2004
Volume 57, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 0165-8204
  • E-ISSN: 2667-1573

Abstract

Abstract

The translation assignment of the final high school exam of Latin in the Netherlands has been a topic of debate in the last decades of Classics education, as it was blamed for poor exam results. Kroon and Sluiter (2010) argue that the translation assignment is an invalid testing method: it does not give insight into the thought process of the student. It can therefore not distinguish between translating and text comprehension. In this study, we investigate the validity of the Latin translation assignment by proposing a new test that combines grammar knowledge and text comprehension. In a repeated measures design, it was found that there is a positive correlation between the results of the translation assignment and the alternative test ( = 0.65 and = 0.68). This test was also found to be internally consistent. This suggests that there is an alternative test that reliably and explicitly addresses skills that overlap with skills tested in the translation assignment. We have demonstrated this new test to colleagues in the field of Classics. Their enthusiasm and constructive criticism lead to a new idea for testing the ability for translation, which is to be investigated in the near future.

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