logo image
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • SlatorCon Remote May 2021
    • Localizing at Scale for International Growth
    • Design Thinking May 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs
MENU
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • SlatorCon Remote May 2021
    • Localizing at Scale for International Growth
    • Design Thinking May 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs

Register Before April 15th for SlatorCon Remote and Save 15%!

  • Slator Market Intelligence
  • Slator Advertising Services
  • Slator Advisory
  • Login
Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Advertisement
New Research Flips the Script on CAT Tools — Literally

5 months ago

November 25, 2020

New Research Flips the Script on CAT Tools — Literally

Machine Translation ·

by Seyma Albarino

On November 25, 2020

5 months ago
Machine Translation ·

by Seyma Albarino

On November 25, 2020

New Research Flips the Script on CAT Tools — Literally

A November 2020 paper by leading machine translation researchers may impact the way future translation productivity (a.k.a. CAT) tools are designed.

The paper’s authors are Samuel Läubli, CTO of Swiss language technology company TextShuttle; Rico Sennrich, SNSF Professor at the University of Zurich; and contributors from Lilt: CEO Spence Green; Principal Research Scientist Patrick Simianer; Director of Research Joern Wuebker; and Senior Research Scientist Geza Kovacs.

Although qualitative research has suggested that segmented text may disrupt the flow of a translator’s work, the authors describe the concept of text presentation as “overlooked” in research, and set out to understand how segmentation and orientation could influence a translator’s speed and efficiency.

Advertisement

Prior to the experiment, researchers surveyed eight professional translators on their experiences working with CAT tools. The researchers were particularly interested in the translators’ thoughts on how documents are split up in CAT tools.

“A number of interviewees tell us that it is hard for them to translate without knowing what the source and target texts look like,” the authors wrote. Researchers offered an alternative setup to the display found on most CAT tools: “a screen showing two entire pages: the left one containing the source text, the right one being empty. In that sense, our drawing resembles the ‘print layout’ available in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, but with two parallel documents.”

SlatorCon Remote May 2021 | Early Bird $ 110

SlatorCon Remote May 2021 | Early Bird $ 110

A rich online conference which brings together our research and network of industry leaders.

Register Now

Only one interviewee reacted negatively, suggesting that the proposed display was reminiscent of the days before CAT tools, when translators had no choice but to jump back and forth between documents.

Several translators mentioned that segments sometimes help them focus on their work, and that long segments can be unhelpful. Overall, however, feedback was positive, and interviewees praised the system’s ease of use and predicted that it would improve translation quality.

Test Drive

The researchers then measured the speed and accuracy of 20 professional German-to-English translators working with different text presentations on three tasks: text reproduction, error identification, and revision.

For text reproduction, researchers timed translators as they typed the source text into a target text space, and calculated the translators’ accuracy based on the number of mistyped errors per text.

According to the post-experiment survey, the majority of translators (65%) preferred top-bottom orientation overall, versus the left-right orientation most (85%) use in their daily work

To quantify error identification, researchers measured the translators’ speed and accuracy in finding errors in suggestions from the translation memory or machine translation (MT) system.

For revision, researchers focused on the translators’ accuracy in fixing errors that had been inserted into sentences.

It turns out that the best kind of text presentation depends on the task at hand. According to the post-experiment survey, the majority of translators (65%) preferred top-bottom orientation overall, versus the left-right orientation most (85%) use in their daily work.

Slator Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Data and Research, Slator reports
44-page medtech translation & localization report. Market overview, content types & services, buyers & suppliers, sales insights, more.
$290 BUY NOW

Top-bottom orientation of sentences was associated with faster text reproduction, while left-right orientation led to faster revision “for lexical cohesion,” using the appropriate connections between words. Compared to unsegmented text, sentence-by-sentence presentation helped translators copy text and find errors within sentences more quickly, but did not enable faster revision.

“Letting translators switch between a segmented and continuous view of the document they are translating may enable them to focus on local context and consider global context when needed,” the authors concluded, adding that this view was supported by feedback from the interviewees.

LocJobs.com I Recruit Talent. Find Jobs

LocJobs is the new language industry talent hub, where candidates connect to new opportunities and employers find the most qualified professionals in the translation and localization industry. Browse new jobs now.

LocJobs.com I Recruit Talent. Find Jobs

Looking ahead, the researchers recommended testing under more realistic work conditions by integrating experimental user interfaces (UI) into richer prototypes or, ideally, into full-fledged CAT tools. They noted that adding other factors, such as real-time suggestions from translation memory and/or from MT, could also be helpful.

“Future work will have to investigate whether the strong focus on single sentences in MT system outputs — and/or in the UI layout of CAT tools — has a priming effect on professional translators,” the researchers said.

They also pointed out that, as MT quality continues to improve, it could reduce the volume of writing necessary to come up with translations that are publication-ready and, in turn, increase the need for UIs optimized for revision.

TAGS

CATCAT toolsGeza KovacsJoern WuebkerLiltPatrick SimianerRico SennrichSamuel LäubliSpence GreenTextShuttleUniversity of Zurich
SHARE
Seyma Albarino

By Seyma Albarino

Staff Writer at Slator. Linguist, music blogger and reader of all things dystopian. Based in Chicago after adventures on three continents.

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SLATOR WEEKLY

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

SUBSCRIBE

SlatorSweepSlatorPro
ResearchRFP CENTER

PUBLISH

PRESS RELEASEDIRECTORY LISTING
JOB ADEVENT LISTING

Bespoke advisory including speaking, briefings and M&A

SLATOR ADVISORY
Advertisement

Featured Reports

See all
Pro Guide: Translation Pricing and Procurement

Pro Guide: Translation Pricing and Procurement

by Slator

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

by Slator

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

by Slator

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

by Slator

Press Releases

See all
Smartling Announces Smartling+

Smartling Announces Smartling+

by Smartling

XTM Cloud 12.7 “Intelligent Connectivity” is Here

XTM Cloud 12.7 “Intelligent Connectivity” is Here

by XTM International

LocHub Announces QA Localization Solution For Multilingual Content Publishing Processes

LocHub Announces QA Localization Solution For Multilingual Content Publishing Processes

by Xillio

Upcoming Events

See All
  1. T-Update-2021

    T-UPDATE ’21 VIRTUAL

    by Gerard Castañeda

    · April 15

    Join us at the leading language Industry event for decision-makers. Just pack your agenda for 2 days and travel to the...

    More info €65-421

Featured Companies

See all
Sunyu Transphere

Sunyu Transphere

Text United

Text United

Memsource

Memsource

Wordbank

Wordbank

Protranslating

Protranslating

SeproTec

SeproTec

Versacom

Versacom

Smartling

Smartling

XTM International

XTM International

Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders

STAR Group

STAR Group

memoQ Translation Technologies

memoQ Translation Technologies

Advertisement

Popular articles

Google Translate Not Ready for Use in Medical Emergencies But Improving Fast — Study

Google Translate Not Ready for Use in Medical Emergencies But Improving Fast — Study

by Seyma Albarino

The Slator 2021 Language Service Provider Index

The Slator 2021 Language Service Provider Index

by Slator

DeepL Adds 13 European Languages as Traffic Continues to Surge

DeepL Adds 13 European Languages as Traffic Continues to Surge

by Marion Marking

SlatorPod: The Weekly Language Industry Podcast

connect with us

footer logo

Slator makes business sense of the language services and technology market.

Our Company

  • Support
  • About us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to the Slator Weekly

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

© 2021 Slator. All rights reserved.

Sign up to the Slator Weekly

Join over 13,800 subscribers and get the latest language industry intelligence every Friday

Your information will never be shared with third parties. No Spam.