Translation of relevant and irrelevant multilingual group support system comments

This study examines the effect of the type of comment contributed using a group support system on automatic language translation. Three groups entered ideas in nine languages about the solution of the parking problem on campus while the electronic meeting system translated the text to English. The most important, relevant comments were translated more accurately (89.2% of the text was understood), but other comments in the discussion did not appear to help with this understanding. This research contributes to the literature of group support systems by demonstrating how multilingual meetings can now be supported effectively.