PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Veny Frissilia 112009004
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Veny Frissilia 112009004
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
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PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING ENGLISH TRANSLATION
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Table of Content :
Cover Page
Inside Cover Page... .i
Approval Page...ii
Public Declaration Agreement...iii
Copyright statement...iv
Table of Content...v
Abstract...1
Introduction...1
Literature Review...4
The Study Context of The Study...9
Participants...10
Instrument of Data Collection...11
Data Collection Procedures...12
Discussion...13
Conclusion...20
References...22
Acknowledgement...25
PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Abstract
This study aimed at investigating some possible problems that may appear during the process of Chinese language learning that use English translation. Considering that vocabulary and translation are connected to each other and they are very essential for the foreign language learners, the background of this study will focus on finding theories and data about vocabulary learning, in its relation with translation, and also how the use of dictionary impacts on translation and vocabulary acquisition. The data was collected through interview with respondents, and the data collection will be analyzed qualitatively. This study shows that, there are two major problems that are appear during the learning process:difficulties in handling long sentences and how the students use dictionaries as the tool to help them during the foreign language learning process.
Keywords: Problems, Translation, Vocabulary, Dictionary, Foreign Language.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, many education institutions in Indonesia offer various kinds of language education with various kind of methods,one of which the use of bilingual education. The purpose of learning a foreign language of every single individual can be different.In Indonesia, people mostly choose to study English and Chinese among other foreign languagesbecause they are crucial for International communication and education. At present English is used as mother language (L1), second language (L2), and also foreign language (EFL) by people worldwide. Chinese language, also participates in language domination because the number of native speakers’ population of Chinese language take the second place of the whole population (Harsono, 2005). So, it makes sense if many aspects of life such economic, social and education are dominated by the English speakers and Chinese speakers.
subject. At the same time, people with certain purpose of learning Chinese, usually take the language courses outside the school or work time. Moreover, manyschools in Indonesia nowadays require their students to use English as their second language because some schools require the students to use English fully in the classroom. At the same time, students are also required to learn Chinese language. Because these two languages are still new for native Indonesian students in majority, so they are now in the process of finding the best strategies so they can master English and Chinese as well.
In the past few years, schools provided Chinese language extracurricular to maintain their credibility, because of the general point of view that schools using the most up to date methods and an international basis will also have a good quality.Recently, not only as an extracurricular subject, Chinese languagehas become one of main language courses in some Junior High Schools and Senior High Schools. Since many people believe that English and Chinese are needed for education and occupation. Later, people need to acquire these two language well in order to bring success in their careers.
Since people’s needs of learning Chinese are increasing nowadays, the existence of Chinese language courses in Indonesia are also affected. Lately, there are many Chinese language courses in Indonesia. Even most of the language courses that used to only offer English courses, now also open new classes for Chinese language. There are various kinds of methods, benefits, and prices offered by different language courses.There are some language courses that offer some special benefits because the students will be taught by native teachers, or maybe with a newest method so the students can master the language faster, etc. Since there are many available choices, people just need to choose, where they want to study.
and conveying messages. It is also viewed as one of the strategies that is usually used by the learners to learn a foreign language(Lioa, 2006). Crystal (2003) also argued that translation has taken animportant role in human communication for years. As Lioa (2006) said, using translation in learning a foreign language have some advantages for students. It makes the students feel easier to develop their ideas, then it will help them to express their thoughts and opinions more clearly, and some words meaning can be easier to find through dictionaries. On the other hand, translation can also be used to support vocabulary learning.
Vocabularyis one of basic foundations that will help the students significantly in many language skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing (Alemi & Tayebi 2011), because without vocabulary, people can not convey their ideas. Hence, vocabulary learning strategies are also important to consider in foreign language learning.
This study will briefly discuss the issueon how translation is used in foreign language teaching as a language teaching methods. Translation can help in vocabulary acquisition. Research result revealed the superiority of using translation in learning vocabulary in terms of quantity of words learned (Lioa, 2006) . Prince (1996, as cited in Lioa,2006) stated that researchers believed that strategic learners can make intelligent use of the list of their L1 skills and translation in order to learn a new language. Such statements have motivated me to conduct this research.
I would like to investigate if this learning method also creates problems for native Indonesian studentswho learn Chinese vocabulary at the beginner level using English translation.
With the above reasons, I would like to analyze and study about the use of English translation in Chinese vocabulary learning for native Indonesian students at the beginner level in Xin You Language Centre, Semarang.I would like to investigate theproblemswhich apparent and affect students’ understanding in their Chinese language learning.
Furthermore, this study will seek to answer one research question which is “What are the possible problems that may be experienced by native Indonesian students from Xin You Language Centre in Chinese vocabulary learning that using textbook ith English translation?”
LITERATURE REVIEW
This study focuses on translation and vocabulary as two major of language elements. First is translation. Translation is one of the oldest methodologies in Second Language or Foreign Language (Machida, 2011). Chamot (1987, as cited in Lioa, 2006) described that translation strategy as using the first language as a basis for understanding or producing the second language.
process of “conscious learning”, the learner comprehends the text of the source language and then change it into the target language.
In addition, according to Grace (2000), the use of translation in the mother tongue helps the students in both short- term and long- term retention of words. Machida’s (2011) finding also stregthtens this theory and she claims when people try to understand ideas or meaning in Second Language or Foreign Language, L1 will naturally play major role in their comprehension. Considering the results of the previous studies mentioned before, this study will be focused on the identification of the possible problems that may be experienced by native Indonesian students when English translation is used in their Chinese language learning.
The second language element is vocabulary. During the past decades, researchers and commentators have pointed to the importance of vocabulary acquisition for second language (L2) learners (Allen, 1983; Laufer, 1986; Nation 1990; Richards, 1980, as cited in Lawson & Hogben, 1996). In recent years, the teaching of vocabulary has assumed its rightful place as a fundamentally important aspect of language development (Nunan, 1998).
Similarly, the definition of translation in the present study refers to use one language as a base of understanding, remembering, or producing another language, both at lexical and synthatic level, and also in either direction from the target of the source language into the other language (Lioa, 2006). Folse (2004) claims that it is a myth that learning vocabulary is not as important as learning grammar or other areas of language learning, when in reality, vocabulary has extremely important role in language learning. (Chen & Chun, 2008 ; Shoebottom, 2007).
Shoebottom (2007) also adds that the more words the students know, the more they are able to understand what they hear and read, furthermore, the another good effect is that they are able to say what they want in spoken or written ways.
Vocabulary and language learning cannot be separated. Since sentences always consist of words, then vocabulary will play a big role in how learner can comprehend text. There is a close relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Vocabulary growth leads to improve reading comprehension, and amout of reading leads to vocabulary growth. Carver (2003) also argued that the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension is so strong that they can produce a perfect correlation. Moreover, vocabulary knowledge is fundamental in comprehension process (Nagy, 1997). Hudson (2007), also adds that having rich vocabulary knowledge will be a key element of a better reading comprehension. Moreover, many foreign language readers find it hard to comprehend a text because of lack of vocabulary and vocabulary learning strategy. (Hyso & Tabaku, 2011).
effects on the low and intermediate [language] learners ... It was also discovered the students who used translation tended to gain more in learning vocabulary and phrases ...”.
In addition, the use of translation at the advance level can help the learners to improve their knowledge of the foreign language by making reference to their mother tongue, and then help in learning clarify the similarities and differences between foreign language and their mother tongue (Lioa, 2006). Translating foreign language into the learners’ native language is a common learning strategies suggested by the teachers and done by the students. Some researchers argued that teachers usually provide practical advice on teaching vocabulary and encourage students’ language learning strategiesin vocabulary learning. In spite of this, it is also not difficult to find language teachers who think that vocabulary can be left to take care of itself, and there is also some experimental evidence to support that position (Elley & Manghubhai, 1981). Graves (1987, as cited in Lawson & Hogben, 1996) suggested that because students actually learn many new words independently, it makes sense to encourage them in adopt personal plans to expand their vocabulary over time. At issue, however, students will spontanously develop or adapt effective vocabulary learning practices as result of their language learning experience.
In term of foreign language learning, there is a certain correlation between vocabulary, translation, and dictionary. The most popular way of getting the meaning of new words is to look it up in the dictionary (Schmitt, 1997). Takahashi (2012) also adds that dictionary is one of the common learning tools for second or foreign language learners, and there are various of dictionaries are used to help learners work on their language development.
1990, as cited in Takahashi, 2012). The result shows that consulting both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries will assist the learning process.
Bilingual dictionaries defined as dictionaries that translate words from a language into another language. Such dictionaries are important in this study because most of the students use English – Indonesian dictionaries, or Chinese – Indonesian dictionary.
Moreover, according to Xu (2010), consulting to a bilingual dictionaries also help learners to get more information about the target words. Bilingual dictionaries may be a great help in enhancing the vocabulary of the target language (Jackson, 2002). Knight (1994, as cited in Hayati & Fattahzadeh, 2006) also proved in his investigation that students who used bilingual dictionary scored higher on all of the vocabulary test than who did not.
In spite of the facts above, Cook (2008) argued that the use of dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual, in language teaching has always been controversial in some areas. Some feel that a dictionary can be deatructive, causing learners to be excessively dependent on dictionary and misuse it because of their lack of knowledge about dictionary conventions (Cardunen, 2003). It is not surprising to hear language teachers complaining about their students misuses of dictionary (Takahashi, 2012).
The researchers has explored some possible errors in looking up dictionary, one of the errors seemed to be that dictionary user paid attention to only certain parts of the definiton (Nesi & Meara, 1994, as cited in Takahashi, 2012). Takahashi (2012) also claimed that sometimes, students choose the definitions that did not fit in the context.
Grammar Translation Method were aimed to prepare students to read and write classical materials and to pas standardized exam (Howatt, 1984; Rivers, 1981, as cited in Coady & Huckin, 1997). Since the student participants in this study studied foreign language also need to translate grammatical sentences, their successfulness of the goals of comprehension skill in the target language was also needed to be investigated more. In the recent study held by Kong (2011), she mentions that in the 21stcentury, students taught with Grammar Translation Method has displayed some problems, such as emphasizing written language only while lacking on oral expressive ability or even suffering from long term inability of using foreign language they learned actively and passively, developing students’ habit of relying to much on translating everything into the mother language will influence their ability to communicate using foreign language.
THE STUDY
Context of The Study
2 was choosen as the target research participants. In this level, students learned Chinese vocabulary, followed by its basic grammar.
While the language used for translation is English, most of the students felt confident to choose the Chinese native speaker’s class because the receptionist usually said that the during the language learning, the materials would be delivered in an easy way and there would be a big advantages to learn with an original tone of pronunciation.
Another reason of choosing this language institution was because it has a good rate among the language courses in Semarang, and it has some native speakers of Chinese as the teacher. So the learning quality also well trusted.
Participants
All of the participants were choosen from Xin You Language Centre, Semarang. There were two groups of participants, which were the group of the teacher participants, and the group of student participants.
The participants from the teachers would be selected using a purposive sampling or criterion based selection which is selecting the participants using certain criteria (Blackledge, 2001, p.57). The number of the teacher participants was two teachers. The reason I selected only two teachers was because the limited number of native teachers who taught in this language institution recently. Teachers who were choosen to be interviewed were the teachers who used English translation during the learning progress, and also used textbooks or activities sheets with English translation. Hence, there were some criterias in choosing the participants :
- Students from the beginner level (level 2) of Chinese language class in the institution I choose.
- Native Chinese teachers who taught in beginner level and used coursebooks which were translated into English.
From that criteria, I planned to find what are the possible problems that might occur by using English translation in Chinese language learning from the teacher’s point of view toward the classroom improvement itself and also toward the students understanding. I also want to find it outfrom the students point of view toward their learning process also. If they experience any problem or not, and to identify the problems they have.
Instrument of data collection
be differ between the question for the teacher and the question for the students. The questions will have two focuses and purposes :
1. General focus and purpose
1.1Interviewing the teacher, was to identify the teachers’ opinions of the Chinese
language teaching experience.
1.2Interviewing the students, was to identify the students’ opinions of their Chinese
language learning experience, their background English education, and their background knowledge of English and Chinese language before they enrolled in those language course.
2. Specific focus and purpose,
2.1Interviewing teachers, was to find out the problems that the students might have in
the classroom from the teachers’ point of view.
2.2Interviewing students, was to find out the problems that the students might
experience while they learn Chinese using English translation in the classroom.
Data Collection Procedures
Chinese. In the middle until the end part of the interview would talk more about the specific benefits from the teachers and the students point of view.
The data collection from the interview will be analyzed using content/thematic analysis (Riessman, 2008) which is focusing on the content ot themes across the participants (Zacharias, 2011).
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Based on the interview I conducted to answer the research question, “What are the possible problems that may be experienced by native Indonesian students in Chinese vocabulary learning that using English translation?”. As the answer of the students’ and also the teachers’ representatives, I found two general problems that appear in Chinese language classroom in XinYou Language Centre which was taught by the native chinese teacher. They were difficulties in reading comprehension and the problems in using help device, here was dictionary. Particularly, this research also answered, what disadvantages that may be emerged by bilingual dictionaries compared to monolingual dictionaries that may cause boredom and also eyes nuisance toward the students during the learning process as Martinez (2008) claimed.
A. Difficulties in reading comprehension. 1. Teacher’s point of view
information or the purpose of the passage they read. Below is the statement from one of the teachers’ respondents :
I can say the difficulties [are] more on... on how the students understand the
whole meaning of some paragraphs or even sentences. I mean, when there is
a long dialogue or sentence that is written in hanyu, pinyin, and then
translated into English, not all of the students [would] directly understand
[them]. (Laoshi Tang)
In addition, Laoshi Lily, the second native teachers’ representative, said “ Students are sigh-ing like “hmpff..” when we start to ask them to do some reading exercise, even on the simple text we give to them.” Hence, the students are likely to avoid reading tasks because they thought that it was difficult.
2. Student’s point of view
From the student representative’s point of view, the problem appeared on the same place, which is likely what the teacher representative have said before. That is about dealing with long paragraphs, long sentences, or long dialogues. One of the student respondents stated,“It is difficult when the sentence is long or in paragraph.. When there is words that is difficult I can’t understand the sentence sometimes. I have to read more than once.. It make me lazy..”
The statement above gave more evidence that the problem generally appear when the students had to deal with the long sentences, paragraph, or dialogue that are completely translated in English. Because once the students found some words they did not understand, then the students would stop reading, repeat their reading, or consult their dictionaries.
... my English is not really bad, but when I see a long hanyu pinyin text and it is
translated in English, I need some time to understand the Chinese text.. Because I
need to transfer my knowledge in English to the Chinese text.. Jadi, misalnya,
kalo di English grammarnya subject and then to be and the adverb misalnya, so I
transfer the grammar from English to Chinese. ... Sometimes [the] English
vocabulary used in the text also a bit difficult, when I guess the meaning but I
missed it, yaaa I will give the wrong answer for the question in the reading
comprehension task. (Student 2)
Vocabulary played a significant role in reading comprehension skill, so it could be concluded that when the students failed to find the right meaning of certain vocabulary in the text they read, the gathering information through the comprehension skill could not be successfully completed.
According to Carver (1994), difficulties in reading comprehension are doubled when the readers have to read academic texts in a foreign language. They may know some words or may be able to use clues supplied by the text so they can guess the meanings of the uknown words or to infer meanings that are implied. But they find it very hard to understand the unknown texts because there are too many unknown words, then comprehension is disrupted. For example, when the students were given a new reading text, they missed some words meaning because they guessed it wrongly or they choose an inappropriate definition from the dictionary.There were a huge possibility they missed the information provided in the text when they have to answer reading comprehension questions.
reasons spontanously, for example failure to notice the unknown words as they believe they know it, wrong guessing and lack of systematic work with new vocabulary.
B. Problem in Using the Help Devices. 1. Bilingual / Monolingual Dictionary
The beginner level students’ knowledgeof Chinese vocabulary were still limited. That was why beginner students would have less possibilites of guessing meanings directly from the Chinese language to their native language. That condition forced the students to use a help device, in this study, both the teachers and the students mostly preferred to use dictionaries as their help device. Here, the most dictionaries used by the students were bilingual dictionaries, Chinese – Indonesian or English – Indonesian. Although the students were allowed to use dictionary in the classroom, they were still found a problem such as laziness, time ineffectiveness, and wrong definition choosing.
1.1 Student’s attitude
Most of the students use English - Indonesian bilingual dictionaries. Those simple reasons likely to happen to some native Indonesian students in Xin You Language Centre who are not really good in English. Eventhough the students were already assisted with dictionaries, some problems still exist in terms of dictionary usage. Yudi, one of the student respondent, stated, “... my friends or looking [up in] the dictionary when I don’t understand. When I’m busy with my work, I will not do it, because it take a very long time and is also boring..”. Yudi not only used dictionary to help his learning process during the classroom activity, but also when he had to do his homework after the classroom activity. Since he was working, he felt that looking up in the dictionary was very time consuming and also boring.
respondent from the survey held by Martinez (2008). Which respondents are students who use monolingual dictionary in their foreign language learning. This problem may appear because the students are not yet accustomed to the use both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. This condition creates an uncomfortable feeling for the native Indonesian students in Xin You Language Centre when they have to look up for the meaning of the words they found. Eventhough they are allowed to use bilingual dictionaries which is easier to use rather than monolingual dictionaries.
On the other hand, other students argued that due to frequent use of dictionaries, they become very dependent on them. Because of the dependency, they become hesitant of guessing meaning, the prefer to look it up in the dictionary right away instead of guessing meaning from the context. Moreover, the dependency also impact on the students’ working morale. They lost their confidence when they were not allowed to use dictionary. Siwi, one of the student respondent said, “I always use dictionary to search for the words. ... Without dictionaries, I become lazy to do the reading exercise..”. Another students’ representative also added, “... I use dictionaries when I don’t know words’ meaning. ... I feel afraid if I don’t bring dictionaries, takut kalo ga bisa kerjain.. hehehe..”.
1.2Teacher’s opinions
Laoshi Tang quoted, “I always make a rule, that every student should bring their own dictionary. It can be Chinese- Indonesian, or English-Indonesian dictionaries, or English – English dictionaries, depend on their own need.”. Moreover, laoshi Lily also added, “ I agree with Laoshi Tang, my students usually bring their dictionaries without I’m asking, sometimes I also allowed them to use the dictionaries in the exam, just to help them ...”.
Through the statement above, I concluded that the students’ need of consulting dictionaries in order to find the meaning of the difficult vocabulary that the students found in a long passage was still a primary need. On the other hand, the teacher seemedto wanted to make the students being accustomed in using the dictionaries to help their language learning.
Martinez (2008), who conducted a survey which employed 60 pre-basic English students, reported that they prefer to use bilingual dictionaries instead of monolingual dictionaries. They disliked to use monolingual dictionaries for three simple reasons : it took longer to look up words, it was boring to look up words, and a nuisance to the eyes during look up.
On the other hand, Cardunan (2003) also claimed “The use of dictionary can cause the learners to be totally dependent on dictionary ...”. This finding support the finding that the student participants who answers about how dictionary impact on their language learning process.
C. Others
One of students’ participants stated that one of the problems he faced was the teacher’s accent.“... when my teacher use English, aksennya, is not clear for me.. I should think again and again, what she say...”, Yudi said. One of the students’ representative argued that shecreated the learning strategies by herself, because she did not really like to use dictionary.
“ ... I also take English course this time, ... I like to connect English grammar and
Chinese language structure. I think the grammar of English and Chinese is not really
different. ... to understand a chinese sentence, I translate the whole English sentence
first, and then I guess the meaning of the Chinese sentence will be same..” (Student 3)
This student translated English sentence to guess the meaning of the Chinese sentence and she really paid attention on the grammar. Strategies used by this student was actually can be related to another learning strategy, such as Grammar Translation Method.“
Another student also argued that she got personal problems such as demotivation during their language learning. She said, “ ... I don’t like reading exercise. It is boring and difficult. ... When it is very difficult, I feel I don’t want to study again...”.
Conclusion
This study was aimed to find the possible problems that may appear when native Indonesian students learned Chinese using English translation. This study has also investigated how the learners and the teachers deal with the problems, and also supported by some findings in terms of translation, vocabulary, and dictionary. The result of this study can be concluded in two big points.
First, the problems appear when the students have to deal with long sentences, paragraph, or long dialogue written in Chinese and translated into English. The students can not directly understand the meaning, so that their comprehension process will be interrupted. When the students failed in the comprehension process, then they will also failed to reach the goal in understanding the text.
Second, teachers and the students use dictionaries as the help device while the learning process is in progress. Most of the students prefer to use bilingual dictionaries rather than monolingual dictionaries because bilingual dictionaries are easier to be used. As the previous research claims, dictionary can be the very helpful in foreign language learning. On the other hand, even the students are using bilingual dictionaries, they still get the difficulties. Furthermore, it is better for the teacher and the students to find the way in order to overcome those problems.
students’,from other language instituions, problems during their foreign language cannot be generalized by the result of this research since the rules and conditions of each language institution might be different as well.
Furthermore, the further research should be emphasized more to study about the problems of the dictionay use and also on the problems, investigate the best foreign language learning strategies, and also investigate more how students’ feeling affect their learning progress.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
guidances, advices, corrections, suggestions for me. My examiner, Dr. Elisabet Titik Murtisari, SPd. MTransStudfor the willingness to spare your time to read and examine my thesis. My beloved parents, Budi Sutikno and Catharina Maria S. for the uncountable love, support, and prayers. My dearest boyfriend, ko Bon2 “Bulet”, for always stand by my side, understand, and strenghten me. My wonderful girlfriends, Anne Marciagani and Ratih Rakasiwi for the friendship, and also teachers and students of Xin You Chinese Language Course.
Salatiga, May 2013
Veny Frissilia
Appendix
Interview Transcription
For teacher
- Native Chinese teacher
Q : Good afternoon laoshi, may I have your time? A : Good afternoon, yes, my pleasure.
Q: In this interview, which one is more comfortable for you, I use English or Indonesian? A : English is okay..
Q : Oh okay, so, may I have your name?
A : My name is Tang Siaw Ing. You can call me laoshi Tang. Q : Oh ok laoshi Tang, how long have you been live in Indonesia? A : Hmm.. I think I live in Indonesia for about 20 years.
Q : How long have you been teaching in this language institution? A : About 7 or 8 years I think.
Q: How’s your feeling of teaching here
A : Ya, before I started to teach here, I taught Mandarin in an International Senior High School. My feeling was totally different. I can say, I prefer to teach here. Because the students are willling to work harder, because they come here because they want and they think they need to learn Chinese language.
Q: Oh great, so how many levels do you handle in this institution?
A : Mmm.. I handle almost all levels.. Haha.. Mostly in the private course, I’m available for any level.
Q : Hahaha.. Okay.. So what kind of methodologies that you usually use when you have to deliver new vocabulary to the students?
A : It has been standardized here, I taught based on the books provided.. Each students have their own books. It the beginner levels, I usually ask the students to understand the meaning first, and then memorize it by themselves. If I teach the intermediate or
advance levels, it’s easier, most of the students have their own way to understand the new vocab.
Q : Oh I see, so what translation do you usually use to introduce the new vocabulary to the students in the beginner level?
A : I use English mostly.
Q : Oh I see, so how do the students from the beginner level respond when you use English? A : Hmmm.. They don’t show their reaction directly in the classroom, maybe they are
students usually get a bad mark for the first until the third exercises, because they are not really good in using English while almost all of the books here translated in English. Q: So how do you deal with that students?
A : Teachers here are not always care about the students’ marks, it’s their own
responsibilities. So we, the teacher, only help if they ask us to help them. So many students prefer to move classes or sometimes the desperate students prefer to drop the class..
Q: Wow.. So can you explain a bit about the what are the students difficulties, especially from the students of beginner level, related to the translation used in the classroom? A :I can say the difficulties more on... on how the students understand the whole meaning of
some paragraphs or even sentences. I mean, when there is a long dialogue or sentence that is written in hanyu, pinyin, and then translated into English, not all of the students directly understand.. I think it isn’t effective.
Q: Oh I see, can you tell me a bit why do you think“It isn’t effective”?
A: Yes I said it doesn’t effective because the students take more time to understand the difficult words or difficult sentences they find.
Q : Oh great, so what are your strategies to deal with the students’s difficulties or the students’ ineffectiveness?
A : I always make a rule, that every student should bring their own dictionary. It can be Chinese- Indonesian, or English-Indonesian dictionary, or English – English dictionary, depend on their own need.
Q: Do that strategy help the students?
A : It helps a lot, after they get the meaning, of course they can understand. Q: Well.. That’s great. Hmm.. I think that’s all..
Q: Can you please tell me a bit about yourself?
A: Emmm.. I’m now working, as a marketing staff in an International company.. Q: Oh okay, so how long have you been studying here?
A: About one year...
Q: Owh, so what kind of foreign language education that you ever took before? A: Eh, sorry, maksudnya?
Q: Pernah ambil language course apa aja sebelumnya? A: Ooooh.. I ever took English course also before this. Q: Ow, so how long have you been learning English?
A: I start learn English in SMP, and in SMA, and English course 3 months. Q: Ooh, so how do you think about your English?
A: Haha.. I can understand people talk, but I can’t speak very good.
Q: Haha, okay, back to this Mandarin course again. So what level do you take now? A: Level 2.
Q: How’s your feeling of studying here?
A: Hmmm... Study Chinese is boring. Sometimes study here is boring, but sometimes also make me happy.
Q : Haha.. So how many textbooks do you use here? A: Books ya.. I get two.. The theory and the exercise book.
Q: What’s your opinion about your theory and your exercise book that you get?
A: Emmm.. I think my theory book is boring, it only hmm contain hanzi and hanyu and English sentence.. I think my exercise book is better.
Q: Oooh, what translation that your books use? The language I mean.. A: Language? Chinese?
A: Ooo.. Translation.. My books use English
Q: Oh great, so how do you think about your progress of your Chinese language learning here?
A: Progress?
Q: Yes, the progress, ada kemajuan apa..
A: Oo.. I think now I understand many basic Chinese vocabulary and I can write hanzi now. Q: What language or translation do your teacher use when he or she give the new
vocabulary?
A: My teacher always use English, everytime..
Q: Wow, so does it affect your language learning process? I mean, when your teacher use English everytime, does it give some effects to your language learning process?
A: Yes, it make the lesson more difficult.. Make me more hard to understand too.. Q: Ow, why it is more difficult to understand for you when your teacher use English? A: Ya because my English is not very good. It’s okey when the teacher only use English in simple vocab, but when the teacher use English when translate a paragraph, I become very confuse. Because the Chinese sentence and English sentence.. mmm.. struktur kalimatnya itu beda..
Q: Owh different structure.. So when english translation only used to translate a word, is it OK for you?
A: If the word is easy, it’s ok.. but if the word is hard it also difficult. Q: What do you mean by hard and easy?
A: Ya hard when I never know that word, and easy if I know the word.
Q: Owh, so which one do you like best, using English translation or Indonesian translation in your learning process?
Q: Haha.. so based on your personal opinion, what are the difficulties that you experience in you learning process? Please explain a little to me, some of your difficulties when your teacher use English to give the materials..
A: Mmm.. when my teacher use English, aksennya, is not clear for me.. I should think again and again, what she say. When she write in the whiteboard, it is better.. And it is difficult when the sentence is long or in paragraph.. When there is words that is difficult I can’t understand the sentence sometimes. I have to read more than once.. It make me lazy.. When reading, or learning the vocab I also have to ask my friends or looking the dictionary when I don’t understand. When I’m busy with my work, I will not do it, because it take a very long time and also boring..
Q: Owh, so what are your strategies to deal with that kind of difficulties? A: I always use my dictionary, or ask my friend.
Q:What is your suggestion for the teacher about the translation they should use in order to increase the effectiveness of the learning process in the future?
A: Ha? Caranya ngajar gitu?
Q: Yes, what translation is better to be used?
A: Ooh.. when the students very good in English, English is OK, but if the students is not good in English like me.. Indonesian is better.. Hehehe
