An Evaluative Study of Machine Translation in the EFL Scenario of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence or AI as it is popularly known and its corollary, Machine Translation (MT) have long engaged scientists, thinkers and linguists alike in the twenty first century. However, the wider question that lies in the relation between technology and translation is, What does technology do to language? This is an important question in the current paradigm because new translation technologies, such as, translation memories, data-based machine translation, and collaborative translation, far from being just additional tools, are changing the very nature of the translators’ cognitive activity, social relations, and professional standing. In fact, in some translation situations such as when translating technical materials or subject matter that are not a specialization with human translators, one potentially needs technology.  The purview of this paper, however, is limited to the role of MT in day to day situations where the generic MT tools like Google Translate or Bing Translator are encouraged. Further, it endeavours to weigh and empirically demonstrate the pros and cons of MT with a view to recommending measures for better communication training in the EFL set up of Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: AI, MT, translation, technology, necessity, communication