Teaching languages to european computer science students in an engineering institute in Portugal : translations approaches in the English, German and French classroom

Resumo

This paper aims at providing an analysis of using translation methods in teaching languages to undergraduates in the Transnational European Computer Science Engineering Degree in an engineering polytechnic institute in Portugal. The main language covered is English and includes a detailed analysis of a language activity on word formation with prefixes. Both German and French languages are also referred to so as to illustrate the different treatments each requires due to these languages’ different profiles. Accordingly, one of the reasons to consider translation of native language (L1) to second language (L2) tasks for the English subject is because challenging material is required for these students since often they have had at least seven years of language training from secondary school. On the other hand, groups’ language levels tend to be quite heterogeneous. Data of students’ grades from 2012/2013 academic years are used to illustrate a prototype of this feature, thus influencing an option of a challenging language activity of L1 to L2. There is a discussion of translation techniques in language teaching indicating that there are more benefits than drawbacks. A brief discussion of this method in teaching languages, as well as its advantages and limitations is provided and based on scholarly research carried out. The relevance of multilingualism and multiculturalism of our future engineers is hopefully understood and encouraged as a result of this work, as these professionals can no longer be restricted to proficiency in one or two languages. In what concerns the transnational courses, there is cause to consider the inclusion of translation approaches in transnational course degrees.