Archive of SID: The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and The Quality of Translation
Archive of SID: The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and The Quality of Translation
Archive of SID: The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and The Quality of Translation
Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, 1(2), 103-114, Spring 2009
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Afsoon Abolsaba
Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch
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ABSTRACT: In the course of reviewing the related literature Emotional
Intelligence is a newly emerged issue in the area of language. Among other factors
that might manipulate translators’ mind while producing a text, their EQ level
might be an influential element. The present study is mainly concerned with
investigating the relationship between EQ and translation. The researchers try to
discover whether there is any significant relationship between translators’ EQ level
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and the quality of the translation they produce. To this end, a sample of 90 senior
male and female students of BA and MA of English Translation Studies comprised
the participants of the study. The participants received a package of two tests: a
rendering and transferring test of translation and a Reuven Bar-On (1997)
Emotional Intelligence test. The research question was attempted upon the scoring
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of the EQ test and evaluating the translations and the analysis of the data
employing a correlational study. The findings of the study revealed that there was
no significant relationship between the level of EQ of translators and the quality of
their translation.
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Shangarffam and Abolsaba
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‘sixth sense’ (Newmark, 1988) but it is included of intelligence and
sensitivity as well as knowledge. The combination of all these feelings
comes into play in the task of translation.
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Intelligence has always been a controversial issue among learning
psychologists. Although there is a rich literature on intelligence and its
relationship with language, there is no single best way to introduce the
subject of human intellect. The introduction becomes difficult when one is
confronted with various treatments of the notion of intelligence and
of
intellectual development, and thus the notion plays a key role in
contemporary psychology. Brown (1994) contends that “success in
educational situations and in life in general seems to be correlated with
high IQ” (p. 100). Intelligence has a multitude of definitions by various
scholars, from intelligence as a unidimensional concept to intelligence as a
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but the other does not. Why two people with the same age and academic
background are so different in their task of translation. No one can deny the
role of strong memory, language competence, world knowledge,
experience, and practice in the success of a translator. Recent studies (e.g.
Murphy, 2006) make it obvious that translation has always gone hand in
hand with so many factors, so that it should be studied along other fields,
and it is not separate from them. One of the fields that can have a close
relationship with translation is psychology. Psychology always seeks to
identify, characterize, manage, and measure the different aspects of
individuals. People use language to talk about events, memories, emotions,
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and sensations. They use language to inform other people of different
cultures and different nationalities; and the main bridge between different
languages is translation. By translation people around the world get
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information about different issues. Translation is a task that is done by
individuals, so there can be a close relationship between translation and
psychology. It is stated, “One of the recent studies in psychology is the
study of intelligence and especially emotional intelligence which is
considered as one of the most important dimensions of intelligence”
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(Murphy, 2006, p. 43).
If in the 20th century IQ has been considered as an important part of
human intelligence, in accordance with growing evidence in the 21st
century, an important part of human intelligence will be EQ. Theorists of
emotional intelligence with psychological reasons have distinguished EQ
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from IQ (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002). It is crucial to say that both EQ
and IQ are the extension of ability not the ability itself. Theorists believe
that “IQ tells us what we can do, however EQ tells us what we should do”
(Hatch & Kornhaber, 2006, p. 63). IQ is composed of our ability for
recognition, rational, and abstract thinking but EQ tells us how to use IQ
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for achieving success in our lives. EQ describes abilities distinct from, but
complementary to academic intelligence, the purely cognitive capacities
measured by IQ. Many people who are book-smart but lack EQ end up
working for people who have lower IQs than them but who excel in EQ
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in the field are expected to do more research into the concept of emotional
intelligence and apply the notion to the field to see how much it accounts
for success in translating.
Although deep understanding and creative thinking are undoubtedly the
prerequisites to translation, yet other factors can be influential in the
success of the translators. However, the researchers in this study were
concerned to investigate the relationship between EQ and translation.
Therefore the present study sought to shed light on the relationship between
emotional intelligence level of translators and the quality of their
translation.
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In keeping with the purpose of the study the following research question
was raised:
Q: Is there a significant relationship between the emotional intelligence
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and the quality of English to Farsi translation of students of translation?
To probe the above question, the following null hypothesis was
proposed:
H: There is no significant correlation between the emotional intelligence
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and the quality of English to Farsi translation of Iranian students of English
translation.
Method
Design
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The design of this research was ex post facto due to the nature of the
research project which was looking for the relationship between the
emotional intelligence of the translator and the quality of translation, hence
the correlational nature of the study.
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Participants
Participants who took part in this study were senior students of English
translation at BA and MA levels. However, due to the lack of cooperation
of some participants who did not fully cooperate and answer all the
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Instrumentation
In order to pursue the study and to investigate the hypothesis and get into
proper conclusion, two sets of tests were applied: the rendering and
transferring test of translation and the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-
i).
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EQ (40 items), which is divided into emotional self-awareness (8 items),
assertiveness (7items), self-regard (9 items), self-actualization (9 items),
and independence (7 items). Second is interpersonal EQ (29 items), which
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is divided into empathy (8 items), interpersonal relationship (11 items), and
social responsibility (10 items). Third is adaptability EQ (26 items), which
is divided into problem solving (8 items), reality testing (10 items), and
flexibility (8 items). Fourth is stress management EQ (18 items), which is
divided into stress tolerance (9 items) and impulse control (9 items). Fifth
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is general mood EQ (17 items), which is divided into happiness (9 items)
and optimism (8 items) (Bar-On, 1997, pp. 43-45). However, 15 of the
questions are associated with scales intended to assess response validity.
These scales are the Omission Rate, Inconsistency Index, Positive
Impression, and Negative Scales. The inventory takes approximately 40
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minutes to complete. For the EQ-i high and low scores are identified by
how distant they are from the mean score of 100. Scores exceeding the
mean or falling below the mean by 1 SD (15 points) are considered to be
within the normal range.
In view of the cultural differences and to avoid any misunderstanding
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10, it was of medium difficulty, and if 10 or more, it was rather easy.
Procedure
during the research process:
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The following steps were taken to accomplish the purpose of the study
Piloting the translation test. Since the problems of a test are usually
projected during its administration and the researchers intend to fix them
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before starting the main study, as an undeclared type of pretest, the
researchers gave the rendering and transferring test to 15 persons from
among the BA participants and evaluated their translations according to the
model of translation evaluation chosen to see whether the text satisfied the
translation criterion by Waddington (2001). At this point three raters
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text.
(Adapted from Waddington, 2001, p. 313)
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In the model, in each of the categories a distinction is made between
serious errors and minor errors. Furthermore, it also proposes a fourth
category which describes the plus point to be awarded for good or
exceptionally good solutions to translation problems.
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Data Analysis
To find the answer to the research questions and investigate the accuracy of
the null hypothesis, the researchers had to analyze the data gathered. EQ
questionnaires first were scored on the guidelines provided by Bar-On et al.
(1998), and then the total EQ scores and the scores of EQ’s five major
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subscales were computed. The translation task was scored by one of the
researchers and two other raters based on Waddington’s model of
translation assessment. In order to obtain the best and most reliable answer
from the scoring of the translations, the inter-rater reliability was computed
between the raters and the average of all three sets of scores were
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which was taken through different steps of this study and getting to the
proper and useful conclusions the SPSS software version 11.0 was used.
Results
The Cronbach Alpha analysis of the piloting procedure demonstrated that
the EQ questionnaire had a highly significant reliability index of 0.85
proving that a reliable questionnaire was used in the study. The pilot study
also clarified that there was a significant correlation among the three raters
the details of which are presented in Table 1.
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Table1. Inter-Rater Reliability in Piloting
Rater 1 Rater 2 Rater 3
Rater 1 1 .960** .977**
Rater 2 .960** 1 .968**
Rater 3 .977** .986** 1
N 15 15 15
** .Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
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test. Table 2 presents the descriptive data of the participants’ scores in EQ
and rendering and translating test.
N
EQ
58
BA students’
Translation Test
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Table2. Descriptive Data of the Scores of BA and MA Students on the EQ
Questionnaire and the Translation Test
BA students’ MA students’
EQ
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MA students’
Translation Test
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Mean 94.00 15.36 94.51 17.04
Median 95.00 16.39 93.80 17.94
Mode 85.80a 12.98a 89.20a 17.96a
SD 9.98 3.11 10.46 2.16
Variance 99.77 9.70 109.42 4.66
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BA-EQ BA-TT
BA-EQ Pearson Correlation 1 -0.009
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.949
N 58 58
BA-TT Pearson Correlation -0.009 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.949
N 58 58
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Table4. Correlation of the EQ Scores and Translation Scores of MA Students
MA-EQ MA-TT
MA-EQ Pearson Correlation 1 -0.030
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.869
N 32 32
MA-TT Pearson Correlation -0.030 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.869
N 32 32
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for MA students. Notwithstanding the level of significance of 0.949 and
0.869 it is clear that none of the correlation coefficients was significant,
thus, not providing enough grounds for the rejection of the null hypothesis.
Discussion
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The main objective of this study was to discover whether there was a
relationship between translators’ EQ level and the quality of the translation
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they produced. Based on the findings of this study, the researchers failed to
reject the null hypothesis. In other words, the research provided evidence
that there was not a significant relationship between the emotional
intelligence and the quality of the translation in BA and MA students of
translation studies.
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with other fields. A translator should have good knowledge of other fields
to perform a better job. Emotional intelligence is one of the recent studies
in today’s psychology. It has proved to be correlated with successful task
performance (Schutte, 2001) and successful management (Sosik &
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Conclusion
Although the term Emotional Intelligence is a new term which is developed
in the twenty first century, many scholars have made attempts to define and
measure it. The endeavor is just beginning. Eventually, because of the
practical needs of civilized societies, it becomes more urgent to find some
ways to evaluate the emotional intelligence of individuals as accurately as
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possible, give them the appropriate guidelines to improve this intelligence
and use it appropriately in everyday life. Emotional intelligence provides
the bedrock for the development of a large number of competencies that
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help people perform more effectively. It is evident that so many factors
involve in the task of translation and translators differ from each other in
many ways. Emotions and being intelligent about them is an important
factor in an individual. Therefore, researchers and teachers in the field of
translation are expected to do more research into the concept of emotional
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intelligence and apply the notion to the field to see how much it accounts
for success in translating. Due to the globalization and cosmopolitan
demands and according to the discussions presented in this study,
translation training is an immediate and urgent need for our society.
Although the findings of this study show that emotional intelligence is not
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The Authors
Nasim Shangarffam is an assistant professor at Islamic Azad University,
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Central Tehran Branch. She teaches different courses at B.A. and M.A.
levels. She has published two papers and attended two seminars
domestically. Her main areas of research interest are teaching, evaluation,
and translation.
Afsoon Abolsaba got her B.A. in English translation from Islamic Azad
University, Karaj Branch and has recently finished her M.A. in the same
field at Central Tehran Branch. Currently, she is teaching general English at
Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch while pursuing her career as an
English teacher in several language centers in Karaj.
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