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<Paper uid="W04-1406">
  <Title>Finding linguistic or terminological data Online dictionaries Merriam-Webster Online YourDictionary.com Meta dictionaries Onelook Terminological databases Eurodicautom TIS (Council of the EU) Search engines Google Metacrawler Finding background information (topic research) Encyclopaedias Encyclopaedia Britannica Encarta Newspaper archives Worldnews Databases CORDIS Resource gateways RefDesk Search engines Google Metacrawler Producing draft / information-only translations Online machine translation Babel Fish Translation Finding translation work Online marketplaces Aquarius Proz Promoting translation services Web site creation software Dreamweaver MS Frontpage Communicating with colleagues</Title>
  <Section position="5" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="metho">
    <SectionTitle>
4 Survey Findings
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> To date, 590 responses to the survey have been received and logged. Of these responses, 152 were eliminated during a pre-screening exercise on the grounds that the respondents reported that translation is not currently their principal activity, but rather an activity they combine with other undertakings, such as teaching, training, or interpreting. Of the remaining 438 responses, 390 were from freelance translators, and it is the responses of these freelance translators that are the focus of the discussion in this paper. In comparison with other studies of translators undertaken in recent years, both the response rate to this survey and the sample size generated for analysis were encouraging: the sample for</Paragraph>
    <Section position="1" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="sub_section">
      <SectionTitle>
Translator's Workbench Project survey, for
</SectionTitle>
      <Paragraph position="0"> instance, comprised a total of 110 translators (Fulford, Hoge and Ahmad, 1990); and the more recent LETRAC project survey sample consisted of just over 100 'individual translators' (Reuther, 1999).</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="1"> In this section, some of the findings of the survey are presented, beginning with an overview of the respondents in the sample.</Paragraph>
    </Section>
    <Section position="2" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="sub_section">
      <SectionTitle>
4.1 Profile of survey respondents
</SectionTitle>
      <Paragraph position="0"> With regard to educational background, 92% of the respondents had university-level qualifications, with 53% of them having postgraduate-level qualifications. A high proportion of the sample (82%) had specific qualifications in translation, such as a first degree, master's degree, or a postgraduate-level diploma in translation studies.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="1"> With regard to the length of translation experience, responses ranged from 1 to 51 years (median: 12 years) spent working in the profession.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="2"> The most common subject areas translated were business/commerce (78%), technical domains (54%), and legal issues (53%). Productivity varied considerably, ranging from 50 to 100,000 words per week (median: 6000 words). A further measure of productivity showed variations from 0.5 to 84 hours per week (median: 25 hours) dedicated to translation-related tasks. The findings relating to length of translation experience and translator productivity are summarised in Table II below.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="3">  In addition to translation services, some of the translators in the sample offered other services such as linguistic consultancy (15% of the sample), subtitling/dubbing (15%), website localisation (14%), or language training courses (provided by 24% of the respondents).</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="4"> The majority of translators in the survey sample were female (63%), and the distribution of ages in sample was as follows: 20-29 years (4%), 30-39 years (23%), 40-49 years (30%), 50-59 years (26%), and 60 and over (17%).</Paragraph>
    </Section>
    <Section position="3" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="sub_section">
      <SectionTitle>
4.2 ICT skills
</SectionTitle>
      <Paragraph position="0"> Responses to questions about ICT knowledge revealed that the vast majority (85%) of the translators in the sample were self-taught, and most had no formal ICT qualifications. Among those who had formal ICT qualifications, half of them held a professional certificate, while only a few (15%) had a degree in computing or an ICT-related subject. These findings about ICT skills seem to accord broadly with those reported in the LETRAC project survey (see Reuther 1999).</Paragraph>
    </Section>
    <Section position="4" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="sub_section">
      <SectionTitle>
4.3 ICT uptake and usage
</SectionTitle>
      <Paragraph position="0"> Whilst the focus of this paper is on those findings of the survey relating to the uptake of online tools and resources, a brief summary is provided here of the respondents' general ICT adoption and usage.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="1"> All of the freelancers in the sample were using computer-based tools to support document production processes (such as word processing software), and 40% were making use of tools to support business management processes (such as spreadsheet packages, databases or accounting applications). Approximately one third of the translators in the sample were using tools to support terminology management and translation creation (including packages for creating and managing personal terminology collections, and computer-assisted translation tools, such as translation memory). There was little evidence from the findings of translators supporting collaborative work with the use, for instance, of groupware or project management software.</Paragraph>
    </Section>
    <Section position="5" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="sub_section">
      <SectionTitle>
4.4 Internet connection
</SectionTitle>
      <Paragraph position="0"> Of the 390 respondents, 97% used an Internet connection or some other network service giving access to the Internet.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="1"> The majority (66%) of freelance translators in the sample accessed Internet services via a dial-up connection, with only 31% using broadband services or a LAN connection. Figure 1 below summarises these findings.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="2">  Further analysis of Internet connections indicated that there was no significant relationship between the types of Internet connection employed and the extent of usage of online tools and language resources.</Paragraph>
    </Section>
    <Section position="6" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="sub_section">
      <SectionTitle>
4.5 The uptake of online tools and language
resources
</SectionTitle>
      <Paragraph position="0"> In this section, the findings relating to the uptake of online services are presented.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="1"> The overriding majority (93%) of freelance translators in the sample used e-mail. A high proportion (85%) used online search engines. A small minority of respondents (3%) were making use of online machine translation systems. A few were using usenet groups (6%), and a similar proportion (6%) were making use of specialist gateways. There was widespread use of some web-based language resources, such as online dictionaries and glossaries (78%), and multilingual terminology databases (59%). Furthermore, quite extensive use was being made of document archives, such as newspaper archives (51%), but less use of other online resources such as academic journals (30%), and electronic libraries (27%). A number of possible reasons can be advanced for the differences among the respondents in their uptake of, for example, newspaper archives (51%) and academic journals (30%), including cost issues, levels of resource awareness, and factors such as perceived usefulness of each resource.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="2"> As with many studies conducted in an organisational context, the adoption of the survey format restricts the range of issues and constructs that can be explored. It must also be recognised that the results of a survey of this kind are based on statistical analysis and are, therefore, identifying general trends, and measuring 'association' rather than 'causality'. These limitations highlight the need for further research to be conducted that adopts different methods. In particular, there is a need now for a more qualitative study that will allow the statistical patterns and relationships identified in this survey to be more fully explored, and it is hoped, explained empirically. It is precisely this sort of qualitative investigation that forms the next phase of the present research project.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="3"> The analysis of the responses is currently being extended to permit the identification of groupings of translator types according to their adoption of, and familiarity with, a range of online tools and language resources. This analysis is being undertaken using the statistical technique of cluster analysis, broadly facilitating the allocation of individual translators to one of several clusters (or groups) in which cluster members tend to share a number of characteristics in common with other cluster members (or are considered in statistical terms to be closely aligned to that cluster).</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="4"> To date, the following three clusters of translators have been identified in the analysis of the uptake of online tools and language resources (based on 241 responses deemed to be valid for cluster analysis purposes): Cluster I: Translators make extensive use of email, and some use of search engines and online dictionaries and glossaries. They show some awareness of a broad range of other online terminology resources (such as multilingual terminology databases or online encyclopaedia) and document archives (77 translators in this cluster).</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="5"> Cluster II: Translators make extensive use of e-mail and search engines, and some use of online dictionaries and glossaries, terminology databases, mailing lists, and to a limited extent use document archives. They show some awareness of a range of other online terminology resources, online communication tools (such as online discussion groups and online translation marketplaces), and a wide array of document facilities (such as academic journals, archives, electronic databases, and electronic libraries), but do not demonstrate an awareness of online MT systems (81 translators).</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="6"> Cluster III: Translators make extensive use of e-mail, search engines, and online dictionaries and glossaries. They make some use of a wide range of other online terminology resources (such as multilingual terminology databases and online encyclopaedias), document facilities (such as academic journals, archives, electronic databases, and electronic libraries), and online communication tools (such as online mailing lists, discussion groups, and translation marketplaces).</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="7"> They also show some awareness of online MT systems, usenet newsgroups and specialist gateways (83 translators).</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="8"> Further analysis of the three clusters revealed, perhaps inevitably, that the younger, leastexperienced translators holding a university qualification in translation (particularly a bachelor's or master's degree) were more likely to be found in cluster III. No clear statistical relationships were found between membership of the clusters and levels of productivity, such as weekly word counts.</Paragraph>
    </Section>
    <Section position="7" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="sub_section">
      <SectionTitle>
4.6 Translator homepages
</SectionTitle>
      <Paragraph position="0"> The survey also included a section enquiring about the use translators are making of web sites to promote their own translation services. The findings here showed that only 21% of the sample had their own home page. One might suppose that newcomers to the translation profession would run a home page in order to establish themselves in the freelance arena and attract clients, whereas those who had already been operating an established translation business for some years might not need to do this. The data from this survey, however, did not show any such relationship. Indeed, further analysis of the data here revealed that the uptake of home pages varied little with length of translation experience. Similar findings were found when looking at relationships between home page and age of translators in the sample.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="1"> Having presented a summary of the survey findings relating to the uptake of online services, a brief discussion of those findings is provided in the next section of the paper.</Paragraph>
    </Section>
  </Section>
  <Section position="6" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="metho">
    <SectionTitle>
5 Discussion
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> As indicated in the summary of findings above, the three clusters contained a broadly similar number of translators. They suggest three groupings of translators: first, those who largely utilise general-purpose online tools for terminology retrieval purposes, and who make some use of online versions of conventional lexical and terminology resources, such as dictionaries and glossaries. They have not ventured far into exploring new resources and new tools. Second, there are those who use general-purpose online tools and quite a broad range of online resources for terminology retrieval; they also, to some extent, use other specialist facilities such as mailing lists, but again have not ventured far into the exploration and adoption of these. Third, there are those who use general-purpose online resources, a broad range of online terminology resources, and who also utilise online document archives, as well as a range of different collaborative tools such as mailing lists, discussion groups and online marketplaces. Those in the third grouping thus show a greater awareness, and higher level of uptake, of a broad range of resources than those in grouping one or two. This suggests that those in the third grouping are incorporating online services into a greater range of tasks and processes in their workflow.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> Overall, the findings seem to suggest that the translators in the sample are making more use of online services for information retrieval, particularly terminology retrieval, purposes, than they are either for supporting collaborative work, or for marketing and work-finding purposes.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> Possible reasons for this are being explored in the next phase of the research project.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> It was evident from the findings that younger, less experienced translators holding university degrees in translation tended to be using a broader range of Internet services than their more established counterparts. Assuming that these newcomers to the profession acquired their knowledge of Internet services through their university training, it is clear that universities have been adapting and tailoring their courses to reflect the increasing availability of Internet-based facilities to support various aspects of the translation workflow. Given the changing nature of the translation profession, coupled with general advances in online services and virtual working environments, it will be important for these academic institutions to continue to adapt and innovate in order to prepare their student translators for future web-based collaborative workflows. Examples here might include group translation projects and the use of shared translation memory.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> Whilst the findings of the exploratory survey presented in this paper have helped to provide a picture of the adoption of Internet services by UK-based freelance translators, they raise a number of questions regarding reasons for adoption or nonadoption. Such questions include: Cost issues and availability of free services: is cost a motivating factor for freelance translators when selecting an Internet service? Perceived usefulness: what is the perceived usefulness of various Internet services, and how does their usefulness compare with more conventional tools and resources? Ease of use: how easy do freelance translators find Internet services to use? What problems have they encountered when using them to date? Do their experiences to date influence their willingness to adopt further services? External factors: to what extent do clients require, or encourage, the use of certain Internet services? What role do team-working environments play in encouraging the adoption of Internet services? Online translator communities: what role do online translator communities play in encouraging the adoption of online services? These questions are among those now being investigated using a more qualitative-based study, including in-depth interviews with individual translators.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> The findings of the survey indicated that although some translators are aware of a number of Internet services, they have not adopted them into their workflows. This discrepancy between usage and awareness highlighted another area for further investigation in the next phase of the research project: why have translators not moved from awareness to usage? Furthermore, the survey findings suggested that translators tend to be aware of some Internet services and not others. From the point of view of translator training and ongoing professional development, it will be important to identify the factors that influence awareness of each type of service: how have translators become aware of certain services, for example? A final issue that the survey raises is that of the benefits being gained by translators from the various Internet services they have adopted.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> Again, this is now being explored in the next phase of the project. It is anticipated that the findings regarding benefits will be of particular importance to translator trainers and providers of ongoing professional development materials to help guide and inform their future planning of courses or modules on Internet services. Moreover, a wider understanding of benefits being realised from Internet services could be useful for sharing successful practice strategies among existing professional translators.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="7"> Whilst the survey has focussed on UK-based translators, it is envisaged that the survey instrument now designed, developed and validated, could be employed for replication studies among translator communities in other countries. Indeed, undertaking comparative studies among translators in other countries would represent an interesting avenue for further research.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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