EXPLORING EFL WRITING PROFICIENCY THROUGH TRANSLATION OF A SHORT STORY: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF TWELFTH GRADE STUDENTS

Abstract

This research aims to describe the ability of twelfth-grade students at SMA Penabur Plus Teas in writing English through translating a short story from Indonesian into English. The research question is: How is the ability of twelfth-grade students of SMA Penabur Plus Teas in the academic year 2025/2026 to write in English by translating an Indonesian short story? A descriptive quantitative approach was used. The data consist of students’ translation texts analyzed based on five writing aspects from Jacobs et al. (1981): grammar, vocabulary, mechanics, fluency, and form. The data collection technique used was a translation test. The data source was 23 twelfth-grade students of SMA Penabur Plus Teas. The theories applied are translation theory and writing theory. The research findings indicate that students’ ability in writing through translating a short story is categorized as “Good” with an average score of 73%. A total of 4 students (17.39%) achieved the “Excellent” category, 9 students (39.13%) achieved the “Good” category, 5 students (21.74%) achieved the “Average” category, and 5 students (21.74%) fell into the “Poor” category. Students encountered two main categories of problems: (1) lexical problems (limited vocabulary, difficulty with word meaning and distribution, and literal translation), and (2) syntactical problems (incorrect sentence structure and grammatical errors).