Assessing the Quality of Public Health Service Information Translated from Japanese into Thai Language: A Skopos Theory Approach

Abstract

This study develops criteria for evaluating the quality of public health service information translated from Japanese into Thai, drawing on the framework of Skopos theory and the evaluation criteria proposed by Fujinami (2007). The three-dimensional evaluation framework comprises: 1) Skopos rule, classifying translation as intended to provide public health information or persuade readers to follow guidelines or measures; 2) Coherence rule, divided on the word/phrase level or sentence/supra-sentence level; and 3) Fidelity rule, assessed in terms of content, form, and effect. The criteria are applied to analyze 20 public health service texts containing 662 sentences. Results are that most (95.17) translations met all three evaluation criteria. Among the three aspects, Coherence rule has the highest inadequacy proportion (3.73%), followed by Fidelity rule (2.72%), and Skopos rule (2.42%). These findings suggest that most translations maintain the communicative function of source texts. Additionally, translation strategies vary according to text type. Therefore, Skopos theory may be applied to develop systematic criteria for evaluating translation quality of public health service information, contributing to a more comprehensive structured analysis.