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.