Belief about and Strategy Use of Translation among Foreign Language Students: Does It Have a Correlation with Motivation?

Abstract

Though the use of translation in classroom language learning is widespread, language teachers nevertheless continuously debate the use of translation in classroom teachinglearning. At times, instructors and students differ in their opinion in using translation in the learning process. This paper reports findings from a study of beliefs and strategy in the use of translation and also their relation to motivation among students who studied French as their foreign language in the state of Terengganu in Malaysia. The data are analyzed quantitatively from 123 student-respondents who completed the inventory of beliefs about translation and strategy used in translation. They also completed the motivation scale questionnaires from the MSLQ inventory (Motivated Strategies for Learning Motivation). The results indicate respondents strongly believed in the use of translation as a strategy and they heavily utilized translation strategies in their learning process. They are also highly motivated in their learning. Further, the result from correlations analyses showed a significant correlation between all variables. It also revealed that participants place more emphasis on the task and the anxiety in their learning. Discussion of the results relates to the use of translation strategy in enhancing foreign language classroom learning.