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Teachers usually assume that the most effective way to master English is to learn and think directly in English rather than to use translation, which would interfere with their students’ English acquisition. From the learner’s perspective, however, translation is still widely used in the learning process. Learners often employ translation as a learning strategy to comprehend, remember, and produce English whether or not they are discouraged to do so by their teachers. Students ’ learning behavior in using translation seems inconsistent with their teachers ’ beliefs. Nevertheless, there is little information available on how learners use translation to learn a foreign language. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate Taiwanese students ’ use of translation as a learning strategy to learn English. The data collection approach was through qualitative interviews. In order to identify the relationship between learners ’ English proficiency level and their use of translation, five successful and five less successful students were chosen. The results show that students used a wide variety of learning strategies related to translation. Both more and less proficient learners recognized that translation played a vital role in their English learning, but they had different understandings of translation and how it should be use