Strategic Use of Translation in Learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) among Bahrain University Students

Abstract The present study explores the strategic use of translation in learning English by undergraduate students in Bahrain. The Arabic Version of the Inventory for Translation as a Learning Strategy (AITLS) was prepared by the author and was administered randomly to 360 undergraduate students who majored in English at the College of Arts of the University of Bahrain. The student response to the AITLS items revealed two contradictory tendencies toward using translation as a learning strategy: the tendency to demonstrate medium support for the use of translation to learn English vocabulary, to read, to write, and check comprehension; and the tendency not to use translation to learn English idioms, phrases, expressions, proverbs, and grammatical rules. The pedagogical implications of the results for English language teaching are discussed.