The translatability of Simplified English in procedure documents

A collaborative research project tested the translatability of a restricted language called Simplified English (SE) as it is used in maintenance procedure documents in the airline industry. The project was sponsored by the Boeing Company and conducted by University of Washington researchers, as well as members of the Boeing Information and Support Services and Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Customer Services Division. The study examined the effect of document type (SE versus non-SE) and passage (Document A versus Document B) on the translatability of these documents. Native speakers of Chinese, Spanish, or Japanese read and translated either the SE or non-SE version of one of two procedures. Independent raters then assessed the quality of the translations. Initial results show that SE compliant documents lead to better translations in certain languages.