Márta Lesznyák: A longitudinal investigation of translation trainees’ translation and post-editing competence development I
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3 Results and Discussion
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3.2 The discussion of novices’ results
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3.2.1 Students’ language proficiency, thematic knowledge and beliefs about translation at the beginning of translation training (research question 1.1 to 1.3)

3.2.1 Students’ language proficiency, thematic knowledge and beliefs about translation at the beginning of translation training (research question 1.1 to 1.3)

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First-year students’ scores on language tests (reading and grammar), thematic knowledge test and beliefs about translation questionnaire serve as baseline data in the longitudinal study, but they can also be employed as background variables when analysing the first-year group’s translation and post-editing performance.

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From a methodological perspective, it is important to stress that human translators and post-editors did not differ significantly on either of the variables listed above (see Sections 3.1.1 to 3.1.3 Thematic (background) knowledge). In consequence, no differences in performance or correlation patterns between the HT and the PE groups can be attributed to differences in these subcompetencies.

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It must also be noted that, with the exception of the language competence sub-tests, the instruments used in the study are not standardised; as a result, there is no way to tell whether students’ scores are high or low, good or bad, etc. Nevertheless, they can be used for comparisons within the framework of this study and for correlation analyses.

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The first translation subcompetence that will be characterised is English language competence. The C1 language tests indicate that students had a relatively low language competence, particularly in reading (average attainment 31%). It is important to emphasise, however, that students were not prepared for the language tests and unfamiliar task-types might have influenced their achievement. It is also obvious that reading for translation requires different strategies than reading for a language test (on reading in translation see Dragsted & Hansen, 2008; Jakobsen & Jensen, 2008; Macizo & Bajo, 2004, 2006; Shreve et al., 1993), even if there are no empirical studies on how they differ up to the present time. Nevertheless, although language test scores may not objectively reflect translation-related reading abilities, they do reliably indicate differences between individuals. In consequence, they can be used for statistical analysis. In other words, reading test scores may be lower than expected, but as the tasks were equally unfamiliar, novel and surprising for everyone, the measured differences between the respondents are real and reliable and, as such, may lead to differences in translation and post-editing performance.

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The language test scores of our students are in an “international vacuum”, too, in the sense that, to our knowledge, there are no empirical studies on translators’ or translation students’ language competence. The absence of such research is particularly concerning, considering that at this age of transition, some scholars think that the role of language competence may be changing (see, e.g., Pym, 2013). Specifically, its function in post-editing may be different from its role in translation. Without data from the “age of translation”, it is somewhat difficult to determine how the new language skill set should be different from the old one.

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As already suggested above, the bilingualism and the beliefs about translation scores can only be used to compare students to each other in this study; no general conclusion can be drawn about students’ level of subcompetence relying on these tests. The beliefs about translation scores, however, can be compared to data collected by Lesznyák et al. (2023, 2025b) when the questionnaire was validated. The mean values of the first-year students in the present study (HT = 53.88, PE = 52.50) are comparable to language teachers’ and other language professionals’ mean scores (54.62). They are clearly lower than the mean scores of professional translators (59.59) and translator trainees (60.57) (M. Lesznyák, Sermann, et al., 2023). It must be noted that the 2023 study included a large number of 2nd year translator trainees, which might have contributed to the high mean score. In any case, regarding their beliefs about translation, first-year students in the present research show characteristics of language professionals untrained in translation, which corresponds to expectations.
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