1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Problem

Language is an important thing to do the communication, without existence

of Language of course we will difficult to communicate with others. Especially

in this globalization era where communication is very absolute needed for

getting many kinds of information.

English as a foreign language and should be learned by all students in

Indonesia from primary school to the university. This fact is reflected in

different fields and in various domains where English is considered as a working

tool (Lamri, 2016). English lesson becomes one of the principals learning in

ELT process for students in English education study program who usually learn

English texts in their study. The texts are not easy to comprehend if the students

do not master English and their own language, Indonesian. Language manner is

divided into oral language, and written language. Translation activity is one

thing that is related to written language. It assume that learning translation is

needed in ELT process, especially for translation for ESP. From the early

1960s, ESP has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of English

foreign language (Titik, 2014).

In English education study program Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji,

translation for ESP is known as an elective course of English education study

program. ESP is an extremely significant branch of ELT (Choudhary, 2013).

 2

Since the 1960’s ESP has become one of the most active branches of Applied

Linguistics in general, and of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)

in particular (Lamri,2016). In order to reach specific objectives, world countries,

including Algeria, introduced English courses at all the levels of the educational

system especially at the university through ESP (Lamri, 2016). This course

requires the students to understand the translation in any particular fields.

Nowadays, the problem of translation for ESP still one of the most frequent

issues in EFL students at University. Therefore, we need a solution to solve the

problem. According to Javid (2015), “A growing mass of research has reported

that the number of universities that are offering ESP courses is on the rise

nowadays to meet the ever-increasing specific needs of students who belong to

different fields”.

To sum up, the researcher gets the point that learning translation for ESP is

very important. The researcher assumes that this research is what people need to

help them solve the problem in translation. The researcher wants to find the

solution by doing the research because it is needed to find out more problems of

difficulties in translation. That is one of the reasons why the researcher chooses

this problem to be analyzed. Through analyzing students’ difficulties, people

know the difficulties that students face. Thus, the researcher wants to find the

students difficulties by conducting a research entitled “The analysis of students

difficulties in translating text from Indonesian to English at Translation for

ESP class”.
 3

1.2 Identification of the Problem

There are some problems in this research based on the background of the

problem above. The problems related to translation of Indonesian texts to

English. The researcher writes the problems as follow.

1. Translation is difficult to students in English Education Study Program.

2. The students have problems in translation that makes them difficult in

translating text from Indonesian to English.

3. The teachers and students need to know what the translation difficulties faced

by the students.

1.3 Limitation of The Problem

Based on the identification of problem above, the researcher limits the

problems on the difficulties faced by students in translating text from Indonesian

to English. It is because there are still many students who get difficulties in

mastering translation in Translation for ESP class.

1.4 Research Question

The research question of this research is “What are difficulties faced by

students in translating text from Indonesian to English in Translation for ESP

class?”.
 4

1.5 Research Objective

The objective of the research is to find out difficulties that the students face in

translating text from Indonesia to English in Translation for ESP class.

1.6 The Significance of the Research

The significance of the research consists of theoretical and practical

significances.

1.6.1 Theoretically

This researcher expects to give any benefits for English students.

Theoretically, this research will stimulate students’ understanding of

translating text. Besides, the lecturers will understand the difficulties which the

students face in translating an Indonesian text to English. Thus, this research is

important for people who want to learning translation.

1.6.2 Practically

1. For students

The researcher expects the students to know the difficulties in translating

texts in translation course and they can face the problems. Besides, the students

will be more motivated to learn translation course and realize that translation

will be useful for their future. Therefore, the students will have a good quality in

translating a text.

2. For lecturers

Lecturers will be helped to find out difficulties that the students usually face

in translating text from Indonesian to English. Therefore, the lecturers can try an
 5

another interest way to facilitate the students in mastering translation and to

solve the difficulties.

3. For other researchers

The researcher hopes that this research can motivate other researchers to

arrange researchers about translation. The researchers can be inspired to improve

this topic to be deeper than this research. In addition, this research will be one of

any good references for the other researchers.

1.7 Definition of The Key Terms

There are some key terms that need to be defined to avoid confusion in the

proposal. The researcher writes the key terms as follow.

1. Students difficulties of translating are the problems faced by students that

make them feel hard in Changes Language from Indonesian to Foreign

Language.

2. Translating Text is the process of changes the language from Indonesian to

English.

3. Translation for ESP is an elective courses in English Education Study

Program of UMRAH.
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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Definition of Translation

According to Mundy (2004), “Translation is a phenomenon that has a huge

effect on everyday life”. Translation is generally process to solve all the

problems related misscomunication between another language in daily life. It

explains that in translation we should be through the phenomenon that produces

a good translation result.

According (Nababan:2008) Transation process consist of three steps; a.

Analysis of souce language text, b. Transfer of message, c. Restructing.

a. Analysis source language text

Each translating activity begins with analyzig of the source language text

because of translator always faced on source language text first. Analysis of

thesource language text is being in reading activity. Next the reading activity of

source Translation Text to be translation Re-Express the meaning Discover the

meaning language text intended to understand the content of the text. It is

impossible, a translator can understand the content of the text if he or she does

not read the text first.

b. Transfer of message

After translator can understand the meaning and structure of the source

language, the translator will be able to get the message in it. The next step is to

transfer the content, meaning, and the message from the source language into the
 7

target language. In this step, translator required to find the equivalent of source

language word into target language. This process to transfer, the contents,

meanings and the messages are internal process. That process take place in the

mind of the translator. After the content, meaning and the message already exist

in the translators‟ mind, then they express in targer language orally or in writing.

To obtain a better translation in accordance with the translation purpose it self,

so the translation should be restructured.

c. Restructing

Restructing is changing of the transfer process be stylistic form that match

with target language, that the reader or listener. Thus, at the restructing step, a

translator needs to pay attention variety of language to determine style of

language according to the type of text to be translated. A translator also need to

pay attention for whom its translation. If the steps of the analysis comprehension

of the source language into the target language and the restructing has been

completed by a translator, the translator has produced a translation.

According Larson (1988) “translation is a process of change language from

SL to TL”. According to Larson (2004) “Translation is a concern with the study

of the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural

context of the SL text, which is analyzed in order to determine its meaning”. It

assume that there are many aspects that must be comprehend by us to go trough

the process in translation and get the good result in translation.

Bassnett (2005) “Beyond the notion stressed by the narrowly linguistic

approach, that translation involves the transfer of ‘meaning’ contained in one set
 8

of language signs into another set of language signs through competent use of

the dictionary and grammar, the process involves a whole set of extra-linguistic

criteria also”. Thus, a good translation needs a whole set of extra criteria that can

support the results of translation.

According to Newmark (1988) “A translator works on three levels: which are

divided into science, skill and art”. The students need to solve the translation

difficulties by have a lot of knowledge and skill as it is related to science. Then

they need art which needs the feeling, creative intuition, and inspiration. Every

student will have their own style of translation.

When we present the difficulties in translation, we must consider several

aspects as follow.

a. The knowledge of the two languages;

b. The meaning of the words;

c. Perceptions;

d. The time and the context in which the text was written;

e. Interpretation according to the writer's personality and experience.

Based on the experts statement above,it can be conclude that translation is the

process to change some language to another langguage into good translation that

sound like the original text that can prevent some misscommunication by the

knowledge, skill and art that we have.

 9

2.2 Definition of difficulties

According to Brown (2000) difficulties in translating happen when someone

translates a text but does not understand how to use words, phrases, and

sentences which cover noun, determiner, preposition, adjective, adverb, verb,

sentence, conjunction, be, modal and WH-word, passive sentence, relative

pronoun, verb-ing and verb-ed as well as possible.

This research seeks ways to show how these factors constitute the main

source of translation difficulties. According to Larson (1846) Translation is

bassically a change of form. According to Opan in Hadrus (2017) “The problem

in translation can be divided into two problems, they are linguistic problem and

culture problem”.

Mukhrizal in Fajrin (2012) says that “There are linguistics and non-

linguistics problems in translation”. Those problems appear because there are

differences between language and culture. According to Gilakjani et al (2016)

“Three categories of comprehension difficulties which consist of lexical

difficulties, textual structure difficulties and pragmatic language difficulties”.

Jeanne Dancette (1995) “Defines the understanding for the translation as

"the result of the confrontation and synthesis between the literal and contextual

meaning of the statement".

Based on the experts statement above it can be conclude that difficulties are

the problems that faced by someone in some processes to finish something

especially the process in translation that contains complex problem in linguistic

and non linguistic aspect.

 10

2.3 Translation for English Specific Purposes

An ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course implies the inclusion of

methodologies and techniques related to the field of specialisation (in this case,

translation), and the adaptation of the language and activities included to the

grammar, lexis, register and skills specific to such field.

According to Lamri (2016) “Some people described ESP as simply being the

teaching of English for any purpose that could be specified. Others, however,

were more precise describing it as the teaching of English used in academic

studies or the teaching of English for vocational or professional purposes”. It

explains that translation for ESP is important for our future.

According to Mackay and Mountford in Lamri (2016) “ESP is generally used

to refer to the teaching of English for a clearly utilitarian purpose.” It finds that

teachers have important role in learning ESP.

According to Agustin T (2014) “ESP teaching approach is known to be

learner-centred where learners‟ needs and goals are of supreme value, whereas

General English approach is language-centred, and focuses on learning language

from a broad perception covering all the language skills and the cultural aspects

of the English speaking community. According to Choudhary (2013) “ESP

seems quite flexible discipline and different people have defined it differently.”.

It explains that ESP has a different ways to make many people understand a

language well.
 11

According to Javid.C (2013) “ESP is not necessarily but “may be related to or

designed for specific disciplines”and different methodologies “from that of

General English”may be employed to cater for the needs of the specific teaching

situations for specific disciplines”. “They also use absolute and variable

characteristics of ESP” as Strevens in choudhary (2013) centers on defining

ESP.

Absolute characteristics:

1. ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner;

2. ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines

it serves;

3. ESP is centered on the language (grammar. Lexis, register), skills, discourse

and genres appropriate to those activities.

Variable characteristics:

1. ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

2. ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from

that of ‘General English’;

3. ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners; either at a tertiary level

institution or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be used for

learners at secondary school level;

4. ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students. Most ESP

courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used

with beginners
 12

Based on the explanations above, it is concluded that translation for ESP is

the elective course in some intitution that should be taken to special purposes for

someone that need to comprehend the specific language well in a field.

2.4 Relevant Study

The research is related to other researchers which discussed problems

regarding to students difficulties in translating a text. One of the research was

conducted by Hadrus (2017), on tittle “The Analysis of students difficulties in

translating argumentative text at the second grade students of SMA Negeri 1

Lappariaja”. The researcher discussed about the difficulties faced by the second

grade students in translating argumentative text and the factors that made the

students difficult in translating the text. This research investigated the kinds of

difficulties between linguistic factors and non-linguitic factors. The researcher

used descriptive method with a quantitative approach. Test translation of an

argumentation text, questionnaire, and interview were the instruments of the

research in gathering data. Based on the test of translation, the students' score are

still low where the mean score of the students is 5,95. From the questionnaire,

this research showed that the students’ difficulties in translating argumentative

text were the difficulties in linguistics factors were more prominent than non-

linguistics factors.

Another research was done by Kaeruddin (2017). This research was aimed to

identify the second-grade students of MA As’adiyah Sengkang’s barriers in

translating Indonesian–English questions of daily expression, factors affecting

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the barriers, and strategies to solve the problems. The data were analyzed using

qualitative descriptive method. The instruments were the Forum Group

Discussion (FGD), interview, and observation. The research informants were the

second grade students of Ilmu Agama Islam (IAI) department at MA As’adiyah

Putri Sengkang. The result of the research showed that some barriers that the

students encountered were barriers in word order, grammar, the use of the

pronoun, the use of idiom, and lack of vocabulary. Some strategies that the

students did in solving the barriers were using a dictionary, using google

translate, learning grammar from a book, asking the teacher or asking the other

friends, learning English from movies and songs, accessing internet and taking a

course.

Conducted by Utami (2016), another relevant research was about “The source

of errors in Indonesian-English translation”. This research was aimed to identify

types of translation errors and to find out the sources of errors (interlingual and

intralingual errors) in Indonesian-English translation written by the fourth

semester of English department students at UIN Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau

Pekanbaru in the academic year 2015/2016. The sample consists of 40 students

who have been taken by proportional random sampling. The data were collected

through the translation test that consisted of 20 Indonesian sentences that should

be translated into English. The type of the research was descriptive research

which uses error analysis procedures to identify and analyze the students’ error.

Then, this research revealed that most errors occurred in students’ translation

were caused by an intralingual error. Meanwhile, only a few errors were caused
 14

by an interlingual error. The errors occurred due to students’ incomplete

knowledge of the target language.

Beside of the researchers above, there was another relevant research from the

book by the tittle “Teaching English as a foreign language” (Broughton et al,

2019). Besides, the writter have tried to show how the underlying principles of

successful foreign language teaching can provide teachers in a wide range of

EFL situations with a basic level of competence which can be a springboard for

their subsequent professional development.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher concludes that her research

has differences and similarities. This research will identify students’ difficulties

of translating text from Indonesian to English at the translation for ESP class of

Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji. The researcher wants to know that the

students go through difficulty or not in translating text. The researcher uses

descriptive quantitative approach. In this research, translation test is the

instrument to support researcher in collecting data. The subject of this research

are the students of sixth semester at Engish Study Program. The researcher

expects to help another students to solve the problems about translation.

Therefore, the similarities in this research is the problem and the differences are

the subject, place, instrument, and final result that is expected by the researcher.
 15

2.3 Conceptual Framework

The researcher proposes a conceptual framework that can be formulated into

a figure below:

The Analysis of Students Difficulties in Translating Text

from Indonesian to English at the Translation for ESP Class

Difficulties faced by students in transating text from

Indonesian to English in translation for ESP class?

Theory of Nababan

Descriptive Quantitative

Manually and using Aplication

The researcher knows the difficulties are faced by students

 16

2.4. Hypothesis of Study

Hypothesis is guessing or supposition tentative statement about things we

observe in order to understand.

In this paper, the hypothesis consists:

Ho: The students do not have difficulties in translating text from Indonesia to

English at Translation for ESP class.

Ha: The students have difficulties in translating text from Indonesia to

English at Translation for ESP class.

In accordance with the basic assumption, the researcher will get the

hypothesis as “The students who get the low score in their translation test must

have difficulty translating text in the class.

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CHAPTER III

REASEARCH METHOD

3.1 Place and Time of Research

This research will be held at Translation for ESP class in Universitas Maritim

Raja Ali Haji, where is located at Jalan Politeknik Senggarang Tanjungpinang,

Prov. Kepulauan Riau. 29100. The research will be held on Mei for one meeting

in one class.

3.2 Population and Sample

1. Population

Before the sample are collected, the researcher will determine the population.

According to Sugiyono (2012) “Population is geographic generalization, there

are object/subject has quality and certain of characteristic that set by researcher

to learning then make the conclusion”.

The respondents of this research are the students in the sixth-semester of

English Education Study Program in Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji,

Tanjungpinang. The researcher takes one class as participants. Total population

are three classes and consists of 90 students.

2. Sample

Sample is a part of population that will be analyzed. According to Sugiyono

(2012) “Sample is part of number and characteristic those set in the population”.

It means that good sample must be representative the generalization of the

sample of this research must be conducted well.

 18

The sample in this research will be taken in one class from the population of

sixth-semester students who take Translation for ESP course. All students in the

class will do the test given by the researcher. One class consists of 30 students.

In this research the researcher uses purposive sampling.

3.3 Research Approach

This Research will use a quantitative approach. According to Sugiyono

(2017) “A Quantitative method is a research method that based on the

philosophy of positivism, it is used to examine certain populations or samples,

data collection is using research instruments, statistical data analysis, with the

aims of testing the hypothesis that has been set”.

The results of the quantitative analysis are most commonly reported in the

form of statistical tables or graphs. The presentation of the results usually

begins with descriptive statistic.

3.4 Research Design

According to Creswell (2009) “Research design is plans and the procedures

for research to detailed methods of data collection and analysis. In this research,

the researcher will use a descriptive method and a quantitative approach.

According to Sugiyono (2014) “Descriptive research is a research that describes

a phenomenon, events either using quantitative and qualitative data. It aims to

describe students difficulties in translating text at the Translation for ESP class

in Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji.

 19

According to Sudiyono (2017) “Descriptive quantitative is a statistic that used

to analyze data by describing data that has been collected without intending to

make conclusions that apply to the public or generalizations”.

The researcher want to find out the students’ difficulties in translating a text.

The researcher will analyze the students' difficulties by evaluating the translation

test from the researcher. The researcher can determine that this analysis research

can help the students to solve the difficulties in translation.

3.5 Research Instrument

Instrument has important functions that has significant elements in

conducting this research. Therefore, the researcher must choose an instrument in

the process of collecting data. “Research instrument is a tool of collecting data

that should be valid and reliable. According to Creswell (2014) “During an

experiment, one makes observations or obtains measures using instruments at a

pretest or posttest (or both) stage of the procedures”.

The instrument of this research is translation test that consist of one text.

They are Indonesian text that must be translated to English by the students. The

researcher wil get the text from the translation book. Based on sayogie in

kosdiyannudin (2014) The score rubric have four grade which the students can

get. There are almost excellent translation, very good translation, good

translation, enough translation. From the description above, we can see that the

high score of this test is almost excellent translation.

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3.6 Technique of Collecting Data

Sugiyono (2017) states that “The technique of collecting data is the most

strategic step in research because the main purpose of the research is to gain the

data”. The technique will be used to get the data related to the translation. The

researcher will choose one class and give the test to the Transation for ESP

students in English Education Study Program . The test will be consist of

Indonesian text that has some paragraphs from the lecturer or researcher. It is

used to anayze the students’ difficulties in translating text from Indonesian to

English based on their classification and score.

3.7 Technique of Anaysis Data

According to Sugiyono (2017) “Data analysis is the process of systematically

searching and arranging the interview transcripts, field notes, and other materials

that you accumulate to increase your own understanding of them and to enable

you to present what you have discovered to others”.

The researcher want to find out the score of each student to analyze the

difficuties are faced by students. The researcher will analyze the rubric of the

score carefully and get the final result. The researcher will use minitab and

microsoft excell in analyzing and counting the data. The manual measurement

will also be conducted.

Scoring each students based on the criteria for scoring accuracy:

𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒
𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 ∶ 𝑥 90
𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡
 21

The accuracy of translators’ translation was examined based on the criteria

for scoring accuracy adapted from Nababan (in Rosita: 2017).

Table 1: Scale for Scoring Accuracy

Scale Categories Indicator
The content of the source language is accurately
4 Highly
conveyed into the target language and no
accurate
revising is needed.
The content of the source language is accurately
3 Accurate conveyed to the
target language, but it need to be revised.
The content of the source language is not
accurately conveyed to the target language.
2 Less accurate
There are some problems with the choice of
diction.
The source language is not translated at all into
1 Not accurate the target language, for example, it is omitted or
deleted

Meanwhile, the clarity of the translator’s translation was also examined based

on the criteria for scoring clarity adapted from Arnold et al in Fiederer and

O’Brien (in Rosita:2017).

Table 2: Scale for Scoring Clarity

Scale Categories Indicator
Fully The content of the source language is clearly
4
understandable conveyed into the target language and no
 22

ambiguity.
The content of the source language is clearly
Mostly
3 conveyed to the target language, but there is a
understandable
little bit ambiguity.
Only small The content of the source language is not clearly
2 part conveyed to the target language. There are some
understandable ambiguities.
The source language is not translated at all into
Not
1 the target language, there is a meaningless of
understandable
translation

On the other hand, the readability of the translator’s translation was also

examined based on the criteria for scoring readability adapted from Haliday’s

scale in Fiederer and O’Brien (in Rosita:2017).

Table 3: Scale for Scoring Readability

Scale Categories Indicator
All the content of the message is

Highly comprehensible, even if there are errors of style

4 and/or of spelling, and if certain words are
readable
missing, or are badly translated, but close to the
target language.
3 Readable The major part of the message passes.

Only small
A part only of the content is understandable,
2 part
representing less than 50% of the message.
readable
Nothing or almost nothing of the message is
1 Unreadable
comprehensible
 23

The average score of the accuracy, clarity, and readability of the translation

products will be processed based on the following weighting quality for each

level: accuracy, clarity, and readability are adapted from Nababan (2012).

Table 4: The weighting of quality aspects assessed

No Quality aspects Weight
1 Accuracy 4
2 Clarity 3
3 Readability 2

Table 5: Example
Source Target Score
No
language Language Accuracy Clarity Readability
Hampir 100%
Almost 100%
manusia
of middle-
setengah
1 aged 3 3 3
baya
people need
memerlukan
eyeglasses.
kaca mata.
The eye has
Mata
been referred
dikatakan
to as “the
sebagai
most
”bagian ukuran
important
permukaan
2 square inch 2 2 2
tubuh yang
of the body
paling
surface”
penting”
(Havener
(Hanever,
1979, 1979,
1979, h.1).
p.1)
 24

Dengan
demikian,
Therefore,
perubahan
changes must
harus
be made to
dilakukan
improve
dengan
lighting in
3 menambah 1 3 3
homes,
pencahayaan
offices,
di rumah,
restaurants,
perkantoran,
and geriatric
restoran dan
centres.
pusat geriatri
(panti wreda).
Total 6 8 8
Average 2,0 2,67 2,67

Table 6 : score average based on the weight (Nababan, 2012)

Average
accuracy Clarity Readability Total average
2x3=6 2,67 x 2 = 5,34 2,67 x 1 = 2,67 14,01 14,01 : 6 = 2,34

a. Finding out the mean score of the students score by using the following

Σ Χi
formula : 𝑀𝑒 = n

Me = Mean score

 = Epsilon

Xi = Total score from x to i until n

N = The total number of students (Sudiyono:2012)

 25

b. Match the mean of students to get the final result basen on the rubric

bellow.

Tabel 7 : The score of translation sayogie (in Kosdiyannudin 2014)

Category Score Indicator

Almost Submission of a reasonable, almost not feel like a
86-90
excellent translation; There are no spelling errors; No errors of
(A)
translation grammar ; Nothing wrong use of the term.
No distortion of meaning: No literal translation of the
Very good 76-85 rigid. Nothing wrong use of the term ; There are a
translation (B) couple of grammatical errors/spelling (for the Aeabic
language should not be any spelling errors)
No distortion of meaning: there is a literal translation
of a rigid, but relatively not more than 15% of the
entire text, so as not to feel like a translation; error
Good 61-75 grammar and idiom relative not more than 15% of
translation (C) the total text. There are one or two-standard use of
terms/general. There are one-two grammar spelling
errors (for English language support should not be
any spelling errors.
It feels as translation, meaning distortion. There are
some literal translations of s rigid, but relatively not
Enough 46-60
more than 25%. There are some errors idiom
translation (D)
and/good materials, but relatively not more than 25%
of the entire text. There are a couple of terms that do
not use raw/ not common or less obvious.