MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOILAW UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THIEN HA AN 453218 LEGAL ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF USING ONLINE DICTIONARIES IN TRANSLATION STUDY AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY GRADUATION THESIS HANOI- 2024 ‘MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOILAW UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THIEN HA AN 453218 LEGAL ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF USING ONLINE DICTIONARIES IN TRANSLATION STUDY AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY NHAN THUC CUA SINH VIÊN CHUYEN NGÀNH TIENG ANH PHAP| LY VE VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TU DIEN TRỰC TUYẾN TRONG VIỆC HỌC. DỊCH THUẬT TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LUẬT HÀ NỘI Major: Legal English GRADUATION THESIS Supervisor Nhge Thanh Huong, M.A HANOI -2024 STUDENT DECLARATION Thereby state that I:NGUYEN THIEN HA AN - 453218, bemg 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 itbreny. Interms of these conditions, Lagree that the origin of my paper deposited in the Itbrany should be accessible for the purposes of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Itbrartan for the care. loan or reproduction of the paper.
May 25%, 2024 ‘Supervisor's confirmation Researcher's signature MA Nhac Thanh Huong ‘Nguyen Thien Ha An ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Fist and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratefiiiness to my wonderfil supervisor, Ms. Nhac Thanh Huong for her tvaluable guidance towards my graduation thesis with great patience, entiustasm, unwavering adivice, profound msight, and expertence. She has always been dedicated devoted and thoroughly mstructed me through all the stages of completing my thesis My genuine appreciation goes to every member of the Thesis Committee for their fatr assessment and comprehensive review, as well as feworable feedbackfor iy fidure research. My sincere thanks also go to ail staffs and lecturers tn Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages at Hanot Law University where tt has been my honor and pleasure to be educated for the past four years.
On top of that, with all the English lessons and the department's extra-curriculum activities, I have the opportunity not only to widen my language knowledge but also better mp ‘personality and become the person Ï am today: Last but not least, Lam mdebted spectal thanks to my fianily cd fiends, and the vainable assistance of my classmates in class 4532, as well as other peers of ‘mine in the Faculty ofLegal Foreign Languages durmg the tmplementation of the study. Special thanks also belong to all K45 and K46 Legal English-majored students. Without ail ofyou, this endeavor would not have been posstbie. ABSTRACT Online dictionaries have become indispensable tools in the language leaming, process, especially in the field oftranslation study, providing users with access t0 an extensive collection of linguistic materials, Although the widespread adoption and usage of online dictionaries have revolutionized the practice of translation, there has been little research conducted on students' perspectives regarding the utility of online dictionaries.
On that account, this study aims to investigate what Legal English-majored students perceive about using online dictionaries in translation study, the benefits and drawbacks of online dictionaries, and some ‘methods in enhancing the utility of online dictionaries. The research was implemented with the cooperation of 92 participants, together with 5 interviewees from Legal English majors at HLU, including K45 and K46. The study was conducted by using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods with a survey questionnaire and an in-depth interview. The findings reveal that most of the students fully perceived the importance of online dictionaries not only in language leaming but also in leaming translation Furthermore, the study also uncovered interesting information on students! perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of online dictionaries, as well as ‘numerous methods perceived by them to improve the usage ofonline dictionaries In the light of these findings, several practical recommendations for students, teachers, and the Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages were drawn.
TABLE OF CONTENTS STUDENT DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. LIST OF FIGURES/TABLE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study 2.
Aims for the study. Scope ofthe study. 5, Significance of the study. Organization ofthe study.
DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. The concept of online dictionary 12. The purposes of online dictionary usage 1. The benefits and the drawbacks of using online dictionaries.
Previous research on the perception of using online dictionaries in translation stud! 15. eo TỔ) 222 THerVlfA,. Procedures of data collection. Data fiom quesfioimAdire.
12 5 2 Toate fiom trtervtaw ssa ss seaecsee ase te eo e8, 2. Quantitahive data analysts method. Qualitative data analysts method. CHAPTER3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.
Legal English-majored students’ use of online dictionaries in ‘translation study 3.1 Students’ habits ofusing online dtcttonartes. Students’ preferable online dicfioniaries. Students’ purposes of using online ảicRonaries. Legal English-majored students’ perceptions towards the benefits and drawbacks of online dictionaries .1 Legal English-majored students’ perceptions towards the necessity and benefits of online đicfiowarlie.
Legal English-majored students’ perceptions towards the drawbacks 3iAiiiäiHchlIBINBEussssssosonoeoeesodeesineesaaeserneao. The methods perceived by the Legal English-majored students for the improvement of using online dictionaries in translation study.1, Suggestions for Legal English-majored students. Suggestions for lectures. Suggestions for the Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages.
Summary of the main findings. Limitations ofthe study. Suggestions for further research REFERENCES. APPENDICE APPENDIX I: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES.
APPENDIX II: IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a Foreign Language FLFL Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages HLU Hanoi Law University LIST OF FIGURES/TABLES List of figures: Figure 1. Students’ frequency of using online dictionaries in translation study. Students’ preference of gadgets to use online dictionaries in translation study 4 Figure 3.
Number of online dictionaries in use of students for a word in. translation study 4 Figure 4. Students’ preferences for bilingual online dictionaries (Vietnamese — English/ English — Vietnamese online dictionaries) 5 Figure5. Students’ preferences for monolingual online dictionaries (English ~ English online dictionaries) 26 Figure 6.
Students’ preferences for online dictionary. 26 List of tables: Table 1. Students’ purposes of using online dictionaries in translation study. Students’ perceptions towards the necessity and benefits of online dictionaries 31 Table 3.
Students’ perceptions towards the drawbacks ofonline dictionaries. The method perceived by Legal English-majored students to improve online dictionary usage in translation study. Rationale for the study Globalization has led to the rapid advancement oftechnology, which is now crucial to most aspects of life, including education. Along with the development of technology, digital tools have been created to assist the process of foreign language leeming The rise of technological tools has "provide[d] new opportunities for self-directed leaming" (Godwin-Jones, 2011, p4).
University instructors and students can now accessa variety of online resources and materials that facilitate language proficiency development Regarding translation study and practice, as technology has developed, online dictionaries have come into existenceand have become significantly crucial ‘among leamers and practitioners because of the ease of use, speedy search, and. powerful capabilities compared with traditional dictionaries Specifically, by using online dictionaries, students find it more convenient to acquire new words, expand their vocabulary, improve their pronunciation, and make a list of associated terms, contributing to the advancement oftheir translation skills. In addition, online dictionary tools provide leamers with more various contexts which leads to better comprehension of language usage (Cérdenas-Claros & Gruba, 2009; Jones, 2003; Kaur & Hegelheimer, 2005). Also, the results of the previous research (Chun, 2001, Lan, 2005; Elola, Rodriguez-Garcia, & Winfrey, 2008) state that the advantages of using online dictionaries range from vocabulary acquisition in reading and writing tasks, which proves to be of great benefits to leamers.
Accordingly, it appears that the era of paper dictionaries ruling the reference world has progressively come to an end, and online dictionaries have taken their place (Lan, 2005). According to Nugroho et al. (2019), translation is one of the fundamental courses in language study programs. In addition, Ameilia (2023) indicates that this course provides the ability to translate the source language into the target language and students are required to improve their translation competence and their vocabulary in order to enhance these skills.
Therefore, online dictionaries can act as a tool to support the process of leaming translation and advance students’ vocabulary. Numerous studies on students’ perspectives on using online dictionaries in educational contexts have been camied out. According to the findings of major research, most students have positive attitudes about using dlectronic dictionaries and find them beneficial and useful in facilitating their 1eaming (Nesi, 2002; Boonmoh, 2003, Chatzidimou, 2007, Golonka et al. However, most of these studies are primarily concemed with the use of online dictionaries in language classrooms, namely vocabulary comprehension and acquisition (Chen, 2012, Barham, 2017; Knezevié et al, 2021), In the realm of translation, a fewer number ofstudies have shed light on students’ perspectives on using online dictionaries.
Leand Dao (2019) seemto be one of the fewresearchers who examine the perceptions and attitudes of English-majored students about the usage of online dictionaries in translation and interpreting Another research was carried out by Dang (2022) about the usage of online dictionaries of English- majored students in translation study. The study reveals that many students find online dictionaries beneficial for their translation performance. However, some students shared that they are concemed about the negative impacts of online dictionaries on their translation skills ‘At Hanoi Law University, translation is one of the mandatory courses for English language majors. However, no research has been conducted on the usage of online dictionaries in translation study of Legal English-majored students Hence, this study was carried out as an effort to uncover the perception of students in using online dictionaries as well as to provide valuable insights into its advantages and disadvantages.
On that basis, recommendations for students who use online dictionaries in translation study can be drawn. Aims for the study ‘The study has three main aims as below. ‘© Seeking the perceptions of Legal English-majored students towards the utilization of online dictionaries in translation study at HLU. + Investigating the benefits and drawbacks of using online dictionaries for Legal English-majored students in translation study at HLU.
+ Elucidating methods to enhance the effectiveness of online dictionaries in translation study at HLU. Research questions To achieve the aims of the study, the following research questions have been developed: « How do Legal English-majored students use online dictionaries in translation study? ‘© What are the benefits and drawbacks ofusing online dictionaries for Legal English-majored students? ‘© How do Legal English-majored students enhance the usage of online dictionaries in translation study? 4. Scope of the study The study primarily concentrates on the perceptions of Legal English- majored students towards the utilization of online dictionaries in translation study as well as the recommendations to maximize the effectiveness of these digital at HLU. Therefore, the use of paper dictionary is beyond the scope of this study.
The participants chosen are 92 students of K45 and K46 from the Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages (FLFL) at HLU. Significance of the study ‘The study aims to determine how Legal English-majored students perceive the use of online dictionaries in translation study, as well as the benefits and drawbacks associated with the use of online dictionaries. Once completed, the researcher hopes that this research will provide helpful information and assist Legal English-majored students to improve their translation abilities and acquire English translation more effectively by using online dictionaries Furthermore, the results of this study were expected to heighten students’ consciousness of the value and the benefits of online dictionaries as a tool for language leaming throughout the translation process. In addition, the researcher hopes that this study will be a reliable and helpful resource for other researchers who are interested in the same subject 6.
Organization of the study The study includes three main parts Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. The Introduction consists of the Rationale, Aims, Research questions, Scope, and Organization ofthe study.