INISIASI 1:

READING COMPREHENSION IN
TRANSLATION
NUR ROCHMAN FATONI, S.Pd., M.Li.
BING4437/TRANSLATION 7
Objective:

to be able to translate various

texts on ‘religion’ from
English into bahasa Indonesia
accurately and naturally
Before we go • Before doing translation, read the source
to the
material on text twice or even three times to
this session understand the general image of the
a translator
need to source text.
remember
that: • Doing translation means transferring

meaning so never translate word by word

SINCE 2017
From the
point above: So:
Understanding
source text • In the first week, we will briefly
is important
to convey discuss the role of reading comprehension
accurate in translation
meaning

SINCE 2017
 COMPREHENSION: THE ONE THAT MATTERS

Translation begins with reading and As a translator, you need to employ

understanding the source text your linguistic competence and
“world knowledge” to grasp the
message of the source text, both
explicit and implicit message
 WARNING

Failing to understand the source text

means failing to translate in the target
text

COMPREHENSION: ROOT OF PROBLEMS

According to Newmark (1988), ‘the work
of translating a text starts with its
analysis, first of
all with a careful reading’. You begin
the job by reading the original for two
purposes: first, to
understand what it is about; second, to
analyse it from a translator’s point of
view, which is not the
same as a linguist’s or literary
critics. You have to determine its
intention and the way it is written for
the purpose of selecting a suitable
translation method and identifying
particular and recurrent
problems
COMPREHENSION: FIRST TO
DEVELOP

Every translation training

program should then begin with
developing reading comprehension
in the source language
 To understand that

Washbourne (2012) delineates six basic reading methods for translation and explains
their purpose: ‘skimming (pre-reading; gaining global familiarity with or first
impression of a text; choosing a text; using parallel texts and background texts);
scanning (attesting term candidates or collocations); exploratory reading (between
skimming and close reading; reading published translations to gain a global
understanding or a familiarity with new information); close reading, rereading
(‘reading to write’; reading and annotating, finding patterns, multiple strategic
readings of a source text […]); reading to integrate […] (creating a single organising
frame (compare–contrast, problem–solution) across multiple texts); revision reading/spot
reading/proofreading (unilingual re-reading/comparative re-reading, work of self and
others’)
 COMPREHENSION IN
RELIGIOUS TRANSLATION

The thing is that religious texts are full of religious terminologies

not everybody knows of, esp. those who are not the believers of the
religion in question.

This is why a translator need to read comprehensively the source text

and also have a wide background knowledge through good literacy.
 Reference

Kovacs, G. (2018). The significance of developing reading skills in

translator and language teacher training. New
Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences.
[Online]. 5(3) pp 155–164. Available
from: www.prosoc.eu