The Art Of Grammatical Translation

The art of grammatical translation

Introduction

Have you ever studied Latin? Ancient Greece? Sanskrit? Linear b? If so, you probably used the grammatical translation methodology. You read the grammatical rules, or explained to you;You translated prayers and later paragraphs of and Latin;Read Cicero, César or Vergil, and translate the texts into English, which you probably read aloud in class. You also learned more complicated grammatical constructions through these readings and translations. Unfortunately, you never learned to speak, although, to be fair, it would be difficult to practice when there are no more native speakers of these languages.

Developing

For a long time, this was also the approach used to teach modern foreign languages. An instructor in a classroom focused on the teacher would explain a grammatical rule in the native language, they would follow translation exercises, perhaps previous by a work of filling of blank spaces or conjugation of verbs or declination of nouns. Talking, when it happened, was in the context of completing these exercises orally and could consist of just one word or phrase. There were no ‘real’ communication attempts.

How could a grammatical translation classroom be established? You give your students a brief passage in the destination language;It provides a new vocabulary and gives your students time to try to translate the passage. There would be some new material included in the passage, perhaps a new case, a new verbal time or a more complex grammatical construction.

Explain the material to your students while working in the passage with them. Then, it gives their students a series of translation sentences or a brief paragraph in the native language, and translate it into the task language for the task.

Straight

The direct method, also known as the natural approach, is in many ways the opposite of the grammatical translation method. In this classroom, the native language is strictly prohibited, and grammar (grammatical explanation) is dismissed in favor of induction, where students are supposed to discover the rules themselves. Students are encouraged to speak at all times, which makes it the latest student -centered classrooms.

In theory, students would learn the foreign language naturally, since they learned their mother tongue when they were children, and automatic answers to the questions would become instinctive. The approach would always be in natural language, and the formation of habits was the key to learning. When the students made mistakes, the teachers corrected them gently. When they used the language correctly, they were praised. In this way, students could determine a grammatical rule for themselves.

While ideas were interesting, in practice it was a short -term theory due to the proven lack of success of teaching L2 grammar through induction and schools cannot provide a totally immersed environment.

What could be a direct method or a natural approach activity? It could be as simple as a teacher asking questions, with students answering, followed by correction or praise. It could be an instructor reading a passage aloud, giving it to their students and then making him read aloud, so that through repetition and correction, students understand in the same way that children learn patterns to themake their parents read them. Or could be to ask students to write a paragraph in their own words, again with correction or praise to follow.

Linguistic audio

The theory behind audio-lingualism is that language learning requires learning habits. Repetition is the mother of all learning. This methodology emphasizes simulation work to answer questions instinctively and automatically. Students listen to new forms for the first time, and written forms only arrive after extensive drilling. The language used for these exercises is based on what is required to practice the specific form;May or may not be natural.

An example of an audio-lingual activity is a replacement exercise. The instructor can start with a basic sentence, such as ‘I see the ball’, after which he lifts a series of images through which the students replace the ‘ball’ with each new image. Another possibility is a simulation of transformation, where the instructor says: ‘I read a book’, in which students change: ‘I don’t read a book’.

Immersion

Total immersion is difficult to achieve in a foreign language classroom, unless you are teaching that foreign language in the country where the language is spoken, and your students are studying all the topics in the destination language. This would mean that your students are really immersed in language and culture during the twenty -four hours a day.

For example, ESL students have an immersion experience if they study in an anglophone country. In addition to studying English, other subjects in English work or study for a complete experience. The attempts of this methodology can be seen in immersion schools in foreign languages, which are becoming popular in certain school districts in the United States, and in bilingual education environments. The challenge with the previous structure is that, as soon as the student leaves the school environment, he or she is again surrounded by the native language.

An incredible way to help bring linguistic immersion both to their class and their students outside the school is with the Fluentu online immersion program. Fluentu provides a real -world video cured library of the real world, which includes advances of movies, musical videos, news and inspiring talks, at levels from beginner to native.

Each word is carefully noted so that students have a lot of support (if they need it). You can even click on a word to see how it is used in other videos throughout the site. Perhaps the most interesting part of Fluentu is his ‘mode of learning’, which takes videos and converts them into language learning lessons. The lessons are totally personalized, so the student’s learning history is taken into account when presenting questions. Fluentu’s algorithm prepares students for success by teaching them according to what they already know

Total physical response (TPR)

The total physical response, or TPR, emphasizes auditory understanding. For example, students are trained to respond to simple commands: stand up, sit, close the door, open their book, etc. This first step can be extended to the storytelling, where students represent the actions described in an oral narrative, therefore demonstrating their understanding of language.

The TPR activity par excellence is still used in modern foreign language classrooms today is Simon Says.

Communicative

The communicative approach is the most used and accepted approach in the teaching of foreign languages in today’s classroom, and in many ways, it is the culmination of the approaches and methodologies that appeared before.

Emphasizes the student’s ability to communicate various functions, such as asking and answering questions, asking, describing, narrating and comparing. The assignment of tasks and problem solving, two key components of critical thinking, are the means through which the communicative approach operates.

Unlike the direct method, grammar is not taught in isolation. Learning occurs in context;Detailed error correction is dismissed in favor of the theory that students will naturally develop a precise discourse through frequent use. Students develop fluency through language communication instead of analyzing it.

A communicative classroom includes activities through which students can solve a problem or situation through narration or negotiation, and thus establish communicative competence. Therefore, some activities may include composing a dialogue in which participants negotiate when and where they are going to have dinner, create a story based on a series of images or compare similarities and differences between two images.

Task -based learning

Task -based learning, a refinement of the communicative approach, focuses on performing specific tasks through which the language is taught and learned. Language students use the language they know to complete a variety of tasks, acquiring new structures, shapes and vocabulary as necessary.

Little error correction is provided. In this type of learning environment, segments of three to four weeks are dedicated to a specific topic: ecology, security, medicine, religion, youth culture, etc. Students learn about a specific topic, step by step, using a variety of resources, with each unit culminating in a final project, such as a written report or a presentation.

The activities are similar to those found in a communicative classroom, but they are always based on a unique and specific theme.

conclusion

Sometimes, graduate students or researchers will only need to learn to read academic articles in a language, so they learn through the reading method, where grammar is taught enough to complete a standard article in their field. Students do not work in oral and auditory understanding;Rather, they concentrate on building a great specialized vocabulary reserve.

The learning environment is as relaxed as possible so that the student’s brain can absorb language. Community Language Learning The instructor serves as an advisor instead of as an instructor. Analysis / Language Consciousness A retrograde approach that concentrates on analyzing language data sets instead of actively using language in the classroom.