Craig Dodge - Blog

In the early stages of foreign language learning, we usually depend heavily on translating. We use translation dictionaries, software and electronic devices to get a translation of a foreign word in our own language. When I studied French, I carried my French-English dictionary everywhere. Here in Taiwan, many of my students have electronic translation devices. (I wish we had those when I was learning French.....)

This is understandable and reasonable, but let me tell you why it might be time for you to stop translating.

Once we reach a certain level in our learning, we need to stop (or at least reduce) relying on translating and stay more in the target language. There are two important reasons for this.

First, it's important to develop the skill of figuring out words from context. I mentioned this in "Get the Idea?" . If you always rely on translating, you won't develop the ability to figure out the meaning of words on your own. We learn our native language largely by figuring out the meaning of words from context, and we can use this skill to figure out the meaning of foreign words.

This brings me to my second point: Without the ability to figure out the meaning of at least some new words from context, we will get stuck any time we hear or see a new word. I wrote about this in "A Deer in Headlights".We freeze, focusing on the word we can't understand and miss everything else the speaker is saying. Or, if we are reading, we stop all the time to look up every new word, which gets very frustrating.

When we hear or see a word we don't understand, instead of reaching for a translation dictionary, we should listen to the rest of what's being said, or keep reading, get the main idea and then figure out the meaning of the new word ourselves.

In the worst case scenario, and you can not figure out the meaning of the word from context, before you reach for your translation device, try looking up the word in an English-English dictionary (or a dictionary of whatever language you are learning).  This benefits you not only by getting the meaning of the new word, but also by keeping your thinking in the target language. This is an important stage of language learning when you really start to make amazing progress.

You might argue that the definitions in English-English dictionaries are even more confusing. I agree. This is why I highly recommend Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary. The definitions in a learner's dictionary are much simpler than in a standard dictionary, and therefore easier to understand. There is a Learner's Dictionary widget in the middle column of this blog, and another here:

Good luck with your English learning!