THE APPLICATION OF FOREIGNIZATION METHODS IN TRANSLATING REPORT

TEXT: SASIRANGAN

Ega Maulida Sari Abstract: The research was aimed at investigating

egamlda92@gmail.com the application of foreignization methods by English
Department students’ batch 2017 in translating
Indonesian report text: Sasirangan into English
language. This research was conducted through
descriptive-quantitative approach. The data were
collected through report text translation analysis
including content analysis and thematic analysis. The
results show that the most used method by the
translator was Literal translation (56%), followed by
Faithful translation (34%), Word-for-word
translation (6%) and Semantic translation (4%).

Keywords: translation, foreignization methods,

cultural report text

INTRODUCTION
In the field of translation, there has long been a point at issue over the best
possible translation strategies chosen for the movement of cultural elements. The two
significant ones are foreignization and domestication, which have been the essence of
contention since their development in translation studies (Hu, Cui’e, 2000). Especially in
terms of translation, the relationship between cultural information and language
becomes a crucial issue. The case of translation has concentrated more and more on
cultural aspects. Translators play a role as a "bridge" that allows target text readers to
understand unfamiliar source text readers' cultural information. As stated by Davies who
proposes that “The translator is described as a mediator whose role is to make the reader
of the translation open to these different cultural manifestations” (Davies 2003:68).
Hence, translation is not only a process of cultural transplantation, but also an activity of
intercultural communication. In other words, translation process involves both the
transfer of language and culture.
Some translators come up with the terms foreignization and domestication and
become the main focus which people contended in the recent years. The contention
essentially lies on the difficulties for the translation to keep up the style, the naturalness
of the original work as much as possible and for the readers to comprehend and
acknowledge the translation as easily as possible. Some of the facts assert translators to
introduce and publish cultural aspects of foreign culture to be retained at a much greater
extent. This leads translators to prefer foreignization to domestication. When
foreignization is used, source text language culture which contain cultural information
will be retained, and the readers will feel the sense of the source text language culture in
a greater way. However, it should be understood that foreignization is not simple
translation only from word to word, but also retains particular source text language
which convey semantically structure concept and they are mostly concerns about cultural
aspects. There are four methods that can be used in foreignization:
1. Word-for-word translation
In this method, the SL word order is saved and the words are translated by their
most common meanings. SL grammar and word order are transmitted in addition to
the basic meanings of all SL words. This translation type is usually expressed as
interlinear translation because the SL words are translated directly on the following
lines, out of context. Cultural words are translated literally. (Newmark, 1988:45).

2. Literal translation
Cakir (2006:34) implies that literal translation is a sort of word-for-word
translation and it can be applied when the content and form of both texts overlap with
each other. In word-for-word translation, the unit is the word and the word order are
the same. In literal translation, however, the unit is the sentence and SL in which
grammatical structures are adapted to their nearest target language equivalents. But
the lexical words are again translated independently in contrast to translating the
whole phrase out of context.

3. Faithful translation
This method might be seen as a kind of author-centered translation. The translator
is faithful to the text, author and to the intention of the author. It is like a paraphrase
in the sense that it intends to reproduce the contextual meaning of SL by keeping the
TL grammatical structure.

4. Semantic translation
This method of translation has purpose to find a semantic equivalence in the
translation of the SL to the TL. It pays special attention to the content and meaning of
the message rather than the effect. It might be considered as a type of literal
translation. Literal translation is a sort of word-for-word translation while semantic
translation must also express the meaning.
In this research, researcher will use report text for it to be translated. Report is a text
which presents information about something, as it is. It is as a result of systematic
observation and analyses. It has two generic structures: [1] General classification; [2]
Description. Furthermore, report text also has some language features: [1] using general
noun, [2] using relating verbs to describe features, [3] using some of action verbs when
describing behavior, [4] using timeless present tense to indicate usualness.
In order to fit into the foreignization methods, the text has been made consisting
cultural aspects and entitled as “Sasirangan” published by the official website of
Indonesia tourism: Indonesia Travel (Wonderful Indonesia) which describes about
traditional cloth from South Borneo (Kalimantan Selatan). Researcher will try to see
which methods that will be applied in the translation process by English Department
students’ batch 2017 in translating report text: Sasirangan. It is hoped that the
participants will translate the text by applying foreignization accurately and decently
along with the translation methods.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The topic of the research is cultural translation in report text. The method applied in
conducting the research is descriptive quantitative. The aim of this research is to know
the percentage of translation method(s) that is used the most in translating the text and
also to describe which method is applied by the translators based on his translation.
A. Data Collection
For the purpose of this research, researcher will use a report text entitled
“Sasirangan” published by Wonderful Indonesia as the source of the data. The
participants will be chosen with random sampling technique which consists of 10
students in English Department batch 2017 as the translators. The data will be
collected after the translators translating the text and distribute it to the researcher.
B. Data Analysis
1. The researcher will identify some of sentences and phrases from the text which
will be the main focus for analyzing the translation.
2. After all the data is collected, the researcher will analyze the translation
thoroughly based on the chosen sentences and phrases.
3. The researcher classifies the data based on the translation methods in the target
text and calculate the percentage of the most-used method(s) applied by the
translators.
4. The researcher will describe the application of translation methods along with
the chosen sentences and phrases. Finally, the researcher draws conclusion based
on the data analysis.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

As previously stated, this study is intended to find out which method that is used the most
by the translators in translating report text. The researcher classifies three sentences and
two phrases in the text to be main focuses on analyzing the translation:
1. Sasirangan adalah kain tradisional yang berasal dari Kalimantan Selatan.
2. Sasirangan sendiri berasal dari kata Banjar sirang atau menyirang yang berarti
“menjahit bersama” yang menggambarkan proses halus jahitan tangan dan tenun dari
kain tradisional.
3. Penjahit kain sasirangan biasanya menjahit pola yang sudah dibuat sebelumnya pada
kain, lalu mengikat pola yang diperlukan dengan tali untuk menghindari kontaminasi
dengan warna lain, kemudian kain dicelupkan ke dalam pewarna.
4. …tetapi berbeda dalam proses pembuatan dan motifnya.
5. …dapat menemukan proses pembuatan kain Sasirangan
Percentage of the Methods
From those five categories, the researcher sets out the results of number of methods for
each category as in the table below.
No Translators’ Translation Methods
Code
Word-for- Literal Faithful Semantic
Word Translation Translation Translation
Translation
1. T1 1 3 1 -
2. T2 1 3 1 -
3. T3 - - 3 2
4. T4 1 4 - -
5. T5 - 2 3 -
6. T6 - 2 3 -
7. T7 - 5 - -
8. T8 - 2 3 -
9. T9 - 2 3 -
10. T10 - 5 - -
Total 3 28 17 2
Percentage 6% 56% 34% 4%

Table 1. The Percentage of Methods

From the data above, it can be concluded that most of translators used Literal translation
method, followed with Word-for-word, Faithful and Semantic method as the least one.

Analysis of the Methods

After calculating the application of the methods, the researcher describes the application
of methods based on each sentence and phrase in more detail description.
1. Word-for-Word Translation
In this method, the SL word order is saved and the words are translated by their most
common meanings. Here is the analysis of this method found in the translation.
Source Text Target Text
Sasirangan sendiri Sasirangan itself
berasal dari kata comes from the
Banjar sirang atau word Banjar sirang
menyirang or menyirang
 As it can be seen, the SL word order is still saved and SL words are translated directly
on its following line, especially in ‘dari kata Banjar’ translated into ‘from the word
Banjar’ where it is supposed to be ‘from the Banjar word’ to make it more meaningful
from the SL.
2. Literal Translation
In literal translation, however, the unit is the sentence and source language in which
grammatical structures are adapted to their nearest target language equivalents. But
the lexical words are again translated independently in contrast to translating the
whole phrase out of context. Here is the analysis of this method found in the
translation.
Source Text Target Text
tetapi berbeda but it is different in
dalam proses the process of
pembuatan dan making and the
motifnya motives
The translator translated the phrase with the same words order; however, since the
words translated independently, there is a difference in giving the same effect and
meaning. ‘Motif’ in Sasirangan cloth means the pattern of it, but the translator
translated into ‘motives’ which means a reason for doing something. Hence, by
translating into that word, it gives totally different meaning from the source word.
3. Faithful Translation
This method is like a paraphrase in the sense that it intends to reproduce the
contextual meaning of SL by keeping the TL grammatical structures. Here is the
analysis of this method found in the translation.
Source Text Target Text
Penjahit kain sasirangan biasanya Sasirangan tailors generally sew the
menjahit pola yang sudah dibuat patterns that have been made
sebelumnya pada kain, lalu mengikat before on the cloth, later on, they
pola yang diperlukan dengan tali bind the patterns to avoid
untuk menghindari kontaminasi contamination from other colors,
dengan warna lain, kemudian kain before being dyed in the colorant
dicelupkan ke dalam pewarna
In this method, the unit is usually longer than a word. It may be a sentence or a
paragraph. Faithful translation challenges to translate the exact contextual meaning
of the original text within the restrictions of the TL grammatical structure. As the
example above, there is not much changes in the words order; however, the translator
tries to convey the sentence while still maintaining the grammatical structure in order
to make it has the same meaning from the SL. In other words, the form in this method
is not very important, but the translator has to be faithful to the intention of the
original text.
4. Semantic Translation
This method of translation has purpose to find a semantic equivalence in the
translation of the SL to the TL. It pays special attention to the content and meaning of
the message rather than the effect. Here is the analysis of this method found in the
translation.
Source Text Target Text
Sasirangan adalah Sasirangan is a
kain tradisional yang traditional cloth that
berasal dari came from
Kalimantan Selatan Kalimantan Selatan
Semantic translation might be considered as a type of literal translation. Literal
translation is a sort of word-for-word translation while semantic translation must
also express the meaning. In the translation above, there is not much changes in the
sentence structure; however, since report text is supposed to use present tense, the
translator changes the tense into past to states that Sasirangan (since a long time ago),
came from Kalimantan Selatan. Although the tense is changing, the meaning of the
sentence is remained the same, and it agrees with how this method goes

CONCLUSION
1. Foreignization is one of translation orientation that is used by translator who has the
ideology to remain the actual meaning of cultural aspects in source text.
Foreignization has four methods: 1) Word-for-word, 2) Literal, 3) Faithful and 4)
Semantic translation. In this study, researcher tries to analyze the application of
those methods in a report text entitled Sasirangan.
2. Based on the analysis on the application of foreignization methods in translating the
report text, we can assess the degree of methods. From the analysis, Literal
translation prevails as the most used method as it is applied 56% to the data.
Furthermore, Faithful translation is applied 34%, followed with Word-for-word
translation is 6% and Semantic translation is only applied to 4% of the data.
3. The choices of using foreignization methods are based on many reasons. From the
data we can say that most of translators use literal translation method to preserve
the cultural aspects and the text structure as it is since the aim of foreignization is to
give the taste of source language culture to target language.
REFERENCES
Hu, Cui’e. (2000). Rethinking on Domestication and Foreignization. Foreign Language and
Translation, 1,45-48.
Larson, Mildred L. 1984. Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross -Language
Equivalence.Lanham and New York: University Press of America.
Newmark, Peter. 2010. Translation and Culture. In Meaning in Translation. Ed.B.
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk. Frankfurt: Peter Long Gmb
Venuti, L. (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility, London, New York: Routledge.