Sight translation teaching methods used by lecturers at translator and interpreter training division faculty of english language teacher education

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER SIGHT TRANSLATION TEACHING METHODS USED BY LECTURERS AT TRANSLATOR AND INTERPRETER TRAINING DIVISION, FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY AND THOSE AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, HANOI UNIVERSITY Supervisor : Nguyen Ninh Bac M.A Student: Do Thu Hoai Year of enrollment: QH2009 HANOI, 2013 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP Các phương pháp giảng dạy dịch đọc giáo viên ngành Biên phiên dịch, khoa Sư phạm tiếng Anh, trường Đại học ngoại ngữ, ĐHQGHN giáo viên khoa tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Hà Nội sử dụng Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.S Nguyễn Ninh Bắc Sinh viên: Đỗ Thu Hoài Khoá: QH2009 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2013 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that: I, Đỗ Thu Hoài – Group 09.1.E25, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Art 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 purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Hanoi, May 2013 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I wish to express my sincerest thank to my supervisor Mr Nguyễn Ninh Bắc, M.A for his invaluable guidance, his great patience as well as his considerable encouragement during the process of this research I would like to thank all six lecturers and the fourth year students in six classes in ULIS and HANU, who were willing to give very detailed answers to my questionnaires and interviews Without their enthusiastic participation and cooperation, this research would not have been completed I also would love to send my thanks to all my classmates, especially my three best friends, Vũ Thị Kim Liên, Vương Thu Hằng, and Trần Thị Huyền Anh for their supports in both materials and spirits Their help always came on the right time when I found discouraged and got troubles during the process of conducting this paper As well, I want to thank all managers and staffs in the Oxford English Academy, Vietnam for their supports and sympathy Without their support, I would not have finished this paper Last but not least, I am grateful to my family for their support and encouragement continuously from the beginning to the end of the research process ii ABSTRACT Translation and interpretation have been taught in a lot of universities in Vietnam for many recent years In the curriculums for translation and interpretation of the Translation and Interpretation Division, English Teacher Education Department in the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University and the English Department, Hanoi University, sight translation is introduced via different forms As one of the first studies on sight translation teaching, this paper aimed at investigating different types of sight translation exercises applied to teach students of translation and interpretation major in the two universities In order to achieve this goal, the research used questionnaires and interviews to collect data Questionnaires were delivered to 132 students in ULIS and HANU Interviews were conducted with six lecturers from both universities Through data collection and analysis, eight different types of sight translation exercises used by lecturers in ULIS and HANU were identified The results show that the number of exercise types used in ULIS is larger than that used in HANU In addition, lecturers in Translation and Interpretation Division of ULIS tend to design more detailed and complex exercises for their students than those in English Department, HANU Because they are taught different exercise types, students in the two universities also have different evaluation on the most effective type for them As this is the first research on sight translation teaching in ULIS and HANU, there are some limitations, which gives opportunity for further researches in the futures Some recommendations are given in the last chapter of the paper iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the research and practical rationale for the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 The organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Key concepts 2.1.1 Translation 2.1.2 Interpretation 2.1.3 Sight translation 2.2 Related studies 12 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16 3.1 Setting of the study 16 3.2 Sampling and participants 17 3.2.1 Sampling method 17 3.2.2 Participants 17 3.3 Research instruments 19 3.3.1 Interview 19 3.3.2 Questionnaire 20 iv 3.4 Procedures 21 3.4.1 Data collection procedure 21 3.4.2 Data analysis procedures 22 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 24 4.1 Research question 1: What kinds of exercises are applied to teach sight translation by lecturers of the two divisions at the two universities? 24 4.2 Research question 2: What methods of sight translation teaching students of two divisions at the two universities find most effective for them? Why they find most effective? 31 4.2.1 At the University of Languages and International Studies 31 4.2.2 At English Department, Hanoi University 33 4.3 Research question 3: What are the students’ suggestions to develop sight translation teaching? 35 4.4 Further discussion on sight translation exercises used in ULIS and HANU 36 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 38 5.1 Summary of major findings 38 5.2 Contributions of the study 40 5.3 Limitations of the study 41 5.4 Suggestions for further studies 41 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 44 APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE 47 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS 51 v LIST OF ABBREVIATION Consecutive interpreting CI English Department ED Faculty of English Language Teacher Education FELTE Hanoi University HANU Sight translation ST Simultaneous interpreting SI Translation and Interpretation Training Division TITD University of Languages and International Studies ULIS vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Name of table/ figure Table 1: Comparison among sight translation and translation, interpretation Table 2: Elif Ersozlu’s exercises used in a sight translation course (Elif, 2005) Table 3: Number of lecturers and students Table 4: Types of sight translation exercises designed by lecturers from ULIS and HANU Figure 1: ULIS student’s evaluation of sight translation exercises Figure 2: HANU student’s evaluation of sight translation exercises Figure 3: Students’ suggestions to improve sight translation teaching vii Page 10 14 18 24 32 34 35 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This first chapter will provide the rationale, the aims and objectives, the organization and significance of the research In addition, the research questions will be identified as the goals of the whole research 1.1 Statement of the research and practical rationale for the study Together with the development of translation and interpreting occupation, translation – interpreting teaching and learning has been given more attention in recent years There are numerous studies on translation – interpretation teaching and learning all over the world while sight translation, which is also a form of translation, has not been accorded due attention According to Agrifoglio (2004), “at the boundary between translation and interpreting, sight translation appears as a hybrid and rather unexplored phenomenon, used in various contexts and with different definitions” (p.43) In Vietnam, to my knowledge, there is just one research carried by Ms Hoang Thanh An on sight translation study by fourth year students at Translation and Interpreting Division, English Teacher Education Department, ULIS, VNU However, the research only provides results related to a small number of students and lecturers In addition, they are at only one university in Vietnam In the study, sight translation methods have not been analyzed deeply and comprehensively due to “the small sample size of respondents” (Hoang, 2011, p.52) Meanwhile, sight translation is very useful when practicing translation as well as interpretation In reality, interpreters and translators are required to sight-translate documents in many different settings, for example, courtrooms, hospitals, business services, and so on “In job interviews, candidates are also asked to perform a sight translation at a loud voice as a way to test their linguistic competence” (Visintin & Campos, 2009, p.616) Interviewer: It means that you will give students a paragraph and ask them to look at it and translate orally? Interviewee: It depends on what subject we use sight translation to teach in For example, if we use sight translation to teach translation, it may be this type If we use it to support interpretation, we can prepare sight translation by using PowerPoint Some extracts of a report or speech, etc will be presented on slide Firstly, a student will be asked to translate it orally in front of class without preparation time Then, some nouns, verbs, or phrases will be hidden and another student will be asked to fill in the blanks After that, some clauses will be hidden and one student will be asked to the same This process may repeat with or extracts if possible Interviewer: Why you choose this type of exercise? Interviewee: It is quite similar to what I’ve said before Its advantage is that it doesn’t require many facilities to support it It just requires a text on paper or projector Students also can prepare by themselves It doesn’t cost much Recording exercise will cost much because we need devices to record, whereas, sight translation is very easy to carry out Second, sight translation was studied as a step to help people interpret or translate better So it is quite traditional exercise One more reason is my working experience I see that sight translation is used in a lot of situations Sometimes, I provide my students with written documents related to the content of tapes, CDs or the text that they will translate later This helps students have some preparation before translating or interpreting Interviewer: Do you encounter any difficulty when using this exercise? Interviewee: Yes, I You need to choose the text that is suitable with students’ levels If it is too difficult and contains so many words, students will find that the task is quite difficult to complete They will be discouraged soon If the text is too easy, students will be subjective They will think that this exercise is not important It’s likely that students will take it too easy or take it too serious One more difficulty is that sometimes, the number of students in class is quite larger Thus, it’s difficult to get 53 all students involved To involve all students in the sight translation activity, it’s possible However, to check their comprehension, it’s quite hard It’s difficult to know what each student gains after the exercise are Interviewer: Where you take the texts from? Interviewee: My criterion is that the source must be clear I never choose article or news with the words “lược dịch” or “summary” The content must be transparent and suitable for students The texts should be about the same content as the main text/ audio that students will translate/ interpret later In addition, texts may be from materials that they will have to translate/ interpret in real life such as reports, contracts This will help students to know the difficulty of their career in the future Interviewer: Do you have any solution to involve almost students in your exercise? Interviewee: Once it is the difficulty, the solution to it cannot be perfect Because if we have an 100% solution, it won’t be difficulty anymore Interviewer: But how we involve as many students as possible? Interviewee: OK, I think we should design the exercises in the form that each student can contribute a little bit It’s not necessary that all students perform the same task, but each student one small task For example, one student translates phrases, another student translates sentences and one other student translates the whole extract Or one student translate Vietnamese-English text, another one translates English-Vietnamese We cannot be demanding that all students can translate Vietnamese-English text, or English-Vietnamese text, or all can go through translating phrases, sentences to extracts However, checking comprehension immediately in class is so hard because of the time constraint In addition, sight translation is only an integrating part in the curriculum It also depends on students’ attitude If they really want to recall the knowledge, they can practice with some peers in class Interviewer: How long does sight translation take in one class and in the whole course? 54 Interviewee: If it supports translation, it can be used in all class from the beginning to the end of the course If it supports interpretation, normally it will be at the beginning period of simultaneous translation In consecutive interpretation training, sight translation also can be integrated, but not compulsory Basing on the actual situation of the class, time for sight translation can be flexible Normally it doesn’t take more than 1/3 of the time Interviewer: Does it take you much time to prepare that type of exercise Interviewee: No, in comparison with other activity, sight translation does not take me much time to prepare because we can explore one text in many activities such as translation, shadowing or even extra reading Interviewer: Thank you very much for your help 55 Interviews with teacher B (ULIS) Interviewer: Which year of students you start teaching sight translation to? (first, second, third, or fourth year?) Why this year? Interviewee: I teach sight translation to forth year students In the second year, students are taught Translation Practice and in the first semester of year 3, they are introduced the notion “sight translation” So I think they have something in their minds to understand what sight translation is In year 4, in the course Advanced Translation, I want to help students have clearer understanding about it So I start to teach sight translation to them in Translation subject Interviewer: If you have chance to teach second year students, will you teach them sight translation? Interviewee: Yes, I will I think sight translation is not too difficult to understand and practice Whatever the year you are in, you can learn sight translation as long as you like and find it helpful for you and your translation or interpretation skills However, since it is not an official subject in our university’s curricular, I actually not spend much time teaching it officially in my classes I just sometimes teach it in some classes Interviewer: Do you think sight translation is helpful for students in learning translation and interpretation? Interviewee: Yes, it is useful in translation and interpretation training You know, sight translation’s input is similar to translation, but its output is like interpretation Therefore, I think it can support both translation and interpretation skills Through sight translation, students can have chances to learn words and practice their reaction ability It can be considered as a bridging step from consecutive interpreting to simultaneous interpreting Interviewer: What kind(s) of exercises you use for students to practice sight translation? 56 Interviewee: I will let students prepare materials at home They must send the materials – the texts to me before the day of the class for my approval I will choose some extracts from their texts; however, the students will not know which paragraphs will be chosen I will design slides and bring them to class I will call randomly a student to stand up and translate When students look at the slide, they will see the paragraph from the text that they prepare before Although they have time to prepare, to read the text at home, however, there will be “spontaneity” in this exercise because they not know which paragraph is Maybe, they are not the first paragraph If they don’t study the text carefully, they still have difficulties in translation and can’t produce good sight translation although they already have the materials in advance.” This is the first stage Then, they will no longer prepare the text at home anymore, but I For each topic, I will let students read through the text Then, to check their memory, I will let them the gap filling exercise I will eliminate important phrases such as collocation or phrasal verbs (about 3-6 words) After that I will ask them to translate the text orally Interviewer: Are the texts in both Vietnamese and English? Interviewee: Yes, they are in both Vietnamese and English Interviewer: Do you know any other kind of exercises that applied by other lecturers at your university? Interviewee: Yes, I know some For example, when I teach second year or third year students, I use sight translation as a way of checking their homework They have the text they translate in class before I will check by picking some paragraphs and print them on small pieces of paper They will choose randomly and perform sight translation in front of class Interviewer: How can you involve all students in the class in the sight translation activities? 57 Interviewee: I will divide the exercise into many small tasks with many short texts About 4-5 students will analyze a text Each student translates 3-4 sentences so that the whole class can involve Interviewer: Thank you very much for your help 58 Interview with teacher C (ULIS) Interviewer: Which year of students you start teaching sight translation to? (first, second, third, or fourth year?) Why this year? Interviewee: Officially according the course guide, sight translation is taught to fourth year students I mainly teach translation and seldom teach interpretation Right at that time, I start to let student perform sight translation However, requirements for each class and each year are different from each other Interviewer: If you have chance to teach second year students, will you teach them sight translation? Interviewee: Yes, of course I will because translation is easy to teach and to learn As I said before, requirements for different classes are different To second or third year students, the requirements won’t be as high as to fourth year students However, they still can study sight translation So I still teach sight translation for them if I have chance to teach them Interviewer: Do you think sight translation is helpful for students in learning translation and interpretation? Interviewee: Yes Sight translation can help students to practice their ability to analyze information Although its input is different from simultaneous interpretation’s input and seems to be easier, I think it is even more difficult than simultaneous interpreting Practicing sight translation also helps students in preparing confidence They can practice reacting with difficult words or phrases Interviewer: What kind(s) of exercises you use for students to practice sight translation? Interviewee: I will prepare texts in different forms such as articles, news, reports, thesis, etc Teachers design slides for student to translate in class Firstly, one student will have to look at the slide and translate immediately after being called by teacher Teacher will give comments on student’s performance when he or she finishes translating To make it more challenging a little bit, I eliminate some words, phrases 59 and ask other student to fill in the blanks This exercise aims to help students remember the word more easily and longer In interpreting, when students cannot catch the whole sentence, they can base on the words they are able to listen to and guess the message of speakers according the content of the speech This is also the goal of the reseach Interviewer: Any other? Interviewee: I design this exercise on PowerPoint and use in Interpretation class The slide contains poems, famous sayings, phrases The slides are set to run automatically One student has to look at the slides and perform sight translation Each slide may contain line(s) of some poetry, some famous saying or idioms The slides run continuously so that the student has to be quickly to translate I also check students’ homework by using sight translation I will call randomly some students to re-translate the text that they translate before They look at the projector to translate In Translation and Interpretation lessons, I sometimes prepare materials related to the content students will interpret or translate later Students read and then each students translate some sentences I give explain for them difficult words or information Before, I also ask students to prepare news at home and then bring to class The news that students prepare are not quite long They often consist of to 10 sentences Because they are prepared individually, there are a variety of topics for students to choose Therefore, they can improve their vocabulary besides learning translation skills Interviewer: Why you choose these types of exercise? Interviewee: Because the second type a way to practice interpreting under time pressure To some extends, this method sounds really like simultaneous interpreting except for the input, which is written This can be considered as a “bridge” to lead students from consecutive interpreting to simultaneous interpreting The main purpose of the first type of exercise is to help students learn vocabulary and collocation in different contexts In interpreting, when they cannot catch the whole sentence, they 60 can base on the words they are able to listen to and guess the message of speakers according the content of the speech Interviewer: How can you involve all students in the class? Interviewee: It’s hard to involve all However I always try to get as many students as possible My exercises often contain many small tasks so I let each student to perform one task Interviewer: Thank you very much for your help 61 Interview with teacher D & E (HANU) Interviewer: Which year of students you start teaching sight translation to? (first, second, third, or fourth year?) Why this year? Can I have you opinion, teacher D? Teacher D: Actually, sight translation is not taught officially in my university We just introduce the definition of sight translation for third year student in their Translation Theory course Interviewer: And you, teacher E? Teacher E: I have the same idea with Teacher D We don’t teach sight translation much in our university because of the time constraint Students have to study so much Interviewer: Teacher D, you give your students exercise to practice sight translation in class? Teacher D: Yes I have some exercise for them First, I have students perform sight translation with source texts in Translation lesson in the preceding weeks as a way of checking homework I will ask randomly some students and give them a piece of paper On that paper, there is a short extract Students have to translate the text orally right after opening the paper I also provide my students with documents related to the content of the audio or the text they will translate later These documents are delivered to all students in class They spend a few minutes on scanning and skimming the text Then, some students will be asked to perform sight translation Other students may give comments or suggestions immediately while the student is translating Teacher E: I have used this exercise some times in my Translation class Actually when I let students this exercise; I didn’t tell them that they were doing sight translation exercise My main goal was to check student’s comprehension after my Translation class This exercise also helped them recall their translation I think they will remember better Interviewer: Why you choose these types of exercise? Teacher D: These exercise aims at supporting students in learning new words and practicing reacting to difficult structures In terms of translation, this exercise helps 62 students to remember words longer because they both see and speak the word out loud In terms of interpretation, it is regarded as a supporting step for students to be familiar with simultaneous interpreting After three or four lessons, when students are familiar with simultaneous interpreting, this method is no longer used Interviewer: Do you know other types of sight translation exercise used by other lecturers in your university? Teacher E: I have one more type of exercises to teach sight translation to my students I let them sight translation with documents which are talking about the same issue as the audio that they are going to interpret I mean before they start interpreting officially, I give them some texts The texts have about 500 to 1000 words I divide the texts into many small parts Students will deal with vocabulary first Then, they analyze and translate sentence by sentence Finally, some students will be asked to translate some short extracts in front of class Teacher D: Sorry, but I don’t knoư because, as I’ve said before, sight translation is not taught officially and compulsorily in our university, we lecturers also not pay much attention to it Although it is very interesting and helpful for the students in particular and interpreters in general, we don’t have enough to have it in our curricular Interviewer: It means that you want sight translation will be taught officially in your university? Teacher D: Not really, but if possible, I want to teach sight translation more to my students In reality, sight translation is used a lot for example in hospitals, in courts I myself often sight translation before I have to be the interpreter for a conference or workshop I ask for the materials and if I’m lucky, I have it After receiving the documents, I read and interpret it It helps me remember the main content, the words and the structures longer If sight translation is taught, you think it should become a course itself? Teacher E: No, I think it should be integrated into translation or interpretation courses Since our assessment system has had any specific part for sight translation In 63 HANU, there are only translation (written input – written output) and interpretation (spoken input – spoken output) They are separate from each other Therefore, I think integration will be better Actually, it can be suitable for both However, I prefer teaching it in interpretation to translation Interviewer: Thank you very much for your help 64 Interview with teacher F (HANU) Interviewer: How many year have you taught translation and interpretation? Interviewee: I have taught translation and interpretation for years Interviewer: Which year of students you start teaching sight translation to? (first, second, third, or fourth year?) Why this year? Interviewee: Sight translation is in the subject Translation and is introduced in the subject Translation Theory to third year students It means the Semester 5, at the beginning of Year It is a part in the theory of classification of translation Beside consecutive interpreting and simultaneous interpreting, there is sight translation This is the time the students move from “Thuc hanh tieng” to Translation Therefore, they have to make them familiar with simple translation methods They have to understand where those translation methods are used and why they are used Thus, sight translation is introduced in the shift between “Thuc hanh tieng” and Translation Interviewer: How long does the curriculum spend on sight translation? Interviewee: In the curriculum, sight translation only accounts for periods in the course “Translation Theory” In Translation Practice, it is also introduced a little bit when it is compared with other translation forms or plays the role of a premise period in Interpreting lessons For example, before students practice with tapes and CD, they will practice with written documents in advance to be familiar with the methods and tips they need to use later In short, it takes a very small amount of time Before they translate a text, I will give them some documents related to translate orally Interviewer: Could you please make it clearer? Interviewee: Nowadays, thanks to Internet’s development, it’s very easy to find information about anything you want Therefore, sometimes, before Translation class or Interpretation class, I will prepare some handouts In the handouts, I have some texts The texts’ contents are strict to the tape’s, CD’s, or the main text’s contents First, students will read through the texts Then I call them to translate some difficult words, phrases or sentences They can repeat this activity with their peers until they 65 remember the words/ phrases…Then, longer paragraphs will be used for them to translate orally By practicing this way, especially in interpretation, students seem to interpret more fluently Interviewer: Do students have chance to practice sight translation in Translation Theory class? Interviewee: No, they don’t They will practice in the introduction part of Translation Practice Interviewer: What you think about the benefits of sight translation in translation and interpretation training? Interviewee: Actually, in HANU, consecutive interpreting is paid more attention to than simultaneous interpreting Thus, sight translation has been focused much However, sight translation has many advantages It supports students to analyze ideas and message It means that they will not depend too much on factors in “Thuc hanh tieng” or grammar structures and vocabulary using…When sight translation is introduced and taught, students are required to perform quickly It’s still reading It’s still speaking However, they have to speed up It’s now not reading comprehensive any more It’s reading to get message Thus, students can develop their logical skills and idea synthesizing This is a process we analyze information before speaking out Interviewer: Do your students have chance to improve their vocabulary and grammar thanks to sight translation? Interviewee: I don’t know how other teachers think However, I myself not use sight translation to study vocabulary or structure like that It’s mainly to practice reacting skills For example, normally when you see a new word or long word, you will not speak fluently as usual It’s the same in listening Thus, I will teach my students how to deal with new or long words I once assigned texts for students to practice sight translation at home However, it’s not effective because it’s hard to control them I don’t know whether they practice seriously or not 66 Interviewer: As I understand, because sight translation is not paid much attention to, there are not many types of exercises for students to practice it Is that right? Interviewee: Yep Interviewer: Do you think it’s necessary to have sight translation be taught more in the curricular? Interviewee: I think yes Sight translation is quite important In the past, people often think that sight translation is not as important as CI and SI However, nowadays, it’s quite popular It is used in so many fields Therefore, I think if possible, sight translation should become a part of translation training Interviewer: Thank you very much for your help 67 ... henceforth, offered the researcher a chance to conduct a study on ? ?Sight translation teaching methods used by lecturers at Translator and Interpreter Training Division, Faculty of English Language Teacher. .. What kinds of exercises are applied to teach sight translation by lecturers of the two divisions at the two universities? What methods of sight translation teaching students of two divisions at. .. http://brave-new-words.blogspot.com/2007/05/sighttranslation.html Hoang, A.T (2011) Sight translation studied by the fourth year students of translator and interpreter training division, English teacher education faculty, University of