Perspectives on translation in the EFL classroom in Portugal: An exploratory study

Abstract

Over the 20th century, translation was, in the most part, “outlawed” (Cook, 2010, p. xi) from most major English language teaching theories. Precedence was given to monolingual English classrooms rather than the use of L1 or translation to teach English as a foreign language (EFL). Now in the 21st century, it is argued that EFL has undergone a ‘translation turn’ (Carreres and Noriega-Sánchez, 2021; Fehaima, 2022) and translation is returning as a teaching method. But has this changed attitudes to the use of translation in Portugal? This paper presents the findings of a short survey of university teacher trainers aimed at ascertaining their attitudes towards the use of translation in the EFL classroom, exploring how translation might be used and understanding whether translation has a place in classrooms of the future in Portugal. It is hoped this study will pave the way for future research into translation in EFL teaching.