EXECUTIVE SUMMARYBased on the foundation of the study titled “An investigation intotranslation errors among Business English students of intake 61- NationalEconomics University”, the aut
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Ăn ret 6 2.1 c0 000) 0 1 Ố.ồ.Ố.ỐỐ
Translation Process cố cố
According to Larson (1984: 3), the goal of the translator when translating a text is to provide an idiomatic translation that makes every effort to convey the
10 meaning of the source text in the natural forms of the receptor language In addition, he asserts that the process of translation requires one to investigate the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication environment, and cultural context of the SL text in order to ascertain its meaning The newly acquired meaning is then re-expressed or reconstructed by making use of vocabulary and grammar that are natural to the target language as well as the cultural context of that language. The diagram that can be found below was created by Larson to illustrate the translation procedure.
\ 7 Discover Re-express the meaning the meaning
Figure 2.1: Translation process by Larson (1984:4)
There are three stages to the translation process, as described by Nida and Taber (1982: 33): (1) analyzing, during which the meaning of the words and word combinations is taken into account along with the grammatical relationships on the surface structure; (2) transferring, during which the content is mentally transferred from language A to language B; and (3) restructuring, during which the content is reformed to create a final message that is entirely understandable in the receptor language The figure that follows demonstrates the translation procedure.
Figure 2.2: Translation process by Nida and Taber (1982:33)
Standardization in translation Process Sàn KH HH HH ri 12
Standardization in translation encompasses all aspects of the process, from the software to be used to the evaluation of the work to ensure that it adheres to the rules of the target language The fact that it guarantees that the translators themselves fulfill a certain quality and are fluent in both the source and destination languages may be even more significant To ensure that they accurately understand the source and target texts for the suggested audience, translators must also possess a certain level of research, cultural, and technical ability.
A translated document must consider factors including precision, phrasing, style, readability, and consistency Through standardization, it is ensured that each translated work is double-checked for these factors and others Without these safeguards, it is conceivable for a work to be translated and the finished product to utterly miss the original's objective or even to make little sense to the target audience.
The initial standards for a quality translation were established by Nida and Taber in 1969 They contend that a quality TL product matches the SL text in terms of semantic accuracy, grammatical correctness, stylistic effectiveness, and textual coherence Meanwhile, Munday (2001:26) cites Tytler who lists three general guidelines for a competent translation:
12 a A thorough transcription of the concepts in the original work must be provided in the translation b The literary style and tone must match those of the original. c The translation ought to be as fluid as the original work.
Besides, a good translation can also accurately express the facts and meet the original's aim, according to Newmark (1988:192) A good translation is one that “fulfills the same purpose in the new language as the original did in the language it was written” This definition is in line with this approach Additionally, Nida (2000:134) lists the four fundamental criteria for a good translation as follows: it must make sense, capture the essence and style of the original text, have a natural and effortless style, and elicit the same reaction.
Error states that something is wrong In addition, an error is a linguistic form or combination of forms that, in the same context and under production circumstances that are comparable, the speaker's native counterparts almost certainly would not produce the form or combination of forms in question
The terms “error” and “mistake” are still frequently confused by a large number of people There is a difference between the two terms, despite the fact that they are frequently used interchangeably with one another Error, in the context of scientific discourse, denotes a deficiency in the student's knowledge and exhibits a systematic pattern On the other hand, a mistake is typically regarded as a deficiency in performance, and it does not take place in a predictable manner(Goff-Kfouri, 2004).
Translation ETTOF Tnhh TH TT HT HT Hàn gưệt 13 2.2.3 Causes of Translation ẽTTOTS - - + SE kề HH Hi 15
Non-native speakers who don't know the target language's rules make errors in speech and writing Pym (1992) says language, pragmatics, and culture cause
13 errors Seguinot (1989) claims that translators misinterpret source texts or can't produce target texts (as cited in Kapour & Jahanshahi, 2015).
Translators make many mistakes Previous studies reported those issues. Linguistic, comprehension, and translation errors exist (Popescu, 2013). Translation errors are caused by a lack of knowledge of both the source and target languages' structure, vocabulary, and punctuation It causes linguistic, cultural, and stylistic translation errors.
One definition of an error is the production of incorrect forms in a system. The result of a translation error, in addition to altering the meaning of the source text, is that the readers will receive an inaccurate representation of the source text's intended purpose Gunawan and Rini (2013) investigate the prevalence of translation errors within comedic texts As a result of translation errors in their research, the humorous text that they were translating was poorly received by readers, who consequently misunderstood the point of the original humorous text. The researchers determined that errors in message transfer and possible variations in translation were the types of errors that occurred as a direct consequence of translating humor text.
The innovation of the translation industry is keeping pace with the rapid development of technology in this modern era There are currently some translation machines available, and the majority of them prefer to translate from one language to another The machine translation service known as Google Translate can be used to help with translation There are some inaccuracies in the translations that are produced by Google Translate, despite the fact that it is an example of artificial intelligence In her research paper, Halimah (2018) outlined three distinct categories of mistakes that can be made when using Google Translate There are three different categories of errors: semantic errors, syntactic errors, and logical errors.
Previous studies not only classified translation errors into distinct types, but also analyzed the causes of these errors Errors in the translation can be attributed to a number of factors, including a lack of available time for translation training, the singular registers of Islamic texts, and cultural differences between Iran and English-speaking countries (Kapour & Jahanshahi, 2015) In addition, according to Popescu (2013), an absence of linguistic knowledge on the part of translators was another factor that contributed to the occurrence of translation errors among translators Additional causes of translation errors have been discovered, according to the findings of other researchers Both a lack of knowledge of the language that is being translated and the interference of the translator's mother tongue can lead to translation errors Intra-lingual interference refers to when one language influences another (Utami, 2017).
Silalahi, Rai, and Rasyid (2018) also presented some additional causes of translators’ slip-ups in the workplace A lack of knowledge, difficulty composing in the target language, inability to consult a dictionary, and the use of a translation machine were all cited as reasons for errors In addition, the researchers stressed that translators were not always to blame for any mistakes that crept in during the translation process Some translation problems, like muddled sentences or incomprehensible concepts, could originate in the original text.
However, Wongranu (2017) provided a fresh perspective on what goes wrong Misreading, interference from context, and a general lack of confidence were just some of the ways in which translator anxiety manifested itself.
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS Ánh 16 3.1 Background information oo ce cece 1n 1T TH HT HH HT 16 3.2 Common translation errors often encountered by Business English students
Comprehension €TTOFF tt HH TH TH TH TT TH Hà HH TT HH Hàng 19 3.2.3 Translation error (Transferring €TFOT') À + tt HH HT HH ngư 20 3.3 Causes of translation €TTOFS .- - - (+ 1E TT Hàn TT HH Hi, 21
Misunderstanding of the syntax of a sentence Completely do not understand the meaning of the text being translated.
Figure 3.7: Common comprehension errors encountered by BE students of intake 61
From the second figure, we can see that most of the respondents stated that the comprehension error they made the most is misunderstanding of the syntax of a sentence with 47 out of 75 respondents, accounting for 62,7% while 42 respondents supposed that completely not understanding the meaning of the text
19 being translated is also one of the most common comprehension errors they often encountered when doing translation.
Pragmatic errors: fail to transfer the conventional implicatures o | 45 (60%)
Cohesion and coherence errors: too literal translation or too free —B3 (70,7%)
Figure 3.8: Common translation errors (transferring errors) encountered by BE students of intake 61
As can be seen from the chart that, cohesion and coherence error is the most common translation error that Business English students often made when doing translation, accounting for 70,7% Many students tend to translate too closely to the original text and translate word by word without creativity, causing the translation results to be unsatisfactory while many students translate too freely and go too far compared to the original text, causing the translations to lose the meaning they were intended for An example of too literal translation is as follows:
Source text: “The other is a tropical paradise of lush forest and unparalleled high rates of endemism in both flora and fauna”.
Translated text: “Cái khác đó là thiên đường nhiệt đới của rừng tươi tốt va tỷ lệ đặc hữu cao không song song về cả hệ thực vật và động vat’.
Besides, pragmatic error is also one of the errors that students often encounter during the compilation process, accounting for 60% of the total survey answers That is, the students fail to convey the author's intended meaning and sense through the implication of the linguistic choice Lack of naturalness and
20 consistency are also two common mistakes, accounting for equal proportions, with
26,7% and 29,3% respectively Very few students made omissions and additions errors when doing translation.
Time limitation Cultural Lack of Failure of The abuse of Lack of text Errors from the of translation differences knowledge of consulting with — translation expressing source text ( training between two the target dictionary machines or ability unclear translated language tools sentences or languages incoherent ideas )
Figure 3.9: Main causes of translation errors
It is clear from the chart that cultural differences between two translated languages and lack of knowledge of the target language are the two main reasons for making mistakes when doing translation with 65 and 62 out of 75 respondents respectively (nearly 86,7% and 82,7%) The reason is that without context, language cannot be accurately interpreted or translated Each language has a distinct interpretation based on its people's way of thinking, local history, way of life, and geographic location For example, the word “desert” means something completely different to the Maya (an open field) than it does to Palestinians (a dry, sandy area) Inadequate understanding of cultural differences can result in mistranslation.
Another main cause of making translation errors is the abuse of translation machines or tools with 16 respondents out of 75 Despite incredible advances in natural language processing (NLP) and machine translation (MT), it is still not completely accurate Errors are unavoidable when using a translation tool like
Google Translate Even with the most recent AI advances, some language pairs have notoriously poor translation quality In addition, the fact that students do not know how to consult with the dictionary plus errors from the source text also contribute to the causes of errors during translating The data also shows that time does not affect the quality of students’ translation too much.
" WB Strongly disagree MMM Partly disagree (0) Neutral [MM Partly agree TW Strongly agree
Fully equipped with Enhance the ability to Donotoveruse translation Divide the translation time Learn how to look up translation knowledge and learnaboutcullUres tools appropriately difficult technical terms in theory, around the world the dictionary
Figure 3.10: BE students’ opinions on suggested solutions to improve translation quality
3.4.1 Fully equipped with translation knowledge and theory
It can be seen from the figure 3.9 that most of the students participating in the survey strongly agree that having adequate knowledge and theory about translation is an especially important factor in improving translation quality This theory and knowledge will be learned in the first semester, i.e in the course of
Translation 1 Therefore, it is the responsibility of lecturers to help students master translation theory in the first stage Besides, in addition to studying at school,
22 students can also find more references from reputable online sources or refer to books at the library Supplementing and mastering translation knowledge from the first lessons will help students familiarize themselves with translation and translation skills Teachers can apply many methods to be able to convey the most understandable methods so that students can easily absorb and remember.
Enhance the ability to learn about cultures around the world
More than 80% of respondents agreed that enhancing the ability to learn about different cultures around the world is necessary to improve translation quality Since it is culture that gives rise to language, there is an inherent connection between translation and culture When translating for business purposes, cultural context has a significant impact on both the original and translated meanings Even if a phrase seems to have no cultural nuances, a literal translation could end up meaning something entirely different Therefore, it is risky to translate without first gaining a deep familiarity with the cultural context, especially when the intended meaning must be preserved To ensure that each translated sentence is meaningful in both the source language and the target culture, the translator must be able to assess the significance of the sentence's cultural context and determine what the sentence actually implies rather than what it literally means.
Many institutions and customs that are common in one culture are foreign to others Beliefs held dearly and even a dedication to the truth can vary greatly from one culture to the next Each of these culturally specific psychological concepts has a corresponding word whose meaning is unique to that language and cannot be translated directly from another language How would you convey the nuances of another culture? One can only hope to create an interpretation if they are well-versed in both the cultures of the original language and the target language Therefore, it is essential to increase translation quality by learning about various cultures.
Do not overuse translation OỌS Ác 1n TT HH Hàng re 24 3.4.4 Divide the translation time qDDFOJFÍf€ẽy HH HH re 24 3.4.5 Learn how to look up difficult technical terms in the dicfionary
More than 70% of respondents agreed that excessive use of translation tools is the cause of poor translation quality, four of them strongly agreed, so not overusing translation tools is a good measure to improve translation quality. Machine Translation, which makes use of "machines" like Google Translate, is widely known to facilitate the mass translation of content by multinational corporations It's a common addition to localization platforms, and companies use it to save money on translations So far, it has proven most useful for content with lower production values MT is often considered the best choice in these circumstances.
However, one of the most significant disadvantages of using translation tools is the poor quality of the translated text Translation tools frequently fail to translate text in its proper context When you rely on human translations, you get better results with cultural references, idiomatic expressions, industry jargons, and other details Moreover, translation tools cannot provide the same level of accuracy as human translations when it comes to translating ambiguous terms Human translators with comprehension and relevant experience can ensure that the translated documents are accurate, of high quality, precise, and consistent. Therefore, in order to improve translation quality, translators can use translation tools, but use them sparingly to avoid silly translation errors.
3.4.4, Divide the translation time appropriately
Translation is a job that requires a lot of time and effort A translator who wants to produce a perfect translation needs to spend a lot of time not only translating but also editing the translated content to suit different contexts and cultures Therefore, when translating, dividing time appropriately to focus on work and avoid being disturbed is also an optimal method to improve translation quality. However, the majority of students participating in the survey have a neutral opinion on how the reasonable division of time affects the quality of translation It proves that the translation quality of business English students is not affected by
24 the time they spend translating Therefore, each student will know how to effectively divide his time to be able to give the most optimal translation.
3.4.5 Learn how to look up difficult technical terms in the dictionary
The data from figure 3.9 also shows that the majority of students also have a neutral opinion about learning how to look up difficult technical terms in the dictionary will improve translation quality, only a small number of students agree that knowing how to look up difficult terms in a dictionary will improve the quality of the translation, and some students disagree with this idea This is a rather surprising result because for a long time, the dictionary is not only considered an effective tool for teaching and learning foreign languages in general but also in the field of translation in particular Dictionaries can help translators understand the meaning of terms in the source language so that they can translate the equivalent into the target language Therefore, in order to improve the quality of translation, learning how to look up and refer to dictionaries is essential and students should pay attention to improving their dictionary lookup skills.
CONCLUSION Án HH HH HH HT HH HH nhiệt 26 LÔNG an hố
Limitations nh
Despite extensive re-examination, the study could not avoid some limitations One of the biggest limitations is that the number of survey samples is quite small, leading to the research results that are somewhat impossible to be absolutely accurate.
At the same time, the number of people participating in the survey and providing opinions is still quite small, so the research results are largely subjective.
In addition, the object of the study is quite small and only applied at theDepartment of Foreign Languages of National Economics University, therefore,the results of the study cannot be widely applied to all students of other majors inNEU or other universities.
Suggestions for future researCH - - (Gà 1S TH ng TH ng 27
From the remaining limitations in the study, some suggestions to improve the results for future research are as follows:
Firstly, future studies should focus on classifying the main errors in the two translation processes from English to Vietnamese and from Vietnamese to English. This helps the research and analysis process to be more specific and accurate, thereby identifying more closely the common errors in each translation process to be able to accurately provide more useful and specific translation.
Secondly, future studies should use many different research methods and data collection techniques, from qualitative to quantitative, to give the most objective and optimal results In particular, the survey questionnaire should be designed more broadly, with more questions to be able to collect more data for research.
Finally, both the scale and the scope of the study could be expanded Future researchers should consider conducting research not only on FFL students of intake
61 but also on FFL students who are enrolled in NEU's Translation Course For
27 the purpose of ensuring both subjectivity and reliability, the number of participants in the survey ought to be increased.
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cố cố cố cố ố ố ố.e
Iam a student from National Economics University
Currently, I am studying a research of “AN INVESTIGATION INTO TRANSLATION ERRORS AMONG BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDENTS OF
INTAKE 61- NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY” The purpose of the study is to investigate about regular translation errors of the senior English major at NEU Therefore, I need some of your information to complete this study All the information you provide will be kept strictly confidential and used for the research purposes only.
1 Have you finished all the translation courses? a Already b Not yet
2 Have you ever encountered any translation errors when translating? a Yes b No
3 In which semester of translation do you encounter translation errors the most? a Translation 1 b Translation 2 c Translation 3
4 Do you aspire to become a translator after graduation? a Yes b No
5 Which of the following linguistic errors do you usually encounter when translating? (You can choose more than one answer) a Lexical choice b Inappropriate synonyms
7. c Inappropriate prepositions d Singular and plural forms
Which of the following comprehension errors do you usually encounter when translating? (You can choose more than one answer) a Misunderstanding of the syntax of a sentence b Completely do not understand the meaning of the text being translated.
Which of the following translation errors do you usually encounter when translating? (You can choose more than one answer) a Pragmatic errors: fail to transfer the conventional implicatures of the source text b Cohesion and coherence errors: too literal translation or too free translation c Lack of naturalness d Lack of consistency e Omissions and additions
Of the errors below, which one do you encounter in the process of learning translation? (You can choose more than one answer) a Linguistic errors b Comprehension errors c Translation errors
9 Do you often encounter any other translation errors besides the ones mentioned above?
10 What do you think are the main causes of your translation errors when translating? a. b.
Time limitation of translation training Cultural differences between two translated languages Lack of knowledge of the target language
Failure of consulting with dictionary
The abuse of translation machines or tools Lack of text expressing ability
Errors from the source text ( unclear sentences or incoherent ideas ) Others
11 Do you suggest any causes of translation errors when studying
12 Give your opinion on what should be done to improve translation efficiency.
3-Neutral a) Fully equipped with translation knowledge and theory.