Abstract:

This paper reports on a study among 120 translation students enrolled in an Applied Languages course at a South African university. The study participants completed a Likert scale questionnaires with 26 belief statements to ascertain their attitudes toward technology and translation technology. The scales of attitude components indicating the cognitive (competence and usefulness) and affective (enjoyment and anxiety) components of attitude were used to report on the belief statements. The semi-structured interviews, both one-on-one and focus group interviews were also employed. To enhance the validity of the study, participants were observed during the computer-aided translation (CAT) tool training.

The study aimed at assessing attitudes of students towards the Autshumato ITE as a CAT tool employed in the study. The study tested four variables to ascertain their possible influence on the students’ reported attitudes; namely, (1) Sex; (2) Age; (3) Computer competence; and, (4) Level of study. The results of the study revealed that participants harboured favourable attitudes towards the Autshumato translation technology. Furthermore, the majority of the main study variables proved to have statistically significant relationship with 17 of the study belief statements and only nine belief statements were not influenced by any of the study variables. In general, the study findings encourage the incorporation of technology in general, and (CAT) tools specifically, into translation curriculum in order to improve the abilities of students’ translators and better their chances in the 21 century work market.

Keywords:

Attitudes, training translator, computer-aided translation (CAT), language technology, technology, Autshumato ITE.