The thinking-aloud protocol in the investigation of the translation process

The thinking-aloud protocol, a method borrowed from psychology, is used to investigate the procedures, strategies and the successive stages that a translator goes through to achieve the target-language equivalence of a word, expression, sentence or whole text. It involves externalising the contents of our minds, i.e. what we are currently aware of as we engage in a particular activity, without in any way interfering with the mental process or strategies involved. In practice, subjects who use the thinking-aloud technique are requested to give simultaneous reports on whatever is in their minds while they are translating