The Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

The development of a dynamic era requires people to be able to speak English because it has become popular today. Most countries in all over the world use English as their second language. No wonder, people are now learning this language. In Indonesia itself, English is required as a lesson at every level of school. Moreover, not only adults, but also children learn it. Besides, many English courses like LIA, ILP, EF, LPIA, etc are available in Indonesia especially in Jakarta. In learning English, students cannot separate it from translation activity. Translation is needed to understand what people express and say in their languages, write in their letters, or communicate with their friends. However, students cannot understand what they read completely if they do not understand the language used in those media. For example, a story in English is difficult for students who do not understand English. Therefore, translation is necessity in solving the problem. M.G Rose said “Translation is the articulation of a judgment in another language or form, or for other condition and circumstances.” 1 The work of translation is an active assessment of the translator to give the equivalent information with the original text and translation environment. 1 Paulinus Soge, Menerjemahkan Teks Bahasa Inggris Ilmiah, Teori dan Praktek Yogjakarta: Universitas Atmajaya, 1989, p. 2 According to EA Nida, The most important factor that determines the success of translation work is a broad knowledge of the translator. 2 Therefore, the translator must know many things related to ecology, material culture or technology, social organization, and linguistic structure of both the country and community, which was spoken in the original text as well as from the country or society where the translation work will be read. The ability to translate well is an art. It requires special talent and training. 3 Therefore, the translator should re-express the meaning of source language as exactly possible into the target language that people can understand the message easily. From the explanation above, students can realize that the need for the competent translators is at an all-time high. The competency can be obtained through formal and informal ways such as formal education, training, life experience, on the job, etc. One of the formal educations that prepare its students to be professional translators is English Letters Department of State Islamic University “Syarif Hidayatullah” Jakarta. English Letters Department has three concentrations: Linguistic, Literature, and Translation. These concentrations are relatively new program, which were established in 2009. The concentration of translation is intended to prepare students to be professionals in translation areas. But in reality, the aim of translation courses cannot be achieved because there were still many mistakes made by the students in translating English sentences into Bahasa Indonesia or vice versa. These problems can be caused by a lack of time for the 2 Ibid. p. 3 3 Robert Lado, Language Testing New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1961, p. 261 translation activity and less precise methods used in teaching translation courses. For example, the sentence Yes, I can see Im quite recognizable as an old pussy, is translated as Ya, aku dapat melihat aku sangat pantas disebut sebagai seekor kucing tua. and the sentence A student of Gadjah Mada University who has just passed the exam smiles happily is translated as Seorang mahasiswa UGM yang mana telah melewati ujian tersenyum gembira. These sentences would be better if students translate to: 1. Ya, kuakui bahwa aku memang pantas disebut kucing tua. 2. Mahasiswa UGM yang baru lulus itu tersenyum gembira. In first example, the word “can” must not be translated by “dapat” because the auxiliary verb “can” has several meanings such as “bisa” and “akui”. In the second example, the translation results were less communicative and had been wasting too many words. In addition, there are also some mistakes in translating sentences from Bahasa Indonesia into English. For example the sentence Andi tinggal di pinggiran kota. is translated as Andi lives in outskirt even the word “outskirt” should be written “outskirts” because it is a single noun which should be written by plural form. The other example is the sentence “Saya harus mendapatkan beasiswa itu” is translated as “I must getting the scholarship”. The word “getting” should be translated to “get” because after the auxiliary verb must be followed by verb I. Based on the examples above, it is clear that grammatical ability contribute significantly to the ability to translate. Salihen Moentaha said”Yang menjadi kesulitan bahasa dalam penerjemahan ialah perbedaan sistem gramatikal kedua bahasa, baik bahasa Inggris maupun bahasa Indonesia.” 4 It means that the differences of grammatical system in both language, Bahasa Indonesia and English, become the obstacles language in translating. Each language will have certain grammatical devices for combining or grouping ideas, participants, events, etc. A translator needs to know the combinative principles and the devices for signaling grouping in both the source and receptor languages. 5 Based on the data, the writer knows that one of the translator’s problems is grammatical usage, which often fails the exact information about the correct grammar. Therefore, the writer is interested in doing this research to find empirical data about the correlation between grammatical ability and text translating skill from English into Bahasa Indonesia and vice versa. This research will be conducted at English Letters Department, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta by giving test to the students who took the concentration of translation. This research is relevant to find the quality of the student’s translation.

B. Focus of the Study