FINAL ACTIVITY

TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES

GROUP 551037_7

ALVARO VELASQUEZ

CC 70557892

TUTOR

JOSE GREGORIO PRECIADO

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA

LICENCIATURA EN INGLES COMO LENGUA EXTRANJERA

MEDELLIN, JULY 10th. 2016

 INTRODUCTION

For a very long time and across various educational contexts and countries, translation was
one of the most important tools for teaching and assessing language competence.

Translation may be understood as an end in itself, according to which textual material in one
language is replaced with equivalent material in a different language. But, in this article
translation will be analyzed as a potential tool for teaching.

Translation can be a valid language learning activity, alongside other activities and
techniques such as literature, conversation or role-play, marking a shift from thinking about
translation as a discrete skill in its own right to using it as a resource in language learning.

OBJECTIVES

•To show how translation can be used in our roles as English teachers as another learning
activity

•The importance to differentiate translation from interpretation.

•To know the most important aspects of translation related to teaching languages.

PROPOSAL (CASE STUDY)

Some learners appear to need to be able to relate words and structures in the target language
to equivalents in their mother tongue. This also gives them the opportunity to compare
similarities and contrast differences.

In this case, the ability to translate into the mother tongue of the learners can offer a
convenient and efficient way out of a difficult situation, and instead to spend too much time
trying to explain the concept behind a particular meaning a simple translation can achieve
the same goal in a fast and better way. Translation can also be extremely creative. It is not
only the translation of words from one language to another but the translation of ideas,
concepts and images.

Long texts can be very difficult to translate and demotivating, but is more relevant and
motivating begin with short, communicative pieces of language. For example, when teaching
grammatical structures, it can be very useful to check with your learners that they have fully
grasped the concept of the language taught by asking them to translate into their mother
tongue.

Translation can be helpful as well in reading comprehension tests because it requires students
to understand more details in the paragraphs they are translating and to simultaneously apply
their mother tongue. By incorporating translation into the language classroom, English
teachers can detect if their students may make mistakes based on their translation.

MAIN CONCEPTS OF TRANSLATION

Basically, a translator has two options for translating, Direct or literal translation and Oblique
translation. There are several translation techniques available under each option. Literal
translation is possible when structures and concepts are similar in the two languages and
when the structure or meanings doesn’t match is necessary to use Oblique translation.

Translation and interpreting are disciplines that allow multilingual communication, whether
oral or written, and the common denominator is language. However, there are some important
differences in the ways in which language is used. The written word requires quite different
techniques from the spoken word, so that professionals from each discipline work in contexts
that appear as different to each other as night and day.

The key skills of the translator are the ability to understand the source language and the
culture of the country where the text originated, then using a good library of dictionaries and
reference materials, to render that material clearly and accurately into the target language.

An interpreter, must be able to translate in both directions on the spot, without using
dictionaries or other supplementary reference materials. Interpreters must have very good
listening abilities, especially for simultaneous interpreting.

But when refers to teaching, translate is one the less used tools no matter the fact that there
are evidences that in many cases and used in a proper way can become the fifth skill in
classroom and a very good alternative in some difficult cases when normal approaches with
students haven’t been successful or in specific cases where grammar structure, meanings or
reading comprehension are hard to grasp for students without translation
 CONCLUSIONS

•The process of translation refers to the use of the translator’s knowledge of his native
language structure which is transferred into the target language.

•Translation brings culture closer.

•A translator has to have have a comprehensive view of the literature she is translating from
and into – in short, she has to perceive the whole in the part.

•Translation needs to be recovered as another tool for teaching and give it the right place to
help students to rely on it when is needed and appropriate.

REFERENCES

CHAPTER II & III CHAPTER II: TYPES OF TRANSLATIONS TECHNIQUES

http://datateca.unad.edu.co/contenidos/551037/Quiz_1.pdf.

CHAPTER I: TRANSLATION PROCEDURES, STRATEGIES AND METHODS Taken

from: http://www.bokorlang.com/journal/41culture.htm under a text by Mahmoud Ordudari
1. Int

Translation procedures, strategies and methods

By Mahmoud Ordudari

http://www.bokorlang.com/journal/41culture.htm

http://datateca.unad.edu.co/contenidos/551037/MODULO_551037.pdf

Academia- consecutive and simultaneous interpretation

http://www.academia.edu/4666592/Consecutive_and_simultaneous_interpreting

Tilden, Freeman. 1957. Interpreting Our Heritage, The University of North Carolina

Press, Chapel Hill.