GRADUATION PAPER a study on grammatical errors in translating vietnamese english made by third year english majored students in thuongmai university

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT GRADUATION PAPER A study on grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese-English made by third-year English majored students in Thuongmai University Hanoi, 2021 HÀ NỘI - 2015 ABSTRACT Considering the importance of translation in working, the goal of this research is to describe the difficulties in translation that are committed by third-year students of English Department at Thuongmai University This study aims to find out students’ VietnameseEnglish translation grammatical errors and identify the possible causes of those errors The result showed that there were many grammatical errors made by students and the causes of them were also indicated After that, some suggestions were given to assist teachers and students at Thuongmai University in improving teaching and learning translation ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and gratefulness to all teachers at English Department of Thuong Mai University for giving me permission to commence this thesis I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor - MA Nguyen Thuy Linh, for her guidance and encouragement during my study Furthermore, I really appreciate all her help and suggestions on various drafts of the thesis Without her valuable advice and support, this thesis could not have been completed on schedule Moreover, I would like to state my special thanks to the third-year English-majored students at English Department They helped me to collect and summarize the data to give research findings Additionally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my dear friends for their help and warm encouragement throughout my hard times carrying out the study Without them, I could not have overcome such times and concentrated on my study Finally, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my loving parents for their continuous support during my study Thanks to their intense devotion, I have overcome the difficult times and completed this thesis Hanoi, December 12th, 2021 Student Quyen Duong To Quyen ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .7 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previous studies 1.3 Aims of the study 13 1.4 Research subjects .13 1.5 Scope of the study 14 1.6 Research methodology .14 1.7 Organization of the study 15 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 17 2.1 Translation 17 2.1.1 Definition 17 2.1.2 Dynamics of translation (Peter Newmark) 18 2.1.2.1 SL writer 19 2.1.2.2 SL norms and TL norms .19 2.1.2.3 SL culture and TL culture 19 2.1.2.4 SL setting and tradition and TL setting and tradition .20 2.1.2.5 TL readership 20 2.1.2.6 The truth (the facts of the matter) 21 2.1.2.7 Translator 21 2.1.3 Criteria of a good translation .21 2.1.3.1 Accuracy 23 2.1.3.2 Clarity 23 2.1.3.3 Naturalness 23 2.1.3.4 Rendering the cultural and historical context of original text 24 2.1.3.5 Being culturally appropriate for the target readers 24 2.2 Grammatical error .25 2.2.1 Definition 25 2.2.2 Classification of grammatical errors 26 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS .29 3.1 Result of the study 29 3.1.1 Grammatical errors relating to tense 29 3.1.2 Grammatical errors relating to active voice and passive voice 32 3.1.3 Grammatical errors relating to subject-verb agreement 33 3.1.4 Grammatical errors relating to misuse of relative pronouns 34 3.1.5 Grammatical errors relating to incorrect structure 35 3.2 Discussion 36 3.2.1 Objective causes 37 3.2.1.1 The negative influence of the mother tongue 37 3.2.1.2 Different characteristics of Vietnamese and English 39 3.2.2 Subjective cause 40 3.2.2.1 Lack of background knowledge 40 3.2.2.2 Poor language competence 41 3.2.2.3 Lack of study motivation 42 3.2.2.4 Time pressure 44 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 45 4.1 Suggestions for students 45 4.2 Suggestions for teachers 47 4.3 Suggestion for further studies 48 CONCLUSION .50 REFERENCES .51 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a foreign language DNTU: Dong Nai Technology University TMU: Thuongmai University SL: Source language TL: Target language L2: Second language CPTPP: Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Diagram 1: Dynamics of translation (Peter Newmark) Chart 3.1: Common grammatical errors in Vietnamese-English translation Chart 3.2: Common causes of errors in Vietnamese-English translation Chart 3.3: The students' attitude toward translation Chart 3.4: The students' point of view about translation CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale During the period of international integration, Vietnam constantly exchanges cultural, economic, political, and social with many other countries in the world However, the language barrier between countries greatly affects activities such as trade, tourism, medical, education, investment cooperation,… Translation acts as a bridge, the most accurate method of information transmission between languages of different countries It is the translation field that helps the above activities to take place quickly and smoothly Especially in business, translation is a fundamental condition for companies to sign contracts For large enterprises and prestigious international organizations, accuracy in contract language is crucial for success Nowadays, English is the most widely spoken language in the world The role of English is more and more asserted, especially in the rapid development era of information and technology It is the second language in most countries in the world In most companies, candidates with good English skills will have a competitive advantage Most trading contracts are written in English along with their native language Besides, the literature and specialized books of authors from different countries around the world are also translated into English to help people in the world easily access them It is essential to master translation to translate documents more exactly so as to avoid regrettable misunderstanding As a result, English is one of the most important factors that set the path for the success of an individual besides specialized knowledge, soft skills, and computer skills Therefore, it is necessary for Vietnamese students who will become the main human resource in society soon to have professional Vietnamese-English translation skills in order to meet the demand of integration and globalization However, translating from Vietnamese to English is a difficult task because it involves not only the substitution of words from one language into another but also the transfer of meanings and senses that the authors want to convey in the most natural way possible, so almost all learners can avoid mistakes In reality, students of all majors, even English majors still make many grammatical errors in translating process There are many reasons leading to mistakes in Vietnamese-English translation and the most effective method for students to avoid making such mistakes again is identifying and analyzing the errors carefully because they will learn more from their own mistakes Therefore, “A study on grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese-English made by third-year English majored students in Thuongmai University” is carried out with the hope that it will be a useful reference helping thirdyear students improve Vietnamese-English translation skills to avoid regrettable mistakes As a consequence, it may be able to assist students in developing an appropriate strategy for adjusting learning methods to get the best effective result 1.2 Previous studies The first study was researched and written by Hendra Kuswara ( Universitas Islam Malang, 2020), entitled " Students’ Grammatical Errors in Their Indonesian-English Translation of the Third Semester Students at Universitas Islam Kadir" One of the language aspects required in translating English text is grammar In addition to word choice for example whether or not a product of translation is good can be identified by its grammatical structure of sentences Wrong or incomplete grammar in writing may sometimes cause readers to get confused in understanding the message This study aims at analyzing grammatical errors made by students of the sixth semester of English Department of Universitas Islam Kadiri academic year 2018, in translating first language (Bahasa Indonesia) into the target language (English) The major types of errors made by the students were related to incomplete clauses having no either subject, verbs, or either both, subject-verb agreement, and the absence of subordinators and plural nouns Out of the six types of identified grammatical errors, incomplete plural nouns ranked number one followed by the absence of verb and subject-verb agreement The highest number of students making mistakes on using plural nouns was 41 (29%), and the lowest one on the absence of subject and verb was (5%) From the error analysis, it could be generalized that the students were probably influenced by their native language system which does not exist in English Therefore, differences in the language system especially in grammar should be introduced to the students during the translation studies The other study is “Common translation errors (Vietnamese-English) committed by the third-year English majors: A case at Dong Nai Technology University” made by Tran Thi Hoai Nam in 2016 The study had the advantage of providing some of the most common types of errors that occur in Vietnamese-English translation, as well as the reasons for these errors, in order to help students and teachers of English faculty at DNTU clearly understand the situation of their teaching and learning translation The participants of the study are third-year English-majored students at Dong Nai Technology University This study is different from other similar studies on data collection instruments It includes both translation tests and interviews while most studies only use translation tests The results of the study revealed that the vast majority of translation errors made by third-year English-major students at DNTU, accounting for 91 percent, are micro-level errors related to vocabulary and grammar There are too many errors related to grammar such as tenses, sentence structure, word order, passive voice,… The students are confused by the diversity of vocabulary, which includes technical terminology, compounds, collocations, word choice,…Cohesion mistakes account for 42% of all errors at the macro level, accounting for 9% of all errors According to the study, the causes leading to these errors are both subjective and objective Subjective causes concern the lack of knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, culture, as well as the capacity to overcome the detrimental impact of the mother tongue on language acquisition, concentration, and motivation Objective causes concern the difference between Vietnamese and English and inappropriate teaching documents and methods After analyzing the errors and the causes, the study suggests some recommendations that improve the current teaching and learning translation at DNTU 10 According to chart 3.4 as below, 54.7% of students like to learn translation, moreover, 22% of them really like this course It shows that this attitude has beneficial impact on the motivation of students which leads to the high level of translation 22.00% 23.30% 54.70% Really like Like Medium (Calculation unit: %) Chart 3.3: The students' attitude toward translation On the contrary, lack of motivation might have a psychological impact on students A lot of students believe that translating from Vietnamese to English is considerably more difficult than translating from English to Vietnamese 3.80% 12.20% 83.60% Difficult & interesting Easy & interesting 43 Hard & boring (Calculation unit: %) Chart 3.4: The students' point of view about translation According to Chart 3.5, 84% of the students suppose that translation is hard but interesting Just only 3.8% of them think that translation is easy and interesting But 12.2% of them find it hard and boring to translate Therefore, they often feel discouraged when studying Vietnamese-English translation Motivation provides students a purpose and direction to follow For this reason, it is extremely important in learning VietnameseEnglish translation in particular, as well as learning in general However, in the case of insufficient motivation, several problems begin to appear They not have motivation for study leading to spending less time studying Furthermore, it makes students less engaged in their studies Whenever facing difficulties, they easily leave them out Therefore, their translation skills are not improved results in many errors in their translation 3.2.2.4 Time pressure In translation, limited time also puts huge pressure on students, 10% of them consider it as one of the causes lead to errors in translation according to chart 3.3 Many students claim that they only have enough time to read the original text once and make some minor adjustments before starting the translation process Especially, when doing examinations, time pressure seems to be bigger Students frequently worry that they will not have enough time to finish their exams That is the reason why they attempt to translate as rapidly as possible, which results in their errors In some cases, students only have enough time to complete their tests but they not have time to check their products That is why it is necessary for students to control and distribute their time reasonably to have a good translation and avoid making unfortunate errors 44 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS In this chapter, some suggestions are given from the possible causes pointed out in chapter with the aim that provide some suggestions to help students overcome the problems, avoid making errors as much as possible and improve their own translation skills To improve students’ Vietnamese-English translation skills, both teachers and students need to collaborate to adapt teaching and learning methods 4.1 Suggestions for students Self-study is the best way that can help students improve their translation skills quickly In order to develop their Vietnamese-English translation skills, students need to find out learning methods that are appropriate to themselves and have self-conscious attitude toward learning It is obvious that grammar and vocabulary enhancement plays an important role in improving language competence There are some suggestions for students given below First and foremost, it is obvious that grammar enhancement plays an important role in improving language competence Sufficient grammar enables students to feel more confident in using English words and structures, succeed in conveying targeted texts’ ideas, and particularly avoid awkward expressions As for grammar, it is beneficial to have a comprehensive reference book that contains not only uses and forms of all English tenses but also many exercises of each tense for the learners to practice If students try to read and exercises regularly, their knowledge of grammar in English will be better Nowadays, there are grammar books solve in the market that are suitable for all levels of learners, such as “English grammar in use” (Raymond Murphy), “Collins Cobuild English grammar”, “The grammar book” 45 (Marianne Celce, Diane Larsen – Freeman) and “The good grammar book” (Oxford) It is a strong hope that these suggested grammar books would assist pupils in improving their grammar easily and quickly The Internet is another way for students improving their grammar Internet is developing day by day and becomes popular tool that allows individuals to conveniently access anything except for materials for learning There is lots of information about English grammar on the Internet and it is really easy for the students to learn and get the information just with one simple click The learners just need to type some letters in search boxes of Google Then there are a variety of WebPages with excellent explanations that assist students in learning grammatical principles and doing more exercises Furthermore, students should always keep a notepad with them to note all grammar points that they learn or encounter in their own arrangement That is one of the most effective ways for students to remember the points of English grammar as well as review the point quickly in their own notebook Secondly, students should try to overcome the negative influence of the mother tongue in Vietnamese-English translation Students often heavily depend on Vietnamese texts and the negative influence of their mother tongue makes them feel obsessed with Vietnamese structures To overcome the negative influence of the mother tongue students should avoid word by word translation or getting the wrong choice of structure in English as the target language, escape from Vietnamese obsession and translate Vietnamese texts into English naturally and culturally Thirdly, students should create their own motivation for study After having a strong motivation, they can find out the most suitable learning methods for themselves Once they are interested in learning, they will spend more time studying One of the best ways that help students have stronger motivation is learning with their friends It can be bored if students just sit at the desk and learn through the traditional ways Working in pairs or in groups can not only create the competitiveness that is one of the best motivations 46 among students but also provide an effective learning method for them When studying in pairs or in groups, students can learn from their friends Besides, students should fully attend the translation class at university and actively involved in pre-class, during-class, and post-class activities Prior to translation class, a careful preparation of translation assignments is a prerequisite for students to follow what the teacher checks in class Teachers have many experiences in translation, therefore, they not only point out students’ errors but also give students valuable knowledge that they gained to help students improve their translation skills Especially, teachers will provide tips that students cannot find in any books and they can apply into translation along with the theories in the books Moreover, teachers can provide students with a learning route that helps students gradually access to translation from basic to advanced level Last but not least, it is obvious that practice is the best way to improve students’ translation skills and to reduce grammatical errors The enrichment of language competence, background knowledge, and translation skills are not the matters of days or weeks but it takes a long time to be good at Thus, it is vital for students to practice day by day From our life experiences, we all know the importance of practice in order to get better at something The sentence “Practice makes perfect” is an old saying that we are all familiar with Making mistakes in Vietnamese-English translation is inevitable Errors and mistakes are an integral part of the learning process However, through practice with feedback, students learn to correct errors or mistakes and from that, they can improve their translation skills The more time students spend on practicing, the better they will become It depends much on students’ self-consciousness 4.2 Suggestions for teachers Teaching and learning go hand in hand, so teachers play an important role in guiding and supporting students in the learning and translation process Student's learning is closely related to teaching method and teacher's activities, so there are some suggestions for teachers given below to help students achieve higher efficiency in the translation process 47 Firstly, teachers need to develop new and creative teaching methods to arouse students' interest in learning Linking lesson content with practical applications will make teachers' teaching fresh and enrich learning Through real-life situations will make the lesson easy to understand and learn It will spark students' interest and get them excited to participate Secondly, teachers should regularly correct translation exercises and apply various error correction methods, so that students can admit their mistakes and correct their own mistakes Teachers need to take examples of grammatical errors that students often make, then let students analyze each sentence to see where it is wrong, what is missing, the words are reversal or not, The teacher shows how to correct those sentence errors, then helps students correct those sentences Therefore, grammatical errors will be limited in the next translation exercises Thirdly, teachers can organize small discussions between groups of students in the class, so that students are free to give their opinions and useful tips to avoid grammatical translation errors Through such discussions, students will absorb the lesson more thoroughly and learn more useful things 4.3 Suggestion for further studies Based on the limitations of the research, it is essential to modify these limitations for further studies Firstly, the sample of the study should be expanded with the different departments in Thuongmai University in the further studies in order to the exact evaluations Further, studies could be done with a larger number of participants to increase the possibility of generalization Secondly, the further studies should collect more than one assessment to affirm correct research findings as the result make the study more persuasive Thirdly, the further studies should be conducted over a longer period and set up a specific plan for conducting 48 Although the researcher has made a great effort towards conducting this study, there undoubtedly exist some limitations Firstly, the sample of the study was just 30 English major students at Thuongmai University It would be difficult to determine whether the same results with a larger number of samples Secondly, the researcher only collected one assessment of each student As a consequence, it would be impossible to affirm that these problems were outstanding The evaluation of the researcher might be limited in the scope of little assessment Thirdly, the study was conducted in a short time Thus, the result of the study might be less convincing and it could not cover all types of errors in Vietnamese-English translation 49 CONCLUSION Errors have been regarded as a significant part to both teachers and students in the process of teaching and learning The purpose of this study was to identify some grammatical errors in Vietnamese-English translation from that give some suggestions for teaching and learning Vietnamese-English translation in order to help students avoid making errors as much as possible and improve their translation skills This research is divided into four main chapters The first chapter is “Overview of the study” This chapter is a short description of the study that provides general information about the study, but no details with seven parts: rationale, previous studies, aims of the study, research subjects, and scope of the study, research methodology, and organization of the study The second chapter is “Literature review”, which consists of the concepts related to the term “translation” It includes some different definitions of different authors, theories related to the theoretical background Besides, concepts related to Vietnamese-English translation errors are also given and analyzed The third one is called “Research findings and Discussion” This chapter concludes data analysis, results, and discussion The last one is called “Recommendations and Suggestions” In this chapter, some suggestions were given to help teachers and students have suitable methods in teaching and learning to improve the quality of Vietnamese-English translation skills Nevertheless, this study had some its own limitations Due to the limited time and the researcher’s limited knowledge, mistakes in this study are unavoidable However, the researcher strongly hopes that, in the study’s scope, the research is able to contribute its usefulness to help English-majored students in particular and readers who are interested in Vietnamese-English translation, in general, find out the most appropriate learning methods to enhance their own Vietnamese-English translation skills 50 REFERENCES Pham Phu Quynh Na “Errors in translation of topic-comment structures of Vietnamese into English.” Bui Thi Kim Phung “Common structural errors in Vietnamese-English translation made by English-majored students at Duy Tan University.” Tran Thi Hoai Nam “Common translation errors (Vietnamese-English) committed by the third-year English majors: A case at Dong Nai Technology University.” Peter Newmark (1998) “Approach to translation.” Peter Newmark (1988) “A textbook of translation.” Munday.J (2004) “Introducing translation study Theories and Applications, LondresNova York, Routledge.” Wilss (1982) “The science of translation: Problems and methods.” Roger Thomas Bell (1991) “Translation and translating: Theory and practice.” Abdellah (2002) “Translation Journal” 10 Juliane House (1977) “A model of translation quality assessment.” 11 Larson (1984) “Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language Equivalence University Press of America, Lanham, MD.” 12 Brown, H.Douglas (2004) “ Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices 13 Lennon (1991) “Error: Some problems of definition, identification and distinction.” 51 14 Brian Mossop (1989) “Objective translational error and the cultural norm of translation.” 15 Pym (1992) “Translation and text transfer: An Essay on the principles of intercultural communication Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.” 16 Melis & Alber (2001) “Assessment in translation studies: Research needs.” 17 Benhaddou (1991) “Translation quality assessment: a situational/textual model for the evaluation of Arabic/English translation, PhD thesis, University of Salford, UK.” 18 Nord, C (1997) “Translating as a Purposeful Activity Functionalist Approaches Explained St Jerome, Manchester.” 19 Wang, B (2009) “Translating publicity texts in the light of the skopos theory: Problems and suggestions.” 20 Nguyen Van Tuan (2006) “Translation 1&2” 52 APPENDIX Hello everyone! My name is Duong To Quyen I am a senior at Thuongmai University This survey questionnaire is designed to serve the thesis "A study on grammatical errors in translating Vietnam-English by third-year English majors at Thuongmai University", with no further purpose I hope you will take your time to help me complete this survey seriously so that the survey results are the most accurate Sincerely thanks! I, Please choose the answer that matches your personal opinion What you think about the importance of translation? a Extremely important b Important c Less inportant d Unimportant Do you like to learn translation? a Really like b Like c Medium d Dislike e Really dislike How you feel about translation? a Hard but interesting 53 b Easy and interesting c Hard and boring d Easy and boring  How you rate your translation ability? a Very good b, Good c, Normal d, Bad e, Very bad What you usually before attending translation classes?  (You can choose more than answer) a Check homework b Translate more articles on the Internet, newspapers, magazines, books, c Pre-read the documents, hand-out have been assigned d Research content, new words of the articles, documents have been assigned e Do nothing f Other What you usually after learning translation in class?  (You can choose more than answer) a Do homework b Review lessons learned in class c Research and translate articles, documents, references on the Internet d Learn new words, structures from the previous lessons  e Do nothing f Other How you often to translate exercise? a Read and underline difficult words and then look up in the dictionary b Read and translate from beginning to end and then look up the difficult words in the dictionary 54 c Read and translate in parallel d Use google translate then correct it How much time you usually spend on learning translation?  a Less than hour/week b 2-3 hours/week c 3-4 hours/week d Over hours/week What grammatical errors you often make when translating? (You can choose more than answer) a Grammatical errors relating to tense b Grammatical errors relating to active voice and passive voice c Grammatical errors relating to subject-verb agreement d Grammatical errors relating to misuse of relative pronouns e Grammatical errors relating to incorrect structure f Other 10 In your opinion, what causes you to make those mistakes? (You can choose more than answer) a The negative influence of the mother tongue b Different characteristics of Vietnamese and English c Lack of background knowledge d Poor language competence e Lack of study motivation f Time pressure g Other 55 11 How would you rate the impact of the causes of grammatical errors in translation? Please indicate the impact according to the level Rate Cause Extremely Influential influential The negative influence of the mother tongue Different characteristics of Vietnamese and English Lack of background knowledge Poor language competence Lack of study motivation Time pressure 56 Normal Less No influential influential II Please translate these Vietnamese sentences into English (No dictionaries or translation tools were permitted) 1, “Theo số liệu nghiên cứu thị trường, tính đến hết tháng 11 năm 2020 Trung Quốc đứng vị trí thứ quốc gia đầu tư vào Việt Nam với tổng số vốn đầu tư 2,1 tỷ USD.” 2, “Ở góc độ kinh tế, nhiều người nghĩ tầm thường ngân hàng HSBC Việt Nam đặt mục tiêu cắt giảm 8% lượng sử dụng, 11% lượng nước, 10% chất thải 6% lượng khí thải thải mơi trường từ đến năm 2011 qua nhiều chương trình” 3, “Bên cạnh đó, số lượng khơng nhỏ doanh nghiệp từ Mỹ, Nhật Bản, Hàn Quốc, … hoạt động Trung Quốc chuyển sang Việt Nam.” 4, “Nhà đầu tư nước tham gia đầu tư vào Việt Nam 30 năm qua chủ yếu tập trung 15 quốc gia vùng lãnh thổ.” 5, “Do tình hình dịch bệnh phức tạp, hầu hết nhà hàng, quán xá, cửa hàng,… hoạt động offline phải chuyển sang hình thức online” 57 ... at analyzing grammatical errors made by students of the sixth semester of English Department of Universitas Islam Kadiri academic year 2018, in translating first language (Bahasa Indonesia) into... English -Vietnamese translation and Vietnamese- English translation This thesis, however, just focuses on studying the grammatical errors in the Vietnamese- English translation made by third- year English- majored. .. sentences Utilizing incorrect grammatical can be said as a grammatical error According to Hancock (2005:6), grammar is an essential meaning maker of a language that rules in arranging a set of words