Machine Translation for Academic Writing (MT4AW)

Machine Translation for Academic Writing (MT4AW)
Call for Workshop Participation
 
Important Dates and Requirements
Participants will be required to submit an academic text written in their first language (L1) prior to the workshop, and at the workshop they will be asked to self-post-edit their own text, translated using an MT system. The Workshop organisers will machine translate the text for the participants in advance.
 
This Workshop will take place at the MT Summit in Nagoya, Japan on September 18th. It will be a half-day morning workshop. The Workshop leaders are:
 
Dr. Carla Parra Escartín (Dublin City University/ADAPT Centre)
Dr. Sharon O’Brien (Dublin City University/ADAPT Centre)
Dr. Michel Simard (National Research Council of Canada)
Dr. Marie-Josée Goulet (Université du Québec en Outaouais)
 
This will be a hands-on Workshop. Please read the dates and requirements below carefully.
Motivation
Researchers and professionals working in specialised domains need to publish their work in scientific conferences and journals. Although English is the lingua franca for scientific research, relatively few researchers are native speakers of English. This leads to the need for mastering English for academic purposes or hiring translators or professional revisers to ensure that professional content meets the quality required for publication. The MT4AW Workshop explores the feasibility of drafting content in a first language that is not English (e.g. Japanese) and then machine translating and post-editing the academic text in English. In this context, the author is also the post-editor, a task we call ‘self-post-editing’.
Workshop Outline
The MT4AW Workshop seeks participation from anyone interested in exploring the use of Machine Translation (MT) as a support for publishing academic papers in English. The Workshop will be structured as follows:
 
·  Introduction to the Workshop and outline of previous research on the topic of MT as a support for academic writing;
·  Hands-on self-post-editing into English of participants’ own academic writing (from any source language other than English); All participants will be required to participate in the post-editing exercise - see Important Dates and Requirements below for details;
·  Feedback and discussion on the post-editing experience; presentation and comparison of results from similar projects.
Important Dates and Requirements
Participants will be required to submit an academic text written in their L1 (mother tongue) prior to the workshop, and at the workshop they will be asked to self-post-edit their own text, translated using an MT system. The Workshop organisers will machine translate the text for the participants in advance.
 
The text excerpts should be an academic paper of approximately 750 words in length and should ideally be an extended abstract or a ‘Discussion section’ of an academic paper.
 
N.B. All participants must bring their own laptop to the Workshop. There will be NO computers available at the Workshop venue. The laptop must have a text editor installed that allows for tracking of changes (edits).
 
·  Deadline for expressing interest in participating: 31 July 2017
oExpress your interest by filling in the form available here.
oN.B. Expression of Interest does NOT count as Registration for the Workshop. Formal registration for the Workshop has to be done separately at the MT Summit Website.
·  Deadline for submission of participant’s own academic text: 10th September, 2017
·  You can submit your text for the workshop here.
·  Deadline for registration at Workshop: SEE MT Summit CONFERENCE WEBSITE.
·  Workshop Date: Monday 18th September, morning.
 
Note that the number attendees for this workshop will be capped. Registration is counted only through formal registration at the MT Summit Conference Website.
 
For any queries on the Workshop, email: selfpe.experiment [at] gmail.com or visit the workshop's website.
 
Kind regards,
 
Dr. Carla Parra Escartín (Dublin City University/ADAPT Centre)
Dr. Sharon O’Brien (Dublin City University/ADAPT Centre)
Dr. Michel Simard (National Research Council of Canada)
Dr. Marie-Josée Goulet (Université du Québec en Outaouais)