INTRODUCTION
Rationale of the study
As released by the Dan Viet News, translation and interpreting is one of the ten hottest jobs in 2017, and every each week, there are two to three foreign companies recruiting one or two translators, with the salary offer ranging from $300 to $1,500 in accordance with the statistics from the www.vieclambank.com This means that translation as a professional career choice has become more and more popular and it needs more human resources than it used to The fact is that countless people work as translators, but those who reach the pinnacle of translation are only counted on the fingers of one hand This is because studying
Translation is not a simple thing at all The problem with translation is that almost all learners simply do it in the way of instinctive translation The truth is that this translating style is used only for English learners For people who are majored in English in general and beginning
English learners in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the Industrial University of Ho Chi
Minh City in particular, Translation is a subject which requires students to deal with methodically by applying specific process and strategies
In the writer‟s learning process, she used to witness that her classmates, with a lot of effort, managed to render the texts from English into Vietnamese and vice versa every time they practiced translating In the process, the fellow students made a lot of mistakes of vocabulary, grammar, idioms, terms, structure and other things which unfortunately slowed down the translating process and even resulted in a feeling of underachievement no matter how hard they had tried
After a period of time studying Translation subject, and being encouraged to use English newspapers in Translation by the teacher and practice translating in groups with classmates, the writer realized that her translation ability improved greatly Besides, she is aware that still a great number of other learners wish to enhance their translation skills, so in her opinion, it would be necessary to recommend this useful way to help learners translate smoothly and accurately After finishing this thesis, the writer hopes that every learner in the FFL will have the motivation to read English newspapers and make reading English newspapers one of their habitual learning activities Also, reading English newspapers is a long-term benefit; the students should still read English newspapers in their whole life, either online or offline Once the students use the effective method, translation will be easier Therefore, I hope that benefiting from my thesis, they can engage themselves in translation as best as they can.
Aims of study
Unlike other subjects, Translation does not always have a specific answer; the criteria to evaluate the quality of a translation are based on the expression in the target language (spelling, grammar, lexical items, text and style), the understanding of other related problems in the source text (contresens, faux sens, nonsens, addition, omission, unresolved extra- linguistic references, loss of meaning, and inappropriate linguistic variation) and the transmission of either the main function or secondary functions of the source text It will be difficult, if not possible, to arrive at a perfect translation because of the differences in writing style of each translator and in the language system between the two countries Apart from these issues, the learners may encounter other obstacles, which requires them to figure out themselves an effective way to apply into their translation process The first aim of the study is to survey the ways they use in their translation lessons After that, the writer will look at how the good use of English newspapers can support in improving their practice of specific aspects Based on this, the writer goes on to find out the actual statistics to highlight the role of English newspapers reading in the translation class Finally, there are some suggestions about combination between reading English newspapers and studying translation in order to bring into play the effect of reading English newspapers and to maximize the learners‟ translation ability as well.
Research questions
This research is carried out on English majors of class DHAV10 at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city so as to answer the three following questions:
1 Which ways do English-majored juniors usually use to study translation?
2 In what ways does reading English newspapers help studying translation?
3 How should the students read English newspapers to improve translation?
Significance of study
Most people who study translation, from juniors to seniors, expect to find an effective way to study translation Upon observation of the students of DHAV10 – the students I have surveyed and talked to, I have found that they had to face many problems and managed much to finish the translation texts when they practice translating Therefore, I would like to suggest that they should read English newspapers and encourage them to read more English newspapers with the hope that they can develop their translation experience
In the thesis, on the one hand, how juniors in FFL at IUH evaluate English newspapers can be clarified On the other hand, the learners can understand more the importance of reading English newspapers on studying translation Thenceforth, the learners may have a deeper look into this issue and make their choice to apply reading English newspapers into their translation
All the students at the IUH who are interested in Translation in general and English- majored juniors in the FFL at the IUH in particular can use this thesis as a reference for understanding the problems and difficulties they have encountered in the Translation subject This also suggests a certain solution to the limitations in the method with which the writer has studied Translation Finally, the writer does hope that the thesis can help English-majored juniors in the FFL at the IUH translate better and enhance their translation ability.
The scope of study
This investigation is designed for English-majored juniors in the FFL at the IUH In the research, the writer looks at the problems and difficulties the students have faced and the ways they have used to study during their translation course The writer then suggests reading English newspapers as a solution To affirm the validity and reliability of the study, the writer uses two main instruments including questionnaires and interviews.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Translation
There are various standpoints regarding the notion of translation brought out by a variety of researchers during the development history of the field As quoted from Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2000:1438), “translation is the process of changing something that is written or spoken into another language” Whenever we change something like information or ideas into another language called translation, translation helps many readers from many different countries understand the same text or content as it is translated into their own language Besides, Ordudari (2007:1) states that translation typically has been used to transfer written or spoken source language (SL) texts to equivalent written or spoken target language (TL) texts A similar definition is also mentioned by Pinchuck (1977), which considers translation as “a process of finding a TL equivalent for an SL utterance.” Furthermore, Wilss (1982:3) points out:
Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of a written
SL text into an optimally equivalent TL text It can be explained the language that is to be translated is called SL, whereas the text to be translated is called the
ST The language that is to be translated into is called the target language (TL); while the final product is called the target text (TT)
In general, the four above-mentioned definitions express the implication that the purpose of translation is to interpret various kinds of texts – comprising literary, educational, scientific and social texts into another language so that a wider range of readership will be able to access them across the borders of space and time
Besides the definitions cited from the above sources, another from Nida and Taber (1982:12) states that translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style Likewise, translation, as Bell (1991:8) alleges, entails the transfer of meaning from a text in one language into a text in another language In other words, with one text in a temporal context, different translators will produce different versions, even the same translator will create another new text in a new context But no matter how the translators translate, their re-translation have to be the same as the origin in term of both the meaning and phraseology The meaning is crucial in translation activity Therefore, the translators must be careful in interpreting the sentences‟ meanings in order not to make readers misunderstanding the authors‟ intention
Considering the notions above, the writer may say that translation is the process of transferring a text from source language into target language which still preserves the meaning of the text
There is no doubt that the function of translation is to communicate According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2000:546), function is a special activity or purpose of a person or thing and basically, and the special purpose or function of translation is to provide a medium of communications To be precise, Levy in Venutti (2000: 148) specifies,
“Translation is a process of communication: the objective of translating is to impart the knowledge of the original to the foreign reader” In a similar vein, Duff (1989:5) assumes “As a process of communication, translation functions as the medium „across the linguistic and cultural barriers‟ in conveying the message written in the foreign languages.” In other words, translation, as a service, allows us to overcome linguistic barriers among a wide variety of countries By helping people and societies to communicate with each other, it fulfills the communicative function Furthermore, as Nida (1982:2) put it, “Translation means communication because it has three essential elements to form a process of communication The three essential elements are source, message, and receptor, and these elements must be found in all communication activities” Besides, Hatim and Mason (1997:1) consider translation as “an act of communication which attempts to relay, across cultural and linguistic boundaries, another act of communication.”
From these standpoints, it is likely to conclude that the main function of translation is to communicate and its functions is to act as a bridge that carries the messages from the SL to the TL, breaking the language barrier between countries and enabling people around the world to understand each other
Translation is not only the process of changing the form of word or sentence, but also the process of transferring the idea or information from the source language (SL) to the target language (TL) Before translating the text, the translator must understand the process of translation to be able to translate smoothly and accurately The translation process is a series of translating activities involving three phases: pre-translation, translation, and post- translation (Daniel Gouadec 2007: 13)
Before translating a text, it is necessary for the translator to consider six factors (Bui et al., 1997, cited in Giang Thuc Anh 2012:10) of which the first step is to read the source text
In this step, the translator sees the text, reads it and comprehends its content The purpose of this step is that the translator is able to understand the content of the text and establish the focus he or she is going to translate Secondly, after reading the source text, the translator should consider the meaning of the text As Larson (1984: 3) puts forward, “when translating a text, the translator‟s goal is an idiomatic translation which makes every effort to communicate their meaning of the SL text into the natural forms of the receptor language.” Furthermore, he states that translation is concerned with a study of the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the SL text, which are each analyzed in order to determine its meaning The discovered meaning is then re-expressed or reconstructed using the lexicon and grammatical structure which is appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context The following diagram is presented by Larson as the translation process
Figure 1 Translation process by Larson (1984: 4)
Thirdly, it is necessary to pay special attention to the intention of the translator The translator should be careful when translating a text because the translator will also be considered as the
Text to be translated Translation
Discover the meaning Re-express the meaning author of the text in another language at the same time The intention of the translator needs to be identical with the intention of the author in the ST As Newmark (1988) says,
“Usually, the translator‟s intention is identical with that of the author of the SL- text But he may be translating an advertisement, a notice, or a set of instructions to show his client how such matters are formulated and written in the source language, rather than how to adapt them in order to persuade or instruct a new TL readership And again, he may be translating a manual of instructions for a less educated readership, so that the explanation in his translation may be much larger than the reproduction”
Fourthly, the style should be taken into account EL Shafey (1985:95, cited from Tran Thi Kim Khue 2013: 9) states that “a translator first analyzes the message, breaking it down into its simplest and structurally clearest elements, transfers it at this level into the target language in the form which is most appropriate for the intended audience” This means that the translator should focus on the style of the SL text to discover the text deeply
English Newspapers
As in Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2010:1029), “newspaper is a set of large printed sheets of paper containing news, articles, advertisements, etc and published every day or every week” There is a similar definition about newspapers from Merriam-Webster dictionary as: “Newspaper is a set of large sheets of paper that have news stories, information about local events, advertisements, etc., and that are folded together and sold every day or every week” This means that newspaper is a set of sheets of paper which gives the reader information about current events, stories, news, etc occurring not only in their nation but also in other countries every day and every week According to Alejandro (2015),
“a newspaper is a publication that is issued daily or weekly and includes local and international news stories, advertisements, announcements, opinions, cartoons, sports news and television listings” In addition, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has defined a newspaper as: “a serial publication which contains news on current events of special or general interest The individual parts are listed chronologically or numerically and appear usually at least once a week” (cited from Cathy & David, 2006) This is a convenient way for the public to get information of fields they are interested in With only one piece of newspaper, the reader can learn about what is happening around them Especially, given the well written and classified information in the newspaper, it should be easy for the reader to choose the section to read and understand the content in the newspapers
2.2.2 Benefits of reading English newspapers
Reading English newspapers brings huge benefits First, reading newspaper will enhance the reader‟s knowledge about general information Marky (2012) sates that
“newspapers carry the news of the world” By reading newspapers, the general public can find the information about a country‟s political situation, business, education, sports, entertainment, culture, science and technology, trade and commerce, to name a few The readers will have a clear idea and understanding of policies and plans of the government and corporations in the editorial of the newspaper It also presents lots of classified and display advertisements that will give the readers updated information about what is going on in the world of science and technology Besides, Marky also indicates that “reading newspaper makes you well informed” The readers are able to join in every discussion about the world‟s current events For example, by writing a reply to the editor‟s letter, the reader can take an active participation in community discussions, and enhance their horizon about the world around them The only thing that can stop them from joining talks and discussion is their ignorance of what is happening, which will be a disadvantage if they do not read newspapers Second, reading English newspaper is a good habit that can provide a great sense of educational value “Newspapers bring to the students real life situations and can be easily used as authentic materials” (Laureta, 2009) English newspapers provide information and background knowledge about various topics Reading English newspapers daily will widen the scope of the student‟s knowledge Moreover, newspapers also provide interesting things and ideas which can assist the students in their learning foreign language process Reading English newspapers not only helps students enhance their understanding, but also develops their language skills and increases their vocabulary
These days, there are lots of media which bring current news like television channels and radio programs, but there is truly no better record of the world's happenings than a newspaper (Newspaper Association of America Foundation, 2010)
2.2.3 Difficulties when reading English newspapers
Although reading English newspapers brings plenty of benefits, the readers may encounter a lot of difficulties when reading the English newspapers “Reading is one of the most demanding tasks, academically, for international students” Anderson said, “If an international student doesn‟t have really strong, fluent reading skills, then they are going to have to spend twice as long on doing homework assignments” (cited form the websites http://universe.byu.edu/2012/07/02/international-students-work-hard-to-overcome-language- challenges/)
Regardless of what you read, newspapers or books, novels, comics or the like, reading a foreign material will always be a challenge, especially when English is not your first language According to Hwang and Paul (1989), “the limited vocabulary is a major source of difficulty in reading English newspapers” His studies showed that when the learners with a vocabulary knowledge of 2,000 words (and all proper nouns) read a newspaper article without any particular reparation, they will encounter about 10 unknown words per 100 words, about 30-35 unknown words (about 20 word families) in the text Besides Hwang and Paul, John O'connor (1922) assumes that “the major disadvantage of many of English newspapers is that the words in them may sometimes be too difficult for the person who does not have a large vocabulary” He adds, with so many unknown words in each newspaper article, the learners would not be able to read newspapers article successfully Clearly, lack of vocabulary is another obstacle the readers encounter Although they can look up dictionaries to find the meaning, if there are to many new words in an article, it can discourage them and can affect their reading comprehension
On the contrary, Antonio (2010) says “the majority of learners believe that their difficulty in dealing with foreign education, books, newspapers, or conversations lies in their lack of vocabulary or failings of language But once they possess a relatively large vocabulary, the real problem is some combination of culture and practice” He believes that culture is the real problem the readers have to face when reading English newspapers Nida
(1890) also has the similar assumption, “differences between cultures may cause more severe complications for the learners than do differences in language structure” (p.130) To understand an English newspaper, the readers first have to clearly understand the culture of both their country and the foreign countries, and they also should know all of the news and concepts in the newspaper
In another statement, Antonio (2010) states that there are many different uses of language, and styles of writing And newspapers do have style which differs from other kinds of writing This is one of the difficulties the reader faces when reading English newspapers
Mr Antonio also suggests a solution to these difficulties In his opinion, the best way to deal with English newspapers, the readers first read a news story in their own language at the beginning Then they start to read the same news story in the foreign language newspaper Also, they can watch the news in their own language and then in whatever language they are studying, and compare them
Practice makes perfect The more hours the students invest, the better they will get Practice reading English newspapers as much as you can and gradually, the students can overcome the difficulties and enjoy reading English newspapers.
The effect of reading English newspapers on translation
2.3.1 The functions of English newspapers
Textbooks are the main material for teaching in translation classes They are designed for students to have more translation experience in many popular subjects in all aspects of life such as health, education, society, population, etc However, the weaknesses of the textbooks are that they are not regularly updated, so information in the textbooks can be out of date, inappropriate, or can be short of new terms which describe new phenomena but are not put in the textbooks There is an undeniable fact that most teachers in education rely mainly on textbooks so the students tend to use only the words that they learn from the textbooks and they lack words while practicing translation from other sources as television, radio or newspapers Aiming to provide the most accurate and reliable sources of news for the readers everywhere and every time, the newspaper articles are usually carefully selected for content and quality “Unlike textbooks, which are several years outdated by the time they get into students‟ hands, the newspaper comes alive with information The newspaper expands the curriculum with an unlimited amount of information to use as background for learning activities” (Newspaper Association of America Foundation, 2010) Through English newspapers, students of all ages can have more motivations to study by enjoying the variety of reading and visual material included in the newspaper This should satisfactorily serve the important function of modern education, which is to teach students to use many informational resources available, including the newspaper as a current reference Shivender (2016) states and lists the uses of English newspapers as follow:
“The use of English newspapers in the classroom in regular basis will inculcate many good ideas and habit of grasping vocabulary spontaneously Students read newspaper for the sake of information but they learn a lot even without many efforts Some major uses are as follows:
making the process of learning more innovative and interesting
offering a wide variety of information in every aspect of life
developing writing and reading skills
mastering terminology and special expressions
learning idioms, phrases and many new innovative constructions
Reena, M., (2014) defines the role of English newspaper in English Language Learning as below:
“Teaching English to a non-native English speakers in somewhat challenging as it take a lot of time in understanding students learn or cram their syllabus and pass their examination but they fail in speaking, reading and writing and I think newspapers can be vital in all their talents as they play an important role in this regard.”
It opens many new ways of discussion and conversation in classroom
The teacher and students can discuss innumerable aspects of newspapers daily and can do a creative writing section on the spot every day
Working of a newspaper can give many new ideas and openings
Daily discussion of „Headlines‟ gives a lot of knowledge and exposure
Games adapted from newspapers can provide vital information for pairwork and group work while increasing the feeling of sharing and teamwork
Practice of writing short articles enhances student knowledge of grammar and creative writing
Newspapers are one of the most powerful sources of sharing information and widening of knowledge bank They cover a wide range of information and students can get a lot of practical wisdom They are very reliable, available and accessible For effective English Learning, newspaper can work as a major tool There are numerous activities that can be organized inside and outside the class with newspapers Students want innovations and new learning ways; newspapers drives them to an innovative way of learning by questioning their opinions and beliefs about daily topics Therefore students can read them with great interest and learn how to enrich their target language
According to Cheyney (1982) newspaper is the special textbook that provides up-to- date information on local, provincial, national and world affairs It is a real-life, open-ended textbook with practical, everyday situations, which can easily be used as authentic materials in teaching and learning translation Besides, Laureta (2009) states that “newspapers usually reflect the culture of a certain community through the language they contain Newspapers also reflect the changes in the language as well, and in doing so, help students and teachers keep up pace with such changes” English newspapers reflect British and American culture, so reading English newspapers will help the learners grasp British and American culture spontaneously; thenceforward, the learners can translate effectively However, as mentioned in “the difficulties in reading English newspapers” section, the real problem which the majority of learners encounter in reading foreign newspapers lies in some combination of culture and practice (Antonio, 2010) Lack of cultural understanding of other countries may prevent the students from translating smoothly and accurately
Laureta (2009) also clarifies another function of newspapers: “Newspapers provide a wide range of various text types and language styles, which are not always found in textbooks” Each author has a different writing styles, and each style is typical for the writing style of a professional native author By reading a variety of English newspapers, the learners, day by day, inculcate these writing styles in their mind Then, when applying reading English newspapers to translation, the translator will be able to translate in a professional style as English newspapers they have read before in the most natural way
There is another statement about the function of English newspapers from Strommen and Mates (2004) They comment that “reading English newspapers builds vocabulary skills and background knowledge” Meanwhile, Fisher and Frey, (2009); and Kamil et al., (2008) define that “Vocabulary and background knowledge are widely discussed as critical factors in learning” And they are also the key factors in learning translation because they indirectly affect translating process The ability to infer meaning in text is positively influenced by the level of vocabulary and background knowledge the learner has (Tarchi, 2009) This means that vocabulary and background knowledge have a profound influence on the ability to understand what is reading If a learner understands a word, he or she probably has an understanding of the concepts related to the word and if a learner has good background knowledge of a topic, he or she will be able to translate a text
“People learn through reading, and reading about interesting new things in one‟s interest subject, undoubtedly helps motivation” (Sanderson, 2002) English newspapers always contain new and interesting things and the writer strongly believes that English newspapers will attract a lot of learners and the learners will have motivation to read newspapers daily English newspapers are very useful They reflect the culture, provide a wide range of various text types and language styles and supply a huge amount of vocabulary and background knowledge which really help learners in translating
2.3.2 Improvements English newspapers bring to translation
According to Nation and Beglar (2007); Meara (2010), the ability to expand and use vocabulary in an active way is considered a convenient measure for assessing language skills; and in a study, Yo, Yukino, Masao and Eiichiro (2014) propose to assess translation ability through vocabulary ability assessment (p.3712) This means that the way students use vocabulary serves as the measure to evaluate their translation ability To translate well, as a result, the learners need to enlarge their vocabulary bank Apart from learning vocabulary from the dictionary, learning vocabulary from reading English newspapers is also a good option for learners
As a statement from Raju (2016), “reading English newspapers can help students learn a lot of vocabulary because the contents of the English newspapers are rich and vivid” John O‟Connor (1922) has a similar statement He states that “reading English newspapers is an important step to increasing your knowledge of words, because that is how you will find most of the words you should be learning” Besides, Clement (2010) comments that “reading English language newspapers is a particularly valuable way of learning vocabulary” In addition, Hwang (1989) defines that reading English newspapers provides better conditions for acquisition of vocabulary Moreover, Hansan (2000) comments that “Read, read, and read
The more you read – especially novels and literary works, but also magazines and newspapers – the more words you'll be exposed to” An English newspaper usually provides a huge amount of vocabulary Some of them are probably new for language learners They may be the barrier which prevent then students from translating smoothly but when they know the meaning of these new words (by deriving meaning from the context of the sentence or looking up the definition in a dictionary), the students should have these new words included in their own vocabulary list Besides the single words, in English newspapers, there are many expressions, which are combinations of words with special meanings This is also a very important feature for building language students‟ academic vocabulary
Basic topics which are commonly used in translation class include education, social affairs, culture, etc These topics are often designed in separate units in textbooks, and it means that teachers and students are required to teach and learn in then designated order, rather than focusing on their favorite topics at random Unlike the textbooks, apart from these topics, most English newspapers contain interesting and attractive topics which allow teachers and students to choose whatever topics they are interested in For example, the newspaper reader may go straight to the showbiz column, where they can get information about their idols and those who are keen on real estate situation or the stock market can go to the relevant sections to satisfy their need In the process, they can enhance their language skills as well According to Shivender (2016), “newspaper should be considered as supplementary material that needs to be added along with the text used in the classroom Students can enjoy various reading topics independently based on their own interests even outside the classroom” The topics in English newspapers are extremely diversified; the more topics they read, the more background knowledge and related specialized vocabulary they have However, Marziyeh and Mohammad (2016) suggest “reading in only one genre, one subject matter, or the work of one author” By persistently reading on a certain topic, learners can develop a wide array of knowledge on the topic as well as the vocabulary involved Besides, in accordance with a concept called “Narrow Reading”, even if we read a lot topics, only pretty high frequency words will keep coming up time after time Therefore “the idea here is that learners are encouraged to read around the same topic for a while, thus increasing their chances of coming across the same, topic-related, lexical items again and again” (Robert, 2015)
From all the information above, the writer may say, reading various topics in English newspapers provide huge benefits, but the learners should have an effective way to deal with them, which is reading one topic for a period of time before turning to another topic In this way, they can maximize the good effect of reading English newspapers and apply them into translation
Every learner can have a try at translating a SL text into a TL text, but to produce a perfect translation, the learners needs to have a good writing style so that they can translate the text smoothly There are four types of writing styles including expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative Each type is used for a specific purpose Firstly, the purpose of expository writing is to explain the process of doing something Secondly, a descriptive writing piece, as its name suggests, focuses on describing a character, an event, a place, situations, or locations in detail Thirdly, the main point of persuasive writing is to convince This writing style is equipped with reasons, arguments, and justifications to persuade the readers to agree with the writer‟s point of view Lastly, the purpose of narrative writing is to tell a story or event The writer creates different characters and tells the readers what happens to them To translate texts of these various writing styles effectively, the translators need to grasp what kind of the text is involved in order to choose the appropriate writing style
However, when translating English newspapers into Vietnamese, the journalistic style is different from college writing style Most of the paragraphs in an English newspaper are sentence paragraphs which usually use quotation and focus on the facts The authors do not concentrate on using academic words but focus on using simple words and the journalistic style has to close to the readers so that they can easily understand the content of the article Another different is that the translations in the textbook have been selected in style All of them are formal However, styles in newspapers are more different and various
REASEARCH METHODOLOGY
Participants
Because the thesis was aimed at investigating the effects of reading English newspapers on translation, the survey was specifically involved with the teacher who is teaching Translation 1 and students who are currently learning Translation 1 in the Faculty Foreign Language (FFL) at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH)
The writer collected data from this teacher because he is one of the translation teachers who regularly apply reading English newspapers throughout the translation course at IUH He is also the person who inspires her to carry out the research In data collection procedure, both questionnaire and interview were used because the writer would like to ask for his ideas about the situation of translation learning as well as the ways his students respond to newspapers reading in their translation learning process Besides, the writer also hopes that she can receive value experience and useful advice about translation from the teacher
As for the group of students, the writer chose students of DHAV10, who were divided into two sub-groups, to survey The writer intended to look particularly at 150 students of DHAV10 in order that the result can be more authentic However, there were only 120 data sheets collected because of the intermittent absence and incomplete answers All of the students are the juniors at IUH, so their English proficiency is supposed to be at the same level They were studying Translation 1 in the second semester in their third year school; thus, the time they studied and the time the writer did this survey were at the same period of time The course book they used was Translation 1 (2008) by Nguyen Quy Tam, which has been used in FFL at IUH to teach Translation at the associate and university level The way to deal with the questions in the data sheets was explained clearly before the students completed them so that the final result can reach the highest level of accuracy.
Research instruments
To clarify the research questions in the study, the writer used two research instruments to gather information during the survey They included questionnaires and interview
The writer chose the questionnaire to collect data because of its benefits in data collection procedure According to Karim (2013), questionnaires bring two big advantages Firstly, questionnaires allow collection of both subjective and objective data in a large sample of the study population in order to obtain results that are statistically significant Secondly, it is a good tool for the protection of the privacy of the participants The respondents do not need to pay attention to the observer and they give their private answers comfortably; without the control, they are free to give their honest responses Besides, Harry (2009) adds two more benefits of questionnaires instruments One is that the researcher incurs low cost of collecting data by just designing a questionnaire and then having it copied before sending the copies to the targeted respondents The other is that analyzing and processing the data are less expensive in terms of both time and material resources As for the use of this instrument in the current survey, two sets of questionnaires were used to collect data, one was for the teacher and one was for students All the questions in the data sheets were written in English
Firstly, there were fourteen multiple-choice questions, two sets of rating scale questions, and two sets of Likert questions in the teacher questionnaires (Appendix 1) With the expectation of receiving additional ideas from the teacher that may clarify the multiple- choice questions, the writer added an "Others" section so that the teacher could provide his own viewpoints in case the given answers failed to fit his ideas In this way, the writer collected more useful information for the study than expected The purposes of rating scale questions were to examine the teacher‟s considerations to give feedback for the students when he looks at their translations and the teacher‟s assessment of the difficulty level of the topics that the students learned One set of Likert questions was used for the teacher to evaluate the frequency of the mistakes made in a translation by the students The question items were the four-point Likert Scale, ranging from „Never‟ to „Always‟ (1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 usually, 4 = always) The other was aimed at finding the reasons why students are afraid of translating some topics in textbook and English newspapers In this set of questionnaire, the question items ranged from „Strongly Disagree‟ to „Strongly Agree‟ (1 = strongly disagree, 2
Secondly, student questionnaires (Appendix 2) included fourteen multiple-choice questions, one set of dichotomous questions and one set of Likert questions In the multiple- choice questions for students, the writer also left one choice for them to contribute their own ideas The dichotomous questions were used to recognize some common reasons for the difficulties in translating some topics in English newspapers For the Likert question, the question items are also five-point Likert Scale, ranging from „strongly disagree‟ to „strongly agree‟ (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree) This was aimed at examining the students‟ evaluation about English newspapers
Besides the questions in the questionnaires, the writer was interested in learning about possible problems with translation and reading English newspapers in practice Therefore, the writer intended to directly ask for participants‟ opinions and, if necessary, clarify their corresponding answers in the questionnaires Hence, the interviews were also conducted on both the teacher and students To conduct these interviews, the researcher prepared lists of open-ended questions For the teacher interview, the researcher asked the teacher two questions to figure out what he thought about students‟ difficulties in using English newspapers as an additional material in translation class and how the topics in English newspapers could be chosen in order to practice translation at class For the student interview, the researcher randomly chose 12 out of 120 students of DHAV10 to interview This instrument was aimed at finding the difficulties the students encountered while translating two sentences (English-Vietnamese and Vietnamese-English) that the researcher required them to in the questionnaires, how they translated these two sentences and finally what experience they drew from translating these sentences All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese The researcher asked the participants to record the conversations and she also took notes of the main points from the participants‟ answers With this research instrument, the participants could comfortably share their ideas while the researcher was also able to control the order and flow of questions Moreover, as for a certain vague answer, the researcher could ask the participants to provide more explanations (Karim Abawi, 2013).
Data collection procedure
In the thesis, there were two stages in the data collection procedure Stage 1 focuses on getting the teacher‟s opinion and stage 2 on the students‟ work
All the question items in the questionnaires were based on the knowledge the writer of the research had gained in the literature review The supervisor recommended that the writer should also take account of the teachers‟ considerations when evaluating a student‟s translation and their expectations on the students‟ work Because the teacher questionnaires need to be professional and mistake proof, the researcher had each question in the questionnaires meticulously checked for spelling or grammar mistakes After adjusting the questionnaires three times, the writer started to carry out the data collecting procedure It took the teacher about twenty minutes to complete all the questions As soon as the teacher finished the questionnaire, the writer asked for his permission to conduct an interview The conversation lasted about five minutes The writer was grateful that the teacher enthusiastically answered all her questions in the questionnaire and interview as well The teacher‟s support is really valuable because his responses play an important role in the writer‟s thesis
The question items in student questionnaires were aimed at clarifying the research questions at the beginning of the research All the questions and opinions were compiled carefully for a long time under the supervisor‟s guidance and support As soon as completing the questionnaires, the writer started conducting the data collecting procedure on students After being allowed to deliver the questionnaires to the students by the teachers who were teaching at that time, the writer came to the classes, shortly introduced herself, then handed out the questionnaires to all students and finally, gave careful instructions on how to answer each type of question Besides, difficult questions were also clarified in the class immediately Students spent a total of about twenty-five minutes answering all the questions and translating two sentences In translation practice, the writers divided each class into two small groups One group translated the two sentences with a reference to the two pieces of newspaper article (the Dak Lak and Vietnam Tourism News) given by the writer and the other group translated on their own In the two pieces of newspapers, there were new words, structures as well as the background knowledge regarding the contents of the two sentences in the questionnaire which were supposed to help the students deal with the two texts easily
While this survey required a considerable amount of time and effort on both sides of the teacher and students involved, the writer was grateful for the teacher‟s wholehearted support and all the students‟ assistance in giving her well completed questionnaires After collecting the data sheets, the writer started interviewing the students The writer and the students had a wonderful time sharing ideas about translation and newspaper reading in translation under no pressure The students answered the writer‟s questions comfortably and sincerely All the teachers and students made a deep impression on the writer.
Data analysis procedure
To affirm the validity and reliability of the study, the writer needed to conduct editing data process First, the writer checked the questionnaires to identify any missing, invalid or inconsistent items within the data (Richard, 2016) Any questionnaire in which the respondent omitted even only one question was also considered as unacceptable questionnaire and thus eliminated out of the study Hence, all the questionnaires which remain in the study, are valid and reliable enough to serve the research purpose
This second step is especially important in data analysis procedure Bourque and Linda (2004) state that coding data is the process by which verbal data are converted into variables and categories of variables using numbers so that the data can be entered into computers for analysis In other words, a large amount of information in the data sheets is converted into numerical values and the computer is responsible for coding data In this particular survey, the answers of the teacher and students were entered in the computer, and then they were counted and changed into percentage for analysis For open questions, the writer wrote down their answers and then categorized them The information from interview was also collected to be used for the following chapter of findings and discussion of the research
No research can survive without data analysis (Nabi, 2016) According to Jayesh, the purpose of data analysis is “to make sense of data we have collected” In this step, with the information gained from a large number of students, the writer used a useful computer program called “Microsoft Excel” to analyze the data collected After that, the writer displayed the data in the form of tables and graphs This proves to be a convenient way for the beginning student researcher to present the statistics found from the research in a clear and accurate way.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Students’ attitudes towards translation
“Translation exists because men speak different languages” (George Steiner) Translation brings people of different languages together, increasing knowledge sharing in the knowledge world Translation is extremely necessary for the development of human society As a result, it becomes one of the compulsory subjects of all English majors in all universities
4.1.1 Students’ evaluations of their own translation skills
It is obvious that students are well aware of their weakness in this particular subject As can be seen from the chart, up to 80% of them responded that they still lacked a lot of factors to be good at this subject Another 28% said that they could deal with some translation texts but they also needed new methods to enhance their translation skills more Accounting for a tiny minority, 2% of the students believed that they were good enough at translation
The statistics prove that Translation is a difficult subject To have a good translation, the students should have knowledge of both general and academic English as well as the understanding of the culture, literature, history, education, etc of a variety of countries In conclusion, to be good at translation, the students should have strong motivation, passion, time and appropriate methods to practice translation They should do it seriously in order that they can optimize their own translation skills
Yes I am good at translation and I don’t need any methods to improve my translation skills
Yes I am quite good at translation but I also want to find new methods to improve my translation skills more.
No I still lack factors to be good at translation.
4.1.2 Students’ purposes of learning translation
Figure 3 Students’ purposes of learning translation
This graph shows the statistics on students‟ objectives of learning translation “To be able to translate various topics after finishing the translation course” was the answer chosen by 83 out of 120 students (69.2%), so it accounted for the highest percentage in the chart The second most popular choice was “to become a professional translator in the future” This was highly appreciated because most students already set positive objectives for themselves when taking the translation course In addition, 30 (25%) students and 28 (23.3%) students chose
“to get good marks” and “to pass the exam” as their purposes of learning translation Translation is the important subject in their curriculum The students spent much time on their translation tasks and made a lot of effort to improve their translation skills If they got good marks in the subject, their grade point average could be improved greatly These reasons explained why these two options also accounted for pretty high percentages Apart from the objectives the writer gave, there was no percentage of “others” option provided by the students; thus, it can be inferred that these four options were the basic and main objectives that the juniors in FFL at IUH desired to achieve
To become a professional translator in the future
To be able to translate various topics after finishing the translation course
Figure 4 Students’ expectations of feedback
This bar graph gives the statistics of the answers to the question regarding the kind of of feedback students would like to get after finishing their translation task The figures from the graph indicated that only one (0.8%) student out of 120 students did not need feedback; whereas 119 students recognized the importance of feedback and they desired to receive feedback from their teachers, friends or reference books Among all expectations listed here, the top position was the “corrective feedback from the teacher” option, accounting the highest percentage of 70.8% The next most popular was the need of “informative feedback from the teacher”, which made up over two-third (68.3%) of the answers gathered It was clear that most of the students expected to be advised whether their style, word choice, grammar, punctuation, etc were right or wrong and they also needed the guidance from their teachers to correct their mistakes
Apart from corrective and informative feedback, the students wished to receive sample translation from the teacher, sample translation from classmates who are good at translation in class and sample translation they found in the reference books, with 52.5%, 25% and 16.7% respectively These samples were the reliable materials for students to develop their ideas, recognize their mistakes to correct or imitate the perfect sentences to apply to their own translation In addition, the compliments from the teacher could also create motivations for students to try their best on translation Therefore, in the graph, 14.2% of students chose the
Corrective feedback from the teacher (tell me if there is something wrong with my style,…
Informative feedback from the teacher (guide me to correct my mistakes)
A Sample translation from the teacher
Sample translation from classmates who are good at translation in class.
Sample translation you found in the reference books.
To sum up, feedback is an extremely important element for students in studying all subjects, especially in the Translation subject Thanks to feedback from their teachers, classmates, or reference books, the students are able to recognize their mistakes to overcome and their strengths to maximize so that the next texts can be rendered more smoothly and accurately.
Students’ learning behavior after class
Figure 5 Students’ learning after class
Mr Diep Ba Tuong, one of the teachers of Translation in FFL at IUH, always reminds his students that the students jut had 45 periods in class so they had to do the self-study 90 periods at home This means that to enhance the translation ability, the students‟ self-study time at home must double the time they study in the classroom Fortunately, most students were fully aware of the importance of translation practice at home Following the teacher‟s advice, most students practiced translation seriously at home In particularly, 60% of students learned by heart the new words, structures, idioms and terms teacher taught, 45.8% of them read the translation samples again and 25.8% translated the text again Of special note was the disparity in these rates because some students learned the new words, structures, idioms and terms, or read the translation samples the teacher gave again without translating themselves the texts again Actually, the repeated effort should be made to translate the texts in the textbook regularly so that the knowledge learned can be revised and turned into the
Translation 1 Reference books Online sources experience for the next texts Therefore, these three actions should be combined in order that translation practice process can achieve the best effect
In addition, a large number of students (44.2%) found online sources to practice translation From online sources, the students could access a variety of topics Lastly, the
“working as a contributor in a translation company” option was chosen by 5% of students Although it accounted for a very low percentage, this should be highly appreciated In this way, the students not only gained practical experiences but also received the assessments from specialized experts, which helps them a lot in practice translation process However, there was a big concern that up to 13 students chose “doing nothing” at home If the students did not do anything relevant to the subject after class, they would easily forget what they have learnt This could badly impact on their translation ability
In conclusion, to gain success in translation field, the students should spend about 20 to 30 minutes translating the text again to revise the knowledge, and 15 or so minutes reading and translating a short newspaper article or any other material of their own choice so that they can enhance their reading and translation skills The more hours they practice, the better they will achieve.
Students’ translation materials
The main material used to teach translation subject in FFL at IUH is Translation 1 There are twelve units in this book including population, environment, migration, urbanization, education, service, globalization, poverty elimination, tourism, culture, sports and social issues The contents in all the exams including quizzes, midterm and final test will be the same as or similar to the contents in the twelve subjects listed in the course book Therefore, Translation 1 was considered as the main material for studying translation of nearly 70% of students (equivalent with 83 out of 120 students)
Apart from Translation 1, online sources were also the great materials for students to practice translation This is the activity which is suggested by the translation teacher The topics on online sources are various and interesting, and the images are lively and real Especially, online sources are very convenient for the students to study translation because they can directly study on their smartphones A majority of students (61.3%) believed in online sources for the benefit of their translation practice
Figure 7 Some websites on online sources
In this kind of material, four famous websites were mentioned including Tuoi Tre News, Viet Nam News, Thanh Nien News and VOA News All of them have two versions:
English and Vietnamese Therefore, when practicing translation, if the students practice translating a text from English to Vietnamese, they can check the answer in Vietnamese version and vice versa Among the websites listed above, top position was Tuoi Tre News with 93% of students choosing it (68 out of 73 students who chose online sources to practice
Others http://www.voanews.com/ : VOA News http://www.thanhniennews.com/ : Thanh Niên News http://vietnamnews.vn/ : Việt Nam News http://tuoitrenews.vn/ : Tuổi Trẻ News translation), Viet Nam News, 41%, Thanh Nien News, 30% and VOA News, 13% In addition, 5 students gave some extra websites for the option of “others” They recommended BBC, CNN, Viet Nam Net, Saigon Times as reliable websites they used to practice translation
Besides Translation 1 and online sources, 24 (20.2%) students thought that using reference books also helped greatly There were two reference books introduced to the students One is Cam Nang Luyen Dich Viet-Anh by Nguyen Thu Huyen, published by Hanoi University Publisher House The book includes three main parts – the factors that the learners need to pay attention while translating, words that are difficult to translate from Vietnamese into English, and finally practice translation The other is, Huong Dan Ky Thuat Bien Dich
Anh-Viet, Viet-Anh by Nguyen Quoc Hung, M.A (2007), published by Saigon Culture
Publisher House It is divided into two main parts – introduction of translation (including definitions of translation, the factors to be considered before translating, the general translation techniques, and suggestion of translation approach) and exercises Reading these two reference books, the students can take a deep look into translation and then translate various texts After each exercise, there is translation sample for students to consult They can check and correct mistakes by themselves In addition, 4 out of 24 students recommended extra books such as Phien Dich Sach-Bao Viet-Anh by Trinh Thanh Toan, Phuong Phap Viet
Va Dich Tieng Anh by Thien An Truong Hung, Minh Khanh and Giao Khoa Can Ban Mon Dich Anh-Viet, Viet-Anh by Truong Quang Phu In their opinion, the students who need sources to study translation can consult these kinds of reference books
To summarize, there are many good materials for students to study translation ranging from the textbooks, reference books to online sources Students need to read these materials selectively so that they can improve their translation ability the most
4.4 Students’ methods to study translation
Figure 8 Students’ methods to study translation
This graph illustrates the common methods students use to study translation
“Watching the US-UK TV programs with subtitle” and “reading English newspapers” accounted for the biggest and second biggest figure, at 64.2% and 61.7% respectively By using them, the students can learn, get information and relax as well Therefore, most students tend to use these ways for learning English, especially translation Making up a pretty high percentage (50.8%), doing translating exercises in the textbook was regarded as the third most popular way students usually use The exercises in the textbook, on the one hand, help students reinforce the knowledge that has been learnt before, and on the other hand, provide a great number of new words, phrases, idioms, grammatical structures and the like which will help students improve their translation‟s quality
Vocabulary is an important element saving the student‟s translation process from being interrupted by problems with new words Therefore, 32.5% of students focused on improving their translation skills by learning vocabulary in their textbooks Moreover, 41 students (34.25%) consulted translation samples from the teacher, classmates and reference books Besides, 31.7% of students used the way of taking notes They took notes of what they read, heard and saw and then applied to their own translation Almost a third of the students chose “working translation in pairs or in groups” as their main way to study translation and the same percentage of students (29.2%) also did grammar exercises to revise grammar points including tenses and sentence structures Finally, reading reference books is also a quite effective way to study translation There were 14.2% of students choosing this way to practice
70.00% translation In the reference books, the authors usually introduce the readers to basic translation methods, criteria to evaluate a translation and the exercises with suggested answers Thanks to them, the students can study, do exercises and evaluate their work by themselves
4.5.1 Factors that affect the quality of students’ translation
Figure 9 Factors that affect the quality of students’ translation
This chart illustrates the factors which may affect the quality of students‟ translation Over a half of students (54.2%) admitted that they did not practice translation regularly Actually, regular translation practice is an extremely important step in studying translation process Practicing on a regular basis helps students strengthen the knowledge that they have learnt Due to lack of practicing, some students in fact slowed down their translation ability
“Lack of effective methods” is also one of the main factors affecting the students‟ translation
It was indicated by the choices of 52.4% of students Other hindrances selected by a large number of students were “Doing many things while you are translating such as surfing the Internet, watching TV, listening to music, chatting” (42.5%) and “lack of concentration because of noise and tiredness” (35%) Translation is a subject that requires the students to
20.800% 20% reach a high-level concentration while practicing it Translating and doing other things at the same time can reduce the quality of the translation
In addition, when translating some texts which are too long or too difficult, the students are easily discouraged and they are not patient enough to complete the translation 34.2% of students claimed that “being impatient” was the factor affecting their translation In the translation class, more than 40% of students stated that they lacked guidance as well as feedback from the teacher, 20.8% needed feedback but they were afraid to ask the teacher, 19.2% suffered from time pressure and 11.7% did their personal things without listening to the teacher They thought these factors prevented them from having a good translation
4.5.2 Students’ difficulties while doing translating tasks
Figure 10 Students’ difficulties with translation
The bar chart indicates the difficulties students usually encounter when practicing translation As can be seen clearly from the chart, new structures and vocabulary are the students‟ problem most of the time More than 80 students (66.7%) had difficulties with new structures and vocabulary system Besides, “lack of background knowledge” and “unfamiliar academic topics” were the options which accounted for the same proportion of 60% Also, lack of knowledge about some aspects such as customs, cultures, history, etc was also considered as the barrier in the translation practice of 70 students (57.5%) Just under a third of the students translated the texts without any methods, which means that they might as well translate the text word by word Then, complex grammar points were agreed by 28.3% of
A lot of new structures and vocabulary
Not knowing clearly about foreign customs,…
Many difficult topics: Astronomy, Science,…
Lack of background knowledge Complex grammar points
Time pressure Not knowing any translation methods
0% students to be a major difficulty preventing students from translating smoothly Lastly, 15% felt that their translation suffered because of their poor time management
Students’ opinions of translation
4.5.1 Factors that affect the quality of students’ translation
Figure 9 Factors that affect the quality of students’ translation
This chart illustrates the factors which may affect the quality of students‟ translation Over a half of students (54.2%) admitted that they did not practice translation regularly Actually, regular translation practice is an extremely important step in studying translation process Practicing on a regular basis helps students strengthen the knowledge that they have learnt Due to lack of practicing, some students in fact slowed down their translation ability
“Lack of effective methods” is also one of the main factors affecting the students‟ translation
It was indicated by the choices of 52.4% of students Other hindrances selected by a large number of students were “Doing many things while you are translating such as surfing the Internet, watching TV, listening to music, chatting” (42.5%) and “lack of concentration because of noise and tiredness” (35%) Translation is a subject that requires the students to
20.800% 20% reach a high-level concentration while practicing it Translating and doing other things at the same time can reduce the quality of the translation
In addition, when translating some texts which are too long or too difficult, the students are easily discouraged and they are not patient enough to complete the translation 34.2% of students claimed that “being impatient” was the factor affecting their translation In the translation class, more than 40% of students stated that they lacked guidance as well as feedback from the teacher, 20.8% needed feedback but they were afraid to ask the teacher, 19.2% suffered from time pressure and 11.7% did their personal things without listening to the teacher They thought these factors prevented them from having a good translation
4.5.2 Students’ difficulties while doing translating tasks
Figure 10 Students’ difficulties with translation
The bar chart indicates the difficulties students usually encounter when practicing translation As can be seen clearly from the chart, new structures and vocabulary are the students‟ problem most of the time More than 80 students (66.7%) had difficulties with new structures and vocabulary system Besides, “lack of background knowledge” and “unfamiliar academic topics” were the options which accounted for the same proportion of 60% Also, lack of knowledge about some aspects such as customs, cultures, history, etc was also considered as the barrier in the translation practice of 70 students (57.5%) Just under a third of the students translated the texts without any methods, which means that they might as well translate the text word by word Then, complex grammar points were agreed by 28.3% of
A lot of new structures and vocabulary
Not knowing clearly about foreign customs,…
Many difficult topics: Astronomy, Science,…
Lack of background knowledge Complex grammar points
Time pressure Not knowing any translation methods
0% students to be a major difficulty preventing students from translating smoothly Lastly, 15% felt that their translation suffered because of their poor time management
In summary, students encountered a lot of difficulties while practicing translation such as new structure and vocabulary, lack of background knowledge, methods, many academic topics, not knowing customs, cultures and history, complex grammar points as well as time pressure If the students find out more about these problems and then practice overcoming them systematically, they can achieve good translations
4.5.3 Students overcome difficulties in translating
Figures 11 How students overcome difficulties in their translation
The ways students used to overcome the above-mentioned difficulties are illustrated in this graph More than 60% of students made use of modern technology to solve the problems with practicing translation SDL Trados Studio, Wordfast, Imtranslator are online translation software that requires users to pay fees before using Only Google translation is offered for free but its translation products are not always reliable However, it is widely used by many students when they are given difficult texts to translate Another solution which was chosen by a large number of students (43.3%) was working in groups to discuss some difficult paragraphs Working in group can help students exchange ideas and correct each other‟s mistakes 41.7% of students read the text many times to understand the content of the text Some of the students (33.3%) found similar paragraphs in their reference books to consult and
I try to read the text carefully at home.
I will work in group to discuss some difficu…
I ignore the difficult paragrap hs and transla…
I read similar paragrap hs in the referenc e books
I use online translati on software (Goog…
I note difficult points and ask my teache…
English newspapers written by native speakers
English newspapers are written by Vietnamese
Both of them are good then applied them to their own translation Others (31.7%) took notes of the difficult points and then asked for help from their teacher Very few students (15%) ignored the difficult paragraphs and translated other paragraphs because this could lead to the bad impact on their translation ability.
Reading English newspapers
4.6.1 Kinds of English newspapers students read
Figure 12 Kinds of English newspapers students read
Kinds of English newspapers that the students use to study translation are shown in this pie chart 28.6% of student chose to read English newspapers written by native speakers because they strongly believe that everything written by the native speakers is totally accurate English is the authors‟ mother tongue so they can study without worrying about whether the grammar points, structures as well as the word order are right or wrong Moreover, they can learn about the authors‟ professional writing style However, English newspapers are not easy to understand and they think that this will be a major problem they have to face when reading English newspapers written by native speakers
19.3% of students selected to read English newspapers written by Vietnamese They maintained that the writing styles of Vietnamese authors are closer to them than English newspapers written by native speakers and that the similarity of the culture will also create favorable conditions for them to understand the content of the newspaper article easily Moreover, the words and structures used in English newspapers written by Vietnamese are simpler than those used in English newspapers written by native speakers
Approximately half of students combined both English newspapers written by Vietnamese and English newspapers written by native speakers to study translation They claimed that through reading two kinds of newspapers above, they could grasp the writing styles of both Vietnamese people and foreigners However, some of them said that it was likely to take them much time to combine two kinds of English newspapers to study
Regardless of which kinds of English newspapers they chose, comprehensive newspapers always were the genre they chose to read because of their variety of topics Only a few of them chose to read specialist newspapers because specialist newspapers contained too much specialized vocabulary which caused the difficulty for students to understand the content of the newspaper article
4.6.2 Students’ general evaluation about the effect of reading English newspapers
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree
Reading English newspapers helps me get more information about many countries around the world, and broaden my horizon
I can study a lot of vocabulary through reading
Grammar and structures in English newspapers are correct, so I can apply them into my translation
All information in English newspapers is accurate 0% 12.5% 18.2% 60.8% 7.5%
Whenever I can imitate a sentence in English newspapers and apply it to my translation, I feel I am very professional
Reading the funny stories corner on English newspapers also helps me feel relaxed 2.5% 15% 12.5% 55% 15%
Reading untrustworthy newspapers can affect my background knowledge 0% 5% 10% 65% 20%
Reading a lot of articles proves that I am good at translation 33.3% 34.2% 9.2% 17.5% 5.83%
Through reading English newspapers, my style in translation has improved much 0% 0% 1.6% 66.7% 31.7%
English newspapers are so boring 3.3% 55% 22.5% 19.2% 0%
English newspapers are difficult to understand 2.5% 5.8% 9.2% 75.8% 6.7%
I do not have reliable sources of English newspapers to read 2.5% 25% 3.3% 67.5% 1.7%
Table 1: Students’ general evaluation about the effect of reading English newspapers
Figure 13 Students’ general evaluation about the effect of reading English newspapers
This chart shows that generally students made a positive evaluation of English newspapers Firstly, almost all students (98%) claimed that reading English newspapers helps them get more information about many countries around the world, and broaden their horizon Secondly, English newspapers contain huge numbers of vocabulary, so nearly 100% of students admitted that they studied a lot of new words by reading English newspapers as well Thirdly, 48/3% absolutely believed in structures and grammar points in English newspaper Next, 55.8% (including 50% agreed and 5.8% strongly agreed) they imitated some good sentences they learned from English newspapers and after applying them to their translation, they felt they had added a professional touch to their translation Approximately half of the
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree student population agreed that apart from information, vocabulary, structures, etc., English newspapers also offer funny stories which help them feel relaxed
At the same time, students pointed out possible problems with newspapers as a source of extra learning material For instance, a large number of students (68.3%) did not think that all the information in English newspapers was always correct, and a number of students doubted the entertainment and information quality offered by newspapers in general
Of important note is that many students (67.5%) stated that reading a lot of English newspapers only does not prove that they are good at translation They added that it is necessary to combine reading English newspapers with effective methods to maximize translation ability 66.7% of students agreed with this and 31.7% strongly pointed out that their writing style improved much thanks to reading English newspapers As for the statement
“reading English newspapers is so boring”, 19.2% agreed, 22.5% felt neutral and over 58% disagreed with it Most students think that English newspapers have a variety of topics and they can choose any fields they are interested in to read Therefore, English newspapers are not too boring
The problem of discouragement can stem from the fact that students have difficulties making sense of the unfamiliar words and expressions they might encounter in the paper With a huge number of new words as well as structure, it was quite difficult for 82.5% to understand the whole text and only 8.3% could deal with them These days, most newspapers are issued with the purpose is to provide genuine information for the readers together with reliable comments and criticism However, the readers should choose reliable newspapers to read so that they can have trustworthy information about their favorite fields In this survey, up to 70% of students lack reliable sources to read
In conclusion, English newspapers bring students lots of benefits; however, there are also some drawbacks The students should choose well established newspapers to avoid the problems with information reliability and validity as well as the use of the English language
4.6.3 Students’ assessments of the effects of reading English newspapers on translation
Figure 14 Students’ assessment of the effects of reading English newspapers on translation
It can clearly be seen from the pie chart that only 6% (including 4% choosing “not really” and 2% selecting “not at all”) said that English newspapers did not help them with translation at all They said that English newspapers are very boring, hard to understand and they had never applied with they read in English newspapers to their English learning process Meanwhile, more than 90% of students claimed that reading English newspapers improved their translation skill greatly Specifically, 53% chose “definitely” and 31% voted for “quite a lot” In their explanation section, the students stated that English newspapers contain a huge number of new words from basic to academic, provide background knowledge of various fields which support them in translation practice However, the proportion of “quite a lot” was higher because some students assumed if the learners only read English newspapers without any methods, the translation skills will hardly be improved
Quite a lotNot reallyNot at all
4.6.4 Reading English newspapers to improve translation
Figure 15: Reading English newspapers to improve translation
As viewed from the graph, the biggest percentage (71.7%) was seen in the option “I just read the topic I am interested in” This way can create motivation for them to read English newspapers in the first place However, if the students only read the topics they like without caring about other topics, they will certainly encounter difficulties when translating new topics out of their favorite topics Next, 42.5% read the whole text carefully, underlined and took notes of new words and structures Reading the whole text helps students understand the author‟s intention In this way, the students can produce a TL text which is equivalent to the SL text The option “I skim the article for main points and ignore what I do not understand” was chosen by 26.7% of students This way should not be adopted regularly because when conducting translating from SL text into TL text, the students can misunderstand the author‟s intention and can convey incorrect content to TL readers Besides,
31 out of 120 students chose the option “I read word-by-word” This way is convenient for translating the simple text However, in a complex text which includes idioms, terms, slangs, phrases, etc., the students are likely to mistranslate the intention of the author In addition, 14 out of 120 students only read the first few parts carefully and the last few parts they usually read carelessly Actually, reading carelessly can also lead students to misunderstand the author‟s intention or to not grasp the content of the whole text Thenceforth, they cannot convey the meaning of the SL text, even lose the quality of the TL text Finally, a small group of students (9.2%) keeps reading the article many times until understanding its content This is also an effective way but it seems to take students a lot of time
In conclusion, each way of reading English newspapers that students applied to improve translation skills has both advantages and disadvantages Students should recognize the benefits of each way to maximize and the drawback to minimize so that their translation skills can be improved the most
4.6.5 Difficult topics in English newspapers
Figure 16: Difficult topics in English newspapers
As observed, the topics which students may find difficult are shown clearly in the above graph There were 10 common topics listed including politics, business, technology- science, society, art and culture, media, education, sports, tourism and health Among these topics were the top four positions – politics (72.5%), technology and science (62.5%), art and culture (59.2%), and business (58.3%) These figures proved that politics, technology-science, art and culture, and business were the challenging topics for students to deal with It seemed that the topics such as society, media, education, sports, tourism and health were easier for students to cope with They only accounted for a minority ranging from 10% to 23%
Politics Business Technology - Science Society
Art and Culture Media Education Sports
F i gure 17: Reasons for difficult topics
TRANSLATE INTO VIETNAMESE
Over the past few years, many groups of international tourists from France, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Japan, and Hong Kong have paid a visit to Lak district and enjoyed nights of drinking “Can” alcohol, celebrating the festival of gongs, dancing and listening to “Khan” stories together with ethnic group by the forest fire
(Extract from CẨM NANG LUYỆN DỊCH VIỆT – ANH, NGUYỄN THU HUYỀN, NHÀ XUẤT BẢN ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI)
Samples translations by two students from the two groups are presented as follows
Hơn nhiều năm qua, nhiều đoàn du lịch quốc tế tế từ Pháp, Thụy Sỹ, Đan Mạch,
Canada, Nhật Bản và Hồng Kông đã chi trả cho một cuộc viếng thăm đến Lak và thưởng thức đêm rượu “Cần”, ăn mừng lễ hội Cồng Chiên cùng nhau nhảy múa và nghe những câu chuyện “Khan” với những người dân tộc thiểu số bên ánh lửa rừng
Những năm qua, nhiều nhóm du khách quốc tế đến từ Pháp, Thụy Sỹ, Đan Mạch, Canada, Nhật Bản và Hồng Kông đã đến thăm huyện Lak và thưởng thức những đêm tuyệt vời với rượu “Cần”, chìm đắm trong lễ hội Cồng Chiên, nhảy múa và cùng nghe câu chuyện Khan với nhóm người dân tộc thiểu số dưới ngọn lửa của núi rừng
After reading all the Vietnamese translation versions by 120 students, the writer came to the tentative conclusion that over 80% of them could deal with the text successfully
As can be seen from two translation above, both student A and student B can convey the meaning of the text from SL to TL accurately However, 40 out of 120 students confused the meaning of the word “Switzerland” with the word “Sweden” In addition, 10 students mistranslated the phrase “paid a visit” into “paid money to visit Lak district”.
TRANSLLATE INTO ENGLISH
Cách thị xã Buôn Mê Thuột 50km, nằm trên quốc lộ 27, huyện Lak được thiên nhiêu ưu đãi cho cảnh quan dễ làm say đắm lòng người: những cảnh quan tự nhiên, hoang sơ giữa núi rừng bao la
(Extract from CẨM NANG LUYỆN DỊCH VIỆT – ANH, NGUYỄN THU HUYỀN, NHÀ XUẤT BẢN ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI)
Here are two sample translations by two students picked from the two groups
Far away from Buon Me Thuot town about
50 kilometers, on 27 highway road, Lak district is favored by nature with beautiful sceneries: natural landscape, neglected among the magnificent mountains
Far away from Buon Me Thuot town 50 kilometers, located on highway 27, Lak district is bestowed by the nature with enthralling sights: natural and wild landscapes amidst immense forests.
Most of the students commented that this was a difficult sentence to render This sentence was too long with 100 word so the students seemed to be quite confused about how sentence was structured Therefore, in some translation products, the basic elements in the sentence were not placed in the correct positions which made the translation meaningless In addition, this sentence also contained some difficult phrases to translate To make it easier, some students changed these phrases into simpler phrases themselves to translate However, this way was disapproved because the TL sentence failed to fully convey the original intention that the author intended in the SL sentence As seen from the two translation products above, the student A translated the phrase “những cảnh quan dễ làm say đắm lòng người” into “beautiful sceneries” which did not express the beauty of the sceneries as the author expected to Meanwhile, the student B used the phrase “enthralling sights” which convey the closest meaning with the author‟s intention
To know more about how students applied the techniques in their translation process, the writer interviewed twelve students from group A and group B (six students in in each group) and got specific information For group A, with each sentence, four students read the whole sentence twice and then started translating The other two students read and translated word by word at the same time While translating the text from English into Vietnamese, all of them hardly encountered any difficulties Meanwhile, they were put to real test trying to translate the two Vietnamese phrases “được thiên nhiên ưu đãi” and “cảnh quan dễ làm say đắm lòng người” They dealt with them by looking up the dictionary, or asking their classmates Some students even omitted these phrases
As for group B, the students made use of the two pieces of newspapers the writer gave to collect new words, structures, phrases as well as background knowledge about the topics they were translating by reading the newspapers before translating They said that after reading two pieces of newspapers once, they read the source text once and then started to translate Thanks to the newspapers, Group B students were able to overcome the difficulties encountered by their peers in group A
The twelve students who were interviewed admitted that from translating the two sentences, they learnt some new words and phrases in relation to tourism, enhanced background knowledge about the tourism destinations in Vietnam and had a real sense of the writing style in English and Vietnamese Besides, they also recognized their weaknesses
They thought that they need to improve their general English, background knowledge about various fields, the vocabulary, their reading speed and writing skills as well
To summarize, translating English into Vietnamese requires the students to develop good writing skills to render the SL text into TL text smoothly; meanwhile, in order to have a perfect product of translating in the target English, the students have to meet the requirements regarding vocabulary, structure, idioms, slang, phrasal verbs and phrases Besides, they need to have a deep understanding of the figures of speech such as simile, metaphor, metonymy, personification, irony, hyperbole and litotes so that they can convey the author‟s intention exactly.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The main aim of this thesis was to examine the influence of reading English newspapers on translation A survey was conducted to find out the ways English-majored juniors in FFL at IUH used to study translation From the results collected, the writer could draw a conclusion that the students used to apply a variety of ways to study translation but their translation skills did not really improve as expected Therefore, the writer would like to recommend reading English newspapers as an effective method to study Translation
Among a lot of benefits that English newspapers bring to students, the writer would like to mention the two most remarkable benefits of reading English newspapers in and after class Firstly, English newspapers are the bridge between the knowledge that has been taught in the Translation class and real-life translation practice Done properly, this will help students recognize the practical effects of reading English newspapers while practicing translating For example, they know how to put what they have learned about impersonal structure in formal writing into rendering the meaning of a formal speech delivered in a summit political meeting Also, the information in the textbook which is used in the Translation class is not always updated; thus, it is extremely important for students to rely on English newspapers in translation practice Secondly, English newspapers will stimulate students' initiative role in their own learning process if they are free to choose their favorite topics which are related to the problems in the textbook In addition, for teachers, reading the English newspapers also enables them to recognize how effective the lesson they have provided to the student is This call for necessary adjustments on the part of the teacher actually gives them more engagement in the teaching process
Besides, both teachers and students encountered some difficulties when applying English newspapers in class Firstly, the Translation-studying time in the class is strictly limited, leaving little time for students to practice further translation based on English newspapers Secondly, the teachers do not have enough time to give feedback to all the students This is really a big problem because the teachers‟ feedback is especially important for students to look back at their mistakes and work on them.
Recommendations
To overcome the above-mentioned difficulties, there are some suggestions the writer would like to share to the English-majored juniors and the teachers in using reading English newspapers in and after class
Firstly, in order to save time for both teachers and students in Translation class, the writer suggests students work in groups to collect newspaper articles related to the topic in the textbook For instance, each group will find five articles and the members in the group have to specify what specific points they can learn after translating the selected articles in terms of structure, style, vocabulary, etc Then the whole group can work together on their suggested translation in the target language For teachers, they should introduce this activity at the beginning of the curriculum, specifying the requirements regarding the word number and source of each selected newspaper article The teachers can encourage students to participate in this group work by scoring their work
In addition, to make the class more active and lively, the teacher can organize reading English newspapers as a relaxing learning session For example, the teacher can bring five folders with five newspaper articles (with each article cut up into two sections and mixed together) to class Then he divides the class into five groups and requires the students in each group to arrange the sections into five complete newspaper articles By engaging actively in this activity, the students can both learn and play
As for self-study, it is recommended that students who apply reading English newspapers in studying Translation should read more newspapers in the target language at home Each day, the students should spend about 30 minutes reading and translating a 300- word-article Reading the whole text to understand the content, context and intentions of the author, take notes of important words and structure if necessary, and then start to translate Secondly, as English newspapers have a wide variety of topics, the students can choose any kinds of topic that they are interested in to read However, they are encouraged to read a certain kind of topic to develop a wide array of knowledge on the topic as well as the vocabulary involved and then move on to another topic Apart from their favorite topics, they should also spend their time reading other topics to increase background knowledge as well as specialized English in those topics
In conclusion, reading in general and reading English newspapers in particular are of great value to the experience of translation It is certain that these suggestions will help students of this challenging yet rewarding subject make progress in the process while developing a sense of achievement from their translation effort
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SAMPLE OF TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE
APPENDIX 1 SAMPLE OF TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE
Topic of the research: “An Investigation Into The Effect Of Reading English Newspapers
On The English-Majored Juniors In Translation”
The questions below are designed to have a deep look at the effect of reading English newspapers on the English-majored juniors in translation Your support is really valuable because your responses play an important role in the writer‟s thesis Many thanks and regards for your cooperation
Instructions: You can circle or put the tick () in the choices that are right to you and your students
1 Which topics are included in the materials that you teach?
2 What are your considerations when you look at a student’s translation? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
3 Which considerations do you think is the most important to give feedback for your students? (Number the considerations in the order from the least to the most important)
4 What ways do you usually use to teach translation? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
A Provide students the appropriate method before asking them to translate
B Supply new words, phrasal verbs, structures before asking them for doing exercises in the Translation book
C Ask students to translate, give feedback and then give sample translation
D Choose extra materials which are more interesting and suitable for student‟s ability to translate
5 How do you test your student’s translation ability? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
A Ask students about the knowledge which you taught in the previous lesson before starting the new lesson
B Let students work individually and then ask them to write their answer on the board
C Require students to work in groups, after that you correct and give feedback in the next class
6 What do your students do in translation class? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
C Use smartphone for looking up dictionary
surfing Facebook, Zalo, Skype (Tick on the option(s) you choose)
D Discuss the exercise with their friends
7 What mistakes do your students usually make when they translate a text? (Put a tick
() in the column that provide the answers you may agree the most about (1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = usually, 4 = always)
1 Misunderstanding of the content of the source language
2 Overstatement or understatement of author‟s thoughts
3 Addition or omission of the content of the source language
6 Logic between sentences and paragraphs and the whole content of a text
7 Mistranslation the content of the original text
12 Too literal, word by word translation
8 What topics do you think students are afraid of in their translation practice? (more than 1 option is acceptable
9 Number the topics in the order from the least to the most popular difficult
10 Why are they afraid of these topics? (tick on the column you choose
1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, 4= strongly agree)
1 The content of the text is too academic 1 2 3 4
2 They can‟t find the new words in the dictionary
3 The content of the text is too long
4 There are too many strange words, structures, idioms, jargons in the text
5 Students are under time pressure
6 Students lack background knowledge about these topics
11 Which aspects do you think your students need to improve further to be better at translation? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
B Background knowledge about various topics
12 In what ways do you think reading English newspapers can help students improve their translation skill? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
13 In your opinion, what benefits does reading English newspapers bring to students studying translation? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
A Using the target language in a natural way
B Enriching students‟ background knowledge about lifestyle, cultures of foreign countries
C Enhancing the number of new words, structures, idioms, etc
D Supporting students‟ reading and writing skills, group work, learning skills and self – study
E Broadening specialized English of any majors
14 What topics in English newspapers do you choose for your students to practice translation? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
15 How many articles a day do you recommend to your student to be better at translation?
16 How long of an article do you think should be?
17 What do you expect from your students? (more than 1 option is acceptable)
C Being able to translate the various topics after finishing translation course
D Becoming a professional translator in the future Others: ………
THE END THANKS FOR COOPERATION
SAMPLE OF STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE
Topic of the research: “An Investigation Into The Effect Of Reading English Newspapers
On The English-Majored Juniors In Translation”
The questions are designed to collect data for the research The information you supply from the questions will be the valid and reliable data for me to do the research Please read the question carefully and give your answer honestly Thank you for your cooperation and assistance
1 Do you think you are good enough at translation?
A Yes I am good at translation and I don‟t need any methods to improve my translation skills
B Yes I am quite good at translation but I also want to find new methods to improve my translation skills more
C No I still lack knowledge to be good at translation
2 What do you expect when taking a translation course? (more than one option is acceptable)
B To become a professional translator in the future
D To be able to translate various topics after finishing the translation course Others: ………
3 What feedback do you expect from your teachers and/or classmates? (more than one option is acceptable)
A Corrective feedback from the teacher (tell me if there is something wrong with my style, word choice, grammar, punctuation, etc.)
B Informative feedback from the teacher (guide me to correct my mistakes)
C Sample translation from the teacher
D Sample translation from classmates who are good at translation in class
E Sample translation you found in the reference books
4 What do you do at home after finishing a translation class? (more than one option is acceptable)
A Read the translation sample again
C Learn by heart the new words, structures, idioms and terms teacher taught
D Read new source text for the next class
E Work as a contributor in a translation company
F Find online sources to practice translation
5 Which materials/ sources do you use to study translation? (more than one option is acceptable)
Nguyễn Thu Huyền, Cẩm nang luyện dịch Việt – Anh, , nhà xuất bản đại học quốc gia Hà Nội
Nguyễn Quốc Hùng, M.A (2007), Hướng dẫn kỹ thuật biên dịch Anh – Việt, Việt – Anh, NXB Văn Hóa Sài Gòn
http://tuoitrenews.vn/ : Tuổi trẻ News
http://vietnamnews.vn/ : Việt Nam News
http://www.thanhniennews.com/ : Thanh Niên News
http://www.voanews.com/ : VOA News Others: ………
6 Which factors can affect the quality of your translation? (You can choose more than one option)
A Lack of concentration because of noise and tiredness
B Doing many things while you are translating such as surfing the Internet, watching TV, listening to music, chatting
E Doing personal things without listening to the lecturer in class
G Suffering from time pressure while doing translation practice in class
I Lack of feedback from the teacher
J Being afraid to ask for teacher‟s feedback
7 Which difficulties do you face while studying translation?
(You can choose more than one option)
A A lot of new structures and vocabulary
B Not knowing clearly about foreign customs, cultures, history, etc so you cannot translate exactly
C Many difficult topics: Astronomy, Science, Chemistry, Medicine, etc
G Not knowing any translation methods
8 What do you do to overcome difficulties in translating? (more than 1 options is possible)
A I try to read the text carefully at home
B I will work in group to discuss some difficult paragraphs before translating in the notebook
C I ignore the difficult paragraphs and translate other paragraphs
D I read similar paragraphs in the reference books
E I use online translation software (Google translate, SDL Trados Studio (sdl.com), Wordfast (wordfast.net), imtranslator (imtranslator.net), etc.)
F I note difficult points and ask my teacher for help
9 Which way(s) do you usually use to study translation (Vietnamese – English translation and English – Vietnamese translation)? (You can choose more than one option)
B Watching the US – UK TV programs with subtitle
D Learning vocabulary in the textbooks
E Doing translating exercise in the textbooks
G Taking notes of whatever you notice from what you read, hear and see
H Practicing translation with my friends/groups
10 Can reading English newspapers help you improve your translation skill? Explain your answer
11 Your evaluation about English newspapers (Put a tick () in the column that provide the answers you may agree the most about with 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree)
1 Reading English newspapers helps me get more information about many countries around the world, and broaden my horizon
2 I can study a lot of vocabulary through reading
3 Grammar and structures in English newspapers are always correct so I can apply them into my translation
4 All information in English newspapers is totally accurate
5 Whenever I imitate a sentence in English newspapers and apply into my translation, I feel I am very professional
6 Reading English newspapers with funny stories corner also helps me feel relax
7 Reading untrustworthy newspapers can affect my background knowledge
8 Reading a lot of articles proves I am good at translation
9 Through reading English newspapers, my style in translation has improved much
10 English newspapers are so boring
11 English newspapers are difficult to understand
12 I lack reliable source of English newspapers to read
12 What topics in English newspapers do you feel hard to deal with when translating? (more than 1 options is possible)
13 The table gives you some common reasons for difficulties in translating those topics above Tick on the “YES” column for agreement and “NO” column for disagreement
1 The content of the text is new and hard to understand
2 The content of the text is too long
3 I am not interested in these topics
4 There are too many strange words, structures, idioms and terms
6 I lack background knowledge about these topics
14 Which kinds of English newspapers do you think are good for studying translation? And explain
A English newspapers written by native speakers
Comprehensive newspapers: The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/), Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/)
Specialist newspapers: Travel Daily News
(https://www.traveldailynews.com/), The Economist (www.economist.com/)
B English newspapers are written by Vietnamese
Comprehensive newspapers: Tuổi Trẻ News (tuoitrenews.vn/), Việt Nam News (vietnamnews.vn/)
Specialist newspapers: Việt Nam Economic News (ven.vn/),
Vietnam National Administration Of Tourism
(http://www.vietnamtourism.gov.vn/english/)
C Both of them are good And I usually read
Explain the benefits and challenges while reading these kinds of newspapers:
15 How do you read English newspapers to improve your translation? (more than 1 options is possible)
A I just read the topics I am interested in
C I skim the article for the main points and ignore what I do not understand
D I read an article many times
E I read the whole article carefully, underline and take notes of new words and structures
F I just read the first few parts carefully, the last few parts I usually read carelessly
Over the past few years, many groups of international tourists from France, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Japan, and Hong Kong have paid a visit to Lak and enjoyed nights of drinking “Cần” alcohol, celebrating the festival of gongs, dancing and listening to “Khan” stories together with ethnic group by the forest fire
(Extract from CẨM NANG LUYỆN DỊCH VIỆT – ANH, NGUYỄN THU HUYỀN, NHÀ XUẤT BẢN ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI)
Cách thị xã Buôn Mê Thuột 50km, nằm trên quốc lộ 27, huyện Lak được thiên nhiêu ưu đãi cho cảnh quan dễ làm say đắm lòng người: những cảnh quan tự nhiên, hoang sơ giữa núi rừng bao la
(Extract from CẨM NANG LUYỆN DỊCH VIỆT – ANH, NGUYỄN THU HUYỀN, NHÀ XUẤT BẢN ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI)
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1 Which difficulties may you and your students encounter when using English newspapers which are not the main material in translation class?
2 Who should the person choose the topics in English newspapers?
1 How many times did you read each paragraph above before translating?
2 How did you translate the two paragraphs above from source text to target text?
3 Are there any words or phrases which give you difficulties while translating the two paragraphs?
4 What did you do when you meet these difficult words/phrases in two paragraphs above?
5 After translating the text, what do you think you have learnt about of the topics?
6 Which aspects do you think you need to improve further to enhance the quality of your translation?