism, and assessment due to hardships of bridging the gap between theory and practice. The aim of this study was to create a rubric against which translations could be assessed. To this end, it sought to elaborate assessment aspects of translation with the hope to reduce rater subjectivity in scoring, and define exactly what factors should be taken into account in assessing translated texts by developing a new model for the evaluation and scoring of translations. Accordingly, the existing rubrics for the assessment and evaluation of translations were reviewed and subsequently, two questionnaires – one open-ended and one using Likert scale – were administered among a total of 41 translation instructors inquiring about their methods for assessing students’ translations. Based on the results obtained from both questionnaires and also the existing scales of assessment, a rubric was developed to delineate a framework of translation assessment criteria.