Issues Regarding the Implementation of Translation in English Language Teaching

Abstract

There are several attitudes towards utilizing translation in teaching a foreign language (in our case English language), but as recent studies have shown, a considerable amount of teachers, teacher trainees and teacher trainers rely on it during the teaching and learning processes. Taking into consideration the fact that the advantages of using translation as a teaching device outweigh the disadvantages, an attempt to formally implement it with students of Fan S. Noli University was made. This paper focuses on the results derived from making such practice part of syllabuses of two different study programs with the view of highlighting difficulties, benefits and misconceptions encountered during the process. The study programs were purposely chosen with no immediate relation between them in order to have results derived by two different groups of users. By means of analyzing the data collected via questionnaires distributed to the students, two main contradictory attitudes will be brought into attention. Moreover, reasons underlying the gap between the attitudes students showed regarding the beneficial aspect of using translation in teaching English as a foreign language will be discussed. Also, among others, the necessity to implement such practice into the curriculum of future English teachers will be emphasized, regarding it as the leading group from where further practice will be carried out in the lower levels of Education.