Reflective piece 3: Cultural connotations in language structures: An experiential account of meaning-making in the processes of translation

Despite plenty of evidence of ‘variations in spoken language by gender, ethnic group, social class and nationality’ (Bradby, 2002; Wong and Poon, 2010) which suggests that methods of translation are crucial concerns for maintaining the validity of data (Birbili, 2000), sociological research does not seem to pay the required attention to the problematic that the arena of language and translation may offer. This paper discusses methodological issues concerning translation based on my experiential account of carrying out an MPhil research project