Students’ Perceptions on Pedagogic Translation in Tertiary Writing Tasks

The revitalization of translation as a pedagogical tool in recent literature shows teachers and applied linguists’ attempt to recover translation’s importance in both ESL and EFL instruction contexts.However, in the Philippines, translation remains marginalized in tertiary instruction, often occupying a safe location in listening and speaking, but completely obscured in reading and writing. This paper attempted to determine students’ perceptions about pedagogic translation applied in a tertiary writing task. Results reveal that students find writing unified and cohesive, and intelligible outputs in English easier when they begin writing tasks using their L1 or L2 for a later translation in English. Likewise, this paper aims to open possibilities for pedagogic translation in writing instruction in English in tertiary education in the Philippines.

Keywords – ESL/EFL writing pedagogy, pedagogic translation