People are different and learn in different ways, of course, perhaps regardless of whatever unique language-specific mechanisms we might believe are at play in the process. It’s only natural, then, that the teacher should strive to meet her students’ learning styles in the best possible way. Or is it?
This post is my answer to an agony letter I received a while ago. The question was “Is teaching through translation a good idea?”
I have just come back from a 5-day stay in Buenos Aires, which is hands down one of my favorite cities in the world. Despite their not always undeserved reputation for grumpiness, my Portenho friends have always been gracious with my feeble, embarrassing attempts at Spanish.
Here I go again. Another can of worms. This time, I’m tackling the M word: the of the mother tongue (L1) in the EFL / ESL class. What’s the role of translation?
