Web Based Machine Translation: History, Models, and Lessons for the Secondary Language Classroom

Today web-based machine translation is widely used for instantly translating words, documents, and websites. The social role of the machine in web-based translation has gained much importance in people s global interaction because it allows them to communicate with anyone, from anywhere, in any language. This role of the machine has had profound sociopolitical implications, mainly due to two developments significant improvement in translation quality and people s digital literacy. While machine translation has become an important feature for communicating messages all over the world, secondary school educators have not yet garnered its power to improve language teaching in the classroom. This book demonstrates the power (albeit with limitations) of web-based machine translation in the secondary school world-language classroom.