CHAPTER!
INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of Study
Any man who does not make himself proficient in at least two languages other than
his own is a fool. - Fischer, Martin H-.
The world has thousands of languages and what will happen if people whose first
languages are different want to communicate to each other? Moreover, the development
of information and technology has made the world is borderless and the frequency of
meeting new people from foreign countries is also increasing. It forces people in this
world to have a language that can unite them in communication. That's why, English
appears with its role as an international language.
Nowadays, learning English is very common in everywhere since English has
become an international language. It makes people communicate easily with the other
people whose first languages are different. Because of the importance of English, it has
become the compulsory subject in most schools in Indonesia and a lot of English courses
are also available for those who want to improve their English skill.
There are a lot of books, magazines, novels and other reading materials that are
written in English. However, not all people understand English well, so there is a
rendering of something into another language or into one's own from another language
which is known as translation (://dictionarv.reference.com/browse/translation). On
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they are translated into English. For example, there are some Indonesian novels that
have been translated into English.
When we are doing translation, it means that we are changing and conveying the
meaning of words and sentences stated in a source language into the target language.
Translation is crucial nowadays in which the world is becoming smaller and smaller
because people need to exchange information and cooperate with each other. Skillful
translators are needed; even
people have
created software of translations which is
available on the internet.
People who are doing translations cannot do as what they like because there are
theories or rules of translations so they can produce a good and natural translation.
Students, especially who are majoring English are supposed to have a good translation ·
skill. So, they have to master the source language and the target language as well. In this
case, Indonesian and English. At English Department of Bina Nusantara University,
there is a translation subject which is given in the fifth and sixth semester. Students learn
the English-Indonesian Translation in the fifth semester and Jearn the IndonesianEnglish Translation in the sixth semester.
However, a translation skill cannot be gained only by learning the theory since it
needs a Jot of practices and it is known that practice makes perfect. Moreover,
translation deals with meanings and forms. One of the aspects that students need to
master in translating a text is grarmnar which is related to a form in the translation.
According to Larson (1998, p. 54), grarmnar influences the naturalness of translations.
Nida (1964, p. 167) also says that a natural translation involves two areas of adaptation,
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namely grarmnar and lexicon.
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English has a complex grammar and a different grammatical structure will lead
to a different meaning. For example, when we have a sentence "dia tidak suka seafood",
then we translate it into English as "she is not like seafood. " After it is translated, the
meaning is different from the source language because of the wrong grammatical
structure. The sentence should be translated as "she doesn't like seafood." In this case, it
is called as the grammatical mistakes. So, in this thesis the writer would like to analyze
the grammatical mistakes that the sixth semester students of English Department make
when they translate an Indonesian text into English.
1.2 Problems Formulation
The problems that the writer would like to discuss in this thesis are:
I. What kinds of grammatical problems that the students tend to have in translating
an Indonesian text into English?
2. What kinds of grammatical mistakes that most students make?
1.3 Scope and Limitations
The scope of this thesis is about translation especially, an Indonesian-English
translation and in order to specify the topic and achieve the goals, the writer only
focuses on the six semester students of English Department at Bina Nusantara
University. The writer chooses them as respondents with a consideration that they
have already learnt Grammar I-IV subjects and they have taken the IndonesianEnglish Translation subject at that semester. Since grammar is a very broad
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are nouns, adjectives, verbs, tenses, comparatives, gerunds and infinitives, singular
expressions of quantity, reflexive pronouns, active and passive voices, modal
auxiliaries can and could. The tenses are divided into 2; they are simple present
tense and present perfect.
1.4 Goals and Function
The goals that the writer wants to achieve in this thesis are:
1. To find out the kinds of grammatical problems that the students tend to have in
translating an Indonesian text into English
2. To find out the kinds of grammatical mistakes that most students make
Hopefully, this thesis will be useful for the lecturers who teach a translation and
grammar subject so they can know the grammatical items that students still make
mistakes in. Then, they can try to find a solution or use a new method in teaching that
can improve students' ability in doing translation which is related to grammar. Besides,
the writer also hopes that this thesis will be useful for all students of English
Department, especially for those who are interested in translation so they can know the
grammatical mistakes that learners usually make and be able to learn from the mistakes
in order to produce a better and natural translation.
1.5 Research Methods
In order to accomplish this thesis, the writer has conducted a library and field
research. In the library research, the writer has read some books that are relevant to a
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the sixth semester students of English Department at Bina Nusantara University. The
text is written in Indonesian and they have been asked to translate it into English. The
results of the students' translation become the data of this research. Then the data are
analyzed to find out the grammatical mistakes based on the criteria that are set. In this
case, the mistakes are analyzed based on the theories of grammar and translation that are
put in chapter 2. After doing the analysis, the number of students that make mistakes in
each grammatical item and the number of mistakes in each grammatical item are found.