EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF MACHINE TRANSLATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING: AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH STUDENTS’ TRANSLATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS
EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF MACHINE TRANSLATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING: AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH STUDENTS’ TRANSLATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to discover the benefits of integrating machine translation in language learning, translating tasks in particular. By a qualitative methodology, the paper aims at drawing some groundbreaking results about undergraduate English students attending the Translation course. Moreover, the paper also explores the opportunities provided by AntConc to analyze their translations and to find frequent MT signals such as literal translations or unnatural syntax patterns. Many advantages noted by the students associated with MT will be explored in this research, including the ease of translation and ability to grasp the new vocabulary, the access to unknown text which previously led to misunderstanding and uncertainty, the flexibility and adaptability of different machine translation applications which give them the opportunity to engage in independent learning and much more. Some analysis of translated tasks used by more than one student will focus on the use of MT tools reflected in the same literal meanings and ungrammatically correct structures. Furthermore, the paper will provide insights from both the students’ perceptions and translation practices serving as future data which can be reorganized and carefully incorporated into the framework of language learning in order to enhance the process of language acquisition and learners’ active engagement in and out of educational environments. However, the current research offers only some introductory ideas which can further be developed for future research in the respective area of the relation between machine translation and language learning.

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