This study is an action research aimed to discover the most efficient and effective way to provide training in post-editing of machine translation for students in the master's courses for interpretation and translation. Post-editing differs from tradi...
This study is an action research aimed to discover the most efficient and effective way to provide training in post-editing of machine translation for students in the master's courses for interpretation and translation. Post-editing differs from traditional human translation in that humans modify the machine-processed outcome. As a result, the knowledge and skills required to perform post-editing tasks can differ from those required for human translation. Therefore, it is arguable that a post-editing module should take a different approach from conventional translation training. In addition, Korean language differs much from Western languages in their morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. This means the quality of English to Korean machine translation outcome may not be so good as that of Western language pairs, potentially making the post-editing task even more challenging.
Therefore, it is necessary to deeply investigate the characteristics of English-to-Korean post-editing. However, there has been insufficient discussion on the distinctiveness of English-to-Korean post-editing, the necessity of post-editing training, what should be taught in the classroom, and how the training should be planned and delivered.
Therefore, this study would like to explore the uncharted research areas further to get closer to optimized post-editing training. In this journey, this study presumes it is safer to plan post-editing training within the established framework of translation training. It is well known that better translation training can be achieved with 1) needs analysis, 2) identification of objectives, 3) development of teaching methodologies, and 4) assessment of outcomes. Hence, this study poses a set of questions as follows:
1. Needs Analysis: What are the typical errors or behaviors students show when they perform a post-editing task for the first time?
2. Objective: What kind of knowledge and skills are needed to improve post-editing performance?
3. Teaching method: What kind of teaching and learning activities are required to secure the knowledge and skills?
4. Assessment: What is the best way to assess learning outcomes and how the teacher can utilize the assessment outcome to further improve the module and encourage students to learn more actively?
In order to seek answers to the questions, this research adopted an action research approach. Action research is known to be useful in narrowing the gap between knowledge and practice and in resolving the pending issues in any practices. The effectiveness of action research has been proven in many disciplines and translation studies is no exception. Based on the circular and repetitive nature of the approach, this study will provide a thick description how the planning, execution, and assessment of the post-editing module has evolved. as its scope and depth evolve.
In order to provide thorough descriptions and in-depth contemplation, this study, unlike in previous research, observed more than 80 students in total for more than three semesters and analyzed multiple data sources repetitively. Therefore, it is expected that this study can fill the research vacancy in English to Korean post-editing training and to build up the arguments of previous research.
In addition, faithful to the pedagogical objective of action research, the observations, analysis, and reflections made in this study will help the researcher to better understand post-editing and learn how to teach more effectively based on the interaction with students. In addition, students will be able to learn about the declarative and procedural knowledge about post-editing and improve their hands-on skills to perform post-editing better. As there have been only a few studies about English-to-Korean post-editing training, the details about ‘what to teach’ and ‘how to teach’ will be a good source of information for those interested in post-editing research or planning to create a module.
However, considering the evolutionary nature of action research, this study will continue even after the finalization of this thesis. That is why this research presents a set of future research items to further explore unresolved questions. The insights gathered in this study and future research will lay a solid foundation for better understanding about post-editing and truly optimized post-editing training.