B bb6 THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ---🙠🙡🕮🙣🙢--- GRADUATION PAPER AN ANALYSIS OF WORD COLLOCATION ERRORS IN TRANSLATION COMMITTED BY ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Vũ Thị Hạnh, MA Student’s name: Nguyễn Thị Phương Class: K54N5 Student code: 18D170232 Hà Nội – 2021 ABSTRACT The topic of this study is “An analysis of word collocation errors in translation committed by English-majored students at Thuongmai University”. The current study aimed to analyze Vietnamese to English collocation errors in translations committed by English-majored students at Thuongmai University. This research concentrate on finding out common collocation errors in translating skill among English-majored students and factors causing these collocation errors. Then, some solutions to avoid collocation errors suggested by researchers.
To gather data, the researchers used two instruments: firstly, ten portfolios from English-majored students who are learning advanced translation were chosen as samples. In each portfolio, the researchers analyzed the second draft of three first translations. Besides, a test of English collocation including thirteen types of collocations: which are grammatical collocation: (1) Noun + Preposition Collocation, (2) Noun + that clause Collocation, (3) Preposition + Noun Collocation, (4) Adjective + Preposition Collocation, (5) Collocation consists of predicate adjectives and a following to + infinitive, (6) Verb + Preposition Collocation; lexical collocation: (1) Verb + Noun, (2) Adjective + Noun Collocation, (3) Noun + Verb Collocation, (4) Noun + Noun Collocation, (5) Adverb + Adjective Collocation, (6) Verb + Adverb Collocation, (7) Adverb + Verb Collocation. After data analysis, it revealed that students encountered errors while collocating words in some types of collocation, such as, grammatical collocation type 1 (Noun + preposition), type 4 (Adjective + preposition, and type 6 (verb + preposition); lexical collocation type 1 (verb + noun), type 2 (adjective + noun), type 3 (Noun + verb) and type 4 (noun + noun) and type 6 (verb + adverb).
The reasons for these errors include: the translators’ low knowledge of collocations (11.3%), the translators’ reliance on dictionaries or automatic translation tools (10.73%), the translators using word-for-word strategy to create new collocation (10. Finally, some recommendations on improving English collocation in written translation were also made on these findings. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Throughout the process of completing this graduation paper, I have been fortunate to get much support, assistance, guidance and encouragement from many people. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Ms.
Vu Thi Hanh, M.A whose encouragement, guidance, and support enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject and to fulfill the final version of the thesis as expected. Second of all, I would also like to express my special thanks to other teachers of Faculty of English, Thuongmai University for their useful lectures during four years that have equipped me with the necessary knowledge for doing my Graduation Paper efficiently. Last but not least, I owe sincere thanks to all members of my family and friends for all they have done for me. Without their support and encouragement, this graduation paper would not have become complete.
I know my graduation paper still in the process to the perfection, so I would like to receive your comments, suggestions, and corrections for the perfection of my own graduation paper. Hanoi, December 20th 2021 Student Nguyen Thi Phuong ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.
vi CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY. “Analysis of Collocational Errors of Thai EFL students”, Chittinan Yumanee, Thammasat University, Thailand. “Some of common collocation mistakes among second-year students”, Duong Thi Diu, and Lai Thi Hien, University of Language and international studied, faculty of English language teacher education. “The Use of English Collocation in Written Translation – A Case of University English-Majored Students”, Nguyen Huynh Trang, Khau Hoang Anh & Truong Nhat Khanh.
School of Foreign Languages for Economics, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and School of Foreign Languages, Tra Vinh University, Vietnam. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Data collection method.
Data analysis method. Organization of the study. 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Characteristics of collocation. Collocation is arbitrary.
Collocation is language specific. Collocation is recurrent in context .3 Classifications of collocation. Translation of collocations. Difficulties and Problems in Translating Collocation.
16 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDING. Results and Discussion. Research question 1: What are common errors in translation committed by English-majored students at TMU?. Portfolios of translation committed by English majored students.
The mini test. Research question 2: what factors cause collocation words errors. 35 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. 10 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviations English meaning Vietnamese meaning 1 TMU Thuongmai University Trường đại học Thương Mại 2.
EFL English as a Foreign Tiếng Anh là ngôn ngữ thứ Language hai 3 ST Source Text Văn gốc sẽ được dịch sang ngôn ngữ khác 4 TTs Target Texts Văn bản ngôn ngữ mục tiêu 5 CA Creation and Activation Tạo lập và hoạt động 6 EN Eradication and Nullification Xóa bỏ tận gốc và Vô hiệu hóa 7 SL Source Language Ngôn ngữ nguồn 8 TL Target language Ngôn ngữ đích v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES No Table/ Name figure 1 Table 3.1: The types of mistakes in each portfolio.2: Lexical collocation type 5 example errors in portfolios 3 Table 3.3: The second-high proportions of errors in 10 portfolios 4 Table 3.4: Second-high collocation group examples in portfolios 5 Table 3.5: The third high proportions of errors in 10 portfolios 6 Table 3.6: Percentages of factors causing collocation errors 7 Figure 3.1: The results of grammatical collocation correct answers in the test 8 Figure 3.2: Percentage of choices in the question “nhạy cảm” 9 Figure 3.3: Percentage of choices in the question “niềm đam mê với” 10 Figure 3.4: Percentage of choices in the question “lo sợ việc làm gì” 11 Figure 3.5: The number of participants who chose the correct answers in lexical collocation 12 Figure 3.6: Percentage of choices in the question “cảm xúc hỗn độn” 13 Figure 3.7: Percentage of choices in the question “sóng vỗ” 14 Figure 3.8: Percentage of choices in the question “một đàn chó” 15 Figure 3.9: Percentage of choices in the question “Bắt đầu lại từ đầu” vi CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1. Rationale Language is so much more than just a tool allowing us to communicate. It is the expression of culture, society, and beliefs. Thousands of cultures exist around the world, all expressing the specifics of their daily life through their own language.
In the present- day, translators have been entrusted with the role of facilitating communication and understanding between people who come from various cultures and speak different languages. Translations are more than just changing the words from one language to another. Translation builds bridges between cultures. It allows us to experience cultural phenomena that would otherwise be too foreign and remote to grasp through our own lens.
In addition, translation is the transferring of verbal language messages into non- verbal forms (Jakobson, as cited in Munday, 2009). According to Munday (2001), the nature of translation is multilingual and interdisciplinary, covering languages, linguistics, communication studies, philosophy and a variety of cultural studies. In recent years, translation has become more and more popular in Vietnam, attracting many people to the profession. However, a lot of students majoring in English confess that they face a lot of difficulties in translation.
The translation of English collocations is one of the greatest challenges for translators and students, since there is no fixed rule for it. Collocations are sub-categories of formulaic language (Wray, 2002) which is seen as one of the main concerns in language processing and language acquisition (Schmitt, 2010). Lewis (2000) also suggests that learners need to know not only what is right, but also what is wrong. Moreover, Hill (2000) reported that up to 70% of language is made up of fixed expressions, with the number of collocations far outnumbering the number of single- word items.
Similarly, Erman and Warren (2000) found that 58.6% of spoken discourse and 52.3% of written discourse consisted of multiword combinations. adds that collocation is something that translators need to be aware of. As collocation poses a lot of challenges to find the target language equivalents, students may mistranslate collocations due to various factors, typically their limited knowledge and 1 the influence of their native language. Therefore, so as to become competent translators and interpreters in the future, it is necessary that students be well aware of their errors and know how to correct them.
Lewis (2000) claims that only helping students pay more attention to their collocation mistakes can raise awareness of collocations. From the researcher’ observation, students at Thuongmai University (TMU), especially those majoring in English language, are having some problems relating to the collocation capacity. Some students are hesitant when using collocation in their translation or using them but still make some mistakes such as making an appointment instead of taking an appointment, or inflicting pain instead of creating pain. Finding that it is really essential that a thorough and detailed study on students’ collocation errors and strategies for translating collocations be made, the researcher decided to carry out a study on “An analysis of word collocation errors in translation committed by English-majored students at Thuongmai University”.
Previous studies Collocation is considered as one of the key components in translation. That is the reason why collocation has attracted a lot of researchers’ interests. With the goal of completing the study in the best way, the author reviewed many documents relating to the study which the author is working on. In general, in previous studies, scientific researchers would provide background theories on the topic they were studying.
“Analysis of Collocational Errors of Thai EFL students”, Chittinan Yumanee, Thammasat University, Thailand The first study was named “Analysis of Collocational Errors of Thai EFL students”, Chittinan Yumanee, Thammasat University, Thailand. The study aimed to analyze collocational errors produced by Thai EFL students at two proficiency levels, to examine whether such errors are attributed to first language interference, and to investigate other plausible sources of errors. The researcher suggested two hypotheses: Hypotheses 1: 2 Thai EFL learner’ native language influence contributes to their English collocational errors. Hypotheses 2: In addition to native language transfer, other factors contributing to Thai EFL learners’ collocation errors are the strategy of paraphrasing, the strategy of synonymy, learners’ creative invention and the strategy of analogy, and low knowledge of grammatical collocations.
In order to find out the research results, the author invited a total of 60 twelfth- grade students at Satri Si Suriyothai School in Bangkok to participate in the study. Each student was required to take two collocational tests: (1) a 45-item multiple-choice test and (2) an 18-item Thai-English translation test. The two tests consisted of nine major types of collocations, which included nine lexical and three grammatical collocation patterns. The results revealed that the performance of Thai EFL students in both the receptive test and the productive test appeared to be influenced by mother-tongue transfer when they were confronted with difficulties in dealing with English collocations.
Furthermore, it was discovered that there were other potential factors that contributed to the high degree of collocational errors committed by the high-proficiency and low- proficiency groups, namely the synonymy strategy, the learners’ creative invention and the strategy of analogy, the paraphrasing strategy, and low knowledge of collocational skills. Some advantages and disadvantages of research methods: The study found out collocation errors and factors that cause these errors of Thai EFL students. The method was used to focus on a specific work so that it made the data clear, accurate and had many grounds for analyzing the topic clearly. That the author only used tests to collect the data made the reader easy to follow and understand.
On the other hand, using only collocations tests in collecting data did not cover all the objects.