VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Hồ Như Minh Nghi AN EVALUATION OF THE TEXTBOOK “ADVANCED BUSINESS INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION” FOR THE FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT A UNIVERSITY IN HO CHI MINH CITY MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HO CHI MINH CITY, 2021 VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Hồ Như Minh Nghi AN EVALUATION OF THE TEXTBOOK “ADVANCED BUSINESS INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION” FOR THE FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT A UNIVERSITY IN HO CHI MINH CITY Field: English Language Code: 8.01 Supervisor: Phạm Lan Anh, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, 2021 DECLARATION BY AUTHOR I, the undersigned, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An evaluation of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation for the fourth- year students of English at a university in Ho Chi Minh City” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Language. The substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any other degree to any other universities or institutions. Except where reference has been made in the text, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person.
The study reported in this thesis was approved by the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences. Author’s Signature Hồ Như Minh Nghi Approved by SUPERVISOR Phạm Lan Anh, Ph. Date:…………………… ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In order to complete the thesis “An evaluation of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation for the fourth-year students of English at a university in Ho Chi Minh City”, the author has been supported by many people. Through this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to these people for helping me finish this thesis.
First of all, I would like to express my genuine appreciation to Ms. Phạm Lan Anh, Ph.D, my supervisor, for her considerate guidance and her passionate inspiration as well as her thorough explanation on my research paper. Secondly, I would like to thank Mr. Nguyễn Đức Châu, my teacher at HUFLIT University - Department of Foreign Language for supporting me during my research.
Thirdly, I am very thankful for all the participants of this study, who have cooperatively taken part in taking questionnaires as well as contributed their opinions on the textbook and the course. In addition, I would like to thank all of the lecturers who gave me interesting lessons, dedication and advice during my study at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences. Last but not least, I must express my appreciation to my superior at my workplace who has encouraged me to continue my learning path and has always believed in my ability to complete this thesis and to have a brighter future. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION BY AUTHOR.
iv LIST OF TABLES .v LIST OF CHARTS. vi TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS.2 Aims of the study .4 Scope of the study .5 Significance of the study .7 Structure of the study .1 The role of textbooks in ELT classroom .1 Definition of textbook .2 The role of textbooks in ELT .1 Definition of materials evaluation .2 Reasons for materials evaluation .3 Types of materials evaluation .4 Approaches and Criteria for materials evaluation.5 Popular models of materials evaluation .3 Previous studies on ELT textbook evaluation.4 Review of the textbook “Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation” .1 Review of the textbook .2 Overview of students' needs .5 Summary of Chapter 2 .4 Data collection instruments .5 Summary of Chapter 3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 The suitability of the textbook to the aims of the course .2 The suitability of the textbook to the course contents .2 Summary of findings and discussion .2 Strengths and weaknesses of the textbook .3 Summary of Chapter 4. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION .4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies .69 APPENDIX 1: Questionnaires by David Litz (2005).
I APPENDIX 2: Questionnaires by David Litz (2005) - Vietnamese version. II APPENDIX 3: The questionnaire for students .III APPENDIX 4: The questionnaire for students - Vietnamese version. IV ABSTRACT The aim of the study is to evaluate the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation currently being used by the 4 th year students and teachers of Department of Foreign Language - Interpretation and Translation major at HUFLIT to investigate whether this textbook suitably meets the requirements of the curriculum in terms of aims and contents. In order to achieve enough data for the study, selected 20 of 4th year students of the Department of Foreign Language - Translation and Interpretation were given questionnaires.
The researcher also used document analysis to conduct the evaluation of the content of Advanced Business Interpretation and Translation and the subject content in the university’s curriculum plan. The result of the survey showed that the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation and Translation has highly met the course’s requirements in terms of aims. On the other hand, the students had some feedback on the textbook’s content’s lack of excitement or shortage of complicated terms and structures. However, in general, most of the students stated that the textbook is suitable with their English level.
iv LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Output standard of English - Vietnamese Professional Translation. Output standard of English - Vietnamese Professional Interpretation. 4th year English major students’ opinion on the aims of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation. Plans and curriculum of Business Interpretation.
Plans and curriculum of Business Translation. Units of lesson in the textbook. 51 v LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4. Students’ opinions on proficient vocabulary and special terms for each field.
Students’ opinions on their translation skill improvement after the course. Students’ opinions on their interpretation skill improvement after the course. Students’ opinions on the skills. Students’ opinions on the language type of the textbook.
Students’ opinions on the Subject and Content of the textbook 56 vi TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT English Language Teaching HUFLIT Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages - Information Technology ESL English as a Second Language EFL English as a Foreign Language CLO Course Learning Output vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It is widely known that English, as the most common language used by people all over the world, is being taught in most parts of Vietnam and in all levels of education. However, if you take second-language speakers into account, and therein lies the rub, almost without exception, people respond better to the language they grew up speaking. To effectively sell to people, it is not enough to speak a language that they understand, especially if their understanding is limited. You must speak to them in the language their heart speaks.
There is a reason demand for translation services is booming. While English has been periodically crowned as “the language of global business,” translation and interpreting services remain a vital part of doing business around the world. Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages - Information Technology (HUFLIT) was founded on October 26th, 1994 in accordance with the Decision No. 66/TTg of the Prime Minister.
During the past 25 years with all effort of HUFLIT’s lecturer team and staff, the University has been recognized and appreciated for its training quality by the society. HUFLIT has established many cooperation relations with regional and international universities. HUFLIT has 08 (academic) departments, 02 programs, 4 administration offices, 3 committees, a library, and 3 centers with more than 180 employees and 400 lecturers. One of the three Specialized English Language Programs is Translation - Interpretation.
In the teaching context of Translation - Interpretation, the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation by Dr. Nguyen Duc Chau has 1 been the main textbooks for many years. This textbook helps learners familiarize with special terms, concepts and practical knowledge that would be useful for their future careers, and to upgrade students’ skills of translation in both oral and written forms after they finish intermediate courses. However, over time it has been perceived to suffer from certain drawbacks.
Additionally, 4th year students of the Department of Foreign Languages still find it hard to perform translation skills after the course. Furthermore, due to the number of units in this book is beyond outline requirements, teachers have to select alternative units to teach without making students overwhelmed with advanced knowledge. For all of those, it seems obviously necessary to conduct evaluation research on the textbook. The findings of the study, hopefully, will help the researcher and teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages improve the material, and more importantly to promote their Translation - Interpretation teaching.
On those above-mentioned grounds, the researcher decided to undertake this study to evaluate whether the textbook suitably meets the requirements of the curriculum in terms of aims and contents. At HUFLIT, the book of Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation - put into use in 2010, is designated to those in 4th year, who hold certain knowledge of basic translation skills. Since its first use in teaching, there has been no official evaluation of researchers or teachers conducted to review the suitable methodology of this textbook. Furthermore, complaints about the problems arising during the learning process of students regularly emerge, especially on the vocabulary and some unit contents.
Besides, some lecturers still question the relevance of the book to students’ needs. Therefore, a study to evaluate Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation is urgently needed.2 Aims of the study The aim of the study is to evaluate the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation currently being used by the 4 th year students and teachers of Department of Foreign Language at HUFLIT to investigate whether this textbook suitably meets the requirements of the curriculum in terms of aims and contents. The findings will help teachers to adjust the use of the book so that they can optimize the strong points and adapt or substitute weak points from other related materials to meet the learners’ needs. Furthermore, it is expected that the results of the research, to some extent, could help students from the Department of Foreign Language get over their fear of translating in both oral and written forms.3 Research questions This study aims to find out the answer to the following research questions: (1) To what extent are the contents of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation suitable for senior students with different levels of English and their major knowledge? (2) To what extent do the aims of textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation meet the requirements of the curriculum? 1.4 Scope of the study In materials evaluation, there have been a number of criteria that should be taken into consideration, such as the content, the methodology, the layout, the authenticity, and so on.
It will be highly precious to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the textbook. However, within the scope of a 3 minor thesis, the criteria for evaluation with focus on two criteria: aims and content. Materials evaluation is a complicated process that requires taking various factors into consideration. However, due to the limited time and the ability of the researcher, the study just focuses on analyzing the syllabus and the material, along with questionnaires which will be given to selected 20 of 4th year students of the Department of Foreign Language - Translation and Interpretation.
Department of Foreign Language offers 3 specialized programs which are Translation and Interpretation, English Language Teaching and Office Administrative Skills. The hardest program for high English level students is Translation and Interpretation. That is why only few students of the university chose to learn the major of Translation and Interpretation. The Translation and Interpretation class only has 25 students.
The researcher selected 20 out of 25 students based on their translation ability, their general knowledge and their adequate class attendance.5 Significance of the study The study will be useful to students, teachers and researchers in the field of Business Translation teaching and learning. The results are expected to provide a more useful and effective way in teaching and learning translation skills.