In recent years, the role of cognitive studies in translation studies has become more prominent. The translator’s shyness, however, has scarcely been researched in empirical translation studies. This study presents findings from an empirical study in which a mixed-method approach is employed to study the topic. The study seeks out correlations between the shyness of translation trainees and their translation quality. The population of the study included English Translation students at the University of Maragheh, Iran. The analysis was based on Shyness Questionnaire by Cheek, J.M., & Melichor, L.A. (1985), which was administered to translation trainees (N=39) to estimate their level of shyness; they were then asked to translate extracts of three texts taken from a novel and two short stories: Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Miss Brill, and A Long Day in November. The criteria for choosing these stories is that they all have elements that may be linked to components of shyness in the Iranian context. At the same time, some trainees were asked to verbalize while they translated the texts, a method known as Think Aloud Protocol. The translations were then rated and the results were compared with their responses to the shyness questionnaire. The results revealed different scopes of shyness, experienced by translation students, which might be of use to both translator trainees and teachers to become more acutely aware of the different and individual ways in which students can approach target texts. Although context-bound, the result of the study demonstrates how the application of an instrument drawn from psychology to translation trainees permits the suggestion that students’ shyness can influence their performance in translation.
