Once you know your target population, you will also need to consider whether you need to translate your survey into other languages. While this process may seem daunting, these guiding questions can help walk you through some of the considerations when building a multilingual survey:
- Which language(s) will you use for your survey and how do these languages connect with your participant group?
- How will participants pick which language to take the survey in?
- How will consent to participate occur and in which language(s)?
- Can participants read survey questions in one language but write their responses in another?
- How will the translation of your survey be completed?
Once you reach decisions on these questions and come up with a plan, make sure to include clear instructions upfront that allow for participants to easily select the survey in their desired language.
Translation
After you have considered how you will build your multilingual survey, there are some things you want to look out for when it comes time to translate your questionnaire (Pew Research Center, 2019):
- Make sure questions have the same meaning in different languages.
- Avoid idioms and phrases that are unique to one language and do not translate well to another language.
- Have local experts review the questions if possible to identify any cultural or political sensitivities.
The video below also offers more information and elaborates on these tips (Pew Research Center, 2019).
Ethics Check
Ultimately, considering if your survey needs to be in more than one language is an issue of ethics as well as reliability and validity of your data. If translating your survey is not possible due to time or funding constraints, try putting yourself in the place of the participant. If you have ever learned another language, consider what linguistic or formatting features you would need to complete a survey that is not in your first language.
