The Translation and Interpreting Competence Questionnaire: an online tool for research on translators and interpreters

Abstract

Despite the growth of research on translation and interpreting, measures of competence in such activities typically stem from informal, non-validated instruments. This scenario casts doubts on the ensuing findings and hinders comparability across studies. To address the issue, we introduce the Translation and Interpreting Competence Questionnaire (TICQ), an online tool for collecting relevant quantitative and qualitative data. The instrument comprises three sections. Section A covers demographic data and aspects of language history and multilingual abilities. Sections B and C focus on translation and interpreting competence, respectively, via self-rating scales on modality-specific skills and questions about procedural, declarative, and otherwise professional factors. A stringent validation procedure based on data from 284 participants (including item reliability estimations, principal component analyses, and multigroup discriminant function analyses) revealed that the TICQ can robustly classify subjects in terms of their actual status (laymen, students, professionals) in the translation and interpreting communities –with an accuracy of roughly 80%. Importantly, the TICQ is available in three languages, it is fully customizable, and it can be administered online, locally or in pen-and-paper format. Briefly, this user-friendly tool provides comprehensive information for empirical investigations in the field, offering unprecedented opportunities to enhance sample selection, between-study comparisons, and meta-analytic research.