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21 – 30 of over 34000
Article
Publication date: 29 August 2023

Beverly Marshall and Han Jin

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of greater reporting prominence of translation results following Accounting Standard Update (ASU) 2011-05 on net investment (NI…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of greater reporting prominence of translation results following Accounting Standard Update (ASU) 2011-05 on net investment (NI) hedging practice. The authors investigate the role of increased transparency on the decision to engage in NI hedging (participation), the degree of NI hedging (level) and the hedging vehicle choice.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses the Heckman two-stage procedure (Heckman, 1979) in the hedging choice analysis. In the first stage, the authors model the participation decision as a function of reporting transparency, translation results and other control variables. In the second stage, the authors include the Inverse Mills ratio from the first stage Probit to examine both the level and vehicle choice decisions.

Findings

When translation is reported more prominently, the authors find an increase in the level of NI hedging and a greater likelihood of debt as the hedging vehicle, but no evidence firms are more likely to hedge. Regardless of where translation results are reported, firms facing ongoing translation losses are more likely to hedge.

Research limitations/implications

This paper examines S&P 500 firms in the years surrounding the effective date of ASU 2011-05. The findings suggest managers respond to the increase in reporting transparency by increasing hedging for long-term risk management purposes, supporting accounting authorities’ efforts to promote other comprehensive income information transparency. The results should hold for comparable firms with similar currency exposure, size and visibility, but may not apply to smaller firms with limited translation exposure. As only about a quarter of firms with translation exposure engage in NI hedging, the primary results are based on a relatively limited number of firms.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines NI hedging behavior changes following ASU-2011-05. Second, the authors are the first to explore why firms are almost equally split between derivatives and debt as their exclusive hedging vehicle.

Details

Accounting Research Journal, vol. 36 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1030-9616

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 May 2023

Hajer Alaskar

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of distance learning in enhancing introverted students’ lack of communication and social interaction to improve their…

1124

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of distance learning in enhancing introverted students’ lack of communication and social interaction to improve their performance in translation class. Cain (2013) and Kuzeljevich (2017) agreed that identifying “introverted” and “extroverted” students is important for meeting their learning needs. While extroverted students have strong social skills that allow them to interact comfortably in different learning environments, introverted students tend to be more shy, quiet, and silent, thus, requiring more careful planning in classroom settings. Therefore, educators need to support introverted students in reaching their full academic and social potential.

Design/methodology/approach

The present case study adopted a qualitative research method to explore the role of online/distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in enhancing introverted students’ performance and communication abilities in translation classes. The researcher of the current study spent a considerable time observing and set herself as part of the group (i.e. translation students of level 6 class) to understand the phenomenon, events and the new situation of having translation students interact in online settings. Data collection was based on this observation, interviews with the participants and archival documents. To enhance the validity and credibility of this research, the researcher employed the method of triangulation.

Findings

The results (see Appendixes A, B and C) revealed the level of students interactions in translation classes and their attitudes toward online learning. Based on the observations made by the instructor, the researcher found that the involvement of the introverted students during online translation learning was remarkable, as they provided their translation outputs in the chat window of Microsoft Teams with no hesitation. Consequently, 65% of the students were providing their translation output through the chat window, which indicates that they are more introverted and preferred not to speak. Comparing this result to face-to-face translation class, the researcher found that 25% of the students provided their translation outputs through oral participation.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the field of translation and education. Previous studies have not sufficiently examined the role of distance learning in enhancing the performance and communication of introverted students in translation classes. The current study is also expected to provide insight into the field of technical translation in remote teaching and learning settings.

Details

Saudi Journal of Language Studies, vol. 3 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-243X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 May 2023

Lingling Huang, Chengqiang Zhao, Shijie Chen and Liujing Zeng

Technical advantages embraced by blockchain, such as distributed ledger, P2P networks, consensus mechanisms and smart contracts, are highly compatible with addressing the security…

Abstract

Purpose

Technical advantages embraced by blockchain, such as distributed ledger, P2P networks, consensus mechanisms and smart contracts, are highly compatible with addressing the security issues of transferring and storing judicial documents and obtaining the feedback and evaluation of judicial translation services in cases with foreign elements. Therefore, based on this, a consortium blockchain-based model for supervising the overall process of judicial translation services in cases with foreign elements is proposed.

Design/methodology/approach

Some judicial documents are required to be translated when there are language barriers in cases with foreign elements. The purpose of this paper is expected to address security issues, which is ignored, in the process of translating judicial documents.

Findings

The experimental results show that the model constructed in this paper can effectively guarantee the security and privacy of transferring and storing translated judicial documents in cases with foreign elements, and realize the credibility and traceability of feedbacks and evaluations of judicial translation services. In addition, the underlying network communications is stable and the speed for processing data can meet the requirements of practical application.

Originality/value

The research in this paper provides an innovative scheme for judicial translation services in cases with foreign elements. The model constructed is conducive to protecting the security of the transfer and storage of judicial documents and improving the efficiency and modernization ability of hearing cases with foreign elements.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 December 2022

Kinjal Bhargavkumar Mistree, Devendra Thakor and Brijesh Bhatt

According to the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), India has approximately 300 certified human interpreters to help people with hearing loss. This paper…

Abstract

Purpose

According to the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), India has approximately 300 certified human interpreters to help people with hearing loss. This paper aims to address the issue of Indian Sign Language (ISL) sentence recognition and translation into semantically equivalent English text in a signer-independent mode.

Design/methodology/approach

This study presents an approach that translates ISL sentences into English text using the MobileNetV2 model and Neural Machine Translation (NMT). The authors have created an ISL corpus from the Brown corpus using ISL grammar rules to perform machine translation. The authors’ approach converts ISL videos of the newly created dataset into ISL gloss sequences using the MobileNetV2 model and the recognized ISL gloss sequence is then fed to a machine translation module that generates an English sentence for each ISL sentence.

Findings

As per the experimental results, pretrained MobileNetV2 model was proven the best-suited model for the recognition of ISL sentences and NMT provided better results than Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) to convert ISL text into English text. The automatic and human evaluation of the proposed approach yielded accuracies of 83.3 and 86.1%, respectively.

Research limitations/implications

It can be seen that the neural machine translation systems produced translations with repetitions of other translated words, strange translations when the total number of words per sentence is increased and one or more unexpected terms that had no relation to the source text on occasion. The most common type of error is the mistranslation of places, numbers and dates. Although this has little effect on the overall structure of the translated sentence, it indicates that the embedding learned for these few words could be improved.

Originality/value

Sign language recognition and translation is a crucial step toward improving communication between the deaf and the rest of society. Because of the shortage of human interpreters, an alternative approach is desired to help people achieve smooth communication with the Deaf. To motivate research in this field, the authors generated an ISL corpus of 13,720 sentences and a video dataset of 47,880 ISL videos. As there is no public dataset available for ISl videos incorporating signs released by ISLRTC, the authors created a new video dataset and ISL corpus.

Details

International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-378X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 December 2022

Eisa Ahmad S. Asiri, Yousef Sahari, Ibrahim Alasmri and Ahmad Assiri

This paper investigates professional translation practice in Saudi Arabia with a particular focus on translation ethics. Following an examination of varying opinions and…

1052

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates professional translation practice in Saudi Arabia with a particular focus on translation ethics. Following an examination of varying opinions and contentious concepts relating to translation, this paper suggests that Saudi Arabia should establish a code of ethics for translation services. It investigates the ethical challenges that translators encounter during their professional work and considers their responses to these challenges.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative methodology was adopted to collect data from forty participants. This self-completed survey uncovered 11 ethical dimensions that translators encounter during the translation process and the researchers used descriptive analysis to calculate the mean and standard deviation of their frequency and importance. Participants' responses to the multiple-choice questions were categorised as personal, professional ethics or sociopolitical activism, and their overall percentages calculated.

Findings

For all 11 dimensions, the mean scores fell in the mid-frequency range between 2.74 and 3.88, inferring that the respondents faced these ethical challenges neither particularly frequently nor infrequently. Regarding the importance rankings, the mean scores varied between 1.58 and 2.04, consistently lower than the experience frequency rankings, which indicates that these challenges were considered important regardless of their frequency. The majority (40.27%) related to professional notions of ethics, followed by personal ethics (35.22%) and sociopolitical and activist conceptions of ethics (24.14%), while less than 1% (0.37%) reflected mixed motivations.

Originality/value

The study's concept and methodology are both novel. The researchers believe that this is the first study to examine professional translation ethics in the Saudi context. Unlike most studies in this field, this study adopted a quantitative approach, thus calling for the development of an effective professional code of ethics for translators.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 September 2022

Hassan Saleh Mahdi, Hind Alotaibi and Hind AlFadda

This study aims to examine the effects of using mobile translation applications for translating collocations.

3343

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of using mobile translation applications for translating collocations.

Design/methodology/approach

The study followed an experimental design where 47 students of English as foreign language in a Saudi university were randomly categorized into two groups. Both the groups were given a translation task consisting of 30 sentences with fixed, medium-strength and weak collocations. The participants in the experimental group (n 23) were asked to use a mobile App (Reverso) to translate the sentences, while the control group (n 24) was allowed to use only paper-based dictionaries. The translations were scored and analyzed to measure if there was any significant difference between the two groups.

Findings

The results indicated that the mobile translation application was more effective in translating fixed and medium-strength collocations than weak collocations, and in translating collocations in both translation directions (i.e. from Arabic into English or vice-versa).

Originality/value

The findings suggest that integrating translation technologies in general and mobile translation applications in particular in translation can enhance the translation process. Students can utilize mobile translation applications to enhance their translation skills, especially for translating collocations.

Details

Saudi Journal of Language Studies, vol. 2 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-243X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 10 October 2022

Dania Salamah

The current study set out to examine the recruitment practices and job-market readiness of translators in Saudi Arabia in light of the Process in the Acquisition of Translation

Abstract

Purpose

The current study set out to examine the recruitment practices and job-market readiness of translators in Saudi Arabia in light of the Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation (PACTE) model of translation competence (TC). The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which the outcomes of translator training programs are aligned with job-market requirements.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study was conducted adopting a mixed-methods research design to collect qualitative and quantitative data using interviews and a questionnaire. Data were also collected from the analysis of 28 translation job advertisements. The questionnaire targeted employers, while the interviews were conducted with employers and professional translators.

Findings

The findings indicate that there is a gap between the outcomes of translator training programs and the needs of the job market with a particular emphasis on the importance of developing trainee translators' job-market skills as well as their awareness of the professional practice of translation.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of the current study are limited to the sample from which data were collected.

Practical implications

The study has significant implications for translators and translator training in Saudi Arabia. Although the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission and the Saudi Translators' Association were established in 2020, additional measures are needed to support the translation profession in Saudi Arabia. Such support may take the form of specialised accreditation for translator training programs as well as licensing requirements for practitioners. Implementing these measures will play a significant role in establishing benchmarks for translator training programs and promoting the integration of job-market requirements into translator training.

Originality/value

Although TC has been examined in the Saudi context before, examining it in light of the PACTE framework sheds new light on the job-market readiness of translation program graduates and enriches the literature on the training of translators in Saudi Arabia.

Details

Saudi Journal of Language Studies, vol. 2 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-243X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 August 2022

Muneera Muftah

How closely does the translation match the meaning of the reference has always been a key aspect of any machine translation (MT) service. Therefore, the primary goal of this…

3862

Abstract

Purpose

How closely does the translation match the meaning of the reference has always been a key aspect of any machine translation (MT) service. Therefore, the primary goal of this research is to assess and compare translation adequacy in machine vs human translation (HT) from Arabic to English. The study looks into whether the MT product is adequate and more reliable than the HT. It also seeks to determine whether MT poses a real threat to professional Arabic–English translators.

Design/methodology/approach

Six different texts were chosen and translated from Arabic to English by two nonexpert undergraduate translation students as well as MT services, including Google Translate and Babylon Translation. The first system is free, whereas the second system is a fee-based service. Additionally, two expert translators developed a reference translation (RT) against which human and machine translations were compared and analyzed. Furthermore, the Sketch Engine software was utilized to examine the translations to determine if there is a significant difference between human and machine translations against the RT.

Findings

The findings indicated that when compared to the RT, there was no statistically significant difference between human and machine translations and that MTs were adequate translations. The human–machine relationship is mutually beneficial. However, MT will never be able to completely automated; rather, it will benefit rather than endanger humans. A translator who knows how to use MT will have an opportunity over those who are unfamiliar with the most up-to-date translation technology. As MTs improve, human translators may no longer be accurate translators, but rather editors and editing materials previously translated by machines.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide valuable and practical implications for research in the field of MTs and for anyone interested in conducting MT research.

Originality/value

In general, this study is significant as it is a serious attempt at getting a better understanding of the efficiency of MT vs HT in translating the Arabic–English texts, and it will be beneficial for translators, students, educators as well as scholars in the field of translation.

Details

PSU Research Review, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 August 2022

Marco Zappatore

Before COVID-19 pandemic, translation students in higher education attended courses on computer-assisted translation to acquire operational knowledge of professional software…

Abstract

Purpose

Before COVID-19 pandemic, translation students in higher education attended courses on computer-assisted translation to acquire operational knowledge of professional software, without experiencing collaborative/interactive learning. In few European universities skills labs were introduced to offer fieldwork-like activities, but without shared modelling standards and mainly held in presence for few consecutive days. As the COVID-19 pandemic further deprived students of crucial educational experiences, the purpose of this paper is to present an online collaborative learning environment exploiting a customised combination of information and learning applications the students already experienced during the pandemic to smoothen their learning curve and increase the educational effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-framework methodology to build and operate a computer-supported online collaborative skills lab for translation students is proposed. Reference standards and guidelines are leveraged to provide participants with a common knowledge ground, to activate the computer-supported collaborative learning perspective, and to ensure an appropriate simulation fidelity.

Findings

An end-to-end implementation of the proposed approach along with educational effectiveness analysis performed via complementary assessment strategies is presented. Achieved outcomes highlight significant participation rate, consistent improvement in technical and soft skills at both individual and collective levels, and clear activation of collaborative learning dynamics.

Practical implications

Every master degree in translation teaching can adopt this approach by complying with the proposed guidelines.

Originality/value

The proposed multi-framework approach is novel and applied to a teaching sector where it is highly needed to fill a pre-existing gap.

Details

The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, vol. 39 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4880

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 November 2022

Muneera Muftah

Web-based language learning (WBLL) materials have long been favored by English language instructors because they are plentiful, easily accessible, user-friendly and, most…

Abstract

Purpose

Web-based language learning (WBLL) materials have long been favored by English language instructors because they are plentiful, easily accessible, user-friendly and, most importantly, free. This research looks into the effects of learning the simple perfect tense translation in three different English translation classes that used three different teaching methods: traditional face-to-face, integrative and web-based learning. It also aims to investigate the impact of gender on every mode of instruction and to identify the most effective method for learning translation.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is quantitative, with a pretest/posttest quasi-experimental research design. A total of 93 third-year undergraduate students (51 female and 42 male students) participated in the pretest/posttest design. Each group was exposed to one mode of instruction for nine weeks. All groups sat for a pretest in the first week of the treatment. After the treatment, the participants were provided with a posttest, and the data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS computer software program.

Findings

The findings revealed a significant difference in both tests for all modes used. All three groups improved in their gain score, but the highest gain among these groups was the integrative method, followed by web-based learning. The result of the independent sample t-tests and ANOVA exhibited that there was no significant difference in the level of students between the two groups, both were sig. two-tailed (p = 0.342). Furthermore, it was discovered that gender did not affect students' performance in the posttest (Z = −1.564, p > 0.05) when each mode of instruction was applied. Finally, the integrative method was observed to be the most effective.

Practical implications

The findings can inspire translation course designers to plan necessary policies or syllabi regarding English translation courses and may serve as a platform for improving the curriculum for training and motivating the next generation of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners.

Originality/value

The findings of this study could be used to improve English instruction in countries where English is a second or foreign language. The actual gap in knowledge is that no other studies have compared all three groups in the past few years.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 15 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

21 – 30 of over 34000