Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
JadwigaTopolska-Pado
USEOFL1ANDTRANSLATION
INTHEEFLCLASSROOM
Introduction
Firstly,theaimofthepresentpaperistoexploresomeofthecontroversysur-
roundingtheuseofthestudent’sfirstlanguage(L1)inamonolingualEFLclass-
room.Secondly,itistosuggesttranslationactivitiesasawayoutofthelong-
standingdisagreementbetweenopponentsandproponentsofL1.
Theconflictitselfistakingplaceinacademiccirclesratherthaninclassrooms,
wheretheuseofL1isstillconsideredunacceptableowingtothepredominanceof
thecommunicativemethodinlanguageteaching.Teachersaregenerallynotfa-
miliarwithrelativelynewmethodologicalindicationsofhowtouseL1inaman-
nerwhichwouldnothindertheirstudents’learningprocesses.
Theongoingacademicdebate,togetherwithheatedargumentsforandagainst
theuseofL1,hasalsoproducedsomeideasonwhenandhowtouseL1inlan-
guageteaching.Giventhattranslationisaskillwhichshouldbetaughtinamono-
lingualEFLclassroom,translationactivitiesprovidecommongroundwherethe
useofL1islegitimate,meaningfulandservesausefulpurpose.
Finally,inthearticleIpresentsomeofthetranslationactivitiesproposedby
variousELTprofessionalsinordertoprovideworkingideasforteachersofEnglish.
1.L1asatool:itsroleandplaceintheprocess
oflanguagelearning
InthehistoryofEnglishLanguageTeaching(seeHowatt1984)theuseofL1in
classseemstohavebeeninandoutoffashiondependingontheassumptionsof
themethodofthemoment.
SincetheadventoftheCommunicativeApproach,students’useoftheirmother
tonguehasbeenexcludedfromtheEFLclassroom.Itisregardedascounter-produc-
tiveintheprocessofacquiringanewlanguage,holdingstudentsbackfromexpress-
ingthemselvesfreelyinL2andthusdoingmoreharmthangood(Carreres2006:1).
