Innovation in Language Learning

What place should translation (and other ‘mediation’ activities such as interpreting) have in university-level language study? What can the Council of Europe Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) contribute to our understanding of the features of successful language learning and the possible role of translation in its broader sense? How can web-based tools and resources be used to support effective and engaging translation activities for advanced-level language learners?

This paper will consider how developments in theories of language learning and teaching, combined with the increasing globalisation of university study and language learning, contributed to the decline in the use of translation in university-level language courses. It will outline the arguments and evidence that underpin the re-assessment of translation’s place in language learning that is now taking place (Cook, 2010; Aden and Weissmann (eds), 2012; Pym, Malmkjær and Gutiérrez-Colón Plana, 2013).

The influential role played by the CEFR, launched in 2001, with its explicit recognition of mediation as one of the range of skills (in addition to the traditional ‘four skills’ of speaking and listening, reading and writing) to be acquired by language learners, will be considered and the view it presents of the language learner as a future language user in the making, a social agent, living, working or studying in a multilingual and multicultural context – and with access to all the resources of the web (Rosen (ed), 2009; Byram, 2013).

The main part of this paper will review the ways in which translation can find a place in action-oriented communicative language learning (Puren, 1995 and 2012) and provide examples of activities, tasks and projects that make use of tools and resources available on-line.