CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAME WORK

A. Translation Understanding

1. The Definition of Translation

Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of meaning of

text in one language-the source text-and the production of a new, equivalent

text in another language-the target text, also called translation.

Traditionally, translation has always been a human activity, although

attempts have made to automate and computers as an aid to translation-

computer- assisted translation.

Took from wordiq.com :

The goal of translation is to establish a relationship of equivalence between the source and the target text (that is to say, that both texts communicate the same message), while taking into account a number constraints. These constraints include context, the rules of grammar of the source language, its writing conventions, its idioms, and the like.1

Translation is replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by

equivalent textual material in another language (TL). Newmark, statement

on his book, “Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another

1 http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Translation, download 11 January 2011

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language in the way that the author intended the text”2. Common sense tells

us that this ought to be simple, as one ought to be able to say something as

well in one language as in another. On the other hand, it can see it as

complicated, artificial and fraudulent, since by using another language that

pretending to be someone or not.

Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson said, Translation has to attend to

the language and cultural heritage of such works, for it has the function of

extending that heritage, of lending it another kind of historical depth, of

transforming it into a cross-cultural tradition.3

Common sense tells us that ought to be simple, as one ought to be able to say

something as well in one language as in another. On the other hand, it can

see it as complicated, artificial and fraudulent, since by using another

language that pretending to be someone or not.

Translation has been instrumental in transmitting culture, sometimes

under unequal conditions responsible for distorted and biased translation,

ever since countries and language have been in contact with each other.

Petrus Danielus Hustius said,

2 Peter Newmark, A Text Book of Translation, (New York, Prentice Hall, 1988), p. 53 Weissbort Daniel et al, Translation-Theory and Practice, A Historical Reader, (New York,

Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 3

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“A translation, in a text translated in this collection, is a text written in a well-know language which refers to and represents a text in a language which is not the entire relevant question at once.”4

As a technique for learning foreign language, translation is a two-edge

instrument: it has the special purpose of demonstrating the learner’s

knowledge of the foreign language, either as a form of control or to exercise

his intelligence in order to develop his competence. This is its strong point in

foreign-language classes, which has to be sharply distinguished from its

normal use in transferring meaning and conveying message.

2. Translation Process

The translation process, whether it is for translation or interpreting can

be stated simply as:

1) Decoding the meaning of the source text, and

2) Re-encoding this meaning in the target language

To decode the meaning of a text the translation must first identify its

component translation unit, that is to say the segment of the text (which may

be a word, a phrase or one or more sentences), to be treated as a cognitive

unit.

Behind this seemingly simple procedure lies a complex cognitive

operation. To decode the complete meaning of the source text, the translator

4 Levere Andre, Translation/History/Culture, (New York, Routledge, 1992), p. 1

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must consciously and methodically interpret and analyze all its features. This

process requires through knowledge of the grammar, semantic, syntax,

idioms and like of the source of the language, as well as the culture.

Brigitta assumed, “The translation need they seem in depth knowledge

to re-encode of the target language is more important, and need to be deeper

than their knowledge of the source language.”5 For this reason, most

translator translate into a language of which their native speakers.

In addition, knowledge of the subject matter being discussed is essential. In

recent years studies in cognitive linguistic have been able to provide valuable

insight into the cognitive process of translation.

3. Measuring Success in Translation

As the goal of translation is to establish a relationship of equivalence

between the source and the target texts-that is to say, both texts communicate

the same message-while taking into account the various constrain placed on

the translator, a successful translation can be judged by two criteria:

1) Faithfulness, also called fidelity that is the extent to which the translation

accurately renders the meaning of the source text, without adding to it

5 Brigitta Englud Dimitrova, Expertise and Explication in the Translation Process, (Amsterdam, Jhon Benyamin B.V, 2005), p. 12

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subtracting from it, and without intensifying or weakening any part of the

meaning; and

2) Transparency, which is the extent to which the translation appears to a

native speaker of the target language to have originally been written in

that language and conforms to the language’s grammatical, syntactic and

idiomatic conventions.

A translation meeting the first criterion is said to be a ”faithful translation”; a

translation meeting the second criterion is said to be an “idiomatic

translation”.

The criteria used to judge the faithfulness of translation vary according to the

subject, the precision of the original content, the type, function and use of the

text, its literary qualities, its social or historical context.

The criteria for judging the transparency of a translation would appears more

straightforward: an unidiomatic translation “sound” wrong and in the extreme

case of word of word translation generated by many machine translation

systems, often result in patent nonsense.

Nevertheless, in certain contexts a translator may knowingly strive to

produce a literal translation. For example, literary translators and translators

of religious works often adhere to the source text as much as possible. To do

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this deliberately “stretches” the boundaries of the target language to produce

an unidiomatic text. Likewise, a literary translator may wish to adopt words

or expressions from the source language provide “local color” in the

translation.

The concept of fidelity and transparency are looked at differently in recent

translation theories. The idea that acceptable translations should be as

creative and original as their source text is gaining momentum in some

quarters.

B. Lyric Song Understanding

Lyric (in singular from lyric) are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyric is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyric are abstract, almost unintelligible and in such cases their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression. The lyric traditional musical forms such as Opera is known as a librettist.6

The music class consisted of singing, musical instrument playing,

movement, creativity and listening activities. The story telling program was

aimed at developing language skills for early reading such as listening,

organization, comprehension, and memory skills. The background music

significantly affected behavioral manifestations of tension in specific areas

of the body. Background music also significant affected verbalizations

6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lyric, download 11 January 2011

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associated with pain in all subject, as compared to the same setting with no

background music. The behavioral measure supported patients’ verbal

reports of music’s effectiveness in assisting relaxation.

Music positively affect language accent, memory, and grammar as well as mood, enjoyment and motivation and that pairing words and rhythm properly helps to hold song together, and to improve the ability of the mind to recall it.7

Stansell insist that music and language help each other in the process of

learning 17 human expressions, a common goal. Interconnections between

the musical and linguistic areas enable music to assist in learning vocabulary

and phrases, which task are governed by the linguistic intelligence. High

musical ability is common among multilingual individuals and professional

singer with thick accents otherwise still sing in a standard dialect. With this

appreciation for assistive place of music in the mind, researcher must try to

discover ways that music can more effectively awaken students to language

learning.

Use of music is recommended by them for better understanding of language

because Jeremy said, “When song and words match in stress and accent, the

learner can experience gains in comprehension of word stress, attention

span, anticipation of new text, and memory.”8

7 Dagma Siskova, Teaching Vocabulary Through Music, (Brno, Masarky University, 2008), p.178 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Teaching, (UK, 3rd Edition Longman 1998), p. 91

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C. Lyric of Song as Teaching Materials to Translate

In choosing songs as teaching materials to translate, we must carefully

selected song in the target language also constitutes another suitable

pedagogic resource for following reasons:

1) They facilitate in pace of instruction, regardless of what teaching

technique and strategies are being used.

2) They represent an entertaining alternative to the main course materials

(textbook, workbook, lab tapes or CD-ROM, etc)

3) They increase the level of motivation and interest among students toward

the linguistic and cultural contents of course at any given level of

proficiency

4) They reinforce the students’ conversational skill through the practice of

pronunciation, the exposure and cultural issues in the target language.

5) They facilitate the comprehension of complex grammatical structure

analyzed and practiced from the perspective of meaningful context

6) They represent an invaluable approach to diverse cultural and historical

issues related to the target language

7) They promote an awareness of multiculturalism, i.e. the connections,

challenges, resource, and opportunity of world of diversity.

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Song may be selected, classified, and implemented according to their

possible linguistic and/or cultural objectives.

Flexibility in terms of purpose for using songs should not imply in

practice a lack of clarity in their presentation. In other words, the specific

techniques to be used in the presentation of song in the classroom should be

closely related to the teacher’s initial objectives, as well as to his or her

knowledge of the different processes involved in listening. For example if we

select a song as the introduction to discussion activity, we should give more

emphasis to question about the lyric that encourage the students’ background

knowledge of the issue to be discussed. That is so say; the students follow a

top-down approach to process their prior knowledge of the context and

situations described by the song, and then relate it to the task suggested by

the teacher. On the other hand, if our purpose is to present a specific grammar

item such as a new verb tense, we may prefer to begin by having our students

fill in blanks where the new tense appears in the song. In this way, we

reinforce a bottom-up approach to listening, by which the students decode the

sounds that they hear in a linier fashion, from the smallest meaningful unit to

complete texts.

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D. Audio Lingual Method

The audio lingual method was developed in the United States during the

World War II as the combination of structural linguist theory, contractive

analysis, aural-oral procedures and behaviorist psychology.

1. Definition of Audio Lingual Method

Audio Lingual Methodology owed its existence to the behaviorist

models of learning that were using the stimulus-response-reinforcement

models, it attempted through a continuous process of such positive

reinforcement to engender good habit in language learner.9

Audio Lingual’s relied heavily on drill to form these habits; substitution was

built into these drills so that in small steps, the students was constantly

learning and moreover, was shielded from possibility of making mistakes by

design of the drill.

Audio Lingual repetition drills were design to familiarize students with

sounds and structural patterns of the target language (the language which

learners are purpose to learn). Learners supposedly learned to practicing

grammatical structures then later using them in translation.

The concept of habit formation, of behaviorism, is the theoretical basis

of the audio lingual method. Since learners needed to form good habits,

9 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (Longman 2006), p. 79

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lessons involved a great deal off repetition. Students were not supposed to

form bad habits.

The researcher may infer that the audio lingual method spens a great

deal of time of teaching learning activities on the reinforcement and habit-

formation. Stimulus correct response and reward that are accured again and

again in the teaching-learning activities form students’ habit, the more

frequently these happen the stronger the habit become.

The language teaching theoreticians and methodologists who developed

Audiolingualism not only had convincing and powerful theory of language to

draw upon but they were also working in a period when a prominent school of

America psychology-known as behavioral psychology-claimed to have tapped

the secret of all human learning, including language learning. Behaviorism,

like structural linguistic, is another ant mentalist, empirically based approach

to the study of human behavior. To the behaviorist, the human being is an

organism capable of a wide repertoire of behaviors. On Richard and Rogers

book’ quotations,

The occurrence of these behaviors is dependent upon three crucial elements in learning: a stimulus, which serves to elicit behavior; a response triggered by a stimulus; and reinforcement which serves to mark the response as being appropriate (or inappropriate) and encourage the repetition (or suppression) of the response in the future.10

10 Richard. J and Rodgers, Approaches and Method in Language Teaching, (UK, Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 50

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The quotations above mean that Audio-Lingual Method is a method in

teaching language to improve students’ language competent as the language

behavior, in mastering to translate language students must do more practice by

do in oral drill and pattern practice, because that the structure of behavior in

stimulation own of students. And the most important the method carried with

structural linguistic and behavior psychology.

Language is primary is use of language in audio lingual theory,

translation skills are themselves dependent upon the ability to accurately

perceive and produce the major phonological features of the target language

fluency in the use of the key grammatical patterns in the language and

knowledge sufficient vocabulary to use with these patterns.

Basically that all be based on learning process as it is by change people

emotional and behavioral response. Where the teacher as the stimulation

which to prove behavior of the learner, and the students as the response of the

stimulation, that is the way how to create a feedback on students and teacher.

Audio Lingual repetition drills were design to familiarize students with

the sound and structural patterns of the target language. The concept of habit

formation of behaviorism is the basis of Audio Lingual Method. Since learner

needed to form good habits, lesson involved a great deal of repetition.

Students were not supposed to form bad habit, so teacher treated error quickly.

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2. Principle of Audio Lingual Method

According to William, proclaimed the linguistic principal on which

language teaching methodology should be base: “Language is speech, not

writing…A language is a set of habits…Teach the language, not about the

language…A language is what is native speaker say, no what someone thinks

they ought to say…. Languages are different.”11

There the principles of audio lingual method in learning are following:

1) Foreign language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit

formation. The more often something is repeated, the stronger habit and

greater learning.

2) Know mean form before they are seen in written form. The teachers

should provide students with native speaker like model. By listening to

how it is supposed to sound, the students should be able to mimic the

model.

3) Analogy provide better than analysis. Students should learn to respond to

both verbal and nonverbal stimuli.

4) A linguistic and cultural context and not in isolation. Language cannot

separate from culture. Culture is not only literature and the arts but also

11 Ibid, p. 53

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the everyday behavior of the people who use the target language. One of

the teacher’s responsibilities is to present information about that culture.12

E. Technique of Teaching Translation on Lyric Song

Song contains the power of music as well as the power of lyrics. While

music touches our hearts, the lyric and their words flow into our minds and so

they draw us into their own world.

Selected song and lyric in the target language also constitute another

suitable pedagogic resource for the following reasons:

1) They facilitate change in the pace of instruction, regardless of what

teaching techniques and strategies are being used.

2) They represent an entertaining alternative to the main course materials

(textbook, workbook, lab tapes or CD-ROM, etc)

3) They increase the level of motivation and interest among students toward

the linguistic and cultural content of our courses at any given level of

proficiency.

4) They reinforce the students’ conversational skills through the practice of

pronunciation, the exposure to new or recently taugh vocabulary, and the

discussion of social and cultural issues in the target language.

12 Ibid, p. 51

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5) They facilitate the comprehension of complex grammatical structure

analyzed and practiced from the perspective of a meaningful context.

6) They represent an invaluable approach to diverse cultural and historical

issue related to the target language

7) They promote an awareness of multicultural, i.e. the connections,

challenge, resources, and opportunities of world of diversity

Song and lyric song can be used in a lot of various ways. All the skills such as

listening, reading, writing and speaking can be practiced, the same way as

linguistic areas starting with vocabulary, grammatical structures, and ending

with rhythm, stress, fluency and pronunciation.

Songs are also especially good at introduction vocabulary because they

provide a meaningful context for the vocabulary. However, it depends on the

choice of song since there are also some songs without meaningful context.

From grammatical point of view, they provide a natural context for the most

common structures such as verb tenses and prepositions.

Songs may be selected, classified and implemented according to their

possible linguistic and/or cultural objective. The same song may often fulfill

multiple purposes to enhance the listening skill, improve pronunciation,

acquire vocabulary, provide examples of grammatical structures, practices

reading and writing and sensitize the students to cultural facets.

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F. Classroom Action Research

Action research can be described as: any research into practice undertaken

by those involved in that practice, with an aim to change and improve it. It is

therefore, a process of enquiry by you as a practitioner into the effectiveness of

your own teaching and your students’ learning.

Action research is about both ‘action’ and ‘research’ and the links between

the two. It is quite possible to take action without research or to do research

without taking action, but the unique combination of the two is what distinguishes

action research from other forms of enquiry. It is, of course, not restricted to an

educational context.

1. Definition of Classroom Action Research

The most important component of action research is that it does include

both action and reflection that lead to enhance practice.

Kemmis and Mc Taggart distinguish it from the normal practice of teaching

in the following way:

1. It is not the usual thinking teachers do when they think about their

teaching. Action research is more systematic and collaborative in

collecting evidence on which to base their group reflection.

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2. It is not simply problem solving. Action research involves problem-

posing, not just problem-solving. It does not start from a view of

‘problems’ as pathologies. It is motivated by a quest to improve and

understand the world by changing it and learning how to improve it from

the effects of the changes made.

3. It is not research done on other people. Action research is research by

particular people on their own work, to help them improve what they do,

including how they work with and for others.

4. Action research is not “the scientific method” applied to teaching. There

is not just one view of “the scientific method”; there are many.13

However, if action research is different to the normal practice of teaching, to

what extent is it ‘research’?

Notwithstanding Kemmis and McTaggart’s differentiation between action

research and teaching, there is obviously a close connection between the two

and it is this close connection that makes the approach a particularly

attractive one for practitioners. The self-initiated approach to research and to

an improvement in practice is another strong attraction of the action research

approach. Indeed, some have argued that it is a legitimate part of good

teaching. Zeni said:

13 The Open University, Action Research A Guide for Associate Lectures (COBE, Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6AA), p. 8

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“Action research involves practitioners in studying their own professional practice and framing their own questions. Their research has the immediate goal to assess, develop or improve their practice. Such research activities belong in the daily process of good teaching, to what has been called the 'zone of accepted practice”.14

2. Steps in Classroom Action Research

Within all the definitions of action research, there are four basic

themes: empowerment of participants, collaboration through participation,

acquisition of knowledge, and social change. In conducting action research,

we structure routines for continuous confrontation with data on the health of

a school community. These routines are loosely guided by movement

through five phases of inquiry:

Classroom Action Research Cycle:

1. Planning, data collection based on the problem and tested the hypothesis

by empirical measures based on initial observations in general and can be

as a reference to reveal the factors supporting and inhibiting the

implementation of the action

2. Action is a variation of careful and prudent practices which are recognized

as the idea into action and used as guidelines for the development of the

next actions with a view to improving the situation.

3. Observation serves to document the effect of actions oriented to the future,

as well as providing a basis for reflection now.

14 Ibid, p. 8

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4. Reflection is a reminder and an action ponders exactly as has been

observed. Reflection is an activity analysis, interpretation and explanation

(explanation) of all information obtained money from observations on the

implementation of the action.