MIND MAP - MONICA RUBIO

ESSAY - MONICA ADRIANA RUBIO

Essay

POSTULATE B

Leonardi (2010), translation enhances critical reading skills, improves grammatical awareness and language proficiency, facilitates vocabulary acquisition, and develops intercultural competence.

The translation in the learning process is something unmentionable, at least in the context I learned and now I’m teaching. Speaking about translation in learning is something that exists, is real, we use all the time but deep inside our hearts, there is something yelling that is wrong. For many years I’ve been taught that translation is really wrong for our students and now, to find that translation is important and part of the process is something that blew my mind. It feels like the guilt is gone and now the objective is to learn how to use correctly the translation in our teaching.

According to this postulate, I consider that translation is a good tool since we use it wisely. It is not only to let the students use it without a guide or a purpose; using it with a specific purpose may produce excellent results for our students and it will become an important resource for us as teachers. Now I feel that the challenge is bigger because it is necessary to be aware of which are our students needs and learn how the translation will help them to improve in their different skills.

In my personal experience, translation has been one useful option in my learning process, maybe it wasn’t the best one but it really helped me to learn, to understand, to acquire vocabulary, to learn how to read and understand the context. It was the first instinct I developed in order to understand and know what I was reading or singing in different songs, so, I speak on my behalf, and I believe that it is not that bad to translate, the only thing that changes today is that now I can see that it is necessary to do it right and with the correct guidance to enhance specific areas and skills.

TASK 3. MIND MAP

by Laura Maria Lara Rojas

TASK 2. ESSAY

by Laura Maria Lara Rojas

Three essential purposes of translation

Undisputed, translation is a permanent and necessary activity in the process of learning a language different to the mother tongue. But in the development of this activity, it is very important to take into account some keys that will allow a clear, faithful and accurate translation. There are three essential purposes we have to take in mind when we translate; they are accuracy, clarity and flexibility. Accuracy is when you need to be concise when, for example, one word in two separate languages has subtly different shades of meaning. The translator or interpreter accurately “translate” or “interpret” a term that, based on bilingual dictionaries, should have a one-to-one equivalent in the target language. Clarity is very important in translation because no matter how many words or grammatical structure can be changed in a paragraph, the idea and message must remain intact. Flexibility talks about the ability to convey a message or idea most appropriately in the second language, is to be eloquent, creative, and dynamic without having to be literal and textual

About the statement “trains the learner to search” it can be said that this is completely right. It is a challenge a great way to construct knowledge and proficiency in a second language. 

Whenever a translation takes place, no matter its nature or purpose, it requires a high sense of relevance, in addition the ability to extend our knowledge especially of the structures of language or functions of this, which are not yet clear to us. Without forgetting the importance of enriching our vocabulary.

I think that from the implementation of a suitable practice for translation in the classroom, positive experiences can be fostered and very significant learning, representing development and important progress in learning a second language

TASK 2. ESSAY

by Cristian Camilo Murcia 

POSTULATE C 

"Later Duff (1989) identifies three essential purposes of translation as an activity in language learning: accuracy, clarity and flexibility. He argues that translation “trains the learner to search (flexibility) for the most appropriate words (accuracy) to convey what is meant (clarity)"

Currently, language learning process involves several factors that are linked among themselves and go directed to the development of the students’ English skills, independently the place where it is developed. Those factors are usually considered within the English programs and lessons given by the educational institutions, and they are what determine the success of the process.  According to the above, one of those important factors used to help English language learning process are undoubtedly, translation.

By the way, translation brings with itself some advantages for students while learning a second language, since it allows them to feed their sources of vocabulary and to identify the context of some words that, although are the same ones, could have different meanings taking into account the situations in which they are used. Besides, translation leads students to new ideas and to learn and understand what they are listening or reading while translating, even though if there are some sentences or phrases that are similar in context to ours but may not have a specific translation. In this case, translation seems to have a limit, since students tends to depend on translators or dictionaries.

However, Later Duff (1989) identifies three essential purposes of translation as an activity in language learning: accuracy, clarity and flexibility. He argues that translation “trains the learner to search (flexibility) for the most appropriate words (accuracy) to convey what is meant (clarity).  

This idea helps to think and understand, as a conclusion that, translation as an activity or strategy to be implemented in language learning process represents a good opportunity for learners as long as it be articulated with the English skills and in context in which new vocabulary helps the learner to create sense and to understand the meaning of what is expressed. Finally, it is possible to conclude that, translation can be great tool for learning, but everything depends on the way in which it is used and the goals that teachers pursue with this kind of activities.  

TASK 3. MIND MAP 

Task 3. Mind Map

by Désirée Rosas Cubillos

Task 2. Essay

by Désirée Rosas Cubillos

Postulate E

Translation has been an important part of English language teaching for a long time, but it has been abandoned since communicative methodologies became dominant.

How much time do you need to invest for learning a new language? In past years learning a new language consisted in a lot of time practicing the four skills and translating from or for your mother language. Nowadays people need a more efficient and faster method for learning a language, they demand for more active learning method in which they understand and put that knowledge in practice at the same time. That’s why translation become a ghost method in which people, students and teachers, believe it is not that necessary in the process of teaching-learning process.

The communicative approaches become the most useful tools for learning English because they emphasize in the interaction for acquiring a new language. These are teaching learning processes that are more accepted and required for the students because they are more active or in motion, in other words these approaches are not boring at all, an important quality the translation method doesn’t have. The idea of using different books or tools for make a translation produce an entire laziness and make the learning time a more depressing one, students these days not only desire a more active class but is the most productive way for them in order to remember and understand the topic they are seeing.

In conclusion, the translation method becomes for many students a boring tool to use in the learning-teaching process, especially when you can find web tools that can do that for you, but even with this help students still use this method in or out the classes, including in the most recent communicative methods. It is true that today the classes are not focused on doing translations for learning English, the communicative methodologies became predominant and have more demand.