Chuyên đề tốt nghiệp: A STUDY ON THE USE OF FREE ONLINE TRANSLATION SOURCES FOR TRANSLATING LITERARY TEXTS AMONG BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDENTS OF FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES – NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58ANATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESDEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH NGUYEN THUY LINH A STUDY ON THE USE OF FREE ONL

Research questions The writer will therefore answer these below questions

Secondary data

To provide further knowledge of the topic, the study will be based on both published sources of information such as books, newspapers and journals; and unpublished one like previous academic reports related to the topic.

The study comprises three main parts

- Chapter 1: Introduction — Presents the background, rationale, the aims, the scope, the methodology and the design of the research.

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A

- Chapter 2: Literature Review — presents theoretical knowledge in relation to the topic to provide readers an overview

- Chapter 3: Analysis and Findings — analyzes the collected data and discusses their outcomes

- Chapter 4: Recommendation — offers possible solutions to the issue

- Chapter 5: Conclusion — Summarizes the main points and offers some recommendation for further studies.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Roles of translation

The need for translation has been existing for millennia History has shown the long-time established relationships among nations around the world, due to the demand in trade and commerce As a matter of fact, not every country speaks the same language, and not everyone is capable of understanding others’ way of expressions, therefore, to keep contact between nations, here comes the requirement in translation Translators are expected to deal with correspondence, news or notice from the sender’s language.

The importance of this is still emphasized, until these days, when all countries are willing to exchange their culture, education, business, and so on It is most likely to result from the globalization occurring to every country Besides, the revolution in communication technology has made this skill even more aspired, hence attracting the attention of numerous academic institutions about providing professional translator training, by teaching and equipping them with knowledge and skills needed for this career.

Translation is believed to be “the most universally accepted solution” for overcoming the language barrier, leading an increasing need in translator force (Bui Tien Bao & Dang Xuan Thu, 1997).

In real life, people, either living in one nation or a new one, are required to go toa both informal and formal translate process, on their regular basis The necessity even increases with the growth of online sources and information.

At some low levels, translation can be a supportive tool for writing According to Stuart Campbell’s research (1980), information seems more accessible to learners when they are implement it in their first language, which can be translated later.

Apparently, the more the importance of translation is highlighted in a variety of fields and aspects in every society, the more demands and requirements are being put on translation.

Process of translation

Larson (1984: 3) believed that when doing their job, translators are actually making an effort to naturally provide an idiomatic translation in TL In terms of translation, a variety of facets must be taken into consideration, including the SL’s lexicology, grammar, communicating context and culture After that, the meaning is translated in a way that does not affecting similar context of TL, to get readers of TL accustomed to the messages From that, his analysis of translation process can be understood in this simple way: When translators identify a text in the SL, first of all, they must discover its meaning before trying to get the message through.

This step should not be taken lightly, as once the translator misunderstand the meaning, the following steps will be strongly affected Then is the re-expression of the meaning The translation process will be completed once the meaning in the TL reaches to readers.

With Nida and Taber (1982: 33), there are three main stages in this process: (1) analysis, (2) transferring and (3) restructuring In the first step, translators analyze syntactic and semantic features of the context in SL The analyzed materials are then transfer from one language to another before they are rebuilt to make it more acquainted in TL, receiving acceptance from native speakers.

The translation procedures can also be seen through four levels (Newmark, 1988).

The first one, SL text level, which can be seen as literal translation is what we begin with the meaning of the original text With the second and most essential level, the referential, translators visualize real or imaginary images, because they affect the comprehension and reproduction process In other words, translators’ roles are even more reinforced as they need make up their mind to understand the contents If there is any ambiguity, it is their responsibility to make it understandable for the objects In the cohesive level, translators pay attention to the other factors, such as tone of the author, cultural context and adjust the text inTL Last but not least, the level of naturalness requires translator to possess a

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A certain amount of knowledge about the linguistic, social and cultural factors in TL,not only to make it not sound foreign, but also to bring widespread acceptance ofTL’s speakers and readers to the text and “hide” any unnaturalness from the SL.

Types of translation

Catford (1965: 22-25), translation is categorized in terms of rank, extent and level, with two sub-groups in each kind.

Regarding translation rank, there are rank-bound translation and unbounded translation Rank-bound translation can be seen as word-for-word, or morpheme- to-morpheme translation, in which the TL language equivalents are confined to

“the hierarchy of grammatical units, usually at word or morpheme rank” On the other hand, unbounded translation is not limited at any rank, and equivalences can flexibly shift from one to another.

The extent of translation divides translation into full and partial translation In the former, every single part of the whole context is involved in the process, whereas the latter leaves some parts untranslated, and directly delivered to the TL.

Total translation and restricted translation are categorized based on translation level With total translation, each facet of SL is replaced by that of TL, from grammar and lexis to phonology or graphology Opposed to total translation, restricted translation just requires one or two of these mentioned factors to be changed.

Based on the purpose, here come four divisions: (1) pragmatic translation, which concentrates on accurately convey the message in SL to TL, without concerning other factors in SL, (2) aesthetic — poetic translation, which appears commonly in translating literary texts like plays, poems or novels, (3) ethnographic translation

(translation that pays attention to fitting words into cultural context of both SL and TL) and (4) linguistic translation (Brislin, in Choliludin, 2007: 26-29)

In aesthetic — poetic translation, translators must take into account other factors affecting the context in the original background Emotions, feeling and aesthetic forms of the original version are ensured to be conveyed, so that readers receive the closest experience they would have, were they to understand the SL.

Concerned with equivalence in meaning and grammatical form of SL is linguistic translation Depending on the sorts of texts, two sub-groups are factual and literary

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A translation Factual translation requires conveying the messages with precision,and no individual feelings or emotions should be involved The translated version must be based on nothing but the demonstrated real fact However, literary translation, as known as translation of artworks, has the tendency to be subjective,instead of objective as the factual one, since delivering the original emotions is a must to bring the full experience.

Translation Strategies

Numerous linguistic specialists have suggested various types of strategies which can be applied to make the process of each kind easier Most typical methods mentioned below are from the one of the most well-known translation scholars, Peter Newmark.

The issues of translation have remained the same since its appearance Translators have to decide whether what factors they would like to concentrate on, since it is impossible to keep every element of the SL intact when translating them to TL To limit those problems and assist translators on choosing the focus of the text, Newmark (1988: 45) has identified eight translation methods that can be widely used among translator community.

This seems to be the most approachable methods for translators In this method, the order of words is remained the same, and translators will translate each of them into its commonly used or literal meaning correspondingly, which sometimes makes little sense, especially in the condition of appearance of idioms Without the help of grammar and context, easy though it sounds, this is not effective by any means, and mainly intended for understanding linguistic mechanics of SL, or creating an assigned challenging text as a pre-translation step.

Similar but broader than word-for-word translation, literal translation converts theSL text to its nearest equivalence in TL Even though, as word-for-word translation, vocabularies are translated accordingly, grammatical rules are paid attention to and followed closely It appears to be the most basic method to be applied.

To Newmark (1988), this strategy “attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures”.

In short, the translators convey the accurate contextual meaning of the text in SL to TL, without changing grammar structures of the SL.

Slightly more advantageous than faithful translation, semantic translation is the same as faithful translation but with more care on aesthetic values (the beauty and nature of SL text) taken into account With faithful translation, translated version might seem subjective and dogmatic, whereas semantic translation allows translators more flexibility and creativity with the use of language.

As the freest type of translation strategy, adaptation is commonly used in comedy play and poetry The features of these texts allow much more creativity than semantic translation for the translators to convert the cultural factors and re-write the text, with the themes, the contents, the plots and characters, by no means, being altered.

As its name, free translation often ignores all linguistic features but the meaning of the SL text Translators provide the version with only meaning equivalence, regardless of the grammar, form or style In Newmark’s opinion, it is paraphrase, instead of translation.

It is a way of reproducing the message, in which there is no existence of equivalent colloquialism and idioms in SL, by taking advantage of natural sources of grammar and lexicology of TL The nuances, not the meaning itself, of meaning from literal translation are often distorted to make way for natural expression in another language.

2.1.5.8 Communicative translation The contextual meaning of the SL text is rendered in a manner that makes readers accept and comprehend the content and language.

2.2 Literary text translation 2.2.1 Literary texts

A literary text 1s “a piece of written material”, normally quoted from a poem or a book, with a view to either telling a story or bringing in a form of entertainment, like a fictional novel It is mainly for aesthetic purposes, however, sometimes, it may provide political viewpoints or beliefs (Scribd)

On the other hand, literary text can be defined as the employment of literary language, which follows aesthetic concerns to attract the readers’ attention and interests (Wiki Didactic)

Poetry: Applied specifically to poetry, all poems share some specific features, in which they have to follow some certain rules First of all, they must be composed and presented in lines and stanzas, not in sentences and paragraphs as other forms of literary texts In some cases, poets strictly follow the rules in terms of the length and number of lines and stanzas However, some authors decide to compose their poems in free flow.

Figurative language in poetry is also diversely applied Authors can take advantage of simile, alliteration, rhyme, hyperbole, metaphor and so on to emphasize the writers’ feelings, imagination and messages.

Fiction: Not only poetry but also fiction can make use of figurative language.

Fiction is known written in unreal prose Compared to poetry, fiction is far more well-structured As mentioned, whereas poems are presented in lines and stanzas, fiction is composed of sentences and paragraphs, with punctuation and grammar being taken notice of Long fictions are also divided into chapters, in order for readers to keep track with the contents in a more convenient way.

Thanks to its imagination-based feature, fiction encourages creativity from writers, when it comes to the time, the place or the events Most typical instances of this type of work are folk, fairy tales, short stories, legend or any sort of novels.

Non-fiction: Newspapers, journals, biographies, essays and some others are called non-fiction works As its name, non-fiction inherits opposite features to that of fiction, in which the content commences from real life Figurative language can be

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A appeared in this form, however, it is not as commonly used as the other two It can only be seen through well-known phrases used on a regular basis Non-fiction is also created in prose, and sometimes for readers’ convenience, in chapters.

In spite of their differences in the content, style and form, literary texts all possess similarities in some characteristics to differ themselves from other types of writings (Murad, 2012)

Special Language: It can be seen that the language used in literature are separated with that in conversational situation This type language aims at transmitting authors’ emotions, mentality, psychology, imagination and perspective by using some specific syntactic patterns Therefore, literary writers often pay much of their attention to this details, to best convey their messages to readers.

Impacts of free online tools on translation

Fast speed in online translation tools enables the translators to produce more efficient work Therefore, numerous human translators are taking advantage of these tools to facilitate their job It is quite rare to see human translators do not depend on these tools.

Furthermore, with these, translators know what parts are translatable and what aren’t By copying the text in SL on the source, even though they are not perfectly translated, translators still get the main ideas if the part is translatable and vice versa After that, they will investigate more time in analyzing the untranslatable text.

In addition, the storage of terms benefits translators in a different way Normally,they have to possess a certain amount of knowledge in a specific area to fully

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A translate the contents in the most professional way However, free online sources also provide technical terms, which assists them in finishing the translated work more early.

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

BE students’ use of free online translation sources

Compared to the previous question, the ranks, but the number, do not change accordingly.

4 What free online translation sources have you used? (You may choose more than one answer)

Google Translate Bing Translator Viki Translator Microsoft Translator

TFlat Dictionary 1 (1,6%) Cambridge dictionary, OALD 1 (1,6%)

Figure 4: BE students’ use of free online translation sources

Once again, Google Translate takes the lead with 60 votes on the question “What free online sources have you used?” Together with the widespread recognition in this source, Google Translate is also the most commonly used The convenience in translating various languages and photo translation makes the process far easier to translators Besides, as claimed by Google, Google Translate is getting more and more improved in naturalness and lexicology, users believe that this source is much more reliable and effective when put in use.

With respectively ten and six votes, Microsoft Translator and Bing Translator also lie in the most widely used ones However, due to the widespread usage of Google Translate, these sources, in use as they are, they are hindered from BE students’ widespread use It can be seen that when dealing with long literary texts, BE students have the tendency to use Google Translate only, leaving these two tools less favorite.

Similarly, sources pointed out by the researcher, such as SDL (freetranslation.com), Worldlingo and Viki Translator do not gain much outcome in finding out the use of these sources, with all of them are equal and less than five responses.

Some students also suggest their free online sources that they use, like Toiyeubandich, Siri, Grammarly However, some still consider free online dictionary as free online translation sources, as they recommend TFlat Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary and Vdict.

In summary, it can be concluded from the survey that normally, BE students focus on one source, which is mostly Google Translate, to assist their translation process,creating big gaps between Google Translate and other sources In other words, inBE students’ perspective, Google Translate provides the best translation outcome and is the most reliable one.

The purpose for using free online translation sources

5 For what purposes do you often use online translation sources?

@ Academic purposes (as assistance in writing/reading a document, text, homework )

@ Non-academic purposes (occupational works, entertainment, leisure activity, emergency )

Figure 5: BE students’ purposes for using free online translation sources

As seen on the pie chart, 60.3% of people taking the survey used online translation sources for both academic and non-academic purposes This majority of the people taking survey consider online translation sources as multi-purposed devices rather than just specialized tools, therefore, they can be utilized in both situations About 30% only uses online translation sources for purely academic purposes, mainly to meet the teachers’ demands on translation assignment Not only do students use them for translation subjects, but they also find it beneficial for other subjects, regarding reading and writing skills involved Less than 10% of the surveyed people confirm that online translation sources are only used for their non-academic purposes, including occupational works, leisure activity and so on.

Even though every participant has many purposes when using online translation sources, the balance between academic and non-academic purpose still leans heavily on academic side It can be seen that for the majority of people, online translation sources are still largely viewed as tools for academic purposes It appears that, the groups who use online translation sources most often are those who are still taking part in the educational system and members in international cooperation.

3.2.4, Factors leading to the use of free online translation sourcesIn the survey, researcher has pointed out 6 factors that translators consider when they decide to use free online translation sources to serve their purpose.

6 Why do you choose to use them (over dictionaries, paid translation apps )? (assess their extent of importance that these factors affect your choice of using)

30 GE Very Unimportant = Unimportant Neutal Ml Important MM Very Important

Free cost Time-saver Improvement on grades Broadened vocabulary Grammar errors correction

Figure 6: Factors leading to the use of free online translation sources

First of all, researcher takes cost into consideration From the survey, two-thirds of respondents agree that it plays a crucial role For BE students, even though translation is a compulsory subject that lasts at least two courses, only some of them consider taking this skill as a permanent career Moreover, published dictionary and paid translation apps normally cost a great deal, which hinders them from owning these It might be a waste to invest in these sources with little use, since BE students are more concentrated on business-related subjects With 21 students think that it is a very important factor and 22 for important, it can be seen that the majority believe it is one of the key factors in choosing this type of source.

However, there are nine people thinking that the cost of the tools does not have an effect on their choice, indicating that some of them, who seem to pay more attention in this skill, are more willing to pay for other sources to receive better result in translation.

Moving on to the next factor, with the highest number choosing it as a very important one, it is not surprising that this factor affects users greatly Time is considered to be a valuable but limited sources for students, who have to cope with a number of subjects being taught at the university Besides studying, some BE students, especially ones living independently, are responsible to other types of jobs, such as housework or part-time jobs Therefore, it is understandable that those who have no intention of following this career path spend less time on this subject Being known for its fast pace at translation, these tools enable translators to save a great deal of time With a total of 50 students agree on the importance of

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A these factors, apparently, this is the key to their choice of using tools With some BE students, the need to provide the translation does not influence them, since they are ready to spend more time on translation to offer a better quality and to improve their translation skills.

Third, compared to other factors, the number of respondents agree on its improvement on grades take the least Instead, most of them have neutral opinion on this criteria The majority of respondents, although 25 of them think it can improve their scores, do not have much faith in this matter and not really consider it when they use free online translation sources With it being computerized, it is thought that they are unable to create good translation, compared to human translators However, since they are effective in other aspects, such as time and cost saving, translators still use them, not mainly because they would like to improve their scores in this subject, but they are more into completing the task quickly This number also reflects their opinions on receiving high marks in translation In all probabilities, they might want to impress the teachers and get great results by their self-translation skills, rather by technological advances.

Most translators also share the opinion in broadened vocabulary aspect While little of them think this factor is very important, the vast believe in this role with less certainty Generally, it is no denial that these sources are helpful in broadening vocabulary knowledge As mentioned, most students use these sources for technical terms or uncommon words that some dictionaries are not able to provide, since the data available in these sources are unlimited and kept updated constantly.

Nevertheless, some may argue on the precision of words chosen by these sources, which allows them to assess this factor as unimportant decider.

Last but not least, based on the outcomes of the survey, there are comparatively equal dividends when students are asked whether grammar errors correction is the key factor leading to the use of online translation sources The number of importance assessment in this factors do not differ drastically, leading to some controversial arguments This occurrence may result from respondents’ reference of SL To be specific, English grammar requires more than Vietnamese one,because of conjugation rules Therefore, when translating a Vietnamese text intoEnglish, translators must pay attention to conjugation rules, such as subject — verb agreement, and these grammatical errors will be automatically corrected when put in these sources, which explains 26 agreements However, with Vietnamese being

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A the TL, grammar rules are often much simpler, but translators still need to focus on other factors that these sources cannot offer As a result, they do not think grammatical correction plays a contributive role in delivering the text by free online translation sources The majority who chose neutral opinion are actually considering both English and Vietnamese as SL, showing their intermediary viewpoint on this aspect.

The amount of content in which texts are translated by free online translation sources

7 When you run into a literary text (about 500 words), how much of the content do you usually translate by free online sources?

Figure 7: The amount of content in which texts are translated by free online translation sources

Based on the question “When you run into a literary text (about 500 words), how much of the content do you usually translate by free online sources?”, the researcher can gain better understanding on BE students’ habit of using these sources for literary translation.

Seven students admitted that they translated the whole content from a 500-word literary text by free online sources Owing to the tight schedule in learning, BE students find it hard and time-consuming to translate all of the text all by themselves Therefore, they rely on the benefits of these sources to assist their translation process As mentioned, however, this situation does not reflect the fact whether they submit all of the contents translated by these tools as the final result.

Possibly, they may edit the content before submission In fact, if students run into a complicatedly written literary text, translating the whole text seems to be more

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A time-consuming, or less effective, than not translate at all, because there are some criteria that need paying attention to when doing literary translation.

With 33.3%, the majority of respondents agree that they translate most of the content 500-word paragraph is a relatively long one, therefore, it will take time to translate this text just by self-translation As a result, translators have to depend on the help of other tools to meet the deadlines on these assignments However, by choosing not to copy all of the text and paste it on online tools, these students show their selective process and awareness on some problems occurring in translation.

They understand that some parts require particular cares, hence with those, they decide to translate by themselves, showing their efforts spent on this subject At this stage, they are only dependent on these as a means of assistance, not a perfectly-translated machine to get them through the process without their efforts.

However, in spite of recognizing the drawbacks that these, students are not highly attentive to those issues.

More than a quarter of students answer that they just translate half of the content on free online tools Similar to students who translate most of the text, these students also recognize the problems caused by these sources However, they are more careful and selective at using these sources for literary translation.

At the second place, 28.6% of the students responded that they only translate little of the content by free online sources It is clear that these students are not over- dependent on these sources, after realizing problems that may occur They only use these sources when needed However, it cannot be stated clearly whether the quantity of text being translated by free online sources have great effect on the quality of the translation; it only shows that compared to the number of students recognizing the shortcomings of these sources, there are still a small fraction of students who decide to fully take advantage of them.

When dealing with 500-word literary text, only one student refuses to use free online sources Of course, it cannot be sure whether they will use other tools, or they will translate the text all by themselves; however, this number shows the minority in students’ belief and usage on free online translation sources.

In general, the amount of text being translated through free online translation tools does not reflect the quality of the translated version, whether they provide positive or negative effects However, the percentage shown can indicate BE students’

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A degree of using them, as well as the awareness on strengths and weaknesses of these tools.

Stages of translation process where free online sources can be used

8 At what step(s) of translating process do you use free online sources? (You may choose more than one answer)

While-translating (with 9 paragraphs or w 21 (33,3%)

Figure 8: Stages of translation process where free online sources can be used

With a view to providing a more thorough understanding on BE students’ habit of using free online translation sources, researcher has asked respondents to point out the stages, including words look-up, reading comprehension, while-translating and editing, at which translation tools are used Reading comprehension has the highest percentage, taking almost half of the population Before starting translation process, it is a requirement for translators to read and comprehend the meaning of the text first and decide on the translation methods and strategies There’s no doubt that the fast translation speed of these sources benefits users to get the main ideas of the passages, which saves translators’ time for further steps.

Words look-up comes in second with 39.7% Looking up each word by printed dictionary is usually time-consuming, not to mention the likelihood that the dictionary being used does not provide sufficient words, especially technical terms and uncommon words It is the nearly unlimited data of free online sources that facilitates translators to look up the vocabulary more easily and much faster.

Overall, the figures indicate the tendency of using free online sources for literary translation, in which most popular steps that people usually take when translating

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A are understanding the context as a whole (reading comprehension) and understanding the meaning of each word in that context (words look-up).

On the other hand, with only 16 answers, there are not many people using online translation sources as a step of editing since online translation tools are unable to provide the proper meanings that suit the context of the paragraphs or sentences.

Nevertheless, grammar correction function sometimes can come in handy for some translators, to cut back the time spent on correcting grammar and focus on other mistakes.

With 30.2% that agreed to do all of the above, online translation sources are emphasized to become crucial tools for many people when translating texts For them, online translation sources are of great importance for translation process, and also flexible in terms of use.

Opinions on the use of free online translation sources 1 Strengths of free online translation tools

The survey provides the answer on students’ opinions on strengths of free online translation tools Despite some controversy in each category, each benefit seems to receive more approvals than disapprovals.

9 How useful of free online sources with the following strengths for translating literary texts?

GME Strongly Disagree MEM Disagree [MM Undecided MEM Agree MEM Strongly Agree

Free online sources help me to understand the li Free online sources are cost-saving compared to buying pai

Free online sources boost my translation speed when deali Free online sources improve

Figure 9: Strengths of free online translation tools

First of all, most respondents agree that free sources are exceptionally useful when it comes to improve the reading comprehension speed One of the key factors in producing a good translation is to understand the context clearly before translators

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A start to work on the text Despite being just a preparation step for translation process, it is still a key to execute a qualified translation, therefore, no translators should take this step for granted By putting the text through translation tools, the process is simplified with context in TL At that time, the brain does not have to work as a preliminary translator, and the task is done by another tools This may be even more effective when translators are faced with long paragraphs, because saving time for preparation step — reading comprehension — means they can spend more time on more difficult ones However, some may argue that, due to the complexity of literary texts, free online translation tools may not be able to perform this benefit all the time, resulting from disagree and undecided opinions In some cases with highly complex texts, translators may find it even more difficult in comprehending the text, since these tools may have provided an ambiguous translated context, owing to the appearance of uncommon words and backgrounds.

Nevertheless, it cannot be sure whether students skip this step to perform translation directly or not.

With another factor dealing with speed, researcher also mentioned translation speed 16 students strongly agree and 30 agree that this factor is beneficial in translation process However, there are two situations worth mentioning In the first scenario, without reading comprehension, respondents only copy the text on these sources to let them do their jobs, then they may do all the editing later.

Needless to say, skipping one step may save a great deal of time, however, it does not ensure the quality of the translation On the other hand, it has to be linked with the above factor, because the speed of reading comprehension also affects that of translation One of the most common method is that students scan the context through online translation sources, then they carry out translation process based on the version provided by these sources In general, it is the most time-saving and effective method, in case of limited time With nine disagreement and eight undecided decision, the explanation can lie in the quality of the translated text provided by free translation sources Obviously, there is no assurance that they are able to deliver a perfect or nearly perfect translation, therefore, time spent on editing and correcting the errors may even be taken more.

Moving on to the third factor, cost spent for translator is one of the most worth- considering aspect As their name, using free online translation tools do not chargeBE students extra fees Being students having low income, investing money in providing an exceptionally quality translation seems like a luxury that not

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A everyone can afford Besides, even though translation lies in the syllabus as a mandatory subject that lasts at least two courses, career-wise, BE students tend to focus more on business-related subject, leading to less concentration on translation, whereas hiring human translators or using paid translation tools is, without a doubt, costly, especially with complicatedly written text like literature.

As a result, spending more money on human translators or paid translation tools seems like a redundant and unnecessary investment Nevertheless, this is not the case for everybody With eight disagreements in total, it seems that some students whose priority is translation (as a long-term career) are more willing to spend more, so as to produce a qualified translated text.

In spite of the majority in agreement, the last factor, which implies the improvement in knowledge of advanced vocabulary from free online translation sources, receives the most number of undecided answer This means the benefit of free online sources is not always applicable in this circumstance Most people

(approximately 50%), still, approve that these sources knowledge of advance vocabulary used in literature, and this may be more obvious in English — Vietnamese translation To be particular, words used in literature written in English are uncommon, but thanks to the advance of these sources, searching their meanings has little difficulty However, in some Vietnamese literary text, words are more influenced by Chinese characters, therefore, providing perfect word translation by free online sources receive controversial perspective, explaining for the disagreement and indecisiveness of this benefit.

3.3.2 Drawbacks of free online translation sources and their effects

10 How much do the following drawbacks affect your use in literary translation of free online sources?

40 ME Greatly affect MINN Relatively affect MN Rarely affect INN Not affect at all

Inability to translate Inability to convey Not following literary Incorrect word choice Grammatical errors Lack of review system Confidentiality issues the cultural and authors’ emotions and rules linguistic context figurative sense

Figure 10: Drawbacks of free online translation sources and their effects

3.3.2.1 Inability to translate the cultural and linguistic context

This problem, apparently, is one of the most common ones when students have to deal with literary text In each work of literature, there will always be cultural or linguistic aspects that translators struggle with.

Here is an example of a paragraph in which cultural and linguistic contexts impede the way machine translation perform its task:

“Binh nghẹn ngào quanh mặt di, không dám nhìn Năm nữa Bính bối rồi vì tưởng đến khi sinh nở mẹ tròn con vuông, đứa bé ngày một khôn lớn, cả hai mẹ con vẫn déu nuôi nang bởi những của phi nghĩa mà người bị thiệt hại nguyên ria thâu đêm suốt sáng kẻ chiếm đoạt, Bính càng choáng váng, Binh cúi cham xuống gối” (Bi vỏ, Nguyên Hong - raw transtion as “The stolen woman”)

The translation performed by Bing Translator showed: “Binh on the face, don't dare to look at Nam anymore Binh confused because of the birth of a square mother, the baby on a big wisdom, both mother and child are still raised by the non-meaning that the person who is cursed to collect the night all the time the usurper, Binh is stunned, Binh staring down the pillow.”

In the example above, not only is the paragraph ambiguous but it also cannot convey the message The idiom “me tròn con vuông” means both the mother and the kid who was born stay healthy after the childbirth, whereas the translation tool converted it to its literal meaning “a square mother”, in which the second idea “con vuông” was omitted, together with wrong context meaning.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To improve literary translation skills, most respondents suggest that translators should read more literature works in both SL and TL, whether they are in the original form or translated With the increasing emphasis on the vital role of literature, the suggestion brings two benefits to translators.

First of all, when reading previous books from a particular author, translators will be capable of catching the authors’ style and expression Once they get to know how the authors create their work, they can be familiar with their style Therefore, they can convey the context without changing the content as well as create an impression on writers in readers In fact, there have been some translators who are exceptionally good at translating one specific author’s works, as the demonstration for this advice.

Secondly, reading literature frequently creates the opportunities for translators to get accustomed to this particular kind of text The language used in literature is differentiated compared to that of some texts, with high sophistication and emphasis on other factors, such as emotions, figurative sense Consequently, they can learn and improve their knowledge, words, grammar structures and so on from these works of art With constant exposure, the next works they have to deal with will become an easier task Moreover, by reading the text translated by other human translators, BE students can withdraw the experience, mistakes or difficulties of literary translation, and learn by themselves on how to cope with those.

Another suggestion is to use other paid translation tools, instead of free ones as it is used commonly right now It is understandable that students still lack the capability of spending a fortune on other tools Generally, especially with students who are considering following the career of a translator or working as a free-lance translator, this seems like a worthy investment Without a doubt, this will cost them an amount of money, however, the result is believed to be worth it, because most of the paid sources provide much higher quality and content needed for translation.

With their assistance, the job of translation is getting easier and less time- consuming, hence boost the productivity of the translation process.

4.2 Recommendations for using free online sources to translate literary text

In general, the majority of the students advise the others to limit the use of free online sources Different from other forms of document, literary text requires thorough investigation, time and effort to deliver the best outcome The benefits of these sources, however, deliver the opposite for most of the time With them being fast, the quality of the translation will not be ensured, since the data will not be sufficient The reliant on these sources, in the long term, leads to laziness in students, which is the taboo for translators Furthermore, according to the analysis, these sources are not effective enough to provide the result needed It is highly recommended to only use them when needed.

If BE students still go for these sources, then they should be smart enough to choose the reliable sources Even though these sources share some similarities, not all of them are qualified enough when put in use Some sources are more updated than the others The creators and developers of these sources also pay more attention to broadening the lexicology, form and grammar, as well as fixing the errors As a result, BE students should be aware of strengths and weaknesses of each sources and be selective to use them properly.

The combination of some sources can also be an option for translator As mentioned, each tool provides different uses and drawbacks, so combining some of them seems an appropriate strategy However, without careful guidance, this strategy may backfire them when these sources go head-to-head and confuse the users.

So when to use these sources to translate literary texts? Most people believe these should be used at the very first step, in which the translators are trying to understanding the overall meaning of the text, instead of relying on them as a means of literary translation This idea makes sense, because, important though reading comprehension is, it does not affect the outcome of the translation as much as other steps, as long as translators can catch the gist of the text It is also suggested to use for short paragraphs only, because too much details can cause confusion in reading comprehension, affecting the following steps.

Even when BE students use free translation tools at other steps rather than reading comprehension, the text can still be saved if they remember to re-check the result carefully Of course, this will have to go with careful editing, since the translation is expected to be not perfect, especially at the first try They need to proofread the

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A text to figure out any errors which may happen, such as grammar, word choice, expression and so on After that, they need to provide correction in error individually and as a whole.

In terms of creators of these sources, students suggest that they improve on their function In the competitive market with many sources available, it is of great importance that their functions are outstanding to the others As the users of these sources, they recommend these companies to keep updating these tools with more functions, diversity and improvement on common mistakes.

Witnessing the difficulties that BE students struggle with literary translation, I decided to have a thorough look on this subject Through the thesis, researcher aim at providing an insight into the situation, along with some _ useful recommendations However, given the limited resources, BE students at National Economics University who have taken courses in translation are the only subjects of this study Through the study, some astounding findings are withdrawn together with useful recommendations, after primary data is collected to harvest the information needed.

In terms of findings, the study shows the popularity of free online translation sources and BE students’ application of them As it can be seen, they are widely used, especially when respondents have to handle literary texts, which is the main focus of the study There is also separation between the use of each source, assumably due to their popularity and usefulness The purposes of the use are also varied, but mostly leaning to academic purposes.

Analysis on the strengths and drawbacks of free online translation sources provides a thorough insight into the characteristics of these sources Without a doubt, these sources are helpful in many aspects, such as time, cost, reading comprehension and vocabulary expansion, but their shortcomings seem to hinder the way translators make use of them By understanding the features of these sources, BE students themselves can come up with proper strategies for literary translation It is concluded that these sources have not reach their full potentials.

Finally, some recommendations are suggested to help BE students to overcome those difficulties and enables the sources to assist literary translation at their best.

However, which strategies translators should apply to use depend on their awareness and need for literary translation It depends on translators to figure out the suitable ones.

In conclusion, despite limitation in the scope of the study, the potential of free online translation sources may bring multiple benefits to BE students The paper is hoped to facilitating BE students on their way of becoming translators.

It is inevitable that the study may have some limitations Therefore, further study on this field is called for to broaden the knowledge.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1 How do you assess your own literary translation skill? At what level do you think you are at?

Student A: “7 don’t translate literacy texts often because I work at a real estate company, so I am more familiar with translation of contracts and other official dispatch But for literacy documents, I think I can still be able to translate it smoothly, even in advanced level since I have already had a good foundation in translation 1,2,3 in class”

Student B: “J think I’m at intermediate level”

Student C: “7 self-evaluate my ability to translate literary text at limited level, because I’m not familiar with them I guess maybe at intermediate level”

Student D: “7 think my translation skill is above average On the scale of 1-10, I believe I’m at 8”

2 If you are asked to translate a literary text, what do you often do?

Student A: “Were I to be given a literacy texts, the first things would come to my mind is to look up words or use Google translate to help me with the tasks Or simple, I just look for its translated version on the internet”

Student B: “Firstly, I will try to translate the literary text by myself, look up new words in dictionary If I run into some difficulties, I will put it on online translation apps”

Student C: “7 often try to understand the whole meaning of the text at first then consider the contextual part”

Student D: “First, I will try to understand the whole context of the text, then I will consult the dictionary for the appropriate words choice and sentence.”

3 What do you know about free online translation sources? Can you list some of the ones you know and use?

Student A: “7 think free online translation sources are technological tools available on the internet to help translators finishing their tasks faster I know a lot of online translation sources such as online Cambridge dictionary, long man

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A dictionary, google translate, Microsoft translation but in terms of choosing one to use, I would say Google translate and online dictionary.”

Student B: “7 know Google Translate, Viki Translator and Microsoft Translator”

Student C: “7 believe that nowadays there are many useful translation sources such as Google Translate, Microsoft Translator”

Student D: “My knowledge about free online translation sources is limited to just some well-known sites like Google Translate, Cambridge Dictionary or

4 What do you use free online translation sources for?

Student A: “Mostly to translate the whole texts and all I have to do is simply edit them In some cases, pronunciation and vocabulary”

Student B: “7 use it for academic and research paper”

Student C: “7 use it for translate texts that Ifind new words and structures”

Student D: “Almost any time I found a word or sentence that I did not fully comprehend ”

5 Over paid translation tools or dictionary, why do choose to use free sources?

Student A: “Because college students lack of money The money I spent on that overly expensive tools is not worth the price Besides, I not a professional translator so I just need a free apps to help me with some of my work I think that all machine translations have the same robotic and errors in the systems so high price tools or free ones are just the same to me”

Student B: “1s faster than looking up new words in dictionary and it’s ƒree ”

Student C: “Because with my limited budget, I usually choose to use free sources.

It’s also very convenient and time-saving”’

Student D: “Because of the convenience since most free online translation sources are easy to gain access.”

6 If you are translating a 500-word literary text, how much of the content will you translate by free online translation sources?

Student A: “Jt is really hard to image but well I assume that would be 70 or 80 percent”

Student B: “7 think all of the content”

Student C: “About half of the text”

Student D: “Maybe about a couple of words or sentences.”

7 When you translate the text, when do you use free online translation sources?

Student A: “Definitely in the step of look up words Sometimes, that would be the whole texts if I need the translated texts in advance.”

Student B: “When I need to understand the whole content of the text ”

Student C: “I use free online translation sources at the stage of reading comprehension”

Student D: “To check whether this is the right word for that text or sentence.”

8 What are some strengths of free online translation sources for literary translation?

Student A: “Of course, they cost you no money Help me with my time as I am required to meet a lot of deadlines Lots of words and look for words faster than paper dictionary.”

Student B: “First, it is faster because most literary texts are long, so it will take time to comprehend the reading Secondly it helps me to know more new words”

Student C: “They are very convenient and time-saving as well as with high speed”

Student D: “Easy to access, wide range of word choice”

9 What are their drawbacks for literary translation?

Student A: “Translation tools should only be used in simple text of non-academic one For literacy texts will the big requirements of the naturalness, translation devices are not a good idea Plus, a lots of idioms can be hard to translate to another language.”

Student B: “First, the meaning of literary context may be not accurate Second, it may cause wrong grammar and unsuitable words”

Student C: “Maybe the grammatical errors or the wrong choice of words, in terms of context”

Student D: “Jt doesn’t provide the appropriate word for the context of the text ”

10 What are your recommendations to overcome the difficulties of using free online translation for literary translation?

Student A: “You might use tools to fasten the speed but always remember to check and edit it to ensure the naturalness You should look up for edited version of the literacy books on the internet and see how professional translators do their work.

Note down these examples to learn and improve your skills ”

Student B: “You should try to translate the text by yourself first to understand its background, then use different translate sources for reference”’

Student C: “7 think that you should edit the text after using translation apps”

Student D: “Have a wide range of vocabulary, understand clearly the content of the text

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

This survey questionnaire is designed for my thesis “A study on the use of free online sources for translating literary texts among BE students” It would be highly appreciated if you could spend a little time completing truthfully the questionnaire All your own information is only used for the thesis purpose and I am sure that your information will not be identified in any discussion of the data.

Please write in the space provided, tick a box and/or the column of your choice.

Thank you very much for your cooperation!

I Background information 1 How do you assess your own literary translation skill?

Beginner Advanced 2 What do you often do when you are translating literary text? e Traditionally translate the text on your own e Rely completely on free online sources e Combine both the use of free online sources and self-translation (specify on how you do it) II Students’ habit of using free online translation sources

3 What free online translation sources have you known? (You may choose more than one answer) e Google Translate e Bing Translator e Viki Translator e Microsoft Translator e SDL (freetranslation.com) e Worldlingo e Others (please specify)4 What free online translation sources have you used? (You may choose more than one answer)

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A e Google Translate e Bing Translator e Viki Translator e Microsoft Translator e SDL (freetranslation.com) e Worldlingo e Others (please specify) 5 For what purposes do you often use online translation sources? e Academic purposes (as assistance in writing/reading a document, text, homework ) e Non-academic purposes (occupational works, entertainment, leisure activity, emergency ) e Both of the above

6 Why do you choose to use them (over dictionaries, paid translation apps )?

(assess their extent of importance that these factors affect your choice of using: from 1=Very unimportant to 5=Very important)

7 When you run into a literary text (about 500 words), how much of the content do you usually translate by free online sources? e The whole content

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A e Most of the content e Half of the content e A little of the content e None of the content

8 At what step(s) of translating process do you use free online sources? (You may choose more than one answer) e Words look-up e Reading comprehension e While-translating (with paragraphs or with full content) e Editing e All of the above

III Opinions on the use of free online translation sources

9 How useful of free online sources with the following strengths for translating literary texts?

Strengths Strongly | Disagree | Undecided | Agree | Strongly disagree agree

Free online sources help me to understand the literal context faster

Free online sources boost my translation speed when dealing with long paragraphs

Free online sources are cost-saving compared to buying

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A published books or hiring human translators

Free online sources improve my knowledge of advanced vocabulary used in literature

Drawbacks Greatly | Relatively | Rarely Not affect affect affect affect at all

Inability to translate the cultural and linguistic context

Inability to convey authors’ emotions and figurative sense

11 To what extent are you satisfied with the use of free online sources for translating literature? (with 1 — Strongly disapprove to 5 — Strongly approve)

Free online sources always meet my demands in literary translation

I am highly satisfied with the use of free online sources for literary translation

Free online sources are my favorite tools for literary translation

I would recommend BE students to use these for literary translation

12 What are your recommendations to overcome the difficulties you may encounter when people use free online sources to translate literature?

13 Read the following text and its translated versions Choose the one you think that provided better translation:

“But after the beating rain and the wild wind that had not stopped through the whole night, there still was one leaf to be seen against the wall It was the last on the tree It was still dark green near the branch But at the edges it was turning yellow with age There it was hanging from a branch nearly twenty feet above the ground.” e Nhung, kia! Sau một đêm mua quật, gió mạnh lồng lộng không ngot, trên bức tường gạch kia chiếc lá trường xuân vẫn đứng nương vào vách Day là chiếc lá cuối cùng Vẫn xanh thẫm nơi gần cuống lá, nhưng quanh rìa đã ngả màu vàng sam và hư hoại; chiếc lá vững chai bám chắc vào cành cây cách mặt đất chừng sáu mét. e Nhưng sau con mưa và cơn gió hoang da không ngừng rơi suốt cả đêm, vẫn còn một chiếc lá được nhìn thay chống lại tường Đó là cái cuối cùng trên cây Nó vẫn còn xanh tham gần cành cây Nhưng ở ria nó đã chuyên sang màu vàng theo tuôi Nó đang treo từ một nhánh gần hai mươi feet so với mặt dat.

14 From what criteria do you assess the above choice as a better translated version? (You may choose more than one answer) e Word choice e Grammatical accuracy e Naturalness of the text e Author’s emotions e Cultural and linguistic context e Consistency of the translation e Others (please specify)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION!

RAW DATA Total number of students participating in the survey: 63 respondents

How useful of free online sources with the following strengths for translating literary texts?

Strengths Strongly | Disagree | Undecided | Agree | Strongly disagree agree

Free online sources 2 4 9 answers 35 13 help me to answers | answers answers | answers understand the literal context faster

Free online sources 5 4 8 answers 30 16 boost my translation | answers | answers answers | answers speed when dealing with long paragraphs

Free online sources 5 3 5 answers 31 19 are cost-saving answers | answers answers | answers compared to buying published books or hiring human translators

Free online sources 6 4 20 23 10 improve my answers | answers | answers | answers | answers knowledge of advanced

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A vocabulary used in literature

Drawbacks Greatly | Relatively | Rarely Not affect affect affect affect at all

Inability to translate the 12 37 13 1 answer cultural and linguistic answers | answers answers context

Inability to convey authors’ | 20 21 19 3 emotions and figurative answers | answers answers | answers sense

Not following literary rules | 14 24 22 3 answers | answers | answers | answers

Incorrect word choice 12 27 21 3 answers | answers | answers | answers

Grammatical errors 17 19 21 6 answers | answers | answers | answers

Lack of review system 12 27 17 7 answers | answers | answers | answers

Confidentiality issues 8 23 23 9 answers | answers | answers | answers

11 To what extent are you satisfied with the use of free online sources for translating literature? (with 1 — Strongly disapprove to 5 — Strongly approve)

Free online sources 2 11 13 29 8 always meet my answers | answers | anSwers | answers | anSwers

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A demands in literary translation

I am highly satisfied 3 11 14 24 11 with the use of free answers | answers | answers | answers | answers online sources for literary translation

Free online sources are 6 8 9 31 9 my favorite tools for answers | answers | answers | answers | answers literary translation

12 What are your recommendations to overcome the difficulties you may encounter when people use free online sources to translate literature?

- It can update with more functions such as some filters that help users choose what topic the context is about or the tone of the context, the reader, etc

- Free stuff never help us 100%, everything get a price If you want to improve English, you need to pay, nothing free.

- Limiting the use of free online sources as much as possible when translating literature - We should use free online source to translate small paragraph instead of whole and long essays - Just use them for first steps - Should use free online sources as references - Read the translated books, use many other tools and always recheck the outcome

- Should check the content after translated to increase accuracy - Be more discerning

- Try to guess the meaning if you do not understand - Pre-editing and post-editing

- Use ina selective way- Should check grammar errors

- Should proofread after using free online sources to translate literature - Using and preferring the reliable sources

- Read as much as you can - Just use them when needed - Check out 2 or 3 tools if you are not sure about the use of words or phrases.

- Always review the translation after use them - Incorrect word choice and word by word translation make the whole literature text lose its meaning

- First skim the previous paragraph to understand the relative meaning - Expose more regularly to literary texts

- Don't be too reliant on these sources - Complex interface

- You should edit the translated text by online sources carefully - Add more paraphase tool, synonyms

- Nothing, some of the translation apps are not very close to the meaning,make the right meaning of the sentences are misunderstood - Read more and more books

- Read the original text carefully to understand the basic background, author's ideas then use those online sources as references to support your translation

- Do it on your own and then check on online sources - Pay to continue studying

- Avoid overusing free online translation tools - Donot rely on 100% free online sources to translate Only use it for better understanding and then try to make it sound more like you - Just use them to grasp the main idea of the text, and do not depend too much on them - You should check the text again after using free online translation to avoid some wrong meaning sentences - Choose reliable online source

- If you translate text only for getting understanding for your own, then it'd be no problem at all But if you translate literature for other people, even for publishing, then you must take it seriously and be responsible for every single word Thus, you should be careful when using free online

Nguyễn Thùy Linh — 11163007 — Business English 58A sources: Try to understand FULL meaning and context of text, Analysis it, word by word, then the whole content There are many more things that have to be aware of, but hopefully you get what I mean.

- Check the incorrect by myself - Use many source at once

- Translate word you don’t know - Read more sources of literature to catch up with the use of word IV Review

13 Read the following text and its translated versions Choose the one you think that provided better translation e First paragraph: 51 answers — 81% e Second paragraph: 12 answers — 19%

14 From what criteria do you assess the above choice as a better translated version? (You may choose more than one answer) e Word choice: 48 answers — 76.2% e Grammatical accuracy: 35 answers — 55.6% e Naturalness of the text: 43 answers — 68.3% e Author’s emotions: 41 answers — 65.1% e Cultural and linguistic context: 39 answers — 61.9% e Consistency of the translation: 22 answers — 34.9%

“Binh nghẹn ngào quanh mặt di, không dám nhìn Năm nữa Bính bối roi vì tưởng đến khi sinh nở mẹ tròn con vuông, đứa bé ngày một khôn lớn, cả hai mẹ con vẫn déu nuôi nang bởi những của phi nghĩa mà người bị thiệt hại nguyên ria thâu đêm suốt sáng kẻ chiếm đoạt, Bính càng choáng váng, Bính cúi cham xuống goi”

“- There! I might 'a' thought of that closet What you been doing in there?

- Nothing! Look at your hands And look at your mouth What IS that truck?”

(“The adventure of Tom Sawyer”, Mark Twain)

“Tao hình gió thoảng, trăng lên

Hoa bên bờ suối, mây trên đá gành.

Một mình em sáng tạo anh Theo em, anh sáng tạo thành đôi ta ”

(“Bên thân tiên”, Xuân Diệu)

“Không thê năm và cũng không được năm chen vào cải giường đã thừa người kia chi chực đồ sụp lên những nổi niéu bát đĩa ở bên dưới, tôi phải năm ở cánh phan go nhinh hơn chiếc ghế dài kê sát với giường ngay ria lối di lại”

(“Những ngày thơ ấu”, Nguyên Hồng)