First Steps in Linguistic Testing

by TestFortExpert on 03/5/2013

What is linguistic testing?

Linguistic testing is all about translation clearnest and use of correct language rules (spelling, grammar, punctuation and style) that help to create right context for localized content.

Now let’s consider testing of games as an example.

The first step is to determine in general what errors can be found in the localization.

Linguistic testing aspects

1. Semantic errors can occur for two reasons:

the low competence of the interpreter;
the lack of context.

2. Terminology is not uniform

This mostly happens on the large-scale projects.

3. Cosmetic errors

wrong text justification;
stacking of elements;
cutting off the text.

4. Errors in text adoption:

a part of text is not displayed;
a proxy object is displayed instead of the text;
the selected font is not supported;
instead of translation the original text is displayed;
the other language localization is displayed (the wrong language);
a wrong line is displayed.

5. Linguistic errors:

spelling;
grammar;
punctuation.

How can one distinguish a good tester from an unskilled one? And most importantly, what should you do with the results of testing?

So how should one select the appropriate performers? First of all a linguistic tester should be literate and attentive. It is better to give applicants a questionnaire, which aims to reveal how clearly and correctly a person can express his own thoughts.

When the team is ready, it’s time to proceed to the next step.

There are two alternatives:

1. If a customer does not have a tool for bug tracking you can provide a test report in the same form that was used during the selection of candidates for testers. In addition you can provide a general analysis of the errors found: which group most of them belong to, and what follows from this.

As a result the revision of texts by the customer may be recommended or proofread, or in other words read by a native speaker with the elimination of semantic, grammatical and other errors.

2. If a customer has his own bug tracking system error reports should be posted in the system itself.

While testing small games process technology is based on the following principle: one game to one tester. The large-scale, complex games with plenty of plot twists are another matter. They should be divided among multiple testers and circuit of each tester must be defined.

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