Building virtual communities of practice in post-editing training: A mixed-method quasi-experimental study
Since post-editing of machine translation has become a widespread practice in the language service industry, post-editing training has been increasingly included in translation courses. The purpose of the study is to investigate the feasibility of implementing a virtual community of practice (VCoP)...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
ZHAW
2021-07-01
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| Series: | JoSTrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation |
| Online Access: | https://www.jostrans.org/article/view/7941 |
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| Summary: | Since post-editing of machine translation has become a widespread practice in the language service industry, post-editing training has been increasingly included in translation courses. The purpose of the study is to investigate the feasibility of implementing a virtual community of practice (VCoP) in training future post-editors that meet the market's needs. A VCoP refers to a social group sharing a common interest in an argument or a problem, interacting with each other by networks (Davis and Goodman 2014). Based on this concept, a VCoP method is postulated to facilitate online post-editing courses. It is a method in which students learn how to post-edit and how to manage a post-editing project by actively engaging in a VCoP. To test the feasibility of this method, a quasi-experimental study was carried out at Hunan University in China. Thirty first-year translation postgraduates participated in the study. Fifteen students were taught virtually using the VCoP method, while fifteen students were taught by the same tutor in a face-to-face classroom. A comparison of students' performance in the two post-editing classes indicated that the VCoP method fostered students' self-reflection and self-assessment, and ultimately helped improve post-editing quality. Students' perceptions of the VCoP method were generally positive, showing its usability. |
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| ISSN: | 1740-357X |