Reviewing Translation and L1 in Language Pedagogy from Translanguaging Lenses

Abstract

Since the beginning of language teaching, the role of translation and first languge (L1) has been prominent and inevitable. In fact, they played a significant role in one of the most dominant teaching methods known as grammar translation method (GTM). Though the gradual development and evolution of teaching methods and approaches in the field of ELT has relocated their role in teaching foreign and second languages, many ELT practitioners in Bangladesh are found to express their preference for and fascination over the use of translation and L1 in language teaching. This paper sketches the topsy-turvy journey of translation and L1 throughout different methods and approaches used in language education, their place in bilingual models of education, actual practices in Bangladeshi classrooms regarding their use, and their revived role in translanguaging literature. The paper argues how translation and L1 can be utilized to the fullest of its potentiality through translanguaging practices that call for reviewing the existing approaches and methods of language teaching and challenge them adopting a fluid, instead of a fixed, notion of language.