A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY STUDENTS OF ENGLISH FACULTY AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY IN TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE ECONOMIC NEWS INTO ENGLISH AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Supervisor : M.A Phan Tú Lan Student : Class : K55N1 Student code : 19D170
THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT - - GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY STUDENTS OF ENGLISH FACULTY AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY IN TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE ECONOMIC NEWS INTO ENGLISH AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Supervisor : M.A Phan Tú Lan Student : Class : K55N1 Student code : 19D170 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received a lot of necessary help as well assistance, guidance, precious ideas and encouragement from my teacher, my family and friends This paper could not have completed without the great help from them First and foremost, I would like to show my special thanks to my supervisor, Mrs Phan Tu Lan, whose considerable encouragement and valuable guidance kept me confident to accomplish successfully this study Also, I would like to show my sincere thanks to all my teachers at Faculty of English, Thuongmai University who have given me knowledge, useful lessons, whole- hearted advice during four years here I am grateful to the students of Faculty of English at Thuongmai University for their enthusiastic participation Their sharing has become the main sources of data in my research Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to my family, my friends who always stand by, support and become a great motivation to help me overcome difficulties in the process of doing this research Because of the limited time, knowledge and practical experiences, there will have some shortcomings and mistakes in this study Therefore, I sincerely hope to receive your comments and suggestions for the perfect of my own graduation paper Hanoi, 2023 Student I ABSTRACT Along with the demand of global integration, learning foreign languages for international communication has become more and more vital to Vietnamese students Translation skills are essential for a student’s academic success and future career prospects In today’s challenging environment, students must not only possess academic expertise, but also the requisite skills to enhance their learning and employability prospects in the future However, it is not easy for English learners in this context to achieve their proficiency in translation skill due to certain internal and external factors Therefore, this study is to investigate difficulties encountered by students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University in translating Vietnamese economic news into English and suggested solutions The data obtained from the questionnaire with 61 students of Faculty of English at Thuongmai University The findings show that Faculty of English’s student faced both psychological and linguistics difficulties Suggested solutions are proposed to tackle such difficulties in helping students improve their translation skill II LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviation Meaning TMU Thuongmai University SL Source Language TL Target Language TT Target Text III LIST OF CHARTS No Charts Name Chart 3.1 The students’s feeling of translation Chart 3.2 Students’s evaluation of their translation ability Chart 3.3 Chart 3.4 The use of the translation tools How much time the students spend practising translating Vietnamese economic news into English Chart 3.5 The level of importance of translation skill to the students’s English Chart 3.6 Difficulty in vocabulary Chart 3.7 Difficulty in grammar Chart 3.8 Difficulty in psychology Chart 3.9 Difficulty in knowledge 10 Chart 3.10 Difficulty in teaching methods 11 Chart 3.11 Suggestions to improve ability of translating Vietnamese economic news into English 12 Chart 3.12 The students’ attitude towards being a translator in the future IV CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………………i ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………… ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………… iii LIST OF CHARTS……………………………………………………………… iv CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY………………………………….1 1.1 Rationale……………………………………………………………………….1 1.2 Previous studies……………………………………………………………… 1.2.1 In the world…………………………………………………………………… 1.2.2 In Vietnam…………………………………………………………………….3 1.3 Aims of the study……………………………………………………………….5 1.4 Research subjects……………………………………………………………… 1.5 The significant of study……………………………………………………… 1.6 Scope of the study……………………………………………………………… 1.7 Research methodology……………………………………………………… 1.8 Organization of the study…………………………………………………… CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………8 2.1 An overview on translation…………………………………………………… 2.1.1 The concept of translation…………………………………………………….8 2.1.2 Translation methods………………………………………………………… 2.1.3 The importance of translation………………………………………… …….12 2.1.4 The process of translation…………………………………………………… 14 V 2.2 Difficulties when practicing translating Vietnamese economic news into English…………………………………………………………………………… 16 2.2.1 Common translation mistakes……………………………………………….16 2.2.2 Features of economic news………………………………………………….18 2.2.3 Difficulties when practicing translating Vietnamese economic news into English…………………………………………………………………………… 20 2.2.4 Reasons that cause difficulties………………………………………… ….27 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS………………………………… ……29 3.1 Methodology………………………………………………………………….29 3.1.1 Context of the study…………………………………………………………29 3.1.2 The participants of the study………………………………………………… 30 3.1.3 Data collection methods…………………………………………………… 30 3.1.4 Data analysis method……………………………………………………… 31 3.2 Findings and discussion of the findings…………………………………… 32 3.2.1 Questionnaire results ……………………………………………………… 32 3.2.2 Discussion of the findings…………………………………………………… 47 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS……………….49 4.1 Summary of the study……………………………………………………… 49 4.2 Suggestions to improve student’s translation skill…………………………49 4.2.1 Suggestions for the students ……………………………………………… 49 4.2.2 Suggestions for Thuongmai University…………………………………… 51 4.3 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………… 52 4.4 Suggestions for further studies……………………………………………… 52 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………54 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………55 VI APPENDIX – QUESTIONNAIRES………………………………….57 VII SURVEY CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale In the trend of globalization today, the importance of English cannot be denied and ignored because it is widely used everywhere in the world English is considered the most commonly used language on the planet when nearly 60 countries use English as the main language, besides their mother tongue and nearly 100 countries use English as the second language Therefore, English plays an essential role in the current era of globalization Currently, Vietnamese enterprises have also kept up with this trend and strengthened economic exchanges with other countries, cooperating with foreign companies to implement business strategies and export - import goods With such a vibrant integration situation, English is an essential part in business When Vietnam has joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), the business of goods exchange is not only encapsulated within the country but also cooperates with many different countries in the world Currently, in parallel with domestic enterprises, Vietnam also has the presence of international companies, which are followed by leaders, key pillars of foreigners Therefore, without English, especially English communication, we will face many difficulties in such a highly professional environment However, there are difficulties in Vietnamese - English economic news because of structural and cultural difference Moreover, with international communication and integration, more and more commercial slogans and terms are being used A majority of the students of the Faculty of English at Thuong Mai University said that they see many commercial terms in many fields everywhere and they not know how to translate them correctly; they lacked suitable information of economics and had no set of procedures for Vietnamese-English translation They also want to know how to improve their translation skills in both different cultures especially in British culture which is very traditional and interesting With the hope that will answer the above questions, the reseacher choose the topic “ A study on difficulties encountered by the students of the Faculty of English at Thuong Mai University when practicing translating Vietnamese economic news into English and suggested solutions” for her graduation paper 1.2 Previous studies 1.2.1 In the world Shulin (2012) conducted the research: “On the Text Conjunction and Its Translation in English Business Letters” This paper studied on the definition, position and classification of conjunction According to the functional equivalence principle, readers’ reaction should be put in the first place and the source language should be expressed in appropriate receptors’ language This paper talked about the conjunctions in business letters It was suggested that translator should pay great attention to the expectation of the reader, the intentionality of the source text and overall effect of the text Functional equivalence theory emphasizes that translation was a kind of culture transfer, a communicative interaction, a cross culture event Therefore, translation of conjunctions in business letters requires the translator combine the communicative function of the text with the response of the target text readers to determine the translation strategies Xiaquingqiu (2013) carried out the study: “A Brief Analysis on the Translation Skills of Business Correspondence “.This paper made a brief analysis of translation skills of business correspondence At first, the characteristics of business correspondence translation discussed above require translators to translate practically, correctly and concisely And then skills in translating the words, sentences and text of business letters were briefly introduced What we can learn from this paper was that translators should not only pay attention to the translation skills and strategies but also become sensitive to the cultural differences between China and English-speaking countries The curacy of translation cannot be emphasized more Therefore, to understand and study the original letters correctly was the first and most important strategies, at the same time; it was indispensable to think of its cultural backgrounds and connotations in