La lengua materna y la traducción en las aulas de idiomas del siglo XIX al XXI: mirando al pasado para entender el presente
Mother tongue and translation in the foreign language classroom from the 19th to the 21st century: Looking back to understand the present
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1344/did.43786Keywords:
foreign language teaching, approaches and methods, mother tongue, translationAbstract
The role of the mother tongue (MT) and translation in the language classroom is not a new issue either in academic research or in the classroom, although beliefs about the benefits of monolingual approaches seem to persist in some spheres. Thus, we believe it is necessary to understand what role both had in language teaching in the 19th and 20th centuries to assess to what extent it seems logical to continue renewing those positions in the 21st century. To this end, in this paper we carry out a historical, theoretical and critical review of the role of MT and translation in the main didactic approaches and methods that have emerged since the 19th century with a double objective: to understand which ones advocated their elimination and what motivated this position, and to understand their role in the current scenario, described by the Council of Europe (2002 and 2021) and supported by numerous investigations in recent decades, which advocates the adoption of plural approaches. The dubious scientific rigor of certain arguments in favour of the elimination of both resources translates into the need to reject them today and to adopt a plurilingual teaching, where MT and translation have a place.
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