Category Archives: Test translation and localisation

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Translation quality is crucial in International Large Scale Assessments (ILSAs) as meaning shifts, which are language-driven, and perception shifts, which are culture-driven, can affect the psychometric properties of test items and thus compromise comparability. At the recent NCME conference in Toronto our CEO Steve Dept …

“Translation, test adaptation and linguistic quality assurance procedures in International Large Scale Assessments”

There is a growing interest and awareness of the need for a robust translation/adaptation design when administering tests in multiple languages and that this was reflected in the recent ATP Innovations in Testing 2019 conference program. cApStAn LQC is proud to be gold sponsor of this exceptional forum and we were delighted to present with …

““Translation is Not Enough: Preparing Your Exam for a Global Environment””

A cApStAn delegation consisting of Emel İnce (lead project manager for TIMSS 2019), Shinoh Lee (Operations Director) and our CEO Steve Dept received a warm welcome at IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) last Thursday the 28th of February. An incredibly constructive meeting with IEA Amsterdam director, Andrea Netten P.h.D. and project team David Ebbs, Lauren Musu, Jan-Philipp …

“Translation and verification for international studies – IEA meeting”

Multilingual assessements will be a hot topic at ATP Innovations in Testing 2019 (March 15-20, Orlando, US) as there is a growing awareness of the need of a robust translation/adaptation design when administering tests in multiple languages. Advances in test adaptation and state-of-the-art translation technology have changed the paradigm. cApStAn has organized, coordinated and supervised …

“Planning to go international with your tests and assessments? Don’t miss our session at ATP 2019”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner cApStAn linguistic quality control is a brand name (and a registered trademark) for a holistic approach to translation and adaptation of assessments and surveys; cApStAn also stands for a certain lifestyle and spirit: “Excellence among friends”, as one of the founding partners likes to put it. When we take …

“A Sense of Direction”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village/Roberta Lizzi – Senior project manager, external human resources director @cApStAn cApStAn has almost two decades of experience in the linguistic quality control of test items in international large scale assessements, such as PISA, PIAAC, PIRLS, TIMSS, etc. The translation verification process compares source and target …

“Challenges in parallel translation verification of test items with script/audio, e.g. for pre-school children”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village What reasonable investments should you make to move beyond the “just translate it” attitude? When do you translate, when do you adapt? What workflows work best for the translation of assessments? These are just some of the issues addressed at a well-attended webinar organised jointly …

“Multilingual tests: when do you translate, when do you adapt? And how?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Globalization and innovative web technologies have removed geographic boundaries and opened new opportunities for awarding bodies, technology certification programs and credentialing organizations.  However, with these opportunities come new challenges:  How do you localize items and assessments so they will reliably measure knowledge, skills and abilities …

“Announcing the joint Questionmark/cApStAn webinar on assessment localization – 8 Nov”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner Will AI allow test development, item banking, item localization, validation and multilingual test delivery to all happen in one integrated environment? The AI behind adaptive translation is not the same as the AI behind item generation, but they can work together to build a robust boiler plate in multiple …

“Offline AI and boiler plate approach in multilingual testing”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner Dublin, Lisbon, Amsterdam, and now Athens. This was cApStAn’s fourth participation in a conference of the European arm of the Association of Test Publishers (E-ATP). Why would a linguistic quality control agency participate in a test publishers’ conference? A high-level conference at that, with 327 attendees (of which 24 were …

“The Testing Industry, 21st Century Skills and the Medicane”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village In the past two decades, new standards have been defined for the adaptation of assessment instruments into multiple languages. Sophisticated translation designs have become the norm in international large scale assessments (ILSAs). However, in item development, the “Anglo-Saxon legacy” still prevails: the most common practice …

“Redefining the concept of “master version” in test item development to address the “Anglo-Saxon legacy” and other translation effects”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner In some areas, AI may be a hype. Not so for neural machine translation (NMT). On a daily basis, we hear and read about the new threats and opportunities that come with new advances in artificial intelligence (AI). In the field of translation, the advances are real, the opportunities …

“Garbage in, garbage out: feed AI translatable items”