Teaching Foreign Languages Through Translation: the Role of Translation in Language Teaching

Teaching Foreign Languages through Translation . Fakhri Mesri (rufiamesri@yahoo.com). Department of English, Salmas Branch. Islamic Azad University, Salmas, Iran. Translation is obviously one of the noticeable aspects of using L1. It has a long history in English Language Teaching and Learning. However, relatively little research attention so far seems to have been devoted to a consideration of the use of translation in language learning. So, the objective of this study is explored the effect of translation on Iranian EFL context. The data for this study was collected from 47 (20 female& 27male) learners from Salmas Azad University. They were at intermediate level. In pre-test, the researcher introduced exercises (Grammar and reading comprehension ) without instruction in Persian. In post- test learners had to complete those questions that were given instruction in Persian. Data analysis of this study has been done with Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The findings in this study indicate a significant effect of translation on performance of the learners. In addition there is a significant difference between male and female performance.