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The Evolving Curriculum in Interpreter and Translator Education: Stakeholder perspectives and voices
Edited by David B. Sawyer, Frank Austermühl and Vanessa Enríquez Raído
[American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series XIX] 2019
► pp. 205–228

A singular(ity) preoccupation

Helping translation students become language-services advisors in the age of machine translation

Some futurists predict that machines will soon – that is, by the time the “Singularity” arrives – replace human translators. Whether that prediction is accurate or not, translator trainers must prepare students to enter a profession in which machine translation plays an increasingly important role. This paper argues that modern translation students must prepare themselves to also be language-services advisors (LSAs). LSAs recommend translation solutions before a project reaches a project manager. Based upon project specifications, LSAs recommend solutions along a spectrum ranging from unedited machine translation to professional human translation. Translator trainers must help students gain the knowledge necessary to be effective LSAs. Students who master the LSA role will be successful regardless of the evolution of “neural” networks and artificial intelligence.

Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Machine translation and the Singularity
    • Current fears and prior periods of optimism
    • The Singularity and the translation profession
    • The most relevant question regarding the Singularity and translation
  • Preparing translation students to be language-services advisors
    • What does “translation” include?
    • Product parameters
    • Other project parameters
    • Process parameters
    • Pre-Singularity developments do not threaten the translation profession
    • Culture
    • Limitations of machine learning
    • Non-textual context
    • Agency
  • Expanding models of translation competence: The translator as language-services provider
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ata.xix.10mel
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