Foreign Language
Writing and Translation
Wuri Soedjatmiko
Agnes Santi Widiati
In L1 writing, every writer is said
to have experienced writer’s block. To overcome this writers are suggested that
the continue writing without stopping to edit typing mistakes or find
appropriate words. Using 14 fourth-semester students of the English department
whose L1 is Indonesian as subjects, and consulting experts’ findings and
experience in writing, this study attempts to qualitatively descriptive the
flow of thoughts of the subjects while writing in English, i.e., whether or not
they think in bahasa
Indonesia and translate it into English. Three steps are employed. The first is
by evaluating the subjects’ first writing draft to see whether or not they
choose appropriate words, compose sentences, and put them in coherent
paragraphs. Some guiding assumptions are drawn from their work on the
strategies utilized to overcome writer’s block. The second step is checking through
open interviews. The last step sees whether or not the strategies are related
to the writer’s language competence as shown by the average of subjects’ grades
in dictation, reading, writing and structure from Semester 1 to Semester 4. The
findings show that strategies used whether or not translation is used are not
affected by the subjects’ language competence. Almost all subjects think in bahasa Indonesia and
translate their thoughts into English. From the four subjects who claim to
always write directly in English, only two write clearly and well-organized
writing, and one of them the best of all even says that she does not hesitate
to consult dictionary if necessary. This study then suggests the teaching of
EFL writing in class encourage students to think in Indonesian. In writing the
first draft, students should be allowed or advised to write the Indonesian
expressions to maintain the flow of their writing.
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Soedjatmiko, W., & Widiati, A.
S. (2002). Foreign language
writing and translation. TEFLIN Journal, 13(1), 82-105.
Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia
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