A study on translation technical terms in export – import from english into vietnamese of the fourth year students of english department at thuongmai university

A study on translation of technical terms used in Export – Import from Englishinto Vietnamese of the fourth-year English - majored students at ThuongmaiUniversityThe purpose of this stud

A study on translation of technical terms used in Export – Import from Englishinto Vietnamese of the fourth-year English - majored students at ThuongmaiUniversityThe purpose of this study is to investigate some difficulties that the fourth-yearstudents of English Faculty encounter when translating Export – Import technicalterms and texts as well To further develop the argument, the thesis works out sometypical error type made by the students From that, the researcher finds out difficultiesthey face in translation process The participants are 40 English - major students withthe cooperation of teacher of the Faculty To identify difficulties of the students whentranslating Export – Import technical terms, 40 participants are required to take onetranslation test which is about Export – Import field The results reveal that studentsfrequently face difficulties in understanding concepts and vocabulary, also in choosingadequate words in Vietnamese Lack of background knowledge and vocabulary aremain reasons which cause their problems Besides, due to the difference betweenEnglish and Vietnamese, they still made grammatical errors in translation The thesisthen boldly give recommendations and suggestions for teachers as well as for thestudents in order to assist the students to improve their translation skill

I would like to express my grateful appreciation to all of those who gave me suchgreat support and motivation in process of doing the research I want to giveacknowledge all lecturers at Thuong Mai University (TMU) for their teaching andespecially to my teachers who directly taught me invaluable knowledge during mystudy at university, which enables me to complete my graduation paper

First and foremost, I wish to express my sincerest thank to my supervisor, M.A

Vu Thi Thanh Hoa who helps me a lot in the whole process of my graduation paper.Her enthusiasm and dedication have stimulated me to complete my graduation papersuccessfully

Secondly, I am indebted to the fourth-year students of English Faculty whoproviding necessary materials for me in process of research in order to achieve bestresults

Finally, I would also like to express my appreciation to my family members and

my dear friends who always support and encourage me during the time I do theresearch

Due to the limited time and knowledge as well as other objective reasons, mygraduation paper has inevitable shortcomings Therefore, all comments are welcomed

to make my research better

Ha Noi, April 2019Student

Bui Thi Lan Anh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 2

1.3 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Research Subject 3

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Research methodology 3

1.7 Organization of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Related concepts in translation 6

2.1.1 Definitions of translation 6

2.1.2 Types of translation 7

2.2 Technical translation 8

2.2.1 Translation of English for special purpose (ESP) 8

2.2.2 Definitions of technical translation 9

2.2.3 Technical terms (terms) 10

2.3 Difficulties in English – Vietnamese translation 11

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 13

3.1 Research method 13

3.2 Analysis of data 13

3.2.1 Results of the translation test 13

3.2.2 Results of the interview 22

3.2.3 Results of questionnaire 23

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 26

4.1 Recommendations and suggestions for teachers 26

4.2 Recommendations and suggestions for the students 27

4.2.1 Recommendations and suggestions on improving grammar 27

4.2.2 Recommendations and suggestions on improving vocabulary 28 4.2.3 Recommendations and suggestions on improving background knowledge 28 CONCLUSION 29 REFERENCES

APPENDIX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SL: source language

TG: target language

ESP: English for special purpose

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

1 Chart 3.1 Distribution of translation error types 14

5 Chart 3.5 Factors affecting students when translating Export – Importterms

24

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

In the context of globalization and integration, it can be seen that Viet Namhas cooperated with many other countries in the world in the field of economy,culture, education, medicine, construction, security, ect In order to become adeveloped country, Viet Nam has to make more efforts to create opportunities for it,especially to boost cooperation with some of developed countries such as the UnitedState, the United Kingdom and other Western countries For that reason, English isbecoming an international language and it is essential quality to become aninternational citizen Mastering English skill, each person not only has the chance todevelop themselves but also makes contribution to the development of the country

by cooperated business activities, tourism promotion, cultural exchange Therefore,English is becoming more and more important to all of us in the era ofglobalization

Except from basic skills in English like speaking, listening, reading, writingskills, translation is the most essential when studying English and when working inEnglish-using environment Nowadays, everyone attaches more importance tolearning translation skill However, a lot of students and employees have to facedifficulties in translation especially as translating technical terms In addition, theimprovement of trade leads to higher demand of good exchange and transportation.Hence, the knowledge of export – import arises, which results in demand oftranslation export- import terms

At present, there are many of researches done to study aspects of translation ingeneral However, the number of studies on translation technical terms is few,especially on export – import sector gaining popularity nowadays

Thuongmai University specializes in training the field of economy and trade.Besides, the university has English Faculty which trains students to become would–

be English translators The departments and lectures have launched many teachingmethods to help their students easily access to knowledge about trade, economy andtranslation skill As a student of English Faculty at Thuongmai University, I am

aware of the problems that English Faculty’ students encounter when studyingtranslation in general and English – Vietnamese translation in particular To be good

at export – import translation, students not only have to sharpen their translationskill but also improve their specialized knowledge

For these reasons, I choose the topic “A study on translation technical terms inexport – import from English into Vietnamese of the fourth-year students of EnglishDepartment at Thuongmai University” for my graduation paper

1.2 Previous studies

There are some of studies which are related to translation that I have collected.Due to the limitation of time, I just present several studies relating to English –Vietnamese translation in general and English – Vietnamese translation ofterminologies in particular The following studies are collected from internetresource

Topic for the first study is “English-Vietnamese translation of terminologies

on Human Resource Management” implemented by Ngo Thanh Huong, a student ofHai Phong private university The study aims to provide a general overview aboutHuman Resource Management terms as well as strategies to help students andpeople who are working on Human Resource Management field improve theirtranslation skill In the study, the researcher uses main methods like analysis,interview, questionnaire to collect primary and secondary information The studygives an overall look on Human Resource Management, then the overview ofHuman Resource Management terms The main part presents the study ontranslating Human Resource Management terms into Vietnamese, analysis ofequivalence and some problems in translation process According to the thesis, thereare two popular problems in Human Resource Management including linguisticproblem and cultural difference At the last chapter, some suggestions given by theresearcher in order to help learners overcome the difficulties in translating process.The advantage of this study is that: firstly, the topic of thesis is clear and related to

an urgent problem in Vietnam; secondly, the study is done in concrete space andtime and implemented with a variety of flexible methods; thirdly, theoretical basis isclear, divided into specific issues The study made contributions to teaching in

Vietnam and provide practical solutions for learners to overcome difficulties whenstudying translation.

1.3 Aims of the study

The study is conducted to survey and evaluate English-majored students intranslation skills It then finds out difficulties which the fourth-year studentsencounter as well as mistakes that they made when translating From that, the studygives some solutions that can help the students to overcome difficulties also to limitmistakes in translating process and improve their translation skills

1.4 Research Subject

In my study, the research subject is the export- import technical termtranslating skill from English into Vietnamese of the fourth-year English-majorstudents at Thuongmai University With the research subject, I will focus on currentsituation of students while translating, mistakes they made, difficulties theyencounter The study is conducted through interview and questionnaire

1.5 Scope of the study

In order that the researcher can implement conveniently and gain accurateresults, the study is carried out at Thuongmai University with the participants of 40fourth-year students of English Faculty

1.6 Research methodology

The study aims at addressing the following questions:

1 What are the difficulties the fourth-year students of English Facultyencounter when translating export - import terms from English into Vietnamese?

2 What are the reasons for the problems?

3 What are solutions suggested to deal with the difficulties and to improvetranslation skills of the fourth-year students?

To clear these questions up, the research is combined simultaneously bothqualitative and quantitative approach so that the researcher can compare, evaluate,supplement and produce the adequate outcomes About quantitative researchmethod, the questionnaire was conducted Collected data is cleaned, processed,encrypted using software support, then synthesized and analyzed About qualitativeresearch method, from the results obtained in the questionnaire, the researcher

makes judgment about the nature of the answers and expresses the logic of theanswers.

Data collection instruments

1.6.1.1 Interview

With the aim of investigating and evaluating translation skills, also to find outsolutions for the fourth-year students to sharpen their skill, this method will supportfor collecting appropriate as well as accurate answers so that can gain real resultsfor the study From that, the interviewer also makes the study more reliable andinformation more objective

The objects of the interview are teachers and students of English Faculty Andthe interview was conducted in Vietnamese so as to receive free responses fromrespondents and avoid misunderstanding Note-taking is one of the vital skills ininterview because it was convenient for both the interviewer and respondents andhelp the interviewer not to forget the important information when the interviewended

1.6.1.2 Practical observation

This method has one advantage is that the researcher can save time and moneybecause the observer can evaluate through translation lessons Practical observationwas conducted in 4 times per week

1.6.1.3 Questionnaire

The questionnaire is a very common instrument when doing research Thequestionnaire will be conducted online It aims at finding out the student’s attitudetowards translation subject, difficulties, causes as well as the way that can help them

to improve their skill The questionnaire also helps to look for necessaryinformation for the study as well as gives appreciated solutions The questionnaire

is laid-out in the form of multiple-choice items for answering and consisting ofclosed-ended and open-ended questions In the study, there are 10 questions whichare about translation in general and English-Vietnamese in particular, theimportance of export-import, technical term translation

1.7 Organization of the study

The thesis consists of the four following chapters:

+ Chapter 1: Overview of the study

The first part is overview of the study which includes rationale, previousstudies, aims of the study, research subject, scope of the study, researchmethodology, organization of the study

+ Chapter 2: Literature review

This is the most important part that gives knowledge about translation,technical terms, export – import, export – import terminologies, difficulties intranslating process

+ Chapter 3: Research findings

Research findings give results of ability to translate of the fourth-year majored students

English-+ Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions

Based on the results, the researcher gives suggested solutions to help thestudents overcome difficulties when translating as well as improve their translationskill

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature is an important part in research because it helps researchers gainfundamental knowledge about the problem focused on Therefore, with the chosentopic, this chapter introduces some basic definitions and analysis related to technicalterminologies, terms used in export – import Then the researcher discusses intranslation theory such as definition of translation, definition of English –Vietnamese translation, equivalence in translation, factors affecting translationprocess

2.1 Related concepts in translation

2.1.1 Definitions of translation

There are variety of concepts of translation Translation is the replacement oftextual material in one language(source language) by equivalent textual material inanotherlanguage(target language), according to Catford (1965) This definitionshow that translation is a process in the sense that is an activity Performed bypeople through time, when expressions are translated into simpler ones in the samelanguage It can be done also from one language to another different language According to Peter Newmark (1988), translation is rendering a written textinto another language in the way that the author intended the text The translatorsare required to undertake assignments which range from simple items to morecomplex written materials

Besides, there are a lot of other concepts of translation such as:

Translation is the process of finding a target language (TL) equivalentfrom asource language (SL) utterance.(Pinhhuck)

Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of awritten

SL text into an optimally equivalent TL text, and which requiresthe syntactic, thesemantic and the pragmatic understanding andanalytical processing of the SL.(Wilss - 1982)

Translation is the act of transferring through which the content of a textistransferred from the SL into the TL (Foster - 1958)

Translation is to be understood as the process whereby a messageexpressed in

a specific source language is linguistically transformed inorder to be understood byreaders of the “target language” ( Houbert - 1998)

2.1.2.4 Semantic translation

Semantic translation differs from faithful translation only in as far asit musttake more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text,compromising on “meaning”where appropriate so that no assonance,word-play or repetition jars in finishedversion

2.1.2.5 Adaptation translation

This seems to be the freest form of translation It is used mainly forplays andpoetry in which the themes, characters and plots are usuallypreserved, the SLculture converted to the TL culture and text rewritten byan established dramatist orpoet has produced many poor adaptations butother adaptation has “rescued” periodplays

2.1.2.6 Free translation

This reproduces the matter without the manner, or the contentwithout the form

of the original Usually it is a paraphrase much longerthan the original, a so-called

“intralingua translation”, often prolix andpretentious and not translation at all

2.1.3 Equivalence in translation

According to Vanessa Leonardo “equivalence canbe said to be the centralissue in translation although its definition, relevance, and applicability within thefield of translation theory have caused heated controversy, and many differenttheories of the concept of equivalence have been elaborated within this field in thepast fifty years”

Catford (1965) believes that the central problem of translation is that offinding target language equivalence Halverson (1997) defines equivalence is arelationship existing between two entities, and the relationship is described as one

of likeness/ sameness/ similarity/ equality in terms of any of a number of potentialqualities In conclusion, translation equivalence is the similarity between a word orexpression in one language and its translation in another In other word, atranslation is a corresponding word or expression in another language

2.2 Technical translation

2.2.1 Translation of English for special purpose (ESP)

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) theorize, “ESP is an approach to languageteaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners‟reason for learning” (p.19) Anthony (1997) noted that, it is not clear where ESPcourse end and general English courses begin; numerous non-specialist EPC in-

structors use an ESP approach in that their syllabi are based on analysis of learners‟needs and their own personal specialist knowledge of using English for real com-munication.

Types of ESP: David Carter (1983) identifies three types of ESP:

• English as a restricted language: Knowing a restricted language would not low the speaker to communicate effectively in a novel situation outside of a veryspecific environment (airline stewardess, waiter, air traffic controller etc)

al-• English for Academic (EAP) and Occupational Purpose (EOP) EAP serves

an educational purpose (studying literature, science, social studies, math, business,economic etc) Occupational Purposes (EOP) serves a vocational or professionalpurpose (medical technician, stewardess etc)

• English with specific topics identified by Carter (1983) Carter notes that it isonly here where emphasis shifts from purpose to topic This type of ESP is uniquelyconcerned with anticipated future English needs of, for example, scientists requiringEnglish for postgraduate reading studies, attending conferences or working in for-eign institutions The second type of ESP identified by Carter (1983) is English forAcademic and Occupational Purposes In the 'Tree of ELT' (Hutchinson & Waters,1987), ESP is broken down into three branches: English for Science and Technol-ogy (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE), English for Social Studies(ESS) Each of these subject areas is further divided into two branches: English forAcademic Purposes (EAP), English for Occupational Purposes (EOP)

2.2.2 Definitions of technical translation

The translation style dealing with terminology in specific fields such as: tics, economic, banking and finance, law etc is called technical 14 translation Ac-cording to Peter Newmark (1995) “technical translation is primarily distinguishedfrom other forms of translation by terminology Its characteristics, grammatical fea-tures merge with other varieties of language Its characteristic format is technical re-port, but also includes instruction, manuals, notices, publicity, which put more em-phasis on forms of address and use of the second person.” He divides technicaltranslation into three levels that he find of great application: Academic, Professionaland Popular

poli-Academic: it includes transferred Greek and Latin words associated with

aca-demic paper such as scientific writing or university student´s textbook

For examples: In medicine

Pediatrics: khoa nhi

Geriatrics: khoa nội tiết

Professional: former terms used by experts However, they may be

under-standable for others

For examples: In jurisprudence

Criminal court: tòa hình sự

Civil court: tòa dân sự

Popular: Layman vocabulary, which may includes familiar alternative terms For examples: In construction

Tile: ngói, đá lát

Mortar and Plaster: hồ, vữa

These are general categories in which the translation of terms is often fied Thus, whether translators would like to take such classification seriously orjust take it for reference only, these categories will certainly offer them an easy andsystematic assess to new terms in the source language and those in the target lan-guage as well

classi-2.2.3 Technical terms (terms)

2.2.3.1 Definition of technical terms

Term is a variation of language in a specific condition (Peter Newmark) and

he stated that the central difficulty in translation is usually the new terminology.Even then, the main problem is likely to be that of someterms in the source textwhich are relatively content-free, and appearonly once If they are context-bound,you are more likely to understand them by gradually eliminating the less likelyversions Technical terminology, which is the specialized vocabulary of a field.These terms have specific definitions within the field, which is not necessarily thesame as their meaning in common use

2.2.3.2 The characteristics of terms

There is distinction between technical and descriptive terms The originalsource language writer may use a descriptive term for a technical object for threereasons:

- The objective is new and not yet has a name

- The descriptive term is being used as a familiar alternative, to avoidrepetition

- The descriptive term is being used to make a contrast with another one.Normally, you should translate technical and descriptive terms by their counterpartsand, in particular, resist the temptation of translating a technical term for showingoff your knowledge, there by sacrificing the linguistic force of the SL descriptiveterm However, if the SL descriptive term is being used either because of the SLwriter’s ignorance or negligence, or because the appropriate technical term doesnotexist in the SL, and in particular if an object strange to the SL but not to theTLculture is being referred to, then you are justified in translating adescriptive by atechnical term

Terminology makes up perhaps 5-10 % of a text The rest is “language”usually a natural style of language; and there you normally find an authoritative textaspires to such a style; if it does not, you gently convert it to natural and elegantlanguage-the writer will be grateful to you

2.3 Difficulties in English – Vietnamese translation

When doing translation from English into Vietnamese, we find it difficult toconvert many texts naturally and we can identify two main problems in linguisticdifference and cultural difference

First, in term of linguistic different between English and Vietnamese: the two

languages have various differences in terms of vocabulary and grammatical rulescan be named as below:

Inflexible English grammar

English has very strict grammar rules while Vietnamese is much moreflexible For instance, Vietnamese does not always use articles and the rules are not

as clear as those of English

Phrasal verbs

While English does not have so many grammatical inflections, English verbscan pose problems They are peculiar to English such as turn on, turn off, set up, runout, look into, look after, ect In Vietnamese, specific verbs are used in place of theEnglish phrasal verbs

Peculiar English vocabulary

A word in English may mean a lot of words in Vietnamese For example, we

may translate the word problem into vấn đề, vấn nạn, tệ nạn, khó khăn, trục trặc, thắc mắc,ect depending on the context.

Second, in term of cultural difference, Asian culture in general and

Vietnamese culture in particular has few things in common with Western andAmerican culture Unless translators are capable of breaking through decayedbarriers of their own culture and opening their mind to new and sometimes alienconcepts, their translation cannot be considered successful and natural Difficultiesoccur when we have to translate foreign notions like New Year’s revolution, fair go,wife swapping, ect because they are typical of the culture in English-speakingcountries but not in Vietnam

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS

3.1 Research method

There are three main methods used to deal with the problem of this topic Theresearcher evaluates the results through translation test, questionnaire and interview.The first method requires 50 fourth-year students from English Faculty totranslate an English newspaper into Vietnamese 50 test papers were printed anddelivered to the students with the limited time is 60 minutes, similar to the time to

do a mid-term test for translation subject

The second method is filling out a questionnaire In this study, thequestionnaire is designed with 10 questions which consist of closed questions,multiple-choice questions and opened questions These questions focus on gatheringinformation in objective opinions of respondents on general translation, English-Vietnamese translation, importance of Export-Import, difficulties in translatingExport-Import terms

The third one is an interview An interview is a process of contact betweentwo individuals, in which the interviewer attempt to collect information, responsesand views of the interviewee about these main points: importance of Export-Import

in the context of globalization and integration, technical terms, Export-Importtechnical terms, general translation, English-Vietnamese translation The aim of theinterview is to find out difficulties in studying translation subject, difficulties intranslating technical terms especially Export-Import terms, some common errorsmade by the fourth-year English-majored students when translating from Englishinto Vietnamese And then find out causes for these difficulties From that, theresearcher may make some suggestions and solutions to help the interviewees solvetheir problems in learning process

3.2 Analysis of data

3.2.1 Results of the translation test

The translation error types which were made by the students in theirtranslation tests are described in the following chart

Chart 3.1 Distribution of translation error types

The result illustrates that the background knowledge is a decisive factor whichaffects students most when translating The proportion of errors made due tostudents' lack of background knowledge is 52.1%.Of two other difficulties invocabulary and grammar, the number of students who make mistakes aboutvocabulary is higher than this number of grammatical errors The percentages oftwo types are 30.8% and 17.1%, respectively In next sections, each type ofproblems will be described in detail

3.2.1.1 Grammatical problem