towards an analysis of errors made by university students ... - DSpace

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Similarly, Information Transfer exercises, True
or
False questions, Column Matching and so on are all
acceptable
ways of testing types of comprehension, but within the context of
the UFPB courses, they are inadequate. They do not offer
the
kind of on-going diagnostic type of testing that we require.
Translation, on the other hand, goes a good deal
of the way
towards providing this.
We must accept that in what is, after all, an ESP
situation, there is bound to be a mix of interests and skills.
Basically the students are interested in the content, while
the
teacher is primarily concerned with teaching the language; the
student also tends to know more about the content than
the
teacher, except at the very simplest levels, and the
teacher
obviously
is more confident with the language. This reveal s itself
at the UFPB in several ways. Many students are aware that
the translations they have made do not reflect what they know
to be true of the content of the text or their
background
knowledge of the discipline. At the same time they tend to
translate the words in linear sequence in many cases. Surely
there is a basis here for discussion of the relationship
between
the true content of the passage and the linguistic
realization
of it.
The advantages or translation as a diagnostic testing
instrument seem to us to
include:
a) it gives the teacher a clear view of those areas
requiring remedial work;
b) even if the teacher's knowledge of the specific
subject is limited, his familiarity with the language will enable
him to pinpoint such difficulties as those related to the