Stop translating, please!
Quante volte traduciamo in italiano quando impariamo l’inglese? Scopri perchè è sbagliato farlo!
“Stop translating, please!” I don’t know how many times I have said this to all my students that are B1 level or lower.
I can actually see the translating process taking place in their brain as they start to try and transform the words they have just heard in English into their own native language.
In the years I have come to realize that for lower level students it is the first obstacle to overcome in order to facilitate the process which will then lead to learning a second language.
I say this because it is a given fact that in order to reach an objective one must have a path to follow. This path must be clearly outlined with steps that need to be reached before being able to move on to the next one.
Main thing when learning a language is to intake as much information as possible; new sounds, new words, new stress patterns etc. Simply Intake. Receive information. It is not necessary to elaborate that information at first. It is sufficient to simply listen. Get used to the sound of the new language. Repeat it and get the feel of the words as you say them. Observe the reaction of the other person as you repeat the sound and see if the sound you have produced has elicited the reaction you wanted.
This is where my beloved student usually asks, “But if I don’t understand what you are saying, how can I answer?” Point is that I don’t ask them to understand, I simply ask them to respond. “How are you?” “Fine, thank you. And you?”. I know this approach works because it is how I learned to speak my second language. Nobody taught me, I didn’t follow an online course, no “Do It Yourself”; I simply, listened, absorbed, applied when it was necessary to do so.
As I said in my previous article, this doesn’t mean that ESL teachers will soon become extinct like the T-Rex, quite the opposite. Qualified, experienced ESL teachers will always be fundamental especially if the second language in question is not used daily by the student learning it, however; what needs to become extinct is the archaic approach still used by some where translations are given as part of homework, or as a quick short-cut when you get stuck in a lesson.
When the lesson is well prepared ahead of time, all visual aids can be put together before so as to be used where necessary. New word – new picture. No translations. Just like our first grade teachers did when we learned the sound of the alphabet, A is for apple (picture of an apple), B is for banana (picture of a banana).
This may seem time consuming at the beginning, and it is, so take it into consideration when you prepare your lesson plan, but trust me, you and your student will surely reap the rewards of this effort in the following steps where maybe you won’t have to stop every five minutes to say, “Stop translating, please!”.
Written by Rita Iemma