Translation as a communicative unit in language

This recourse to translation into language classes is, additionally, accompanied by modifications in the objectives of the practice, the method of work and on its content.According to this new vision, and for pedagogical purposes, the translation activity will make the student aware of the lexical and grammatical specificities of each language, within a communicative context. Translation allows the student to conceptualize the grammar of each of the two languages. It is necessary, at this stage, to speak of a process of active language learning, and not that of a normative grammar sustaining.

From a communicative perspective, the practice of translation is reviewed from a „constructivist“ angle. To translate, one must understand the meaning of the text submitted to translation. „Understanding“ means, according to the Piagetian paradigm, the „construction“ of meaning by a set of interactions of the learner with the external environment, and with the aid of his prior knowledge. Knowledge is, according to this psychological movement, a process before being a result.The pedagogical translation that we defend does not concern sentences in isolation, out of context. The intended translation, similarly with the professional translation, must be practiced on texts that convey meaning.

From a communicative perspective, the practice of translation is reviewed from a „constructivist“ angle. To translate, one must understand the meaning of the text submitted to translation. „Understanding“ means, according to the Piagetian paradigm, the „construction“ of meaning by a set of interactions of the learner with the external environment, and with the aid of his prior knowledge. Knowledge is, according to this psychological movement, a process before being a result.The pedagogical translation that we defend does not concern sentences in isolation, out of context. The intended translation, similarly with the professional translation, must be practiced on texts that convey meaning.

This practice has to move away from the word and the sentence to determine the unit of meaning as an entity, it has to avoid the linguistic correspondence to establish the semantic equivalence, as imposed by the enunciative context with all its components: linguistic, cultural and social. This will allow learners to be sensitive to the different realities or worlds of each language and to the cultural strength of each of them. In other words, we aspire to a practice that is part of a communication strategy: to know what to translate, for whom to translate and how to do it?Among the activities that can explain the spirit of pedagogical translation, and that can go along with the desired development, we can mention the exercise of „Commentary on Version“ proposed by Ballard (1988, p.153) and that of „Discourse with Discourse“ of which the essence is inspired by Widdowson