Translation tools – Advising Students
Any teacher or trainer ought to be working towards their own obsolescence – that’s to say, we should be equipping students to succeed without us. There have never been so many tools available with so many opportunities to be tripped up by them, and my students want to know how to select their tools and how to apply them. So…. what do we tell them? Everyone reading this will have their own opinions, so feel free to comment and share.
3 types of search
Generally I think we have three types of situation which smart/online/app/… tools can help with. There are tools to assist with each, but no tool can really make up for absolute ignorance – and non-native speakers should learn to trust their instincts. The worst types of mistake are often the words which seem ‘suspicious’ when you try to use them. (I can’t be the only person to have delighted in Monty Python’s ‘dictionary’ sketch..)
General vocabulary
Services to help with the odd general word are legion. I like ‘google translate’, the french swear by ‘reverso’. What I do say is that it pays not to depend on them too much, and to try to check words singly.
Whatever the temptation to opt for the easiest possible variant, try to encourage your students to have enough self confidence to decline offerings such as ‘l’Anglais facile’ which are written by non-native speakers, and are highly likely to repeat common errors which students can make unaided.
(I’m not going to insult your intelligence by providing links to these general sites. If you really truly never cheat, use a search engine.)
Technical vocabulary
Let me tell you a story… I have a group of students who work in lift maintenance. For this reason, I’ve had to learn about the bits and pieces which go into them. In French there is a thingy on a lift called a ‘parachute’. If you ask Google or the average dictionary, they will tell you that this translates as …. a parachute. Easy, right? Wrong. Allow your mind to dwell on that image for just a moment. Delicious. Of course, the real term is ‘safety catch device’ – and the reason I know this is that I was told many years ago about a lifesaver: ‘Le Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique’ which is edited and published by the government of Quebec.
Language services portal - press here
Dictionary directly – press here
You should only ask for a single word – say you want to translate ‘machine housing’, type ‘housing’ into the search window, and then scroll down the categories which are suggested, until you find ‘mechanical’ or whatever seems closest. Click on that, and see what it suggests. I know that I appreciate not having to feel responsible for all vocabulary in the classroom, and in spite of what might be ideal, dictionaries are not always available, evan in higher education contexts (and frankly, I wouldn’t even try to cart my dictionary collection around with me).
The disadvatage is, of course, that if your native tongue is neither English or French, you’re up a bit of a gum tree..
Synonyms and the’ best possible’ word
The downside of translation tools, apart from the fact that ease of use tends to foster dependance, is that they, well, translate. Most of us spend valuable classroom hours nudging people away from translation towards independant thought and language generation. To this end, I try to encourage my students to use English-only services. My personal favourite is ‘Visuwords’ which you can visit here. Visuwords is artistically pleasing, and will do more to enable users to get a feel for the best use of a word than any translation-based approach. The interface will display synonyms, opposites, related terms… and very often this will be more help to comprehension than a dictionary.
What else?
The internet is a big place, and I don’t know the half of what goes on there. What other tools do you use with your students? Please share…
You might also like to check out the discussion thread on this very subject among teachers on edutopia – here
About Catherine Kennedy
Catherine Kennedy
ijkblogger
Hi Catherine,
It’s interesting to see other teachers’ takes on translation and dictionary choice. I personally never let my students use Google Translate, especially not for a single word,because I find that there’s only a 50/50 chance of it choosing the right translation, and it doesn’t have show any distinction between different forms. If they do use it, or if they are reading something in English, I always encourage students to use a monolingual dictionary. In my opinion, the richest is the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary http://www.oald8.com I have written a post showing students how to use it here: http://independentenglish.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/oxford-advanced-learners-dictionary/
If they do translate, I find the most wide-ranging definitions are available on http://www.wordreference.com (with a French section) – it often includes example sentences and gives a range of translations.
I completely understand your problems with technical vocabulary. Another possible solution to this, although it doesn’t always work, is for the student to look up the wikipedia entry for the thing they want to describe, then look on the left for the list of languages and click on English to find the equivalent. Obviously that only works if there is a Wikipedia entry for the thing you need! I just looked for parachute and got this: http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parachute_(ascenseur)&action=edit&redlink=1 with no equivalent – but maybe in the future there will be. You could also read the English wikipedia entry with students and try to identify the word/phrase you are looking for together.
Hope that helps,
Sandy
Good morning Sandy. It’s lovely to hear from you.
In the institutional setting I’m working in it’s more a matter of rolling with the punches. Students are going to use their smartphones in class, and they are going to use their computers outside it. There is nothing I can really do to escape that fact. Google’s limitations are well-known. Better to let them discover that what we tell them is true…if necessary by tripping themselves up!
As for technical vocabulary, in an industrial setting we need to face the fact that people do not have time to wade through wikipedia. A man at work (or a woman if she so chose) in the sttings my students work in really need tools which can deliver. That is why I prefer to train them to use an extremely technical service. I only see most students for 4×4-hour sessions in an academic year, so what I can offer them is extremely limited indeed!
That said, I am now going to go and visit all the links you recommend and milk them for all they are worth!
Thank you for looking in.
Hello again, Sandy
Having checked out your suggestions for alternative technical english sources, I have to say that for professionals the site in Quebec is still without rival, although in a school setting wordreference would certainly be quite adequate.
Thanks again for your input.