Hard to Assist? Hard to Resist? FONMT in Foreign Language Learning: Instructors’ Perspectives on Learners’ Rationale

This study focused on instructors teaching German as a foreign language at two UK universities and examined their experiences with and attitudes toward free online neural machine translation (FONMT). In September 2022, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data. The results indicate a general openness toward FONMT, with instructors making varying assumptions regarding their learners’ reasons for utilizing FONMT. In addition, the instructors’ underlying conceptions of language learning in relation to FONMT became apparent and influenced their perspectives on assessment. The author presents FONMT from an instructor's perspective as a triangular relationship between assumptions (about students’ rationales), expectations (in light of language learning), and assessment (of language learning). Consequently, it appeared essential to consider potential reasons for using FONMT and the objectives of language learning when implementing FONMT in foreign language teaching and learning. By doing so, strategies become visible for both teacher training and language instruction that may assist learners in a purposeful use of FONMT while resisting its allure.