Effectiveness of Using Google Translate in Second Language Learning: A Study Based on Hindi and Sinhala Languages

Google Translate and other machine translation programmes are starting to change how language is taught and learned. Language instructors and expert translators might have laughed at machine-generated writing a few years ago. At least some language pairings and texts contain both learner-created and machine-created languages due to the transition from statistical machine translation to more recent neural machine translation techniques that use artificial neural networks, and it can be challenging to discern between machine-created and learner-created languages. The present study aims to examine students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of using the Google Translate tool when translating academic documents. The participants of this study were 25 students who are currently studying for their Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Hindi as a second language at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. This study reveals that students tend to use Google Translate depending on the complexity of a certain document and the availability of relevant dictionaries. Furthermore, most students found it useful to use Google Translate, and they prefer partial translation. The majority of students agree that they post-edit the translation using Google Translate. This research also suggests strategies that can be adapted to use Google Translate effectively.