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Table 4.2 The Percentage of the Identified Translation Methods in Students’ Translation Work
No. Type of Method
Frequency Percentage
Literal Translation
1. Word for Word Translation
1 8,33
2. Literal Translation
12 100
Non Literal Translation
1. Semantic Translation
4 33
As stated by the researcher before, some students used not only one translation method. It could be seen from the results of identified translation
methods as displayed in the Table 4.2. The results showed that the overall 12 students used literal translation method, meanwhile, at the same time some other
students used another translation method. It was revealed that most frequent type of method used by the students in translating the text was literal translation
method, which occured 12 times 100 . To fully describe each of the identified methods, several cases of students’
methods in translating SLT were given based on the most to the least frequent type of methods which were used.
1. Literal Translation
This was the most frequent used translation method by the students of Translation I Class A academic year 2011. According to Ghazala 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,
57 grammatical class and type of language” p. 6. Here is the first example of literal
translation method. Original Source Language Text
Paper 2
The student who worked on Paper 2 tried to translate the original source language text by following its grammatical construction. As Newmark 1988
stated, “a literal translation is when the SLT grammatical constructions were converted to the nearest TLT equivalents, but the lexical words were again
translated singly, out of context” p. 46. First of all, the researcher would like to focus on the clause
enables us to meet the needs and priorities of the population. The student translated this clause into memungkinkan kita untuk
bertemu kebutuhan dan prioritas dari populasi. One word which indicated that this student translated it singly and out of context was the word meet. The
Indonesian word bertemu is indeed literally correct, but the usage of this word
sounds strange due to inappropriate context.
Secondly, the word population was also put into the researcher focus. The way the student in charge of Paper 2 translated the word population into
poplulasi also indicates that he or she did not take the sentence context into
account. Moreover, the researcher found out that complicated source language Enables us to meet the needs and priorities of the popuation in a more targeted
manner, based on how as women, girls, boys and men, they have been affected by the crisis.
Memungkinkan kita untuk bertemu kebutuhan dan prioritas dari populasi dalam cara yang lebih tertata, berdasarkan bagaimana wanita, anak
perempuan, anak laki-laki dan pria, mereka telah terpengaruh oleh adanya krisis.
58 grammar also contributed to the way this student translated the sentence. It could
be shown from the two clauses based on how as women, girls, boys and men, they have been affected by the crisis. Those two clauses were actually connected
each other. Unfortunately, the student who worked on Paper 2 did not translate the clauses properly just to make it obvious that the two clauses were interrelated. He
or she merely followed the grammatical construction, and translated it into
berdasarkan bagaimana wanita, anak perempuan, anak laki-laki dan pria, mereka telah terpengaruh oleh adanya krisis, as if there was no connection
between the clauses. Most of the students translated the sentences by converting the source
language’s grammatical construction into the nearest target language equivalents, which made the translation products become too literal. However, not all the
literal sentences that the students have produced were regarded as out of context. Here is the second example of literal translation method.
Original Source Language Text
Paper 7
The translation product as displayed in Paper 7 showed that the translator tried to convert the source language’s grammatical construction into the nearest
target language equivalents. It was the same as what Ghazala 1995 has stated In most societies, being a woman or girl, man or boy means facing different
expectations due to socially assigned roles which we learn as we grow up.
Dalam masyarakat luas, menjadi seorang wanita atau anak perempuan, pria atau anak laki-laki berarti menghadapi harapan yang berbeda karena peran
sosial yang ditanggung dan yang kita pelajari saat kita tumbuh dewasa.
59 that noun is translated into noun, two nouns into two nouns, and so on p. 6.
Although the translated sentence has a similar grammatical construction as the source language sentence and might sound awkward to some target language
readers, it was still understandable and it did not deform the original meaning. The researcher did not say that applying literal method was a bad choice to
use in the process of translating a source language text. This method could be appropriately used as long as the translation result was able to be comprehended.
However, as Ghazala 1995 argued, literal translation sometimes “ignores the target language completely, making it subject to the source language wholly and
entirely” p. 5. It meant that a translator who mostly uses this method had a high possibility to ignore the target language aspects, such as grammar and context.
2. Semantic Translation
