Assignment - CLIL

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH TRANSLATION

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment must be done individually and has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: between 6 and 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if
there are any-).
- Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Size: 11.
- Line height: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules of
presentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references which are
detailed in the Study Guide.

Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject

Evaluation” document. Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not permitted. Make sure to
include the following information in the name of the file: initial of your name, surname
and FP036_assignment.

In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be
found in the “Subject Evaluation” document.

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 Assignment - CLIL

Assignment:
In 2013, the European Union did a report on translation and language learning
(Translation and Language Learning: The role of translation in the teaching of
languages in the European Union, summary. Brussels: Eu Law and Publications). You
can read it here and here

There was also a small presentation of the report followed by a questions & answer
session, which can be found in YouTube as “Translation and language learning – open
discussion” (here and here, for example).

Read the report and answer the questions:

- What is the most relevant conclusions reached in the report, in your opinion?

- What is the most unexpected conclusion reached in the report, in your opinion?
- If you are in Europe, do you think it is accurate for the country you live in /a country
you know well? Why?
- If you are not in Europe, do you think the survey in your country would yield similar
results? Why?
- What conclusions can you draw for your professional development.

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Important: you have to write your personal details, the option and the subject
name on the cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these
conditions will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below
the cover.

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 Assignment - CLIL

Name and surnames: Ivan Julian Rey Tellez

Group:2017-02

Date: September the 22nd 2018

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RELEVANT CONCLUSIONS

Keeping in mind all of the interesting conclusions related to the translation issue I
would like to highlight that the most relevant for me is the one that considers translation
as a fifth basic skill because it is inherent in the language-learning process and the
ways in which could be used in order to enhance the acquisition of a second language.
This is probably one of the most interesting conclusions I want to underline from the
survey and the report about Translation and Language Learning: The role of translation
in the teaching of languages in the European Union, summary.

I think it would be also appropriate to bear in mind one of the most relevant advantages
of translation and it is defining it as a communicative activity that fosters learners to
acquire a second language when they establish equivalences that help them to
understand the L2 mediation between the vocabulary and the grammar structures in L1
and also considered as a positive term in countries such as Germany. A clear example
of these benefits is idioms or sayings and proverbs which are usually difficult to deduce
and that make us think about translation as the only way to explain meaning.
Widdowson,in 1979,wrote against total proscription of translation stating this:
I want to argue that translation...can be a very useful pedagogic device and indeed in
some circumstances...translation of a kind may provide the most effective means of
learning.
(1979:101)

Taking into account the survey results and the conclusions on the report it is
remarkable that the advantages of the use of translation as a teaching technique are
more than expected.

Learning through subtitles and promoting plurilingualism and interculturality by using

mediation and interpretation seem to be effective alternatives in teaching a foreign
language, being “intercomprehension” a desirable ability acquired by learners who are
supposed to become bilingual, polyglot or multicultural. Bearing in mind that “The term
‘intercomprehension’ has been used by the European Union in order to identify a
broader approach to language education, particularly the use of underlying language
proficiency to enable access to other languages.” Burley, S. and Pomphrey (2003) we

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could state that the multiple definitions on this term clearly assume a kind of scaffolding
technique related to the field of translation.

The CEFR position concerning the use of translation is also an interesting issue to
analyze because of its consideration with regard to globalization and our contemporary
learners interacting in a dynamic world and society in which the constant research of
multicultural equivalences is evident in the same way that the necessity of learning to
interpret meaning in the digital edge and getting information from different cultures in
diverse fields such as, arts, music, literature, science, politics, economy and on and on.
CLIL could be also considered as an opposing party and a sort of translation enemy
regarding the translation benefits because of its clear advantage enhancing learners to
develop multilingual interests, introducing a wider cultural context and preparing
students to internationalization without using translation methods.
It is more than obvious that the most of the countries that participated answering the
survey preferred this method or language immersion beyond the traditional methods
and translation seems to be also considered as an out-dated approach and that is not
considered seriously in teaching languages.
The use of mental translation is another important finding in this research in spite of not
being recognized by many learners or teacher in their teaching practices but that
eventually occurs consciously or unconsciously.

It is important to bear in mind that there are several translation activities and not all of
them should be judged in the same way because they belong to different strategies
depending on topics difficulty and complexity at the discretion of the teacher.
Last but not least, the positive and negative assumptions related to the issue cannot be
assumed as laws at all and they must be considered as tentative reflections on which
teachers are free to decide about the best way to use translation and the accurate
moment to turn to it.

POSSIBLE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES CONCERNING THE SURVEY IN

COLOMBIA

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In Colombia, languages teachers at tertiary level or higher education are usually

discouraged from teaching a second language through translation or this type of
practices are even prohibited and looked down upon teaching environments.
The new methods and methodologies arrival and the intention of leaving behind the
traditional and old fashioned ways to teach a second language have created some
negative prejudices against the translation techniques and it could be said that the
reasons for failure when learners study a second language tend to be associated with
translation methods instead of immersion or direct methods and the CLIL, TBL and
bilingualism that have gathered strength nowadays.

Nevertheless, translation activities seem to be common at elementary school especially

in public schools maybe because of the lack of knowledge of approaches such as
CLIL, The Direct Method or Bilingualism that clearly demand and require a higher
command of the second language and that teachers from theses type of institutions do
not tend to have as opposed to their colleagues from private schools and international
or bilingual schools in which the directors’ demands and institutional policies often
entail native speakers, bilingual teachers or teachers with a required sound command
of English.
This contrast concerning the institutional requirements depending on the type of
institution could obviously vary the survey’s results and a possible research related to
the translation issue.
Furthermore, a study like this should be delimited in order to get better and more
conclusive results due to its feasibility of a research study in order to determine
accurate conclusions in my country.

Concerning the field in which I work, the tertiary teaching and higher education I
consider that the survey results could be similar to those from countries such as France
in which the translation is also considered as an almost “prohibited” practice or activity
on the part of some director from different educational institutions and the evident
contradiction and incoherence with regard to consider translation as a fifth skill could
also recur in a country like mine. I guess this could probably happens because of the
common assumption that translation is for professionals only in formal fields of
knowledge but an activity that stops students thinking in L2.

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In conclusion, I could state that the most of the propositions would be negative and
only teachers from public schools and pre elementary school would accept or
asseverate that translation could be a useful and recurrent practice in teaching English.
Colombian classrooms are usually monolingual and the influence of second languages
or “ideal” multilingual learning and teaching environments or social contexts are not
common. For this reason the existing “rift” between the public and private education
would generate dissimilar results and the social class perceptions concerning the use
of translation would vary being avoided by learners and teachers from bilingual and
international schools and much more allowed by the public school system.

MY PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE POINT OF VIEW

It is interesting to notice that according to the survey results in European countries the
tendency is to put effort into teaching communicative approaches placing a lot of
emphasis on training teachers or demanding them to teach methods such as Task
Based Learning or Immersion.
In Colombia as I mentioned before the tendency is similar in private institutions and
most recently the national bilingual program “Colombia bilingue” looking for a
standardized teaching of English as a second language and implementing a suggested
curriculum for the elementary and secondary education in which TBL is one of the
suggested approaches considered in order to be implemented.
I personally believe and agree with some survey’s results in European countries related
to the position of some teachers and research professors regarding the suggestion of
minimizing translation activities but using them in order to complement the teaching of
some of the four skills and that could be very useful.
I also consider that translating the most of the time could have negative pedagogical
effects enhancing learners to not putting effort into their second language studying
preferring translating immediately by thinking on the L1 without internalizing the L2
directly.
The lack of time is maybe one of the biggest issues in order to use translation in class
but the other one could be the tendency to ban or prohibit translation activities on the

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part of the institutional policies which often consider it as a teacher’s lack of command
or knowledge regarding the second language.
I guess translation is a positive teaching tool in order to check on the vocabulary and
grammar acquisition on behalf of learners, especially when teaching basic levels in
which their basis concerning the second language acquisition start. In respect of the
common wrong assumptions on behalf of teachers with regard to learners who pretend
understand topics I think these rash conclusions about what learners have learnt
should be avoided considering that students tend to lie to teachers when say they
understand some explanations about topics, especially when they have been evaluated
or assessed.
I usually consider some of the translation activities mentioned by Leonardi (2010: 88)
who offers the following ‘pedagogical translation framework’. In this set of classroom
activities I would like to mention the ones that I prefer:
Pre-translation activities: I think they are useful in order to introduce vocabulary
previews.
Translation activities: Grammar explanation; cultural mediation and intercultural
competence development in the event that comprehension is not evident due to the
difficulty of a topic or structure and the impossibility of inferring.
Post-translation activities: Oral translation commentary when necessary because of
misunderstanding or wrong assumptions related to literal (word-for-word) translation in
English false cognates, sayings, proverbs or idioms that usually imply the explanation
of cultural and even historical clarifications and certain specific knowledge concerning
the context.

Finally, I must state that I strongly agree with some of the conclusion from the survey
and those are the ones related to:
Translation is not a language-learning method in itself. It can and is usually combined
with a number of general teaching approaches.
In most countries, translation is not mentioned in the official curricula but it is
nevertheless used in the classrooms.
But I would also state that I disagree with some of them regarding Colombian case:
Translation activities are generally used less in primary education (scaffolding) and
more in higher education (complex multi-skill activity). In fact, they are used less in
higher education in Colombia.

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CONCLUSION

As Soars and Soars state: translation if harnessed, is potentially a very powerful tool
for language learning and pretending that students do not have a first language is
perverse.

(Soars and Soars 1991: 5)

In fact, learners of languages around the world seem to feel interested in knowing
every single aspect about intercultural issues when a language catch their attention
and online translation is becoming more common day after day. Young adults and
learners do not want to spend months and years trying to understand a language and
they try to use interactive tools such as translators on line in order to understand
information and respond to their peers and colleagues immediately.

It is a competitive world and edge in which communicative strategies validate any kind
of technique or approach in order to master a foreign language as soon as possible
and even going against some theorists in regard to avoid translation because in these
modern times of social media and changes in which the access to the information is
everywhere translation seems to be in fashion again.

REFERENCES

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Burley, S. and Pomphrey, C. “Intercomprehension in Language Teacher Education: a

dialogue between English and Modern Languages.” In Language Awareness, Vol 12:
3&4: Multilingual Matters, Cleveland, 2003. 247 – 255. www.multilingual-
matters.net/la/012/0247/la0120247.pdf

Dahlgren, M. Sitwell, J. (n. d.). Teaching English Through Translation. Funiber.

Leonardi, Vanessa. 2011. ‘Pedagogical Translation as a Naturally-Occurring Cognitive

and Linguistic Activity in Foreign Language Learning’. Annali Online Lettere 1/2: 17-28.

Pym, Anthony & Malmkjaer, Kirsten & Gutierrez-Colon Plana, Mar. (2013). Translation
and Language Learning: The role of translation in the teaching of languages in the
European Union. A Study. 10.2782/13783.

Soars, J & Soars,L. (1991): Headway Pre-Intermediate Teacher’s Book. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Widdowson,H.(1972): Explorations in Applied Linguistics .Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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