Online Translation and English Learning: From Teachers’ Beliefs to High School Students’ Practices

Although free online machine translation (FOMT) is widely used by L2 students, the use of these tools in the context of L2 learning seems to remain controversial among teachers. The goal of this study is to compare high school teachers’ beliefs about FOMT with high school students’ practices in France. A survey was first conducted to gain access to teachers’ attitudes toward the use of FOMT in the classroom (n = 126), and learners’ practices were observed through video screen capture of a writing activity (n = 49). The use of Google Translate was studied as a cognitive process, and a comparative analysis of the texts produced with or without Google Translate was also carried out. The results contradict some of the teachers’ beliefs, as some videos show traces of cognitive activities (evaluation and revision) when learners use Google Translate. The analyses also confirm that the quality of the texts written with the help of Google Translate is better in terms of accuracy and complexity than when pre-intermediate learners do not use this tool.