Machine translation in teaching the course of scientifc technical translation

Abstract

In the modern world of computer technologies and machine translations the procedure of translation
has changed dramatically. The environment in which the students are studying now is very different from
the environment for which our textbooks are designated. Therefore the fact that machine translations
have become an integral part of the translation procedure should be taken into account in the educational process in teaching the course of Scientific Technical Translation. In all the articles available in
the Internet the problem of machine/computer translation is considered only in terms of mistakes in the
computer translation and corrections made by professional human translators. In this article the authors
focus on pluses and minuses of using computer translation in teaching the course of Scientific Technical
Translation. The authors have shown that computer translation and comparison of different translations
of the same text has a positive effect on the educational process, and gives the students an impetus for
creative thinking and creative assessment of their results. However, the authors have revealed that such
a simple way of getting a translated text without any efforts spent on searching individual words has a
negative effect on learning new words. Therefore the authors recommend to intensify pre-translational
and post-translational exercises focused on active lexis of the translated text.