Translating Answers to Open-ended Survey Questions in Cross-cultural Research: A Case Study on the Interplay between Translation, Coding, and Analysis. Issue 3 (August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Behr, Dorothée
• Is Part Of: Field methods. Volume 27:Issue 3(2015:Aug.)
• Page Start: 284
• Page End: 299
• Publication Date: 2015-08
• Subjects: translation -- open-ended questions -- probing -- qualitative research -- cross-cultural research; Ethnology -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Anthropologie -- Méthodologie -- Périodiques; 306.072
• DOI: 10.1177/1525822X14553175
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1525-822X

Abstract

Open-ended probing questions in cross-cultural surveys help uncover equivalence problems in cross-cultural survey research. For languages that a project team does not understand, probe answers need to be translated into a common project language. This article presents a case study on translating open-ended, that is, narrative answers. It describes how the translation can be approached to obtain high-quality translations and how translation, coding of answers, and analysis of codes are all deeply interwoven. While the translation of narrative answers is a small field of application, the article's content is also relevant for those who are increasingly setting up cross-cultural cognitive interviewing or for qualitative researchers in general who pay increased attention to the translation of qualitative research data.