Assignment - CLIL

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH TRANSLATION

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment must be done individually and has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: between 6 and 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if
there are any-).
- Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Size: 11.
- Line height: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules of
presentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references which are
detailed in the Study Guide.

Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject

Evaluation” document. Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not permitted. Make sure to
include the following information in the name of the file: initial of your name, surname
and FP036_assignment.

In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be
found in the “Subject Evaluation” document.

1
 Assignment - CLIL

Assignment:
In 2013, the European Union did a report on translation and language learning
(Translation and Language Learning: The role of translation in the teaching of
languages in the European Union, summary. Brussels: Eu Law and Publications). You
can read it here and here

There was also a small presentation of the report followed by a questions & answer
session, which can be found in YouTube as “Translation and language learning – open
discussion” (here and here, for example).

Read the report and answer the questions:

- What is the most relevant conclusions reached in the report, in your opinion?
- What is the most unexpected conclusion reached in the report, in your opinion?
- If you are in Europe, do you think it is accurate for the country you live in /a country
you know well? Why?
- If you are not in Europe, do you think the survey in your country would yield similar
results? Why?
- What conclusions can you draw for your professional development.

Important: you have to write your personal details, the option and the subject
name on the cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these
conditions will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index
below the cover.

2
 Assignment - CLIL

Name and surname(s): Miledy Aguilera

Login: DOFPMTFL3898521
Group: Alone
Date: 03/07/22

3
 Assignment - CLIL

- What is the most relevant conclusions reached in the report, in

your opinion?
This investigation there is empirical evidence that translation can enhance the learning of a
second language, there is empirical evidence or literature supporting the appropriate use of L1
in foreign language classrooms is offered. There are a lot of countries that use translation in
high frequency shows that the apprentices have high skill levels than the other that do not use
translations. The uses of translation in some European countries have a policy document of
multilingualism that recognised the importance of translation in the class to maintain diversity
but do not show that is good for improving language learning. As Dr. Kirsten Malmkjær
translation can be used as a scaffolding in initial levels but as a complex communicative task at
higher level of learning. Another important aspect that I could read is that some countries like,
spain they use immersion to learn other language the use of Spanish is prohibit but translation is
use with frequency in Finland. But what is our concept of translation, remember that it is just a
method not is the language learning process itself, that covey knowledge and production, some
theorist see translation as a sentence level, using it only for checking the grammar aspect of a
lesson and to show the difference between languages, forgetting the interaction in to
communicate during real situations.

- What is the most unexpected conclusion reached in the report, in

your opinion?
This research there is empirical evidence that translation can enhance the learning of a second
language, there is empirical evidence or literature supporting the appropriate use of L1 in
foreign language classrooms is presented. There are a lot of countries that use translation in high
frequency shows that the students have high skill levels than the other that do not use
translations. The uses of translation in some European countries have a policy document of
multilingualism that recognised the importance of translation in the class to maintain diversity
but do not show that is good for improving language learning. As Dr. Kirsten Malmkjær
translation can be used as a scaffolding in initial levels but as a complex communicative task at
higher level of learning. Another important aspect that I Assignment - CLIL 4 could read is that
some countries like, spain they use immersion to learn other language the use of Spanish is
prohibit but translation is use with frequency in Finland. But what is our concept of translation,
remember that it is just a method not is the language learning process itself, that covey
knowledge and production, some theorist see translation as a sentence level, using it only for
checking the grammar aspect of a lesson and to show the difference between languages,
forgetting the interaction in to communicate during real situations.

4
 Assignment - CLIL

- If you are in Europe, do you think it is accurate for the country

you live in /a country you know well? Why?
We as coach need to give our best to our students during and outside the classroom, I will
example about English because is the ones that maximum bilingual school offer and also is
teaching in secondary in public high schools, so many people speak English world-wide,
English crosses cultures and countries, students will have door opens for their English skill. I
will remark some aspect in order to answer the question; English is the most commonly spoken
language in the world. Everywhere you go you will see English, in the internet, in your
celphone, when you travel, in tourism, that’s why it is accurate to know English well, this
language increases your job opportunities. English is the official language of 50 countries all
around the world

- If you are not in Europe, do you think the survey in your country
would yield similar results? Why?
No, I don’t think so maybe the survey gives very different results because there are different
ways of using translation. At the secondary level in my country I did some translation activities
in order that students can acquire the language, my class is EFL I used realia such as;
newspapers for the net, some science English books in order to motivate the students to make a
discussion of the topics place in the material, also I was looking for celebrities publications,
information about singers with the objective of been in a negotiation of meaning, the students
enjoy all the activities but the problem is that I could not have a real communication with them
the activities that I presented were only to be clear with the vocabulary given in the source,
another thing that we need to focus is to mention that most of the public teacher, we do not have
the opportunity to travel abroad Assignment - CLIL 5 the country in order to develops our
personal and professional competencies. The CNB or the curricula is completed in English with
a high level of performance but our students do not receive English at the elementary education,
until third grade of primary they start to receive it but the teacher that give the English class are
not well prepare in the subject because the are Spanish teachers, and do not have the preparation
and also the government do not give the correct capacitation to them, but the government are
asking for excellence even when most of the teachers do not have the material or the
preparation, in my case that I have a degree of an English teacher In 10 years that am working
in the public system I received only 1 capacitation, in our classroom we do not have books for
the class we need to look the material from different resouces, working with worksheets that
most of my students do not have the enough money to take the copy, we do not have charts, to
illustrate some topics or speakers to work with the listening activities, in the writing process we

5
 Assignment - CLIL

as teacher need to be creative in the way to make students write about their favourite actor,
actress and the oral activities I usually teach a song, they enjoy it but I think is not enough, we
need more preparation to teach better to our students, the government have to provide the public
institutions with capacitation of the teachers, material, audiovisual material, and English
laboratory, Internet connections, the number of students in my classroom is around 48 students,
I work with them 3 times a week, with 40 minutes class, it is hard to maintain the excellence
that government ask, another thing that we as public teacher need to be forward are the portfolio
a series of documents, as an evidence of the process, it is difficult when you do not have the
resources and the do not have an good economic situations to provide the students with the
photocopies that the teacher ask. That why I said that maybe the survey will be different for
many aspects that I wrote before, we do not live in a country with lot of opportunities for
teacher and students, Here in Honduras there are few bilingual school, and few people that
manage English, most of the bilingual education do not use translation, they use immersion, no
Spanish inside the school, the bilingual education in Honduras is exclusive, only few part of the
population can reach it. Assignment - CLIL 6 No, I do not think so because in public pramiry
education our students are receiving English until this year and just vocabulary, the teachers for
primary schools are not English teachers so, they give some vocabulary to students and give it
using translation.

- What conclusions can you draw for your professional

development.
Our various modes of investigation allow us to propose some general conclusions concerning
the relation between translation and language learning: 1. Translation is a communicative
activity that can enhance the learning of an L2. 2. Translation is not a language-learning method
in itself. It can and is usually combined with a number of general teaching approaches. 3. In
most countries, translation is not mentioned in the official curricula but it is nevertheless used in
the classrooms. 4. There is no consistent evidence that bilingual social contexts are associated
with more or less use of translation in L2 classes (see 3.6.6). 5. There is no country-level
evidence that less use of translation in the classroom correlates with higher performance in the
other language skills, and there are indications that a number of countries that score highly on
L2 tests use translation frequently in the classroom (see 4.12.1). 6. Neuropsychological research
on language lateralisation in bilinguals provides no clear evidence for or against the implication
of translation in language learning. 7. Translation can be used as scaffolding in initial L2
learning, and as a complex multi-skill communicative activity at higher levels. These two kinds

6
 Assignment - CLIL

of activity are quite different, and have different relations to language learning. This may
explain why: 7.1. Translation activities are generally used less in primary education
(scaffolding) and more in higher education (complex multi-skill activity); 7.2. Some empirical
research shows translation having a negative effect on learning (because teachers provide
excessive scaffolding) while other research indicates Assignment - CLIL 7 very positive effects
(because translation as a complex activity is associated with high degrees of student
involvement and satisfaction). 8. There are very different concepts of what the term ‘translation’
means, both in research and among teachers. The more the operative concept involves
communication and intercultural competence, the more favourable the attitude to translation,
among both researchers and teachers, and the less it is conceptually opposed to language
learning. One of the prime struggles is thus over the meaning of the term ‘translation’. 9. There
is a growing interest in the relation between translation and language learning, as indicated in
the rising number of publications (see 2.2) and the increasingly favourable attitude adopted
towards translation in those publications. 136 Translation and language learning 10. Translation
can be a key learning activity in circumstances where the aim is not to produce complete
competence in L2 but is rather to train students to use and combine multiple semiotic resources,
often passively. This can be seen in the ideals of intercomprehension (see 2.2.6) training for
military intelligence, the learning of elements of indigenous languages (see 4.9.4.1) and classes
that incorporate the use of language in online interactive media (see 5.2). These conclusions are
restricted by the limitations of our research. There are several aspects that we would have liked
to investigate further, and which should be dealt with in future projects: 1. The student’s
perspective: The severe time restriction on our research did not allow us to gather data on the
use of translation from the perspective of the student’s experience, both socially (classroom
interaction and motivation) and cognitively (eye-tracking). The existing studies on this (see
2.2.2) generally indicate high levels of involvement and motivation associated with translation
activities, but we would like to know more about how students react to specific kinds of
translation tasks. 2. Different translation concepts: At many points in our research we have
found different values and preconceptions being attached to the term ‘translation’, particularly
among L2 teachers and researchers in applied linguistics. It would be useful for all if a
questionnaire gathered data on precisely what values and preconceptions are involved in each
professional context and in each country. The same might be done for politically polyvalent
terms like ‘mediation’ and ‘immersion’. 3. Common yardsticks: One of the problems with the
empirical research is the difficulty of comparing the relative success of Assignment - CLIL 8
methods that have different learning aims. If the aim of ‘intercomprehension’, for example, is

7
 Assignment - CLIL

fundamentally different from a four-skills course, then there can be no simple direct numerical
comparison. The same problem haunts the use of translation: if translation is used in class as a
check on learning (as is traditional), then it is the yardstick, and not the thing being measured,
and if translation skills are being developed entirely in their own right, then success in them
cannot be judged in terms of the four traditional skills. For this reason, which is perhaps part-
and-parcel of any paradigm shift, comparative research on this issue is obliged to be partly
qualitative. It should nevertheless be possible to measure the effects that one kind of activity has
on the development of all skills. 4. Different translation activities: In addition to data on student
involvement and motivation, it would be good to have data on the way different kinds of
translation activity correlate with the development of language skills, and in which
environments. Such research could also promote awareness of the extreme internal diversity of
translation.