MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- --- GRADUATION THESIS COMMON LEXICAL DIFFICULTIES FACING IN TRANSLATION PROCESS OF SENIOR EINGLISH MAJORS AT IUH: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS STUDENT : PHẠM HỮU KHẢI CODE : 17050551 CLASS : DHAV13B COURSE : 2017-2021 SUPERVISOR : Nguyễn Đình Luật, M.A HCMC, 6/2021 MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- --- GRADUATION THESIS COMMON LEXICAL DIFFICULTIES FACING IN TRANSLATION PROCESS OF SENIOR EINGLISH MAJORS AT IUH: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS STUDENT : PHẠM HỮU KHẢI CODE : 17050551 CLASS : DHAV13B COURSE : 2017-2021 SUPERVISOR : Nguyễn Đình Luật, M.A HCMC, 6/2021 MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- --- Student’s name : PHẠM HỮU KHẢI Student’s ID : 17050551 Class : DHAV13B Course : 2017-2021 Supervisor : NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT, M.A Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own work and does not involve in plagiarism or collusion. It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose elsewhere. I accept serious penalty for any cheating or plagiarism. word COMMON LEXICAL DIFFICULTIES FACING IN TRANSLATION PROCESS OF SENIOR EINGLISH MAJORS AT IUH: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS ABSTRACT Translation is not an easy task.
During the translation process, translators and students majoring in English often encounter many difficulties. Common among them is the lexical difficulties. Therefore, the researcher would like to conduct a study on “Common lexical difficulties facing in translation process of senior English majors at IUH: Causes and solutions.” to explore further into what lexical problems students encounter during the translation process and what causes of these problems. Thence, the researcher gives some suggested solutions to improve and enhance student’s translation skills.
The graduation thesis consists of five chapters. Each chapter is designed to deal with a specific aim. Chapter I, Introduction, deals with the rationale, research goals, research questions and scope of the study. Chapter II, Literature Review, gives a general overview of the lexical problems in translation.
Chapter III, Research Design, demonstrated a clear and detailed plan to collect adequate and reliable data for analysis including the selection of the place where the researcher investigate, the research methodology and research methods, participants, the procedure of data collection and the procedure of data analysis. Chapter IV, Findings and Discussions, mainly deals with finding the results from the survey questionnaire. Some discussions about these results can also be found in this chapter. Chapter V, Conclusion, summarizes the major findings of the study.
KEYWORDS Lexical difficulties Senior English majors Translation ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The process of completing this thesis, I have got a large amount of help and support that guide and encourage me to overcome all difficulties and finish my thesis successfully. First of all, I would like to give my deepest gratitude to the School Board of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City and the Faculty of Foreign Languages creating many good conditions for me to complete my thesis. Secondly, I sincerely thank to Mr. Nguyễn Đình Luật, my supervisor giving me beneficial guidance and advice that assist me to complete my thesis well.
From these advices, I have developed my thesis into the right way. Thirdly, I would like to appreciate my group members, Quách Uyên Nghi and Nguyễn Hoàng Bạch Trúc who often gave me useful advice during the process of working thesis. Last but not least, I am grateful to all of lovely participants and lecturers who contributed to help me collect data for my thesis. In short, I really appreciate to all people helping me to finish this thesis successfully.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS IUH : Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city FFL : Faculty of Foreign Languages SL : Source Language TL : Target Language TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION. SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY. SCOPE OF STUDY. 3 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW.
DENIFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS/CONCEPTS. Causes of lexical problems in translation process. Figure of speech. RESULTS OF PREVIOUS STUDIES.
Review previous studies. The gap of previous studies. SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW. 17 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH DESIGN.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH METHODS. 22 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Student’s methods in translation process. Frequency of lexical problems.
Lexical aspects students most encounter. Lexical aspects that most difficult for students. Causes of lexical problems. Solutions for lexical problems.
Student’s confidence of Translation. Common translation methods used by students. Common lexical difficulties that students encounter in the translation process. Causes of lexical difficulties.
Solutions to overcome the lexical difficulties. SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS. Suggestions for FFL’s lecturers. Suggestions for FFL’s students .4 DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCHES.
44 Student’s name: PHẠM HỮU KHẢI ID Number: 17050551 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Supervisor: NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT, M.A Page 1 Student’s name: PHẠM HỮU KHẢI ID Number: 17050551 1.1 RATIONALE Translation is a work that requires creativity, diligence and translators must have a good sense of the language. Besides that, translation is also a profession and there are certain tips and rules for better translation. However, not everyone is sure of these rules, and some newcomers often make mistakes. Translators must equip themselves with a solid knowledge of the lexical, the writing style and the profound origin of words (phrases) to translate them into the target language in the most accurate way.
In particular, one of the biggest difficulties for professional English students is lexical difficulties. Lexical mistakes can reduce the quality of the translation even changing the meaning as well as the original purpose of the sentence. The restriction of lexical mistakes should be considered and given due attention. This research comes from the lexical difficulties faced by students in translation process in IUH's foreign language department.
There are not many researches about the lexical difficulties, or the research is not deep enough on lexical difficulties. To improve the above lexical difficulties of senior English majors at IUH. The researcher is determined to conduct the study called: “Lexical difficulties in the translation process of English major students at IUH and how to overcome them. RESEARCH GOALS The main purpose of this study is to find out the lexical problems and difficulties that English major students face in the translation process at IUH.
This research will find out the reasons cause those problems, help students realize the importance of lexical. From there, find out solutions to help students overcome those problems, contributing to improving the translation ability of students in particular and the quality of IUH's training in general. SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY There is no need to discuss the importance of lexical in translation. Therefore, it is a good opportunity for us to find out the problems, the causes and how to fix them.
We believe that our work will bring various benefits: Firstly, the study will provide overview about factors that cause the problem. From there, the teachers can catch the students' lexical difficulties, refer the solutions given and apply to their teaching in the most effective way. Thus the teachers can choose for themselves appropriate solutions for problems. Furthermore, the results of the study may indicate weaknesses as well as other causes that affect IUH senior' translate ability.
Help students fix those problems themselves or suggest to teachers how to help them in the best way. Finally, as writers, we see this as a good opportunity for us to gain more but necessary experience. In addition, the research also helps a lot for our translation process or career in the future. Supervisor: NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT, M.A Page 2 Student’s name: PHẠM HỮU KHẢI ID Number: 17050551 1.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS The study focuses on answering the following questions: ✓ What translation methods do students usually use? ✓ What are common lexical difficulties that students have to face in the translation process? ✓ What are the causes of those difficulties? ✓ What are some solutions to overcome the above difficulties? 1. SCOPE OF STUDY The study mostly explore the lexical difficulties in translation of senior English majors at IUH. The information from the questionnaires will be collected and analyzed. Firstly, research scope is mainly limited and focuses on senior English majors of IUH.
This research paper will not go deep into the specific solutions, but only provide some general solutions for students and teachers to overcome lexical problems. The study only goes deep into the problems and reasons why students encounter lexical difficulties. Secondly, the study only learns about students' awareness of lexical problems, not considering the students' ability to solve as well as the actual translation ability. Supervisor: NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT, M.A Page 3 Student’s name: PHẠM HỮU KHẢI ID Number: 17050551 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW Supervisor: NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT, M.A Page 4 Student’s name: PHẠM HỮU KHẢI ID Number: 17050551 2.
DENIFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS/CONCEPTS 2. Lexical concepts According to the Oxford dictionary (Hornby, 2015, p. 869) that defines that Lexical is “Connected with the words of a language”. In addition, below are the definitions of some words related to the word "lexical" that can be used in this research study.
Lexical items (= words and phrases) Lexical meaning: the meaning of a word, without paying attention to the way that it is used or to the words that occur with it Lexicology: the study of the form, meaning and behaviour of words But in brief we can summary that” Lexical” refers to the meaning (or meaning) of a word (or lexeme) when it appears in a dictionary. Also known as the semantic meaning, the signifying meaning and the central meaning. Contrast with grammatical meaning (or structural meaning). During the translation process, the lexical problem is one of the most important ones.
This is also one of the difficulties that translators encounter during the translation process. Some common lexical classes are: o Collocation o Idiom o Metaphor o Proper noun o Proverb 2. Collocation According to one definition of “collocation” (Hornby, 2015, p. 123) “+A combination of words in a language that happens very often and more frequently than would happen by chance Ex: ‘Resounding success’ and ‘crying shame’ are English collocations.
+The fact of two or more words often being used together, in a way that happens more frequently than would happen by chance Ex: Advanced students need to be aware of the importance of collocation.” Supervisor: NGUYỄN ĐÌNH LUẬT, M.A Page 5 Student’s name: PHẠM HỮU KHẢI ID Number: 17050551 In translation, collocation plays a very important role. That factor directly affects the quality of the translation product. Sughair (2011) said that Collocations are a fascinating linguistic phenomenon in language and in translation. Collocations reflect the linguistic, stylistic and cultural features of texts.
He also supposed that within the process of translation, collocations are subject to different approaches opted for by translators when they transfer them for the source text into the target text. Translators may have come across them often but did not realize that they are inherently combined like that. Therefore, choosing the right phrases helps learners express them naturally, diversely and easily as native speakers. We cannot arbitrarily combine words in English.
Most native speakers use the word “heavy rainy” and assume that” heavy” must be combined with” rain” to be appropriate. Similarly, Vietnamese people always say “lái xe đạp, lái xe hơi, lái máy bay”, but no one says to “lái ngựa”. Even we do not understand why. Idiom “idiom” is defined (Hornby, 2015, p.
756) “A group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words EX: ‘Let the cat out of the bag’ is an idiom meaning to tell a secret by mistake.