Familiarity of Iranian M.A. Translation Students with ICT Tools

Abstract

Familiarity with information and communication technology (ICT) is of great importance to the translation students because it allows the students to make use of a wide range of ICT tools. The present study investigated the degree of students’ familiarity with ICT tools employed to support ICT related activities included in the translator’s workstation. To do this, a questionnaire encompassing 24 questions was designed on the basis of translation activities proposed by Fulford and Granell-Zafar (2005), including information search and retrieval, communications, and marketing and work procurement. The results indicated the high familiarity of the M.A. translation students with general-purpose software application, namely online dictionaries and internet search engines, and the lower than the average familiarity of them with specific-purpose software, such as FTP and MUDs. Furthermore, chi-square test (X²) was run to see whether there is a significant relationship between each type of ICT tools and the participants. The results illustrated that the relationships between the M.A. translation students and some ICT applications, including internet search engines, web browsers, online dictionaries and encyclopedia, IRC, and MUDs, were significant; whereas, it was not significant between the other types of ICT software and students. This includes online translation marketplaces, internet forums, email, instant messaging, video chat, discussion mailing lists, talkers, and FTP.