Language Teaching Research Quarterly

Among teachers of second language, it is widely believed that repetition is the most practical approach toward learning new vocabularies. Without doubt, new technologies leave profound impressions in academic studies. Translation Studies and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) are not exceptions. The present study endeavored to analyze the effect of Machine Translation in learning new vocabularies among freelance translators. For this reason, the researcher utilized SDL Trados Studio 2017 trial version, as a translation memory (TM) tool. The participants of the study, who were selected via OPT test, were 50 out of 68 freelance translators, divided randomly into two groups as control group and experimental group. The participants first took a vocabulary pre-test and then exposed to 10 authentic texts with some repetitive chunks for translating. The control group used paper dictionary, on the other hand, the experimental group used TM tools and had access to online dictionary and previous storages of data. During this one month period, students from both groups could contact the researcher via e-mail or telephone call to consult about any upcoming problems. After sessions of training how to translate using SDL Trados Studio and translating whole texts, the participants were asked to take a vocabulary post-test. In the next step, the results of two tests were rated by the researcher. After analyzing the scores, the researcher inferred that, using data storages can have adverse effect on learning new vocabularies, owing to the lack of repetition during translating.