Always together or alone first? Effects of type of collaborative translation on Spanish L2 development

ABSTRACT

Rooted in socio-constructivism, the present article investigates the effects of type of collaborative translation on Spanish L2 development, triangulating data from task performance, learning outcomes, and learners’ perceptions. Thirteen dyads of college students participated in a within-subjects repeated-measures experimental study, translating authentic texts in two ways: collaborating from the get-go and after working alone first. Results showed that while participants translated more lexical items accurately when working together from the get-go, both types of collaborative translation propelled similar learning gains in lexis and grammar. Of the two, only lexical learning was retained after one week. Participants, contrary to results, reported a clear preference for working alone first, which they perceived as more conducive to learning.

RESUMEN

Este artículo investiga, desde una perspectiva socioconstructivista, los efectos del tipo de traducción colaborativa en el aprendizaje de español como L2, triangulando datos de la realización de la tarea, los resultados del aprendizaje y las percepciones de los aprendices. Trece parejas de universitarios participaron en un estudio experimental intrasujetos de medidas repetidas, traduciendo textos auténticos de dos maneras: colaborando desde el principio y después de trabajar individualmente. Los resultados indican que, si bien los participantes tradujeron más unidades léxicas correctamente al colaborar desde el principio, ambos tipos de traducción colaborativa propiciaron cotas de aprendizaje similares para léxico y gramática. De los dos, solo el aprendizaje léxico fue retenido una semana más tarde. Los participantes, contrariamente a los resultados obtenidos, manifestaron una clara preferencia por trabajar solos primero, modalidad que percibieron como más efectiva pedagógicamente.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative learning
• translation in language teaching (TILT)
• vocabulary
• grammar
• socio-constructivism

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Aprendizaje colaborativo
• traducción en la enseñanza de lenguas
• vocabulario
• gramática
• socioconstructivismo

ORCID

Luis Cerezo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4807-9892

Notes

1 One reviewer rightly noted that the use of the pluperfect subjunctive in the apodosis in past counterfactual conditional sentences is correct in Spanish. This is supported by the Real Academia Española in its Nueva gramática de la lengua española (2009–2011, 3571) and Fábregas, who refers to the phenomenon as “conditional sentences with double subjunctive” (2014, 16). Notably, this contrasts with present counterfactual conditionals, in which the double subjunctive is considered archaic: Si estudiaras, aprobarías/*aprobaras. Based on symmetry, this study used a conservative subjunctive-conditional coding approach. Future re-coding of the data may reveal alternative findings.

2 A reviewer pointed out that transpositions are “a valid translation technique that can yield very good renditions.” Indeed, transpositions are often preferable to word-by-word translations for stylistic reasons. For L2 learners, though, they can also be an avoidance strategy. This study penalized them to reveal the potential of translation for different lexical items (nouns, modifiers, verbs, etc.) in subsequent itemized analyses.