Two Methods of Evaluating Students' Translations: The Question of Validity

Abstract

This study examines the criterion-related validity of the results obtained by the application of two methods of assessment, that is, Farahzad’s Objectified Method (1992) and Hurtado’s Method (1995), to the correction of translations done by some university students from English into Persian. To do so, three raters scored students’ translations, first applying Farahzad’s Method, and then Hurtado’s Method. The mean scores given by the raters were compared to the students’ scores in 18 of the translator training courses which were categorized into four groups. The correlation coefficients between these two sets of scores indicated the validity of the two methods. The results obtained by using Pearson’s correlation formula proved that the methods were valid as the correlation coefficients were above 0.4 (0.4 < r). Moreover, as the differences between them were less than 0.1, it was concluded that they were equally valid.