An investigation into difficulties and strategies in the translation process of english majored students at banking academy

This study aimed to show the difficulties and strategies in the translation process of English-majored students.. The above reasons motivated the researcher to conduct this study on the

BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

DECLARATION

I declare that this research is entirely the product of my efforts and this work has not been previously submitted to any higher educational institutions for any degrees or qualifications I confirm that all the information used in the research has been adequately acknowledged and all quotes have been correctly cited In addition, the study results are unique and have not been plagiarized from any other previous papers

Hanoi, 4th May 2024

Signature

Than Thi Khanh Linh

First and foremost, I would wish to thank the leadership of Banking Academy and the lecturers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages for creating conditions and guiding me to study and accumulate knowledge over the years

I would like to express my sincerest and deepest gratitude to my respected supervisor, Ms Duong Thi Thanh Hoa (MA) for her detailed instructions and her valuable feedback Her vast knowledge and experiences have helped me improve my analytical ability and develop as a researcher Her great encouragement and belief in

my work have also generated a strong motivation for me to complete this research

Many thanks were sent to all the students who agreed to participate in the research process This thesis was unable to succeed without their enthusiastic responses

I would like to thank my dear friends who always listen to me and constantly encourage me Without their encouragement and trust, I don't know how I would have overcome this difficult time

Last but not least, I am very grateful to my family My grandparents and parents have been always by my side to take care of me and give me advice through every ups and downs They have motivated me to keep calm and overcome all the challenges when writing this dissertation

TABLES OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

TABLES OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vi

ABSTRACT vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the Study 1

1.2 Objectives of the Study 2

1.3 Scope of the Study 2

1.4 Research Questions 2

1.5 Significance of the Study 2

1.6 Structure of the Study 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Translation 4

2.1.1 Definition 4

2.1.2 Importance of Translation 4

2.1.3 Translation process 5

2.2 Common difficulties in the translation process 7

2.2.1 Lexical difficulties 8

2.2.2 Grammatical difficulties 10

2.2.3 Background knowledge 13

2.3 Translation Strategies 14

2.3.1 Definition 14

2.3.2 Classification 14

2.4 Previous Studies 19

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 Locale of the study 22

3.2 Participants 22

3.3 Research method 24

3.4 Data collection instruments 24

3.5 Data collection procedure 29

3.6 Data Analysis 30

3.7 Ethical Consideration 31

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33

4.1 Findings 33

4.1.1 Demographic findings 33

4.1.2 Students’ experiences with translation 34

4.1.3 Translation Difficulties 37

4.1.4 Translation Strategies 46

4.2 Discussion 48

CHAPTER V: SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 53

5.1 Summary of the findings 53

5.2 Recommendations 53

5.2.1 Recommendations for students 54

5.2.2 Recommendations for lecturers and faculty 55

5.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research 56

REFERENCES 58

APPENDICES 65

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ATC English for Banking and Finance BAV Banking Academy of Vietnam EFL English as a Foreign Language SPSS Statistical Package for the Social

Science

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Background information of interviewees 23

Table 3.2 Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient 30

Table 4.1.1 Respondents Profile (N=94) 33

Table 4.1.2 The type of Translation students find difficult 35

Table 4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in translation 37

Table 4.1.4 Students’ challenges in translating terms 38

Table 4.1.5 Students’ difficulties in translating idioms 39

Table 4.1.6 Students’ difficulties in translating collocations 40

Table 4.1.7 Students’ difficulties in background knowledge 41

Table 4.1.8 Students’ obstacles in translating tenses 42

Table 4.1.9 Students’ difficulties in translating types of nouns 44

Table 4.1.10 Students’ difficulties in translating voice 45

Table 4.1.11 Frequencies of Students Using Types of Translation Strategies 47

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Translation process adopted from Nida (1975) 6

Figure 2.2: Translation process adopted from Larson (1984) 7

Figure 3.1 Students’ confidence of translation skill 23

Figure 4.1.1 Students’ translation practice time per day 34

Figure 4.1.2 Students’ frequency encountering translation difficulties 35

Figure 4.1.3 The effectiveness of translation strategies 36

Figure 4.1.4 Student's difficulties in translating tenses 43

Figure 4.1.5 Students’ difficulties in translating types of nouns 44

Figure 4.1.6 Students’ difficulties in translating voices 46

ABSTRACT Title: An investigation into difficulties and strategies in the Translation process of

English-majored students at Banking Academy

Author: Than Thi Khanh Linh, a final-year student of the Faculty of Foreign

Languages at Baking Academy

Supervisor: Ms Duong Thi Thanh Hoa (MA), a Faculty of Foreign Languages

lecturer at Banking Academy

Abstract:

The translation is considered an eraser that erases language boundaries between countries However, translating a text thoroughly and smoothly requires the translators not only to be proficient in language skills but also to have extensive knowledge of the relevant fields This requirement causes many difficulties for translators during the translation process This study aimed to show the difficulties and strategies in the translation process of English-majored students The qualitative and quantitative methods were applied together to research on a pool of 94 final-year students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy The results from the survey and interviews showed that students had the most difficulty with lexicology, particularly understanding and finding equivalences of terms, idioms and collocations Besides, the lack of knowledge about related fields also made students get confused in translating and checking after translation Surprisingly, grammatical pieces including tenses, noun types and voices did not cause many difficulties for students during the translation process To solve these difficulties, students applied some translation strategies based on Baker's theory Among them, the most applied strategies were using more general words, paraphrasing and omission They realized that these strategies could be easily applied in a variety of texts no matter what the topic was From the results, some suggestions were offered to students, lecturers and the faculty

Keywords: English-majored students, translation difficulties, translation strategies,

translation

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the rationale of the study, research objectives, research questions, and the significance, scope, and structure of the research.

1.1 Rationale of the Study

In the context of globalization, Vietnam has become a strategic partner of many countries around the world In particular, on September 10, 2023, Vietnam and the United States - a country that uses English as its official language upgraded their partnership to become a comprehensive strategic partnership According to Raja (2023), in the context of globalization, English is also the language of many fields: science, economics, engineering, and diplomacy This requires Vietnamese workers

to have good English skills to be able to grasp opportunities from foreign partners However, according to MH (2023), only 5% of Vietnamese workers have enough English proficiency to work Therefore, English-Vietnamese or Vietnamese-English translation has become a bridge between foreign businesses and Vietnamese businesses in the current period

In fact, Translation is a difficult subject as well as a difficult skill that requires both learners and professionals to have a lot of knowledge: language knowledge, specialized knowledge, cultural knowledge, etc Ibrahim (2017), Phan, et al (2021), Mahmoud (2022), Pham, et al (2022) and etc conducting research on students at universities have shown that students encounter many difficulties while practicing translation However, no research on this issue has been conducted on the Banking Academy language students Additionally, Afaf, et al (2020) and Pham and Phu (2013) also found that students did not recognize to use the strategies in translation The above reasons motivated the researcher to conduct this study on the difficulties and strategies in the translation process of English-majored students at Banking Academy of Vietnam

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The purposes of this study are to examine students’ perspectives on the major translation difficulties, find the students’ translation difficulties differences and reveal the main translation strategies utilized in the translation process of English-majored students at BAV

1.3 Scope of the Study

This study focuses on surveying the translation difficulties and the translation strategies based on the theory that was proposed in the translation course to deal with words It was limited to only the final-year ATC students who completed two translation courses This research was conducted over two months, March and April

2024

1.4 Research Questions

The study's goals are to find the difficulties encountered by ATC students and the translation strategies used by ATC students when translating Therefore, in this research, the following questions are addressed:

1 Which difficulties do ATC students face in the translation process?

2 Which translation strategies do ATC students apply in the translation process?

1.5 Significance of the Study

Translation is not only a skill but also a method to learn a foreign language Therefore, the implementation of this research is hoped to offer some benefits to both the students and the lecturers First of all, students will be informed about the difficulties they encounter in the translation process and some useful strategies students can use to translate From that, they can prepare themselves more carefully before studying the translation course at university or working in this field in the future Moreover, lecturers can gain an insight into what their students have to face

in translation and how their students apply the translation theory in practice, thus can propose some teaching methods to help them Finally, further researchers interested

in this field can use the research results as a reference for future research

1.6 Structure of the Study

The research is divided into five chapters, as follows:

Chapter I - Introduction This chapter discusses the rationale of the study,

research objectives, research questions, and the significance, scope, and structure of the research

Chapter II - Literature Review This chapter provides relevant theories on the

definition of translation, the steps of the translation process, and translation strategies based on Baker’s theory In addition, some common difficulties in the translation process are also analyzed in this chapter

Chapter III - Research Methodology This chapter presents essential

information about the research methodology It contains detailed explanations of the study locale, participants, research instruments, data collection procedure, and data processing method

Chapter IV - Findings and Discussion The results of this research will be

displayed and analyzed in this chapter Next, the in-depth discussions will be presented

Chapter V – Summary of the findings, implications and recommendations

This chapter will present a summary of the findings, and implications as well as show the limitations of the research and give some recommendations for further research

Chapter summary:

This chapter explains the reason why this study is conducted and the significance of the study Notably, the objectives and research questions of the study have been showed so that the researcher can easily follow to analyze the data The structure of the research have been clearly presented for easy followings

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides relevant theories on the definition of translation, the steps of the translation process, and translation strategies based on Baker’s theory

In addition, some common difficulties in the translation process are also proposed in this chapter

2.1 Translation

2.1.1 Definition

Newmark and Munday (2016) gave their definition of translation: It is the conversion of an original text (source text) in the original language (source language) into another text (target text) using another language (target language) Osman (2017) shares a different understanding that translation is a mental procedure in which translators act to change linguistic entities in one language by their equivalences in another language, but this change does not affect the meaning of the source text; in addition, the author’s original thoughts and implications are transmitted as accurately

as possible in the translation Anisah and Basri (2023) see translation as not only a practice of transferring but also a creative process

To sum up, from all the above definitions, translation is defined as the process

of changing linguistic entities from one language (source language) into their equivalences in another language (target language) However, the meaning and implications of the source texts have to be preserved during this pivotal and complicated process

2.1.2 Importance of Translation

The significant role of translation is highlighted by Habeeb and Muhammed (2019) In the era of globalization, a country's development is greatly influenced by its ability to exchange economically, culturally, politically, and socially with the world However, the process of exchange between countries always faces many difficulties because of language barriers Therefore, the translation industry was born

to erase those language barriers

The role of translation can be seen in most fields such as trade, tourism, international investment cooperation, technology transfer, cultural exchange, education, etc Translation helps parties understand each other and receive correct information In the process of globalization and integration, translation will also be a tool to spread popular human knowledge to many countries around the world (Nguyen, 2023) Translation is a bridge between countries to eliminate language barriers and cooperate in all fields This industry makes an important contribution to the global development of all aspects The country's development in the process of globalization is always accompanied by the continuous development of the translation industry (Postan, 2023)

2.1.3 Translation process

The translation process is a series of actions taken in order to transfer a text written in one language (source language) to another (target language) It can be illustrated by different researchers’ models

According to Nida (1975), the first step of the translation process is analyzing the original text In this stage, the translator has to analyze the structure, meaning, and implications of each word, phrase, and sentence to get the whole meaning of the source Next, the translator needs to transfer that meaning into the receptor language

At this step, equivalent words, phrases, and sentences of the target language are appropriately selected and presented in the target text Finally, in the restructuring stage or editing stage (Ly, 2022), the translator has to adhere to the rules of the target language to convey the meaning of the source text The following is an illustration of Nida’s model

Figure 2.1: Translation process adopted from Nida (1975)

Larson (1984) also described the translation process via a model The model

is generally similar to Nida’s above model Nevertheless, the transferring process is not included in Larson’s model In the initial step, the meaning of the source text is discovered by analyzing the words, structures, situations, and cultural factors Following that, the translator uses equivalents and culturally appropriate terms, phrases, and structures of the target language to reproduce the meaning of the source text in the receptor language Larson’s model is illustrated below

Figure 2.2: Translation process adopted from Larson (1984)

Habeeb and Jameel (2023) proposed general steps in the translation process that translators have to follow to do a well-translated text: (1) Preparation, (2) Translation, (3) Editing and Review, (4) Final Review and Approval In the first step, translators have to read the source text, relevant materials, and instructions Next, the text is translated with the right meaning and intent of the authors in the receptor language Then, to ensure the naturalness and accuracy of the translated text, translators or other professionals have to check the translation and propose the final translation Finally, this final version is going to be checked again by translators’ customers

2.2 Common difficulties in the translation process

Hoang (2006) explained in the textbook for English senior students

“Translation: Theory and Practice” that translation is a complicated process because

it requires translators to master both the source and target language to solve problems

in a split second This statement is in line with that of Pham (2015) who also pointed out that this skill is difficult for both students and lecturers to master due to the requirement of having a wide knowledge of different majors, understanding the culture, and using languages skillfully Thus, the translation courses are often ordered after many language skills courses at university

SOURCE

LANGUAGE

RECEPTOR LANGUAGE

However, students at this time also encounter many difficulties The research

of Pham and Phan (2013) revealed students had big obstacles relating to language skills and academic knowledge While the former is lexicology, grammar and native language fluency, the latter is specialized knowledge of tourism and business Phan,

et al (2021) and Nguyen (2022) specified vocabulary including terms, collocations, idioms, and prepositions, grammar including tenses, voice, and types of nouns, and background knowledge are challenging for Vietnamese students in the translation process In general, the previous researchers found that students encounter linguistic difficulties including lexicology and grammar as well as non-linguistic difficulties relating to background knowledge

2.2.1 Lexical difficulties

Lexicology is the most important part of any language and also the most difficult part for language learners because of its diversity, form, and usage among different languages Thus, lexicology can be a big obstacle for translators to finish their tasks In particular, terminologies, collocations, and idioms may be the common challenges for students who are on the way to acquiring translation skills

Terminologies

Richards and Schmidt (2011) defined terminology as the special lexical words

or phrases used in a particular field or profession like technology, business, biography, etc In other words, the terminology represents core notions of a particular field or profession Thus, Sager (1996, as cited by Melnichuk and Osipova, 2016) called terms “depositories of knowledge”

For example: “Interest” appears in the source text as a term in the banking

sector When it is translated into Vietnamese, it means “tiền lãi”, not “sự hấp dẫn” as usual meaning

Although terms account for a small portion of a text, around 5%-10% (Newmark, 1981), they are a big obstacle in the translation process Nguyen (2022) stated from her research on students’ difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation that due to the specific meaning of business terms, students could not find the

equivalent in the target language Lucito (2018) supported the idea when analyzing the students’ translations of religious stories He found that terminology was one of the major students’ difficulties as they did not understand the meaning of these words

in the translation process Encountering a technical word in an unclear context of the original text can cause a challenge for students in understanding as well as finding the equivalent term in the target language because it conveys academic knowledge of

a field in which translators are not experts It is difficult to guess the right meaning

and render it into the receptor language

Collocations

According to Richards and Schmidt (2010), collocations are the combination

of words used together on the restrictions while O’Dell and McCarthy (2017) explained collocations are semantic and syntactic word matches that seem natural to native speakers Generally, collocations are collections of words combined to form phrases that the natives use all the time in daily life They are combinations among particular verbs and prepositions, adjectives and nouns, verbs and nouns, etc

For example: “Blonde hair” is a collocation formed by an adjective and a noun

“Sail through” is a collocation formed by a verb and a preposition

Both Newmark (1998) and Dai (2009) shared the same idea that collocations play an important role in translation However, the nature of the word combination and the huge number of collocations challenge students to recognize and remember their meanings (Nguyen et al., 2021) They also found that students used the word-for-word method to translate when encountering difficulties in converting collocations This leads to awkward phrases in the translated text which sound unnatural to the target reader Pham (2018) analyzed translation errors of Vietnamese EFL students and revealed that the limited ability to use collocations resulted in students’ making translation errors due to the mother tongue interference and the habit of using word-for-word translation Thus, when rendering from the source language into the target one, students not only pay attention to not only meanings but also the fixed combination of words

For example: The Vietnamese text includes the phrase “sương muối dày đặc”

“Dày đặc” means “thick” in English When this phrase is translated word-for-word,

it is turned into “the thick frost” However, this translation does not sound natural to the natives as they use “the hard/heavy frost” all the time

Idiom

Baker (2001) stated that idioms are combinations of words carrying meanings that can not be found by understanding the meaning of single words Idioms of each language include features or elements that are the illustration of surroundings, lifestyles, and culture strongly linked to the spirit and belief of the locals According

to Liu (2003), using idioms seems to be too complicated for foreign language learners

For example: The Vietnamese idiom “Chở củi về rừng” is translated as “Carry

coals to Newcastle” in English and both of them mean doing something pointless While “firewood and forest” are familiar with Vietnamese agricultural culture,

“coals” are more familiar with an industrial country like England

Therefore, Baker (2001) believed that recognizing, understanding, and rendering an idiom into the receptor language correctly can challenge translators Moreover, both Newmark (1988) and Baker (2001) identified that there may be no equivalence of an idiom in the target language Phan, et al (2021) investigated students’ translation difficulties when transferring from Vietnamese to English and the results revealed that it is a complex task for students to get the meaning and find the equivalence of culture-specific idioms Cultural differences between the two

nations can be a big challenge for students in translating idioms

2.2.2 Grammatical difficulties

Besides lexicology, grammar also presents many difficulties for students in the translation process The root of these problems is the difference in grammatical categories between the two languages Some typical differences between English and Vietnamese grammar are tenses, countable and uncountable nouns, and voices

For example, the verb “to write” in the present tense is “write” and in the past

tense is “wrote”

However, according to Phan (2016), instead of changing the verb form to convey the time of the action, Vietnamese use function words to determine the time

in which actions occur

For example: “I am washing dishes now.” → “Mình đang rửa bát.”

It is seen that this is the present progressive tense that shows the action happening at the time of speaking In the English version, the verb form of “wash” is changed by being added the suffix “ing” to reveal time in which the action happens Compared to the Vietnamese version, the located time of the action is expressed by the function word “đang” and the verb is still in the original form

Another instance: “I have been working here for 5 years” → “Tôi đã làm việc

ở đây 5 năm liên tục rồi”

This is the present perfect continuous tense which indicates the repeated actions starting at a time in the past and continuing in the present time This tense is used when the author would like to highlight the continuity of the action from the past until the present In the translation, there is still no inflection in the form of the verb “làm việc” and the located time of the action, along with the author’s implication

is conveyed by function words “đã, liên tục, rồi” From the above examples, it can be noted that English distinguishes tenses clearly on purpose, while Vietnamese usually

do not This statement is in line with the statement of Phan, et al (2021) The

grammatical difference between English and Vietnamese is challenging for students who do not fully understand the English tenses

Countable and Uncountable nouns

Yazici and Irtes (2014) conducted research among 90 students via a translation

to find out that students had trouble with using the singularity and the plurality of nouns due to the interference of their mother tongue According to Phan, et al (2015), students have several difficulties when translating nouns, particularly countable and uncountable nouns, since they tend to concentrate on what the nouns refer to rather than how they are categorized in grammar In English, countable and uncountable nouns can be distinguished by their forms (Phan, 2016) Countable nouns are in singular form with articles or in plural form with suffixes “s/es” and uncountable nouns are in singular form only Moreover, qualifiers combined with countable and uncountable nouns are also distinguished, except for some qualifiers like “some, any,

a lot of, and no” In contrast, there is no difference in the form and qualifier usage between countable and uncountable nouns in the Vietnamese language

For example: The Vietnamese noun “lời khuyên” is used with numbers and

qualifiers like “một lời khuyên”, “những thông tin” and no change in the form of this noun whether is plural or singular However, these nouns are uncountable in English,

so translators are not permitted to use “an advice” or “advices” when converting the Vietnamese phrase “những lời khuyên” into English

In short, this difference can cause errors for students in the translation process

if they are not able to determine which noun is countable or uncountable in the target

language

Voice

Baker (2001) specifies voice is a type of grammar that shows the relationship between a verb and its subjects Generally, there are two types of voice: passive and active A sentence in which the subject is in charge of carrying out the acts is called

an active voice In contrast, in the passive voice, the subject is the affected entity and the agent can or can not be specified at the end of the sentence

The research “Interlingual transfer in using English passive voice of Vietnamese students” implemented by Bui (2022) showed that the problem relating

to the interlingual transfer of Vietnamese students is they tended to misuse the right type of voice in specific contexts due to the habit of rendering Vietnamese statements with “bị/được” into English passive voice Moreover, Baker (2001) stated that passive voice is often used more in English while Phan, et al (2021) stated that Vietnamese use more active voice The habit of using more active voice can lead to a wrong and unnatural translation when translating a Vietnamese version into an English version

For example:

Source text: “Hundreds of houses were destroyed by the storm.”

Target text: “Cơn bão đã phá hủy hàng trăm ngôi nhà.”

In this example, the source text used a passive sentence and it is changed into

an active sentence in the target text that sounds more natural to Vietnamese readers than the version “Hàng trăm ngôi nhà đã bị phá hủy bởi cơn bão” Since Vietnamese and English have distinct structural categories, translating voice is a common difficulty often encountered by translators

2.2.3 Background knowledge

To create a high-quality translation, translators not only have good language knowledge relating to lexicology and grammar but also have wide background knowledge relating to many other fields in life Starke (2019) stated that background knowledge is the wide range of information or knowledge someone acquires in particular topics during their lifetime

Kim (2006) and Gafiyatova and Pomortseva (2016) illustrated that the background knowledge of translators plays an important role in the quality of a translation Akalin (2013) also researched the role of background knowledge in the translation The research was divided into two parts The students were required to translate the sentences directly without being provided with content background knowledge in the first part and the second one, after being provided with relevant knowledge, they were asked to retranslate those statements After three phases, the

results revealed that the majority of students could not finish the translation process before being provided with the contents relating to the topic of the original text In the process of translation, any translator can encounter this challenge as no one can master all the fields in the world Translation is a process of rendering not only the meaning of language but also the knowledge from the source language into the target language Without background information about topics, translators cannot find out the meaning of the original text in the first step of the translation process (Pham, et al., 2022) Moreover, in the next steps of restructuring and editing, words, particularly terminologies cannot be used appropriately, and the information after being converted cannot be ensured to be accurate The accuracy and naturalness of the translated text

can be lost which highly affects the quality of the task

2.3 Translation Strategies

2.3.1 Definition

According to Krings (1986, as cited by Ordudari, 2007), translation strategies are strategies that a translator makes in advance to deal with specific translation difficulties within a specific translation task In addition, Loescher (1991, as cited by Ordudari, 2007) described translation strategies as a potentially planned process for resolving an issue encountered when translating a text, or any part of one In short, the strategy of translating is the way translators use to overcome some difficulties to translate sound more naturally and understandably to the target readers

2.3.2 Classification

Many experts proposed their classification of translation strategies According

to Suryawinata and Hariyanto (2016) and Chesterman (2016), three types of translation strategies are syntactic strategy, semantic strategy, and pragmatic strategy

To solve the issue of words in translation, Baker (2001) outlined various strategies that professional translators have applied

Using a more general word (Superordinate)

One of the most popular techniques for resolving different types of translation difficulties is translation by generalization (Baker, 2001) The more specific word is

typically replaced by a more general word (superordinate) or one that is more widely used Languages typically have more broad words than specific ones because each language only distinguishes meanings following what is appropriate for its environment Translating a complex notion with a broader one, however, could lead

to overgeneralization or even oversimplification (meaning loss) in the translated work Above all, one of the most popular methods for handling various kinds of non-equivalence is to use a superordinate Since Baker (2001) explained that as meaning

in the semantic field is independent of language, it functions properly in most languages In specific situations, it makes sense to translate an English word without

any specific Vietnamese word using a more general word and vice versa

For example:

Source text: “Mopeds, Motorcycles”

Target text: “Xe máy” (Bui and Dang, 1997)

In English, “mopeds” and “motorcycles” are different “Motorcycle” is a vehicle with two wheels and an engine while “moped” is a small motorcycle with pedals used when starting the engine or traveling up a hill (Cambridge Online Dictionary) However, in Vietnamese, they are called by the same name “xe máy”

Translation by using a more specific word (hyponym)

Using a more specific word in the translation process is opposite to the strategy

of using a superordinate mentioned above The more general word is replaced by a more specific word (hyponym) or one that is typically used in the target language under certain circumstances Nguyen (2013) noted that this approach may lead to a misunderstanding of the meaning in the source language which is more problematic than making an overgeneralization in most circumstances However, among different synonyms, it is suitable and necessary to use a precise word to change a source word into a target one to ensure the naturalness of the translation

For example:

Source text: “Rice”

Target text: “Lúa, cơm” (Bui and Dang, 1997)

In the above example, the English word “rice” can be translated in many words

in Vietnamese, based on whether it is planted (translated into “lúa”) or cooked and eaten (translated into “cơm”)

Translation by using a more neutral/ less expressive word

This technique works effectively when the translator encounters an expressive word in the translation process In some cases, the translator chooses a word that is equivalent but has a different level of expression in the target language The real intention of the author may not be conveyed or be conveyed in the wrong way creating a misunderstanding for the target readers Therefore, it is advised to use a more neutral term in the translation to minimize the risk of misunderstanding and increase the naturalness of the translated work

For example:

Source text: “We are willing to die for our motherland.”

Target text: “Chúng tôi sẵn sàng chết vì quê hương.” (Anh Nguyen, 2022)

“Motherland” in this sentence refers to the country that a person has a strong emotional connection with In Vietnamese, it can be translated into “đất mẹ, quê hương, ”, but the term “quê hương” sounds less expressive, more familiar and more

natural to Vietnamese people than “đất mẹ”

Translation by cultural substitution

By using this tactic, the translator can replace some culture-specific phenomena in the source language with some words or phrases in the target language rendering the same meaning Cultural substitution aims to provide a more familiar and understandable expression to the target readers with a different culture; moreover, translators do not have to add any lengthy explanations or descriptions about a culture-specific item in the translated task

For example: “Tết Trung thu” → “The Mid-Autumn Festival”

(Le, et al, 2022)

According to Baker (2001), this strategy is used or not based on two elements: (1) the limitations given to translators by the people who hired them, and (2) the main goal of the translation

Translation by using a loan word or a loan word plus an explanation

According to Baker (2001), it is possible to use a borrowed word in the translation process in the situation of referring to cultural items, modern concepts, or commonly used terms Translators can borrow words from any language, but it is commonly used in the target language If the word translators intend to borrow is repeated many times in the original text and completely new in the target language, the translator can still leave the source word in the translation but they have to attach

an explanation of that word in the receptor language Once explained, for subsequent appearances, there is no need to explain again

For example:

Source text: “Áo dài là loại áo truyền thống của Việt Nam.”

Target text: “Ao Dai is the traditional dress of Vietnam.” (Anh Nguyen, 2022)

In this example, “Áo dài” is a culture-specific item of Vietnamese It is not appropriate to translate it like “long shirt” or “long dress”, so the source word should

be kept in the translation

Translation by paraphrase

A paraphrase can be used as a translation technique when a word or concept

in the source text does not exist in the receptor one or when the expression of the receptor language does not cover all the implications of the expression of the original language for a similar idea Baker (2001) pointed out that the meaning of a word or concept hitting difficulties in the translation can be specified at a high level once paraphrased by either related or unrelated words

For instance:

Source text: "Children shall be protected from abuse and neglect”

Target text: “Trẻ em cần được bảo vệ chống lại mọi hình thức bạo lực, gây tổn thương hay xúc phạm, bỏ mặc hoặc sao nhãng trong việc chăm sóc.”

(Bui and Dang, 1997)

“Abuse” and “neglect” are English terms which signify a wide range of bad treatments to someone However, there are no specific Vietnamese terms which can convey all the meaning of these English words Therefore, paraphrasing these words

by using more target words and phrases is a good way to reveal all the meanings of these words and ensure the nature and accuracy of the translation

In contrast, this strategy can exclude the expressive or evoking meaning of the original word as well as make a much longer translation compared to the original text due to additional items used to rewrite

Translation by omission

In some contexts, translators can omit or dismiss some words or expressions that do not play an essential role in conveying the meaning of the text or the author’s intention In other words, these items or parts of the original text will not be converted into the translation version This strategy can help to reduce the length of the translation and avoid distracting the reader with unnecessary information

For example:

Source text: “Họ đang triển khai phát triển chương trình giảng dạy mới” Target text: “They are developing a new curriculum”

Since “triển khai” is not a vital word in this sentence, its removal has no impact

on the message from the source text Therefore, translators can dismiss it from the translation

However, Baker (2001) warned that translation by omission could lead to a

loss of meaning and this strategy should be applied as the final option

In the other study, Pham, et al (2022) researched 125 English-majored students who completed translation courses at a private university to find out the difficult factors students had in the translation process The mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) was applied The researchers used 2 instruments to collect the data An online survey about students’ perspectives on the influence of 4 factors (lexis, grammar, culture, and existing knowledge) was piloted to these participants and then 16 out of 125 respondents were interviewed for the authors’ better understanding The findings revealed that four factors including lexis, grammar, culture, and existing knowledge posed great challenges for students’ translation process They were in order: lexis, existing knowledge, culture, and grammar Lexis was the most challenging for students in the translation process in which translating terminologies was the most difficult In contrast, students were confident with grammar as they responded that grammar was the least challenging for them Limited knowledge in various fields and cultures made students have difficulty understanding the meaning of the source text

Another related study on strategies Vietnamese students used in Vietnamese advertising translation was implemented by Nguyen and Truong (2018) They explored that when changing English advertisements to Vietnamese ones, students found it more challenging to translate vocabulary than grammar In addition, some strategies applied during this process were equivalence, paraphrasing, addition, borrowing, transposition, and reduction According to the findings, word-for-word translation was not employed to resolve any difficulties To get these results, the researchers analyzed the translation of two printed advertisements from forty-one English interpretation and translation-majored senior students at Can Tho University who finished all translation courses and translation internships Quantitative and descriptive methods were mixed in this research to analyze and describe the collected data

English-Syukrina (2021) undertook research on the difficulties and strategies in translating Indonesian English The author collected data from 10 third-year students

of English Education majors at the State Institute of Islamic Studies Langsa The qualitative method was employed to analyze the data which was collected via two instruments: translated tasks and interviews The outcomes showed that these participants encountered various difficulties when translating Indonesian texts into English texts Vocabularies particularly relating to religious terms, Grammar, Equivalence, and Long sentences were challenges they overcome in the translation process In addition, the interview revealed that three strategies based on Fitria’s theory containing adaptation strategy, literal strategy, and natural borrowing strategy were mainly employed to do the translation tasks

Lucito (2018) conducted a study to find difficulties, methods, and strategies used in the translation process of English Language Education at Ar-Raniry State Islamic University based on Newmark’s theory and Baker’s theory 15 students were invited to translate an Islamic story, and 10 of them were then invited to participate

in an interview Data collected from these instruments was analyzed by the descriptive method The outcomes of the test illustrated that in English-Indonesian translation, the respondents used 2 methods word-for-word translation and free translation (following Newmark’s theory) After analyzing the results of the

interviews, the researcher concluded that religious vocabularies and terms were the most difficult items for the participants to translate They tended to use two major strategies proposed by Baker (2001): using a more general word and paraphrasing to better understand the meaning of the original text The disadvantage of this research

is that it is scaled on a limited population and based on a special topic (religious story), so the goal of providing a general view on this topic has not been achieved

Overall, all of the studies as mentioned above provided information on students’ translation difficulties and translation strategies Nearly all the researchers applied mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative in the research 4 of the 5 above studies were conducted on 10-55 students, just one was conducted on over 100 participants Notably, the results revealed that students encountered difficulties in both linguistic and non-linguistic items In addition, they recognized that students used different strategies in different contexts of the original texts based on different theories

From the above analysis, it is clearly seen that there is still a gap in research Most studies were conducted on a small scale of under 60 participants, so the generalization of this issue has not been judged In addition, there has been no research on students’ translation difficulties and translation strategies in the context

of Banking Academy of Vietnam Therefore, the researcher will conduct this study

to fill the gaps

Chapter summary:

Chapter II provides some relevant theories of translation, common translation difficulties which were gathered from previous studies and translation strategies based on the Baker’s theory These theories is hoped to provide a general understanding on the research topic so that analyzing and giving recommendations would be more understandable Moreover, previous studies in Vietnam and other countries on the same topic have been summarized and analyzed to find the research gaps

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents essential information about the research methodology

It contains detailed explanations of the study locale, participants, research instruments, data collection procedure, and data processing method

3.1 Locale of the study

This study was undertaken at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Banking Academy of Vietnam English-majored students at BAV will be equipped with knowledge of both language and the banking and finance sector which can open up their future job opportunities

3.2 Participants

The objects of this research were K23 seniors of the Faculty of Foreign Language at Banking Academy of Vietnam The main reason for choosing seniors was that they experienced two translation courses including Translation I and Translation II so that they have a certain knowledge and practice time of the translation skill at university 94 students from three ATC classes: K23ATCA, K23ATCB and K23ATCC joined in this study First, all of them joined to answer the questionnaire Then the researcher invited seven of them to join in an individual interview

With the desire for in-depth interviews, the researcher utilized the purposive sampling method to choose seven individuals from 94 participants who had answered the survey After answering the questionnaire, the participants would have a certain understanding of the study According to Etikan, et al (2016), a participant is intentionally chosen for the purposive sampling strategy based on their distinctive features Finding and selecting "information-rich cases" (Patton, 2002) is a common task in qualitative research in order to maximize available resources A systematic selection method was used to pick seven respondents who shared certain features, such as gender and translation skill confidence This confidence is what students self-rate after they completed two translation courses Students at different confidence

levels of translation skill can have various responses to their difficulties in the translation process

Figure 3.1 Students’ confidence of translation skill

3.3 Research method

This paper used mixed methods, which combine collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to acquire insight into a topic; in other words, the elements of the quantitative method and qualitative method are combined to find the answers to the research questions (George, 2023) Shorten and Smith (2017) and George (2023) indicated that using this integrated method allows the researcher to combine the benefits of quantitative and qualitative methodologies including the objective of survey results and extra valuable information gleaned from interviews This combination provides more thorough data on the research problem than one of the two procedures alone Quantitative approaches frequently use surveys or polls to obtain numerical data (Fleetwood, n.d) This study presented this approach in the form of a survey with closed questions to obtain a general understanding of translation difficulties and the application of translation strategies by ATC students

In contrast, interviews or open-ended questions are often used as instruments of qualitative method to study respondents’ perspectives before grouping data for further analysis (Bhandari, 2020) Interviews were done in this study to ask more comprehensive questions for more valuable data To summarize, the mixed method's advantages enable it to provide more thorough answers to the research topic

3.4 Data collection instruments

3.4.1 Survey

An online survey was designed to collect data for this research This instrument helps the researcher to access a large size of participants in a limited time and save more resources The content of the questionnaire was adopted from the questionnaire of Phan, et al (2021), and Nguyen (2022) to investigate translation difficulties and Juining and Kusuma (2020) to find students’ frequency of using translation strategies

Content Source

Lexical difficulties

L1 I find it hard to figure out equivalent

terms in the target language Nguyen (2022) L2 Unfamiliar terms can be an obstacle in

my translation process

L3 I cannot recognize collocations when

translating from English to Vietnamese

and vice versa

Phan, et.al (2021)

L4 I find it difficult to remember all the

collocations

L5 Understanding idioms with

culture-specific features poses a great challenge

for me

L6 I cannot find the equivalent idioms in the

target language

Grammatical difficulties

G1 Differences in tenses between

Vietnamese and English make me get

confused in the translation process

Phan, et al (2021)

G2 It is hard for me to convey the

implication of the writer when translating

tenses

G3 I cannot realize which nouns can/cannot

be counted when translating from

Vietnamese-English

G4 I cannot choose the right way to translate

countable and uncountable nouns

G5 I do not notice that Vietnamese tend to

use more active sentences while English

tend to use more passive sentences

G6 I do not know how to transform a passive

sentence in the source language into an

active sentence in the target language and

vice versa

Background knowledge difficulties

B1 I cannot choose the right words or terms

relating to the text

The author

B2 It’s such a complicated task for me to

translate completely new topics without

related knowledge

B3 I cannot determine whether the

information is conveyed exactly

Students’ strategies used in the Translation

process

1 Have you used a more general word of the target

language to express specific ones of the source

language?

A Yes

Junining and Kusuma

(2020)

There were 4 sections in the questionnaire with 29 questions related to personal information, translation experiences, translation difficulties, and translation strategies

Section I included two questions about the background information of respondents The first question was about their class and the next one was about their gender which determined the sample structure of the study

In Section II, the students were asked five questions about their confidence of translation skill, the time they spent practicing this skill, the frequency of encountering difficulties, the more challenging type of translation and the effectiveness of translation strategies This section helps the researcher determine the current situation of students studying and practicing the translation process

Section III consisted of 15 closed questions about the common difficulties students encountered in the translation process As mentioned in Chapter II, the most common difficulties were related to the lexicology with terms, idioms and collocations; the grammar with tenses, types of nouns and voices; and the background knowledge Each question in this part used the 5-point Likert scale: 1-Strongly disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neutral, 4-Agree, and 5-Strongly agree

In Section IV, the students were asked to choose the translation strategies (based on Baker’s theory) they employed in their translation process Each question was a Yes/No question The students choose “Yes” if they apply the strategy and if not, they choose “No”

3.4.2 Interview

The author applied semi-structured interviews to investigate more information about the translation difficulties, their solutions, the translation strategies they used, and some suggestions for a successful translation In this interview format, the interviewees are required to answer the questions of the interviewers to enrich their data Besides that, based on the answers of the interviewees, the interviewer can ask supplementary questions to get more information which is not included in the designed questions According to KnowHow (2018), a semi-structured interview allows more freedom for interviewees to express their themes and the interviewer can

ask for more information based on interviewees’ expressions Five questions were designed to probe for more information

1 What difficulties do you encounter when you translate?

2 What should you do when encountering difficulties in the Translation process?

3 Which translation strategies do you often use when translating?

4 Why do you often apply those strategies?

5 Any suggestions to be successful in doing a translation task?

3.5 Data collection procedure

After designing the survey, the researcher sent it to the supervisor to ask for feedback on the content and linguistic factors Some comments were given Particularly, one question about attitudes were not suitable for the research, so it was deleted from the survey After that, the Google Forms application was utilized to design the online questionnaire The questionnaire link was sent to 156 senior students in two weeks, from March 18 to April 1, 2024, via Messenger and Zalo This

is the most effective method for both the researcher and the participants because English-majored seniors have finished most of the modules at BAV and are in their internship time After this period of piloting the survey, the researcher received 94 responses

An interview invitation was sent to the interviewees via email and they could confirm to join or not based on their voluntary basis Seven in eight invitations were agreed One day before the official interview, five structured questions were sent to interviewees, so that they could be well-prepared before joining the interview On April 5, 6 and 7, 2024, the researchers invited seven interviewees to join in the online interviews via the Messenger application This is convenient and time-saving for both the interviewees and the interviewer Interviewees could voluntarily accept or refuse the invitation of the interviewer Before starting the interview, the interviewer introduced the purpose of the interview, asked the interviewees’ permission to record the interview for further analysis and ensured that all the files would be deleted after the completion of the research to protect confidentiality

3.6 Data Analysis

Quantitative Data Analysis

The quantitative data were handled via Excel Worksheet 2013 and SPSS version 29 for Windows

At first the reliability statistics of SPSS 29 was utilized to check the reliability

of the questionnaire Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient is valued from 0 to 1 If a research instrument has a value from 0.6, it will be acceptable The higher the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient is, the more reliable the scale is However, if Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of a research instrument is less than 0.6, this scale is unreliable

Table 3.2 Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient

Alpha

Number of items Lexical

difficulties

Terminologies 836 2 Collocations 785 2

The descriptive statistics of SPSS version 29 were applied to analyze the data collected from the online survey First, the data collected via the Google Form questionnaire were downloaded as an Excel file In this step, the data were coded in numbers Then the file was imported to SPSS 29 to calculate the mean, frequency, and standard deviation of the responses

To interpret the mean score of the 5-point Likert scale, the researcher based

on the distance value which is calculated by the formula:

Distance value = (Maximum - Minimum) : (Number of levels)

= (5-1) : 5 = 0.8

From this value, the range of mean scores will be interpreted as follows: Very Low (1.00 - 1.80), Low (1.81 - 2.60), Medium (2.61 - 3.40), High (3.41 - 4.20), Very High (4.21 - 5.00) Finally, the analyzed data were presented in tables, bars, and pie charts

Qualitative Data Analysis

The collected data from the semi-structured interviews were manually analyzed The records of the interviews were carefully listened to and transcribed The researcher delivered the transcripts to the interviewees to let them check the accuracy and re-ask for permission to use these documents After that, the answers were selected and classified into suitable parts for analysis The qualitative findings from the interviews were integrated into the study by using pertinent statements from the participants These quotes were utilized to confirm or give additional explanations for the conclusions produced from the quantitative data The identity of the interview participants remained confidential and was coded from I1 to I7

3.7 Ethical Consideration

The interview participation is completely voluntary In the invitation, the researcher clearly informed the purpose of the interview In addition, the invited people will choose to participate in the interview or not based on their willingness During the interview process, the interviewees can request to stop the interview for any reason without explanation The interviewer guarantees to keep the participants'

personal information confidential and commits to delete the record files after analyzing the data The provided data after being transcribed will be sent back to the participants to check for accuracy During the analysis process, there is no data being altered or fixed

Chapter summary:

In this chapter, the research methodology has been clearly explained The study was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Baking Academy with the participation of seniors The data collected from two instruments based on two methods was revealed how to be analyzed Last but not least, the research ethic was carefully considered to ensure the rights of the participants