In the era of non-stop and fast pace globalization, involving multiculturalism and polylingualism of relations in society, the skills of language mediation and translation gain particular attention. The article discusses the role of pedagogical translation as an active type of activity when teaching a foreign language. The authors analyze in detail both the negative and positive aspects of the translation in the classroom for learning a foreign language. The authors believe that translation (and, as a result, linguistic mediation) can be a significant source of communicative tasks in training activities in a foreign language. The article presents possible models for the use of pedagogical translation in the classroom. It concludes that it is necessary to specify descriptors about the tasks and competencies of linguistic mediation.