Translating Turkish sentences into English:

We make two groups: Group A and Group B. A student from Group A makes a sentence in Turkish and another student from Group B translates it into English with the help of students in the same group.  Students tend to make long and complex sentences with a lot of subordination. So, the first thing is to simplify the Turkish sentence. We do this simply by making short sentences out of one long sentence. Then when the simple Turkish sentence or a series of sentences are ready, students translate them into English. Different versions of translations are discussed. Sometimes it is difficult to make a sentence out of blue air, so giving a topic to the students help much. The topic they produce sentences most is “disability”.

 This activity was designed as a follow-up to the Paraphrasing (http://accessenglish.org/content/view/75/36/) activity but can be used independently.

Activity designed by Ayþen Deðer, Ege University, Ýzmir (TR)

Note: 

  Almost all my students are at elementary level. So, when they want to make sentences in English, they first come up with complex Turkish sentences (especially, using relative clauses). I can hear them murmur the sentence in Turkish. First, I couldn't find a way to deal with this, but later I came up with the idea to say the sentence in Turkish out loud and together try to simplfy it or paraphrase it in Turkish. And then say it in English. This helped them a lot. I didn't use the word 'translate', instead I said "We're going to say your sentences in English, but first, we'll think about the Turkish version"