The order of the sentence in Spanish and English: its acquisition through pedagogical translation in Languages for Specific Purposes (LFE)

This article studies the role of L1 L2 pedagogical translation in the Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) classroom, mainly focusing on the command of the word order of the sentence. To this end, we analyse the competence in this area of two groups of students: Spanish students of English for Computer Science, and English-speaking students of Spanish in an Information Technology Degree. The study focused on the following parameters: explicit/implicit or tacit subject, preceding/postponed subject, noun phrase structure, VO pattern and passive sentences. Translation activities were designed to consolidate knowledge and a final test assessed students' competence in sentence construction. Results show that the highest frequency of errors in L2 word order in both groups occurs in the formation of passive constructions, a particularly frequent voice in technical texts, thus indicating an interference of L1 on L2. The article concludes that pedagogica translation has a significant influence on the consolidation of those grammar aspects closely related to specialised languages in both groups of students. For this reason, we propose the integration of translation activities in the syllabus of LSP courses.