Insights into the Impact of Non-Human Intervention on the Translation Process: A Review of Relevant Literature

Resumen

Human translation is of higher quality compared to fully automatic machine translation. The value of human output is at stake, parallel to the advent of technology. Pedagogically, the authors raise concerns about the way teaching translation will be approached, since instant automatic translation is available and omnipresent. Therefore, the question raised: will the use of computer aids affect its quality or help preserve this high level? In order to find out, a careful analysis of previous international studies on CAT tools and the translation process has been conducted. The authors argue that the use of CAT tools may be a source of distraction for translation students, as well as a factor that hinders their creativity, limits their capacities, and prevents their teacher from doing an authentic assessment of their final work. Such intervention is likely to interrupt the students' cognitive processes and may mitigate or increase cognitive efforts. The study aims to pinpoint specific landmarks to assist translation teachers and help students concretize their conception and vision of translation, taking the effect of the intervention into consideration. The analysis goes through a number of studies investigating the attitudes of both professional translators and translation students towards CAT tools. The collected data were provided by translation practitioners from different nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds, with different language mastery levels. The findings emphasize the necessity to go back through the existing literature on CAT tools, machine translation, and AI translation. It invites translation scholars to bridge the gap between human translation and machine translation. Moreover, it is recommended to conduct future research scrutinizing the attitudes of translation students (from different departments and nationalities) towards interactive translation