Introducing statistical machine translation in translator training: from uses and perceptions to course design, and back again

Abstract

While translation technology is now at the core of most translator training programmes, only a handful include teaching of statistical machine translation (SMT). This paper reports on the design and evaluation of an SMT course which we introduced in the second year of our Master’s degree in Multilingual Specialised Translation in 2016.

Traduction automatique et usage linguistique : une analyse de traductions anglais-français réunies en corpus

“…Avec l'arrivée de la TA neuronale, ce sentiment de crainte en regard d'une technologie dont on lit parfois qu'elle les remplacerait s'est accentué, du fait des gains de fluidité en langue cible mais aussi des applications et accessoires développés pour le grand public et aux performances parfois étonnantes. La spécificité de cette nouvelle technologie qui relève de l'intelligence artificielle (réseaux neuronaux) est qu'elle est opaque pour la plupart des acteurs du secteur : autant il était possible d'expliquer le fonctionnement de la TA à base de règles et de la TA statistique (Rossi 2017), autant expliquer le fonctionnement des réseaux neuronaux et la façon dont la machine propose une traduction est aujourd'hui difficile, en particulier auprès d'un public en formation. Les traductions proposées par les outils de TA sont aujourd'hui difficiles à prévoir ou à expliquer.…”

Machine translation in the multilingual classroom

“…While there is a growing body of research focusing on the use of MT by professional translators (e.g., Läubli and Orrego-Carmona 2017;Moorkens et al 2018;Sánchez-Gijón et al 2019) and translation students (e.g., Kenny and Doherty 2014;Gaspari et al 2015;Rossi 2017;Moorkens 2018), there is only very limited attention to the use of MT by students who are not enrolled in a trans-lation programme (cf. Bowker and Buitrago Ciro 2019;Bowker 2020) or professional users who are not involved in translation (cf.…”

对译后编辑人员特点和实践的思考。

“…3, experience in translation tends to grow in line with the age of the informants, yet the tendency characterizing PE experience is more heterogeneous. Consequently, it can be assumed that despite availability of MTPErelated modules in the training programs in the recent years (Doherty et al, 2012;Austermuehl, 2013;Kenny and Doherty, 2014;Rossi, 2017), younger participants in the survey did not demonstrate a tendency to be more involved in PE than older participants. Another particular feature of this cross-section is that their experience in PE was less or on few occasions equaled the number of years dedicated to translation.…”

“…This paper is based on the assumption that there is an increasing need to examine and reflect on post-editors' experiences and parameters of PE workflow with a view to MTPE processes facilitation and PE skills enhancement. As such, a collection of first-hand data on post-editors' expertise becomes helpful for those experts and scholars who focus on the development of theories as well as specialized training for the growing needs of the MTPE industry (Kenny and Doherty, 2016;Rossi, 2017).…”