The Effect of Pre-task Planning and Online Planning Conditions on Accuracy and Complexity of Persian to English Translation Products of Iranian Translation Students English Translation Studies

There is a significant body of research which investigated task planning in second language acquisition research. However, far less interest has been given to investigate its efficacy in translation classrooms. This study is the first step in the investigation of using time planning in translation tasks. In this regard, this study was designed to examine the efficacy of task planning in terms of accuracy and complexity on translation products produced by homogeneous groups of English Translation students. First, a writing task was taken to be sure that the students` accuracy and complexity of their writing was at the same level. Second, participants were divided into two on-line and pre-task planning groups. The pre-task planning group was provided with a 10-minute planning time before task performance whereas the on-line group was given a zero-planning time. To measure the complexity and accuracy of the participants’ translation products, the collected data were coded based on the established criteria. The results of statistical analysis reveal that pre-task planning enhanced the accuracy of translation products but was not influential in increasing the complexity of texts. The implications were then discussed concerning the importance of task planning in the field of translation studies and the way to increase the quality of translated text.