Exploring Computer-Aided Translation Competences of Some Iranian Translators

The purposes of this study were (a) to compare BA and MA students of Translation in terms of their abilities in IT skills, (b) to compare them in terms of their learning of IT related competences in the translator training programs, and (c) to compare their viewpoints about the importance of IT skills in their professional activities. The participants of this research were Iranian male and female students of Translation Studies at the BA and MA levels (BA=110, MA=100) at the Alborz University and the Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch. The instrument of this research was a questionnaire on IT skills developed by Mikhailov (2015). The results revealed that BA students reported to be more competent at using Internet, Word processing and Computer maintenance, while MA students were found to be more familiar with the Internet, Formatting and publishing, Word processing, Presentation software, and Computer maintenance, respectively. Both BA and MA translators reported that they were not taught to work with IT tools such as Markup languages, Translation memory, Machine translation, Image processing, Spreadsheets, Internet, and Presentation software during their university studies. Regarding the importance of IT skills, the most important skills for the BA translators were Word processing, Translation memory, Machine translation, Computer maintenance, and Markup languages, respectively; whereas, the most important skills for the MA translators were Word processing, Computer maintenance, Internet, Translation memory, and Machine translation, respectively. The findings of this study recommended that translator training programs offer more courses in computer technologies to Iranian translators.