translation difficulties and some solutions for k65s third year students of sofl

Duong Thi Thanh Tra 202041732; 4.1; 4.2; ConclusionGroup WorkResearch objectives, Research questions,Research methods, Data collection instrument,Questionnaire survey, Summary of DataRes

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Hanoi, July

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FL3080 Research Methodology Research Findings and Discussion

Group No.: 5 Topic: Translation difficulties and some

solutions for K65’s third-year students of SOFL

Date of Submission: 25/07/2023Group members and ID (alphabet order) In charge of Part number

1 Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh 20204053 3.2; 3.2.1;3.2.3; 3.2.4

2 Truong Thi Lan Anh 20204058 Introduction; 4.3; 5

3 Bui Thi Minh Hong 20204092 1; 3.1; 3.2.2; 3.2.4

4 Duong Thi Thanh Tra 20204173 2; 4.1; 4.2; Conclusion

Group Work

Research objectives, Research questions, Research methods, Data collection instrument, Questionnaire survey, Summary of Data

Research objectives:

In this study, we will focus on pointing out the issues of the 3rd-year SOFL’s students in learning both Vietnamese- English and English – Vietnamese translation In which we will focus on showing the most frequent difficult translation problems encountered by students majoring in English for Science and Technologies, and the most typical translation techniques employed by most students Then, we decide to suggest some relevant solutions that can help students improve their translation skills Besides, lecturers and administrators can use these results to make essential adjustments to the course.

Research questions

In this study, the researchers aim to address the following questions:

1 What difficulties did SOFL’s students experience during the translation process?

2 Which factors are causing the problems?

3 What are some solutions to assist students overcome these challenges?

1.The score of the first translation module (MH,TT)

2.The average time students spent on practicing translation

3 Students’ challenges in the first translation module

3.1 Type of difficult text for translation

3.2 Problems while translating process

3.2.1 Linguistic challenges

3.2.2 Cultural differences

3.2.3 Personal challenges

3.2.4 Difficulties when dealing with differences in grammatical structures (MH, NA)

4 Strategies utilized by students to overcome difficulties

4.1 Strategies used to deal with non-equivalence at word level

4.2 Strategies used to deal with idioms and fixed expressions

4.3 Strategies used to deal with differences in grammatical structures

5 Student’s opinion about essential skills for translators in the upcoming years CONCLUSION

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This research was conducted at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, School ofForeign Language (SOFL), using a mixed-methods approach The quantitative approach will

be used in the first 10 pre-coded questions in a the self-completed survey designed for thethird-year students of SOFL who have studied the first translation module in Google Form.This questionnaire form includes 1 open-ended question which used the qualitative approach.These questions are based partly on the research “Students’difficulties in translating Englishtext” published in 2019 by Arono and Nadrah

Our research had the responders of 100 students majoring in English for Science andTechnology and Professional International English from K65 SOFL On June 25, 2023, wesent our surveys to 100 students Each person's survey-taking time was between three and fiveminutes Our research team made it clear to the participants that their answers would be keptprivate These students are also encouraged to indicate other challenges that they haveencountered while studying translation along with our own pre-coded questions

We choose a questionnaire survey as the instrument of research method because we need togather a large amount of data from students We select the questionnaire survey as an idealinstrument for gathering data because they guarantee a high response rate, and occupy lesstime, which makes it simple for our team researchers to compare all responses to individualresponses We can rapidly gather enormous amounts of information from numerous people in

a short length of time using an online form and mobile application Our team collected 100responders in about one week Furthermore, the online tools make it simple to assess theresults without a background in statistics or scientific research To provide the greatest level

of privacy and anonymity, we also integrated the questionnaire survey with Google Forms.Furthermore, we see that when respondents complete the survey anonymously, the results areconsiderably more accurate Besides, we arrange the survey questions such that responderscan quickly scan the information and provide the most accurate responses There have been

10 pre-coded questions and 1 open-ended question in the online questionnaire survey.Online Survey – Respondent Completed

The survey is designed to study the experiences of students about learning the Translation course It is being conducted by means of a Google Form, involving a respondent-completed questionnaire distributed to K65 SOFL third-year students

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Translation Learning Survey

Dear fellow students, we are a group of third-year students at School of ForeignLanguages (SOFL), Hanoi University of Science and Technology We are conducting thisresearch to discover challenges and solutions for SOFL’s third-year students in learningTranslation We sincerely appreciate your attention in our research The data will be onlyused for our research and all personal information will be kept private

1 What score did you obtain on the

first translation module?

2 How long did you spend on

practicing your translating per day?

A Less than 30 minutes

B 1 hour – 2 hours

C More than 2 hours

D Hardly ever

3 In your opinion, which type of

text is the most difficult in

A The source language cultural terms which are semantically complex

B Finding suitable cultural equivalent terms in target language

C There are no cultural equivalent terminologies in target language

D Understanding cultural differences in thesource language and the target language.E.Others:

6.What LINGUISTIC CHALLENGES did you encounter while learning translation?

A Structure of sentences in English and target language are different

B Understanding meaning of words, collocations, idioms, slang, proper noun, phrasal verbs, complex phrasal verbs

C Analyzing context of source language and translating proper noun

D Finding equivalent words, phrasal verbs, idioms, collocation, slangs, …in target languages

E Others:

7.What PERSONAL CHALLENGES did

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you encounter while learning

translation?

A Limited time (cannot control

translation speed)

B Laziness

C Health (Some people are unable to

use computers for extended periods

of time to practice translating.)

D Others:

8 What are the STRATEGIES that

you normally use when dealing

with non-equivalence at word

C Translation by cultural substitution

D Translation by using a loan word

plus explanation

E Translation by paraphrase

F Translation by omission

9 What are the STRATEGIES that

you normally use when dealing

with idioms and fixed expressions?

A Using an idiom or fixed expression

of similar meaning and form

B Using an idiom or fixed

expression of similar meaning

but dissimilar form

C Translation by paraphrase

D Translation by omission

10 What are the categories that you normally find difficult when dealing with differences in grammatical structures?

A Voice (active and passive)

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Number % Sample size

Score of the first translation module

Time spent on practicing translation per day

Less than 30 minutes

The degree of difficulty is the same

Problems while translating

Cultural differences

Linguistics challenges

Personal challenges

Cultural problems while learning translation

Semantically complex source language cultural terms

Could not find suitable cultural equivalent terms

No cultural equivalent terminologies

Understanding cultural differences

Linguistic challenges while learning translation

Different structures of sentences between languages

Understanding meaning of words, collocations, idioms…

Analyzing context of source language and translating proper

36% 32% 17% 15%

52% 18% 30%

76% 84% 49%

67% 68% 57% 57%

44% 66% 55% 0

noun

Finding equivalent words, collocations, idioms…

Personal challenges while learning translation

Limited time

Laziness

Health

Strategies normally used when dealing with

non-equivalence at word level

Translation by a more specific word

Translation by a more general word

Translation by cultural substitution

Translation by using a loan word plus explanation

43% 59% 53% 58% 67% 29%

62% 73% 68% 25%

71% 40% 47% 1%

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Translation is a relatively challenging and demanding module It is notsurprising that many students, especially SOFL students who have just familiarizedthemselves with this module are struggling with finding a way to have an effectivetranslation Aware of that, our group decided to conduct a questionnaire survey sent toSOFL’s third-year students to find out what problems they are dealing with whiletranslating, what causes those challenges, and strategies they are using to solve them.From that, we could capture a panorama of the translation’s obstacles that studentsmust overcome and then offer them some appropriate translating strategies.Fortunately, our survey has gotten 100 responses All results are listed below

Score of the first translation module

Weak (<4.0) Below average (4.0-5.4) Average (5.5-6.9)

Good (7.0-8.4) Very good (8.5-10)

Figure 1: The Score of The First Translation Module

Previously, the outcomes in the first translation module are shown in the chart

above In the above pie chart, students who got good score (around 7.0 - 8.4) is themode In particular, more than half (51%) received a good grade, 14% got a very goodmark and 26% were on average Only 4 students had below-average scores, and 5

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students obtained weak scores, which accounted for 4% and 5% of the total number ofstudents that responded There are some explanations for the results achieved by K65students To begin with, it is noteworthy that the majority of students in the firsttranslation module received “good grades (around 7.0 - 8.4)” This is a promisingresult because the students have approached translation from the most fundamentallevel, such as translating dialogue and translating text They received their firstopportunity to approach the professional translation process during the previoussemester while learning the theory of translation As a result, K65 students' score thissemester is high However, it should be emphasized that only 14% of the studentsachieved the classification of "very good" (scores ranging from 8.5 to 10), whichsuggests a relatively low level of proficiency in the practical application of theoreticalknowledge and principles This finding implies that students may encounter challenges

in specific areas of translation practice, indicating the need for continued development

Average time spent on practicing translation per day

Less than 30 minutes 1 hour – 2 hoursMore than 2 hours Hardly ever

Figure 2: The average time students spent on practicing translation

According to the data in the previous pie chart, K65 students have obtained asignificant number of high scores for the translation module Therefore, it is no surprise that85% of students spend time daily practicing translation Figure 2 illustrates the average timestudents practice translation per day Specifically, only 17% of the students spent more than

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two hours practicing translation, and 32% spent between 1 and 2 hours However, more than athird of the students (36%) only spent less than 30 minutes practicing which is the mode It isstill alarming that 15% of students spend little time each day practicing translation Spendingmore than an hour practicing each day is essential for professional language learners As itassists students in gradually strengthening their linguistic weaknesses There are severalpossible explanations for why students hardly practice translation, including the fact they arenot interested in available practicing translation materials and their laziness To spur students'enthusiasm for learning translation, instructors might also keep an eye on and update newtranslation resources and methods.

3 Students’ challenges in the first translation module

3.1 Type of difficult text for translation

52%

18%

30%

Type of difficult text for translation

Vietnamese – English English – Vietnamese

The degree of difficulty is the same

Figure 3: Type of difficult text for translation

The pie chart above demonstrates problems encountered by students depend mainly

on the source language of the material Vietnamese-English and English-Vietnamese textsare two instances of challenging texts to translate Over half of the students (52%) foundthe translation from Vietnamese to English to be more problematic, whereas only 18%found the translation from English to Vietnamese to be more challenging, and theremaining 30% found the degree of difficulty is the same The number of 52% indicatesthat translating from Vietnamese to English is currently the most challenging task for K65SOFL students The fundamental reason is that English linguistic students at HUST aremore interested in translating scientific and technological academic materials However,most Vietnamese scientific publications are difficult to understand and translate Students

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will be unable to fluently translate Vietnamese equivalent scientific and technicalterminologies into English, as well as the sentence structures in the scientific texts Thisfinding also indicates only 18 percent (18 students out of 100) thought translating English

to Vietnamese was problematic This number shows that these students may strugglebecause their English vocabulary is inadequate Therefore, they cannot smoothly translateinto Vietnamese Moreover, their method of translating structures from English toVietnamese may not be standard Vietnamese SOFL students encountered generaltranslation challenges However, SOFL students also face their own challenges Ourresearch team divided these challenges into three major categories: personal challenges,linguistics challenges, and cultural differences The next following part will examine thestatistics on these three sorts of difficulties on a deeper level

3.2 Problems while translating process

There are 3 major problems students might face while translating which arepersonal challenges, linguistics challenges and cultural differences Many studentsreported that they face 2 or even all these 3 problems In fact, the most commonproblem students facing are linguistic challenges with 84% which is in accordancewith the findings of some previous research by Mohammed (2018) Meanwhile,problem caused by cultural differences are not far behind with 76% Finally, there wasalso nearly haft of the students (49%) faced personal challenges while translating Inthe next part, we will come to the details of each challenge to have deeperunderstanding of them