“Instructing” the Cruxes of Language Errors: Diagnosing the EFL Students’ Significant Translation Errors

Abstract

The study follows growing the author’s concern over the EFL students’ significant translation errors although a number of researches in the field of Error Analysis showed the equivalent/unchanged results, namely, MT and TL interferences were the major causes of the EFL students’ Writing and Translation errors. EFL students keep making errors. On the basis of the facts, the study aims at specifically instructing the cruxes of the errors, diagnosing the students’ errors and observing whether or not significant improvements were found after instructing the errors. This study entailed the use of a qualitative method design. The purposive sampling and typical sample technique were ways of selecting the population and sample. Observation and unstructured interviews were techniques of collecting the data while the 1973 Corder’s clinical elicitation; and Miles and Huberman’s flow model were techniques of analysing the data. The results of the study showed that the significant translation errors made by the 2nd-year ED class II-A students before instructing the cruxes of errors were heavily centred on MT causes, TL interferences, and Communication Strategy of Holistic strategy of Approximation and Analytical strategy of Circumlocution-based errors. The total number of these errors was 1,948. In contrast, after instructing them, it significantly decreased to 636. The decrease in the number of errors in the students’ translation positively signified that the instruction of the cruxes of the errors could deduct students’ critical English language issues from making errors. The instruction in the cruxes of the errors effectively mitigates the significant effects of the MT and TL interferences, and Communication strategy-based errors; significantly improves the students’ knowledge of the cruxes of the LLU errors in Translation, as well as qualifies the outputs of their Indonesian-English translation.