Translation

What We Do

Professional Translation Services

Translating and adapting questionnaires and tests

A translation must be fit for purpose.

A translated measurement instrument needs to measure the same construct in a fair and reliable way. A translated report requires correct and consistent terminology, intelligibility and clarity. A translated marketing document must obtain the expected impact on a given target population. We examine each project’s needs and requirements—including budget and time frame—and propose the most suitable blend of state-of-the-art technology, experienced translators, and methods that make operational sense.

cApStAn Modular Approach – Our language services are organized in 22 modules that can be combined on the basis of needs, requirements and goals to arrange the best workflow for each project.
Download Our Modular Approach Document

Our translation methods:

Single forward translation + proofreading

What? Legal documents, reports, minutes of meetings
How? Selection of translators with relevant experience; leveraging assets and pre-translation; automated quality assurance; proofreading by a copy editor.

Straightforward and cost-effective

Premium translation: single forward translation + expert review

What? Data collection instruments with tight timelines and budget limitations
How? Translators with relevant experience; leveraging assets and pre-translation; automated quality assurance; expert review by a senior linguist or SME trained in identifying equivalence issues.

Added value of source-target comparison by an expert

Dual forward translation + reconciliation

What? International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) such as PISA
How? Two translations produced independently; reconciliation (merging) by a senior translator with domain expertise, combining the best elements of both.

Added value of multiple translation inputs

Dual forward translation, review and adjudication (TRAPD)

What? Psychological tests, comparative surveys such as the European Social Survey (ESS)
How? Two translations produced independently; review by a senior translator with domain expertise; a final version produced jointly by the three linguists in an adjudication meeting; cognitive debriefing (pre-testing) conducted with a partner organization.

Added value of multiple translation inputs, adjudication and pre-testing

Hybrid human-machine translation workflows

What? Projects with fast turn-around time, responses to online probes
How? Translation suggested by Neural machine translation (NMT) engines when not provided by a translation memory (TM); final review and post-editing of NMT suggestions by a human translator (MTPE).

Efficiency of machine translation; guarantee of human translation quality control

We provide translation services from English or French sources to many different target languages:

  • English to Arabic
  • English to Spanish
  • English to Tagalog
  • English to Umbundu
  • French to Polish
  • French to Wolof
  • You name it

Check Out Some of Our Case Studies

Machine Translation Quality Evaluation

Machine Translation Quality Evaluation & Post-Editing

About the project The client needed to code responses to open-ended questions from a survey that collected data from Chinese speakers. The client tried to use machine translation, but the [...]

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OECD PISA global crisis module

Translation/adaptation of PISA Global Crises Module (GCM)

About the project The OECD’s Programme for International student Assessment (PISA) developed PISA Global Crises Module (GCM) to collect information on how education systems around the world have responded to [...]

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translatability

Translatability and Cultural Suitability Workshops for Test Authors

Steve Dept, cApStAn CEO It may take a psychologist or a subject matter expert to be a test author and develop good questions, but nothing speaks against that person being [...]

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Contact Us

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Brussels

Chaussée de La Hulpe 268, 1170 Brussels

+32 2 663 1729

Philadelphia

121 S. Broad Street, Suite 1710, Philadelphia, PA 19107

+1 267 469 2611