Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 4; July 02

HUMANISING TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES: TACKLING A SECRET PRACTICE

Maria González Davies
Universitat de Vic (Spain)
mgdavies@uvic.es

We can ... make a binary, exclusive choice or we can use our sense of doubt to seek the truths which lie in apparently conflicting fields and incorporate them into a principled, varied and integrative teaching matrix (Simon Marshall, 2000)

Five years ago I sent out a questionnaire to EFL teachers in different contexts: Primary, Secondary and Language Schools, to find out whether they included translation in their classes (16 answers). At the same time, I sent out another questionnaire to their students (115 answers). The global result? Teachers and students were working at cross-purposes as far as translation is concerned!

The teachers' answers reflected three things in common: a very traditional, teacher and text-centred approach to translation, a certain amount of misgivings, and confusion. Let me explain:

There is no need to go into the well-known negative connotations of the Grammar Translation Method, that made the practice of translation in the classroom similar to a "painful visit to the dentist" in Alan Duff's words. Translation was taught in a void and without considering the students' solutions at all - only the teacher's model translation was valid and classes usually consisted in the students reading translated sentences aloud one by one and in correcting them at the same time. This is really a false idea of translation made up for foreign language teaching, not translation as professionals have always carried it out. Enns-Connoly's describes how classes centred around the teacher's model: "Under those circumstances it was difficult for any student whose translation differed from the master version to gain confidence in their own work. When I volunteered a rendition that the teacher believed to be inaccurate, I hesitated to enter further discussion afterwards" (1986:2-3). Motivation and self-confidence - crucial for translating well - were, obviously, absent. This need not be the case at all if translation is understood as a communicative and team activity where the students can feel that their own work is appreciated and accepted.

The second point in common in the questionnaires referred to doubts concerning the following:

1. misgivings for not following the principles of the Communicative Approach, which had shaped the teachers' professional training,
2. misgivings for not being bilingual and, so, for not commanding sufficiently the languages involved, and the biggest of all...
3. misgivings because they feared that their students' progress would be hampered by interference problems and that they would never let go of their mother tongue.

As to confusion, it is worth a mention because many teachers took translation to be only "translating the odd word or grammatical form", or "using the mother tongue in the classroom", when there is much more to it than that, as we shall see.

The students' answers, on the other hand, provided the following percentages:
a. Do you use translation as a strategy to learn a foreign language? 82% (usually)
b. Do you use translation as a strategy to learn new vocabulary? 98% (often, always)
c. Do you use translation as a strategy to learn new grammatical forms? 94% (sometimes)
d. Do you use translation as a strategy to understand a message in the foreign language? 55% (sometimes)
So, if translation is used significatively anyway, instead of rubber-stamping it as a painful and boring practice and keeping it secret and forbidden, why not make it surface and channel it in a positive and communicative way so that the classroom atmosphere becomes more relaxed and collaborative? It certainly looks like this is one of the issues worth exploring behind Guy Cook's words "... something is seriously wrong when a widespread practice is considered wrong" (2000).

I would like to take each of the teachers' misgivings above, refocus them and suggest activities to counteract their (apparently) negative connotations and, hopefully, throw some light on how translation can be presented and explored in a totally student-centred way. The activities I will propose can be carried out in most language combinations although, for practical reasons, I will be using mainly English/Spanish. First, though, we have to agree on what kind of translation we are talking about.

Translation as dynamic communication

A lot has been happening in what is now known as Translation Studies since the 80s and we have come a long way from considering translation as a one to one replacement of words between languages. In fact, it has mostly been considered as such by Grammar Translation followers, not by translation practitioners or scholars: even Cicero in his De optime genere oratoria as far back as I B.C. argued that translation should be sensum de sensu (sense oriented) and not verbum pro verbo (word oriented)! In Basil Hatim's and Ian Mason's words, translation is now mainly considered as "a dynamic process of communication" (1990: 52), communication being the key word here. Any translator knows that to communicate an L1 message into an L2 faithfully, one has to be flexible, e.g. "Wet Paint!" is not Pintura Mojada in Spanish, but Recién pintado (literally, "recently painted") and so on.

Different texts require different degrees of fidelity depending on their purpose and on who will be reading them. A technical text translated for a specialised journal requires a different approach from the translation of a joke, a poem or an ad. In the first case, the translation will probably follow the source text very closely using what Hervey et al call a balanced translation (see below). In the second, the effect on the reader matters more than the actual words or the syntactic layout - the translator will probably opt for an idiomatic or a free translation. To illustrate this point, let's see what happened to the following text written to attract business to Barcelona in the year of the Olympic Games (1992).

Source text: Barcelona se escribe con 'B' de Beneficio (literally, "Barcelona is written with a 'B' for Benefit").

Translation in The European (4-6/X/91): "Barcelona: it's spelt with 'B' for Business". There are no changes in the message that has to be conveyed, that is, in what has to be said, or in who it is addressed to, but there have been changes in how it has been rendered for lexical and pragmatic reasons - is this being "unfaithful" to the original text or, on the contrary, has the translator been more faithful by (apparently) moving away from the original words and syntax? This is the kind of activity that gives the students a chance to use their creativity skills to the full as this kind of text has to be translated idiomatically or in a free way (see below).

Let's take a look at the cline proposed by Hervey et al (1995: 13-14) which helps clarify ideas and answer the well-known question put by the students to teachers who use translation activities: "How close should I be to the source text?" It depends, as we can see (González Davies 2000: 27-29):

Source language bias
Interlineal - Literal - Faithful

Target language bias
Balanced - Idiomatic - Free

Interlineal translation is useful to understand how a language works syntactically, for example, but not to produce fluent texts: A horse of a different colour - Un caballo de un distinto color.

Literal translation moves a step further towards the target language and is "correct" syntactically but can produce calques, for instance: A horse of a different colour - Un caballo de otro color. Faithful translation is more fluent but still neutral and follows the source text meaning closely: A horse of a different colour - Esto es diferente
Balanced translation tries to convey a similar effect on the reader of the target text: A horse of a different colour - Este es otro tema
Idiomatic translation conveys a similar effect on the reader of the target text and can imply changing the words or syntax of the source text - A horse of a different colour - Harina de otro costal
Free translation emphasises the effect without changing the message, but can change cultural references, word play and so on. A clear example is Xavier Bru de Sala's translation-adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's play The Pirates of Penzance, which he justifies in the hand programme. Some of the changes he has performed to bring the source text close to the target culture are:

Source text - Catalan translation (1997)
Penzance (England) - Costa Brava (Girona)
Victorian ladies - Catalan ladies who have studied at the "Dames Negres"
Bobbies - "Els Quatre i el Cabo" (Spanish Civil Guards)
Gilbert and Sullivan's music - Occasionally, notes of a Catalan "sardana" have been added to the original music

This is the area of truly creative translation, of re-creating the original text

Misgivings for not following the principles of the Communicative Approach

Publicity, newspaper headlines and songs provide a rich source of ready-made material that can be taken to the classroom by the teacher and by the students, who can then pool it and choose the source texts they wish to translate. This they will have to do according to different degrees of fidelity that will depend basically on two things:

a. the choice between keeping mainly the meaning or the effect of the source text;
b. the translation assignment, i.e., who the translation is for.
The following are two examples used in a Secondary School class of 14 year-olds in Barcelona (Satorres, 2000: 20-25)

A. CLARKS shoes
Source Text: Act your shoe size, not your age
Student's translation: No importa tu edad, sólo tu número
Backtranslation: Your age doesn't matter, only your shoe size

B. BOURJOIS cosmetics
Source Text: Are you taking a shine to me? High shine lip colour
Student's translation: ¿Te gusto? Tus labios siempre brillantes
Backtranslation: Do you like me? Your lips will always shine

Isn't the above example a communicative activity that involves the students' imagination, self-confidence and thinking skills? Problem-spotting and solving skills are put into practice as well as social and collaborative skills first when they pool the ads, then when they discuss the problems and look for different solutions and, finally, when they compare and discuss them in teams.

Here we can address the first of the teachers' misgivings directly for we are talking about a real life activity that requires flexibility, decision-making, assessing a social situation and accuracy. What's more, avoidance strategies that are sometimes used when writing a composition, for instance, cannot be used: the original message simply has to be conveyed.

In the questionnaires, quite a few teachers voiced the feeling that most of the above points, especially accuracy, have been left aside in the purest forms of the Communicative Approach (CA). More to the point, there seems to be a contradiction in an approach that supposedly favours using the students' prior knowledge to help build on their language and communication skills but then leaves aside what could be considered the most solid and far reaching store of learning they take with them to class: their mother tongue! There seems to be a point in calling into question certain principles behind the CA. This dos not mean that the CA has not been a positive innovation in TEFL. This is not a call for a comeback of the Grammar Translation Method at all. The suggestion here is that translation activities can be included in the EFL class only when relevant to add or boost values and skills such as those mentioned above and also to cater for students who prefer more reflective activities, who favour self and peer monitoring and who may wish to become translators or interpreters in the future. Some examples:

A. TOURIST LEAFLETS. THE UNDERGROUND IN BARCELONA. This activity allows for a range of possible translations by the students, all of which can be accepted as long as the source message has been kept and the language is correct.

a. The students compare a first source text and its corresponding published translation and comment on any problems or disagreements they may have, justifying them and ¾if they choose to do so¾ trying to give a better translation than the published one before criticising it! By observing ¾but not accepting blindly¾ the experts' work, they can learn to develop their own options.

b. The students then translate a second source text from English into their mother tongue and compare their work with that of other students and the published version giving their opinion and changing their text ¾or not¾ depending on whether they can justify their own translation.

c. Finally, they translate a third source text into English and follow the same procedure as in (b) above to self and peer assess it.

Sample:
Source text: Es mejor que no guardes la cartera en los bolsillos traseros de los pantalones, sino en los delanteros Published translation: It is better to carry your wallet in your front pocket than in a back pocket

B. ACCURATE PHRASAL VERBS. In this activity for 14 year-olds, translation is carried out to encourage collaborative, thinking and resourcing skills, and as another tool to help memorise what is one of the most difficult areas for most foreign language learners. It can be carried out in three parts (adapted from Closa 2000: 16-19):

a. the students sit in pairs and receive a worksheet with a gapped text on using a computer (see below for sample). Next to the text there is a list of phrasal verbs that can be used to explain how it works: plug in, turn on, switch on, start up, type in... The text will have been divided in half so that each student has half the phrasal verbs that fit his or her text and the other student has the other half.

b. Each student uses as many sources as necessary to fill in his or her text with the corresponding TRANSLATED phrasal verb. The students in each pair pool the most useful sources they have found. Once they have filled in their part of the text, they switch texts and carry out a reading activity in which they read out the text to each other, and translate the phrasal verb orally back into English when they come across it.

c. Finally, to consolidate the previous activity, they both get the complete gapped text and each student has to dictate the phrasal verb in their mother tongue to the other student who has to write it down in English. In a final brainstorming session the sources are written on the blackboard so that they all benefit from each other's research.

Sample:
... the computer and ... the power. ... the monitor, the console, and the speakers. Wait for the computer to ... . If necessary, ... your password.

Key: plug in (enchufa), turn on (enciende), switch on (enciende), start up (arranque), type in (teclea).

Misgivings for not being bilingual and, so, for not commanding sufficiently the languages involved

Everyday professional practice and the fact that academic research is not conclusive suggest that not all bilinguals are competent translators and that not all competent translators are bilingual, thus underlying that translation requires other skills besides language acquisition. The activities presented up to now do not require a native level in any of the languages involved. In fact, the texts in most course-books can be used to implement most of them as well as authentic material to be found outside the classroom: It is a question of pitching the level according to the needs of the moment.

Besides, with translation we are empowering the student: The teacher need not have all the answers. If we work in a monolingual or bilingual community, the teacher and the students will share a common ground against which the students' work can be assessed clearly. In a multilingual setting, the teacher and the students can learn even more from each other's way of shaping their language and their world. The students can discuss and give options that can be as valid as those of the teachers or as those used by professional translators, and other languages besides those usually dealt with can be explored. Their self-confidence is encouraged and their intrapersonal intelligence can grow as they apply self and peer monitoring skills .

An activity that consists in editing published howlers is always popular and will develop accuracy as well as flexibility. Journalism, menus, tourist leaflets, dubbed or subtitled films etc are rich material sources. There is no need to be bilingual to spot the problem and solve it. Let's take a look at these examples taken from a task to learn about food and drink (the following are the worksheets for the students):

A. WHAT'S COOKING? Look at the two columns and decide what has happened. Why wouldn't the translations in the second column be acceptable? Can you think of more adequate translations? Work in pairs and, when you've finished, in groups of four.

Source text (Mis)translation Sandwich vegetal - Vegetal sandwich Coca de tomate - Tomato cook Ensaladilla rusa - Kind of salad with mayonnaise sauce Plato de la casa - Plate of the home

Suggested key: Egg & mayonnaise sandwich; Bread with tomato, Catalan style; Potato and tuna salad / Russian Salad; Chef's speciality

B. THINKING SKILLS. TRANSLATION STRATEGIES. Now look at these translations. Can you make a list of strategies that have been used and will help you if you ever have to translate a text on food and drink again? Work with a partner and add other strategies to your list by sharing your information.

The teacher can expand on the previous strategies and techniques with others that can be spotted in other recipes and menus well translated by experts. The following list can be useful:

USUAL TRANSLATION STRATEGIES FOR FOOD AND DRINK

Translate literally when possible; Describe the ingredients; Describe the cooking process; Keep the original word in italics if totally unknown to the intended readers and follow with either strategy 2 or 3; Keep the original word with no other explanation if probably known by intended readers (e.g. an alternative translation of sangría); Make up a new word; Any of the above followed by X style; Be careful with dishes which have kept their name but mean something completely different (e.g. Spanish pudin is definitely not English pudding!)

Finally, ask your students to translate a text or recipe that includes the previous.

MENTAL AGILITY. REVERSE DICTATION. Use your reading texts in a different way by dictating them so that the students take them down in a different language from the original. This can be done from English into their mother tongue or viceversa. The level of difficulty will be set by the text; if you use texts they have already seen and worked with, this popular activity can be used as a revision as well. In this activity developing thinking skills is the priority and accuracy can be practised by asking the students to "polish" their text for homework or in the following class. If the level is adequate, they can dictate the text to each other to improve their reading skills, thus shifting the centre of attention away from the teacher.

Misgivings that the students' progress will be hampered by interference problems and that they will never let go of their mother tongue

According to the answers in the questionnaire, most teachers seem to think that, if translation is used, their students will never be free of interferences between their native and their foreign tongue: false friends, syntactic calques, etc. If this were true, why is it that ¾usually¾ the more languages one has learnt, the easier it becomes to learn another? Observation also seems to confirm that bilinguals are more efficient foreign language learners than most monolinguals in spite of inevitable code-switching and a certain degree of interference which does not hinder understanding significatively. Moreover, research in psychology and neurology as well as everyday practice seem to show that to avoid falling into the same trap twice, one should have faced it at least once! If translation happens anyway, why not face the problem and design activities to raise awareness of interference and, so, decrease its frequency? Some suggestions:

A. COLLOCATIONS. In pairs, look for the incorrect collocation and then think of others. Are there any exact correspondences in your own language? How would you translate those that do not correspond?

Now you prepare similar word stars with correct/incorrect collocations to give to another pair of students to solve. You may use any sources you like.

B. FALSE FRIENDS. NOUGHTS AND CROSSES. In pairs, play noughts and crosses and give the adequate translation of the words in the grid.

Tramp	Conference	Career
Dramatically	To forge	Library
Demonstration	Physician	Eventually

Now you prepare a similar grid with false friends to give to another pair of students who are working together. They will also give you a grid that they have prepared. You may look at your notes, dictionary or any other sources you like.

Key: FALSE FRIENDS (possible interferences)

Trampa	Conferencia	Carrera
Dramáticamente	Forjar	Librería
Demostración	Físico	Eventualmente

Key: (correct translation)

Vagabundo	Congreso	Vida profesional
Drásticamente	Falsificar	Biblioteca
Manifestación	Médico	Finalmente

C. BILINGUAL TEXTS. MENTAL AGILITY. REVISION. In this activity, the students read a text in which two languages alternate at random or with a specific purpose such as revising verb tenses or words belonging to a certain semantic field. They have to read it at normal reading speed if possible. Once again, texts that they already know from their textbooks or readers can be used and the students can prepare "bilingual texts" for each other once they understand how the activity works.

Worksheet: In pairs, take turns to read the following text. Read each part in a different language from that in which it has been written and as close to natural reading speed as possible.

Excerpt from The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo (1986/2000)

When Mrs Griffiths had left the room Gwyn lifted la bufanda del cajón and pressed it to his face. The scent of roses todavía era fuerte. Bethan seemed very near. How good she had looked con su bufanda amarilla, con su pelo oscuro and her red mac, all bright and resplandeciente. He remembered now; llevaba la bufanda that night; the night she had climbed the mountain para no volver. Why had Nan kept it secret all this time, and given it to him now, en su cumpleaños?

Complete source text:
When Mrs Griffiths had left the room Gwyn lifted the scarf out of the drawer and pressed it to his face. The scent of roses was still strong. Bethan seemed very near. How good she had looked in her yellow scarf, with her dark hair and her red mac, all bright and shining. He remembered now; she had been wearing the scarf that night; the night she had climbed the mountain and never come back. Why had Nan kept it secret all this time, and given it to him now, on his birthday?

Confusion... and Conclusion

It should be made clear that, although they may have their uses too, here we are not talking only about using the mother tongue or translating the odd word that the students do not understand. Also, we are not talking about translation as a one to one static correspondence between languages but as a dynamic communicative activity that can be practised with everyday texts, not necessarily only with high brow literature. So, either authentic or graded material on translation can be prepared, each of which can be used according to the needs of the learners at different moments.

It should also be made clear that we are not talking about going back to the Grammar Translation Method but of using translation as one other activity that can be used fruitfully in the foreign language class for different reasons. Therefore, it is not a question of memorising translated vocabulary lists or of including an error analysis and an exam oriented activity but of situating vocabulary in context and becoming aware of the importance of the pragmatic aspects of a language and a culture. At the same time as the students learn to spot and solve problems in different ways and to accept other possibilities, they go through a decision making process and move toward choices that can be justified and are creative. This will also raise an awareness of different ways of thinking about reality and expressing it and, in multicultural settings, will help include students with different mother tongues in the group and contribute actively and relevantly to the learning process. As Jane Arnold has written: "What is important is to take a broader perspective on the learning process, using more tools at our command in order to maximize language learning" (2000).

Moreover, it favours both individual and team work catering for both the more reflective students and for those who prefer working in teams. Far from the passive teacher-centred approach of the Grammar Translation Method, translation can be included in EFL classes following a real student-centred approach: it can favour self and peer monitoring since, when the class participants share the same language(s) and can check their answers and opinions against a clear and concrete piece of writing, they do not depend only on the teacher's or the textbook author's opinion and can develop their own reflective intelligence.

I would like to end with an extract from an online chat on the topic of the use of L1 in the classroom that indicates that the misgivings and confusion visible in the questionnaires are really out there but that, fortunately, they are now being voiced and explored (A.P.A.C. of News, 2001: 22):

Mario Rinvolucri: In the 70s, when I was a virtuous no language 1 teacher, I tried to mime the word 'although'. Can you guess what it looked like? It is clearly more efficient to slip in a quietly voiced translation into L1.
Michael Martin: When I translate the students understand almost immediately with a low % of usage mistakes. Shall we keep on avoiding the use of L1?
Mario Rinvolucri: I can't see why.

REFERENCES IN THE TEXT

Arnold, Jane. 2000. "The Jackendoff 'Skeptic' on Humanistic Language Teaching". Humanising Language Teaching. Pilgrims.
Closa, Anabel. 2000. New Ways of Teaching English through Translation. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Barcelona.
Cook, Guy. 2000. "What's so wonderful about reality? Reinstating artifice in language teaching and learning", APAC-ELT Convention 2000, EOI/University of Barcelona.
Enns-Connoly, T. 1986. Translation as an interpretive act: A narrative study of translation in university level foreign language teaching. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto. In Kiraly, Don. 1995. Pathways to Translation. Pedagogy and Process. Kent, Ohio & London: Kent State University.
González Davies, Maria. 2000. "How Faithful Can You Be? (El idiota invisible o la fidelidad en traducción)" A.P.A.C. of News nº 39. Barcelona.
Hatim, Basil and Ian Mason. 1990. Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.
Hervey, S. et al. 1995. Thinking Spanish Translation. London: Routledge.
Marshall, Simon. 2000. "Outside the Circle Dance - Towards a More Principled Humanism" Humanising Language Teaching. Pilgrims.
Nimmo, Jenny. 1986/2000. The Snow Spider. Reading: Mammoth.
Satorras, Belén. 2000. The Three T's: Try to Translate. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Barcelona.
Torres, Marimar. 1987. The Spanish Table. London

This article was written thanks to the grant: DURSI nº 21, DOGC 3275, 28.11.00.