Using machine translation for academic writing in English as a second language: results of an exploratory study on linguistic quality

From National Research Council Canada

Alternative titleLa traduction automatique comme outil d’aide à la rédaction scientifique en anglais langue seconde: résultats d’une étude exploratoire sur la qualité linguistique
DOIResolve DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/asp.5045
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Name affiliation
  1. National Research Council Canada. Information and Communication Technologies
FormatText
TypeArticle
Journal titleA. sp. Anglais de spécialité
ISSN1246-8185
2108-6354
Issue72
Pages5–28
Subjectanglais langue seconde; post-édition; rédaction en anglais langue seconde; rédaction scientifique; academic writing; English as a second language; machine translation; post-editing; writing in English as a second language
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the use of machine translation (MT) as an aid for writing academic texts in English as a second language (ESL). We report on an experiment, which involved ten researchers and included two tasks: writing a text in ESL and writing a text in the mother tongue. The second text was subsequently machine translated and post-edited by each participant. We then analysed the types of edits made by a professional reviser and used our analysis to evaluate the linguistic quality of the texts produced in both conditions. According to our results, the linguistic quality of the texts is equivalent in both conditions, whereas some differences appear in the linguistic dimensions and in the types of units affected by the edits. The article ends with a reflection on the factors that could have influenced the results. We conclude by reaffirming the relevance of studying the use of MT in writing in English for specific purposes.
Publication date
LanguageFrench
Peer reviewedYes
NPARC number23002890
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