Google Translate and similar free online machine translation services are well-known to be frequently used by learners of foreign languages, albeit machine translation was not originally intended for language learning purposes. Despite the fact that we know that language learners frequently use these sites, and despite an increasing number of studies on how the use of machine translation affects different aspects of text quality and/or language complexity or accuracy, we still know fairly little in detail about how pupils use online translation sites. Data on language learners’ digital translation strategies are frequently self-reported and often lack precision. 

The presentation will give examples of findings from an ongoing study on the interaction with Google Translate among upper secondary school learners of Spanish as a foreign language. 31 upper secondary school pupils in Sweden (ages 17-18) were followed during one school-year as they wrote six essays, using laptops. 16 focus pupils had their laptop screens recorded, enabling a detailed analyses of writing behaviours, translation strategies and interaction with the Google Translate interface. In total, 50 hours of screen recordings have been analysed. Among the results can be seen an extensive use of Google Translate's possibility to switch fast between languages, enabling multiple control translations to and from the target language, and a widespread use of reformulations written step by step directly in the translation box, making use of the site’s possibility to see how translations change word by word. 

The pupils’ interactions with the online translation site are discussed from an affordance perspective, focussing on the possibilities afforded by the translation site, and on the pupils’ abilities to choose among and make relevant use of these affordances. Implications for foreign language teaching in digitalised classroom settings will also be discussed.