MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY NGUYEN TRAN TUONG VAN 442949 DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING TRANSLATION SKILLS OF GRADUATION PAPER Hanoi-2023 MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY NGUYEN TRAN TUONG VAN 442949 SUPERVISOR La Nguyen Binh Minh, M. Hanoi-2023 i DECLARATIONS I hereby state that I: Nguyen Tran Tuong Van, class 4429, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts 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. Supervisor Student La Nguyen Binh Minh, M.
April 4", 2023 ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my most gratitude to my Supervisor, Ms. La Nguyen Binh Minh, M., for her enormous support towards my research with devotion, unwavering feedbacks, profound insight and experience. Thanks to her constant, inspiring guidance and encouragement throughout the writing process, I have managed to overcome all the various obstacles and finished this thesis. Besides my supervisor, my sincere thanks go to the Members of the Thesis Committee with all the lecturers who work hard and fair to evaluate my thesis, give insightful comments and questions, as well as provide me with detailed feedback to enhance my future studies.
Moreover, I would like to extend my appreciation to all the administrative personnel and staff members of Hanoi Law University, particularly the Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages for generous assistance and services. Last but not least, I am particularly grateful for my family and friends who have been supportive and caring throughout my journey with unconditional love, understanding and kindness. I would like to thank all the lecturers, as well as my fellow - classmates of 4429, as well as class 4430 for tremendous amount of advice and cooperation to support me in the questionnaire process. iv ABSTRACTS English-major senior students at Hanoi Law University have encountered multiple difficulties in studying translation skills.
This study, therefore, is conducted to explore those difficulties and find out what strategies students frequently employ to leverage their translation skills. By applying the mixed method of qualitative and quantitative, a survey questionnaire and interview sessions were carried out during a seven-day period at Hanoi Law University within 100 English-major seniors. The findings suggest that the biggest difficulty English-major seniors encountered 1s the limitation in the quantity of vocabulary and specialized terminology. Hence, the strategies students frequently apply according to the results are mainly related to language proficiency improvement, through learning vocabulary and self-practicing translation with the assistance of dictionaries and legal documents.
Proposals which aim to help students effectively self-study to enhance their translation skills, particularly by taking advantage of available resources such as technology, teacher guidance as well as extracurricular activities, are set out in detail for both students and teachers in the recommendations chapter. The results of this study may also be applicable to research papers in the translation field. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Title page i Declarations ii Abstracts iv Table of contents y List of abbreviations viii List of tables ix List offigures x INTRODUCTION ossssssississsesssessenasnesnesssesssesuensconssanscessaesunenivacssarscanscencsesnsanssas 1 | Rationale of the Study. Aims Of the 0.
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63 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CAT Computer-assisted tools CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages EFL English as a Foreign Language ELP English for Legal Purposes EMI English as the Medium of Instruction ESP English for Specialized Purposes HLU Hanoi Law University LI First language L2 Second language SL Source language TL Target language Vili LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Respondents’ difficulties related to Lexical and Syntactic challenges .28 Table 2: Respondents’ difficulties related to domain knowledge. -- 29 Table 3: Difficulties in terms of subjective factors responded by participants. 3l Table 4: Difficulties in terms of objective factors responded by participants. WA Table 5: General strategies English-major students of HLU focus on enhancing translation skills responded by partiCIpaTIfS.-- «5c 3333233335555 xxsxs 33 Table 6: Strategies to improve language proficiency responded by participants.34 Table 7: Strategies to improve background knowledge in legal field and translation theory responded by participant .-- 2201011111111 1111118822111 11111 re 35 Table 8: Strategies to leverage personal skills related to translation responded by 5191051057.
37 Table 9: Strategies to effectively utilize available resources responded by participants 1X LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Translation skills, language skills and translation-related skills combined INTRODUCTION This chapter tends to lay the groundwork by describing its rationale, aims, research questions, scope, significance and organization for the research paper with a clear focus, purpose and direction. Rationale of the study Translation is one of the methods of language learning and aids natural communication in very many contexts (Hao & Pym, 2021). For language learners, translation is one of the mediation types (Council of Europe, 2020). Some researchers, otherwise, see translation as “the fifth skill” learners should acquire to enhance English and communication skills as the standard of CEFR, beside the four fundamental skills: Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking (Pym, 2013).
Furthermore, translation has its indispensable role in communication and culture. Le (2017) insisted that translation is a service for communication, and the translator is an intermediary between the sender and the receiver. Through translation, more people can get exposed to and understand different writings, viewpoints, and information (Lustig & Koester, 2010). In practice, however, learners in general and university students in particular often meet multiple difficulties when they study translation skills.
The main reason for this is that they have limited capacity to learn those skills effectively. Various research findings in Vietnamese and foreign contexts have revealed three main factors affecting undergraduates’ ability to translate: low language proficiency level, and lack of domain and culture knowledge, which according to Neubert (2000, cited by Le (2017)), are core components to build translation competency. Moreover, translation training programs in Vietnam in general face limitations in terms of curriculum design, quality of the lecturer and especially an appropriate theoretical study (Le, 2017), which makes the teaching and learning of this subject in an academic setting less effective than expected. Furthermore, according to Tran (2020), the beginning of the 4th Industrial Revolution, based on the combination of frontier technology, has been accelerating the development of automated machines and intelligent production systems.
As a language-intensive profession, translation is of frontline interest in the automation era (Pym & Torres-Simón, 2020). In particular, both researchers claimed that the development of machine translation systems may change the nature of the translation profession, and the changes affect both those who work with new technologies and those who focus on what the technologies cannot yet do. Various translation tools, including Google Translate, OpenAI and so on, all of them could process billion words a day to fully serve everyday communication purposes, as well as assist students in their learning process. However, the drawback is that the impact of translation tools seems to make language users and learners depend more on these tools, instead of helping students improve their personal translation skills.
Hence, when it comes to practical situations (1., examination), students may encounter more difficulties in bilingual English-Vietnamese translation process and hardly active to find solutions to overcome those difficulties. According to Pym (2020), in an age where 99% of translations are reported as being mediated by machines, the human translator may appear to be under threat. Some previous studies that carried out about translation strategies and translation skills of undergraduates and post-graduates have also been mentioned in this study. These studies show that translation skills nowadays are increasingly changing with the development of technology and automation.
In general, learners have to adapt and be familiar with translation-assisted tools, however fundamental skills such as language proficiency, knowledge of a specific field, intercultural communication as well as other personal skills are still recognized as core competences in order to increase translation ability in both qualitative and quantitative. At Hanoi Law University, translation courses are compulsory with undergraduate training program in English major. The training program for the participants of this study — senior students, includes two translation modules. However, because English-major students of HLU specialize in legal sector, the translation activities tend to focus more on legal documents in parallel with ordinary documents in other fields.
Although there are various studies regarding students’ difficulties of English major when studying in the translation course, along with strategic suggestions to improve those difficulties, very few studies have been conducted at HLU. Based on the situation mentioned above, the researcher personally realizes that English-major students of HLU, especially the senior group, have encountered many difficulties in learning translation skills. Hence, this study 1s implemented in order to explore more about strategies used by senior students of HLU to overcome difficulties in the translation process, and then propose some effective methods to effectively enhance their translation capacity. Aims of the study The research paper has three primary purposes as follows - To explore the difficulties faced by English-major senior students at HLU in learning translation skills.
- To find out what strategies are frequently applied by English - major senior students of HLU to leverage their translation ability - To recommend appropriate strategies for English - major senior students of HLU to enhance their translation ability 3. Research questions The research will be undertaken to address the following questions 1. What makes translation challenging to English-major senior students? 2. What strategies do English-major seniors apply to overcome obstacles regarding translation as well as enhance their translation skills? 4.