A new approach to the use of translation in the teaching of L2

Abstract

The traditional Grammar-Translation method has been replaced in recent decades by the communicative method, which focuses on the importance of the students' oral skills and their ability to be understood by native speakers of the language they are studying. However, this method has now come under scrutiny as more teachers become aware of the need of combining the ability to communicate with a more traditional approach which enables students to attain a good command of L2. Thus, traditional exercises can be revised and updated to achieve this objective. The translation exercise is one of these. In this article we provide the reader with a general view of translations as a teaching method, followed by a study of three texts and some ideas to make this exercise more appealing.