MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

DONG THAP UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

NGUYEN THI HONG THAM

BUI THI HUYEN TRAN

ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES AND

EXPECTATIONS IN LEARNING

WRITTEN TRANSLATION

AT DONG THAP UNIVERSITY

B.A THESIS

Degree: Bachelor of Arts

Dong Thap, 2013

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

DONG THAP UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

NGUYEN THI HONG THAM

BUI THI HUYEN TRAN

ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES AND

EXPECTATIONS IN LEARNING

WRITTEN TRANSLATION

AT DONG THAP UNIVERSITY

B.A THESIS

Supervisor: PHAM VAN TAC, M.A

Degree: Bachelor of Arts

Dong Thap, 2013

iv

TABLE OF CONTENT

Statement of authorship ................................................................................................. i

Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................. ii

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. iii

Table of content ..................................................................................................................................... iv

Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1

1. Motivation for the study ............................................................................................ 1

2. Aims of the study ....................................................................................................... 3

3. Subject and scope of the study .................................................................................. 3

4. Significance of the study ........................................................................................... 4

5. Organization of the thesis .......................................................................................... 4

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................ 7

1.1 Definition of translation .......................................................................................... 7

1.2 The important of translation .................................................................................... 9

1.3 Types of translation ................................................................................................. 11

1.3.1 Word for word translation ........................................................................... 11

1.3.2 Literal translation ......................................................................................... 12

1.3.3 Faithful translation ...................................................................................... 12

1.3.4 Semantic translation ..................................................................................... 13

1.3.5 Adaptation .................................................................................................... 14

1.3.6 Free translation ............................................................................................. 15

1.3.7 Idiomatic translation ..................................................................................... 15

1.3.8 Communicative translation .......................................................................... 16

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1.4 Strategies for translation .......................................................................................... 18

1.5 Some useful techniques for translation.................................................................... 28

1.5.1 Addition ....................................................................................................... 28

1.5.2 Omission ...................................................................................................... 29

1.5.3 Replacement ................................................................................................. 29

1.5.4 Transposition ................................................................................................ 30

1.5.5 Expression .................................................................................................... 31

1.6 The factors influencing translation process ............................................................. 32

1.6.1 Influence of the mother tongue .................................................................... 32

1.6.2 Words and choice of word meanings ........................................................... 34

1.6.3 Grammatical structure .................................................................................. 35

1.6.4 Context ......................................................................................................... 36

1.6.5 Characteristic of language ............................................................................ 37

1.7 Common errors in written translation ..................................................................... 41

1.7.1 Word order .................................................................................................. 41

1.7.2 Syntax/ Grammar errors ............................................................................... 42

1.7.3 Vocabulary errors ......................................................................................... 45

1.7.4 Spelling/Punctuation errors .......................................................................... 50

1.7.5 Culture errors................................................................................................ 52

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................... 54

2.1 Research questions .................................................................................................. 54

2.2 Research participants: .............................................................................................. 54

2.2.1 The researcher: ............................................................................................ 54

2.2.2 The subjects .................................................................................................. 54

2.3 Research procedure ................................................................................................. 54

2.4 Data collect instruments .......................................................................................... 55

2.4.1 The questionnaire: ....................................................................................... 55

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2.4.2 The interview questions: ............................................................................. 56

Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .................................................................. 58

3.1 Results ..................................................................................................................... 58

3.1.1 Result collected from the questionnaire ....................................................... 58

3.1.2 Result collected from the interview questions ............................................. 76

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION.......................................................................... 80

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 89

APPENDIX ................................................................................................................... 91

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LIST OF TABLES

Table1: The students‟ interest in studying written translation………………………...58

Table 2: The reason why students study translation…………………………………..59

Table 3: The students‟ opinions about the usefulness of studying translation……….60

Table 4: Kind of text that students feel difficult to translate…………………………61

Table 5: The biggest challenges that students have to face when translating a passage

from English to Vietnamese ………………………………………………..….62

Table 6: The biggest challenges that students have to face when translating a passage

from Vietnamese to English………………………………………………..….63

Table 7: How students will do when they encounter a new word in a

translation text…………………………………………………………………………65

Table 8: How students prepare for new lesson before class…………………………..66

Table 9: What students will do after they finish their translation…………………….67

Table 10: What do students do to improve their translation skill……………………..68

Table 11: Kind of text students usually practice translation at home…………………69

Table 12: The amount of time students usually spend on studying translation (as self-

study) …………………………………………………………………………..71

Table 13: Things have a great influence on students‟ interest in translation…………72

Table 14: The topic which students are interested in………………………………….73

Table 15: The students‟ opinion about the influence of teaching method……………74

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

We guarantee that the thesis entitled “English major students‟ difficulties and

expectations in learning written translation at Dong Thap University” is the result of

our own work. All the statistics as well as the results collected from the data collection

instruments are truthfully reflected by English major students at Dong Thap University

when they first study written translation. The research reported in the study was

approved by Dong Thap University.

Dated: April 20th

, 2012

Nguyen Thi Hong Tham

Bui Thi Huyen Tran

ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a great pleasure to thank everyone who helped us write this thesis

successfully.

First and foremost, we would like to express our gratitude to our supervisor –

Mr Pham Van Tac for the valuable guidance and encouragement. He greatly inspired

us to work on this thesis. Our thesis cannot come to end without his effort to read it

again and again to find out the problem and support us in all stages of the research and

writing this study.

In addition, we are grateful to all the professors of the Foreign Language

Department of Dong Thap University for teaching and providing us with a good

environment to study the BA thesis.

We owe sincere and earnest thankfulness to all the students of English class

2011 who provided us valuable information by completing the conveying questions as

well as answering interview questions.

Finally, an honorable mention goes to our families and friends for their supports

on us in completing this thesis.

Thanks for all!

Nguyen Thi Hong Tham

Bui Thi Huyen Tran

English 2009A

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ABSTRACT

Translation is a new subject for the students of English major at Dong Thap

University. There are two forms of translation: written translation and spoken

translation. At Dongthap University, written translation is taught for the students of BA

English Class from the beginning of the second year. Because translation is still new

and strange for their first time learning, most of the English major students still have

difficulties in learning this kind of subject, especially the students of the second year

from BA English class (2011-2015 curriculums). This study was conducted to find out

the students‟ difficulties as well as their expectations when they begin to learn written

translation in order to make suggestions that can partly help them overcome these

obstacles in studying this course. Besides that, the study also aims at making some

suggestions as a useful reference helping adjust learning and teaching method to get a

better result in learning and teaching process. The research methods used in this study

are the questionnaire- a list of questions to find out the difficulties that students usually

face and the interview questions which used to meeting students‟ expectations in

learning the subject.

1

INTRODUCTION

1. Motivation for the study

No one can deny the importance of language in the process of conveying

information. We all know that language plays an indispensable role in people‟s life and

social development. However, exactly how many languages are there in the world? The

most extensive catalog of the world‟s languages, the ethnologic organization, whose

detailed classified list currently includes 6809 distinct languages. It‟s, therefore, really

necessary to get the purpose of the whole development and interaction. The appearance

of a common language, which can be seen as the second language that all people

around the world can use to exchange ideas with each other in order to meet the

demand of the global standards in the today‟s world, is really pressing. In this

background, English - a universal language at present can be used as the unique tool

satisfying this demand. The role of English is more and more asserted, especially in the

booming age of information and technology. English can be considered as the

prevailing language by the way it dominates every domain and maybe the only

language that truly links the whole world together. The other languages may be

important, yes, but they are only important for their temporary values and they cannot

replace English as an international language in such the way that all people around the

world can use to communicate among countries. We again cannot deny the important

of communicative purposes. Without communication, there is no way to express

thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Furthermore, the business among countries cannot carry

out, so how can the countries as well as the whole world‟s economy develop Without

English, people cannot understand each other more in the process of diplomatic

relation and economic cooperation and many other fields in today‟s era when the

country tend to integrate for the whole development. We cannot list how much benefit

that English brings for us. Its beneficial is unlimited. Therefore, studying English is a

good way to contact with the huge world and approach a boundless source of

information. Also, if we want to survive on this economic developing era, we ought to

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master English as a demand of job‟s requirements. Today, when every country from

the world overcomes consequences of economic crisis and has a problem with a big

numbers of unemployment, every person needs to push his career forward. By that

way, it is impossible to revalue the importance of English. Its knowledge can get one‟s

dream job in any international company, earn more money and use computer more

effectively, because most computer programs are in English, too.

However, just knowing English is not enough. Sometimes, a person who can

speak, listen and read English does not mean he or she understands it carefully. One

more problem that we have to face here is the necessary of translating skills. When

Viet Nam becomes one of the members of World Trade Organization, it has more and

more requirements for Vietnamese especially students to have expert translation skill to

meet the demand of integration into the huge world economy and to exchange our

culture with other friendly countries. Nowadays, more and more contracts, emails,

news, etc. are on English also, so it is necessary to master translation to translate

documents more exactly in order to avoid regrettable misunderstanding. However, to

master translation is not easy, so not almost all learners can avoid mistakes. When

translating English into our mother tongue, it is not only translating the words we are

reading but also the meaning and the overall purpose of the text as a whole. This can be

very difficult, even for those who are fluent in several languages. As learners, the

researchers assume that almost all learners who begin to study written translation will

meet many difficulties because it is so new and strange for their first time contact, and

there is no exception for students majoring in English at Dong Thap University.

Understanding their difficulties parallel with meeting their expectations can help them

so much in overcoming these obstacles in learning process and create favorable

conditions for the study course. This is the reason we carry out this research with the

hope that the study will be a useful reference helping improve translation skill as well

as understand students‟ difficulties in learning written translation subject. Therefore,

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students have a suitable project to adjust learning and teaching method to get the best

effective result through the students‟ expectations.

2. Aims of the study

This thesis was done with a view to find out students‟ difficulties in learning

written translation in order to orient students who begin to study this subject in good

manner of study. The study also aims at understanding the students‟ expectation in

learning the subject and then suggesting some possible solutions to overcome

difficulties as well as satisfy their expectations to improve and adjust both learning‟s

style and teaching method.

3. Subject and scope of the study

- Subject: English majored students‟ difficulties and expectations in learning

written translation at Dong Thap University.

- Object: the English majors‟ students who begin to study written translation

at Dong Thap University. They are the second year students in BA classes

(2011-2015 curriculum) and (2011-2014 curriculum).

Translation is a new subject for the students of English major at Dong Thap

University. There are two forms of translation: written translation and spoken

translation. At Dongthap University, written translation is taught for the students of BA

English Class from the beginning of the second year. Because translation is still new

and strange for their first time learning, most of the English major students still have

difficulties in learning this kind of subject, especially the students of the second year

from BA English classes (2011-2015 curriculums) and (2011- 2014 curriculums). This

study was conducted to find out the students‟ difficulties as well as their expectations

when they begin to learn written translation in order to make suggestions that can

partly help them overcome these obstacles in studying this course. Besides that, the

study also aims at making some suggestions as a useful reference helping adjust

learning and teaching method to get a better result in learning and teaching process.

4

4. Significance of the study

Understanding the students‟ difficulties and their expectations in learning

written translation, the thesis will be a useful reference with the solutions suggested

which help the teachers recognize their students‟ requirements as well as expectations

in studying the subject. Since there, having a suitable adjustment in teaching method as

well as teaching material to satisfy the students‟ need, which is believed to bring a

good result in studying. Furthermore, it is a strong hope that the study will be a useful

reference helping improve translation skill for not only the second year students

majoring in English at Dong Thap University but also all Vietnamese people who feel

interested in the job as a translator and really want to become an expert translator.

5. Organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of the following parts:

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definition of translation

1.2 The important of translation

1.3 Method of translation

1.3.1 Word for word translation

1.3.2 Literal translation

1.3.3 Faithful translation

1.3.4 Semantic translation

1.3.5 Adaptation

1.3.6 Free translation

1.3.7 Idiomatic translation

1.3.8 Communicative translation

1.4 Strategies for translation

5

1.5 Some useful techniques for translation

1.5.1 Addition

1.5.2 Omission

1.5.3 Replacement

1.5.4 Transposition

1.5.5 Expression

1.6 The factors influencing translation process

1.6.1 Influence of the mother tongue

1.6.2 Words and choice of word meanings

1.6.3 Grammatical structure

1.6.4 Context

1.6.5 Characteristic of language

1.7 Common errors in written translation

1.7.1 Word order

1.7.2 Syntax/ Grammar errors

1.7.3 Vocabulary errors

1.7.4 Spelling/Punctuation errors

1.7.5 Culture errors

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research questions

2.2 Research participants:

2.2.1 The researcher:

2.2.2 The subjects

2.3 Research procedure

2.4 Data collect instruments

2.4.1 The questionnaire:

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2.4.2 The interview questions:

Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Results

3.1.1 Result collected from the questionnaire

3.1.2 Result collected from the interview questions

3.2 Discussion

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

7

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definition of translation

Translation has been various defined. The following definitions have been

selected because they are really typical in some sense; and they can partly raise the

issues, which we are going to pursue in detail later.

Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of written

source language text into an optimally equivalent target language text, and which

requires the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical

processing of the source language. (Wilss, 1982)

Translation is the expression in another language (target language) of what has

been expressed in one language (source language), preserving semantic and stylistic

equivalences. (Bell.R. , 1991).

Translation is the replacement of a presentation of a text in one language by a

representation of an equivalent text in a second language. (Bell.R. ,1991).

For example, the Vietnamese sentence “Chỉ khi nào thầy giáo cho phép thì sinh

viên mới được vào phòng.” can be translated into English as “Only if the teacher has

given permission are students allowed to enter the room.”

The author continues and makes the problems of equivalence very plain. Text in

different languages can be equivalent in different degrees (full or partly different), in

respect of different levels of presentation (in respect of context, of semantics, of

grammar, of lexis, etc.) and at different ranks (word-for-word, phrase-for-phrase,

sentence-for-sentence).

Translation is the transmission of a thought expressed in one language by means

of another language. The language used to express the thought directly is called the

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source language, and the language used to translate that thought is called the target

language. (Tu Anh, 2005).

In Vietnamese-into-English translation, the Vietnamese is the source language

and the English is the target language as in the following example:

The source language: “Người bắt đầu học ngoại ngữ luôn luôn gặp khó khăn ngay từ

bước đầu.”

The target language: “Beginners of foreign language always meet difficulties from the

outset.”

In contrast, in English-into-Vietnamese translation, the English is the source

language and the Vietnamese is the target language as in the following example:

The source language: “Due to ill management and protection, forest resources have, in

recent years, been seriously destroyed.”

The target language: “Trong những năm gần đây, do quản lí và bảo vệ kém, tài

nguyên rừng bị tàn phá rất nghiêm trọng.”

Translation is rendering a written text into another language in a way that the

author intended the text. (Bui Tien Bao and Dang Xuan Thu, 1997).

“Translators are concerned with the written texts. They render written texts from

one language into another language. Translators are required to undertake assignments,

which range from simple items, such as birth certificates and driving licenses, to more

complex written materials, such as articles in specialized professional journals,

business contracts and legal documents”. (Bui Tien Bao and Dang Xuan Thu, 1997).

Translation, ultimately, by dictionary definition, consists of changing from one

state or form to another, to turn into one‟s own or another‟s language. (The Merrian –

Webster dictionary, 1974). Translation is a change of form. When we speak of the form

of a language, we are referring to the actual words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc.

9

The forms are referred to as the surface structure of a language. It is a structural part of

a language, which is actually seen in print or heard speech. In translation, the form of

the receptor or target language replaces the form of the source language. But how is

this change accomplished? What determines the choice of form in the translation?

1.2 The importance of translation

Even with the most up-to-date and sophisticated communication system, we can

never know how many languages man used today in the world; let alone how many

languages man has used during the course of his development. Some sources say there

are two or three thousand languages being used in the world, but some others say the

number may be as large as eight thousand. What a habit man has that of speaking

tongues! Thus, he offers himself difficulties and obstacles.

Since communication within often, one community is not enough, certainly.

There has a great number of times arisen a situation in which some individuals are

unable to understand the words or expressions of some others. This phenomenon

creates a barrier to understand whenever man tries to communicate across a great

distance of space or across a great interval of time. Something has to be done to

overcome this restriction. One way to cope with the restriction is for individuals to

know the foreign language. However, this is not the final solution because apparently

no individual in the world can know all the languages in use. The best polyglot so far

knows only about twenty-five languages. Let us make a comparison between the

number 25 and 8000; it is a very numerous distance between the languages that this

polyglot can use and the number of languages that exist in the worlds.

Still people want to read what other people want to write and what people say,

translation and interpretation may be considered as the most universally accepted

solution for surmounting the obstacles. Thus, there is a need for professional translators

and interpreters. (Bui Tien Dao and Dang Xuan Thu, 1997).

10

Stuart stated that translation as the product of language learning projected onto

an interlanguage framework. Therefore, translation skills should be evaluated

according to the state of learners‟ interlanguage in any state of its development. (Stuart

Campbell, 1980).

Translation is a real-life, natural activity and increasing necessary in a global

environment. Many learners living in either their own countries or a new one need to

translate language on daily basic both formally and informally. This is even more

important with the growing importance of online information.

Translation can support for the writing process, especially at lower levels.

Research has shown that learners seem able to access more information in their own

language, which they can then translate. (Stuart, Campell, 1980).

The research totally agrees with the above ideas. When the human language

appears, translation becomes necessary and significant. Imagine that one day you have

a trip visiting a green and beautiful oasis. Unfortunately, you get lost from your group

and you have not done any research about this oasis before; you do not know any

information about the people as well as their language and many other things related to

this place. At that time, a crowd of inhabitants appears, and you are excited and happy

to say “Hello” to them with a friendly face. Suddenly, they bit you. You fail to

understand anything and try to escape this place. Later, when you spend time doing

research to find out what “Hello” means in this oasis, you realize that the word “Hello”

in this oasis sounds like “I will destroy you!”. On a serious note, translation is one of

the most critical jobs in modern society. Translation becomes more and more important

when all countries in the world have exchanged and cooperated in variety aspects like

culture, education, business, etc. However, no one has enough ability to translate;

therefore, we need to have translation.

In order to meet the demand of this multilingual world‟s whole development, it

is required an appearance of a common language that all of countries in the world can

11

use. Nowadays, English has been used as the universal language all over the world. In

our country, English play an indispensable role in the economic aspect. Especially

when Viet Nam has become member of World Trade Organization, the demand to have

expert translation is necessary. It is true that all of the contracts, emails, agreements, or

conventions, etc, in English need to be translated exactly and effectively to avoid some

regrettable misunderstandings.

1.3 Types of translation

1.3.1 Word-for-word translation:

Here the source language (SL) word is translated into another language by their

most common meanings, which can also be out of context at times, especially in

idioms and proverbs.

- The following are the characteristics of this approach:

+ SL word order is preserved.

+ Words are translated by their most common meanings, and out of

context.

Ex: He is a big liar.

Anh ta là một lớn nói dối.

Or: Mời bạn về nhà tôi chơi.

Invited friend about my house play

- This kind of translation used for:

+ Information about SL

+ Language learning (mechanics of language)

+ Pre-translation process of difficult text in order to gain the sense of

meaning

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1.3.2 Literal translation

Here the SL grammatical constructions are translated to their nearest language

(TL). A literal translation sounds like nonsense and has little communicative values.

- The following are the characteristics of this approach:

+ Lexical words are translated singly, and out of context.

Ex: He is a big liar

Anh ta là một kẻ nói dối lớn.

He looked up at the Milky Way

Anh ta nhìn lên con đường màu sữa.

- This kind of translation used for:

+ Pre-translation process to identify problems

+ Basis of poetry translation for poet who does not understand SL

1.3.3 Faithful translation

Here the translation interprets the exact contextual meaning of the original

within the constraints of the grammatical structures of the TL.

- The following are characteristics of this approach:

+ Words are translated in context but uncompromising to TL.

+ Transfer cultural words

+ Does not naturalize

+ Often read like a translation

Ex: He is as fast as a kangaroo.

Nó nhanh như một con kanguru.

- This kind of translation used for:

+ Literary translation

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+ Authoritative texts

+ Drafts

1.3.4 Semantic translation:

Semantic translation refers to that type of translation, which takes into account

the aesthetic value of the SL text.

- The following are the characteristics of this approach:

+ More flexible than faithful translation

+ Naturalize a bit while faithful translation is uncompromising (but in order

to achieve aesthetic effect), for instance, it may translate cultural words

with neutral or functional items.

+ Great focus on aesthetic features of source text (at expense of meaning if

necessary).

+ Close rendering of metaphors, collocations, technical terms, slang,

colloquialisms, unusual syntactic structures and collocations, peculiarly

used words, neologism, badly written or inaccurate passages.

- This kind of translation used for:

+ Texts that have high status, e.g., religion texts, legal texts, politicians‟

speeches

+ Expressive texts, e.g., literature

Ex1: “Right in the heart of Ha Noi, Hoan Kiem Lake is an enchanting body of water, a

peaceful oasis away from all the hustle of the city.”

“Nằm ngay giữa trái tim Hà Nội, hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp mê hồn, một

ốc đảo yên bình tách biệt với sự hối hả bận rộn của thành phố.”

Ex2: Life is never easy. So whatever comes to destroy you, stay firm and be the bravest

as you can. You might cry, be upset, but never lose hope; and most especially, never

give up because GOD is always there, here and forever.

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“Cuộc sống không bao giờ đơn giản và dễ dàng. Vì vậy, dù có bất cứ điều gì tồi tệ

xảy đến, hãy cứng rắn và dũng cảm lên. Bạn có thể khóc, có thể buồn nhưng đừng bao

giờ đánh mất hi vọng và quan trọng nhất là đừng bao giờ từ bỏ hi vọng vì Thiên Chúa

luôn ở bên cạnh bạn và mãi mãi bên bạn.”

1.3.5 Adaptation:

The text is rewritten considering the SL culture which is converted to the TL

culture where the characters, themes, and plots are usually preserved.

- This kind of translation is used mainly for plays and poems.

Ex:

Melody Angel 27 September 2004 (from “The Grant Piano”)

What feeling do I borrow?

Sometimes I am happy

Sometimes I am sad

I can feel my heart

Telling me I feel bad

First I‟m up there

First I‟m down here

I‟m holding my fear

But it‟s hard to hear

What I sing today

Is what I feel tomorrow?

Cảm xúc nào tôi đang mượn

Có những lúc trong tôi là hạnh phúc

Có những lúc sầu muộn lại đong đầy

Trái tim tôi tâm sự với tôi đây:

Tôi thấy xấu, buồn đau và khổ ải!

Đang trên cao cảm thấy lòng thoải mái

Bỗng ngờ đâu phút chốc lại vơi đầy

Sợ hãi nào tôi đang giữ trong tay

Nó giẫy giụa, quấy rầy cho tôi khổ

Tôi đang hát một bài ca nào đó

Lời nhạc này – cảm giác của ngày mai

15

I can hear my thoughts

“What I am to borrow?”

My feelings change

Nearly every minute

I can feel my heart

Still holding fear in it

Tôi đang nghe trí óc tôi tâm sự:

Cảm giác nào cần phải mượn nữa đây?

Dẫu biết rõ cảm xúc tựa gió mây

Luôn luân chuyển vô thường trong mỗi

phút

Tôi thương cảm trái tim tôi nhỏ dại

Nhịp đập nào thiếu vắng nỗi lo đây?

(dohop – phỏng dịch từ tiếng anh)

1.3.6 Free translation:

Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content

without the form of the original. It is a kind of meaning-based translation and usually a

paraphrase much longer than the original.

Free translation focuses on the content of the target text rather than the form,

which means that the same content is expressed in the target text but with very

different grammatical structures if need be.

Ex: Business is business.

Công việc là công việc, tình cảm là tình cảm, không thể lẫn lộn được.

1.3.7 Idiomatic translation:

It translates the message of the original text but tends to disort the original

meaning at times by referring colloquialisms and idioms. (Su, 2003)

16

Idiomatic translation makes use of idioms and colloquialisms that are not

present in the source text.

It is asserted that the original meaning of a fixed combination is not equal to the

sum of the meaning of separate words.

Ex: Out of sight, out of mind

Xa mặt cách lòng.

Wait and see.

thời gian sẽ trả lời.

No guide, no realization

Không thầy đố mày làm nên.

1.3.8 Communicative translation:

This method displays the exact contextual meaning of the original text in a manner

where both content and language are easily acceptable and comprehensible to the

readers.

- The following are the characteristics of this approach:

+ Bee freer than semantic translation

+ Give priority to the effectiveness of the message to be communicated

+ Focus on factors such as readability and naturalness

+ Both the content and the language are readily acceptable and

comprehensible to the reader.

- This kind of translation used for informative texts.

Ex: a small conversation between friends

17

Vijay: Hello, Karthik! I visited your

house yesterday. You weren‟t there.

Where did you go?

Karthik: I went to see the football match

between our school and Brindavan school.

I left home very early.

Vijay: How was the match? Was it

interesting yesterday?

Karthik: The match started exactly at

5pm. Our school played well and scored

the first goal before half time immediately

after, Brindavan School scored the

equalizer. Our school scored the winning

goal in the last minute and won the match.

Vijay: Oh! When did you reach home?

Karthik: I reached home very late.

Vijay: By the way who won the match

last year?

Karthik: Even last year, our school won

the match.

Vijay: Chào cậu, Karthik! Hôm qua tớ có

đến nhà cậu nhưng mà cậu không có ở

nhà. Cậu đi đâu thế?

Karthik: Tớ đi xem trận thi đấu bóng đá

giữa trường của chúng ta và trường

Brindavan. Tớ rời khỏi nhà rất sớm.

Vijay: Trận đấu diễn ra như thế nào? Có

thú vị không?

Karthik: Đúng 5 giờ chiều thì trận đấu

chính thức bắt đầu. Đội bóng trường

chúng ta chơi rất tốt và ghi điểm bàn

thắng đầu tiên vào khoảng giữa trân đấu.

Lập tức ngay sau đó, đội bóng trường

Brindavan vượt lên ghi điểm hòa. Đội

bóng trường mình ghi điểm vào phút cuối

cùng và chiến thắng trận đấu.

Vijay: Oh! Khi nào cậu về đến nhà?

Karthik: Tớ về đến nhà rất trễ.

Vijay: Trong trận đấu năm ngoái đội nào

giành chiến thắng?

Karthik: Ngay cả năm trước đội trường

chúng ta cũng giành chiến thắng.

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1.4 Strategies for translation

1.4.1 Strategy 1: How to deal with non-equivalence at word level

Often, you translate a text from Vietnamese to English and vice versa. There is

no direct equivalences can be found in Vietnamese for English words. Maybe, the

concept or idea is new to the Vietnamese, as in the case with “gender”, which is in fact

a relatively new concept in general, and a difficult one to understand and explain it in

many languages. The concept can be known or readily understood but there is no

specific Vietnamese word to express it. For instance, “backwash” and “wash back”. In

addition, some words have special connotations that are not conveyed by the

Vietnamese word for the same thing. The strategies listed below can be used to handle

cases of non-equivalence.

Translating by a more specific word

In some cases, it will be appropriate or necessary to use a more specific word to

translate an English word into Vietnamese. This usually involves choosing among

several different words, as there are many Vietnamese words that can be correspond to

the general category or meaning expressed by the English terms. For example, the

English word for “rice” can be translated by many different Vietnamese words such as:

hạt lúa, hạt gạo, hạt thóc, hạt cơm, depending on whether one is planning it, harvesting

it, cooking it, or eating it. In these cases, an English word alone is not enough to

determine for the appropriate translation, and it is necessary to examine the English

context and decide which Vietnamese word is suitable.

Translating by a more general word

In other cases, it is appropriate to use a more general word to translate English with

no specific Vietnamese equivalent. For instance, English makes distinction among

mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles. The latter having larger wheels and engines than

both mopeds and scooters; Vietnamese, on the other hand, refers to all two-wheel,

motorized vehicles as “xe máy”. Similarly, the English words “paw”, “foot”, and “leg”

19

may all be translated by the Vietnamese word “chân”, which does not suggest any

problem of comprehension in Vietnamese, as it should be clear from the context which

of these words is meant.

Translating by paraphrase

This strategy can be used when translating an English word or concept that does not

exist in Vietnamese, or when the Vietnamese term does not include all the meanings

conveyed by the English term. For example, in the sentence: “pregnant women should

avoid alcohol”, “alcohol” includes all alcoholic beverages, however, “rượu” - the

Vietnamese word for “alcohol” does not include beer in its definition. So the

Vietnamese version should add the word beer to reflect the full meaning of the source

language sentence “phụ nữ mang thai nên tránh uống rượu, bia.”

1.4.2 Strategy 2: How to deal with idioms and fixed expressions

According to English Idioms in Use (MeCarthy and O‟Dell, 2004, p.6), an

idiom is defined as a fixed expression which “has a meaning that is not obvious from

the individual words”. In other words, words have lost their individual identity in the

idiom. The structure of the idiom is a large extent, fixed and unchangeable. Every

language has a set of idioms and fixed expressions, which has been created and

developed throughout history. It is profoundly influenced by the geographical position,

natural and social conditions of the culture in which the language is used. Thus, the sets

of idioms and fixed expressions can be dealt with similar ways discussed above. With

idioms, however, there is the added difficulty that the translator may not realize that he

is dealing with an idiomatic expression, since more idioms may make sense when

translated literally.

Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning and form.

It is sometimes possible to find a Vietnamese idiom or expression with a similar

meaning to an English idiom or expression. For example, the idiom “Old love flocks

together without invitation” is translated into Vietnamese as “Tình cũ không rủ cũng

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tới”, or the idiom “To grow like mushrooms after the first rain” is also translated as

“Mọc nhanh như nấm sau mưa”. It is so ideal if such a match can be found, but this

kind of correspondence is not common, and it is also necessary to use other strategies

in dealing with idioms and fixed expressions. For example, the meaning of the idiom

“It is raining cats and dogs” does not have any thing related to the pets like cats and

dogs but it just means “It is raining heavily” (Trời đang mưa rất to/ Trời đang mưa tầm

tã). If this English idiom is translated in the way of literal translation, which focuses on

the meaning in dictionary of the word “cat” - “con mèo” and “dog” - “con chó”, we

will translate this idiom as “Trời đang mưa những con mèo và những con chó”. In this

way, the sentence is totally nonsense in term of meaning. Thus, it is obvious that no

Vietnamese idiom or expression with a similar meaning to this English idiom can be

found.

Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning but dissimilar form.

It is also possible, and usually easier to find a Vietnamese idiom with a similar

meaning with an English idiom or set of expression expressed differently, however.

One typical example for this is the translation for “Chở củi về rừng”, which is

translated as “To carry firewood to the forest”. However, in English, “To carry

firewood to the forest” is not an idiom and does not have the meaning as the

Vietnamese idiom “Chở củi về rừng”. The correct English equivalent of the

Vietnamese idiom is “To carry coals to Newcastle”. This meaning is clearly the same

for both idioms – to bring something to a place that already has abundant ones, but the

way in which each language expresses it is bound to the culture of that language. It

would be far more cumbersome to translate this idiom word-for-word into Vietnamese

with an explanation that Newcastle is a well-known coal-producing city in England (as

was suggested by some Vietnamese translators), which would unduly interrupt the flow

of the text and greatly diminish the idiom‟s impact. By substituting a similar

Vietnamese idiom, then, the flow and the impact of the original text are retained in the

translation.

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Translating by paraphrase

In the case that Vietnamese equivalents can not be found, paraphrasing maybe consider

as the best way to deal with an idiom or fixed expression. A good example can be

found in an article on maternal mortality, which includes the sentence, “But before the

new estimates replace the old as a way of packaging up the problem, it should be said

that a mistake has been made in allowing statistics such as these to slip into easy

language”. The expression “packaging up the problem” presented problem in

translation, as it was misinterpreted to mean “assembling” or “gathering together”.

However, even if this phrase were clearly understood, it would be difficult to find a

concise Vietnamese equivalent. In fact, it also would be difficult to re-state concisely in

English. This phrase is best solved by paraphrasing, which in English should read

something like “summing up the problem by referring to it simply as number, which

does not reflect its true magnitude or impact. The expression “to slip into easy usage”

is problematic for the same reason, and is best dealt with by paraphrasing, as a direct

translation into Vietnamese would be nonsensical.

1.4.3 Strategy 3: How to deal with voice, number, and person

1.4.3.1 Voice:

- One interesting thing is Vietnamese tend to use active sentences in their

speech, but the passive voice is used very frequently in English,

therefore, it sometimes poses some problems for translators who translate

from English to Vietnamese and vice versa.Vietnamese:

Positive meaning:

A được + động từ + (bởi B)

A được/ do + B + động từ

Negative meaning:

A bị + động từ + (bởi B)

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A bị + B + động từ

- English:

A + to be done (by B) = A + be V3/ed (by B)

Examples:

Châu Mĩ được Columbus khám phá cách đây hơn 400 năm.

American was discovered over four hundred years ago by Columbus.

Bóng đèn điện do Thomas Edison phát minh năm 1879.

The light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879.

John bị một kẻ lạ mặt tấn công tối hôm qua.

John was attacked by a stranger last night.

Or:

- Vietnamese:

A được + động từ (Positive meaning)

A bị + động từ (Negative meaning)

Người ta/ ai đó + động từ + A

- English:

A + to be done = A + be V3/ed or

A + has/have been + V3/ed

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Examples:

Những ngôi nhà xưa trong vùng được xây dựng lại trong những năm gần đây.

These old houses in this area have been built in recent years.

Bản hợp đồng đã bị đánh cắp rồi.

or: Ai đó đã đánh cắp bản hợp đồng rồi.

The contract has been stolen.

The positive and negative connotation is often conveyed in English, and it is

difficult to know how to use suitable Vietnamese word.

For example:

English: The children were given injection.

Vietnamese: “Các cháu được tiêm”.or “Các cháu bị tiêm”

Depending on whether receiving shots was consider as a positive or negative

experience, a suitable word “được” or “bị” was chosen to ensure the correspondence

between the source and the target text. In contrast, when the positive or negative

connotation of the sentence is clear, it is more appropriate to retain the passive voice in

the Vietnamese.

For example:

English: “The H‟Mong people do not like to be called Meo; they refer to be called

H‟Mong.”

Vietnamese: “Người dân tộc H‟Mong không thích bị gọi là dân tộc Mèo; họ thích

được gọi là người dân tộc H‟Mong hơn.”

Note: In Vietnamese, there are some cases where you can see the word “bị” or “được”,

but they are not passive sentences in English at all.

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For example:

- Anh ấy bị ngã

He falls.

- Nga bị ho.

Nga has a cough.

- Hôm nay chúng ta được đánh chén no nê.

We have an enormous and fantastic meal today.

1.4.3.2 Number:

Though both English and Vietnamese have similar notions of number and

countability, each language expresses in very different ways. In Viet Nam, number is

often not expressed at all. However, in English, number is expressed as a grammatical

category, that is they are different in grammatical forms for the singular and plural

nouns. On the other hand, no such distinction in Vietnamese is made grammatically.

For instance, “trẻ em” can mean either child or children. In Vietnamese, some plural

makers such as “các”, “những”, “tất cả”, “mọi”, “mỗi”, etc. can be used in addition to

the noun. “Các” generally means all of a given category of thing, whereas “những”

refers only to some of the total number of things being discussed. “Mỗi” emphasizes

the identity of the individual members of the category without connoting anything of

their totality, while “mọi” expresses both individuality of the items and the totality of

the category. If it is clear from the English context which of these plural markers

should be used in Vietnamese.

Note: There are some words that can be countable in Vietnamese but are uncountable

in English that makes translator confuse sometimes. Hereafter are examples of some of

them such as information, advice, furniture, potential, equipment, etc.

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1.4.3.3 Person:

Participants‟ roles and forms of address are expressed in Vietnamese through

a very complicated system of personal pronouns based largely on kinship terms. Unlike

their distinctions, depending on relationship within the family, familiarity, social status,

and even one‟s particular mood or attitude in a given situation. These distinctions are

not always clear in English and usually can be determined by the context, if at all. If it

is sometimes not possible to determine these distinctions of the English pronouns, the

decision should be based on consideration of tone and overall purpose of the document.

For example:

A manual on health care contains sections written specifically for children

and adults. In the section for children, “you” should be translated as “em” or “các em”.

In the section for adults, “you” should be translated as “chúng ta” which is the

inclusive “we” – that is the speaker is including the listener in a group with himself or

herself. Moreover, in different contexts, “we” can be translated as “chúng tôi” which

means “other people and I, but not you” or “chúng ta” meaning “you and I”.

Note: In English, age is not important in the addressing system. And there is no

distinction between the relatives of mother‟s side and father‟s side.

Hai anh em two brothers

Hai chị em two sisters

Chú, bác uncle

Cô, dì, bác gái, thím ant

1.4.4. Strategy 4: How to deal with proper names

- Geographical terms:

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Geographical terms can be either translated into another language in English or

translated phonologically (“s” becomes “x”). In some cases, it is remained.

For examples:

Brazil Braxin

Beijing Bắc Kinh

Singapore Singapore or Xingapo

Commonweath Liên bang, Liên hiệp, Khối thịnh vượng

Australia Úc or Ôxtrâylia

Socialist Xã hội chủ nghĩa

London Luân Đôn

- Names of Organizations:

When doing translation of names of Organization from Vietnamese into English,

the translator confuse the reverse order as in the following examples:

Văn phòng chính phủ Government office

Thanh tra chính phủ Government Inspectorate

Thanh tra viên cao cấp Senior Inspector

Or using the formulas: Adjective + Noun or Noun + Preposition + Noun such as:

“Bộ”, “sở” Ministry of…. , Department of….

“Ngân hàng” Bank for…., Adjective + bank

“Tổng công ty” Cooperation

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For examples:

Ngân hàng phục vụ người nghèo Bank for the poor

Ngân hàng công thương Việt Nam Vietnam Industrial and Commercial bank

Bộ kế hoạch và đầu tư Ministry of planning and investment

Sở ngoại vụ Hà Nội Ha Noi External Relations Department

1.4.5 Strategy 5: How to deal with non-subject sentences

In Vietnamese - written passages, some non-subject sentences often come across. In

this case, translator can use the following techniques to deal with these kinds of

sentences:

- Passive voice:

Ex: Cần đẩy mạnh công ngiệp hóa, hiện đại hóa.

Industrialization and modernization should be promoted.

- It + to be + Adjective + to do something

Ex: Cần đẩy mạnh công ngiệp hóa, hiện đại hóa.

It is necessary to promote industrialization and modernization.

Không được đi trên đường có trồng cỏ.

It is forbidden to walk on the turf.

- There is/ There are ….

Ex: Vẫn chưa có cách chữa trị bệnh AIDS.

There has been no cure for AIDS.

- Ving + V + O

Ex: Đi ra ngoài một mình vào buổi tối rất nguy hiểm.

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Being alone at night is very dangerous.

- Put in the real subject that is often found in the previous sentence(s).

Ex: A: Doctor, a bee has stung on my finger.

(Bác sĩ, có một con ong đã đốt vào ngón tay của tôi.)

B: Which one?

(Ngón nào?)

1.5 Useful techniques for translation:

Hereafter are five useful techniques for English – Vietnamese and Vietnamese –

English translation with illustrated examples for attempting to contribute to better

translation competence of English learners.

1.5.1 Addition:

Addition technique is the way when doing translation, translators can add some

words, which are not found in the source text to make the translation text looks

smoother, and more comprehend.

There are some sample versions translated from English into Vietnamese and vice

versa:

- “A peace committee” which was translated as “Ủy ban bảo vệ hòa bình”.

Obviously, to reach the adequate and fluent meaning, “bảo vệ” was added in

the Vietnamese version whereas there was no equivalent mean “bảo vệ” in the

source language.

- “Bấy nhiêu người đều ùa nhau vào đẩy, thì hòn đá lăn ra trên đường” which was

translated as “All men eagerly push the stone, it rolls out of the road

immediately”. The addition here is “immediately” to emphasize a level of a

clear and complete expression in the version.

29

- “He always glad because he showed his gratitude to his parents” can be

translated as “ Vậy mà, lúc nào ông ấy cũng lấy làm vui vẻ trong lòng, vì có thế

thì con mới tỏ hết lòng hiếu thảo với cha mẹ”. “vậy mà”, “lấy làm”, “trong

lòng” were added to convey the total feelings and spirits of the involved person.

1.5.2 Omission:

Omission is the way when translating; translators can omit some redundant

words, which do not really change the meaning of the version. Hung (1986:15) has

mentioned: “Omission are the reversion of additions and are used to ensure a greater

degree of what is called “compression” that is reducing the redundancy of the text by

omitting words which can be easily restored from the context”.

The following are some examples about this kind of technique:

- “… and he bend down over the bed and took his wife‟s hand and began to

caress her forehead” can be translated as “… rồi anh cúi xuống cầm tay vợ và

vuốt ve trán nàng”. “Over the bed and” and “began” were omitted to make the

version more concise.

- “Với tư cách là những sinh viên mới, chúng ta phải học bài trước khi đến lớp” is

translated to “As new student, we must study lesson before class”. The verb

“đến” was omitted to convey a concise version in the target language but still

remain the same meaning.

1.5.3 Replacement:

When translate a text, translator ought to get insights about two common types

of linguistic units: word forms and parts of speech, which has considerable influence

on grammatical transformations between the source language and the target language.

1.5.3.1 Replacement of word forms:

In some cases, to reach the fluency in the target language, translator can convert the

plural forms into the singular ones and vice versa. For example:

30

- “To tell him an hour before your date is the epitome of bad manners” is

translated as “Chỉ bảo cho người yêu trước cuộc hẹn một tiếng đồng hồ là biểu lộ

của lối cư xử tệ”. The plural noun “manners” was transformed into the singular

one “lối cư xử” instead of “những lối cư xử”.

- “Họ sẽ lắng nghe nhịp đập của trái tim” is translated to “They would listen to

the beating of their hearts”. It is clear that the singular noun “trái tim” was

replaced by the plural form “hearts” (những trái tim) in the rendering.

1.5.3.2 Replacement of speech:

The replacements of part of speech are quite common in translation. Noun in

English, for example, can be replaced by verbs or adjectives in Vietnamese and vice

versa to obtain accuracy and suitability of semantics in both English and Vietnamese

styles.

The following examples illustrate for this technique:

- “Our belief is that Vietnam‟s economy will be at the top-ten of the world” can

be translated as “Chúng tôi tin rằng nền kinh tế Việt Nam sẽ được xếp vào 10

nước đứng đầu thế giới”. Obviously, the possessive adjective “our” was

replaced with the pronoun “chúng tôi”. Besides, the noun “belief” was replaced

by the verb “tin” to match the suitable meaning in the target language style.

- “Trong buổi họp tổng kết, các chuyên gia đã tiếp chuyện một cách thân mật và

sôi nổi với các đại diện của chính phủ” is translated as “At the summing-up

conference, the experts had friendly and enthusiastic talks with government and

representatives”. The verb “tiếp chuyện” was replaced by the noun “talks”

thanks to the replacement technique.

1.5.4 Transposition:

With this kind of technique, translators can absolutely change the order of the

structures: words, phrases, clauses, and sentences without altering the content of the

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utterance. It should be noted that the traditional word order in English is subject +

object + adverb modifier (manner + place + time) while the common tendency in

Vietnamese is putting adverbial modifier of time at the beginning of the sentence. For

example:

- “Use your napkin to wipe the area around your month every few minutes” can

be translated as “Chốc chốc, bạn hãy dùng khăn ăn lau quanh miệng”. in the

example above, “every few minutes” at the ending order was transposed when

being rendered into the target language.

- “The train had already left when we arrived at the station” is translated to “Khi

chúng tôi đến thì xe đã rời ga rồi”. The reason why “khi chúng tôi đến” was

transformed to the first order as being rendered is that the first place of a

sentence in Vietnamese is most often occupied by the subordinate clause.

Analyzing the following example:

“Nếu như nó lười biếng như thế mãi thì về sau chắc phải khổ suốt đời”.

“He will be unhappy all his life, if he continues to be lazy”.

Opposite to the Vietnamese style, the subordinate clause is mostly put at the

beginning. It is easy to find that “if he continues to be lazy” – the subordinate clause –

was transferred to the end of the sentence in English version.

1.5.5 Expression:

It should be borne in mind that translators, when applying the expressions to

proverb, ought to find in the target language utterances or word combinations which

have an equivalent meaning to those in source language.

Su(2003) asserted that the meaning of a fixed combination is not equal to the sum of

the meaning of separate words. For example:

32

English: “No guide, no realization”

Vietnamese: “Không thầy đố mày làm nên”.

Through this example, “No guide, no realization” was conveyed meaningfully by

providing the equivalent meaning “Không thầy đố mày làm nên” in the target language

rather than attempt of translating literally the message “Không có sự hướng dẫn, không

có sự hiểu rõ”. Obviously, it sounds ambiguous and incomprehensible.

Vietnamese: “Có tiền mua tiên cũng được”

English: “Money can make many things”

It can not be translated word by word in this case as “Money can even buy a

fairy”. Instead, to be easily understandable, the translators find the equivalent meaning

saying “Money makes many things” in the target language to transmit a clearer

message to the target language receptor.

1.6 The factors influencing translation process:

1.6.1 Influence of the mother tongue:

During the process of learning a foreign language, our mother tongue has a big

influence on our way of thinking and, to some extent, our use of the target language

(word order, word choice). Thanks to the translation, we understand better the

interference of the mother tongue when learning a foreign language. We will be able to

explore the potential of both languages – their merits and shortcoming – by using

contrastive analysis.

The following example is used to illustrate more about the differences between

word orders in Vietnamese and English:

“Anh ấy là một công dân tốt. Tên của anh ấy là Nam”.

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In the first underline phrase, “công dân” is a noun, “tốt” is an adjective. In the later,

“tên” is a noun, and “của anh ấy” is possessive adjective.

As we seen in Vietnamese, an adjective or possessive adjective follows a noun.

However, in English, an adjective precedes a noun and the same position for possessive

adjective as in the following formula:

Vietnamese: N + Adjective/ N + possessive Adjective

English: Adjective + N/ possessive Adjective + N

Therefore, the phrases above is rewritten in English as:

“He is a good citizen. His name is Nam”.

Adj N Possessive N

Adj

Yet, because of the influence of our mother tongue – Vietnamese one, many

beginners hardly avoid the mistakes – wrong English word orders, as in the example

below:

“Tuy nhiên, một số hãng phần mềm vi tính lại lo ngại về phần mềm mã nguồn mở”.

Beginner sometimes may translate in the following way:

“However, some companies software computer worry about software open source”.

Suggested version:

“However, some computer software companies worry about opened source

software”.

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1.6.2 Words and choices of word meanings:

Words play a crucial role for any language learners to build their own

vocabulary system to get advantages in their language learning. Vocabulary is the

fundamental component of communication. The more vocabulary one has, the more

advantages for him to obtain effective communication.

Developing this basic tool with create many opportunities in learning translation

subject well within a translation text. If learners have no difficulty in new words, it will

be easy for them to translate into the target language text. In contrast, they seem to fail

translating. Most of English words have many meanings, so choosing a suitable and

appropriate word, which has the exact meaning to apply into the target language text

sometimes, create many confusing for translators.

The exact meaning of one word can be expressed only in context, as in the

following example:

“My uncle ran for governor so he was a fair game for the press. The reporters dug back

into his past and printed things about him that happened way back in childhood. But

they found nothing that looked too bad and he did get elected”.

The word “ran” is the past and past participle of “run” means “chạy”, “vận

hành”, “chạy trốn”, „tranh cử”, „bò”, etc, and the meanings of the word “dig” which is

the present of “dug” in dictionary are “đào bới”, “xới”, “khơi”, “khai quật”, etc . If the

meaning of these words is not selected carefully and appropriately, translator will have

a bad translated text in consequence like in the following translation:

“Ông cậu của tôi chạy trốn Thống đốc vì thế ông là mục tiêu đáng chú ý cho báo

giới soi mói. Các phóng viên đã quay lại bới móc cái quá khứ của ông và đăng ra

những gì đã xảy ra trong thời thơ ấu. Nhưng họ không tìm thấy được cái gì quá xấu và

chú tôi đã đắc cử”.

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Suggested version:

Ông cậu tôi ra tranh cử vào chức vụ thống đốc, vì thế các phóng viên đã quay lại

khơi dậy lại quá khứ của ông. Tuy nhiên, họ không tìm thấy được điều gì quá tệ về ông

và cậu tôi đã đắc cử”.

Obviously, vocabulary is one of the most important parts helping translators

create a good translated text. The more meanings of a word we know, the more

advantages we have in translation process. Paying attention to meanings of word will

partly help translation products looks smoother and more exactly.

1.6.3 Grammatical structures:

Vocabulary is really important but it is not enough for translation. Grammar or

grammatical structure is another special mean to make translating meaningful.

Insufficient knowledge on either of the two areas may lead to poor quality of

translation. If compared to other languages, English is a very flexible language. It goes

by very strict structures while the Vietnamese language is much more flexible by the

way it does not always use articles. In English, there are many tenses being used with a

particular structure. In case, an untrue tense is used, readers can not understand or

misunderstand its meaning.

For instance:

“Tôi đã sống trong căn nhà này 10 năm nay”.

Suggested version:

“I have lived in this house for 10 years”.

The tense of the verb is the present perfect tense, it shows an action which

happened in the past and up to now or in the future. However, there are no rules of

using the different verb forms to express the time when an action happens in

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Vietnamese. With the present perfect tenses above, the sentence can be translated as

“Tôi đã sống trong căn nhà này được 10 năm rồi”.

In this way, the verb “sống” has no inflection and the meaning of the sentence is

maintained.

In short, grammatical structures in English are so complicated and not easy to

master. There is no way to master it without practice. It requires the learners have to

find on effective way of learning to study and practice more if they want to limit

grammar errors in using English in general and specially in studying translation subject

to become a skilled translator.

1.6.4 Context:

Language plays a crucial role in conveying information; it is the vehicle of our

ideas, thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of our world. Translation is considered being

a process of carrying the meaning of a text from one language to another language.

This process involves interpretation of the meaning of the source text and producing

the same meaning of this text by mean of another language. Texts, however, can not

exist out of context. By context, meaning is the entire environment in which the word

or sentence is expressed or stated. Any word in the text is not presented in isolation but

in interaction with other words in the text and with the whole text at large. This

interaction among words determines their meaning rather than its isolated meaning.

For example:

- The uses of the word “work” in the following sentences:

+ I work at Ministry of Education and Training..

+ Kieu story is a famous work.

+ After graduating, I will look for work.

The “work” in the first example is a normal verb. It means the activity by which one

makes a living. In the second one, “work” means the output of a creative writer

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whereas “work” in the last example has another different meaning, that is a noun

relating to a job or an employment.

- The uses of the word “hand” in the following sentences:

+ Clean your hand before eating.

+ There are 12 hands employees at this farm.

The word “hand” in the first example means a part of a body which is used to

hold something while “hand” in the later one refers to a people who work as

employees.

Context is really important and necessary in helping us decide which word

should be chosen to obtain the suitable meaning in our translated text. If we

misunderstand the context, it leads to choosing of inappropriate meanings of words. It,

therefore, results in a bad translated text. Context partly contributes to create a true

translated output that is considered the most important requirement of translation.

1.6.5 Characteristics of language:

There are certain characteristic of language, which have a very direct bearing on

principles of the translation process.

Firstly, the characteristics of meaning components are referred as a phenomenon of

the differences among languages. Meaning components are packaged into lexical

items, but they are packaged differently from one language to another one. Almost all

languages have a meaning of plurality; for instance, the final letter “_s” represents

plurality in English. It occurs in the grammar as a suffix of the nouns or verbs or both.

However, in Vietnamese, plurality is expressed in an isolated word “những”, “các” or

“vài”, etc. Sometimes, a single word in the source language – English, will need to be

translated by several words into the target language – Vietnamese, and vice versa.

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For example:

“One of the important matters now is moral education.”

Một trong những vấn đề quan trọng hiện nay là giáo dục đạo đức.

“Những ý tưởng của cô ấy rất thú vị.”

Her ideas are interesting.

Secondly, it is the characteristic of languages that the same meaning components

will occur in several surface structure lexical items. Let‟s look at the word “sheep” in

English. The word “lamp”, “ram” and “ewe” also include the meaning “sheep”. They

include the additional meaning components of a young sheep by “lamp”, an adult male

sheep by “ram” and an adult female sheep by using the word “ewe”.

Thirdly, it is about further characteristic of language that one form will be used to

represent several alternative meanings. This is obvious from looking at any good

dictionary. For example, the Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary give 33 senses of

the verb “run”. Most of words have more than one meaning. There will be a primary

meaning – the meaning which usually comes to mind when the word is said in

isolation, and the contextual meaning (or secondary meaning) – the additional

meanings which a word has in other specific contexts with other supporting words in

certain orders. For example, in English, is we say “the boy runs”, it comes to our mind

that “the boy moves fast”. Yet, in the sentences “my uncle runs for governor”, we have

to think carefully that “run” here has the contextual meaning, which means, “to stand

as a candidate for the position of a governor of an office”.

This principle is not only limited to lexical items, it also apply for grammatical

structure. The same grammatical pattern may express several quite different meanings.

For instance, the English possessive phrase “my house” may have several meanings as

“the house I live in” or “the house for which I drew up in my plans”. Also, whole

sentences may have several functions.

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A question form may be used for a non-question. A good example of this

characteristic is the question form: “Daisy, why do not you tidy your room?”. It has a

form of a question, and maybe in some context asking for information, but it is often

used with the meaning of a command rather than a real question.

A simple English sentence like “he made the bed” may mean either “he, a

carpenter, made the bed” or he “he put the sheets, blanket and pillows in neat order on

the bed”. Just as words have primary and secondary meanings, grammatical makers

have their primary function and often have other contextual functions. The preposition

“on” is used in English to signal a variety of meanings. Compare the following uses of

“on” with the corresponding forms used in Vietnamese.

English Vietnamese

John found the book on the floor. John tìm thấy cuốn sách trên sàn nhà.

John found the book on mathematics John tìm thấy cuốn sách viết về môn Toán.

John found the book on Tuesday. John tìm thấy cuốn sách vào ngày thứ ba.

Compare the following uses of the preposition “by” also.

+ John was stopped by the policeman.

+ John was stopped by the bookstand.

The preposition “by” in the first example is used to signal the meaning that the

policeman is the target of the action. In the later one, “by” is used to signal that the

bookstand is the location.

It has been seen that one form may be expressed by many meanings. On the other

hand, a single meaning can also be expressed in a variety of forms. This is another

characteristic of language which partly influents translation process.

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Analyzing the sentence “that cat is black”, this is black here depending on how that

meaning relates to other meanings. In addition, the meanings of “Is this place taken?”,

“Is there anyone sitting here?”, and “May I sit here?” are essentially the same. Also,

the meaning is essential the same in the following English sentences:

The boy is so young that he cannot go to school.

The boy is too young to go to school.

It is such a young boy that he cannot go to school.

The boy is not old enough to go to school.

If he was old enough, he could go to school.

Unless he was old enough, he could not go to school.

Moreover, English has a very clear distinction between tenses whereas the tense in

Vietnamese is not clear distinction. For example, Vietnamese tend to use present

simple tense instead of simple past tense (đã, rồi).

Ex: Hôm qua là sinh nhật cha tôi.

Yesterday was my father‟s birthday.

We have obviously seen that even within one language singly, there are a great

variety of ways in which form expresses meaning. Only when a form is being used in

its primary meaning or function is there a one-to-one correlation between form and

meaning. Form, on the other hand, has other meanings, which are secondary meanings

or figurative meanings. Words have these extended meanings and in the same way

grammatical forms also have extended usages (secondary and figurative meaning).

This characteristic of “skewing” that is the diversity or the lack of one-to-one

correlation between form and meaning is the basic reason why translation is a

complicated task. If there was no skewing, all lexical items and all grammatical forms

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would have only one meaning, and therefore, a literal word-for-word translation and

grammatical structure-for-grammatical structure translation would be possible. But the

target fact is that a language has a complex set of skewed relationship between

meaning (semantics) and form (lexicon and grammar). Each language has its own

distinctive forms for representing meaning. Therefore, in translation the same meaning

may have to be expressed in another language by a very different form.

1.7 Common errors in written translation:

The following errors are usually found in written translation:

1.7.1 Word order:

The order of words in a sentence also has a great influence on its meaning. The

different order will lead to the very different meaning of a sentence. For example:

Gary hit his classmate on the nose.

Gary đánh vào mũi bạn cậu ta.

Only Gary hit his classmate on the nose.

Chỉ có Gary đánh bạn cậu ta vào mũi.

Gary only hit his classmate on the nose.

Gary chỉ đánh bạn cậu ta vào mũi thôi.

Gary hit only his classmate on the nose.

Gary chỉ đánh mình bạn cậu ta vào mũi.

Gary hit his only classmate on the nose.

Gary đánh người bạn duy nhất của cậu ta vào mũi.

Gary hit his classmate only on the nose.

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Gary đánh bạn cậu ta chỉ vào mũi thôi.

Gary hit his classmate on only his nose.

Gary đánh vào cái mũi duy nhất của bạn mình.

1.7.2 Syntax/ Grammatical errors:

Grammar errors are some common errors related to tenses, the form of words,

the sentence structures found in the translated text. These errors are caused by the

misuse of verb forms, the misuse of relative pronoun and the misuse of part of speech.

1.7.2.1 Misuse of verb forms:

The grammar errors that are related to the misuse of verb forms often occur

when the translators keep Vietnamese structures to translate the Vietnamese sentence

into English. The following sentence is considered to have grammatical error because

the translator misused the voice.

“Đổi mới giáo dục là con đường tất yếu, nhưng đổi mới như thế nào vẫn còn là một câu

hỏi đặt ra cho nhiều nhà giáo dục học.”

Educational innovation is absolutely essential, but how should it innovate is still a

big question which pose for many educators.

The errors of this example is the verb “innovate” and “pose” which is in active

form. It must be in passive form “be innovated” and “is posed” because education can

not innovate by itself and question can not itself pose for educators. Therefore, the

Vietnamese sentence should be translated as:

Educational innovation is absolutely essential, but how should it be innovated is still

a big question posed for many translators.

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1.7.2.2 Misuse of relative pronouns:

When the complex Vietnamese sentences are translated into English, translators

often have errors on relative pronoun which is one type of common grammar errors.

The example below is analyzed to see grammar error because the translator misused

the part of speech of pronoun.

“Các nhà khoa học nhận thấy những người phụ nữ ăn nhiều chocolate trong suốt thời

gian mang thai thì con của họ cười nhiều và năng động hơn những bà mẹ không hề ăn

chocolate trong thời gian mang thai.”

A research group observed that the children of mothers who eat much chocolate

during their pregnancy frequently laugh and more active than the children of other

mother. (Incorrect).

(Nguyen Thanh Duc, 2009).

The errors of this example is that the wrong combination of the noun phrase

“children of mothers” and the relative pronoun “who” fails to express the meaning “the

pregnant women eat chocolate”. In this case, the relative pronoun “who” must be

replaced by the relative pronoun “whose”. Therefore, the example above should be

translated as:

A research group observed that the children whose mothers eat much chocolate

during their pregnancy frequently laugh and more active than the children of other

mothers.

1.7.2.3 misuse of the part of speech:

The following sentences are considered to have grammar mistakes because the

translator misused the part of speech

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Example 1:

Vietnamese: “Trong đời sống con người, cười là dấu hiệu của một cơ thể khỏe mạnh.”

English: “In people‟s lives, laugh is a sigh of a healthy body.” (Incorrect)

(Nguyễn Thành Đức, 2009)

The English sentence “In people‟s lives, laugh is a sigh of a healthy body” is incorrect

because of the subject “laugh”. In above Vietnamese sentence, “cười” has a general

meaning, so “a laugh”, “laughing” or “to laugh” will be the suitable subject. Therefore,

there are three ways to translate the Vietnamese sentence “Trong đời sống con người,

cười là dấu hiệu của một cơ thể khỏe mạnh.” into English as follow:

“In people‟s lives, a laugh is a sigh of a healthy body.”

“In people‟s lives, laughing is a sigh of a healthy body.”

“In people‟s lives, to laugh is a sigh of a healthy body.”

Example 2:

The Vietnamese sentence “Áp lực công việc quá nhiều làm anh ấy trở nên căng

thẳng.” has mistake when being translated into English as:

“So much pressure in his work makes him stress.”

In the example the English sentence is incorrect because the word “stress” is a noun.

In English it is incorrect to use the structure “to make + somebody + noun” as in this

sentence. Instead it has to apply the structure “to make + somebody + adjective” to

translate this Vietnamese sentence. Therefore the noun “stress” must be changed into

the adjective “stressful” and the sentence must be rewritten in the correct form as:

“So much pressure in his work makes him stressful.”

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The grammar errors which relate to the misuse of the part of speech often occur when

translators do not remember the part of speech of words, the grammar structures or

they do not fully comprehend the meaning of the sentences that need to be translated.

As can be seen from the examples which are mentioned above, some translators

focused on the structures of the source language so much that they fail to convey all the

implicit meaning of the target language. In fact, it is more important to focus on the

target language then largely depend on the source language. It is not necessary to keep

the form at all. The most important thing is that the translations must be done on the

basic of the target language grammar that is familiar to the readers. This principle

suggests that the translators should not depend largely on the structures of the source

language but break them to convey the meaning as much as possible in an appropriate

structure in the target language.

1.7.2. Vocabulary errors

Word collocation

Word collocation is defined as a sequence of words or terms which co-occur more

often than would be expected by chance. Each of language has its own principle on

word collocation. For instance, the word “beautiful” is often used for girls and women

while the word “handsome” often goes with boys or men. However, some translators

do not realize this, which leads to wrong and funny collocation. For example, the word

“uống” in Vietnamese (which can be translated as “drink” in English) can go with

many different kinds of liquid including water, beer, alcohol, medicine and even poison

(uống nước, uống bia, uống rượu, uống thuốc, uống thuốc độc). Yet, it is incorrect to

say “drink medicine” or “drink poison” in English. There are clear distinctions as

follows: Drink beer/ water/ wine/ coffee

But

Take medicine/ poison

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Another example indicates that in Vietnamese the word “nói” (say) can be

collocated with “dối”, “sự thật”, “ngôn ngữ” (English, French, Vietnamese, etc.).

However, in English it is incorrect to combine “say lie”, “say the truth”, “say English /

French / Vietnamese”. In Vietnamese- English translation, the phrase must be corrected

as “tell the truth, tell lie, speak English, speak French, speak Vietnamese”.

In Vietnamese, the word “đàn” can be collocated with many different nouns

such as “cá” (fish), “chim” (bird), “sư tử” (lion), “gia súc” (cattle). On the contrary, in

English there are many words meaning “đàn” as follows

A flock of birds/ sheep: đàn chim/ cừu

A herd of cattle/ buffaloes: đàn gia súc/ trâu

A pack of dogs/ calves: đàn chó/ bê

A school of fish/ chickens: đàn cá/ gà

A pride of lions : đàn sư tử

When the word “flock”, “herd”, “pack”, “school”, “pride” are used interchangeably,

errors will occur.

In a word, it is inevitable for translators to obey the principles of English and

Vietnamese word collocations. In order to avoid this type of error, it is suggested that

the translators should read as many English books and magazines as possible to take

notes of collocated words under the English standard, and then learn by heart to avoid

misusing.

Misuse of prepositions

In English, prepositions themselves are difficult to use. So the use of prepositions

becomes even more complicated. And the errors relates to the misuse of prepositions

are common and unavoidable.

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The following errors are extracted from the book “translation 1&2” (Nguyễn Văn

Tuấn, 2006)

Example 1: “Tòa án nhân dân quyết định kết án họ 15 năm tù về tội buôn lậu ma túy”

which is translated into English as:

“The People’s Court decided to condemn them to 15 years imprisonment about the

drug smuggling” is incorrect because of the interference of Vietnamese mother tongue

(về about).

This Vietnamese sentence should be translated into correct English as follow:

“The People’s Court decided to condemn them to 15 years imprisonment for the drug

smuggling”

Example 2: “Là một giáo viên ưu tú trong nhiều năm, ông Nam có nhiều kinh nghiệm

về giảng dạy và giáo dục học sinh.”

“As a qualified teacher for many years, Mr. Nam is experienced about educating

and teaching the students.” (incorrect)

As can be seen from the above mentioned example, the translator tended to choose the

English preposition basing on Vietnamese meaning without paying attention to their

variations.

The Vietnamese sentence “Là một giáo viên ưu tú trong nhiều năm, ông Nam có nhiều

kinh nghiệm về giảng dạy và giáo dục học sinh.” must be translated “As a qualified

teacher for many years, Mr. Nam is experienced in educating and teaching the

students.”

In conclusion, if translators do not know how to use prepositions exactly, they tend to

apply the Vietnamese one into English or vice versa. In order to avoid this type of error

the translators should learn the prepositions going with nouns, adjectives, or verbs by

heart. They should be provided with as many structures with prepositions

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systematically as possible to help them take notes and draw out the formations and

rules.

Misuse of synonyms

It can be seen that a word can have many meanings; and vice versa, one meaning

can be expressed by many other words. And the misuse of synonyms is unavoidable.

Some translators depend largely on the meaning in dictionary picking out the

synonyms without paying much to context. In fact, the pairs of synonyms share at least

one sense in common but they do not share all their senses. To some extent, these

synonyms can hardly substitute for each other.

For example:

Vietnamese: “Con song này sâu lắm.”

English: “This River is very profound”

The English sentence “This River is very profound” is unacceptable. “Profound”

means “showing great knowledge or understanding”, and therefore it can not be used to

describe the depth of the river. The sentence should be translated into “This river is

deep”.

Or

Vietnamese: “Lan là một cô gái đẹp.”

English: “Lan is a handsome girl.” (Incorrect)

“Handsome” here is used for a boy or man, not a girl. So, it is unacceptable to use the

word “handsome” in this sentence. Instead, the adjective “beautiful” or “pretty” is

suggested to be used. The sentence “Lan is a handsome girl.” must be corrected

“Lan is a beautiful girl.”

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Or

“Lan is a pretty girl.”

The following misuses of the synonyms were made by some of inexperienced

translators

1. “Cậu bé này rất bướng bỉnh.”

“This boy is very stubborn/ unyielding.”

2. “Người Việt Nam có thinh thần bất khuất.”

“The Vietnamese people are really stubborn.”

3. “Chính phủ có kế hoạch xây dựng hàng nghìn ngôi nhà cho người vô gia cư.”

“The government plans to build thousands of homes for homeless people.”

In example 1 “stubborn” is the synonym of “unyielding” and means “cứng đầu,

bướng bỉnh” in Vietnamese. In example 2 “stubborn” fails to evoke the features of

positive meaning which praise the Vietnamese people on their heroism expressing

speaker‟s admiration. In contrast, it expresses the speaker‟s anger and discontent. In

example 3, “home” and “house” are places where one lives, meaning “nhà” in

Vietnamese. However, in terms of the connotation meaning they are quite different.

“House” refers to the building or structure while “home” refers to the atmosphere

feeling found in the house.

Example: “There is no place like home.”

“Home is where the heart is.”

But: “Tom built this house in 1937.”

Most of the synonyms have the same meaning in certain context. If a translator

uses synonyms without referring to the context, he can make wrong and funny for his

readers. To avoid the misuse of synonyms, the translator himself should carefully take

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the synonyms into consideration before using them. In addition, it would be better for

the translators to consider the differences of the pair of synonyms when translating.

1.7.3. Spelling/ punctuation errors

Spelling

Spelling errors in translation are also the common errors like spelling errors in

writing. When people have to translate a text from Vietnamese into English in a short

period of time, certainly they do not have much time to reread and check their

translation products before submitting it. Sometimes, people are so careless to write out

the words which they have not used for a long time. Moreover, the misuse of the two

similar words in written form can also lead to spelling errors. Thanks to checking

spelling errors tool in computer, translators can limit their spelling errors, however it

only when translator tend to use computer but write on paper.

All in all, some inexperienced translators committed the vocabulary errors

mentioned above in concluding those of word collocation, misuse of prepositions and

misuse of synonyms. They are committed by those who have little knowledge of target

language. Beside that, they suppose although English is different from Vietnamese,

both language have a correlation about lexical items. In practice, in term of translation,

it can be chosen the only one appropriate equivalent from this into that language. Even

more, that equivalent hardly keeps the meaning of the word itself but that of context.

Another problem is that some translators do not realize the linking meaning of word

units. It is obvious that these units link together to create a larger unit of meaning in a

given text to be translated. The linking meaning itself does not exist in separate word

units but in the link of the units constituting the whole text

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Punctuation errors

Analyzing the following examples:

a) “The light attendant stood by the door and called the passengers’ names as they

arrived.”

b) “The light attendant stood by the door and called the passengers names as they

arrived.”

Comparing the two examples above, they have only difference in the possessive

mark. The first example (a) has a possessive mark “’” between passengers and names,

but the second example (b) don‟t. This difference leads to the changing of meaning of

the sentence. With the possessive mark, the phrase “called the passengers‟ names” can

be translated “gọi tên của những hành khách” while “called the passengers names” in

(b) means “gọi những hành khách tên”.

Hereafter is another example about punctuation error. Comparing the two

sentences bellow:

“I don‟t think. I know.”

And

“I don‟t think I know.”

These two sentences only differ in length of the pause between “think” and “I”.

But it has a big effect on changing the meaning of words. The sentence “I don‟t think. I

know” can be translated into Vietnamese as “Tôi không nghĩ thế. Tôi biết mà” while

the sentence “I don‟t think I know” may be expressed as “Tôi không nghĩ là tôi biết”.

We have obviously seen that if the translators do not pay attention to

punctuations, it can lead to misunderstand the sentence‟s meaning, and therefore also

leads to fail in translation. Understanding the usage of every kind of punctuations is

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one of the most necessary things that the translators need to notice to translate the text

more exactly.

1.7.4. Culture errors

Culture can partly affects translation process. Misunderstanding of culture can

lead to bad translation product and sometimes makes it funny and even insulting to

readers of the target language. The example of “ao dai”- the traditional costume of

Vietnamese women can be considered as a good example for this kind of error.

It is commonly known that “ao dai” is a traditional costume of Vietnamese

women and we can never find any equivalent word in English to translate “ao dai”.

However, some translators translate it mechanically into “a dress”, which leads to

misunderstand the symbol of a costume which has two long flaps and have to be worn

combining with a long trousers. In this case, the Vietnamese word “ao dai” must be

unchanged when being translated into English version. For example, the Vietnamese

sentence “Trang phục truyền thống của người phụ nữ Việt Nam là chiếc áo dài, tượng

trưng cho sự duyên dáng.” should be translated into English version as “The traditional

costume of the Vietnamese women is “ao dai” which symbolized the grace.”.

Translation is a kind of activity, which inevitably involves at least two language

and two cultural traditions. Therefore, translators are permanently faced with the

problem how to treat the cultural aspects implicit in a source text and of finding the

most appropriate technique of successfully conveying these aspects in the target

language. These problems may vary from country to country depending on the cultural

and linguistic gap between the two (or more) languages being concerned. It is

suggested that before beginning the translation work, it is essential for the translators to

do some researches on the lexical content and syntax of the target language along with

the ideologies, value systems, and ways of life in a given culture. This process can

partly help the translators to have an idea and knowledge about the readers in both

53

languages. Since there, it helps avoid cultural misunderstanding in doing translation

work.

54

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this chapter is to present the methodology used in this thesis. It

includes research questions, research participants, data collection instruments and

research procedure.

2.1 Research questions

To obtain the above stated purposes, the study has to answer the following questions:

1. What are difficulties that the English major‟s students often face when they

study written translation subject at their first time?

2. What are their expectations in learning written translation to improve their

translating skills?

3. What should be done to meet their expectations and limit their difficulties in

studying this subject?

2.2 Research participants

2.2.1 The researchers

The study is implemented by Nguyen Thi Hong Tham and Bui Thi Huyen Tran,

the fourth-year students of Pedagogical English class 2009A, Foreign Language

Department, Dong Thap University.

2.2.2 The subjects

The subjects of the thesis are the second- year students of English major 2011-

2015 curriculum at university degree and 2011-2014 curriculum at college degree. This

year is the first time for them to study written translation subject. They have 2 periods

of translation per week.

2.3 Research procedure

It took about five months to finish the study at Dong Thap University. From the

beginning, the researchers started to choose the topic, then searched the materials from

the internet and reference books to figure out the outline. After that, the questionnaire

was designed and delivered to the students of second year of English major at the end

55

of March. The interviewed questions were also designed and implemented interviewing

was also on statistic to collect data for the study. Finally, we started to write the study

to find out the students‟ difficulties as well as their expectations in learning the written

translation subject and some suggested solutions were given as well.

2.4 Data collection instruments

2.4.1 The questionnaire: a carefully designed questionnaire for students about the

reality of studying written translation and their difficulties in studying this kind of

subject.

In this study, the questionnaire consists of 15 questions written in English.

Forty-four copies were delivered to the students of BA English 2011 classes, and 42

copies were collected. The aims of those questions can be described as follow:

The first three questions, question (1), (2) and (3) were grouped to find out the

students‟ attitude towards translation subject in general. Question (1) was for seeking

students‟ feelings in studying written translation, whether they find translation easy or

difficult, interesting or not. Question (2) was used to find out the reason why students

study written translation. And question (3) was on purpose to seek for the students‟

opinion about the usefulness of studying the subject.

The next three questions, question (4), (5) and (6) were used to explore the

students‟ difficulties in learning the translation course. Question (4) was on

appreciation which kind of text that students feel more difficult to translate. Question

(5) was applied to know the biggest challenge that students have to face when

translating a text from English to Vietnamese. In order to know the biggest obstacle

that students have to confront when translating a Vietnamese – English text, question

(6) was posed to clarify that.

To know more about how the students study written translation, the next group

of three questions were designed with the following detail. Question (7) was used to

explore the way that the students usually apply when they encounter a new word

56

arising from the original translation text. To know whether the students have a

preparation before class or not and how they do to prepare the new lesson, question (8)

was designed to clarify that. What students usually do after they finish their translation

was the content of question (9).

Question (10) was to seek for the methods that the students usually apply to

improve their translation skill.

Question (11) and (12) were related to the type of text that students usually

choose to practice at home and their self - study time.

Question (13) and (14) were on survey to get more information about the

students‟ point of view on choosing topic to translate and the factors influence on their

interest in translation.

In order to know what students think about the importance of teacher and

teaching method, whether the teacher with his teaching method affects the students‟

interest in studying translation or not, question (15) was designed as well.

2.4.2 The interview question:

In order to make the study more reliable, the researcher planned to design extra

interview questions to get more information about the students‟ difficulties and

expectations in learning the subject as well as their suggestions for the teacher and his

teaching method via directly interviewing activities.

Question (1) was to get more information about the students‟ difficulties in

translating a text from English into Vietnamese.

Question (2) was asked to know more clearly about the obstacles that students

have to face in the activity of translation an Vietnamese – English text.

57

Exploring about the students‟ expectations in learning written translation subject

(ex: teacher‟s behavior, teaching method, teaching material, etc.) is the purpose of

question (3).

In summary, this chapter is about the aspect of methodology of the study such as

research questions; research participants who directly participated in the study

including the researchers and the subjects of the study; data collection instruments

including the questionnaire and the interview questions which are going to be solved in

the next chapter- chapter 3: results and suggestions.

58

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In chapter 2, the research questions, research participants and data collection

instruments were mentioned. In this chapter, the researchers will summarize and

analyze all collected information from the data collection instruments. Then, the

researchers are able to obtain a general view of the virtual situation and give possible

suggestions.

3.1 Results collected from the questionnaire

The questionnaire consists of 15 questions written in English which need to be

answered basing on the reader‟s own ideas. Forty – four copies were delivered to the

students of BA English 2011 classes, and 42 copies were collected. Thanks to students‟

feedback, the researchers can get a lot of information about the students‟ difficulties in

learning translation as well as their expectations from teacher and teaching method.

The statistical analysis and the results of data analysis are displayed in the following

tables.

3.1.1 The students’ attitude towards translation subject

Table 1: The students’ interests in studying written translation

Options

1. In your opinion, learning

translation is………?

%

A. Interesting and helpful 41.9

B. Difficult but interesting 53.5

C. Difficult and boring 4.6

D. Easy and helpless 0

59

From the responses to this question, more than half of students (53.5%) assert

that although translation is difficult, they still feel interested in studying. Besides,

41.9% of students think that learning translation is not only interesting but it is also

helpful. It still remains a few students who feel difficult and bored when learning

translation, may be they cannot find out the suitable way to learn this kind of subject

and still not get motive on studying. However, the group of students who are not

interested in translation occupies only 4.6%, and none of them thinks that learning

translation is easy and helpless. It can be inferred that although translation is a difficult

subject to master, most students(95.4%) still find out their interest in studying and thus

they will try their best to learn and practice translation as much as they can.

Table 2: The reason why students study translation

Options

2. Why do you study translation?

%

A. Because it is a compulsory subject 9.3

B. Because it is interesting 9.3

C. Because it is helpful, I can get lots of

information when doing translation

44.2

D. Because I want to study more skills to

make myself more perfect.

37.2

E. Others: …………………….. 0

60

The reasons why students study and find their interest in translation are varying.

Forty-four point two percents of students study translation because it is helpful, they

can get lots of information provided in the content of the translated text.

Approximately 37.2% of students study translation because they wish to study more

skills to make them more perfect. While a wide range number of students comprehend

the advantages of learning translation, 9.3% of students assert that translation is a

compulsory subject so they have to learn it. The same rate (9.3%) of students study

translation because they feel translation is interesting. Those reasons mentioning above

are main reasons for studying the subject and no more reason was mentioned by the

students. From the statistics, it is encouraging to see that most of students recognize the

importance of translation in learning language, and they, therefore, will make every

effort to master translation skill. But it still remains a few of students (9.3%) who are

forced to learn translation as a compulsory subject in the studying course.

Table 3: The students’ opinions about the usefulness of studying translation

Options

3. In your opinion, studying

translation can help you

%

A. Enlarge your vocabulary 4.8

B. Use grammar structures more flexibly 4.8

C. Improve language skills, especially

writing

23.8

D. All the above 66.6

E. Others: ……………… 0

61

From the responses to question 3, advantages of studying translation are realized

by the students. The same number of students (4.8%) shares the same idea that

studying translation can help them both enlarge vocabulary and use grammar structures

more flexibly. Twenty-three point eight percents of students think that they can

improve language skills through studying translation, especially writing. A

considerable number of students (66.6%) think that studying translation has many

advantages concluding the three options above. In other words, through studying

translation, they are able to enlarge their vocabulary, use grammar structures more

flexibly as well as improve language skills, especially writing. Base on the result, it can

be inferred that most of the students advocate the usefulness of translation in language

learning. They, therefore, have good attitude on learning and they are able to find their

motivation for studying this subject so that they can learn it well with their own

effective ways.

3.1.2 The students’ difficulties in learning translation

Table 4: Kind of text that students feel difficult to translate

Options

4. In your opinion, which kind of

text is difficult to translate?

%

A. English – to – Vietnamese 4.8

B. Vietnamese – to – English 95.2

Text from English and text from Vietnamese are two kinds of text that students

have to practice when studying written translation: As it can be seen from the table,

almost all students (95.2%) think that translating a text from Vietnamese – to – English

is more difficult while the rest of students (4.8%) find an English – Vietnamese text

62

more difficult to translate. The difficulties arising from students in translating a kind of

text reflect the students‟ common mistakes in this kind of text. Virtually, Vietnamese –

to – English translation is really a big obstacle for students. Because of many reasons,

they feel a Vietnamese text is more difficult to express by English. In fact, translation

is not easy to master. What difficulties they have as well as what mistakes they often

make in translating are revealed in the table 5 and 6 below.

Table 5: The biggest challenge that students have to face when translating a passage

from English to Vietnamese

Options

5. What is the biggest challenge you

have to face when translating a

passage from English to

Vietnamese?

%

A. Choosing the appropriate meaning of

vocabulary from context meaning.

51.1

B. Misunderstanding about culture 8.5

C. Lack of vocabulary 21.3

D. Mistranslation subordinate clauses,

which are complex and difficult to master

17

E. Others: ……………… 2.1

(All of them)

It is undeniable that translation is a really hard subject, so it is unavoidable for

English major students to confront with many challenges. From the table, the

63

researchers thoughtfully anticipated some basic challenges arising from students when

they translate a text from English into Vietnamese. The results showed that a

considerable number of students (51.1%) have problem in choosing the appropriate

meaning of vocabulary from context meaning. We all clearly know that an English

word has many Vietnamese meanings, and choosing the most appreciate one requires

students to put them in certain context. So, if they skip it, they will fail in doing

translation and it is sometimes make their translated text funny. In addition, 21.3% of

students advocate that vocabulary is the biggest problem for them because of their lack

of vocabulary. Obviously, vocabulary and its meaning are always big obstacles for

most students. In addition, subordinate clauses, which are complex and difficult to

master, are another barrier for 17% of students because they usually mistranslation

them. Along with these challenges mentioned above, 8.5% of students misunderstand

about cultures, so they feel difficult and puzzled when translating document relating to

cultural part. Eventually, a small number of students (2.1%) think all of four options

above are their biggest challenges. Due to the difficultness of translation, students

should try their best to limit the challenges by spending more time on it.

Table 6: The biggest challenge students have to face when translating a passage from

Vietnamese to English

Options

6. What is the biggest challenge

you have to face when

translating a passage from

Vietnamese to English?

%

A. Choosing appropriate vocabulary in the

English language.

33.3

B. Finding suitable grammar structures in the 37.5

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target language to transfer the ideas.

C. Analyzing word others in Vietnamese texts. 8.3

D. Understanding special phrases in the source

texts.

16.7

E. Others: ……………… 4.2

(- Vietnamese words have a lot of

meanings, so it is difficult to

choose the suitable English words.

- All of them)

The fourth table distinctly showed that almost all students feel Vietnamese to

English translation is more difficult. The more difficult they feel, the more challenges

they have to face. This table is all about challenges when students translate a passage

from Vietnamese into English. When being asked about the most difficult thing they

have to confront in translating a Vietnamese – English text, 37.5% of students state that

they confuse in finding suitable grammar structure in the target language to transfer the

ideas. Unlike those students, approximately 33.3% of students find difficult in

choosing appropriate vocabulary in the English language. Moreover, understanding

special phrases in the source texts is trouble for 16.7% of students while analyzing

word others in Vietnamese texts makes 8.3% of students confuse. It means that these

students‟ knowledge of their mother language, Vietnamese, is quite limited. Some

students (4.2%) also mention two more other challenges. The first one, they think

Vietnamese word has various and complicated meanings, so it is very difficult for them

to choose a suitable equivalent word in English. We obviously know that an English

word has many synonyms, so, looking up dictionary to get its English meaning is really

65

necessary in choosing the suitable word to fit in certain context. The second one, some

students assure that all of four options above are their challenges. These students

maybe need to be put in a strict way of studying to subdue the challenges in learning

translation.

3.1.3 How the students study translation subject

Table 7: How students will do when they encounter a new word in a translation text

Options

7. What do you often do when you

encounter new words?

%

A. Look up its meaning by using dictionary 48.9

B. Ignore it and translate other words, then

go back to guess its meaning from context.

34

C. Skip it and translate others 2.2

D. Ask your friend or your teacher 14.9

E. Others: ……………… 0

When students translate a text, certainly, they will encounter some new words

and each student will have different ways to deal with these new words. Nearly half of

the students (48.9%) look up its meaning by using dictionary. Unlike those students,

thirty-four percents of students ignore it and translate other words, then go back to

guess its meaning from context. Asking friends or teacher is the way that 14.9% of

students usually apply when confronting new words. However, it still exists few

students (2,2%) skip it and translate others, which will cut down the flow of smooth of

the translated text. By the last option, no more suggestion was mentioned in dealing

66

with new word in a translation text. Guessing meaning from context is the best solution

that the university English teachers often advice their students to notice. With the belief

that students will be passive in memorizing the word‟s meaning when everything is

available, it is not very necessary to use dictionary all the time. Certainly, there are

many ways to deal with vocabulary, guessing word meaning basing on context then

turning back to check its meaning in dictionary is believed to be the best way to

memorize an English word.

Table 8: How students prepare for new lesson before class

Options

8. What do you do to prepare for

your lesson before class?

%

A. Prepare new vocabulary 36.7

B. Prepare grammar structures need to be

used

14.3

C. Try to translate it and wait for feedback

in class

44.9

D. Just read it and do nothing 0

E. Do nothing to prepare 4.1

In order to get better result in studying written translation as well as any other

subjects in general, it is very necessary to prepare well for the lesson at home. The

result collected from table 8 clearly elucidates how students prepare for their new

lesson before class. Nearly half of students (44.9% of students) try to translate the

available document in course book then wait for teacher feedback in class. Thirty-six

67

point seven percents of students state that they usually look up new words‟ meaning

derived from the original text before they enter the class. Nearly 14.3% of students

anticipate and review grammar structures, which need to be used. It is so elated that

most students (95.9%) are well-prepared for their new lesson. However, some students

do not do anything to prepare for their lesson. In reality, when being asking about what

they often do before the new lesson start, 4.1 % of students honestly assure that they do

nothing to prepare for new lesson.

Have a good preparation is an important stage to understand the lesson better.

With a limited time in class, the teacher cannot meet all students‟ needs as well as

answer all questions praised. If students have a preparation at home, it is more

understandable for them to follow the lesson when the teacher gets feedback in class.

Therefore, it helps to bring about a good result in studying.

Table 9: What students will do after they finish their translation

Options

9. What do you often do after you

finish your translation?

%

A. Share with your friends 9.1

B. Read it again to correct some mistakes if

there are

43.2

C. Read it again and try to translate it in

another way

34.1

D. Wait for teacher’s feedback 13.6

E. Others: ……………… 0

68

What will students do after they finish their translation? This question will be

resolved through the result collected in table 9. The result above indicates that after the

students finish their translation, 43.2% of them read it again and correct some mistakes

if there are. Unlike those students, 34.1% of students read their translated text again

and try to translate it in another way. It can be deduced that these students are making

every effort to perfect their translation product, which is believed to bring to their

success in mastering translation. There are 9.1% of students share their translation

product with their friends while 13.6% of students only wait for teacher feedback in

class. Except those methods mentioned above, no one shares other way to check their

final products after they have it finished. It is encouraging that most students

implemented many different ways to have a successfully done product, but there still

some students just translate and passively wait for their teacher‟s feedback in class.

3.1.4 The ways students often apply to improve their translating

Table 10: What do students do to improve their translation skill?

Options

10. What do you do to

improve your translation

skill?

%

A. Learning vocabulary 4.8

B. Doing grammar exercises from grammar books

or from internet

7.1

C. Reviewing teacher’s feedback to learn

vocabulary, grammar and way of using vocabulary

21.4

D. Reading and practicing translating from

newspapers, magazines, articles from English to

21.4

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Vietnamese and vice versa

E. All the above 45.3

The result shows that the students pay much attention on improving their

translation skill and have applied many different ways to make them more professional

in translating. As it can be seen from the table, 21.4% of students review teacher‟s

feedback to learn vocabulary, grammar, and the way of using vocabulary suggested by

teacher. In addition, the same rate of students (21.4%) often read and practice

translating information from newspapers, magazines or articles from English into

Vietnamese and vice versa – from Vietnamese into English. By the way, doing

grammar exercise from grammar books or from internet is the choice of 7.1% of

students. By combining the means of high techniques of the internet with the

traditional reading book, those students have found out a solution to improve their

translation skill in grammar sector. Besides, only 4.8% of students learn vocabulary by

heart while wide ranges of students (45.3%) improve their translation skill by applying

all of the four ways mentioned above. It shows that they choose to apply all possible

methods to deal with this kind of activity.

3.1.5 The students’ choosing types of translation text to practice and the amount

of self-study time

Table 11: Kind of text students usually practice translation at home

Options

11. When you study at home (self-

study), you usually practice

translating

%

A. Only English into Vietnamese texts 9.5

70

B. Only Vietnamese into English texts 4.8

C. First English - Vietnamese text then

Vietnamese - English texts

76.2

D. First Vietnamese - English then English -

Vietnamese

9.5

Self-study is very important not only for translation but also for all types of

subject. To master translation, practicing at home is believed to be an indispensable

step. The answers to question 11 show that more than half of students (76.2%) state

that they often, at first, practice a text from English to Vietnamese; and then

Vietnamese to English text will be followed later, while it is a big difference that only

9.5% of students choose to translate first Vietnamese – English then English –

Vietnamese text. There are 9.5% of students only practice translating the text from

English into Vietnamese. The remaining rate, 4.8% of students, practices translating

only Vietnamese - English texts. It can be deduced that most students practice

translation at home, and it is so encouragement that they practice translating both

English into Vietnamese and Vietnamese into English text. However, some students

only translate one type of text that they feel interested in and ignore the other type by

practicing translating only the English into Vietnamese or Vietnamese into English

text.

71

Table 12: The amount of time students usually spend on studying translation (as self-

study)

Options 12. How much time do you usually

spend on studying translation (as

self-study)?

%

A. 2 or 3 hours per week 69

B. About 4 hours per week 21.4

C. About 5 hours per week 4.8

D. More than 5 hours per week 4.8

This table is all about the amount of time students usually spend on studying

translation (as self-study). Sixty-nine percents of students spend 2 or 3 hours per week

studying translation. The number of students spends about 4 hours per week for this

subject is 21.4%. While a large number of students (89.4%) spend from two to four

hours per week to study translation, about 4.8% of students spend 5 hours per week to

drill in translation, and the same rate of students (4.8%) spend more than 5 hours per

week on studying this subject. It can be concluded that although most of the students

expressed their positive attitude towards self-studying translation, they do not spend

too much time on practicing it.

72

3.1.6 Students’ point of view on choosing topic to translate and the factors

influence their translation

Table 13: Things have a great influence on students’ interest in translation

Options

13. What has a great influence on

your interested in translation?

%

A. Teaching method 38.6

B. Teaching material 4.6

C. Topic of translation 31.8

D. Your own ability (Ex: some weakness in

grammar and vocabulary)

25

E. Others: ……………… 0

When being investigated about the factors that have a great influence on

students‟ interest in translation, the percentage of students choosing teaching method is

approximately 38.6%, and it also occupies the highest rate among other options. The

topic of translation occupies 31.8% of students‟ opinion about the factor influencing on

their interest. Whereas twenty-five percents of students think their own ability (ex:

some weakness in grammar and vocabulary) has an important impact on their interest

in translation, only 4.6% of students are affected by teaching material. It is believed

that four options above are basic factors that directly and indirectly influent students‟

interest, so no one has other ideas. Understanding about the stimulus influencing

students‟ interest in studying translation, the teacher should apply many different

interesting teaching methods, which wake students up, as well as let students

themselves choose the topic that they feel elated to translate.

73

Table 14: The topic which students are interested in

Options

14. Which topic of translation texts

are you interested in?

%

A. Entertainment 17.6

B. Economy 6.8

C. Politics 0

D. Science 2.6

E. Education 17.6

F. Health 20.3

G. Lifestyle 27

H. Literature and fine arts 8.1

I. Others: ……………… 0

Translation‟s topic is one of the factors deciding the stimulation of studying

because students are always intrigued by an interesting and useful topic. This table is

all about the topics which students feel interested in. From the data in table 14, it is

demonstrated that the topic which students are interested in much is topic around

lifestyle because of 27% of the students chose it. The students who feel interested in

topic about health are also very crowded (20.3%). The students who are interested in

entertainment and education shares the same rate in number (17.6% in each group).

Only eight point one percents of students find their interest in literature and fine arts.

Additionally, 6.8% of students like some topics related to economy and 2.6% of

74

students like translating texts belong to scientific fields. No one likes politics – a very

hard sector in translation. Most students wish to translate document relating to some

common fields in daily life such as lifestyle, health, education, and entertainment. In

contrast, topics relating to political and scientific aspects are their puzzle, which

sometimes make them bewilder, so they are afraid of translating these types of text.

Table 15: The students’ opinion about the influence of teaching method

Options

15. Do you think the teacher and his

teaching method strongly affect your

interest in studying translation?

%

A. Strongly agree 47.6

B. Quite agree 26.2

C. Disagree 9.5

D. No ideas 16.7

Table 13 was clearly indicated that most students (38.6%) assure teaching

method is the factor that has the greatest influence on their interest in translation.

Basing on students‟ responses for the question “Do you think the teacher and his

teaching method strongly affect your interest in studying translation?”, we want to

measure how teaching method influent students‟ interest in studying written

translation. From the statistics in the table, nearly half of students (47.6%) strongly

agree that the teacher and his teaching method strongly affect their interest in studying

translation. 26.2% of students quite agree with the above statement. While most

students agree and share the same opinion, 9.5% of students have a contrast idea by

showing a disagreement with this opinion. On the other hand, sixteen point seven

75

percents (16.7%) of students have no comment about their teacher and teaching

method.

Thanks to the results collected from students‟ opinions through the

questionnaires, the researchers have some basic following conclusions.

On one hand, the researchers realize that although translation is very difficult,

most of students still find their interest in learning this kind of subject. They know how

important and useful translation is, so they have good motivation and attitude in

learning. In fact, most students prepare their lesson at home and apply a variety of

methods to improve their translation skills.

On the other hand, the researchers also find out some weaknesses of students as

well as their difficulties in learning translation. Firstly, some students feel learning

translation is difficult and boring, so they are reinforced to study it just because it is a

compulsory subject. Sometimes, they lose their motivation in learning because of this

reason. Secondly, we can see that grammar structure, vocabulary and its meaning are

always the big challenges for almost all students when translating both two types of

text. However, most of students prefer translating an English – Vietnamese text to

Vietnamese – English text. One of the reasons why students are afraid of translating a

text from Vietnamese into English is due to their lacking of vocabulary. They also do

not know how to transfer exactly Vietnamese expressions into English, therefore,

whenever they practice translation, most of them tend to translate the texts from

English into Vietnamese and avoid translating texts from Vietnamese into English.

Moreover, when doing translation, students usually encounter with many new words

but nearly half of them look up this word on dictionary, some ask their friends or

teacher to find its meaning while guessing meaning from context is a very important

skill which need to be motivated. In addition, some students do not prepare for new

lesson well, and the amount of time students spend on learning this subject is not very

much, so it is too hard to make progress. Except some problems arising from the

76

students, the teacher and his teaching method also affect students‟ interest in

translation.

Obviously, most students have good attitude in learning translation. However,

there are still some weaknesses that students need to improve in order to make progress

and get a better result.

3.2 Results collected from the interview questions:

With the desire to make the study more reliable, the researchers interviewed five

students and recorded a conversation between two students of BA English 2011 class.

Thanks to interviewing, the students have an opportunity to state out directly their

difficulties in studying translation. Beside this purpose, we also listen to the students‟

expectations developing during the time they pursue their studies in written translation

class.

From the students‟ responses, it can be included that vocabulary and grammar

structures are two basic problems that most students have to confront in both two types

of translating text.

First and foremost, a shortage of vocabulary is puzzling most students.

Rendering the first question praised from the interviewer, most of students

acknowledge that they lack of vocabulary in understanding the English version as

translating an English - Vietnamese text. The result is totally true with the result

collected from the questionnaire; when translating, students usually encounter with so

many new words, and it makes them feel difficult in understanding the whole meaning

of the translation text. Besides that, dominating the meaning of an English word, but do

not know the Vietnamese equivalent in specific situation is another problem confusing

students. Some students said that they can generalize the meaning of an English

expression but do not know how to convey it into Vietnamese and how to use suitable

word in each certain context. Therefore, in performing translation, students cannot

express exactly the original meaning of the text or express a wrong meaning from the

77

original one. One out of five students also expresses his shortage of vocabulary in

translating Vietnamese – English text, according to his response in question 2, there are

many words which are difficult to transfer into English arising from the Vietnamese

passages. Furthermore, translation‟s documents, which are strange and difficult, are

also one of students‟ bewilderments. One student said that he has difficulty in

translating an English text containing many academic words and specialistic

terminologies which are profound and difficult to comprehend. Certainly, an academic

document requires a profound knowledge to understand, and translating in this kind of

document is more intricate. Therefore, when they encounter these kinds of documents,

it takes them a lot of time, patience, and effort to translate the text.

Grammar errors are unavoidable mistake for most students in learning

translation. From the recording of the conversation between the two female students,

one of them mentioned that her poor grammar has a bad effect in her translation‟s

practicing. Virtually, there are many complicated structures and irregular cases being

inserted in the English – Vietnamese text, which sometimes make students puzzle. If

students do not know about these structures, they cannot translate exactly its meaning

into another language. This is the reason why students should be proficient in the use

of grammar in order to study translation well. One more obstacle is that students

usually confuse in choosing appropriate tense in English. One of members who come

from English 2011 class stated that she usually makes mistake in choosing the right

tense when translating a text from Vietnamese into English. She honestly

acknowledges that she cannot transfer precisely the meaning of the original text just

because she does not know which tense should be used, especially the tense related to

an action in the past or at present time. Sometimes, students cannot recognize which

tense should be used in a particular context. Using a wrong tense in a translation text

can make the meaning of new version different from the old one, even cause a serious

misunderstanding. Briefly, using appropriate structure and precise tense to transfer the

meaning is also a challenge for students in learning translation.

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Beside the two main difficulties that students usually face with when performing

translation in both two types of text, there are some more difficulties collected from

interviewing students when they translate Vietnamese – English text.

According to the students‟ responses, they are Vietnamese people, so when they

translate a text from Vietnamese into English, they form the habit of transferring the

meaning following the style of their mother tongue. One of the students being

interviewed stated that as a Vietnamese learner learning English, he usually follows the

Vietnamese‟s style in translating a Vietnamese text and that make it much more

difficult for foreigners to understand what he wants to convey. Sometimes, students

translate word by word in a way the Vietnamese think and write, but English does not

follow this way. It makes the translation sounds very Vietnamese, and the foreigners

can misunderstand or confuse when they read this translation product. In addition, Viet

Nam is a country located in Southeast Asia, so our location, culture, and custom are

different from Western countries, which can be an obstacle for students. Two out of

five students express that the differences between culture and region make they feel

translating a text from Vietnamese is more difficult. One also mentions that she cannot

translate exactly the clues related to cultural parts from the original document.

Obviously, every country has their own unique so students in any way need to have

enough knowledge and information about some certain cultural fields in order to do

translation well.

Finally, because there are so many difficulties that students have to surmount in

studying translation, they praise some expectations as well as suggestions to their

teacher with the aim of being supported to overcome these obstacles. Firstly, most

students have already recognized vocabulary and grammar are their biggest challenges.

So, one student in her answering to the interview question stated that she planned to

improve her vocabulary and grammar structures by herself. Students can do self-study

vocabulary and grammar at home, but they still need the teacher‟s help. Most students

hope their teacher gives them more vocabulary as well as provide them with some

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more different grammar structures when instructing them to translate a passage.

Moreover, one student also expects his teacher to show him some strategies in

choosing suitable words to apply in the translated text depending on their shapes of

meaning and context. Relating to teaching materials, two students remarked that the

teaching materials that teacher gives them were various in topics and contents but

profound and too difficult to comprehend. In the conversation between the two female

students, one of them also commented that the content of the given documents were

profound, and the words being inserted relate to philosophy field. The results filtered

from questionnaire delineate that most students are not interested in topics refer to

political and scientific fields, and philosophical topics are also their bewilderment.

With the above remarks, most students show their expectation to be given some easier

topics related to some common fields that they feel interested in, and the materials

should be suitable with their ability. Moreover, one of a girl said that she want to study

translation well but she does not know clearly about steps of translating a text.

Therefore, she hopes to be taught the followed steps in translating a passage in order to

study better. Finally, some students emphasized that teacher attitude in teaching is very

important. According to the records, one of the two students states that she likes to

study with a sociable and helpful person, she assumes that the teacher‟s sternness will

restrain the students‟ dynamic and creation in classroom. Certainly, when working with

a helpful and sociable instructor, students will study comfortably without any pressures

and raise their interest in translation.

In short, thanks to the questionnaires and interview questions, the researchers

had collected lots of useful information about the reality, the difficulties, and the

expectations of students in learning translation. With the helpful results above, the

researchers continue to complete the purpose of our research by giving some

suggestions to the teachers and the students to help both teachers and students make a

progress in teaching and studying.

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SUGGESTION AND CONCLUSION

Suggestion

Basing on the information collected from the questionnaire as well as the interview

questions, the researchers recognize that the two biggest challenges for English

students to study written translation are vocabulary and grammar structures. So, in the

first of this part, we would like to mention some possible suggestions that we think it

will be helpful for students to meliorate their vocabulary and grammar structure in

some certain fields.

Suggestion on improving vocabulary

It is undeniable that reading is the best effective way to enlarge vocabulary. When

the students read, they can see lot of words being used in certain context and that is

what makes it much more effective than memorizing the word lists. It is probable if the

students are not able to infer the words‟ meaning during their reading process because

there are so many unknown words arising from the text. In that case, the students can

try reading easier materials to form the good habit of reading. When they are familiar

with this habit, they should raise their level up by reading more difficult one in a

variety of topics but make sure that the text is appropriate for their own reading level.

Facing another problem in memorizing the words‟ meaning, it is very easy for

learners to forget the new words‟ meaning just some days later if they do not have a

regularly review, therefore, day by day they will lose these learned work

unintentionally. In that case, students should try to use their newly learned words in as

many ways as possible. For instance, it helps to write the word – both the definition

and the sentence they make up using the word – perhaps on cards that can later be

reviewed. Then, it is necessary to review their cards periodically to see if they have

forgotten any of their new words. Students can also turn on sticky notes program on

their computer and add new words they have to learn. By that way, whenever students

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work with their computer, they can see these words frequently and thus memorize

them. In addition, whenever discussing with classmates, the students should regularly

apply a diversity of changeable words in their conversation. By that constantly

practicing, hopefully that the students will make their collection of vocabulary richer

and richer, and it is one of the shortest ways to have a better translation.

However, there are so many English words that no one as an English learner can

remember all of them completely. Therefore, it is also important to build skills to break

the words down by noticing prefixes and suffixes being used in English. For example,

if they know the prefix “ben” means good, then when confronting the English word

“benevolence” students will automatically recognize that this word is something

related to good things and it is, therefore, easier for them to master the word‟s meaning

in studying English. In addition, before deciding to utilize one word into a translation

text, the students should have a carefully checking its meaning both in Vietnamese -

English and English - English dictionaries to avoid misuse of synonyms of words and

be sure that they use the appropriate words in each certain context.

Moreover, students should make up as many associations and connections as

possible. When students learn a new word, they should relate this word to the words

they have already known. Connecting the new word with its family words can help

students easily remember and enlarge their vocabulary. For example, the word

gargantuan (very large) has a similar meaning to the words gigantic, huge, or large, so

students can make a sequence: small, medium, large, very large, and gargantuan. By

that way, students will have a plentiful source of vocabulary to deal with new words‟

problems in learning English.

By anyway of studying, students should consolidate their knowledge by taking

vocabulary test or playing with words. Students can take these kinds of test on the

websites http://thanhtra.tvu.edu.vn on the Internet or look for a series of book “Test

Your Vocabulary 1, 2, 3, 4, 5” (Peter Watcyn-Jones) to enhance their vocabulary. Test

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will help students learn new words and let them know how much progress they are

making. Additionally, a series books consists of English Vocabulary in Use –

Elementary (Michael McCarthy, Felicity O‟Dell), English Vocabulary in Use - Pre-

intermediate & Intermediate (Lynda Edwards with Stuart Redman) and English

Vocabulary in Use – Upper – intermediate and advanced (Michael McCarthy, Felicity

O‟Dell) could be a good reference material for students who want to study and improve

their vocabulary. Besides, students can take part in some games such as scrabble and

do crossword puzzles. Their brain must work hard to deal with the challenge of the

game so that they will remember the word longer.

Suggestion on improving grammar structures

As we used to state at the beginning of this thesis, one of the main points of

learning a language is to be able to communicate. Using a wrong grammar can lead to

regrettable misunderstandings, so English learners need to form habit of getting the

words in the right order. A grammar error can change the meaning of what the writers

want to convey, and, sometimes, create a bad impression for the readers. Which the

above reasons, grammatical errors are unacceptable in a translation text.

Learning must be paralleled with practicing. To be better at English grammar, the

students have to practice doing grammar exercises regularly. It is unnecessary to look

for a teacher for grammar lessons; the students themselves can practice English

grammar by doing online exercises just by some simple clicks. There are a number of

websites, which offer exercises on a wide range of topics. Some common and useful

web pages to learn English grammar are http://webster.commnet.edu

and http://www.tienganhonline.net/grammar.htm, which provide profitable grammar

exercises with available answer key to help learners be familiar with grammar structure

forms. Alternatively, students can access the webpage http://lopngoaingu.com/ or

http://www.tienganh123.com/ , which is very common to students at every levels of

English learning.

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Moreover, the students should look for a reliable grammar book that offers answer

keys and clear explanations for each grammar point. The best sale “Oxford Practice

Grammar with Answers” (Norman Coe, Mark Harrison, Ken Paterson) and the series

book consist of Grammar Practice for Elementary Students, for Pre-intermediate

Students, for Intermediate Students, and Grammar Practice for Upper Intermediate

Students (Elaine walker , Steve Elsworth) can be considered as helpful tools for those

who want to improve their grammar quickly and effectively. It is not worth hurrying

from the beginning, the students just be patient to focus on just one grammar point

each time they study until they can use it easily. Students can also practice more by

looking for some other good books like English Grammar in Use (Raymond Murphy),

advanced grammar in use (Martin Hewings), the Good Grammar Book (Michael Swan,

Catherine Walter) and English grammar (Bùi ý, Vũ Thanh Phương), which provide

both basic and advanced grammar structures to every level of learners.

We also hope that the strategies for translation, which are mentioned in the first

chapter- Literature review, will be considered as a useful companion for translation

activities.

Suggestion on teachers and teaching method

It will be very difficult to obtain the best result and keep motivation levels up if all

the learners‟ needs are not meet in each class. It is the teachers‟ responsibility to satisfy

all their needs as well as concretize intended aims and objectives of the course to

enhance the quality of both teaching and learning. That is the reason why we would

like to mention some suggestions for teachers basing on students‟ expectation through

the interviewing questions. Our role here is to act as the students‟ ambassador to state

what they want from their teacher, after that, suggest some possible solutions to teacher

with the hope that the teacher can sympathize and support well for the students‟ study.

Firstly, we want to emphasize that the teachers‟ attitude directly has influence on

the quality of studying. Certainly, no one could be confused when working with a

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sociable and helpful people, the same in teaching, a friendly atmosphere in classroom

is believed to bring to a great impulse for studying. Therefore, during his teaching time,

the teacher should create a free atmosphere to help students study under no pressure

and have chance to ask or state their opinions freely about some wondered things.

Providing students with useful knowledge as well as answering or explaining students‟

questions enthusiastically are things teachers can do to help both teachers and students

make progress in teaching and studying. Every teacher has his own way of teaching, if

the teacher wants his students pay attention to his lesson and seriously concentrate on

studying, he surely has to be strict in teaching. However, on the students‟ point of

view, his sternness will restrain their creation in studying. The students will dare not

state out their thinking and afraid to contribute their opinions into new lesson, it is,

therefore, one of the failures in classroom. Creating a closer relationship in which the

teacher plays a role as students‟ brother or father who understands their difficulties and

sympathizes with their psychological tensions is really necessary for every teacher to

do.

Beside the teacher‟s attitude, teaching materials is also estimated as an important

part of every subject. According to students‟ responses, most of them like translating

documents related to some topics that they feel interested in such as lifestyle, health,

education and entertainment because these topics are quite close to their daily life, and

they have enough knowledge to understand and translate it. Moreover, they can deal

with vocabulary related to these fields easier than other topics like politics, science,

psychology, or philosophy. This is the reason why some students hope their teachers

can give them common topics related to their interest‟s fields. In addition, teaching

materials should be various in topic and suitable for students‟ ability. Teachers should

give students many enjoyable and attractive topics with the aims of helping them

practice and learn some things from it. Educational aims can be inserted in each

translation passage through a lesson, a story, or a piece of knowledge. However,

teachers should notice to students‟ ability before choosing a passage to translate. The

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level of difficulty should be raised gradually from the beginning to the end of the

course. Certainly, students will be interested in every translation passage and no one

can be bored or feel difficult when they can study with such appropriate and attracted

materials like this.

Being a man, everyone is curious to discover new experiences. When they are in

a new situation they will explore it and want to discover and master the environment.

But when this is done, they will become bored with the familiar repeated situation,

especially if it never changes. Students constantly need to be motivated, and their

curiosity will be aroused if they get well performance. Putting students in new and

different translating situations is the way helping students make progress, and that they

are more likely to enjoy a class if it constantly presents new experiences and new

challenges. Sometimes, the teacher should allow students to choose the topics they like

to translate in class instead of monopolizing decides the translating materials.

However, it should be under the teacher‟s approval and carefully checking the content

of the text one week before being showed in public.

The above part is some suggestions originated from the students expectations in

learning. The researchers, who used to experience translation course, would like to

contribute some more suggestions with the hope to improve quality of learning and

training at Dong Thap University. Firstly, we think the teacher should split students

into small groups and ask them to translate something together. Believing that working

with a friend will be more comfortable and more equal than working with a teacher, the

students are encouraged to discuss and defend their idea as well as criticise to each

other to think about the final decision. It is generally accepted that working in this way

is a good idea, as long as students learn from working together as a team, and one or

two do not monopolize the conversation while the others are bored or silent. So the

teacher‟s role here is also indispensable, it is the teacher‟s responsibility to monitor the

group work carefully. One efficient way to avoid negativity is to change the groups at

every lesson so that student will have more chances to work with different subjects;

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and the trainer should move quietly from group to group checking the dynamics and

making notes of different attitudes and students‟ behaviours, then give honestly

comments at the end of the lesson.

In brief, this part is about the researchers‟ suggestions on how to improve

vocabulary and grammar structures to limit the students‟ difficulties in studying

translation subject. In addition, basing on the students‟ basic needs, the researchers also

put forward great ideas to improve the teaching method as well as teacher‟s way of

training with the hope that the teacher can sympathize and listen to students‟

expectations then find out suitable solutions in adjusting teaching method.

Conclusion

Every translation activity has one or more certain purposes, and which ever they

maybe, the main aim of translation is to serve as a cross-cultural bilingual

communication vehicle among peoples in the world. No one can deny the important of

translation in the past few decades when this activity has been boosted because of

rising international trade, increased migration, globalization and the expansion of the

mass media and technology. For those reasons, the translator plays an important role as

a bilingual or multi-lingual cross- cultural transmitter of culture and idea by attempting

to transfer the text as faithfully and accurately as possible. However, it is not so easy

for the students of English major to master translation skill as well as to become a

professional translator. Facing difficulties as well as taking mistakes in studying

translation are unavoidable. Therefore, issue related to students‟ difficulties and their

expectation are the objectives and the focuses of this thesis. What the researchers

attempt to do in this thesis is to find out the students‟ difficulties and to meet the

students‟ expectations in studying written translation subject at their early academic

years. From there give some useful suggestions and solutions to help them surmount

difficulties and to improve the quality of training method at Dong Thap university.

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The thesis is divided into three main chapters. The literature review discussed in

the thesis is mentioned in chapter 1, including the definitions of translation, the

important of translation, method of translation, strategies for translation, the factors

influencing translation process and common errors in written translation. The basic

concepts discussed in this chapter provide the readers with fundamental theories

critical to the analysis of the study. Chapter 2 – methodology mentions about the

research methods applied in the study, including research questions, research

participants, research procedure, and data collection instruments. The researchers make

a survey to collect information from the students of English major in English classes

2011, who are the beginners to study written translation. Then we started to analyze

and did statistics on the responses to questionnaire as well as the interview questions to

get the final result which is mentioned in the next chapter- chapter 3: results and

discussion. At the end of this thesis, the researchers also suggest some possible

solutions to help students deal with difficulties in studying as well as make some

suggestions for teachers on meeting the students‟ expectations in learning written

translation subject which is believed to be hard to master. Parallel with the students‟

efforts on improving some weaknesses in vocabulary and grammar structure, the

teacher should apply new situations with a variety of topic into each lesson to arouse

the students‟ inspiration as well as their curiosity in studying. In addition, a friendly

atmosphere in classroom is also very necessary to praise their interest in studying the

subject. Believing that, with such a good cooperation between the two parties, it will

help both the teacher and students make a progress on improving the quality of

teaching and studying written translation subject at Dong Thap University.

It is a strong hope that the study with all suggestions above will be a useful

reference to help improve the quality of both learning and training at Dong Thap

University. Hopefully, the study will also be a helpful companion for all those who are

interested in written translation and want to be a professional translator.

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Nevertheless, this is the first time we have had a chance to do a research, getting

mistakes during the study is unavoidable. Due to the limited time of the research and

the busy study‟s time of the subjects, it is so difficult for us to arrange a suitable time

for interviewing questions as well as get much more information about the students‟

expectation. Moreover, to please everyone is not really easy, some expectations

collected above can not reflect all the students‟ needs. It is, therefore, one of the most

limitations of the study. However, we believe that the thesis named “English major

students‟ difficulties and expectations in learning written translation at Dong Thap

University” will be able to contribute its reality and usefulness to both the students and

teachers in adjusting the learning and teaching method.

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REFERENCES

1. Bell,R. (1991), Translation and Training Theory and Practice, Longman, New

York.

2. The Merriam (1974), Webster dictionary

3. Luyen dich Viet- Anh, Minh Thu- Nguyen Hoa

4. Tran Nguyen Dang Tuan, Useful techniques for English- Vietnamese and

Vietnamese- English translation, 2008

5. Séverine Hubscher-Davidson, Meeting students‟ expectations in Undergraduate

Translation Programs,

from http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article1265.htm

6. Mahmoud Ordudari, Translation procedures, strategies and methods,

from http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article1413.php

7. Newmark, P. (1988b). Approaches to Translation. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall.

8. Huynh Thanh Thuy(2012), An analysis of common errors on verb tenses and

word choices in Vietnamese- English translation by the second-year English

majors at Dong Thap University.

9. Duong Thi Thuy Hang and Nguyen Thi Cam Xuyen(2010), Common mistakes

in learning translation subject by the second-year English major at Dong Thap

University.

10. LAC VIET mtd2002-EVA dictionary

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WebPages

1. http://www.translationdirectory.com/article634.htm

2. http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article1265.htm

3. www.tratu.com

4. http://www.Ethnologue.com

5. www.vdict.com

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APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear students,

This short questionnaire regarding to my BA thesis in written translation subject

is designed with the purpose to help you improve your translation skill. We guarantee

that your answer will be completely kept in secret and of course will not affect to your

learning result. Thank you a lot for taking your time.

1. How do you feel about learning translation?

A. Interesting and helpful

B. Difficult but interesting

C. Difficult and boring

D. Easy and helpless

2. Why do you study translation?

A. Because it is a compulsory subject

B. Because it is interesting

C. Because it is helpful, you can get lots of information when doing translation

D. Because you want to study more skills to make you more perfect.

E. Others: ……………………..

3. In your opinion, studying translation can help you

A. Enlarge your vocabulary

B. Use grammar structures more flexibly

C. Improve language skills especially writing

D. All the above

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E. Others: ………………

4. In your opinion, which kind of text is difficult to translate?

A. English – to – Vietnamese

B. Vietnamese – to – English

5. What is the biggest challenge you have to face when translating from English to

Vietnamese?

A. Choosing the appropriate meaning of vocabulary from context meaning

B. Misunderstanding about culture

C. Lack of vocabulary

D. Mistranslation subordinate clause which are complex and difficult to master

E. Others: …………………..

6. What is the biggest challenge you have to face when translating from Vietnamese to

English?

A. Choosing appropriate vocabulary in the English language.

B. Finding suitable grammar structures in the target language to transfer the ideas

C. Analyzing word others in Vietnamese texts

D. Understanding special phrases in the source text

E. Others: …………………………….

7. What do you often do when you encounter new words?

A. Look up its meaning by using dictionary

B. Ignore it and translate other words, then go back to guess from context.

C. Skip it and translate others

D. Ask your friend or your teacher

E. Others: …………………………..

8. What do you do to prepare for your lesson before class?

A. Prepare new vocabulary

B. Prepare grammar structures need to be used

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C. Try to translate it and wait for feedback in class

D. Just read it and do nothing

E. Do nothing to prepare

9. What do you often do after you finish your translation?

A. Share with your friends

B. Read it again to correct some mistakes if have

C. Read it again and try to translate it in another way

D. Wait for teacher‟s feedback

E. Others: …………………………

10. What do you do to improve your translation skill?

A. Learning vocabulary

B. Doing grammar exercises from grammar books or from internet

C. Reviewing teacher‟s feedback to learn vocabulary, grammar and way of using

vocabulary

D. Reading and practicing translating from newspaper, magazines, article from English

to Vietnamese and vice versa

E. All the above

11. When self-studying, you usually practice translating

A. Only English into Vietnamese texts

B. Only Vietnamese into English texts

C. First English - Vietnamese text then Vietnamese - English texts

D. First Vietnamese - English then English - Vietnamese

12. How much time do you usually spend on studying translation?

A. 2 or 3 hours per week

B. About 4 hours per week

C. About 5 hours per week

D. More than 5 hours per week

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13. What has a great influence on your interested in translation?

A. Teaching method

B. Teaching material

C. Topic of translation

D. Your own ability (Ex: some weakness in grammar and vocabulary)

E. Others: ………………….

14. Which topic of translation texts are you interested in?

A. Entertainment

B. Economy

C. Politics

D. Science

E. Education

F. Health

G. Lifestyle

H. Literature and fine arts

I. Others: …………………………………

15. Do you think the teacher and his teaching method strongly affect your interested in

studying translation?

A. Strongly agree

B. Quite agree

C. Disagree

D. No ideas

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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. What are some difficulties you usually face with when translate a text from English

into Vietnamese?

2. What are some difficulties you usually face with when translate a text from

Vietnamese into English?

3. What are your expectations in learning translation from the teacher?