Survey Methodology #2003-17 - The American Community Survey (Acs) En Espanol: Using Cognitive Interviews To Test The Functional Equivalency Of Questionnaire Translations - U.s. Bureau Of The Census Page 24
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52In terms of questionnaire design, the results discussed herein suggest the need to carefully assess
questionnaire translations from a questionnaire design perspective. This is necessary to ensure
both that translations are consistent with basic principles of questionnaire design, and consistent
with research objectives. After all, the most important test a questionnaire translation needs to
pass is “Does this question measure the same thing in the target language?” And it may be
difficult to provide an accurate response to this question without systematically and empirically
assessing the functional equivalence of questionnaire translations.
A final note is offered on the advantage of using cognitive interviews to address the intra-
language variation of Spanish. After all, the notion of “different Spanishes” frequently clouds
understanding of Spanish language issues. Keeping this in mind, a main objective of this type of
testing is to find the wording that is less frequently misinterpreted, since misinterpretation would
be expected to lead to greater response error. Though different terms may be preferred by
different Hispanic subgroups, terms that consistently convey the intended construct should be
employed. Selecting terms for use in measurement instruments must therefore be based on
systematic and empirical testing, and such objective selection should take precedence over
subjective preferences of intra-language variation.
This paper has illustrated some of the linguistic and design challenges that cognitive interviews
may help identify and remedy. Without systematic testing, there is no empirical basis for
evaluating the efficacy of a questionnaire translation as a measurement instrument. Thus, survey
specialists should routinely test questionnaire translations regardless of the process, techniques,
and quality assurance steps that translators may have used to produce the final target language
document. No other recommendations are offered. Instead, the author invites the reader, and in
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