Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Google translator will be the end of Spanish Prof

It's past midnight, and I've been grading final papers for my Civilization class all day. I have only two left, but I am exhausted. And annoyed. As a result of being tense, my neck aches. What's the problem? Google translator. I just realized that at least half the papers seemed to have been written in English and then translated using Google translator. Unlike outright plagiarism and Turn it in, I have no way to prove it that diesn't involve a long battle. And I am mad. Google translator is good enough that the essays are legible. But there are little things that it does not catch, and are the giveaway. I am mad because writing is an essential skill. I am mad because I find it almost disrespectful. I am sure they use Google Translator for other Spanish classes, but I take it personally. So far, I am glad that I included a detailed rubric in how I was grading the paper (finally an assessment book that was useful for something). I am marking every mistake and weird linguistic construction, and taking points out in the following categories: grammar, content, clarity. That alone is 15 points less at least. Because I am doing this, I am spending 40 minutes in each essay. And I just design the final to make it very long, all essay questions. It will kill me, but somebody has to teach this kids a lesson. The worst part is that I told them at the beginning of the semester that I can detect Google Translator very easily. Apparently, they don't believe anybody older than them. Grrr...

3 comments:

  1. This is what I'm doing right now too . . . only Google translate's ability to produce Arabic is usually not legible. Some day, I'm going to do a lesson on how to use Google translate appropriately and effectively (because it is pretty awesome) and see if that makes a difference. I can always hope . . .

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  2. My colleagues in Spanish here have run into the same problems with Google translator. It's tough because you can't just have them write their whole essays in class, but that's the only way you'll know for sure that they're doing their own work. You'd think you wouldn't have to police this kind of thing, but students just keep proving their laziness in new and different ways. Ugh.

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  3. SD, please share the lesson if you prepare it, because right now, Google Translator is the enemy.

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