An Investigation of Saudi EFL University Students’ Attitudes towards the Use of Google Translate

Abstract

It is argued that the popularity of Google Translate is increasing and users are implementing this giant search engine for different purposes. Hence, this paper reports the results of a study on attitudes toward the use of Google Translate (GT). The participants were 92 Saudi EFL university English major students. A questionnaire was used as an instrument in this study. The results revealed that almost all of the subjects reported using GT. Vocabulary, writing and reading were the three most frequent purposes for which they use GT, whereas translation was the least frequently used. The results also showed that GT is frequently used to get the meaning of unknown words, writing assignments and reading an English textbook. The findings of the study have implications for students, instructors and researchers.