Machine Translation in the Language Classroom: Turkish EFL Learners’ and Instructors’ Perceptions and Use

Abstract

Online machine translation (OMT) tools are not exclusively designed for language learners; however, these tools are popular among them. This quantitative study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of Turkish speaking EFL learners and instructors in a university English program regarding the use of OMT tools. Two online questionnaires were administered to 462 Turkish-speaking learners and 34 instructors. The results revealed that 94% of the learner participants reported using OMT tools for their language learning studies. The learners predominantly used these tools for single-word or phrase translations. Reading and writing assignments were the main areas where the learners most frequently referenced to OMT tools. The learner participants thought the accuracy of the tools was not high, and the ethicality of using them depended on how they were used. Three-quarters of the instructor participants reported using OMT tools, and their judgements concerning the accuracy of these tools were more positive than the learners’. The results also revealed a mismatch between learners’ and instructors’ perceptions and attitudes regarding OMT tools in foreign language learning. Accordingly, the instructors often overestimated how much learners use OMT tools, while learners underestimated the instructors’ interest in them. These findings suggest policies should be developed within language learning institutions to guide students’ use of OMT tools, as well as improve the mutual understanding between students and teachers in terms of their ethicality.

The Use of Google Translate in EFL Essay Writing: Is It a Cheating?

“…Additionally, it was discovered in cognitive attitude that students' attitudes toward the use of GT are ethically acceptable regardless of how it is utilized due to the fact that GT aids in language learning and is a translation tool. Similar results were also found in studies by (Mulyani and Afina, 2021;Ata and Debreli, 2021) state that students using GT without permission from their teachers is unacceptable. Meanwhile, students' attitudes toward the use of GT are viewed as cheating depending on how it is used, as GT is viewed as cheating when used for graded assignments and tests.…”

“…According to unstructured discussion among the lecturers of the Critical Writing course at the University of Bengkulu, using online translation sites can be considered 'cheating', much in the same way as math students derive answers to difficult problems via pre-programmed functions on a calculator. This lecturers' view is in line with the results of the studies regarding this matter, although there were not many of them, that had been done by Mulyani and Afina (2021) and Ata and Debreli (2021). In addition, the lecturers are able to easily distinguish between the student's own writing style and that of the internet, especially when they suddenly "switch" in writing quality and use more sophisticated vocabulary.…”

The Importance of Machine Translation to University Students

“…Meanwhile, 48% believed sentence translations to be effective or extremely effective, while only 24% stated they were ineffective. About 36% and 24% of participants stated that the OMT was a successful method for translating paragraphs and entire texts (Ata & Debreli, 2021).…”

A Literature Review of the Opportunities and Barriers in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (Call)

“…Findings from research by Ata and Debreli (2021) found that a substantial proportion of language learners used MT tools for reading and writing assignments. However, the promise of MT for language learning cannot be generalised to all language learners as a study on using MT as a CALL tool for language learners at varying levels of proficiency conducted by Garcia and Pena (2011) suggested that MT can be proven to be of substantial help to mostly the beginner and intermediate language learners (lower proficiency).…”