Translate sentence

In this article

In this article, you will find the following information:

• Background
• Adding or editing a Translate sentence item
• Correction and feedback options for a translation
• Item-specific options
  • Writing direction
  • Source text
  • Pre-filled text
  • Correction options
• Additional options

Background

The item type Translate sentence is typically used for small translation questions.

When this item type is used in exercises, the participants automatically get feedback on missing, incorrect, or redundant words in their translation without requiring any specific input from the author on these errors.

Adding or editing a Translate sentence item

Proceed as follows to add or edit a Translate sentence item:

1. Go to Authoring > Items.
2. Go to the folder in which you want to add your item.
3. Click on to add an item. 
4. Select the item type Translate sentence. 
   Result: The content pane of the item is opened.
5. Enter the item name in the breadcrumb at the top.
6. Click in the content block and fill in the instruction. 
7. Click + Add block if you want to add additional content blocks.
8. Click in the interaction block and add your source text in the Source text section.
   Result: On the right of the screen, the Block tab is opened.
9. Optionally, edit the item-specific options for your item in the Block tab. More info.
10. Enter the translation in the Translations section.
    Result: On the right of the screen, the Translation tab is opened.

    Tip: You can add alternative translations for the same word by separating the alternatives with slashes and surrounding them with square brackets. For example:
    

11. Optionally, enter the Correction and feedback options for the translation in the Translation tab. More info. 
12. If you want to add more translations, click +Translation at the bottom of the interaction block and repeat steps 10 and 11 until you have added all the translations you need.
13. Click Preview to try out your item.

Correction and feedback options for a translation

As an author, you can add multiple (correct or incorrect) translations. For each translation, you can set the correction and/or feedback options. These options are only applied to the selected translation.

For example:  

If the participant translates "sensible" in French to "sensible" in English, the translation will be considered incorrect and the participant will receive error-specific feedback. 

Item-specific options

You find the item-specific options in the Block tab:

Writing direction

The default writing direction for both the source and target language is Left to right. 

As the author, you can adjust the writing direction to Right to left for the source language and/or the target language if needed. 

Source text

By default, this option is switched on:

• As an author, you will see the Source text section in the interaction block where you can enter the text the participants need to translate. 
• The participants will see the source text nicely displayed next to the input field for the translation. 

When you de-activate this option, the Source text section will no longer be displayed either in the backoffice or in the player:

• As an author, you will have to add your source text to your instruction in the Content block. 
• The participants will see the source text the way you added it in the instruction field. 

Pre-filled text

By default, this option is switched off:
the participants see an empty input field for the translation.

When you activate this option, you can add text that will be shown to the participants in the input field for the translation.

Correction options

As an author, you can define whether or not the punctuation, diacritics, capital letters and / or whitespaces should be taken into account during the correction of the translation.

For example:
If the punctuation is taken into account and the sentence "La librairie vend beaucoup de romans." is translated as "The bookstore sells a lot of novels" (without the full stop), the participant will not get points for this translation. 

Additional options

Learn more about adding assets, adding feedback, selecting the correct scoring mechanism etc. in the section The assesmentQ item bank.