IELTS How to improve your fluency using translation

Hello everyone.

This is Hong.

And today I will talk about a process that

everyone has to go through as a language learner, translation.

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Now, let’s get started.

In the beginning, translate, we be good.

It’s bad.

Translation slow down my speaking,

depends on Vietnamese.

Translate word by word, it’s not good.

So, stop translating the English.

So, what do I mean by translation?

It happens when learners think of their mother tongue

first and try to find the equivalent in English.

To put it simply, when you look at this animal,

you may think of your mother tongue first.

It can be chó in Vietnamese, or it can be perro in Spanish.

And then try to find the equivalent in English,

which is dog.

Now, this process can be painfully slow,

especially when you try to translate

every single word in a sentence.

Maybe that’s the reason why many language learners think that

they should avoid translation completely in order to achieve

fluency in the language.

Now, let’s take a look from an IELTS perspective.

Test takers are asked to discuss a variety of complex topics such

as the environment, the economy, art or culture, when learners

have to access their prior knowledge which they have

learnt in their mother tongue.

As a result, people still unavoidably translate,

no matter how hard they try.

Now, I do agree that is ideal, to be able to think and form

ideas completely in English.

But, speaking from experience, it takes time.

And, in fact, one way to achieve fluency in

a language is to learn to translate properly.

So, here are the four simple steps which I have also applied

for myself that you can follow to use translation to your

advantage in the IELTS test.

Step number 1.

Pick a writing or speaking sample and then translate

it into your mother tongue.

Try to use authentic material, written by a native speaker,

of about 250 words.

It can be an article, a blog post, a writing

or speaking sample from an official IELTS resource,

abstract from a book or a transcript of a speech.

Step 2.

Wait a while, and then translate

back into English.

Step number 3.

Compare your version with the original English versions and

learn how a native speaker would express their ideas.

Step number 4.

Learn new expressions and phrases.

By doing the comparison, you can learn new vocabulary,

expressions and phrases.

On top of that, you can be aware of

the stylistic differences between two languages.

Now you will understand why word-by-word translation is

sometimes unnatural and very hard to understand.

Translation is not a bad practice.

In fact, it helps to train your brain to think back and forth

in two languages.

You can build up your second language upon the foundation

of the first one.

So, don’t hesitate to give it a try,

and tell me how it works out for you

by commenting below this video.

I can't wait to hear from other fellow language learners.

Thank you very much for watching,

and I will see you real soon.

Bye bye.