The Impact of using Translation Strategies for Effective Essay Writings by EFL International Students during English Intensive Course

Abstract

Students across the globe attend universities in Malaysia, especially from Africa and Asia. Therefore, in the attempt to harness their performances in language skills, English Intensive Course (EIC) is emphasised and made compulsory to the newly admitted international students, especially those from the countries that use English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Nonetheless, majority of the EFL students encounter challenges in English Writing Tasks (EWT). To understand the extents of using translation strategies before writing English Essays during EIC program, this paper purposively sampled 50 EFL students of various nations in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). The selected participants were administered Writing Strategy Questionnaires (WSQ) and analysed using SPSS. The paper indicates negative results as most of the EFL students were not writing bits of the text in their native languages before translating them into English during English Essay Writing, having 38% validation of “never true” response as the most frequent feedback. On the other hand, the paper indicate positive results on EFL students writing a difficult word on their native languages and subsequent search for its appropriate English equivalent, having 32% validation of “usually true” as the most frequent response with 88% cumulative. The results suggest that UUM EFL International students are normally confident of using their initial knowledge and what they have been taught during the EIC program in the attempt to maintain their writing standard.

Keywords

• Translation Strategies
• Writing Strategy
• English as Foreign Language
• Language Skills
• Translation Strategies, Writing Strategy, English as Foreign Language, Language Skills

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