Web search for translation: an exploratory study on six Chinese trainee translators’ behaviour

Translators’ information skills have long been recognised as one of the most important competence for translators these days. Of particular interest is the perception of the web as an invaluable tool for locating and confirming terms for specialised translation. The intention for this paper is to investigate Chinese trainee translators’ web search behaviour in this context. Screen recording was supplemented by think-aloud protocols as data collection methods. The data suggest that Chinese trainee translators use a variety of web resources, which largely tallies with previous researchers’ findings. Two types of web-search behaviours are identified. In addition, interesting idiosyncratic behaviours are found in terms of how and potentially why different types of web resources are used in conjunction with each other by individual trainees. Relevant pedagogical implications are drawn as a result.