Investigating (Non-)Professionalism in Human-Computer Collaborative Translation

Cultural and linguistic mediation activities undertaken by people without formal training or remuneration are referred to as non-professional translation (Antonini and Bucaria 2016, 7). According to this definition, credentialling and remuneration are the two criteria that define translation professionalism. However, the boundary between professionalism and non-professionalism is not clear-cut in real-life situations, especially in collaborative translation where both professionals and non-professionals are often engaged. Additionally, non-human (technology) actors increasingly collaborate or act as mediators in various translation scenarios, further challenging the notion of professionalism.

In this paper, we re-examine the meanings of (non-)professionalism by drawing on our ongoing project in which human-to-machine collaborative translation is adopted. We frame collaborative translation assisted by various technologies as a form of human-computer interaction (HCI), defined as the “construction of an interactive artefact for some purpose in human use of computing” (Oulasvirta and Hornbæk 2016, 4958). Different stakeholders, including NGOs, community members and translation professionals, participated in a series of collaborative translation activities aimed at facilitating communication on food safety between majority (English and Chinese) and minority (Hindi and Urdu) language speakers in Hong Kong. We ask two interrelated research questions: i) How do members from different stakeholder groups interact with each other and with technologies during the process of collaborative translation? And ii) how is (non-)professionalism understood by them and in the context of the available technological tools used during these processes? In this way, we can explore the potential of tools to enhance collaboration and mediate interactions among the participants.

The data analysed include participants’ demographics, training materials, ethnographic fieldnotes, and interviews transcripts. The findings suggest that translation professionalism is relational. Rarely does one single participant possess the full set of skills and knowledge. When a minority language is involved, technologies can potentially empower minority communities, while also risking their further marginalisation.