Translation and cultural adaptation for Spanish adolescents of the short-form foreign language enjoyment and anxiety scales

Abstract

This study presents the translation from English to Spanish and the cultural adaptation for adolescents of the Short-Form Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale and the Short-Form Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Applying these scales in Spanish, we considered the translation essential to minimise bias that may lead to participants' misunderstanding due to language, semantic, and cultural changes. Therefore, we considered the transcultural factor and adapted the questions’ formulation to the sample, favouring more reliable responses. First, as bilingual Spanish-English speakers, we translated the original items into Spanish. A panel of 40 bilingual experts in six related areas (education, translation, linguistics, English philology, Hispanic philology, and psychology) evaluated the similarity of interpretability and the comparability of the language of the two English and Spanish versions and suggested alternative translations for some items. Finally, 117 Spanish secondary students of English as a foreign language (EFL) adapted the new Spanish versions regarding the suitability of the language used by their peers. After thoroughly analysing the adaptations, a final version of the two scales was provided. We conclude that the two-step translation and cultural adaptation method followed in the study was essential to provide well-adapted measurement scales in Spanish, resulting in two scales.