Computer tools for translators: user needs survey
Submitted by c.orasan on Tue, 03/11/2015 - 14:49
This survey studies translators’ attitudes and requirements regarding different types of translation technologies. The questionnaire was distributed among professional translators. We collected 736 complete responses form 88 countries. Most of the participants were freelance translators. The raw data of the questionnaire can be requested at azaretskaya@gmail.com
The dataset includes both quantitative and qualitative data on the following subjects:
- Participants’ profile (such as country, experience, languages, education, etc.);
- Usage rate of machine translation, CAT tools, textual corpora and tools for compiling them, terminology management systems, terminology extraction systems, and others;
- Reasons for not using these tools;
- Machine translation: which MT systems translators use, the percentage of texts they translate with MT, which part of MT translated text they correct, purpose of using MT (gisting, draft translation, etc.), translators attitude towards high quality MT.
- Integration of MT in CAT: its popularity and usefulness according to translators.
- Translation memory/CAT software: tasks performed with TM software (e.g. translation, project management, terminology management, etc.), most popular systems, usefulness of different features of CAT tools (such as segment assembly, autosuggestion, TM sharing, etc.).
- Textual corpora: types of corpora used by translators (monolingual, comparable, parallel), whether they compile their own corpora or use ready-made ones, what features could be useful in a tool for compiling corpora.
- Usage of terminology extraction tools and usefulness of different features in such tools.
- The use of different online lexicographic resources: online dictionaries, bilingual search engines, online corpora, etc.