Korean College Students’ Self-Directed Use of Machine Translator in an English Writing Class during the Digital Era: Is This a Crisis or a Chance?

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate how EFL college learners self-directed their English writing using MT in an English writing class. Specifically, this study focused on 1) What types of errors are identified the most frequently in the students’ writings?, 2) How those errors have been changed through the students’ self-directed revision process?, and 3) In what ways does this activity influence students’ perceptions toward English writing? The participants were six university students who took a 3-credit English writing class, and completed their writings using MT throughout the semester. The students’ written outcomes, in-depth interviews with them and results of writing tests were analyzed. The findings of data analysis indicated that first, the highest frequency of errors was seen in lexical errors at the rate of 65.5%, followed by morphological errors at the rate of 19.7%. Second, there has been a significant decrease in the overall types of errors between the first (35.0%) and second (20.9%) drafts, from the no-use of MT to the use of MT. Lastly, it can be said that the MT-assisted writing practice which took place during a short period of time had positive influence on students’ perceptions toward English writing. Implications for online classes in the Corona era are presented.