Abstract:

Cloud computing becomes a crucial tool for business and education as the technology enables network access to shared resources (storage, networks, applications, etc.) [1].Cloud computing has a great impact on economic and social development. Skyrocketing multilingualism across the world makes it of current importance to improve the communication via translation. That is why cloud-based translation tools become in increasing demand as far as language service provision industry is concerned [2]. The clouding computing lays grounds for collaboration, networking and crowd sourcing within the translation activities [3].

The traditional translation process is linear while the cloud-based translation activities and communication become multidirectional and translation process nature is collaborative. All linguistics assets are stored in one place. Translators can divide and share the tasks and sources in a single cloud-based working environment.

Project group members can see and evaluate their peers' variants. Quality concerns can be tracked by all the group members. What is more cloud-based translation presumes that project group members have to cover a range of functions within the team, including that of translator, proof reader and editor, project manager, terminologist and resource manager [4]. The above mentioned features of cloud-based translation can be used for training students' translation skills and their assessment.

The pilot translation course based on cloud computing technology revealed that students could experience different roles in team and try to perform various functions (translators, proof readers, project supervisors, etc.). What is more clouding computing technology provided wider and more visualised opportunities for students to coordinate their translation activities, to balance their individual writing styles. Further on cloud-based translation practice contributed to developing students' skills in search, selection and creation of comprehensive, project-specific shared terminology databases. The use of technology under study laid grounds for holistic approach to students' translation skills assessment grid that went beyond the traditional error-based analysis and quality assessment regarding language, terminology, accuracy and style [5] and revealed the importance of community-based translation quality assessment that included such parameters as involvement in communication and peer reviewing, selection of sources for translation commentaries, etc. The report will provide comparative data and findings on assessment model and process regarding traditional approach to translation skills and a particular list of evaluation parameters applied to cloud-based collaborative translation.

References:
[1] Mell, P., Grance, T. The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing. - URL: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf (retrieved 16.07.2014).
[2]Zydron, A. (2012) Cloud Computing, SaaS and Transaltion Tools, in MultiLingual Computing,2012, vol.23, no.1, pp.20-21.
[3] Muegge, U.Cloud-based translation memory tools are changing the way translators work and train. - URL: http://thebigwave.it/birdeye/cloud-tm-tools/ (retrieved 16.07.2014).
[4] Cánovas, M.;. Samson, R. (2011). "Open source software in translator training". Tradumàtica 9: 45-56.
[5] O’Brien,S.(2012) Towards a dynamic quality evaluation model for translation, in The Journal of Specialised Translation, vol.17,pp.55-77.

Keywords:

Translation quality, translation skills assessment, clouding computing, collaborative translation.