Using free on-line services in MT teaching

This paper discusses the role that can be played in teaching machine translation (MT) by free on-line MT services, emphasising the advantages that they offer for didactic purposes as well as their drawbacks in comparison with traditional PC-based MT software. Some of the key reasons behind the huge potential for the successful integration of on-line systems into MT teaching activities are explored. The paper argues that exposing students to Internet-based MT can raise their awareness on crucial issues in today’s multilingual communication processes, which are relevant inter alia to web localisation and multilingual on-line content management.