Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT 000 NGUYễN THị Hà AN INVESTIGATION INTO DIFFICULTIES FACING 3RD YEAR english-majors IN TRANSLATING ENGLISH NOUN PHRASEs INTO VIETNAMESE (khảo sát KHó KHĂN CủA SINH VIÊN NĂM THứ chuyên ngữ TRONG DịCH CơM DANH tõ Tõ TIÕNG ANH SANG TIÕNG VIƯT) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: TRANSLATION Vinh 2008 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases VINH UNIVErsity FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT …………000………… AN INVESTIGATION INTO DIFFICULTIES FACING 3RD YEAR english-majors IN TRANSLATING ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES INTO VIETNAMESE (khảo sát KHó KHĂN CủA SINH VIÊN NĂM THứ chuyên ngữ TRONGDịCH CụM DANH tõ Tõ TIÕNG ANH SANG TIÕNG VIÖT) GRADUATION theSis FIELD: TRANSLATion Supervisor : Ngun ThÞ Tut Hång, M.A Student : Nguyễn thị Hà Class : K44 E2 - Anh Vinh 2008 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases ACKNOWLEDGEMENT For the completion of this thesis, I have received invaluable help from many people Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ngun thÞ TuyÕt Hång for her great assistance, constand and helpful advices on my study I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to my lecturers at the Foreign language Department, Vinh University, especially Miss Lê thị Thuý Hà for their help and invaluable advices during my studying time I am grateful to students of the course 46 for their help and support for my research thesis Finally, my warmest thanks are due to my family members and friends for encouragement and support during the time that I study Vinh, May 2008 Nguyễn Thị Hà Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases ABBREVIATIONS Eg: For example NP: Noun phrase Att: Attribute HN: Head noun C: Complement Adj: Adjective Adv: Adverb Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgement i Abbreviations ii Table of contents iii PART I INTRODUCTION Justification of the study Aims of the study Research questions of the study The subject of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Format of the study PART II INVESTIGATION CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theory of translation 1.1.1 Definitions of translation 1.1.2 Methods of translation 1.1.3 Translation equivalence 1.2 English noun phrases 1.2.1 Definitions of English noun phrases 1.2.2 Structure of English noun phrases 1.2.2.1 Basic noun phrases 1.2.2.2 Complex noun phrases 1.2.2.2.1 The head noun 1.2.2.2.2 The premodifications 1.2.2.2.3 The postmodification 10 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases CHAPTER 2: INVESTIGATION 11 2.1 Introduction 11 2.2 Data collection 11 2.2.1 Stage 12 2.2.2 Stage 12 2.3 Data analysis 12 2.3.1 The interviews 12 2.3.2 The translation test 13 2.3.2.1 Problems with word choice 13 2.3.2.1.1 Noun phrase 13 2.3.2.1.2 Noun phrase 16 2.3.2.1.3 Noun phrase 19 2.3.2.1.4 Noun phrase 21 2.3.2.1.5 Noun phrase 23 2.3.2.2 Problems with word order 25 2.3.2.2.1 Noun phrase 25 2.3.2.2.2 Noun phrase 26 2.3.2.2.3 Noun phrase 27 2.3.2.2.4 Noun phrase 28 2.3.2.2.5 Noun phrase 29 2.3.3 Causes of students‟ difficulties 30 2.3.4 Conclusion 31 CHAPTER 3: DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION 32 3.1 Discussion 32 3.2 Implications for teaching and learning translati of English noun phrase 33 3.2.1 Imlications for teaching translation of English noun phrase 33 NguyÔn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases 3.2.2 Implications for learning translation of English noun phrases PART III 35 CONCLUSION Recaptualation 36 Suggestions for further stydy research 37 REFERENCES 38 APPENDIX 40 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases PART I INTRODUCTION Justification of the study Translation was main means of communication between prominent men of letters and, to a lesser degree, philosophers and scientists and their educated readers abroad, whilst trade was conducted in the language of the dominant nation,and diplomacy The setting of a new international company, gives translation enhanced importance Thus, translation/interpreting courses open everywhere But there is a fact that problems facing learners during their translation learning are enormous Newmark (1988a, 1988b) identifies some problems of translation such as the transfer of technical style, constraints of register, nature and formality of text Other problems include acquisition of source text to choose intended text, the transfer of meaning, and the access of target language Another fact is that during their translation courses students at Vinh University are introduced and work on a lot of technical texts whose typical feature is a very high occurence frequency of noun phrases Being a student the researcher is aware of difficulties facing translation learners resulting from those noun phrases The difficulties are long lasting and not easy to cope with It is obvious that failure to translate technical texts ussually originated from failure to translate complex English noun phrases Furthermore, to my best understanding, few researches have been done on students‟ difficulties relating to translation of complex noun phrases Therefore, this study is conducted and is intended to be an effort contributing to filling this “ empty” area Aims of the study In general, when carrying out a study, author often thinks about its aims In this study, the author s aims are: Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases - Identify common difficulties facing 3rd year English major in translating English noun phrases - Explain major causes of these difficulties - Put forth some implications for translation teaching and learning of English noun phrases Research questions of the study The study is carried out in order to answer the following questions: - What difficulties face 3rd year English students in translation of English noun phrases, especifically complex noun phrases? - What are the causes of those difficulties? - What suggestions can be made to translation teaching and learning of English noun phrases ? The subjects of the study The study is carried out among 80 3rd year English students of the Foreign Language Department, Vinh University These students is asked to a translation test in 60 minutes and some of them are randomly chosen to participate in interviews The number of female students outweights male students These students are generally between the upper-intermediate and the advanced levels of English They have been learning English since high school and learning translation for at least two years at University In the first year, they were taught the very first things about translation to know what translation is and practised doing translation of separate sentences In the 2nd year, translation theory was introduced to students to equip them with basic knowledge and skills of translation What is more, students also began to translate short passages at that time In the 3rd year, students are exposed to translation of whole texts of different types Scope of the study Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases We are aware of the fact that students of different courses also face various difficulties in their translation learning process re, but this is beyond the scope of this study We would like to identify only the problems facing 3rd year English students relating to complex English noun phrases Methods of the study We have applied the quantitative methodology in this research by using a translation test to identify students‟ difficulties The test is designed in the written form containing within it some complex English noun phrases The test is at the everage level of length and difficulty It takes about in 60 minutes and the test environment is made sure to be as similar as the actual tests The study also employs interviewing to collect more data from students We conduct interviews with 20 students among those who the translation test The aim of the interviews is to get more profound information from students‟ feelings, opinions, sharing, etc in order to support quantitative data Format of the study PART I INTRODUCTION PART II THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I CHAPTER II CHAPTER III PART III THEORITICAL BACKGROUND THE STUDY DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION CONCLUSION PREFERENCES APPENDIX 10 NguyÔn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases 2.3.2.2.4 Noun phrase 4: “ ….a clear intention to return home within a relatively short period of time” The results presented in the table 2.9 below shows that this noun phrase has been transferred into a verb phrase (75%) and an adjective phrase (8,75%) in Vietnenese In the first version có ý định rõ ràng trở nhà sau thời gian ngắn , the noun “ intention” is transferred into a verb in the target language, forming a verb phrase But the second version chắn quay trở nhà sau khoảng thời gian ngắn omits the noun and transfering the noun phrase into an adjective phrase in Vietnamese Apart from students who prefer these two versions (75% and 8,75% respectively), the others (16,25%) not have Vietnamese version for this noun phrase (See table 2.9) Number Word order Number Percentage Có ý định rõ ràng trở nhà sau thời gian ngắn 60 75% 8,75% 13 16,25 Chắc chắn quay trở nhà sau khoảng thời gian ngắn No translation % Table 2.9 The results of noun phrase 2.3.2.2.5 Noun phrase 5: “ … features of lanscape and townscape that separate them off from everyday experience 36 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases In comparison with other noun phrases, the number of students arranging similar word order for this noun phrase is high (82,5%) (See table 2.10) In the first version danh lam thắng cảnh tách biệt hä víi cc sèng hµng ngµy” , equivalent to “ feature” is elipted The same happens to the pronoun “ that” The word “ everyday” is an adjective in English but it fuctions as as adverb and is put after the noun “ experience” in Vietnamese In the second version danh lam thắng cảnh cảnh đẹp nơi dô thành khác biệt họ gặp th-êng ngµy” , the head noun “ features” is also omitted, the words “ lanscape” and “ townscape” are complements in English, but they are transferred into head nouns in Vietnamese In summary,there is a change of word order and word funtion when an English – Vietnamese translation is proceed This process is quite normal and popular among languages since the way people use their language is not the same It is also this difference that cause difficulties to students in their translation process, which will be discussed in the following section Number Word order Number Percent age Nh÷ng danh lam thắng cảnh tách biệt họ với sống hàng ngày 66 82,5% 10% 7,5% Những danh lam thắng cảnh cảnh đẹp nơi đô thành khác biệt với họ gặp th-ờng ngày No translation 37 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases Table 2.10 The results of noun phrase 2.3.3 Causes of students’ difficulties Through the interviews and anlysis of the test, there are some causes explaining for difficulties facing students The causes are as follows: The difference between English and Vietnamese noun phrases‟ structure is the first source of the difficulties As structure of English and Vietnamese noun phrases are not identical Students, obviously, are influenced by language difference, thus they face some problems in rendering from this language into the other The second cause lies at the complexity of English noun phrases Long and complex phrases might present problems to even capable translators, not only students who are novice and inexperienced in the field of translation Rendering such phrases without distortion of meaning is a big challenge indeed Another source of the problems is subjectivity As far as we know, each student has his/her own experience within or beyond linguistic areas They are influenced by their experience and by certain social values For this reason, there are no completely identical target language versions of a source language which has been translated by various people, even if the outward conditions for the translation of a particular text are identical 2.4 Conclusion The translation test with complex noun phrases have identified students‟ difficulties in translating English noun phrases The results of students‟ performance discussed in 2.3 show that when translating English noun phrases into Vietnamese, students have problems with English noun phrases‟ structure, word choice, amd word order in Vietnamese The causes of these problems are due to the difference between English and 38 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases Vietnamese noun phrases‟ structure, the complexity of English noun phrases, and the subjectivity of students CHAPTER DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS In previous sections, students‟ difficulties in translating English noun phrases have been identified They are problems with complex structure of English noun phrases, Vietnamese word order and word choice In this chapter, discussion and implications for teaching and learning translation of English noun phrases will be presented 3.1 Discussion English people are known for their preference of using noun phrases, both in their daily talks and academic writings This preference is also a prominent feature of English technical texts Randomly take up a technical text, no matter how long it is, it surely contains within it a lot of noun phrases, ranging from simple to complex, easy to difficult levels Unlike English people, the Vietnamese prefers verb phrases to noun phrases This linguistic difference itselt pose difficulties to Vietnamese students in their English translation learning process The reason is obvious: language learners are no doubt influenced by the way their native language is used Thus, linguistic difference is the first reason explaining for students‟ difficulties in translation in general and noun phrase translation in particular 39 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases English technical texts, as said above, include a number of noun phrases Rendering those texts is not a simple task since it requires translators not only specialised knowledge but also linguistic knowledge Students, therefore, need to equip themselves with those requirements to be successful in their translation Even professional and capable translator can still get troubles with texts containing complex language In this sense, it is easy to understand why there are a number of difficulties facing students in their translation Problems relating to difference between source language and target language and complexity of source language also lead to the other difficulties: word choice and word order in the target language Since students get troubles with understanding and decoding the relationships among complex noun phrases‟ components, they fail to put them right into Vietnamese Besides, students‟ poor Vietnamese is also attributed In this sense, students need to improve not only foreign languuage but also their native language 3.2 Implications for teaching and learning translation of English noun phrases 3.2.1 Implications for teaching translation of English noun phrases English noun phrases are diversified consisting of simple and complex ones It is easy for students to translate simple noun phrases However, complex English noun phrases cause many problems for them as analysed above To help students ease the problems, teachers can guide them to analyse the structure of English noun phrases so that they can identify the relationships among noun phrase‟ components What is more, teachers can also raise students‟ awareness of high frequency occerence frequency of noun phrases in English technical texts This can help to shape in them good habits of decoding and rendering those phrases 40 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases To help students overcome difficulties relating to the target language, teachers can contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese noun phrases so that students can see the difference between the two languages and avoid possible errors Besides, teachers can design different types of translation exercises aiming at improving students‟ word choice and word order Here are some examples to illustrate this point: Exercise 1: Comment the following translations for the underlined noun phrases The objective of the strategy is to gradually build a comprehensive system of well functioning urban centres that contributes to socialist development and national security In addition, the strategy sets targets for urban services, recognises granting land rights “ within a long – term time frame” as a strategic tool to investment in housing improvement for the urban poor A, Các trung tâm đô thị hoạt động tốt B, Các trung tâm đô thị chuyên hoá cao C, Các trung tâm đô thị có đầy đủ chức D, Các trung tâm đô thị đa chức A,Sù ph¸t triĨn mang tÝnh chÊt x· héi B, Sù ph¸t triĨn x· héi chđ nghĩa C, Sù ph¸t triĨn theo định h-ớng xà hội chủ nghĩa D, Sự phát triển lên chủ ngha xà hội A, Cải thiện nh khu vực đô th có ng-ời nghèo B, Cải thiện tình trạng nh cho ng-ời nghèo đô thị C, Nâng cao chất l-ợng nhà cho ng-ời nghèo đô thị D, Cải tạo nh cho ng-ời dân nghèo đô thị 41 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases Exercise 2: Comment the following translations for the underlined noun phrases If A and B are not satisfactory, give your own translation in C ……First, the distribution f total health services contacts across providers are analysed and interpreted Next, the provider – specific distribution of health services contacts for each type of curative health service – inpatient, outpatient and medicine/ drugs are discussed A, Việc phân bổ số lần khám chữa bệnh sở y tế B, Sự phân bố to n trung tâm y tế C, A, Việc phân bố trung tâm y tÕ thĨ B, ViƯc ph©n bè thĨ sè lần khám chữa bệnh C, 3.2.2 Implications for learning English translation of noun phrases To overcome difficulties and better in translation, students can: - Raise their awareness of high occurrence frequency of English noun phrase in technical texts and shape suitable strategies to cope with noun phrases in their translation learning process - Be aware of differences between English and Vietnamese noun phrases so that they can avoid possible problems in translation - Improve their language competence, both source language and target language to achieve high quality translation 42 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases PART III CONCLUSION 1.Recapitulation English noun phrase, as a matter of fact, occurs with a very high frequency in technical texts This is not only because noun phrase plays an important role in sentences but it also fulfils the criterion of conciseness in technical texts However, the language systems between English and Vietnamese as not identical and this fact leads to various difficulties to students in their learning process, particularly translation of noun phrases To investigate 3rd year English major‟ s difficulties in the field of English – Vietnamese noun phrase translation, we conduct a translation test, which is followed by some interviews By doing this, we aim at using data gained from the interviews to verify the results gained from the test To facilitate the process of the study, we start firstly with the theoretical framwork on the issues related to our investigation Particularly, we look at theories of English noun phrase and translation to equip ourselves with a solid background for collecting and analyzing data The process of collecting data is carried out in stages In stage we conduct a translation test to identify difficulties facing students Stage is 43 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases to interview the subjects to investigate their opinions relating to English noun phrase and difficulties facing them in translating it The results gained from stage can strengthen that gained from stage Through careful collection and analysis of data, we come to the conclusion that difficulties facing students include complexity of English noun phrases, word choice, and word order in Vietnamese The causes of those are the difference between structure of English and Vietnamese noun phrases, students‟ poor language competence, and students‟ subjectivity Not only highlight the problems, the study also includes some implications for teaching and learning translation of English noun phrases For teaching process, teachers can contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese noun phrases or can design different types of translation exercises aiming at improving students‟ word choice and word order For learning process, students can improve their language competence, both source language and target language, to achieve high quality translation Although great efforts have been made, we are aware of the fact that this study is just preliminary and it needs to be more thorough However, the conclusion might be encourging for us and for our future researches 3.Suggestions for further research Being a novice researcher, we consider this study a starting point If we have another opportunity we would like to go further with the same topic However, the focus will be put on the examination of translation of noun phrases in technical texts such as legal documents or business documents, etc By going into specific genre of texts, we hope to find more profound and adequate results of the issue 44 Ngun ThÞ Hµ - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases 45 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases REFERENCES In English Bell, R (1991) Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice New York: Longman Bảo, Bùi Tiến & Thu, Đặng Xuân (1999) Translation Theory: Interpreting and Translation Coursebook Hanoi: Foreign Language University Jacobs, R.A (1995) English Syntax: A Grammar for English Language Profesionals Orford University Press Koller, W (1979) Equivalence in Translation Theory (in Chesterman, A (1989) Mân, Trần Quang (2002) Bases For Vietnamese – English Translations Young published house of Ho Chi Minh City Newmark, P (1988a) Approaches to Translation London: Prentice Hall Newmark, P (1988b) A Text Book of Translation London: Prentice Hall Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S (1973) A University Grammar of English Longman Group (FE) Ltd Hong Kong Schmidt, H.H (1999) Advanced English Grammar New Jersey Prentice Hall Regents 10 Tïng, Vâ NguyÔn Xu©n (2002) Language of American and English Newspaper Art published house of Ho Chi Minh City In Vietnamese 11 DiÖp Quang Ban (2001) Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt Nhà xuất giáo dục Hà Nội 46 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases 12 Đỗ thị Kim Liên (1999) Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt Nhà xuất giáo dục Hà Nội 13 Hoàng Văn Vân Một Số Vấn Đề Có Liên Quan §Õn DÞch Cơm Danh Tõ TiÕng Anh Sang TiÐng ViƯt Ngôn Ngữ Học Chuyên Đề Tạp Chí Ngôn Ngữ (1998) Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Hà Nội 47 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases APPENDIX Test: Tranlation Name: Class: Time: 60 minutes TOURISM: MEANING OF A DIFFERENCE Tourism, holidaymaking and travel are these days significant social phenomenon, a leisure activity opposite regulated and organized work It is one manifestation of how work and leisure are organized as separate and regulated spheres of social practice in modern societies The popular concept of tourism is that it is organized within particular places and occurs for regularized periods of time Tourism means a movement of people to, and their stayin, various destinations This necessarily involves the journey, and a periods of stay in a new place or places The journey and the stay are by definition outside the normal places of residence and work and are of a short-term and there is a clear intention to return home within a relatively short period of time In a sense, travel is a marker of tatus in modern society and is also thogh to be necessary for good health Tourists tend to visit features of lanscape and townscape that separate them off from everyday experience Such aspects are viewed because they are taken to be some sense out of the ordinary People linger over these sights in a way that they would not normally in their home environment and the vision is objectified or captured through photographs, films and so on which enable the memory to be endlessly reproduced and recaptured 48 Ngun ThÞ Hµ - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases 49 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases 50 Nguyễn Thị Hà - 44E2 Anh ... english- majors IN TRANSLATING ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES INTO VIETNAMESE (khảo sát KHó KHĂN CủA SINH VIÊN NĂM THứ chuyên ngữ TRONGDịCH CụM DANH từ Từ TIÕNG ANH SANG TIÕNG VIÖT) GRADUATION theSis FIELD: TRANSLATion.. .Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases VINH UNIVErsity FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT …………000………… AN INVESTIGATION INTO DIFFICULTIES FACING 3RD YEAR english- majors... translation 13 Ch¾c ch¾n Items No Râ rµng Number Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating English noun phrases Time // Difficulties facing 3rd year English majors in translating