Job Discussion Forums

[Cleopatra]

I reckon that if there is a major 'controversy' among TEFLers, it's about whether or not to translate in class. There are those (usually mono-lingual English speakers, in my experience) who say that you should never ever translate a single word - or even allow ss to use dictionaries - no matter how basic your ss knowledge of English.
There are others - among them myself - who believe that there are times when a simple translation can save a hell of a lot of valuable classroom time and clear up ambiguities. After all, even if we don't translate for them, chances are ss are going to look it up in a dictionary when they leave class. Of course, you can go too far with translating, but that doesn't negate the benefits of doing so in moderation.
A colleague once told me that he thinks a lot of TEFLers adopt this anti-translation stance to cover up their total lack of ability in the local language. I agree with him - and I also think that anyone who has acutally learned, not just taught, a language (which is more than you can say for a lot of TEFLers) will understand that translations can be a life saver.
Opinions?

[khmerhit]

Bollox-- i used translation all the time and every day. I used Cambodian French and fake Chinese (which vastly amused my charges....) They had lots of English going on in their little brainpans, three hours a day plus homework in fact. I never worried that a translation of a word would spoil the learning process. As Scot47 is wont to exclaim, Sheesh!!

[denise]

I'm all for translating (if I know the translation) or letting the students translate for each other if it'll save time and headaches and ensure comprehension. I've never followed the "English only" mentality--it is far too absolute for me. And sometimes it seems a bit punitive, too. If my students are on task, I don't mind at all if they slip into Japanese/Czech/Mandarin/whatever when they get stuck. (Yes, I know that immersion is "the way to go," and of course I am all for my students actually using the target language in class, but realistically, there are times when it's just counterproductive to force them to stick to English.)

And I agree that translation can go too far.

d

[Wolf]

I used it more in Japan - where I taught lower level students more often. If they spoke no English whatsoever, then I'd give instructions in Japanese and we'd do the conversational lesson exercises in English. They only had to listen to my Nihongo for a few minutes out of a lesson.

If a quick word to word translation would do the trick, I might do one to save time. I never used it with sentence structures, as Japanese/English sentence structures differ so much (unless someone was dying for a translation and the lesson had come to a halt.)

In China I try to explain new words giving simple definitions in English, but my students just look up everything in their electronic dictionaires anyway.

[Capergirl]

Unless my students are at the beginning levels, I try to dissuade them from using translation in the classroom (i.e. electronic translators and L1-English dictionaries). I don't speak the languages of my students, so translation isn't possible for me in any case. However, even if I could, I wouldn't. I believe that translation is a crutch and that it slows down the process of learning a language. I really don't believe anyone will become fluent by relying heavily on translation and that is what I tell my (adult) students.

When I was teaching at a language school in Taiwan, I had one class that was known as the "experimental" class. This class was different in that the students had always had a "foreign" (American or Canadian) teacher and no instruction by a Taiwanese teacher at any time. All of the other classes were taught primarily by Taiwanese teachers, with a foreign "co-teacher" coming in every so often to do a lesson. The students in my experimental class, although considered to be at the intermediate level, were highly advanced. They could have real conversations in English, their writing was close to that of a Canadian child the same age (11-12), and their pronunciation was flawless. If you closed your eyes, you would not know you were talking to a Taiwanese student. They sounded North American. So that is my success story for the no-translation method.

As for me, I am bilingual. I learned French all through school, but did not become "fluent" until I attended a four-month course in total French immersion at a French university (after my degree, in which I minored in French also). So my opinion on this is deeply rooted in my own experiences. This is why I have enrolled my daughter in a French preschool and would like to have her attend elementary school in a L2, whether it be French or another language. "Go big or stay home."

[Cleopatra]

I might have added to the OP that there is another category of teachers who are dead against translation (or at least they say they are). These are local EFL teachers who work alongside native speaker teachers, and who are probably made to feel inferior for that reason. I feel that they think they have to try extra hard to compensate for the perceived disadvantage of being a non-native speaker. To my mind, however, being able to speak your ss language is a huge advantage - both because you can translate and because you can anticipate their mistakes.

Capergirl, I agree with you that 'relying heavily on translation' is not a good thing. However, I doubt that there is a single EFL teacher out there who has never been damn glad that they could translate a word or phrase, or that one of their ss had a dictionary or was able to translate for the others.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Steiner]

Try to explain "vinegar" to a class of 60 low-intermediate students without using translation and see how much time it takes before they understand. And no, you can't take in a bottle of vinegar for them to smell.

[Roger]

If you compare the linguistic abilities of students throughout the EFL world, you will find that those from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan are among the poorest, and these nations are known to rely on translation for learning English (or other languages).
The idea that you should make the learning of English as easy as possible is unhelpful. The less effort the student makes the less his or her own success and competence!
Translating for the benefit of our students makes them dependent on us as their ultimate source of knowledge, interpretation and erudition. This is bad for their own imagination. What's more, no one has so far hinted at the dangers of mistranslations, which are legion here in the Far East! How few Chinese actually know how to address a Westerner? My Chinese residence permit lists my first name as my surname, and my surname as my first name - courtesy of my FAO!
Translating things is self-limiting. The learner limits his or her grasp of things in the target language to what he or she understands in his or her first language - which is not saying much, since "understanding" does not mean knowing how "to say" one word in Chinese. Most of us would probably be over-challenged trying to "explain" or "define" the word "vinegar" because we do not have the relevant knowledge in chemistry.
Understanding comes from knowing how to do things and express these actions in appropriate language; you can teach Chinese kids words scuh as "pushups" by demonstrating - and have the kids perform - pushups; no translation would be as accurate or effective as the action!
FOr objects of a physical nature, use illustrations, drawings, visuals - a lot more useful than translations!

Besides, no one can continuously listen to some speech in a second language, and translate it word by word for hours; the mind tires and gets exhausted, and mistranslations are inevitable.
Again - just listen to our CHinese students, and you know what I mean!
Oh, and come to remember - at college, we had all foreign language instruction given in the different target languages, translation only by ourselves, for ourselves! Our French, German and Italian teachers wasted no time on laggards and their special needs!
I can only say: my teachers did a good job by NOT TRANSLATING ANYTHING! (Occasional tidbits thrown in for some special effect were allowed in translated versions!).