Early Guided Translation-Translating a Song
I. Rationale
This activity is designed for beginning high school language students. Students work together using a dictionary to piece together translations to a song.
This activity supports language development by a) using reading to focus on form, and b) developing a community of learners.
A) Noticing while reading as a way to focus on form.
Schmidt (1990, 2001) proposed the hypothesis that nothing is learned until it is noticed. Lightbown and Spada (1990, 1994) observed that students had more problems with linguistic accuracy and complexity when their instruction lacked focus on form. Swain’s (1985) comprehensible output theory claims that it is while trying to communicate that the learner realizes the limitations of the L2 ability. This can lead to noticing and depending on the communicative activity could also include a focus on form.
B) Developing a community of learners.
One of the standards for foreign language learning is that students use the language both within and beyond the school setting. According to Phillips and Draper (1999) “A community can be a community of learners of different ages or in different locations. The idea here is that the classroom provides the means so that students can interact beyond their classroom walls.” “The intent of the ‘lifelong learning’ standard is that students from the beginning develop the tools, the habits of mind, and the motivations that allow them to independently pursue activities using language throughout their lifetime.” (p. 68).
Lave (1991) studied apprenticeship communities of practice and discussed how the development of knowledge within that community also went hand in hand with a change in identity. I am working to help my students to identify themselves as learners of the language with important roles to play within a community of other learners.
Description
I believe in teaching my students to sing because over the years I have noticed that it has been easier for them to learn and remember the things that they learn through song. There are not a lot of songs for us to use in Iñupiaq so we have been learning the hymns. Students are learning to read and pronounce the words but they often don’t know exactly what it is they are saying while they sing.
I created a puzzle way of translating the song to help my students understand what it is they are singing. In order to do this I printed out the hymn in Iñupiaq and English and cut out each line of each language. I had all of the Iñupiaq strips on one table and all of the English ones on another table. Each student was to select a random strip from the Iñupiaq table and using their Iñupiaq dictionary try to figure out what that line was talking about. This was difficult for them to do because each word is composed of many words put together so I had to help them look for root words in the dictionary. Once they felt they had an idea of what the strip was saying they looked for the English translation and taped the strips together.
Students looked for strips to translate until all of the strips were connected to their English translation. I looked at all of them to be sure they were correct and then began reading out the Iñupiaq song line by line in the order that it appears in the song. The students would look through the strips to find the one I was reading out and once found would hand it to me. I would then tape that strip combination to the board and move on to the next line. This reading out of the lines was a natural way to organize the song and gave the students an additional opportunity to practice listening to the lines of the song.
This activity is designed for beginning high school language students. Students work together using a dictionary to piece together translations to a song.
This activity supports language development by a) using reading to focus on form, and b) developing a community of learners.
A) Noticing while reading as a way to focus on form.
Schmidt (1990, 2001) proposed the hypothesis that nothing is learned until it is noticed. Lightbown and Spada (1990, 1994) observed that students had more problems with linguistic accuracy and complexity when their instruction lacked focus on form. Swain’s (1985) comprehensible output theory claims that it is while trying to communicate that the learner realizes the limitations of the L2 ability. This can lead to noticing and depending on the communicative activity could also include a focus on form.
B) Developing a community of learners.
One of the standards for foreign language learning is that students use the language both within and beyond the school setting. According to Phillips and Draper (1999) “A community can be a community of learners of different ages or in different locations. The idea here is that the classroom provides the means so that students can interact beyond their classroom walls.” “The intent of the ‘lifelong learning’ standard is that students from the beginning develop the tools, the habits of mind, and the motivations that allow them to independently pursue activities using language throughout their lifetime.” (p. 68).
Lave (1991) studied apprenticeship communities of practice and discussed how the development of knowledge within that community also went hand in hand with a change in identity. I am working to help my students to identify themselves as learners of the language with important roles to play within a community of other learners.
Description
I believe in teaching my students to sing because over the years I have noticed that it has been easier for them to learn and remember the things that they learn through song. There are not a lot of songs for us to use in Iñupiaq so we have been learning the hymns. Students are learning to read and pronounce the words but they often don’t know exactly what it is they are saying while they sing.
I created a puzzle way of translating the song to help my students understand what it is they are singing. In order to do this I printed out the hymn in Iñupiaq and English and cut out each line of each language. I had all of the Iñupiaq strips on one table and all of the English ones on another table. Each student was to select a random strip from the Iñupiaq table and using their Iñupiaq dictionary try to figure out what that line was talking about. This was difficult for them to do because each word is composed of many words put together so I had to help them look for root words in the dictionary. Once they felt they had an idea of what the strip was saying they looked for the English translation and taped the strips together.
Students looked for strips to translate until all of the strips were connected to their English translation. I looked at all of them to be sure they were correct and then began reading out the Iñupiaq song line by line in the order that it appears in the song. The students would look through the strips to find the one I was reading out and once found would hand it to me. I would then tape that strip combination to the board and move on to the next line. This reading out of the lines was a natural way to organize the song and gave the students an additional opportunity to practice listening to the lines of the song.
Reflection
This was an incredibly engaging activity for the students and all were actively working with the language. It was obvious by their engagement that they were honestly enthused to find out the meaning of the songs that they have heard sung since they were children. We’ve kept the strips up on the board and I often find them looking at their work. The fact that the work was done as a group gave each individual a feeling of connectedness to the group as well as a feeling of individual pride in the work they contributed to. Because the hymns are sung by community members at many functions learning to sing them and to understand the meaning of the words being sung helps the students feel connected to the greater language community.
I did this same activity with a song in Spanish and found it to be equally engaging. It was easier for the Spanish students to translate because there are more translation tools for Spanish than there are for Iñupiaq and not as many words change form in Spanish as they do in Iñupiaq. I did not want my Spanish students to enter whole sentences into a translation tool as I wanted them to try to make sense of the sentences word by word. Even though I had already done the activity in Iñupiaq the usefulness of reading out the lines for re-composing the song did not strike me as significant till I was doing it with my Spanish students. We did a song from Frozen in Spanish class and it was interesting to the students that some lines were given a completely different meaning. In the English version it says, “Let it go.” And in the Spanish version that’s translated as “I am free.” The students knew the song in English and were struck by the difference in the way lines had been translated. This gave us the opportunity to discuss subtle ways of translating meaning. I will definitely continue to do this activity with my students.
This was an incredibly engaging activity for the students and all were actively working with the language. It was obvious by their engagement that they were honestly enthused to find out the meaning of the songs that they have heard sung since they were children. We’ve kept the strips up on the board and I often find them looking at their work. The fact that the work was done as a group gave each individual a feeling of connectedness to the group as well as a feeling of individual pride in the work they contributed to. Because the hymns are sung by community members at many functions learning to sing them and to understand the meaning of the words being sung helps the students feel connected to the greater language community.
I did this same activity with a song in Spanish and found it to be equally engaging. It was easier for the Spanish students to translate because there are more translation tools for Spanish than there are for Iñupiaq and not as many words change form in Spanish as they do in Iñupiaq. I did not want my Spanish students to enter whole sentences into a translation tool as I wanted them to try to make sense of the sentences word by word. Even though I had already done the activity in Iñupiaq the usefulness of reading out the lines for re-composing the song did not strike me as significant till I was doing it with my Spanish students. We did a song from Frozen in Spanish class and it was interesting to the students that some lines were given a completely different meaning. In the English version it says, “Let it go.” And in the Spanish version that’s translated as “I am free.” The students knew the song in English and were struck by the difference in the way lines had been translated. This gave us the opportunity to discuss subtle ways of translating meaning. I will definitely continue to do this activity with my students.