The difficulties in vietnamese–english translation of english majored juniors at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE (Logo Đại Học Tây Đô) RESEARCH PROPOSAL THE DIFFICULTIES IN VIETNAMESE–ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH MAJORED JUNIORS AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Student: Huynh Thi My Duyen, MA Name: Pham Huu Le Huy Code: 13D220201054 Class: English 8B April 2017 TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE (Logo Đại Học Tây Đô) RESEARCH PROPOSAL THE DIFFICULTIES IN VIETNAMESE–ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH MAJORED JUNIORS AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Student: Huynh Thi My Duyen, MA Name: Pham Huu Le Huy Code: 13D220201054 Class: English 8B April 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research proposal could hardly finish without enthusiastic help of many people First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Ms Huynh Thi My Duyen, lecturer of the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature at Tay Do University This report could not have completed without her patient, enthusiastic, instructive supervision and encouragement Actually, she instructed, commented and provided me useful references and materials so that I could complete my research proposal In addition, she spent her valuable time on guiding and encouraging me during the time I conducting the research Secondly, I would like to show my special thanks to all lecturers in the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature of Tay Do University for their teaching and helping me widen knowledge of English over the past four years Thirdly, I also would like to delicate my special thanks to my classmates in class English 8B, who have supported, cooperated and provided me with many suggestions Finally, I would like to give my wholehearted thankful words to my family for the love and support They always encouraged and motivated me during my studying i COMMENTS - ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i COMMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABSTRACT PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Significance of the research 1.3 Organization of the research proposal PART 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Translation and Vietnamese-English translation 2.1.1 Translation 2.1.2 Vietnamese-English translation 2.2 The difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation 2.2.1 Difficulties in vocabulary 2.2.1.1 Using collocations 2.2.1.2 Using prepositions 2.2.1.3 Using synonyms 2.2.1.4 Using pronouns 2.2.1.5 Using idioms 10 2.2.2 Difficulties in grammar 10 2.2.2.1 Syntax 10 2.2.2.2 Morphology 13 iii 2.2.3 Cultural background 14 2.2.4 Translating style 16 2.2.5 Summary of the literature review 17 PART 3: RESEARCH AIMS, RESEARCH QUESTIONS, AND HYPOTHESIS 18 3.1 Research aims 18 3.2 Research questions 18 3.3 Hypothesis 18 PART 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19 4.1 Research design 19 4.2 Participants 19 4.3 Research instruments 19 4.3.1 Questionnaire 20 4.3.2 Interview 20 4.4 Procedure 21 PART 5: EXPECTED OUTCOMES 22 REFERENCES 23 APPENDIX A: QUESTIONAIRE FOR STUDENTS 25 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 30 iv ABSTRACT This research presents the process of the study about “The difficulties in VietnameseEnglish translation of English majored juniors at Tay Do University” Because translation is an indispensable skill which partly contributes to the success of learning English However, many students have faced difficulties when translating Vietnamese into English So, this research is done to point out some common difficulties and ways to solve these problems The participants of this research are the juniors from class English at Tay Do University In the study process, data are collected through a questionnaire and an interview The researcher hopes that the research result can indicate ways to help students improve their Vietnamese-English translations master in the future PART INTRODUCTION In this part, the researcher would like to present the rationale, significance and the organization of the research proposal 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English has become an international communicative language to connect people around the world According to Wikipedia, there are more than 400 million people in the world using English as a mother tongue, and more than billion people using English as their second language Especially, in the process of globalization and internationalization, no one cannot deny the importance of English in life and social It is used in many areas such as education, business, tourism, etc English is used in all most of the international events and global organizations as the default language of communication More and more news, emails, contracts are in English So, no English means no communication People from other countries, especially in a developing country as Vietnam, English is taught from an early age As well as many young people are aware of its importance for many reasons such as finding a good job, communication with foreigners, access to modern technology That is also the reason why many universities and colleges are now teaching content in English as well as regulations of foreign language learning outcomes (common is English) for university graduates Not all Vietnamese people are good at English There is a need of translation in the context of globalization Vietnamese people need to update with knowledge of advances in science, technology In addition, they also need to introduce their ideas, thoughts to the world So they need English-Vietnamese translation and also Vietnamese-English translation for better communication So, there is the need of translators to translate their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and in many documents from Vietnamese into English When learning English, students often concentrate on four basic skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing However, they forget that English is so abundant and the four skills is not enough Translation is also very necessary to learn, but it is not simple, especially Vietnamese–English translation Many people are faced with many challenges when translating Vietnamese into English This can be very difficult for learners who begin to study translation or even for those who are fluent in several languages, and there is no exception for English-majored juniors at Tay Do University Because the students just begin to study translation, it is new and strange with them Understanding their difficulties, I decided to carry out a research about “The difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation of English majored juniors at Tay Do University” 1.2 Significance of the research The research is done to point out some common difficulties that the juniors majoring in English at Tay Do University have faced in Vietnamese-English translation This finding could bring a lot of benefits to teachers and students For teachers, this study could help to raise their awareness of their students’ difficulties From that, teachers can conduct effective ways to help train their students’ translation skills And for students, this study also helps to raise their awareness of the importance of Vietnamese-English translation They could recognize common difficulties in translation Therefore, they can themselves find suitable ways to solve their own problems and improving their translation skill 1.3 Organization of the research proposal The research proposal consists of five parts: part 1: Introduction, part 2: Literature Review, part 3: Research Aims, Research Questions, and Hypothesis, part 4: Research Methodology and part 5: Expected Outcomes Part one introduces the rationale, significance of the research and the organization of the research proposal Part two presents the definitions of translation and Vietnamese-English translation and the difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation It also includes ways to translate better Part three shows the research aims, research questions and hypothesis Part four describes the research design, participants, research instruments and procedure Part five presents expected outcomes  The consumption of nutriments is prohibited in this establishment (Frozen level)  You are requested not to consume food in this ward (Formal level)  Eating is not allowed here (Neutral level)  Please not eat here (Casual level)  You cannot feed you face here (Intimate level) So, context is really important and necessary in helping us decide which word should be chosen to obtain the suitable meaning in our translated text If people misunderstand the context, it leads to choosing of inappropriate meanings of words It, therefore, results in a bad translated text Context partly contributes to create a true translated output that is considered the most important requirement of translation 2.2.5 Summary of the literature review In the literature review, researcher presents some definitions of translation, Vietnamese-English translation and some common difficulties in VietnameseEnglish translation that the juniors have faced The first is Difficulties in vocabulary, such as using collocation, prepositions, synonyms, pronouns and idioms The second is Difficulties in grammar such as syntax and morphology The third is Cultural background and the final is Translating style Besides that, researcher also points out some ways to improve translation 17 PART RESEARCH AIMS – RESEARCH QUESTIONS – HYPOTHESIS 3.1 Research aims The aim of this study is to find out the difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation of English majored juniors at Tay Do University The results can show common difficulties in translating Vietnamese into English and ways to help students improve their translation 3.2 Research questions This research is required to answer the following research questions: Do English majored juniors at Tay Do University have difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation? What are their difficulties? 3.3 Hypothesis Through the literature review and research questions, it is hypothesized that English majored juniors have difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation Their difficulties could be related to vocabulary, grammar, cultural background and translating style 18 PART RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Research design The research “The difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation of English majored juniors at Tay Do University” is conducted to answer the two questions in Part 3: finding out the difficulties that juniors have faced in translating Vietnamese into English and some ways to solve their problems The reliability and the validity of the research are based on the instruments To achieve the above mentioned purposes, the researcher will investigate English majored juniors about the difficulties of Vietnamese-English translation by a questionnaire The collected information will be analyzed to show the difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation and the ways to solve their problem 4.2 Participants The participants of this study are 58 English majored juniors course (20142018) at Tay Do University They are 19 males and 39 females with the ages from 21 to 24, who come from different areas such as: rural and urban All of them are learning English as a foreign language besides their mother language, Vietnamese They will be given questionnaire and interview in order to get information about difficulties they have faced in Vietnamese-English translation and some ways to solve their problem 4.3 Research instruments The instruments of this study are questionnaire and interview Questionnaire is used to collect the participants’ ideas about the difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation Besides that, questionnaire can be used to find out the causes of the difficulties and ways to solve the problems such as: vocabulary, grammar, cultural background and translating style 19 4.3.1 Questionnaire The questionnaire consists of multiple choice questions in the sum of 27 questions The firsts multiple choice questions are used to get data about the students’ background, their attitude and practicing time Besides the firsts multiple choice questions is a table designed with 18 statements in a 5-point scale: (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) no idea, (4) disagree and (5) strongly disagree In short, the questionnaire includes questions and 26 statements which are classified into the following groups: Group Questions Question and question 2 Question to question Question 10 to question 24 Question 25 and question 27 Clusters Students’ background Students’ attitude The problems that the students have faced in translation Ways to solve difficulties in translation 4.3.2 Interview This paper interview is designed to get specific information from the juniors about the difficulties that they have faced in translating Vietnamese into English It consists of questions which focus on two main points First of all, the questions and investigate students’ attitude and motivation about Vietnamese-English translation Questions and are designed to find out the difficulties they have faced in Vietnamese-English translation In the question 5, the researcher wants to know the ways that students solve their difficulties to improve their Vietnamese-English translation 20 4.4 Procedure In this part, the process of implementing the research is presented It is done within weeks and process is divided into steps All the activities of carrying out the research are listed in the following table Steps Activities in study process  Orienting the research topic Step 1: The first four weeks  Making the outline of the research  Designing the questionnaire  Asking the teacher and students for the permission to deliver the questionnaire Step 2: The next two weeks  Delivering the questionnaire to the students  Collecting data from the questionnaire and interview  Collecting and analyzing the collected data Step 3: The last four weeks  Completing the research 21 PART EXPECTED OUTCOMES By this research, researcher could find out some common difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation of English majored juniors at Tay Do University such as difficulties in vocabulary, grammar, cultural background and translating style; to point out the reason why students encounter with these difficulties So, they can realize the ways to solve their own difficulties and improve their Vietnamese-English translation In addition, this study can also help teachers to know their students’ difficulties From that, they can offer their students suitable materials for learning and teaching methods to help students improving Vietnamese-English translation 22 REFERENCES References from books Bui Tien Bao & Dang Xuan Thu (1997) Interpreting and translation course book Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục Bell, R (1991) Translation and Training Theory and Practice New York: Longman Catford, J (1965) A Linguistic Theory of Translation London: Oxford University Press Bauer, L (1983) English word-formation Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Cao Xuan Hao (1998) Tiếng Việt: Mấy vấn đề ngữ âm, ngữ pháp, ngữ nghĩa Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục Baker, M (1992) In order words: a coursebook on translation London: Routledge Nguyen Dang Liem (1970) A contrastive phonological analysis of English and Vietnamese In D L Nguyen (Ed.), A contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese: Vol Kreidler, C W (1998) Introducing English semantics London: Routledge Thompson, L (1965) A Vietnamese Grammar Seattle WA: University of Washington Press 10 Duff, A (1989) Translation Oxford: Oxford University Press 11 Luu Trong Tuan (2009) Tạp chí khoa học xã hội Phân tích phong cách dịch thuật văn khoa học, số 1(125) 23 References from the internet Translation Journal http://translationjournal.net Retrieved March, 2017 Translation skills https://www.slideshare.net/studentsandteachers/translation-skills Retrieved March, 2017 Tang Giang (2007) Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Vietnamese and English with Implications for Vietnamese Language Acquisition and Maintenance in the United States Retrieved March, 12, 2017 http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1085&context=jsaae a 24 APPENDIX A QUESTIONAIRE FOR STUDENTS Dear friends, My name is Pham Huu Le Huy and I am currently a senior majoring in English 8B class Now I am carrying out a study “The difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation of English majored juniors at Tay Do University” Would you please take a minute to answer all below questions? Your response is very important to our research Once again, thank you so much Student’s full name: ……… Age:… Class:…………… Gender: Male□ Female□ Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answer for each question Give specific answer if needed How long have you studied English? … years Where are you from? A Urban area/city B Rural area/ countryside In your opinion, which is the most difficult subject? A Listening B Speaking C Writing D Reading E Translation 25 (If you did not learn Translation subject, then skip Question 4) What you think about translation? A Very important B Important C Normal D Not normal How many periods a week did you practice Vietnamese-English translation? ……………………………… period(s) a week How much time a week you spend on practicing Vietnamese-English translation? ………………………………hour(s) a week When self-studying, you usually practice translating A Only English into Vietnamese texts B Only Vietnamese into English texts C First English -Vietnamese text then Vietnamese-English texts D First Vietnamese - English then English – Vietnamese What you think about your translation skill? A Very good B Good C Average D Bad E Very bad What is the biggest challenge you have to face when translating from Vietnamese to English? 26 A Choosing appropriate vocabulary in the English language B Finding suitable grammar structures in the target language to transfer the ideas C Analyzing word others in Vietnamese texts D Understanding special phrases in the source text E Others: ………………………………………………………………………………… This below table is your difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation Please read the following statements carefully and mark (X) in suitable column to express your opinion Strongly agree Statements (1) 10 Vietnamese-English is more difficult than English- Vietnamese translation 11 You feel more nervous when translating Vietnamese-English often than English-Vietnamese 12 Your not know enough collocations in English 13 You have faced difficulties with prepositions 27 Agree (2) No ideas (3) Disagree (4) Strongly disagree (5) 14 You choose preposition the English basing on Vietnamese meaning without paying attention to their variations 15 You not know how to use synonyms in different contexts 16 It is very difficult for you to translate Vietnamese pronouns into English pronouns 17 You have faced difficulties when translating idioms 18 You usually make grammatical errors in your translation because of the differences between Vietnamese and English grammar 19 You usually translate word by word 20 You have remembering difficulties all of in the grammatical rules 21 You not understand English versions of many Vietnamese words 28 22 With poor background knowledge, you cannot make a good translation 23 You are confused translating about unfamiliar contexts 24 There are many words with similar meanings and you feel difficult to choose suitable words 25 You rarely check your translation after the initial draft 26 You not have suitable strategies when practicing Vietnamese-English translation 27 You usually read books or magazines to improve your background knowledge for better translation THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! 29 APPENDIX B INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Dear friends, My name is Pham Huu Le Huy and I am currently a senior majoring in English 8B class Now I am carrying out a study “The difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation of English majored juniors at Tay Do University” Would you please take a minute to answer all below questions? Your response is very important to our research Once again, thank you so much Student’s full name: ……… Age:… Class:…………… Gender: Male□ Female□ Please read and answer the questions below carefully Do you like Vietnamese-English translation? Why? Do you think Vietnamese-English translation the most difficult subject? Why or why not? 30 What are your difficulties when translating Vietnamese into English? Which factor has become your biggest difficulty in Vietnamese-English? Why? In your opinion, what should you to improve your Vietnamese-English translation? THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! 31