DESIRED AND SIDE EFFECTS OF TRANSLATION IN ESP TEACHING AND LEARNING
DESIRED AND SIDE EFFECTS OF TRANSLATION IN ESP TEACHING AND LEARNING

Summary/Abstract: “To translate or not to translate” has been a matter of debate regarding language teaching / learning for many years now. The question that always rises is whether translating vocabulary terms, phrases or texts meets learners’ needs or it only creates the illusion that it enhances the learning process. Nowadays, the approach that refers to the use of the learners’ mother tongue or a lingua franca to facilitate learning is frowned upon as it does not help learners internalize the foreign language and can lead to negative language transfer. The present paper focuses on the importance of translation as an “only when needed” tool in ESP teaching (English for Environmental Science and Engineering). Keeping in mind that (despite the latest trend of avoiding translation and the first language)mental translation occurs involuntarily, a balanced approach is pleaded for. If properly guided, learners of ESP can acquire vocabulary and complex structures by using translation only when the structures in L2 cannot be understood or assimilated by recalling linguistic background knowledge or features shared by L1 and L2

• Details
• Contents