Efficiency of Machine Translation in Urban Discourse

This article aims to analyze the use of Yandex.Translate, an online machine translation system, in translating urban discourse texts on the web. The authors use integrative linguistic-and-pragmatic approach to assess machine translation quality in a global digital setting. The aim is to show the efficiency of a state-of-the-art machine translation system and to investigate its usefulness in practical application. The authors perform a detailed analysis of the Paris city website content, which is automatically translated from French into Russian with Yandex.Translate. The data selection is justified by the absence of official foreign versions of this website, which points to the need of machine translation engines integrated in a web browser. Less than 20% of the analysed machine-translated texts demonstrate high language quality, whereas 60% can be referred to as acceptable – the text preserves the meaning of the source but contains some errors and inaccuracies in the target language. About 20% of the machine-translated text contains blunders, which violate Russian language norms. It causes source text contents distortion and communication failures. In the end, a classification of the system errors is presented. It is also concluded that machine translation would substitute middle-skilled human translators in the future. However, the use of such systems will enforce standardisation and simplification of the target language

The memory space: Exploring future uses of Web 2.0 and mobile internet through design interventions.

The QuVis Quantum Mechanics Visualization project aims to address challenges of quantum mechanics instruction through the development of interactive simulations for the learning and teaching of quantum mechanics. In this article, we describe evaluation of simulations focusing on two-level systems developed as part of the Institute of Physics Quantum Physics resources. Simulations are research-based and have been iteratively refined using student feedback in individual observation sessions and in-class trials. We give evidence that these simulations are helping students learn quantum mechanics concepts at both the introductory and advanced undergraduate level, and that students perceive simulations to be beneficial to their learning.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physic

Effective Techniques for Working with the Tongue Twister in the Elementary Level of Training Russian as a Foreign Language

The selection of material for teaching phonetics is a topical problem in the practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language. In this article the tongue twister, as the material for the development of phonetic skills at the elementary level of teaching Russian to foreigners, will be discussed. It is proposed to work only with one tongue twister during daily phonetic exercises. It is also important to organize the work with different types of activities. This paper presents a set of tasks (about 20 exercises) and builds on the principle "from syllable to phrases and sentences", which can be done in a short time. In addition, this paper describes the tasks employing tongue twisters by studying grammatical material. These methods can be called effective because they develop different skills, introduce diversity, dynamism in the learning process and help to combat fatigue