Rabu, 16 Februari 2011

The Correlation Between Eight Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement and Their Performance in Translating Descriptive Text at SMP Negeri 1 Palembang



Written by
Nur Annisa Mei Rizki
06071001004


1. Background
                 
Language is one of the most important thing in human live. Language is a means of communication. Every person uses language in order to communicate with others. Without language, it would be difficult for people to communicate with others (Brown, 1987:5). As a social human, people need to socialize with other, so absolutely language needed as a tool to connect them. According to Fromkin and Rodman (1998:3), “the possession of language perhaps more than any other attribute, distinguishes human from other animal. The language uses in all aspects of life of human, whatever else people do when they come and do interaction, they will talk, it differs human from others.
Kadarisman (2009), states that
Language is a system of arbitrary symbols used by people in a given culture to carry on their daily affairs, it covers three important elements, such as structure, speech community in a given culture, and communicative function of language.

         It clearly stated that, language plays vital role in daily life interaction together with its important components. Beside that, it also important to learn foreign language that helps us communicates with international atmosphere. One of the most important international languages that is needed to learned is English, so the foreign language that students learn here is English. at
         In SMP Negeri 1 Palembang, English is the important thing because this school is RSBI ( Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional). In means that English is used in most of teaching and learning process at that school. Science subject is taught using English, so that is the reason why English plays important role in SMP N 1 Palembang.
English is an international language and it used by millions people all over the world.  It is a global language means of communication in numerous dialects, and also the movement towards and international standard for the language. English is used in most of the countries as a means of global communication whether in politics, economy, science, technology, culture, and education. Besides, English also the future language that is as connector between people through globalization. It spoken as a native language by around 377 million and as a second language by around 375 million speakers in the world, also around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language. English has an official or a special status in 75 counties with a total population of over 2 billion. In Indonesia, English has been introduced as a compulsory subject starting from junior high school up to university level. It has also been introduced to the pupils of elementary school in recent years as an optional local content.
Basically, learning to communicate in foreign language entails the necessity to learn both language skills and language aspects of the target language. One of the English language skills that should be mastered is reading since it is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Reading is the first step in acquisition of knowledge. Reading is a very important issue which is not only about enjoyment but also necessity; the basic tool of education. Cheek (1989:113) states reading is the key to learning in all aspect of live. Furthermore, Cooper (1988:32) claims that reading is a process of constructing or developing meaning from printed text, and it is primarily cognitive process. A person who reads well has almost unlimited opportunities for career and personal growth. Carlin (1997:78) states that:
                        Reading is a complex skill. It involves understanding letters, words and sentences, understanding the connectors between sentences (coherence and cohesion), understanding different text types, making sense of the text through our knowledge of the world using appropriate reading sub-skill called reading for specific information or scanning. To get the general idea of what being read, one can skim the text, i.e. reading the material quickly to get the gist or the essence of the reading material.

Reading is a continuous process of translation, and the way the translator looks at every word and investigates its rhythmic power and its semantic possibilities reaffirms that the act of reading, seen through the translator's eyes, is dynamic and not static( Schulte, 2009:1). Reading is already translation, and translation is translation for the second time...The process of translating comprises in its essence the whole secret of human understanding of the world and of social communication ( Gadamer, Hans Georg, 2008:12)
            Translation is one of the most important skills that should be learned and developed by the students. Catford (1969: 20) states that translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by the equivalent textual material in another language (TL). It is important to have the translation skill because translation is ultimately a human activity which enables human beings to exchange ideas and thoughts regardless of the different language used.
            In order to be able to translate well, a person should be mastered both the language and fully understand and be familiar with the subject matter that will be translated. There are various ways of reading and no two people will read a text the exact same way. Because of that, reading strategies will affect the reader’s understanding and how they will translate the text.
Based on writer’s experience in teaching English at SMP Negeri 1 Palembang during the teaching practice, the writer has an interest to conduct a research entitled “The Correlation Between Student’s Reading Strategies and Their Translation Performance in Descriptive Text of Eight Grade Students of SMP Negeri 1 Palembang”



2. The Problem of the Study

            The problems of this are formulated in the following question.
  1. Is there any correlation between eight grade students’ reading comprehension achievement and their performance in translating descriptive text?
  2. Does students’ reading comprehension achievement contribute significantly to their performance in translating descriptive text?

3. The Objectives of the Study

Based on the problems mention above, the objectives of the study are
  1. To find out whether or not there is a correlation between eight grade students’ reading comprehension achievement and their performance in translating descriptive text
  2. To find out whether or not students’ reading comprehension achievement contribute significantly to their performance in translating descriptive text.

4. The Significance of the Study
            The result of this study hopefully can give benefits and contribution to the educational development in SMP N 1 Palembang. It is also hopefully can give actual information about reading comprehension achievement for the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Palembang. Besides that this study can inform the students about the correlation between reading comprehension achievement and translation ability and it will encourage students to improve their translation ability.

5. Literature Review
            A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. This part presents: (1) the concept of reading, (2) the concept of reading comprehension, and (3) the concept of Translation.
           
5.1 The Concept of Reading
            Reading is the first step in acquisition of knowledge. Reading is very important issue which is not only about enjoyment but also necessity; the basic tool of education. Cheek (1989:113) states reading is the key to learning in all aspect of live.
            There are some versions about the definition of reading. According to Hornby(1995:967) reading is to look at and understand the meaning of written or printed words or symbols. It means that the reader must be able to interact with the reading material, which includes printed words or symbols. Cooper, et al cited in Ermadi (1996:7) states that reading is the process of constructing meaning from the printed page. It means that the reader relates the clues found in the text with his/her prior knowledge to form language. Similarly, Rudel (1992:21) states that reading is the act of constructing meaning while interacting with text, we must use information stored in schemata to understand and interact with the world around us.

5.2 The concept of Reading Comprehension
            Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of writing. It means as the act of comprehending, containing, or comprising; inclusion. Pretorius (2003:2) states that comprehension is the overall understanding process whereby meaning is constructed within sentences and across larger units of text contributing to the meaning of the text as a whole.
            Reading comprehension is viewed as the process of using the cues provided by the author and one’s prior knowledge to infer the author’s intended meaning. This involves a considerable amount of inferencing at all levels as one builds a model of the meaning of the text. If prior knowledge is strong, then a detailed model may be rapidly constructed which reduces the reading to slot-filling and verifying, and inferences to mere default values in the model (Johnston, 1983: 9).

5.3 The Concept of Translation
            Translation is one of the most important things in learning English. In O’Malley et al.’s study (1985b), translation was found to be a frequently used learning strategy. It means that translation plays an important role in learning language.
Pinchuck(1977), translation is a process of finding a Target Language (TL) equivalent for an Source Language (SL) utterance. According to Newmark (1981) states that translation is a craft consisting of the attempt to replace a written message or statement in one language by the same message or statement in another language.
            Oxford (1990) defined translating as ‘convert the target language expression into the native language (at various levels, from words and phrases all the way up to whole texts); or converting the native language into the target language’ (p. 46). Likewise, Chamot (1987) described the translation strategy as ‘using the first language as a base for understanding and/or producing the second language’ (p. 77). In a similar vein, the definition of translation in the present study refers to using one language as a basis for understanding, remembering, or producing another language, both at the lexical level and the syntactic level, and also in either direction from the target or the source language into the other language.
            Translation is a process based on the theory that it is possible to abstract the meaning of a text from its forms and reproduce that meaning with the very different forms of a second language. Translation, then, consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language text, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, and then reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context.

Larson (1984:15) divided two major types of translation. They are:
1. Form-based translation
Form-based translations attempt to follow the form of the source language and are known as literal translations.
If the two languages are related, the literal translation can often be understood, since the general grammatical form may be similar. However, the literal choice of lexical items makes the translation sound foreign.
2. Meaning Based Translation makes every effort to communicate the meaning of the source language text in the natural forms of the receptor language.

5.3 Previous Related Studies
            There is previous related study which is related to the writer’s present study. It was conducted in 2007 by Ari Destiana, the student of English Education Study Program Sriwijaya University. The title of her study is “The Correlation Between The Vocabulary Mastery and Translation Ability of the Eleventh Grade Students of SMA Negeri 11 Palembang”. The Objective of the study is to find whether or not there was significant correlation between vocabulary mastery and translation ability of the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 11 Palembang. Based on this research, Ari concludes that there was significant correlation between the vocabulary mastery and the translation ability of the eleventh grade of SMA Negeri 11 Palembang.

6. Method and Procedure
6.1 Methodology

            In this study, the writer is going to use descriptive method. This method is used to describe the collection data. According to Best in Mirizon (1991) cited in Apriani (2006:19)
A descriptive study describes and interprets what it is. It is concerned with condition or relationship that exists, opinion that are held, processes that are going on, effects that are evident, or trends that are developing. It is primarily concerned with the present, although it often consider past events and influences as they are related to current conditions.
           
            The writer is going to use this method in order to describe The Correlation Between Student’s Reading Comprehension Achievement and Their Translation Performance in Descriptive Text of Eight Grade Students of SMP Negeri 1 Palembang.

6.2 Operational Definitions

            The title of this research is “The Correlation Between Eight Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement and Their Performance in Translating Descriptive Text at SMP Negeri 1 Palembang”. Some terms in this research need to explain in order to avoid misinterpretation. They are correlation, reading comprehension achievement, translation, and descriptive text. Based on Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, correlation is a connection between two things related to or depends on another fact or idea. Besides, reading comprehension is a process by which the reader constructs meaning by interacting with the text.
            According to Pinchuck (1977), translation is a process of finding TL equivalent for an SL utterance. Furthermore, descriptive text is a text that describes something or someone to the readers that appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, hearing, touch, and smell. Then SMP Negeri 1 Palembang is the school where the writer is going to conduct the research.


7. Population and Sample
7.1 Population
            A population is a group of elements or cases, whether individuals, object or events that conform to specific criteria and to which we intend to generalize the result of the research ( McMillan, 1992:62 ). Besides, population is the group to which the researcher would like the result of a study to be generalized. It includes all individuals with certain characteristics ( Wallen and Fraenkel, 1991:339 ).










TABLE 1
The Population of the Study
Class
Number of students
VIII 1
30
VIII 2
29
VIII 3
30
VIII 4
29
VIII 5
30
VIII 6
30
VIII 7
28
Total
206
                                                                                    Source: SMP Negeri 1 Palembang Academic Year 2010/2011
7.2. Sample
            Sample refers to the group of elements, or a single elements, from which data are obtained ( McMillan, 1992:69). The sample of this study will be taken from the population. In this study, the writer will choose one class out of five classes to be the sample of the study using convenience sampling method. Arikunto(1988:120) states that if the population in one population are fewer that 100, the whole subjects in the population become the sample. Nevertheless, if the subjects in the population are more than 100, the sample can be taken around 10-15% or 20-25% or more. In this research the writer will take 20-25% of the total population as the sample in which is about 30 students. The writer will use stratified random sampling method. Stratified random sampling is one of sampling technique that is used by the researcher by selecting certain subgroups, or strata from one population in the same proportion ( Wallen and Fraenkel: 1991:135). In this research, the sample is taken from the population of the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Palembang in the Academic year 2010/2011. The table will show the sample of the study.






TABLE 2
The Sample of the Study
Class
Number of the students
VIII 4
30
VIII 6
29
Total
59

8. Technique for Collecting the Data
            In this research, the writer is going to use only one kind to collect the data. It is testing the samples/respondents to find the performance/ability of the students in translating descriptive text and their reading comprehension achievement. To test the respondent, the writer use test
  1. Test
           Test refers to set of item or question design to be presented to one or more students under specified conditions (Wiersma and Jurs, 1990:8). Also, Hornby(2005:1585) states that test is an examination of somebody’s knowledge or ability, consisting of question for the to answer or activities for the to perform.      In this research, the writer is going to give the students a test to translate descriptive text. The students are asked to translate a descriptive text in one paragraph within a limited time.

           
8.1 Technique for Analyzing the Data
            In analyzing the data, the writer used the correlation analysis to find out the correlation coefficient between variable X (the students’ reading comprehension achievement) and variable Y (the students’ performance in translating descriptive text ) of the eight grade of SMP Negeri 1 Palembang. In this case, the writer used Pearson product Moment Correlation Coefficient, suggested by Arikunto (1996:275). By using this formula, the writer wants to see the result of correlation between the students’ reading comprehension achievement and their translation performance. This formula gave correct result of two variables that writer would find. Besides that technique, the writer used Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS) version 17.

The formula is as follows:
           
           
           
Where:
r                       = the correlation coefficient
            ∑ X                 = the sum of X score
           
            ∑ Y                 = the sum of score Y
           
            ∑X2                   = the sum of squared X

            ∑ Y2                = the sum of squared Y

            N                     = the number of sample































REFERENCES

Ali, Muhammad. 1987. Penelitian Pendidikan: Prosedur dan Strategi. Bandung. Erlangga.

Arikunto, Suharsimi. 2002. Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta: PT. Rineka Cipta.

Brown, H. Douglas. 1987. Principles of language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc

Catford, J.C. 1969. Linguistic Theory of Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Hornby, A.S. 1995. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. 5th Ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

McMillan, James H. 1992. Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Costumer. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

Newmark, Peter. 1981. Approaches to Translation. Amsterdam: Andre Deutsh.

Pinhuck, I. 1977. Scientific and Technical translation. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Wallen, Norman E. and Jack R. Fraenkel.1991. Educational Research: A Guide to the Process. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

12 komentar:

  1. meneliti tentang ini yah..?? boleh minta file Ms. office na ga..sebagai referenci..mohon di bls di blog ana yah di

    Photoshop TutorialTips BlogHitsuke

    BalasHapus
  2. iya,,,,tapi belum selesai,,itu baru untuk proposal penelitian. boleh,,alamat emailnya???

    BalasHapus
  3. kak, bagi jg dong.... xoxo

    rifeniseptiana@rocketmail.com

    thx a lot
    #love and hug

    BalasHapus
  4. iya kak aku jg mau dong...
    fit_losa@yahoo.com

    BalasHapus
  5. aq kak minta juga donk...
    di email ni ya kak,,
    chabay_tenand@yahoo.co.id

    thx a lot

    BalasHapus
  6. aq mw juga donk..

    ana.rokhman@gmail.com

    thx a lot :)

    BalasHapus
  7. sist..boleh minta juga ga??
    buat referensi
    ni email nya Chiciey.wise@gmail.com

    syukron sist..

    BalasHapus
  8. Judul yang bagus buat diteliti..

    Minta dong buat previous study nya ...

    rakhirruddin@gmail.com
    Thanks :)

    BalasHapus
  9. Ka.boleh minta konsepny dgn format word?
    Kirim ke adha00.bjm@gmail.com yah ka...
    Thank you... ^_^

    BalasHapus
  10. mbak, boleh minta sekalian buat refrensi
    addi.zero13@gmail.com

    BalasHapus