Rethinking translation through an interlingual focus on form: Students' experiences and pedagogical insights for grammar learning

This study explores how translation as a communicative activity may support learners’ experiences of grammar learning through an interlingual focus on form. While recent research has re-evaluated translation through a translanguaging lens, its role in facilitating focus on form remains under-explored. Drawing on a functionalist (Skopos-oriented) view of translation, the study examines how students experienced interlingual focus on form in an introductory tertiary translation unit. Survey data from 73 EFL students suggest that purpose-oriented translation tasks were widely experienced as meaningful opportunities to engage with grammar in context across learners with differing levels of course performance. Students particularly associated translation with contextualized grammar use, heightened awareness of grammar’s communicative role, and opportunities to apply grammatical forms in contexts where the L1 supported access to meaning. Rather than positioning translation as a technique for isolated form practice, the study conceptualizes translation as a mediational space in which learners evaluate grammatical choices in relation to communicative purpose, audience, and contextual appropriateness. The findings highlight the pedagogical value of designing translation tasks that strategically engage learners’ plurilingual repertoires to support meaningful engagement with grammar in communicative contexts.