Innovation in Language Learning

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how language learning can be facilitated by the use of a genre-approach to language, on the one hand and the use of corpora, on the other hand. In our analysis, we deal with translation of specialised texts. We focus on the translation of a medical leaflet, a first-aid leaflet and the translation of an article of law. We believe that a good translation of such texts requires not only great familiarity with the specific terminology, but also an awareness of their internal structure. The internal organisation of such texts is never accidental. It always aims to help the text fulfil its communicative purpose. Understanding why texts have a structure of their own can only help the translator provide an accurate translation which renders the meaning of the text correctly and, in addition, respects the communicative purpose of the texts. We circumscribe our analysis mainly to the concept of genre as defined by Vijay K. Bhatia, which, we claim, may help the translator identify not only the specific language features of specialised texts, but also understand the role these text characteristics play in making the text achieve its communicative purpose: for  a first aid leaflet – providing quick medical help in emmergency situations, and for an article of law – making the legal text all inclusive. Moreover, Bhatia’s approach to legal texts is instrumental in helping the translator visualize the text and, in a way, X-ray its internal structure. We call it text visualization by text verticalization. The use of corpora is also contributory in helping language learners and users deal with other sensitive aspects of language for specific purposes, such as false friends in legal English. Corpora can help learners develop an active rather than passive approach to language acquisition and language use.