Machine translation, post–editing and medical academic texts: Towards a collaborative text mediation perspective

This study investigates collaborative text mediation practices for the drafting of academic papers in the medical field by non–native speakers of English. The analysis focuses on Bachelor degree theses of students pursuing a degree in physiotherapy in an international medical university where English is used as a means of instruction. The theses analysed were en-tirely translated using free machine translation (MT) service of Google Translate and then post–edited by MA student–editors with linguistic and translational competences. The findings emphasize the empowering potential of MT for non–native students of healthcare sciences. Yet, the analysis illustrates how raw MT output does not satisfy the standards of Medical English for Research and Publication Purposes (MERPP) and requires post–editing interventions, especially with regard to the academic style and cohesion, which could be successfully addressed even outside of the medical community of practice. A collaborative text mediation mechanism is advocated for, where senior students majoring in English and translation could act as post–editors for theses of students in non–linguistic degrees. The findings provide a possible intervention framework with recommendations for hard sciences’ and languages’ departments on the collaborative text mediation.