The role of translation technologies in Spanish language learning

Machine translation and the L2 classroom: Pedagogical solutions for making peace with Google translate

“…The omnipresence of MT in the L2 classroom presents a dilemma for instructors, raising concerns about both language proficiency and academic honesty, in part due to GT's constantly improving features that render it so useful. As Jiménez‐Crespo () aptly pointed out, “[t]ranslation technologies are here to stay; current language learners who are digital natives … already use them and, therefore, carefully considering their role in didactic environments is a necessity in the 21st century” (p. 190). With that in mind, instructors must take steps, beginning in the earliest classes, to implement a pedagogy focused on the pragmatics of intercultural understanding and achievable outcomes like ACTFL's Can‐Do Statements (ACTFL, ).…”

“…In addition, educators might implement some of the translation activities suggested in previous research (see Correa, ; Enkin & Mejías‐Bikandi, ; Jiménez‐Crespo, ) and think carefully about the role of translation as a pedagogical tool that can heighten learners’ awareness of the flexibility of language and the subtleties that are involved in precisely conveying one's intended message. Pedagogical activities, such as translating a popular song from English into the target language and then comparing students’ version with GT's, can emphasize the fact that translations are rarely verbatim reproductions of the original text and that the act of translating does not simply involve substituting words in one language for those in another.…”

“…Although working with MT may seem like a threat to the profession, multiple researchers have suggested taking a pragmatic approach that incorporates the technology rather than fighting it (Benda, ; Groves & Mundt, , p. 119; Jiménez‐Crespo, ). Pointing to the futility of attempts to obstruct technology in the past, Groves and Mundt (2015) warned, “Technologies are adopted or rejected by the users, and any authorities attempting to regulate their use in order to conform to a previously held world view is bound to fail” (p. 119; see also Benda, ; Jiménez‐Crespo, ). In other words, the greater threat would be to deny the extent to which MT is a radical “game‐changer” (Case, , p. 7) rather than taking steps to understand its capabilities and include it among the 21st‐century set of L2 classroom tools.…”

Proficiency and the Use of Machine Translation: A Case Study of Four Japanese Learners

“…Also, research on MT use of less-commonly taught languages is scant. The previous studies are mostly concerned with EFL (Benda, 2013;Lee, 2020;Stapleton & Kin, 2019;Tsai, 2019Tsai, , 2020 and Spanish (Correa, 2014;Enkin & Mejías-Bikandi, 2016;Garcia & Pena, 2011;Jiménez-Crespo, 2017;Niño, 2009). Little research has focused on less-commonly taught languages such as Japanese.…”

“…A growing body of literature explores various ways of integrating MT into language teaching and learning and reports a great variety of potential from the cognitive, linguistic, and affective perspectives (Benda, 2013;Faber & L2 Journal Vol. 14 Issue 1 (2022) 78 Turrero- Garcia, 2020;Garcia & Pena, 2011;Jiménez-Crespo, 2017;Kliffer, 2005;Lee, 2020;Niño, 2009;Stapleton & Kin, 2019;Tsai, 2019Tsai, , 2020White & Heidrich, 2013;Xu, 2020Xu, , 2021.…”