Luísa Araújo, Sara de Almeida Leite, Rita Brito, Sandrina Esteves
{"title":"The new words kids hear from translated picturebooks.","authors":"Luísa Araújo, Sara de Almeida Leite, Rita Brito, Sandrina Esteves","doi":"10.21248/l1esll.2022.22.1.393","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study shows how the language in translated picturebooks is enriched by the use of rare words. We document how the translation of picturebooks from English to Portuguese results in the use of rare words in Portuguese. Evidence indicates that children learn new vocabulary through readings of picturebooks (Noble et al., 2019) and that translators make choices that contribute to the use of rare words (Ketola, 2018). The sample of 86 picturebooks was selected from a list recommended by the Portuguese national reading plan for 3-5-year-olds. The identification of rare words was done using a frequency analysis in both Portuguese, using ESCOLEX, and English, using the ChildFreq tool. Findings indicate that translated picturebooks use rich and varied lexicon and include an average of 6.6 rare words. Twenty-two percent of these words originate from literal and non-literal translations and are not rare in the original texts. This indicates that the process of translation contributes to increasing children's exposure to rare words.","PeriodicalId":43406,"journal":{"name":"L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature","volume":"69 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.21248/l1esll.2022.22.1.393","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study shows how the language in translated picturebooks is enriched by the use of rare words. We document how the translation of picturebooks from English to Portuguese results in the use of rare words in Portuguese. Evidence indicates that children learn new vocabulary through readings of picturebooks (Noble et al., 2019) and that translators make choices that contribute to the use of rare words (Ketola, 2018). The sample of 86 picturebooks was selected from a list recommended by the Portuguese national reading plan for 3-5-year-olds. The identification of rare words was done using a frequency analysis in both Portuguese, using ESCOLEX, and English, using the ChildFreq tool. Findings indicate that translated picturebooks use rich and varied lexicon and include an average of 6.6 rare words. Twenty-two percent of these words originate from literal and non-literal translations and are not rare in the original texts. This indicates that the process of translation contributes to increasing children's exposure to rare words.
这项研究表明,翻译绘本中的语言是如何通过使用生僻词汇而丰富的。我们记录了从英语到葡萄牙语的绘本翻译如何导致葡萄牙语中使用罕见的单词。有证据表明,儿童通过阅读绘本来学习新词汇(Noble et al., 2019),译者做出的选择有助于使用生僻词汇(Ketola, 2018)。86本绘本样本是从葡萄牙3-5岁儿童国家阅读计划推荐的清单中挑选出来的。使用ESCOLEX对葡萄牙语和使用ChildFreq工具的英语进行频率分析,对罕见词进行识别。研究结果表明,翻译后的绘本词汇丰富多样,平均包含6.6个生僻词汇。这些单词中有22%来自字面和非字面翻译,在原文中并不罕见。这表明翻译过程有助于增加儿童接触生僻词汇的机会。