Title: Translation of relevant and irrelevant multilingual group support system comments

Authors: Milam Aiken; Mina Park; Bart Garner

Addresses: School of Business Administration, University of Mississippi, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677, USA. ' School of Business, Northern State University, 1200 S. Jay Street, Aberdeen, SD 57401, USA. ' School of Business Administration, University of Mississippi, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677, USA

Abstract: This study examines the effect of the type of comment contributed using a group support system on automatic language translation. Three groups entered ideas in nine languages about the solution of the parking problem on campus while the electronic meeting system translated the text to English. The most important, relevant comments were translated more accurately (89.2% of the text was understood), but other comments in the discussion did not appear to help with this understanding. This research contributes to the literature of group support systems by demonstrating how multilingual meetings can now be supported effectively.

Keywords: comprehension; machine translation; electronic meetings; group support systems; GSS; relevant comments; irrelevant comments; intercultural information management; automatic language translation; multilingual meetings.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIIM.2012.044460

International Journal of Intercultural Information Management, 2012 Vol.3 No.1, pp.45 - 58

Published online: 02 Sep 2014 *

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