Investigating EFL Learners' attitudes towards the use of translation in second language writing essay
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Date
2015
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university of Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
The present research work examines, through a questionnaire provided with a written task; the way second year LMD students of english use translation as a strategy or as product process of language to generate ideas in Second language writing essay, and its effect on the enhancement or deterioration of EFL learners writing performance. It attempt to find out whether second year students benefit from studying and perceiving translation and its methods as a practical endeavor, and to investigate their abilities in translating from arabic to english, the strategies they employ and the problems that may encounter them while practicing the task of translation. The results obtained show that the students' level of translation is somewhat good. Through the questionnaire and the written task, it is clearly demonstrated that they like studying and practicing translation, despite the fact that they meet some difficulties and problems of grammatical nature, they believe that such difficulties will be reduced via much practice. The majority of the students reported that they think in arabic in the direct english writing task i.e., they translate their thoughts from arabic to english, particularly they consider translation as an effective tool in learning vocabulary, a helpful strategy to improve the writing skill through raising their perceptions about the similarities and the differences between the native language (arabic) and the target language (english). The findings suggest that teachers should incorporate translation procedures into their writing lessons and explicitly teach students how to become effective in employing such process in different situations. So, the provision of practice in using the native language particularly in planning and organizing learners' writing may be handy to students in performing certain written tasks.
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Language writing