Dear All
I'm about to commence a small research project on using translation to teach languages, English in particular. Where I work, we offer courses on German-English translation and focus on grammar, lexical, syntactical and pragmatic differences between the two languages. (My learners are B2-C1 level in English, and mostly native speakers of German). They are not training to be translators, but these courses are seen as one way to help them avoid L1 interference errors that make their English sound unnatural. Still, I'm interested in uptodate opinions and research on the topic. I know that using translation in ELT is a bit out of fashion, but since we're still required to teach it, I'd like to research possible justifications, or pros/cons, etc.
I'd be interested in:
a) Do you teach translation? Which directions? What are the reasons/justifications for doing so? Are there conditions that need to be fulfilled to make it successful as a learning tool (e.g. certain level in English, etc)
b) Any articles / books that look at this topic (i.e. weighing up the pros/cons of using translation for ELT). Please provide full references so I can look these up.
Thanks in advance for your help! Anyone who's interested can read the final report, once I'm done!
CMF
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Have you noticed that interpreters have to possess the most thorough knowledge of a foreign language (especially of conversation, vocabulary and grammar)? Perhaps foreign learners of English can achieve fluency in English also through oral translation from their native language into English with the activities described in my articles on learning English. It is possible to exercise self-control (that is to check yourself) this way when practising speaking in English every sentence in ready-made materials with both a foreign language and English versions. I also believe that the value of oral translation from a foreign language into English with self-control (self-check) is underestimated by English teaching specialists for self-study and self-practice of English conversation, vocabulary and grammar.
My views in this regard do not apply to classroom teaching and classroom learning of English, because an ESL teacher teaches English to students from various ethnic backgrounds and therefore oral translation into English is simply impossible.
But I firmly believe that oral translation into English is effective in practising on one's own English speaking, vocabulary and grammar with ready-made materials (using self-check) in a more logical, thorough, in-depth way as to content than casual talking to native English speakers. Practising English on one's own through oral translation into English with self-check
may be a quicker way for developing fluency in speaking English than casual talking with limited content in English to native English speakers. Anyway practising English on your own accelerates mastering of English.
I've found some articles on using translation for teaching/learning English.
Search on onestopenglish.com for "translation" articles.
Also read the article "Translation activities in the language classroom" on this website.
You can also search for "learning/teaching English through translation" on google.com or on other search
engines such as yahoo.com and info.com
Though never extensively, I do resort to some amount of translation in ELT classes. Examples :
1) For learners who have to immediately communicate only in English for their work, giving them standard equivalent sentences (not exact translations) of commonly required expressions in L1 is useful.
Like " May I come in ? " "Where is the washroom, please ?"etc with the related sentence in L1
2) Translating a wrongly used English expression into L1 brings out its inappropiateness effectively.
Like not using the contracted forms "You're coming, aren't you ?" in conversational English, when translated into seperately pronounced words [are coming] in an Indian language instead of combining verbs as they are normally combined in Spoken Indian languages [ 'arecoming' would be said together in an Indian language]. The artificial sound of the seperately pronounced words drives home the impotance of using contrated forms to sound normal while speaking informally in English.