Why I do not teach translation?

How many times have you heard someone say..."I had (#) of years of a language in high school but I can't remember anything now"? What happened with those years? Why can't they remember anything? Was their experience that bad?

Unfortunately, it wasn't that the language was too hard to learn, or that their experience was bad. It was simply that their class was probably set up using the "Grammar Translation" method.

The "Grammar Translation" method (or translation) unfortunately is still used in many language classrooms around the country. This method was developed centuries ago to teach, what are known as "dead" languages, such as Ancient Greek and Latin. This method was basically contrived in order to read ancient texts and to understand the origins of modern grammar rules and the influences that Ancient Greek and Latin had on them.

This method requires that the learner literally memorize grammar rules and lists upon lists of vocabulary without any context and then supposed to "apply" that knowledge to spoken fluency.

The reason that this method does not work is because it focuses on areas of the brain that involve short/long term memory skills. These short/long term memory areas of the brain do not allow the Broca's nor the Wernicke's areas of the brain to develop language fluency skills. These two areas of the brain are the centers for language production. Just because you could memorize the parts of a car to be recognized without fail, it does not mean that you can drive the car. Language is no different.

Disappointingly, this method is still used in most classrooms today because "that is how it has always been done". The natural progression of language acquisition is the only true way to acquire language fluency skills, whether that be your first, your second or your tenth. If you are expecting to actually acquire speaking and comprehension skills in a second language, then the grammar translation method is not for you.