Questão de Língua Inglesa

10 One major criticism of native language use in the classroom is that it can cause students to think that every word or structure they encounter in English has a viable L1 correspondent. As most language professionals know, this one-to-one correspondence is not true. Many lexical items, especially those with idiomatic connotations, make sense only in one language and cannot transfer to others. Despite the traditionally negative view of translation, precisely for this reason, Atkinson (1993, 53) claims that by raising one‟s consciousness of the nonparallel nature of languages, the learning process becomes richer; translation not only “allows lerners to think comparatively”, but it is also “a real life activity” because the students who learn English for their jobs will probably need to know something about translation. Atkinson provides an example of a translation activity that forces the students to push themselves beyond the tendency to rely on more proficient classmates for ready translations, a common pattern in linguistically homogeneous classrooms. In the activity, students work in groups to discuss advantages and disadvantages of several holiday destinations. [...] In this way, students come to see their shared native language as an active part of the learning process, not just something to fall back on when things become confusing in class. In fact, in the introduction to his book on the subject of translation, Duff (1989) expounds on the merits of translation as a language learning activity. He describes how translation can help develop three characteristics essential for language learning: flexibility, accuracy, and clarity. For example, translation “trains the learner to search (flexibility) for the most appropriate words (accuracy) to convey what is meant (clarity). This combination of freedom and constraint allows the students to contribute their own thoughts to a discussion which has a clear focus – the text (Duff 1989,7). (MATTIOLI, Gil. In: Linguistically Homogeneous Classrooms and Native Language Use. Forum English Teaching, october, 2004. Adaptado.)