About

My name is Krzysztof Pawliszak. I am a MA graduate student of English Linguistics at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.

I am writing my MA thesis entitled "Influence of being bilingual on interpreting or translation". As a part of my thesis, I decided to run an Experiment (this is a psycholinguistic study) to investigate certain assumptions and hypotheses form the theoretical part of my thesis.

My aim of the study is to investigate whether certain cognitive skills and functioning processes (both linguistic and non-linguistic), which are better developed in bilinguals, have any influence on translation task.

Thus I want to compare bilinguals, with no formal training in translation (or with this kind of training), with professional translators (who are not bilingual as defined above) and a control group of students.





Groups

Study Groups

you will be assigned to one of these groups
  1. Bilingual group (1)
    • I am a bilingual
    • I use both languages on a daily basis.
    • I began learning both languages before the age of 6
    • I had no formal training in translation or interpreting

  2. Professional translators group (2)
    • I am a professional translator/interpreter
    • I have more than 3 years of experience in translation/interpreting

  3. Mixed group (3)
    • I am a bilingual (as per 1 group) and work as a professional translator/interpreter

Grups

Design, method, and instructions

My study consists of a computerised set of psychological tests (Simon test and Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test). There is *no* need to install any software. The experiment is designed with PEBL (http://pebl.sourceforge.net/) which is a free software, licensed under the GPL. [As far as I know the version which doesn't require installation can be run on a PC/Windows. There is also possibility to install the PEBL on MAC and run the experiment form your desktop].

If you would like to be involved in the study please write me back and I will send you a zip file with instructions and executable files. The zip file is around 14MB thus I do not want to spam your box.

I put this file on a FTP [.zip] for reference.

The experiment is fully automated, i.e. once you start it you are presented with all instructions needed and all windows with tasks are displayed automatically.

The experiment would also require filling in a language history and proficiency questionnaire (LEAP-Q) [.doc]. It collects some statistical data, which will be used as specified in voluntary_study_participation_release.doc only.

The experiment takes around 15-20 minutes (max) to finish. One needs only a mouse and a keyboard and a colour monitor.

Although there is no rush I would be happy to receive the results back by Wednesday (22.08).

Contact

Feel free to contect me!

If you want to participate in the study pleas contact me via e-mail kpira@interia.pl or