Eric has written what I consider to be a very important paragraph on the use of translation in CI classes:
“When we talk about FL classrooms, there is less exposure to the L2. All the more reason to translate – we don’t have the luxury of time it takes for kids to arrive at the meaning of the word from pure exposure. High quality CI (I take that to mean the most comprehensible you can be – transparent) and no translation are at odds. If you want truly transparent CI, then some L1 translation is often necessary and certainly most efficient. Or you’re going back to a more “immersion/charades model” in which kids kinda sorta get the gist of the message. In a TPRS classroom I would say that we do give bucket loads of CI on the targets.”