5 What Results Can We Expect?
imagined). As they can talk directly of such reality (if it is suitably selected) either in their mother tongue or in the other language, translations are direct expressions in either language of what was communicated by the original text. Naturally, we expect that the essence of a situation, as expressed by the functional vocabulary which is present in a given text, will not be missed, and that only the luxury components could be overlooked or wrongly grasped, hence mistranslated. Translation is an art for the specialist, not for the novice. We can expect questions on a selected text to be handled adequately, as on the whole (provided they are not too sophisticated) they come naturally to the mind of a reader who has been asked from the start, and all the time, to consider texts as linguistic situations. General questions about the culture of the peoples who use the languages studied should be satisfactorily answered. As we have taken care of extending the vocabulary with texts belonging to that culture, through documentary films that are full of information for the learner, and as we have considerably assisted the learners in reaching the spirit of the language through its sociological and historical components, it is clear that students who have learned in that way will be incomparably better equipped than students taken through traditional approaches or direct methods that are purely linguistic. The benefits gained from the alertness fostered by this approach can be seen again in the amount of incidental learning that takes place, with the materials designed to give cultural awareness implicitly even if no lessons are devoted to it; and also explicitly if one cares to do so and can find the time for it. 113