Post-Graduate Students’ Perceptions on the Utilization of Google Translate

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the students’ perceptions of the utilization of Google Translate (GT) as a tool for translation. The participants in this study were 25 Indonesian postgraduate students majoring in English education. This study employed a qualitative research design. The research instruments used were closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires as well as semi-structured interviews. The closed-ended questionnaire focused on students' frequent use of GT, and the open-ended questionnaire focused on the advantages and disadvantages of using GT. During the semi-structured interview, questions are developed based on the participants’ responses to questionnaires. This study came up with the finding that all participants use GT as a fast dictionary due to its several advents. The majority of the respondents indicated a high frequency of use of GT in translating simple word levels (word, phrase, sentence), but a low frequency of use in translating discourse (paragraphs and articles). In spite of the fact that GT has several drawbacks, it is believed that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.