An empirical study on the effectiveness of translation in the practice of second language essay writing by secondary school students in Singapore

• Main Author: Chow, Shona Qianwei
• Other Authors: Helena Gao
• Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Language
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142652
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Writing involves a multitude of skills and is often considered by many to be the most difficult skill to master in the learning of a language. The mastery of this skill is much more challenging to second language learners as they have to manage code-switching habits and prevent the potential problem of negative influence from their first language. Despite the increasing use of translation as a pedagogical tool in language teaching, its use is so far mostly limited to the area of vocabulary-teaching. This study aims to investigate if translation is effective in improving the writing performance of second language learners in Singapore by comparing direct essay scores with essay translation scores. Research participants are 21 Secondary Two students learning Chinese as a second language. Analysis shows that students’ second language essays are very much negatively influenced by their first language, resulting in the essay translation scores being lower than that of the direct writing task. Writing scores also vary with different translation tasks, and it was observed that students perform better when translating a published text as compared to their own essays. Such results reveal two considerations with regard to the use of translation as a pedagogical tool: Firstly, published texts instead of self-written essays should be used for translation practice; Secondly, teachers should actively integrate language comparison into “post-mortem” essay translation feedback sessions. It is hoped that with the suggestions, Chinese teachers in Singapore can tap on translation as a teaching tool to help students identify their weakness in the area of writing and improve it efficiently.