Monday, May 26, 2025

STUDENTS’ COMPETENCE IN TRANSLATING RECOUNT TEXT AT FIFTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF KHAIRUN UNIVERSITY

Translation skills are vital in language learning as they help convey meaning, tone, and style from one language to another. According to Nida (2020), effective translation prioritizes natural meaning and style in the target language. For language students, especially at Khairun University, mastering translation—particularly of recount texts—is crucial for developing language competence. Translation also supports the four key language skills and plays a key role in transferring information. Toury (2016) adds that translation follows cultural and social norms, which learners must understand to produce accurate and contextually appropriate translations. Mastery of these norms helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures effective communication.

 


1.       Definition of Error

Errors in language learning are a natural manifestation of the second language acquisition process, reflecting the learner’s difficulty in adapting to the norms and rules of the target language. These errors are not simply a form of failure, but rather the result of a complex interaction between interlingual factors, such as the influence of the mother tongue, and intralingual factors, such as overgeneralization or misapplication of rules.

2.       Error Analysis

 Error analysis is the study and analysis of errors made by second language learners. Error analysis can also be done to; (a) Identify the strategies used by learners in learning; (b) Try to identify the causes of learner errors;(c) Obtain information about common difficulties in learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials. Error analysis was developed as a branch of applied linguistics in the 1960s, and began to show that many learner errors were not caused by the learner's native language but reflected universal learning strategies. Error analysis was therefore offered as an alternative to contrastive analysis ( Ortega 2015).

3.       The Kinds of Error

  In the context of language learning, provide a taxonomy of surface strategies in terms of misclassification in sentences. The four main types of errors they identify omission, addition, misformation, and misordering highlight common challenges in sentence construction and demonstrate the patterns in which learners make errors (Bailey & Fahad 2021)

a.      Omission errors are characterized by the absence of an item that should appear in a well-formed utterance. These omissions can affect various elements of a sentence, and although any morpheme or word may be omitted, some types of morphemes are more frequently omitted than others. For example, in the sentence "I tired," the auxiliary verb "am" is missing, which results in a sentence that lacks the necessary grammatical structure. emphasize that omission errors often occur with functional elements like auxiliary verbs or to-be forms, which are crucial for tense and aspect in English.

b.     Addition errors occur when unnecessary elements are included in an utterance. This contrasts with omission errors, where elements are left out. In the case of addition, the learner may insert a word or morpheme that does not belong in the sentence. For example, "She can sings" contains the unnecessary "s" at the end of "sings note that these errors often arise from overgeneralization, where learners apply familiar grammatical rules to structures where they do not apply.

c.      Misformation errors occur when incorrect morphemes or structures are used in a sentence. These errors typically involve substituting a correct morpheme or structure with an incorrect one. For instance, a learner might say "She don't know" instead of "She doesn't know." According to, misformation errors often result from learners' attempts to apply patterns from their native language or generalize English grammar rules incorrectly, leading to the use of incorrect structures.

d.     Misordering errors involve the incorrect arrangement of words or morphemes in a sentence. This can affect the order of subject, verb, object, or other sentence components. For example, a learner might say "She always sings beautifully" as "Always she sings beautifully," which disrupts the usual word order of English.) highlight that misordering errors reflect the challenges learners face when trying to map their native language syntax onto the target language.

e.      The Causes of Error There are three main causes of errors, namely Mother tongue intervention, Overgeneralization, and Errors driven by teaching materials or methods. These causes explain the errors learners make due to the influence of their native language or incorrect learning strategies. Richards (2020) categorizes the sources of errors into various types, including interlanguage transfer, intralingual transfer, learning context, and communication strategies.

4.       Types of Error Causes

  In addition to these categories, the causes of errors can also be classified into three types: carelessness, first language interference, and translation errors. Richards (2020) elaborates on these sources of errors and how they impact language learners.

a.      Carelessness: Often linked to a lack of motivation, carelessness in language learning occurs when learners fail to focus on accuracy, leading to simple mistakes. Many teachers recognize that if students lose interest in the material or if the teaching method is not engaging, this can lead to careless errors. notes that motivation plays a key role in preventing such errors.

b.     First Language Interference: Learning a new language often involves replacing old habits with new ones. However, learners' first language habits can interfere with their attempts to learn a new language, leading to errors. This is referred to as mother tongue interference. explains that errors caused by first language interference are some of the most common mistakes language learners make.

c.      Translation Errors: Translation errors occur when learners directly translate sentences or phrases from their native language into the target language, often resulting in word-for-word errors that do not align with the syntax or vocabulary of the target language. This type of error is common, especially when learners lack sufficient proficiency in the target language to express themselves naturally.), translation errors are frequent, especially among learners who rely heavily on their first language in the learning process.

 

5.       Three Types of Sources of Errors

According to Richards (2020), errors can also be attributed to three main sources:

a.      Interference Errors: These occur when elements from one language are mistakenly used in another language. This is a direct result of the influence of the learner's first language on their second language use.

b.     Intralingual Errors: These errors reflect the overall challenges of learning rules in a language, such as generalizing rules incorrectly, applying them incompletely, or failing to learn the conditions under which certain rules apply. This often leads to errors like overgeneralization.

c.      Developmental Errors: These errors happen as learners form hypotheses about the target language based on limited exposure and experience. As learners attempt to predict and apply language rules, they may make incorrect generalizations or conclusions.

Based on the description above, the researcher aims to find out students’ competence in translating recount text in the title “Students’ Competence In Translating Recount Text at Fifth Semester Students of Khairun University”


STUDENTS’ COMPETENCE IN TRANSLATING RECOUNT TEXT AT FIFTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF KHAIRUN UNIVERSITY

Translation skills are vital in language learning as they help convey meaning, tone, and style from one language to another. According to Ni...