The Use of Translation in English Teaching

In this qualitative study, I aim to investigate the use of translation as an educational tool in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the context of middle schools, so to kids aged from 10 to 14 at lower-intermediate level of English. Translation has been perceived, according to the time, as a beneficial bridge that allows the language learners to cross into the world of a new foreign language or as an undesirable barrier that prevents the students from immersing in the target language and soaking up knowledge. In this paper I interviewed five middle school teachers in order to find out what their views on translation as an educational tool were. The main points of my research were how much and for what they used translation when teaching English, what were their thoughts on online translation tools such as online bilingual dictionaries and Google Translate, and if they allowed their students to use them, and lastly if they believed their students would be able to learn English without using translation at all. After analysing the data I collected from the answers, I found that translation is mostly used in class to draw comparisons for grammatical structures, as a shortcut when learning new vocabulary or to cement keywords, and to explain idiomatic expressions. On the topic of online translation tools, more than half of my interviewees were in favour of online bilingual dictionaries, but all of them rejected the use of whole text translator like Google Translate. Finally, when asked if English in middle schools could be taught without using translation, the general consensus was that it would be unrealistic.