Tłumaczenie ustne jako sposób i cel nauczania języka obcego

Teaching and learning a foreign language is a very complex and long lasting process, which makes its goals difficult to achieve. This is evidenced by the lack of one commonly accepted approach or method of teaching. Over the years of foreign languages teaching experience, we have developed many methods, trying to simplify and shorten this process, but none of them brings about sufficiently good results. Experienced teachers seem to see the problem and thus develop so-called "eclectic" curricula, implemented with the use of a variety of materials and teaching methods, without degrading none of the possible ones, even if it is the so-called grammar-translation method, in its pure or a modified form. In my opinion, the methods used should take into account the interests, priorities, preferences and proficiency level of the learners, which can be, after all, very different in each case, even if we take the participants of the same language course or pupils of the same class. Some of them want to learn the language just to be able to communicate with a foreigner in ordinary communication situations, while others want to translate songs and videos on You Tube, yet others want to become professional interpreters or translators. In this article, I suggest that one of the methods used can be “teaching the foreign language through interpretation”. The task of interpreting a given material should be a compulsory exercise performed by the participants of each foreign language course, adjusted to their level of proficiency. This method should be perceived as one that can develop linguistic competence and self confidence of the learners as well as their knowledge of the vocabulary, syntax and grammar of the studied language. Last but not least, thanks to practicing it, they will be able to express their own thoughts in the foreign language, and thus will develop their speaking ability.