AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS: WHAT AND WHY?

This study analyzed students’ difficulties in translating idiomatic expression sentences at the sixth semester of English department of IAIN Langsa. It further discussed factors that trigger the problems. The research applied qualitative content analysis approach and the subject was 10 students of the sixth-semester of English education department, IAIN Langsa. Data collecting techniques were tests and interviews. The findings showed that the learners experienced several difficulties in translating idiomatic expressions included lexical knowledge, cultural differences, and stylistic barrier. These were due to the difficulty in finding the closest equivalent source language and the difficulty in finding meaning that matches the meaning of the idiomatic expressions. The factors that generated those difficulties included students' lack of knowledge of idiomatic expressions, cultural differences between English and Indonesian, students rarely used them in speaking or writing in everyday life, and the difficulty in interpreting idiomatic expressions. However, this study contributed to encourage both lecturers and students to emphasize vocabulary enhancement and language expressions, especially idioms, and to practice them in writing and speaking both in and outside of the classroom.


Introduction
English, as an international language, is provided to connect people from different countries who speak different languages. There are several language skills that students should master as part of the English language learning process in order to assist them to get the meaning in communication. The process of transferring thoughts or meanings from the source language to the target language is defined as translation (N. Arono, 2019).In addition, Krimpas (2015) stated that practicing translation means that a person takes action to translate text from the source language to the target language. It plays an important role in the process of oral and written communication, which aims to convey information or ideas from different languages so that the message conveyed the source language. Besides, translation can avoid miscommunication during the communication process.
Translation does not only change word for word or sentence for sentence literally from the source language to the target language, but also while learning a language, knowledge or understanding of the equivalent or closest to the target language is needed in order to make the message can be conveyed through the source language. Furthermore, it is important to study linguistic theory related to translation studies, which has different systems and structures. To determine the equality of meaning between the two languages is considered difficult. Some difficulties such as cultural differences, text structure, and the translation process in English into Indonesian and vice versa are commonly found by the translator.
At the time students speak, read, listen, and write in English, they are unwittingly translating messages. However, the equivalents in the source language and the target language are different; the target language has the equivalent but dissimilar to the used context, linguistic situation, and text type as the source language. Students then may face difficulties in learning English because of this. Another obstacle is the difference in cultural content in the form of language elements in the source language, which the target language lacks. Besides, English has many words or idioms that cannot be translated literally and cannot be predicted (Bassnet, 2002).
In line with the statement, students whose knowledge of English is relatively good, even still make mistakes in translation. Word for word translation by bringing their Indonesian thoughts to English is frequently occurs. A lack of understanding of grammar theory and potential vocabulary leads to errors in translation. Moreover, another obstacle is the difficulty in understanding idiomatic expressions. The obstacle may arise for an idiom is a group of words whose meaning cannot be derived from the meaning of each constituent word (Lazar, 2003). This means idiomatic expressions cannot be translated based on word-for-word order only; students must first understand the content for idiomatic expressions have an unpredictable translation. Furthermore, Suliman (2013) mentions that idioms are divided into five categories based on their classification: colloquialism, proverb, slang, allusion, and verb phrases, these categories contribute to make the translation of idiomatic expressions become more complicated. The difficulties that are encountered by translator then are divided into some categories, such as: lexical difficulties, stylistic difficulties, grammatical difficulties, and cultural difficulties (Hartono, 2009). Many language learners potentially experienced these kinds of difficulties in the process of translating idiomatic expressions.
In 2006, Astuti in her research entitled the Analysis of the Students' Ability in the use of Idiomatic Expressions in Writing Recount Text reported that she had found that the students' ability was good. Furthermore, in detail she showed that there was25% of the sample thrived at using idioms to write recount text, and 35% of the students managed to pass their writing test. Meanwhile, there were two students with a percentage of 10% in a fairly good predicate, and four students were labeled as poor because of their inability to use idioms. This predicate accounted for 20% of the total. Two students failed the predicate in having written criteria for recounting text with a percentage of 10%. In addition, Ayuningtyas (2016) also conducted a research regarding the students' difficulties in translating idiomatic expression from English into Indonesian. In her study, the majority of the idiomatic expressions were translated word for word by the students. They only translated idiomatic expressions by transferring meaning, not by converting English idioms into Indonesian equivalents idioms. The students were also helped by the information they found primarily on the internet to determine the meaning of the idiom. As a result, only 100 of the total 270 translation data, or 38%, can be classified as accurate translation because it produces a good translation product that is read as originally written in the target language. In detail, it showed that the students' difficulties in translating idiomatic expressions were as follows: (1) lexical difficulty for 73%, (2) style difficulty for 67.5%, (3) cultural difficulty at level 66%, and (4) grammar difficulty at level 64%.
On the other hand, this research focuses on kinds of difficulties of translating idiomatic expressions experienced by the sixth-semester students of English Department of IAIN Langsa. In addition, the subjects and research methods of the current study are considered different from the previous studies. This study does not use percent to determine the results but in the form of sentence content analysis by showing evidence of the results of tests and interviews conducted to the sixth-semester students. Another difference is in the objective of this research, which is focused more on the factors why idioms are difficult to translate

Research Questions
The questions of this research are as following: 1. What are the students' difficulties in translating idiomatic expressions at the sixth semester of English department of IAIN Langsa? 2. What are the factors that trigger the students' difficulties in translating idiomatic expressions?

Significance of The Study
This research will not only provide a better understanding of idiomatic expressions in English, it will also help Indonesian learners to learn English, especially about idioms and expressions. Besides, since this study provides information regarding students' difficulties during the translation process, especially in translating idiomatic expressions and it will explore factors causing the difficulties, then the lecturers or students themselves are able to generate solutions based on the difficulties they are facing.

Research Design
The approach used in this study was qualitative content analysis. It applied the method of content analysis. Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen (2 007) stated that content analysis is a technique that researchers can use to examine human behavior indirectly through analysis of their communication such as textbooks, essays, newspapers, novels, magazine articles, songs, advertising images, and all types of communication that can be analyzed. In this study, the researchers described the difficulties in translating idiomatic expressions experienced by students without manipulating data and drawing conclusions based on the results of data analysis that has been obtained.

Samples/Participants
In this study, the subjects were 10 of the sixth-semester students in English education. The researchers used purposive sampling by selecting 10 participants considering they had studied material about idiomatic expressions in the translation class.

Instruments
The instruments used in this research were test and interview guide. The form of the test used in this study was 15 sentences of idiomatic expressions adapted from the You Tube channel "7ESL Learning English" entitled "What Is an Idiom? 90 Common English Idioms Frequently Used in Daily English Conversations" and "86 Super Common English Idioms You'll Use All the Time" to be translated by the students from English to Indonesian. It included the categories of idioms proposed by Suliman in the previous section. Here are the 15 sentences: 1. I was sick as a parrot after my group lost in the international dance competition. 2. Did you hear about Rani getting married soon? Oh, speak of the devil, she sent her wedding invitation now. Watch this! 3. I've never spoken in front of a large group of people. So I feel like I have Butterflies in my stomach. 4. I like to do all of my home cleaning. Because I can kill two birds with one stone and get exercise as well. 5. My colleague was looking a little green around the gills when he came to work today. 6. Passing this quiz will be like shooting fish in a barrel. I've studied a lot. 7. I tried to break the ice by offering her a glass of juice. 8. It's been raining cats and dogs all day. I'm afraid the roof is going to leak. 9. It'll be a cold day in July when our team wins the championship. We're terrible. 10. He has escaped of the house of correction 2 days ago. 11. The name Susan Thomson rings a bell. I think she worked here. Let me look it up. 12. Tom stole cameras when he worked here. I'll hire him back when hell freezes over. 13. I'm afraid that if we don't reduce staff. We'll go belly up within a year. 14. The company had pulled the plug since 12 years ago due to debt. 15. Better hit the books than watching Korean drama.
Moreover, the researchers conducted an in-depth interview to 10 participants of the sixthsemester students by asking 6 related questions about their experiences and difficulties in translating idiomatic expressions.

Data analysis
The content analysis data were analyzed using content analysis techniques according to Dornyei (2007) by describing it inductively in 3 ways, namely: pre-coding and coding, growing ideas and interpreting the data, and drawing conclusions. To analyze the difference in meaning from students' translations the researchers used KBBI as a source to indicate the difference. Moreover, the meaning of each idiomatic sentence was also taken from the idiom and phrase dictionary and the Cambridge online dictionary. Furthermore, the qualitative data will be analyzed by using Miles and Huberman's interactive model including data reduction, display, and conclusion drawing. The results and the discussion of the interview are exposed in the discussion section below.

Discussion
The preceding analysis showed problems most of the participants encountered in translating idiomatic expression sentences. The first difficulty dealt with lexical knowledge. Most of the participants were unable to find the closest equivalent source language that match the meaning of the idiomatic expressions. They translated the idiom word for word (literal translation). For example, "Tom stole cameras when he worked here. I'll hire him back when hell freezes over" was translated into 'Tom mencuri kamera ketika ia bekerja disini. Saya akan memperkerjakannya lagi ketika neraka membeku". The translation for the idiom 'when hell freezes over" above was inappropriate. It supposed to be "tidak akan memperkerjakannya lagi". Ghazala, (2008) describe that idiom is an expression that has its own meaning which is different from figurative meaning. In the expression above, the former sentence showed a hint, which represents a context "Tom mencuri kamera ketika dia bekerja di sini" thus the latter word "Saya akan mempekerjakannya kembali ketika neraka membeku" must be idiomatically translated into "Saya tidak akan pernah mempekerjakannya lagi. This indicated that the participants were unable to determine the context of the sentence. As the result, they failed to define the meaning of the given idiomatic expressions.
Another literal translation included 'sick as a parrot' was translated into "sakit seperti burung beo". According to English Idiom and Phrase dictionary, the idiom means "very disappointed" or "miserable". Then, "I have butterflies in my stomach" for '"seperti ada kupukupu di peruts aya';"like shooting fish in a barrel" for"menembak/memotret ikan dalam tong/barel"; "green around the gills", which means"to look sick"was translated into "hijau di sekitar insang";"break the ice" means"to relax and start a conversation in a formal situation" or in bahasa"mencairkan suasana"was translated into "memecahkan es/kebekuan'; "rings a bell"which means "to sound familiar to you, as though you have heard it before" was translated into "membunyikan bel atau lonceng", and "house of correction" means 'prison' was translated into 'rumah koreksi'. Al-kadi (2015) clarifies that idiomatic expressions are not translated literally, since they are parts of socio cultural aspect and it required those who use the language to involve English cultural background understanding. Difficulties in finding appropriate equivalent to the target language considered a common problem experienced by many non-native learners in translating idiomatic expression. They tend to translate the idiom literally due to the lack of vocabulary (Seran, 2020), unfamiliarity with idioms (Alrishan & Smadi, 2015), and lack of grammar knowledge (Sari, 2016).
Furthermore, cultural difference also contributed to the participants' difficulties in translating the idiomatic expressions. Zhang & Liu (2016) explain several the cultural differences that affect translation process involve the difference on way of thinking, belief, customs, and interests. A research conducted by Suchanova in 2013 also found that most nonnative speakers difficult to translate idioms due to the influence of the target language traditions, culture and environment. Native speakers tend to use idioms in informal communication. English idioms are significantly different from Indonesian idioms and each has particular meaning. Hence, few English idiomatic expressions had similar meaning to Indonesian idiom such as "kill two birds with one stone (sekali dayung, dua tiga pulau terlampaui)","speak of the devil (panjang umur)" and "break the ice (mencairkan suasana)". Few participants translated those idioms properly as they exposed to the idioms at some English textbooks. However, majority of them found most of expressions unfamiliar since they did not exposed to it and they did not learn the culture of the target language. In addition, stylistic aspect was also a problem in translating idiomatic expressions. The language style difficulties were also influenced by cultural difficulties. One of the common problems faced was to find out an equivalent meaning that matches the source language, although some participants' translations appropriate however idiomatically they were incorrect.
Dealing with factors that trigger the participants' difficulties in translating idiomatic expression involved their lack of knowledge of idiomatic expression. The participants admitted that they learned about idiomatic at a particular sub-topic in a translation class. They also rarely practiced the expressions in speaking or writing activities both in and outside of language classrooms. Thus, their interest in applying idiomatic expression considered lacking. Another factor is difficulties in finding out appropriate translations due their inadequate vocabulary. Lack of vocabulary becomes one of major issues in translation (A. Arono & Nadrah, 2019). Many learners found it difficult to figure out words, which have the closest meaning to the target language. Some of them also proposed that they were unable to interpret the idioms since they found them unfamiliar.

Conclusion
The findings of this research revealed that there were several problems encountered by the students in translating idiomatic expression included lexical knowledge, cultural differences, and stylistic difficulties. The learners experienced challenges in finding the closest equivalent word to the source language and difficult to guess meaning of the idiomatic expressions. As a result, they tend to translate the expressions word for word which often lead to misunderstanding. Moreover, students' knowledge of idiomatic expressions was also lacking. The differences between English and Indonesian culture also contributed to the barrier. Native speakers tend to use idiom in informal communication. Furthermore, some factors that trigger the barriers involved lack of knowledge of idiom, lack of vocabulary, which generate problems in interpreting the idiom, and the learners rarely practice the idiom in speaking or writing.

Suggestions
Based on the findings of the research, the researchers present some suggestions for learners, lectures and other researchers. Learners need to (1) develop their knowledge on idiom by reading idiom dictionaries, (2) develop vocabulary and exercise to comprehend words, phrases, and clauses based on its context, and (3) practice using idiomatic expression in speaking and writing. Moreover, lecturers are suggested to (1) emphasis vocabulary and language expressions building, especially idiom in language classrooms and (2) expose the students to the target's language background and culture. Other researchers are encouraged to (1) investigates strategies to overcome problems in translating idiomatic expressions for non-native learners and (2) to explore approaches to develop knowledge on English idiom, and (3) to study the differences between Indonesian and the target language culture, in the use of idiomatic expressions.