MEMORIAS DEL V FORO DE ESTUDIOS EN LENGUAS INTERNACIONAL (FEL 2009)

ISBN 978-607-9015-05-3
Universidad de Quintana Roo Departamento de Lengua y Educacin
http://fel.uqroo.mx - fonael@yahoo.com
611

SIGHT TRANSLATION AS A COGNITIVE TOOL IN LANGUAGE
LEARNING


M.C. Alessio Zanier Visintin
M.C. Vilma Portillo Campos
Universidad de Quintana Roo




Abstract
This paper will examine the possible usefulness of sight translation as a tool for
developing different cognitive and linguistic skills in different moment of the
language learning process. The first step will consist of suggesting a precise
definition of sight translation, taking into account the opinions of scholars such
as Seleskovitch, Pratt, Lambert, and Dejean Le Fal. Special attention will be
given to the three-pronged analysis effected by Pratt, taking into account the
process, the structure of the different languages involved, in this case Spanish
and English, and the significance of the visual perception of a segment of
speech in association with the activation of its auditory form. Daniel Giles effort
model of translation will be taken into account, and Viezzis research on
information retention through sight translation will be debated. The central idea
of this paper is that this kind of exercise is an effective tool when learning a
foreign language. Finally, some practical suggestions about its possible use as a
pedagogic strategy are offered, both in translation studies and in the more
general framework of language teaching. In this last section, sight translation as
a didactic strategy as well as an assessment strategy will be examined, as well
as its relation with the so-called think-aloud protocols.


Introduction
This paper will examine the possible use of sight translation as a learning
tool in the process of language acquisition. First of all we should ask ourselves
what sight translation is in order to have a clear idea of what were talking about,
before formulating other questions on the subject.
A variety of definitions can be found in the works of different scholars who
have dealt with this specific activity: for instance Lambert (1988) suggests that:

Sight translation involves the transposition of a text written in one language into
a text delivered orally in another language. Since both aural and visual
information processes are required, sight translation could be defined as a
specific type of written translation as well as a variant of oral interpretation.


MEMORIAS DEL V FORO DE ESTUDIOS EN LENGUAS INTERNACIONAL (FEL 2009)
ISBN 978-607-9015-05-3
Universidad de Quintana Roo Departamento de Lengua y Educacin
http://fel.uqroo.mx - fonael@yahoo.com
612
This is an interesting definition, as the author underlines the double
character of this activity, namely the fact that the student has to process a visual
linguistic information and immediately transform this specific input into an oral
linguistic information, activating uncommon brain processes.
Seleskovitch (1986) affirms that:

On occasion the interpreter is obliged to convey a written text: in such cases
the process involved is more akin to translation than to interpretation.

This scholar highlights the link existing between sight translation and written
translation, as the initial process of decoding the original text is similar to the first
reading a translator carries out whenever asked to translate a text. Therefore, this
mode can be considered as an oral translation of a written text, thus it is a hybrid of
translation and interpretation.
A definition taken again by Pratt (1991) who places it in between translation
and interpretation, since the form of the original message is similar to written
translation, but the processing of information resembles simultaneous
interpretation at sight.
After revising these maybe incomplete definitions, and on the basis of my
personal experience as interpreter, translator and language teacher, we can
suggest an all-encompassing, possibly satisfying definition of this activity: Sight
translation is the oral reformulation in the target language of a text written in the
source language.
This mode of translation is widely used in the training of interpreters, as a
preparatory exercise for consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, and in the
training of translators: however, we consider that it can also be used in general
foreign language teaching.
If we assume that translation practice should be an integral part of linguistic
education a trend on the rise among linguists and linguistic scholars worldwide, a
trend which is highly critical of the old lack of faith in translation as a linguistic skill -
enhancing tool it is clear that sight translation is useful in the teaching of oral and

MEMORIAS DEL V FORO DE ESTUDIOS EN LENGUAS INTERNACIONAL (FEL 2009)
ISBN 978-607-9015-05-3
Universidad de Quintana Roo Departamento de Lengua y Educacin
http://fel.uqroo.mx - fonael@yahoo.com
613
written translations, as well as in foreign language teaching, mainly due to the
mental processes involved.
Of special interest is the three-pronged analysis of these mental processes
in sight translation effected by Pratt (1991), who split the process into three
phases. In her opinion, the process of sight translation consists of:
1) Visual perception and understanding of the original message;
2) Mental translation
3) Oral production in the target language

An important point to be kept in mind at this stage refers to the relationship
between visual perception and oral reformulation of the original text: Dejean Le
Fal (1981) compares sight translation with simultaneous interpreting with text,
stressing that it is impossible to process a visual and an oral input at the same
time.
This is why, in sight translation practice, one of the fundamental points to be
kept in mind by the students is the succession of the different stages of this activity,
namely the student has to read first the original text silently with their minds
and successively the student can start with the oral re-expression in the target
language.
This apparently simple process has to be carried out by dividing mentally the
original text in logical chunks, or segments, and by concentrating on the mental
translation of the same chunks, one by one.
This process requires a considerable brain concentration, as it implies the
connection between a visual input, registered at primary brain cortex level, and its
corresponding sound form, when the Wernicke area of the brain comes into play.
The Wernicke area is one of the two areas of the brain linked to speech, the other
is the Broca area. So, two areas of the brain enter the process, almost
simultaneously, in an unusual way, thereby producing brain stress, which everyone
feels after a while when performing sight translation.
This process is similar to the Effort Model described by Daniel Gile, one of
the most outstanding scholars in the field of interpreting and translating, referring to

MEMORIAS DEL V FORO DE ESTUDIOS EN LENGUAS INTERNACIONAL (FEL 2009)
ISBN 978-607-9015-05-3
Universidad de Quintana Roo Departamento de Lengua y Educacin
http://fel.uqroo.mx - fonael@yahoo.com
614
simultaneous translation. Of course sight translation is somehow simpler than
simultaneous translation, since the process is simplified.
One significant element of sight translation deals with information retention:
citing, for example, a study carried out by Maurizio Viezzi in the early nineties in
Italy, this scholar was able to demonstrate that sight translation is useful both as a
preparatory exercise for simultaneous interpreting and also as a means to retain
linguistic information.
He exposed different students to a variety of exercises, namely: listening to
a text in the foreign language; reading a text in the foreign language; sight
translation, and simultaneous interpreting.
One result of this study was that the linguistic information retention level was
high in sight translation, confirming it as a useful tool in language learning.
This finding is strengthened by Moser-Mercer (1994) who claims that Sight
translation is a very useful pedagogical tool that helps students divorce themsel ves
from the original text, increase their speed of analysis and manipulate a text
syntactically as well as morphologically
Pratt (1991) supports this thesis through a detailed analysis of the skills
which intervene in the process:
1) Practicing mental reflexes to quickly understand an idea;
2) Immediate memory development to translate the same ideas;
3) Understanding a text in its whole, and not as a series of words;
4) Sentence visualization
5) Vocabulary enrichment
6) Synonym command
7) Ability to discard false friends
8) Fluency of thought
9) Ability to maintain a constant level of concentration
10) Finding a balance among the skills of reading, thinking, translating and
talking


MEMORIAS DEL V FORO DE ESTUDIOS EN LENGUAS INTERNACIONAL (FEL 2009)
ISBN 978-607-9015-05-3
Universidad de Quintana Roo Departamento de Lengua y Educacin
http://fel.uqroo.mx - fonael@yahoo.com
615
Personally Id stress that theres one more element to be taken into account,
that is: The development of the fundamental skill of building a clear, concise and
correct series of sentences in the foreign language, a basic ability, and one which
different student have difficulties with.
An interesting variety of this exercise is one which has been used
extensively in different universities, such as Heidelberg in Germany, Ecole
Superieur pour Interprets et Traducteurs in Paris, and consists of the projection on
a screen of a text moving at a controlled speed (controlled reader system), while
students read and translate the text at a loud voice and record their performances.
Whats important for this research is that different Universities apply this
exercise as a tool for improving the students knowledge of a foreign language, a
procedure not very different from the TAP (think aloud protocols), which consists of

asking students to translate a text and, at the same time, to verbalize what they
are thinking while they are performing the task; their performance is recorded on
tape or video, and the recording is then transcribed, with the written transcript
referred to as think aloud protocols, or TAP. (Taylor, 2000).

On the basis of what has just been pointed out, sight translation can serve
two purposes: training translators and interpreters, and can also be used as a
cognitive technique in language learning in general.
More specifically, it is useful in preparing students for simultaneous
interpreting, where students learn to read, analyze, translate and orally reformulate
a message without pause; in preparation for consecutive interpreting, with note
taking in between the reading and the text reformulation; and as a preparatory
exercise for written translation, to help students acquire speed, vocabulary and
quickness in their translating decisions: lets keep in mind that a professional
translator must not only be accurate, but must also be able to be quick when
translating.
In language teaching, sight translation is undoubtedly useful in that it can be
used as a pedagogic strategy in two ways:
First, students translating a text at sight from the foreign into their native
language, develop their understanding of the grammar structures, syntax, idioms

MEMORIAS DEL V FORO DE ESTUDIOS EN LENGUAS INTERNACIONAL (FEL 2009)
ISBN 978-607-9015-05-3
Universidad de Quintana Roo Departamento de Lengua y Educacin
http://fel.uqroo.mx - fonael@yahoo.com
616
and specific structures of the written language, enlarge their vocabulary, as well as
their general culture, in that sight translation forces students to cope with unknown
texts at a quick pace, so that they examine a considerable quantity of material in
the foreign language.
Second, students translating from their native language into the forei gn one
are able to understand the level of their command of the structures of the foreign
language, to foster their linguistic creativity, and test their ability to autonomously
create personalized structures of the language they are studying.
Last but not least, lets keep in mind that in different instances, in job
interviews, candidates are asked to perform a sight translation at a loud voice as a
way to test their linguistic competence. This is applied in many situations,
especially in the European Union.




















MEMORIAS DEL V FORO DE ESTUDIOS EN LENGUAS INTERNACIONAL (FEL 2009)
ISBN 978-607-9015-05-3
Universidad de Quintana Roo Departamento de Lengua y Educacin
http://fel.uqroo.mx - fonael@yahoo.com
617

References

1. Lambert (1988) A Human Information Processing and Cognitive Approach to the teaching
of Simultaneous Interpreters en Lindberg-Hammond D. (ed.)

2. Seleskovitch (1986) Interpreting versus Translating ATA, 27
th
, Cleveland OH.

3. Pratt (1991) Limportance de la Traduction a Vue Pour lEnseignment de lInterpretation et
de la Traduction Proceedings, XII Congrs Internacional de la FIT, Belgrado.

4. De Jean Le Fal (1981) Lenseignement de lintrpretation et de la traduction. De la
Theorie la pedagogie Cahiers de Traductologie 4, Ottawa, ditions de LUniversit
dOttawa.

5. Viezzi (1989) Sight translation, Simultaneous Interpretation and Information Retention en
Gran, Taylor (ed.) Aspects of Applied Research on Conference Interpretation-
Campanotto Ed. Udine, Italia.

6. Moser-Mercer (1994) Training and Research: the Foundation for Conference
Interpretation The ATA Chronicle 26,6,14

7. Taylor (2000) Language to Language O.U.P. Oxford, England

8. www.aiic.net (International Association of Conference Interpreters) Accessed on line
15/7/2009

9. www.acebo.com/egsite.htm (Introduction to the Sight Translation Chapter) Accessed on line
20/8/2009

10. www.intralinea.it/vol.11/ballardini.htm (La traduzione a vista nella formazione degli intepreti)
Accessed on line 16/7/2009






MEMORIAS DEL V FORO DE ESTUDIOS EN LENGUAS INTERNACIONAL (FEL 2009)
ISBN 978-607-9015-05-3
Universidad de Quintana Roo Departamento de Lengua y Educacin
http://fel.uqroo.mx - fonael@yahoo.com
618

Biodata

Alessio Zanier Visintin. Born in Trieste, Italy, Degree in Modern Languages,
Master in Translation and Interpreting. Researcher at UQROO since 1999. Wrote
three books, translated three books, and wrote 26 articles on language learning,
translation, literature, international relations.
Contact: azanier@uqroo.mx

Vilma Portillo Campos. ELT profesor at Uqroo and professional translator.
Researcher in the fields of translation and language learning process. Published
several articles and memoirs in national and international magazines.
Contact: vportillo@uqroo.mx