MA: Communication, Culture

and Translation

The Role of Translation in

Language Learning and
Teaching

Presented by: Hafida Achahboun

 OUTLINE:
• The history of translation in foreign language learning and
teaching.

• The advantages and disadvantages of translation in foreign

language learning and teaching.

• New alternative uses of translation in pedagogic contexts

• Toward a more realistic view of translation in pedagogic

contexts.

• Conclusion.
 TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT
• House’s model requires the analysis and comparison of the
source text (ST) and the target text (TT) at three levels:
1) Language/Text

2) Register: the analysis of the text within its context, it is

subdivided into:
 Field : subject matter or topic.
 Mode: channel and degree of participation between writer and
reader.
 Tenor: social distance between addresser and addressee.

3) Genre: cultural discourse type.

• House argues that equivalence is the fundamental criterion of
translation quality not only at a linguistic level but also at
semantic and pragmatic levels.

• This equivalence requires that the function of the ST is

reproduced in the translation.

• Both ST and TT profiles are compared, which produces a

statement of mismatches or errors that can be categorized as:
A. Covertly (at Register and Genre level).
B. Overtly (denotative meaning at text level).
• In the final step of the assessment, the translation is categorized
as either overt or covert.

• We take into consideration “how much the foreign text depends

on its own culture for intelligibility” to then we decide whether
a translation needs to be “overt” or “covert”

• House defines “Overt Translation” as “one in which the

addressees of the translation text are quite ‘overtly’ not being
directly addressed: thus an overt translation is one which must
overtly be a translation [and] not, as it were, a ‘second
original’’.
• “Covert Translation” is one that “enjoys the status of an
original source text in the target culture” not specifically
addressed to a particular target culture audience and therefore
becomes a text that “may, conceivably, have been created in its
own right”.

• To achieve quality in translation, equivalence between the ST

and the TT must be sought at the level of Genre and individual
text function, whereas Language/Text and Register may be
modified including cultural elements by applying a “cultural
filter”
 THE HISTORY OF TRANSLATION IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

 In the 16th Century, Latin was the dominant language of

education, commerce, religion, and government in the westren
world. At that time it was very important to focus on
grammatical rules, syntactic structures, along with rote
memorization of vocabulary and translation of literary texts.
• Latin gradually became displaced as a language of spoken and
written communication.

 In the 17th and 19th Centuries, the analysis of Latin’s

grammar and rhetoric became the model for foreign language
study.
 At the end of the eighteenth Century, the teaching of latin
had turned into highly formalized ritual, the ideas begin to instil
discipline into students minds, often combined with an
emphasis on grammar rules.

• Then, the classical method came to be known as grammar

translation method .

• History of teaching english as a foreign language would

demonstrate these ‘’ups’’ and ‘’downs’’.
 GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD
(1840S,1940S)

• Proponents of this method believe that learning a foreign

language is achieved through the constant and fast translation
of sentences from the target language into the learner’s first
language.

• Techniques used in this model are: translation of the literary

passages, reading comprehension questions,
antonyms/synonyms, deductive applications of rules, fill in the
blanks, memoirization…etc
 During the 19th Century translation became the single
dominant feature of foreign language exercises. Grammar rules
were mainly learnt through their application in the translation
of artificially constructed, isolated, disconnected sentences.

 During the latter part of the 19th Century, the importance

of the spoken language was emphsized, which gave birth to a
new method called ‘’Direct Method’’
• This method was proposed by charles berlitz, in the last two
decades of the 19th century. According to this method learning
is similar to the first language learning. In this light, there
should be lots of oral interaction, spontaneous use of target
language, no translation is allowed.

 During the late of 19th Century, with the rise of

structuralism and behaviourism in linguistics and psychology,
a new method emerged, ‘’the Audio-Lingual Method’’.
 At the begining of the twentieth century, translation from the
foreign language was regarded as quite useful in promoting
language comprehension.

• Apart from these ongoing ‘’ups’’ and ‘’downs’’, there are some
reasons and inherent benefits in using translation as a teaching
tool.
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
TRANSLATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
AND TEACHING
 ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

Translation promotes explicit translation does nothing for

knowledge about the foreign developing the standard four
language and awareness of skills (speaking, writing,
similarites and differences reading, listening).
between the native and foreign
language systems .

It makes learners assume

It can confront learners with the that there is one-to-one
limits of translatibility. correspondence of meaning
between native and foreign
language.

Translation into learner’s first

language helps meaning to be It hinders thinking in the
clarified and the possibility of foreign language.
misunderstanding removed.
It saves a lot of time.

It helps to understand whether

the learners have learned what
they have been taught or not.

It boosts learners’ appreciation

of their native language and
provides continuity of learner’s
linguacultural.
• According to julian house « If translation is used for
establishing pragmatic equivalences by relating linguistic
forms to their communicative functions, it may fulfil an
important role in making learners communicatively
competence ».
 NEW ALTERNATIVE USES OF TRANSLATION IN
PEDAGOGIC CONTEXTS
• the objective of the new alternative translation activities is to
improve receptive and productive aspects of communicative
competence.

• Activities in the translation of foreign language clasroom

should involve:
1. explicit comparison of linguacultural phenomena in the
source and target languages.
2. the creative production of source and target language texts.
3. Modifying the make up of original and translation texts by
changing the situational dimension of the texts.
 WHEN SHOULD WE APPLY THESE NEW ALTERNATIVE
TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES?

 They should be restricted to advanced learners, who have good

overview of the equivalence relations between the two
languages and cultures involved in translation.

 Source text should be carefully analysed using the procedures

suggested in the translation assessment model. So that all
learners can derive the maximum benefit from the reflections
about the linguistic-pragmatic choices made by the author of
the original text.

 All the texts chosen for translation should be fully

contextualized for learners, and they should be presented as
part of a communicative situation.
 EXAMPLES OF THE ACTIVITIES

Example 1
 “A neighbour, who does not know any French, has just received an
email from a French girl written in French. She has noticed that
frequent reference is made in this email to the name of her son, who
is at present working for an
international company in Paris. The neighbour is worried that the
email contains bad news. So she asks you – a student of French – to
give her a quick summary of the contents in English so that she may
know at once what the email is about, and afterwards a complete
translation.”
• In other words, the learner will first produce an oral (overt) version of the
original and then a written overt translation
• In this activity, learners are asked to analyse source and target
text then translate it.

• It is important to contextualize the texts example to provide

learners with a motivating account of the origin and function of
the text, and to make the task of translating as close as possible
to fulfilling a real communicative need.
Example 2

 ‘’During your summer holidays you are working on a building

site. Your supervisor has just received a new manual for the
maintenance of one of the tractors.
Unfortunately, the manual is written in English and translated
into many other languages but not into Italian. He knows that
you are competent in Italian and he asks you to provide an
overt translation of this manual into Italian for him and to also
give the other workers
a quick idea of its main points.’’
• Learners are asked to produce an oral overt version and an
overt written translation.

• It is important to introduce learners to many different domains

and topics so that they can broaden their stock of language
varieties.

• In both examples described above the resulting translations are

evaluated, corrected and discussed in class with a particular
attention given to the reasons for and consequences of any
mistakes and mismatches detected
Example 3

 “Write an email to the mother of a good friend of yours whom

you have never met but who you would like to impress and
make her like you. It is your task to make this email as polite,
entertaining and attractive as possible. You will have to
demonstrate your interest in her personal habits, her
environment and interests.”
• This kind of activity makes use of learners’ creative
imagination and builds on their stimulated needs.

• The teacher and the learners analyse the mother tongue email
cooperatively in a group according to the translation evaluation
model.
Example 4

 “Learners are asked to write advertisements in their native

language and then covertly translate these advertisements into
another language, making due allowance for linguistic and
cultural differences between the two linguacultures”
• In this activity, learners create mother tongue text on the basis
of a collation of a corpus of advertisements.

• learners will discuss the assumptions underlying the

production of advertisements in the corpus as well as their
grammatical, lexical, and textual peculiarities
TOWARD A MORE REALISTIC VIEW OF TRANSLATION IN
PEDAGOGIC CONTEXTS

• Translation activities need to provide conditions that will

stimulate the learning process.

• Learners mother tongues are clearly not separate in learners

minds.

• In foreign language learning and teaching, it is advisable to

deliberately exploit learner’s own experience of language, to
encourage them to recognize how another language can be
used to realize meanings in alternative ways
 CONCLUSION:
 Julian house sketches some examples of possible activities in
which translation is respected as a mode of communication in its
own right.

 Translation makes full sense, pedagogically, as it allows learners

to exploit their previously acquired knowledge, namely thier
native language, to learn something new.

 Language is argued to heighten learner’s confidence, to provide

continuity to their learning process, and to ultimately ensure that
the foreign language co-exists bilingually with first language in
their minds.
 Translation in foreign language classes enhances better
understanding of structures of the two languages and also
strengthens students’ translation skills.

 Translation should not be overused and should be integrated

into language teaching at the right time and with the right
students.

 When integrated into daily classroom activities translation can

help students develop and improve reading, speaking, writing
skills, grammar and vocabulary.