MAGDA MORENO'S WORK

ESSAY:

Three Purposes of the translation: Flexibility, Accuracy and Clarity.

How to learn a foreign language and teaching methodologies are commented topics not only by teachers but also for language learners, in learning process there is not an only truth for anything, humans are very variable and different, so the education area is a constant battle of studies and arguments to expose different views, the translation as an activity in the language learning process has not been an exception, causing all kind of opinions, since people who do not approve it to people who think that translation is a good activity and it might have benefits for students in different ways, one of them is Alan Duff who identified three essential purposes of translation as an activity in language learning, he affirms that “translation trains the learner to search (flexibility) for the most appropriate words (accuracy) to convey what is meant (clarity)”, thinking carefully I agree with this postulate and a longer reflection and argumentation about these three purposes are necessary, showing the translation activity as a complex and good preparation for language effective use.            

Independently if a translation activity has a language learning purpose or not, the translator or students will treat with a text or an audio from another person, this implies that the person with the translator’s role will work with terms, vocabulary and even ideas which are not personal, even the translator might not agree or share the view or message from the whole product to be translate, as the same way that an interpreter doesn’t have always to think like the lecturer who is interpreting, for example  language learners who don’t use translation in their process produce L2 orally or written managing the vocabulary that normally they use, the expressions and grammar they know, expressing their own ideas and making the cultural references that they recognize, the language variations that they feel comfortable with, while in a translation activity the students are exposed to different and unexpected language forms, where translator should adapt not only for the language to use but also for the strategies and techniques to translate that original text, this is what flexibility means and it trains learners to see the foreign language in different contexts and moments, with different cultural implications, additionally it gives experience because they are using the language in contexts that in a normal day students would not use.

Therefore, the flexibility and adaptation abilities which are developed in a translation activity may be expressed for the rigor in the selection of each word in a specific case, an appropiate choice of vocabulary, expressions and terms to present the most similar version possible compared with the original in different criteria, this implicit perfectionist sense, more than a translation’s rule is a recognition of the differences between languages and the variability that a language can have since its small unit (words). For example in a language class where the students are not expected to translate, the main language target is the communication, being able to understand and being understandable, the accuracy in this moment will be secondary part until the students find it necessary, probably in a higher level, on the contrary a student who works in translation activities since the first moment recognizes the importance of accuracy in the language. To make this clear another example, the reading comprehension tasks staged in FL classes encourage students to get the main idea and important required details from the reading, however in a translation task the student cannot only scanning the text, they need to interpret the meaning of each single word and make sense of each syntactic.(Gianfranco Conti 2015, p.1)  

Consequently, a translation task pays especial attention to the meaning, not just changing the language of a text or audio, but also conveying the message, feeling and obviously Meaning for the target language speakers, this Clarity term that translators look for implies more than grammar knowledge or a great range of vocabulary, giving meaning to a translation product includes the recognition and interaction between the both languages, this connection cannot be broken because the meaning always will have a cultural connotation, if the first language is forgotten, the words will only have grammar sense, but the actual language’s meaning is given by the social-cultural understanding and its implication behind letters, therefore “meaning itself is culture-specific and constructed with the background knowledge that one brings to the transaction with a text.” (James Porcaro, s.f, p 1)

The transaction term mentioned by James Porcaro between languages’ background helps students to be aware that a language is more than a linguistic code, it is a society identity, even it is a characteristic of that community, the translation takes into account the cultural aspects of languages and not just their linguistics aspects, it trains learners for real situations maybe not for oral and immediate production but for other contexts and interaction, like written contexts. The flexibility, accuracy and clarity are aspects that students develop practicing translation, to conclude the translation is not a bad influence or an inappropriate activity for language learning, on contrary it is a good activity for students in special for analytic students to recognize the interaction between their both languages, an interaction that always will exit, the learning from translation process is enriching in both languages use as well, because it is a complete activity that encourages the language knowledge by itself.  

REFERENCES

James W. Porcaro, (s.f.). Translation and Humanistic Language Teaching. {Short article 11]. 

Conti Gianfranco. (2015). the case for translation in foreign language instruction. Available in https://gianfrancoconti.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/translation-part-1-the-case-for-translation-in-foreign-language-instruction/

Popovic, R. (n.d.). The place of translation in Language Teaching [PDF]. Available in http://www.sueleatherassociates.com/pdfs/Article_translationinlanguageteaching.pdf  

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