Khóa luận tốt nghiệp cho sinh viên ngành ngôn ngữ Anh. Phiên dịch là kĩ năng cần thiết với toàn sinh viên chuyên ngành ngoại ngữ. Nhưng đây không phải là kĩ năng dễ. trong quá trình học phiên dịch. sinh viên gặp không ít khó khăn và có số lượng rất ít sinh viên đạt điểm cao trong môn học này. Do đó tác giả chọn đó trở thành đề tài trong khóa luận tốt nghiệp cũng như nghiên cứu khoa học. Tác giả mong muốn đề tài này sẽ giúp sinh viên nhận ra các khó khăn họ gặp phải trong quá trình học phiên dịch nâng cao và đưa ra các biện pháp giúp sinh viên cải thiện kĩ năng phiên dịch của mình
1 BỘMẫu GIÁO DỤC ĐÀO TẠO bìa ngồi khổVÀ A4 (210x 298mm) UBND THÀNH PHỐ HẢI PHÒNG TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ HỌ VÀ TÊN SINH VIÊN: VŨ THỊ BẢO LINH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN K18 NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHỊNG TRONG Q TRÌNH HỌC MƠN PHIÊN DỊCH NÂNG CAO VÀ GIẢI PHÁP ĐỀ XUẤT DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO HẢI PHÒNG 2021 UBND –THÀNH PHỐ HẢI PHÒNG BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO UBND THÀNH PHỐ HẢI PHÒNG TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ HỌ VÀ TÊN SINH VIÊN: VŨ THỊ BẢO LINH MÃ SINH VIÊN: 173122201682 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CHALLENGES FACED BY K18 ENGLISH MAJORS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY IN STUDYING ADVANCED INTERPRETATION AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS CHUYÊN NGÀNH: NGÔN NGỮ ANH Người hướng dẫn: Th.S Đồn Văn Giao HẢI PHỊNG – 2021 COMMITMENT I hereby declare that the thesis on the topic: “Challenges faced by K18 English majors at Haiphong University in studying Advanced Interpretation and suggested solutions” This is my personal research project All data used for analysis in the thesis and research results are my own research and analysis, objectively, honestly, with clear origin and have not been published in any form I take full responsibility for any dishonesty in the information used in this study Hải Phòng, ngày 03 tháng 06 năm 2021 Sinh viên Vũ Thị Bảo Linh ACKNOWLEGEMENT In the process of completing this study, I have faced up with a lot of problems with lexicology as well as the way to express my ideas However, thanks to the assistance and encouragement from my teacher, my family and my friends, I have surpassed these difficulties and completed the study successfully Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Doan Van Giao, whose suggestions, guidance, advice and critical comments have helped me to improve my study a lot Secondly, I am much obliged to all my teachers at Foreign Languages Department in Haiphong University for their lessons during fours years that formed the basis of my study My sincere thanks are delivered to my parents and friends for their encouragement and assistance in the process making the study Especially, I also appreciate the enormous support provided by the fourth-year English majors in Haiphong University for their enthusiastic participation in the survey Last but not least, I am also grateful to the authors and publishers whose research results helped me build the foundation in my study TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Research methods 1.6 The design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT .6 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Interpretation .6 1.1.1 Definition of interpretation .6 1.1.2 Types of interpretation 1.1.3 The process of interpreting .10 1.1.4 Importance of Interpretation 11 1.2 Common challenges in studying Advanced Interpretation 12 1.2.1 Listening 13 1.2.1.1 Problems from the speakers 14 1.2.1.2 Problems from the content 15 1.2.1.3 Problems from the listeners 18 1.2.1.4 Problems result from physical settings .18 1.2.2 Memory 19 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 25 2.1 The subjects .25 2.2 Data collection instruments 25 2.2.1 Questionnaire 25 2.2.2 Research procedure 26 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .27 CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS ON TECHNIQUES TO DEAL WITH THE CHALLENGES IN STUDYING ADVANCED INTERPRETATION 36 4.1 Suggestion on improving listening skills 36 4.2 Suggestion on improving memory .37 4.3 Suggestions on improving note-taking 39 PART III: CONCLUSION .42 3.1 Summary 42 3.2 Limitations 44 3.3 Suggestion for further study 44 REFERENCES .45 ABBREVIATIONS SL Source Language STM Short Term Memory TL Target Language LIST OF TABLES Number Name of table Students' opinions towards the advantages of practicing interpreting Students' common challenges in studying Advanced Interpretation How students deal with an interpretation task The ways students often apply to improve their interpretation skills Page 31 32 33 34 LISTS OF CHARTS Number Name of chart Students’ attitude towards Advanced Interpretation subject Page 27 Statistics about problems from topics 28 Students’ frequency of studying Advanced Interpretation at home 29 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In the period of industrialization and modernization, English plays an importance role Because it is a global language, children in many countries started learning English at the very young age and it became the subject that students have to learn at school There are several reasons which make learning English important and necessary First of all, English is the most common language in the world According to Wikipedia, English is the official of fifty-three countries, and English is spoken as the first language by around 400 million people around the world There are a lot of people speaking English as the second language or at least understand English English is the third language which is widely used only just after Chinese and Spanish Secondly, English is the language of science, computers, diplomacy and tourism Understanding English increases our opportunities of getting a good job in a multinational company of finding a work abroad In addition, English is the language of media industry If we are able to understand well, we will not need to rely on the translations and subtitles anymore to enjoy favorite books, songs, films and other kinds of entertainment English is also the language of the Internet Many useful websites are written in English, so understanding English is the first step to access these websites to find information and knowledge Thirdly, English is based on a simple alphabet, so it is easier and quicker to learn than other languages According to the survey of The Daily Telegraph (2012), English was the easiest language to learn in the world, and being fluent in English would become the foundation for learning other languages such as Spanish, Dutch or French Obviously, we cannot deny the importance role of learning English the survey, most students had habits of listening to every word in the recording so they soon got tired and frustrated of listening As a consequence, they interpret mainly by guessing but not by understanding the text It is not necessary for learners to understand every word in order to understand the information they need from the recording Therefore, learners should learn to focus on the message When listening, the learners should summarize the ideas they listened They had better not translate the listening text into the mother tongue but try to understand it in the target language Moreover, outside the listening class, students have to practice regularly such as listening to English songs, watching foreign channels so as to get acquainted with the native accent in normal speech In addition, they must enrich themselves with general knowledge of the English speaking countries, language, and social and cultural knowledge 4.1.2 Solutions for content The content in the interpretation exercises should be obvious Many interpretation exercises have complex and difficult ideas, which makes student bored when listening and interpreting The listening files should be suitable with less noise The speed of the task should not be too quick and the task should not contain an excessive amount of information The students can get a good interpretation if teachers note this issue 4.1.3 Solution for physical settings Not all the guidelines mentioned can be followed and not all the issues can be overcome Certain features of the message and the speaker, for example, are inevitable but this does not mean that the teacher can nothing about them She/he can at least provide the students with suitable listening materials, background and linguistic knowledge, enabling skills, pleasant classroom conditions, and useful exercises to assist them discover effective listening 38 39 strategies If the physical settings are improved, the quality of listening will become better so that student would have an interest in learning this subject 4.2 Suggestion on improving memory Attainning a better understanding of the source language, which is able to result in adequate interpreting is the purpose of memory training in interpreting As Lin Yuru et al put it, "Memory in consecutive interpreting consists of nothing more than understanding the meaning, which is conveyed by the words" As we know, understanding is the opening move in successful interpreting; therefore, memory training is to be provided in the early stage of interpreter training In addition, there are different methods of coaching STM respectively Encoding of the data from the original speaker is the first step of all the interpreters According to Gile's Effort Model, interpreting is an STM-centered activity; the process of interpreting could be re-postulated into: Encoding of knowledge from the Source Language + Storing Information + Retrieval of Information + Decoding Information into the Target language In interpreting, there is a time for the interpreter to encode and then store the knowledge This is the primary phase of Gile's Effort Model In the second phase of Gile's Model, retrieving information and decode it into the target language is the second step which the interpreters should Encoding and decoding of information happen almost at identical time and the duration for storing the data is incredibly limited Therefore, the key to memory training in the beginning of interpreting is encoding (understanding) information uttered in the SL According to the previous description, there are three main possibilities of storing information in STM: (1) Acoustic Coding; (2) Visual Coding and (3) Semantic Coding The interpreters may depend on visual coding in conference 39 situations with multimedia Notes are to assist in such visual coding of information in interpreting But in most interpreting contexts, acoustic and semantic coding may be used by the interpreters Therefore, exercises should be planned for this reason Mnemonic to Memory is another tool which is effective in memory training It is a device, like a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering Mnemonics are also methods for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall The 30 days hath September' rhyme is a very simple example of a mnemonic Using as many of the simplest functions of the human brain as possible to encode information is the fundamental principle of Mnemonics The human brain has evolved to encode and interpret complex stimuliimages, color, structure, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, spatial awareness, emotion to make sophisticated interpretations of the environment Human memory is made up of all these features Typically, however, information presented to be remembered is from one source-normally words on a page While reading words on a page reflects one of the most important aspects of human evolution, it is only one of the numerous skills and resources available to the human mind Mnemonics seek to use all of these resources We can accurately and reliably encode both information and therefore the structure of data to be easily recalled later by encoding language and numbers in sophisticated, striking images which flow into other strong images, 4.3 Suggestions on improving note-taking Note-taking is a necessary skill that we use when interpreting However, it is obvious to several people who have not honed the skills needed to get maximum potential from their note-taking, so some tips below will facilitate you know that 40 41 how to be an efficient and successful note-taker These can apply equally to taking notes of someone else’s verbal presentation or a transcription Decide what is important Listen or look out for key phrases which is like a large signpost directing you to the fact that a significant piece of knowledge is developing and instructs you to ready your pen to take a note of it Don’t write down every word The whole point of note-taking is to be able to summarize information in a different, shorter form to use later Therefore, if you try to write down every word of a lecture or book then you will soon drop behind and lose the thread of what is being presented to you Be an active listener It is easy to drift off and lose the thread of a lecture or speaker speed or difficulty, so try a number of the following tips to help keep your concentration Use symbols and abbreviations When you take notes you will not have time to put in writing fully, and sometimes the knowledge comes so thick and fast that you cannot even write full words Develop your own set of symbols and abbreviations Some obvious ones are + or & for ‘and’; = for equals Other examples seen less often are w/ for ‘with’ or wch for ‘which’ There will be subject-specific short hands that you can use too Revise your notes as soon as possible Do not simply take your notes and so file them away and dump about them The simplest use of your notes is to read over them a short time after and maybe rewrite them again, more neatly or in a different order, depending on how or why you 41 would like to use them This will facilitate you to use the data actively and it will stay in your memory for longer Be consistent If you are listening to a fancy and long task, don’t be tempted to take a lot of notes for the primary and zilch in any respect for the remainder of the session Make sure you pace yourself and gather information consistently throughout the task An acceptable exercise will provide quality information so don’t lose concentration Improve your handwriting Do not be so immersed in note-taking that you simply forgot to notice that your handwriting has become unreadable! Remember to write down or type clearly and legibly throughout, however, tired your hand becomes 42 43 PART III: CONCLUSION 3.1 Summary In conclusion, Advanced Interpretation is not an easy subject Therefore, the author conducts this research with the hope that it can help final year students in the Foreign Language Department in Haiphong University as well as other students majoring in interpretation to apply flexible methods and proficient skills in the process of studying Advanced Interpretation and satisfy the requirements of the future job To come up with the final conclusion on the issue of the study, the author has firstly presented the theoretical background knowledge about interpretation including the definition of interpretation, classification of interpretation, interpretation process and the importance of interpretation Then the author realized that interpreting is not easy Students have to apply mains skills at the same time: listening, translating and speaking This makes them difficult to study this subject In chapter 2, the author has shown the methods to conduct the research The author has conducted research by a survey of the opinions of the final year English major students at the Foreign Language Department in Haiphong university through questionnaire The result of the survey has shown that most of final year students were aware of the difficulties in the process of translating English idiom into Vietnamese Thanks to the result of the survey, the author has also found out the practical difficulties that they have dealt with in the process of interpreting These challenges include listening, note-taking and memory Most of the students have the need to know methods to help them overcome the difficulties 43 in the process of studying Advanced Interpretation In chapter 3, the author has proposed a number of techniques which can be applied in the process of studying Advanced Interpretation The first and for most thing final year students should is to practice more regularly By practice frequently under the instruction of teachers, students can be familiar to time pressure, taking advantage of their notes, training their short term memory and listening skill Firstly, to train short term memory and listening skill and be familiar with time pressure, students need to more interpretation A suggestion for them is that they should surf the website www.ted.com in which there are tons of videos about familiar academic topics such as education, business, environment, health, humanity By downloading them, both in original language and interpreted Vietnamese subtitle, students can their own interpretation and then compare to the interpreted for self-correction Furthermore, students should record their interpretation, after that they can either listen again to correct or give them to their teachers in order to receive comments Secondly, to strengthen students’ note-taking skill, they need to take notes in the form of an outline of a speech, then give this outline to their classmates or teachers to check whether they can understand or not By doing this, students can develop their notetaking skill in terms of a system of symbol and writing in short hand Thanks to the help of the supervisor, teachers, and the encouragement of my friends and family, I have finally finished the research Through the research process, the author has made the comment about the role of each individual in solving difficulties The students can understand and apply these techniques in the interpreting process, but if they not practice regularly and expand their vocabulary and knowledge, they will not be able to overcome all challenges and become a professional interpreter in the future Their efforts and persistence are really important in the process of learning and training Students should have their own ways to overcome difficulties and continue to increase their skills and improve 44 45 knowledge Through this study, we also recognize that effort and persistence of each individual is really important in the process of learning and training We should have our own solutions to overcome challenges and continue to improve our skills and create the basic foundation for the future 3.2 Limitations Because of the limitation of time and knowledge, limitations are unavoidable Firstly, the study only focuses on the objects who are final year students in the Foreign Language Department in Haiphong university Therefore, the research results may be subjective Secondly, the reference sources used in the study are not really sufficient and plentiful Thirdly, because the author' s knowledge is still limited, it is impossible to show all the difficulties in the process of translating English idioms into Vietnamese and give solutions through more clearly and specific situations to deal with these difficulties Finally, the authors also ignored some minor issues relating to the theme of the study because the time for the study is limited These restrictions are also considered as a basis for future studies which more professional and effective 3.3 Suggestion for further study As mentioned above, interpreting is not a simple task This study just emphasizes challenges in the process of interpreting in a general without analyzing details of each problem Thus, the future research may focus on the problem "suggestion on techniques to have a good interpretation and other issues such as translating and speaking" 45 REFERENCES Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Teaching Spoken Language Cambrigde University Press Butt, M.N (2010) Listening Comprehension Problems Among the Students European Journal of Social Sciences,18(2), 311-315 Cervantes, R., & Gainer, G (1992) The effects of syntactic simplification and repetition on listening comprehension TESOL Quarterly, 26(4), 767–774 Flowerdew, J., & Miller, L (1996) Student perceptions, problems and strategies in second language lecture comprehension RELC Journal, 23, 60-80 Gile, D, 1995a, Regards sur la recherche en interpretation de conference Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille Gile, D, 1995b, Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training,Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Gile, D, 1992, Basic Theoretical Components in Interpreter and Translator Training, in Dollerup, C and Loddegaard, A (eds), 185-194 Gilmore, A (2004) A comparison of textbook and authentic interactions ELT Journal, 58(4), 363–374 Hansan, A (2000) Learners’ perceptions of listening comprehension problems Language, Culture and Curriculum, 13, 137-152 Johana, S.K (2005) An Exploration of the Effects of Reduced Forms Instruction on EFL College Students’ Listening Comprehension National TsingHua University 46 47 Jones, R.- Conference Interpreting Explained, St Jerome Publishing, 2002 Madsen, H S., & Bowen, J D (1978) Adaptation in language teaching Rowley, MA: Newbury House Mahmoodzadeh, K, 1992, Consecutive Interpreting: its principles and techniques, in Dollerup C and Loddegaard A (eds), 231-236 47 WEBSITES http://accurapid.com/journal/25interpret.htm https://airandspace.si.edu/rfp/exhibitions/files/j1-exhibition-guidelines/3/What %20Is%20Interpretation.pdf https://www.aucegypt.edu/academic/interpretings/Memory.html https://www.interpnet.com/NAI/interp/About/About_Interpretation/nai/_About/wha t_is_interp.aspx?hkey=53b0bfb4-74a6-4cfc-8379-1d55847c2cb9 https://www.languagescientific.com/6-major-types-of-interpreting/ http://web.hanu.vn/dec/file.php/1/tai_lieu_tham_khao/Note-taking_EN.pdf https://translationjournal.net/journal/25interpret.htm#:~:text=Memory%20in %20interpreting%20only%20lasts,trainee%20interpreters%20are%20STM %20skills 48 39 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE (For K18 English-majored students at Haiphong University) Dear the students, I am Vu Thi Bao Linh from Class English 5.K18 I am doing research on the main difficulties faced by K18 English-majored students at Haiphong University I would like to ask for your help with the questionnaire to collect the relevant data for my study There are no right or wrong answers All the questions are in the form of close-ended rating scales that I hope will not take much of your time and effort to accomplish The information will surely be kept confidential to avoid disturbing your privacy Thank you for your cooperation For questions from to 5, choose the best answers by circling letters A, B, C or D Do you like studying Advanced Interpretation? A Yes B No How you feel about learning Advanced Interpretation? A Easy B Difficult but interesting C Normal D Difficult and boring Which of the following topics is the most difficult one for you? A Economics B Politics C Social and culture D Tourism How often you study Interpretation at home? A Rarely B Sometimes C Often D Never For questions from to 8, choose the appreciate answers by putting a tick in the boxes In your opinion, what are the advantages of studying interpretation? Options A Expand cultural and social knowledge B Improve language skills especially listening and Yes No speaking C Enhance vocabulary D All of the above What are the common challenges you have to face when studying Advanced Interpretation? Options A Memory B Listening C Note taking D Others Yes No 41 What you often when you an interpretation task? Options A Listen carefully B Take notes of all the words you can hear C Try to interpret it and wait for teacher’s feedback D Ask your friends for answer or wait for teacher’s Yes No feedback E Others: ……………………………… What you to improve your interpretation skill? Options A Build up your vocabulary B Keep cultural differences in mind C Learn from Internet, speech, films… D Practice at home E Other ways: ………………………………… Thank you for your answers Yes No ... ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ HỌ VÀ TÊN SINH VIÊN: VŨ THỊ BẢO LINH MÃ SINH VIÊN: 173122201682 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CHALLENGES FACED BY K18 ENGLISH MAJORS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY IN STUDYING ADVANCED... listening An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously We think that strong students in our groups can also these things simultaneously and show their great progress... later by encoding language and numbers in sophisticated, striking images which flow into other strong images, 4.3 Suggestions on improving note-taking Note-taking is a necessary skill that we