Measuring the usability of machine translation in the classroom context

Abstract Usability is a key factor for increasing adoption of machine translation. This study aims to measure the usability of machine translation in the classroom context by comparing translation students’ machine translation post-editing output with their manual translation in two comparable translation tasks. Three dimensions of usability were empirically measured: efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction . The findings suggest that machine translation post-editing is more efficient than human translation and post-editing produces fewer errors than human translation. While the types of errors vary, errors in terms of accuracy outnumber those related to fluency. In addition, participants perceive the amount of time and work that is saved when post-editing to be greater benefit than the overall utility of post-editing. Likewise, students report a strong desire to learn post-editing skills in training programs.