Common difficulties in translation course among the third year english majored student and suggested recommendations

ABSTRACT The trend of internationalization of the world economy has developed on the basis of the increasing number of global economic demands In order to promote bilateral and multilateral cooperation among regions and the whole world, it is essential to develop ways to communicate between people English is now the most popular language in the world; however, not everyone speaks English, so translation has emerged as a bridge between the nations of the world Following in that trend, Vietnam has been implementing many open policies to exchange with other countries, especially culture exchange and economic activities which play important roles in the country’s development In order to meet the demands, translation has been teaching at Thuongmai University since English Faculty was found in 2005 with the hope to train highqualified translators Through the years, Translation is not only an interesting subject but also a hard task for any students who want to master it Many common errors are made by students because of the difference between two cultures Therefore, I decided to choose the study “Common difficulties in translation course among the third-year English majored student and suggested recommendations” which focuses on finding out common difficulties that students encountered when learning translation and suggest some reasonable solutions for those problems During my research with the help of my beloved teacher – Ms Phuong Mai, I have got more knowledge about the general overview of the subject of translation as well as how to work with a thesis However, due to the limited time and knowledge, my study may make some mistakes in content and layout I look forward to receiving comments from teachers to perfect my paper ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a great pleasure to thank everyone who helped me to complete this graduation paper successfully First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor – Ms Phuong Mai for the valuable guidance and encouragement She greatly inspired me to work on this thesis My thesis cannot come to end without her effort to read it again and again to find out the problems and support me in all stages of the research and writing this study In addition, I am grateful to say thank you to all the teachers at English Faculty of Thuongmai University for teaching and providing me a lot of advices, useful information to complete this study Moreover, I owe sincere and earnest thankfulness to all the students of English class 2018 who helped me with valuable information by completing the conveying questions as well as answering interview questions and doing translation text Finally, an honorable mention goes to my family and friends for their supports on me in completing this thesis Thanks for all! Student Tran Thi Tai TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF STUDY 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previous study 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research subject 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Research methodology 1.6.1 Research question .5 1.6.2 Research paricipants 1.6.3 Research procedure .5 1.6.4 Data collect instrument .5 1.6.5 Translated test analyst 1.7 Organization of the study .6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of translation 2.2 Importance of translation .8 2.3 Types of translation .9 2.4 Some useful techniques for translation 11 2.4.1 Addition 11 2.4.2 Omission 11 2.4.3 Replacement 11 2.4.4 Expression 11 2.5 The factors influencing translation process 11 2.5.1 Culture influence .12 2.5.2 Ethical influence .12 2.5.3 Ideology influence .12 2.6 Common errors in written translation 13 2.6.1 Word order 13 2.6.2 Syntax/ Grammar errors 13 2.6.3 Vocabulary errors .13 2.6.4 Spelling/Punctuation errors 13 2.6.5 Culture errors 13 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 14 3.1 Results 14 3.1.1 Results collected from the questionnaire 14 3.1.2 Results from interview questions .23 3.1.3 Results from test paper 25 3.2 Discussion 26 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTION 28 4.1 Suggestion in general on improving translation skills 28 CONCLUSION 32 REFERENCE APPENDIX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations B.A SL TL TT Meaning Bachelor of Arts Source language Target language Translation Text LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: The effects of translation on English skills 14 Table 2: Length of time for student to study at class 14 Figure 1: Kind aof translation text hard for students to translate 15 Figure 2: Difficult factors when learning translation 16 Figure 3: Grammar mistakes students encountered 17 Figure 4: Difficult aspects of vocabulary 18 Table 3: Effect of background knowledge and mother tongue to quality to translation 19 Table 4: Ways to deal with new words of students .20 Figure 5: Common mistakes made by students 20 Figure 6: Length of time that student spend on practicing translation 21 Table 5: Effect of teaching methods to students 21 Table 6: Ways to improve translation skills .22 Table 7: Benefits of bettering vocabulary and practicing 22 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF STUDY 1.1 Rationale Since primitive time, labor gradually appeared; our ancestors had to invent ways to understand each other, to unite and co-ordinate for the common goal of hunting and collecting As time passed, little by little, human brains has grown exponentially, people have increased higher demands; communication ways also develop to meet the needs The development according to each group of individuals in private areas will form the language in isolation Each community developed in a region with an own voice and imbued with national identity thus created the diversity in language, culture and communication methods Society has grown and as people began to expand cooperation, integration with each other, and exchanged goods cross country and continent, it was inevitable that they must communicate to understand each other and work together Therefore, translation was born as a bridge among the nations of the world Years later, as wars took place in the world, with the advancement of the navy, the British Empire annexed, invaded, ruled and influenced in many countries around the world As a result, the cultural and linguistic influenced in these places is huge Especially, from the 80s of the last century, the introduction of the Internet contributed to the spread of English to every corner of social life It is estimated that over half the online information is written in English On the other hand, cultural, film and entertainment products have a great impact on the world Hollywood blockbuster hits, hit singles (mostly in English) have always been welcomed by young people and art lovers around the world That has made English the most popular language in the world Nowadays, English brings us the opportunity to have better education and better job Studying English is a good way to contact with the huge world and approach a boundless source of information Although English is popular, not all people in the world understand and use English fluently In addition to the difference between the culture and the expressions of each language, the interpreter must try to translate the sentence correctly Translating to correct grammar but still retaining the style of the sentence is a great challenge set for the learner So, this topic of mine points out the difficulties in learning translation and suggests some solutions to help you achieve your desire while learning this subject! 1.2 Previous study Translation is a science in the applied linguistics field, so it is easy to understand that translation receives a lot of attention from researchers in the world Numerous studies have been conducted and several books have been published that offer interesting insights related to translation theory and provide translators with additional knowledge to improve their translation skills Firstly, “In Other Words” written by Mona Baker and published in 2011, this book emphasizes on equivalence of grammar, word level and pragmatic The book’s structure is very good as it starts off with basic theories about translation and goes on to more complicated issues The book provides a solid base to inform and guide many keys decision trainee translator have to make Each chapter offers an explanation of key concepts, identifies potential sources of translation difficulties related to those concepts, and illustrates various strategies for resolving these difficulties Authentic examples of translated texts from a wide variety of languages are examined, and practical exercises and further reading are included at the end of each chapter However, this book is will be perfect for a university student or if you have previously studied translation theory in other settings Secondly, the book “Translation: A Very Short Introduction” written by Mathew Reynolds and published in 2016 This book offers an authoritative account of the field of translation, covering the whole history of translation It also provides a range of fascinating examples from many languages Puts forward fresh arguments about why translation matters and how it is changing in the digital age The book, “Teaching and Researching Translation” by author Basil A Hatim, this book provides an authoritative and critical account of the main ideas and concepts, competing issues, and solved and unsolved questions involved in Translation Studies This book provides an up-to-date, accessible account of the field, focusing on the main challenges encountered by translation practitioners and researchers Basil Hatim also provides readers and users with the tools they need to carry out their own practicerelated research in this burgeoning new field This book, however, is not mentioned too much in the reasons leading the mistakes in the translation process Next, “Dịch thuật: Những tri thức cần thiết” written by Nguyễn Thượng Hùng (2014), The book deals with the translation, generalization and systematization of the knowledge that the translator needs to know, in order to provide the translator with a basic understanding of the translation and how to apply that knowledge into the practice of translation which help improve their translation skills and know how to apply common principles of translation to their work, thereby producing good quality translations The issues raised in the book include the translator's native and foreign ability, comprehension, writing ability, communicative competence, original rewriting, translation methods and procedures, and Interpreting the text from the original language into the target language, taking into account the difference between the culture of the original and the culture of the translated language Concepts, methods, solutions, solutions and comments are easy to understand and illustrated by specific evidences drawn from books and literary works However, the book does not provide clear solutions for readers so that they can deal with errors they often made In addition, translation is being taught at universities so many studies were carried out by students of nationwide universities Firstly, “Common mistakes in learning translation subject by the second-year English majors at Dong Thap University” (The B.A thesis), Duong Thi Thuy Hang and Nguyen Thi Cam Xuyen, 2010 This study was conducted to find out the student’s difficulties as well as their expectations when they begin to learn written translation in order to make suggestions that can partly help them overcome these obstacles in studying this course Besides that, the study also aims at making some suggestions as a useful reference helping adjust learning and teaching method to get a better result in learning and teaching process However, this study also has some shortcoming because of the lack of explaining translation theory and listing citations which make it less countable Secondly, “Common translation errors (Vietnamese - English) committed by the third-year English majored A case at Dongnai technology University”, Tran Thi Hoai Nam, 2014 This research was conducted with two main objectives which are identifying the common errors when translating from English to Vietnamese and finding out possible causes for those errors However, this study was not pointing out and clearing all given errors And the researcher have not given the possible causes for those problems Finally, “An investigation into common errors in Vietnamese – English translation made by third –year English majored student at Thu Dau Mot University”, Nguyen Ngoc Tran, 2016 This study aims to investigate students‟ common errors in Vietnamese-English translation and the causes leading to those errors However, parts which included in this are not arranged clearly and logic That made reader difficult to receive the messages 1.3 Aims of the study Learning a language is difficult, translating that language into your own language is even harder because of the difference about grammar, word use,etc between two languages This thesis was done to point out the common difficulties of learning translation in order to guide new learners at Thuongmai university who begins to learn this subject at second year In this research, I aim to give some valuable recommendations to help students cope with the problems they encounter while study translating In other words, I will point out some errors when they translating from English to Vietnamese and Vietnamese to English Thus, this thesis helps them to avoid the basic errors and finished better translation 1.4 Research subject This thesis focuses on difficulties students at Thuongmai university encounter in process of learing tranlation and suggests some recommendation to improve their ability to finish the fnal translation test 1.5 Scope of the study This research will focus on errors made by student during translating process Based on that, it points out difficulties when learning this subject and suggests some possible recommendations 78% of the students thought that teaching method affect significantly to learning translation 10% shared that teaching method is not the aspect that affects to their translation skills Other opinions admitted that if you want to perfect your translation skills, you have to combine your hard-working with teaching method of your teacher - Ways to improve translation skills Table 6: Ways to improve translation skills Question 13: How you improve your translation skills? Options A Practice translating on some newspaper B Learn more new words C Read more English books D Other % 55% 12% 18% 15 Practicing is always the best choice for anyone who wants to get improved on something So 55% of the students chose “practicing on some newspaper” as the best way to better their translation skills On the other hand, 12% said that they just need to improve their vocabulary And some opinions were given like: attending class, etc - Benefits of bettering vocabulary and practicing Table 7: Benefits of bettering vocabulary and practicing Question 14: Do you think learning more new words will help you finish better translation? Options A Yes B No Question 15: Do you think that practicing improve your skills? Options A Yes B No % 100% 0% translation frequently will help % 100% 0% We all have to admit that vocabulary plays an important role in translation So it is easy understand that 100% agreed that learning new words helps them get better translation 22 All of the students admitted that practicing frequently helps improve their translation skill Because they get acquainted with the way natives said, the structure that natives used And they avoid difficulty when they catch new words in translation text Moreover, practicing more at home also helps them to think faster and handle sentence structures in a proficient way 3.1.2 Results from interview questions Through the student’s responses, we can see the difficulty of students located mainly in two main parts which are the grammar and vocabulary Firstly, grammar They are errors related to tenses, the forms of words, the sentence structures found in the translated text These errors are caused by the misuse of verb forms, the misuse of relative pronoun, and the misuse of part of speech The grammar errors which are related to the misuse of verb forms often occur when the students keep Vietnamese structures to translate the Vietnamese sentences into English Example 1: Vietnamese: thông tin chi tiết công bố họp báo English: Detailed information will announce at a press conference (incorrect) The error of this example is the verb “announce”, which is in active form It must be in passive form “be announced” because “Detailed information” cannot announce by itself Therefore, the Vietnamese sentence should be translated “Detailed information will be announced at a press conference” The grammar errors related to the misuse of relative pronouns often occur when the complex Vietnamese sentences are translated into English The following sentence is considered to have grammar error because the translator misused the part of speech of pronoun For example: Example 2: 23 Vietnamese: “Các nhà khoa học nhận thấy người phụ nữ ăn nhiều chocolate suốt thời gian mang thai họ cười nhiều động bà mẹ không ăn chocolate thời gian mang thai.” English: “A research group observed that the children of mothers who eat much chocolate during their pregnancy frequently laugh and more active than the children of other mothers.” (Incorrect) The error of this example is that the wrong combination of the noun phrase “children of mothers” and the relative pronoun “who” fails to express the meaning “the pregnant women eat chocolate” In this case, the relative pronoun “who” must be replaced by the relative pronoun “whose”; Therefore, the Vietnamese sentence “Các nhà khoa học nhận thấy người phụ nữ ăn nhiều chocolate suốt thời gian mang thai họ cười nhiều động bà mẹ không ăn socola thời gian mang thai.” should be translated “A research group observed that the children whose mothers eat much chocolate during their pregnancy frequently laugh and more active than the children of other mothers.” Secondly, vocabulary I believe vocabulary is the most comprehensive and most difficult aspect of English for learners to master thoroughly Multiple senses of English words and synonyms (words with a similar meaning) presents special difficulty for them Other difficulties with learning and using English vocabulary include fixed word collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms, prepositional phrase But according to the answer from students, the common difficult aspects of vocabulary that they encountered when translating are related to idioms, prepositional phrase, and Idiomatic expressions explain something by way of unique examples or figures of speech And most importantly, the meaning of these peculiar phrases cannot be predicted by the literal definitions of the words it contains Many linguistic professionals insist that idioms are the most difficult items to translate Students can hardly find an idiom in English equivalent in terms of Vietnamese idioms In fact, idioms problem will never be fully solved Ideally, students should try to limit the number of idiomatic expressions contained in content they hope to translate 24 Next, we will notice that many of the nouns can be interchanged with each other Prepositional phrases can be used in many, many ways to help a writer add details to his or her writing We can be confused when using prepositional phrases Often, prepositions can be used as introductory words of clauses, not of prepositional phrases Student cannot always choose the right preposition to complete prepositional phrase that leads to mistake in vocabulary Besides, there are also formal and informal English usages Formal English is the language of the mass media, education, business, economy, commerce, technology, science, etc Informal English includes colloquial, slang and dialect usage It is hard for learners to master both informal formal English vocabulary and it is even harder to pick the right word to use in a sentence which is suitable for context Thematic general English dictionaries combined with English synonym dictionaries are a valuable tool for mastering English vocabulary logically, comprehensively and intensively for real life needs of learners 100% of the students considered that translating from Vietnamese to English is harder than translating from English to Vietnamese It is easy to understand this answer Because when translate from Vietnamese into English, we will be influenced by the style of our mother tongue Moreover, we will not know the proper word for the context because of the variety of synonyms in English So, what can we to solve these difficulties? According to the students, self-study is always an effective solution for anyone who wants to improve their language skills It makes you familiar with the structures of indigenous people In their opinions, everyone can translate some news on saigontimes or vietnamnews to get used to English writing styles In addition to that, we should read more English books starting with easy-to-read books However, when catching new words, we should not only look up the dictionary but also learn how to use and meaning senses to be able to remember and apply to other cases 3.1.3 Results from test paper There are 50 test paper were given to 50 students to translate and then analyzed The results show that besides 86.5% (4150) of grammar errors, the mistakes of word choices are also found to be around 92% (48/50) 25 This part mainly focuses on analyzing the errors of word choices, namely the vocabulary mistakes As already mentioned, lack of vocabulary may lead to many problems in translating Vietnamese-English texts Most of the students could not select the appropriate word for the idea in the context Moreover, it is also the In the test papers collected, there are several mistakes about word choices as following: Example 1: The topic discussed is about tourism, in which there is this phrase “thành phố yêu cầu Sở Du lịch phối hợp với đơn vị liên quan để sớm có phương án tăng suất phục vụ sân bay Đà Nẵng, nhà ga nội địa” The word “nhà gà nội địa” was translated as “domestic station” by the students, while the suggested key is “domestic passenger terminal” “Station” means a place on a railway line where trains regularly stop so that passengers can get on or off So it’s not appropriate in this case Example 2: In the source text, the Vietnamese sentence: “cảng Tiên Sa lâu xem nơi neo đậu tạm thời tàu du lịch, nên dịch vụ kèm theo chưa phát triển đây” was incorrectly translated by the students as: “Tien Sa Port was seen as a temporary berth for cruise ships, so tourism services weren’t developed there” It should have been translated as: “Tien Sa Port has long been seen as a temporary berth for cruise ships, so tourism services have yet to be developed there” Because structure used in this sentence should be in present perfect tense Example 3: In the source text, the proper name “Sở Du lịch” was translated incorrectly by the students as: “Tourist department” It should have been translated as: “Department of tourism” It is common error which is usually made by student because of the lack of skills on translating organization and agency‘s proper name As the reveal from the test paper, we can easily see that the common problems for student are grammar and vocabulary Thus, it is urgent to find out the solutions which can help them to master translation 3.2 Discussion Given the results from the questionnaire, the interview and the test paper, there are many difficulties that students have to deal with when learning translation Firstly, vocabulary and grammar were considered the biggest challenges for most students Students can self-study vocabulary and grammar at home, but they still need the 26 teacher’s help Most students hope that more vocabulary as well as some more different grammar structures will be provided for them when teacher instructing them to translate a passage The results filtered from questionnaire delineate that most students hope that they will have more hours at class to practice translation With the above remarks, most students show their expectation to be given some topics related to some common fields that they feel interested in, and the materials should be suitable with their ability Certainly, when working with a helpful and sociable instructor, students will study comfortably without any pressures and raise their interest in translation In short, thanks to the questionnaires and interview questions, the researchers had collected lots of useful information about the reality, the difficulties, and the expectations of students in learning translation With the helpful results above, the researchers continue to complete the purpose of our research by giving some suggestions to the teachers and the students to help both teachers and students make a progress in teaching and studying 27 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTION 4.1 Suggestion in general on improving translation skills The importance of translation for this era is undeniable Therefore, learning translation will help you a lot in the process of learning English in particular and for later career in general From the results of the survey from Chapter 3, we can see the difficulties that Thuongmai University‘s students encountered when studying compilations in two main parts are grammar and vocabulary The most difficult kind of translation text is from Vietnamese into English First, grammar Two difficult factors for students are the use of tenses and preposition There are many ways to overcome this which are to know how to use it to apply in each case separately Read more books; watch more movies, short American famous sitcoms to apply more types of grammar to help the text more smooth and natural Always check again after translating to make sure the verb is used in the correct format About prepositional phrase: Understand what prepositional phrases in a sentence You have to always remember that a prepositional phrase will function as an adjective or adverb As an adjective, the prepositional phrase will answer the question “Which one?”, moreover, a prepositional phrase will never contain the subject of a sentence Try to remember these small tips to avoid errors of prepositional phrase Second, vocabulary There are main difficulties that Thuongmai University’s students have to face with which is idioms, phrasal verb and proper name We use idioms in a variety of linguistic situations and contexts Being culturalbound and not so frequently used as other words of a language, idioms are difficult for users, learners, and translators, who might as well be considered as culture ambassadors The translation process is difficult which has always presented problems 28 to people dealing with Some kinds of idioms have been considered as untranslatable, especially with literary works, which represent a real challenge to the translators Translating an idiom into another language depends on many factors We are not only looking for idioms with similar meaning in the TL, but also finding out the significance of the specific lexical items constituting the idiom, frequency of use, context, and appropriate register The work of finding an idiom of similar meaning and similar form in the TL may seem the ideal solution, but that is not always possible Questions of style, register, and rhetorical effect must also be taken into consideration Fernando and Flavellm (1981; 82), are correct in warning us against the ‘strong unconscious urge in most translators to search hard for an idiom in the receptorlanguage, however inappropriate it may be’ This means that in most cases, we might not find an ideal idiom to meet the need for its translation Meanwhile, regarding the translation which concerns the above word level, I can propose some recommendation for this hard stuff We can translate an idiom to an idiom of similar meaning and form This first strategy ‘involves using an idiom in the TL which conveys roughly the same meaning as that of the SL idiom and, in addition, consists of equivalent lexical items” Nevertheless, this kind of match cannot be always possible Usually they might pertain to idioms having the same origin (deriving from myths, literature, similar traditions and usages or shared between cultures throughout the times) Next, we can use an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form It is often possible to find an idiom or fixed expression in the TL which has a meaning similar to that of the source idiom or expression, but which consists of different lexical items Translate by paraphrase This strategy is mostly used when a match cannot be found in the TL or when it seems inappropriate to use idiomatic language in the TL, because of the differences in stylistic preferences of the SL and TL The next difficulty is phrasal verbs English phrasal verbs have semantic and structural features which make translation into other languages a difficult task Translating phrasal verbs into Vietnamese is difficult for students because the semantics of the phrasal verb cannot be approached through the analysis of the 29 individual parts in isolation; its meaning of the unit is non-compositional and therefore non-analyzable The semantic problem of phrasal verbs can be solved by understanding the totality of the text or sentence before translating it Translation is neither a work on language nor on words but a work on the message and meaning The students should first of all understand the message before rendering it in another language The syntactic problem of phrasal verbs could be overcome using equivalents They should see the phrasal verbs as an entity and try to look for its equivalence in the target language Also he /she should take note of the surrounding words and the context in which they are used The phrasal verb is non-compositional and non-analyzable and therefore not amenable to word for word translation Final problem of vocabulary is proper name Lincoln Fernandes (2006) lists a set of ten procedures in the translation of personal names as follows:  Rendition: When the in the ST is enmeshed in the TL, the meaning is rendered in the TL  Copy: As a matter of fact, in this case, the name of the ST is exactly replicated in the TT—without any orthographic adjustment  Transcription: This a method in which a name is transcribed in the equivalent characters of the TL In order to keep the readability of the TT, some other changes such as addition or shift in the position of the letters may occur  Re-creation: A newly-created name in the ST is recreated in the TT so that it reproduces the similar effects in the TL  Substitution: A TL name replaces the SL name, although they are formally and/or semantically unrelated  Deletion: In this type of strategy, the name in the ST is, partially or totally, omitted in the TT  Addition: Extra information is added to the SL name so that it can be more understandable and desirable to the target readers As a matter of fact, this method may also be used to remove ambiguities in the TT  Transposition: This is a change of one part of speech for another one without any shift in the meaning In fact, this a way for translating titles that have transparent 30 role in literature for identifying particular literary works Because of this reason, this procedure is taken into consideration here  Phonological Replacement: In this procedure, the phonological features of the original name are imitated in the TL In other words, a TL name, which has a similar sound to the SL name, replaces the original name  Conventionality: This strategy is defined as the acceptance of a typical translation of a name in the SL In view of this case, it is interesting to know that conventionality is often used with historical or literary individuals as well as geographical names For the names of the organizations and agencies, you should find out and translate correctly because most of them are already documented in English 31 CONCLUSION Translation has become an essential part, indispensable in the era of exchanges and integration throughout the world It has become a bridge for all peoples of the world to gain a better understanding of their way of life, their culture and their cooperation in all aspects As a result, the demand for academic translation has also increased and is imperative to meet the needs of the whole society For the reasons mentioned above, the study “Common difficulties in translation course among the third-year English majored student and suggested recommendations” has been carried out which focuses on finding out common difficulties that students encountered when learning translation and suggest some reasonable solutions for those problems However, due to my limited ability, the study might still have some mistakes on layout and content Yet I hope that this study could become a useful instrument for the students who want to master their translation skills, and also for English learners who want to avoid common mistake and overcome difficulties in translation subject 32 REFERENCE Baker, M (2011) In Other Words Catford, J (1995) Alinguistic Theory of Translation London Oxford University Press E.A Nida, 1969 “The Theory and Practice of Translation” Foster, M (1958) Translation from/in Farsi and English Retrieved April, 2007 Ghazala, Hasan, (1995) Translation as problems and solutions (4th ed.) Syria: Dar Elkalem ElArabi Hatim, B A Teaching and Researching Translation Harlow: 2001 Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo, 1913, “The Tragic sense of Life” Nam, T T (2014) “Common translation error (Vietnamese - English) committed by the third-year English majored A case at Dongnai technology University” Nguyen Thuong Hung (2014) Dịch Thuật: Những Tri Thức Cần Thiết Renolds, M (2016) Translation: A Very Short Introduction Tham, N T H., & Tran, B T H (2013) English major students’difficulties and expectations in learning written translation at Dong Thap University Tran, N.N., (2016) An investigation into common errors in Vietnamese-English translation made by third-year English major students at Thu Dau Mot University”, (The B.A thesis), Ho Chi Minh City, 2016 APPENDIX Questionnaires Question 1: Do you think that translation affect to your English skills? A Yes, definitely B It affect but not much C No Question 2: How much time you want to learn translation at class per week? E lessons F lessons G lessons H.Other Question 3: What kind of text is more difficult to translate? A English – Vietnamese B Vietnamese - English Question 4: What is the most difficult factor when learning translation? A Vocabulary B Grammar C Background knowledge D Context E Others Question 5: What kind of grammar mistakes you make when learning translation? A The use of tense B Preposition C Active and passive voice D Direct/indirect speech E Others Question 6: What is the most difficult aspect of vocabulary that you have to deal with? A Idioms B Collocations C Proper name D Phrasal verbs E Others Question 7: How the background knowledge affect to quality of translation text? A Very much B Not much Question 8: Do you think that mother tongue affect to your translation? A Yes B No Question 9: How will you handle with new words in translation text? A Look up on dictionary B Ignore it and translate other words C Guess mean of the word based on the context D Other Question 10: Which mistakes that you usually made? A Word choice B Grammar C Word order D Others Question 11: How much time that students spend on practicing translation themselves? A hours B hours C hours D Others Question 12: How teaching methods affect to you? A It affects but not much B It affects significantly C It doesn’t affect D Other Question 13: How you improve your translation skills? A Practice translating on some newspaper B Learn more new words C Read more English books D Other Question 14: Do you think learning more new words will help you finish better translation? A Yes B No Question 15: Do you think that practicing translation frequently will help improve your skills? A Yes B No Interview questions: What is the main difficulties you have to cope with when learning translation? What is more difficult for you? Translate English to Vietnamese or Translate Vietnamese to English Why? What are your expectation when learning translation? ... Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” From the definitions above the translation has the same term “equivalence” The. .. for the study Finally, I aggregated all data and started writing this thesis to point out common difficulties in learning translation and suggested some recommendations 1.6.4 Data collect instrument... of the lack of explaining translation theory and listing citations which make it less countable Secondly, Common translation errors (Vietnamese - English) committed by the third- year English majored