Step 1: Research:
Locate and use two computerized language-translation tools.
List sources found: (one can be google)
1.
2.
Step 2: Try It Out (part 1)
Translate the following pairs of sentences on each of the two Internet translation services, from English to Spanish and then back to English:
- The bats fly into the room.
- The bats fly into the dugout when the batters hit too hard.
- I like ice cream with nuts on top.
- Some people think I'm nuts.
- I can drink a can of soda
- Can you dance the can-can?
- When I was a kid, I found a silver dollar.
- On what date did Bill gates found Microsoft?
- I I get any more chocolates, I'll get sick of them.
Print the second English translation or post it on google docs. (I am not sure if I will be able to do that.)
Which one did better and why?
Step 3:
Thy It Out (Part II)
Write a one-paragraph autobiography in English in Word (name, age, family or friends, likes future plans).
- Print it out.
- Choose the best translator from step 2. Paste in your English paragraph; translate into Spanish.
- Translate the Spanish into any language other than English. Tanslate the product of that back into English.
- Print out the final translation.
- In a brief paragraph below the translation, compare the original version with the final English.
Step 4: Reflection.
Check all that are true:
___ My teacher will be able to tell easily if I've used an online translator.
___ Online translators do a good job.
___I might use an online translator for verb forms.
___I'm going to double-check anything I do on an online translator.
___This would really save me time while writing a paper.
___This was a useful activity for me.
Unfortunate I the first date for me to book the computer lab in my school is November 13 so I will not be able to see how it goes. I was also wondering if anybody has any suggestions, should I get the work done on google docs and share or should I use papers?
That sounds like a hilarious project, and educational. I used a translation site to change my awful French to something better (maybe) while emailing prospective landladies at gites last spring. Our communication was clear, but I'm sure it wasn't elegant.
ReplyDeleteOn line translations sound great. I like the two different assignments you are thinking of having your students do and then the reflection is a great idea. Where on the Internet can you go for this? It would be a great help to my daughter who is taking Spanish I.
ReplyDeleteHi Luisa,
ReplyDeleteI love your idea!
I'm not sure, but I think you think translation sites are really bad. Also the sentences which you wrote used some basic words with very different meanings. I'll bet that they have totally different words for them in Spanish. When we say someone is nuts, I'll bet the spanish isn't the same as the topping for a sundae. So... hopefully the students will realize the erros they could make. I will always remember my Spanish teacher telling us to be careful using words that are close to English because they aren't always the same meaning. She said if we used embarasado because we were embarrassed, we would be even more embarrassed!
I think to avoid wasting paper, you could put your questions in a word document and then drag it into your teacher OUTBOX. The students could cut and paste their answers into it - saving it under a different name in their documents. When complete the students could drag it into your teacher INBOX.
I hope you try it - I want to hear all about it!
~Colleen