Tradução automática e revisão : um estudo de caso sobre o uso do Google tradutor numa perspectiva colaborativa de aprendizagem

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the use, contributions and limitations of the resource machine translation as a mediating element in teaching English as a foreign language among students of basic education in a collaborative learning perspective. The research was conducted in a public school of Goiás, with basic education students, from the afternoon shift and it is characterized as a naturalistic case study. For the collection and data analysis, we have used the principles of the qualitative research. As theoretical principles, we have handled some theories of translation, the sociocultural theory and theories related to collaborative learning, according to which learning is made possible by the interaction and collaboration between individuals. We have identified and analyzed machine translation activities with texts about the local culture of the Goiás City, at the time those students had to review together the inconsistencies produced by the automatic translator, being the Google translator chosen by the group. Under the collaborative review proposals, we have noticed how Google translator and tools provided by the Internet allow us to recognize the ways in which languages are used in different contexts, especially with the use of digital technologies. The completion of translations with the support of the applications demonstrated that the use of these in the classroom, has, in fact, a pedagogical implication of thinking the teaching of foreign languages with collaborative purposes, including, therefore, that language is social interaction. The limitations presented by the translational machinery were offset, from group work, and it was possible to make the individuals involved to be capable of yielding better results than through individual work, proving thereby that the complementarity of efforts and individual capacities make the difference in the teaching-learning language process.