ATA study offers opportunity for free practice tests

A study to be conducted by two members of the American Translators Association (ATA) will offer ATA members who translate from Spanish to English the opportunity to take two ATA practice tests and receive feedback from graders in ATA’s certification program as a benefit of their participation in the study.

The purpose of the study is to determine whether there is a relationship between the quality of translated samples and post-edited machine-translated (MT) samples submitted by the same translator, as assessed by ATA grading criteria, and, if so, how this correlation applies across various levels of human translation competence.

A total of 40 translators will be recruited from among ATA members who translate from Spanish into English. Both ATA-certified and non-certified translators and interpreters are welcome to participate.

Each participant will translate one Spanish-language passage (250-300 words) into English, without using MT, and post-edit a second passage after it goes through an MT engine. Study participants will submit their finished English texts to ATA Spanish>English graders, who will mark each sample like a practice test, without being informed whether it was translated or post-edited. Because the grading work will be funded by ATA, the participants will not have to pay any practice test fees; they will receive copies of their marked passages as their benefit for taking part in the study.

If you are interested in participating in this research, e-mail Larry Bogoslaw and Geoffrey Koby, the ATA members conducting the study, by August 8, 2022 at atamtpe@gmail.com. In your message, please indicate the name by which you prefer to be addressed.

Please note: You must be a current member of ATA to participate.