T1 112009004 Full text
PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment
of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Veny Frissilia
112009004
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment
of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Veny Frissilia
112009004
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
2
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Veny Frissilia
Student ID Number : 112009004
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English Department
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Faculty of Language and Literature
Kind of Work:
Ungraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with non-exclusive royalty free right
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PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
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Table of Content :
Cover Page
Inside Cover Page............................................................................................................. .i
Approval Page....................................................................................................................ii
Public Declaration Agreement...........................................................................................iii
Copyright statement...........................................................................................................iv
Table of Content.................................................................................................................v
Abstract..............................................................................................................................1
Introduction.......................................................................................................................1
Literature Review..............................................................................................................4
The Study
Context of The Study..........................................................................................9
Participants..........................................................................................................10
Instrument of Data Collection.............................................................................11
Data Collection Procedures.................................................................................12
Discussion........................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................20
References.......................................................................................................................22
Acknowledgement..........................................................................................................25
Appendix........................................................................................................................26
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PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Abstract
This study aimed at investigating some possible problems that may appear during the process
of Chinese language learning that use English translation. Considering that vocabulary and
translation are connected to each other and they are very essential for the foreign language
learners, the background of this study will focus on finding theories and data about
vocabulary learning, in its relation with translation, and also how the use of dictionary
impacts on translation and vocabulary acquisition. The data was collected through interview
with respondents, and the data collection will be analyzed qualitatively. This study shows
that, there are two major problems that are appear during the learning process:difficulties in
handling long sentences and how the students use dictionaries as the tool to help them during
the foreign language learning process.
Keywords: Problems, Translation, Vocabulary, Dictionary, Foreign Language.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, many education institutions in Indonesia offer various kinds of language
education with various kind of methods,one of which the use of bilingual education. The
purpose of learning a foreign language of every single individual can be different.In
Indonesia, people mostly choose to study English and Chinese among other foreign
languagesbecause they are crucial for International communication and education. At present
English is used as mother language (L1), second language (L2), and also foreign language
(EFL) by people worldwide. Chinese language, also participates in language domination
because the number of native speakers’ population of Chinese language take the second place
of the whole population (Harsono, 2005). So, it makes sense if many aspects of life such
economic, social and education are dominated by the English speakers and Chinese speakers.
English education are now much more widespread. Nowadays, English educations
are not only provided for school needs, now it is available for young learners for their
educational needs until adult learnersfor their bussiness needs. Following the trend, some
senior and junior high school in big cities put Chinese language as one of the extracurricular
7
subject. At the same time, people with certain purpose of learning Chinese, usually take the
language courses outside the school or work time. Moreover, manyschools in Indonesia
nowadays require their students to use English as their second language because some
schools require the students to use English fully in the classroom. At the same time, students
are also required to learn Chinese language. Because these two languages are still new for
native Indonesian students in majority, so they are now in the process of finding the best
strategies so they can master English and Chinese as well.
In the past few years, schools provided Chinese language extracurricular to maintain
their credibility, because of the general point of view that schools using the most up to date
methods and an international basis will also have a good quality.Recently, not only as an
extracurricular subject, Chinese languagehas become one of main language courses in some
Junior High Schools and Senior High Schools. Since many people believe that English and
Chinese are needed for education and occupation. Later, people need to acquire these two
language well in order to bring success in their careers.
Since people’s needs of learning Chinese are increasing nowadays, the existence of
Chinese language courses in Indonesia are also affected. Lately, there are many Chinese
language courses in Indonesia. Even most of the language courses that used to only offer
English courses, now also open new classes for Chinese language. There are various kinds of
methods, benefits, and prices offered by different language courses.There are some language
courses that offer some special benefits because the students will be taught by native teachers,
or maybe with a newest method so the students can master the language faster, etc. Since
there are many available choices, people just need to choose, where they want to study.
There are various kinds of methods and approaches used in language teaching. One
of the method is translation. As stated by Lioa (2006), translation means transfering meanings
8
and conveying messages. It is also viewed as one of the strategies that is usually used by the
learners to learn a foreign language(Lioa, 2006). Crystal (2003) also argued that translation
has taken animportant role in human communication for years. As Lioa (2006) said, using
translation in learning a foreign language have some advantages for students. It makes the
students feel easier to develop their ideas, then it will help them to express their thoughts and
opinions more clearly, and some words meaning can be easier to find through dictionaries.
On the other hand, translation can also be used to support vocabulary learning.
Vocabularyis one of basic foundations that will help the students significantly in
many language skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing (Alemi & Tayebi
2011), because without vocabulary, people can not convey their ideas. Hence, vocabulary
learning strategies are also important to consider in foreign language learning.
This study will briefly discuss the issueon how translation is used in foreign
language teaching as a language teaching methods. Translation can help in vocabulary
acquisition. Research result revealed the superiority of using translation in learning
vocabulary in terms of quantity of words learned (Lioa, 2006) . Prince (1996, as cited in
Lioa,2006) stated that researchers believed that strategic learners can make intelligent use of
the list of their L1 skills and translation in order to learn a new language. Such statements
have motivated me to conduct this research.
In addition, I have also learned Chinese using English translation and found it
beneficial for my language learning, especially in my English language acquisition process.It
improved my English through many ways. For example, when I do not know what was the
meaning of the English translation I would ask my friends or looked it up in the dictionary. I
could obtain many new vocabulary wordsin this way. In spite of this, I also find the method
somewhat problematic because it made me depend too much on dictionaries.In this research,
9
I would like to investigate if this learning method also creates problems for native Indonesian
studentswho learn Chinese vocabulary at the beginner level using English translation.
With the above reasons, I would like to analyze and study about the use of English
translation in Chinese vocabulary learning for native Indonesian students at the beginner level
in Xin You Language Centre, Semarang.I would like to investigate theproblemswhich
apparent and affect students’ understanding in their Chinese language learning.
Furthermore, this study will seek to answer one research question which is “What
are the possible problems that may be experienced by native Indonesian students from Xin
You Language Centre in Chinese vocabulary learning that using textbook ith English
translation?”
LITERATURE REVIEW
This study focuses on translation and vocabulary as two major of language elements.
First is translation. Translation is one of the oldest methodologies in Second Language or
Foreign Language (Machida, 2011). Chamot (1987, as cited in Lioa, 2006) described that
translation strategy as using the first language as a basis for understanding or producing the
second language.
Moreover, Chang (2011) stated that translation from a foreign language to the L1
can help learners to understand the influence of an language to other language. In his journal,
Chang (2011) also adds a quote from Chellapan (1982) which pointed out that translation
could make the students come to closer grips with the target language. Hence, students need
to understand the meaning when they read texts through the comprehension process.
Translation can help the students to pass this comprehension stage as what Bonyadi (2003)
claims that translation develops the reading comprehension ability of the students, during this
10
process of “conscious learning”, the learner comprehends the text of the source language and
then change it into the target language.
In addition, according to Grace (2000), the use of translation in the mother tongue
helps the students in both short- term and long- term retention of words. Machida’s (2011)
finding also stregthtens this theory and she claims when people try to understand ideas or
meaning in Second Language or Foreign Language, L1 will naturally play major role in their
comprehension. Considering the results of the previous studies mentioned before, this study
will be focused on the identification of the possible problems that may be experienced by
native Indonesian students when English translation is used in their Chinese language
learning.
The second language element is vocabulary. During the past decades, researchers
and commentators have pointed to the importance of vocabulary acquisition for second
language (L2) learners (Allen, 1983; Laufer, 1986; Nation 1990; Richards, 1980, as cited in
Lawson & Hogben, 1996). In recent years, the teaching of vocabulary has assumed its
rightful place as a fundamentally important aspect of language development (Nunan, 1998).
Similarly, the definition of translation in the present study refers to use one
language as a base of understanding, remembering, or producing another language, both at
lexical and synthatic level, and also in either direction from the target of the source language
into the other language (Lioa, 2006). Folse (2004) claims that it is a myth that learning
vocabulary is not as important as learning grammar or other areas of language learning, when
in reality, vocabulary has extremely important role in language learning. (Chen & Chun, 2008
; Shoebottom, 2007).
Furthermore, Alemi and Tayebi (2011) said that recently, the importance of
vocabulary learning is emphasized because it plays a crucial role in language learning.
11
Shoebottom (2007) also adds that the more words the students know, the more they are able
to understand what they hear and read, furthermore, the another good effect is that they are
able to say what they want in spoken or written ways.
Vocabulary and language learning cannot be separated. Since sentences always
consist of words, then vocabulary will play a big role in how learner can comprehend text.
There is a close relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.
Vocabulary growth leads to improve reading comprehension, and amout of reading leads to
vocabulary growth. Carver (2003) also argued that the relationship between vocabulary
knowledge and reading comprehension is so strong that they can produce a perfect
correlation. Moreover, vocabulary knowledge is fundamental in comprehension process
(Nagy, 1997). Hudson (2007), also adds that having rich vocabulary knowledge will be a key
element of a better reading comprehension. Moreover, many foreign language readers find it
hard to comprehend a text because of lack of vocabulary and vocabulary learning strategy.
(Hyso & Tabaku, 2011).
Both vocabulary and translation,play an important role in foreign language learning
process. As Teubert (2002) claims, meaning is the core issue of translation. A translator
produces a paraphrase of the text in another language. Meaning and meaning alone, links a
paraphrase to the original text. It is important for the translators to learn the meaning, in order
to grasp the target language. Moreover, translation will guide the learners in comprehend the
meaning of texts they read, both short and long texts. When the learners get the meaning of
the text they read, they will acquire the successful of their learning. This is strengthen by
Ahmad and Hafeez (2011) finding that translation helps the learners to understand the text of
second language, and also analyze then restructure it into the other language. Husain’s
research (1995, as cited in Lioa, 2006) suggested, “Using translation had highly positive
12
effects on the low and intermediate [language] learners ... It was also discovered the students
who used translation tended to gain more in learning vocabulary and phrases ...”.
In addition, the use of translation at the advance level can help the learners to
improve their knowledge of the foreign language by making reference to their mother tongue,
and then help in learning clarify the similarities and differences between foreign language and
their mother tongue (Lioa, 2006). Translating foreign language into the learners’ native
language is a common learning strategies suggested by the teachers and done by the students.
Some researchers argued that teachers usually provide practical advice on teaching
vocabulary and encourage students’ language learning strategiesin vocabulary learning. In
spite of this, it is also not difficult to find language teachers who think that vocabulary can be
left to take care of itself, and there is also some experimental evidence to support that
position (Elley & Manghubhai, 1981). Graves (1987, as cited in Lawson & Hogben, 1996)
suggested that because students actually learn many new words independently, it makes sense
to encourage them in adopt personal plans to expand their vocabulary over time. At issue,
however, students will spontanously develop or adapt effective vocabulary learning practices
as result of their language learning experience.
In term of foreign language learning, there is a certain correlation between
vocabulary, translation, and dictionary. The most popular way of getting the meaning of new
words is to look it up in the dictionary (Schmitt, 1997). Takahashi (2012) also adds that
dictionary is one of the common learning tools for second or foreign language learners, and
there are various of dictionaries are used to help learners work on their language
development.
In order to verify the finding above, a study has been conducted on dictionary usage
in seven European countries, including over 1.100 learners of English (Atkins & Knowles,
13
1990, as cited in Takahashi, 2012). The result shows that consulting both monolingual and
bilingual dictionaries will assist the learning process.
Bilingual dictionaries defined as dictionaries that translate words from a language
into another language. Such dictionaries are important in this study because most of the
students use English – Indonesian dictionaries, or Chinese – Indonesian dictionary.
Moreover, according to Xu (2010), consulting to a bilingual dictionaries also help
learners to get more information about the target words. Bilingual dictionaries may be a great
help in enhancing the vocabulary of the target language (Jackson, 2002). Knight (1994, as
cited in Hayati & Fattahzadeh, 2006) also proved in his investigation that students who used
bilingual dictionary scored higher on all of the vocabulary test than who did not.
In spite of the facts above, Cook (2008) argued that the use of dictionaries, both
monolingual and bilingual, in language teaching has always been controversial in some areas.
Some feel that a dictionary can be deatructive, causing learners to be excessively dependent
on dictionary and misuse it because of their lack of knowledge about dictionary conventions
(Cardunen, 2003). It is not surprising to hear language teachers complaining about their
students misuses of dictionary (Takahashi, 2012).
The researchers has explored some possible errors in looking up dictionary, one of
the errors seemed to be that dictionary user paid attention to only certain parts of the definiton
(Nesi & Meara, 1994, as cited in Takahashi, 2012). Takahashi (2012) also claimed that
sometimes, students choose the definitions that did not fit in the context.
Furthermore, vocabulary is more than the lists of target language words, but it is as a
part of language system and intimately interrelated with grammar (Nunan, 1998). Since
vocabulary also cannot be separated from grammar and translation, Grammar Translation
Method should be discussed.
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Grammar Translation Method were aimed to prepare students to read and write
classical materials and to pas standardized exam (Howatt, 1984; Rivers, 1981, as cited in
Coady & Huckin, 1997). Since the student participants in this study studied foreign language
also need to translate grammatical sentences, their
successfulness of the goals of
comprehension skill in the target language was also needed to be investigated more. In the
recent study held by Kong (2011), she mentions that in the 21stcentury, students taught with
Grammar Translation Method has displayed some problems, such as emphasizing written
language only while lacking on oral expressive ability or even suffering from long term
inability of using foreign language they learned actively and passively, developing students’
habit of relying to much on translating everything into the mother language will influence
their ability to communicate using foreign language.
THE STUDY
Context of The Study
The setting of the study was at Xin You, a Chinese Language course in Semarang,
Central Java, Indonesia. This language instution offered two kinds of language class, they are
language class taught by native speakers, and the other by native Indonesian teachers. Some
of original coursebooks provided there were still using English translation and not yet
translated into Bahasa Indonesia. The target research of the study would be a Chinese
language class which the teachers used textbooks with English translation, and used English
to explain the Chinese grammar and vocabulary. Morever, the students’ background in each
available class were various since the level where the students should enroll was not decided
by their own will. The students’ level were decided through the admission test they took at
the first time the join Xin You. Hence, there were high school students, college students, and
working men studied Chinese language together in a class. Among the available levels, level
15
2 was choosen as the target research participants. In this level, students learned Chinese
vocabulary, followed by its basic grammar.
While the language used for translation is English, most of the students felt
confident to choose the Chinese native speaker’s class because the receptionist usually said
that the during the language learning, the materials would be delivered in an easy way and
there would be a big advantages to learn with an original tone of pronunciation.
Another reason of choosing this language institution was because it has a good rate
among the language courses in Semarang, and it has some native speakers of Chinese as the
teacher. So the learning quality also well trusted.
Participants
All of the participants were choosen from Xin You Language Centre, Semarang.
There were two groups of participants, which were the group of the teacher participants, and
the group of student participants.
The participants from students would be selected by using a random sampling
techniques so every individual in the population has the same chance to be included in the
survey (McKay, 2006, p.36). The number of participants for the students was five students
who were selected randomly from a class which the learning participants came from the same
level of learning. I took only five students since there were only 10 people in the classroom,
and they were selected from the same level because I assumed that level may be a
measurement of Chinese language proficiency level. In the research, I randomly selected the
students from level 2 in the institution to be interviewed. I selected level 2 students because
students from level 2 were still beginners and new in this language course, so I assumed they
would have some shocks or troubles since they were still in an adaptation process.
16
The participants from the teachers would be selected using a purposive sampling or
criterion based selection which is selecting the participants using certain criteria (Blackledge,
2001, p.57). The number of the teacher participants was two teachers. The reason I selected
only two teachers was because the limited number of native teachers who taught in this
language institution recently. Teachers who were choosen to be interviewed were the teachers
who used English translation during the learning progress, and also used textbooks or
activities sheets with English translation. Hence, there were some criterias in choosing the
participants :
-
Students from the beginner level (level 2) of Chinese language class in the institution
-
I choose.
Native Chinese teachers who taught in beginner level and used coursebooks which
were translated into English.
From that criteria, I planned to find what are the possible problems that might occur by using
English translation in Chinese language learning from the teacher’s point of view toward the
classroom improvement itself and also toward the students understanding. I also want to find
it outfrom the students point of view toward their learning process also. If they experience
any problem or not, and to identify the problems they have.
Instrument of data collection
In attempting to answer these research question, the data would be collected through
interview. The purpose of using interview as the data collection instrument was because the
purpose of this research was to determine individual responses through answer the interview
question directly, and direct responses of the participants (Onwuegbuzie, Leech, & Collins,
2010) were also needed to determine if the participant gave the best information they could
give. The interview was scheduled after the course was ended. The interview questions would
17
be differ between the question for the teacher and the question for the students. The questions
will have two focuses and purposes :
1. General focus and purpose
1.1 Interviewing the teacher, was to identify the teachers’ opinions of the Chinese
language teaching experience.
1.2 Interviewing the students, was to identify the students’ opinions of their Chinese
language learning experience, their background English education, and their
background knowledge of English and Chinese language before they enrolled in
those language course.
2. Specific focus and purpose,
2.1 Interviewing teachers, was to find out the problems that the students might have in
the classroom from the teachers’ point of view.
2.2 Interviewing students, was to find out the problems that the students might
experience while they learn Chinese using English translation in the classroom.
Data Collection Procedures
The study used of qualitative data. A semi structured interview type was adopted for
the study because the data collected from the interview would allow the researcher to
compare the responses across the participants, and also allows for individual diversity and
flexibility (Zacharias, 2011). The semi structured interview would involve a relatively fixed
interview schedule but the interview will still ask the interviewees to explain briefly or
clearly about their opinion on particular question. The interview will be 15-20 minutes long
in average. The answer of the interviewees would be recorded and transcribed. The interview
questions will be differ according to the two target participants, the interview was for the
native Chinese teachers, and for the students. The interview questions will also be divided
into two sections. The begining of the interview questions will be about the background
knowledge and background study from the students and the teachers toward English and
18
Chinese. In the middle until the end part of the interview would talk more about the specific
benefits from the teachers and the students point of view.
The data collection from the interview will be analyzed using content/thematic
analysis (Riessman, 2008) which is focusing on the content ot themes across the participants
(Zacharias, 2011).
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Based on the interview I conducted to answer the research question, “What are the
possible problems that may be experienced by native Indonesian students in Chinese
vocabulary learning that using English translation?”. As the answer of the students’ and also
the teachers’ representatives, I found two general problems that appear in Chinese language
classroom in XinYou Language Centre which was taught by the native chinese teacher. They
were difficulties in reading comprehension and the problems in using help device, here was
dictionary. Particularly, this research also answered, what disadvantages that may be emerged
by bilingual dictionaries compared to monolingual dictionaries that may cause boredom and
also eyes nuisance toward the students during the learning process as Martinez (2008)
claimed.
A. Difficulties in reading comprehension.
1. Teacher’s point of view
Generally the problem appeared when the students had to deal with a paragraph,
dialogue, or long sentences that the students have never encountered before, and they
were all translated in English. The students could not directly understand the exact
meaning when they were clueless about some words which appears in the
paragraphs, sentences, or dialogues they read. When they could not get or guess the
right meaning of a difficult vocabularyword, then they might fail on receiving the
19
information or the purpose of the passage they read. Below is the statement from one
of the teachers’ respondents :
I can say the difficulties [are] more on... on how the students understand the
whole meaning of some paragraphs or even sentences. I mean, when there is
a long dialogue or sentence that is written in hanyu, pinyin, and then
translated into English, not all of the students [would] directly understand
[them]. (Laoshi Tang)
In addition, Laoshi Lily, the second native teachers’ representative, said “ Students are
sigh-ing like “hmpff..” when we start to ask them to do some reading exercise, even
on the simple text we give to them.” Hence, the students are likely to avoid reading
tasks because they thought that it was difficult.
2. Student’s point of view
From the student representative’s point of view, the problem appeared on the same
place, which is likely what the teacher representative have said before. That is about
dealing with long paragraphs, long sentences, or long dialogues. One of the student
respondents stated,“It is difficult when the sentence is long or in paragraph.. When
there is words that is difficult I can’t understand the sentence sometimes. I have to
read more than once.. It make me lazy..”
The statement above gave more evidence that the problem generally appear when the
students had to deal with the long sentences, paragraph, or dialogue that are
completely translated in English. Because once the students found some words they
did not understand, then the students would stop reading, repeat their reading, or
consult their dictionaries.
Moreover, another student respondent also added :
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... my English is not really bad, but when I see a long hanyu pinyin text and it is
translated in English, I need some time to understand the Chinese text.. Because I
need to transfer my knowledge in English to the Chinese text.. Jadi, misalnya,
kalo di English grammarnya subject and then to be and the adverb misalnya, so I
transfer the grammar from English to Chinese. ... Sometimes [the] English
vocabulary used in the text also a bit difficult, when I guess the meaning but I
missed it, yaaa I will give the wrong answer for the question in the reading
comprehension task. (Student 2)
Vocabulary played a significant role in reading comprehension skill, so it could be concluded
that when the students failed to find the right meaning of certain vocabulary in the text they
read, the gathering information through the comprehension skill could not be successfully
completed.
According to Carver (1994), difficulties in reading comprehension are doubled when the
readers have to read academic texts in a foreign language. They may know some words or
may be able to use clues supplied by the text so they can guess the meanings of the uknown
words or to infer meanings that are implied. But they find it very hard to understand the
unknown texts because there are too many unknown words, then comprehension is disrupted.
For example, when the students were given a new reading text, they missed some words
meaning because they guessed it wrongly or they choose an inappropriate definition from the
dictionary.There were a huge possibility they missed the information provided in the text
when they have to answer reading comprehension questions.
This result is also strengthened by Hyso and Tabaku ( 2011).They said that the readers often
fail to learn the meaning of previously unknown words encountered in texts for different
21
reasons spontanously, for example failure to notice the unknown words as they believe they
know it, wrong guessing and lack of systematic work with new vocabulary.
B. Problem in Using the Help Devices.
1. Bilingual / Monolingual Dictionary
The beginner level students’ knowledgeof Chinese vocabulary were still
limited. That was why beginner students would have less possibilites of guessing
meanings directly from the Chinese language to their native language. That condition
forced the students to use a help device, in this study, both the teachers and the
students mostly preferred to use dictionaries as their help device. Here, the most
dictionaries used by the students were bilingual dictionaries, Chinese – Indonesian or
English – Indonesian. Although the students were allowed to use dictionary in the
classroom, they were still found a problem such as laziness, time ineffectiveness, and
wrong definition choosing.
1.1 Student’s attitude
Most of the students use English - Indonesian bilingual dictionaries. Those
simple reasons likely to happen to some native Indonesian students in Xin You
Language Centre who are not really good in English. Eventhough the students
were already assisted with dictionaries, some problems still exist in terms of
dictionary usage. Yudi, one of the student respondent, stated, “... my friends or
looking [up in] the dictionary when I don’t understand. When I’m busy with my
work, I will not do it, because it take a very long time and is also boring..”. Yudi
not only used dictionary to help his learning process during the classroom
activity, but also when he had to do his homework after the classroom activity.
Since he was working, he felt that looking up in the dictionary was very time
consuming and also boring.
Previous research shows some similar problems in the use of dictionaries.The
students’ problems of using bilingual dictionaries seems to be reflecting to the
22
respondent from the survey held by Martinez (2008). Which respondents are
students who use monolingual dictionary in their foreign language learning. This
problem may appear because the students are not yet accustomed to the use both
monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. This condition creates an uncomfortable
feeling for the native Indonesian students in Xin You Language Centre when they
have to look up for the meaning of the words they found. Eventhough they are
allowed to use bilingual dictionaries which is easier to use rather than
monolingual dictionaries.
On the other hand, other students argued that due to frequent use of
dictionaries, they become very dependent on them. Because of the dependency,
they become hesitant of guessing meaning, the prefer to look it up in the
dictionary right away instead of guessing meaning from the context. Moreover,
the dependency also impact on the students’ working morale. They lost their
confidence when they were not allowed to use dictionary. Siwi, one of the student
respondent said, “I always use dictionary to search for the words. ... Without
dictionaries, I become lazy to do the reading exercise..”. Another students’
representative also added, “... I use dictionaries when I don’t know words’
meaning. ... I feel afraid if I don’t bring dictionaries, takut kalo ga bisa kerjain..
hehehe..”.
1.2 Teacher’s opinions
The teachers’ opinion has a role to help the learners in their learning proccess.
Hence, teachers should help the students to solve their learning problems. One of
the problems was when the students had to deal with difficult vocabulary.
23
Laoshi Tang quoted, “I always make a rule, that every student should bring
their own dictionary. It can be Chinese- Indonesian, or English-Indonesian
dictionaries, or English – English dictionaries, depend on their own need.”.
Moreover, laoshi Lily also added, “ I agree with Laoshi Tang, my students usually
bring their dictionaries without I’m asking, sometimes I also allowed them to use
the dictionaries in the exam, just to help them ...”.
Through the statement above, I concluded that the students’ need of consulting dictionaries in
order to find the meaning of the difficult vocabulary that the students found in a long passage
was still a primary need. On the other hand, the teacher seemedto wanted to make the
students being accustomed in using the dictionaries to help their language learning.
Martinez (2008), who conducted a survey which employed 60 pre-basic English students,
reported that they prefer to use bilingual dictionaries instead of monolingual dictionaries.
They disliked to use monolingual dictionaries for three simple reasons : it took longer to look
up words, it was boring to look up words, and a nuisance to the eyes during look up.
On the other hand, Cardunan (2003) also claimed “The use of dictionary can cause the
learners to be totally dependent on dictionary ...”. This finding support the finding that the
student participants who answers about how dictionary impact on their language learning
process.
C. Others
Through the interview with the student participants, there are some problems that
appeared on each individual. Those problems were experienced by students but they have
not been studied in previous researches.
24
One of students’ participants stated that one of the problems he faced was the teacher’s
accent.“... when my teacher use English, aksennya, is not clear for me.. I should think
again and again, what she say...”, Yudi said. One of the students’ representative argued
that shecreated the learning strategies by herself, because she did not really like to use
dictionary.
“ ... I also take English course this time, ... I like to connect English grammar and
Chinese language structure. I think the grammar of English and Chinese is not really
different. ... to understand a chinese sentence, I translate the whole English sentence
first, and then I guess the meaning of the Chinese sentence will be same..” (Student 3)
This student translated English sentence to guess the meaning of the Chinese sentence
and she really paid attention on the grammar. Strategies used by this student was actually
can be related to another learning strategy, such as Grammar Translation Method.“
Another student also argued that she got personal problems such as demotivation
during their language learning. She said, “ ... I don’t like reading exercise. It is boring
and difficult. ... When it is very difficult, I feel I don’t want to study again...”.
There was still lack of studies about students’ mentality and students learning strategies
in foreign language learning. When students should learn a foreign language but the
translation used is also another foreign language, the strategies obtained differences with just
a simple Grammar Translation Method or Vocabulary acquisition using dictionary. Moreover,
the next study could be conducted in order to find out what is the best strategies to deal with
foreign language learning that provide another foreign language in its translation.
Furthermore, finding about students’ feeling such as being bored, frustated, and demotivated
could be investigated more in the next study in depth.
25
Conclusion
This study was aimed to find the possible problems that may appear when native
Indonesian students learned Chinese using English translation. This study has also
investigated how the learners and the teachers deal with the problems, and also supported by
some findings in terms of translation, vocabulary, and dictionary. The result of this study can
be concluded in two big points.
First, the problems appear when the students have to deal with long sentences,
paragraph, or long dialogue written in Chinese and translated into English. The students can
not directly understand the meaning, so that their comprehension process will be interrupted.
When the students failed in the comprehension process, then they will also failed to reach the
goal in understanding the text.
Second, teachers and the students use dictionaries as the help device while the
learning process is in progress. Most of the students prefer to use bilingual dictionaries rather
than monolingual dictionaries because bilingual dictionaries are easier to be used. As the
previous research claims, dictionary can be the very helpful in foreign language learning. On
the other hand, even the students are using bilingual dictionaries, they still get the difficulties.
Furthermore, it is better for the teacher and the students to find the way in order to overcome
those problems.
In conclusion, native Indonesian students in Xin You Language Centre, Semarang,
still deal with the problem of English translation and dictionary use in their Chinese language
learning. In order to deal with the translation problem, it would be better if the translation
used is the students’ mother tongue, here is Indonesian. Moreover, to overcome the problem
of dictionary use, the teacher and the students should work together. When using dictionary is
become a habit, there will be less difficulties appear during the look up. However, other
26
students’,from other language instituions, problems during their foreign language cannot be
generalized by the result of this research since the rules and conditions of each language
institution might be different as well.
Furthermore, the further research should be emphasized more to study about the
problems of the dictionay use and also on the problems, investigate the best foreign language
learning strategies, and also investigate more how students’ feeling affect their learning
progress.
\
References
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bilingual dictionaries. Language in India, 11.
Aich, P. (n.d.). Can Chinese Replace English as The Global Language?. Retrieved December
6, 2011, from http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles/Chinese-versus-English.asp
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Alemi, M., & Tayebi, A. (2011). The influence of incidental and intentional vocabulary
acquisition and vocabulary in learning L2 vocabulary. Journal of Language Teaching
and Research .
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minority urban setting. In A. Pavlenko, A. Blackledge, I Piller & M. Teusch-Dwyer
(Eds.), Multilingualism, second language learning, and gender. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Coady, J., & Huckin, T. (1997). Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Cambridge
Univeristy Press.
Cook, V. (2008). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching.
Crystal, D. (2003). English as Global Language (Second ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom:
The Press Syndicate of The University of Cambridge.
Faqeeh, A. I., & Mohamed, M. A. (2011). EFL learners' vocabulary acquisition in
translational writing. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2 (4), 918-928.
Harsono, Y. (2005). English language teaching in Indonesia. English. Edu, 5 (2), 93-107.
Hayati, M., & Fattahzadeh, A. (2006). The effect of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries on
vocabulary recall aand retention of EFL learners. 6 (2).
Hyso, K., & Tabaku, E. (2011). Importance of vocabulary teaching tp advance foreign
language students in improving reading comprehension. Problems of education in the
21st century, 29, 53-61.
28
Kong, N. (2011). Establishing a comprehensive pattern combining the communicative
teaching method and the grammar translation method. 4 (1).
Larotta, C. (2011). Second language learning and teaching : Still a hot topic. Journal of Adult
Education, 40 (1).
Lawson, M. J., & Hogben, D. (1996). The vocabulary learning strategies of foreign language
students. Language Learning, 46 (1), 101-135.
Lioa, P. (2006). EFL learners’ beliefs about and strategy use of translation in english learning.
Regional Language Centre Journal , 191-215.
Machida, S. (2011, July). Translation in teaching a foreign (second) language : A
methodological perspective. Journal of Language Teaching and Research , 740-746.
Marhum, M. (2009) English Language in Indonesian Schools in the era of Globalization.
Central Sulawesi.
McKay, S.L. (2006). Researching second language classroom. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Mei-fang, L. (2008). Teachers’ role in vocabulary teaching: strategies for vocabulary
teaching. Sino-US English Teaching 5 (8) .
Nunan, D. (1998). Second Language Teaching and Learning. Cambridge.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Leech, L. N., & Collins, M. K. (2010). Innovative data collection
strategies in qualitative research. The Qualitative Report, 15 (3), 696-726.
Prichard, C. (2008). Evaluating L2 reader's vocabulary strategies and dictionary use. Reading
in a Foreign Language, 20 (2), 216-231.
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Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks,
CA:Sage Publications, Inc.
Takahashi, C. (2012). Impact of dictionary use skills instruction on second language writing.
Teodorescu, A. (2010). Multiple perspectives on english as an international language. Seria
Filologie, I.XII (2), 75-80.
Wu, M. (n.d.). Learners’ beliefs and the use of metacognitive language-learning strategies of
chinese-speaking ESL Learners. Asian EFL Journal , 308-336.
Zacharias, N. T. (2011). Qualitative methods for: Second language education: A coursebook.
Salatiga.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
After this long and hard journey of finishing this thesis, I can finally finish working
on my thesis. I would like to give my greatest gratitude toward God Almighty, Jesus Christ,
for the guidances, for loving me this much and strenghten me throughout the completion of
this thesis. I would like to thank my supervisor, Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M.Ed, for your
30
guidances, advices, corrections, suggestions for me. My examiner, Dr. Elisabet Titik
Murtisari, SPd. MTransStudfor the willingness to spare your time to read and examine my
thesis. My beloved parents, Budi Sutikno and Catharina Maria S. for the uncountable love,
support, and prayers. My dearest boyfriend, ko Bon2 “Bulet”, for always stand by my side,
understand, and strenghten me. My wonderful girlfriends, Anne Marciagani and Ratih
Rakasiwi for the friendship, and also teachers and students of Xin You Chinese Language
Course.
Salatiga, May 2013
Veny Frissilia
Appendix
Interview Transcription
Teacher
31
For teacher
- Native Chinese teacher
Q : Good afternoon laoshi, may I have your time?
A : Good afternoon, yes, my pleasure.
Q: In this interview, which one is more comfortable for you, I use English or Indonesian?
A : English is okay..
Q : Oh okay, so, may I have your name?
A : My name is Tang Siaw Ing. You can call me laoshi Tang.
Q : Oh ok laoshi Tang, how long have you been live in Indonesia?
A : Hmm.. I think I live in Indonesia for about 20 years.
Q : How long have you been teaching in this language institution?
A : About 7 or 8 years I think.
Q: How’s your feeling of teaching here
A : Ya, before I started to teach here, I taught Mandarin in an International Senior High
School. My feeling was totally different. I can say, I prefer to teach here. Because the
students are willling to work harder, because they come here because they want and they
think they need to learn Chinese language.
Q: Oh great, so how many levels do you handle in this institution?
A : Mmm.. I handle almost all levels.. Haha.. Mostly in the private course, I’m available for
any level.
Q : Hahaha.. Okay.. So what kind of methodologies that you usually use when you have to
deliver new vocabulary to the students?
A : It has been standardized here, I taught based on the books provided.. Each students have
their own books. It the beginner levels, I usually ask the students to understand the
meaning first, and then memorize it by themselves. If I teach the intermediate or
advance levels, it’s easier, most of the students have their own way to understand the new
vocab.
Q : Oh I see, so what translation do you usually use to introduce the new vocabulary to the
students in t
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment
of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Veny Frissilia
112009004
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment
of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Veny Frissilia
112009004
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
2
3
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
___________________________________________________________________________
As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian University academic community, I
verify that :
Name :
Veny Frissilia
Student ID Number : 112009004
Study Program:
English Department
Faculty:
Faculty of Language and Literature
Kind of Work:
Ungraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with non-exclusive royalty free right
for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled :
PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
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With this non-exclusive royalty free right, SWCU maintains to right to copy, reproduce, print,
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This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in
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Date
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Verified by signee,
Veny Frissilia
Approved by :
Thesis Supervisor
Thesis Examiner
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Dr. Elisabet Titik Murtisari, SPd. MtransStud
4
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such materials as has been submitted for examination in any courses
or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any
other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Veny Frissilia and Anne Indrayanti Timotius,
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Veny Frissilia :
5
Table of Content :
Cover Page
Inside Cover Page............................................................................................................. .i
Approval Page....................................................................................................................ii
Public Declaration Agreement...........................................................................................iii
Copyright statement...........................................................................................................iv
Table of Content.................................................................................................................v
Abstract..............................................................................................................................1
Introduction.......................................................................................................................1
Literature Review..............................................................................................................4
The Study
Context of The Study..........................................................................................9
Participants..........................................................................................................10
Instrument of Data Collection.............................................................................11
Data Collection Procedures.................................................................................12
Discussion........................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................20
References.......................................................................................................................22
Acknowledgement..........................................................................................................25
Appendix........................................................................................................................26
6
PROBLEMS IN LEARNING CHINESE VOCABULARY USING
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Abstract
This study aimed at investigating some possible problems that may appear during the process
of Chinese language learning that use English translation. Considering that vocabulary and
translation are connected to each other and they are very essential for the foreign language
learners, the background of this study will focus on finding theories and data about
vocabulary learning, in its relation with translation, and also how the use of dictionary
impacts on translation and vocabulary acquisition. The data was collected through interview
with respondents, and the data collection will be analyzed qualitatively. This study shows
that, there are two major problems that are appear during the learning process:difficulties in
handling long sentences and how the students use dictionaries as the tool to help them during
the foreign language learning process.
Keywords: Problems, Translation, Vocabulary, Dictionary, Foreign Language.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, many education institutions in Indonesia offer various kinds of language
education with various kind of methods,one of which the use of bilingual education. The
purpose of learning a foreign language of every single individual can be different.In
Indonesia, people mostly choose to study English and Chinese among other foreign
languagesbecause they are crucial for International communication and education. At present
English is used as mother language (L1), second language (L2), and also foreign language
(EFL) by people worldwide. Chinese language, also participates in language domination
because the number of native speakers’ population of Chinese language take the second place
of the whole population (Harsono, 2005). So, it makes sense if many aspects of life such
economic, social and education are dominated by the English speakers and Chinese speakers.
English education are now much more widespread. Nowadays, English educations
are not only provided for school needs, now it is available for young learners for their
educational needs until adult learnersfor their bussiness needs. Following the trend, some
senior and junior high school in big cities put Chinese language as one of the extracurricular
7
subject. At the same time, people with certain purpose of learning Chinese, usually take the
language courses outside the school or work time. Moreover, manyschools in Indonesia
nowadays require their students to use English as their second language because some
schools require the students to use English fully in the classroom. At the same time, students
are also required to learn Chinese language. Because these two languages are still new for
native Indonesian students in majority, so they are now in the process of finding the best
strategies so they can master English and Chinese as well.
In the past few years, schools provided Chinese language extracurricular to maintain
their credibility, because of the general point of view that schools using the most up to date
methods and an international basis will also have a good quality.Recently, not only as an
extracurricular subject, Chinese languagehas become one of main language courses in some
Junior High Schools and Senior High Schools. Since many people believe that English and
Chinese are needed for education and occupation. Later, people need to acquire these two
language well in order to bring success in their careers.
Since people’s needs of learning Chinese are increasing nowadays, the existence of
Chinese language courses in Indonesia are also affected. Lately, there are many Chinese
language courses in Indonesia. Even most of the language courses that used to only offer
English courses, now also open new classes for Chinese language. There are various kinds of
methods, benefits, and prices offered by different language courses.There are some language
courses that offer some special benefits because the students will be taught by native teachers,
or maybe with a newest method so the students can master the language faster, etc. Since
there are many available choices, people just need to choose, where they want to study.
There are various kinds of methods and approaches used in language teaching. One
of the method is translation. As stated by Lioa (2006), translation means transfering meanings
8
and conveying messages. It is also viewed as one of the strategies that is usually used by the
learners to learn a foreign language(Lioa, 2006). Crystal (2003) also argued that translation
has taken animportant role in human communication for years. As Lioa (2006) said, using
translation in learning a foreign language have some advantages for students. It makes the
students feel easier to develop their ideas, then it will help them to express their thoughts and
opinions more clearly, and some words meaning can be easier to find through dictionaries.
On the other hand, translation can also be used to support vocabulary learning.
Vocabularyis one of basic foundations that will help the students significantly in
many language skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing (Alemi & Tayebi
2011), because without vocabulary, people can not convey their ideas. Hence, vocabulary
learning strategies are also important to consider in foreign language learning.
This study will briefly discuss the issueon how translation is used in foreign
language teaching as a language teaching methods. Translation can help in vocabulary
acquisition. Research result revealed the superiority of using translation in learning
vocabulary in terms of quantity of words learned (Lioa, 2006) . Prince (1996, as cited in
Lioa,2006) stated that researchers believed that strategic learners can make intelligent use of
the list of their L1 skills and translation in order to learn a new language. Such statements
have motivated me to conduct this research.
In addition, I have also learned Chinese using English translation and found it
beneficial for my language learning, especially in my English language acquisition process.It
improved my English through many ways. For example, when I do not know what was the
meaning of the English translation I would ask my friends or looked it up in the dictionary. I
could obtain many new vocabulary wordsin this way. In spite of this, I also find the method
somewhat problematic because it made me depend too much on dictionaries.In this research,
9
I would like to investigate if this learning method also creates problems for native Indonesian
studentswho learn Chinese vocabulary at the beginner level using English translation.
With the above reasons, I would like to analyze and study about the use of English
translation in Chinese vocabulary learning for native Indonesian students at the beginner level
in Xin You Language Centre, Semarang.I would like to investigate theproblemswhich
apparent and affect students’ understanding in their Chinese language learning.
Furthermore, this study will seek to answer one research question which is “What
are the possible problems that may be experienced by native Indonesian students from Xin
You Language Centre in Chinese vocabulary learning that using textbook ith English
translation?”
LITERATURE REVIEW
This study focuses on translation and vocabulary as two major of language elements.
First is translation. Translation is one of the oldest methodologies in Second Language or
Foreign Language (Machida, 2011). Chamot (1987, as cited in Lioa, 2006) described that
translation strategy as using the first language as a basis for understanding or producing the
second language.
Moreover, Chang (2011) stated that translation from a foreign language to the L1
can help learners to understand the influence of an language to other language. In his journal,
Chang (2011) also adds a quote from Chellapan (1982) which pointed out that translation
could make the students come to closer grips with the target language. Hence, students need
to understand the meaning when they read texts through the comprehension process.
Translation can help the students to pass this comprehension stage as what Bonyadi (2003)
claims that translation develops the reading comprehension ability of the students, during this
10
process of “conscious learning”, the learner comprehends the text of the source language and
then change it into the target language.
In addition, according to Grace (2000), the use of translation in the mother tongue
helps the students in both short- term and long- term retention of words. Machida’s (2011)
finding also stregthtens this theory and she claims when people try to understand ideas or
meaning in Second Language or Foreign Language, L1 will naturally play major role in their
comprehension. Considering the results of the previous studies mentioned before, this study
will be focused on the identification of the possible problems that may be experienced by
native Indonesian students when English translation is used in their Chinese language
learning.
The second language element is vocabulary. During the past decades, researchers
and commentators have pointed to the importance of vocabulary acquisition for second
language (L2) learners (Allen, 1983; Laufer, 1986; Nation 1990; Richards, 1980, as cited in
Lawson & Hogben, 1996). In recent years, the teaching of vocabulary has assumed its
rightful place as a fundamentally important aspect of language development (Nunan, 1998).
Similarly, the definition of translation in the present study refers to use one
language as a base of understanding, remembering, or producing another language, both at
lexical and synthatic level, and also in either direction from the target of the source language
into the other language (Lioa, 2006). Folse (2004) claims that it is a myth that learning
vocabulary is not as important as learning grammar or other areas of language learning, when
in reality, vocabulary has extremely important role in language learning. (Chen & Chun, 2008
; Shoebottom, 2007).
Furthermore, Alemi and Tayebi (2011) said that recently, the importance of
vocabulary learning is emphasized because it plays a crucial role in language learning.
11
Shoebottom (2007) also adds that the more words the students know, the more they are able
to understand what they hear and read, furthermore, the another good effect is that they are
able to say what they want in spoken or written ways.
Vocabulary and language learning cannot be separated. Since sentences always
consist of words, then vocabulary will play a big role in how learner can comprehend text.
There is a close relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.
Vocabulary growth leads to improve reading comprehension, and amout of reading leads to
vocabulary growth. Carver (2003) also argued that the relationship between vocabulary
knowledge and reading comprehension is so strong that they can produce a perfect
correlation. Moreover, vocabulary knowledge is fundamental in comprehension process
(Nagy, 1997). Hudson (2007), also adds that having rich vocabulary knowledge will be a key
element of a better reading comprehension. Moreover, many foreign language readers find it
hard to comprehend a text because of lack of vocabulary and vocabulary learning strategy.
(Hyso & Tabaku, 2011).
Both vocabulary and translation,play an important role in foreign language learning
process. As Teubert (2002) claims, meaning is the core issue of translation. A translator
produces a paraphrase of the text in another language. Meaning and meaning alone, links a
paraphrase to the original text. It is important for the translators to learn the meaning, in order
to grasp the target language. Moreover, translation will guide the learners in comprehend the
meaning of texts they read, both short and long texts. When the learners get the meaning of
the text they read, they will acquire the successful of their learning. This is strengthen by
Ahmad and Hafeez (2011) finding that translation helps the learners to understand the text of
second language, and also analyze then restructure it into the other language. Husain’s
research (1995, as cited in Lioa, 2006) suggested, “Using translation had highly positive
12
effects on the low and intermediate [language] learners ... It was also discovered the students
who used translation tended to gain more in learning vocabulary and phrases ...”.
In addition, the use of translation at the advance level can help the learners to
improve their knowledge of the foreign language by making reference to their mother tongue,
and then help in learning clarify the similarities and differences between foreign language and
their mother tongue (Lioa, 2006). Translating foreign language into the learners’ native
language is a common learning strategies suggested by the teachers and done by the students.
Some researchers argued that teachers usually provide practical advice on teaching
vocabulary and encourage students’ language learning strategiesin vocabulary learning. In
spite of this, it is also not difficult to find language teachers who think that vocabulary can be
left to take care of itself, and there is also some experimental evidence to support that
position (Elley & Manghubhai, 1981). Graves (1987, as cited in Lawson & Hogben, 1996)
suggested that because students actually learn many new words independently, it makes sense
to encourage them in adopt personal plans to expand their vocabulary over time. At issue,
however, students will spontanously develop or adapt effective vocabulary learning practices
as result of their language learning experience.
In term of foreign language learning, there is a certain correlation between
vocabulary, translation, and dictionary. The most popular way of getting the meaning of new
words is to look it up in the dictionary (Schmitt, 1997). Takahashi (2012) also adds that
dictionary is one of the common learning tools for second or foreign language learners, and
there are various of dictionaries are used to help learners work on their language
development.
In order to verify the finding above, a study has been conducted on dictionary usage
in seven European countries, including over 1.100 learners of English (Atkins & Knowles,
13
1990, as cited in Takahashi, 2012). The result shows that consulting both monolingual and
bilingual dictionaries will assist the learning process.
Bilingual dictionaries defined as dictionaries that translate words from a language
into another language. Such dictionaries are important in this study because most of the
students use English – Indonesian dictionaries, or Chinese – Indonesian dictionary.
Moreover, according to Xu (2010), consulting to a bilingual dictionaries also help
learners to get more information about the target words. Bilingual dictionaries may be a great
help in enhancing the vocabulary of the target language (Jackson, 2002). Knight (1994, as
cited in Hayati & Fattahzadeh, 2006) also proved in his investigation that students who used
bilingual dictionary scored higher on all of the vocabulary test than who did not.
In spite of the facts above, Cook (2008) argued that the use of dictionaries, both
monolingual and bilingual, in language teaching has always been controversial in some areas.
Some feel that a dictionary can be deatructive, causing learners to be excessively dependent
on dictionary and misuse it because of their lack of knowledge about dictionary conventions
(Cardunen, 2003). It is not surprising to hear language teachers complaining about their
students misuses of dictionary (Takahashi, 2012).
The researchers has explored some possible errors in looking up dictionary, one of
the errors seemed to be that dictionary user paid attention to only certain parts of the definiton
(Nesi & Meara, 1994, as cited in Takahashi, 2012). Takahashi (2012) also claimed that
sometimes, students choose the definitions that did not fit in the context.
Furthermore, vocabulary is more than the lists of target language words, but it is as a
part of language system and intimately interrelated with grammar (Nunan, 1998). Since
vocabulary also cannot be separated from grammar and translation, Grammar Translation
Method should be discussed.
14
Grammar Translation Method were aimed to prepare students to read and write
classical materials and to pas standardized exam (Howatt, 1984; Rivers, 1981, as cited in
Coady & Huckin, 1997). Since the student participants in this study studied foreign language
also need to translate grammatical sentences, their
successfulness of the goals of
comprehension skill in the target language was also needed to be investigated more. In the
recent study held by Kong (2011), she mentions that in the 21stcentury, students taught with
Grammar Translation Method has displayed some problems, such as emphasizing written
language only while lacking on oral expressive ability or even suffering from long term
inability of using foreign language they learned actively and passively, developing students’
habit of relying to much on translating everything into the mother language will influence
their ability to communicate using foreign language.
THE STUDY
Context of The Study
The setting of the study was at Xin You, a Chinese Language course in Semarang,
Central Java, Indonesia. This language instution offered two kinds of language class, they are
language class taught by native speakers, and the other by native Indonesian teachers. Some
of original coursebooks provided there were still using English translation and not yet
translated into Bahasa Indonesia. The target research of the study would be a Chinese
language class which the teachers used textbooks with English translation, and used English
to explain the Chinese grammar and vocabulary. Morever, the students’ background in each
available class were various since the level where the students should enroll was not decided
by their own will. The students’ level were decided through the admission test they took at
the first time the join Xin You. Hence, there were high school students, college students, and
working men studied Chinese language together in a class. Among the available levels, level
15
2 was choosen as the target research participants. In this level, students learned Chinese
vocabulary, followed by its basic grammar.
While the language used for translation is English, most of the students felt
confident to choose the Chinese native speaker’s class because the receptionist usually said
that the during the language learning, the materials would be delivered in an easy way and
there would be a big advantages to learn with an original tone of pronunciation.
Another reason of choosing this language institution was because it has a good rate
among the language courses in Semarang, and it has some native speakers of Chinese as the
teacher. So the learning quality also well trusted.
Participants
All of the participants were choosen from Xin You Language Centre, Semarang.
There were two groups of participants, which were the group of the teacher participants, and
the group of student participants.
The participants from students would be selected by using a random sampling
techniques so every individual in the population has the same chance to be included in the
survey (McKay, 2006, p.36). The number of participants for the students was five students
who were selected randomly from a class which the learning participants came from the same
level of learning. I took only five students since there were only 10 people in the classroom,
and they were selected from the same level because I assumed that level may be a
measurement of Chinese language proficiency level. In the research, I randomly selected the
students from level 2 in the institution to be interviewed. I selected level 2 students because
students from level 2 were still beginners and new in this language course, so I assumed they
would have some shocks or troubles since they were still in an adaptation process.
16
The participants from the teachers would be selected using a purposive sampling or
criterion based selection which is selecting the participants using certain criteria (Blackledge,
2001, p.57). The number of the teacher participants was two teachers. The reason I selected
only two teachers was because the limited number of native teachers who taught in this
language institution recently. Teachers who were choosen to be interviewed were the teachers
who used English translation during the learning progress, and also used textbooks or
activities sheets with English translation. Hence, there were some criterias in choosing the
participants :
-
Students from the beginner level (level 2) of Chinese language class in the institution
-
I choose.
Native Chinese teachers who taught in beginner level and used coursebooks which
were translated into English.
From that criteria, I planned to find what are the possible problems that might occur by using
English translation in Chinese language learning from the teacher’s point of view toward the
classroom improvement itself and also toward the students understanding. I also want to find
it outfrom the students point of view toward their learning process also. If they experience
any problem or not, and to identify the problems they have.
Instrument of data collection
In attempting to answer these research question, the data would be collected through
interview. The purpose of using interview as the data collection instrument was because the
purpose of this research was to determine individual responses through answer the interview
question directly, and direct responses of the participants (Onwuegbuzie, Leech, & Collins,
2010) were also needed to determine if the participant gave the best information they could
give. The interview was scheduled after the course was ended. The interview questions would
17
be differ between the question for the teacher and the question for the students. The questions
will have two focuses and purposes :
1. General focus and purpose
1.1 Interviewing the teacher, was to identify the teachers’ opinions of the Chinese
language teaching experience.
1.2 Interviewing the students, was to identify the students’ opinions of their Chinese
language learning experience, their background English education, and their
background knowledge of English and Chinese language before they enrolled in
those language course.
2. Specific focus and purpose,
2.1 Interviewing teachers, was to find out the problems that the students might have in
the classroom from the teachers’ point of view.
2.2 Interviewing students, was to find out the problems that the students might
experience while they learn Chinese using English translation in the classroom.
Data Collection Procedures
The study used of qualitative data. A semi structured interview type was adopted for
the study because the data collected from the interview would allow the researcher to
compare the responses across the participants, and also allows for individual diversity and
flexibility (Zacharias, 2011). The semi structured interview would involve a relatively fixed
interview schedule but the interview will still ask the interviewees to explain briefly or
clearly about their opinion on particular question. The interview will be 15-20 minutes long
in average. The answer of the interviewees would be recorded and transcribed. The interview
questions will be differ according to the two target participants, the interview was for the
native Chinese teachers, and for the students. The interview questions will also be divided
into two sections. The begining of the interview questions will be about the background
knowledge and background study from the students and the teachers toward English and
18
Chinese. In the middle until the end part of the interview would talk more about the specific
benefits from the teachers and the students point of view.
The data collection from the interview will be analyzed using content/thematic
analysis (Riessman, 2008) which is focusing on the content ot themes across the participants
(Zacharias, 2011).
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Based on the interview I conducted to answer the research question, “What are the
possible problems that may be experienced by native Indonesian students in Chinese
vocabulary learning that using English translation?”. As the answer of the students’ and also
the teachers’ representatives, I found two general problems that appear in Chinese language
classroom in XinYou Language Centre which was taught by the native chinese teacher. They
were difficulties in reading comprehension and the problems in using help device, here was
dictionary. Particularly, this research also answered, what disadvantages that may be emerged
by bilingual dictionaries compared to monolingual dictionaries that may cause boredom and
also eyes nuisance toward the students during the learning process as Martinez (2008)
claimed.
A. Difficulties in reading comprehension.
1. Teacher’s point of view
Generally the problem appeared when the students had to deal with a paragraph,
dialogue, or long sentences that the students have never encountered before, and they
were all translated in English. The students could not directly understand the exact
meaning when they were clueless about some words which appears in the
paragraphs, sentences, or dialogues they read. When they could not get or guess the
right meaning of a difficult vocabularyword, then they might fail on receiving the
19
information or the purpose of the passage they read. Below is the statement from one
of the teachers’ respondents :
I can say the difficulties [are] more on... on how the students understand the
whole meaning of some paragraphs or even sentences. I mean, when there is
a long dialogue or sentence that is written in hanyu, pinyin, and then
translated into English, not all of the students [would] directly understand
[them]. (Laoshi Tang)
In addition, Laoshi Lily, the second native teachers’ representative, said “ Students are
sigh-ing like “hmpff..” when we start to ask them to do some reading exercise, even
on the simple text we give to them.” Hence, the students are likely to avoid reading
tasks because they thought that it was difficult.
2. Student’s point of view
From the student representative’s point of view, the problem appeared on the same
place, which is likely what the teacher representative have said before. That is about
dealing with long paragraphs, long sentences, or long dialogues. One of the student
respondents stated,“It is difficult when the sentence is long or in paragraph.. When
there is words that is difficult I can’t understand the sentence sometimes. I have to
read more than once.. It make me lazy..”
The statement above gave more evidence that the problem generally appear when the
students had to deal with the long sentences, paragraph, or dialogue that are
completely translated in English. Because once the students found some words they
did not understand, then the students would stop reading, repeat their reading, or
consult their dictionaries.
Moreover, another student respondent also added :
20
... my English is not really bad, but when I see a long hanyu pinyin text and it is
translated in English, I need some time to understand the Chinese text.. Because I
need to transfer my knowledge in English to the Chinese text.. Jadi, misalnya,
kalo di English grammarnya subject and then to be and the adverb misalnya, so I
transfer the grammar from English to Chinese. ... Sometimes [the] English
vocabulary used in the text also a bit difficult, when I guess the meaning but I
missed it, yaaa I will give the wrong answer for the question in the reading
comprehension task. (Student 2)
Vocabulary played a significant role in reading comprehension skill, so it could be concluded
that when the students failed to find the right meaning of certain vocabulary in the text they
read, the gathering information through the comprehension skill could not be successfully
completed.
According to Carver (1994), difficulties in reading comprehension are doubled when the
readers have to read academic texts in a foreign language. They may know some words or
may be able to use clues supplied by the text so they can guess the meanings of the uknown
words or to infer meanings that are implied. But they find it very hard to understand the
unknown texts because there are too many unknown words, then comprehension is disrupted.
For example, when the students were given a new reading text, they missed some words
meaning because they guessed it wrongly or they choose an inappropriate definition from the
dictionary.There were a huge possibility they missed the information provided in the text
when they have to answer reading comprehension questions.
This result is also strengthened by Hyso and Tabaku ( 2011).They said that the readers often
fail to learn the meaning of previously unknown words encountered in texts for different
21
reasons spontanously, for example failure to notice the unknown words as they believe they
know it, wrong guessing and lack of systematic work with new vocabulary.
B. Problem in Using the Help Devices.
1. Bilingual / Monolingual Dictionary
The beginner level students’ knowledgeof Chinese vocabulary were still
limited. That was why beginner students would have less possibilites of guessing
meanings directly from the Chinese language to their native language. That condition
forced the students to use a help device, in this study, both the teachers and the
students mostly preferred to use dictionaries as their help device. Here, the most
dictionaries used by the students were bilingual dictionaries, Chinese – Indonesian or
English – Indonesian. Although the students were allowed to use dictionary in the
classroom, they were still found a problem such as laziness, time ineffectiveness, and
wrong definition choosing.
1.1 Student’s attitude
Most of the students use English - Indonesian bilingual dictionaries. Those
simple reasons likely to happen to some native Indonesian students in Xin You
Language Centre who are not really good in English. Eventhough the students
were already assisted with dictionaries, some problems still exist in terms of
dictionary usage. Yudi, one of the student respondent, stated, “... my friends or
looking [up in] the dictionary when I don’t understand. When I’m busy with my
work, I will not do it, because it take a very long time and is also boring..”. Yudi
not only used dictionary to help his learning process during the classroom
activity, but also when he had to do his homework after the classroom activity.
Since he was working, he felt that looking up in the dictionary was very time
consuming and also boring.
Previous research shows some similar problems in the use of dictionaries.The
students’ problems of using bilingual dictionaries seems to be reflecting to the
22
respondent from the survey held by Martinez (2008). Which respondents are
students who use monolingual dictionary in their foreign language learning. This
problem may appear because the students are not yet accustomed to the use both
monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. This condition creates an uncomfortable
feeling for the native Indonesian students in Xin You Language Centre when they
have to look up for the meaning of the words they found. Eventhough they are
allowed to use bilingual dictionaries which is easier to use rather than
monolingual dictionaries.
On the other hand, other students argued that due to frequent use of
dictionaries, they become very dependent on them. Because of the dependency,
they become hesitant of guessing meaning, the prefer to look it up in the
dictionary right away instead of guessing meaning from the context. Moreover,
the dependency also impact on the students’ working morale. They lost their
confidence when they were not allowed to use dictionary. Siwi, one of the student
respondent said, “I always use dictionary to search for the words. ... Without
dictionaries, I become lazy to do the reading exercise..”. Another students’
representative also added, “... I use dictionaries when I don’t know words’
meaning. ... I feel afraid if I don’t bring dictionaries, takut kalo ga bisa kerjain..
hehehe..”.
1.2 Teacher’s opinions
The teachers’ opinion has a role to help the learners in their learning proccess.
Hence, teachers should help the students to solve their learning problems. One of
the problems was when the students had to deal with difficult vocabulary.
23
Laoshi Tang quoted, “I always make a rule, that every student should bring
their own dictionary. It can be Chinese- Indonesian, or English-Indonesian
dictionaries, or English – English dictionaries, depend on their own need.”.
Moreover, laoshi Lily also added, “ I agree with Laoshi Tang, my students usually
bring their dictionaries without I’m asking, sometimes I also allowed them to use
the dictionaries in the exam, just to help them ...”.
Through the statement above, I concluded that the students’ need of consulting dictionaries in
order to find the meaning of the difficult vocabulary that the students found in a long passage
was still a primary need. On the other hand, the teacher seemedto wanted to make the
students being accustomed in using the dictionaries to help their language learning.
Martinez (2008), who conducted a survey which employed 60 pre-basic English students,
reported that they prefer to use bilingual dictionaries instead of monolingual dictionaries.
They disliked to use monolingual dictionaries for three simple reasons : it took longer to look
up words, it was boring to look up words, and a nuisance to the eyes during look up.
On the other hand, Cardunan (2003) also claimed “The use of dictionary can cause the
learners to be totally dependent on dictionary ...”. This finding support the finding that the
student participants who answers about how dictionary impact on their language learning
process.
C. Others
Through the interview with the student participants, there are some problems that
appeared on each individual. Those problems were experienced by students but they have
not been studied in previous researches.
24
One of students’ participants stated that one of the problems he faced was the teacher’s
accent.“... when my teacher use English, aksennya, is not clear for me.. I should think
again and again, what she say...”, Yudi said. One of the students’ representative argued
that shecreated the learning strategies by herself, because she did not really like to use
dictionary.
“ ... I also take English course this time, ... I like to connect English grammar and
Chinese language structure. I think the grammar of English and Chinese is not really
different. ... to understand a chinese sentence, I translate the whole English sentence
first, and then I guess the meaning of the Chinese sentence will be same..” (Student 3)
This student translated English sentence to guess the meaning of the Chinese sentence
and she really paid attention on the grammar. Strategies used by this student was actually
can be related to another learning strategy, such as Grammar Translation Method.“
Another student also argued that she got personal problems such as demotivation
during their language learning. She said, “ ... I don’t like reading exercise. It is boring
and difficult. ... When it is very difficult, I feel I don’t want to study again...”.
There was still lack of studies about students’ mentality and students learning strategies
in foreign language learning. When students should learn a foreign language but the
translation used is also another foreign language, the strategies obtained differences with just
a simple Grammar Translation Method or Vocabulary acquisition using dictionary. Moreover,
the next study could be conducted in order to find out what is the best strategies to deal with
foreign language learning that provide another foreign language in its translation.
Furthermore, finding about students’ feeling such as being bored, frustated, and demotivated
could be investigated more in the next study in depth.
25
Conclusion
This study was aimed to find the possible problems that may appear when native
Indonesian students learned Chinese using English translation. This study has also
investigated how the learners and the teachers deal with the problems, and also supported by
some findings in terms of translation, vocabulary, and dictionary. The result of this study can
be concluded in two big points.
First, the problems appear when the students have to deal with long sentences,
paragraph, or long dialogue written in Chinese and translated into English. The students can
not directly understand the meaning, so that their comprehension process will be interrupted.
When the students failed in the comprehension process, then they will also failed to reach the
goal in understanding the text.
Second, teachers and the students use dictionaries as the help device while the
learning process is in progress. Most of the students prefer to use bilingual dictionaries rather
than monolingual dictionaries because bilingual dictionaries are easier to be used. As the
previous research claims, dictionary can be the very helpful in foreign language learning. On
the other hand, even the students are using bilingual dictionaries, they still get the difficulties.
Furthermore, it is better for the teacher and the students to find the way in order to overcome
those problems.
In conclusion, native Indonesian students in Xin You Language Centre, Semarang,
still deal with the problem of English translation and dictionary use in their Chinese language
learning. In order to deal with the translation problem, it would be better if the translation
used is the students’ mother tongue, here is Indonesian. Moreover, to overcome the problem
of dictionary use, the teacher and the students should work together. When using dictionary is
become a habit, there will be less difficulties appear during the look up. However, other
26
students’,from other language instituions, problems during their foreign language cannot be
generalized by the result of this research since the rules and conditions of each language
institution might be different as well.
Furthermore, the further research should be emphasized more to study about the
problems of the dictionay use and also on the problems, investigate the best foreign language
learning strategies, and also investigate more how students’ feeling affect their learning
progress.
\
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
After this long and hard journey of finishing this thesis, I can finally finish working
on my thesis. I would like to give my greatest gratitude toward God Almighty, Jesus Christ,
for the guidances, for loving me this much and strenghten me throughout the completion of
this thesis. I would like to thank my supervisor, Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M.Ed, for your
30
guidances, advices, corrections, suggestions for me. My examiner, Dr. Elisabet Titik
Murtisari, SPd. MTransStudfor the willingness to spare your time to read and examine my
thesis. My beloved parents, Budi Sutikno and Catharina Maria S. for the uncountable love,
support, and prayers. My dearest boyfriend, ko Bon2 “Bulet”, for always stand by my side,
understand, and strenghten me. My wonderful girlfriends, Anne Marciagani and Ratih
Rakasiwi for the friendship, and also teachers and students of Xin You Chinese Language
Course.
Salatiga, May 2013
Veny Frissilia
Appendix
Interview Transcription
Teacher
31
For teacher
- Native Chinese teacher
Q : Good afternoon laoshi, may I have your time?
A : Good afternoon, yes, my pleasure.
Q: In this interview, which one is more comfortable for you, I use English or Indonesian?
A : English is okay..
Q : Oh okay, so, may I have your name?
A : My name is Tang Siaw Ing. You can call me laoshi Tang.
Q : Oh ok laoshi Tang, how long have you been live in Indonesia?
A : Hmm.. I think I live in Indonesia for about 20 years.
Q : How long have you been teaching in this language institution?
A : About 7 or 8 years I think.
Q: How’s your feeling of teaching here
A : Ya, before I started to teach here, I taught Mandarin in an International Senior High
School. My feeling was totally different. I can say, I prefer to teach here. Because the
students are willling to work harder, because they come here because they want and they
think they need to learn Chinese language.
Q: Oh great, so how many levels do you handle in this institution?
A : Mmm.. I handle almost all levels.. Haha.. Mostly in the private course, I’m available for
any level.
Q : Hahaha.. Okay.. So what kind of methodologies that you usually use when you have to
deliver new vocabulary to the students?
A : It has been standardized here, I taught based on the books provided.. Each students have
their own books. It the beginner levels, I usually ask the students to understand the
meaning first, and then memorize it by themselves. If I teach the intermediate or
advance levels, it’s easier, most of the students have their own way to understand the new
vocab.
Q : Oh I see, so what translation do you usually use to introduce the new vocabulary to the
students in t