De 'Meerwaarde' Van Pedagogisch Vertalen: Een Inventarisatie

A common form of practising grammar and training vocabulary acquisition at secondary schools, pedagogical translation (L1-L2) is generally considered to be particularly beneficial to advanced learners. Although the translation debate in Dutch academic journals in the 1980s suggests that university teachers agree on the importance of pedagogical translation for advanced learners of English at Dutch universities, they don't seem to agree on the particular benefits. At the same time, despite 6 years of English at secondary school and an extensive exposure to English in Dutch society, students often express a frustration at their inadequacy to master this form of skills training. Little research has been done into the actual effects of L1-L2 translation on advanced learners, neither in SLA nor in translation studies. The article is a review of the recent literature, and lists a number of possible research questions around the core question: can the effect of pedagogical translation be identified and measured in a systematic way? My hypothesis is that the effect is a student's enhanced understanding of the nature of Dutch texts and their specific features. This in turn will enable students to communicate the meaning of the text adequately into English.