Translations are a part of our life. We read literature translated into Romanian, we see films subtitled in Romanian, the guides translate into Romanian or another language, we read medical treaties translated, we do business and translate legal documents.

    After being open to a great deal of criticism under the influence of behavioristic learning theories, translation is gradually reestablishing itself as a useful and legitimate didactic tool in foreign-language learning.

    Traditionally, the translation method was used to teach language as a subject, primarily involving the manipulation of grammatical form (Howatt 1984). In recent times, EFL teachers have slowly been reviving the use of translation to present vocabulary (Butera 1991; Heltai 1989) and concept checks (Harmer 1991). Edge (1986) and Thomas (1984) have reported on using whole text translation at advanced levels. Atkinson's (1987) assertion that "the gap in the methodological literature is presumably partially responsible for the uneasiness which many teachers feel about using or permitting the use of the pupils' native language" would seem to continue to hold true today. Because of the very obvious dangers associated with excessive dependency on the mother tongue (Atkinson 1987), one might argue that teachers would benefit from more

    The Use of Translations in Teaching English - Chapter II: The use of translation in the classroom  \\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\

methodological guidance which clearly delimits the functions for which the mother tongue is appropriate.

    The main objection to translation as a teaching device has been it interposes an intermediate process between the concept and the way it is expressed in the foreign language, thus hindering the development of the ability to think directly in the new language. However, it may be argued that pupils frequently mentally interpose this intermediate translation process themselves in the early stages irrespective of the method applied or approach adopted. Such mental translation usually disappears when pupils become familiar with the language through continual exposure to it.

    Genuine translation involves the pupils in serious consideration of the expressive possibilities of the new language, while also expanding their appreciation of the semantic extensions and limitations of their first language and the implications for meaning of its syntactic options. It is, then, an appropriate undertaking in an advanced course, or even at the intermediate level when particular pupils are especially interested in attaining competence in it.

    Translation involves careful analysis of the meaning of the source text. Various aspects of the meaning are considered, and they are re-thought in terms of the target language. Pupils learn a great deal as they discover that it is not always possible to attain exact equivalence and as they evaluate possible versions to see which most fully captures all the implications of the original. They will find that they need to look beyond single words, chunks of sentences, or even complete sentences to whole stretches of discourse as they make their decisions.

    The production of an acceptable translation into target language is for most pupils a means, not an end - a means for developing sensitivity to the meaning expressed in a stretch of discourse in their own languages to convey these meaning. Pupils learn to translate ideas, not words. Through a comparative examination of the syntactic and semantic system of the target and native languages and the cultural contexts in which they operate, pupils attempt to expand their own potential for expression in the target language.

    Some teachers tend to overuse translations in teaching a language but a combination of methods would be the best. Viascheslav P. Androsenko from Moscow State University says: "We do a lot of games, role-playing and communicative activities not as a relaxation but as a major component of the course, since we believe that what really matters is not the time spent on the language but the role the language plays during the time [...]. Some trainers have never played games in class and hopefully will never have to; it is a waste of time of valuable time which can better employed in reading and translating another text. Very soon, however, most teachers get enthusiastic about interaction techniques and ask for more"1

    The ultimate goal for a learner-translator is the ability to communicate to the receiver the information conveyed by the original sender. Romanian learners however often have difficulties in achieving this goal. The fault lies not in a deficient linguistic knowledge because of the lack of a well defined translation-teaching framework. It seems that many cases a basic knowledge of the two languages (source and target) plus dictionaries are not always sufficient tools for a translation. "Translation, unfortunately is something you learn only by doing''' (William Weaver, translator of The Name of the Rose).

    It is entirely possible to view translation itself as a relatively communicative activity in which language can be practised at all levels within a meaningful context. Duff (1989) stresses that the crucial point about using translation is to retain the context. He recommends the use of mother-tongue exercises whose object is effectively to help pupils understand that what works in their mother tongue may not work in English.     Authors on the subject of

1 Androsenko, Viacheslav, A Refresher Course In Communicative Teaching, FORUM, no 2.April, 1992 translation generally agree that consciousness-raising (the raising of learners' awareness of grammatical features without directly instilling the rules) is more important than saving time.

    Classroom translation activities should be based on the pupils' and teacher's interaction in actually translating a text and discussing alternative means for expressing the author's message. In doing this we are meeting several needs:

• allowing pupils to live out real translation experiences;

• raising their awareness that there is never one sole perfect end-product of translation;

• generating a conscious decision-making attitude when pupils compare different possibilities for the same text, or part of a text, and are faced with options;

• discussing the text's real and hidden meanings - not only in the original form but also in the translated version and how they compare, thus analyzing the semantics of both languages;

• refining pupils' knowledge of linguistics and cultural intricacies based on the discussion of the text material;

• clarifying and standardizing translation norms that apply to proper names, including geographical and institutional designations;

• cueing pupils into frequent and effective use of bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses;

• generating pupils' research instinct - i.e., guiding them as to what they most more fully understand in order to produce a more adequate translation, where they can research the subject or the terminology, how deep they should go in searching for background information, and who (which kind of professional) can be^elp;

• selecting appropriate transfer mechanisms for situations where it is necessary to overtranslate or undertranslate or where the translation should include a footnote or even where a word or expression should appear in the target language or in another foreign language.

            The use of translation as a classroom activity

    The way translation is used in the process of teaching depends on the year of study, on the intellectual level of pupils and on the purpose of using the translation.

    The teacher can use the translation to save time in doing exercises for fixing vocabulary or grammar structures. The explanations in Romanian are used when the semantic value of the English word differs from that of the Romanian word and the false-friends appear.

Library = biblioteca

Camera = aparat de fotografiat

Magazine = revista

    In the cases in which the use in the two language is different:

We are having our English lesson now = Avem ora de englezd

The weather was bad but we had a good time = Am avut vreme proasta dar ne-am distrat bine.

    Or when the teacher presents words representing notions unknown by the pupils.

    An alternative to presentation through translation is situational presentation. For example, it is possible to show a picture of a "dog" or a "dove". It is important to note that a picture may mean different things to different people. The meaning which is supposed to lie in the context, is an abstraction, as any applied linguist would say. In this case the learner has to

    The Use of Translations in Teaching English - Chapter II: The use of translation in the classroom  15 make that abstraction; to say the same thing in mentalistic terms, the learner must from a "concept" from the picture; and this concept must be drawn from his mother tongue or, what is far less likely, created and delimited anew. If the learner is not try to make meaning generalizations of this kind, he is not learning successfully. In the case of "dove", the learner may hit on the concept of "dove" supplied by the mother tongue, in which case situational presentation is, from the semantic point of view, at least, neither better nor worse than translation. (It is not denied that children enjoy picture or that for his reason it is desirable to use them, but this is a separate consideration, not relevant to the semantics of presentation methods.) Or, what is quite possible, the learner may think of the concept "bird'' when he sees the picture of a "dove"; in fact, is quite legitimate. In such a case, translation would have been better from the semantic point of view, assuming that the learner foes not have the time or the facilities to correct or refine his concept in the process of communication over a period of time, as in the case of first-language learning. It is a well-know fact that wrong concepts of this kind are formed all too often in direct method teaching.

    There is a third possible way in which a child can react to direct-method teaching with the help of pictures or situations: when the teacher point to "a dove" and says "Is it a dove?" or pats his chest and say "I am a teacher" the learner may repeat the words without making any definite meaning generalization. When this happens, the learner is not mistaking the meaning, but he is not learning anything significant either.

    Moreover, the use of language in communicative situations, or in relatively artificial situations of the traditional kind, are not alternatives to translation. They can and may have to be combined with the use of the mother tongue (or English) for explanations.     The comparable items in this case are not situation and mother tongue but the two languages in question. In fact when the learner comes across a not easily translatable word like embarrass in a story, the story has already provided him with a context of social situation with all its elements complete, which no amount of situationalization in the classroom can normally match. It is when natural or stimulated communication in speaking or reading situations breaks down because of language difficulty that explanations become inevitable, and then the choice is between English and the mother tongue and not between situationalization and translation. It is possible that such a breakdown in communication (not to mention a failure to establish a situation that call for communication) occurs when the teacher pats his chest situationally to present the sentence I am a teacher - although the teacher may not realize it immediately, any more than the learner understands the teacher's meaning immediately.

    The translation avoided in the first stages of language learning can be used as a means for evaluating the grammar knowledge or vocabulary for the pupils in the 7th or 8th grades. The teacher will give the model, then the stimuli, and then the pupils will make the translation, following the substitution model:

Teacher: N-am §tiut ca vei pleca la ora 5.

Pupils: I didn 't know you would leave at 5.

Teacher: vei merge cu avionul.

Pupils: I didn't know you would travel by plane

Teacher: te vei intoarce sambata.

Pupils: I didn't know you would come back on Saturday.

    The translation should be carefully used; the sentences should contain a certain vocabulary or grammar problem. Any literary difficulties or unknown structure should be avoided.

    The Use of Translations in Teaching English - Chapter II: The use of translation in the classroom  YJ

    Translation is a valuable skill by means of which the person who knows a language can convey information to those who do not know it. This skill can hardly be attained under secondary-school conditions.

Chapter I - Translation 1

♦ Definitions. Classifications. Principles of translation

Chapter II - The use of translation in the classroom 2

♦ Pros and cons

♦ The use of translation as a classroom activity

♦ Lesson Plan

♦ Variation activities

♦ Application

♦ Reasons for using translations in the classroom

♦ Conclusion

Chapter III - Mistakes in translations 10

♦ Vocabulary

♦ Grammar

> The article

> The Preposition

> The Noun

> The Subjunctive

> Modal Verbs

> Sequence of Tenses

> The Time Clause

Conclusions 69

Selected Bibliography