Teaching Computer - Assisted Translation Technology: A Case Study

Abstract

When teaching Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT), the technological component is the core element on which depends the concept of the entire course, as such courses are by definition practical courses. Thus, the success of a CAT training greatly rests upon the availability of translation tools. In the context of educational budgets lowering every year (at least, this is the case of the Romanian educational system), offering translation technology courses can be a problem in terms of costs. Fortunately, cloud-based translation technology and free translation tools offer a great alternative (a much cheaper one) to the commercial translation software that students can access only in the laboratory. Free translation tools can be successfully used for educational purposes. We do not undervalue the performance of translation systems existing on the current market, but we want to focus in the present article on the use of free translation tools, especially cloud-based translation systems in CAT courses as a cheaper yet viable alternative, aiming at offering students an insight into the functioning of CAT tools and at developing students’ technological skills. Free CAT tools such as Wordfast Anywhere, Memsource personal, Google Translator Toolkit, OmegaT can be used in CAT training for a wide range of exercises and assignments: text alignment, creation of a translation memory, glossary creation, editing, machine translation post-editing, review.