Internet aided translation by students of translation and interpreting division ulis vnu hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER INTERNET-AIDED TRANSLATION BY STUDENTS OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING DIVISION, ULIS, VNU, HANOI Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Cam Linh, MA Student: Tran Thi Phuong Thao Course: QH.2009 HANOI, MAY 2013 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP DỊCH THUẬT HỖ TRỢ BỞI INTERNET DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN BIÊN – PHIÊN DỊCH, ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Thạc sĩ Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh Sinh viên: Trần Thị Phương Thảo Khoá: QH.2009 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2013 ACCEPTANCE I here by state that I: Tran Thi Phuong Thao from group 091E24, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarians for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Hanoi, April 20th 2013 Tran Thi Phuong Thao ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the generous support from many people First and foremost, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Cam Linh, who enthusiastically followed, checked, and gave constructive comments on my work Without her valuable guidance during the writing process, I would not be able to reach the thesis completion today In addition, I am truly grateful to all teachers in Translation & Interpreting Division, FELTE, ULIS, VNUH for their devotion to providing us with a strong foundation for translation knowledge To me, they are a true inspiration for my pursuit of the career after graduation My heartfelt thanks go to the students of the five classes 09E24, 09E23, 09E25, 10E20, and 10E21 for their co-operation in finishing my survey questionnaire Last but not least, I am eternally indebted to my family – my parents and brother – and my close friends Duong Thi Thu Huong and Vu Thi Phuong Thanh, who exhorted me to start the thesis and cheered me during the process i ABSTRACT Since the Internet boom all over the world, almost all translation-related activities have occurred on the Internet, including information search, translation, communication with clients, and so on It is undeniable that thanks to the great assistance from the Internet, the world’s translation industry has gained amazing achievements With each passing day, more qualified translations are produced with less time and less human resources However, translation technology is still something new in Vietnam to both translators and students Up to now, there have not been any serious studies on the issue in ULIS, which somewhat was the inspiration for this modest research With 80 third and fourth-year students majoring in translations in FELTE, ULIS, VNUH as the subjects, the research aimed to evaluate their understanding on Internet-aided translation (IAT) and their ability to apply the Internet in translation practices Besides, it provided students the chance to show their views on the most appropriate way to improve their IAT capacity Regarding the significance, through the study, students and the school would be more aware of students’ translation ability, so that a better curriculum could be designed for students to prepare themselves for the working market The research is also the basis for further studies on the same topic ii TABLE OF CONTENT Page Acceptance page Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Table of content iii List of figures and tables v List of abbreviations vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and Research questions 1.3 Scope 1.4 Methodology 1.5 Significance 1.6 Organization CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Translation 2.1.1 Definition of Translation 2.1.2 An overview on Translation before the 21st century 2.1.3 An overview on Translation after the 21st century 2.2 Translation and Technology 2.2.1 Computer-assisted Translation 2.2.2 Internet-aided Translation 2.3 10 Related researches CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 14 3.1 14 Participants iii 3.2 Data collection instrument 14 3.3 Data collection procedures 15 3.4 Data analysis methods and procedures 15 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 16 4.1 16 What is Internet-aided translation from students’ point of view? 4.1.1 Frequency and purposes of Internet use in translation by 16 students 4.1.2 IAT’s advantages and drawbacks perceived by students 17 4.1.3 Students’ knowledge on IAT tools 19 4.2 How effective students’ coping tactics in Internet-aided 22 translation? 4.3 What should be done to expand students’ capability for 27 Internet-aided translation, suggested by students? CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 29 5.1 Summary of findings 29 5.2 Limitations of the study 29 5.3 Recommendations for further study 30 REFERENCES 31 APPENDIXES 33 Appendix 33 Appendix 37 Appendix 38 iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Names of figures Page Figure 1: Translation automation measurement scale (Hutchins & Somers, 1992) Figure 2: Frequency of Internet usage in translation by students 17 Figure 3: IAT tools known by students 19 Figure 4: Assessments of the usefulness of common programs by 21 students Figure 5: Suggestions on IAT ability improvement by students 27 List of tables Table 1: ICT support for freelance translator 11 Table 2: Students’ purposes in the use of Interenet in translation 17 Table 3: IAT’s advantages and disadvantages by students 18 Table 4: Functions of IAT tools by Students 20 Table 5: Problem 23 Table 6: Problem 24 Table 7: Problem 25 Table 8: Problem 26 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CAT: Computer-Assisted Translation FAHQT: Fully Automatic High Quality Translation HAMT: Human-aided machine translation FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teaching Education IAT: Internet-aided translation MAHT: Machine-aided human translation MT: Machine translation SL: Source language ST: Source term TL: Target language TT: Target term ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies VNUH: Vietnam National University, Hanoi vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this first chapter, a concise overview on the research is provided, namely the rationale, aims and research questions, scope, methodology, significance, and the organization of the study 1.1 Rationale Born in the 1960s and first launched in 1970s, the Internet is undoubtedly one of the greatest inventions in mankind’s history With its global spread and continuous information availability, strong contributions have been made to the development of business, communication, medicine, sciences, education, entertainment and even politics Translation is no exception Thanks to tremendous support of the Internet, translation services in this twenty-first century are much faster and of higher quality Modern translators can easily look up terminologies and specialized knowledge necessary to the translation from reliable online resources, which used to be a difficulty for most translators before the twentieth century In addition, they have more access to online training courses so that they are likely to improve their qualification Another benefit the Internet brings about for nowadays translation practitioners is opportunities for translation jobs both domestically and internationally In one word, translation has become a real industry in virtue of the Internet in recent days Unfortunately, those advantages of the Internet, which are listed above, may be somehow unknown to many translation and interpreting students If yes, not all students know how to make best use of them so as to improve their work and translation skills Therefore, as a senior student majoring in Translation and Interpreting, I would like to carry out the study with the hope idiom to describe a situation in the source text In case some words probably spring to their mind, but they hardly recall exactly the expression, learning how to search in the Internet is crucial 4.3 Research question 3: What should be done to expand students’ capability for IAT, suggested by students? As the Internet is the most efficient aid to translation currently, it is essential for would-be translators to master their knowledge and skills of IAT With the competence in IAT, students will be able to successfully enter the workforce both after graduation With that hope, the research question was addressed, so that students have chance to raise their voice and the school can select the best way for education Below is the chart illustrating students’ options and the rate each one is voted for Students' Suggestions found a forum 36% open a course 27% hold experience exchange meetings 37% Figure 5: Suggestions on IAT Ability Improvement by Students Among the three available options offered by the researcher, holding experience-exchange meetings between students and the experienced was chosen most with 37% of the respondents Picked by a smaller percentage of 30 students (36%) was founding a forum where students can share experience with each other The final choice, opening a course, seemed least attractive to students as only 27% of them went for it In justification of their own choices, students argued that opening a course is wasteful and time-consuming Instead, they suggested that teachers should integrate IAT knowledge into the lessons in translation or translation theory, combined with exercises for students to practice From the researcher’s viewpoint, it is worthwhile for the school to train would-be translators to be competent in IAT, especially in the context of globalization The school curriculum can be Internet-oriented; that is, the teachers utilize the Internet to offer lessons in subjects such as translation and translation theory To illustrate, teachers can show students how to use a free online MT system or how to handle problems listed in the previous section Furthermore, domestic translation-related clubs like ETIC (English Translation and Interpreting Club) can stage competitions and events in which students are encouraged to prove their skills and creativity in IAT To conclude, Chapter performs a close analysis of translation students’ understanding on IAT and their capacity for applying the Internet in translation Besides, it is the reflection on students’ viewpoints on enhancing their IAT ability 31 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION As the last chapter in the thesis, Chapter functions as a summary of the main points presented in the preceding chapters Besides, it points out the limitations of the research and offers recommendations for further study 5.1 Summary of findings In the completion of the study, there have revealed the two following significant findings: The first one is a comprehensive overview on the global background of translation before and after the Internet boom and the growth of translation technology in that context Overall, translation practices before the arrival of the Internet were quite primitive, mainly with printed dictionaries and reference materials CAT at that time, though being a resolution in translation, was still limited and hard to access for most translators However, everything has changed quickly since the Internet became popular all over the world Online material resources and information are available every where on the Internet Translation tools are free and more accessible than ever It is undeniable that the Internet has made a genuine progress in translation technology Also included in the Chapter is a list of tools which are indispensable to translators in this 21st century The second one is an initial assessment of translation-specialized students’ ability in IAT Honestly speaking, their knowledge of IAT is very basic in spite of the high frequency in utilizing the Internet for translation This is revealed through the way student responded to translation-related problems listed in the questionnaire when 58% of them failed to map out a clear strategy for solution Similarly, when asked about their purposes to use the Internet in translation, 68% of the students could not specify their aims Additionally, the 32 diversity in IAT tools stated by students is pretty low, which is illustrated in the Appendix 5.2 Limitations of the study Due to the restriction in time and the researcher’s capability, there exist a number of limitations in the study Firstly, only a questionnaire was used as the research instrument during the study Test and interview which were scheduled after the questionnaire’s collection were not conducted This somewhat exerted an adverse impact to the result of the study as the data from the survey hardly reflected students’ actual IAT ability Probably, students could utilize the Internet in translation, but they did not know how to outline their strategies Therefore, students’ performance in the test is the most consistent basis of assessment Secondly, the problems created in the questionnaire to address the research question and their solutions are totally from the researcher’s experience As a result, they may not be typical and sufficient enough for the assessment The researcher is completely conscious that those weaknesses are due to her limited capability All feedbacks are warmly welcomed and highly valued 5.3 Recommendations for further study Firstly, further study on the same topic can diversify the data for research by setting a standardized test in both IAT knowledge and ability for students Following the test should be a short in-depth interview with a small handful of respondents, so that the researcher can identify students’ difficulties in IAT and their strategies to deal with The researcher also can expand the research scope or narrow the topic Secondly, further study can be conducted on professional translators’ IAT skills; for example, how they gain specialized technical assistances, how they 33 build up their professional network, or how they hunt translation projects on the Internet Based on the data gathered, the researcher can analyze their strategies as suggestions for would-be translators Thirdly, further study is recommended to enlarge or dig deeply the database in the Appendix on available free IAT tools In other words, more thorough analyses of some most helpful IAT tools; for example about their functions and their uses, can be performed as advices for translation students 34 REFERENCES No Documents Baker, M (1998) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation London: Routledge Hampshire, S Translation and the Internet: Evaluating the Quality of Free Online Machine Translators Quaderns de Tranduccio, 2009, no 17 Heather Fulford, Joaquín Granell-Zafra (2005) Translation and Technology: a Study of UK Freelance Translators The Journal of Specialsed Translation Hutchins, W.J and H.L Somers (1992) An introduction to machine translation London: Academic Press Le, H.T PhD & Nguyen, N.B MA (2008) Translation Theory Hanoi: ULIS, VNU Newmark, P (1988) A Textbook of Translation Prentice Hall O'Hagan, M (1993) Translating in Cyberspace: the Coming Industry of Translation Aslib Proceedings (pp 89-98) London: Aslib Olivia Craciunescu, Constanza Gerding-Salas, Susan Stringer-O'Keeffe (2004, July) Machine Translation and Computer-assisted Translation: a New Way of Translating Retrieved november 30, 2012, from Translation Journal: http://translationjournal.net/journal/29computers.htm Raído, V E (2011) Investigating the Web Search Behaviors of Translation Students: an Exploratory and Multiple-case Study Universitat Ramon Llull 10 Sánchez, P M (2006, October) Electronic Tools for Translators in the 21st Century Retrieved November 28, 2012, from Translation Journal: 35 http://translationjournal.net/journal/38tools.htm 11 Sokolovsky, Y V (2010) On the Linguistic Definition of Translation Journal of Siberian Federal University Humanities & Social Sciences , 285-292 12 Ulitkin, I (2011, January) Computer-assisted Translation Tools: A Brief View Retrieved November 28, 2012, from Translation Journal: http://www.bokorlang.com/journal/55computers.htm 13 Wong, Tak Ming Machine Translation and Evaluation: Online Systems MA Thesis City University of Hongkong, 2008 CityU Institutional Repository Web 18 March 2013 Dictionaries and other references Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, CD-ROM 8th Edition, Oxford University Press 36 APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Hi! I am Tran Thi Phuong Thao, an undergraduate student from 09E24, Division of Translation & Interpreting, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University (ULIS-VNU), Hanoi I am conducting my graduation paper on “Internet-aided Translation by students of ULIS-VNU.” This survey questionnaire aims to investigate your views and understandings on this issue For the reliability of the results, please give specific and honest answers as much as possible All information you provide will be confidential and used solely for research purposes Thank you very much for your contribution to my study! Name:………………………………………………………………… Class:………………………………………………………………… E-mail:………………………………………………………………… Mobile phone:………………………………………………………… How often you use Internet to support your translation? If yes, for what purpose (information, terminology, etc.)? Frequently Sometimes Rarely Never Purpose(s): 37 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………… What you think about Internet-aided translation? List at least adjectives or nouns to describe its advantages and drawbacks (3 for advantages and for drawbacks) Advantages Disadvantages Name some Internet-based translation tools (website, software, etc.) you’ve used or heard about? How you think they can help you in translating? Do you think the following items are beneficial to your translation practices? Explain clearly why or why not? Email Google Social Networking (face 38 book, twitter, yahoo! messenger, etc.) With the connection to the Internet, what would you to overcome the following difficulties when translating? Problems Solutions (please specify) Some terms/idioms/expressions; name of organizations and agencies; office and title, etc in the source text are absent in dictionaries (printed & CD-ROMS) The source text contains an unfamiliar acronym without its specific information (Note: An acronym may have varieties of full versions) A term/ an expression in the source text has some different target translations while you have to find the most possibly accurate one You are not certain about an expression in Vietnamese (during English-to-Vietnamese translation) In your opinion, what should be done to expand students’ capability for Internet-aided translation? (You can put a tick on more than one box) 39 Open a course Hold some seminars where students are shared experiences in Internet-aided translation by the experienced Found a forum for students to share and update tips and tools in Internet-aided translation together Your comment/ suggestion: Thank you very much for your cooperation! 40 APPENDIX INTERNET-AIDED TRANSLATION TOOLS KNOWN BY STUDENTS Types Tools Online electronic - http://oxforddictionaries.com/ dictionaries - http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ - http://dictionary.babylon.com/ - http://www.ozdic.com/ (collocation) - http://www.wordreference.com/ - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ - http://tratu.soha.vn/ - http://tratu.vietgle.vn/ - http://vdict.com/ Online electronic - http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trang_Ch%C3%ADnh encyclopedias - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - http://bachkhoatoanthu.vass.gov.vn/Pages/trangchu.aspx - http://translate.google.com/ Search engines - http://www.google.com.vn/ Translation- - http://www.translation.vn/ related websites - http://luyendich.com/ Online machine translation systems 41 APPENDIX AVAILABLE FREE INTERNET-AIDED TRANSLATION TOOLS Following are available free Internet-aided translation tools collected and selected by the researcher Her purpose to form the table is to provide the readers a general overview on available Internet-aided translation tools and chances to try them The amount is just a drop in the ocean and waits to be developed by further studies Types Tools Online English – English Dictionaries dictionaries http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ http://oxforddictionaries.com/ http://www.definitions.net http://dictionary.reference.com/ http://www.macmillandictionary.com/ http://www.merriam-webster.com/ http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dictionary.htm (interdisciplinary) Acronym http://www.abbreviations.com/ Thesaurus & Antonyms http://thesaurus.com/ Specialized Dictionaries (English – English) http://www.investopedia.com/dictionary/ (finance) http://dictionary.law.com (law) http://www.marketingpower.com/_layouts/Dictionary.aspx (marketing) http://mathworld.wolfram.com (math) 42 http://www.medterms.com/script/main/hp.asp (medicine) http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php (medicine) http://www.ventureline.com/accounting-glossary/ (accounting) http://www.builderspace.com/glossary.html (construction) Slangs http://www.urbandictionary.com/ http://onlineslangdictionary.com/ http://www.noslang.com/dictionary/ (Internet slangs) Words’ Sources http://www.etymonline.com/index.php Dictionaries developed by Vietnam http://tratu.soha.vn/ (interdisciplinary) http://vndic.net/ (interdisciplinary) http://tratu.vietgle.vn/ (interdisciplinary) http://vdict.com/ http://codict.org/index.php (construction) http://tudien.ykhoaviet.com/ (medicine) http://dialy.hnue.edu.vn (geography) http://webbaohiem.net (insurance) http://www.vietgle.vn/home/ (Vietnamese history) Online Specialized Encyclopedias (Cyclopedias) encyclopedias http://www.computerlanguage.com/webexamples.htm (computer) http://www.techterms.com/ (technology) http://www.biography.com/people (celebrities) http://eol.org/ (nature) http://www.symbols.com/ (symbols) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia.html (medical) http://www.wdl.org/en/ (world’s cultures) http://www.wildanimalsonline.com/ (animals) 43 General Encyclopedias http://www.encyclopedia.com/ http://www.britannica.com/ http://www.bartleby.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (written and editted by users) Encyclopedias developed by Vietnam http://bachkhoatoanthu.vass.gov.vn/Pages/trangchu.aspx http://tusach.thuvienkhoahoc.com/wiki/VLOS:Trang_Ch%C3%ADnh (books) Online machine http://translate.google.com/ translation http://translate.google.com/toolkit/ systems http://imtranslator.net/translation/ (English- http://www.stars21.asia/translator/ Vietnamese) http://babelfish.altavista.com Search engines http://www.google.com.vn/ Specialized http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed databases http://www.scopus.com/home.url http://wokinfo.com/ http://www.proquest.co.uk/en-UK/ 44 ... minutely and fully one by one 4.1 Research question 1: What is Internet- aided translation from students? ?? point of view? With the aim of assessing students? ?? understanding degree of Internetaided translation, ... methods and procedures 15 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 16 4.1 16 What is Internet- aided translation from students? ?? point of view? 4.1.1 Frequency and purposes of Internet use in translation by. .. students majoring in translation in FELTE, ULIS, VNU and their competence in the utilization of Internet for translation Specifically, the target population of the study is 3rd and 4th-year students