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Activity Number:
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499
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Type:
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Contributed
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Date/Time:
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Thursday, August 10, 2006 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
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Sponsor:
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Social Statistics Section
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| Abstract - #307237 |
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Title:
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Oral Translations in Surveys: Issues of Data Quality and Question Design
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Author(s):
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Janet Harkness*+
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Companies:
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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Address:
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Gallup Research Center, Lincoln, NE, ,
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Keywords:
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cross-cultural question design ; oral translation ; survey error
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Abstract:
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The paper presents findings from a systematic 2-country study on the effects that using oral translations instead of written translations has on interview interaction, participant burden and on survey error. Research conducted in Germany and Switzerland indicates that validity, reliability and interview communication can be severely impaired. The findings also reveal regular strategies of simplification and omission in orally translated interviews. Oral translation cannot always simply be avoided-some languages do not have a written form and so oral translation or interpreting are the only options to interview in these languages. Thus the findings raise important questions about questionnaire design and source question formulation if these are to be transformed through translation. Key words
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