THE COGNITIVE PROCESS OF THE STUDENTS IN TRANSLATING SIMPLE SENTENCES OF A PARAGRAPH IN SCIENCE

This study deals with the cognitive process of students in translating simple sentences of paragraph in science by using the think-aloud protocol (TAP) technique and introspective interview. The objectives of the study are (1) to investigate kinds of cognitive processes occuring in translating simple sentences of paragraph in science, (2) to investigate the manner of cognitive processes occuring in translating simple sentences of paragraph in science, and (3) to elaborate reasons of the way the cognitive processes occur in translating simple sentences of paragraph in science. This research was conducted by descriptive qualitative design. The source of data was the bilingual students, i.e., second semester students of English Applied Linguistics Study Program at State University of Medan.The data consisted of the transcription of audio recorded observation of think-aloud protocols (TAP), and the transcription of interview. The findings showed that there are seven behaviours available during the process of translation done by the students, namely (1) reading the text, (2) alternating between the SL and the TL, (3) monitoring the proposed translation, (4) intralinguistic repetition, (5) consulting the dictionary, either monolingual or bilingual dictionary, (6) paraphrasing, and (7) translation. The cognitive processes occur when the subjects (1) read the text, either they read the whole SL text or segment by segment, (2) keep repeating the term (the lexical) which indicates hesitation or questioning, (3) are not able to make decision for an equivalent, (4) question the adequacy of a word or an expression, (5) do not understand the meaning of a word and consult the dictionary, (6) try to clarify a concept and reformulate a proposed translation by paraphrase, and (7) write down a translation and express it orally. The reasons which make such cognitive processes occur during the act of translating are the inability to produce the spontaneous translation and lacking of knowledge of the text itself. The inability of word-recognition processing, syntactic processing, and semantic processing will also affect the behaviours of the translators in the process of translating.