Abstract:

This paper describes a practice in which students have integrated the use of machine translation tools (MT) into academic writing tasks, in line with recent works [1], [2], [3]. More specifically, the use of Elia [4], the automatic neuronal translator of Elhuyar. Fourth-year students of the Bachelor´s degree in Computer Engineering used Elia for the following tasks: writing articles for Wikipedia and performing localization projects from English or Spanish to Basque. We complemented the use of MT in the context of Basque for specific purposes with the exploitation of existing lexical and terminological resources. The students will apply different strategies according to the writing task. We demand them to use all these tools critically and to encourage practices as post-editing text outputs to obtain better results. Most students were not aware of the limitations of technology in the translation of specialized texts. We provide strategies to improve translations and train them for a better knowledge of the language that will be beneficial to get the most from MT tools. We are committed to integrating MT into teaching, although some predictions believe that MT will replace the need for language learning and teaching. [5].


References:
[1] B. Klimova, M. Pikhart A. D. Benites, Lehr C., C. Sánchez-Stockhammer, “Neural machine translation in foreign language teaching and learning: a systematic review”. Education and Information Technologies, 2022.
[2] X. Deng, & Z. Yu, “A Systematic Review of Machine-Translation-Assisted Language Learning for Sustainable Education. Sustainability”, 14(13), 7598. MDPI AG. 2022.
[3] S. O’Brien, M. Simard, M. J. Goulet, “Machine Translation and Self-post-editing for Academic Writing Support: Quality Explorations” In: Moorkens, J., Castilho, S., Gaspari, F., Doherty, S. (eds) Translation Quality Assessment. Machine Translation: Technologies and Applications, vol 1. Springer, 2018.
[4] Elia, Elhuyar´s machine translator, Accesed 20 September 2022. Retrieved from https://elia.eus/start.
[5] S. Crossley, “Technological disruption in foreign language teaching: The rise of simultaneous machine translation. Language Teaching”, 51(4), 541-552. 2018.

Keywords:

MT and language teaching and learning, MT-supported activities.