Investigating translator-information interaction: A case study on the use of the prototype biconcordancer tool integrated in CASMACAT

This chapter introduces translator-information interaction (TII) as the field of study that investigates translators’ interaction with (digital) information and information tools. In particular, the current chapter examines translators’ interaction with a prototype biconcordancer (BiConc) tool integrated in the CASMACAT workbench. The BiConc was introduced in the third CASMACAT field trial (The data of the third CASMACAT field trial is stored in the TPR-DB under the study name CFT14, cf. Chap. 2, this volume.), a post-editing experiment involving seven English-to-Spanish professional translators. In addition to external online tools, the BiConc was one of the informational resources that participants could use while post-editing two machine-translated texts under two different conditions: (1) traditional post-editing and (2) interactive post-editing with online learning (A description of the CASMACAT online-learning mode is provided in Chap. 3 in this volume). In the case study reported in this chapter, only the segments in which participants used the CASMACAT BiConc tool were examined. On the basis of screen recordings, the present study analyses the way translators interacted with the BiConc and other informational resources in order to solve a particular problem while post-editing. Overall, the chapter argues that human-centered research is essential not only in the understanding of the cognitive processes involved in translation activity, but also in the development and the improvement of tools intended to better address the professional needs of translators. Thus, this case study and subsequent TII investigations can be used to inform the efficient integration of the BiConc tool and other informational resources to CASMACAT and other future-generation (web-based) translation environments.