Problems Using Electronic Dictionaries to Translate Thai Written Essays into English

Abstract

This article describes problems that Thai students have when they use electronic dictionaries to translate Thai written essays into English. The subjects were six first-year undergraduate students studying at the Faculty of Engineering of a Thai university. The research instruments were questionnaires, written essays, verbal reports (think aloud), retrospective semi-structured interviews and observation check sheets. The subjects wrote an English essay by writing a draft in Thai and then translating it into English. Their electronic dictionaries were the only technical support they were allowed to use while they were producing these essays. The results reveal that there were six identified problems when the subjects used electronic dictionaries to translate Thai written essays into English. Furthermore, the observation, the think aloud and the interview reveal the subjects’ problems using the electronic dictionaries and some problems with the electronic dictionaries themselves.