The impact of translation on reading comprehension for English for science and technology learners

Abstract

This research is about studying the impact of using the Mother Tongue (MT) or translation on English for Science and Technology (EST) learning. Two main contributions are proposed. The first is an experiment-based study of how EST students’ learning is correlated to the presence/ban of the MT/translation in the EST classroom. To confirm/dis-confirm the research hypothesis, “If EST is taught using translation, this will improve the students’ comprehension abilities”, we opted for a pre-test post-test control experimental group design. Statistical analyses showed a statistically significant improvement of the group that had had some extra activities of translation. This confirms the hypothesis of research. For the second contribution, we administered a questionnaire, that targeted the same population, to study the learners’ attitudes towards the use of the MT or translation in the EST classroom. The results showed that the respondents had positive attitudes towards the use of Arabic (their mother tongue) in EST classrooms. EST students at Constantine 2 University, the population targeted in this research, were with the use of Arabic (their MT) or French in the classroom, but they think it better that the teacher keeps using English only. On the basis of the obtained results, some recommendations are proposed to EST practitioners to help in exploiting the MT/translation potential in the EST classroom.