MINI RESEARCH

ANALYSIS THE ACCURACY AND READABILITY OF

STUDENTS TRANSLATION OF EXPLANATION TEXT

BY GROUP 3:

Fadila Sari Mayola (2161121013)

Hanifa Lailan Nazmi Hamdi (2161121016)

Maya Anggriani (2161121024)

DIK REG A ‘16

Lecturer: Indra Hartoyo, S.Pd., M.Hum

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MEDAN

2018
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In education fields, especially for them who has the strong relation to the language
studies, should familiar with the term of translation. Many studies and research relate to this
topic conducted by vary of researchers. Translation can be defined as ‘to transfer something
spoken or written from source language (SL) to target language (TL) without changing the
meaning. It is similar to the statement from Brisset (2000: 346) who defines translation as
“replace the language of the other by a native language”.
A translator must be careful in translating a text because he deals not only with the
language grammar but also the language style. Besides, in a product of translation it is
commonly recognize that there are some aspects to evaluate it, includes accuracy, readability,
naturalness, comprehension testing, consistency check, back translation, knowledge test, and
performance test. But in this case, the researchers just focus on the two of them. Those
aspects are accuracy and readability. A good translation product must have both accuracy and
readability aspects.
In general, people in language field learn much these aspects in the course of translation
studies, and after translating several texts, the researchers know that there still lacking one of
these aspects. Especially for the aspect of readability. This aspect play a big role in
translation product because it is determine the easy understanding by your reader when they
read your translation product. But so far, this aspect often lack because some reasons, such as
from the grammatical, the diction, and others.
Based on those statement, the researchers realize to conduct this kind of research in order
to analyze and investigate the aspect of accuracy and readability of students’ translation
product of explanation text written by the 4th semester college students of English Education
Regular A 2016 class in Universitas Negeri Medan.
B. PROBLEMS OF THE STUDY
Considering the importance to evaluate a product of translation based on the two
aspects, the researchers conducted this study which intends to find out:
1. How is the accuracy of the translation product of the students?
2. How is the readability of the translation product of the students?
By knowing them, it was expected to improve the quality of students’ translation
product.

C. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Related to the formulation of the research problems, the objectives of the study are :
1. Discover and investigate the accuracy aspect
 2. Discover and investigate the readability aspect.

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. TRANSLATION
Translation is basically change of form. When we speak of the form of a language, we
are referring to the actual words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, etc., which are
spoken or written. The form from which the translation is made will be called the Source
Language and the form into which it is to be changed will be called the Receptor
Language (Larson 1984: 3). The transfer of the meaning from one language into another
language is the definition of the translation in general.
Throughout the history of translation studies, hundreds of theorists have pointed out
various kinds of definitions for translation. They defined translation from the perspectives
of object, character, purpose, role, etc. And the concept of translation, therefore, is
developing and improving for years. Newmark (1988: 5) states “Translation is rendering
the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text”.
This is the same as what Larson (1984: 3) says that “translation is basically a change of
form from the Source Language (SL) into the Target Language (TL) that refers to the
actual words, phrases, clauses, sentence and paragraph etc, which is spoken or written”.
Almost similar to Newmark, Machali (2000: 114) states that translation is a process of
“recreate“. It can be said that when a translator does his/her job, he/she recreates a
product.
For another example of the definitions of translation can be seen as follows:
“translation may be defined as follows: the replacement of textual material in
one language in (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language
(TL).” (Catford 1965: 20)
Nida (1969: 12) defines translation as:
Reproducing in the receptor language the closes natural equivalent of the
source language message, first in terms of meaning and, secondly in terms of
style.
House (1984: 29-30) introduces a definition that adds a pragmatic aspect to translating
when looking at textual equivalence:
Translation is the replacement of a text in the source language by a
semantically and pragmatically equivalent text in the target language.
They key aspect in the above definitions is the concept of translation between a unit
of text in one language and a unit of text in another. It can be concluded that translation is
a process of transferring something into another language by considering the equivalence
 of its meaning both in the source language and target language. In other words, a
translation product must be equal.

B. EVALUATION OF A TRANSLATION PRODUCT

Many translation experts have proposed strategies of testing quality of translation
product. A good translation fulfill its intention; in an informative text, it conveys the facts
acceptably; in a vocative text, its success is measurable at least in theory and therefore the
effectiveness of an advertising agency translator can be shown by results; in an authoritative
or an expressive text, form is almost as important as content, there is often a tension between
the expressive and the aesthetic functions of language and therefore a merely ‘adequate’
translation may be useful to explain what the text is about, but a good translation has to be
‘distinguished’ and the translator exceptionally sensitive.
Newmark (1988: 188) also explained how to evaluate the translation product. He states
that a product of translation must has the aspect of accuracy. If the translation not a clear
version of the original, you consider first whether the essential ‘invariant’ element of the text
which consists usually (not always) of its facts or its ideas is adequately represented. He
consider that the successful of a translation product is based on the evaluator’s standard.
In the other hand, Larson (1998) demonstrate that to evaluate whether the translation
product good or not there are several aspects that can be explained in the following.
1. Accuracy
In term of accuracy, accuracy is a term of translation quality assessment which refers to
the extent to which a translation matches toward its original. It is without addition or
reduction from source language to target language. It is usually refers to preservation of the
information content of SL in TL. It could be said that in translating a text, the translator
should also concern to the familiar language pattern which is usually used by the target
readers.
Accuracy is aimed at finding out whether the meaning transferring from SL is the
same as it is TL. This is to accurately communicate the meaning. To deliver the meaning
accurately, the translator may change the form or grammatical structure. Nida and Taber
(1982:13) affirm that meaning must be of the main concern, which means that any radical
diversion or formal structure can be made whenever necessary.
Accuracy purpose is to check whether the meaning and dynamics of SL text have been
communicated accurately in in TL text. Maintain dynamics of SL text is to allow readers of
SL text and TL text to show the same response to the content (Larson: 1984:6) in the fact, the
translator has to be faithful to SL text, so to do this, the translator must be able to
communicate both the same meaning of and emotional response brought by SL text.
2. Readability
Readability covers about average sentence length, number of new words and grammatical
complexities of the language used. The translator and tester alike may do readability tests. These
tests are done by asking someone to read a part of the translation aloud is should be a complete
section: that is, a unit. As they read, the tester will notice any places where the reader hesitates.
Also, if he stops and re-reads the sentence, this should be noted as it indicates some problem in
readability. Sometimes the reader will simply look puzzled, as if he did not understand why it
was said that way. There will also be times when the reader will actually say something different
than what is written in the translation.
A text is readable because it is good writing, that is, it has a pleasing style, a good rhythm,
and moves along at an acceptable pace. It should be kept in mind that what is readable for one
audience may not be readable for another. A highly educated audience will easily read rather
complex sentence structure. A newly literate audience will have difficulty with such complicated
structures. This is why it is important that the readability tests be done with persons who will be
the users of the translation.
Readability may also be affected by formatting matters. The size of type, punctuation,
spelling, size of margins, and space between lines may all affect the readability tests. All of those
who are testing the translation should be alert for reading problems related to formatting as well
as content.

3. Naturalness
The purpose of naturalness tests, as suggested by the name, is to see if the form of the
translation is natural and the style appropriate. One of the main requirements in any
translation work is that the translation (the finished product) must sound natural. Before
mentioning the characteristics of the translation naturalness which are proposed by the great
translation authorities and then mentioning the types of unnatural translations, it is necessary
to distinguish between natural language, ordinary language and basic language. "Natural
language is a language which is readable by everybody, however, it is formal. Ordinary
language is the plain non-technical idiom used by Oxford philosopher's explanation. Basic
language is somewhere between formal and informal, which is easily understood, and is
constructed from languages that are most frequently used by common people" (Newmark,
1988: 87). Tendency towards natural translation goes back to translation pieces of St. Jerome
and his followers Luther (1530) and Dryden (1684) who favored 'colloquial and natural'
renderings of the texts. From then on, great translators tried their best to create translation
pieces which seemed natural as much as possible.
Tytler (1971), Belloc (1931), Bates (1943), Nida (1943), Jakobson (1959), Levy, Catford,
Newmark (1988), and some contemporary translators have emphasized on natural translation
a lot. Tytler (1797) is the proponent of the idea that to make a natural translation, a translator
must be free in adding to or retrenching from the original text when it is being rendered into a
target language.
According to Belloc (1931: 30), "Natural and good translation must... consciously attempt
the spirit of the original at the expense of the letter. Now this is much the same as saying that
the translator must be of original talent; he must himself create: he must have power of his
own, not just offer a one-to-one translation".
Belloc, (1931). Bates (1943: 121) says that; "If you want to translate a book naturally,
you should know that, the translator’s task is not confined to transferring of one sentence into
a similar sentence in the target language, but that he/she is expected to search inconsistencies
in the two languages, tackle them, and to overcome the deficiencies of his/her own language
in respect of the unique characteristics found in the source language".
From the three aspects explained before, in this study we’re just focus on investigating
the two aspects, accuracy and readability.
 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. RESEARCH DESIGN
In this research, the researchers applied a descriptive qualitative method. By
using descriptive qualitative method, the researcher only collected, classified,
analyzed the data and then drew a conclusion. A further explanation about qualitative
research is also given by Cresswell (1994: 15): Qualitative research is an inquiry
process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that
explore a social or human problem.
For the design of instrument to collect the data, we used the suitable theories
form both of experts they are Larson and Newmark. As Larson states to evaluate a
product of translation there are several aspects, and in this case, the researchers only
took the two of them, accuracy and readability. For the necessary in development the
frame of instrument, we used the theory form Newmark who said that to assess the
translation product it is can be made by the evaluators themselves.

B. SOURCE OF DATA
The source of data in this research is the translation products of the English
Education Regular A 2016 students in Universitas Negeri Medan.

C. INSTRUMENT
In this research, there are two instruments that are used by the researchers. The
first one is the explanation text that need to be translated by the students. So the first
instrument is the translation products of the explanation text.
The second instrument is the table of assessment of the translation product. The table
is as follows:

NO. INITIAL ACCURACY READABILITY

Good (%) Poor (%) Good (%) Poor (%)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

D. TECHNIQUE OF DATA COLLECTION

In collecting the data, the researchers firstly asked the students to translate the
given text (explanation text). The translation product would be submitted in two days
after the text was given. And then we already have our source of data.
After the 13th translation product was submitted, the next step is to giving certain
code to the translation product. The code that we have made is as follows:
1. 1A = for good accuracy
2. 1B = for less accuracy
3. 2A = for good readability
4. 2B = for less readability
These code will be applied in the translation product in every sentence.
E. TECHNIQUE OF DATA ANALYSIS
After giving the code to the translation product, the text will be classified
based on the code, whether it has good or less accuracy or readability. The
classification will be formed in a table as follows:
NO. INITIAL ACCURACY READABILITY
Good (%) Poor (%) Good (%) Poor (%)
1.

For the next step, we will describe the data in the table why we decide and
classified the data as it is.
 CHAPTER IV
DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS

A. DATA
NO. INITIAL ACCURACY READABILITY
Good (%) Poor (%) Good (%) Poor (%)
1. EVP 12/21 58% 9/21 42% 6/21 29% 15/21 71%
2. RAN 10/21 47% 11/21 53% 3/21 14% 18/21 86%
3. ID 9/21 43% 12/21 57% 4/21 19% 17/21 81%
4. FDB 17/21 81% 4/21 19% 15/21 71% 6/21 29%
5. IRR 8/21 38% 13/21 61% 3/21 14% 18/21 86%
6. STUDEN 14/21 66% 7/21 34% 6/21 28% 15/21 72%
TX
7. CR 13/21 62% 8/21 38% 7/21 33% 14/21 67%
8. DWS 18/21 85% 3/21 15% 19/21 90% 2/21 10%
9. EON 14/21 66% 7/21 34% 8/21 38% 13/21 62%
10. NF 8/21 38% 13/21 62% 2/21 9% 19/21 91%
11. RKH 14/21 66% 7/21 34% 8/21 38% 13/21 62%
12. RK 18/21 85% 3/21 15% 8/21 38% 13/21 62%
13. STUDEN 15/21 71% 6/21 29% 11/21 51% 10/21 48%
TY

B. DATA ANALYSIS
As stated in the previous chapter, to accomplish this study the researchers applied the
qualitative descriptive method. This method presents the analysis in the form of description
based on the data showed before. After analyze and give the code to each of 13 translation
products, the next step is to appear them in classification whether it has a good or less
accuracy, and whether it is readable or not.
The product of translation initialed EVP gets a high score in accuracy aspect but not
readable. The data shows that the percentage for good accuracy in number of 58% and for
readability it gains 29%. It means this product of translation is a sample of less in readability
translation product.
In the translation product of RAN, the data have shown that the translation product can be
classified as a less accuracy translation product. The translation product only obtain 47% in
the aspect of accuracy. The readability of the translation product is also less because it only
obtains 14% in the readability aspect.
 The product initialed ID gain the same case as the previous one, it has less accuracy, and
it is less readability. The data showed that for accuracy aspect, the translation product obtain
43% of 100% and rest includes as poor in accuracy. In the other hand, this translation product
just gain the good readability in the number of 19%, stated as less readable and less accuracy.
The product initial as FDB states as good both of accuracy and readability. The
translation product gain 81% as percentage of good accuracy, and 20% stated as poor
accuracy. And for the aspect of readability, the translation product obtains 71% from 100%
which has good readability.
The product initial as IIR state as poor in both of accuracy and readability aspect. The
translation product just shows 38% in good accuracy aspect from 100%, and for readability
jus show 14% in good readability aspect from 100%. The product of translation poor in both
of accuracy and readability aspects.
The next translation product is the translation product named student X. This translation
product has a good accuracy but less in the readability aspect. In the accuracy aspect, the
translation product obtains 66% as percentage of good accuracy, and 28% which shows that it
has less readability.
The product initial as CR state as good accuracy product but has poor readability. The
translation product shows 62% in good accuracy aspect of 100%, and 33% in good
readability and 67% in less readability.
The product of translation initialed DWS gets a high score both of the aspects. The data
shows that the percentage for good accuracy in number of 85% and for readability it gains
90%. It means this product of translation is a sample of good translation product.
For the translation product of EON, the data have shown that the accuracy aspect of the
translation product is good, because it obtain 66% in the accuracy aspect. But this translation
product is still has less readability. This translation product only obtains 38% in the
readability aspect.
In the product of translation of NF, the data have shown that the translation can be
classified as a less accuracy translation product. The translation product only obtain 38% in
the aspect of accuracy. The readability of the translation product is also less because it only
obtains 9% in the readability aspect.
In the product translation of RKH, the data have shown that the translator can be
classified which has a good in accuracy aspect, but unfortunately, the translator get it poor in
the aspect of readability. It can be seen from the data above, that the translation product the
translator obtain 66% in good accuracy and 34% as less accurate, but in the other side the
translation product only gain 8% from the total of 100%, it means that the rest of the number
classified as bad readability.
Next, the translation product initialed RK gain the same case as the previous one, it has a
good accuracy, but it is not readable. The data showed that for accuracy aspect, the
translation product obtains 83% of 100% and rest includes as poor in accuracy. In the other
hand, this translation product just gain the good readability in the number of 38%, and 62%
stated as less readable.
 For the product translation which we give the initial as Y because the translator doesn’t
put his/her name in the paper. But actually, the product of translation states as good both of
accuracy and readability. The translation product gain 71% as percentage of good accuracy,
and 29% stated as poor accuracy. And for the aspect of readability, the translation product
obtains 52% from 100% which has a good readability and the rest states as poor readability.
The following description shows several samples of the 13 translation products. The
researchers take only a few to describe it in more detail explanation.
For the first translation product initialed EVP, the researchers classify it as a good
translation product in accuracy, but it has lack on its readability. For instance based on
accuracy could be show as below:
“When your doorbell rings on a Saturday night, long after you other guests have
begun eating, you know he has arrived for dinner.”
She translated:
“Ketika bel pintu berdering pada sabtu malam, tamu Anda yang lain sudah lama
mulai makan, Anda tahu dia baru datang untuk makan malam.”
As Larson (1998) stated that accuracy is done without addition or reduction from
source language to target language. The example shows that it accuracy because she doesn’t
omit or add the other information/words to her translation. It means the translation product
has successful to transfer the meaning form source text into target text. This sample of text
also shows that it has the readability aspect.
For the sample sentence that shows it less readability could be seen below:
“When appropriate, we can make our anger known.”
She translated:
“Kapan, tepat, kita bisa membuat amarah kita diketahui.”
The researchers classify it to less readable because beside it uses punctuation comma
(,) that doesn’t exist in the source text, it is also create a nonsense sentence and it sounds
weird. But actually, the sentence has a good accuracy.
For another example that has the other case because the translator translates it using
translation machine can be show as following:
“At work, you don’t expect her at your 9:00 A.M meeting.”
It is translated:
“Di tempat kerja, Anda tidak mengharapkannya pada pertemuan jam 9:00 Anda.”
In just one sentence it can classify as less accuracy, and also less readability. The
accuracy of the sentence classified into as a poor, because the translated text doesn’t
conveyed what the original text means to say. About the readability aspect, because it is too
literal in translate it, the result going ruin, and it is difficult to understand.
The researchers analyze this kind of case because she uses translation machine to gain
the product. So it’s making nonsense.
 For the other sample of classification, the sentence shows that it has both of less
accuracy and difficult to read. The example of the less accuracy could be seen as below:
“At the theater she disrupts the first act as she climbs over your knees toward her
seat.”
The product of translation shows:
“Di teater, dia mengganggu dengan tindakannya (there is a missing word) ketika dia
melewati lututmu menuju kursinya.”
The example is showing the sentence has less accuracy because there is a missing
word that is not translated by the student, and also it hard to understand when the reader read
this text.
The sample sentence that shows less accuracy and reliability can be seen in the
sentence below:
“There are also those who are easily distracted that they simply “lose track” of
time.”
The product of translation is stated as:
“Ada juga orang yang begitu mudah membagi waktu berpikir hanya “kehilangan
jalan” dari waktunya.”
The main reason why the researchers put this translation as less both of the aspects
accuracy and readability because there are words “kehilangan jalan” which doesn’t
appropriate to the sentence, and it causes the translated product doesn’t say what the source
text means to convey. In this case, she is lacking in decide the diction. In additional, when a
reader read the sentence, they would be confused and found that the sentence doesn’t make a
sense it can causes the translation doesn’t conveyed the original meaning of the source text.
For the last sample of case, the writers choose to describe one of the 13 translation product
which has both good accuracy and readability. Could be seen as below:
“When appropriate, we can make our anger known.” She translated:
“Ketika diperlukan, kita dapat memperlihatkan amarah kita.”
For this example, the researchers have found so many of translation product translate
it in a wrong way. Indeed, the average of translation product show a good accuracy, but most
of them lost its readability. So here, the researchers thought this one is the most proper
sample for the good readability in this sentence.
For the rest of the translation product, there are some fatal error that affects the
accuracy and also the readability. For instance, there is a translation product which translate
the word “At the theater” into “Di ruang bedah” which is out of the content of the text.
Another example of the error is that a translation product which is not translating half of the
sentence. The translation product has no translation of the 12th sentence “….this serves their
deep need to be punished. Alternatively, some latecomers…..” and this is really affecting the
translation product because the word which is not translated is quite long, almost half of the
sentence.
 CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. CONCLUSION
Based on the data and data analysis, the researchers can conclude that the
accuracy of the entire product of translation is showing that the average of the
accuracy aspect is good. From the data and data analysis, the researchers can also
conclude that the readability of the entire product of translation is classified as the
average of the readability aspect is less.
This result of the study is truly shows that what the researchers have been
stated in the introduction. Many of them have the same problem in choosing the
diction that appropriate to the sentence, and that’s why the readability aspect is most
problematic ones.

B. SUGGESTION
Based on the conclusion above, the researchers suggest that in translating a
text to another language, we must be careful and consider so many aspects. The
translators cannot just pay attention to the grammatical aspects, but also how the text
fit to the culture of the target language. And also for the diction, it may seems less
important but it can strongly affect the product of translation, even both of the
accuracy and readability aspects.
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Newmark, P. 1988. A Textbook of Translation. Michigan: Prentice-Hall International
Nida, E.A. 2006. Theories of Translation. Pliegos de Yuste

http://www.pliegosdeyuste.eu/n4pliegos/eugeneanida.pdf retrieved on April 19th 2018

http://eprints.ums.ac.id/40103/1/publikasi%20ilmiah.pdf retrieved on April 19th 2018