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 are 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

Name and surnames: Julia Nathalia Zamora Jaramillo

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Group:2017-01

Date: January the 24th 2018

RELEVANT CONCLUSIONS

In my opinion there was one relevant conclusion that really caught my attention,
it was the fact that translation is considered as a fifth basic skill because it is
inherent in the language-learning process. It is highlighted in the survey and the
report about Translation and Language Learning: The role of translation in the
teaching of languages in the European Union, summary.

Another relevant advantage of translation is related to the fact that it fosters

learners to acquire a second language, when they start to use it, it helps them
to understand the second language with the intrinsic vocabulary or the implicit
grammar structures in the mother language. A good way to exemplify this is the
use of idioms, they are usually difficult to understand for second language
learners and the use of translation in some occasions will be a big help.

With regard to 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. Many people use it to
learn a second language even being instructed by others or learning by
themselves.

The Common European Framework of Reference relates translation to

globalization. Nowadays people needs to understand languages for simple and
complex issues, with the technologic era and the facility to interchange
information, languages has become not only important but also necessary and
translation helps in those processes to interpret, to convey meaning and to get

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the information they are looking for without matter the provenience of it and
eliminating the language barrier.

In what is concerning to the opposite things to translation, CLIL could be one to

bear in mind. It offers to learners the possibility to work in different fields through
the process of acquiring the language, giving them the opportunity to be ready
to face internationalization without using translation methods.
Another relevant finding in this research is the use of mental translation since it
occurs a certain moment of the process of learning acquisition even consciously
or unconsciously. It is important to clarify that there are different strategies
depending on factors such as topics, difficulty and complexity at the discretion
of the teacher.

Finally, the positive and negative results regarding translation cannot be stated
as an universal truth, they should be taken depending on the use and the
implemented way to use it.

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POSSIBLE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES CONCERNING THE SURVEY

IN COLOMBIA

It is a not a surprise to see how in Europe new methodologies are being

implemented to teach a foreign language. The way in which education is taken
in Europe is different to Latin American education in so many different aspects,
it is not just because of the fact of being different continents, it deals with social
classes and cultural differences.

In Colombia, translation is not allowed in many teaching contexts since some

guidelines don´t consider it as a good strategy to be implemented in higher
education. With the new methodologies, there are prejudices towards the fact
of using the old ones. It is better seen to use other methods such as CLIL or
bilingualism without using translation techniques.

But the real panorama is that even when translation is not a totally accepted
method in teaching English at elementary school is affected for multiple factors,
such as the current policies to hire teachers in what is concerning to private
schools or the low investment in teachers capacitation in public schools; it is still
one of the most common strategies used in an ESL classroom.

Those possible variables can make a research related to translation to be more

difficult for finding and stating clear conclusions, it should be make in a deep
way to actually know accurate results in Colombia.

With regard to the field in which I work, I consider that the survey results could
be similar to those from countries in Europe, where translation is seen as a
useful discipline for professionals who are in charge of translating texts, books,
speeches or messages as part of their professional careers but not as a good
practice for students in process of learning a new language.

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In conclusion, I can say that only a part of the teachers in Colombia would
accept translation as a correct and useful method to be implemented in classes
even though they know they use it daily. The clear distinction between public
and private schools could be definitive cause impact and give different results.

MY PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE POINT OF VIEW

In Colombia there is a tendency to try to implement new policies which allow to

implement new methodologies such as CLIL or TBL in order to get different
results in the bilingualism processes. As an example of it, the last bilingual
education plan “Colombia Bilingue” takes into account in the whole planning of
it, methodological issues that weren’t relevant in language teaching before.

I totally agree with an aspect I found interesting in the results. In Europe the
translation is suggested to be used as a complementary strategy to work with
the four skills, minimizing its use by isolation and giving to it the opportunity to
be a good tool but not to be the main activity in a classroom.

I also agree that focusing in translating can cause a negative pedagogical

impact in learners since they do not use any other strategy to understand the
language and they start thinking too much to produce it due to the fact that they
have to make a long process thinking in their mother language and in the
foreign one.

I could see the benefits of translation and consider it as an useful tool when it is
needed in terms of checking new vocabulary or understanding new grammatical
issues. Especially when we talk about beginners since they really need to use it
to be able to understand some things in the second language.

Some of the translation activities would be useful in those specific cases, below
there are some stated by Leonardi (2010: 88) who offers the following
‘pedagogical translation framework’.

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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 would like to say that I agree with the fact that Translation is not a
language-learning method in itself. It can and is usually combined with a
number of general teaching approaches.

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)

Translation is becoming in one of the most common tools at the moment of

learning and practicing a new language. Nowadays translation is accessible to
everyone with the facilities technology offers, online translator allows to learners
to immediately investigate the meaning of new words or phrases. In these days,
communication is faster and immediate responses are needed, for that
translation becomes an useful tool in any context where a second language and
real communication are involved.

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REFERENCES

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

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

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.