Difficulties in translating social english articles into vietnamese faced by the third year english major students at thuongmai university and some suggested solutions

1 ABSTRACT Translation skill is an extremely necessary skill for us It plays an important role in the learning and working process In particular, for a foreign language learner, translation skill becomes a necessary and indispensable medium According to some surveys, students say that they have difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese This study was conducted to investigate problems in translating social English articles into Vietnamese which the third-year English majors at Thuongmai University Then the researcher wants to find a reason for those problems and propose solutions so that students can solve them Fifty people who are third-year English major students at Thuongmai University participated in this study Therefore, in the hope of improving students' ability to translate with the enthusiastic help of participants, the researcher hopes this research will be a useful tool for everyone 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During this graduation paper, I received much necessary help, guidance, valuable ideas and encouragement from my teachers, my family and friends I would like to send my sincere and profound thanks to the teachers of the Thuongmai University, especially the teachers in the English department during the time when I just started to come to school I thank the teachers for always enabling us to have the opportunity to study in the best and most effective environment With deep gratitude, I would like to thank Ms Phan Tu Lan for enthusiastic guidance and encouragement and valuable guidance so that we can complete this graduation paper I’m grateful to third-year English majors at Thuongmai University for their enthusiastic participation Their sharing has become the main sources of data in my research Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to my family, my friends who always stand by and support and become a great motivation to help me overcome difficulties in the process of doing this research In the course of making this graduation paper, although I have tried hard, it is difficult to avoid errors, I hope the teachers will understand At the same time, due to the limited level of reasoning as well as limited scientific research ability I look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions for the perfect of my own graduation paper Thank you sincerely! Hanoi, April 22nd 2020 Student Nguyen Thi Huyen 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviation SL TL ASEAN EU COVID-19 N Meaning Source language Target language Association of Southeast Asian Nations European Union An infectious disease caused by coronavirus Noun a LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Charts – Tables Chart Table Table Chart Chart Table Chart Table Chart Chart 6 Name The students’ opinion is about learning translation The reason why students study translation The students’ opinions about the usefulness of studying translation The amount of time students usually spend on studying translation social English article into Vietnamese How often you have difficulties when translating social English article into Vietnamese? The biggest challenge that students have to face when translating social English article into Vietnamese How students will when they encounter a new word in a translation text What students will after they finish their translation Things have a great influence on students’ interest in translation What students to improve their translation social English article into Vietnamese skill? CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English has been a common language widely used in all countries of the world Nearly 60 countries use English as their primary language, besides their mother tongue and nearly 100 countries use English as their second language However, each country has its own culture and a unique language These countries that not use English, they must know two languages simultaneously to communicate with international friends The English translation industry was born to help the difficulties of those who have difficulty learning or acquiring a second language Translators also have increasingly higher requirements when translating Only foreign languages cannot become a good translator Translators need to master the vocabulary and grammar, know about the social and cultural characteristics of the country in order to be able to convey to the target language completely Recognizing the importance of translation, Thuongmai University has introduced Translation into the subject The teachers teach the students how to translate English into Vietnamese and how to translate Vietnamese into English The teachers instruct students how to translate articles such as social, economics- business, culture education, foreign affairs - health care, etc and specialized articles However, most students often find that they have a lot of difficulties in translating the social English Vietnamese article In this research, the researcher will investigate the difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese faced by the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University and suggest some solutions to this problem Therefore, the researcher would like to conduct the study entitled “Difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese faced by the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions” The researcher hopes this study will help them find out their difficulties and provide them some solutions to improve this skill 1.2 Previous studies Research topics on issues “the difficulties of learners in English translation” have been studied by many different researchers around the world in general and in Viet Nam in particular In the world: A study named “Difficulties and some problems in translating legal documents” by Ivanka Sakareva The paper aims at revealing the difficulties in translating legal documents In order to make a full characteristic of these problems, Ivanka Sakareva has described the actual process of translating the rules that should be observed by the translators the translation strategy in translating documents as well as the importance of the cultural transfer How does the legal translation differ from the literal one? Is it an easy task to translate specialized texts? Another study named “Analysis of Translation Difficulties for the Fourth Semester Students of English Department of IKIP Gunungsitoli Year 2013/2014” with the objective of the research is to find out and to describe translation difficulties for the fourth semester students of English department of IKIP Gunungsitol The researcher uses two kinds of research instruments that are questionnaires which consist of open and close and test as the source of content analysis applied as a part of qualitative research method In Vietnam: A study named “Difficulties in Learning the Translation of Students major in International Relations” The purpose of the research is to identify and explain these difficulties, and to provide some methods for students to be good at translating and have their own experience in the following working process The researcher limited his research subjects to students of TA39A and TA39B classes, English department, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam There are some previous studies on translation skill of university students All these studies show that different aspects of the problem give the reader a more multidimensional view and to recognize the importance of improving translation skill Hope that my research will contribute a little bit to anyone having difficulties in translating The aims of the study 1.3 When choosing and carrying out this study, the researcher expects to clarify main issues: • • To investigate some factors effect student’s translation skill To find out some difficulties, and common problems in translating social English articles into Vietnamese the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University which must face • To suggest some possible solutions to these problems so as to help students have 1.4 a good translation skill Research questions In order to achieve the aims, this study is seeking answers to the following questions: What are factors that affect articles translation skill of the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University? What are some main difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese of the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University? What are some solutions to improving their social articles translation skill? 1.5 Significance of this study The purposes of the study are to find out the difficulties and then propose some solutions to improve the social articles translation skills Therefore, this research is expected to bring significant benefits and become a useful resource for both students and teachers Firstly, for students, through this research, they will find out their weaknesses when translating and so that they come up with appropriate solutions and apply it to fix their problems Secondly, when this research has been completed, its findings and suggestions will become one of the most effective tools to help the further and deeper investigations 1.6 Scope of the study The study focuses on the social articles translation skill of the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University There are several types of English-Vietnamese translations such as economics-business, culture-education, foreign affairs-health care Because of the limitations of time, information as well as knowledge, this study cannot cover all of them It is mainly about the social articles translation skills In addition, due to a large number of students in Thuongmai University, the researcher cannot investigate all of them These participants are the most suitable because they are already familiar with translation skills Therefore, this study only focuses on the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University Research methodology 1.7 This study is carried out in both qualitative and quantitative method Therefore, the researcher conducts the research with some following steps: - Firstly, the researcher searches some necessary documents in web sites on Internet Besides, the researcher reads some previous studies related to translation skills In addition, the researcher borrows books from library to have - directions for my study Secondly, the study includes survey questionnaires for students who are the thirdyear English at Thuongmai University The survey investigates 50 students at Thuongmai University After getting results from survey, the researcher will collect and start analyzing them by using tables and charts Organization of the study 1.8 Except for chapter (introduction) introduced above, the rest of the study consists of three chapters as below: - Chapter 2, the literature review, it has the theoretical background of translation - skill which are the basic foundation of data analysis Chapter 3, methodology and research findings, present the method used for data collection and data analysis process Besides, it will discuss the results of the - study Chapter 4, the summary of the whole study, suggestions, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further studies 10 skip it and translate others, which will cut down the flow of smooth of the translated text Asking friends or teachers is the way that 6% of students usually apply when confronting new words And only student has other option account for 2% Guessing meaning from context is the best solution that the university English teachers often advice their students to notice With the belief that students will be passive in memorizing the words meaning when everything is available, it is not very necessary to use dictionary all the time Certainly, there are many ways to deal with vocabulary, guessing word meaning basing on context then turning back to check its meaning in dictionary is believed to be the best way to memorize an English word Question 8: What you often after you finish your translation? Options Share with your friends Read it again to correct some mistakes if there are Read it again and try to translate it in another way Wait for teacher’s feedback Others Percentage (%) 14 28 23 46 Number of choices 16 Table 4: What students will after they finish their translation What will students after they finish their translation? This question will be resolved through the result collected in table The result above indicates that after the students finish their translation, 46% of students read their translated text again and try to translate it in another way Unlike those students, 28% of them read it again and correct some mistakes if there are It can be deduced that these students are making every effort to perfect their translation product, which is believed to bring to their success in mastering translation There are 8% of students share their translation product with their friends while 16% of students only wait for teacher feedback in class Except those methods mentioned above, only one student shares other way to check their final products after the student has it finished 34 It is encouraging that most students implemented many different ways to have a successfully done product, but there still some students just translate and wait for their teacher’s feedback in class passively Question 9: What has a great influence on your interested in translation social English article into Vietnamese? Chart 5: Things have a great influence on students’ interest in translation When being investigated about the factors that have a great influence on students’ interest in translation, the percentage of students choosing teaching method is approximately 18% Teaching material occupies 16% of students’ opinion about the factor influencing on their interest Whereas thirty-four percent of students think their own ability such as: some weakness in grammar and vocabulary has an important impact on their interest in translation, and it also occupies the highest rate among other options The percentage of students choosing social knowledge is approximately 24% Besides, 8% of students have other ideas Understanding about the stimulus influencing students’ interest in studying translation, the teacher should apply many different interesting teaching methods, which wake students up, as well as let students feel elated to translate Question 10: What you to improve your translation social English article into Vietnamese skill? (the student can choose more than one answer) Chart 6: What students to improve their translation social English article into Vietnamese skill? The result shows that the students pay much attention on improving their translation skill and have applied many different ways to make them more professional in translating As it can be seen from the chart, 15% of students learn vocabulary by heart Doing grammar exercise from grammar books or from internet is the choice of 20% of students In addition, 27% of students often read 35 and practice translating information from newspapers, magazines or articles from English into Vietnamese 19% of students review teacher's feedback to learn vocabulary, grammar, and the way of using vocabulary suggested by teacher The same rate of students improves their translation skill by applying all of the four ways mentioned above It shows that they choose to apply all possible methods to deal with this kind of activity 3.2.2 Discussion of the findings Thanks to the results collected from students' opinions through the questionnaires, the researcher has some basic following conclusions On one hand, the researcher realizes that although translation is very difficult, most of students still find their interest in learning this kind of subject They know how important and useful translation is, so they have good motivation and attitude in learning In fact, most students apply a variety of methods to improve their translation skills On the other hand, the researcher also finds out some weaknesses of students as well as their difficulties in learning translation Firstly, some students feel learning translation is difficult and boring, so they are reinforced to study it just because it is a compulsory subject Sometimes, they lose their motivation in learning because of this reason Secondly, we can see that social knowledge, culture, grammar structure, vocabulary and its meaning are always the big challenges for almost all students when translating social English article into Vietnamese Moreover, when doing translation social articles, students usually encounter with many new words but nearly half of them look up this word on dictionary, some ask their friends or teacher to find its meaning while guessing meaning from context is a very important skill which needs to be motivated In addition, the amount of time students spend on learning this subject is not very much, they often about hours per week, so it is too hard to make progress Except some problems arising from the students, the teacher and his/her teaching method also affect students' interest in translation 36 Obviously, most students have good attitude in learning translation However, there are still some weaknesses that students need to improve in order to make progress and get a better result 37 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Summary of the study As stated earlier, the thesis is an attempt to present the difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese faced by the third-year English major students at Thuong Mai University In addition, the study aims at investigating some factors affect to translating social English articles skills in order to find out some strategies to help students overcome and have a good translation skill To reach the aims of the researcher, the study was divided into four chapters The first chapter has briefly described the general theories of the research Chapter two in this study concentrates on the definition of translating, the significance of translating, types of translating, the approach of translation, translating English into Vietnamese in social articles and the factors influencing English into Vietnamese translation process in social articles The basic concepts discussed in this chapter provide the readers with fundamental theories critical to the analysis of the study Chapter three – methodology mentions about the research methods applied in the study, including research methodology, research questions, participants, data collection methods and methods of data analysis The researcher makes a survey to collect information from the students of thirdyear English major students at Thuongmai University Then the researcher started to analyze and did statistics on the responses to questionnaire to get the final results and discussion At the end of this thesis, the researcher also suggests some possible solutions to help students deal with difficulties in studying as well as make some suggestions for teachers on meeting the students' expectations in learning written translation subject which is believed to be hard to master 4.2 Possible solutions 4.2.1 Suggestions to improving vocabulary 38 Vocabulary opens up doors to new worlds and makes learning fun and satisfying The following mentioned solutions help you how to learn vocabulary quickly, fast and in an easy way a Find the tools that work for you Everyone learns differently, so if you don’t already know what works for you, try as many different ways – or a combination thereof – as possible: flashcards, apps, lists, games, or post-its, are great ways to memorize vocabulary The same goes for finding the right time: Some people want to set apart a specific time, others learn more spontaneously No matter which approach you choose, be sure to get into some kind of rhythm – practice makes perfect, after all b Read as much as possible If a person gets into the habit of reading, then a person is exposed to new words Always make it a habit to underline the new words and refer to them in the context section and try to understand their meaning By doing this, you will remember the words and will be able to make its correct usage c Put the words in context A good idea to learn more words faster is to put them in context: Instead of writing lists of random words, try to put them in sentences That way, you know how the word is used in real life Plus, if you come up with funny sentences, it will be easier to memorize Depending on how you learn, you can also make drawings or find images that will complement the sentences and put the words into their natural habitat Speaking of context: Movies, TV shows, books, podcasts or songs are not only a great source for the most common words, they can also help you memorize the vocabulary because they always come associated with a scene, a person, or a (real-life) event So, try to read books or watch movies in the original language (with subtitles) and figure out what the words mean If you see or hear a phrase or sentence that you don’t understand, write it down, look it up and start memorizing it d Play and have fun with the words 39 Make it a habit to play with words through various board games like Quiddler, crossword puzzles and many others for your vocabulary improvement These days to play these games a person doesn’t need partners as a person can play with the computer as a partner Also make it a habit to solve the crossword puzzle that is published in the newspaper for daily practice e Take it to the next level If you want to take language learning to the next level, leave enough space for mind maps with associated words, synonyms or antonyms If you want to get the most out of your learning process, try not to translate the word into your native language, but instead, explain and describe it in the language you’re trying to learn f Repeat and then repeat some more Remember to not just repeat current words, but also the “old stuff” that you think you’ve memorized already You don’t have to look at the stored words as often as the new vocabulary, but the more you use the words, the better you’ll remember and recall them 4.2.2 Suggestions to improving grammar Grammar is a subject that stresses many students out, as it can be quite confusing and complicated However, correct grammar is important for your writing and success It is thus crucial to know some simple methods to improve your grammar skills There are many excellent resources, both online and in print, conducive to improving your grammar skills A quick Internet search will reveal a multitude of websites that offer grammar games and exercises Students can access the webpage http://lopngoaingu.com or http://www.tienganh123.com, which is very common to students at every levels of English learning Moreover, the students should look for a reliable grammar book that offers answer keys and clear explanations for each grammar point The best sale “Oxford Practice Grammar with Answers” (Norman Coe, Mark Harrison, Ken Paterson) and the series book consist of Grammar Practice for Elementary Students, for Pre40 intermediate Students, for Intermediate Students, and Grammar Practice for Upper Intermediate Students (Elaine walker, Steve Elsworth) can be considered as helpful tools for those who want to improve their grammar quickly and effectively 4.2.3 Suggestion on practice Reading and practicing translating from newspapers, magazines, articles from English to Vietnamese is a great way to practice translating That is also the secret of success when you want to learn in translating English Work hard to read and read everything about every topic that interests you whenever possible And don't forget to remember important information While reading, if there is any unclear place, it is best to skip to not hinder the process of reading And of course you will come back and study more Expand background knowledge by regularly reading newspapers, magazines and books Be interested in world events Things that seem to be "out of range" in your area of interest can be very useful for your translating later Thanks to the process of reading articles from English newspapers and magazines, translators not only acquire and expand their background knowledge but also get used to translating headlines and proper names Therefore, translating headlines or proper names is no longer difficult for translators 4.2.4 Suggestion on teachers and teaching method The researcher wants to emphasize that the teachers' attitude directly has influence on the quality of studying Although every teacher has his own way of teaching, a friendly atmosphere in classroom is believed to bring to a great impulse for studying Therefore, during the teaching time, the teacher should create a free atmosphere to help students study under no pressure and have chance to ask or state their opinions freely about some wondered things Besides, creating a closer relationship in which the teachers plays a role as students who understand their difficulties and sympathize with their psychological tensions is really necessary for every teacher to In addition, providing students with useful knowledge as well as answering or explaining students' questions 41 enthusiastically are things teachers can to help both teachers and students make progress in teaching and studying Beside the teacher's attitude, teaching materials is also estimated as an important part of every subject According to student's responses, most of them like translating documents related to some social topics that they feel interested in such as lifestyle, health, education and entertainment because these topics are quite close to their daily life, and they have enough knowledge to understand and translate it Moreover, they can deal with vocabulary related to these fields easier than other topics like science, politics, philosophy or psychology In addition, teaching materials should be various in topic and suitable for students' ability Teachers should give students many enjoyable and attractive topics with the aims of helping them practice and learn some things from it Educational aims can be inserted in each translation passage through a lesson, a story, or a piece of knowledge The level of difficulty should be raised gradually from the beginning to the end of the course Certainly, students will be interested in every translation passage and no one can be bored or feel difficult when they can study with such appropriate and attracted materials like this 4.2 Limitations of the study Despite considerable devotion of time and efforts, because of limited time, lack of sources, and the ability of the researcher, the study cannot avoid some shortcomings and mistakes which can be mentioned as below: First of all, it is the small number of participants Only 50 students of English Department at Thuongmai University were selected by the researcher with her own criteria Therefore, the results obtained may not be generalized to the whole people who have translated Another drawback faced during the research process is the researcher conducts the questionnaire and interview methods but cannot conduct other methods such as case-study, classroom observation which can make the results obtained more reliable 42 Besides, the techniques suggested in this research are selected from different reliable but limited sources 4.3 Suggestion for further research The study only investigated the difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese of 50 students who are the third – year English majors at Thuongmai University Therefore, for further studies, the researcher suggests conducting the survey as well interview more students with different background in order to gain deeper and clearer data about the problems which students experienced with translating social English articles into Vietnamese skills and causes of these problems Moreover, further researchers should also change the research method by observing students' learning through interviewing teachers to have a deeper insight into the translation difficulties and strategies 43 CONCLUSION Nobody can deny the important of translation in the past few decades when this activity has been boosted because of rising international trade, increased migration, globalization and the expansion of the mass media and technology For those reasons, the translator plays an important role as a bilingual or multilingual cross-cultural transmitter of culture and idea by attempting to transfer the text as faithfully and accurately as possible However, it is not so easy for the students of English major to master translation skill as well as to become professional translators Facing difficulties as well as taking mistakes in studying translation are unavoidable Therefore, issue related to students' difficulties and their expectation are the objectives and the focuses of this thesis What the researcher attempts to in this thesis is to find out the students' difficulties and to meet their expectations in studying written translation subject at their early academic years From there give some useful suggestions and solutions to help them surmount difficulties and to improve the quality of training method at Thuongmai university It is a strong hope that the study with all suggestions above will be a useful reference to help improve the quality of both learning and training at Thuongmai University Hopefully, the study will also be a helpful companion for all those who are interested in written translation and want to be a professional translator Nevertheless, this is the first time we have had a chance to a research, getting mistakes during the study is unavoidable Due to the limited time of the research, it is so difficult for us to arrange a suitable time for interviewing questions as well as get much more information about the students' expectation Moreover, to please everyone is not really easy, some expectations collected above can not reflect all the students’ needs It is, therefore, one of the most limitations of the study However, the researcher believes that the thesis named “Difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese faced by the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions” will be able 44 to contribute its reality and usefulness to both the students and teachers in adjusting the learning and teaching method REFERENCES Hien Le, Khó Khăn Trong Việc Học Mơn Biên Dịch Của Sinh Viên Chuyên Ngành Quan Hệ Quốc Tế Newmark, Peter (1988), A Textbook of Translation, Prentice Hall Newmark, Peter (1982) Approaches to Translation, Pergamon Press Nguyen Van Tuan (2006), Translation 1&2, Hue University, Hue Oxford learner Dictionaries Theory of interpreting and translation, Thuongmai University Yasminar Amaerita Telaubanua, M.Pd, Analysis of Translation Difficulties for the Fourth Semester Students of English Department of IKIP Gunungsitoli Year 2013/2014 https://www.translationdirectory.com/ https://vietnamnews.vn/ 45 APPENDIX: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES This survey aims to find out difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese faced by the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University I would really appreciate if you could take some time to fill out this questionnaire Many thanks!!! Question In your opinion, learning translation is………? o o o o Interesting and helpful Difficult but interesting Difficult and boring Easy and helpless Question The reason why students study translation o o o o Because it is a compulsory subject Because it is interesting Because it is helpful, I can get lots of information when doing translation Because I want to study more skills to make myself more perfect Question In your opinion, studying translation can help you (you can choose more than one answer) Enlarge your vocabulary Improve language skills Use grammar structures more flexibly Expand knowledge Others Question How much time you usually spend on studying translation social English article to Vietnamese (as self-study)? o o o o or hours per week About hours per week About hours per week More than hours per week Question How often you have difficulties when translating social English article into Vietnames? o o o Frequently Sometimes Seldom 46 o Never Question What is the biggest challenge you have to face when translating social English article to Vietnamese? o o o o o o o Words and choices of word meanings Misunderstanding about culture Grammatical structures Lack of social knowledge Difficulty translating the proper names Difficulty translating the headline Others Question What you often when you encounter new words? o o Look up its meaning by using dictionary Ignore it and translate other words, then go back to guess its meaning from context o Skip it and translate others o Ask your friend or your teacher o Others Question What you often after you finish your translation? o o o o o Share with your friends Read it again to correct some mistakes if there are Read it again and try to translate it in another way Wait for teacher’s feedback Others Question What has a great influence on your interested in translation social English article to Vietnamese? o o o o o Teaching method Teaching material Topic of translation Your own ability Others Question 10 What you to improve your translation social English article to Vietnamese skill? (you can choose more than one answer) Learning vocabulary Doing grammar exercises from grammar books or from internet Reviewing teacher’s feedback to learn vocabulary, grammar and way of using vocabulary 47 Reading and practicing translating from newspapers, magazines, articles from English to Vietnamese All the above 48 ... and working in Europe.” b Translating English into Vietnamese in social articles The translation of social articles from English into Vietnamese is the process of translating information, things... third-year English major students at Thuongmai University? What are some main difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese of the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University? ... investigate the difficulties in translating social English articles into Vietnamese faced by the third-year English major students at Thuongmai University and suggest some solutions to this problem Therefore,