Analisis Students' Strategies in Translating Narrative Texts From English into Indonesian

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the translation strategies used by students in translating English narrative texts into Indonesian and to identify the reasons behind their choices. The research employed a descriptive qualitative method, using translation sheets and interviews as data sources. The findings revealed that students applied all seven strategies proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet, namely borrowing, calque, literal translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation. Among these strategies, literal translation was the most dominant (53.75%), followed by modulation (15.00%) and transposition (11.25%), while borrowing (7.50%), calque (5.00%), equivalence (3.75%), and adaptation (3.75%) were used less frequently. The dominance of literal translation indicates that students tend to rely on direct translation due to similarities in sentence structure between English and Indonesian and their preference for simple techniques. The study also found that students’ strategy choices were influenced by linguistic factors, such as limited vocabulary, grammatical difficulties, and lack of contextual understanding, as well as non-linguistic factors, including low confidence and fear of making mistakes. It can be concluded that students still depend on basic translation strategies, suggesting the need for more practice and guidance to improve their translation competence in producing more natural and contextually appropriate translations.grammar mastery, contextual understanding, and learning support is essential to enhance students’ translation skills.