Translation Exercises in the Algerian English School Textbooks: A Worth o‎r a Hurt?

The currently used English textbooks in the Algerian middle and high school cycles are overtly distinguished by a newly inserted kind of exercises which did not appear in earlier textbooks. The innovating initiative is shaped in plain instructions inciting pupils to translate a wide range of English words, sentences, sayings and proverbs toward their mother tongue. This paper attempts to analyse whether or not translation is a stimulating strategy to adopt in the process of learning English as a foreign language and to inquire about its usefulness to be officially set in school textbooks.