Is Word for Word Translation A bad Practice?

Avendia N. Sanchez

Make no mistake, translating in your head is a habit that will prove to be incredibly helpful in the beginning. However, if you rely on it too much, It will burden you later on.

Translation is necessary for spreading new information, knowledge, and idea across the world. It is absolutely necessary to achieve effective communication between different cultures. In the process of spreading new information, word for word translation or literal translation is rendering of text from one language to another, one word at a time with or without conveying the sense of the original text.

"Literal"translationimplies that it is probably full of errors, since thetranslatorhas made no effort to convey, forexample, correct idioms or shades of meaning, but it might be also useful in seeing how words are used to convey meaning in the source language..

Why do some students translate word for word, can we consider it a bad practice? Yes, it is often considered a bad practice of conveying word by word translation in non- technical text. This usually refers to the mistranslation of idioms that affects the meaning of the text, making it unintelligible. The concept of literal translation may be viewed as an oxymoron (contradiction in terms), given the literal denotes something existing without interpretation, whereas a translation, by its very nature.

Some of the students translate word literally or word for word because they don’t want to go beyond what is given or don’t want to convey meanings, with poor vocabulary and comprehension skills and lack of interest.

You might be at that stage where you are still reasonably satisfied with your process and not too bothered by translating .Eventually, you might notice that all translating is holding your back.

Why do students need to stop translating in their head?

To see why, think about the process that’s taking place when you translate in your head as you read, speak or listen to foreign languages. Because of all the differences that exist between languages (word order, verb tenses, cases, etc. ), trying to go back and forth becomes unnecessary. It is tiring just thinking of the whole mental process where you hear or read a sentence, then try to internally match evry word to the equivalent in your native tongue. He whole process ruins any reading or social experience you are having and it’s just exhausting. It is even more exhausting when you think of the elements that might prove to be more important to communication and understanding. You also have to consider the fact that not every word you come across is going to be completely translatable.

Students can also consider ways or methods in order for them to stop translating in their heads.

First, instead of allowing yourself associating new foreign words with their equivalent in your native tongue, try associating a word with a clear image or feelings instead.

This technique has been proven to work better than simple translations. Use sticky notes to your advantage and note on objects you want to learn the foreign name and third, practice constant narration.

It takes time, translating in your head isn’t that bad. In fact, when you are just starting to learn a foreign language, your mental translation is actually beneficial. It helps you flesh out your vocabulary and identify weak areas.

If you are seemingly fluent in casual conversation, but find that you have to translate internally when you are talking about something like science, you’ll know what you have to work on.

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The author is Secondary School Teacher III at Francisco G. Nepomuceno Memorial High School.