3.3.1
Grammar-translation

Activity 6

Do you ever use translation in your classes? How much time do you spend on translation activities? Do your translation tasks have specific objectives. If so, give some examples.

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Grammar-translation is a method that dates back to the teaching of Latin and other 'dead' languages. Rules are presented and explained, and learners practise these rules in specially prepared exercises. Explanation is often given in the learners' L1, and there is little L2 oral practice. Many GT exercises involve translation of L2 sentences and texts into the L1, and vice versa. Grammar-translation is still used in many countries, particularly where language teachers are not themselves proficient in the L2. In Japan, a version of GT called 'yakudoko' is still used, with the specific aim of developing learner reading skills (recent educational reforms in Japan suggest that 'yakudoko' is gradually being replaced with more communicative methodologies).

Methodologies like GT are very teacher-centred, deductive, and FOFS. In GT, grammar teaching is always explicit, the rules are available to the learners, and the textbook is organized around a list of structures.

Although much discredited nowadays as a methodology, GT can be a useful (occasional) technique if employed with the specific aim of developing cross-linguistic awareness, and not used simply as a mechanical translation exercise.

The following example is from a Latvian textbook for English learners (Martinstone et al, 1985). The objective of the exercise is to develop learner awareness of cross-linguistic differences at the level of vocabulary (in this case, English phrasal verbs), and many would argue that this kind of activity can be beneficial:

Translate the sentences paying attention to the word 'get':

  1. She will get a ticket for her friend.
  2. They got the chest open.
  3. They had to get out of the house before the men came.
  4. What time did you get here?
  5. She got wet in the rain.
  6. I got off the bus at the wrong stop.
  7. Then I got on another bus and continued on my way.
  8. What time does the train get in (arrive)?
  9. How are you getting on? Quite well, thank you.
  10. She usually gets up at seven.
  11. We got up to (read [red] as far as) page 50 last lesson.
  12. Let's get together and talk about the excursion.
  13. Let's get down to business. (Let's start work.)
  14. Did you get through (pass) the exam?
  15. We got to our feet when the teacher came in.

The following example, from Le français en faculté: cours de base (1999), focuses on the fact that French allows different kinds of inversion, such as simple subject-verb inversion (eg 'pensez-vous partir?'), and complex inversion, where the subject noun phrase is repeated (eg 'Comment le gouvernement va-t-il réagir?'):

Translate the following into French, inverting subject and verb or using complex inversion wherever you can:

  1. I opened the cupboard where the cakes and sweets were to be found.
  2. So the students went home.
  3. Perhaps he'll come tomorrow.
  4. No doubt the ecologists are right.
  5. Whatever be the truth in the matter, I must say no.
  6. Vainly the population of the village fought against the building of the new motorway.

The final example we look at is also from Le français en faculté: cours de base (1999), and is an example of word-level translation, where learners are asked to translate lexical items from a text they have read. This kind of activity is possibly less effective in developing cross-linguistic awareness:

Traduisez en anglais les mots et expressions suivants :
Succès de librairie, d'un trait, éditeur, conjonction, sensibilité, photographes (W), quoi de plus ténu, matière, aventures, intrigue,
revêt, déçu, ressorts, succédé, relégué aux oubliettes.

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