The Processing of Information by Different Learners

Different learners also process information in strikingly different ways. There are four main types: contextual-global, sequential-detailed/linear, conceptual, and concrete.

Contextual-global learners are sometimes described as "parachutists": they see the big picture, as if they were floating high above it, and often care less about the minute details. They want to grasp the main points quickly and build a general sense of the whole, and only later, if at all, fill in the details. They first want to know what something means and how it relates to their experience ЎX its relevance, its purpose ЎX and only then feel motivated to find out what it's like, what its precise nature is. They are "multitaskers" who like to work on many things at once, jumping from one problem to another as they grow bored with each and crave a change. They process information intuitively and inferentially, and often get a "gut-feeling" for the answer or solution or conclusion halfway through a procedure.

Contextual-global translators and interpreters tend to prefer jobs where minute accuracy is less important than a general overall "fit" or target-cultural appropri­ateness: escort interpreting over court interpreting; literary and commercial translating over scientific and technical translating. They want to get a general "feel" for the source text and then create a target text that feels more or less same, or seems to work in more or less the same way. When they are required by the nature of the job to be more minutely accurate, contextual-global translators prefer to do a rough translation quickly (for them the enjoyable part) and then go back over it slowly, editing for errors (for them the drudgery). Contextual-global freelancers tend to be somewhat sloppy with their bookkeeping, and often lose track of who has paid and who hasn't. They own dictionaries and other reference works, but have a hard time remembering to update them, and often prefer to call an expert on the phone or check a word with Internet friends than own exactly the right dictionary.

Sequential-detailed or linear learners prefer to control the learning process as much as possible by doing only one thing at a time: focusing on a single task until it is finished, and proceeding through that task one step at a time. These learners always want to know how to proceed in advance; they want a map, a formula, a menu, a checklist. They are analytical, logical, sequential, linear thinkers, typically high in logical/mathematical intelligence, who believe in being systematic and thorough in all things.

Sequential-detailed or linear translators and interpreters will typically gravitate toward highly structured working situations and texts. Stable employment with a steady salary is preferable to the uncertainties of freelancing. If possible, these people want to know far in advance what they will be translating tomorrow, next week, next month, so they can read up on it, learn vocabularies and registers, be prepared before the job begins. They are much more likely to specialize in a certain subject area, such as biomedical or patents or software localization, so they can learn all about their field. Sequential-detailed interpreters will gravitate toward academic and political meetings where speakers read from prepared scripts, and wherever possible will avoid more spontaneous contexts like court interpreting, where one never knows what the speaker is going to say next. If any professional translator ever does a detailed textual analysis of the source text before beginning to translate, it will be the sequential-detailed translator. Sequential-detailed translators own all the latest dictionaries in their field, and tend to trust dictionaries more than contextual-global translators; they also meticulously maintain their own private (and possibly also a corporate) terminological database, updating it whenever they happen upon a new word in a source text or other reading material.

Conceptual or abstract learners process information most effectively at high levels of generality and at a great distance from the distractions of practical experience. They prefer talking and thinking to doing, and love to build elaborate and elegant systems that bear little resemblance to the complexities of real life.

Conceptual or abstract translators and interpreters quickly lose patience with the practical drudgery of translating and interpreting, and gravitate toward universities, where they teach translators.

Concrete learners prefer to process information by handling it in as tangible a way as possible. They are suspicious of theories, abstract models, conceptualizations - generally of academic knowledge that strays too far from their sense of the hands-on realities of practical experience.

Concrete translators and interpreters are usually hostile toward or wary of translator training, and would prefer to learn to translate on their own, by doing it. Within translator-training programs, they openly express their impatience or disgust with theoretical models and approaches that do not directly help them translate or interpret specific passages better.

The Response

In any interaction, your response to the information you've taken in and processed will be the action you take. There exist six types of response filter: externally and internally referenced, matching and mismatching, impulsive-experimental and analytical-reflective.

Externally referenced learners respond to informational input largely on the basis of other people's expectations and attitudes. Societal norms and values control their behavior to a great extent. "What is the right thing to do?" implies questions like "What would my parents expect me to do?" or "What would all right-thinking people do in my situation?"

Externally referenced translators and interpreters almost certainly form the large majority of the profession. They predicate their entire professional activity and self-image on subordination to the various social authorities controlling translation: the source author, the translation commissioner (who initiates the translation process and pays the translator's fee), and the target reader. Their reasoning runs like this: The source author has something important to say. The importance of that message is validated by social authorities who decide that it should be made available to readers in other languages as well. The message is important enough to make it imperative that it be transferred across linguistic and cultural barriers without substantial change. The translator is the chosen instrument in this process. In order to facilitate this transfer-without-change, the translator must submit his or her will entirely to the source text and its meanings, as well as to the social authorities that have selected it for translation and will pay the translator for the work. This submission means the complete emptying out (at least while translating) of the translator's personal opinions, biases, inclinations, and quirks, and especially of any temptation to "interpret" the text based on those idiosyncratic tendencies. The translator can be a fully functioning individual outside the task of translation, but must submit to authority as a translator. For externally referenced translators and interpreters this is an ethical as well as a legal issue: a translator who violates this law is not only a bad professional but a bad person.

Internally referenced learners develop a more personal code of ethics or sense of personal integrity, and respond to input based on their internal criteria ЎX which may or may not deviate sharply from societal norms and values, depending on the situation.

The difficulty with this identification, however, is that many of these translators only seem internally referenced because the source of their external reference is not the one generally accepted by society. The "foreignizing" translator who leaves traces of the source text's foreignness in his or her translation thus seems "internally referenced" by society's standards, but is in fact referring his or her response not to some idiosyncratic position but to an alternative external authority, the source text or source culture, or an ethical ideal for the target culture as positively transformed by contact with foreignness.

For translators and interpreters, therefore, it may be more useful to speak of conventionally referenced and unconventionally referenced learners --- those who are willing to submit to the broadest, most generally accepted social norms and those who, out of whatever combination of personal and shared pain and individual and collective determination to fight the sources of that pain, refer their translational decisions to authorities other than the generally accepted ones. In some cases the other authority might even be the translator herself or himself, with no connec­tion to dissident movements or other external support; in most cases, perhaps, translators and interpreters build their ethics in a confusing field of conflicting external authorities, and may frequently be both praised and attacked for the same translation by different groups.

Matching /mismatching

Matchers respond most strongly to similarities, consistencies, groupings, belongingness. They are likely to agree with a group or an established opinion, because discordance feels wrong to them. Matchers define critical thinking as the process of weeding out things that don't fit: quirky opinions from a body of recognized fact, novelties in a well-established tradition, radical departures from a generally accepted trend.

In the field of translation and interpretation, matchers love the concept of equivalence. For them the entire purpose of translation is achieving equivalence. The target text must match the source text as fully as possible. Every deviation from the source text generates anxiety in them, and they want either to fix it, if they are the translator or an editor, or to attack it, if they are outsiders in the position of critics.

Mismatchers respond most strongly to dissimilarities, inconsistencies, deviations, individuality. They are likely to disagree with a group or an established opinion, because there is something profoundly suspicious about so many people toeing the same line. Mismatchers define critical thinking as the process of seeking out and cherishing things that don't fit: quirky opinions in a body of recognized fact, novelties in a well-established tradition, radical departures from a generally accepted trend.

In the field of translation and interpretation, mismatchers may feel uncomfortable with the concept of equivalence. It may feel like a straitjacket to them. As a result, they tend to gravitate toward areas of specialization that allow and even encourage creative deviation, such as some forms of advertising and poetic translation, or translating for children. They shun forms of translation in which equivalence is strictly enforced, such as technical, legal, and medical; and to the extent that they associate translation theory with the enforcement of equivalence, they may shun theory as well.

Impulsive-experimental / analytical-reflective

Impulsive-experimental learners respond to new information through trial and error: rather than reading the instructions or asking for advice, they jump right in and try to make something happen. If at first they fail, they try something else. Failure is nothing to be ashamed of; it is part of the learning process. At every stage of that process, spontaneity is valued above all else: it is essential for these learners to stay fresh, excited, out on the cutting edge of their competence and understanding, and not let themselves sink into tired or jaded repetition.

Impulsive-experimental learners often become interpreters, especially simulta­neous and court interpreters, because they love the thrill of always being forced to react rapidly and spontaneously to emerging information. Impulsive-experimental translators find other ways of retaining the spontaneity they crave, as in this quotation

Analytical-reflective learners gravitate toward translation jobs that allow (and even encourage) them to take the time to think things through carefully before proceeding. The sort of corporate situation where engineers and technicians and editors demand ever greater speed and don't care much about style or idiomatic target-language usage or user impact or other "big picture" considerations will cause analytical-reflective translators great anxiety; if they land such a job, they will not last long there. They will probably feel more at home in a translation agency where, even if speed is important, good, solid, reliable workmanship is of equal or even greater importance. Analytical-reflective translators are probably best suited to freelancing, since working at home enables them to set their own pace, and do whatever pretranslation textual analyses and database searches they feel are necessary to ensure professional-quality work. Because they tend to work more slowly than impulsive-experimental translators, they will have to put in longer hours to earn as much money; but they will also earn the trust and respect of the clients and agencies for whom they work, because the translations they submit will so rarely require additional editing.

LECTURE 8

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