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Investigating the effects of controlled language on the reading and comprehension of machine translated texts: a mixed-methods approach

Doherty, Stephen orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-0887-1049 (2012) Investigating the effects of controlled language on the reading and comprehension of machine translated texts: a mixed-methods approach. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
This study investigates whether the use of controlled language (CL) improves the readability and comprehension of technical support documentation produced by a statistical machine translation system. Readability is operationalised here as the extent to which a text can be easily read in terms of formal linguistic elements; while comprehensibility is defined as how easily a text’s content can be understood by the reader. A biphasic mixed-methods triangulation approach is taken, in which a number of quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods are combined. These include: eye tracking, automatic evaluation metrics (AEMs), retrospective interviews, human evaluations, memory recall testing, and readability indices. A further aim of the research is to investigate what, if any, correlations exist between the various metrics used, and to explore the cognitive framework of the evaluation process. The research finds that the use of CL input results in significantly higher scores for items recalled by participants, and for several of the eye tracking metrics: fixation count, fixation length, and regressions. However, the findings show slight insignificant increases for readability indices and human evaluations, and slight insignificant decreases for AEMs. Several significant correlations between the above metrics are identified as well as predictors of readability and comprehensibility.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:March 2012
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):O'Brien, Sharon and Kenny, Dorothy
Uncontrolled Keywords:eye tracking metrics; fixation count; fixation length; regressions
Subjects:Computer Science > Machine translating
Medical Sciences > Psychology
Humanities > Translating and interpreting
DCU Faculties and Centres:Research Initiatives and Centres > Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL)
DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
Research Initiatives and Centres > Centre for Translation and Textual Studies (CTTS)
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. View License
Funders:Science Foundation Ireland
ID Code:16805
Deposited On:27 Mar 2012 14:53 by Sharon O'brien . Last Modified 19 Jan 2022 12:29
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