diff --git a/lib/javascript/translator.html b/lib/javascript/translator.html
index a7b03190a..5e39518fd 100644
--- a/lib/javascript/translator.html
+++ b/lib/javascript/translator.html
@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
         var input = document.getElementById('inputText').value;
         var fromLang = document.getElementById('fromLang').value;
         var toLang = document.getElementById('toLang').value;
-        addTranslation('output', grammar.translate(input, fromLang, toLang));        
+        var output = document.getElementById('output');
+        var translation = grammar.translate(input, fromLang, toLang);
+        removeChildren(output);
+        output.appendChild(formatTranslation(translation));
       }
 
       function populateLangs () {
diff --git a/lib/javascript/translator.js b/lib/javascript/translator.js
index c476e65d8..99bd8b191 100644
--- a/lib/javascript/translator.js
+++ b/lib/javascript/translator.js
@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
-function addTranslation (outputID, translation) {
-  document.getElementById(outputID).appendChild(formatTranslation(translation));
-}
-
 function formatTranslation (outputs) {
   var dl1 = document.createElement("dl");
   for (var fromLang in outputs) {
@@ -19,6 +15,8 @@ function formatTranslation (outputs) {
   return dl1;
 }
 
+/* DOM utilities for specific tags */
+
 function addDefinition (dl, t, d) {
     var dt = document.createElement("dt");
     dt.appendChild(t);
@@ -40,3 +38,12 @@ function addOption (select, value, content) {
   option.appendChild(document.createTextNode(content));
   select.appendChild(option);
 }
+
+/* General DOM utilities */
+
+/* Removes all the children of a node */
+function removeChildren(node) {
+  while (node.hasChildNodes()) {
+    node.removeChild(node.firstChild);
+  }
+}