THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY ------ GRADUATION PAPER TOPIC: “AN INVESTIGATION INTO SELF-STUDY OF ENGLISH- MAJORED STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY IN THE SUBJECT OF TRANSLATION” Student’s name: Doan Ngoc Dieu Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong Class: K54N1 Student code: 18D170006 Hanoi, 2022. ABSTRACT Humans spend a lifetime studying and accumulating experiences in life. And for students, just studying in school is not enough, self-study at home is also essential. Self- study aids students in practicing their translation skills and strengthening their own knowledge when learning English in general and the translation course in particular.
However, how are students of the English Faculty of Thuongmai University doing self-study for the translation course? Are they using reasonable methods and sources of translation that are appropriate for their abilities? An investigation was conducted utilizing qualitative and quantitative approaches on 100 English-majored students who have been studying the subject of translation. Students will demonstrate the efficiency of self-study for the subject of translation through the questions, as well as some obstacles that they face in memorizing language. At the end of this investigation, more effective methods will be given to students to solve basically the obstacles they are experiencing. Future translation-oriented students will have more suggestions to hone their translation skills.
i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my sincere and deep thanks to my advisor teacher, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong, who wholeheartedly guided, and always gave meticulous feedback in the fastest time to help me during the past time to be able to finish this thesis. I also want to thank the teachers of Thuongmai University, especially the teachers of the English department, who have always enthusiastically supported and created conditions for me to successfully complete my university program. During the process of writing the thesis, I have encountered many difficulties in terms of health and psychology, I always want to thank my family and friends who have always accompanied, supported, and encouraged me during this time.
Due to limited knowledge and reasoning ability, the thesis still has certain shortcomings. I look forward to receiving the contributions of teachers and teachers to make my graduation thesis more complete. I sincerely thank you! Hanoi, April 10th, 2022 Student Doan Ngoc Dieu ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS. OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY. The previous studies. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Research Instruments and Materials. Data Gathering Procedure. Data Processing Method.
Organization of study. Definition of translation. The source of materials for translation practice. Self-study concepts.
Definition of self-study. The role of self-study. Classification of factors influencing self-study. Research subject and research object.
Data processing method. Results from the questionnaire. Results from interviews. 32 CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Suggestions for students. Suggestions for teachers. Recommendation for further studies. iv iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No.
Abbreviations English meaning 1 SL Source Language 2 TL Target Language 3 VLU Van Lang University v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Chart 3.1: Survey participants Chart 3.3: Translating courses studied English-majored students Chart 3.4: Self-assessment of translation level Chart 3.5: Time to self-study translation of students Chart 3.6: Evaluation of the difficulty of self-studying translation Chart 3.7: Factors affecting self-study of translation Chart 3.8: Influence of specialized skills Chart 3.9: Influence of study environment Chart 3.10: Influence of the self-study method Chart 3.11: Influence of self-study time Chart 3.12: The influence of self-study consciousness Chart 3.13: The most influential cause of self-study Chart 3.14: The most effective method for self-study translation vi CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1. Rationale The translation is interpreting the meaning of a text in one language and producing an equivalent text in another language to convey the same message. In other words, translation is the act of translating a document from one language to another.
To be able to become a successful translator, it is imperative that learners have a certain understanding of context and word usage. Meanwhile, the context is limitless, and the vocabulary is always so diverse that no class could possibly cover all. Therefore, translation is a subject that necessitates a significant amount of time dedicated to self- study, self-practice, self-improvement, and self-conclusion of translation experiences. At the English Faculty of Thuongmai University, translation accounts for about 8 credits out of a total of 120 credits.
As a result, it is insufficient for students to just study and practice translation in class. Students should self-study at home to strengthen their vocabulary and translation skills. Are they, on the other hand, allocating time to practice translation properly? Are the methods they are using really effective? Is the material they are using suitable for their capacities? With the above questions and to better understand the practice of translation of English-majored students at Thuongmai University, the author has chosen the topic "An investigation into self-study of English-majored students at Thuongmai University in the subject of translation”. In this investigation, the author frankly pointed out the reality of students' self-study to translate, identified the causes, and proposed solutions to help students practice translation easier and more effectively.
The previous studies On the issue of self-study translation, the author summarized some previous studies that are related to this topic. It includes both studies from universities in Vietnam and some from foreign universities. Referring to many previous studies will help the author have more data and uncover more aspects of the research. 1 First of all, a study by Van Lang University titled “Using the internet for self- study to improve the translation for English-majored seniors at Van Lang University” was written by two students Nguyen Bao Vy and Ngo Thi Cam Thuy.
Seniors studying in the course of "22" of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Van Lang University (VLU) were chosen to become the scope of this study. Narrowing the scope down to the seniors instead of the whole English-majored students studying at VLU. Nowadays, with the rapid growth of the Internet, using the Internet for translation allows for quick and high-quality translation. According to the author of this article, the majority of their friends have not utilized the translation tool, or if they have, they have used it poorly, lowering the quality of the translation.
The researcher also found out that the students tended to use bilingual dictionaries instead of monolingual ones. Even though Google Translate does provide English definitions for an English word, the participants mostly paid attention to a word’s equivalents in Vietnamese. Consequently, they chose vocabularies that cannot fully express the ideas of the source texts in their translated documents. Some solutions are given such as encouraging students to use more internet tools to support their translation practices at home and read more in Vietnamese when they translate English texts into Vietnamese.
Besides, reading more in English can help them learn how native speakers use vocabulary, how they construct sentences to express their ideas, and how words go together. In this study, the results of the research mainly detect errors when using Internet support, share the specifications and some of the scientific approaches, but there are two issues that were discovered: the impact of the Internet on the student’s concentration during the self-study process and the students’ reliance on the translation tools. Secondly, a study of Kanjuruhan Malang, Indonesia, conducted by four students: Rizky Lutviana, Siti Mafulah, Sugeng Hariyanto, Faisal Rahutomo with the topic “What translation skills should be developed in Translation course?”. This study concentrates on translation skills, especially for students who needed to learn the skill to translate text from the English language, and vice versa, they also needed to learn to translate idioms and tenses.
Moreover, other materials were also important for the 2 students, such as subject matter, translation strategy, and translation method. Besides, in the learning process of translation, students needed to learn skills to work both individually and with groups, skills to use the theory of translation in the analysis and skills to as resources such as textbooks. To sum up, in this study, the author has only pointed out four basic skills that students need to pay attention to reading skills, dictionary usage skills, material selection skills, and teamwork skills. These are all general skills of the subjects, not very specialized for the translation course in particular.
For a course that is diverse in specialized knowledge like translation, students need to have many other specialized skills in addition to the four above. Thirdly, a study came from Changchun University of Science and Technology. It was written by Liu Ziyu and Xiao Jing with the title “Study on the strategy of improving self-learning ability of college students”. The research team chose Jilin Communications Vocational and Technical College as a research case in order to better understand the autonomous learning ability of higher vocational college students in China and to provide a reference for teaching reform in higher vocational colleges.
From 2016 to 2018, they conducted a follow-up survey on three-year college students majoring in logistics management from 2015 to 2017, with a total of 81 students surveyed. The survey shows that the number of students actually studying in vocational colleges is not large, their learning power is not strong, and they have no interest in studying. Instead, college students use cell phones to play games, watch TV shows, and movies. Moreover, students rarely think independently when facing problems.
Instead, they turn to the teacher, hoping that the teacher can give a direct answer without self- discipline and inquiry. They are not willing to make inferences about the problems encountered in their life and study. Especially in China, children are the treasure of the family, everything is arranged by parents. Children form the habit of relying on others.
The result is a lack of a sense of learning, thinking and innovation. Students' self- management and self-study ability is not strong. Some students even show signs of not being able to manage time. The ability to manage living space is not strong, and the ability to think independently is weak.
Their cooperation is poor with their classmates. 3 The survey offers a variety of strategies for schools, teachers and students. For example, schools should intensify reform, change the evaluation mechanism, and evaluate students in multiple ways and in many aspects, teachers should strengthen the emotional communication and communication with students, a student is firstly to have correct learning attitude and motivation, students' learning must be from the bottom of their heart, enhance their own self-control ability, do not play with mobile phones, do not whisper in the class. However, because the study includes students from various majors, many strategies are not suitable for them.
Even more, Strategies for the school are quite illusory or if approved, it is also a long process of reform. For teachers, it is relatively difficult to implement given suggestions because there are too many students in the university frame and they cannot follow closely. The solutions for students are too sketchy and not convincing enough. Similar research came from Monash University written by John Loughran with the title “Research methods for the self-study of practice”.
The methods given are able to apply to the subject of translation, but it is mostly the emotional encouragement such as studying with friends, playing translation games, etc. “Research for challenges of self-study and the opportunities for students from teachers’ support” – a study conducted by Kare Hauge, a student at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Self-study is normally only recognized as an active process of acquiring knowledge without the aid of others. However, as the author of the above study has demonstrated, self-study becomes more effective and easier when it is accompanied by other people, such as teachers.
This study compares self- study and self-study with teacher support.