This document discusses pedagogical uses of translation and arguments for and against its use in language learning. It presents arguments that translation has been widely used to test student proficiency and is a feature of the grammar-translation method, but it may interfere with natural language acquisition and produce "compound bilingualism." Current issues discussed include translation as an intercultural activity and how translators can express socio-political stances.

1. Pedagogical Uses of
Translation
*Translation may be needed to facilitate communication
between speakers of different languages who would
otherwise not understand one another
*Translation as the cross-linguistic technique par excellence
has a long tradition as an exercise and a test of students’
knowledge of the foreign language.
*Arguments Against Translation
*Arguments For Translation
*Arguments For Translation 2

2. Arguments Against Translation
 Grammatical system and lexicon were believed to be the most
important factors in the learning process.
 Translation into the foreign language interfered with the natural
process of learning a foreign language.
 It was seen as a special fifth skill, to be used only after learners
had acquired a superior knowledge of the foreign language.
 It produced the “wrong” kind of bilingualism: compound rather
than coordinate bilingualism.
 Compound Bilingualism: The lexicons of the two languages are
said to be stored jointly in the mind.
 Coordinate Bilingualism: The lexicons are said to be kept
separated.

3. Arguments For Translation
 Has been used widely to test students’ overall proficiency in
a foreign language.
 Is a key feature in the grammar-translation method.
 Helps in the development of proficiency by economically and
unambiguously explaining the meaning of foreign language
items.
 Learners increase their confidence and motivation to learn a
foreign language.
 Promotes explicit knowledge and helps develop awareness
of differences and similarities between the native and the
foreign language systems.

4. Arguments For Translation
 Can act as a trigger for raising awareness of language
because it creates many opportunities for reflection on
contrast and similarities between languages at various
linguistic levels.
 Language has also broader educational benefits since it
promotes cross-cultural understanding.
 Activities can be used to develop communicative
competence in a foreign language.
 Activities can involve the production of original source text.

5. Current Issues
In Translation
 As Intercultural communication, is both a linguistic and a cultural
activity involving communication across cultures.
 In covert translation, a “cultural filter” is applied in order to adapt the
source text to the communicative norms of the target culture.
 The “received view” of translation is that it is first and foremost a
process of intercultural change, rather than a kind of cross-linguistic
substitution.
 Translators express their own socio-political stance by shying away
from a straightforward “faithful” translation.
*The nature of the Translation Process
*Corpus Studies in Translation
*Translation and Globalization

6. The Nature of the
Translation Process
 As a countable noun, Translation is used to denote a product; as an
uncountable noun, it denotes a process, namely how you arrive at
the product.
 As a product, we can compare it with its original text and try to find
out where and how it resembles, or differs from the original text.
 As a process, we try to access the translator’s mind, trying to find
out whether experienced translators work differently from
inexperienced ones, and to suggest strategies and skills which may
be useful in translator training.
 Thinking aloud, verbal reports or think-aloud protocols, are usually
taped, transcribed, and often presented to the translators for
comment and evaluation.

7. Corpus Studies in
Translation
 Corpus, is a collection of texts, selected and compiled according to
specific criteria and are held in an electronic format.
 It allows us to focus on language as it is actually used in translations
and so enables us to determine what is probable and typical in
translation as a text type.
 Corpus methods allow us to focus on a combination of
lexical, syntactic, and discoursal features while comparing large
numbers of translations into different languages by different
translators, in different sociocultural settings, and across different
time frames.
 Parallel Corpora consist of a set of texts in one language and a set
of their translations into another language.
 Comparable Corpora establish patterns that are either restricted to
translations or occur with different frequency in them.

8. Translation and
Globalization
 Globalization have altered the role of translation in the modern world.
 A Worldwide translation industry is regarded by many as the most
important safeguard of linguistic and cultural diversity in the face of the
rising dominance of the one language which is more equal than all
others: English.
 It plays an important role in multilingual news writing.
 Translation is most marked in translations of news events on television
and for various international press networks, where there is a need for
simultaneous translation of news and reports sent out.
 Localization is arguably the field in which the translation needs
generated bye modern information technology in global markets is most
visible and most influential.
 The World Wide Web have created the e-commerce glocalization.