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Translation Review and Cognitive Testing of ACS Language Assistance Guides in Multiple Languages

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The U.S. Census Bureau has undertaken efforts to translate the American Community Survey (ACS) supporting documents into non-English languages. As a part of these efforts, they conducted three phases of cognitive testing of the ACS Language Assistance Guide (LAG) that were translated into Chinese (using simplified Chinese characters) and Korean. Assisted by RTI International, the purpose of this project was to pretest the LAG translations and examine whether Census Bureau translation requirements are met, whether the LAG translations deliver the intended message, and whether there are possible revisions to the guides. A total of 258 cognitive interviews were completed with native Chinese- and Korean-speaking respondents who speak little or no English. They included 129 Chinese language and 129 Korean language interviews. Because the entire LAG is too long for examination in one cognitive interview, a phased approach was designed. There were three phases, and each phase tested a portion of the LAG and two rounds of interviews were conducted in each phase. The work included translation review, interview protocol guides development and their translation, respondent recruitment, cognitive interviews, and data analysis and reporting, which were conducted by RTI under the direction of the U.S. Census Bureau. This report documents the final findings of the research program.

Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021
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