The Obstacles and Strategies of Sight Translation Practice (A Case Study: The Sixth Semester Students of English Department, Udayana University)

I.   Introduction

Translation and Interpreting are two crucial skills not only for the benefit of individual but also to larger group of people as well as society. Indonesia through the Higher Education Ministry has recommended some Universities in Indonesia to include the subject of translation and interpreting for students. The subjects of ‘Theory and Practice of Translation ’ along with ‘Theory and Practice of Interpreting’ are compulsory subjects in Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia.  The subject of Translation is taught in fourth semester and Interpreting is taught in sixth semester. These two subjects are important for developing the practical skills of student of English Department so in the later future such skill can be implemented. This study will try to elucidate Sight Translation practice done in English Department of Udayana University. Put together this study tries to reveal the following problems, what are the obstacles and strategies applied by the sixth semester students of English Department of Udayana University in working on the Sight Translation practice

Data source of this study was the result of recording of the Sight Translation practice done by the sixth semester students of English Department, Udayana University. The practice used was a speech from Consulate General of Australia; the first page which contain of ten short paragraphs in Indonesian.  The title of the practice is  Seni, Budaya, Pendidikan dan Lingkungan –Indonesia-Australia 2016. The number of students of the class was twenty students.The data of this study collected by library research with documentation method, note taking techniques and interview. The library research dealt with the information of the subject discussed. Note taking technique was applied to note down some phrases of the practices which were translated orally. Close interview was applied to find out the obstacles and strategies the students faced during the practice.

The students were told to read thoroughly the text for 5-10 minutes. Having read the text, the students later told to translate the speech from Indonesian into English and recorded the result of their translation. The recorded voices of the practice were transcribed into the written form. Some translated terms were identified to find out the result of the translation. The source language of the text was in Indonesian while the target language is in English.  The data identified and analyzed descriptively by applying the interpreting framework. The problems formulation answered by elucidating the result of the questionnaires. The data analysis presented qualitatively.

II.                Translation, Interpreting and Sight Translation

Interpreting and translation are two closely related linguistic disciplines. It is important to distinguish both to be able to give highlight to the existence of sight translation which also called as sight interpreting It is important to state definitions to be able to distinguish from sight translation as well as interpreting.

 Translation

According to Nida and Taber (1982:12) see translating as a process of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of stlye. In other words, translation is a transfer of meaning, message, and style from one SLT to the TLT. In the order of priority, style is put the last.

 Brislin (1976:1) translation is a general term referring to the transfer of thoughts and ideas from one language to another, whether the language is in written or oral form, whether the languages have established orthographies or not; or whether one or both languages is based on signs, as with signs of the deaf. According to the purpose, translation can be divided into four types : pragmatic, aesthetic poetic, ethnographic and linguistic translation (Brislin, 1976: 3-4). Another scholar, Newmark (1991: 27) defines the act of translating briefly. It is the act of transferring meaning of a stretch or a unit of language, the whole or a part, from one language to another.

Interpreting

Interpreting is oral translation of speech sign from a language into another. An interpreter is a person who converts a thought or expression in a source language into an expression with a comparable meaning in a target language either simultaneously in “real time” or consecutively when the speaker pauses after completing one or two sentences. The interpreter’s objective is to convey every semantic element as well as tone and register and every intention and feeling of the message that the source language speaker is directing to target-language recipients. For written speeches and lectures, sometimes the reading of pre-translated texts is used (wiki)

Interpreting is regarded as translational activity, as a special form of a ‘Translation’ (the capital is used to indicate that the word appears in its generic, hyperonymic sense). (Pochhaker, 2004:9)

Sight Translation

Sight Translation is defined as the oral rendition of text written in one language and is usually done in the moment. Central to sight translation are the following skills: the ability to comprehend the written text in one language (reading skill), and the ability to produce an oral rendition in another language (speaking/speech production skills)

The framework applied for this study is the framework proposed by Pochhaker in 2004. He defined that interpreting as form of translation in which a first and final rendition in another language is produced on the basis of a one time presentation of an utterance in a source language (Pochhaker, 2004:11). Sight Translation as part of Interpreting apply the similar framework; to emphasize is on the basis of a onetime presentation of an utterance in a source language.

The Obstacles and Strategies applied by sixth semester students of English Department Udayana University in working with Sight Translation          The following analysis tries to explain the obstacles and strategies applied by the students. The obstacles of Sight Translation Practice found within this research were identified through questionnaire and interview. The followings are obstacles found during the practice of the Sight Translation. They categorized based on the influence factors; the internal and the external factors.

(i)                 The internal factor such as feeling nervous and having less confidence

The feeling nervous occurs because they never done such practice. They have experienced in working on the translation practice; interpreting practice is a new thing as well as Sight Translation which rather confusing because it applied the combination of written and oral practices.

The confidence here means the ability of the students to be able to translate the text correctly and speak it out through recording as one of the oral practices. Some students felt insecure and had less confidence to work on this sort of practices

(ii)The external factor such as:

(a)    The unfamiliar words or terms

The obstacles encountered by the students during working on this practice can be seen through the unfamiliar words or terms of the assignment. The words for instance is  teripang.

(b)   Consistency in grammar

The following obstacle found was the consistency in grammar. Some students were rather confused whether they applied the present or the past  

(c)    Vocabularies and choice of words

Vocabularies and choice of words were the following obstacles the students encountered. For instance in the word ‘penemuan akademik’ it was found various translation such as ‘academic invention’, ‘academic discovery’, ‘academic research’ The appropriate choice of words can be done through practices

(d)   Organize the voice, sound speed

The students considered that organizing the voice and sound speed as other obstacles they encountered during practices. Unlike translation which can be done in a longer time, there is faster time required for Sight Translation because after quick reading and then the text need to be translated orally. The voice should be arranged that way so the oral translation will not be not be too fast or too slow

(e)    Particular noise

The quality of the oral translation was affected by surrounding. Noise will influence the result of the oral translation.

The Strategies applied by the students were varies. The result shows that the major strategies applied by the students were

(a)    Reading of the text thoroughly and done several time.

Having the text being read several times, enable students to get more familiar with sentences, paragraphs as well as to get the meaning and the genre of the text

(b)    Finding the idea of the text is taken as the other strategies applied by the student to get a further meaning so they will be able to translate it naturally

(c)    Taking notes is regarded as one of the strategies applied by the students. Many phrases were noted down and some students had taken quick notes of ideas of each paragraph before they translate it orally

(d)   Checking or Double Check was done by the students to make sure they have writen down important ideas of the text before they done the oral translation. Some students have checked the practice through Google or online dictionary.

(e)    Simplifying the sentences/Giving elaboration. Unlike the written translation, the result of the oral translation often found more simple yet still transfer the meaning in a natural way. If the translation of a word could not be found, they will give elaboration of the choice of words translated. 

III.             Conclusion

Interpreting is one of many disciplines taught in University level which should be developed for the development of science and also the need of future professionals required in various fields.  Sight Translation or often also known as Sight Interpreting is one of type of interpreting practice which needed to be comprehended and master by students of future professionals. Learning the obstacles and strategies are some steps to acquire the skill of this interpreting.

The result of the study shows that there are various obstacles that the students encountered during practice; they can be classified into internal and external factors. The internal factors include the feeling of nervous and less confidence. The external factors found such as the unfamiliar terms or words, consistency in grammar, getting the right diction or proper vocabularies and organizing the voice or the sound speed.

The strategies used for sight interpreting are various; they are reading and understanding the text, getting the idea of the text, note taking, checking or double check, and simplifying the sentences/giving elaboration.