Teaching linguistic prompt control for LLM based translation: A classroom approach to developing critical and responsible AI literacy

Katrin Menzel


Abstract
As Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly integrated into professional translation, there is a growing need for pedagogical frameworks that move beyond simple trial-and-error prompting across any available tools used for translation tasks. This paper presents a framework developed in a university MA seminar on translation to foster responsible AI literacy as well as linguistically grounded prompt control and structured prompting. The approach also emphasises that AI is understood as a tool for suggesting possible translation solutions, while human translators remain the final decision makers. Integrating translation-oriented text analysis and corpus-informed feature extraction from parallel and compa-rable data, the approach teaches students to develop register-specific and model-interpretable instructions when translating specialised texts with the assistance of generative AI tools. During a one-semester course, students familiarised with prompting strategies and different tools, including commercial, freely available models, GDPR-compliant institutional infrastructure and local models. These steps and the comparative evaluation of these tools allowed the students to identify optimal configurations that conform best to professional quality standards for specialised texts, and they ultimately led to highly improved translation output compared to unsteered model results.
Anthology ID:
2026.taitt-1.4
Volume:
Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Teaching AI-Based Translation and Technologies (TAITT 2026)
Month:
June
Year:
2026
Address:
Tilburg, the Netherlands
Editors:
Ralph Krüger, Dorothy Kenny, Sheila Castilho, Sergi Álvarez-Vidal, Nora Aranberri, María Isabel Rivas Ginel, Janiça Hackenbuchner
Venues:
TAITT | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
European Association for Machine Translation
Note:
Pages:
28–35
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2026.taitt-1.4/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Katrin Menzel. 2026. Teaching linguistic prompt control for LLM based translation: A classroom approach to developing critical and responsible AI literacy. In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Teaching AI-Based Translation and Technologies (TAITT 2026), pages 28–35, Tilburg, the Netherlands. European Association for Machine Translation.
Cite (Informal):
Teaching linguistic prompt control for LLM based translation: A classroom approach to developing critical and responsible AI literacy (Menzel, TAITT 2026)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2026.taitt-1.4.pdf