Survey on the use of machine translation deliberately posted in the Theory and Practice forum Thread poster: Michael Farrell
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I have deliberately not posted this in the forum devoted to machine translation (and kindly ask no one to do so) because I want it to reach both translators who use machine translation and translators who don't or refuse to do so. If it were posted in the machine translation forum, it could bias the results towards MT users.
Many academic publications seem to assume that the most natural way to include machine translation in a translator's workflow is through machine translat... See more I have deliberately not posted this in the forum devoted to machine translation (and kindly ask no one to do so) because I want it to reach both translators who use machine translation and translators who don't or refuse to do so. If it were posted in the machine translation forum, it could bias the results towards MT users.
Many academic publications seem to assume that the most natural way to include machine translation in a translator's workflow is through machine translation post-editing (MTPE). As a translator myself, I know that this is by no means the only way translators use machine translation during their work. I am also aware that some professional translators do not use machine translation at all for various reasons.
To gain insight into the proportion of translators that use machine translation and the various ways they do, I have set up an anonymous survey, scheduled to close on 21 October 2022. Due to its international nature, the survey is in English.
PS: I will post a link here to a free copy of the results when they are ready. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 21:36
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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* 18. I do pure post-editing, i.e. I receive a source text to translate, I machine translate the entire text, then I do a full post-editing on the output
After answering "yes" to this question and continuing, I realised that perhaps you mean "specifically outside a CAT tool". If that is so, perhaps it's a good idea to include that in the question. After all, it's possible to "machine-translate the entire text" inside a CAT tool.
| | | | | Tool or no tool: it makes no difference | Sep 11, 2022 |
Thank you for taking the survey.
No, it does not mean "specifically outside a CAT tool". It does not matter if you use a tool or not to manage the process.
Samuel Murray wrote:
After answering "yes" to this question and continuing, I realised that perhaps you mean "specifically outside a CAT tool".
| | | | | machine translate sometimes makes the client confused | Sep 11, 2022 |
I work in a product design industry, for some professional words I couldn't understand I will use translate tools like E-dictionary . But sometimes there is on such words in the client's side, so that will makes them confuse. For this situation, I use ecommerce platform in two different regions, and they will show me the names in different language for two different markets. There is no doubt that if we use translate tools in a job, post-editing still plays an important role.
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Stepan Konev
Russian Federation
Local time: 22:36
English to Russian
Weirdly it was question 29 of 36 when the system said that the poll is completed. Is it ok?
| | | | | No one gets to answer all the questions | Sep 12, 2022 |
Thank you for taking the survey.
The total number of questions you are asked to answer depends on the way you answer some of the first questions. It is actually impossible to answer all 36 questions. Most people probably only see about 25, mostly closed-ended questions.
Stepan Konev wrote:
Weirdly it was question 29 of 36 when the system said that the poll is completed. Is it ok?
[Edited at 2022-09-12 06:23 GMT]
| | | | Adieu
Ukrainian to English
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Didn't feel like it asked any useful questions.
DID feel like it was tailored to get pre-defined answers to support some set of pre-determined "conclusions".
I'm guessing you're selling something or trying to pitch some MT-related change to your bosses or clients?
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You might want to say something about the purpose of the survey and what the results will be used for if you want people to put time into doing it.
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| Closed-ended questions | Sep 12, 2022 |
Thank you for taking the survey.
The future will decide if the results are useful.
The survey was preceded by a thorough brainstorming session among professional translators to try to establish the likely answers. This makes closed-ended questions possible, with two advantages: 1) analysis is easier and 2) responding to the survey is less time-consuming. I can understand that closed-ended questions can look like they are designed to support pre-determined conclusions bu... See more Thank you for taking the survey.
The future will decide if the results are useful.
The survey was preceded by a thorough brainstorming session among professional translators to try to establish the likely answers. This makes closed-ended questions possible, with two advantages: 1) analysis is easier and 2) responding to the survey is less time-consuming. I can understand that closed-ended questions can look like they are designed to support pre-determined conclusions but you will notice that there is always an "other (please specify)" answer. So if your answer did not emerge during the preliminary brainstorming session, you can still give it.
As to the purpose of the survey, I will answer below.
Adieu wrote:
Didn't feel like it asked any useful questions.
DID feel like it was tailored to get pre-defined answers to support some set of pre-determined "conclusions".
I'm guessing you're selling something or trying to pitch some MT-related change to your bosses or clients? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Purpose of the survey | Sep 12, 2022 |
Thank you, Ice Scream. You are right. I should have said something about the purpose.
I intend to use the results of the survey to write and publish a paper, which I hope to present at one or more conferences. As I mentioned before, I will post a link to a free copy of the results (paper) here on ProZ, which you can download and read even if you do not take the survey.
Ice Scream wrote:
You might want to say something about the purpose of the survey and what the results will be used for if you want people to put time into doing it.
[Edited at 2022-09-12 14:29 GMT]
| | | | | Survey results at last | Feb 14, 2023 |
Thanks again to everyone who took the survey and I apologize for the length of time it has taken to send you the results, as promised.
I presented the results at Translating and the Computer 44 in Luxembourg on 24 November 2022, and wrote a paper for the proceedings. Unfortunately the proceedings have not been published yet, but the conference organizers have kindly allowed me to publi... See more Thanks again to everyone who took the survey and I apologize for the length of time it has taken to send you the results, as promised.
I presented the results at Translating and the Computer 44 in Luxembourg on 24 November 2022, and wrote a paper for the proceedings. Unfortunately the proceedings have not been published yet, but the conference organizers have kindly allowed me to publish the paper as a preprint so that I can share it with you for free. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Arianne Farah
Canada
Local time: 15:36
Member (2008)
English to French
| Just read through it | Feb 14, 2023 |
No surprises on my end, but as an insider that's to be expected.
I like the distinction that was made between the task (MTPE) and the tool (MT) as I am one of those people who never does MTPE in the classical sense, but who does run an MT engine, primarily for the auto-suggest function that speeds up my typing (I already know in my head what I want to write - sometimes it aligns with the output, sometimes it doesn't, but when it does, my typing speed is increased).
In ... See more No surprises on my end, but as an insider that's to be expected.
I like the distinction that was made between the task (MTPE) and the tool (MT) as I am one of those people who never does MTPE in the classical sense, but who does run an MT engine, primarily for the auto-suggest function that speeds up my typing (I already know in my head what I want to write - sometimes it aligns with the output, sometimes it doesn't, but when it does, my typing speed is increased).
In my mind the debate is going in the right direction - instead of asking translators to adopt a workflow based on a tool, see how translators use the tool in the wild and then adapt the workflow itself. ▲ Collapse
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