They Must Think I'm Completely Stupid....

Really. My students, that is. Or, more specifically, some of my students must think I'm really, really stupid and/or dense.

At the beginning, middle and end of each year, I remind students that the use of online translators is a big no-no. They're fine if you're using it as a dictionary and finding the translation of a specific word, but it's horrid when you try to plug in a whole sentence. Worse yet when you punch in an entire paragraph. Horrid I tell you.

I can always tell. Always. There isn't one kid who has managed to pull it off yet without me noticing. Why? Because the translations are always so stilted. The vocabulary is nothing they've been taught, the grammatical structures are all wrong or not the ones I needed/instructed them to use. It's just godawful. And it is always very, very obvious.

Today I was finishing up some projects (yes, I've been slow finishing up!) and came across one that for sure was put through an online translator. What gave it away? Well, let's see. Firstly, I asked the students to write about their future travel plans using the near future tense (I am going to go); instead, I got the future tense (I will go). Haven't taught that to them. They won't learn that until the third level class. They're in the first level class.

Secondly, they were asked to tell when they'd be leaving for their trip; specifically asking about date and departure time. My ever-so-intelligent student punched in "2:30 PM" to be translated. The translator spit is out as 'deux heures et demie Premier Ministre". In case you don't speak/read French, Premier Ministre means "Prime Minister", not "PM". Oh, and just so you know, they were taught that last year (PM = de l'après-midi or du soir depending on what time in the PM you're talking about) AND we reviewed it again this past unit. He should have KNOWN better.

The other student in question got his dad to do his project. How do I know? Because the dad is Canadian and has some French background. His son's in-class work is abominable. Awful. His sentences are barely comprehensible. His project work was awesome. Just great. He even used the future tense (see above for explanation).

Seriously. What are they THINKING? Really. I am not sure what I'm going to do about it, but I'm guessing failing the writing section is in order.

When will they ever learn? I'm older, smarter and more experienced than they are. They can't slip it past me...but they always think they can. Apparently, I look really stupid.