Mona Baker & Gabriela Saldanha. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edition)

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bothintoandoutoftheL2,employingonlythevocabularyandgrammar

encounteredinthecurrentandearlierunits.

IntroducedintheGymnasiaofPrussiainthemidnineteenthcentury,the

grammartranslationmethodspreadrapidlyanditisstillusedwidelytoday

(HowattandWiddowson2004:151–8).Underitsinfluencewrittentranslation

exercisesbecamethecentralfeatureoflanguageteachingsyllabusesin

textbooksforselfstudy,inschoolsandinuniversities.Theseexercisesare

regardedasameansofinstruction,practiceandassessment;L2competenceis

measuredbytheaccuracyofthelexicalandgrammaticalequivalenceattainedin

translation.

Directmethodandtherejectionoftranslation

Grammartranslationsooncameunderattack.Attheturnofthetwentieth

century,theselfstyled‘ReformMovement’criticizeditforignoringthespoken

language,forencouragingfalsenotionsofEQUIVALENCEandforpresenting

isolatedsentencesratherthanconnectedtexts(Howatt2004:187–98).The

influentialphoneticianandlanguageteachingtheoristHenrySweet([1899]

1964:101)ridiculedthekindofsentencefoundinatypicaltranslationexercise

as‘abagintowhichiscrammedasmuchgrammaticalandlexicalinformationas

possible’andproducedparodiesinillustrationsuchas‘Themerchantis

swimmingwiththegardener’sson,buttheDutchmanhasthefinegun’(Sweet

[1899]1964:74).Suchsentences,asmanyhaveobserved,arehighlyartificial,

divorcedfrompurpose,contextandactualuse(Firth1957:24)althoughthese

factorsdonotinthemselvesinvalidatesuchsentencesasapedagogicdevice

(Cook2001).Otherattacksongrammartranslationhavecitedthe

demotivatingdifficultyoftranslatingfromL1toL2,thereinforcementofreliance

onprocessingviatheL1,strengtheningofL1interferenceandadetrimental

effectontheacquisitionofnativelikeprocessingskillandspeed(forasummary

ofsuchargumentsseeStern1992:282–7)

Suchcriticismshavebeendevastatinglyeffectiveininfluencingacademicopinion

againsttheuseoftranslationinlanguageteaching.Oppositiontotheuseof

translationhasledtoitsreplacementbythedirectmethod:theteachingofan

L2usingthatlanguage(andonlythatlanguage)asameansofinstruction.

Attitudestotranslationhavevariedfromatotalban(asintheBerlitzschools),

toanindulgentifreluctantadmissionofitasanecessarylastresort,‘arefugefor

theincompetent’(seeKoch1947).Almostalltwentiethcenturymethodologies

arespeciesofthedirectmethod(fordescriptionsanddiscussionsee,interalia,

Johnson2001:chapter10;RichardsandRodgers2001;Stern1992).

Meanwhile,grammartranslationhascontinuedtobeused,especiallyin

secondaryschoolsinmanypartsoftheworld.Itisoneofthefewmethods

whichcanbeadoptedinverylargeclassesand,beingstructuredand

predictable,cangivestudentsasenseofconfidenceandattainment.Itisalso

suitedtoteacherswhoseowncommandoftheL2maybelimited.Thetypical

teacherofgrammartranslationisonewhoseL1isthesameashisorher

students,andwhohaslearnedtheL2asaforeignlanguage;suchteachershave

theadvantagesofunderstandingthelanguagespecificproblemsoftheir

students.

Politicalanddemographicinfluences

Inanydiscussionoflanguageteachingtheoryandpractice,itisimportantto

remembertheconsequencesofthepositionofEnglishastheworld’smost

widelylearnedforeignlanguage(Crystal1997a:360–61).Inrecentyears,the

mostinfluentialideasaboutlanguageteachinghaveoftenbeendevelopedwith

explicitreferencetoEnglishLanguageTeaching(ELT),accompaniedbyan

implicitassumptionthattheyapplytoforeignlanguageteachingingeneral.This

viewisstrengthenedbythefocusofattention,derivingfromChomskyan

linguistics,onuniversalratherthanlanguagespecificaspectsoflanguageand

languageacquisition.Argumentsconcerningthepedagogicuseoftranslationare

noexceptiontotheinfluenceofthesegeneraltrends.Therelevanceofideas

fromELTtotheteachingofotherlanguages,however,shouldnotbetakenfor

granted.Thecaseforandagainsttranslationmayvarywiththesocialand

linguisticrelationshipbetweenastudent’sL1andL2.The