The Role of a Lecturer’s Performance in Facilitating Problem Solving for Students in Learning Translation (A Case Study of a Good Lecturer at UKI Toraja, Indonesia)

Abstract

The objectives of the research are to find out (i) the problems that the lecturer faces in teaching translation; and (ii) the way of lecturer solves the problems in teaching translation. The researcher employed qualitative method in form of naturalistic approaches for the study. The data resources for the research included one lecturer and students. The instrument for the research consisted of observation, interview and document files. In analyzing the data, the researcher employed cyclical model by Miles and Huberman. The results showed that, (i) the problems that the lecturer faced were from students themselves: lack of vocabulary, lack of knowledge in grammar-structure, semantic, unmotivated student or passive students, students were difficult in looking up the word in the dictionary, the students tended to use translation machine and another problem was from outside the student was lack of advanced dictionary; (ii) the lecturer solved the problems by reviewing the material, simplifying the material by taking very close examples, using more than one language in teaching, giving tips to translate, approaching the students by asking questions, organizing the class and providing quiz, exercises, assignments, and providing advanced dictionary, and comparing the use of translation theory than translation machine in translating. Key words: lecturer performance, teaching translation, problem solving