Relatore: Professor Bruno OSIMO - Bruno Osimo, traduzioni ...

Matrat (1992) carried out a systematic comparison of three categories of
subjects (novice, advanced and expert translators) performing translation
tasks in a think-aloud vs. joint activity translating experiment.
Matrat’s approach is embedded in Vygotsky’s psychological theory that
proposes consciousness as “the highest level of organization of mental
functions comprising both intellect and affect”, and thus as “the fundamental
object of psychological research” (Jääskeläinen 1999: 75).
Vygotsky rejected introspective methods and reducing psychology to the
studying of isolated components of mind; he argued that interdisciplinary
research could account for the interrelationship between cultural, linguistic
and psychological phenomena (Matrat 1992). According to him, consciousness
is socially constructed and consequently he proposed that observing joint
activity would be the appropriate method (genetic method) to investigate
human cognitive processes. He also proposed to introduce obstacles and
difficulties into the experimental task in order to disrupt routine methods of
problem-solving and, thus to discover new skills.
In Matrat’s experiment, the three groups of students produced a written
translation of a written source text from English into Italian (their native
language). The same subjects took part in two experiments: first a think-aloud
experiment and then a joint translating activity. The source texts were
different for the two activities, but to retain the same level of difficulty they
were different paragraphs of the same text. The use of dictionary was not
allowed and the time was limited. There appears to have been no articulated
translation brief. The experimental sessions were video-taped.
The setting of Matrat’s experiments shows that more variables may have
contributed to her findings (choice to use text excerpts from the same text,
limited time, no access to reference books). Moreover, a problem arises: when
the subjects started the joint activity, they were already familiar with the
source text.
Matrat compares the collected data in terms of (1) problem definition
and structure and (2) strategic processing. The findings indicate that in joint
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