The application of computer-assisted translation tools to the teaching of scientific and technological translation English to Chinese

Abstract

This research project investigates the function and potentiality of translation technology – including computer assisted translation tools, electronic corpora and internet search engines – in the teaching of scientific and technological translation. English into Chinese is the language pair under discussion in this study.

The research is conducted on the basis of empirical methodology, which in this particular case consists of the following procedures: discussing and highlighting the key features of scientific and technological texts; analysing the ways in which translation technology are used in the teaching of translation; positing hypotheses on how the training in the use of translation technology influences the student’s ability to translate; conducting experiments with control and experimental groups in order to test the validity of these hypotheses.

The author designed and implemented a controlled experiment on two groups of Master’s students of Translation, in which the experimental group was trained with access to computer-assisted translation tools while the control group was not. Before their training, a translation test was given to students from both groups so as to define their level of translation competence at that time. Afterwards, the experimental group was trained with access to computer-assisted translation tools for four months, while the control group was not exposed to such training. On finishing the training, the students from both groups sat another test which was of approximately the same difficulty as the first test. In addition, a questionnaire was attached to each of the two tests in order to understand the factors behind the students’ performance. The scores obtained for both tests were collected and analysed across horizontal and longitudinal dimensions, with the horizontal analysis comparing the scores of the same test between the two groups and the longitudinal analysis comparing the scores of the two tests done by the same group. The horizontal analysis yielded two major and some minor findings, while the longitudinal analysis led to three major and two minor findings.

The ultimate purpose of the thesis is to investigate the impact of translation technology training on the students’ translation competence when dealing with scientific and technological texts.