Using Translation Exercises

INTRODUCTION

Teaching a language different of the mother tongue of a person represents a certain difficult grade to be rooted in the brain. The highest challenge of all is not memorize of vocabulary, grammatical rules comprehension or phrase structuring, is to know how structure text with the correct contextualization of the idea that the writer wants to show.

The main factor of this problem is that a person who writes a text always is thinking in their mother tongue first instead of think in the second language as well.

A language is different to the other by certain grammatical rules, in the arrangement of parts in sentences differently. There is where ideas collide within make a statement and the phrase doesn’t fit in the context of the idea.

The article Using translation exercises in the communicative EFL writing classroom is written by Eun-Young Kim who wants to introduce an innovative technique, which combines the two dichotomous approaches (process and product) through the use of grammar-translation in a reflective and collaborative environment.

Analyzing an Applied Linguistics Research Paper

Article: Using translation exercises in the communicative EFL writing classroom

Eun-Young Kim

1. What is the main goal of the paper?

 This article introduces an innovative technique, which combines the two dichotomous approaches—process and product—through the use of grammar-translation in a reflective and collaborative environment.

 The purpose of introducing his own technique is simply to add to the practitioner’s lore from which ESL/EFL writing teachers can draw among the many exercises that can benefit novice English language learners.

2. What is the hypothesis the author seeks to test?

 How using their previous learning approach—based on the grammar-translation method—helped the students to recognize the importance of accuracy for successful written communication and to raise awareness of the audience. It also discusses how this approach has revealed the fact that students’ first language use in a second language writing classroom can be a positive tool for improving their writing proficiency and helping them realize the importance of seeing their own writing more objectively.

 The primary goal of my instruction was to help my students experience the process of discovering what they wanted to say in their writing through several revisions, as the theory assumes.

3. What is the key question to be answered by this paper?

 An approach based on grammar-translation can be a useful means to achieve a communicative goal.

4. What are the controls involved in this experiment?

 Realize the importance of seeing its own writing more objectively.

5. Which assumptions is the experiment based upon?

 Writing is a ‘process of discovery in which ideas are generated and not just transcribed’ (Susser 1994, 35).

6. What data is collected through its methodology?

 Low English level Korean college student of English composition class.

 In the first exercise, students were asked to read the final versions of their composition and then to translate their own writing into Korean emphasizing in the translation of their writings as if it had been written by someone else; tenses had to be translated as they were, and no function words could be added in their translation to complete the meaning. It would not be easy for them to be totally free from prejudice while reading their own writing, since it is much easier to fill in the ‘gaps’ in our own writing than in someone else’s. Besides, humans are bound by their own assumptions. Students have an opportunity to detach themselves from their writing and have a second look through the process of translating their writing into Korean, just as they had been practicing for the last 6 years in their previous English classrooms.

 After finishing the translation, the students were asked to hand in a written response describing what they felt and learnt while translating their own writing into English. Their responses were encouraging to me, as they commented positively on the translation exercise. Several students wrote that this exercise was eye opening to them.

 In the second exercise, each student worked with a partner who read his/her peer’s paper and translated it into Korean. Special instructions were given that each sentence had to be translated word for word, just like in the previous exercise, without adding or subtracting anything from the text. And then the translated text was given back to the original writer to be read. After reading the translation done by their partners, students were asked to respond to the translated version, considering such questions as:

 How accurately did your partner translate your writing?

 Was there any miscommunication?

 If so, whose fault do you think it is?

 Students were also asked to write their responses to their partner’s writing, based on such questions as:

 Was your partner’s writing clear?

 What did you like the most in the paper?

 Are there any areas which you think your partner needs to work on more?

 How was your partner’s grammar in writing?

 Do you think correct grammar is important for successful communication?

 The purpose of this series of questions—especially the second set—was to help the students realize the fact that writing is a communicative act.

7. What are the potential implications of this paper?

 Quite a number of researchers began to agree with the idea that ‘approaches to the teaching of composition that ESL teachers may have felt were only appropriate for native speakers, may be effective for teaching all levels of writing, including ESL composition’ (Zamel 1982: 203).

 As Raimes (ibid.: 409) suggests,

...