The Students’ Attitudes Towards Machine Translation: A Case Study Of The Applied College- Khamis Musheit- King Khalid University-KSA

Abstract

This research paper aims to figure out the advantages and disadvantages of the use of MT by the students at the Applied College in Khamis Musheit- King Khalid University – KSA, in several disciplines such as applied accounting, applied e-marketing, applied management, applied information systems, tourist projects management and web applications development. The medium of instruction in most of these courses is English, and as it is known, the level of most of the students is generally low in English, so they resort to MT. Although, it can help them to some extent, but they also encounter many difficulties in understanding the texts and terminologies related to their respective courses. A questionnaire was developed and distributed among a sample of 200 male and female students at the Applied College to perceive their attitudes towards MT and the obstacles they meet. The aim of this study is to make the students enlightened with the shortcomings of MT, be equipped with the necessary tools to avoid inconsistency, and maintain accuracy of the translation. Also, the aim is that the Applied College graduates should be competent and highly efficient in their respective disciplines in line with quality standards and in compliance with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which underscored the importance of preparing qualified graduates to meet the needs of the job market. It is hoped that the findings of this study will address the problems encountered by the students with respect to the use of MT. There is also a detailed discussion of the study, and recommendations are presented based on the results.