An Investigative Study into the Role Extralinguistic Information Plays in Producing Accurate Meaning in the Post-MT-Editing of Arabic Texts with Culturally Embedded Terms

While the reliance on machine translation (MT) for day-to-day translation needs continues to grow, research on Arabic MT still lags behind that of other languages. This gap is largely attributed to the complexity and richness of Arabic semantics, grammar, and terminology (Shaalan, 2005). Translating culturally embedded texts from Arabic remains particularly challenging, as such texts require extensive post-editing and the incorporation of extralinguistic knowledge—a skill that demands specialized training and expertise. This study addresses this gap by investigating how the presence or absence of relevant cultural knowledge influences the quality of post-MT editing of texts containing direct or indirect cultural references. To this end, a set of post-editing techniques was introduced in the training of translation students and future editors. The empirical research involved two groups of five senior translation students: one group received preparatory training on cultural terms, while the other performed the post-editing task without such preparation (Hansen 2017). A qualitative comparative analysis was employed to evaluate the students’ outputs. The findings highlight the crucial role of extralinguistic and cultural preparation in enhancing the accuracy and appropriateness of post-MT edited texts. The study underscores the need to integrate cultural awareness into translation pedagogy to ensure that MT can be effectively and professionally leveraged in Arabic translation contexts.