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Article published In: Babel
Vol. 65:5 (2019) ► pp.615–632

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Mapping new translation practices into translation training

Promoting collaboration through community-based localization platforms

 | University of Alcalá
Published online: 4 December 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00114.san
Abstract
Crowdsourcing and collaborative translation, activities emerging on the translation scene recently, are playing an increasingly important role in the world of professional translation and in the localization industry. This article focuses on a study carried out to analyze the perception of a group of translator trainees regarding these new translation practices. A total of 20 undergraduate students participated in the research and were asked to perform a collaborative localization task using an online collaborative platform. Data subjected to a quantitative and qualitative analysis suggest that online collaborative translation tasks enhance students’ motivation towards collaborative translation and help consolidate their technical knowledge about specific localization tools and files.
Résumé
Le crowdsourcing et la traduction collaborative, des activités récemment apparues sur la scène de la traduction, jouent un rôle de plus en plus important dans le monde de la traduction professionnelle et dans l’industrie de la localisation. Cet article se concentre sur une étude réalisée pour analyser la perception d’un groupe d’étudiants en traduction à l’égard de ces nouvelles pratiques de traduction. Au total 20 étudiants de premier cycle ont participé à la recherche et ont été invités à effectuer une tâche de localisation collaborative à l’aide d’une plateforme collaborative en ligne. Les données obtenues à partir d’une analyse quantitative et qualitative suggèrent que les tâches de traduction collaborative en ligne ont renforcé la motivation des étudiants à l’égard de la traduction collaborative et les ont aidés à consolider leurs connaissances techniques sur des outils et des fichiers de localisation spécifiques.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Translating in the digital era: Towards A ‘technologization of translation’?
    • 2.1Localization
    • 2.2Collaborative translation practices: Crowdsourcing and online collaboration
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants, task and procedure
    • 3.2Results
  • 4.Conclusion
  • References
References (46)
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