Does a tool for translation really matter?

Abstract

The research is mainly aimed to investigate the difference in learners’ achievement in translating text by using two different translation tools, namely, electronic dictionaries (hereafter ED group) and printed dictionaries (hereafter PD group). The focus of this research is however to see the effect of using two different tools towards the learners’ achievement in translating text. A total of 94 undergraduate students of STKIP Muhammadiyah Aceh Barat Daya participated in this experiment. They are required to translate English texts from a well-known newspaper(the Jakarta Post) comprising of 118 to 130 words to be translated in 60 minutes. The result shows that there is significant difference in students' translation achievement between those who translated the text by using electronic dictionary and those who used printed dictionary which means the translation tools strongly affect the students' ability to translate. This research indicated that the use of printed dictionary is highly recommended for students to translate English text into Indonesian.