(Luận văn thạc sĩ) translation as an enabling strategy for students reading comprehension of it texts

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT TRANSLATION AS AN ENABLING STRATEGY FOR STUDENTS’ READNG COMPREHENSION OF IT TEXTS (Sử dụng dich thuật chiến lược việc day đọc hiểu khóa chun ngành cơng nghệ thơng tin.) M.A THESIS FIELD : English teaching methodology CODE : 601410 SUPERVISOR: VU THI THU THUY, M.A BY : DANG THI THANH VAN HA NOI – 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………ii ABSTRACT iii ABBREVIATION iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Identification of the problem 1.3 Scopes, objective and research questions for the study 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Design of the study CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Challenges of comprehending IT texts 2.2 Use of language as support of students’ reading comprehension 2.3 Translation as a classroom technique 2.4 Strategy for using translation to support students’ comprehension of IT texts 10 2.4.1 Clarifying the exact meanings of technical terms 10 2.4.2 Performing translation activities in post-reading for clearer comprehending the IT texts 11 2.4.3 Improving students’ knowledge of the language 12 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 Context of the study 13 3.1.1 The learning context 13 3.2.2 The learning materials 13 3.2 Methods of data collection 14 3.3 The participants 15 3.3.1 The students 15 3.3.2 The teachers 16 3.4 The procedures of the study 16 3.4.1 Problem identification 16 3.4.2 Plan of survey 17 3.4.2.1 Determining the students’ challenges in reading comprehension of IT texts 17 3.4.2.2 Helping students come over their challenges in comprehending IT texts 17 3.4.2.3 Applying translation activities in post-reading, the direct observation in class and strategy for using translation to support students in reading comprehension of IT texts 18 3.4.2.4 Evaluating students’ attitude to translation in post-reading process 19 3.4.3 Analyzing the data 20 3.4.4 Findings 21 3.5 Conclusion 21 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 The effects on the students’ attitude towards translation in post-reading process 22 4.2 The students’ perception of usefulness of translation to reading comprehension 34 4.3 Discussion of the above findings 36 4.3.1 What are the effects of translation on students’ reading comprehension? 38 4.3.2 What are the students’ attitudes towards translation in post-reading? 38 4.3.3 What IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension? 39 4.4 Conclusion 39 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of the major findings 40 5.1.1 Students’ positive attitudes towards translation in post-reading process 40 5.1.2 Students’ perception of usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension related the strategy for using translation mentioned above .40 5.1.3 Students’ opinion on the role of translation to their reading comprehension of IT texts 41 5.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 41 5.3 Pedagogical implications of the study 42 5.4 Conclusion 42 REFERENCES APPENDIX ABBREVIATIONS L1: Language L2: Language SL: source language TL: target language IT: Information Technology ESP: English for Specific purposes FLT: Foreign Language Teaching HUBT: Hanoi University of Business and Technology E.T.M: English Teaching Methodology iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter is concerned with the rationale behind the researcher‟s decision of choosing the thesis subject, and the way she investigates the effects of translation activities on students‟ achievement in reading skills for IT students Besides, the scope, the objectives, and the research questions as well as the methods and design of the study are also stated clearly 1 Rationale Never before has English become so pervasive as nowadays, and English has formally been an important subject in our educational system English is one of the languages in the world that masters in various fields globally “Better English, more opportunities” is the answer given by most Vietnamese university students when asked about their goal of learning English English can help students prepare well for their future careers as it can not only equip them with a useful source of personal, linguistic, social and cultural knowledge but also provide them with access to modern technology and information concerning a variety of issues in modern society Getting students to read English texts is an important part of our job at HUBT IT students should be able to read specialist texts in English either for careers, or for study purposes Understandably, reading is useful for language acquisition provided that students more or less understand what they read, and the more they read, the better they get at it Reading also has a positive effect on students‟ vocabulary knowledge, on their spelling and on their writing However, it is observed that IT students at HUBT who have to read to get gist information about new technology always have difficulties in translating IT texts for thorough understanding in their mother tongue For all the above reasons, it is strongly desirable for the researcher to propose “Translation as an enabling strategy for students’ reading comprehension of IT texts” as the subject of this study Identification of the problem According to the researcher‟ observation and her teaching experience she realizes that her IT students always encounter difficulties in understanding specialist reading texts thoroughly after they have done many reading comprehension exercises They always have to use their mother tongue as an understanding aid Therefore, there is an additional task after doing reading comprehension known as translation or translating the text into Vietnamese (as IT students at HUBT) In the past, the prevalence of grammartranslation method led to an extraordinary phenomenon: students were unable to speak fluently after having studied the language for a long time and until recently, translation was out of favour with the language teaching community As pointed out by Duff (1994), translation was labelled “boring”, “uncommunicative”, “difficult”, “pointless” and the like, and suffered from too close an association with grammar For this reason, translation has been defined as “uncommunicative, boring, pointless, difficult, and irrelevant” However, Duff (1994) also sees there has been a revival of interest to translation due to the shift of its emphasis - to using a mother tongue as a resource for the promotion of language learning Duff (1989:7) also notes that translation is of a great value because it “develops qualities essential to all langage learning: flexibility, accuracy and clarity This combination of freedom and contraint allows the students to contribute their own thoughts to discussion which has a clear focus- text.” Therefore, translation can be considered as a tool for improving language skills Today, thanks to the new communicative approach to language teaching, translation is gradually becoming recognized as a valid activity for language practice and improvement The three qualities essential to all language learning should be taken into details Firstly, accuracy is very important for IT students, who always deal with professional technical terms as well as complicated grammar structures in their specialist reading texts The accuracy quality can be seen in the real usefulness of translation in English classes in exploiting it in order to compare grammar, vocabulary, word order and other language points in English and the student‟s mother tongue According to N J Ross (2000), if students are aware of the language differences, language interference (transfer) and intervention from their own language are likely to be reduced Secondly, clarity depends a lot on students‟ language proficiency It is observed that the students may understand the text in general However, it is sometimes difficult for them to clarify some professional terms and complicated grammar structures - syntactic IT texts feature It is noteworthy that in teaching / learning ESP there has been a long-felt dissatisfaction, mainly on the students‟ part, about the exclusion or minimal use of translation in mastering complex issues Learners constantly wished to check the exact meanings of the professional terms in their native language by consulting bilingual dictionaries or asking for teacher‟s explanations There is an opinion that “rigidly eliminating or limiting the native language does not appear to guarantee better acquisition, nor does it foster the humanistic approach that recognizes learners‟ identities (Mattioli 2004: 20) Translation as a teaching tool needs to take into account a number of different aspects, such as grammar, syntax, collocation and connotation Uncritical use of translation may give learners insufficient, confusing, or even inaccurate information about the target language Thirdly, flexibility is referred quite a lot to students‟ background knowledge According to the researcher‟s observation of her IT students at HUBT she realizes that students with better background IT knowledge find it easier to understand technical texts and interpret to others legibly or clearly This means that in the case their background knowledge leads them to become more flexible to cope with challenges of comprehending IT texts Therefore, raising learners‟ consciousness can be valuable: teachers can explicitly point out differences between L1 and L2 For this purpose translation may be useful, because it can be interactive, learner-centered, then it promotes learners‟ autonomy by using authentic materials (Mahmoud 2006: 28) Although the use of translation in learning a foreign language is much maligned by language teachers, translation is widely used in learners‟ foreign language learning process It appears that learners often use translation as a learning strategy to comprehend, remember, and produce a foreign language Translation has been used by foreign language learners to facilitate language learning for centuries, but translation has played various roles under different language teaching methods While some foreign language educators may consider translation as a critical means to ensure students‟comprehension and an important writing exercise, other teachers may totally ban or discourage the use of the native language and translation in the classroom As Malmkjar stated, „the issue of the use of translation in language teaching is one on which most language teachers have a view‟(1998: 1), but fairly often, teachers‟ views are not strongly in favor of it However, relatively little research attention so far seems to have been devoted to a consideration of the use of translation in language learning As an English teacher working with IT students on ESP at HUBT the researcher always takes this problem onto consideration Doing the research the researcher tries to identify the role of translation in post-reading for IT students at HUBT and to help them use translation well enough for their language learning The teacher - the researcher had asked her students to translate their specialist reading into Vietnamese as a compulsory task in class as well as a homework assignment She asked them to translate a simple sentence, then more complicated ones, after that a paragraph, and finally a whole text orally in order to find out students‟ weaknesses and strengths and help them with correcting mistakes Their products had to be written out, which helped them a lot in improving their language learning During the research, the researcher had found some articles and books about implementing translation as learning strategies to improve students‟ reading understanding and even their language proficiency According to these articles and books, the benefits of translation had been explored in Vietnam and should be taken into account Scopes, objective and research questions for the study This study was a kind of survey research which was designed and conducted by the researcher herself The study was limited to the investigation of students‟ attitudes towards translation, as well as the effect of translation on students‟ reading comprehension of IT texts The study was conducted on the third-year IT students who were studying English as a compulsory subject at Hanoi University of Business and Technology Thus, the first and foremost objective of the study is for the sake of the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, where the researcher worked as a teacher of English Although any generalization of the findings should be made with caution, it is expected that this study will serve as a source of references for teachers of English on the teaching of reading skills for IT students, especially for those who consider translation in post-reading for IT students as one of the suggested educational innovations To be more specific, in realizing this study, the main objective is: - To investigate the effects of translation activities on students‟ achievement in reading skills for IT students With this objective, the research questions are: - What are the IT students‟ attitudes towards translation in post-reading process? - What IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension? 1.4 Methods of the study This study primarily involved a survey questionnaire (for students) Moreover, in order to clarify learners‟ attitude to translation and their perception of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension, interviews were conducted with students as well On the other hand, the research was based on the students‟ attitudes to translation learning through researcher‟s direct observation herself during her teaching process at HUBT Design of the study The study is divided into five main chapters: Chapter one is the Introduction, which states the rationale, the scope, the objective, and the research questions as well as the methods and design of the study Chapter two presents all necessary literature review that relates to the study In chapter three, the study solves the two research questions: What are the IT students‟ attitudes towards translation in post-reading process? What IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension? One of the main contents of the study, the data analysis is reported in chapter four In this chapter, the researcher analyzes the data collected using a survey questionnaire and interviews to reach the findings of the study The discussion of the findings related to the research questions with reference to the literature review is mentioned Chapter five is the conclusion where the main contents of the study are summarized In addition, the pedagogical implications of the study as well as the limitations of the study and the suggestions for further studies are discussed in this chapter Besides, the list of references and the appendixes are also parts of this study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents some of the most important issues in theory of teaching translation in general and in language teaching in particular The main features are taken into consideration, namely, the concepts related to the study including challenges of comprehending IT text, use of language as support of students’ reading comprehension, translation as a classroom technique, strategy for using translation to support students’ comprehension of IT texts 2.1 Challenges of comprehending IT texts It is observed that the most difficult task for IT students at HUBT in their course book is specialist reading because nearly all students have trouble comprehending technical expository text at deep levels even though some of them are really skilled readers Deep comprehension of technical texts is a difficult challenge, because the students have minimal knowledge of technical terms as well as key forms background knowledge Technical terms are categorized as single terms, compound terms, acronyms and abbreviations etc The background knowledge may have some effects on reading comprehension even though with high relevant background knowledge and general reading skills and struggle According to Wolff (1987) low students used background knowledge to help to make sense of incomprehensible material However Bernhardt (1991) suspects that background knowledge becomes less important as students become more linguistically proficient Even in their first language, readers have different level of reading ability, which is the reason why some theorists argue that whereas good readers can take advantage of background knowledge and context, readers who are slow at decoding symbols and words overburden their short-term memory and cannot call up the appropriate schemata This means that good professional knowledge helps IT students have professional understanding of specialist reading, which helps them easily follow the ideas presented in an IT text and comprehend it better The second thing that must be taken into account is the typical syntactic features of IT texts As pointed out by Phuong Nguyen Thi Mai (2004) the typical syntactic features of IT texts are much related to sentence structures which are categorized into complex sentence structure, which is often formed as one main clause followed by a dependent clause such 35 Do you find translation task in post-reading process difficult and boring? How often you perform the task seriously and successfully? Do you think translation really help you comprehend the IT texts? What benefits can you get after using translation in post reading process? Should we apply translation as an enabling strategy to support your reading comprehension of IT texts? The interviewees‟ answers are presented as below, Hoang Vu Long - TH1201: he found translation task quite difficult because in his opinion English is different from Vietnamese in factors such as some grammatical categories, word orders and some multi-meaning words Although he often performed the task quite seriously, he was not always successful in doing it He admitted that translation helped him quite a lot to comprehend the IT texts He added that the usefulness of translation was to clarify grammar structures and the skilled use of the language was improved Nguyen Thi Cuc - TH1201: this female-student is one of the best student in the class TH1201 who took part in every class activity actively She did not find the task very demanding because she completed the translation task to comprehend the text deeper She also added that most students had bad knowledge of the language, so they were not very interested in translation as well as reading comprehension It was really useful for students with interest in learning English However, in her opinion it depended a lot on the teaching method In other words, the role of teacher was really important Dao Thi Thuong - TH1201: this female-student was quite serious in learning She had quite positive perception of use of translation in post-reading process In her opinion, translation after reading comprehension was really necessary because translation helped her comprehend the text better She also commended that for hard-working students who were really interested in learning English, translation after reading comprehension was really effective However, some weak students who were not very interested in learning rarely expect to translation, they only tried to copy other papers Do Thi Minh Cham- TH1201: this female-student was hard-working and serious in learning too However, she still found translation demanding In her opinion, translation after reading comprehension was very necessary because it helped students understand 36 grammar structures and technical terms better She also added that English was structurally different from Vietnamese so it was difficult for students to understand when those texts were not translated into Vietnamese She believes that translation eases memory constraints in memorizing more words, idioms, grammar, and sentence structures, thus, translation can help students develop and express ideas in another language and translation can help reduce learning anxiety and enhance motivation to learn English Tran Duy Chang-TH1201: this male- student was quite good one although he was sometimes not very interest in learning He did not complete every given task actively until he got teacher‟s strict attention He gave his idea that translation in post-reading process was useful and necessary because it helped students to understand the text and some difficult structures better He also added that translation could help students comprehend IT texts as well as check whether their comprehension was correct Pham Quy Nhat Quang- TH1201: this male-student was quite good at general English, but he was not a very hard-working one He did not focus on the lesson until the teacher forced him to it He had quite personalized attitude to the use of translation in postreading process He thought that the use of mother tongue depended on the level of difficulty of a passage, it was not necessary to use mother tongue for some simple paragraphs because some difficult sentences could be understood but could not translated into Vietnamese easily He admitted that after reading comprehension he could understand the meaning of the text flexibly but could not interpret clearly to others In his opinion, translation in post- reading comprehension is a necessary skill to improve vocabulary which leads to enhance reading skills The survey and interviews‟ results show that most IT students in class TH1201 have positive attitude towards translation in post-reading process The students all find the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension such as improvement of reading comprehension, clarification of technical terms or vocabulary in general, good solutions to syntactic IT text features or complicated grammatical phenomena Discussion of the above findings This survey research aims at solving the demanding challenges facing the students of class TH1201 in the specialist reading lessons such as the students‟ lack of interest in learning English in general and in reading comprehension of IT texts in particular and improvement 37 of reading comprehension, clarification of technical terms or vocabulary in general, good solutions to syntactic IT text feature or complicated grammatical phenomena It can be recognized through the data analysis that translation in post-reading process has brought about significant improvement in students‟ reading skills This is in agreement with the ideas stated by Johnson and Johnson (2001) Most of the students found satisfied for being able to work in an environment in which they actively participate in learning The weak students were not hesitant to ask for help as the teacher and their class mates were always willing to help and encourage them to work hard so that they together could reach the goal of the teacher‟s given tasks and could improve their reading comprehension by asking questions, sharing ideas, explaining and clarifying meaning of technical terms, their ideas or difficult grammatical category, etc The same as what Ellis and Johnson (1994) found, the good students found themselves progress through helping friends, they improved their interaction and other academic skills such as critical thinking skill in explaining, clarifying, tutoring, evaluating, eliciting, discussing and debating, formulating ideas, structuring move, etc obviously, the students were more confident, independent, responsible, active, involved in the learning The findings are also matched with Wolff (1987) that low students used background knowledge to help to make sense of incomprehensible material It also reduces the suspicion by Bernhardt (1991) that background knowledge becomes less important as students become more linguistically proficient This supported Perkins‟ idea (1985: 53) that through translation instruction, „the advanced learner will always gain some insight into points of L1-L2 difference and conflict on a syntactic, semantic and stylistic level and this may ultimately improve his L2 competence‟ Through translation learning, students not only deepen their understanding of two languages and two cultures but also learn both the foreign language and their mother tongue thoroughly and students have a chance to enhance knowledge of structures More importantly, students have been able to find out and use suitable learning strategies which help to direct their long-term learning Three strategies for using translation to support students‟ comprehension of IT texts have reached The findings show that the third year IT students at HUBT have used translation in post-reading process to clarify the exact meanings of technical terms, then to help the students to comprehend the IT texts more clearly and finally to improve knowledge of the language learning More students find translation in post-reading useful and interesting because they now feel more confident in front of specialist reading texts They seem to 38 comprehend the texts deeper and they are no longer hesitant of the IT texts This means they are more interested in reading IT texts which help them a lot in their future careers.Generally, all findings were positive answers to the research questions What are the effects of translation on students’ reading comprehension? According to the survey results in table 1& and 15 pie charts above, it is understood that translation created more activities for students to perform in a language learning lesson John J Deeny also indicated that translation can make important and even unique contributions to the improvements of written English The above findings are related tightly to the teacher‟s direct observation and her guide during specialist reading lessons The students with different reading abilities perform the same the teacher‟s given tasks at different speeds, have different attitudes to reach the same goal to comprehend IT texts They not only learn grammatical category, but also technical terminology through translation in post-reading process It is based on the above findings that translation helps students comprehend the IT text in grammar as well as in vocabulary It comes closely to Wilss (1983:28) statement that translation can provoke additional motivation both for the teacher and for the learners The teacher can activate his pedagogical imagination and make FLT more diversified, more challenging; the learner can actively acquaint himself with specimens of a certain textual domain and how to handle such texts interligually, both from a receptive and a reproductive angle Thus, equipping students with translation skills is synonymous with preparing them for a better future This generates motivation in their language learning, which helps much with reading comprehension What are the students’ attitudes towards translation in post-reading? According to the teacher direct observation and through findings from the survey questionnaire as well as interviews‟ result it is seen that the students have both positive and negative attitudes to translation in post-reading process It is observed that more students who have good reading abilities with interest in learning own positive attitudes because they can see the benefits from translation during their learning Meanwhile, fewer students who are less interested in learning with worst reading abilities have negative attitude because they cannot perform the tasks successfully and they gain very little benefit from translation The weak students try to avoid doing any given tasks including translation in post-reading It is explained by the reason that translation of IT texts is quite demanding 39 for slow students who are not proficient in general English as well as in computing in their own language It is gradually come over if their attitude to learning changed which help them comprehend the texts better with the help of the class mates as well as teacher‟s In general, about 80% of the students have positive attitudes to translation in post-reading based on their improvement of reading comprehension by the help of translation 4.3.3 What IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension? It is realized through the interviews that those students are really serious and aware of improving their knowledge of the language as well as their reading comprehension of IT texts All of the students see the significant role of translation to their reading comprehension It really affects their future because in the future their careers require a lot of reading in foreign language to keep up with advanced technology in the world 4 Conclusion This chapter has offered a detailed description of how the data was analyzed in the quantitative and mainly qualitative method Obviously, the data shows that most of the students had positive attitudes towards translation in post-reading process Translation in post-reading process had extremely good effects on the students‟reading comprehension of IT texts As a result, there was great improvement in their reading comprehension of IT texts 40 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION In this chapter, the summary of the main findings, the comments on the limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies, the pedagogical implications, and the overall conclusion of the study are presented Summary of the major findings The study was generally successful, despite some of the defects, which will be presented in the next section The students‟ attitudes towards translation in post-reading process and their perception of usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension have been identified It can be presented as below: Students‟ positive attitudes towards translation in post-reading process Students perception of usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension Students‟ opinion on the role of translation to their reading comprehension of IT texts 5.1.1 Students’ positive attitudes towards translation in post-reading process With regards to both quantitative and qualitative analysis, the study has provided positive results Moreover, the implement of the research gave the researcher opportunities to discover the students‟ attitudes to learning, their strengths and weaknesses showed during their reading lessons as well as their difficulties, expectations, desires, feelings revealed through the direct observation or direct interaction with them during the research, all of which were a valuable source of information a teacher needs to know so that the researcher can adjust and strengthen her role as a teacher, a facilitator in her work Importantly, most of the students as the participants in the research showed their interest in participating into post-reading activities, specifically translation of specialist reading texts 5.1.2 Students perception of usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension Besides the awareness of doing translation for reading comprehension of IT texts was proved during the implementation of the research, all of the students expressed that they perceived of usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension They show their opinion closely to the three aspects mentioned in the literature above Firstly, using translation is to clarify the exact meanings of technical terms Secondly, it is to help 41 students to comprehend the IT texts more clearly and legibly Thirdly, it is to improve knowledge of the language learning The methods and tools used were appropriate and effective in collecting the necessary data The tables and charts apparently show the attitudes and perceptions of the students of translation to reading comprehension of IT texts The weak students were not hesitant to ask for help and their attitudes towards learning changed considerably.The good students found themselves more valuable and confident and through helping friends, they improved their knowledge of the language learning and some other academic skills such as higher level thinking skill, critical thinking skill in explaining, clarifying, discussing and debating, formulating ideas, etc Obviously, the students were more confident, independent, active, responsible, involved in learning 5.1.3 Students’ opinion on the role of translation to their reading comprehension of IT texts Most of the students found translation really useful for their reading comprehension and language learning The attitudes towards translation in post-reading shown in the tables and the pie charts supported the idea that translation as an enabling strategy for students‟ reading comprehension of IT text More importantly, the students could find out and use suitable leaning strategies which help to direct their long-term learning Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies This is a survey research which was conducted to improve teaching and learning with reference to a particular group of students Like other survey, it has obvious limitations First of all, the survey questionnaire was conducted in the third year class with 30 IT students the finding can not be generalized and should be interpreted with caution when applied to other contexts Secondly, the observers were classroom teachers The evaluation may be a bit subjective And the research was limited with investigation of students‟ attitudes towards translation and perception of usefulness of translation to reading comprehension The future action has to be taken in account is how to apply this strategy to help students with improvement of their reading comprehension in particular It is important to instruct the way to deal with translation of computing terms including single and compound terms and relative clauses, -ed participle clause or passive structure The more important thing 42 should be done is how to teach translation of IT texts so that their reading comprehension of IT texts is really improved by the help of the translation For future action, the researcher is going to apply the strategy in other IT class at HUBT with clear instructions of teaching IT terms so that students can perceive and memorize for long term Then, the researcher is going to teach the translation of relative clauses, -ed participle or passive structure Next, she is going to teach students how to translate IT texts well so that their reading comprehension of IT texts will be really improved Pedagogical implications of the study First of all, translation in post-reading process proved its effects in teaching and learning reading comprehension of IT texts Whether this small scale survey research within a limited time can not represent a bigger population of students in general, the statistic analysis result still strongly suggests the integration of translation strategies for reading comprehension into reading lessons Translation is not only applied in training professional translators, but also the fifth skill (a part from the main skills such as reading, writing, speaking and listening) so that the students are more knowledgeable, confident and skillful to achieve the knowledge of the language learning Translation of IT texts clubs should be founded to encourage students to be more interested in translation and reading technical information for perfect knowledge and their future careers Conclusion It is undeniable that the application of translation in post-reading process is very essential to the success of reading comprehension of IT texts With the attempt to improve the ability of reading comprehension of IT texts for IT students, particularly for the non-major, third year students of English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, the writer (as well as a collaborative researcher) has just presented a survey research on the translation as an enabling strategy for students‟ reading comprehension of IT texts that she has carried out with the help of some colleagues as co-researchers The rationale that leads to the study as well as the statement of the problem has been stated in chapter one, the introduction The literature review has been presented in chapter two of the study Also, some approaches have been viewed in this chapter Moreover, the related literature to challenges 43 of comprehending IT texts, the use of language 1, translation as teaching technique and strategies for using translation in reading comprehension of IT texts have been also carefully presented The study has been described in detail in chapter three The researcher has developed the methodology and procedure of the research in this part as well In chapter four, the researcher has presented the data analysis, in which the researcher analyzed all the data collected quantitatively and qualitatively The discussion of the findings with reference to the literature review and the discussion of the research questions have also been presented in this chapter Basing on some major findings, some pedagogical implications as well as some suggestions for further studies have been put in the last chapter The benefits of translation in post-reading process has been proved with emphasis on students‟ attitudes and their perception of the usefulness of translation in reading comprehension of IT texts With the success of the study, translation as an enabling strategy for students‟ reading comprehension of IT texts is also recognized and strengthened, at least in the university where the researcher is working In the future, it is hoped that more studies on translation learning and teaching will be realized, such as those listed in the further studies mentioned in the previous section Finally yet importantly, although the study still owes some shortcomings, it is the researcher‟s deeply wish that the study, to some extent, can be of help for teachers of IT English, especially for those who teach the IT students REFERENCES Alireza Bonyadi, (2003) Article: “Teaching and Translation” Islamic Azad University, Urmia, Iran from http://www.forum.developingteachers.com (April 06,2003) Bernhardt, E B & M L Kamil (1995) Interpreting Relationships between First Language and Second Language Reading: Consolidating the Linguistic Threshold and the Linguistic 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□ Rural □ Urban It is a questionnaire designed with 20 statements according to the five - point Likert scale Please circle the most appropriate point to show your attitude towards translation in postreading process The most difficult task for IT students at HUBT in their course book is specialist reading strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree Translation activity is really necessary after reading comprehension of IT texts strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree Translating helps IT students understand specialist reading strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree The translation of relative clauses from English into Vietnamese is considered as a difficult and sophisticated task for IT students strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree "Mental translation during L2 reading may facilitate the generation and conservation of meaning" Kern (1994: 441) strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree IT students - second language readers have access to their first language to help themselves to comprehend an L2 text or IT text strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree The L1 is used as a valuable strategy for overcoming obstacles in word recognition and propositional integration strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree The IT students don’t have enough knowledge of the language they are learning so they need to reason through their mother tongue strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree IT students have to use translation once they are learning L2 strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree 10 L1 is used to clarify meaning, to check the understanding in a text, to interpret and clarify the new IT terms by the help of translation strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree 11 Translation makes students develop their reading comprehension ability in grammar as well as in vocabulary strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree 12 Translation is a kind of communicative activity, which enhances interaction among teachers and students and students themselves strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree 13 Translation can be used as an evaluating technique in reading lessons strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree 14 Translation helps learners develop their knowledge of English strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree 15 Translation is seen as an important tool to upgrade high-level students’ learning as well as reading comprehension strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree ... has been proved with emphasis on students? ?? attitudes and their perception of the usefulness of translation in reading comprehension of IT texts With the success of the study, translation as an. .. challenges of comprehending IT text, use of language as support of students? ?? reading comprehension, translation as a classroom technique, strategy for using translation to support students? ?? comprehension. .. observation and strategy for using translation to support students? ?? reading comprehension of IT text It also includes the evaluation of the students? ?? attitude to translation in post -reading process and