This paper is a guideline for how to use translation in the foreign language class. In my experience, teachers use a lot of these techniques in language classes. Pre-translation is very helpful because it gets students away from focusing on vocabulary they don’t know and looking at the bigger picture. Some beginner students (i.e. me) get anxious when they don’t know a certain word and think that they can’t comprehend the passage. I also think the idea of parallel texts is intriguing. I think looking at these different translations can make students more aware of different literary conventions. I think these translation techniques are good for beginning and advanced students. I was wondering how useful they are for students in an intermediate level who are learning to think in the second language. I was also wondering if literal translation would help with fossilization.
This is a paper about how to use translation efficiently in educational way. In the section of pre-translation, it talks about brainstorming. Actually English teachers in my university made us do brainstorming a lot when we read a paper or write an essay. I think it was good because I could connect ideas in my mind and English words. By writing down, I could understand what words or concepts I have already known and what I should know at the same time because it is illustrated. This makes it easier for students to understand the topic.
This is a practical paper discussing the use of translation in the foreign language classroom. The strategies laid out here would help learners not only advance their linguistics skills, but their reading comprehension skills as well. Translation has the potential to engage learners, helping them to think critically about how languages (more specifically their L1 and L2) function. I found the teaching strategy of parallel texts to be one of the most interesting, as well as that of retranslation. The article references the criticisms of translation, which stems from the idea that translation leads to reliance on L1. However, the role of the L1 is really to shed light on the L2. Even with literal translation, students can see how words work in a context and are not individual units.
This paper discussed the use of translation in the foreign language classroom. The author is correct when noting that the use of translation is controversial. Many high school teachers are discouraged from using any kind of translation method while teaching. I think the author is correct in saying that the translation method is meant to help learners acquire, develop and strengthen their knowledge of the L2.
The author mentions that translation from L1 to L2 is often thought to be impractical. In my current classroom here at UMASS, I and my fellow German teachers often ask students to translate from English into German (L2). We always begin with easy sentences–short ones that contain cognates, so that the students are not overwhelmed. However, as the semester progresses, they have to translate more difficult sentences.
When I taught high school, I frequently used vocabulary preview before the reading of a new story. Other foreign language teachers and I developed whole units around fairy tales that included pre- and post-translation activities. These included a vocabulary packet, graphic organizers and various worksheets (verb and/or tense identification, etc).
I have found the use of parallel texts to be invaluable. By learning the language in context, students can see how certain phrases are expressed differently in the L2 than they are in the L1. I found it helpful for teaching accusative and dative prepositions in German.
This paper describes the benefits of translation exercises in teaching a foreign language and provides a detailed description of those exercises. It particularly emphasized that though translation from L1 to L2 is not often used in a professional setting, it does occur in everyday language use for bilinguals and is still a useful tool in teaching language. It also stressed the value of parallel texts not only between the ST and TL, but also including two different translations into the TL. This allows students to see how words are used in context rather than just memorizing a list of vocabulary, which is very unlike how language is acquired organically anyway. From my own experience, I have found translation exercises very helpful for exactly this reason. Particularly in Chinese, many words are used only in specific contexts and it is impossible to learn that from a vocabulary list.
This paper discussed using translation in foreign language education. I definitely think it is beneficial because there is no way you can learn a language by just using vocabulary. And as the paper points out, translation is something that we are bound to do naturally. No matter what we will compare our second language to our first. The paper gives us useful ways of incorporating translation tasks into a teaching lesson, which I found really interesting as well.
Although many people think that translation leads you to become dependent upon your L1, I think at least in the beginning stages it is really helpful because it gives you a starting point in the second language. For some people, they feel overwhelmed if they are trying to learn a second language and are discouraged from trying to translate.
I am not sure if I can thoroughly agree with emphasizing on pedagogical translation in second language acquisition. I do believe that translation is very helpful in second language learning especially the early stages, but I think language instruction programs should focus on preparing them to depart from translation. It’s true that learners will compare L2 to their L1. I think it is inevitable, however, depending on the pedagogy, some learners could stay in this stage too long if not forever if they are not instructed to be independent. They could keep comparing and referring to their L1 when speaking L2, for example, while the goal is to think and compose sentences in L2 directly. I’ve seen this case all too often in English L2 learners in Asia. Indonesians who ‘know’ English (re: have the competence) can’t speak so fluently because they keep translating in their mind when speaking. Japanese tend to rely on dictionaries too much carrying it everywhere with them. While dictionaries are important – how can we survive learning a foreign language without it? – I believe it is also helpful to try learning new words by context instead of looking up in a dictionary every time we encounter a new word.
As an educator of a foreign language I can see the benefits of translation in second language acquisition and wouldn’t mind incorporating some of the activities mentioned by Erika. On the other hand I also agree with Cindy because depending on the goals of our curriculum this can be a helpful strategy or it can hold students back from being independent. In the Spanish department at the lower levels we don’t use any kind of translating exercises but I know at the higher levels they do use this strategy.
The author’s view is that translation as a “communicative learning activity†is increasingly important from a pragmatic perspective. As the world evolves into an increasingly globalized and multilingual society, the author believes that translation will be prevalent in everyday tasks. This process is presented as having important influences on both oral and written L2 tasks. The author also suggests that translation as a process of reflection develops learners meta-awareness of grammar, register, vocabulary, culture, and figures of speech. In an age where “natural†and “immersive†approaches to language learning are widely expounded, translation could certainly serve learners in drawing parallels with their L1, however, I believe that it is more effective for learners to engage in authentic L2 oral and written contexts rather than persisting in mental and overt translation.
This paper is a guideline for how to use translation in the foreign language class. In my experience, teachers use a lot of these techniques in language classes. Pre-translation is very helpful because it gets students away from focusing on vocabulary they don’t know and looking at the bigger picture. Some beginner students (i.e. me) get anxious when they don’t know a certain word and think that they can’t comprehend the passage. I also think the idea of parallel texts is intriguing. I think looking at these different translations can make students more aware of different literary conventions. I think these translation techniques are good for beginning and advanced students. I was wondering how useful they are for students in an intermediate level who are learning to think in the second language. I was also wondering if literal translation would help with fossilization.
This is a paper about how to use translation efficiently in educational way. In the section of pre-translation, it talks about brainstorming. Actually English teachers in my university made us do brainstorming a lot when we read a paper or write an essay. I think it was good because I could connect ideas in my mind and English words. By writing down, I could understand what words or concepts I have already known and what I should know at the same time because it is illustrated. This makes it easier for students to understand the topic.
This is a practical paper discussing the use of translation in the foreign language classroom. The strategies laid out here would help learners not only advance their linguistics skills, but their reading comprehension skills as well. Translation has the potential to engage learners, helping them to think critically about how languages (more specifically their L1 and L2) function. I found the teaching strategy of parallel texts to be one of the most interesting, as well as that of retranslation. The article references the criticisms of translation, which stems from the idea that translation leads to reliance on L1. However, the role of the L1 is really to shed light on the L2. Even with literal translation, students can see how words work in a context and are not individual units.
This paper discussed the use of translation in the foreign language classroom. The author is correct when noting that the use of translation is controversial. Many high school teachers are discouraged from using any kind of translation method while teaching. I think the author is correct in saying that the translation method is meant to help learners acquire, develop and strengthen their knowledge of the L2.
The author mentions that translation from L1 to L2 is often thought to be impractical. In my current classroom here at UMASS, I and my fellow German teachers often ask students to translate from English into German (L2). We always begin with easy sentences–short ones that contain cognates, so that the students are not overwhelmed. However, as the semester progresses, they have to translate more difficult sentences.
When I taught high school, I frequently used vocabulary preview before the reading of a new story. Other foreign language teachers and I developed whole units around fairy tales that included pre- and post-translation activities. These included a vocabulary packet, graphic organizers and various worksheets (verb and/or tense identification, etc).
I have found the use of parallel texts to be invaluable. By learning the language in context, students can see how certain phrases are expressed differently in the L2 than they are in the L1. I found it helpful for teaching accusative and dative prepositions in German.
This paper describes the benefits of translation exercises in teaching a foreign language and provides a detailed description of those exercises. It particularly emphasized that though translation from L1 to L2 is not often used in a professional setting, it does occur in everyday language use for bilinguals and is still a useful tool in teaching language. It also stressed the value of parallel texts not only between the ST and TL, but also including two different translations into the TL. This allows students to see how words are used in context rather than just memorizing a list of vocabulary, which is very unlike how language is acquired organically anyway. From my own experience, I have found translation exercises very helpful for exactly this reason. Particularly in Chinese, many words are used only in specific contexts and it is impossible to learn that from a vocabulary list.
This paper discussed using translation in foreign language education. I definitely think it is beneficial because there is no way you can learn a language by just using vocabulary. And as the paper points out, translation is something that we are bound to do naturally. No matter what we will compare our second language to our first. The paper gives us useful ways of incorporating translation tasks into a teaching lesson, which I found really interesting as well.
Although many people think that translation leads you to become dependent upon your L1, I think at least in the beginning stages it is really helpful because it gives you a starting point in the second language. For some people, they feel overwhelmed if they are trying to learn a second language and are discouraged from trying to translate.
I am not sure if I can thoroughly agree with emphasizing on pedagogical translation in second language acquisition. I do believe that translation is very helpful in second language learning especially the early stages, but I think language instruction programs should focus on preparing them to depart from translation. It’s true that learners will compare L2 to their L1. I think it is inevitable, however, depending on the pedagogy, some learners could stay in this stage too long if not forever if they are not instructed to be independent. They could keep comparing and referring to their L1 when speaking L2, for example, while the goal is to think and compose sentences in L2 directly. I’ve seen this case all too often in English L2 learners in Asia. Indonesians who ‘know’ English (re: have the competence) can’t speak so fluently because they keep translating in their mind when speaking. Japanese tend to rely on dictionaries too much carrying it everywhere with them. While dictionaries are important – how can we survive learning a foreign language without it? – I believe it is also helpful to try learning new words by context instead of looking up in a dictionary every time we encounter a new word.
As an educator of a foreign language I can see the benefits of translation in second language acquisition and wouldn’t mind incorporating some of the activities mentioned by Erika. On the other hand I also agree with Cindy because depending on the goals of our curriculum this can be a helpful strategy or it can hold students back from being independent. In the Spanish department at the lower levels we don’t use any kind of translating exercises but I know at the higher levels they do use this strategy.
The author’s view is that translation as a “communicative learning activity†is increasingly important from a pragmatic perspective. As the world evolves into an increasingly globalized and multilingual society, the author believes that translation will be prevalent in everyday tasks. This process is presented as having important influences on both oral and written L2 tasks. The author also suggests that translation as a process of reflection develops learners meta-awareness of grammar, register, vocabulary, culture, and figures of speech. In an age where “natural†and “immersive†approaches to language learning are widely expounded, translation could certainly serve learners in drawing parallels with their L1, however, I believe that it is more effective for learners to engage in authentic L2 oral and written contexts rather than persisting in mental and overt translation.