Márta Lesznyák: A longitudinal investigation of translation trainees’ translation and post-editing competence development I
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3 Results and Discussion
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3.4 The discussion of advanced students’ results
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3.4.3 The translation and the post-editing experience (research question 2.6) – second data collection wave

3.4.3 The translation and the post-editing experience (research question 2.6) – second data collection wave

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In the second data collection wave, just as in the first wave, students filled out a questionnaire that collected information about their perceptions of the translation and post-editing task. The findings indicate that both groups rated most aspects (terminology, thematic knowledge, syntax) of the task to be moderately difficult (mean values around 3.00). The only exception was “general difficulty” in the post-editing condition, with a mean value of 2.33, indicating that post-editors had the impression that, in general, the task was easy. The difference between the HT group and the PE group was statistically significant, suggesting that human translators perceived the task as somewhat more difficult than post-editors. This result is in line with Latorraca’s (2023) and Yang et al.’s (2023) findings, which showed that PE was regarded by students as easier and less frustrating.

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Nevertheless, it is slightly confusing that post-editors see their task in general as easier than translators, but no significant differences were found between translators and post-editors on the individual factors of difficulty. On the one hand, it can be concluded that the individual factors did not fully grasp the aspects of difficulty. On the other hand, it is also possible that students simply have a general impression that post-editing is easy, particularly when they compare it to from-scratch translation that they were required to do on a daily basis during the training. However, when asked about specific difficulties, they are forced to recall the actual challenges they faced while post-editing, and that might have resulted in a more realistic assessment. Nevertheless, this remains a speculative interpretation as we have no further data on why students perceive the task in general as easier than translation.

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Further statistical analysis revealed that both translators and post-editors assigned similar ratings to the different types of difficulties. In other words, no dominant difficulty type emerged, as the task was perceived as equally challenging across all three listed dimensions.

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In the next part of the questionnaire, students were invited to specify the terms the translation of which was a challenge. The analysis showed that second-year students named the very same terms as first-year students, and most of these terms were related to pragmatics (conversational violations, conversational understanding and Gricean maxims). However, no term could be singled out as significantly more difficult than the others.

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Somewhat surprisingly, some students at the end of their training still named words and phrases that cannot be regarded as terms. An implication of this phenomenon is that some students have not fully grasped the concept of terms by the end of their training.

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It is even more interesting that, again, PE students (M = 0.87) identified significantly more non-terms than HT students (M = 0.18). Post-editors naming a higher number of non-terminological problems seems to be a recurring pattern in this research. Individual differences may account for the discrepancy between HT and PE students, although at the end of the training period, one would expect students to be slightly more homogeneous. In other words, if individual differences (i.e., PE students not knowing what terms are) are responsible for the differences, then one possible conclusion could be that PE students have not profited from the training. Having had the same instructor in terminology, it is again not likely, although it cannot be ruled out either. It is equally possible, however, that the process of post-editing changes the way the texts are processed and perhaps, memory functions, too. Post-editors may have less focused attention on terms, which may lead to less effective storing and recalling processes. Additional research is needed, however, to understand these processes in detail.

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In the remainder of this chapter, we will focus on the specific experiences of post-editors. The results of the two questions asking students to compare post-editing and from-scratch translation indicate that students in the second data collection wave perceived post-editing to be both faster and easier than traditional translation (see 3.1.6.3 Post-editors’ experiences with the task). This finding partly aligns with results from other parts of the questionnaire (see the first paragraph of this chapter), which revealed that post-editors found the task easier than translators. They are also consistent with studies showing that post-editing is seen as more time-efficient and easier than from-scratch translation (Noronha Cunha, 2023; Latorraca, 2023; Á. Lesznyák, 2019; Y. Yang et al., 2023).

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Concerning the support PE can provide, a rank order can be established relying on the data from the second data collection wave. This shows that the greatest help is typing (significantly higher means than expected), followed by the opportunity to work with a pre-existing text (expected mean), and finally, PE does not seem to help with terminology at all (mean lower than expected). These findings reveal that it is mostly the technical aspect of PE that students find useful (typing). It seems that they feel that they cannot rely on MT when making decisions about more complex, content-related aspects of the task (terminology). On the one hand, it is encouraging that students perceive the shortcomings of MTPE; on the other hand, this finding also points to the constraints of MTPE, which may influence attitudes to it.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

Second-year students’ perception of the challenges of PE was very similar to those found in the first year. They did indicate that it is difficult to decide whether the solution offered by the MT is correct and to free oneself from the MT phrasing, but they did not think that the lack of creativity in post-editing would have hindered their work.
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