Márta Lesznyák: A longitudinal investigation of translation trainees’ translation and post-editing competence development I
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1 Literature review
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1.6 Empirical studies on post-editing
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1.6.4 Translators’ attitude to post-editing

1.6.4 Translators’ attitude to post-editing

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A growing body of literature has investigated translators’ attitudes to MT and/or post-editing. Most of the initial findings (Cadwell et al., 2018; Läubli & Orrego-Carmona, 2017; O’Brien & Moorkens, 2014; Sakamoto, 2019) indicate that translators have a negative attitude toward MT and post-editing, and they often express feelings like anxiety or frustration when commenting on PE and MT. Usually, professionals have more negative attitudes than students, although Daems and his colleagues (2017) have not found any difference between the two groups. The reason behind negative attitudes seems to be the general impression that creative work (translation, which is text creation) is degraded to something menial (text correction, i.e., PE). As one language professional formulated it, with the spread of PE, many translators feel that they have become linguistic janitors (Kelly, 2014).

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More recent studies suggest that the perception of PE has not changed considerably in the past ten years. Brogueira’s survey of Portuguese translators (Brogueira, 2023) shows that translators acknowledge the advancement of MT, but only about one-third of them have a positive attitude toward it. The problems they indicated included quality issues related to MT-output on the one hand, and decreasing job satisfaction on the other hand. Low job satisfaction was mainly due to diminishing income and job fulfilment. Particularly those translators were very pessimistic about future trends in income who had more experience with MT-based translation projects. The number of translators willing to change profession in the future because of the spread of MT has grown compared to 2017 (Brogueira, 2023)

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In his PhD dissertation, Álvarez-Vidal (2021) found that translators had negative attitudes towards post-editing, because they perceive it as more monotonous, mentally exhausting and less well paid. They also expressed concerns about the low quality of the MT output, which was identified as a further source of stress.

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In 2020, an interview study was published by Vieira and Alonso (Vieira & Alonso, 2020). Their findings indicated that translators’ negative bias towards MT could be linked to the perceived uncertainty in industrial processes relying on MT. Another factor that contributed to negative perceptions was the limited degree of control translators had over the translation/post-editing business workflow. The study also revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the idea of “fit for purpose” or “good enough” translations (Vieira & Alonso, 2020).

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Bolaños García-Escribano and Díaz-Cintas (2023) studied students’ perception of translating and post-editing subtitles. Findings indicated that students held a generally negative opinion of subtitle post-editing, largely because they perceived the quality of post-edited subtitles to be poor. Nevertheless, students acknowledged the increasing integration of post-editing in the language industry.

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Rico Pérez (2024) notes that one source of criticism from translators is that MTPE guidelines are not always detailed enough and lack clarity. She also draws attention to the results of Vieira (2018), who argues that translators’ negative attitudes to MTPE may stem from prevailing industry practices rather than from resistance to technology.

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Finally, Briva-Iglesias and O’Brien (2024) reported the findings of a pre-task study. Following a review of the literature on perceptions of post-editing, the researchers concluded that most prior studies were primarily descriptive and did not attempt to find correlations between perceptions, translation quality, and translator productivity. To address this research gap, they conducted an empirical investigation to discover whether translators’ pre-task perceptions of machine translation were associated with the quality of the final target text and with productivity within the post-editing workflow. The findings suggest that translators exhibiting negative attitudes and a general distrust toward MT and PE tended to work at a slower pace and produce lower-quality translations.

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Some studies, however, indicate more positive attitudes to MT. Most of these studies have students as participants. For example, González Pastor’s study demonstrated that undergraduate students had a generally positive attitude towards MT, although they showed anxiety concerning the future (i.e., MT may replace translators) and they were also aware that some text types are not very well suited for MT (González Pastor, 2021).

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Noronha Cunha (2023) reports on the integration of MT to a legal translation class with 21 students. In addition to post-editing an Article of Association, students were asked to complete pre- and post-task questionnaires designed to elicit information about their general attitudes toward post-editing and about their specific evaluations of the MT output. It was found that students generally held positive attitudes towards MT and post-editing, and they often highlighted their time-saving potential and cost-effectiveness as key advantages. Moreover, students were satisfied with the MT output and were inclined to accept its solutions, with the exception of terminology.

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In a unique study applying a narrative approach, Sánchez Ramos found that students were somewhat more positive than negative in their attitudes to MT and PE. This was attested by a larger number of “love letters” than “break-up letters” written to MT by the students (Sánchez Ramos, 2025).

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In summary, although the younger generation seems to be somewhat more positive towards MT and PE than the more experienced generation, there seems to be a general anxiety concerning MT and PE (and probably AI, too). This is largely due to dissatisfaction with MT quality, pressure from other participants in the industry to accept low quality, uncertainty and decreasing job satisfaction.

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In the next sections, we will turn to less frequently studied research topics in post-editing that have direct relevance for our investigation.
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