Lexical and syntactic errors in translation by Italian/English bilinguals

Translation is recognized as a specific linguistic ability in bilinguals. Yet, we know little about what factors influence translation ability, especially at the sentence level. In this study, adults were asked to translate sentences from English (L2) into Italian (L1). We hypothesized that (1) adults with later age of arrival in Canada would perform better in translating into their native language than adults with earlier age of arrival, and therefore earlier L2 acquisition and (2) adults with higher use of L1 would perform better than adults with low use. Participants (N = 70) formed 4 groups based on their age of arrival in Canada (AoA) and their reported use of Italian. The translated sentences were scored for syntactic and lexical correctness, and for the number of omitted words. There were significant AoA group effects: late arrival in Canada was associated with better performance. There were no effects for reported frequency of use of Italian Both self-ratings and native Italian listener ratings of the translated sentences correlated highly with number of correct sentences.