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Does Translation help to learn a Lang? | ||
Tags: Translation | Learning Technique/Method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| JiriT Triglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4732 days ago 60 posts - 95 votes  Speaks: Czech*, English, German | Message 25 of 29 08 November 2011 at 2:50am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I have argued recently on other forums that translations from target language
into your own and especially vice-versa are useful, while my opponents stated it would prevent from thinking in the target language. What do you think of that? The question in fact covers more themes. First, is it possible to learn a language without learning vocabulary in the traditional way, that means for each word in the language you learn its meaning or equivalent in your language? I believe, unless you are a very small child, you cannot learn another language without the help of your mother tongue. Only very small children are able to understand the meaning of words from the language context. And when you want to learn the vocabulary of the language, reading is one of the best ways. Flashcards or other memory drills help a lot, but one needs to see the words in actual context. And to have bilingual texts enables you to read the original (non textbook) texts at an earlier stage. It is also a fact, that some words do not have direct equivalents in your language. But reading original texts helps you here a lot. The context may be more helpful than a definition in a monolingual dictionary. When someone knows the basics of the language, is able to produce grammatical sentences and has some vocabulary, then it is good to start speaking with native speakers. At this stage it may be good not to translate the sentences in your head but to react directly. But anyway, you have to know what was said, you do not translate consciously, for instance you cannot make a nice sentence equivalent (it would take you more time) but you understand the meaning. But for this stage you need to have read a lot of texts before. But when you are an advanced reader, it is certaily better not to read text with translations but only in the target language. To an adult I would recommend to practice speaking after gaining good passive knowledge of the language (a lot of reading and a good knowledge of grammar and to memorise some conversational phrases). Youger people are able to speak in a foreign language with smaller knowledge. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4991 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 26 of 29 08 November 2011 at 8:32am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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"I believe, unless you
are a very small child, you cannot learn another language without the help of your mother tongue." No one doubts. The question was whether we need translation as a separate exercise. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6638 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 27 of 29 08 November 2011 at 9:26am | IP Logged | ||||||||
When anybody learns any language after their first one it is natural to use this for scaffolding. If you know more languages - especially at a high level - it is natural to use those too, and it may actually be a sound strategy because the two languages could have something in common - and with a bit of Sprachgefühl you raise the odds for making correct guesses. But as you get better you need less and less scaffolding.
Even small children use the things they already know in their mother tongue for integrating new words and constructions ("bla bla NEW WORD is like when ...."). And you could argue that even a circumlocution is a kind of translation, just not of the efficient and simple kind that in the optimal case consists in one word in another language.
Only very small children have to understand the meaning of words exclusively from the language context (or non-linguistical cues). Besides they have several million brain cells which can be harnessed for the purpose. Older persons have lost those braincells that never were used, but instead they have got dictionaries. Edited by Iversen on 08 November 2011 at 9:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5701 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 28 of 29 08 November 2011 at 10:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Definitely false. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4944 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 29 of 29 08 November 2011 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I disagree. At the point of being trully beginner, there are usually not that many alternatives and if there are, you usually don't know them and therefore vast majority of differences is a mistake. And a bit later, you are able to quite easily tell which difference is surely a mistake and which is something you should check with another resource. And I never had trouble with not knowing why I made a mistake, even though I had to search in my textbooks etc a few times. Your argument would mean that you can't use even Assimil without a teacher and actually it is an argument I quite often hear from people claiming that you can't teach yourself at all. Edited by Cavesa on 08 November 2011 at 1:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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