“Don’t translate!” “Stop thinking in your native language!” These are common tips that language teachers give their students. Unfortunately, they’re not very helpful.

After all, we can’t simply get students to think in English. Research shows that students gradually learn to do this as they move through the different stages of learning a language.

Further, instead of opposing all translations, it’s better to distinguish between good and bad translations, because good translations help. Study after study shows that teaching new vocabulary using a student’s native language is much more effective than only using definitions in the target language.

What explains these findings and how they affect us, online tutors?

Translation is Another Way To Represent Meaning

The most common criticism of translation is that it makes students believe that words in their native language have words with the exact same meaning in the target language. However, this criticism applies equally to definitions, pictures, and gestures.

First, a word is not equal to its definition. If someone said, “I read a book to my two-year-old son” vs “I read a book for my literature course,” most of us would think of two different kinds of books. After all, a definition is only a general concept of the word.

A word is also not equal to a picture. For example, let’s say a student asks us what “book” means, and we show them a picture like this: 

A student may mistake it for a notebook. You can get your point across by sending more pictures, but you’ll have to spend more time finding them. 

Finally, a word is also not equal to hand gestures. For example, you can mime a book by opening and closing your hands. But for all you know, your student might think you’re talking about clams!

So just as we don’t want students to think that a word can be translated directly from their language, having them equate a definition, picture, or a gesture with a word can be just as misguiding. 

Instead, using all of these approaches is the best thing to do. Research has shown that using pictures, definitions, and translations together is more effective than using only pictures, only definitions, or only pictures and definitions. 

Of course, we won’t always have time to explain every word using all these different methods, but the point is that students need all the help they can get! And this is precisely why we try to include translations, pictures, and definitions in our lessons as much as possible:

Translation in Classroom Teaching

Another criticism of translation is that it takes time away from the target language. 

However, as Cambridge’s Learning Vocabulary in Another Language puts it:

“Pictures and demonstrations take time away from the second language in the same way that using the first language… takes time away from the second language. Translation has the advantages of being quick, simple, and easily understood.”

So we’ll want to use translation when it makes things quicker, simpler, and easier-to-understand. This is often the case when we’re talking about abstract concepts. 

Here’s a thing I once observed in a beginner Japanese class. The teacher spoke in Japanese throughout the lesson and used pictures to help students understand what he was saying. However, he skillfully made an exception for the phrase nen no tame.

Instead of using some sort of picture, he simply showed students a translation ( “just in case”) on a piece of paper. By doing this, he got students to understand an abstract phrase while ensuring that Japanese was still the classroom language.

Translation can also help with concepts that aren’t abstract. Once, during an intermediate Korean class (conducted in Korean) I took, the teacher said the word mit-jul in a sentence and instantly followed by the word in English: “underline.” 

Hearing the English helped me realize that I hadn’t understood mit-jul. I had heard it and just passed over it, thinking it wasn’t important. Luckily, the quick English translation helped me understand what he was saying and learn a new word. (And I still remember it five years later!)

Translation in Tutoring

So, we don’t want to conduct entire classes in our students’ native tongues. However, we also don’t have to feel guilty for using translation! When used appropriately, translation can be extremely helpful.

For example, tutors have told us that they use translation when teaching absolute beginner students. After all, it’s far quicker and simpler to translate the question “Do you have brothers and sisters?” than to gesture and use pictures.

And no matter how good someone is at their target language, at some point, they will want to express an idea they find easier to share in their native language(s). And they will want to know how to express it clearly and in a culturally-appropriate way. 

So rather than giving them the “don’t think in your native tongue” lecture, we can help them become better at translating by encouraging them to use translation dictionaries, such as Linguee and ALC. (ALC is for Japanese students. Perhaps the majority of bad Japanese English could be solved with a search on ALC!)

In addition, students can search English phrases they’d like to use on Google to see if English-speakers have used them. They can also use online forums and services such as WordReference, Lang-8, or HiNative to check their sentences.

👋 That’s it for now!

Again, we don’t want translation to dominate the lesson and of course, students will have their own preferences about it that we have to respect. 

So, when they do opt for using translation, we should see it as another tool in our toolkit and help students understand the difference between a good and bad translation.

Happy tutoring!