The Place of Translation in English Language Teaching
Alena Štulajterova, Slovakia
Dr. Alena Štulajterová has Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics. She is an assistant professor at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. Her research interests are related to the stylistic adequacy of translations from English into Slovak and she is also interested in doing research in the field of English punctuation. The results of her research have been published in various national and international professional magazines.
E-mail: stulajterova@fhv.umb.sk
Menu
Introduction
The purpose of the study
Implications
Conclusion
References
There is, today, a great deal of emphasis on the study of foreign languages. The ability to speak a foreign language is no longer merely an advantage – it is becoming a necessity. As a result, linguists and methodologists are looking for more effective approaches to language teaching. One of the suggested methods is translation. Until recently, translation was out of favour with the language teaching community. It was labelled “boring”, “uncommunicative”, “difficult”, “pointless” and the like, and suffered from too close an association with grammar (Duff, 1994). Today, thanks to the new communicative approach to language teaching, translation is gradually becoming recognized as a valid activity for language practice and improvement.
The reason why translation is, even today, ignored by many teachers as an effective language learning activity is mainly because teachers often feel that translation involves no oral interaction and therefore is not a communicative activity, and that it is not suited to the general needs of the language learner. Moreover, many of them consider use of the mother tongue in foreign language teaching undesirable, or feel that translation is time-consuming, boring and irrelevant. This does not have to be the case.
‘Quality translation’ attempts to prove that translation can be an interesting as well as a useful activity in language teaching. One of the main objectives of foreign language teaching is to develop a student’s ability to communicate in a target language. According to Duff (1994), “translation develops three qualities essential to all language learning: accuracy, clarity and flexibility. It trains the learner to search (flexibility) for the most appropriate words (accuracy) to convey what is meant (clarity).” Translation is an eminently communicative activity, as it naturally invites speculation and discussion. Apart from the fact that translation provides a basis for discussion and thus contributes to the improvement of speaking skills, it is also ideally suited to the practicing of other language skills. Depending on the students’ needs, the teacher can also select material to illustrate particular aspects of language and structure with which the students have difficulty in English. By working through these difficulties in their mother tongue, students come to see the link between language and usage. In addition to these merits of translation as a language-learning activity, there are also a number of other reasons for using this technique in class. One of them is the fact that translation is a very natural activity – more natural and useful than many of the fashionable activities invented for language learners.
Translation shapes our way of thinking, and helps us to understand better the influence of the one language on another, and to correct habitual errors that would otherwise remain unnoticed. Translation enables us to explore the potential of both languages - their strengths and weaknesses. Another reason for using translation in the classroom is its ability to increase the students’ power and range of expression by means of authentic and wide-ranging material, which brings the learner into touch with all styles and registers. Ultimately, to achieve language competence, which is the priority of language teaching, students need to be able to communicate both ways – into and from the foreign language. Translation is ideally suited to the practicing of these skills.
As far as research is concerned, we aimed to find out about the place of translation in the current curriculum of English language as a school subject. The results suggest that translation, particularly of texts, is used neither sufficiently nor effectively enough. If translation as a classroom technique is to help student achieve competence in the foreign language, it must be used sensibly, systematically and on a regular basis. We consider this purposeful approach very important. There is no point in merely handing out texts to the learners with the instruction “Translate” . Students should not be required to translate without having been given practice in the skill. Furthermore, it is essential that the teacher always explains what the purpose of each activity is – the students need to know why the activity is being done.
Another important issue is the selection of material. The material must be interesting and varied, covering the full range of styles and registers. Genuine translation involves analysis of the meaning of the source text. The students should be led to consider the expressive possibilities of the target language and to discover that it is not always possible to attain exact equivalence. In this way they will learn to evaluate possible versions to see which most fully captures all the implications of the original, and will find out that they need to look beyond single words, chunks of sentences, or even complete sentences to whole stretches of text as they make their decisions. Ultimately, they will learn to translate ideas, not words. This is one of the main reasons why we consider translation of texts the most important of activities.
The teacher, when selecting the material, must also consider its potential for encouraging discussion. According to Šavelová (2006), all translation should lead to discussion – without this, the use of translation in the classroom is purposeless. Pair work and group work are effective as they give students opportunity to compare and discuss their suggestions with others. All students should be equally involved in the task. The material should preferably be short, with oral translation prevailing over written. Writing can often be done in the form of notes, to be used in later discussions.
Although we have stressed the importance of activities involving the translation of texts, this does not mean that the translation of expressions of sentences out of context is irrelevant to language learning. Such material is suitable as a warm-up activity. It might involve, for example, the translation of titles of films, songs, or books. The aim of the warm-up is to motivate the students and to arouse their interest in the following activity. It also helps them prepare for it mentally, and serves as an introduction to the kind of material they will be working on.
Translation as a method of language teaching is still a subject under research and continues to be one of the most frequently discussed topics among teachers of English. In our opinion, this activity should be considered in a wider range of situations than is currently the case. It can be used for language practice and improvement in a similar manner to role play, project work and conversation. We have attempted to show that translation can be introduced purposefully and imaginatively into the language learning programme.
Bell, R. T. 1995. Translation and Translating. London : Longman, 1995. pp. 298.
Duff, A. 1994. Translation. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1994. pp. 160.
Javorciková, J. 2004. Cultural Aspects of Literary Texts in Teaching Realia. In: Is Creativity the Key to Success in an EFL Classroom? Conference proceedings. Banská Bystrica : Matej Bel University Faculty of Humanities, 2004, pp. 77 – 81.
Newmark, P. 1989. A Textbook of Translation. London : Prentice Hall International, 1989. pp. 385.
Šavelová, J. 2006. Teaching Translation of Specialized Texts after the Accession to the EU. In: Ďuricova, A. Od textu k prekladu. Prague : JTP, 2006, pp. 95 – 98.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the English for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
|
