General Translation Performance or Distinct Rating Domains? A Bifactor Validation Study of Analytic Persian–English Translation Ratings

Analytic rubrics are commonly employed in translation assessment, but it is often unclear whether their domains represent distinct measurable aspects or mainly reflect a general judgment of translation quality. This empirical validation study investigated the internal structure of analytic Persian – English translation ratings. A total of 300 Iranian translators completed translation tasks from Persian to English and English to Persian, and trained expert raters evaluated their work using a 16-indicator rubric that addressed terminology, fluency, culture, and style. Since the indicators were scored on a five-point ordinal scale, confirmatory factor analyses were performed using weighted least squares mean and variance (WLSMV) estimation. Four models were compared: unidimensional, correlated four-factor, higher-order, and bifactor models. The bifactor model best captured the data’s structure. Findings indicated that the general translation-performance factor explained most of the shared variance, supporting the use of a total score. Domain-specific factors were less robust: terminology and style offered limited diagnostic insight, the culture domain offered modest and task-sensitive insight, and fluency contributed little beyond the overall score. These results suggest that the rubric is most appropriate for overall score reporting, while domain scores should be used cautiously for formative feedback rather than for high-stakes, independent evaluations.