Difficulties facing english majored sophomores in vietnamese – english translation at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE B.A THESIS DIFFICULTIES FACING ENGLISH MAJORED SOPHOMORES IN VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH TRANSLATION AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY SUPERVISOR: Nguyen Hiep Thanh Nga, Ph.D Student Name: Huynh Le Vu Hiep Code: 15D220201019 Class: English 10A May 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the preparation of this thesis, I am deeply indebted to many individuals who help me complete this research Firstly, I would like to show my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Ph.D Nguyen Hiep Thanh Nga for her wholehearted help She always gave me precious guidance, constructive feedback and necessary corrections for the purpose of leading my research to the right track Moreover, she was willing to provide me many reference materials during the time I conducted my study My thesis could not be completed without her encouragement and guidance Secondly, my heartfelt thanks 44 sophomores in Bachelor of English courses 12A and 12B, for spending their priceless time participating in the questionnaire, the test papers and interview Their cooperations and suggestions were truly significant and helpful to my research Besides I want to thank Mr Nguyen Tien Dung and Mr Kieu Vu Luan at English course for all the support they gave me during time I made this research thesis Finally, my special thankfulness to my beloved family and dear friends Without all their love, encouragement and inspiration over time and distance, I could not complete this study i COMMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i COMMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v ABSTRACT vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research aims 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Design of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of translation 2.2 The importance of translation 2.3 Translation equivalence 2.4 Common difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation …………………….7 2.4.1 Word choice 2.4.2 Word order 2.4.3 Grammar 10 2.4.4 Difficulties in idioms.…………………………………………… 12 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15 3.1 Research design 16 3.2 Research participants 16 3.3 Instruments 16 3.3.1 Questionnaire 17 3.3.2 Interview 17 3.3.3 Test paper 3.4 18 Procedure 18 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 20 4.1 Results 20 4.1.1 Students background 20 iii 4.1.2 Common difficulties in Vietnamese – English translation 23 4.1.3 Results from questionnaire and test paper 24 4.1.4 Results from interview 40 4.2 Discussion 42 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 44 5.1 Conclusions 44 5.2 Implications 45 5.3 Limitations 45 5.4 Recommendations 46 REFERENCES 47 APPENDIX A: QUESTIONAIRE 49 APPENDIX B: TEST PAPER 53 APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW 55 iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES List of figures Figure Students’ interests in translation 20 Figure Students’ self-assessment on translation skill 21 Figure Students’ amount of time spending on practicing Vietnamese - English translation 22 Figure Students’ frequency of encountering obstacles in Vietnamese - English translation 23 Figure Common difficulties in Vietnamese - English translation 24 Figure Difficulties in word choice……………………………………………….25 Figure Difficulties in word order…………………………………………………29 Figure Difficulties in grammar………………………………………………… 32 Figure Difficulties in idioms…………………………………………………… 36 List of tables Table Students’ problems relevant to word choice in questionnaire 26 Table The difficulties in English-Vietnamese translation related to word choices in test paper 27 Table Students’ issues concerning word order in questionnaire 30 Table The difficulties in English -Vietnamese translation with regard to words order in test paper 31 Table Students’ challenges regarding Grammar in questionnaire 33 Table The difficulties in English-Vietnamese translation regarding Grammar in test paper 34 Table Students’ problems relevant to idioms in questionnaire 37 Table The difficulties in English-Vietnamese translation relevant to idioms in test paper 38 v ABSTRACT Translation play its fundamental role of transferring messages across languages In the process of translation, the students could face the difficulties when translating a sentence, it is a far more problematic one for English majored students regardless of their learning years For this reason, the study entitled “Difficulties facing English Majored sophomores in Vietnamese – English translation at Tay Do University”” was implemented to point out potential traps that English majored sophomores could get caught in when translating a sentence Vietnamese into English translation in order to prepare for the study the course of practical translation In fact, 44 sophomores from Bachelor of English courses 12A and 12B at Tay Do University were selected as participants of the study Questionnaires, test papers and interview were delivered to all participants for collecting data and getting more information The collected data from the three instruments mentioned above were all analyzed The findings of the research revealed that they could meet difficulties in Vietnamese - English translation in view of four main problems, embracing word choice, word order, grammar and idioms vi PART I: INTRODUCTION This chapter mentions the rationale, research aims, research questions, significance and organization of the study 1.1 Rationale In today’s globalization and internationalization, it cannot be denied the importance of English in people’s life and social development No English means no communication Without communication, there is no way to express thoughts, ideas, and feelings And how can the country economy develop when it tends to integrate international economy for the whole development? English becomes a common language which helps people understand each other more in the process of diplomaticrelation and economic cooperation and many other fields in today’s era English is the most effective international communicative language It is also the official language in a large number of countries 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 the second language English is the second language which is widely used only just after Chinese All most of the international events and global organizations are using English as the default language of communication We again cannot deny the advantages of English bringing to our, especially in the booming age of information and technology Because knowing English and using computer more effectively are demands of job’s requirements to get one’s dream job in any international company, earn more money or communicate more effectively with more people around the world When Vietnam became one of the members of World Trade Organization in 2006 encountering the difficulties in communicating with international friends, it has more and more requirements for Vietnamese to have expert English skills, especially translation skill which is considered as a bridge helping Vietnam connect with partners, enhance international economy and exchange our culture with other countries in the world Therefore, the demand of professional translation is getting more necessary than ever Translation is essential to learn, but it does mot mean it is simple for learners To master translation is not easy for almost all English learners Many Vietnamese people have faced with many challenges when translating mother tongue into English This can be very difficult for learners who begin to study written translation or even for those who are fluent in several languages, and there is no exception for English majored sophomores at Tay Do University How to deal with this actual situation is still a question These wondering and interesting facts, ideas promote me to carry out the study: “Difficulties facing English Majored Sophomores in Vietnamese – English translation at Tay Do University”.” I hope it will be new and contributive to help students understand their difficulties and overcome these obstacles in learning process as well as get high mark in this subject 1.2 Aims of the study For this study, I expect to clarify common difficulties in the Vietnamese – English translation of the sophomore English majors at Tay Do University 1.3 Research questions To achieve the aims, this research is carried out by answering two following research questions: -What the difficulties of the sophomores English majors at Tay Do University encounter when translating sentence from Vietnamese into English? 1.4 Scope of the study The sophomores English major students in BA English courses 12A and 12B (2017 2021) at Tay Do University are also the targeted objects of this research The study involves to Vietnamese written, documents and English equivalents in different fields, which may be from books, magazines or Internet 1.5 Design of the study This study consists of the following parts: Chapter I: Introduction The first part gives an overview of the study including rationale, aims, scope, and design of study hindered them from fully conveying the desired meaning of translated sentence For the sophomores this is very hard for them to translate cultural terms and idioms, that pointed out lack of knowledge about the culture make easy mistakes in translation of English majored students regardless of their learning years Second, students admitted that Grammar also their problem in making a proper translation It could be undoubtedly said that in English, there is a tendency of using noun phrases to indicate actions while Vietnamese prefer to employ verb phrases to express those actions As a result, students’ rigid use of grammar structures brought about the situation of unnaturally sounding renderings Specifically, they kept sticking to the source language (i.e Vietnamese) and did not make appropriate modifications when translating sentence from Vietnamese into English Third, most of the students did not reach the level of smoothness and elegance in Vietnamese-into-English translation due to word order In fact, English has a habit of employing passive constructions whereas in Vietnamese, active ones are considerably preferred Nevertheless, students were not truly aware of this tendency and once again, they could not get out of the source language “prison” That is to say, sophomores were not flexible enough to learn that, in some cases, Vietnamese active voice needs to be translated with a passive one in English As a consequence, they translated passive sentences with the unnecessary use of the markers “and” and “by” Finally, Lack of word causes many troubles in translating Students not understand the meaning of the word to select them in the most appropriate way for that – translation They often have trouble in analyzing and understanding word in Vietnamese sentence to translate into English exactly Moreover, it not easy for some students to understand special phrases in the source sentence It means that these students ' knowledge of their mother tongue, Vietnamese, is quite limited Thus, words choice of English language are the big problem when they translate In conclusion, the research’s outcome figured out the fact that sophomores may meet difficulties for their study on the course of practical translation in the future This denoted that students paid special attention to Vietnamese sentence and potentially, they could not make English ones natural because of the four primary problems discussed above 42 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter presents the conclusions, implications, limitations and puts forward recommendations for further research 5.1 Conclusions As a matter of course, translation is an incredibly sophisticated task since it inevitably involves translators a set of exhaustive competences of the two languages concerned, namely the source language and the receptor one Certainly, when engaging in the translation process, the difficulties of the translated work should be given top priority so that it is indistinguishable from an original in the target language Insightfully recognizing this matter, the current paper aimed at pointing out potential traps that English majored students might get caught in when rendering Vietnamese into English in terms of naturalness after those years practicing a variety of translation tasks After going through the analysis of the questionnaires translation test, and interview the researcher would like to draw some conclusions for the overall research The ultimate results asserted that sophomores meet the difficulties due to the following problems The first one that held students back from producing a naturally sounding translation was about cultural terms In this case, students should have translated sentences or texts containing idioms with their metaphorical meanings rather than the superficial ones In addition, idioms in metaphors and similes should be altered with the ones that are close to Vietnamese people One more feasible solution was that students should read as many books on idioms as possible to enhance their understanding of such fixed phrases, and thus be able to stay way from unnaturalness in Vietnamese- English translation For Grammar, it was noticeable that students’ inflexible use of word form prevented them students from meeting the criteria of a proper translation To resolve this problem, the replacement technique was commonly employed Nouns in Vietnamese, for example, can be replaced by verbs or adjectives in English to obtain accuracy and suitability of semantics in English style The next problem was passive voice because students were largely dependent on the inappropriate use of the words “bị” and “bởi” In this situation, the replacement technique was once again, of usefulness to help solve Vietnamese – 43 English renderings That is to say, Vietnamese active sentences would take the place of English passive ones The last In brief, it could be implied that even though English majored sophomores had been approaching the theory of translation, they still could not reach the level of smoothness and elegance in Vietnamese- English translated sentence One possible explanation for this case was that they seemingly ignored this section of translation because the target language was not their mother tongue Moreover, they basically concentrated on the source language (Vietnamese) and then failed to make the rendering natural on the target language (English) 5.2 Implications On the basis of the findings, there were three implications that the researcher would like to refer Firstly, sophomores should perceive their difficulties in Vietnamese - English translation including word choice, word order, Grammar, and idioms on the purpose of getting out of difficulties for the course of practical translation in the next semester Secondly, because writing and translation were closely interrelated with each other, students ought to write extensively in both English and Vietnamese on a daily basis so as to enhance their writing skill Once their writing competence was remarkably improved, it would definitely facilitate the translation process As a result, the level in Vietnamese - English translation would not be far from reaching any more Finally, it is hoped that this study would be of helpfulness for teachers to get more insights into their students’ difficulties and therefore make appropriate adjustments toward their teaching method 5.3 Limitations In spite of the fact that undertaking the research was a rather wonderful experience for the researcher, there remained some inevitable restrictions First, in view of the time limitation, the researcher could not cover all aspects of problems causing sophomores' difficulties in Vietnamese - English translation Second, the current study was carried out in a small number of participants, 44 English major sophomores, so the findings might not be as reliable as originally expected However, the researcher truly hoped that, in its scope, the current paper would be of usefulness for English majored students at 44 Tay Do University in their translation learning process and for those having a strong interest in Vietnamese-into- English translation 5.4 Recommendations Basing on the limitations mentioned above, the further research should address the following issues First of all, a large scale of participants should be put into investigation in order that the research would be more dependable and convincing Actually, researcher could select not only English majored sophomores, but also sophomores, or even seniors who are about to approach the practice of translation Secondly, there should be some researches in the near future to figure out other problems resulting in difficulties in Vietnamese - English and furthermore I will hope many researches in English – Vietnamese to make good in translation subject 45 REFERENCES References from books Bassnett, S (2002) Translation Studies (3ed) New York/London: Routledge Bell, R T (1991) Translation and Translating Theory and Practice London: Longman Bui, T B & Dang, X T (1997) Interpreting and and Translation Hanoi: Hanoi University of Foreign Studies Bùi Ý (1980) Những mẫu câu tiếng Anh Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục Catford, J C (1965) A Linguistic Theory of Translation London: Longman Collins, W (2012) Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition Harpern Collins Publishers Gutt, E A (1999) Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publication, 58p Le, V S (2003) Translation and Grammar Hanoi: Culture and Information Publishing House McCarthy, M & O’Dell, F (2004) English Idioms In Use Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 10 Newmark, P (1981) Approaches to Translation Newyork: Prentice Hall 11 Newmark, P (1988) A sentencebook of Translation Newyork: Prentice Hall International 12 Nida, E A & Taber, C R (1969) The Theory and Practice of Translation Leiden: E.J.Brill 13 Pinchuck, I (1975) Scientific and Technical Translation California: W & Y Mackey Limited 14 Thomson, A J & Martinet, A V (2003) A practical English Grammar (the Fourth edition) Oxford: Oxford University Press 15 Luan, K.(2018) Difficulties in Vietnamese – English translation of English majored students at Tay Do University Tay Do University 16 Dung, T.(2018) Unnaturalness in English-Vietnamese Translation: Challenges Facing English Majored Seniors at Tay Do University Tay Do University 47 References from the Internet 17 Definition of “as alike as two peas in a pod” - The Phrase Finder Retrieved April 8, 2018 from https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/as-alike-as-two-peas-in-apod.html 18 Definition of “bring home the bacon” – The Free Dictionary by Farlex Retrieved April 8, 2018 from https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bring+home+the+bacon 19 Definition of metaphor - Literary Devices Retrieved March 2018 from https://literarydevices.net/metaphor 20 Definition of passive voice - The Free Dictionary by Farlex Retrieved March from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Passive-Voice.htm 21 Definition of relative clause - Oxford Learners’ Dictionary Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/relative-clauses 22 Definition of translation - Oxford Learners’ Dictionary Retrieved February 26, 2018 from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/translation 23 Definition of simile - Marriam Webster Dictionary Retrieved March 10, 2018 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/simile 24 Le, P.L (2006) Unnaturalness in English-Vietnamese Translation: Causes and Cures Retrieved March 9, 2018 from https://vi.scribd.com/document/134365253/English-Vietnamese-TranslationsUnnaturalness 25 Nguyen, V.T (2001) Translation & Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://www.scribd.com/document/6431380/TranslationEV 26 Tran, N.D.T (2010) Useful techniques for English - Vietnamese anh Vietnamese - English translation Retrieved April 7, 2018 from https://lhu.edu.vn/54/5861/Useful-techniques-for-English-Vietnamese-anhVietnamese-English-translation.html 27 Wright, D (2001) Yan Fu and the Tasks of the Translators (p4) Retrieved February 27, 2018 from www.wsc.uni-erlangen.de/pdf/wright.pdf 48 APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS My name is Huynh Le Vu Hiep and I am currently a senior majoring in English at Tay Do University This questionnaire is designed for my B.A thesis entitled “Difficulties facing English Majored Sophomores in Vietnamese – English translation at Tay Do University” I will really appreciate if you spend your valuable time on helping me answer the following questions by circling the answer(s) and checking () the number in the column that best suits your opinion Your answer will be very helpful and important to my research Once again, thank you so much! PERSONAL BACKGROUND Student’s full name: Age: Class: Gender: Male  Female  I have studied English for years Part 1: Please read the following questions carefully and choose the appropriate answer(s) for each question Give specific answers if needed What you think about translation? A Very interesting B Interesting C Normal D Boring How you evaluate your translation skill? A Very good B Good C Average D Bad How much time you spend on practicing English-Vietnamese translation per day? 49 minutes hour(s) What are your challenge(s) that prevent you from producing a satisfactory EnglishVietnamese translation? (more than one is acceptable) A Word choice B Word order C Grammar D Cultural terms How often you encounter the problems mentioned above? A Often B Usually C Sometimes D Never Part 2: Please check () only one column for each statement in the following table, according to the 5-degee Likert-type scale, namely and (1) Strongly agree (2) Agree (3) No idea (4) Disagree (5) Strongly disagree Statements Translation is not an easy task because it requires your word choice of both the source language (Vietnamese) and the target language( English) You consider translation a good one when it word sounds natural in the target language (English) Lack of vocabulary can affect to your choice of word 50 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) You have faced difficulties in choosing the meaning of the word in the specific context 10 You use unsuitable words with the topic of text 11 Word order are the great challenges for you to deal with in English-Vietnamese translation 12 You not know how to arrange the words logically when translating from Vietnamese into English 13 Lack of flexibility of word arrangement is one of your problems in translation 14 In the translated sentence the word order not match suitable in the target language (English) 15 Grammar is a bewildering issue for you in the process of English-into-Vietnamese translation 16 Your rigid use of grammar leads to the situation of unnaturally sounding EnglishVietnamese translation 17 In the concept of grammar the fact that noun phrases are often used in English while Vietnamese tend to employ verb phrase brings about your difficulty in translation 18 You keep sticking to grammar structure form in Vietnamese and not make suitable adjustments in English renderings 19 You not notice that while in vietnamese, there is a tendency of using active constructions, passive voice is much preferred in English 20 You often encounter obstacles in rendering English idioms into Vietnamese 21 You often encounter obstacles in rendering Vietnamese idioms into English 22 Idioms are so varied that they easily make you lose patience in remembering them 51 23 The fact that idioms reflect the concepts of culture poses challenges for you in translating them 24 You fail to reproduce a natural translation because of applying word-forword translation for idioms and cultural terms THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND HELP! 52 APPENDIX B TEST PAPER Participant’s full name: Time allotted: 20 minutes Translate the following sentences into Vietnamese: UNESCO công nhận Huế di sản văn hóa thế giới năm 1994 Sau năm học hành chăm chỉ, bố mẹ thưởng cho chuyến du lịch đến Đà Lạt Shakespeare, tác giả kịch Romeo and Juliet, chết vào năm 1616 Một đàn sư tử hăng công trâu già …………… Áo bà ba trang phục phổ biến người dân Nam Việt nam Chúng tin kinh tế Việt Nam được xếp vào 10 nước đứng đầu thế giới Anh ta thất bại nghệ thuật Trong gia đình người kiếm tiền nuôi người Múa rìu qua mắt thợ ……………… 10 Patricia Jenny giống đúc/như hai giọt nước 53 THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION! 54 APPENDIX C INTERVIEW FOR STUDENTS My name is Huynh Le Vu Hiep and I am currently a senior majoring in English at Tay Do University This interview is designed for my B.A thesis entitled “Difficulties facing English Majored sophomore in Vietnamese – English translation at Tay Do University” I will really appreciate if you spend your valuable time on helping me answer the following questions All the information will be used only for academic and research purpose Your answer will be very helpful and important to my research PERSONAL BACKGROUND Student’s full name: Age: Class: Gender: Male  Female  I have studied English for years It is said that practicing Vietnamese – English translation is difficult Do you agree? Why and why not? What is the most common difficulty you encounter about WORD CHOICE when you translate a text from Vietnamese into English? Why? (ex: Unsuitable word, ,Word meaning… ) 55 What is the most common difficulty you meet about WORD ORDER when you translate a sentence from Vietnamese into English? Why? (Ex: change position of word, change part of speech…) What is the most common difficulty you meet about GRAMMAR when you translate a sentence from Vietnamese into English? Why? (Ex: Structure of tenses, Difference parts of speech, Preposition, Voice) What is the most common difficulty about CULTURE that you encounter when you translate a text from Vietnamese into English? Why? (Lack of Background Knowledge, Idioms, Misunderstanding… ) What should you to improve your translation skill? 56 THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION! 57