1 A. Background of the Study
The translation is an activity to find the meaning of a text, message, or speech from a source language to a target language.
According to Catford, translation is changing a book from one language to another and in another language1. Another argument, Nida & Taber, said that translation is a patch in the target language of the closest similarity of the source language text, first, in a good sense, and then regarding the styles2.
The translation is used to communicate with another person in a different culture. It is also required to disseminate and obtain a piece of information from a whole world. Ordudari states that generally, translation is to replicate various kinds of content, including religious, scholarly, scientific, and philosophical content
1 John Cunnison Catford, Linguistic Theory of Translation, Oxford University Press (Great Britain: Hazell Watson and Viney Ltd, 1978). 41.
2 Nida, Eugene A, and R. Charles Taber, The Theory and Practice of Translation, vol. 8, 1982, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2012.02.007. p. 12
in another language, and then make them accessible to more readers3.
Savori, quoted in the Ilzamudin Ma’mur Journal; the translation must provide the original words; the translation should offer the original idea4. In reality, people translate the meaning of word-by- word text and need to pay attention to the context of the text. It means that they need to use the right words for the proper context as well as be careful in selecting words to fit the sentence. Then, it requires accuracy that may be obtained after learning a little culture from the target language. It requires proficiency.
Translation has been a part of human life for a long time. Yet, the translation often contains errors, and the actual message is not communicated correctly. There might be a misunderstanding in translation because, according to Newmark, the perfect translation is nothing5.
3 Mahmoud Ordudari, “Translation Procedures, Strategies and Methods Abstract,” Theory and Practice in Language Studies 3, no. 5 (2010): 781–789.
4 Ilzamudin Ma’mur, “KONSEP DASAR PENERJEMAHAN,” no. 102 (2004): 431–458.
5 Peter Newmark, Paragraphs on Translation, Multilingual Matters (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1993). 38
Errors are judgment errors, miscalculations, and form errors essential aspects of learning in obtaining information6. Translation errors are grammatical mistakes or inappropriate word choices of the original word. Translation errors occur when translators make mistakes in translating text or messages. This error can vary. For example, mistakes in writing words, choosing words, conveying messages, and others.
According to Pym, there are two types of translation errors:
binary errors and non-binary errors. Binary errors refer to any mistakes that are considered incorrect translations. Conversely, non-binary errors refer to incorrect translations but may not be appropriate and can be corrected7.
While according to Pojprasat in his thesis, translation errors are divided into semantic, syntactic, and cultural errors. Semantic errors deal with mistranslating words, which can be a single word, colocation, or culture. Syntactic errors refer to mistranslating
6 H Douglas Brown, “Principles of Language Teaching and Learning,” White Plains, NY: Longman (2000). p. 216
7 Anthony Pym, “Translation Error Analysis and the Interface with Language,” The Teaching of Translation (1992): 279–288.
sentence structures or grammar structures. Finally, cultural mistakes are mistakes sourced by cultural differences8.
There are no sources of errors that can be categorized in translation. It is not just from a single source but can be from multiple. The results of several researchers will evidence it.
According to Popescu, the factor causing the error in translation is the lack of linguistic knowledge in the target language9. Another researcher, Yousofi, added that the mistake in translation was about linguistics and a lack of understanding of the syntactic of the target language, such as structure, vocabulary, and punctuation10. Each country has its reasons why translators make mistakes of both types and sources of error.
As beginner translators, the students have difficulties translating text and messages from Indonesian as the source language into English as the target language11. It happened mainly
8 Somboon Pojprasat, An Analysis of Translation Errors Made by Mattayomsuksa 6 Students (Srinakharinwirot: Srinakharinwirot University, 2007). Pp.
7-16
9 Teodora Popescu, “A Corpus-Based Approach to Translation Error Analysis. a Case-Study of Romanian EFL Learners,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences (2013).
10 Nouroddin Yousofi, “Describing the Errors in the Translations of Iranian Novice English Translators,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences (2014).
11 Dina Merris Maya Sari, “An Error Analysis on Student’s Translation Text,” Eralingua: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Asing dan Sastra 3, no. 2 (2019): 65–
74.
in the English Foreign Language Students of the 2016 class of TBI- E of UIN Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten. It was probably related to the students that do not master the linguistic and grammatical structure. Of course, this can affect the authenticity of the meaning of the source text. Therefore, to better understand this problem, an analysis of the translation errors is needed to produce a better translation.
Besides, researchers have other reasons for making this paper.
For example, previous studies only describe the types of translation errors, but they do not explain why students do so. Therefore, in this case, the researcher will continue the research of previous studies to find out the sources of the translation errors made by students.
B. Identification of Problems
Starting from the background stated above, then the problems can be identified as follows:
1. What type of translation errors were made by the students in translating a text from Indonesian to English?
2. What are the sources of translation errors made by the students in translating a text from Indonesian to English?
3. What obstacles do students face when translating text from Indonesian to English?
4. What are the solutions so that students can translate text from Indonesian to English correctly?
C. Focus of the Problems
Based on the background described above to be more focused, the study’s scope will be focused on the analysis of translation errors that occur among English foreign language students. The researcher was interested in analyzing the type of translation errors.
Besides, it will also examine the sources of errors in the translation.
D. Formulation of the Problem
On the explanation above, the authors formulate the problem in the form of questions as follows:
1. What types of translation errors were made by the students in translating a text from Indonesian to English?
2. What are the sources of translation errors made by the student in translating text from Indonesian to English?
E. The Objective of the Study
Based on the formulation of the problem, the objectives of this study are:
1. To check types of translation errors in translations from Indonesian to English
2. To find the possible explanations for the sources of errors made by the students
F. Significant of the Study
1. Practically
a. For the teachers, the result of this study is expected to help a teacher to improve the knowledge about learning translation method
b. For the students, the researcher expects a student to be able to increase their skill in translation
c. This study is expected to give a piece of knowledge about types and sources of translation errors.
d. For the other researcher, they may obtain some information about translation. Thus, they can increase their skill in translation too.
2. Pedagogically
The study’s findings may contribute to the university achieving the aim of curriculum principally in the English Lesson.
3. Theoretically
a. Another researcher is able to utilize this research as their reference for their research about translation errors.
Everyone else is able to use this research as their reference to increase their ability in a translation error.
