Translator Attitudes towards Translator-Computer Interaction – Findings from a Workplace Study

Today technology is part and parcel of professional translation, and translation has therefore been characterised as Translator-Computer Interaction (TCI) (O’Brien 2012). Translation is increasingly carried out using Translation Memory (TM) systems which incorporate machine translation (MT), referred to as MT-assisted TM translation, and in this type of tool, translators switch between editing TM matches and post-editing MT matches. It is generally assumed that translators’ attitudes towards technology impact on this interaction with the technology. Drawing on Eagly/Chaiken’s (1995) definition of attitudes as evaluations of entities with favour or disfavour and on qualitative data from a workplace study of TCI, conducted as part of a PhD dissertation (Bundgaard 2017) and partly reported on in Bundgaard et al. (2016), this paper explores translator attitudes towards TCI in the form of MT-assisted TM translation. In doing so, the paper has a particular focus on the disfavour towards TCI expressed by translators. Moreover, inspired by Olohan (2011), who applies Pickering’s “mangle of practice” theory and analyses resistance and accommodation in TCI, the paper focuses on how translators accommodate resistances offered by the tool. The study shows that the translators express disfavour towards MT in many respects, but also acknowledge positive aspects of the technology and expect MT to play a significant role in their future working lives. The translators do not make many positive or negative comments about TM which might indicate that TM is a completely integrated part of their processes. The translators seem to have a flexible and pragmatic attitude towards TCI, adapting to the tool’s imperfections and accommodating its resistances

“Don’t fix bad translations”: A netnographic study of translators’ understandings of back translation in the medical domain

Back translation (BT) means taking a translation and translating it back into the original language to check the accuracy of the translation. In the Health Sciences, BT is widely used and considered the gold standard for quality assurance. However, BT has received very limited attention within Translation Studies, and at the same time, there seems to be a lack of consensus in guidelines on BT within the medical field on the appropriate approach to BT. This begs the question of whether translators know what BT is and how they understand and approach BT. Using a netnographic approach, we explored translators’ utterances related to BT in two online translator forums. The analysis showed some confusion as to the appropriate approach to BT which underlines the importance of providing translators with a brief. This, however, requires that clients are aware of the purpose and limitations of BT.Bei der Rückübersetzung wird eine Übersetzung zurück in die Ausgangssprache übersetzt um die Genauigkeit der Übersetzung zu prüfen. In den Gesundheitswissenschaften hat die Rückübersetzung sich als Standard durchgesetzt und zwar als Teil der Qualitätssicherung bei der Übersetzung von Forschungsinstrumenten. Der Methode der Rückübersetzung wird aber in der Translationswissenschaft wenig Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Gleichzeitig scheint es einen mangelnden Konsens über den passenden Ansatz zur Rückübersetzung zu geben. Damit drängt es sich die Frage auf, ob Übersetzer wissen, was Rückübersetzung ist, wie sie Rückübersetzung verstehen und wie sie an Rückübersetzung herangehen. Mithilfe von der Methode der Netnographie haben wir die Äußerungen von Übersetzern über Rückübersetzung in zwei Online-Foren für Übersetzer analysiert. Die Analyse hat eine gewisse Verwirrung hinsichtlich des passenden Ansatzes zur Rückübersetzung gezeigt. Dies unterstreicht die Wichtigkeit, dass Übersetzern ein Übersetzungsauftrag zur Verfügung gestellt wird. Dies sieht aber voraus, dass die Kunden sich dem Zweck und den Beschränkungen der Rückübersetzung bewusst sind

Introduction to thematic section: Challenges to the perfect machine-translation situation

The purpose of the thematic section is to gauge the temperature of MT today by tapping into a selection of critical discussions, thereby shedding light on some challenges to a perfect machine-translation (MT) situation

Stopklods eller trappe? En undersøgelse af overgangen fra ungdomsuddannelse til et sprogstudium

Baseret på en generel opfattelse af, at overgangen mellem uddannelsestrin er central for fastholdelse af studerende, er formålet med denne artikel at undersøge de normer og adfærdsmønstre, som sprogstuderende har taget afsked med, såvel som deres oplevelse af overgangen til nye normer og adfærdsmønstre på første semester af deres universitetssprogstudium. Datagrundlaget omfatter undervisningsobservationer og uformelle samtaler på ungdomsuddannelser samt fokusgruppeinterviews med sprogstuderende på universitetet i starten af henholdsvis første og andet semester. Analyserne tydeliggør elementer i overgangen, som de studerende finder udfordrende.Dette gælder f.eks. grammatikundervisningen på universitetet, manglende sparring med medstuderende i studiegrupper, uklar relevans af bestemte fag og undervisernes praksis på den digitale læringsplatform. Resultaterne sammenholdes desuden med tidligere studier af overgange mellem uddannelsestrin

Introduction to thematic section: Challenges to the perfect machine-translation situation

The purpose of the thematic section is to gauge the temperature of MT today by tapping into a selection of critical discussions, thereby shedding light on some challenges to a perfect machine-translation (MT) situation