L6 Vu Quynh Nga va Dig Tgp chl KHOA HOC & CONG NGH? 174(14) 183 188 ENHANCING STUDENTS'''' TRANSLATION PERFORMANCE IN SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AN APPLICATION OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING Le Vu Quynh Nga ,[.]
L6 Vu Quynh Nga va Dig Tgp chl KHOA HOC & CONG NGH? 174(14): 183-188 ENHANCING STUDENTS' TRANSLATION PERFORMANCE IN SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES: AN APPLICATION OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING Le Vu Quynh Nga , Ly Thi Hoang Men, Nguyen Thi Thu Oanh School of Foreign Languages - TNU SUMMARY Over several decades, lecturers and educators in academic mstitutions all around the world have hnplemented Cooperative Leaming in theh classrooms in order to enhance students' achievements From the time the social theorists like Allport, Watson, Shaw, and Mead began establishmg cooperative leammg theory prior to WW II to the 1990s; when Johnson, D W and Johnson, R T published two books "Cooperation and compethion: Theory and research" ui 1989, and 'Teaching students to be peacemakers" in 1995, Cooperative Leaming helped change students' and teachers' roles m classrooms The ownership of teaching and learning is shared by groups of students, and is no longer the sole responsibility of the teachers Researches on the implementation of Cooperative Leammg m the classroom have been conducted from elite educational systems like the US, the UK, Germany, or New Zealand to the less advanced ones like Malaysia or Vietnam - with the fu-st representatives were Nguyen Huu Chau, Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa, or Trinh Van Bieu As a part ofthe trend, this paper is a description of a project employed in translation classes in School of Foreign Languages that Is to investigate how Cooperative Leaming approach supports teachers in designing an effective teaching for promoting the students learamg m practice by means of questionnahes and tests The study is expected to prove that the involvement of the approach has been connected positively to thud-year students' franslation performance over translation classes in School of Foreign Languages - Thai Nguyen University Keywords: Cooperative Learning; Active Learning, Translation; Translation performance; Students 'performance BACKGROUND Translation always plays an important role in human communication from the ancient time up untill now It is the gateway for understandmg other people and their civilizations Despite Its long history, franslation studies actually officially became a branch for a short times thanks to the insight researches and books publised by such scholars as Peter Newmark, Peter Ives, Mona Baker, or Jeremy Munday Especially, h was just considered as a way of teaching grammar which made up the famous classical grammar-franslation method, whh the emphasis on morphology, lexis, syntax, register, etc Then the appearance of audioImgual and communicative methods pushed franslation down when the proponents believed that translation was counterproductive in the process of acquiring a new language; therefore, the use of translation in classroom could more damage than good The main arguments and assumptions against the use of translation as a language teaching tool were supported by several authors like Duff (1989) [1] "Translation is an artificial exercise in which the main emphasis is on reading and writing and students not practice oral skills"(p 6), Sankey (1991) [2] "Translation tasks have nothing to with the way in which a mother language is learnt, so they not promote natural FL learning" (p 418), or Carreres (2006) [3] "Translation tasks are useless and not resemble real world practice, since iranslatorsnormally operate into and not out of their mother tongue" (p I I ) To the 21*" century, the globalization, internationalism and intercultural communication together with the reluctance of many teachers and executive authority towards the total changes in teaching methods have reconfirmed the scepticism the unquestionable role of translation Tel: 0979-3t8 525, Email, le'vuquynhnga sfl@lnu edu-vn 183 L6 Vu Quynh Nga vd Dig Tgp chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGHE The development of franslationis not only in terms of language teaching and learamg, but also in franslation fraining both professionally and non-professionally Despite the fact that several universities and schools of foreign languages have started to provide classes entitled Translation, the role of franslation education at univershies has not been fiilly recognized by language teachers - who are lacking a pedagogical model for teaching franslation in undergraduate setting This article is to describe a project done with more than 80 students to survey franslation education m School of Foreign Languages Thai Nguyen Universi^ in the school year of 2016 whh the application of Cooperative Learning - one of the most commonly used forms of active pedagogy - Is to focus on contemporary problems of the franslation teaching and leaming in SFL - TNU, as well as to determine if Cooperative Leaming can enhance the students' translation performance in the school or not TRANSLATION APPROACHES AND TRANSLATION PEDAGOGY A brief touch upon franslation studies in general is done to locate franslation pedagogy in the larger environment About the theories of franslation, there have been many discussed Nida and Taber (1974) [4] once stated that franslation hself was a "science", which was rejected by the others in the second half of the 20* century Accordmg to them, "Translation consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the second-language message, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style " (p 12) Mary Snell-Homby (1988) [5] believed that translation is actually an act of communication Snell-Homby defined the concept as an interaction process between the author, the franslator and the reader as well as their complexities, as in: "Translation is a complex act ofcommunication in which the SL-author, the reader as translator cmd translator as TL-author and the TL-reader interact " (p 81) 184 174(14): 183-1881 James S Hohnes, on the other hand, divided translation theories into two main research areas: "Pure" and "Applied" The former area consists of two big branches: theoretical and descriptive with their sub-fields, meanwhile the latter one consists of three big branches only Here is the map of Holmes' conception offranslationstudies cited ui [6; p.IO]: Figure Holmes' conception of translation studies [6; p.IO] Although the map does not make a distinction between fraining for professionals and nonprofessionals, and "franslator fraining" might not be exactly the same as franslation education at university level, this framework explicitly includes "translator fraining" in the applied part of translation studies Therefore, when investigating translation education, all related factors within the discipline would be taken into consideration In general, teaching someone how to translate is actually putting that person into the cenfre of the franslation process, so that he/ she would understand what he/ she has to and then reconstruct semantic relationships of the two versions Then the teachers of a translation course should understand both the disciplines of franslation studies and teaching methodology COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN TRANSLATION CLASSR(X)MS IN SFL - TNU Cooperative leaming, or CL, one of the most commonly used forms of active pedagogyi^ represents the most carefully structured end of the collaborative leaming continuum Le VQ Qu5mh Nga vd Dtg Tgp chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGHg Instraction involves small ^oups of students who work together to maximize the efficiency of finishing tasks or problems [7] and [8] In thefield of franslation teaching,, little research has been conducted on Cooperative Learning The most recent application ofthe cooperative approach in a franslationclassroom was conducted by the research team of Stewart, Orban and Komelius (2010) [9] This research group calledthe use of the cooperative method in afranslationclass "cooperative franslation" Students are placed in groupsofthree to four and they complete a translation task m a realistic professional franslation environment One of the mainobjectives of this research is to examine "translation units in students' work" Stewart et al (2010) [9] claim that cooperative franslation receives poshive responses from students and is well suited for translating ordinary texts into the franslators' native language In School of Foreign Languages - TNU, minor courses of franslation are offered for shidents of different majors: Translation ,1, Translation 2, Oral Translation 1, Oral Translation and Theories of Translation, and all of them are obligatory for all students in K35 majoring In English language from 2014 The two courses Translation I and Oral Translation I are designed with very basic knowledge, meanwhile the three others are more advanced Except for the course of Theories of Translation which mostly focuses on theoretical knowledge, the four others' priority is on the study and implementation of franslation sfrategies, rather on the perfecting of proficiency in the first language (Ll) and second language (L2) In summer 2014, Cooperative Leaming has been applied into the course Translation for K35 students;thenthe teachers divided the class Into groups of three or four, and let them choose one of the franslation techniques or sfrategies to discover more After discovery of the theoretical background, the groups had tofranslatea short text following the technique or sfrategy as a model to help other groups understand more clearly In class, the groups would present the theory and together with other students in other 174(14): 183-18 groups to analyse the good and the bad of the translation By this way, the strategies would be comprehended and helped students in making betterfranslation.As mentioned above, before the second half of the year 2014, students were instmcted the courses of Translation with the traditional pathway, which means that they were absolutely aware ofthe problems with the course And with the infroduction of Translation with CL, the students should have the comparison between the two methods, and may experience some changes in their leaming habhs as well as their franslation performance METHODOLOGY The study is done to answer two questions: (I) What the students report about the current status of teaching and leaming process in translation courses m SFL - TNU? And (2) To what extent can Cooperative Leaming improve the students translation results? In order to address the current status of the courses of translation in SFL - TNU, the researchers designed questionnaires and two tests and delivered to 83 students The students are those who had finished the course of Translation already and then took part in the course of Translation 2, which meant that they had an insight of the courses as well as the teaching method that the teacher used to deliver the course The first questionnaire,delivered to the students either at the end ofthe course Translation or at the beginning of the course Translation 2, consists of four questions which asked for the students' ideas of the current courses of translation taught in SFL - TNU The second questionnaire, delivered to the students att the end ofthe course Translation 2, was designed with eight questions which asked for the students' ideas of Cooperative Leaming, to see if the method was a good solution for the students to change and improve their translation performance About the tests, they were just normal ones of translation tasks from English into Vietnamese and from Vietnamese into English at upper intermediate level The students had to finish 18 Lg Vu Quynh Nga vd Dtg Tgp chf KHOA HQC & CONG NGHE the tests in 90 minutes each The first test considered as the pre-test - was done at week and the second one - the post-test - was done at week 14 RESULTS With the first questiormaire, the writer received quite negative Ideas of the students towards the old-fashioned pathway of delivering the course Translation Though the students did not have bad Idea of the content of the course, they did not feel satisfied with the way the course were delivered to them The traditional teaching methodology may make them feel unsatisfied, thed, annoyed or even disgusted The second questionnaire displayed in Table - show off positive responses on the changes of the teaching method to Cooperative Learning, as well as the design of the courses and the efficiency of the teachers in teaching process 174(14): 183-18! the characteristics of the course applied Cooperative Leaming, from "Encourage the students to take part hi group work// Provide more freedom and encouragement for discussion", "Enable the students to understand the source text better", "Provide members more opportunities to correct the others' mistakes or get feedback from others as well", to "Translating becomes more professional-oriented" Particularly, in the argument that CL "Enables the students to exchange the ideas about the reproduction of expressions in the target language", none of the students chose negative responses; likewise, in the argument of "translating becomes more interesting", none sfrongly disagreed, only 2.4% disagreed, meanwhile 84.3% and 13.3% agreed or sfrongly agreed respectively The tests also gave us some evidences for the improvement ofthe students' performance in reality, but not in the students'mind only Marks got higher significantly between two tests And even when the authors did a statistic, they could see the a very encouraging change in students'scores Table proved the dominant positive responses to Cooperative Learaing over the negative ones in questions about the sfrong points ofthe method Most ofthe respondents chose either Agree or Sfrongly Agree in all Table The studentsideas ofthe courses Strongly Disagree Agree Disagree The content ofthe courses is well-designed 26.1% 57% The teachmg methods used are suitable 48.2% 39.8% Teachers' mfroduction is delivered efficiently 15.7% 44.6% 28.9% You are uhfmately satisfied whh the course 6% 48.2% 45.8% Table The responses on Cooperative Learning Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Encourage the students to take part in group work// Provide more freedom and encouragement for discussion Class is too noisy Enable the students to understand the source text better Enable the students to exchange the ideas about the reproduction of expressions hi hie target language Provide members more opportunities to correct the others' mistakes or get feedbackfiximothers as well Some students are too passive/ lazy, or not confribute to the group work Translating becomes more interesting Translatmg becomes more professional-oriented Strongly Agree 16.9% 12% 10.8% Strongly Agree L6VuQu5mhNgava£)rg Tgp chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGHE 174(14): 183-188 • Testi • Test 1 f ,1 ^4 £5 26 27 28 ^g • Testi i "Tests Figure Report of tests scores DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The findings showed that the courses of translation in SFL - TNU, though have been well-designed, faced to several challenges in teaching methodology The department should make their objectives for the courses more explicit: giving the students an academic course or a professional-oriented course The ambiguous objectives have misled both the teachers and the students into the belief that the fraining of franslation in SFL - TNU has been professional so far They implied the misuse of the teaching method, when for a long time the traditional "read and franslate" method was used The clearest consequence is that either many students produce poor franslation, or they, worse, dare not to produce one If they are forced to make one translation, they will totally depend on supporting translation machines or devices Students Is another problems of franslation leaming process for lacking so many factors that are vital in translation like language and culture background in both languages and intensive understanding of translation techniques and sfrategies The last but not least problems in teaching franslation in SFL - TNU is the teachers for lacking professional certificates, skills and continuous fraining, which makes them less efficient as the trainers of franslators in the future Nevertheless, the findings highlighted that the majority of respondents showed positive Figure Report on the change of students' tests score responses towards Cooperative Leaming They loved working in teams and enjoyed discussions because they had chances to exchange ideas for better Most of them thought that working in groups made the class noisy, but franslation was still more interesting and motivating than it used to be in traditional approach With the improvement in the students'scores, Cooperative Leaming might become a solution for the fraining of franslation in SFL -TNU REFERENCES Duff, Alan (1989), Translation Oxford, Oxford University Press Sankey, Howard (1991), "Incommensurability, translation and understandmg" The Philosophical Quarterly, 41(165), pp 414-426 Carreres, Angeles (2006), "Sttange Bedfellows: Translation and Language Teaching The Teachmg of Translation mto L2 m Modem Languages Degrees: Uses and Limitations", In Sixth Symposium on Translation, Terminology an Interpretation m Cuba and Canada December 2006, La Havana: Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council (online): PP.1-2L Nida, Eugene A & Taber Charlie R (1982), The Theory and Practice of Translation Leiden: E J Brill Snell-Homby, M (1988), Translation Studies: An Integrated Approach Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V Toury, G (1995), In Search of a Translation Theory, Tel Aviv: Porter Institute, Rodger, S, Murray, H G & Cummings, A L, (2007), "Gender differences in cooperative leaming 187 LeVflQuJnhNgavaDrg Tgp chi KHOA HQC & C N G NGH$ wifli university students" The Alberta Joumal of Educational Research 53(p.),pp.\57-\72 Ball, C T &PeIco L E (2006), "Teachmg research methods to undergraduate psychology students using an active cooperative learamg approach", InlernalionalJournal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 17 (2), pp.147-154 174(14): 183-188 Stewart, J., Orban, W &Koraelius, J (2010), Cooperative translation in the paradigm of problem-based learning \n Bilic,V., HoideThmn, A., Kimnes, A Komelius, J, Stewart, J & Stoll, C (Eds.) T2 In-Translation WissenschaftlicterVerlag Trier: Germany TAT N A N G C A O C H A T L U O N G B A I D I C H CUA S I N H V I E N K H O A N G O A I NGU" - D H T N T H O N G Q U A V I E C A P D ^ N G P H U O N G P H A P H Q C T ^ HQfP T A C T6M LS VQ Qujnh Nga', Ly Thi Hoing M^n, Nguyen Thj Thu Oanh Khoa Ngogi ngii - DH Thdi Nguyen Trong nhi^u thip ki qua, phuang phip hpc tgp hpp tie da dupe nhiSu giing vi8n v i nhieu nha giao dye tgi cic tmhng cao dang, dgi hpc o nhieu noi fren the gicri i p dung, nhim ning cao ket qui hpc tip cia sinh vien Tir nhttng chuySn gia x5 hpi hpc nhu Allport, Watson, Shaw v i Mead bat dau khoi xuong ly thuyfit hpc tip hop tic tCr trudc The chi6i thi3f cho d^n thip nien 90 cua th^ ki 20, thdi kl m i Johnson D W va Johnson, R T xuit bin cu6n sich li "Hyp tic v i Cgnh tranh: L^ thuyet v i Nghien cfru" vio nam 1989, v i "Dgy sinh viSn fro thinh nhQng su: gii h6a bhih" vao nim 1995, phuang phip dgy bye hgp tic da gdp phin thay doi vai fr6 ciia giio viSn va hpc sinh 16p hpc Chii thi ciia qui trhih day va hpc dupe chia se v6i ngu&i hpc, chii khSng c6n li frich nhiem rieng ciia ngu6i dgy ntta Nhthig nghiSn chu ve vi^c ip dyng phuong phap dgy hpc hpp tic da dupe ti^n hinh is nhiSu quoc gia, tCt nhiJng nu6c c6 h§ th6ng giio dye liang diiu nhu My, Anh, Diic hoic New Zealand, cho den nhihig nen giio due ft phit friln hon nhu Malaysia vi Vi^t Nam (vdi nhOng dgi di^n diu tiSn l i Nguyen Hihi Chau, Nguyin Thi Phuong Hoa, hay Tryih van Bilu) Nam chung frong xu thS d6, bii bio niy sS tgp trung m6 t i mOt dy in duac thiSt ke cho cic ldp hpc biSn djch tgi Khoa Ngoai ngit - Dgi hpc Thai Nguyen vdi myc tiSu xic dinh phuong phap day hpc hpp tie cd thi hd trp giang vien nhu thi nio frong vi^c thllt kl nhttng gid hpc hi§u qui dl kich thfch ngudi hpc frong thyc tien giing dgy bing nhttng phuong phip nghiSn ciiu chinh nhu phit philu dilu fra, vi lim bai kilm fra NghiSn cuu dupe kl vpng li chiing mmh dupe mdi quan h | chat chS giQa vi|c ap dung phuong phip day hpc hap tic v i kit qui hpc tip cd thih tfch eye ciia sinh vien cac nhdm djch nim thii ciia Khoa Ngoai ngtt - DHTN Tir khda: PPDH hap tdc, Hgc tap tich cue Dich thudt Sdn phdm dfch thugt, Sdn phdm cua sinh vien Ngdy nh^n bdi: 25/10/2017; Ngdy phdn bifn: 13/11/2017; Ngdy duyft ddng: 13/12/2017 Tel' 0979.318.525, Email levuquynhnga s/l@inu.edu.vi 188 ... M^n, Nguyen Thj Thu Oanh Khoa Ngogi ngii - DH Thdi Nguyen Trong nhi^u thip ki qua, phuang phip hpc tgp hpp tie da dupe nhiSu giing vi8n v i nhieu nha giao dye tgi cic tmhng cao dang, dgi hpc o nhieu... li chiing mmh dupe mdi quan h | chat chS giQa vi|c ap dung phuong phip day hpc hap tic v i kit qui hpc tip cd thih tfch eye ciia sinh vien cac nhdm djch nim thii ciia Khoa Ngoai ngtt - DHTN Tir... cfru" vio nam 1989, v i "Dgy sinh viSn fro thinh nhQng su: gii h6a bhih" vao nim 1995, phuang phip dgy bye hgp tic da gdp phin thay doi vai fr6 ciia giio viSn va hpc sinh 16p hpc Chii thi ciia