Thirty-one ways to use translation in the business English classroom Maurice Claypole

Using business newspapers 1. Headlines: Translate a news headline from the Financial Times or the business section of a British newspaper into L1. Another student translates it back again. 2. 3. 4. International viewpoint: Compare two newspaper items (L1 and L2) on similar topics. Comment on the differences. Business report: Write a summary of a business report from an L1 newspaper in English. News reporting: Watch a news item in English. Students write a report in L1. Swap reports and translate into English.

Using the company as a resource 5. How to find us: Write down three different ways of giving directions to a company in L1. Translate them into English. 6. 7. 8. The company tour: Write down a brief guided tour of the company in L1. Translate it into English. International procedures: Write the description of a service procedure or production process in L1. Translate it into English. Company publications: Compare appropriate hard copy company material (brochures, instruction manuals, contracts) available in L1 and L2 from your company or a close competitor. Discuss the problems facing the translators and their relative success in translation. Discuss the merits and disadvantages of the use of bilingual or multilingual material. Company websites: As 7. but using material downloaded from company websites.

9.

10. Company translation: Offer company material (as in 7. and 8.) in L1 and translate into English. Compare with the translations the company is using. 11. Reporting a video: Watch part of a company video in L1 or L2 as available. Elicit any relevant vocabulary. Students write a short summary in L1 and translate into English.
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12. Visitor guide: Produce a 2-language guide book for visitors to your company. Each group could tackle a different department or aspect of the business. 13. Gourmet translation: Translate a menu from the canteen or a local restaurant or write a visitors guide to eating out including untranslatable local specialities. General exercises 14. It wasnt me: Select a sentence from a text. Translate it. Change it to negative. Translate back. 15. Time-shift: Write down in L1 four sentences about what you did yesterday. Another student translates them into English. Another student changes the time frame to the future (e.g. tomorrow). Translate back into L1. 16. Sex change: Write a report about a male character in the company. Translate it. Change the character to a female. Translate the story back and compare. 17. Reporting: One student stands up and speaks in L1 on a chosen topic for 30 seconds. Other students listen but are not allowed to make notes. When he has finished they write down a brief summary of what was said half the class in L1 and half in L2. Students swap sheets and translate. Compare. Discuss. 18. Note taking: One student stands up and speaks in L1 on a chosen topic for 30 seconds. The other students listen and take notes, half the class in L1 and half in L2. They then write a summary in the other language. Students swap sheets and translate. Compare. Discuss. 19. Written Chinese whispers: Give each student a short written message at the top of a sheet of paper. The student translates it folds over the paper to hide the original text and passes to the next student who translates it back before folding it and passing to the next student. At the end the transformation of the message is compared and discussed.

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20. Bilingual consequences (requires at least 4 students): Dictate the first sentence of a story in L1. The sentence must have some missing information (e.g. a name of a person, action or result) which each student completes and translates the whole sentence into English and writes it at the top of a sheet of paper. The paper is then folded over twice to conceal the information and passed to the next student. The next sentence in the story is then dictated and so on. At the end the finished stories are read out. 21. Translation mutation: Write down an English sentence with two or three clauses, e.g.
A man was walking along the street when suddenly he heard a loud bang.

Translate it into L1. Change the sentence one word or item at a time, e.g.
A man was walking along the street when suddenly he heard a loud bang. A man was walking across the street when suddenly he heard a loud bang. A man was walking across the bridge when suddenly he heard a loud bang. A man was running across the bridge when suddenly he heard a loud bang. A woman was running across the bridge when suddenly she heard a loud bang. A woman was running across the bridge when suddenly she heard a loud crash.

and so on. Each time, adjust the translation. Discuss what things change in one language but not in the other. This can also be done permitting absurdities:
I like drinking beer but wine always gives me a headache. I hate drinking beer but wine always gives me a headache. I hate eating beer but I hate eating beer but .. a handkerchief.

22. Bilingual input texts: Read and discuss the existing translation (Andre Gide). 23. Error correction: Teacher provides a translation with errors in. Find them.

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24. Translation game: Translate the instructions for a board game. Write down the names of the chess pieces / cards / football jargon / in L1 and L2. 25. As the song goes: Translate the refrain of a well-known L1 song text into English. 26. Idiomatic translation: Translate common English idioms into L1. 27. International instructions: Take the instructions for use from any machine (e.g. headphones, microwave) and compare L1 and L2 versions. Use as a model (with caution) to write instructions for a similar machine. 28. The glossary test: The class compiles a list of 10 words from a recent topic. Half the class translates these 10 words into L1 to create a second list. The other half forms English sentences with the original words. Can you translate these sentences using the words from the second list? If not, why not? 29. Borrowed English: Make a list of words used in L1 that have been taken from English. Translate them and discuss. Have the meanings been changed to produce false friends? 30. Multiple meanings: Give each group of students a word in English with more than one meaning or usage (e.g. table, board, check, interest). Using dictionaries each group lists and compares the different meanings and usages of the word in both L1 and L2. Discuss the issues of translation. 31. Breakfast translation: bring in packaging with multi-lingual information (e.g. breakfast cereal, fruit juice, spreads. List the ingredients in both L1 and L2. Groups write simple recipes or dietary recommendations using these. Swap texts and translate.

M. Claypole 2007