THE STUDENTS’ INTERFERENCES IN TRANSLATING
THESIS ABSTRACT FROM INDONESIAN INTO ENGLISH
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By: SULINDA
Registration Number: 8106111035
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
i ABSTRACT
Sulinda: The Students’ Interferences in Translating Thesis Abstract from Indonesian into English, English Applied Linguistic Study Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan, 2015.
ii ABSTRAK
Sulinda: The Students’ Interferences in Translating Thesis Abstract from Indonesian into English, English Applied Linguistic Study Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan, 2015.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, a since gratitude to Allah SWT, for the blessing, Guidance, health and luck
that has always been given to her to complete this project.
Next, she would like to express her thankfulness to Dr.Didik Santoso, M.Pd. her first
Adviser, for his time, patience, kindness, and contribution, criticism, suggestion, and valuable
comments in correcting her thesis and helping her in finishing it.
A very special appreciation is offered to Dr. Anni Holila Pulungan, M. Hum., as her
second Adviser, for her kindness, support, attention, and suggestion in completing this thesis.
A big thanks to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M. Pd., and Dr. Sri Minda Murni.MS as the
Head and the secretary of English Applied linguistics Study Program of State university of
Medan who have assisted me in processing all administrative requirements during the process of
my studying this program. All lecturers who have shared expertise during the times of lecturing
Special thanks to board of examiners, Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M. Pd., Prof. Dr.
Sumarsih, M. Pd., Dr. Zainuddin, M. Hum., for every single detail of correction and criticism to
construct this thesis near to ideal.
Her sincere indebtedness is rendered to her beloved parents; Mr. R.S. Siburian ans Mrs.
Indriati Nahombang for their endless love and support during her academic year has lent a hard
galore
Then thanks to classmates, friends and the writers mentioned in references of this thesis,
iv
There is no anything that the writer can dedicate for expressing her thanks to all of the
people for having helped her in finishing her thesis besides a little bit of writing on this page.
Success and prosperity are the only hope that the writer can pray to God for all of them.
Medan, 23 June 2015
The Writer,
Sulinda
v
2.1.1 Type of Interferences ... 10
2.1.2 Process of Interferences ... 17
2.1.3 Reason of Interferences ... 22
2.2 Translation ... 22
2.2.1 The Translation Process ... 23
2.2.2 The Reasons of the Occurrence of Translation Interferences ... 26
2.2.3 Types of Translation Iinterferences ... 30
2.3 Abstract……… 34
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Research Findings ... 46
vi CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
4.1 Conclusions ... 75
4.2 Suggestions ... 76
REFERENCES ... . 78
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1. The Background of the Study
Talking about translation it cannot be separated from talking about
language skill. A language skill refers to listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
However, there is another important skill in learning another/ foreign language
that is very important, and cannot be neglected, namely translation. To acquire the
skill in translation one must know about at least two languages used in the process
of transferring the message from a Source Language (SL) into a Target Language
(TL). The Source Language is a language used in an original work or text, while
the target language is a second language (Newmark, 1991: 12). So, the resercher
assumes that translation is the process in which a written communication or a text
in a first language is produced as the written communication or text in the second
language interpreting the same meaning.
In Indonesia, English into Indonesia or Indonesia into English translation
is not widely used is still limited to certain circles, such as academic and business
circles. The government also felt less popularized English as their everyday
language. This makes English translation more and more foreigners in Indonesia.
So for the learners, learned English was limited and rarely used in daily
communication. Given the importance of English in the era of globalization that
will be faced by Indonesia, the Government should make a movement to
Translation is a phenomenon that has a huge effect on everyday life. Every
year, many books have been translated into several languages in the world. One of
them is from Indonesian into English. It is not surprising that the needs of
translation product increases nowadays. Translation itself is not only a linguistic
act, it is also a cultural one. It is said to be so because translation always involves
both language and culture as it cannot be separated. Translators should pay great
attention to the differences in kind and degree of conventionalization in the source
and target cultures when transferring a text from one culture to another.
Take an example in our country, the university students in Indonesia are
usually also feel reluctant to use English as the language of daily communication.
One contributing factor is due to the lack of awareness of the learners and the
community of the importance of English translation for them. Often the people
around still considered a bit odd and tend not to support people who are learning
to speak English. Other factors that also affect are the view that English learners
are subject courses that are relatively difficult. The idea that English is a difficult
course based on the intensity of the students made a mistake in using the English
language both orally and in writing. The absence of remedial learning that
students need more to make students stuck in the same mindset. In general, a
learner in Indonesia the average gain in learning English for 10 years from
primary school level to the college level. However, when we evaluate the results
obtained are still very far from satisfactory . It can be viewed on the number of
students proficient in English than the number of students who are not proficient
In translating the ST into TT, the translator always faces several problems.
One of them is the occurence of interference. Interference is occured simply
because every language in the world processes different characteristics and
structures. It is also happened because of the linguistic and cultural gaps between
languages.
Based on the problem above, the reasercher has a reason in analysing of
the students’ interferences in translation thesis abstract from Indonesian into
English. Interferences in translation errors can be caused by misunderstanding of
the translation brief or of the content of the source target (Newmark: 1991: 22).
Considering that, through the notion of interference that can easily be seen in a
cultural text brought this investigation, example to investigate whether the
interference also happened in the translated thesis abstract. It is a new
phenomenon in translation since there is no researches have investigated the
interference in such a thesis abstract from Indonesian into English. So, translation
is very important for communication, not only that, but in scientific, technology
books, literary books, but also in thesis abstract helps the learners in university.
An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review,
conferenceproceeding or any indepth analysis of a particular subject or discipline,
and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose. By
reading the abstract, the reader can decide whether he or she needs to read the
whole content of thesis or not. The final step of writing a thesis is abstract writing.
Many universities or academies claim the students to translate abstract in English
conducted by the university students usually gets errors because of some factors,
namely translation ability, pragmatics, linguistic, etc.
By proposing the thesis is one of the example of interference in
translation:
Pengumpulan data penelitian dilakukan dengan teknik wawancara dan dan teknik observasi (Citra, 2011).
The translation is:
Data collecting execute using interviewing technique and observation technique (Citra, 2011)
The translation English statement in the first example contains
grammatical error. Firstly, the translator makes error in the word execute, it
should be was executed because it is a Passive Voice (S + tobe + V3). Secondly,
is the word observation which should be changed observatinal as an Adjective
because the word technique is a noun which should be followed by the adjective
(-al suffix), and thirdly as well as the word document should be changed into
documentary.
After finding some problem that mentioned above, the reasercher
concerned with those problems in considering that those thesis abstracts would be
published globally. Outside world could underestimate the quality of post
graduate educational by seeing the interference translation thesis abstract which
contain a lot of interferences. In addition they do not pay attention to the
technique of translation. In doing a translation, at least the students should master
result of the translation, the students still face an ambiguity of Indonesian word,
phrase, and sentence.
Some previous researches had been conducted in dealing with the
translation; one of the research is Rahmawati (2010) in her thesis “An Analysis of
Translation Methods Used in Indonesian Translated Version of Technical Text”.
In her thesis, she discusses the translation method. Another research was
conducted by Purwanto (2012) in his thesis entitled “Translation errors and Their
Causes in Translated Billingual Textbook: Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan”. His
thesis about translation errors in translated billingual textbook. Based on the
explanation above, the reasercher is very interested to analyze the students’
interference in translating from Indonesian into English at Universitas Muslim
Nusantara of educational English department.
1.2 The Problems of the Study
In this study research problems are common elaborated by the following:
1. What types of the students’ interference in translating the thesis abstract?
2. How do the interference occurs in translating the thesis abstract?
3. Why do the interference occur the way they do in translating the thesis
abstract?
1.3 The Objectives of the Study
1. To analyse the types of interference translations are found in the thesis
abstract.
2. To analyze the process interference translations occurs in the thesis abstract.
3. To know the reason interference translations occurs the way they do in the
thesis abstract.
1.4. The Scope of the Study
In conducting this study, the scope is the interference in translation. The
reasercher focused on occur in the thesis abstract of educational English
department Universitas Muslim Nusantara Al – Washliyah Medan. The reasercher
also used Newmark’s theory (1991) and Munday’s theory (2000) to analyze the
students’ interference translation from Indonesian into English at Universitas
Muslim Nusantara of educational English department in academic year 2012.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
The reasercher thinks that this analysis can develop the knowledge in
translation study, particularly in the pattern of interference. Considering that many
students make interference in doing translation, the reasercher wants to contribute
the betterment by showing the common problem. So, the lecturers and the
students know and realize that there are many interferences English translated
thesis abstracts in educational department.
The reasercher hopes that after they know about it, Post graduate program
example by giving training for the student in going translation. So, their
English-translated thesis abstracts will be more accurated, correct and understandable.
This study is also necessary to make students more aware and careful in
translating the thesis abstract into English and of course to motivate them to study
English more, particularly translation subject in order to make their thesis
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the data finding. The conclusions are drawn as the following:
1. Researcher found the interferences in translating the thesis abstract. They are:
1) forming question interference, 2) pluralization interference, 3) mixing
interference, 4) prepositionalization interference, 5) forming positive
statement interference, 6) redundancy interference, 7) missing apostrophe
interference, 8) missing article interference, 9) missing “be” interference, and
10) connector interference.
2. The occurrence of interference because the writer directly translate the target
language based on language sources without regard to the structure of the
target language
3. There are two reasons the occurance of interference in translating the thesis
abstract; mother tongue interference: interlingual interferences and target
language causes: intralingual interferences. the researcher compared the
results of her analysis such as; forming question interference is not used in
Newmark’s theory and Krashen’s theory, pluralization interference is not used
in Newmark’s theory and Krashen’s theory, mixing interference used in
Newmark’s theory as a cultural interferences (code mixing) and Krashen’s
theory as a surface category (misformation and misordering),
interferences (preposition) but, it is not used in Krashen’s theory, forming
positive statement interference is not used in Newmark’s theory and
Krashen’s theory, redundancy interference is not used in Newmark’s theory
and Krashen’s theory, missing apostrophe interference is not used in
Newmark’s theory and Krashen’s theory, missing article interference used in
Newmark’s theory as a syntactical interferences (determiner) and it is used in
Krashen’s theory surface category (misordering), missing “be” interference
used in Newmark’s theory as a syntactical interferences (verb word) and it is
used in Krashen’s theory surface category (misordering), and connector
interference used in Newmark’s theory as a syntactical interferences
(conjunction) but, it is not used in Krashen’s theory. The conclusion is based
on the findings of researcher is found by herself, there are five findings of the
data, they are; forming question interference is not used in Newmark’s theory
and Krashen’s theory, pluralization interference is not used in Newmark’s
theory and Krashen’s theory, forming positive statement interference is not
used in Newmark’s theory and Krashen’s theory, redundancy interference is
not used in Newmark’s theory and Krashen’s theory, and missing apostrophe
5.2 Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions, it is suggested that:
1. The findings of syantactical interference and lexical interference in thesis
abstract of educational English department Universitas Muslim Nusantara Al
– Washliyah Medan should encourage the students in studying more about
translation subject and the rule in translating. The translator should be more
careful in translating the thesis abstract by avoiding the interferences and
paying attention in the use of syntactical interference and lexical interference.
2. More teaching and training about translation should be conducted in the
classroom especially for the students who are required to write the thesis
abstract in English. This is conducted to minimize the translation interference
found in the thesis abstract in the future.
3. The translation material to be taught to the students should be focused on
specific area of translation such as how to minimize interferences in the
production of verb groups as it reflected the dominant and the occured
interferences made by students based on the research findings. So, hopefully it
will lesson or even omit the errors made by students and it is suggested to
REFERENCES
As Safii, Prof.A.B. 2006. Translation Theories, Strategie, and Basic Theoretical
Issues. Petra University: Unpublished.
Baker, M. 1992. English Syntax. London: Rouledge.
Brown, H. Douglas. 1987. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. NewJersey: Prentice Hall Inc.
Brown, H. Douglas. 1994. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. NewJersey: Prentice Hall Inc.
Corder, S.P. 1967. The Significance of Learners’ Errors. Iral: 5.No.1967.
Dulay, Heidi. 1982. Language Two. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ebert, James.R. 1996. What is an Abstract. State University of New York: College at Oneonta
Ellis, R. 1985. Understanding Second Language Acquisition.Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English.
Ellis, R. 1994. Understanding Second Language Acquisition.Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English.
Hansen, Gyde. 2008. The Speck in your brother’s eye: Quality Management in
Translation. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Hatim, B. and Munday, J. 2004 Translation: an advanced resource book. London: Routledge.
James, Carl. 1998. Errors in Language Learning and Used: Exploring Error
Analysis. London and New York: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.
Krashen, S. 1982. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Lincoln, Y.S., & Guba, E.G. 1985. Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Machali, R. 2000. Pedoman Bagi Penerjemah. Jakarta: Grasindo.
Munday, J. 2008.Introducing Translation Studies. Theories and Applications. Routledge
Nababan, R. 2003. Teori Menerjemah Bahasa Inggris. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
Nida, Eugene A., and Charles R. Taber. 1969. The Theory and Practice of
Translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Newmark, Peter. 1991. About Translation. New York: Multilingual Matters.
Newmark, Peter. 1981. A Texbook of Translation. New York: Prentice Hall.
Norrish, John. 1994. Language Learners and Their Errors. UK: Prentice Hall.
Seguinot, C. 1990. Interpreting errors in translation. Meta, 35, 68-73.
Toury, Gideon. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
