Category Archives: Survey translation and localisation

If “how many sides does a hexagon have?” translates to “how many sides does a six-sided figure have?” in language X, then the translated item will not measure the same knowledge or skill. In benchmarking studies, however, comparability across different language versions of an item or question is not merely an objective, it is a …

“Live Webinar | Test and Questionnaire Adaptation – When Straightforward Translation Doesn’t Work”

by Roberta Lizzi – Senior project manager, external human resources director When multinational surveys and assessments go digital, content creators, principal investigators or test owners tend to rely on platforms, not only for delivery, but also for the management of the translation process. These platforms can be off-the-shelf or developed in-house. As a consequence, language …

“Why involving language services providers (LSPs) in the translation platform design is important”

by Steve Dept, cApStAn CEO In multilingual surveys, there is a strong trend towards performing more “upstream” quality assurance work to reduce the need for “downstream” corrective action. The late Professor Janet A.Harkness (1948-2012) relentlessly insisted on how important it is to craft questionnaire items carefully before they serve as a basis for translation and …

“Multilingual Surveys: Five cost-effective steps to improve your questionnaire before translation begins”

Looking at standardized tests and questionnaire content through the lens of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Bias Reduction (DEI-BR) Standardized tests and questionnaires are used in a variety of contexts such as admission to university, certification, accreditation, or hiring. Fairness, validity and reliability are objectives that every testing organisation strives to address. The processes in place …

“Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Bias Reduction Consultancy”

by Steve Dept, Founding Partner The idiom “these folks mix like water and oil” usually refer to an insuperable difficulty for certain people to blend and see eye to eye with one another. When we were asked to verify the translation of assessments for which it was obvious that linguists alone would not have the …

“Do SMEs and Linguists mix like Water and Oil?”

Et voilà! We are now online! After months of hard work we are delighted to announce the launch of our new website, which reflects our mission, values and brand, and showcases the best of our linguistic services and the great team behind it all. The new features are tailored to help you find the right …

“cApStAn’s new website has launched!”

by Steve Dept, cApStAn CEO In multilingual surveys, numerous factors may contribute to — or compromise — data comparability across countries, across cultures and across languages. Upstream quality assurance work may include cognitive labs, piloting and a translatability assessment. A sophisticated team translation design can be used to minimize item bias due to language-driven meaning …

“Do Trained Interviewers Follow Their Script? Reports from Zedland”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village  Standardized tests and assessments are used in a variety of different contexts: admission to schools and universities, professional certifications, hiring, or collecting information about background variables, for example, and can come in more than one language. In this case, test or assessment developers will need …

“How to best approach the translation and adaptation of tests and surveys for gendered languages”

The leads of the 12 work packages of the COORDINATE project are meeting today in the historical Academy Building of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, in the very room where doctoral students defend their PhD dissertations. Thirty-five researchers and field practitioners from the 19 project partner institutions and organisations, all committed to collecting data …

“Second Project Meeting of COORDINATE (COhort cOmmunity Research and Development Infrastructure Network for Access Throughout Europe)”

EU-MIDIS II, the EU’s 2nd Minorities and Discrimination Survey, provides an interesting case study of a close and successful collaboration between the FRA, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the survey organisation Ipsos MORI, and cApStAn LQC. The aim of the EU-MIDIS cycle of surveys is to assist EU institutions and policy makers in developing …

“Translating Sensitive Survey Questions: Experiences of Discrimination in Europe”

cApStAn organises its language services into 22 modules, or building blocks. Depending on the client’s requirements, on time and resources available, and on the purpose and life cycle of the document, cApStAn will combine different modules to assemble a coherent project with the most suitable workflow. You will ultimately decide on which modules to keep. …

“Preparation of Translation Process: Legacy Content Transfer & Management”

Codility is the #1 rated recruitment platform for developers, helping world-class companies the likes of Microsoft, Intel and American Express to assess candidate programmers via skills-based coding tests. The tests are administered in English, but often the candidates are not native English speakers. Hence the “pain point” identified by Codility: a too high level of …

“On-Demand Webinar | Disentangling Proficiency in Programming from Proficiency in English: Codility Meets cApStAn”