STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS
ASARJANA PENDIDIKANTHESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Wendy Rahmad Biyandi Student Number: 071214131
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS
ASARJANA PENDIDIKANTHESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Wendy Rahmad Biyandi Student Number: 071214131
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
ii
A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS
By
Wendy Rahmad Biyandi Student Number: 071214131
Approved by
Sponsor
iii
A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS
By
WENDY RAHMAD BIYANDI Student Number: 071214131
Defended before the Board of Examiners on ...
and Declared Acceptable
Board of Examiners
Chairperson : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. ____________________
Secretary : ____________________
Member : ____________________
Member : ____________________
Member : ____________________
Yogyakarta,
Faculty of Teachers Training and Education Sanata Dharma University Dean,
iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 06 July 2012 The writer
v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Wendy Rahmad Biyandi
Nomor Mahasiswa : 071214131
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND METHODS IN TRANSLATING SOURCE LANGUAGE TEXTS
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan rolayti kepada saya selama saya tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal:
06 July 2012 Yang menyatakan
vi ABSTRACT
Biyandi, Wendy Rahmad. (2012).Students’ Problems and Methods in Translating Source Language Texts. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Most courses in ELESP are designed to support students’ acquiring English language, such as structure, pronunciation, reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and many more. In the higher levels of study, the students are expected to be able to use their competences of English language in some more advanced purposes, such as how to translate a source language text (SLT) into a target language text (TLT). The lecturers of the Translation Classes in ELESP must have been encouraging the students with some methods, approaches, or techniques of how to ease them in doing the translation tasks. However, there have remained some problems which make the results of the students’ translation not quite appropriate.
This research is intended to answer two research questions: (1) What specific translation problems occurred in the students’ translating process? and (2) What methods did the students tend to use during the translating process? To answer the first research question, the researcher applied document analysis. The documents were taken from the results of mid-term test conducted by Translation I class A in the academic year 2011/2012. Meanwhile, to answer the second research question, the researcher still applied the document analysis to identify the methods used by the students in the translation works. From the findings, it could be identified that there were 22 problems found in the students’ translation works which were divided into two classifications. The first classification was grammatical problems involving complicated source language grammar (83,33%). The second classification was lexical problems involving idioms (100%). Afterwards, the researcher revealed the identified translation methods which were categorized into (1) literal translation involving word for word translation (8,33%) and literal translation (100%) and (2) non literal translation involving semantic translation (33%).
Based on the research findings, firstly, the researcher encourages the students to enrich their capability in translating the text, especially the text which contains so many difficult lexical words or phrases. This could be done by fostering the students’ reading motivation. Dealing with the methods that the students tend to use during the translating process, the researcher really recommends the students to be flexible. The researcher also recommends the ELESP lecturers to give the Translation I class students more practices to translate sentences which contain difficult lexical problems, such as idioms, collocations, proverbs, and many more. Lastly, for future researchers, the researcher encourages other researchers who are interested in studying this topic to deeper analyze other problems or methods that possibly occur in translating.
vii
ABSTRAK
Biyandi, Wendy Rahmad. (2012).Students’ Problems and Methods in Translating Source Language Texts. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Sebagian besar mata kuliah di PBI di rancang untuk membantu para mahasiswa dalam mempelajari bahasa Inggris, seperti structure, pronunciation, reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary, dan masih banyak lagi. Saat mencapai tingkat yang lebih tinggi, para mahasiswa diharapkan sudah mampu menggunakan kemampuan berbahasa Inggris mereka untuk diaplikasikan pada tujuan tertentu, seperti menerjemahkan teks dari sumber bahasa tertentu ke bahasa target. Para dosen pengampu mata kuliah Penerjemahan di PBI tentunya sudah memberikan berbagai materi perkuliahan seperti pendekatan, metode-metode, ataupun tekhnik dalam menerjemah kepada para mahasiswa. Akan tetapi, masih saja ada masalah dalam menerjemah yang mana menyebabkan penerjemahan yang dilakukan para mahasiswa kurang dapat diterima dengan baik.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua pertanyaaan penelitian: (1) Masalah-masalah penerjemahan tertentu seperti apa saja yang muncul pada saat proses menerjemahkan yang dilakukan mahasiswa? dan (2) Metode-metode apa saja yang cenderung digunakan mahasiswa dalam menerjemahkan. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian yang pertama, peneliti melakukan analisa dokumen. Dokumen yang dianalisa diambil dari hasil mid-term tes yang dilakukan oleh mahasiswa di kelas A Translation I tahun akademik 2011/2012. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian yang kedua, peneliti masih menggunakan analisa dokumen untuk menganalisa metode yang dipakai siswa dalam dalam menerjemahkan. Dari hasil penelitian, ditemukan 22 masalah yang terbagi menjadi dua jenis pengelompokan. Pengelompokan pertama adalah masalah tata bahasa yang mencakup tata bahasa sumber yang rumit (83,33%). Pengelompokan kedua adalah masalah leksis yang mencakup idiom (100%). Kemudian, peneliti mengungkapkan metode-metode penerjemahan yang teridentifikasi yang dikategorikan menjadi (1) penerjemahan harafiah yang mencakup penerjemahan kata demi kata (8,33%) dan penerjemahan harafiah (100%) dan (2) penerjemahan tidak harafiah yang mencakup penerjemahan semantis (33%).
Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, pertama, peneliti menghimbau para mahasiswa untuk memperkaya kemampuan mereka menerjemahkan teks sumber, terutama teks yang berisi banyak kata-kata atau frasa leksis yang rumit dengan meningkatkan minat membaca Dalam hal metode dalam menerjemahkan, peneliti sangat menganjurkan mahasiswa untuk fleksibel dalam menerjemahkan. Peneliti juga menganjurkan dosen Translation I PBI untuk lebih memberikan latihan-latihan soal yang berisi permasalahan leksis, seperti idiom, kolokasi, pepatah, dan lebih banyak lagi. Terakhir, untuk peneliti berikutnya, peneliti mendorong peneliti lain yang tertarik pada penelitian yang berhubungan dengan topik ini untuk menganalisa lebih dalam tentang masalah-masalah dan metode-metode yang mungkin muncul dalam menerjemahkan.
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulilahirobil’alamin. Firstly, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Allah SWT, who made this thesis possible. I owe my deepest gratitude to my sponsor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., whose feedback, encouragement, and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to finish this thesis. It is such a great honor for me to be guided by a great lecturer who was willing to share her precious time, knowledge, and experiences.
I would like to particularly thank the Translation I Class lecturer in the academic year 2011/2012,Fidelis Chosa Kastuhandani, S.Pd., M.Hum. for his permission to conduct this research in his class. My sincere gratitude also goes to Herdiansari Hayuningrumfor all of her supports and suggestions given to me, andMbakDevyfor her help as my proofreader.
I would like to give my special thanks to all of the lecturers of English Language Education Study Program who have taught me everything, especially to Drs. Y.B. Gunawan, M.A. for being my academic advisor. I would also like to thankMbakDhanniekandMbakTari for their help during my study, the library staff for their hospitality and help; and all of the fifth semester students who were taking Translation I Class C in the academic year 2011/2012 for their willingness to be participants in this research by letting me use their translation works as the data.
My sincerest gratitude is addressed to my father Wahyu Widayatfor his priceless support, to my mother Widi Harni for her endless love and prayers, to my brotherRiskifor cheering up my days.
ix
May Allah bless all of the people who have supported me during the completion of this thesis. Amen.
x
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGES ... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... v
ABSTRACT ... vi
ABSTRAK ... vii
ACNOWLEDGEMENTS ... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... x
LIST OF TABLES ... xiv
LIST OF APPENDICES ... xv
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ... 1
B. Problem Formulation ... 4
C. Problem Limitation ... 5
D. Research Objectives ... 5
E. Research Benefits ... 5
F. Definitions of Terms ... 6
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description ... 8
xi
2. Translation and the Cultural Implication ... 10
3. Translation’s Considerations ... 12
4. Translation Problems ... 13
a. Grammatical Problems ... 14
b. Lexical Problems ... 14
1) Collocations ... 15
2) Idioms ... 15
3) Proverbs ... 17
c. Stylistic Problems ... 17
1) Formality vs. Informality ... 18
2) Style of Fronting ... 19
3) Passive and Active Styles ... 20
5. Translation Methods ... 21
a. Word for Word Translation ... 22
b. Literal Translation ... 23
c. Semantic Translation ... 24
B. Theoretical Framework ... 25
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ... 28
B. Research Setting ... 30
C. Research Participants ... 30
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ... 30
xii
2. Documents ... 31
E. Data Analysis Technique ... 32
F. Research Procedure ... 35
1. Asking Permissions to the Lecturer ... 35
2. Collecting Data ... 36
3. Analyzing Data ... 36
4. Concluding and Reporting Findings ... 36
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH RESULTS AND FINDINGS A. The Specific Translation Problems that Occured in the Students’ Translating Process ... 37
1. Idioms ... 39
2. Complicated Source Language Grammar ... 45
3. Collocations ... 49
4. Proverbs ... 51
5. Formality vs. Informality ... 52
6. Style of Fronting ... 53
7. Passive and Active Styles ... 54
B. Methods that the Students Tend to Use During the Translating Process ... 55
1. Literal Translation ... 56
2. Semantic Translation ... 59
xiii
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Conclusions ... 65 B. Recommendations ... 67
1. For English Language Education
Study Program (ELESP) Students ... 67 2. For English Language Education
Study Program (ELESP) Lecturers ... 70 3. For Future Researchers ... 71
xiv LIST OF TABLES
Page Table 3.1 Types of Grammatical, Lexical, and Stylistic
Problems in the Students’ Translation ... 33 Table 3.2 The Types of Methods in the Students’ Translation ... 34 Table 4.1 The Percentage of the Identified Specific Problems
in the Students’ Translation Work ... 38 Table 4.2 The Percentage of the Identified Translation Methods
xv
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page Appendix A Permission Letter ... 73 Appendix B The Analysis Result of Students’ Translation Problems ... 75 Appendix C The Analysis Result of Students’ Translation Methods ... 81 Appendix D The Frequency of Identified Problems
in Students’ Translation Works ... 85 Appendix E The Type of Methods Found
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of six major sections. They are research background,
problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits,
and definitions of terms.
A. Research Background
English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) is a study program
under Teachers Training and Education Faculty in Sanata Dharma University.
ELESP is known asProgram Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris (PBI). This study
program aims to prepare future English teachers who have four competences;
professional, pedagogic, personal, and social (Panduan Akademik Program Studi
PBI, 2007).
Several courses in ELESP are designed to support students’ acquiring
English language, such as structure, pronunciation, reading, writing, listening,
speaking, vocabulary, and many more. In the higher levels of study, the students
are expected to be able to use their competences of English language in some
more advanced purposes, such as how to translate a source language text (SLT)
into a target language text (TLT). When the students are in the fifth semester, the
lecturers of the ELESP begin to introduce translation course.
There are several kinds of problems that the students face in translating
translation is to serve as a cross-cultural bilingual communication vehicle among
people (Gerding-Salas, 2000). In order to make such a good ‘communication
vehicle’ among people, a translator then must try to translate a certain text
properly so that the target people will be able to understand the meaning of the
source language. Thus, translating means a translator re-tells the source language
by using the target language without deforming its original meaning.
Ghazala (2008) notes that in translating a text, there must be some
difficulties that the translators might face, “a translation problem is any difficulty
we come across at translating, that invites us to stop translating in order to check,
recheck, reconsider or rewrite it, and make a sense of it” (p. 17). In this case,
ELESP students are trained to be able to not only transfer the meaning of the
source language into the target language text but also understand the principles,
problems, or the process of translation. Meanwhile Newmark (1988) explains that
“in a narrow sense, translation theory is concerned with the translation method
appropriately used for a certain type of text” (p. 10).
The lecturers of the translation class in ELESP must have been
encouraging the students with some methods, approaches, or techniques of how to
ease them in doing the translation tasks. However, there have remained some
problems which make the results of the students’ translation are not appropriate.
According to Molina and Albir (2002), “translation method refers to the way of a
particular translation process that is carried out in terms of the translator’s
objective, such as a global option that affects the whole texts” (p. 507). Moreover,
stylistic, or phonological are also forcing the translators to hardly continue
translating.
This situation puts a translator into a condition where he has to negotiate
form and meaning between the source language text and the reader of target
language. When the students in the translation class are working on a translation
task, he or she might hardly consider some methods in translating. In fact,
recognizing and understanding the methods in translating are actually helpful for
them in the process of translation. Some examples of this phenomenon could be
established as follows,Joanne gave me two tickets yesterdaywhich is translated
into Joanne memberi saya dua tiket kemarin. People who understand English,
especially ELESP students know that the result of the English language sentence
into Indonesian language is acceptable. However, the sentence still sounds a little
bit awkward and unnatural. There is another better alternative sentence that a
translator can choose, such as kemarin Joanne memberiku dua tiket. A similar
way of how students do their translation task from Indonesian language text into
English language text sometimes frequently occurred. For instance, cepat atau
lambat cuacanya akan berubahwhich is translated intofast or slow the weather
will change. The result of the translation does sound English and grammatically
correct, but it sounds awkward and is very unnatural in English. The sentence
“sooner or later the weather will change” would be much more appropriate to
be used.
The examples above show that there is a consideration about the result of
or the meaning of the sentence. In the world of translation, there is a tendency of
people to use a ‘word for word’ translation method (Newmark, 1988, p. 46) since
maybe the SLT is unbearably too difficult to be translated into TLT. Thus, he
keeps to be faithful to the form of the sentence. Nevertheless, there are also many
people or translators who try to consider the level of faithfulness based on not
only the form but also the meaning. Therefore, it is important for the students in
translation class to pay attention to the methods of translation before they start
translating. Understanding the methods would help translators to doing translation
because the methods influence the result of the whole text (Newmark, 1988, p.
45). Nevertheless, not all methods can be considered good to be used in the
translation tasks.
All these kinds of general facts about translation can be found on every
translator’s works, including the works done by the translation class students of
ELESP. Therefore, based on the phenomena that there are several problems in
translating as well as less attention to the methods of translation, a research to find
out the the students problems and methods in translating source language texts is
conducted.
B. Research Problems
In the research problems, there are two questions to answer.
1. What specific translation problems occurred in the students’ translating
process?
C. Problem Limitation
In this study, the writer analyzes the translation products done by
Translation I class students. Since it is Translation I class, the translation is the
one from English as the source language into Indonesian as the target language
text. The data are taken from their result of progress I translation test.
The writer analyzes the problems as well as the methods of how the
students work on the translation task. There are a number of problems and
methods elaboration of which they are explained in the Chapter II. Any mistake in
spelling and punctuation will be disregarded since the writer would only focus on
the problems and methods out of the minimum requirements.
D. Research Objectives
Dealing with the two research questions mentioned previously, this study
is conducted to achieve these objectives.
1. To figure out the specific problems occurring in the students’ translating
process.
2. To find out the methods which the students tend to use during the
translating process.
E. Research Benefits
This research is expected to give benefits to both students and lecturers.
For the students, the research shows them how well their mastery in translating so
crucial problems that might occur in translating. It is expected that by learning
from their problems, students will be more careful in translating and encouraged
to optimize the use of translation methods
Also, by knowing which part of students’ difficulties in translating,
lecturers would find it easier to teach them based on their needs and weaknesses.
Hopefully, by exposing the students to some various types of problems and
methods in translation to keep in mind, the ELESP students can be more careful in
doing their translation tasks.
F. Definitions of Terms
It is important to define some terms used in this study to avoid
misunderstanding and to lead readers to a better understanding on the topic being
discussed. The terms are as follows.
1. Translation
According to Larson (1984, p. 3), translation is the transfer of meaning in
the source language text into the target text; this is done by replacing the form of
the first language by the form of the second language. Translation means
rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author
intended the text. In this research, translation represents the students’ process in
how the students do the task of rendering the meaning. In other word, the task of
what is called ‘translation process’. The students in the Translation I class work
2. Method
In this research, Purwati (2010) states that there are many procedures or
methods in translation. She adds that a procedure is the act or manner of
proceeding in any action or process. In the Mcquarie Dictionary (1982) as quoted
by Purwati (2010) explains that “a method is a way to doing something, especially
in accordance with a definite plan”.
In this study, method is the way the Translation I class students do
something in their process of translating. The method is dealing with how the
students create a certain plan to work on their translation task.
3. Translation I Class
The next term is Translation I Class; Translation I Class refers to a class or
course offered in the fifth semester by ELESP of Sanata Dharma University.
Translation is designed to introduce knowledge of the definition, principles,
problems, and process of translation. The students are exposed to the hands-on
experiences of translating various types of text types.
Some concepts dealing with translation are also introduced, such as
cultural transfer, naturalization, coherence, unity, and flow (Panduan Akademik
Program Studi PBI, 2011). In this research, Translation I Class is the class where
the students do the process of translation under the guidance of the lecturer.
Panduan Akademik Program Studi PBI additionally stated that the ELESP
students are to identify syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic problems in translating
8 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, related literature is discussed as theoretical base on which the
study outlined in Chapter I is conducted. There are several important discussions
presented in this research. The literature review is divided into two parts; those are
theoretical description and theoretical framework. First, the theoretical description
contains the relevant theories as references to support this research. Second, the
theoretical framework discusses how the selected theories help to answer the
research questions.
A. Theoretical Description
In this section, the researcher presents several theories of translation.
Translation theories are important to be discussed since those theories become the
major focus of the study. The researcher describes some experts’ definitions
related to translation, translation and cultural implications, translation
considerations, translation problems, as well as translation methods.
1. Translation
There are many ways people can describe what translation is. According to
Larson (1984), “Translation consists of changing from one state or form to
another, to turn into one’s own or another’s language” (p. 3). Larson (1984) also
the target text; this is done by replacing the form of the first language by the form
of the second language” (p. 4).
When students of English Language Education Study Program are
learning translation, especially in Translation I class, it is not impossible that each
of them face some problems in working on the exercise. Hatim and Mason (1990)
explains that “Translators are inevitably acting under the pressure in the
negotiation of meaning between the source-language text producer and the reader
of the target-language text, both of whom exist within their own, different social
frameworks” (p. 21). In Translation I class, the students act as if they are the real
translators who have to be able to translate English text into Indonesian text
appropriately, but problems still occur here and there. Many cases are found that
most students do a literal translation, which more likely make them difficult to
translate a source-language text naturally. Such ‘habit’ might lead the students to
produce a translation product which does not sound English. Students tend to do
the translation word by word, so the result remains too Indonesian. It is English
but the context of language used in the translation product hardly represents a
common characteristic of the social framework.
Hatim and Mason (1990) explains that there are always so many
improving aids that translators can utilize to make a good translation product, but
actually the problems faced by the translators remain the same. Hatim and Mason
(1990) describes several types of problems; the first is about the comprehension of
source text, which covers parsing of text (grammar and lexis), access to
transfer of meaning, it includes relaying lexical meaning, relaying grammatical
meaning, and relaying rhetorical meaning, including implied or inferable
meaning, or potential readers. The third is about assessment of target text, it
pervades readability, conforming to generic and discoursal TL conventions, and
judging adequacy of translation for specified purpose.
2. Translation and the Cultural Implications
It is mentioned above that translators have a high risk to translate a source
language text (SLT) into the target language text (TLT) without any concerns of
common characteristics of the social framework. James (2002) states that
translation is a kind of activity which inevitably involves at least two languages
and two cultural traditions. Therefore, translators are inevitably confronting with
how to treat the cultural aspects found in a ST and to find the best technique of
conveying the intended meaning in the TLT. James (2002) explains that a "gloss
translation" mostly typifies formal equivalence where form and content are
reproduced as faithfully as possible and the TLT reader is able to "understand as
much as he can of the customs, manner of thought, and means of expression" of
the SLT context.
Persons engaged in the complex task of translating possess some type of
underlying or covert theory; as explained by Nida (1991), even though it may be
still very embryonic and described only as just being "faithful to what the author
was trying to say," (p. 19). James (2002) mentions that the cultural implications
ideologies and ways of life in a given culture. In this case, translators have to be
able to analyze the significances found in the cultural aspects of the SLT and how
necessary those significances are to be translated into the TTL. Some of the major
problems of translation are over-translation, under-translation, and
untranslatability (Abdellah, 2002). This statement implies that if translators fail to
transfer the required cultural meanings from the SLT into the TTL, they might
lead the translation products into over-translation, under-translation, or even
untranslatability.
It is true that the richness of vocabulary and the understanding of language
structure out of the source language as well as the target language could influence
the quality of the translators’ product of translation. However, the depth of the
cultural understanding is essential to considering the implications for translation.
James (2002), in her study mentions that based on the conclusion of importance to
both linguistic and cultural differences between the SLT and the TLT, differences
between cultures may cause more severe complications for the translator than do
differences in language structure. More theory found in James’ study reveals that
no language can exist unless it is steeped in the context of culture; and no culture
can exist which does not have at its centre, the structure of natural language.
These theories clearly indicate that mere ability or competence to create
grammatically correct sentences as an impact to the TLT is not sufficient for the
translators to be “as faithful as possible” to the SLT. The manner in which cultural
aspects may be perceived and make translating decisions accordingly (James,
3. Translation’s Considerations
Gerding-Salas (2000) states that every translation activity has one or more
specific purposes and whichever they may be; the main aim of translation is to
serve as a cross-cultural bilingual communication vehicle among peoples. In
translating, there are several procedures, processes, or techniques of which a
translator must consider, “Through experience I have learned that the
consequences of wrong translations can be catastrophic” (Gerding-Salas, 2000).
This statement shows how the task of translating could be getting much more
difficult. Thus, translators cannot just simply translate a SLT into TLT without
considering some kind of approaches. The translators’ habitual use of the
language is unavoidably determining how perfect the result of the translation
product (Gerding-Salas, 2000), “I shall assume that you, the reader, are learning to
translate into your language of habitual use, since that is the only way you can
translate naturally, accurately and with maximum effectiveness”. In fact, however,
most translators do translate out of their own language.
Gerding-Salas (2000) mentions that there is always a way of approaching
an SLT, whether the translator chooses the author-centered traditional model, the
text-centered structuralistic model or the cognitive reader-centered model. In
order to decide which approach a translator must go on, a translator has to
understand “the nature” of the confronted text. Several kinds of problems are
provided in the study conducted by Gerding-Salas (2000). One of the problems is
dealing with semantic and cultural nature (Tricas, 1995). According to
comprehending the SLT. In this case, the richness of vocabulary that the
translators have plays quite a big role. Additionally, the cultural understanding
supports the translators to comprehend the deep meanings of the SLT.
Furthermore, Gerding-Salas (2000) adds that there might be a possibility
of “Linguistic Untranslatability”, of which it obstacles the translators from finding
the appropriate lexical terms, such as true and false friends, calque, and other
forms of interference; institutional and standardized terms, neologisms,
aphorisms, and many more. Another one Gerding-Salas (2000) states is about the
“Cultural Untranslatability” such as idioms, sayings, proverbs, jokes, and so on.
Thus, it would lead the translator into the ability to determine which one is to
translate and which one is supposed to be not. As a result, cautious attitude
towards these problematical issues in the translating process is taken into account.
Otherwise, the result of the translation would be vulnerable to some misuse or
interference of both languages.
4. Translation Problems
Ghazala (1995) states that “A translation problem is any difficulty we
come across at translating, that invites us to stop translating in order to check,
recheck, reconsider or rewrite it, or use a dictionary, or a reference of some kind to
help us overcome it and make sense of it” (p. 17). In this section, the researcher
discusses several problems that might occur during the translation process. There are
grammatical problems, the second is about lexical problems, and the third is about
stylistic problems.
a. Grammatical Problems
English and Indonesian grammars are different according to each of its
structure. Ghazala (1995) provides one example of sentence dealing with this
problem, of the three books you have recommended to me, I have chosen only
one. If the sentence is translated into Indonesian, it will become dari ketiga buku
yang telah kamu rekomendasikan kepada saya, saya hanya memilih satu.
According to Ghazala (1995), this kind of sentence structure, which is starting with
‘of’ and postponing the main clause ‘i have chosen’ to a back position, is considered
complex.
Ghazala (1995) notes that it can make the students of translation find it
difficult to understand easily and directly. He adds that the point becomes clearer at
comparing it to the following normal and direct structure, just like I have chosen
only one of the three books you have recommended to me, or in Indonesian it
becomesSaya telah memilih satu dari ketiga buku yang kamu anjurkan kepada
saya.
b. Lexical Problems
Ghazala (1995) explains that “Lexical problems occur when a word, a
phrase or an expression is not understood clearly and directly, misunderstood, not
known at all to students, or not found in standard dictionaries (p. 19). According to
Ghazala (1995), there are specific problems that the students might worry. The
1) Collocations
According to Ghazala (1995), collocation is the combination of two or
more words that always occur consistently in different texts and contexts in
language (p. 106). Ghazala (1995) adds that collocations occur in several
conditions, such as certain nouns occur with certain adjectives (e.g. ‘blind
confidence), a verb with a noun (e.g. ‘draw a sword), a noun with a noun (e.g.
‘brain drain), and many more.
Indonesian and English have their own different collocations. Meanwhile,
Ghazala (1995) emphasizes that collocations play a vital role in a language (p.
106). Collocations are sometimes inevitabe and it creates a beautiful part in a
language. Therefore, Ghazala (1995) notes that students need to attend to the
collocations fully in Indonesian to lend the Indonesian version the same beauty of
the English text (p. 106). It means that it is important for the students to
undermine the concern with the translation of the English collocations in
Indonesian.
2) Idioms
Ghazala (1995) explains that idiom is any “phrases which have fixed
forms and special meaning of their words” (p. 19). English idioms, such as found
in this sentence, ladies and gentlemen, lend me your ears, cannot be translated
directly into Indonesian. Ghazala (1995) states that it has methaporical meanings,
and it is saying something to mean something else (p. 129).
However, translating English idioms directly into Indonesian is still
company is on the black list. In Indonesian translation, the sentence would be
perusahaan itu sedang dalam daftar hitam. In Indonesia, daftar hitam has the
same meaning as black list, of which this word tries to describe a list of people
who are out of favor. However, the case is different from this sentence example,
the exam was a piece of cake for me. If the sentence is translated literally into
Indonesian, the sentence would be ujiannya seperti sepotong kue bagi saya. The
phrase ‘a piece of cake’ in English means undertaking something that is so much
easy to do. Therefore, it has no relation at all with Indonesian words sepotong
kue.
Another problematic problem dealing with idioms is phrasal verb. Ghazala
(1995) explains that phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and an adverb or
preposition, or both an adverb and a preposition, such as up, down, on off, in, out,
over, and many more (p. 133). If the verb and the adverb or preposition are
combined together, it might result a specific idiomatic meaning. The meaning of
the combination between the verb and adverb or preposition usually cannot be
understood individually.
The students of the translation class might face this kind of problem.
Students sometimes become misled and confused when they are trying to
distinguish which English phrasal verb is idiomatic or normal. There are two
examples of sentences which indicate whether it is prepositional verb or phrasal
verb that has specific meaning. Put the book on the table, this sentence has a
clear meaning and it is understandable, there is the verb ‘put’ and the preposition
previous one. There is something missing after the preposition ‘on’, there is no
adverb such as found on the former sentence. The second sentence indicates an
idiomatic meaning which has no relation to the first sentence, eventhough both
sentences are using the verb and the preposition ‘put on’.
3) Proverbs
Ghazala (1995) states that proverbs are special, fixed, unchanged phrases
which have special, fixed, and unchanged meanings, just like idioms (p. 138).
According to Ghazala (1995), a proverb cannot be understood as a collection of
the individual meanings of its words. Ghazala (1995) adds that proverbs are
metaphor and stand for something else.
Proverbs in English cannot be translated or understood directly because it
has a certain relation with culture. Students might become more confused when
they are trying to find an Indonesian phrase which has a closest proverb relation
with the English phrase.
c. Stylistic Problems
The next set of problems of translation is dealing with stylistic problems.
According to Ghazala (1995), style is viewed as a part of meaning and affects it in
different ways and to different degrees (p. 222). The statement means that if there
is a change in the style, the meaning will be changed either. Ghazala (1995)
mentions that meaning was claimed to stand on its own, it is unaffected by such
certain style (p. 222). Nevertheless, style has been given a special attention and it
If translators attend to style and consider the importance of using style in
their work, they will fully attend to the meaning. Meanwhile, if translators ignore
the presence of style, they will ignore some parts of the meaning. There are two
sentences to show that the significance of style is worth discussing. Her mother
died yesterdayandher mother was killed yesterday. Those two sentences have
the meaning that her mother is dead. In Indonesian, it can be translated asibunya
meninggal kemarin. However, translators cannot just translate the above
sentences into one and the same Indonesian version of translation because the
cause of the death is crucial to both the dead person and to the family. Her
mother died yesterdayis normal and neutral death, meanwhile her mother was
killed yesterdayis abnormal, unnatural, and disgraceful crime.
From the examples above, it can be inferred that style has its own role in
any aspect of language and meaning. Ghazala (1995) defines style as “different
choices made by writers from the language stock in regard to layout (of shape),
grammar, vocabulary (or words) and phonology (or sounds), namely, from all
aspects, levels and components of language (p. 223).
1) Formality vs. Informality
Ghazala (1995) suggests a scale of five ‘styles’ of English language, which
is general but proved to be widely acceptable by most people. There are frozen
fornal, formal, informal, colloquial, and vulgar (slang).
Examples:
a. Frozen formal : ‘Be seated’ Duduk
c. Informal : ‘Sit down, please’ Mari, silakan duduk d. Colloquial : ‘Feel at home Anggap lah rumah sendiri e. Vulgar (slang) : ‘Sit bloody down!’ Ayo cepet duduk!
However, it is difficult to distinguish formal and informal styles of
language. Ghazala (1995) explains that “despite the difficulty and personal nature
of the distinction between the five styles of English language, we can understand
and apply them in general terms (p. 226). The examples provided above has their
own different effect and meaning. The example a is so official and seems to be
impolite, it can be said by a harch person or a man of a high position, such as a
boss, a manager, a king, and many more. Whereasexample bis official but polite,
it can be used in the similas context as the example number 1, but appropriately to
friends or personal acquaitances. The example example c is much more polite,
and considered rather unofficial. Meanwhile example number 4 is quite friendly,
intimate, and kind, of which it reflects colloquial tone. The last example is so
strong and rude, usually it is said as a humorous context to close friends.
2) Style of Fronting
Another important stylistic device is the style of fronting. According to
Ghazala (1995), it is a widely used style at both the sentence and text levels which
has the purpose to move a word, a phrase or a clause from its original place in the
middle or at the end of the sentence to the beginning (or the front position) of the
sentence (p. 231).
Examples:
b. If you apologize, I will forgive you Bila kamu meminta maaf, aku akan memaafkan kamu Ghazala (1995) notes that making such frontings are not made by a
chance, it is made for good reasons (p. 231). The fronting is made by putting the
subordinate clause before the main clause. This changing position of the clause
means nothing but giving important function of emphasis than the other part of
the sentence. Therefore, the fronting style means that it plays a vital role in
understanding meaning.In my room he sleptinstead ofhe slept in my room, the
first sentence tries to emphasize that ‘in my room’ is to be more noticed rather
than ‘he slept’. The next is, If you apologize, I will forgive you means that the
person concerned demands apology in order to give forgiveness to the other
person.
3) Passive and Active Styles
Ghazala (1995) explains that passive and active are two contrastive forms
and styles, they have different functions (p. 246). The researcher does not say that
Indonesian language tends to be active or passive, or so does English. Ghazala
(1995) points out that both styles have to be reflected in Indonesian for their
important functions to the message.
Example:
a. The American solidiers killed five Afghans children yesterday.
b. Five Afghans children were killed yesterday.
Those two sentences above have the same meaning. However, if those
and it clearly shows that the killers or the doers of the action is revealed.
Meanwhile the second sentence is passive and it hides the killers or the doers.
From the examples above, it can be shown how the distinction between the active
and the passive style influences the meaning of the sentence. The active sentence
one focuses on the murderer or the killer, this might be due to political reasons or
its relation with public media. Meanwhile, the second passive sentence does not
focus on the doer of the action, it is more on the results of what the doer has done.
Hiding the identity of the doer can probably mean that the doer is not quite
important and is just possible to ignore.
5. Translation Methods
Newmark (1988) suggests that the central problems of translating has
always been whether to translate literally or freely (p. 45). Students in translation
class apply some various ways on how they do the translating process so that the
result would be considered as a good translation. Some of the students are trying
to translate the text very carefully that they are afraid of distracting the meaning.
On the other hand, some other students strive hard translating the text faithfully
because they think that every single word or sentence in the text is important to
translate.
Molina and Albir (2002) states that there are two categories which can be
used to analyze translations (p. 498). The categories are textual and contextual.
According to Molina and Albir (2002), textual categories describe mechanisms of
introduce all extra-textual elements related to the context of the SLT and the
translation production (p. 498). Based on the statement described, how well the
students have solved their problems in translation is actually influenced much by
the two categories. Students cannot translate the SLT into TLT just the way they
like it since it would affect the result of translation product, whether the
translation is acceptable and natural enough for the directed readers. Therefore,
translating needs some specific strategies and methods. The strategies are how the
students carefully see the text through textual and contextual categories, and how
the students make use of the methods based on the strategies afterwards.
In this part of the chapter, the researcher try to describe specific ways to
translate SLT into TLT which are considered as methods of translation. Literal
and non-literal translation are the two focuses to be highlighted. The Literal
translation is divided into two topics to discuss, there are word for word
translation and literal translation. Meanwhile, the non-literal translation is
described into one topic, that is semantic translation.
a. Word for Word Translation
Newmark (1988) explains that this method of translation is often
demonstrated as interlinear translation with the target language is immediately
below the source language (p. 45). What is meant by interlinear is that supposed
there two sentences written down lined up, the above sentence is the source
language sentence, and below is the target language sentence. Usually a translator
who performs this kind of translation method would likely put the meaning of
Example:
SLT : Look, little guy, you all should not be doing that.
TLT :Lihat, kecil anak, kamu semua harus tidak melakukan itu.
According to Ghazala (1995), “this method regards translation to be a
translation of individual words” (p. 5). The arrangement of the TLT is perfectly
the same as the one SLT. The translators translate the sentence word by word,
general meanings are prioritized, meanwhile the context is not taken into account.
Ghazala (1995) adds that the whole concentration of this translaton method is on
the source language, whereas the target language should follow, imitate, and
mirror it blindly, perfectly and precisely, neither more nor less (p. 5).
b. Literal Translation
Newmark (1988) explains that a literal translation is when the SLT
grammatical constructions are converted to the nearest TLT equivalents, but the
lexical words are again translated singly, out of context (p. 46). This translation
method is almost similar to the previous one, word for word translation. In the
process of translating, the translators are trying to identify the grammatical
construction of the SLT which is similar to the TLT. At the first time, translating
the SLT by using a word for word translation method is initial action to do, but
then the translators adjust the construction of the SLT grammar with the TLT
grammar.
This type of translation method is actually described as translating between
using word for word translation method and free method. However, the result of
(1995), this method of translation means to translate each source language word or
phrase into an identical word or phrase in the target language, with the same
number, grammatical class, and type of language (p. 6).
Example :
a. SLT : Look, little guy, you all should not be doing that.
TLT :Lihat, anak kecil, kamu seharusnya tidak berbuat seperti itu. b. SLT : His position is in the right place.
TLT :Posisinya berada di tempat yang benar.
Ghazala (1995) adds that the process of translating using this method is
like a noun is translated into a noun, two nouns into two nouns, one adjective into
one adjective, two into two, and so on and so forth (p. 6).
c. Semantic Translation
Semantic translation has a quite close relation with faithful translation.
According to Newmark (1988), faithful translation attempts to reproduce the
precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the target
language grammatical structures (p. 46). What makes semantic translation
different with faithful translation, based on Newmark (1988), is that it differs from
faithful translation only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic
value, that is, the beautiful and natural sounds of the source language text (p. 46).
From the differences between the faithful translation and semantic
translation above, semantic translation is considered more flexible to the TLT.
Semantic translation should take an account of aesthetic or so-called beautiful
Example :
SLT : He is a book-worm.
TLT :Dia adalah seseorang yang suka sekali membaca.
The word ‘book-worm’ in the above example could be actually translated
into the word ‘kutu buku’ in Indonesia, so the sentence in TLT would become ‘dia
seorang kutu buku’. However, the the above TLT sample sentence is translated accordance to the cultural context as well as accepted functional limitation of the
TLT.
B. Theoretical Framework
This chapter synthesizes all relevant theories which are significant to
discuss for the sake of this research. Translation means retelling what a translator
has obtained from the source language to the target language. The researcher
selected the theories of translation from Larson (1984) because it is quite relevant
to the study. When translating something, a student or a translator is trying to
transfer the meaning from the first language into the second language or vice
versa. The translator should pay attention to the source language text’s social
framework which might be different from the target language text. If the translator
just attempts to do a literal translation without considering the main ideas or
cultural characteristic of the source language text, it is possible if the translation
product will sound awkward.
Translating a source language text into target language text cannot be
made by James (2002) mentioning that translation is a kind of activity which
inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions. The cultural
implications have something to do with the translation considerations. In
translating, there are several procedures, processes, or techniques of which a
translator must consider. Therefore, in order to be able to work on the translation
process, the translators should consider the cultural aspects too. James (2002)
states that no language can exist unless it is steeped in the context of culture; and
no culture can exist which does not have at its center, the structure of natural
language. This is related to the ‘cultural untranslatability’, the explanation made
by Gerding-Salas (2000), saying that this phenomenon obstacles the translators
from finding the appropriate idioms, sayings, proverbs, jokes, and so on.
The basic theories about cultural implications and translation
considerations lead the researcher into an overview of how the students in the
translation class manage their translating process. In other words, the researcher is
able to know whether the students are taking all these kinds of pre-translating
activity into account or not. Relating the theories about cultural implications and
translation considerations to the problems confronted by the students in translating
English as the SLT into Indonesian as the TLT would help the researcher to
analyze it more thoroughly.
After the researcher has identified the characteristics of the students’
translation works based on the cultural implications and translation
considerations, he then moved to what problems that obstacle the students from
probably occur when the students are translating the text. The researcher specified
the problems into three major aspects, those are grammatical problems, lexical
problems, and stylistic problems. Actually there are many other aspects of
translation problems that might be found in the world of translation. The
researcher specifically selected the three out of the many other problems described
by Ghazala (1995) because those are significant aspects which really influence the
quality of the translation product.
When the translation problems have been identified and analized, it would
help the researcher to move on to the next part to discuss, the methods of the
translation. Basically, there are various theories stating about some methods that
generally translators use. Molina and Albir (2002) states that there are two
categories which can be used to analyze translations (p. 498). The categories are
textual and contextual, textual covers mechanisms of coherence, cohesion, and
thematic progression. Meanwhile, contextual categories introduce all extra-textual
elements related to the context of the SLT and the translation production. The
researcher chose the translation methods from Newmark (1988) and Ghazala
(1995) because those are quite relevant to the characteristics of categories stated
28
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the research methodology employed in the research.
It consists of six major sections. They are covering the research method, research
setting, research participants, instruments and data gathering technique, data
analysis technique, and research procedure.
A. Research Method
There were two research questions to be investigated and in this research;
and qualitative research was used as the methodology. Qualitative research
method was selected because it offers the most appropriate ways to gain the
research findings. Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004) as cited in Ary, Jacobs, and
Razavieh (2010) states that “research methods should follow research questions in
a way that offers the best chance to obtain useful (and the most thorough) answer”
(p. 24).
This research was conducted to obtain useful information about the
problems encountered by the fifth semester students of English Language
Education Study Program (ELESP) as well as the methods in translating source
language texts, in this case translating English as the SLT into Indonesian as the
TLT. According to Sprinthall and Schmutte (1991), qualitative method is
data in the form of words instead of numbers and measures. Therefore, qualitative
research is considered the best and the most relevant method to apply.
To answer the first research question, which investigates the problems
occured in the students’ translating process, document or content analysis was
applied in this research. The researcher employed document analysis because he
took the students’ translation works as the data. Ary et. al. (2010) states that
“document analysis aimed to identify specified characteristics of written or visual
materials” (p. 457). The researcher analyzed the documents based on the students’
translation works which were submitted upon their mid-term test in Translation I
class. After the researcher rely on the results of the students’ translation products,
the problems that the students encountered would be possibly able to be identified
and analyzed.
When the researcher has analyzed the problems occurring through the
students’ translation test papers, the researcher moved to answer the second
research question, the question of what methods that the students tend to use
during the translating process. Beside still analyzing what characteristics appeared
on the students’ translation papers, the researcher used the analysis of the
translation problems which were previously found to support answering the
second research question. In addition, related references were also used to support
B. Research Setting
The research was conducted in the academic year of 2011 in ELESP of
Sanata Dharma University. The location of the data gathering was in the class of
Translation I. The research took the data after the students of Translation I class
committed their mid-term test.
C. Research Participants
The participants of this research were the students from Translation I class
C in ELESP of Sanata Dharma University. Actually, there were two classes had
employed Translation I as the obligatory course. The total amount of the students
are 24, and the researcher selected one class out of the two. The researcher only
took 12 translation works as the papers to be analyzed.
The students who were having the Translation I class were those who had
fulfilled the prerequisite course. The students were eligible to take this course
after passing Structure 4 (Panduan Akademik Program Studi PBI, 2011). The
class is in the academic year of 2011. As they had taken the prerequisite course,
they were expected to have sufficient knowledge in applying their competence for
translating.
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique
To obtain in-depth analysis and interpretation about this research, the
researcher used one single type of instrument, namely documents. Another
1. Human as Instrument
Lincoln and Guba (1985) proposes a concept of human-as-instrument in
which qualitative researcher plays a unique role to capture the complexity of the
human experience (as cited in Ary, 2010). The researcher himself obtained data
through the documents, then analyzed and interpreted them by the support of the
interviews.
2. Documents
This research used participants’ translation work papers as the documents
to be analyzed. There was no particular attempt to avoid bias since the researcher
used each student’s paper of the whole students in the Translation I class C. The
data obtained were establishing several texts containing the students’ translation
products.
They are considered as the primary sources as they were written by
someone who experienced the phenomena under study directly (Ary et al., 2010,
p. 443). The focus is on the students’ problems occurences as well as the tendency
of the translation method that the students use.
The instruments used to answer the research questions were the researcher
himself as the human instrument and the documents. To obtain the data, what the
researcher initially performed was collecting students’ translation works as the
document to be analyzed. Firstly, the researcher asked permission from the
After obtaining the permission from the lecturer, the researcher borrowed
and copied all of the papers which were submitted to the lecturer on the
submission day. The process of obtaining the documents from the Translation I
class was conducted on 19thOctober 2011. After all the documents were collected, the researcher analyzed the data.
E. Data Analysis Technique
To answer the two research questions, the researcher conducted several
steps to analyze the collected data. Firts, to identify the problems confronted by
the students in translating, the researcher sorted the documents and only analyzed
those containing translation problems based on theories stated in the theoretical
framework in chapter II. The translation problems were divided into three
categories, grammatical, lexical, and stylistic problems. After the data were
sorted, the researcher counted the percentage of the students who encountered one
and another particular type of problems.
To identify the data about the students’ problems in translating, the
researcher had to classify the problems experienced by the students into three
major types, whether it was grammatical, lexical, or stylistic problems. To define
whether the students encountered the three mentioned problems, the researcher
compared them with the experts’ views or explanations. The theories of
translation problems are supported with several deep classification, explanation,
as well as some examples. Therefore, the students’ problems in translating could
To help the researcher judge whether the students experienced particular
problems, the researcher has made three tables. These table are about an overview
of the students’ problems which covers three major types of translation problems.
There are several sub kinds of problems under the three major types. The category
used to classify the students’ translation problems particularly in grammar, lexis,
and style is presented in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1 Types of Grammatical, Lexical, and Stylistic Problems in the Students’ Translation
identified problems, whether the problems were categorized as grammatical,
lexical, or stylistic. Having suitably categorized them into specific problems, the
researcher calculated the frequency of each type of identified problems and
figured out its percentage. By doing it this way, the researcher could reveal the
most common problem encountered by the students. It also important to be
To help the researcher judge the tendency of methods that the students of
Translation I Class used, he has made a table. This table covers two kinds of
categories, literal translation and non-literal translation. Each category includes
several characteristics which show whether the students did the translation process
in literal or non-literal way. The category used to classify the students’ translation
method particularly in literal and non-literal way is presented in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2 The Types of Methods in the Students’ Translation
Paper
students used in translating. He categorized the type of method which was found,
and then classified the characteristics by putting a tick (√) on the specified
category.
Furthermore, the researcher calculated the frequency of each type of
identified methods. Having finished calculated them all, the researcher then
figured out its percentage. By doing it this way, the researcher could reveal the
