Indonesian–English Translation Errors among EFL Students: Semantic, Syntactic, and Pragmatic Challenges

Abstract

Translation competence is an essential component of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning because it requires students to transfer meaning accurately from the source language into the target language while maintaining grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic appropriateness. This study aims to investigate the types and frequency of translation errors made by EFL students in Indonesian–English and English–Indonesian sentence translation. The study employed a descriptive analytical design involving 23 fifth-semester students of the English Education Study Program at Universitas Muhammadiyah Enrekang. Data were collected through translation tasks consisting of Indonesian and English sentences and short texts. The students’ translation products were analyzed using an error classification framework covering pragmatic errors, syntactic errors, semantic errors, and miscellaneous errors in the form of omissions. The findings revealed 2700 translation errors. Semantic errors were the most dominant category, with 1174 errors or 43.48%, mainly involving inappropriate word choice, prepositions, articles, and misspellings. Syntactic errors ranked second, with 812 errors or 30.07%, especially in the use of tenses, singular and plural forms, modifiers, pronouns, and sentence elements. Pragmatic errors accounted for 445 errors or 16.48%, including excessive literal translation, ambiguity, insufficient accuracy, and misinterpretation of terms. Omission errors appeared 269 times or 9.96%. These findings indicate that students’ translation difficulties are primarily related to lexical-semantic accuracy, grammatical control, contextual interpretation, and incomplete transfer of meaning. The study suggests that translation instruction should integrate contrastive grammar practice, contextual vocabulary development, pragmatic awareness, guided translation exercises, and systematic feedback to improve students’ translation competence.