Teachers' attitudes toward and use of translation in the foreign language classroom at institutions of higher education in Croatia

Abstract

The role of translation in the foreign language classroom has been changing, but it still remains a contentious issue. The long-lasting debate whether students of foreign languages might benefit from the use of translation in class might have made practitioners insecure in relation to whether using translation is beneficial or not, what methods are best and when to use translation. The aim of this study is to investigate EFL practitioners’ perspective on translation in teaching foreign languages. Specifically, it explores language for specific purposes (LSP) teachers’ attitudes toward translation at tertiary-level institutions in Croatia. The data were collected by means of an online questionnaire using snowball sampling method in order to reach a greater number of teachers. The respondents were English, German and Italian LSP teachers from a variety of tertiary-level institutions. The study revealed that in the Croatian context the majority of LSP teachers use translation in language teaching, however, there seems to be a lack of certainty about its usefulness. In addition, LSP teachers' approach to translation appears to be rather traditional given there is no diversity in the methods mentioned.