Guided Written Translation

When it comes to our language classrooms, we tend to rush into the 90% target language usage "rule" (and I use that word "rule" loosely, because no one seems to be able to find anything official which states that it must be 90% or why 90% was even picked as the number). As a result, we think that L1 has no place in our language classrooms. I wholeheartedly disagree with this, because L1 translation does play a part in the language acquisition process:

1. Translation into L1 is a necessary part of the language acquisition process. When the brain is confronted with new L2, it will do everything it can to make some type of meaning into L1. That L2 which the brain understands, it latches onto and adds/creates to its existing mental representation of that L2. That L2 which the brain cannot understand, it throws out.
2. Translation into L1 in and of itself is not wrong, because it establishes meaning for learners. However, translation is at the lowest level of Bloom's taxonomy, so where the issue is when we stay there in L1, only focus on L1, and do not progress towards the eventual understanding and creation of new meaning in L2.

Choral reading/translation is one way to establish meaning into L1. Another way to help establish meaning is through a guided written translation. Students will receive a two-column worksheet with L2 in the first column, and their task is to translate it into L1 in the other column by filling in the blank with the correct meaning. I learned this from a Cambridge Latin Course workshop years ago, and I have found that this is a good tool to aid in translating an inflected language like Latin where the word order does not resemble English.

Example:

Observations

1. This can be done either on a Word document or a spreadsheet. It does involve creating tables or cells, so use the web app resource with which you are most familiar.
2. I would scaffold this very early in a unit lesson (possibly after a choral reading), since this focuses on establishing meaning into L1, i.e., by no means is this a culminating activity.
3. I like that this allows for the establishing of meaning in a different modality (writing), thus reinforcing the L1 meaning in a different way.
4. I do not do this too often, but when I do, it is to focus on meaning of words and not necessarily grammar per se, although I suppose it could be adapted to a specific focus on correct translation of tenses.

The Sex Game

Update - there is now a Sex Game 2.0 version  (7/14/22)

This activity is a lot more innocent than the title states. The Latin word for "six" is sex - yep, Latin students love this fact. It is actually based on a Spanish activity called Seis (one of my Latin colleagues calles it Surrender on Six), and I learned it both from a Spanish teacher at my school and from Miriam Patrick, who is a fellow CI Latin teacher in my district. It is a high activity game involving rolling of dice.

Let me give you the basic directions of the game and then my CI twist on it:

1. Make a list of vocabulary words. Around 75 words is good.
2. Divide the class into groups of 4. Groups of 3 work well too, but groups of 5 can get a bit big.
3. Students will need to arrange their desks so that there is one common workspace, with all desks touching with no spaces in between them.
4. Every student will receive a list of vocabulary words.
5. Every group will receive one writing utensil and one die.
6. At the beginning, each group will place the one writing utensil in the middle of its workspace.
7. Have students establish an order of rolling the die.
8. Each student will take a turn rolling the die. The goal is to roll a six. If a student does not roll a six, then the die passes to the next person.
9. The first student who rolls a six does two things: yells SEX (indicating "I rolled a six!"), grabs the writing utensil, and starts to write as many English definitions as he/she can. It is not required to go in order of the list; students can begin anywhere on the list.
10. Meanwhile, the rest of the group continues to roll the die until someone rolls a six.
11. At this point, that student will yell SEX, grab the writing utensil from the person who has it, and will now start writing as many English definitions as he/she can.
12. The activity ends when someone has completed the page or after a set amount of time.
13. Tell students to switch papers and to count up the number of correct answers. Only complete words count - if a word is halfway written, it does not count.
14. There are two winners: the individual with the most number of correct answers, and the group with the biggest overall total.

My CI twist

1. Although this is a fun vocabulary review game, vocabulary itself is not isolated in language and does not exist outside of a context. As a result, I use this as a post-reading activity. Instead of vocabulary words, I have sentences from the story which we have been going over. 
2. When a student rolls a six and yells SEX, then he/she begins to translate the sentence into English. Again, it is not required for students to start at the beginning.
3. At the end when going over the sentences, students receive one point for every correctly translated word.

Observations

1. This is a very HIGH energy and loud game! Students LOVE yelling out SEX when they roll a six - when I told the Spanish teacher from whom I learned this activity that the Latin word for six was sex, she said, "Oh, even better!"
2. Because students are translating sentences from the story which we have been going over, it is another way for them to see and to review comprehensible messages and to get in more repetitions of forms/vocabulary.
3. Because of their familiarity with the sentences, it is quite easy for them to translate the sentences into English.
4. This is a great student-centered, teacher-faciliator activity, as all you do as the teacher is walk around and monitor what is going on.
5. The student who wins is not necessarily the fastest processor but the one who had the most time to write while the rest of the group tries to roll a six.
6. It is so much fun hearing students yell SEX and then grab the writing utensil from the student who has it and who probably is mid-word when it is taken.
7. I love it when I hear teachers afterwards asking me what we were doing since all they hear is the word SEX being yelled out.

The Role of Translation in the CI Classroom

I do not think that any topic gets CI teachers more riled up than the topic of translating L2 into English. There are those who feel that it has NO place in the CI classroom, while others feel that it is a necessary part of the language acquisition process.

I do not claim to be an expert on this topic by any means, but this posting represents where I am on the matter at this moment in time - a few months from now, my views may have changed.

When I first began the switch over to a CI classroom, I was very greatly opposed to any type of translation into English, as I was reacting against the grammar-translation model which I had been implementing for years and under which I myself had learned Latin. In addition, I had just returned from my first Rusticatio, where only spoken Latin was allowed. Basd on my Rusticatio experience, to me, the thought of translating into English seemed to diminish the importance of L2. John Piazza, a fellow Latin CI teacher, however, shared an article by Susan Gross which addressed the need for translation in a CI classroom. In that article, "Reading is Essential in Second Language Class," Susan Gross (2009) writes the following about translation:

One reason for translation is to assure perfect comprehension. I have witnessed many language classes where students were able to answer Spanish questions about a Spanish reading, yet they did not exactly understand the reading! Since language is acquired only when the input is comprehensible, we are not promoting acquisition by simply asking questions in Spanish.  

A second reason for translation is to inform the teacher. While listening to a student translate a paragraph, the teacher will discover many interesting things, such as confusing “to” and “from” (this is surprisingly common) or a lack of attention to plurals. As the teacher notices which things tend to be incorrectly translated, the teacher then knows what to reinforce in the next few lessons.

This showed me that translation does indeed have its place in a CI classroom, but just not THE place as the end result. For those of us Latin teachers, translation is pretty much all we did in college. Our university classes were very predictable, as we each took turns around the table translating classical works aloud into English, with a smattering of grammar questions and discussion in English about what we were translating. In most traditional Latin classes, translation occurs, but that is where we stop; we may have students do some projects about what was read, but anything using the Latin itself rarely happens. 

When looking at Bloom's Taxonomy, you will see that translation ranks near the bottom (it is a demonstration of "Understanding"), as it is a low-level proficiency skill. Now some of you are scoffing, "But hey, translating requires much knowledge to accomplish." Granted, I will give you that, but when translating something from L2 into L1, although a great deal of skill is needed, in the end after translating, all which you have is the original L2 document but now in L1. Absolutely no new meaning has been created in L2, and the creation of new meaning is the ultimate end goal in Blooms Taxonomy. NOTE - we may do some consolidation, higher-level thinking projects in English regarding the reading, but our actual goal should be new meaning in L2. 

So why is translation important then? To me, for one purpose: it establishes meaning. Whenever I lesson plan, as I use stories to teach the language, I always make sure that one of my early activities is for students to chorally translate the story aloud into English. This way, I can make sure that all students are on the same page when it comes to the meaning. It also shows me where some of the problems are. But as I said before, translation is not where it ends for me. Following translation, I focus now on working with the language itself in a number of ways with students so that by the end of the "unit" a few days later, students are able to create their own meaning in the target language.

A few caveats about asking students to do a translating a text/reading into English:

1. it needs to be comprehensible and meaningful, i.e., students need to have acquired the majority of words and structures by the time of translating. It is okay to give glossed words ('icing" words), but if it is necessary to supply a large number of these words, then the text/reading is not comprehensible enough.
2. it needs to compelling for students
3. it needs to be a reasonable length for them. If you give students something too long, their affective filters will rise, even if the reading is comprehensible.

Every few months, unannounced I give students a "translation check-in," where they have to sight translate a very comprehensible story into English (about 1/2 page in length at the longest), but the story contains known vocabulary and structures. I call it a "check-in," because this is their way to "check-in" with me to demonstrate proficiency of concepts and of comprehension and also so that i can see which structures I need to review with them based on any errors. At the very end of the passage, I always ask students "I found this translation to be (choose one of the following): difficult, challenging yet doable, easy, very easy" and then I ask "Why?" Overwhelmingly, most students will respond "easy" or "very easy," with a few "challenging yet doable." I have yet to receive any "difficult." In responding to "why?" most students answer "Because it was a story, it was easy to understand what was happening" or "I knew all of the words." For anyone who wants an argument as to the importance of presenting vocabulary in a meaningful context, there it is! I am also amazed at how quickly they finish writing out their translations! In fact, a number of students write, "This was much easier to do than I thought. I thought it would take me a long time."

For me personally, in every CI/TPRS workshop which I have attended where a new language was being demonstrated, I have always been grateful for the times where we translated into English purely for the establishment of meaning. There have been a number of occasions at Rusticationes where I have been completely lost and felt frustrated/overwhelmed, because no meaning was established (or meaning was established through the use of incomprehensible L2).

Essentially, it is okay to translate into English for the purpose of establishing meaning or for checking comprehension, but when we solely focus on that English translation and not back on the original text in the target language, then we have missed the point.

Some more resources on the topic:

Reading is Essential in Second Language Class - article by Susan Gross quoted above

Translation: Evil or Essential? - a blog post by Terry Waltz, a CI Chinese teacher

Direct Translation: Lame...Not as Boring as You'd Think and Efffective - a blog post by Chris Stolz, a CI Spanish teacher.

Volleyball Translation - a post by Martina Bex, a CI Spanish teacher. The comments section especially has some great discussion about the role of translating.

When to Assess Reading Comprehension in English - another great post from Martina Bex. Because of this post, I now assess all of my reading comprehension on tests in English.

Read Dating

This CI reading strategy, which I got from friend and colleague Bob Patrick, is a variation of Ping Pong/Volleyball Reading  - my Rusticatio friend Justin Slocum Bailey calls it "Read Dating," and you will see why! This is a great reading activity, because it gets students moving around.

1. Organize student desks in pairs facing each other in a circular fashion around the room. You as the teacher are in the center. If there is an odd number of students, still line up desks this way.
2. The outer circle of students is labeled "A", while the inner circle folks are labeled "B". If there is an odd number of students, there will be one student who does not have a partner. Do not worry - it will all work out.
3. Every student has his/her own copy of the reading. The reading should be either a re-reading of something already read, an embedded reading or something which students can easily read at sight due to familiarity with vocabulary and language structures.
4. Like in ping pong/volleyball reading, "A" students read the first sentence aloud in Latin to their partner sitting across from them, and then immediately, "B" students translate the sentence into English
5. If "B" student needs help, then "A" student can help out. If neither student knows, then they ask you.
6. Once "B" student finishes translating, then he/she reads the next sentence in Latin aloud to his/her partner, and "A" student translates into English.
7. Partners alternate back and forth for 2 minutes. If there is an odd number of students, one student will not participate in this activity for the round. Tell him/her to read the story quietly.
8. At the end of 2 minutes, tell "A" students rotate one seat to the right. If you have a bell, ring it to signify that time is up - this make it really feel like speed dating!
9. If there is an odd number of students, now there will be a new student who does not have a partner.
10. Now that there is a new pair, the 2 students determine where they left off in the story, and they start up at the earlier of the two sentences. Yes, there is going to be repetition for one of the readers, but that is a good thing.
11. After 2 minutes, tell "B" students rotate to the right, and start up again.
12.  When students finish the story, they go back to the beginning and read/translate it again.
13. The length of time for the activity depends on the length of the passage. You want students to go through a story at least 1 1/2- 2 times.

Observations

1. As the teacher, I love this activity, because I am doing nothing but facilitating! Occasionally, I will be called upon to help with a sentence.
2. Students are helping each other out if there is something which they do not understand
3. It is a great way to to get students to move around and to interact with each other. If a student does not "prefer" his/her partner, he/she only has to spend two minutes with that person!
4. If you want to mix things up some, tell students to move 3-4 seats instead of just 1.

Stultus

This is a great post choral reading idea which I got from James Hosler, a fellow CI Latin teacher in Ohio. It is really simple but goes a long way!

Following a choral reading of a story:

1. Give the laser pointer to a dependable student (one who understands Latin word order well) and ask that student to point to the words of the story which you just read through together.
2. Now YOU the teacher will translate the sentence aloud into English, as the class listens and watches.
3. The difference is that you will deliberately make some mistakes (either vocabulary or form) when translating aloud
4. When students hear you make a mistake, they will yell Stultus or Stulta, depending on your gender (or maybe some kinder word).
5. You as the teacher will make the necessary correction and then move on.

Observations

1. Students really get into this. When I first tried this out, I was not sure how they would respond but gosh, they loved yelling "stultus" at me.
2. Because students had the opportunity to call me stupid in Latin, they really paid attention to the story and to my translation
3. This was a great way to do some pop-up grammar when I made a mistake
4. This was another way to get students to read through the story in a different way
5. This was a great way to use the words stultus/callidus in a context, because if I get a sentence correct, I say, "Ha, ego non sum stultus, sed callidus!" or when students correct me, I say, "Babae, vos estis callidissimi!" 

Choral Reading

When reading through a story together as a class, one technique to use is group choral reading/translation. This will require:

• projecting the story onto a screen
• a laser pointer

When you think that the class is familiar enough with the vocabulary and language structures of a particular story, project that story onto a screen. As the teacher, read the first Latin sentence aloud to the class, using the laser pointer to point to each word as you read it left to right. THEN have the students as a group chorally translate that sentence into English, while you, using the laser pointer, point to the Latin words IN AN ENGLISH WORD ORDER. After that, move onto the next sentence, repeating the process.

Now some of you may be objecting, "Hey, I thought the idea was to get away from translating Latin into English. This does not seem very CI." And quite honestly, I had some reservations about it too in the beginning. The difference, however, is that this activity is not our primary goal: All we are trying to do is establish meaning. This is why according to Bloom's Taxonomy, translation is a low-level skill.  Translating itself is not my end goal activity, but rather it is a step towards a post-reading activity in the language. NOTE - though translating may require higher level skills in order to establish meaning, the end result is still the original product just in a different language; no new product has been created in the target language, which is the sign of critical thinking.

Observations

1. Doing a translation into English helps establish meaning. Yes, I want students to be able to work with Latin in Latin, but it can become very easy for students to answer Latin comprehension questions about a story without needing to understand what is being communicated if they are savvy enough, e.g., a quis question usually is answered by the subject, a quid agit question is answered by the verb, etc. 
2. In doing a choral translation, no one is put on the spot. Therefore, students' affective filters are low.
3. Following the laser pointer in both Latin and in English helps students to see the structure of the Latin language but yet how we must construe it in English in order to establish meaning.
4. Translating chorally is a way for students to help each other out. If a student does not know a word or form, they hear others saying it.
5. Choral translations are a great time to do pop-up grammar/grammar timeouts, since everyone is focused on the screen.
6. Translating a story together aloud from a screen is so much better than having students read it from a book in front of them. In a choral translation, I am able to see students' eyes and to hear their voices. If I do not hear enough students translating aloud together, then I will call them on it.