Direction matters: Comparing post-editing and human translation effort and quality.

ABSTRACT: This study investigates the critical yet understudied influence of translation direction on both neural machine translation post-editing (PE) and human translation (HT) processes. While previous research has compared PE and HT, the interaction between translation mode and directionality-particularly for linguistically distant languages-remains poorly understood. We address this gap by examining how L1-L2 (Chinese-English) versus L2-L1 (English-Chinese) directionality affects translation performance across multiple dimensions. Thirty-one native Chinese translators completed both PE and HT tasks in both language directions, with their processes documented through keylogging and screen recording. Our findings reveal that PE generally outperforms HT in speed, technical efficiency, and output q

SUBMITTER: Sun S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12306749 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature