Translating an Indonesian article into English "Translation errors and achievements": A Case study of the sixth semester students of English department of Adab And Humanities Faculty of UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung

Translation is one of some ways to understand English. Some people would get a problem when translating a text. The grammatical error is one of some problems faced by a translator. Thus, the researcher formulated the research questions: 1) What are the grammatical errors of students in translating an Indonesian article into English and 2) How is the students’ achievement in translating an Indonesian article into English. To support the findings of these problems, the researcher tries to relate it to the theory of grammar and translation. The theory of grammar, especially checklist of grammatical errors, is taken from Downing and Locke (2006). Meanwhile, the theory of translation, especially the naturalness of translation, is based on Larson’s theory (1984). This research used qualitative method to analyze and to examine the students’ grammatical error and students’ achievements in translating an Indonesian article. The data which have been collected are taken from English students’ translation and naturalness of students’ translation result. Then, the translation results are analyzed by the researcher. The result of research shows that the students encountered 122 errors in translating the article. The detail of errors are; correct usage is 53 errors of which they were faced by fourteen students (student 2 until student 15), pronoun form is 19 errors by twelve students (except student 3, 4, and 14), missing subject and verb is 14 errors by eight students (student 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, and 14), and the use of tense is 32 errors which were got by eleven students (except student 6, 7, 8, and 12). Besides that, there are four sentences left untranslatable by 3 students (student 3, 7, 12). Meanwhile, the next research findings indicated that there were two levels for students’ achievement, consisting of good and fair. Six of fifteen students (student 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, and 15) got ‘good achievement’ and nine students (student 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, and 13) got ‘fair achievement’ in translating an Indonesian article into English. It means that six students were able to translate the article well and nine students need more practice in translating an Indonesian article into English. Based on the findings above, the researcher concluded that the student faced many errors and got different levels when translating an Indonesian article into English. The most error the students encountered is correct usage and the fewest one is missing subject and verb. Then, the students who got ‘fair’ achievement are more dominant than students who got ‘good’ achievement. From the conclusion, it is suggested that other researchers, who are interested in translation field, should try to measure the accuracy and clarity in the translation of article. They also should see the research instruments to be used in their research as this present study did not use interview guide.