INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND TRANSLATION

1. The 5th
ELTLT CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
October 2016
564 ISBN 978-602-73769-3-9
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND TRANSLATION:
A STUDY CASE OF STUDENTS‘ TRANSLATION PROJECT OF
ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM OF TRIDINANTI UNIVERSITY
PALEMBANG
Ridha Ilma
A Lecturer of English Study Program, Tridinanti University Palembang
Palembang, Indonesia
ridhailma@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper attempts to discuss how intercultural competence affects translation process, as all
people know that the students have to integrate the language produced by them with the culture of
language itself. In doing the study, the writer did a descriptive method by analyzing the result of
target language translation done by the students. Then, the fourth semester English study program
students of Tridinanti University Palembang became the sample of the study. The result showed
that though the students had different cultural backgrounds, they still had same capacity to
translate the target language well. Because most of the students enabled to have same awareness to
translate the text by looking at its cultural context, in fact the result of translation had good word
choices, consisting of correct lexis and syntax, and could be comprehended by the readers.
Keywords - intercultural competence, translation, language.
Introduction
People need culture to live in the social life
as culture is the way of people‘s living. The
life of people is supposed to be integrated
with culture. If the learners are acquiring
second languages or foreign languages, they
also have to learn about the culture of those
target languages because language, thought,
and culture are in one set. In acquiring a
language, the learner should put language as
a media, culture as a way, and thought as a
machine. In other words, the learners should
use thought as a device to think properly
about words or sentences and deliver them
into a language as the product of thinking.
After that, the learners have to integrate the
language produced by them with the culture
of language itself.
In learning a language, the learners will face
the difficulties in comprehending the culture
of the target language; they tend to have the
differences between their local language and
the target language. After the learners have
understood the culture of the target language,
they have to interchange it with they own
culture. It means that they have to conceive
the competence of intercultural
communication.
The definition of intercultural was derived by
Alwood (1985, p. 1) in the following
statements:
The term intercultural is
chosen over the largely
synonymous term cross-
cultural because it is linked
to language use such as
―interdisciplinary‖, that is
cooperation between
people with different
scientific backgrounds.
Perhaps the term also has
somewhat fewer
connotations than cross
cultural. It is not cultures
that communicate,
whatever that might imply,
but people (and possibly
social institutions) with

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different cultural
backgrounds that do. In
general, the term‖cross-
cultural‖ is probably best
used for comparisons
between cultures
(‖crosscultural
comparison‖).
Catford (1965) said that translation is the
replacement of textual material in one
language (second language) by equivalent
textual material in another language (target
language).
Intercultural communication studies and
translation studies seem to have tight
relationships. While people are acquiring
second language or foreign language, they
tend to comprehend oral and written product
of language by translating words by words or
sentences by sentences to gain their
meanings. Based on the description above,
the writer was interested to conduct a
research aiming to investigate how
intercultural competence affects translation
process of English study program students of
Tridinanti University Palembang .
Theoretical Background
Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication or
communication between people of different
cultural backgrounds has always been and
will probably remain an important
precondition of human co-existence on earth
(Alwood, 1985, p. 1). In other words, the
interpersonal interaction between members
of different groups, which differ from each
other in respect of the knowledge shared by
their members and in respect of their
linguistic forms of symbolic behavior.
Robinson (1997, p. 232) stated that
intercultural communication competence
aims to train monoculture to get along better
in intercultural situations; translation/
interpretation studies begins where
intercultural communication competence
leaves off, at fluent integration. Robinson
(1997, p. 231) also mentioned some models
that should be included in intercultural
communication. They are:
1. Ethnocentrism: the refusal to
communicate across cultural
boundaries; rejection of the foreign or
strange; universalization of one‘s own
local habits and assumptions.
2. Cross-cultural tolerance:
monolinguals communicating with
foreigners who speak their language;
members of different subcultures
within a single national culture
coming into contact and discovering
and learning to appreciate and accept
their differences; problems of
foreign-language learning, and
growing tolerance for cultural and
linguistic relativism
3. Integration: fluency in a foreign
language and culture; the ability to
adapt and acculturate and feel at
home in a foreign culture, speaking
its languages without strain, acting
and feeling (more or less) like a
native to that culture.
4. Translation/ interpretation; the ability
to mediate between cultures, to
explain one to another; mixed
loyalties; the pushes and pulls of the
source and target cultures.
Translation
Translation is studying the lexicon,
grammatical structure, communication
situation, and cultural context of the source
language text, analyzing it in order to
determine its meaning, and then
reconstructing this same meaning using
lexicon and grammatical structure which are
appropriate in the receptor language and its
cultural context (Larson, 1984, p. 3).
Translation begins with a blind, intuitive,
instinctive sense in a language, source or
target, of what a word or phrase means, how

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a syntactic structure works( instinct); proceed
by translating those words and phrase,
moving back and forth between the two
languages, feeling the similarities and
differences between words and phrases and
structures (experience); and gradually, over
time, simplify specific solutions to specific
experiential problems into more or less
subconscious behavior patterns (habit),
which help her or him to translate more
quickly and effectively, eliminating the
necessity to stop and overcome troubles.
Since troubles and their solutions are built
into habit, and especially because every
problem that disturbs to the habitual process
is it soon habitual, the translator notices the
problem-solving process less and less, feel
more competent and decreased gradually.
Translation Competence
Translation competence cannot be developed
solely by practicing translating (learning by
doing), but it needs to be fixed a theoretical
framework in order to allow trainee
translators to make informed decisions
(Schafner, 2003, p. 93). It means that a
program needs to include a module on
translation theories, to familiarize students
with various definitions of translation,
various approaches and controversial
concepts, and thus encourage critical
reflection.
Translation competence also includes a meta-
level (knowledge about translation,
development disciplines of translation
theories, and its disciplinary discourse). Here
are the integrated aspects included in
translation competence:
a. Producing Target Texts
When students are faced factors with a
translation task, it is necessary for them to
reflect consciously on all that are relevant to
the production of a target text that
appropriately fulfilled its specified purpose
for its target addressees. It means awareness
of the scopes reflecting on the required target
text profile, analyzing the source text against
the background of the translation brief,
deciding on the translation strategies with
which the purpose can best be achieved, and
reflecting on the research that needs to be
carried out in completing the task (e.g.
checking parallel texts for genre conventions
in the target culture, doing an Internet search
to find information about historical events).
In this way, students experience translation
as a complex decision-making process.
b. Reflecting on the Reception of the
Target Texts
In intercultural communication, the translator
has to negotiate at least two models of reality
and make them logically and culturally
compatible for the specified purpose of the
target text. A comparison of source text and
target text can serve as an exercise to identify
translation decisions and reflect about their
potential causes and effects.
c. Transactional inter(cultural)
Competence
If the professional task of a translator is
defined as enabling communication between
members of different cultures, this means
that translators need to have a bicultural
competence.
Schafner (2003) listed four approaches to the
study of culture: behaviorist, functionalist,
cognitive, and dynamic approaches.
Translation theories focus on cultures as
systems of power, with dominant and
oppressed groups, majority and minority
groups, groups at centers and at peripheries.
In other words, translation has derived
various definitions of culture from other
disciplines into its own discourse.
In their professional activity, translators are
confronted with forms of behavior and their
products (e.g. texts, in the widest sense).
They must be able to relate behavior itself
and the results of behavior to the culture-
specific knowledge of the members of that

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culture. In this way, they will be able to
identify the function, relevance and value of
such behavior and/or of its results in and for
a culture.
Methodology
In this study, the writer used descriptive
method to describe the effect of students‘
cultural background to their translation
competence. There were six students of
English study program of Tridinanti
University Paalembang which became the
sample of the study. Then, translation test
and interview were the instruments to collect
the data.
Finding and Discussion
This study was conducted as a small
research done by the writer when she
taught translation class in Tridinanti
University Palembang. They were only six
students there who were in same level of
semester (fourth semester), English
experience and competence.
Firstly, she interviewed each of the
students asking about their cultural
background in relation to their style of
speaking English. Although they came
from different regions, they still used
Indonesian and Palembang language as
their mother tongue to speak in daily
communication. Their ways of speaking
English in the classroom was affected It
could found in They also have learned
English for about 10-14 years. It means
that they have already had large capacities
in speaking English and translating some
English texts. She also found that all of
them had difficulties in translating
language if they found new words which
they had not found before; some students
also felt difficulties in translating proverbs
and idiomatic expression, and word
synonyms.
After interviewing all of the students, she
gave a passage to the students and
assessed them to translate it. The result
was analyzed by using special rubric. Here
is the result:
Table 1
The Translation Assessment Result
Stude
nt
Accurac
y
Finding
equivale
nt
Registe
r, TL
culture
Gramma
r, ST
Style
Shifts,
ommision
s,
additions,
dll
1 27 23 18 14 9
2 25 23 18 14 9
3 25 22 18 14 9
4 22 22 12 13 9
5 21 17 17 11 9
6 24 18 17 13 9
Means 24 20.5 16.7 13.1 9
According to above table below there
were so many description could be drawn:
1. In term of accuracy, most of the students
were in the score range of 24. It means
that the students had virtually no
problems of comprehension except with
the most highly specialized vocabulary
with no influence on translation readers‘
understanding; some partial omission and
additions. They tended to have little
mistakes in translating some words but
the meaning was still understood by the
readers.
2. In term of finding equivalent, most of the
students were in the score range of 20.5.
It means that the students had understood
all of lexical and syntactic elements of
the text; they had chosen the most
appropriate words so that the text looked
like a good publishable version.
3. In term of register and translation culture,
most of the students were in the score
range of 16.7. In other words, they had
fair degree of sensitivity to nuances of
meaning, register, and cultural context.
4. In term of grammar and students‘ style,
most of the students were in the score
range of 13.1. It means that the students
gave the feeling that the translation
needed no improvement form
grammatical and stylistic points though
one or two natural failings might be
observed; native-like fluency in grammar.
The students had master word structures

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well so that they did not have difficulties
in translating them.
5. In term of shifts, omissions, additions and
inventing equivalents, all of the students
were in the score of 9. In other words,
they already used the correct relative
clauses, verb forms, they also used
parallel structure, they had had creative
inventions and skillful solutions to
equivalent and no fragment or run-on
sentence.
Form the research conducted by the writer; it
was found that though the students had
different cultural backgrounds, they still had
same capacity to translate the text well.
Because most of the students enabled to have
same awareness to translate the text by
looking at its cultural context, in fact the
result of translation had good word choices,
consisting of correct lexis and syntax, and
could be comprehended by the readers.
Conclusions
Intercultural means the existing or
happenings between cultures. In other words,
the second or foreign language learners may
relate one culture to others in acquiring the
language because learning language cannot
be separated with learning its culture.
However the learners may face some
problems in comparing the first language
they have with the target languages. The
problems are: the similarities between first
language and target language, the differences
between first language and target language,
and the sameness between first language and
target language. One of the problems above
is culture; the learner may face the
difficulties conceiving the culture of target
language. They must have the intercultural
competence in order to try to negotiate
between two systems. The learners need a
conversation analysis in their mind to make
sure the meaning of the language produced.
On the basis of the results of data
analysis and interpretation, it could be
concluded that the fourth semester English
study program students of Tridinanti
University Palembang had the same capacity
in the process of translating a text. Their
intercultural competence affected their
translation competence. In other words, they
should relate their knowledge of target
language culture in order to avoid
misconception of between the culture of
source language of original text and the
culture of language of translation text.
Besides, they might consider some factors in
the process of translation, some steps in
translation to produce the best translation text
of target language.
References
Alwood, J. (1985). Intercultural
Communication. Anthropological
Linguistics 12, 1-25. Retrieved from
http://www.ling.gu.se/~jens/publicati
ons/docs001-050/041E.pdf. Accessed
on June 3rd
, 2016.
Catford, J.C., (1965). A Linguistic Theory of
Translation. London, UK: Oxford
University Press.
Larson, M.L.(1984). Meaning Based
Translation: A Guide to Cross
Language Equivalence. Retrieved
from http://www.seasite.niu.edu/trans
/articles/. Accessed on June 18th,
2016.
Robinson, D. (1997). Becoming a Translator.
London, UK: Routledge.
Schaffener, C. (2003). Translation and
Intercultural Communication. Studies
in Communication Science 3(2), 78-
93. Retrieved from
http://www.ensani.ir/
storage/Files/20110207191737.
Accessed on June 3rd
, 2016.