Melita Koletnik Korošec, University of Maribor, Slovenia The Role of Translation in Foreign Language Teaching – Time for Reassessment? Melita Koletnik Korošec, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Controversial role of translation in FLT Reasons: Ethno-centric Economic Pedagogic Cognitive Practical …. Objectives: Value-oriented Tecnical Cook (2010) Distinction: Pedagogical vs. Real

Value-oriented objections an unnatural, artificial and stilted activity de-motivating and frustrating only appropriate in the training of future translators purposeless and has no application in the real world is used by language teachers because they have little experience or knowledge of other teaching methods

Technical objections elicits mistakes and promotes interference and (negative) transfer forces the learners to view the language through the prism of their mother tongue misleads students into thinking that expressions in two languages correspond 1:1 is not a suitable in the initial stages of learning is independent and radically different from the four skills which define language competence – reading, listening, speaking and writing does not allow or make easy the achievement of generally accepted foreign language teaching aims – such as initial fluency in spoken language, the use of situationalised and contextualised language, and the controlled introduction of communicative strategies and communicative language use is not suitable as a language testing tool

The Study Teaching grammar through translation 2 groups, 2 teachers one taught without resort to translation the other taught through translation 1st year students of English translation Exploring (1st stage): the role of translation in the acquisition of the linguistic competence Ultimate aim (2nd stage): its influence on the development of translation competence

Translation as a tool for language acquistion implemented as part of homework assignments through discussion of homework solutions in class a combination of synthetic and authentic materials use of native language as a means of communication

Methodology Oxford Online Placement Test (Test 1) On-line questionaire to determine students’ linguistic background (Questionnaire 1) Grammar Tests (Tests 2-5) Weeks 7/14/21/28 Oxford Online Placement Test (Test 6) On-line questionnaire to asses the overall impression (Questionnaire 2)

Preliminary Results – Tests 1 & 2 Statistical analyses of Test 1 vs. Test 2 results No statistical significance could be established in relation to absolute performance of both groups (p=0.603 i.e. p>0.05) Total n=20 Group A n=11 Group B n=9 t p M SD Test 1 83.2 13.7 82.1 13.4 84.5 14.8 -0.385 0.705 Test 2 76.2 9.0 76.4 8.0 75.8 10.6 0.146 0.886 Gain -7.0 -5.7 16.3 -8.7 10.3 0.603 Table 1: Statistical analyses of Test 1 vs. Test 2 results (in %) M: mean SD: standard deviation t: t-test for independent samples p: statistical significance

Preliminary Results – Tests 1 & 2 Statistical analyses of Test 1 vs. Test 2 results No statistical significance could be established in relation to absolute performance of both groups Group A seems to have achieved somewhat better results in all relevant exercises, save for Exercise 7, and the results for Exercise 6 are identical Group A n=11 Group B n=9 t p M SD Exercise 4 9.1 0.9 9.0 1.1 0.3 0.70 Exercise 5 7.3 1.8 7.2 1.3 0.1 0.85 Exercise 6 7.8 -0.0 0.96 Exercise 7 8.3 8.7 0.8 -0.6 0.53 Exercise 8 7.6 7.1 0.40 Table 1: Statistical analyses of Test 1 vs. Test 2 results (in %) M: mean SD: standard deviation t: t-test for independent samples p: statistical significance

Preliminary Results – Tests 1 & 2 Cohen’s d 0.067 = indicating a non-significant effect. Both practices seem to be supportive of the development of linguistic skills of language learners The following values are given as indicative of the tests: small effect size, d = 0.2 to 0.3; medium effect size, d = ca. 0.5; and large effect size, d = 0.8 to infinity

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