A CORRELATIONAL STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION ABILITY AND WRITING SKILL AT UNIVERSITAS RIAU

Correlation; translation ability; writing skill This research intends to find out whether or not there is a correlation between students’ translation and writing ability at the English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau. There were 40 students from 6A class chosen as samples. The instruments were translation and writing tests. The translation test aims to measure the ability of the students in translating an Indonesian-English text. The writing test aims to measure the students’ ability in writing a descriptive essay. The data were obtained by calculating the translation and writing test results. Based on the calculation, it was found that the students have good translation and writing ability. Besides, the value of the correlation coefficient obtained was 0.521 which means that there is a positive correlation between students’ translation and writing ability. The correlation is categorized as fair correlation since the value of the correlation coefficient obtained is 0.521 which is in the range of 0.400 0.599. Considering the fact that there is a correlation between students’ translation and writing ability, it is suggested that the students should also concern about and improve their translation ability because it will also improve their writing skill.


INTRODUCTION
As EFL learners, Indonesian college students are required to master both translation and writing subjects. Students have to be able to translate from source language to target language and vice versa. When students have good translation ability, they might also have good writing ability.
Based on the small-scale survey done by the researcher to the third-semester students of the English Study Program of FKlP Universitas Riau, most of them who earned high grades in Translation also earned high grades in Writing. Likewise, the students who earned low grades in Translation also earned low grades in Writing. From the total of 21 respondents, 11 respondents earned the same score for both Writing and Translation.
The scores are ranging from B+ to A. The scores of the other 10 respondents, however, are various for both Translation and Writing.
Writing, as defined by Harmer (2001), is a way of delivering thoughts and feelings in the form of written language. Furthermore, Nunan (2003) states that writing is a process when the writer is thinking of what and how to write, and express the ideas, as well as organize the ideas in an appropriate arrangement of paragraphs so that readers will find it easy to read. In the other words, writing is a means of communication that is used by people to express their ideas and to arrange them into a structured form of written language.
Nowadays, many students consider writing skill as a prominent skill to master. This is because when they have good writing skill in English, they will be able to compete not only locally, but also nationally and internationally. By having good writing skill, students can write appropriate curriculum vitae or letters when they want to work in a foreign or a local company that requires them to have mastered English skills, especially writing. lt will help students in their academic life, particularly for writing their proposal and thesis. This is in line with what Walsh (2010cited in Blanka, 2012 which states that students who have the ability to express themselves in writing also have the ability to communicate appropriately in a professional context such as writing a letter to colleagues, writing a proposal, or even making a report of a meeting. However, writing is not an easy skill to master. This is because it requires the students to have an intermediate to advanced level of mastery in translation. The translation is the substitution of printed material in a source language by proportionate literary material in the target language (Machali, 2000). This is to say that students will deal with textual material in one language to be transferred into another language. Since translation is dealing with both source language and target language, students are also attaining some advantages from it to develop their writing skill. This is in line with what Schaffner (1999) states that through the translation process, students can improve their writing skill and vocabulary. In addition to this, Duff (1996) states that translation ability holds a prominent role to support students in writing precis. This is because when they want to write, their ideas might still in their mother tongue or source language to be translated into the target language. Furthermore, Dagiliene (2012) argues that translation is a process that is done by foreign language learners in order to achieve progress in improving their macro and micro-skills in English. All in all, students' translation ability might influence their ability in writing. translation skill (Persian to English) give a significant influence on their ability in writing.
This research aims to find out whether or not there is a correlation between students' translation ability and their ability in writing a descriptive essay at the English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau.

METHODOLOGY
This research used a correlational design. Arikunto (2013) explains that correlational research is a research design that is used to find out the correlation between two variables or more. In this research, the aim is to find out whether or not there is a correlation between students' translation and writing ability of the sixth-semester students of the English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau. There were two variables in this research: translation as an independent variable (X) and writing as a dependent variable (Y).
The research was conducted at the English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau. The total population was 111 students. The samples of this research were the sixthsemester students of class 6A which consists of 40 students. The sampling technique used in this research was Cluster Random Sampling.
There were two instruments used for collecting the data, they were translation and writing tests. The first test that the students do is the translation test. In the translation test, the students were asked to translate Indonesian text to English text. After the students did the translation test, they were later asked to do the writing test. In the writing test, the students were asked to write a 5-paragraph of descriptive essay.
After the data were collected, it was later analyzed by using descriptive analysis technique and inferential analysis. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to analyze the data. This process of analysis was done by using SPSS 25. There are some test levels in this research, they are: First: The normality test. A normality testing is used to find out whether or not the data is normally distributed. The data are categorized as normal if the Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) value is higher than 0.05. However, if the Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) value is lower than 0.05, the data are categorized as not normal.
Second: The linearity test. A linearity testing is carried out to find out whether or not the data are linear. The data are categorized as linear if the value of Deviation from Linearity Sig. is higher than 0.05. Otherwise, if the value of Deviation from Linearity Sig. is lower than 0.05, the data are categorized as not linear. Third: The correlation analysis. If the value of Sig. (2-tailed) is lower than 0.05 the correlation is a significant level. This means that the alternative hypothesis is accepted. If the value of Sig. (2-tailed) is higher than 0.05, there is no correlation between the variables or the alternative hypothesis is rejected. In order to see the criteria of the correlation of the two variables, the interpretation of number correlation rxy productmoment suggested by Sugiyono was used. It can be seen in the following    To find out the levels of ability of the sixth-semester students of the English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau in both translation and writing, the data were then classified. The classification is arranged in the following table: According to table 4, it can be described that most of the students have Good translation ability, with 13 students (32.5%) gained score from 68-73. Then, it is followed Very Good ability with 10 students (25%) who gained score from 74-79, Fair ability with 7 students (17.5%) that gained score from 62-67 and Excellent ability with 6 students (15%) that gained score from 80-85. Furthermore, there are only 2 students (5%) for each remaining levels both Poor and Very Poor ability levels. All in all, the sixthsemester students of the English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau have Good translation ability with the average score of 70.8. Total 40 100% Based on table 5, more than one-third of the students (14 out of 40, or 35%) have Good writing ability who gained scores ranging from 68-72. Then it is followed by Fair ability level with 8 students (20%) who gained scores ranging from 63-67, Excellent ability level with 7 students (17.5%) who gained scores ranging from 78-82 and Very Good writing ability level with 6 students (15%) who gained scores ranging from 73-77. The last three ability levels; Fair, Excellent, and Very Good have nearly the same number of students and percentage. Moreover, there are only 3 students (7.5%) having a Poor ability level in writing and only 2 students (5%) who are at a Very Poor ability level. In summary, the sixth-semester students of the English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau have Good writing skill with the average score of 69.95.

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Before the correlational analysis was carried out, it is essential to conduct the normality and linearity test. These tests are purposed to find out whether or not the data are normally distributed and are linear. The normality and linearity testing can be seen as in the following: .190 c Table 6 portrays that the Asymp. Sig value of the data obtained is 0.190. The data is categorized as normal if the Asymp. Sig value is higher than 0.05. Therefore, the test distribution is normal because of the Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) obtained is 0.190 which is bigger than 0.05.

Hypothesis Testing
After the normality and linearity testing were carried out, the correlation analysis was then carried out to find out the correlation between students' translation ability and writing skill. The calculation can be seen in the following table:  (H0) is rejected which means that there is a correlation between students' translation ability and their ability in writing descriptive text.
Referring to the criteria of correlation suggested by Sugiyono (2009), it can be said that the correlation is at Fair level.
Based on the correlation analysis carried out previously, it was found that there is a positive correlation between students' translation and writing ability. To find out how much students' translation ability (independent variable) influence their writing skill (dependent variable), the determination of coefficient were calculated. The result can be seen in the following  According to the table, the obtained R square is 0.271. It means that more or less 27% of students writing skill (independent variable) is influenced by their translation ability (dependent variable), while the rest 77% (100%-27%) is probably due to other factors that are not investigated in this research.

DISCUSSION
As stated previously that the purpose of this research is to find out whether or not there is a correlation between students' translation ability and writing ability of the sixth semester students of English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau. The researcher had collected the data by distributing two kinds of tests to the students: translation test and writing test. One class which consisted of 40 students was chosen as samples of this research. They were asked to translate an Indonesian text to English text and to write a 5-paragraph descriptive essay.
Based on the data analysis of the translation test results, it was found that the greatest percentage of the students is in Good translation ability level with 13 students (32.5%) gaining the scores from 68-73. Then, it is followed Very Good ability level with 10 students (25%), Fair ability level with 7 students (17.5%) and Excellent ability level with 6 students (15%). Furthermore, there are only 2 students (5%) for each remaining level both Poor and Very Poor ability levels. Above all, the sixth semester students of English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau have Good translation ability with the average score 70.8.
For the writing test results, the highest percentage of the students is on Good writing ability level gained by 14 students or 35% of the total samples with the scores earned ranging from 69-72. Then it is followed by Fair ability level with 8 students (20%), Excellent ability level with 7 students (17.5%) and Very Good writing ability level with 6 students (15%). The last three ability levels; Fair, Excellent, and Very Good are achieved by nearly the same number of students and percentage, namely 8, 7 and 6 students. Moreover, there are only 3 students (7.5%) having Poor ability level in writing and only 2 students (5%) who are in Very Poor ability level. In summary, the sixth Looking at the translation and writing test score results, the researcher sees that the scores are more or less similar; with 70.8 average score in translation and 69.95 average score in writing. Moreover, the highest score in translation is on the Good level of ability achieved by 13 students (32.25%), and the highest score in writing is also on the Good level of ability gained by 14 students (35%). In addition, the Poor and Very Poor ability levels are also achieved by nearly the same number of students; 4 students (10%) in the translation test and 5 students (12.5%) in the writing test.
According to the data analysis done by using SPSS 25, it can be concluded that there is a positive correlation between students' translation and writing ability. This can be seen by looking at the obtained Sig. (2-tailed) value of both variables: translation and writing, which is at the level of 0.001. The correlation between the variables is categorized as Fair correlation.
In summary, there is a correlation between students' translation ability and writing skill. Thus, it can be stated that students' translation ability influences their skill in writing, and vice versa. Therefore, students' writing skill will be improved as they also improve their translation ability.

Conclusion
Based on the analysis on the translation test results, it can be said that the translation ability of the sixth semester students of English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau is at the Good level with 13 students (32.5%) achieved scores in the range of 68-73 and the average score is 70.8. Likewise, the sixth semester students of English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau also have Good writing ability with 14 students (35%) earned scores in the range of 68-72 and the average score is 69.95.
According to the correlation analysis, it was found that there is a correlation Fairpositive between students' translation ability and writing skill at the English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau. Furthermore, based on determination of coefficient calculation, it was found that students' translation ability influenced as much as 27% of their ability in writing, while the other 73% is due to other factors which are not researched in this study.

Suggestion
The results of this research are expected to grant contribution to several parties, one of which is English lecturers or English teachers. For English lecturers or English teachers, the researcher would like to recommend that they should find and use appropriate English learning activities in writing classes. Work-group discussion, for example, the lecturer or the teacher can ask the students to translate Indonesian text to English text or vice versa. For the students, since the results of this research reveal that there is a correlation between translation ability and writing skill, it is essential to be aware of and improve their translation ability because it will also improve their writing skill. Regarding other researchers, there are still many other factors that may affect students' writing skill that is not researched by the researcher. Thus, it is suggested that they conduct research that aims to find out other factors that can influence students' writing ability such as vocabulary, grammar mastery, reading comprehension, etc.