Students’ Common Mistakes in Technical Texts When Using Computer Technologies

Abstract

The paper considers the possibilities of using computer technologies by students in the translation of scientific and technical texts on power and electrical engineering. The main task of the study was to identify advantages and disadvantages of machine or computer-aided translation through their comparison and to define the possibility of their use in the translation of texts on power and electrical engineering. Among other types, students and post-graduates prefer machine translation. The comparison of two the most popular machine translation systems on the basis of Google Translate statistics and PROMT rules texts on power and electrical engineering showed that the Google Translate gives the better quality translation of special terms of this subject-matter. The majority of participants of the students’ international competition on written translation of the CIGRE Russian National Committee use Google Translate and PROMT. Translation mistakes are the result of insufficient language training and indistinct understanding of the described technical process. When translating written texts students shall apply post-editing and use the electronic dictionary Multitran. The development of hybrid machine translation systems on the basis of rules and statistics will allow shifting to a qualitatively new level of technical translation. The quality of students’ translations significantly increases if they participate in international and domestic competitions and get a profound knowledge of specialized subjects.