Assessing English Education Department Students’ Competence in Translating Indonesian Text into English

Abstract

Translation skill is important for students of English Education Department as in the
 future they will need the skill to translate their own scientific papers for international
 publication. However, to master the skills of translating texts, students should have
 enough understanding on both the language and the culture of languages (source and
 target language). This research aims to 1) identify the difficulty faced by the students
 when translating texts, and 2) measure students’ ability in translating texts. The data
 were gained from the students’ translation products. The subjects were 30 students
 of English Education Department in the State Islamic University of North Sumatra. The
 data collecting instrument was translation test where students translated English text
 into Indonesian. The findings indicate that students had difficulty in translating the
 English text into Indonesian especially in terms of accuracy and acceptability, but the
 students’ translations were better in terms of readability. The difficulties in translating
 the English text into Indonesian were due to students’ lack of understanding in applying
 the appropriate translation methods when translating the text. Moreover, the students
 also lack of ability in choosing the right words that will be the best equivalence in
 the target language. The findings also show that students had sufficient ability in
 translating text from English to Indonesian.