In my advanced ESL writing class (the bridge course that bleeds into Freshman Composition), I've been known to write THE TRANSLATOR IS THE ENEMY in big letters on the whiteboard and ask my students to say it out loud. Say it again. Louder! Scream it to believe it! Of course, this often results in giggling and sometimes eyes rolling, but they, hopefully, get the point that at this level of ESL, I expect them to not reach for their phone to translate something every two seconds.
In the tutoring center, I often give students "the translator talk." It's not the sex ed talk, but it's an important conversation to have with ESL students as they are advancing in their language abilities. At my community college, we have four levels of ESL (plus the bridge course, which is, technically, level five).
Giving the "translation talk" I've given this "talk" to all levels of our ESL program, but mostly the conversation begins at level three. I'm a little more straightforward about the disadvantages in using the translator, obviously, with my level four and five students than I am with those lower levels. But I help even those newbie English speakers know that their dependency on the translator will need to be broken at some point if they hope to become a fluent, confident English speaker. But here's the kind of conversation I might have with an ESL student. The tone and examples and length may vary, depending on my relationship with the student. It goes something like this (and usually when I notice the student translating a word that I think would be better learned via context and/or using the learners dictionary): "Oh, you're translating. I think translating little new words-- like chair, computer, or dog--- when you're first learning English is natural and helpful. But here's the thing. Your English is advancing. You're going to start running into situations where the word you're translating doesn't have a clear translation and visa versa. There are words or ideas in your first language that doesn't exist in English. Maybe you've encountered it before. Maybe not. But you will if you haven't. And that's a good thing! It means you're becoming more fluent in English... Idioms are good example of this. If you translate 'piece of cake,' you'll misunderstand the phrase. You'll think it's about cake when it's not. But idioms are not the only ideas that can be mistranslated. Be careful, because you could learn the word wrong. I encourage you to try figuring out the word using context clue and/or comparing the translation with a reliable dictionary. At some point, though, the translator will become your enemy. It will stop you from progressing in your language if you depend on it for everything..." Sometimes I have a follow up "translator talk" which is where I talk to them about needing to feel uncomfortable. That's a sign that your English is advancing, but to seek out appropriate resources and develop skills that will help them through that transition into fluency. (aka: tutoring center, office hours with instructor, asking trusted friends who speak English, learner's dictionary, identifying context clues, active listening, etc.) Translation is for survival, not fluency As I wrap up the blog post, I just want to make a final note, and that is that translation is a survival tool. Have I translated English words into other languages? Yes. Have I used google translate to do that? Yes. Have I successfully become fluent in another language by doing that, though? No. I've traveled and needed words in other languages to help me order my food, to find my hotel, to get cold water instead of room temperature (etc). Usually I ask a friend how to say this word in their language. When I was in Australia, I met a lot of people from different parts of the world. I collected how to say "I love you," in over twenty languages, not because I was learning twenty languages but because I wanted to tell my friends that I love them. Or say hi. I've collected how to say "hello." That's fine. But I don't expect to learn a language by translating. And neither should our students. Even with my newbies, my level one students, I try to help them find ways to lessen their need to translate. One way is to invite them to look up the word in google images. Seeing a picture and learning the word in English is a lot better than code switching back and forth. A student could, also, draw pictures of the words that they're learning and quiz themselves. Of course, not all words can translate to pictures perfectly, so in this case, I like to put the word in a sentence. Give several examples of the word, actually. That's super helpful! I wish there was a magic button that allowed us to learn a language, but there isn't. It takes time to be fluent. But when I give the "translation talk" to students, I always point out that they're having this problem because they're getting better at English, that this is a good thing, and that I'm here to help them, so don't give up.
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