Teachers don’t need to compete with translation services
Language teaching does not compete with translation apps. If someone needs to translate from one language to another, the correct address for best results is likely to be translation services that can do the job quickly professionally. Language teaching is a horse of a different color, for the precise reason that a playful expression like that cannot easily be handled by a software application. Translation apps can come in handy, but they have trouble with the nuances of creative writing and figures of speech. A good language teacher will be delighted by word play and colorful expressions and will impart that humor and delight to students. You can beat the machine!
Let’s look at some creative ways that you can use translation apps to complement your lessons and enhance the learning experiences of your students, via classroom games. We’ll do so with a top translation app: Google Translate, a frequent winner in international academic competitions.
A Machine Translation Primer
Machine translation has come a long way in the last decades, thanks to a conceptual breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence last decade: a technique known as neural networks. Without getting side-tracked into esoteric realms of computer science, suffice to say that AI-driven neural translation considers the entire text to be translated. Then, based on prior training, it maps the semantic and grammatical relationships among all words before starting to translate.
Let’s look at some creative ways that you can use translation apps to complement your lessons and enhance the learning experiences of your students, via classroom games. We’ll do so with a top translation app: Google Translate, a frequent winner in international academic competitions.
A Machine Translation Primer
Machine translation has come a long way in the last decades, thanks to a conceptual breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence last decade: a technique known as neural networks. Without getting side-tracked into esoteric realms of computer science, suffice to say that AI-driven neural translation considers the entire text to be translated. Then, based on prior training, it maps the semantic and grammatical relationships among all words before starting to translate.
Confusing? Never mind. You’re a language teacher, not a computer scientist. Let’s move on to the task at hand! First thing to do, if you haven’t already, is to download the app. Unlike many translation apps, it’s free, so all students can afford it, and there’s no suspicion that you’re earning a sales commission. Translate supports 109 languages in text and can translate for 37 languages via photos, 32 via voice in conversation mode.”
Translation games that add fun and flavor
1. Translation Telephone
Remember the kids’ game where kids sit in a circle and whisper a sentence to each other till the whispered sentence comes full circle and is announced out loud? Invariably there’s little relation between the sentence originally whispered and the one spoken aloud. The same happens when translating between several languages and back again. How to do it? Speak or type a moderate complex sentence or two in English, then into the language that you’re teaching, into one more language of your choice and then back to English. (It’s easy to do this by toggling the arrow keys to reverse the direction of the translation and then picking a new language.) After a few rounds, do you recognize it?
2. Word Salad
Print out a complex menu in a foreign language. Students use their translation app to order food, while one student serves as waiter who writes down the order and then communicates it to the “chef,” who then reads it back to the class and stands corrected! Educational value: how expressions get lost in translation, the power of ambiguity.
3. Blind Language Bluff
This is a variation on the party game where one person puts a word or phrase on their forehead and then needs to guess what is written. Here we do it with an expression in the language being learned. All questions and answers need to be in that language! Students get to use their app both to ask questions and to make guesses.
4. Linguistic Charades
Just like the party game, one student think of a word, and the others need to guess it? The one with the hidden word, can give clues but not say it. App use allowed. Educational value: Expanding vocabulary, learning problem-solving in a new language.
5. Translation Autocorrect
Assign 5-10 paragraphs in English to translate. Instruct students to translate without help, translate using the app, then copy their translation into the app and translate back to English. Challenge them to try an improve on the app translation.
Educational value: Choose paragraphs where the app translation is flawed. This raises students’ awareness that even AI software is flawed and that they can best a machine! Better yet: try it yourself and see how well you do!
Meta description: Language teachers can use Google Translate to enhance classroom experiences and homework assignments with pleasant games and exercises.
Translation games that add fun and flavor
1. Translation Telephone
Remember the kids’ game where kids sit in a circle and whisper a sentence to each other till the whispered sentence comes full circle and is announced out loud? Invariably there’s little relation between the sentence originally whispered and the one spoken aloud. The same happens when translating between several languages and back again. How to do it? Speak or type a moderate complex sentence or two in English, then into the language that you’re teaching, into one more language of your choice and then back to English. (It’s easy to do this by toggling the arrow keys to reverse the direction of the translation and then picking a new language.) After a few rounds, do you recognize it?
2. Word Salad
Print out a complex menu in a foreign language. Students use their translation app to order food, while one student serves as waiter who writes down the order and then communicates it to the “chef,” who then reads it back to the class and stands corrected! Educational value: how expressions get lost in translation, the power of ambiguity.
3. Blind Language Bluff
This is a variation on the party game where one person puts a word or phrase on their forehead and then needs to guess what is written. Here we do it with an expression in the language being learned. All questions and answers need to be in that language! Students get to use their app both to ask questions and to make guesses.
4. Linguistic Charades
Just like the party game, one student think of a word, and the others need to guess it? The one with the hidden word, can give clues but not say it. App use allowed. Educational value: Expanding vocabulary, learning problem-solving in a new language.
5. Translation Autocorrect
Assign 5-10 paragraphs in English to translate. Instruct students to translate without help, translate using the app, then copy their translation into the app and translate back to English. Challenge them to try an improve on the app translation.
Educational value: Choose paragraphs where the app translation is flawed. This raises students’ awareness that even AI software is flawed and that they can best a machine! Better yet: try it yourself and see how well you do!
Meta description: Language teachers can use Google Translate to enhance classroom experiences and homework assignments with pleasant games and exercises.
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