On National Teacher Day, meet the 2024-25 Kenan Fellows
Philip Kerr: The learners own language
1. Eaquals International Conference, Lisbon, 21 – 23 April 2016
The learner’s own language
Philip Kerr
philipjkerr@gmail.com
www.eaquals.org
2. To find out more …
Eaquals International Conference, Lisbon, 21 – 23 April 2016
http://translationhandout.wordpress.com/
3. English only, because …
• Translation is not an important skill
• Time spent using the students’ own
language is time not spent using
English
• Learners need to learn to think in
English
• Translation promotes fossilization
3
Eaquals International Conference, Lisbon, 21 – 23 April 2016
4. Own-language allowed,
because of …
• research
• psychology of learning
• learner preferences
• efficiency
• technology
Eaquals International Conference, Lisbon, 21 – 23 April 2016
5. The return of translation
Translating should be a major
aim and means of language
learning, and a major measure of
success … This argument is a
major break with tradition. (p.xv)
Cook, G. 2010 Translation in
Language Teaching (Oxford: OUP)
Eaquals International Conference, Lisbon, 21 – 23 April 2016
6. The return of translation
Eaquals International Conference, Lisbon, 21 – 23 April 2016
And now who will take the
first sentence?
9. Instructions
Match the words in the box to the definitions.
Complete the sentences with a word from the box.
Label the picture with the words in the box.
Match the pictures with the words in the box.
Look at XXX. Match the words in bold to the definitions
below.
Match the words from column A with words from column B.
Replace the words in italics with a word from the box.
Choose the correct words to complete the sentences.
Complete the sentences with the correct word.
13. Lost in translation
Can you imagine breakfast without
coffee up in the morning? What is a
good meal without a cup of coffee at
the end of it? Coffee is probably never
be the favorite beverage in the world,
but most of us find it a second thought.
15. Health warning
Teachers should not overuse the
students’ L1. Remember, it is an
English lesson!
Jeremy Harmer Essential Teacher Knowledge (Pearson, 2012)
16. Eaquals International Conference, Lisbon, 21 – 23 April 2016
Thank you.
http://translationhandout.wordpress.com/
philipjkerr@gmail.com
Editor's Notes
Can you imagine getting up in the morning without a coffee for breakfast? What is a good meal without a coffee at the end of it? Coffee is probably the world's favourite drink, but most of us never give it a second thought.
In a nutshell:
We do not equate the use of the first language in the second or foreign language classroom with passing out a license to overuse of the first language, that is, to become so dependent on the first language that teachers and learners cannot function in a second or foreign language classroom without it. Whatever benefits first language use may bring, it is clear that the ultimate goal of a second or foregin language classroom remains the learning of the target language; practices that undermine this ultimate goal must be avoided. (Turnbull, M. & Dailey-O’Cain, J. 2009 p.2)
Atkinson (ELTJ 41/4, 1987 p.246) lists the following dangers of overuse:
1. The teacher and / or the students begin to feel that they have not ‘really’ understood any item of language until it has been translated. 2. The teacher and / or the students fail to obersve distinctions between equivalence of form, semantic equivalence, and pragmatic features, and thus oversimplify to the point of using crude and inaccruate translation. 3. Students speak to the teacher in the mother tongue as a matter of course, even when they are quite capable of expressing what they mean. 4. Students fail to realise that during many activities in the classroom it is crucial that they use only English.
It would not be too hard to add to this list!
