Machine translation as a potential tool for comprehension in multilingual classes

Abstract

[EN] With an increase in international student enrollment and participation in student mobility programs year over year, the goal of this project was to determine whether Microsoft Translate could be used as a simultaneous translation tool in the classroom to help foreign students understand course material, especially in situations where the instructor is not lecturing in a language the students are fluent in. This was tested in two master's level courses at a Catalan institution with mostly international students. The results suggest that the language of instruction, which was either English or Catalan, determined whether the participants perceived to comprehend the translation. Furthermore, speech style was essential, with scripted speech appearing to outperform unscripted speech. The goal of this study was to detect whether this program might be utilized to make university lectures more accessible to all students. The findings suggest that when the teacher uses scripted speech in the classroom, students of various language backgrounds seem to understand the key ideas of the lectures.