Kavaliauskienė G. (2009) says that translation does not help students to
develop communication skills. Translation activities may be suitable for
students who prefer analytical or verbal-linguistic learning strategies.
According to Duff (1989), in the last two decades teachers and students
have begun to use translation to teach / learn the English language (Duff,
1989).
Teaching as learning a second language involves many strategies and each
of them aimed at developing students' communication skills. Likewise, each of
the activities that are implemented such as translation, has great advantages
from the point of view that the student appropriates a second language and
develops skills to learn new vocabulary, new expressions and also practice and
enhance the skills of reading, writing, listening and pronunciation. However it
does not mean that the translation does not have certain disadvantages, the
common errors of writing include bad organization, long sentences and words,
inadequate content, incoherent use, poor page design, repetition, plagiarism,
lack of structure and several grammatical errors.
There is an obvious link between reading and writing: they are
interdependent and reciprocal processes, both are personal and social
activities, which naturally intersect in the learning process (Kavaliauskienė,
2004).
Translation as a teaching tool must take into account a number of
different aspects, such as grammar, syntax, location and connotation. The
uncritical use of the translation can provide students with insufficient,
confusing and even inaccurate information about the target language. No matter
how good the students are in understanding authentic reading materials, some of
them still translate mentally from L2 to L1 and vice versa. This fact makes
English teachers consider the importance of translation for learning purposes.
