THE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS GOOGLE TRANSLATE AS A SUPPORTING MEDIA TO LEARN ENGLISH

Now, with the sophistication of smartphones, students can use Google to find out what is not known anywhere and anytime. One of the searches that students often use in learning English is Google Translate. Google Translate is a free multilingual translation service developed by Google which is used to translate text from one language to another. The students always open Google Translate many times when they don't know the meaning of a word, sentence, and text. The objective of the research was to describe the twelfth grade students' perception towards Google Translate as a supporting media to learn English at SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong. The researcher used descriptive qualitative research and the data was collected by the use of a questionnaire. In this research, the researcher used descriptive qualitative research. The participants were students of XII TAV 1 and XII TAV 2 of SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong which consist of 50 students. The result showed that the students of twelfth grade of SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong had a positive perception towards Google Translate as a supporting media to learn English with the majority of the answers they chose being “agree” that it helped them in learning English. They used Google Translate to help them such as to translate, check pronunciation, spell the word, and check synonyms. However, the results of the text translation from Google Translate are less accurate. It has a much different meaning than the original meaning.


INTRODUCTION
Learning English is one of the important needs for many people because English is the lingua franca used as the language of communication in this world. As Kurniati & Romadlon (2021) stated that the most widely used foreign language on the internet, in the professional field, and technology enhancement is English. Regarding this, now everyone is competing to learn English because it is necessary for a career or study in the future.
Learning English in this era of globalization has many increases and convenience due to technology. Technology has an important role that has developed rapidly in all aspects of life, no exception in the field of education. Technology is developing rapidly and getting more sophisticated with the advent of gadgets, such as computers and smartphones. Dalimunthe (2020) stated that with the advent of smartphones, students often use them to help with their school assignments. Students use smartphones to search or browse their learning materials. Now, with the sophistication of smartphones, students can use Google to find out what is not known anywhere and anytime. One of the searches that students often use in learning English is Google Translate.
Google Translate is a free multilingual translation service developed by Google which is used to translate text from one language to another, such as English to Indonesian. Google Translate can translate words from various languages in the world (Rahayu, 2021). Google Translate can be searched using the search feature or Google, and can also download the app via Google as well. Google Translate like other automatic translation tools has its limitations. As Rahayu (2021) stated Although the results of the translation using Google Translate can provide a general description of the text but cannot provide an accurate translation if it does not use standard language. Thus, while Google Translate gives benefits, it also has limitations.
Based on the researcher's experience while teaching internship II in SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong, the researcher taught the twelfth grade, and the researcher found that most of the twelfth grade students used Google Translate services as a supporting media when learning English subjects. The students always open Google Translate many times when they don't know the meaning of a word, sentence, and text. They use Google Translate to translate English to Indonesian or Indonesian to English if they have some difficulty in vocabulary. They also use it to check synonyms and pronunciation.
In supporting this research, the researcher collected some studies related to this research who have been conducted by some researchers. The first previous research was conducted by Jamaliah, & Balqis (2021) entitled "Students' Perception on the Use of Google Translation Tool in Learning English: (A Descriptive Study at Jabal Ghafur University)". The result of this research showed that students had a positive perception of the Google Translation tool in learning English. They utilize it to help them such as to translate, as a dictionary, check synonyms and antonyms, and check pronunciation.
The next previous research was conducted by Wei (2021) entitled "The Use of Google Translate in English Language Learning: How Students View It". The results showed that students are generally positive towards the use of Google Translate in their language learning. Most of them frequently use Google Translate and acknowledge the convenience and usefulness of Google Translate in their language learning process.
Based on the explanation above, this research aims to describe the students' perception towards Google Translate as a supporting media to learn English. By conducting this research, the result will be useful for the next researcher who wants to conduct similar research, the teacher can allow the students to use Google Translate in learning English, and the students will get knowledge and easiness in learning English.

RESEARCH METHOD
This research used qualitative descriptive research. The participants of this research were students of XII TAV 1 and XII TAV 2 of SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong which consist of 50 students. To collect the data researcher used a questionnaire adapted from Sagita et al. (2021). There were two aspects to describe the students' perception towards Google Translate. The first aspect was question number 1-5 for students' knowledge about Google Translate. The second aspect was question number 6-15 for students' perception of the usefulness of Google Translate to learn English. The researcher used closed-ended Likert Scale questions of five choices, which are Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.
In analyzing the data the researcher classified the answer based on the category and then used a formula to calculate the percentage (Healey, 2011:2). Then, the researcher counted the total score of the answers to each question based on the predetermined Likert-scale scoring table. After that, the researcher determines the final index % and interprets the results. Table 1 Interpretation Criteria

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After analyzing 50 responses from the twelfth-grade students of SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong, the students' responses and the total score of each item are presented in the following table:  Then, the final index of perception that has been counted in final index formula can be represented by the following table. Based on the results questionnaires of the twelfth grade students' perception towards Google Translate as a supporting media to learn English, consist of 15 questions and 50 students in the twelfth grade of SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong. It's found that: The first statement is "I know there is an online translation tool namely Google Translate" with a score of 210 and with 84% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students know there is an online translation tool namely Google Translate. Based on the result of the questionnaire, there were no students who chose "Disagree" or "Strongly Disagree" from the statement. It means that all students know about Google Translate.
The second statement is "I understand how to use Google Translate" with a score of 207 and with 82.8% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students understand how to use Google Translate. They understand how to use it to translate. They also understand how to use Google Translate to check pronunciation.
The third statement is "I access Google Translate via search feature or Google" with a score of 199 and with 79.6% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the majority of students access Google Translate via search feature or Google. In accessing Google Translate via search feature or Google, students have to sign in on the website and students cannot download the language they want.
The fourth statement is "I access Google Translate via using the application" with a score of 178 and with 71.2% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that students also access Google Translate via using the application, not only via the search feature or Google. In accessing Google Translate via application, students can download the Google Translate application on the play store. Besides that, students can download the language they choose, so that it can be used offline.
The fifth statement is "The result of the text translation from Google Translate is less accurate" with a score of 173 and with 69.2% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that students agree with the statement. The result of the text translation from Google Translate is less accurate. It has a much different meaning than the original meaning. It looks very robotic and doesn't make sense.
The sixth statement is "I always use Google Translate to assist my English learning" with a score of 191 and with 76.4% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students always use Google Translate to assist their English learning, both at school and outside of school or at home. The students use Google Translate anywhere and anytime.
The seventh statement is "I use Google Translate to translate word, sentence, and text" with a score of 202 and with 80.8% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that most of the students agree with the statement. Most of the students use Google Translate not only to translate words but also sentences and text, either from English to Indonesian or Indonesian to English. The students use Google Translate to help their difficulties in translating words.
The eighth statement is "I use Google Translate to check pronunciation and spelling words" with a score of 192 and with 76.8% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students use Google Translate to check pronunciation and spelling words. Google Translate had a feature for pronunciation by a native speaker of the robot to translate the translated words or sentences. The students used this feature to learn pronunciation by following the pronunciation of the speaker about the pronounced word. Meanwhile, in translating a word, there will be a spelling of the word, and under the word will appear the phonetic transcript as the way to make sure about the correct pronunciation use.
The ninth statement is "I use Google Translate to check synonyms" with a score of 177 and with 70.8% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students use Google Translate to check synonyms. They use it to check synonyms by translating a word, then Google Translate provide many options for the meaning and synonym of the word. This makes it easier for students to choose the appropriate synonyms.
The tenth statement is "I become motivated in learning English by using Google Translate" with a score of 191 and with 76.4% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students become motivated in learning English by using Google Translate, because Google Translate brings a positive vibe that makes them happier and enjoys learning English.
The eleventh statement is "I feel my English vocabulary is better by Google Translate" with a score of 180 and with 72% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students feel their English vocabulary is better by using Google Translate. When they don't know the meaning of a certain word, they easily use Google Translate to find it.
The twelfth statement is "I feel my English-speaking ability is increased by Google Translate" with a score of 174 and with 69.6% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students feel their English-speaking ability is increased by Google Translate. The increase in speaking ability is none other than the influence of students' pronunciation in using Google Translate. In addition, Google Translate also has a voice translator feature, in which students just press the microphone icon and hold it down. Then students speak or read a few words or sentences, so that Google Translate will detect the voice and convert the voice into text, and translate it into the target language.
The thirteenth statement is "I feel my English pronunciation is getting better by Google Translate" with a score of 179 and with 71.6% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that by using Google Translate, the students feel their English pronunciation is getting better. As explained in the eighth statement, Google Translate has a feature for pronunciation, which is in feature voice speaker, the students can repeat to listen to the speaker of Google Translate in speaking or pronounce until the students understand how to pronounce or speak some word.
The fourteenth statement is "I feel Google Translate has helped me a lot in learning English" with a score of 205 and with 82% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the majority of students feel Google Translate has helped them a lot in learning English. Google Translate helps them in translating, checking pronunciation, spelling words, and checking synonyms.
The fifteenth statement is "I would recommend Google Translate to my friends as a supporting media to learn English" with a score of 193 and with 77.2% from the final calculation. It's a Good perception. It means that the students would recommend Google Translate to their friends to use it as a supporting media to learn English because Google Translate helps a lot in learning English. Google Translate has many uses for learning English, although there are a few weaknesses.
From the result of calculating the data obtained that the students' perception towards Google Translate to learn English is a Good (agree). This was because the major of the result was agreed where are from 15 statements, all of them got an agreed answer with 76.1% from the final calculation. Which in the perception interval of 61% − 100% is in the category of good perception. It means that the students had a good perception towards Google Translate.
The result shows that the students know Google Translate as an online translation tool and they also know how to use it. Most of the students use Google Translate via search feature or Google, but some of them also use it via the application. The students rated that the use of Google Translate can help them to understand English very well. Although the results of the text translation from Google Translate are less accurate, they feel that Google Translate have a good impact on their vocabulary, pronunciation, and speaking skills. They also agreed that Google Translate is one of the appropriate supporting media to learn English. The students use Google Translate to help them for some reasons. Most of them use it to translate words, sentences, and text, to check pronunciation, spell the word, and check synonyms.
Based on the data analysis, the twelfth grade students of SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong had a Good perception towards Google Translate to learn English as the majority of answers chosen by them were "agree" that it helped them in learning English. Google Translate as a supporting media had a positive contribution to learning English. This shows that Google Translate is an important supporting media to support students in learning English.

CONCLUSION
Based on the result of the research, it can be concluded that the twelfth grade students of SMK Al-Hikmah Mayong had a positive perception towards Google Translate as a supporting media to learn English. The results showed that the students knew Google Translate in helping to learn English and it had a positive effect on their vocabulary, pronunciation, and speaking skills. This can be seen because they use Google Translate to translate words, sentences, and text, to check pronunciation, spell the word, and check synonyms. They also show that using Google Translate became motivated them in learning English, although the results of the text translation from Google Translate are less accurate.
Regarding the conclusion above, the researcher recommends students to try and use Google Translate efficiently for learning English. Therefore, the teacher must allow students to use Google Translate in learning English because Google Translate is very helpful and has a positive impact on students. And then for the other researchers, the researcher recommends to conduct similar research and exploring other aspects of Google Translate in learning English.