1. Role of translation

1. Role of translation
Translation is one of the most demanding and intellectually difficult tasks. It is connected with translation either as an action or as a result of an action. According to Oettinger “Interlingual translation can be defined as the replacement of elements of one language, the domain of translation, by equivalent elements of another language, the range.” It is an action of transferring meaning from one language to another taking into account a number of constraints. These constraints should include words, context, grammar rules, culture, writing conventios and words or utterances difficult to translate, e.g idioms. The 20th century can be characterized as dominated by giving up application translation and explanations in students’ mother tongue to the Direct Method, in which using native language was forbidden. This trend caused that many well-known techniques such as e. g. Translation was rejected as faulty. Of course, not all theoreticians agreed with the Direct Method and in the 70s of the century Noam Chomsky introduced the Cognitive Method to language teaching. This is a modernized Grammar-Translation Method and its main aim is to develop a language ability which would allow one to understand and create a great number of correct sentences. Using translation on lessons plays an important role in teaching. Helps students to understand the connection between languages and explores the potential of both of them. It is a necessary and natural activity, because in many common places foreign words are met and they need to be decoded. Translation develops qualities necessary to all language studying: flexibility, accuracy, and clarity during searching for the most appropriate words to convey what is meant. The students can contribute their own thoughts while focusing on the text and feeling freedom in putting up their ideas. Before the translating a number of crucial factors ought to be taken into account. In the opinion of Harmer it is necessary to consider the four main elements of a plan: – Activities — what students will be doing in the classroom, the way they will be grouped, what kind of activity each of them will solve. – Skills– what language skill the students will develop – Language– what elements of a language will be practiced – Content — lesson planners have to select content which has a good chance of provoking interest and involvement. Equivalence is the central issue in translation. It appears as a main problem among children at primary school. According to Wilss it consists of three components: “an undesirable initial state, a desirable goal state, barrier which prevents the transformation of the initial state into the goal state.” There are three types of barriers between an initial state and a goal state which constitute a problem. The first of them is a synthesis problem which concerns the means for the unknown transformation. The second obstacle deals with an interpolation problem that is an abundance of already familiar means and combinations of them for the transformation. The third regards a dialectical problem which appears because the goal state is vaguely known or unknown, and initial state is considered to be undesirable. This type of barrier occurs in the production of lyrical work and also in everyday life, e.g. in writing letters. According to Nord there are four categories of translation problems: – Pragmatic translation problems which arise from the particular situation and represent a specific contrast. Those problems can be identified by the extra textual factors of the text-analytical model. – Cultural translation problems are a result of the differences in culture e. g. specific habits, expectations, norms and conventions concerning verbal and other behavior. – Linguistic translation problems which are connected with the structural differences between languages in lexis, sentence structure and supra segmental features e. g. ‘false friends.’