Translation of Thought to Written Text While Composing

Advancing Theory, Knowledge, Research Methods, Tools, and Applications

Michel Fayol, M. Denis Alamargot, Virginia Berninger

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781848729209
• eBook ISBN: 9781136496707
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Cognitive Psychology & Cognition
• Index: Psychology

Translation of cognitive representations into written language is one of the most important processes in writing. This volume provides a long-awaited updated overview of the field.

The contributors discuss each of the commonly used research methods for studying translation; theorize about the nature of the cognitive and language representations and cognitive/linguistic transformation mechanisms involved in translation during writing; and make the case that translation is a higher-order executive function that is fundamental to the writing process.

The book also reviews the application of research to practice -- that is, the translation of the research findings in education and the work-world for individuals who interact with others using written language to communicate ideas.

This volume provides a rich resource for student, theorists, and empirical researchers in cognitive psychology, linguistics, and education; and teachers and clinicians who can use the research in their work.

Part I

Reexamining What Translation Is and Its Role in Writing

1

Introduction to the Book
From Cave Writers to Elite Scribes to Professional Writers to Universal Writers, Translation Is Fundamental to Writing

MICHEL L. FAYOL, DENIS ALAMARGOT, and VIRGINIA WISE BERNINGER

DEFINING TRANSLATION

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Mifflin, 2009), translation is a word of Indo-European origin: translaten in Middle English, translater in Old French, and trānslātus in Latin. This word is used to convey at least nine different concepts, the first of which is the main focus of this book: to change or convert from one form, function, or state to another as in transforming ideas into written language. Other meanings include (a) converting to another language, (b) putting into simpler terms or expressing in different words to explain or interpret, (c) transferring from one place or condition to another, (d) forwarding or retransmitting a telegraphic message (communications), (e) transferring a bishop to another assignment or conveying to heaven without death (religion), (f) subjecting a body to translation (physics), (g) subjecting messenger RNA in cell bodies to translation (biology–genetics), and (h) expressing representations in mind in another medium.

Thus, one word can reference multiple concepts, related in some way, yet distinct (Stahl & Nagy, 2005). Indeed, transforming cognitive representations into language may be challenging and even anxiety provoking if the process involves converting from one language to another language to express the same ideas (the second concept). Moreover, cross-language translation is further complicated in many cases by cross-cultural as well as cross-language differences. Yet the process can also be challenging and anxiety provoking when it involves native speakers of the same language expressing the same ideas in different words to explain or interpret (third concept) or transferring across conditions (fourth concept). Human communication often breaks down among those who speak the same language—both in their oral interactions and in their written productions. The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth concepts are domain specific; in fact, when the words used in translation do not reference the appropriate concepts in the minds of those without first-hand knowledge of the specific domain, the words are perceived as jargon. Thus, we provide a glossary at the end of the book, to which readers can refer for conceptual clarification for use of a variety of technical terms in this book, which may have multiple meanings.

Written language is not the only mechanism for translating cognitive representations into another format (ninth concept). Ideas can also be expressed in gesture (Goldin-Meadow, 1999; Goldin-Meadow, Alibali, & Church, 1993; Goldin-Meadow, McNeill, & Singleton, 1996; Goldin-Meadow & Singer, 2003), sign language (Lubbadeh, 2005), art (e.g., Fayol & Barrouillet, 1995), architecture (e.g., Chartres cathedral), dance and bodily motion (Blakeslee & Blackslee, 2008), music (e.g., Mozart), drama (e.g., Shakespeare), and mime (e.g., Marcel Marceau). These modes of translating ideas into different media are not mutually exclusive. For example, the legendary French maestro, Georges Prêtre, uses bodily motion and gesture both to coordinate the other musicians in real time and to dramatize the musical ideas. Chapter 10 addresses the potential advantages of drawing on both art and written language expression during translation.

GOALS AND ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

Translation of cognitive representations into written language is one of the most important processes in writing (Hayes & Flower, 1980). Early studies of translation into written language focused on how children and adults marked cognitive units with capitalization and punctuation (Fayol, 1997; Fayol & Abdi, 1988; Fayol & Lété, 1987; Fayol & Mouchon, 1997) and grammatical conventions in linguistic units (Fayol, Gombert, & Abdi, 1989; Fayol, Hickmann, Bonnotte, & Gombert, 1993; Fayol, Largy, & Lemaire, 1994) and formulated written products (Alamargot & Chanquoy, 2001). Other studies examined the relationship of transcription skills (handwriting and spelling) to composing (Berninger & Swanson, 1994; Fayol & Monteil, 1988) and the intraindividual differences at the word (Bonin, Fayol, & Gombert, 1997), syntax (Costermans & Fayol, 1997), and text (Fayol, 1991) levels of language that contribute to text generation during translation in primary-grade children aged 6–8 years (Berninger, Mizokawa, Bragg, Cartwright, & Yates, 1994) and intermediate-grade children aged 9–12 years (Whitaker, Berninger, Johnston, & Swanson, 1994). In levels-of-language theory, transformation from cognitive to language representations can occur via multiple mapping processes involving different units of expression during the translation process (Berninger, 1994).

The early work grounded in an interdisciplinary levels-of-language theoretical framework introduced methods of linguistics to the cognitive research on writing processes (e.g., see research by Ruth Berman discussed in Chapter 3 and Martin Neef in Chapter 14). However, translation is a complex process, which as a research topic, has received less attention than other writing processes, and deserves further interdisciplinary reflection and investigation, especially about the nature of the cognitive representations and operations accessed, access routes, multiple mechanisms for expression in language (see Chapters 3 through 5) and related formats (see Chapter 10), the role of review of text produced so far (see Chapters 2, 5, 11 through 13), and the timing as translation unfolds in real time (Chapters 11 through 13).

Thus, the goals of this book are to

1. Provide an updated overview, since Hayes and Flower’s (1980) initial influential chapter and Butterfield’s (1994) and Alamargot and Chanquoy’s (2001) subsequent edited volumes, of research on translation—both findings and methodological advances in studying it

2. Discuss each of the commonly used research methods for studying translation including think alouds, qualitative and quantitative descriptive studies, cross-sectional and longitudinal developmental designs, statistical modeling through regression, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling, online experiments, and instructional studies

3. Theorize about the nature of the cognitive and language representations and cognitive ← → linguistic transformation mechanisms involved in translation during writing

4. Make the case that translation is a higher-order executive function that is fundamental to the writing process

5. Consider issues of application of research to practice, that is, the translation of research findings about translation during writing into real-world practices in education and the work world for individuals who interact with others using written language to communicate ideas

Part I includes this introduction (Chapter 1), an update on the theory and recent research about what translation is and its relationship to other writing processes (Chapter 2), and an overview of the methods, measures, and models used to study writing skills for translation and translation-related skills (theoretical frameworks for processes involved in the cognitive ← → linguistic transformations of translation) (Chapter 3).

Part II examines individual differences and developmental changes in the nature of cognitive and linguistic representations and the cognitive ← → linguistic transformations involved in translation from the perspective of levels of language. These include subword letter-writing processes (Chapter 5), word-level spelling processes (Chapters 4 and 5), and written text generation (composing) (Chapters 5 and 6). Both Chapters 5 and 6 provide in-depth tracking of individual developing writers, but Chapter 6 provides an important added contribution of focus on children whose first language is not the language of instruction at their school. Also, Chapter 5 findings are based on writing assessments outside the regular classroom, whereas Chapter 6 reports results for teacher–student dialogues about writing instruction and situates writing tasks in the school environment.

Part III contains four chapters with findings relevant to classroom assessment and/or instructional practices related to translation and other related writing skills. The first chapter focuses on professional development of teachers, that is, teaching the teachers to teach automatic handwriting to support the translation process effectively, but reviews research showing the contribution of automatic transcription skills to translation across schooling (Chapter 7). The second chapter focuses on early intervention in teaching children, who have been selected for neuropsychological risk factors, transcription (spelling) and text generation (composing) skills to prevent later writing problems (Chapter 8). The third chapter examines models for classroom assessment of writing in general education classrooms to evaluate response to instruction (Chapter 9). The fourth chapter extends current focus on teaching verbal strategies to include nonverbal art as well, to facilitate idea flow via access to nonverbal imagery and representations during translation (Chapter 10). Chapters in Part III add to Part II in expanding knowledge of the translation process at different levels of language: subword transcription (Chapters 7 through 9), word transcription (Chapters 8 and 9), and text generation (Chapters 7 through 10).

Part IV provides an overview of programmatic research featuring experimental studies of online processing underlying translation during production of written translation products in real time, as introduced by Chanquoy, Foulin, and Fayol (1990). As such, Chapters 11 through 13 offer pioneering extensions of reaction times (to experimenter-controlled stimuli and tasks) to production times for participant-generated written translation products. These online experiments add to the knowledge of the levels of language in the translation process, especially at the level of words (Chapters 11 and 13), sentences (e.g., subject–verb agreements) (Chapters 11 and 12), or text (e.g., review of text produced so far) (Chapters 11 through 13). They also illustrate the growing trend to employ technology in the experimental investigations of online translating. For example, some of the featured studies used both laptops, which record and store translation products and the timing parameters (duration and pauses), and eye movement recording to study the writer’s visual inspection of text produced so far.

Part V (Chapter 14 and Afterword) serves as a commentary on the volume. Building on the theme that the purpose of the book is to stimulate further research on translation, Chapter 14, which adds to conceptual knowledge of the translation process in writing from the perspective of theoretical linguistics, raises the important issue of what language is. The future of research on cognitive ← → linguistic translation depends as much on clarifying conceptual understanding of what language is (Chapter 14) as it does on clarifying conceptual understanding of what cognition entails (Chapter 3). Only if it is understood that writing is language, will reference to “language, reading, and writing” and the myth that writing is a motor skill disappear. Writing is ultimately written language and just as much language as is oral language. Motor skills alone do not produce writing.

Chapter 14 raises the important issue, now that online experiments of translation in real time are increasingly employed (see Chapters 2, 3, 11 through 13), of whether the planning and other translation processes unfold sequentially or in interactive and parallel fash...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Editors
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Part I Reexamining What Translation Is and Its Role in Writing
• Part II Individual Differences and Developmental Research Methods for Generating and Applying Theory of Translation at Different Levels of Language to Writing
• Part III Instructional Research With Improving Translation in Mind
• Part IV Experimental Methods for Studying Translation in Real Time in Adults and Children
• Part V Reflections on Past, Present, and Future of Translation Research
• Afterword
• Glossary
• Index