Sustainability of translation as a profession: Changing roles of translators in light of the developments in machine translation systems

Translation as a profession has been radically affected by the developments in machine translation systems in recent years. In light of these developments, translators are expected to assume new roles and acquire new skills. Translators no longer work on only a source text. They are faced with raw machine translation outputs in many translation workflows. Thus, in a setting supported by machine translation, the translators are required to post-edit these outputs according to some pre-defined criteria, which sounds very different compared to traditional translation workflow in which translators translate a source text from scratch. Post-editing can be at different levels depending on the expectations of the customer and the intended purpose of the text. As such, the skills and competences that translators must have become prominent. In this regard, this study aims to address the changing role of translators within the scope of translator competences considering the developments seen in machine translation systems. To this end, initially, the developments in machine translation systems and their effects on translation as a profession are discussed with an emphasis on translator competences. Moreover, post-editing levels and criteria for these levels are also addressed with regard to these skills and competences. Then, the competences required of translators and post-editors are compared building on the competence frameworks designed by PACTE and EMT groups. The research concludes that the translator competences should be redefined considering the changing roles of translators in an era dominated by machine translation systems.