What role can human translators play in today\’s machine translation scenarios?

1. The Importance of Human Translators in a Machine Translation Process Lori Thicke www.lexcelera.com

2. . A short history of MT . Different approaches to MT . Factors driving MT today . The changing role of translators . What is post-editing? . A final word about quality www.lexcelera.com

3. .A short history of MT A Short History of MT Machine Translation has been aroundsince the 50s. But expectations wereunrealistic And the human dimension wasmissing

4. .Different approaches to MT DifferentApproaches to MT Machine Translation is not one program …but differentprogramstakingdifferentapproaches to get to the same place

5. .Different approaches to MT Rules-Based MT (RMBT) e.g. Systran, ProMT Comes with linguistic rules, trained by domain-specific user dictionaries built by linguists

6. .Different approaches to MT Statistical MT (SMT) e.g. Moses (open source), Google, Language Weaver, Asia Online May have domain built in, trained by engineers on millions of segments

7. .Different approaches to MT Advantages of RBMT ▪Respects grammatical rules: Le chatvert ▪User dictionaries control terms ▪System can be trained/corrected in real time ▪ Large corpora not necessary ▪ Most user cases today are Systran Disadvantages of RBMT ▪Customization requires trained linguists ▪Only one language pair at a time ▪Not available for every language ▪Labour intensive to scale/extend to new domains (4-6 weeks)

8. .Different approaches to MT Advantages of SMT ▪Learns automatically ▪Same process for virtually any language ▪Customization can be done with limited human input ▪Extending to new languages/domains takes up processing capacity, not linguistic resources Disadvantages of SMT ▪Requires millions of segments of clean training text (TMs, bilingual and monolingual corpora) ▪Unpredictable: terms may be correct in one sentence and not in another ▪System makes its own decisions based on probability ▪Corrections not always easy to integrate into engine ▪Memory and processor intensive ▪No grammatical rules to govern text it hasn’t seen: le vert chat

9. .Factors Driving MT Today Factors Driving MT Today www.lexcelera.com

10. .Factors Driving MT Today Content is Exploding.

11. .Factors Driving MT Today And that’s not to mention UGC.

12. .Factors Driving MT Today Many languages to translate.

13. .Factors Driving MT Today More platforms for distributing information.

14. .Factors Driving MT Today Increasing “Glocalization”.

15. .Factors Driving MT Today Users want the information they want when they want it.

16. .Factors Driving MT Today And sometimes Good Enough is Good Enough.

17. .Factors Driving MT Today Human Translation Can’t Meet the Needs to:

18. .Factors Driving MT Today Machine translation can help us meet these new challenges “…we contend that many companies and government agencies will consider automated translation as a way to maximize the amount of information available to customers and constituencies who speak other languages.” (Common Sense Advisory Report: “Automated Translation Technology”, 2006)

19. .Factors Driving MT Today Machine Translation has become just another productivity tool. . Fewer translators are graduating, so we need to optimize their time . It’s twice as fast to post-edit MT output than to translate from scratch . MT tools are integrated with TM tools for even better leveraging . It’s also faster to post-edit MT than fuzzy matches . After training, 7000+ words per day for human quality, 10,000+ for “comprehensibility”

20. .The changing role of translators The changingrole of translators The Scribe.

21. .The changing role of translators Part of the Production Line.

22. .The changing role of translators Subject Matter Expert.

23. .What is Post-Editing? What is post-editing? . Correcting machine translation output . Making global changes that once entered in the MT engine will ensure that those same errors will not recur

24. .What is Post-Editing? How does post-editing differ from traditional translation revision? . One question that may be asked at the outset is what quality is required to determine the post-editing effort . One-off errors are corrected but attention is paid to systematic changes that can be made to the engine to correct repetitive errors

25. .What is Post-Editing? Skill set of a post-editor Like a translator: . Excellent source language knowledge . Writing ability in target language . Specialization . Computer fluency . Discrimination Plus . Ability to detect patterns and make global corrections to propagate changes . An open mind to MT

26. .What is Post-Editing? Light Post-Editing. . Understandable quality . Message should be accurate and complete . Terminology generally managed by MT engine . May contain stylistic errors, awkward sentences . Make changes only when absolutely necessary for comprehension . Preferential changes should be avoided . Quality goals: Can it be understood without the original? Does it increase access to information?

27. .What is Post-Editing? Full Post-Editing. . Publishable quality . Message should be accurate and complete . Terminology generally managed by MT engine . Editing effort to make more fluent sentences . Quality goals: same as with a traditional translation!

28. .What is Post-Editing? Post-Editing rules . If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it . Keep in mind the goal of the document (e.g. timely information) . Don’t spend too long on any one issue . Style issues are not important unless they get in the way of understanding

29. .What is Post-Editing? Why don’t translators like post-editing? . Another new tool to learn (like CAT tools) . Unfamiliar, not much training available . Fears that they will become obsolete, or make less money . A different way of working . Less room for creativity . An activity requiring lesser skills . Impression of correcting the same errors, and not those a human would make

30. .What is Post-Editing? What are some positive aspects? . Another new tool to add to your skills . A chance to become expert in a specialization that will be in greater demand . A chance to vary translation activities . Less routine work . Participating in improving the machine by correcting systematic errors . Improving the MT output over time . Using other skills . Possibility of adding other tasks such as coding dictionaries, writing guidelines, creating regular expression to automatically correct errors

31. .A final word about quality A Final Word about Quality

32. . A final word about quality Evaluations of MT plus human post-editing