ROBOT. A translation robot for each translator? A comparative study of process and quality of manual translation and the post-editing of machine translations

The main objective of this project is a comparative study of the traditional way of translating and translation on the basis of machine translations to translate general (non-technical) texts for the English-Dutch language pair. Translation expertise and translation direction (translating into or out of the foreign language) will be taken into account as additional parameters. 

In order to study the translation and post-editing process, we will observe the behaviour of 13 professional translators and 10 students using keystroke logging, eyetracking and screen capture software. The resulting translations will be discussed with the participants and judged on their quality. 

The research project will not only lead to new insights into the cognitive processes in translation and post-editing but also in the usefulness of machine translation systems to translate general texts into and out of the foreign language. Since the use of machine translation in the translation industry is increasing, the results of the project are of paramount importance to all (future) translators.