(Continued from Part 1)

Translators can benefit from many of the tools we have access to through the Internet. However, we often don’t know to what extent they can prove useful, as in the case of text-to-speech/speech-to-text tools.

Now we will see how we can take advantage of these to optimize our translation strategies and get the best results.

TEXT-TO-SPEECH TOOLS:

• To proofread while the computer is reading the original or the translation, which is very useful to verify numbers.
• To check terminology lists when interpreters are preparing for a specific conference.
• To listen to the computer reading aloud a text while we practice simultaneous or consecutive interpretation.
• To read the original text while we are translating

SPEECH-TO-TEXT TOOLS:

• We could use them to get a first draft of a translation.
• They are used for subtitling (known as “re-speaking”) in countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain, and they can also be used to make transcriptions. The main problem that these software have is that they have to be “trained” for the specific user, but once the computer creates a profile of the user’s speech characteristics, the results are extremely positive.

For all the above, these tools can be very useful for us. As regards the speech-to-text tools and re-speaking, in the following section of the article we will discuss which are the institutions that are researching on this field, and where can translators and interpreters resort to in order to complete postgraduate courses on this area. It is a newly developed research field in which there is still a lot that has to be determined, but which has an interesting market full of oportunities.

(Continues in Part 3)

Maria Dolores González
www.quillslanguage.com

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