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:

This research answer some questions of how translations methodology using in

bidirectional activities( written and spoken) could contribute to learn a foreign or second
language in all the educational levels of a country (primary, secondary and higher
education), the Main researcher is Dr Kirsten Malmkjær, Professor of Translation
Studies, Leicester University, United Kingdom, with the Research Centre for
Translation and Interpreting Studies, Leicester University.

This study asks how translation, both written and spoken, can contribute to the learning
of a foreign or second language (L2) in primary, secondary and higher education. It is
based on questionnaire surveys that were responded to by a total of 963 experts and
teachers; the qualitative research process further benefited from input by 101
contributors. The study includes case studies of the institutional and pedagogical
relations between translation and the preferred language-learning methods in seven
Member States (Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the United
Kingdom) and three comparison countries (Australia, China and the United States).
As the material mention the research will be descriptive (showing the traditional and
current roles of translation in language learning), analytical (analysing the empirical
evidence for the many suppositions) and exploratory (outlining the possible uses of
translation and their degrees of probable acceptance).

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This research mentions that most European teachers prefer to work in the classroom
using communicative methodologies and do not use translation activities in the
classroom in the classroom.

- What is the most relevant conclusions reached in the report, in your opinion?
Doing this research there is empirical evidence that translation can enhance the
learning of a second language, there is empirical evidence or literature supporting
the appropriate use of L1 in foreign language classrooms is presented. There are a
lot of countries that use translation in high frequency shows that the students have
high skill levels than the other that do not use translations. The uses of translation
in some European countries have a policy document of multilingualism that
recognised the importance of translation in the class to maintain diversity but do not
show that is good for improving language learning. As Dr. Kirsten Malmkjær
translation can be used as a scaffolding in initial levels but as a complex
communicative task at higher level of learning. Another important aspect that I
could read is that some countries like, spain they use immersion to learn other
language the use of Spanish is prohibit but translation is use with frequency in
Finland. But what is our concept of translation, remember that it is just a method
not is the language learning process itself, that covey knowledge and production,
some theorist see translation as a sentence level, using it only for checking the
grammar aspect of a lesson and to show the difference between languages,
forgetting the interaction in to communicate during real situations.

- What is the most unexpected conclusion reached in the report, in your opinion?
Doing this research there is empirical evidence that translation can enhance the
learning of a second language, there is empirical evidence or literature supporting
the appropriate use of L1 in foreign language classrooms is presented. There are a
lot of countries that use translation in high frequency shows that the students have
high skill levels than the other that do not use translations. The uses of translation
in some European countries have a policy document of multilingualism that
recognised the importance of translation in the class to maintain diversity but do not
show that is good for improving language learning. As Dr. Kirsten Malmkjær
translation can be used as a scaffolding in initial levels but as a complex
communicative task at higher level of learning. Another important aspect that I

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could read is that some countries like, spain they use immersion to learn other
language the use of Spanish is prohibit but translation is use with frequency in
Finland. But what is our concept of translation, remember that it is just a method
not is the language learning process itself, that covey knowledge and production,
some theorist see translation as a sentence level, using it only for checking the
grammar aspect of a lesson and to show the difference between languages,
forgetting the interaction in to communicate during real situations.
- If you are in Europe, do you think it is accurate for the country you live in /a country
you know well? Why?
We as teacher need to give our best to our students during and outside the
classroom, I will example about English because is the ones that most bilingual
school offer and also is teaching in secondary in public high schools, so many
people speak English world-wide, English crosses cultures and countries, students
will have door opens for their English skill. I will mention some aspect in order to
answer the question; English is the most commonly spoken language in the world.
Everywhere you go you will see English, in the internet, in your celphone, when you
travel, in tourism, that’s why it is accurate to know English well, this language
increases your job opportunities. English is the official language of 50 countries all
around the world

- If you are not in Europe, do you think the survey in your country would yield similar
results? Why?
No, I don’t think so maybe the survey gives very different results because there
are different ways of using translation.
At the secondary level in my country I did some translation activities in order
that students can acquire the language, my class is EFL I used realia such as;
newspapers for the net, some science English books in order to motivate the
students to make a discussion of the topics place in the material, also I was
looking for celebrities publications, information about singers with the
objective of been in a negotiation of meaning, the students enjoy all the
activities but the problem is that I could not have a real communication with
them the activities that I presented were only to be clear with the vocabulary
given in the source, another thing that we need to focus is to mention that
most of the public teacher, we do not have the opportunity to travel abroad

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the country in order to develops our personal and professional

competencies. The CNB or the curricula is completed in English with a high
level of performance but our students do not receive English at the
elementary education, until third grade of primary they start to receive it but
the teacher that give the English class are not well prepare in the subject
because the are Spanish teachers, and do not have the preparation and also
the government do not give the correct capacitation to them, but the
government are asking for excellence even when most of the teachers do not
have the material or the preparation, in my case that I have a degree of an
English teacher In 10 years that am working in the public system I received
only 1 capacitation, in our classroom we do not have books for the class we
need to look the material from different resouces, working with worksheets
that most of my students do not have the enough money to take the copy, we
do not have charts, to illustrate some topics or speakers to work with the
listening activities, in the writing process we as teacher need to be creative in
the way to make students write about their favourite actor, actress and the
oral activities I usually teach a song, they enjoy it but I think is not enough,
we need more preparation to teach better to our students, the government
have to provide the public institutions with capacitation of the teachers,
material, audiovisual material, and English laboratory, Internet connections,
the number of students in my classroom is around 48 students, I work with
them 3 times a week, with 40 minutes class, it is hard to maintain the
excellence that government ask, another thing that we as public teacher need
to be forward are the portfolio a series of documents, as an evidence of the
process, it is difficult when you do not have the resources and the do not
have an good economic situations to provide the students with the
photocopies that the teacher ask. That why I said that maybe the survey will
be different for many aspects that I wrote before, we do not live in a country
with lot of opportunities for teacher and students, Here in Honduras there are
few bilingual school, and few people that manage English, most of the
bilingual education do not use translation, they use immersion, no Spanish
inside the school, the bilingual education in Honduras is exclusive, only few
part of the population can reach it.

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No, I do not think so because in public pramiry education our students are receiving
English until this year and just vocabulary, the teachers for primary schools are not
English teachers so, they give some vocabulary to students and give it using
translation.

- What conclusions can you draw for your professional development.

Our various modes of investigation allow us to propose some general
conclusions concerning the relation between translation and language learning:
1. Translation is a communicative activity that can enhance the learning of an L2.
2. Translation is not a language-learning method in itself. It can and is usually
combined with a number of general teaching approaches. 3. In most countries,
translation is not mentioned in the official curricula but it is nevertheless used in
the classrooms. 4. There is no consistent evidence that bilingual social contexts
are associated with more or less use of translation in L2 classes (see 3.6.6). 5.
There is no country-level evidence that less use of translation in the classroom
correlates with higher performance in the other language skills, and there are
indications that a number of countries that score highly on L2 tests use
translation frequently in the classroom (see 4.12.1). 6. Neuropsychological
research on language lateralisation in bilinguals provides no clear evidence for
or against the implication of translation in language learning. 7. Translation can
be used as scaffolding in initial L2 learning, and as a complex multi-skill
communicative activity at higher levels. These two kinds of activity are quite
different, and have different relations to language learning. This may explain
why: 7.1. Translation activities are generally used less in primary education
(scaffolding) and more in higher education (complex multi-skill activity); 7.2.
Some empirical research shows translation having a negative effect on learning
(because teachers provide excessive scaffolding) while other research indicates

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very positive effects (because translation as a complex activity is associated

with high degrees of student involvement and satisfaction). 8. There are very
different concepts of what the term ‘translation’ means, both in research and
among teachers. The more the operative concept involves communication and
intercultural competence, the more favourable the attitude to translation, among
both researchers and teachers, and the less it is conceptually opposed to
language learning. One of the prime struggles is thus over the meaning of the
term ‘translation’. 9. There is a growing interest in the relation between
translation and language learning, as indicated in the rising number of
publications (see 2.2) and the increasingly favourable attitude adopted towards
translation in those publications. 136 Translation and language learning [TYPE
TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] [TYPE TEXT] 10. Translation can be a key learning activity in
circumstances where the aim is not to produce complete competence in L2 but
is rather to train students to use and combine multiple semiotic resources, often
passively. This can be seen in the ideals of intercomprehension (see 2.2.6)
training for military intelligence, the learning of elements of indigenous
languages (see 4.9.4.1) and classes that incorporate the use of language in
online interactive media (see 5.2). These conclusions are restricted by the
limitations of our research. There are several aspects that we would have liked to
investigate further, and which should be dealt with in future projects: 1. The
student’s perspective: The severe time restriction on our research did not allow
us to gather data on the use of translation from the perspective of the student’s
experience, both socially (classroom interaction and motivation) and cognitively
(eye-tracking). The existing studies on this (see 2.2.2) generally indicate high
levels of involvement and motivation associated with translation activities, but
we would like to know more about how students react to specific kinds of
translation tasks. 2. Different translation concepts: At many points in our
research we have found different values and preconceptions being attached to
the term ‘translation’, particularly among L2 teachers and researchers in applied
linguistics. It would be useful for all if a questionnaire gathered data on precisely
what values and preconceptions are involved in each professional context and in
each country. The same might be done for politically polyvalent terms like
‘mediation’ and ‘immersion’. 3. Common yardsticks: One of the problems with
the empirical research is the difficulty of comparing the relative success of

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methods that have different learning aims. If the aim of ‘intercomprehension’, for
example, is fundamentally different from a four-skills course, then there can be
no simple direct numerical comparison. The same problem haunts the use of
translation: if translation is used in class as a check on learning (as is
traditional), then it is the yardstick, and not the thing being measured, and if
translation skills are being developed entirely in their own right, then success in
them cannot be judged in terms of the four traditional skills. For this reason,
which is perhaps part-and-parcel of any paradigm shift, comparative research on
this issue is obliged to be partly qualitative. It should nevertheless be possible to
measure the effects that one kind of activity has on the development of all skills.
4. Different translation activities: In addition to data on student involvement and
motivation, it would be good to have data on the way different kinds of
translation activity correlate with the development of language skills, and in
which environments. Such research could also promote awareness of the
extreme internal diversity of translation.

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.

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 Assignment - CLIL

Name and surnames:

Group:

Date: