Reading for Translation: Investigating the Process of Foreign Language Text Comprehension from an Information Processing Perspective (Linguistics‪)‬

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to look at foreign language text comprehension from a translator's perspective. Contrary to traditional translation theory interpreting the meaning of the text to be translated is not taken for granted but attention is being drawn to the fact that many problems which occur in the process of translation stem from insufficient or incorrect understanding of the source text. In order to retrace the complex task of information processing that is carried out by a translator the research data was collected in the form of Think Aloud Protocols and on the basis of a translation task-based questionnaire. Having such a complementary set of data allows to look at reading for the purpose of translation as a challenging information processing activity which requires a text analysis on a macro and micro level. Tentative conclusions that can be drawn show that the process of foreign language text comprehension is only superficially highly focused on detailed meaning interpretation prior to the onset of meaning transfer. It allows the translator to gain a general insight and sketch out an approximated vision of the target text while many comprehension problems will become apparent only when they hinder the transfer of meaning.