Lori Shelby, Ph.D., Founder & CEO Translations are expensive and time consuming, so it is very tempting to cut corners. However, if translations are not done accurately they can render survey results difficult to interpret or even completely unusable in some cases.
For example, consider how often we are testing the statistical significance between relatively small differences in survey research (e.g., Mean = 4.3 vs. 4.5). Imagine how much of an impact it makes if your respondents were reading the question differently due to poor quality translations. Your statistically significant result showing that there is a difference between two countries, could be only because of a difference in meaning caused inadvertedly by poor quality translations. There is another key reason why good quality translations are important...respect for your survey respondents. Asking someone to complete a survey where the translations are not professional makes you and your company look bad. It also has the potential to cause your respondents to question your professionalism, and even to question how much your company values and respects them. Would you complete a survey where the grammar wasn't consistently correct, the language didn't flow like it should, and the wording was occasionally confusing? Your survey respondents likely will not either. The good news is professional translators are wonderful and the profession has developed solid practices. This includes quality control processes and confidentiality standards. There are times when Google Translate is appropriate in survey research. I use it often to review emails and survey comments. For some studies, the comment questions will not be explored in depth. These are often only translated using Google Translate or a similar tool. However, when the comments are going to be subject to scrutiny and/or analyzed, they should also be translated professionally. Check back next week for translation best practices.
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Lori Shelby, Ph.D., Founder & CEO When conducting surveys internationally, it is important to remember that not all cultures read left to right or utilize the same conventions for what is a logical order of response options. This issue primarily impacts surveys, which include parts of Asia and the MIddle East.
Researchers typically become aware of this issue when they see respondents reply inconsistently in a survey. For example, indicate they were Strongly Dissatisfied on a 5 point scale with a service, but then comment later how happy they were with the same service. When you see this across multiple surveys in your study, it is clear you have an issue. The easiest way to ensure that your survey questions are understood for international surveys is to not put the scale numbers in the questionnaire itself. You can still code the numbers in your dataset behind the scenes. This way you remove the potential confusion and increase the reliability and validity of your survey responses. |
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