MT literacy in university contexts
The newest generation of machine translation (MT), neural machine translation (NMT), hit the headlines a few years ago and has become increasingly popular in academic contexts and professional life. Seen by many as a great solution to overcoming language barriers, it is also associated with risks that should be considered. The goal of this part of the DigLit project is to develop MT literacy, i.e. the effective and critical use of MT through interventions of various kinds carried out at Swiss universities.
Interventions
MT literacy can be fostered by raising awareness through providing relevant information and illustrating the risks, benefits and ethical issues associated with use cases.
"In discussions about digital competences, ethical aspects and human quality of life must always be taken into consideration. Media criticism also remains an important component of media competence." Dr. H., media educator, winner of the draw for an iPad in the Spring 2021 survey.
The following activities have been carried out, are in progress, or are planned:
- preliminary survey in English, German and French to establish level of MT literacy in the four partner universities (Spring 2021)
- larger-scale survey in English, German, French and Italian to determine MT literacy in universities throughout Switzerland (Winter 2021-2022)
- trials of training interventions for students and staff in four partner universities (Fall 2021-Spring 2022)
- development and implementation of training interventions for MT literacy for students and staff based on survey results throughout Switzerland (2022-2023)
- evaluation of interventions and refinements to materials where necessary; development of online resources (2022-2023)
- dissemination of results to participating universities and beyond (2021-2024)
If you are interested in attending or hosting a training session, contact us: diglit.linguistics@zhaw.ch
Resources
Internal resources
How to turn off automatic translation (different browsers): Youtube Videos
Didaktische Innovationen mit Digitalisierung, Blog «Language matters», 23.09.2021 (in German)
External resources
Dissemination
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