TEACHING MACHINE TRANSLATION TO THE STUDENTS MAJORING IN THE HUMANITIES

Abstract

Problems of machine translation (MT) are currently the most topical vectors determining the development of translators’ proficiency content, which is reflected in the diversity of approaches to improving the algorithms of knowledge applications in this field. We recognize the urgency of theoretical substantiation of the students’ training quality (we mean the training of the future philologists and translators) in terms of using ICT, since their proficiency in the designated sphere might facilitate their natural and rapid adaptation to professional activity and competitiveness in the labour market. The analysis of professional literature showed the importance of using computer technology while training future translators in machine translation and proved that not all the reserves for its effective provision have been used. The urgency of the problem and lack of its proper development stipulated the purpose of the article ‒ to analyse and develop educational tools that contribute to the formation of a system of knowledge and skills related to the use of modern computer technologies in the process of professional activity (on the material of the English, Chinese and Ukrainian languages). A spectrum of the MT programs classified based on human’s involvement in the process of converting the original text into a target text (FAMT, HAMT, MAHT) has been represented in the article. The criteria (professional competency of the future translators in the field of the English-Ukrainian MT, professional competency of the future translators in the Chinese-Ukrainian MT), indicators (content-significant, procedural-technological and lexicographic search-oriented) and levels (high, sufficient, satisfactory, low) specifying the degree of students’ proficiency (knowledge, skills and abilities) in using modern computer technology within the framework of profession-oriented activities have been elaborated. The proposed authors’ teaching techniques included the use of the competence-oriented and context-based approaches to the educational process, the integration of traditional and new interactive methods / forms of learning, the combination of classroom and extra-class activities involving ICT. We see the prospects of our research in the further study of educational aspects of machine translation grounded on the latest developments in the fields of comparative linguistics and general theory of translation (theory of regular correspondences, methods of representing knowledge, optimizing and improving linguistic algorithms, in particular).