Lost in post-editing. An exploratory study on translation trainees’ perceived EN>IT post-editing vs. translation performance

Abstract

Technological advances in the professional segment of Language Service Providers (LSPs) have deeply changed the activity of professionals operating in the language industry. As a result, a large part of the translation activities which were once performed by human translators is now assigned to automatized systems. Machine Translation (MT) and Post-Editing (MTPE) services have doubled in size among the services offered by Language Service Companies (LSCs) and are expected to keep growing in future projections such that they might eventually prevail over Human Translation (HT). In light of this evolution, translation training institutes and universities claim to implement and develop training programs adapted to the evolving market, but the mismatch between the ideal requirements and the actual content of translation training programs is a critical issue of the translator training scenario in Italy. This paper describes an exploratory study aiming to investigate translation trainees' perception of their translation vs. post-editing performance, in order to understand their attitude towards MTPE and their confidence in performing a MTPE task. Results show that, contrary to a confident translation performance supported by extensive training, not only did the lack of appropriate and dedicated MTPE training affect trainees’ ability to perform the task but it also hampered their capability to analyze the task and self-evaluate their performance, calling for the design of more targeted curricula.