This week I read an article about
the difficulties of translation materials and tools used when translating
English to Spanish for language learners. With the growing population of
English Language Learners, software companies are designing their programs to
keep up with the demand to expand to the ESL community. However, many products
are falling short of their promise to provide accurate translation and are
having difficulty adapting to the student’s native language. With the difference between spoken and
written language, and while translation isn’t always perfect from one language
to another, users are discovering that reading levels are changing when trying
to translate English stories to Spanish stories. Making it particularly harder
for the elementary ESL students to keep up let alone make sense of what they
are reading.
One solution to the problem is for
teachers to assign students’ material that is on their native reading level
rather than their English reading level. Which then poses the problem of ESL
students disengaged in the content they are reading because they English
reading level will be significantly lower than the Spanish Reading level. For example,
the fourth grade reading level book, Diary
of a Whimpy Kid actually translates to a sixth grade reading level in
Spanish. The author also points out that students coming into the US tend to
have difficulty with literacy skills in their first language to begin with
which can pose and even greater problem. The end goal is for student to become
proficient in English. By offering materials that are on their native reading
level, while also taking into account their literacy skills and interest,
students should be more successful while using the adaptive tools.
Source: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-06-29-when-adaptive-tools-can-t-adapt-to-students-native-language
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI actually read this article last week myself! I thought it was great because I feel like it was pointing out how the human touch is still needed even when technology is involved as a simple translation of material into another language is not just as simple as switching one word for another. I could not believe how difficult Diary of a Wimpy kid got when translated into Spanish. I agreed with the author though that we must focus on determining the appropriate English level for students because ELLs may struggle with reading in their own native language as well.