Translation has been defined as an interdisciplinary area accompanied by traditional academic disciplines: linguistic, literary criticism, philosophy, anthropology and cultural studies.
According to Duff (1994), translation develops three qualities essential to all language learning.
Read the information from the binder and use your own experience and research to express your agreement or disagreement with Duff´s opinion.
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TRANSLATION AS A TEACHING TOOL
1.- Click in the link and give your opinion on this topic.
2.- How do you use translation in the classroom? Follow the link and post your comment here.
I use translation not only to build up key terms but also to understand ideas, and useful, everyday expressions that are not equivalent in the mother tongue. I know that we could save time doing translation in this way, but keep in mind it is the last resource students have to understand something in the target language. Other situation is when some structures are complex such as the third conditional, or some cases of the passive voice just to avoid misunderstandings.
ReplyDeleteWhat I usually do is to have data about my students in order to know who needs help using translation and who does not, so there are no specific activities about translation in my classes and gradually I try my students to avoid translation or ask if necessary.
Then the ability of translating expressions in the target language depends on everyone, even teachers should have a great knowledge of their mother tongue and culture. If not, there is a risk of creating more problems than benefits.
Thanks Mr. F for including your own experience in your reply. I can tell you use your better judgement according to your students´needs. It is true that it is useful when trying to explain idiomatic expressions or culturally biased items that may not mean the same when translated word by word.
DeleteHello everyone
ReplyDeletePlease do not forget to complete task 1 in the same Voxopop thread and post your comments about task 2 as Mr. F has already done.
Thank you