Research Methodologies in Translation Studies
The Translation Unit of the Faculty of Languages and Translation organized a discussion session entitled “Research Methodologies in Translation Studies” on May 30, 2023. The session was delivered by Dr. Eisa Asiri, Chairman of the Translation Department and the Assistant Professor in translation studies.
This particular session which was specially designed for Master of arts in translation students, was moderated by two promising MA in translation students; Ms. Atheer Abdullaziz Alqahtani and Ms. Haya Abdullah Alqahtani.
The discussion session provided answers to questions revolving around the definition of translation studies, the definition of research methodologies in relation to translation studies, overviewing central principles and terms in researching translation, and the constituents for writing research report in translation.
Dr. Eisa Asiri began the session with providing an overview of translation studies and research methodologies. He indicated that the central considerations of translation studies are “the process, the product, the participants, and the context”. He has also highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of translation studies as a discipline which relates to a wide range of disciplines, such as linguistics, literary studies, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology, and sociology, among others.
Dr. Asiri provided an overview of the definitions of research methodologies in relation to translation studies. He further highlighted the research methodologies incorporated into translation studies. He indicated that there are four observations when it comes to research methodologies in translation studies. These are “the texts that are the product of translation, the translation process, the participants involved in that process, and the context in which translations are produced and received”, Dr. Eisa said. He added that it is important to stress that whether a piece of research is process, product, participant or context-oriented is not determined by the methodology itself or even the source of data but by the ultimate aims of the researcher, and when investigating any of these aspects of translation it is impossible to exclude from view all the others there is inevitable overlap”.
Dr. Asiri then investigated the central principles for researching translation with reference to types of research. Following this investigation, there was an overview of product-oriented research, process-oriented research, participant-oriented research and context-oriented research, where Dr. Asiri accentuated certain features of the research in translation characteristics and quality.
At the end of the session, Dr Eisa Asiri discussed the components of research studies and the preparation of research in translation. He has also provided some important references for research in translation studies.
The presenter took live questions from the audience and the discussion was enriched and awareness increased across different aspects relating to translation studies.
The session which was attended by almost 60 staff members and MA in translation students from different universities in the kingdom was informative, very engaging, and overall a great success.
For your convenience, we have converted the PowerPoint slides from the meeting into a PDF file, which you can access by clicking here. Furthermore, if you wish to revisit the proceedings of the event, we have made available a recording in MP4 format, which you can view by clicking here.
