How can you ensure translations are appropriate for different educational levels?

It is essential to be familiar with the world and the language of the professional field in order to be able to adapt the language to the target audience, whether they are specialists, semi-specialists, or laypeople. This should be the first step. Although translators invest a significant portion of their time researching terminology (ranging from 30% to 60%), the importance of analyzing the text's genre, tone, register, specialized collocations, and the expectations of the target readers should not be overlooked. Selecting the right sources and resources is only possible when you have a foundational understanding of the field and can view it through the lens of an expert.

Ensuring translations suit different educational levels is a bit like tailoring a suit: it needs to fit just right. First, understand your audience's knowledge base. For younger or less educated readers, simplify complex terms and use relatable examples. For more educated audiences, you can maintain technicality. It's crucial to adapt the language style and complexity accordingly. Also, feedback is key. Testing your translations with a sample audience from each educational level can provide invaluable insights. Remember, a good translation doesn't just convey words; it communicates ideas in a way that resonates with the reader's understanding and experience.

That contradicts with the title or i am feeling so?! ??let’s try to answer- to make an information available for different levels, it should be an “information” ?? that means: simple, accurate, rigid, easy to grasp and translate through different means (audiovisual, tactile,…) and languages. It should be transferable ( able to survive with other sciences)

I don’t agree on this point. It’s not a matter of the translator identifying who the audience is, but receiving the necessary information before starting the project. And it’s our duty, as translators, to ask for the information we need. This requires communication with the editor/s. Of course, we don’t always receive even straight answers, but it should be the starting point: asking.

It's crucial to consider the target audience's literacy and comprehension levels. This involves simplifying complex vocabulary and sentence structures for materials intended for lower educational levels while maintaining accuracy and precision in content. Using clear and concise language, visual aids, and culturally relevant examples can aid in better comprehension. Collaborating with subject matter experts and conducting user testing or pilot studies can help refine translations to suit specific educational levels and ensure that they are both informative and accessible to the intended audience, whether it's for primary education, higher education, or other levels of learning.

"Graded language" is important in language teaching. When speaking to students or assigning work, you have to stay within the limits of the vocabulary and grammar that they already understand. Otherwise they get even more confused and frustrated than they may have been at the outset, which is counterproductive. From that foundation, you can introduce new words and concepts. Grading language was not just a matter of checking students' progress in the course -- I also listened to them carefully to figure out where they really were.

You've to use simple words in the translation, so that everyone understand everything easily. And you've to translate abbreviations, Google it, write it down in words and translate it then. Because you don't need abbreviations from other languages in a translation.

Speaking about quality of translation, let's not forget a crucial step - proofreading the final product. No matter how many times you have already seen the text, make sure you do not skip the proofreading when you are done with translation. My personal recommendation is to always print out the text, because we perceive the symbols differently on screen vs on paper. Also, proofreading should be performed at least twice, with pause between the attempts. The idea is to try and see your text from a different perspective.

Plain language should also be considered, especially when translating source texts intended for a general audience, such as various government documents and Informed Consent Forms (ICFs) in clinical trials. These texts often reflect the author’s knowledge level and educational background in the original language, which may not align with the public's understanding. Discussing with translation owners and possibly adapting plain language to accommodate as broad an audience as possible should be an important point.

There can be a bifurcation of the role of the translated content, which makes a considerable difference, namely: 1) as a faithful translation of the source language of a comparable level of difficulty. or 2) as information for a broader audience in the target languafe about the practices of the source culture. In the latter case, it might also be necessary to inform about its purely informational quality and the authoritative quality of the original text.