Integrating translation in classroom: Facilitating language skills

Abstract

This paper aims at studying the effectiveness of using Grammar Translation method to teach English as a Second Language and formulating recommendations to use this method. It was observed that translation as a method when applied to language teaching practice induced a deeper insight into achieving the desired outcome of teaching. The drawback felt in this particular analysis was because of multi-lingual and diversified classrooms (students with gender and intellectual differences). Translation was not given importance to in second or foreign language classrooms all these years because it was deliberated to be misleading and restraining, discouraging students from thinking in terms of the foreign language. Translation was misinterpreted as one of the many deficient teaching methodologies of olden times. However, in the last few decades, there has been an increasing interest in translation practice in ESL classrooms. Translation, an educational instrument when it is incorporated into the language teaching practice with learning activities, (reading, listening, writing, and vocabulary development) fulfils the purpose of teaching a language. Translation activities like two sides of a coin make students communicate from the Source Language to the Target Language and vice versa. The exercise of translation encourages students to discern the differences in structure and vocabulary, to strengthen their grammatical competence and comprehending ability, to shape their own way of thinking and to correct common mistakes that could otherwise go about unnoticed, thereby helping them to enhance their reading and writing skills, during the process of translation. Translation skills if used properly by students can lead to better understanding and learning of L1.