Affective Impact of the use of Technology on Employed Language Specialists: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

摘要

A well-established fact in the information systems literature is the importance of human aspects of technology use. In our doctoral research, we look into the emotional effort that employed language specialists have to put in their daily work, in the light of an increased use of language technology tools (LTT) by language service providers. In 2011 and 2012, we conducted qualitative studies to understand how LTT were perceived by language specialists. We observed translators and other language specialists at work and conducted 12 in-depth interviews. We noticed that respondents often mentioned affective constructs, such as stress or anxiety, even when not prompted to describe their affective state. We then reanalyzed our transcripts and written notes in search for answers to the following specific question: “What affective variables do language specialists spontaneously mention when asked to describe their use of LTT?” Using content analysis, we found that respondents often mention some form of occupational stress, or relief of occupational stress, along with other affective variables, in relation with the use of LTT. We argue that emotional well-being and stress relief should be measured and serve as a guide for the design and implementation of language technology tools.