Abstract (eng)
Neural Machine Translation (NMT) tools have found their way into everyday life as well as into language teaching and learning. The research on NMT and language learning has increased in recent years, yet research concerning NMT and learning languages in Austria has not been widely conducted, if ever. Altogether, comparatively little attention has been given to what foreign language teachers think about NMT tools, especially in German-speaking countries and since the introduction of freely accessible online NMT. Therefore, the aim of this master’s thesis is to gain insight into current attitudes towards NMT tools among foreign language teachers in Austria, and finding out if and how this topic is treated in class, as well as exploring whether foreign language teachers in Austria use NMT tools privately and, if so, what for. Interviews with five foreign language teachers and an online survey with 34 participants were conducted. The interviews were analysed using Mayring’s Qualitative Content Analysis and the survey was analysed automatically. The findings of both are presented and discussed separately, and later compared. It was found that attitudes towards NMT tools among the participating teachers in Austria are of a mixed nature but point to a positive direction. Further NMT tools are sometimes actively introduced and used in class, but more often not. If NMT tools are a topic in class, the teachers use them mostly for vocabulary exercises and text production, reading and writing tasks. Finally, many of the foreign language teachers participating in the interviews and survey do use NMT tools privately, however, mostly in a low-stakes context. The findings imply that integrating NMT tools into language teaching and language teacher education might be beneficial.