Assignment Assignment - CLIL
SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT: TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH TRANSLATION GENERAL INFORMATION: This assignment must be done individually and individually and has to fulfil the following conditions: conditions:
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Length: between 6 between 6 and 8 pages (without pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if there are any-). Type of font: Arial font: Arial or or Times New Roman. Roman. i!e: 11. Line height: 1.5 . "lign#ent: "lign#ent: !s"i#ied .
The assignmen assignmentt has to be done done in this Word document document and has to fulfil the rules of presen presentat tation ion and and editi edition, on, as for for quote quotes s and bibli bibliogr ograph aphica icall refere reference nces s which which are are detailed in the Study Guide. Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject Evaluation” document. Sending it to the tutors e-mail is not permitted. !a"e sure to include the following information in the name of the file: initial of your name, surname and #$%&'(assignment. )n addition to this, it is *ery important to read the assessment assessment criteria, criteria, which can be found in the “Subject Evaluation” document.
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Assignment - CLIL
Assignment: )n +%&, the uropean nion did a report on translation and language learning /Translation and Language Learning: The role of translation in the teaching of languages in the $uropean %nion, su##ary . 0russels: u 1aw and $ublications2. 3ou can read it here and here
There was also a small presentation of the report followed by a questions 4 answer session, which can be found in 3ouTube as 5Translation and language learning 6 open discussion7 /here and here, for e8ample2.
9ead the report and answer the questions:
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What is the most rele*ant conclusions reached in the report, in your opinion
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What is the most une8pected conclusion reached in the report, in your opinion )f you are in urope, do you thin" it is accurate for the country you li*e in ;a country
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you "now well Why )f you are not in urope, do you thin" the sur*ey in your country would yield similar
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results Why What conclusions can you draw for your professional de*elopment.
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Assignment - CLIL
Imortant: you have to !rite your ersonal details" the otion and the subject name on the cover #see the ne$t age%& 'he assignment that does not (ul(il these conditions !ill not be corrected& )ou have to include the assignment inde$ belo! the cover&
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Assignment - CLIL
Name and s!rnames: I$an !lian Re% Telle& Gro!p:'(1)*(' +a"e: ,ep"em-er "e '' nd '(18
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Assignment - CLIL
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) thin" it would be also appropriate to bear in mind one of the most rele*ant ad*antages of translation and it is defining it as a communicati*e acti*ity that fosters learners to acquire a second language when they establish equi*alences that help them to understand the 1+ mediation between the *ocabulary and the grammar structures in 1 and also considered as a positi*e term in countries such as Germany. A clear e8ample of these benefits is idioms or sayings and pro*erbs which are usually difficult to deduce and that ma"e us thin" about translation as the only way to e8plain meaning. Widdowson,in =>=,wrote against total proscription of translation stating this: & want to argue that translation...can be a very useful pedagogic device and indeed in so#e circu#stances...translation of a 'ind #ay provide the #ost effective #eans of learning. (*:+)
Ta"ing into account the sur*ey results and the conclusions on the report it is remar"able that the ad*antages of the use of translation as a teaching technique are more than e8pected.
1earning through subtitles and promoting plurilingualism and interculturality by using mediation and interpretation seem to be effecti*e alternati*es in teaching a foreign language, being 5intercomprehension7 a desirable ability acquired by learners who are supposed to become bilingual, polyglot or multicultural. 0earing in mind that The ter# interco#prehension has been used by the $uropean %nion in order to identify a broader approach to language education, particularly the use of underlying language proficiency to enable access to other languages./ 0urley, . and 1o#phrey (2++3) we
Assignment - CLIL
could state that the multiple definitions on this term clearly assume a "ind of scaffolding technique related to the field of translation.
The ?#9 position concerning the use of translation is also an interesting issue to analy@e because of its consideration with regard to globali@ation and our contemporary learners interacting in a dynamic world and society in which the constant research of multicultural equi*alences is e*ident in the same way that the necessity of learning to interpret meaning in the digital edge and getting information from different cultures in di*erse fields such as, arts, music, literature, science, politics, economy and on and on. ?1)1 could be also considered as an opposing party and a sort of translation enemy regarding the translation benefits because of its clear ad*antage enhancing learners to de*elop multilingual interests, introducing a wider cultural conte8t and preparing students to internationali@ation without using translation methods. )t is more than ob*ious that the most of the countries that participated answering the sur*ey preferred this method or language immersion beyond the traditional methods and translation seems to be also considered as an out-dated approach and that is not considered seriously in teaching languages. The use of mental translation is another important finding in this research in spite of not being recogni@ed by many learners or teacher in their teaching practices but that e*entually occurs consciously or unconsciously.
)t is important to bear in mind that there are se*eral translation acti*ities and not all of them should be udged in the same way because they belong to different strategies depending on topics difficulty and comple8ity at the discretion of the teacher. 1ast but not least, the positi*e and negati*e assumptions related to the issue cannot be assumed as laws at all and they must be considered as tentati*e reflections on which teachers are free to decide about the best way to use translation and the accurate moment to turn to it.
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Assignment - CLIL
)n ?olombia, languages teachers at tertiary le*el or higher education are usually discouraged from teaching a second language through translation or this type of practices are e*en prohibited and loo"ed down upon teaching en*ironments. The new methods and methodologies arri*al and the intention of lea*ing behind the traditional and old fashioned ways to teach a second language ha*e created some negati*e preudices against the translation techniques and it could be said that the reasons for failure when learners study a second language tend to be associated with translation methods instead of immersion or direct methods and the ?1)1, T01 and bilingualism that ha*e gathered strength nowadays.
Be*ertheless, translation acti*ities seem to be common at elementary school especially in public schools maybe because of the lac" of "nowledge of approaches such as ?1)1, The Cirect !ethod or 0ilingualism that clearly demand and require a higher command of the second language and that teachers from theses type of institutions do not tend to ha*e as opposed to their colleagues from pri*ate schools and international or bilingual schools in which the directors demands and institutional policies often entail nati*e spea"ers, bilingual teachers or teachers with a required sound command of nglish. This contrast concerning the institutional requirements depending on the type of institution could ob*iously *ary the sur*eys results and a possible research related to the translation issue. #urthermore, a study li"e this should be delimited in order to get better and more conclusi*e results due to its feasibility of a research study in order to determine accurate conclusions in my country.
?oncerning the field in which ) wor", the tertiary teaching and higher education ) consider that the sur*ey results could be similar to those from countries such as #rance in which the translation is also considered as an almost 5prohibited7 practice or acti*ity on the part of some director from different educational institutions and the e*ident contradiction and incoherence with regard to consider translation as a fifth s"ill could also recur in a country li"e mine. ) guess this could probably happens because of the common assumption that translation is for professionals only in formal fields of "nowledge but an acti*ity that stops students thin"ing in 1+.
Assignment - CLIL
)n conclusion, ) could state that the most of the propositions would be negati*e and only teachers from public schools and pre elementary school would accept or asse*erate that translation could be a useful and recurrent practice in teaching nglish. ?olombian classrooms are usually monolingual and the influence of second languages or 5ideal7 multilingual learning and teaching en*ironments or social conte8ts are not common. #or this reason the e8isting 5rift7 between the public and pri*ate education would generate dissimilar results and the social class perceptions concerning the use of translation would *ary being a*oided by learners and teachers from bilingual and international schools and much more allowed by the public school system.
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)t is interesting to notice that according to the sur*ey results in uropean countries the tendency is to put effort into teaching communicati*e approaches placing a lot of emphasis on training teachers or demanding them to teach methods such as Tas" 0ased 1earning or )mmersion. )n ?olombia as ) mentioned before the tendency is similar in pri*ate institutions and most recently the national bilingual program 5?olombia bilingue7 loo"ing for a standardi@ed teaching of nglish as a second language and implementing a suggested curriculum for the elementary and secondary education in which T01 is one of the suggested approaches considered in order to be implemented. ) personally belie*e and agree with some sur*eys results in uropean countries related to the position of some teachers and research professors regarding the suggestion of minimi@ing translation acti*ities but using them in order to complement the teaching of some of the four s"ills and that could be *ery useful. ) also consider that translating the most of the time could ha*e negati*e pedagogical effects enhancing learners to not putting effort into their second language studying preferring translating immediately by thin"ing on the 1 without internali@ing the 1+ directly. The lac" of time is maybe one of the biggest issues in order to use translation in class but the other one could be the tendency to ban or prohibit translation acti*ities on the
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Assignment - CLIL
part of the institutional policies which often consider it as a teachers lac" of command or "nowledge regarding the second language. ) guess translation is a positi*e teaching tool in order to chec" on the *ocabulary and grammar acquisition on behalf of learners, especially when teaching basic le*els in which their basis concerning the second language acquisition start. )n respect of the common wrong assumptions on behalf of teachers with regard to learners who pretend understand topics ) thin" these rash conclusions about what learners ha*e learnt should be a*oided considering that students tend to lie to teachers when say they understand some e8planations about topics, especially when they ha*e been e*aluated or assessed. ) usually consider some of the translation acti*ities mentioned by 1eonardi /+%%: DD2 who offers the following Epedagogical translation framewor". )n this set of classroom acti*ities ) would li"e to mention the ones that ) prefer: re>translation activities: ) thin" they are useful in order to introduce *ocabulary pre*iews. 'ranslation activities: Grammar e8planationF cultural mediation and intercultural competence de*elopment in the e*ent that comprehension is not e*ident due to the difficulty of a topic or structure and the impossibility of inferring. ost>translation activities: ral translation commentary when necessary because of misunderstanding or wrong assumptions related to literal /word-for-word2 translation in nglish false cognates, sayings, pro*erbs or idioms that usually imply the e8planation of cultural and e*en historical clarifications and certain specific "nowledge concerning the conte8t.
#inally, ) must state that ) strongly agree with some of the conclusion from the sur*ey and those are the ones related to: Translation is not a language-learning method in itself. )t can and is usually combined with a number of general teaching approaches. )n most countries, translation is not mentioned in the official curricula but it is ne*ertheless used in the classrooms. 0ut ) would also state that ) disagree with some of them regarding ?olombian case: Translation acti*ities are generally used less in primary education /scaffolding2 and more in higher education /comple8 multi-s"ill acti*ity2. )n fact, they are used less in higher education in ?olombia.
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Assignment - CLIL
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As Soars and Soars state: translation if harnessed, is potentially a very powerful tool for language learning and pretending that students do not have a first language is perverse. /Soars and Soars ==: H2 )n fact, learners of languages around the world seem to feel interested in "nowing e*ery single aspect about intercultural issues when a language catch their attention and online translation is becoming more common day after day. 3oung adults and learners do not want to spend months and years trying to understand a language and they try to use interacti*e tools such as translators on line in order to understand information and respond to their peers and colleagues immediately. )t is a competiti*e world and edge in which communicati*e strategies *alidate any "ind of technique or approach in order to master a foreign language as soon as possible and e*en going against some theorists in regard to a*oid translation because in these modern times of social media and changes in which the access to the information is e*erywhere translation seems to be in fashion again.
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Assignment - CLIL
0urley, S. and $omphrey, ?. 5)ntercomprehension in 1anguage Teacher ducation: a dialogue between nglish and !odern 1anguages.7 )n 1anguage Awareness, Iol +: &4J:
!ultilingual
!atters,
?le*eland,
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matters&netla@12@2+la@12@2+&d(
5ahlgren" 4& Sit!ell" B& #n& d&%& 'eaching English 'hrough 'ranslation& 6uniber&
1eonardi, Ianessa. +%. E$edagogical Translation as a Baturally-ccurring ?ogniti*e and 1inguistic Acti*ity in #oreign 1anguage 1earning. Annali nline 1ettere ;+: >-+D.
$ym, Anthony 4 !alm"aer, D+;&>D&.
Soars, K 4 Soars,1. /==2: 4eadway 1re-&nter#ediate Teachers 0oo' . 8ford: 8ford ni*ersity $ress. Widdowson,L./=>+2: $xplorations in "pplied Linguistics .8ford: 8ford ni*ersity $ress.
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