ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Savior and miraculous
God, Jesus Christ, for His amazing ways in guiding me to complete this thesis and for
His continual love, guidance, and blessing during my studies. My sincere gratitude
goes to my parents, for their love, efforts, prayers, and support during my studies, and
to my supervisors for their invaluable guidance, inspiration, patience, and
encouragement. I am also grateful to my brothers and sisters, Victor, Vicler, Ria, and
Imelda, for their love, prayers, and support. Last, but not least, I thank my cousin,
Margaretha, Lina and Bou Edor for all their support and help, my best friends from
Maranatha Christian University, Laura, Dionne, Irene, Priska and Ovin, for the
meaningful four and a half ‘short’ years of togetherness.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………...i
TABLE OF CONTENTS………....ii
ABSTRACT………iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study………...1
Statement of the Problem………...4
Purpose of the Study………..4
Method of Research………...4
Organization of the Thesis……….5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK………6
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF ERRORS
MADE BY THE SECOND GRADE STUDENTS
OF SMU SANTA MARIA 3 CIMAHI
IN TEXTS TRANSLATED
FROM INDONESIAN INTO ENGLISH..………..15
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION………39
BIBLIOGRAPHY………..43
APPENDICES:
The source text……….. ………..45
The list of the student’s translated sentence
Which contains errors………..46
ABSTRACT
Teks terjemahan banyak dijumpai dalam kehidupan kita sehari-hari. Perlu kita
sadari bahwa sebuah teks terjemahan sangatlah penting karena teks tersebut berisi
pesan dan informasi dari penulis dengan bahasa yang berbeda dari bahasa kita. Jika
kita ingin menerjemahkan suatu teks, kita perlu menerjemahkan teks tersebut sesuai
dengan aturan-aturan tata bahasa yang ingin dituju agar dapat dimengerti dengan
mudah dan menghindari kesalahan-kesalahan (errors). Hal tersebut dikarenakan
adanya perbedaan-perbedaan aturan tata bahasa yang satu dengan yang lain.
Contohnya, aturan-aturan Bahasa Indonesia berbeda dengan Bahasa Inggris. Selain
aturan-aturan tata bahasa, penyampaian inti pesan juga penting dalam
menerjemahkan teks. Sebuah teks terjemahan haruslah berisi inti pesan atau gagasan
yang sama dengan teks yang asli.
Dalam skripsi ini, saya melakukan analisis terhadap hasil terjemahan
siswa-siswa kelas dua SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi. Teks yang asli berbahasa Indonesia dan
siswa-siswa kelas dua SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi menerjemahkannya ke dalam
kesalahan-penyebab dari kesalahan-kesalahan tersebut, apakah kesalahan tersebut temasuk
interlingual atau intralingual.
Hasil yang saya dapatkan dari analisis teks terjemahan siswa-siswa kelas dua
SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi adalah bahwa kesalahan-kesalahan yang banyak
dilakukan oleh siswa-siswa kelas dua SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi disebabkan oleh
ignorance of the rule restrictions, yang mana termasuk dalam kategori intralingual.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX ONE The source text:
LUBUK-LINGGAU
Lubuk-linggau terletak di Sumatra selatan dan ibukotanya dalah
Palembang. Palembang adalah sebuah kota yang terkenal dengan makanan
kahasnya, pempek dan jembatan Amperaya. Selain penduduk asli, penduduk di
Lubuk-linggau berasal dari berbagai suku, seperti Jawa, Padang, Batak, dan Cina.
Kebanyakan penduduk Palembang bermata pencaharian sebagai petani dan
pedagang.
Dalam berkomunikasi, bahasa yang digunakan adalah bahasa Palembang.
Selain bahasa Palembang, sebagai bahasa sehari-hari terkadang mereka
mengunakan bahasa Jawa. Bahasa Palembang sebenarnya tidak terlalu sulit untuk
dipelajari karena bahasa Palembang hampir sama dengan bahasa Indonesia.
Perbedaanya hanya pada huruf diakhir kata-nya saja, seperti pada kata “kita”
APPENDIX TWO
List of the student’s translated sentence which contains errors
Paragraph 1 Sentence 1:
Source text Errors
Lubuk-linggau
terletak di
Sumatra Selatan
dan ibu kotanya
adalah
Palembang.
1. Lubuk-linggau is located in South Sumatra when the
capital city is Palembang. (substitution)
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
2. Lubuk-linggau is located South Sumatra and the capital
city is Palembang.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
3. Lubuk-linggau is located in South Sumatra which the
capital city is Palembang.
Palembang adalah
sebuah kota yang
terkenal dengan
makanan khasnya
pempek dan Jembatan
Ampera.
4. Palembang is a the city which popular with its
traditional food, pempek, and Ampera Bridge.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
5. Palembang is the city who is famous of its special
food, pempek, and the Ampera Bridge. (substitution)
Paragraph 1 Sentence 3:
Source text Errors
Selain penduduk
asli, penduduk di
Lubuk-linggau
berasal dari
berbagai suku
seperti Jawa,
Padang, Batak, dan
Cina.
6. Beside the original people, people in Lubuk-linggau
comes from many ethnics such as Javanese, Padang,
Batak, and Chinese.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
7. Beside the original people, people in Lubuk-linggau is
comes from various ethnics such as Javanese, Padang,
Batak, and Chinese.
Kebanyakan
penduduk Palembang
bekerja sebagai
petani dan pedagang.
8. Most of Palembang people working as farmers and
merchants.
Paragraph 2 Sentence 1
Source text Errors
Dalam
berkomunikasi,
bahasa yang
digunakan
adalah Bahasa
Palembang.
9. In communication, used Palembang language in
Palembang.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
10. In communication, the language that is use Palembang
language.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
11. In communication, the language that was used in
Palembang is Palembang language.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
Selain Bahasa
Palembang, sebagai
bahasa sehari-hari
terkadang mereka
menggunakan bahasa
Jawa.
12. Beside Palembang language, as their daily language,
sometimes they also uses Javanese language.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
13. Beside Palembang language, as their daily language,
sometime they are use Javanese language.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
14. Beside language Palembang, as their daily language
sometime they use language Javanese.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
Paragraph 2 sentence 3
Source text Errors
Bahasa Palembang
sebenarnya tidak
terlalu sulit untuk
dipelajari karena
Bahasa Palembang
hampir sama dengan
Bahasa Indonesia.
15. In fact, Palembang language is not too hard to
studied because Palembang language is almost the same
with Indonesian language.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
16. Language Palembang actually not too hard to study
because language Palembang almost same with
language Indonesia.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
17. Actually, Palembang language are not too hard to
study because Palembang language is same with
Indonesian language.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
Perbedaannya hanya
pada huruf diakhir
katanya saja, seperti
kata “kita” menjadi
“kito”, “siapa”
menjadi “siapo” dan
lain-lain.
18. The different only in the last word, such as word
kita become kito, siapa become siapo etc.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
19. The differences only in the last word, such as word
kita become kito, siapa become siapo.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
20. The difference is just in the last word, likes kita
become kito, siapa become siapo.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
Paragraph 2 Sentence 5
Source text Errors
Jika orang
Palembang bertemu
bukan di Palembang,
mereka akan berkata
“wong kito” yang
artinya “orang kita”.
21. If Palembang people meet each other not in
Palembang, they will said wong kito which is mean
orang kita.
Omissions Additions Misformation Misordering
The transcript of student interview
The questions:
1. Apakah sudah mengerti pelajaran grammar tentang ...(sambil menunjuk
data)?
2. Kenapa bisa melakukan error saat menterjemahkan?
The students answer:
Data 1
1. “Arti when udah tau”
2. ”Saya mengabaikan tentang aturan itu”
Data 2
1. “Saya tau tentang Preposition, cuma suka lupa pasangannya.”
2. “Saat menterjemahin saya lupa pasangan Preposition-nya jadi ya saya
lewat aja”.
Data 3
1. “Tau tentang Relative Clause”
2. “Saya tidak tau kalo harus ada of di situ”.
Data 4
1. “Tentang Article saya tahu”.
2. “Saat nerjemahin saya ga kepikiran aturan itu, kalo yang tekenal
Data
1. “Arti who tau dan Preposition juga sudah tahu”.
2. “Tidak tau kenapa bisa salah dalam nerjemahin. Saya mengira Preposition
famous adalah for karena sering dengernya for”.
Data 6
1. “Tau tentang pelajaran Simple Present tense”.
2. “Rada bingung jadi nerjemahin sebisanya aja”.
Data 7
1. “Tentang to be dan Simple Present Tense tau. Kalau tentang beside dan
besides saya ga tau kalau itu beda, saya kira sama- sama aja”.
2. “Saya kira to be dapat digunakan di setiap kalimat”.
Data 8
1. “Preposition dan Simple Present Tense udah tau”
2. “Waktu nerjemahin saya ga kepikiran tentang pelajaran itu”.
Data 9
1. “Ga tau pelajaran itu”
2. “Ga tau“
Data 10
1. “Saya tau tentang to be dan bentukanya”.
2. “Dalam nerjemahin saya ga begitu kepikiran tentang rule-nya, saya
abaiin”.
2. “Saya kira sometime dan sometimes itu sama aja”.
Data 13
1. “Saya ga tau kalo sometime dan sometimes itu beda”.
2. “Saya kira sometime dan sometimes sama jadi ga ada masalah. Kalo
Bahasa Palembang diinggrisin language Palembang, kan aslinya gitu”.
Data 14
1. “To infinitive tau”.
2. “Waktu nerjemahin ga gitu memikirkan tentang pelajaran itu”.
Data 15
1. “Ga tau kalo indonesia dan indonesian beda”.
2. Saya kira indonesia dan indonesian sama. Kalo Bahasa Palembang jadi
language Palembang karena aslinya kan gitu”.
Data 16
1. “to be tau”.
2. “Waktu nerjemahin ga sampe mikirin aturan- aturan tentang to be”.
Data 17
1. “Ga tau tentang pelajaran itu “.
2. “Ga tau pelajaran itu”
Data 18
Data 19
1. “Ga tau pelajaran itu”
2.” Ga tau eui..”.
Data 20
1. “Future Tense tau”
2. “Waktu nerjemahin ga kepikiran rumus-rumusnya”
Data 21
1. “Tau tentang Relative Clause dan Future Tense”.
2. “Ga begitu memperhatikan tentang pelajaran itu”.
1. Apakah rule yang ini (menunjuk pada data) sudah diajarkan?
2. Sampai sejauh mana anak-anak mengerti?
Teacher answer:
Data 2
1. “Preposition sudah diajarkan”.
2. “Tentang preposition, anak- anak memang mengalami kesulitan, karena
harus menghafa l ”.
Data 3
1. “Relative Clause sudah diajarkan namun dengan kalimat yang sederhana,
tidak serumit di data”.
2. “Anak-anak mengerti Relative Clause hanya pada kalimat yang
sederhana”.
Data 4
1. “Mengenai Article sudah diajarkan sejak SMP, seharusnya memang sudah
harus mengerti”.
2. “Kalo di kelas anak-anak cukup mengerti”.
Data 5
1. “Who seharusnya udah tau karena itu udah dipelajari dari SMP.
Preposition sudah di jarkan di kelas”.
1. “Simple present tense sudah diajari”.
2. “anak-anak mengerti”.
Data 7
1. “Tentang to be dan Simple Present Tense sudah diajarkan”.
2. “Anak-anak masih mengalami kesulitan dalam penggunaan to be karena
memang susah membedakan kata mana yang perlu to be dan tidak, sedangkan
untuk Simple Present Tense anak-anak cukup mengerti”.
Data 8
1. “Simple Present Tense dan Preposition sudah diajarkan”.
2. “Untuk Simple Present Tense, dari latihan-latihan, anak-anak cukup
mengerti”. Sedangkan Preposition, kebanyakan anak-anak mengalami kesulitan
karena menghafal”.
Data 9
1. “Udah diajarkan dari kelas satu, udah detail’.
2. “Anak-anak udah mengerti, udah dikasih soal-soal SMPB”.
Data 10
1. “to be udah diajarkan”.
2. “Dalam penerapan anak-anak suka bingung dengan tune signal”.
Data 11
1. “Simple Present Tense udah diajari”.
2. “Anak-anak mengerti di kelas”.
Simple Sentence, anak-anak cukup mengerti, namun dalam kalimat yang
sederhana”.
Data 13
1. “Tidak pernah diajarkan kalo sometime dan sometimes itu berbeda, head-
modifier sudah diajarkan”.
2. “Karena tidak diajarkan, anak-anak tidak mengerti kalo itu berbeda”.
Data 14
1. “To infinitive sudah diajarkan”.
2. “Sejauh ini anak mengerti karena sering diberikan latihan”.
Data 15
1. “Ga pernah diajarkan soal perbedaan indonesia dan indonesian. Head
modifier sudah diajarkan”.
2. “Karena perbedaan antara indonesia dan indonesian tidak pernah dibahas,
jadi anak-anak tidak mengerti”.
Data 16
1. “Simple Present Tense udah diajarkan”.
2. “Sudah dikasih latihan-latihan sampai anak mengerti. Cuma, anak-anak
masih suka salah saat ngobrol dengan guru”.
Data 17.
2. “Untuk Simple Present Tense anak-anak cukup mengerti karena sering
diberikan latihan, sedangkan untuk pembentukan Simple Sentence, anak-anak
mengerti, namun hanya pada kalimat- kalimat yang sederhana saja”.
Data 18
1. “Pelajaran mengenai Singular- Plural, To be, dan Simple sentence sudah
diajarkan. Namun, pelajaran Naun clause dan Pharase tidak diajakan karena
terlalu rumit dan tidak cukup waktu”.
2. “Anak- anak cukup mengerti. Namun, hanya dalam kalimat-kalimat yang
sederhana”.
Data 19
1. “Pelajaran Simple Present Tenses sudah diajarkan, Noun Clause dan
Pharase belum diajarkan karena rumit dan waktu tidak cukup”.
2. “Dalam Simple Present tense, anak-anak cukup mengerti”.
Data 20
1. “Future Tense sudah diajarkan”.
2. “Dalam pembelajaran, anak-anak masih dipengaruhi oleh kebingungan
penggunaan to be, sehingga to be suka dipakai di setiap kalimat”.
Data 21
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Nowadays, in the globalization era, English is one of the languages that
are used in most countries in the world. People in some of those countries use
English as their foreign language. English is also used as a foreign language in
Indonesia. There are many texts which are written in English. Some examples are
novels, short stories, newspapers, magazines, and handouts in schools. Many
students in Indonesia study English as one of the subjects at school.
The title of my thesis is “Grammatical Errors in Translating Indonesian
into English Made by the Second Grade Student of SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi ”.
The original text, that is the source text, is written in Indonesian. I choose
translation because I think translation is important for English learners as one of
the ways to apply what they have studied about English rules. When English
more about how to translate without errors because the errors can influence the
meaning of the translation.
I prefer to choose translation of Indonesian texts into English than English
texts into Indonesian because, in my opinion, when students translate English
texts into Indonesian, the errors will be less than when the students translate
Indonesian texts into English. It is so because the students know the structure of
their first language so when they do the translation from foreign language into
their first language they can easily adjust the delivery of the message according to
what is expected in the first language.
The reason why I choose high school students for the source of my
research data is that I have learnt the materials of high school student, so I am sure
I can analyse their errors well and suggest some correction. When I do the
research, I find that many errors occur, so I want to correct the errors hoping that
they will not make the errors anymore. I choose the students of SMU Santa Maria
3 Cimahi because I have access in getting the data there; most of my family and
friends went to that school or are studying there.
There are some errors that occur when people do translation which make
the translation become inaccurate. The errors that occur in the translation can be
categorized using surface strategy taxonomy of errors. There are four categories
of errors in surface strategy taxonomy of errors. The first category is Omissions
and the example is “she beautiful”. The second category is Additions; the example
This research is significant for English teachers of SMU Santa Maria 3
Cimahi. It is also useful for the students of SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi. For
English teachers of SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi, it will help them to know how far
the students understand about the English rules that they have already taught. It
will also help them to know which rules that the students do not understand so
they can explain it clearly in class until their students understand. For the students,
it will give them knowledge so they will be able to translate some text from their
first language into English properly. Hopefully, they will not repeat the errors.
In doing the research, I use a definition of translation, theory of language
interference, which is also known as linguistic transfer, and error analysis theory.
Translation is a process of delivering messages and information from one
language into another language through writing. Language interference is the
effect of people’s first language on the production of their second language, while
error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors that learners
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1. What kinds of errors are found in the Indonesian-English translation
made by the second grade students of SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi?
2. What factors cause the errors to occur?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1. To know what kinds of errors found in the Indonesian-English
translation made by the second grade students of Santa Maria 3
Cimahi.
2. To know what factors cause the errors to occur.
1.4 Method of Research
In gathering the data, first I read the entire translated texts made by the
second grade students of SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi. Second, I make a list of the
sentences which contain errors and do the interview to the students who do the
error and the teacher. Third, I analyse and classify the errors based on the
taxonomy of errors. In doing the analysis, I get supporting theories from books
to the subject matter which includes Background of the Study, Statement of the
Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the
Thesis. Chapter Two presents the theoretical framework underlying the topic of
the thesis. It elaborates the theory of language interference, error analysis, and the
factors that cause the errors. Chapter Three informs the research finding and its
analysis. This chapter presents the result of the data analysis in order to answer the
research questions. Chapter Four conveys some conclusive points drawn from the
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
Having analyzed the translated sentences of the second grade students of
SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi, I would like to make some concluding remarks.
As my research is to categorize the errors in the sentences and find out the
causes, I make categories of the errors. From my analysis in the previous chapter,
I calculate that there are 9 errors which belong to omission category; 6 errors
come under addition category; 20 errors belong to misformation category; only 2
errors fall into misordering category; and 3 errors belong to substitution. All of
these errors are from twenty-six data. The percentage of the category above is as
follows:
substitution 8%
misformation addition
15% omission
23%
and omission category. The errors belong to misformation category because there
are errors in forming the words. Most of the errors in the word formation that are
made by the second grade student of SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi are in the “s”
suffix. There are “s” suffix that are incorrectly left out and “s” suffix that are
incorrectly added in the students’ translated sentence. The students also make
errors in the word formation of the infinitive in the simple present tense, regarding
whether the infinitive should use “s” suffix or not. This rule has been studied in
the second grade student of senior high schools, but this rule is ignored.
Besides misformation, there are also errors which belong to omission,
addition, and misordering. Some errors made by the second grade students of
SMU Santa Maria 3 Cimahi belong to omission category because some needed
words are omitted in the translated sentence. The other errors belong to addition
category because some words added are not appropriate to the context. Besides
misformation category, omission category, and addition category, there are also
errors that belong to misordering category. There are only 2 errors which belong
to this category and all errors which belong to misordering category are caused by
the influence of the first language. Another error also belongs to substitution, and
only 3 errors which belong to substitution. These errors belong to substitution
because the student substitutes the right word into the wrong.
the influence of the student’s first language. The percentage of these causes is as
follows:
The ignorance of rule restrictions
76% The incomplete
application of rule 7%
Overgeneralization 10%
The influence of first language
7% The ignorance of rule
restrictions
The incomplete application of rule
Overgeneralization
The influence of first language
Based on the percentage above, I conclude that the dominant cause of the
errors that occur is the ignorance of the rule restrictions. From the analysis, the
rules that are ignored are on the use of article, the rule in relative clause and
relative pronoun, the use of word formation of verb in simple present tense and
simple future tense. Most of the errors which are cause by the ignorance of rule
restrictions belong to addition category and misformation category.
Beside the ignorance of the rule restrictions, overgeneralization also
causes some of the errors. There are 6 errors which are caused by the
overgeneralization. Based on the data, I find that the students generalize words
which are added by “s” suffix or not. In fact these words have a difference in
meaning and usage. The examples for the generalization of “s” suffix are
example the rule in word orders.
There are only 3 errors which are caused by incomplete application of
rules. The errors which are caused by incomplete application of rules are when the
student incomplete in translating the word from the source sentence into English.
There are some words that are missing.
Beside of the ignorance of rule restriction, overgeneralization, the
incomplete application of rule, and the influence of first language, there are also 3
errors which happen because the rule is not taught in class. So the students do not
know the rule and understand the rule.
In conclusion, the errors that occur fall dominantly into misformation
category. In terms of the causes of the errors, the ignorance of the rule restrictions
is the dominant cause.
From the result of the analysis, I would like to give some suggestions.
When translating a text, the rules of the target language should be followed to
avoid making errors. I find that the second grade students of SMU Santa Maria 3
Cimahi still find difficulties in applying the English rules.
For the next person who wants to do the same research, I hope he or she
will not only categorize the errors based on the surface strategy taxonomy of
errors. He or she can also add some important things which are needed in this
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