Category Archives: Surveys and Opinion Polls

by Emel Ince –  Project manager @ cApStAn Online translation platforms such as Google Translation and Microsoft Translator have fuelled lively discussions. Recently, one such topic on social media has been the alleged gender bias of these platforms: Some users reported that, when translating phrases from gender-neutral languages such as Turkish and Finnish, male pronouns …

“Do the footprints of stereotyping and gender bias follow us in online environments?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village As more people redefine their gender identity in “non-binary” terms, schools, governments, workplaces and parents are having to adapt, says the author of an interesting article in KQED Science (1). Lists of possible gender options are expanding (cisgender, agender, gender fluid, transgender…) as well as …

““Non-binary” measures of sex/gender in surveys”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Welcome to the second issue of cApStAn’s monthly newsletter. This is our first newsletter after the coming into force, on the 25th of May, of the EU Regulation on Data Protection (GDPR). We at cApStAn have the protection of your personal data very much at …

“cApStAn May 2018 newsletter”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Heading to Paris for the OECD seminar on “Translating and Adapting Instruments in Large Scale Assessments” (June 7-8), and proud to have two cApStAn speakers at this important meeting, designed to foster discussion and “cross-fertilisation of ideas” between different stakeholders: Danina Lupsa, one of our …

“OECD seminar on “Translating and adapting Instruments in Large Scale Assessments””

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Welcome to the first issue of cApStAn’s new-fangled monthly newsletter. What is different about it? Of course we’ll share news about recent developments in the cApStAn ecosystem. We also intend to post snippets of information about and around the linguistics field in general, about testing …

“cApStAn April 2018 newsletter”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Multiple choice questions (MQCs) have been the traditional way of testing for generations, and have not changed substantially since they were first introduced, over a century ago, by Frederick Kelly*. His “Kansas Silent Reading Test” was possibly the first (timed) reading test that could be …

“Revitalising multiple choice questions for the digital age”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner The year 2016 has been quite exceptional for cApStAn, but this was partly due to the fact that the bulk of the work on one of our flagship projects, linguistic quality control in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (OECD/PISA), took place in 2016, just like 2013 had …

“Taking stock of 2017, setting the bar for 2018”

The OECD Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (OECD/PIAAC) is a large-scale household survey of Adult skills such as literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills. The first cycle of PIAAC was conducted in over 40 countries, with 5000 adults aged 16 to 65 being interviewed in their homes in each of the participating countries. …

“cApStAn a member of the PIAAC Cycle 2 Consortium”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner In the late nineties, Steve Dept was involved in two large-scale translation and adaptation projects. As it happens, he was particularly concerned with the time and resources spent on multiple revisions that did not seem to warrant incremental improvements in faithfulness or fluency. The effect of a translation review …

“20 years ago: Avenue de la Renaissance 1”

The conferences were announced a year ago or more. There were calls for sessions, calls for papers, announcements, short courses, and we knew we just had to be part of these two major events. It was a great idea to organise the 70th Conference of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (http://wapor.org/70th-annual-conference) and the …

“LISBON, JULY 2017: cApStAn @ the 70th WAPOR Conference AND @ the 7th ESRA Conference”

Two weeks ago, a complete 18th century library was discovered in Bouillon. The books, all of them over 200 years old, are in pristine condition. A miracle for bibliophiles. The 18th century was the last moment in history when it seemed possible for Encyclopedists to be well-informed about the latest developments in just about every science …

“Multidisciplinary Task Forces to Manage Complexity”

Our history class on the Middle Ages was a revelation (I remain indebted to Herman Van Bostraeten at Sint-Barbaracollege): instead of just being taught the starting point and the end point of the Dark Ages, e.g. from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 till the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg …

“Translation quality: entertaining anecdotes don’t give you the big picture”