The impact of translation software on improving the performance of translation majors: A case study of the Saudi universities

The recent years have witnessed a high demand for professional translation services due to the global nature of world economy, accessibility to data in different languages, and the development of unprecedented communication channels. Translators can no longer meet these growing needs of customers and businesses. As such, different translation technologies have been developed to help translation learners and professionals improve their performance in producing a high quality translation. These technologies are now widely integrated into translation programs in different universities, institutes and training centers around the world for their usefulness and reliability in improving the performance of translation learners and professionals in the delivery of trustworthy and professional translation services. Nevertheless, surveys show that the Saudi labor market still has serious problems with qualified translators who are familiar with translation technologies that have negative impacts on the quality and delivery of translation services. This study, therefore, seeks to explore the opportunities and challenges of incorporating translation software and latest technologies into translation pedagogy in the Saudi universities. An open-ended interview with 37 translation instructors from 9 Saudi universities was conducted. Results indicate that the integration of translation software and technologies is still less than expected. This can be attributed to the fact that the majority of instructors prefer manual translation over computer-assisted translation (CAT), translation technologies are not provided by the institutions, and learning outcomes are not linked to labor market needs.