Review Journal Improving the Students’ Reading Skill through Translation Method

 

Name    : Kurniawan Aji Prakoso

NPM      : 1910631060099

Class      : 4E

 

 

Improving the Students’ Reading Skill through Translation Method

Ismail, Syahruza, & Basuki (2017)

 

Reading is a vital way in processing information, because many majors of information is written in English language. Reading is a vital skill for everyone, including students. Reading also has become a very important role in our daily necessity for acquiring any information. By reading peoples are able to gain many information about the aspect of life, including science and technology. Also, students are able to get any information or knowledge by comprehend the passages, textbook or any references written in English. Reading is an essential skill for learners of English as a foreign language. For most of learners it is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success not only in learning English, but also in learning in any content class where reading in English is required. With strengthened reading skills, learners will make greater progress and development in all other areas of learning.

As Mickulecky & Jeffries (2004) says, reading is very important since it can enhance students’ general language skills in English; assisting students to think in English, enlarging students’ English vocabulary, improving their writing, and it can be a good way to obtain about new ideas, facts and experiences. Therefore, on the basis of this opinion, the reading skill has been viewed as something that can help students to enrich their insight in English language.

In teaching and learning reading skill there are a number of particular problems which will need to be addressed. The first problem is reading comprehension. The problems are related to background knowledge, cultural knowledge, and knowledge of text type. Background knowledge is the students’ previous knowledge or knowledge of the world. If students lack prior knowledge in reading a text, they cannot understand it because they do not know what the text is about. A reader uses background knowledge to integrate new information from a text into his prior information. In addition, cultural differences affect reading comprehension. An unfamiliar cultural context and content knowledge of culture and knowledge of vocabulary cause problems in reading, because the students do not clearly understand the other culture. In addition, an inadequate knowledge of text type is a problem in reading texts. The text type such as newspaper articles, fairy tales, and business letters, if the students do not know what kind of the text, they cannot understand what the text is about. Students can understand a text if they are familiar with the text type (Alderson, 2002 in Chawang, 2008).

In overcoming the problems in teaching reading, the researcher utilized translation method. Translation method is the process of rendering written language that was produced in one language (the source language) into another (the target language), or the target language version that results from this process. Translation in which more emphasis is given to overall meaning than to exact wording is known as free translation. A translation that approximates to a word for word representation of the original is known as a literal translation. A translation that has been produced by a computer is known as a machine translation. The terms translation and interpretation are often used interchangeably. While both activities involve transferring a message between two different languages, translation refers to transfer between written texts and interpretation refers to spoken discourse and the unrehearsed transfer of a spoken message from one language to another (Richards &Schmidt, 2002).

                The researcher uses the classroom action research as a methodology which conducted at MTs Mualimin Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. The subject of the research was the students of grade VII D which number of 39 students as the participant because they have less skill in reading. It can be known from the result of pre-reading comprehension test which undertaken by researcher with the lowest score was 35 and the main score was 55,46 and also based on the result interview of an English teacher. The research instrument utilized by the writer is in the form of observation checklist, test and questioners. The observation checklist is mainly used to write the students’ progress from time to time. Test is one important element in the research namely to find out the implementation of translation method can improve the students’ reading skill or not. The questioner used to know the students’ responses to the use of translation method in teaching.

                The research consisted of three cycles. Each cycle had four steps: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting and every cycle consisting of three meetings. before conducting the acting, on cycle I, the teacher carried out evaluation by giving multiple choice questions to the students. They completed the evaluation in about 80 minutes. The result of the evaluation was the lowest score was 40. There were three students who got 40. The highest score was 82 and there was only one student who got 82. The mean was 58.1. The result of reflection in cycle I; 1) the application of translation method in teaching and learning process can motivate students to learn particularly in reading; 2) Students found that the reading could be easier if it was done together; and 3) Students’ vocabularies were still poor and they found it difficult to answer some questions.

                This journal has several advantages such as: first, the use of words in this journal is easy to understand. In this journal, the author did not use terms that can confuse readers, so that readers can easily understand the content contained in this journal. Second, in this journal the author also lists in detail the results of the methodology they had done. In addition, the author also attaches the chart of the result he used in their research. Third, the author conducted consist of three cycles to ensure the results of the study were successful. However there are some disadvanatges from this journal, such as: first, the author took research samples only from a single background. Second, a lot of redundant use of words and sentences, like there are several different paragraphs but have the same content of the discussion.. Third, the font used in the journal looks too close in one alphabet to another. So, it is quite uncomfortable to read.

 

Bibliography:

Ismail, H., Syahruza, J.K., & Basuki. (2017). Improving the Students’ Reading Skill through Translation Method. Journal of English Education, 2(2, Dec.), 124-131.