2005 4

28 2

CELEA JournalBim onthly

Apr2005
Vol
28 No
2

TEACHING WRITING THROUGH TRANSLATION

Li Changjiang
Nankai University
Ni Lianxue
Jiaonan Yinzhu Central Prim ary School

Abstract
For decades the Gram marTranslation Method
has been blamed as the major contributing factor
leading to the lo w linguistic co m petence on the part
of EFLlearnersHo wever
the role of translation in
aiding college EFL learners cannot be neglected
Translation in this paper is not translation proper
but is used as an aid in learning writingThe central
concern of this paper is the application of translation
in the teaching of writing w hich is exe m plified in
four aspects using translation as a m onitoring
device as a guide for writing as a co m position
marker
and as a guide for recitationEFLteachers
should not reject translation in its entirety Rather
they should make the best use of translation to
facilitate the students learning process

of foreign language co m petenceor to be m ore

specific
translation is used as a teaching device to aid
the teacher to teach and college students to write
m ore effectively and efficiently

2 Theoretical Grounds
21 A diachronic overview of translation in TEFL

The role

of translation in TEFL has

undergone considerable transform ation in the past
centuriesIn history the role of translation in
TEFL was know n as the Gra m m ar
Translation
Method
The
first
gra m m ar
translation
coursebook in English was published in 1793 by
Johann Christian Fick w hich used translation to
exe m plify certain gra m m atical features The
establish m ent of a syste m of public exa minationsin
England in 1858 gave im petus to the develop m ent
of the m ethod With the advent of the public
1Introduction
exa minations
as Howatt1984
133pointed out
Translation is a polyse m ous w ord and there
the e m phasis on written language and on gra m m ar
are m ultiple approaches to translation According
was entrenched w hile the spoken language
to the Skopostheorie heralded by Hans JVerm eer
received scant attention With the passage of
and developed by Christiane Nord
translation is a
tim e
language experts shifted their attention fro m
purposeful activity So one m ust distinguish
written language to speech convinced that
between translation as a m eans to an end
i
ea
learning to speak was an intuitive process for
m eans to the acquisition of foreign language
w hich hu m an beings had a natural capacity What
co m petence and translation as a m eans in itself struck a fatal blow to the Gra m m ar
Translation
as the ability to establish a co m m unicative bridge
Method was the rise of the Direct Method in the
between the m e m bers of different language
19th centuryIt assu m ed that by exposing students
co m m unities Wilss 1981 252
to the language a m bience they could acquire the
Translation
explored in this article is nottranslation proper language naturally as did native speakersThe use
rather the author approaches translation fro m the
of translation in language teaching has since been
pedagogical perspectiveas a means to the acquisition
denounced and rejected in language classesThere
44

CELEA Journal 60

is no denying the fact that the Direct Method

w orks miracles in the beginner s class w here the
pupils are eager toshow offby de m onstrating to
the w hole class w hatever they have learned But
so m e EFL teachers go to such extre m es that any
e m ploy m ent of translation in the EFL class is
viewed with suspicion As a m atter of fact in
college English classes translation instead of
being a hindrance m ay prove to be a handy toolin
aiding the students to learn if m anaged properly
The Chinese scholar Zhu Guangqian 1984
354
once co m m ented
Translation is the best m ethod
to learn a foreign language
Translation as
Kirsten Malm kjaer observed
see ms set to re m ain
as a significant co m ponentin the teaching of m any
languages in m any parts of the w orld and for that
reason alone
it w ould be im portant to try to m ake
the best of it1998 1
Making the best of
translation in teaching writing is thus the central
the m e of this paper

2
2 Coordinate bilingual vsco m pound bilingual

rejecting translation in EFLlearning and teaching

in its entirety sounds unreasonable just like
throwing the baby out with the bath water It
see ms to have overestim ated the harmful aspects of
using the native language What sounds sensible is
to use translation as a teaching
learning device and
put it to the best use in language classroo ms
getting the m axim u m results with minim al effort

2
3 Cognitive learning fra mework
According to cognitive learning theories the
m ajor levels of cognitive learning can be classified
as m e m orizing understanding and applying
Using translation the teacher can help the
students by m aking the learning m aterials m ore
m eaningful and m e m orable and thus facilitate the
students learning process
Frank Clark once saidm ost of us must learn a
great deal every day in order to keep ahead of what
we forget
Cory 1985 212
Translation can help
the students better mem orize thelearning material
as
will be illustrated in section 3
because translation is a
conscious activity which enables the information to
enter and be organized in the unlimited and highly
stable area in the students mind Learning can be
said to have truly taken place when information can
be recalled fro m the students long
term mem ory
Translation can also help the students understand the
differences between SL and TL and m ost im portant
of all
it can help the students apply what they have
learned to writing

Wolfra m Wilss 1981 249 m akes a

distinction between tw o types of bilinguals
coordinate bilingual and co m pound bilingual
Coordinate bilingual refers to people w ho are 100
percent bilingual In contrast to coordinate
bilingual are people w ho are only im perfect
bilingual with a m ore powerful native tongue
and a less powerful foreign language co m petence
called co m pound bilingualThe vast m ajority of
Willia m Ward says
The m ediocre teacher
EFLteachers in China belong to the latter type
tells The good teacher explains The superior
In this case the de m and for natural EFL
teacher de m onstratesThe great teacher inspires
teaching teaching w hich neglects the existence
One of the m ost im portant
of the native language is so m etim es self Cory 1985 383
roles the teacher playsin the EFLclassis to inspire
defeating The foreign language environ m ent
the students to learn how to best use translation
provided by the co m pound bilingual teacher is
w hich used to be regarded as a negative factor in
artificial
far fro m enough to expose the students
learning a foreign language M J Berrill gave
to the a m bience for the m to pick up the language
additional backup
a great teacher is not sim ply
naturally Even the teacher of English cannot
one w ho im ports knowledge to his students but
avoid m ental translation w hen co m m unicating
one w ho awakens their interest in it and m akes
with foreigners not to m ention the students the m eager to pursue it for the mselves He is a
Mental translation is not a sin it is an inevitable
spark plug not a fuel pipe
Cory 1985 212
process in learning a foreign language To reach
Incorporating different perspectives in one
100 percent English thoughtis to atte m pt the
lesson will give variety to the students and foster
im possible Even language virtuoso like Yuanren
an inquisitive interest by the class as a w hole
Chao ad mitted not to be a coordinate bilingualTo
Repeated exposure to and practice fro m different
claim not to be a coordinate bilingual is to ad mit
perspectives m ay help im print the English
m entaltranslation atleastto a certain degree w hen
idio m atic expressions and sentence patterns in the
learning a foreign language In this sense students mind in the light of cognition
45

Teaching Writing through Translation Li Changjiang Ni Lianxue

the m ore collocations they know the less likely

they willtranslate w ord for w ord w hen they write
For exa m ple the teacher asks the students to
translate1

3

4

5

6

7
The answers
by the students are m ost likely as follows
1
difficulties now 2 co m pare with
3
besides
4
the rate of getting m arried
5
the divorced person
6
about
7
the
way of life people like
By co m paring their
versions with the sa m ple below the students can
consciously learn so m ething new instead of
getting into a rut

3Application of Translation in the Teaching

of Writing
Four m ajor techniques of translation can be
applied to the teaching of writing They are
explained as follows
3
1 Using translation as a m onitoring device

A glance at the students co m positions reveals

that Chinglish is co m m onplace in their writing
The root of the proble m lies in the fact that w hen
writing they first think in Chinese and then
translate m entally the sentence w ord for w ord into
English It is not unco m m on to find in the
students co m positions such sentences as Man is
Original Version More surprising
iron and food is steel
or If you don t have
perhaps than the 1 current difficulties of
anything don t have m oney if you have
traditional m arriage is the fact that m arriage
anything don t have illness
The students always
itself is alive and thrivingAs Skolnick notes
proceed on the assu m ption that there is a one
to
Am ericans are a m arrying people 2
one equivalence between Chinese and EnglishSo
relative to Europeans m ore of us m arry and
w henever they want to expressthe w ord
we m arry at a younger age3 Moreover
like flashes in their mind Though they can
after a decline in the early 1970s
4the rate
recognize w ords and expressions such asfancy
of m arriage in the United States is now
take to
enjoy
appreciate
be fond of
increasingEven the divorce rate needs to be
care forgo foror sentence patterns such as
taken in this prom arriage context
5 so m e
be one s favorite
to one s likingthey
80 percent of 6 divorced individuals
often failto draw the m fro m their repertoireThe
re m arryThus m arriage re m ains by far7
m ere elicits unanim ously I
the preferred way of life for the vast m ajority
suddenly thought of
failing to recallIt occurred
of people in our society
to m e
though they know
orit struck m e

very well the sentence patterns w hile reading

Once the proble m of equivalence is resolved
Such co m positions however gra m m atically sound the teacher can m ove on to another m ore fruitful

will lead the students now hereIn view of this

strategy back
translation
proble m the teacher instead of only m arking
Chinglish or naive on the co m positions 32 Using back
translation as a guide for writing
should seek ways to redress itOne possible way is
In
Dictionary
of
Translation
Studies
teaching the students to use translationE
C and
Shuttlew orth Cowie 1997 14 back
or C
Eas a m onitoring device
i
ethe students
translation is defined asA process in w hich a text
are always re minded that besides a one
to
one
w hich has been translated into a given language is
correspondence
there are also one
tom any one retranslated into SL
In this paper to be m ore
to
zero
zero
to
one
and
m any
to
one
specific back
translation refers to a process in
correspondence and that English sentence patterns
w hich English is translated into Chinese and then
m ay differ sharply fro m that of Chinese The
back
translated into English The technique of
students need to choose w ords and sentence
back
translation has been used for various
patterns according to a given context for a w ord
purposesFor exa m ple
it can be used to illustrate
can only be know n in a context
the so m etim es vast structural and conceptual
differences w hich exist between SL and TL
For a start the teacher chooses several
Similarly back
translation can also be used in
Chinese w ords and asks the students to translate
contrastive linguistics as a technique for co m paring
the m into EnglishThen
the teacher hands out a
passage w hich contains the English version of the
w ordsNext
the teacher asks the students to find
out by the mselves the equivalent w ords in the
passage The m ore they translate and co m pare
46

For reason of space

the author only chooses one short
paragraph to illustrate for better effect longer texts are
always prefed

CELEA Journal 60

specific syntactic m orphological or lexical

features fro m tw o or m ore languages At a m ore
practical level it can help the students identify
weaknesses in their ow n English against the
original version so as to im prove their proficiency
in writing The translation procedures and
strategies are described as follows

After that the teacher asks the students to

back
translate the Chinese version so that they
m ay be fa miliar with the specific w ords
expressions and sentence patterns of w hich the
teacher expects the m to have a good co m m and
Then the teacher can m ove on to the next stage

323 Free translation

32 1 Choosing the right m aterial

The teacher m akes a free translation of the

sa m e m aterial or uses a translated version
availableThis tim e the translated m aterial is to
becooled offfor a couple of days before asking
the students to back
translate the Chinese version
into English again More often than not the
students instead of restoring the Chinese version
to its original English version m ay deviate greatly
fro m the original versionThisis the very tim e for
the m to learn new ways of expressing the sa m e
thought in different ways The students are
encouraged to back
translate the sa m e text every
other day until they can easily write out the
original versionThe teacher m ay also concentrate
on new w ords
expressions at one tim e and then
focus on sentence patterns later on

The m aterial for translation is not chosen at

rando m rather it is chosen m eticulously it has
to contain w ords open to different interpretations
and sentence patterns w hich are at odds with the
Chinese counterpart
For m axim u m efficiency choose only the
m ost idio m atic paragraphs in a given text

32 2 Literal translation
The teacher first asks the students to m ake a
literal translation into Chinese of the English text
in the hope that the students beco m e fully aware
of the linguistic differences between the English
version and the Chinese versionThe co m parison
is intended to deepen the students understanding
that the tw o languages differ in m any ways The
students also need to be re minded that so m e w ords
and expressions are culture
loaded and culture
plays an im portant role in EFLlearning

To illustrate let s take a look at a passage

taken fro m the third paragraph of How I
Discovered Words written by Helen Keller
P25 leaflet New College English

Table 1
Original Version
Have you ever been at sea in a
dense fog w hen it see m ed asif a
tangible w hite darkness shut you
in and the great ship
tense and
anxious groped her way toward
the shore with plu m m et and
sounding
line and you waited
with beating heart for so m ething
to happen I was like that ship
before m y education began only
I was without co m pass or
sounding
line
and had no way of
knowing how near the harbor
was Light Give m e light

was the w ordless cry of soul

and
the light of love shone on m e in
that very hour

Chinese Version

Back
Translation Version
A sa m ple fro m a top student

Have you ever m et a dense fog

w hen you sail on the sea You are
surrounded by a m ass of w hite
darkness and you can see alm ost
nothing The great ship you are
aboard led by plu m m et and
line m oved laboriously
sounding
toward the shore tense and
anxiousAnd your heart is beating
faster waiting for so m ething to

happen Before m y education

began I was like that ship but

the only difference is that I have

no co m pass or sounding
line so I
cannot know how far the harbour
is My soul cried w ordlessly
Light Give m e light
and in
that very hour the light of love
shone on m e

47

Teaching Writing through Translation Li Changjiang Ni Lianxue

The procedure is as follows looking at the

Chinese version the students are asked to
translate the Chinese version into English and then
co m pare their versions with the original one in
hopes of finding out as illustrated in 1
1 the
points of literal translation w hich m akes their
versions aw k ward
e
g Have you ever met a dense
fog when
vs Have you ever been at sea in a
dense fog when

2 the points w here they

failto apply the new w ords and expressions in
their translation e
g I have no co m pass vs I
was without co m pass
3 the difference between
the sequential arrange m ents of phrases and clauses
between their versions and the original version
e
g Before m y education began I was like that
ship VS I was like that ship before m y education
began and 4 the points w here the original
version tends to use longer sentence pattern w hile
they stick to the sim ple sentence patterns e
g
Have you ever met a dense fog when you sail on the
sea You are surrounded by a m ass of white
darkness and you can see alm ost nothing The great
ship you are aboard led by plu m met and
sounding
line m oved laboriously toward the
shore tense and anxious And your heart is
beating faster waiting for so mething to happen
4
short sentencesVS Have you ever been at sea in a
dense fog when it seemed as if a tangible white
darkness shut you in and the great ship tense and
anxious groped her way toward the shore with
plu m met and sounding
line and you waited with
beating heart for so mething to happen
1 long
sentence

The advantage of this practice is that in so

doing the students can learn both the form and the
m eaning of the text By co m paring and
contrasting the students m ay have a clearer
picture of the organization of English texts and at
this tim e the students are encouraged to imitate the
sentence patterns by m aking similar sentences
The teacher m ay be of great help at this very tim e
by giving the m m ore sentences of similar type to
translate so that they can m aster specific
sentence patterns The teacher is inclined to
de m and too m uch of the students by asking the m
towriteidio m atic EnglishAs a m atter of fact
before they can write they e m ulate just as
children do w hen learning their m other tongue
The m ore idio m atic expressions they can
re m e m ber and the m ore chance they have to put
the m to practice the closer they are to native
writers
After repeated practice the students m ay
48

find it easier to restore the translation to its

original version but this is not the end of the
practice The ultim ate goal of this practice is to
encourage the students to put into practice the
new w ords and expressions and sentence
patterns just as conventional wisdo m reveals
Use it three tim es and it s yours

3
3 Using translation as a co m position m arker
Many an English teacher finds it a big
headache in correcting the students co m positions
It gets on their nerves and takes a great deal of
tim e Worse still their painstaking w ork is not
always rewarding Nine cases out of ten the
students will put aside their co m positions m arked
by the conscientious teacher without casting a
second eye at itJust as John J Deeney 1982
290put it
Too m any students of co m position as
well as translation give only a cursory glance at the
errors that the teacher has corrected note the
m ark and discard the w ork
To solve the
proble m the teacher needs to find a better
m ethodAfeasible one is by m eans of translation
The teacher first translates a m odel English
co m position into Chinese and then asks the
students to translate the Chinese version back into
English The students the mselves do not know
they are translating a translation
When the
papers are collected the teacher does not
necessarily m ake strenuous effort to correct the
papers All she
he has to do is write brief
co m m ents on the m argin and the correction is left
for the students to do When the correction is
done by the students the original English version
is handed out and they are asked to check the
mistakes by the mselves and then report to the
teacher w hy they have m ade such and such
mistakesThe strength of the m ethod is that the
students have no choice butto m ake every effortto
correct and co m pareIn the course of correction
and co m parison
they consciously learn instead of
passively receive input As is generally
acknowledged adult foreign language learners do
not proceed along the sa m e lines as the native
tongue learning processThey have to consciously
learn rather than unconsciously acquireThis kind
of exercise provides the students with optim al
opportunity to apply w hat they have learned to
writing

3
4 Using translation as a guide for recitation
Years of teaching practice has convinced m e
that recitation proves to be rewarding for EFL
learners Useful as it is the technique proves to

CELEA Journal 60

be tim e
consu ming and painstakingA re m edy for
4 Conclusion
this is to use translation as a guide When reciting
the text
the students m ay feel free to look at the
The issue of the use of translation in
Chinese version of the text for referenceA better
language teachingas Kirsten Malm kjaer1998
way for the teacher is to record w hat they have
1 observed
is one on w hich m ost language
recited in class and then ask the m to co m pare with
teachers have a view and fairly often that view is
the original English version after class This
not favorable Many introduce translation
training can help the students know w hat to say
reluctantly often only because the student needs
and at the sa m e tim e help the m rack their brains
to pass in the exa mination co m ponents of
trying to figure out how to sayCo m parison with
translation
if
Nevertheless creative translation
the original English version can m ake the students
m anaged well and incorporated consu m m ately into
fully aware of their ow n strengths and weaknesses the teaching design can help in large m easure the
and thus the standard version m ay beco m e never quality of TEFL Translation as a teaching
to
be
forgotten Persistence in doing this m ay
technique can be used to help the students learn a
bring value
added benefits Recitation m akes out
second
language
m ore
thoughtfully
and
of the students fluent speakers and eloquent
effectively Through the eclectic use of
writers When writing they m ay feel free to cite
translation the students are likely to have good
directly w hat they have kept in mind or they m ay
co m petence as well as good perform ance in
tailor it to their specific needs
the second language
116
Xiao 2004
This point
of view was echoed by John J Deeney 1982
The ultim ate goal of the practice is to lead to
280 w ho was initially advised to teach the m
auto m ated writing Through translation so m e
Chinese studentsstraight English co m position
patterns and ideas beco m e an integral part of the
but eventually found that translation can m ake
students knowledge enabling the m to express the
im portant even unique contributions to the
topics related of their ow n free will By
im prove m ent of written English for second
creatively imitating
they end up writing idio m atic
language learners
Through translation the
co m positions never drea m ed of before Look at
students can free the mselves fro m the writing
Table 2 for exa m ple
blocksand write purposefully m eaningfully and
enthusiastically Hence EFL teachers should be
Table 2
encouraged to m ake creative use of translation to
Original Version
Imitated Version
facilitate the students learning process
Were it left to me to
decide
w hether
we
should
have
a
govern m ent
without
newspapers
or
newspapers without a
govern m ent I should
not hesitate a m o ment
to prefer the latter

Were it left to me to
decide
w hether
we
should have a city
without bicycles or a
city without cars I
should not hesitate a
m o ment to prefer the
latter

To m as Jefferson the
third president of the
United States m ay be
less
fa m ous
than
George Washington or
Abraha m Lincoln but
m ost people remem ber
at least one fact about
him he wrote the
Declaration
of
Independence

Su Xiao ming an once

fa m ous singer in China
m ay be less fa m ous than
Tian Zhen and Na
Ying but m ost people
know at least one fact
about her she sang the
Night of the Naval
Port

In the final analysis

the ultim ate goal of the
use of translation in writing is to reduce
significantly m ental translation w hen the
students write or put it in other w ords
to enable
the students to think m ore in English for w hen
so m ething learned beco m e an integral part of
students knowledge they m ay feel free to write
w hat they m ean Adequate m eaningful and
conscious input and the opportunity to put it into
practice are the prerequisites for successful output

References
Brown H D 1994 Teaching by Principles An
Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy
Englewood CliffsN
JPrentice Hall Regents
Cory L ed
1985 Quotable Quotations
Wheaton Victor Books
Deeney
JJ1982Translation mastery as an academic
disciplineIn F Epperted
Transfer and
Translation in Language Learning and Teaching
Toronto Toronto University Press
Continued on p43
49