Author:

Keywords:

terminology, translator environment

Abstract:

The SCATE (Smart Computer-Assisted Translation Environment) research project is a multidisciplinary co-operation with the objective of improving the translators’ efficiency and consistency through a better integration of existing translation technologies and exploitation of resources. One aspect of this project consisted of undertaking an empirical case study at translators’ workplaces to understand their context of work and how they use translation tools and linguistics resources in real-life settings. During a period of approximately 8 months (November 2014 – September 2015), a total number of 16 translators and terminologists were observed at their workplaces and 4 others were interviewed remotely. The field research took place in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and involved professionals working in different organizational settings: public institutions, language service providers and self-employment. Prior the field observations, we investigated the features of some of the translation environment tools and launched a survey among the translation professionals to get an update on their use of technologies and terminology resources. The results of this empirical study reveal information about the physical working environment, the type of technologies translators use in their daily work and how they use them, and their methods of acquiring domain-specific terminology. In this short presentation we will give an overview of the main findings of the study, with focus on the acquisition of domain knowledge and terminology, and show how SCATE research could tackle some of the problems.