Translation as a Cognitive Reading Strategy Scaffolding L2 Reading Comprehension of Pre-university High school Students

Translation is perceived differently by different linguists, methodologists and teachers. Its use in foreign language teaching has been the focus of an on-going debate and research over the past decades. (Bhooth, et al, 2014). Translation was formerly considered asinefficient,unreliableandirrelevant (Dagilie, 2012). Nevertheless,thereare“significantandvisiblesignsof a revival oftranslation in languageteachingaccordingto recent literatureandappliedlinguistics”.Scholars in the field advocate the “pedagogical translation” to develop the internal language system of learners through expanding L2 vocabulary, consolidating L2 structures for active use, monitoring and improving the comprehension of L2, etc. This paradigm shift also prompted various researchers to investigate the role of translation in learning any of four language skills and sub skills. Amongst them, applying the act of translation in improving the reading comprehension performance of the language learners which is the focus of the present paper has received much of interest. It is however, noteworthy, that materials developers in a dramatic shift have dedicated the pre-university English book to reading strategies including contextual clues, outlining and summarizing. This shift has been in line with the need of Iranian students to become strategic readers to comprehend textbooks and articles in English. Nevertheless, pedagogical translation as a “cognitive reading strategy” scaffolding L2 reading comprehension is totally ignored in the Pre-university English book. This article discusses the beneficial use of pedagogical translation as a cognitive reading strategy within the “Cooperative Work Procedure” framework proposed by Gerding-Salas (2000 cited in Zeinudin, 2012) to be included in Pre-university English book to motivate students become strategic readers which itself is the prime goal of the book.