Translator Education in Chile: Effects of Translation Memory Systems on the Reception of Scientific Translations

This study examines how the recent introduction of translation memory (TM) software in undergraduate translation classrooms in Chile may have an impact on the quality and readers’ reception of scientific translations produced by student translators. To achieve this aim, the study was conducted in three stages: a corpus-based study determined specific linguistic features of research article abstracts in conservation biology written in English and Spanish; a translation experiment looked at how these features are represented in translations by trainee translators using TM tools; and a reception study evaluated specialist readers’ responses to TM-mediated scientific translation. The thesis concludes with recommendations on how its findings—informed by recent industry developments—could be applied in the Chilean translator education context.