International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation
ISSN: 2617-0299 (Online); ISSN: 2708-0099 (Print)
DOI: 10.32996/ijllt
Journal Homepage: www.al-kindipublisher.com/index.php/ijllt
IJLLT
AL-KINDI CENTER FOR RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT
Copyright: © 2022 the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Published by Al-Kindi Centre for Research and Development,
London, United Kingdom.
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| RESEARCH ARTICLE
Analyzing the Relationship between Creativity and Translation Quality: A Case Study
of Students’ Translations
Yana Shanti Manipuspika
Study Program of English Literature, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia
Corresponding Author: Yana Shanti Manipuspika, E-mail: yana_shanti@ub.ac.id
| ABSTRACT
Creativity is an area that has received limited attention in Translation Studies (TS). One reason for this could be that creativity is
a complex concept to define and quantify, but it is also the case that translators are not usually regarded as creators. The present
research tries to shed light on how creativity affects translation quality. Moreover, the participants are translation students, which
is also rare in studies about this particular topic. The instrument used in this study was the Kaufman Domain of Creativity Scale
(K-DOCS) to assess the students’ creativity. Another instrument was Waddington’s model for translation quality assessment. SPSS
software version 24 was used to analyze the collected data. Then, the Pearson Correlation Test was employed to find the possible
relationship between the variables. The results displayed that among 40 participants involved in this study, their level of creativity
was in the range of ‘high’ as much as 60%, ‘very high’ 25%, and ‘medium’ and ‘low’ with 12.5% and 2.5%, respectively. In terms
of translation scores, the mean score was 7.18, with the highest score of 8.55 and the lowest at 5.45. As revealed by the Pearson
Correlation test, concerning the degree of relationship between variables, there was no significant relationship between creativity
and quality. It indicates that more creative participants did not necessarily perform better in the work of translating. A
recommendation is made for future researchers to involve more variables as well as a greater number of participants to enrich
the research results and increase the likelihood of creating generalizations regarding the correlation between creativity and
translation results.
| KEYWORDS
Creativity; assessment; translation quality; K-DOCS; novice translators
| ARTICLE INFORMATION
ACCEPTED: 25 November 2022 PUBLISHED: 01 December 2022 DOI: 10.32996/ijllt.2022.5.12.1
1. Introduction
As a process of conveying messages across cultural and linguistic barriers, translation is a remarkably communicative activity.
House (2015) states translation is a linguistic and a cultural act; it is also an act of communication across cultures. Sometimes
translation acts as a means of learning about different cultures, a vehicle for the transfer of meaning as well as cultural experiences
and values. This is in line with Guetouche’s (2017) statement that translation tends to be a component of literature, linguistics, and
language learning. Finding a comprehensive definition of translation is not an easy task since translation may be described as
science, art, and creativity at the same time. In this sense, literary translation, including short stories, is taken as an art and creative
work as opposed to scientific or political translation, where the words can be controlled according to the translator’s linguistic
skills and grammatical rules.
Using language and creativity in their daily lives, people can communicate efficiently and effectively; that is, they can create or
select aesthetic or functional words, clauses or phrases, sentences, and texts (Rashidi and Rad, 2021). In relation to creativity in
translation, it is how translators recreate the author’s creativity in the target text. Some research mentioned that focusing on the
concept of creativity might be justified in literary translation. In other words, when creativity is explored or referenced in translation