| A growing number of research projects have been conducted in the field of computer-aided translation (CAT) such as translation memory, terminology management and project management. These technologies are widely used in technical translation. Translation studies have been conducted with different approaches. Researchers have also examined the development, evaluation and application of different types of CAT software. However, it is noticeable that few studies have combined technical translation and the application of the CAT software together to study the influence of CAT software application on English-Chinese technical translation.Given the research gap, this study was aimed at exploring the influences of the CAT software application on the productivity, quality of E-C technical translation and participant users’ attitudes towards the CAT software. The following three questions were addressed in this study:(1) How does the TM system of the CAT software influence the productivity of English-Chinese technical translation?(2) How does the TM system of the CAT software influence the quality of English-Chinese technical translation?(3) What is the efficacy of the CAT software as perceived by the participant users?Participants in this study were eight translation trainers and a translation reviewer. A technical text of900English words and Trados were chosen as the test text and the instrument respectively. Translation trainers were equally divided into two groups. When doing translation, both groups could consult the conventional references such as dictionaries and encyclopedia. In the meantime, Group I were assisted by Trados. Data in this study were mainly collected from the screen recording, questionnaires, interviews and target texts. This study has found that Trados in this study was helpful for participants in Group Ⅰ to improve the productivity through the fuzzy match function, and the application of the CAT software in E-C technical translation could reduce the possibility of mistranslation and maintain the consistency of terms and style. In addition, participants in Group1had positive attitudes towards the use of CAT software, but they believed that the price of Trados was high, payment discounts based on the fuzzy match rate was unfair for translators and some match rate was not very helpful. Translators in Group Ⅱ thought that it was necessary to master such technology to be competitive. Based on the findings of this study, the study pointed out that the CAT software is useful to improve the speed and quality of the E-C technical translation, and to meet the needs and challenges of the translation market. Therefore, it is necessary for colleges to incorporate the teaching of such software into the translation training curriculum. It is hoped that this study can provide some suggestions for the future development of the CAT software. |
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