The Perception of the Use of the English Automatic Translation among University Students in English Conversation Classes

Abstract

This study aims to examine the perception of the use of English automatic translation among university students and how they perceive its effectiveness in English Conversation classes. The participants of this study are the students who took the researcher's English Conversation classes in the spring semester of 2022 at S University. After taking the English level test, 20 students from each beginner, intermediate, and advanced class were assigned to English Conversation courses according to their English level. As a result of the survey, the majority of students from each level used Papago and Google Translate to translate their writing scripts, search for words, and check for grammatical errors, and most students showed a high dependency on their automatic translation apps. Second, all three levels were aware of both the negative and positive impacts of their use of automatic translation in their writing process. Third, most students admitted that they didn’t want to overuse these applications, but rather only when necessary. This study is meaningful in that a follow-up study should be further conducted on how educators should give proper guidance to students when it comes to using automatic translation in English Conversation classes in a university setting.