Old Wine in New Bottles: Reconsidering Translation in the EFL Classroom
Old Wine in New Bottles: Reconsidering Translation in the EFL Classroom

Summary/Abstract: Translation enables effective communication between people around the world. It is courier for the transmission of knowledge, a protector of cultural heritage, and essential to the development of a global economy. When it comes to translation in language teaching, one thing seems to be obvious, the use of translation in the EFL classroom has become somewhat of a hot potato over recent years and it seems as if we are seeing a shift in certain ideas surrounding its effectiveness as a teaching tool. A number of foreign language scholars (Bagheri and Fazel, 2011) might consider translation as a useful medium to assist students in acquiring writing, facilitating their comprehension, helping them develop and express ideas in another language, and increasing their motivation to learn English. However, others might entirely discourage using the first language in the classroom (Malmkjar, 1998, Liao, 2006) and believe that translation of first language impedes the acquisition of second language and encourages learners to use L1, often for long periods of class time, when the aim of modern teaching is to remove it from the classroom. The present study is an investigative approach in exploring the two contradictory tendencies toward using translation as a teaching method and the pedagogical implications of the survey devised to measure degrees of translation and the use of the undergraduate students, both philological and non-philological, the use of translation in the English language classroom, its effects, benefits, and limitations.

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