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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 17. Number 3, September 2026 Pp.211-225
English Language Education, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang,
Semarang, Indonesia;
English Language Education, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang,
Semarang, Indonesia
English Language Education, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang,
Semarang, Indonesia
English Language Program, Universitas Dian Nuswantoro, Semarang, Indonesia
English Literature, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang, Indonesia
Artificial Intelligence (AI) performance in translation varies across genres due to the unique features of each genre. This study aims to explore the quality of students’ AI-aided translations of English academic texts, news articles, and poetry, and to determine whether translation quality varies by genre. A descriptive comparative research design was used in the study, involving a sample of 35 students from the English Departments of four universities in Indonesia. The participants translated an English academic text, a news article, and a poem using an Artificial Intelligence-assisted translation tool. The total number of translations was 105. Six translation experts evaluated all the translation samples using Nababan and Nuraeni’s model. They assessed translation quality in terms of accuracy, acceptability, readability, and a new dimension proposed by the researchers, i.e., poeticness, specifically for the translation of poetry. The study found that translations produced by students using AI ranged from moderate to high in quality. For the dimension of translation quality, the highest number of maximal scores (54.55%) was awarded for readability, followed by accuracy (51.56%) and acceptability (50.31%). Poeticness had the lowest score of 17.95%. It proved that AI’s ability to translate poetry is limited, as AI-generated translation cannot preserve literary devices such as figurative language, imagery, and rhyme, as well as the emotional and aesthetic elements of poetry.
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Issy Yuliasri is an applied linguistics Professor at Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia, specializing in English language teaching and translation. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2575-8307
Muhammad Zaki Pahrul Hadi is a doctoral student in Language Education at Universitas Negeri Semarang.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8680-4517
Agung Dwi Nurcahyo is a doctoral student in Language Education at Universitas Negeri Semarang. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5441-2823
Muhammad Rifqi is a lecturer in the English Study Program at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro and an alumnus of Universitas Negeri Semarang.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6209-0425
Bambang Purwanto is a lecturer in English Literature at Universitas Negeri Semarang. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7110-2878