DIFFICULTIES IN THE VIETNAMESE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE FOURTH YEARENGLISH MAJORS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the completion of this paper, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to people from whom I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Mrs Vu Thi Thanh, M.A for her absolutely indispensable assistance, expert advices and critical comments in details helping me a lot to fulfill the study Secondly, I am much obliged to all teachers at the Foreign Language Department of Haiphong University, who gave me an opportunity to carry out this paper I not think that I would have been able to complete this research well without their belief in me, and their help and transfer of precious experience I also highly appreciate the enormous support provided by the fourthyear English majors at Haiphong University for their enthusiastic participation in the survey Finally, I am grateful to the authors and publishers whose research results helped me build a foundation in my study Sincerely, Dang Thi Hong Gam CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In today’s globalization and internationalization, it cannot be denied the importance of English in people’s life and social development No English means no communication Without communication, there is no way to express thoughts, ideas, and feelings And how can the country’s economy develop when the countries tend to integrate international economy for the whole development? English becomes a common languagewhich helpspeople understand each other more in the process of diplomaticrelation and economic cooperation and many other fields in today’s era English isthe most effective international communicative language It is also the official language in a large number of countries.According to Wikipedia, there are more than 400 million people in the world using English as a mother tongue, and more than billion people using English as the second language English is the third language which is widely used only just after Chinese and Spanish All most of the international events and global organizations are using English as the default language of communication.We again cannot deny the advantages of English bringing to us, especially in the booming age of information and technology Because knowing English and using computer more effectively are demands of job’s requirements if you want to get one’s dream job in any international company, earn more money or communicate more effectively with more people around the world When Vietnam became one of the members of World Trade Organization in 2006 encountering the difficulties in communicating with international friends,ithas more and more requirements for Vietnamese to have expert English skills, especially translation skill whichis considered as a bridge helping Vietnam connect withpartners,enhance international economy andexchangeour culture with other countries in the world Therefore, the demand of professional translation is getting more necessary than ever Translation is essential to learn, but it doesn't mean it is simple for learners To master translation is not easy for almost all English learners Many Vietnamese people have faced with many challenges when translating our mother tongue into English This can be very difficult for learners who begin to study written translation or even for those who are fluent in several languages, and there is no exception for English majors at Haiphong University How to deal with this actual situation is still a question These wondering and interesting facts, ideas promote me to carry out this study: “DIFFICULTIES IN THE VIETNAMESE - ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE FOURTH -YEARENGLISH MAJORS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS.” I hope it will be new and contributive to help students understand their difficulties and overcome these obstacles in learning process as well as get high mark in their exams 1.2 Aims of the study For this study, I expect to clarify two main issues The first is toinvestigate some common difficulties in the Vietnamese - English translation of the fourth-year English majors at Haiphong University The second is to make suggestions that can help them deal with the problems 1.3 Research questions To achieve the aims, this research is carried outby answering two following research questions: - What are the difficulties ofthe fourth-year English majors at Haiphong University encounter when translating texts from Vietnamese into English? - What are the solutions to help students overcome these problems? 1.4 Scope of the study Based on in term of studied subject, the study involves Vietnamese written texts, documents and their English equivalents in different fields, which sources may be from books, magazines or Internet The fourth-year English major students in BA English A K13class(2012-2016 curriculum) at Haiphong University are also the targeted objects of this research 1.5 Methods of the study Questionnaire analysis: consisting of eight questions answered by 40 participants The respondent’s answers were analyzed to point out: • • • • The students’ attitude towards translation subject The students’ difficulties in translating Vietnamese-English texts How students deal with a Vietnamese-English text Methods of studying translation and the amount of time students usually spend on it Interview analysis: Two interview questions are designed to make the study more reliable Interviewees are teachers teaching Translation 1.6 Design of the study This study consists of the following parts: Part I: Introduction The first part will give readers an overview of the study including rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of study Part II: Development This part consists of three chapters: Chapter 1: Literature Review It focuses on knowledge theoriesrelated to translation such as: the concepts, the importance, strategies and difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation Chapter 2: Methodology In this chapter, the writer will show methods carried out during the research process Chapter 3: Results and discussion It will focus on analyzing common difficulties and giving solutions for them PART III: CONCLUSION The last part will summarize the study and comment limitations of the study and suggestions for further study PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 Definition of translation There are many the concepts of translation that have been discussed and presented by many scholars with different perspectives for many historical periods Firstly, numerous linguistic scholars mainly focus on finding equivalence (of meaning, grammar, content, etc.) According to Catford (1965), “Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (source language) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language)” They add Translation “consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closet natural equivalent of the source language message, first in term of meaning and second in term of style.”(Nida & Taber (1969) Hartman and Stork (Newmark, 1995) also defines that “Translation involves replacing a text in one language by an equivalent text in a second language.” Bell.R (1991) gives the same point when saying that “Translation is the replacement of a presentation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language.” Another idea shows that “Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of written source language text into an optimally equivalent target language text, and which requires the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the source language.” (Wilss, 1982) Barkhudarov says that “The transformation of a speech product in one language into that of other language keeping content (or meaning) unchanged.” Bao and Thu (1999) defines that “Translation is rendering a written text into another language in the way that the author intended the text Translators are concerned with the written word They render written texts from one language in to another.” Besides, Koller (1995) indicates the equivalence relation among languages when saying that “Translation can be understood as the result of a text-processing activity, by means of which a source-language text is transposed into a target-language text Between the resulting text in the target language text and the source language text, there exists a relationship which can be designated as translational, or equivalence relation.” Although there are many different standpoints, all most of them emphasize the significance of “equivalence” in both languages Secondly, based on Culture and Context theories (by Peter Newmark 1982 [49, p.25],) concentrate on culture and context during the translation process He defines “Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message of textual material in one language into another language in the way that the author intended the text.” Besides, functionalists not pay attention to the source texts Their main is to point out the power of translation Hamtim & Mason (1990) say that translation has communicative function when stressing that “Translating is a communicative process which takes place within a social context.” They also add that “Translation is an act of communication which attempts to relay, across cultural and linguistic boundaries, another act of communication.” (Hatim and Mason - 1997:1) Other scholars say that “Translation is an extremely motivated industrial activity, supported by information technology, which is diversified in response to the particular needs of this form of communication.” ( Sager,1994) or “Translation, as the process of convey message across linguistic and cultural barriers, is an eminently communicative activity, one whose use could well be considered in a wider range of teaching situations than may currently be the case.” (Tudor, cited in Duff 1989) Nord (2007) describes “Translation is the production of a functional target text maintaining a relationship with a given source text that is specific according to the intended or demanded function of the target.” Briefly, it can be said simply that “Translation is the process of changing something that is written or spoken into another language.” (Advanced Oxford Dictionary) All above definitions of translation share the same idea that Translation is the process of replacement or substitution a written text or an utterance from one language into another language, which remains equivalence in content, the purpose of communication, or pragmatic 1.2 The importance of translation Nowadays, Translation plays an important role in our life The twentieth century is the age of translation All fields of human lives such as economy, education, politics, tourism and so on use the specialized materials which need to be translated from the original language to another language With the trend of integration and enhancing international economy, Translation helps people overcome the barriers of multi-cultural and global communication as Newmark says that “Translation facilitates mutual understanding among different and conflicting racial, ethnic, religious and cultural groups.” Especially when Viet Nam has become member of World Trade Organization, the demand to have expert translation is necessary and significant It is true that all of the contracts, emails, agreements, or conventions, etc., in English need to be translated exactly and effectively to avoid some regrettable misunderstandings Italo Calvino, an Italian journalist, short story writer, novelist, and essayist has a comment on the importance of translation that "Without translation I would be limited to the borders of my own country The translator is my most important ally He introduces me to the world." Without translation,all the classic works of humanity, ancient civilizations along with endless source of knowledge will be unknown.Through the process of translation translators can expand our knowledge as Stuart says that “Translation can support for the writing process, especially at lower levels Research has shown that learners seem able to access more information in their own language, which they can then translate.” 1.3 Translation equivalence House (1997) states the notion of equivalence is the conceptual basis of translation According to Catford, “Translation equivalence occurs when an SL (source language) and TL (target language) texts or items are related to (at least some of) the same relevant features of situation substance.”(as cited in Broek, 1978) Halverson (1997) says that equivalence is the relationship existing between two entities, and the relationship is described as one of similarity in terms of any of a number of potential qualities Although there are many concepts of equivalence translation, theorists share the same ideas in finding the effective equivalence between SL and TL Koller (1979) divides into five types of equivalence: • Denotative equivalence: The SL and the TL words refer to the same thing in the real world It is an equivalence of the extra linguistic content of a text • Connotative equivalence: This type of equivalence provides additional value and is achieved by the translator’s choice of synonymous words or expressions • Text-normative equivalence: The SL and the TL words are used in the same or similar context in their respective languages • Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and TL words have the same effect on their respective readers • Formal equivalence: This type of equivalence produces an analogy of form in the translation by either exploiting formal possibilities of TL, or creating new forms in TL Equivalence plays a crucial role in translation which is also the matter of establishing equivalence between S.L and T.L Catford (1965) states that “the central problem of translation practice is that of finding TL equivalents and the central task of translation theory is therefore that of defining the nature and conditions of translation equivalence” ( p 21) He realizes that there are two factors which affected the equivalence i.e linguistic and cultural factors, leading to two kinds of equivalents i.e linguistic and cultural equivalents This finding of Caford is very significant for linguistic scholars when they identify the difficulties in translation 1.5 Common difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation 1.5.1 Difficulties in linguistic  Words and choices of word meanings The difference of vocabulary system sometimes creates many confusing for translators A word in the source language has many meanings, and so choosing suitable and appropriate words for the target language text can be hard work.Newmark said that: “a word denoting an object, an institution, or if such exists, a psychological characteristics peculiar to the source language culture is always more or less untranslatable.” (quotes in Weston 1983:207) In fact,the equivalence of an institution, a division, a concept, or a term may be not found in the target language When you translate a text from Vietnamese to English and vice versa, it is often the case that there is no direct equivalences can be found in English for Vietnamese words Translators may encounter a new concept in general, and a difficult one to understand and explain it in many languages Or it may be that the concept is known or readily understood but there is no specific English word to express it Another difficulty is that, in addition, some words have special connotations that are not conveyed by the English word for the same thing In some cases, it may be appropriate or necessary for translators to examine the English context and decide which Vietnamese word is suitable This usually involves choosing among several different words, as there are many English words that can be correspond to the general category or meaning expressed by the Vietnamese terms For example, the Vietnamese word“đàn” can be collocated with many different nouns such as “cá” (fish), “chim” (bird), “sư tử” (lion), “gia súc” (cattle) On the contrary, in English there are many words meaning “đàn” as follows: “flock”, “herd”, “pack”, “school”, “pride”etc In these cases, aVietnamese word alone is not enough to determine for the appropriate English translationand it is necessary to put it in the phrase and specific context A flock of birds/ sheep: đàn chim/ cừu occupies 10% of students and understanding about culture (7.5%) Besides, there are somestudents (12.5%) getting troublewith other challenges Some students say that in some cases, it is not easy to understand the intentions of the writer in the original text, so it is very difficult for themto transfer the meaning of text in English Othersstudents reveal that all of four options above are their challenges I think these students need to find out an effective method of studying, and they should try their best to limit the challenges by spending more time on it 3.1.3 How students deal with a Vietnamese-English text The purpose of question (6) is to find out the way which students often when translating a text from Vietnamese into English Options What you often when you a Vietnamese-English text? (%) A Just read it and nothing B Look up the meanings of new 85 words by using dictionary or internet C Find out grammar structures need to 37.5 be used D Try to translate it and wait for 22.5 teacher’s feedback E Ask your friends or your teacher 12.5 Others: Table 3: How students deal with a Vietnamese-English text In table 3, we can see that when students were given a VietnameseEnglish translation exercise, 85% of them look up the meanings of new words by using dictionary or internet, 37.5% of them find out grammar structures need to be used in the target text It means almost all of the students have good attitude in studying this subject and they are making every effort to complete their translation product, which is believed to bring to success in their mastering translation In contrast, some students are still lazy and passive in doing translation exercise There are students (5%) just read it and nothing.Besides, it is accounted for 22.5 % of students just translate and passively wait for their teacher’s feedback in class and 12.5% of students ask your friends or your teacher Except five methods mentioned above, none shares other way to deal with translating Vietnamese text into English one 3.1.4 Methods of studying translation and the amount of time students usually spend on it The content of question (7) is to survey the participant’s opinion about the methods of studying translation The result is shown in Table 4: Option What you to improve your translation skill? (%) A Learning vocabulary 37.5 B Concentrating on learning grammar 27.5 by doing grammar exercises C Reading translating texts from 12.5 English to Vietnamese and vice versa from newspaper, magazines, article, etc D Practicing to translate texts 55 Others: Table 4: The ways students often apply to improve their translation skill In the above table, it is seen that students have carried outmany different methods to improve their translation skills The most effective ways to help them overcome the difficulties in studying this subject is practicing to translate texts (55%), followed by learning vocabulary (37.5%) Moreover, many students think that concentrating on learning grammar by doing grammar exercises (27.5) can help them avoid grammatical errors and have a good translation Reading translations from English to Vietnamese and vice versa from newspaper, magazines, article, etc is chosen by 12.5 % of students In contrast, two students (5%) say that they nothing at home When being asked about how much time student usually spend on studying translation at home in question (8) There are five choices: A hour per week B 2-3 hours per week C 4-5 hours per week D More than hours per week The result is summarized as the Figure 2: From the Figure 2,15% of students spend from to hours per week studying translation at home Students whospend from to hours per week for this subject account for 27.5% While two students (5%) spend more than hours per week for on studying translation, more than a half of students (52.5%) only spend hour per week on self-studying translation It can be concluded that although most of the students are aware of the advantages of translation, they not spend too much time on practicing it If students want to overcome the difficulties in translating text and get high mark in exam, they should study hard 3.2 Analysis of data from the interview questions Two main questions are designed for interview: What are some common difficulties you usually face with when translating a text from Vietnamese into English? What you to help students overcome these difficulties? The teacher’s responses in the first question reveal that vocabulary, grammar structures and culture barriers are biggest problems that most students have to face when translating a Vietnamese-English text Lack of vocabulary is considered to be the dearth of words to use delivering a message and information There is no wide range of the suitable words or phrases used in translation therefore, it is considered as one of the problems being encountered by students For an English department student, vocabulary is very important to improve English skill Knowing a lot of English words makes us study English easily A shortage of vocabulary is the cause of many difficulties The teachers said that in fact, when translating from Vietnamese into English, many students get troubles with so many new words and specific terminologies so that it is hard for them to understand the whole meaning of text Students cannot express exactly the original meaning of the text or express a wrong meaning from the original one.At the same time, the teachers pointed out another the difficulty is using suitable grammar structures in the target language to transfer the ideas Lacking grammatical knowledge leads to grammar errors in translation The teachers also emphasize that using appropriate structure and precise tense to transfer the meaning is also a challenge for students in learning translation English has complicated structures and irregular cases, so it is the reason why the students not know how to use these structures or remember the rule.Besides, there are some students often make mistake in choosing the right tense when translating a text from Vietnamese into English because they are not sure which tense should be used, or sometimes, students cannot recognize which tense should be used in a particular context In addition, lack of culture knowledge in both source language and target language is also an obstacle in translation The teachers agree that the differences between culture and region make students feel translating a text from Vietnamese into English more difficult There are some more difficulties collected from interview when students translate Vietnamese – English text They are Vietnamese people, so when translatingtext from Vietnamese into English, they are affected by the style of their mother tongue Many students usually translate word by word in a way the Vietnamese think and write, they not obey English structure rule.This way of translation makes the translation sounds very Vietnamese, and the foreigners can misunderstand or confuse when they read this translation In the second question, the teachers share methods to help students overcomeobstacles when they translate from Vietnamese text into English one All of teachers said that students should spend more time to practice at home because they only have three lessons per week in class for this subject Sometimes teachers feel very disappointed as their students are so lazy, they had never finished homework before coming class.Besides,students should find out effective study methods to improve vocabulary, grammar and culture knowledge For teachers, they try to use many different interesting teaching methods and teaching material to stimulate student’s interest in studying translation Moreover, the teachers add that translation’s topic is one of the factors deciding the stimulation of studying In fact, most students are not excited about topics refer to political and scientific fields, and philosophical topics, so teachers often choosedocument relating to some common fields in daily life such as lifestyle, health, education, economy and entertainment which avoid boring for their students 3.3 Findings and discussion Basing on the result collected from the questionnaire as well as the interview questions, it can be concluded that most of biggestchallenges forstudents to translate Vietnamese-Englishtext involving vocabulary, grammar structures and culture differences So, in this part, I would like to recommendsome possible solutions to help students toimprove theirvocabulary, usegrammatical structuresflexibly in some certain fields, and understand culture both countries 3.3.1 Suggestion on improving vocabulary Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning translation The previous section on this thesis mentions common difficulties on vocabulary when students translate a Vietnamese-English text To overcome these obstacles, some following suggestions are given: First of all, you have to decide which words to learn because you can’t possibly learn all these new words You can learn the words that related to the topics you are studying or learn the words that you read or hear again and again as well as learn the words that you know you will often want to use yourself You should avoid learning words that are rare or not useful After choosing which words to learn, you have to decide how to learn them Most students find that they memorize words better if they something with them Even better is to try and learn the word in a typical combination with other words The best effective way to enlarge vocabulary is reading Each student is advised to build a good habit of reading They should begin reading easier materials then they can raise their level up by reading more difficult one in a variety of topics but make sure that the text is appropriate for their own reading level When readingbooks and magazines, you can learn many vocabulary words you read The context of a new word in a sentence or story was often enough for you to guess the meaning The more words you're exposed to, the better vocabulary you will have While you read, you should pay attention to words you don't know First, you should try to figure out their meanings from context Then look the words up in the dictionary Here are some standard dictionary websites for you: Lạc Việttratu.coviet.vn, dictionarry.cambridge.org,vdic.com, Vndic.net, oxforddictionnaries.com, tratu.soha.vn, etc How to improve your context skills? Research shows that the vast majority of words are learned from context To improve your context skills, pay close attention to how words are used The way you learned many of the words in your own language was by meeting them in the books and magazines you read The context of a new word in a sentence or story was often enough for you to guess the meaning Meeting the word again and again in your reading helped you learn it for use in your own speaking and writing Doing lots of extra reading for pleasure - both fiction and non-fiction - is an excellent way to learn new English words, too But choose books that you find quite easy to read Difficult stories or texts that you struggle to understand will not help you to develop your vocabulary the natural way But remember: to learn new words from reading you have to read a lot! For example, learning that “to apologize”means “to say sorry” is a good start, but it's much better to learn a whole expression containing the word, e.g “He apologized for being late.” Not only is this often easier to remember, but you are also learning some very important information on how the word is use To deal with the problem of memorizing the words meaning, students should practice regularly by many effective ways You canwrite the words in a notebook or on small card with their translations or definitions Whenever you forgotten any new words, you can to review them in your cards It is also advised to put the words into different groups by using a graphic organizer If you have an electronic dictionary you can hear how the word is pronounced, you should say the worlds many times to memorize them Besides, students should make up as many associations and connections as possible When students learn a new word, they should relate this word to the words they have already known For example, the word “gargantuan” (very large) has a similar meaning to the words gigantic, huge, or large, so students can make a sequence: “small, medium, large, very large, and gargantuan.” Connecting the new word with its family words can help students easily remember and enlarge their vocabulary Moreover, you can apply many other methods to learn vocabulary such as: playing with words, taking vocabulary tests, or doing exercises on book, internet Students can play some games like Scrabble, Boggle, and crossword puzzles which are available for the computer Their brain must work hard to deal with the challenge of the game so that they will remember the word longer Besides, students can take these kinds of test on the websites http://thanhtra.tvu.edu.vn on the Internet or look for a series of book “Test Your Vocabulary 1, 2, 3, 4, 5” (Peter Watcyn-Jones) to enhance their vocabulary Test will help students learn new words and let them know how much progress they are making Additionally, a series books consists of English Vocabulary in Use –Elementary (Michael McCarthy, Felicity O‟Dell), English Vocabulary in Use - Preintermediate & Intermediate (Lynda Edwards with Stuart Redman) and English Vocabulary in Use – Upper – intermediate and advanced (Michael McCarthy, Felicity O‟Dell) could be good reference materials for students who want to study and improve their vocabulary 3.3.2 Suggestion on using grammar Grammar is the system that structures a language, and how to use suitable grammar and grammatical structures in the target language to transfer the ideasis difficult task for almost students This part only focus on find out the best way to learn English grammar The first step of learning grammar is to know the basic knowledge about the parts of speech, use proper word order and other structures These are the types of words that make up the language, and they are nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and sometimes articles To put sentences together properly, you must understand what the parts of speech are and how they function in sentences Besides, English learners need to form habit of getting the words in the right order One of the best ways to ensure you understand the basic grammatical elements of a language is by seeking the help of someone who’s qualified to teach you Many community colleges offer language courses, or you can ask around at your local high school or college to see if any English students want to make some extra money tutoring you You should read a variety of material because through reading different genres and styles of writing, such as classic literature, textbooks, sciencefiction, science books, biographies, blogs, essays, and articles, etc you can learn how other authors use language, how sentences are structured, word order, spelling, and creative variations the authors use Another way of improving your grammar is writing and practicing any new rules or words you've learned Keep a journal, write short stories, or even just email back and forth with friends or family You should also concentrate on improving any problem areas you might have or mistakes you often repeat To be better at English grammar, the students have to practice doing grammar exercises regularly It’s a good idea to follow style guide and grammar books This will provide an idea of the different ways to approach spelling, syntax, and style, give you a better idea of the fundamentals of grammar, and show you where the language is adaptable and where it’s inflexible Some grammar books are recommended to the students such as English Grammar in Use (Raymond Murphy), Essential Grammar in Use (Raymond Murphy), Grammar of the English Language (Rodney Huddleston and Geoffey K.Pllum), Advance Grammar in Use (Martin Hewings) and Oxford English Grammar (Sidney Greenbaum), etc Morever, the students can practice English grammar by doing online exercises just by some simple clicks There are a number of websites, which offer exercises on a wide range of topics Some common and useful web pages to learn English grammar are http://webster.commnet.edu http://www.tienganhonline.net/grammar.htm which provide and profitable grammar exercises with available answer key to help learners be familiar with grammar structure forms Alternatively, students can access the webpage http://lopngoaingu.com/ or http://www.tienganh123.com/ , which is very common to students at every levels of English learning 3.3.3 Suggestion on promoting cultural awareness There are a lot of ways to understand other cultures.One of the best ways to experience and understand other cultures is to actually live among them Planning a trip overseas to a country you’re interested in learning more about can be the best way of opening yourself up to new cultures Another way of enlarging cultural knowledge is follow local websites with data on entertainment, outings, trends By taking a look at local communities, forums, blogs, you maylearn their custom and culture Besides, it is always good if you have a friend of another culture You don’t necessarily have to ask them directly about their culture, but by getting to know them you will automatically find out more about their life and experiences In addition, you can also practice English with people in your community who speak English as a second language In exchange for practicing English, you can ask to learn more about their culture and language Finally, you can ask your teachers about experience travel Many teachers take trips during the summer and learn a lot about exchange programs abroad PART III: CONCLUSION Conclusion In conclusion, translation is, in fact, an incredibly sophisticated task Translation into a second language is more difficult than translation into the mother tongue Translation is a kind of activity, which inevitably involves at least two languages and and two cultural traditions Therefore, vocabulary, grammar, and cultural differences have appeared as barriers for translators when translating texts from Vietnamese into English Translators are permanently faced with the problem of how to treat the cultural aspects implicit in a source text and of finding the most appropriate technique successfully conveying these aspects in the target language These problems may vary from country to country depending on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two (or more) languages being concerned It is suggested that before beginning the translation work, it is essential for the translators to some researches on the lexical content and syntax of the target language along with the ideologies, value systems, and ways of life in a given culture This process can partly help the translators to have an idea and knowledge about the readers in both languages As consequence, it helps avoid grammatical errors and cultural misunderstanding in doing translation work For this thesis, what the researcher would like tois to find out the student’s difficulties and offer solutions in studying Vietnamese-English translation subject at their last academic years From there give some useful suggestions, it is hoped that the study can help the students to overcome the obstacles and improve their translation skills Limitations and suggestion for further study QUESTIONNAIRE The purpose of survey questionnaire designed in my thesis is to help you improve your translation skill I highly appreciate your assistance in completing the questions Please read the questions carefully and choose the answers that are correct responses with you It is possible for you to have more than one option in each question If you choose “Other” please give your answers in detail Do you like studying Translation subject? A Yes B No How you feel about learning translation? A Easy B Difficult and boring C Difficult but interesting D Normal In your opinion, what are the advantages of studying translation? A Enhance vocabulary B Use grammar structures more correctly and flexibly C Improve language skills especially writing D Expand cultural and and social knowledge E All of them Which kind of text is more difficult for you to translate? A English-Vietnamese translation B Vietnamese-English translation What are the common difficulties you have to face when translating from English to Vietnamese? A Choosing the equivalent word meaning in the target language B Using suitable grammar and grammatical structures in the target language to transfer the ideas C Understanding about culture D Finding the meaning of special words in target language Others: ………………… What you often when you a Vietnamese-English text? A Just read it and nothing B Look up the meanings of new words by using dictionary or internet C Find out grammar structures need to be used D Try to translate it and wait for teacher’s feedback E Ask your friends or your teacher Others: What you to improve your translation skill? A Learning vocabulary B Concentrating on learning grammar by doing grammar exercises C Reading translating texts from English to Vietnamese and vice versa from newspaper, magazines, article, etc D Practicing to translate texts Others: How much time you usually spend on studying translation at home? A hour per week B 2-3 hours per week C 4-5 hours per week D More than hours per week INTERVIEW QUESTIONS What are some common difficulties you usually face with when translating a text from Vietnamese into English? What you to help students overcome these difficulties? [...]... learning translation, and the rest say that it is easy task for them It cannot be denied that although translation is a difficult subject to master, most students still find out their interest in studying and thus they will try their best to learn and improve their translation skill In question3 ,the writer asks the participants: In your opinion, what are the advantages of studying translation? ” and. .. translatingtext from Vietnamese into English, they are affected by the style of their mother tongue Many students usually translate word by word in a way the Vietnamese think and write, they do not obey English structure rule.This way of translation makes the translation sounds very Vietnamese, and the foreigners can misunderstand or confuse when they read this translation In the second question, the. .. Hong Gam, the fourth- year student of English A class K13, Foreign Language Department, Haiphong University 2.1.2 The subjects The subjects of the thesis are the fourth- year students of English major 2012- 2016 curriculum at Haiphong University This year is the second year for them to study Vietnamese- Englishtranslation subject They have finished 2 courses relating translation before (Translation Practice... half of students(52.5%) prove that translation is difficult, but they still feel interested in studying this In contrast, the group of students who are not interested in translation occupies 25 % They think that translation is either difficult or boring, may be they cannot find out the suitable way to learn this kind of subject and still not get motive on studying Besides,there are 20% students find... be used in addition to the noun “Các” generally means all of a given category of thing, whereas “những” refers only to some of the total number of things being discussed “Mỗi” emphasizes the identity of the individual members of the category without connoting anything of their totality, while “mọi” expresses both individuality of the items and the totality of the category However,number is often not... through studying translation, especially writing Most of the students (72.5%) realizemany advantages concluding the four options above Base on the result, it can be said that most of the students are aware of the advantages of studying translation Therefore, they have good attitude on learning and they are able to find their motivation for studying this subject so that they can learn it well with their own... (question (7) and (8)were asked to indicate the methods that the students usually apply to improve their translation skill 2.2.2 Interview question In this study, Interviewees are the teachers who have taught the Translation subject in Foreign Language Department at Haiphong University The aim of interview question is to get more information about the student’s difficulties in translating a text from Vietnamese. .. skills, pay close attention to how words are used The way you learned many of the words in your own language was by meeting them in the books and magazines you read The context of a new word in a sentence or story was often enough for you to guess the meaning Meeting the word again and again in your reading helped you learn it for use in your own speaking and writing Doing lots of extra reading for pleasure... the students of fourth- year of English major at the end of April Forty copies were delivered to the students of BA English A K13 class, and forty copies were collected The interviewed questions were also designed and implemented interviewing was also on statistic to collect data for the study Finally, I started to write the study to find out the student’s difficulties in Vietnamese- English translation. .. “somewhat red” in English Another example, the words “héo hon”, “héo hắt”, “heo héo in Vietnamese are translated as “wither” (onlymeans “héo” )in English. It can be easily seen that English words only express the meaning of the words, and they have not shown the intensity of the adjective.Therefore, due to the fact that Vietnamese has a much greatly abundant vocabulary stock, it poses challenging difficulties