Language is a social phenomenon. Translation concentrates on the linguistic aspects of a text. Transadaptation takes content into account to ensure cultural validity. Transadaptation is needed whenever content needs to be relevant to the linguistic and cultural background. This session will discuss its importance to K-12 curriculum and Higher Education.
The translation of K-12 and college-level online courses and educational materials has become almost standard in recent times. Efforts to expand inclusion, the wide reach of the Internet, and the desire to provide all learners with high quality instruction have all made it essential. But translation is only one piece of the puzzle. Although translation can “speak” to a larger audience through linguistic diversity, to truly include all we must consider transadaption.
Transadaptation takes content into account to ensure cultural validity with a focus on the target audience. It is different from translation in that translated text is not just changed from one language to another, but also adapted to specific cultural norms.
To put this in context, in our everyday lives we use idiomatic expressions that can’t be translated literally. For example, think about how many expressions we use in English that have to do with baseball, a sport with far less appeal in the rest of the world than in the United States. Think of expressions like “knock it out of the park,” or to give someone a “ball park figure”, or even to “touch base” with someone – the list goes on. Translating these expressions literally would make no sense to the speakers of many languages across the globe.
Besides idioms, sometimes texts will refer to specific cultural touchstones like foods or holidays that are not celebrated the world over, or they will use units of measurement, figurative language, or humor that the target audience will not understand. These issues need to be addressed by an expert in transadaptation. Without it, a host of problems are introduced: bias, inauthenticity, irrelevance, or even cultural insensitivity.
In a time in which authenticity and equity are of the utmost importance, knowing how and when to transadapt a text - whether it be a course, an assessment, a textbook, literature, or even a marketing campaign - is of the utmost importance. This presentation will seek to clarify both what transadaptation is, why it is necessary, and best practices for incorporating it into a myriad of educational materials.