Efrey Alexis Gonzalez

Why Translation is Vanishing From English Classes?


Teaching and learning English had been always a challenge to different people around the world, since it´s the language more spoken in several countries and everyday we can appreciate different methods and strategies had evolved. In this point I can mention the follow postulate that makes us reflect on what is happening with the translation in the classrooms, “Translation has been an important part of English language teaching for a long time, but it has been abandoned since communicative methodologies became dominant.” As I said before, English language teaching is evolving, and each time is more effective the methodology that is used nowadays, the author Guerra, A. (2014) For instance, mention to us as a conclusion that for FL native teachers, translation is not good for learning English because learners won´t have a fluency in that language and they will always try to translate a speech or a conversation with someone in real time, this situation will bring as a consequence that they cannot think or express their ideas directly in English, but firstly they will have to translate the words to their mother tongue and then answering in English. It´s a hard process for the brain, since it has to process the information double time.


https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/computers-can-translate-languages-first-they-have-learn
Photo credit: Science News for Students
On the other hand, there are other authors as Popovic, R. (n.d) that state the translation is necessary to teach and learning English, they explain that learners must understand firstly in their L1 and then to can continue with the construction of knowledge, since if they cannot understand what teacher is saying, it will be difficult that students catch the main ideas, moreover, as the author Popovic, R. (n.d.). highlights “Translation was abandoned as an option in ESL situations, but not in the state education in many countries”.

Now, it´s true that translation in classrooms is vanishing because of communication methodologies in English but continuing been a good tool to develop the other skills in that language. Not to use translation during the teaching will have that learners be familiar with the accents, culture, idioms, and improving their listening and speaking skills.

In conclusion, translation can be an effective tool to teach or to learn English but we should not forget that nor always we should use it, since there are some abilities that we need to develop forgetting our mother tongue and to start to think in a second language, and thus to get a proficiency in it.

References
Guerra, A. (2014, enero).The usefulness of Translation in Foreign Language Learning: students’ attitudes. [PDF] Retrieved  from http://repositori.uji.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10234/134505/62499.pdf

[Pym, A.] (2013, October 27).Translation and Language Learning. [Video File] Retrieved  from https://youtu.be/1_8n3vLS1K0

Popovic, R. (n.d.). The place of translation in Language Teaching [PDF] Retrieved from https://www.sueleatherassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Article_translationinlanguageteaching.pdf

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