I would agree with you on the use of L1 with advanced learners. Language comparison can be very fruitful. As you said, my point is more about developing and encouraging the habit of thinking in English from the start as much as possible. I’ve seen the tremendous benefits and I’ve seen the problems students have if they don’t adopt this attitude.

Translation is another ball game and a separate skill in my opinion. I can speak Turkish and English, but ask me to translate between the two and I’m often stumped. I’ve never developed that skill.

Thanks for pointing out some good uses of L1 and translation. I’ll also see you on BELTfree. I really need to get over there more.

It’s very nice to meet you on your blog. I teach adults (business people and college students) in Germany, and write online language exercises for a magazine.
As regards the issue you are dealing with here, I most definitely agree with you that L1 should be used very sparingly in class, if at all, with lower and intermediate level learners. I’d say total immersion clearly works best, especially combined with real motivation. But for advanced learners with a lot of experience, from a certain level on, I think “noticing” special structures in a language is beneficial and opens up completely new dimensions. When I compare chunks of English with chunks of German, I still sometimes discover new things about the two languages. So I actually quite like your literal translation of Coke-drinking “coming from my inside”. That makes sense to me and (if I were studying Turkish, which I really should) would help me with the syntax. (I’m bilingual and a translator in my second job, so that mindset plays into my approach to language learning.)

On a lesser note, there’s also my students’ practical need to develop translation skills, as they have to translate at work and college, too. But that’s a separate issue.

I loved your owl picture story. I figure if a student can get a teacher’s individual attention by asking for a translation, why should he/she do any thinking at all? Attention of that sort can really motivate certain types, can’t it?

See you on BELTfree!
Kind regards, Anne