PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY --------------------- TA THI KIM OANH VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION ERRORS BY THE FOURTH-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT BAC LIEU UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS Major: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr. HOANG QUOC BINH DUONG, December 2018 I DECLARATION The thesis entitled ―Vietnamese-English translation errors by the fourth-year English majors at Bac Lieu University‖ is conducted under the supervision of Assoc Prof Dr. I declare that the information reported in this paper is the result of my own work, except where due reference is made. The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted to any candidature for any other degree or diploma.
Tạ Thị Kim Oanh December, 2018 II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my deepest and heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, my teacher Assoc. Hoang Quoc who gave me invaluable inspiration, support, devotion, and careful guidance as well as patience through the whole course of my research. He is very enthusiastic, responsible and principled supervisor. Before I had begun to do the research, he offered me a schedule to follow.
He devoted his precious time to read and give me perceptive feedback as well as comments and suggestions on the previous drafts of each chapter. Without him, the current study could not have seen the light. Secondly, I am deeply indebted to my teacher Dr. Nguyen Hoang Tuan for his initial ideas of the research topic, invaluable advice and great help.
My sincere thanks will be surely dedicated to all my lecturers of the Master program for their profound knowledge, whole-hearted instructions and great enthusiasms. I cannot complete the research without support from my fellow friends in the MA‘s program at Thu Dau Mot University. Therefore, I would like to thank them for their comments and suggestions which contributed to the improvement of the paper. My thanks are due to my beloved students in the English Linguistic class 8DTA at Bac Lieu University (BLU), who involved in my experiment.
Without their assistance, my study could not have been conducted. I am also grateful to my colleagues at the English Division, BLU, who gave me good conditions during the time I followed the M. All of their help meaningfully contributed to the completion of my study in the master program. Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my husband, who was always by my side when I was in difficulties and gave me mental support as well as great encouragement and motivation during my M.
III ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore the translation errors made by the English majors in translating Vietnamese into English. To analyze the data, the researcher used both descriptive qualitative and quantitative research method and used error analysis procedure. The participants of this study consist of 4 English teachers and 40 English majors from the fourth-year in the academic year of 2017/2018. The main goal of this research is to find out common errors in Vietnamese-English translation made by students of Bac Lieu University, the teachers‘ perception as well as students‘ perception towards the causes of these translation errors.
The results from the study indicates that the students make grammatical errors, lexical errors, and spelling errors. Based on the findings and discussion of the result, the researcher concludes that the students still face difficulties in using vocabulary and grammar. Key Words: Translation, translation error, grammar error. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
IV TABLE OF CONTENTS. V LIST OF TABLES. VIII LIST OF CHARTS. IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 Background to the study .2 Aims of the study .3 Limitation of the study .4 Significance of the study .6 The organization of the research .4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Theory of translation .1 Definition of translation .2 Factors affecting translation process .2 Mother tongue factor .3 Errors in foreign language learning .1 Definition of error .3 Classification of errors .4 Errors and mistakes .5 Definition of error analysis .4 Common errors in translation .5 Review of related research .3 Population and sample .4 Instruments and procedures .5 Technique of data analysis .1 Collection of samples .2 Identification of errors .3 Classification of errors .4 Explanation of errors .5 Evaluation of errors .6 Validity and reliability .33 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Results from the questionnaire .2 Results from the interview to the teachers .3 Results collected from the assignment and test papers.2 Discussion of result .3 Summary of major findings .66 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS .1 Suggestions for Teachers .2 Suggestions for the students .3 Suggestions for further research .76 VII LIST OF TABLES Table 4.
The students‘ attitude towards translation subject .Students‘ feeling of learning translation. Translation subject supports their language learning. Difficult type of translation texts. The difficulties of the English translation skill.
The students‘ difficulties in translating Vietnamese-into-English texts. The students‘ mistakes in translating Vietnamese-into-English texts. The students‘ thought of choosing texts to translate by themselves whether effective or not. The students‘ learning grammar points.
The amount of self-study time per week. The amount of self-study time per day. 42 VIII LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4. Topic of translation texts which the students are interested in.
Type of translation texts. How to solve problems. What to do to improve translating skill. The students‘ frequency of using reference books.
The students‘ thought of the factors which help their translating Vietnamese-to-English texts. Types of translation errors. Types of grammatical errors. Distribution of lexical error types.
60 IX LIST OF ABBREVIATION BLU: Bac Lieu University SL: Source Language TL: Target language L1: The first language L2: The second language L3: The third language L4: The fourth language EFL: English as a Foreign Language X CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter consists of the background to the study and the aims of the study. The limitation of the study and significance of the study are provided followed by the research questions. The organization and chapter summary of the research are presented in the end.1 Background to the study In the world of globalization, English is an important language to make the communication process easier. It has become an international language.
It is used in the educational books, international meeting, international schools, etc. that use English as a medium of language. Therefore, many countries engage this language in the curriculum. In Vietnam, English is taught as one of the foreign languages.
Kenji (2000) confirms that ―English is used not only for communication between native speakers and nonnative speakers of English but also between nonnative speakers, and it is the most widely used language in the world, and it will be used by more people in the future‖. Both English and Vietnamese have some different systems of conventions in arranging the elements of language, so countries are able to have mutual understanding and a sense of global citizenship in this multilingual world, people have to thanks to their English translated versions. It is considered as an effective means to learn how to appreciate different countries‘ beauty of cultural values. Moreover, English translation makes people understand each other more in the process of diplomatic relations and economic cooperation and other fields in today‘s era when countries tend to integrate for the whole development.
Therefore, English translation has gradually become an indispensable and pressing tool which set the path for the global success of individuals, organizations, and even businesses in the modern time when society is more developing and competition is relentless. To get the ideal future jobs, Vietnamese students have to have expert translation skill in order to meet the demand of integration into the world economy and culture exchange with other countries. It has been widely thought that translation is a process of substituting words of one language with that of another, followed by adjusting word order and grammatical forms. Some students know the vocabulary, but they do not know how to put them into sentences.
Translation is one of the causes of errors. It happens because a student translates his first language sentence or idiomatic expression into the target language word by word. Therefore, translation is one of the important skills in studying a language. Translation is the one of the ways to acquire language as a second or foreign language so that translation skill is much needed in learning English as a second or foreign language.
1 According to Husain (1996), translation can be applied as an effective means of promoting learners‘ language learning since using learners‘ mother tongue in language learning process can intensify learners‘ confidence and also give them positive feeling of relaxation. To produce a good translation, the translator has to know almost perfectly the language translate from the language to be translated into. There has to be no mystery for the translator in the original text and the translator has to understand every nuance so that he/she does not lose pieces of important information. In other words, translation is not merely the transfer of words in source language (SL) into those target language (TL) or vice versa.
In reality, Vietnamese-English translation skill is not easy for Vietnamese students to master, so learners cannot often avoid mistakes in their translating practice. Perhaps, because of the influence of the mother tongue, the differences of syntax, phonology, semantic and cultures or their own limited language ability, Vietnamese students of English in general still have errors in translating Vietnamese texts into English. Bac Lieu province is the part of the Ca Mau Peninsula and Me Kong Delta as well where the economic, social conditions have not yet developed. Bac Lieu University has experienced ten years of establishment and development.
It is essential for training human resource for hometown and the Ca Mau Peninsula. Therefore, one of the main task of the school is training and fostering teachers and staffs with professional skill at all educational levels and highly qualified personnel in other areas such as Ca Mau, Soc Trang in order to contribute to the development of hometown and the Ca Mau Peninsula. In the integrated period, the schools also show special concern for training English majors who have expert translation skill as well as other skills of English so that they are able to contribute their own real linguist abilities to the society‘s development. However, it is not easy for Vietnamese students who have never traveled overseas to have a great command of English.
Translation may be a difficult task, especially for those who have a little knowledge of English and foreign cultures or a specific industry related topic. To complete this task, understanding the difficulties of Vietnamese students when practicing translation, Vietnamese-English translation is considered as a significant class for Vietnamese students of English major by Bac Lieu University. Therefore, this research that entitle ―Vietnamese-English translation errors by the fourth-year English majors at Bac Lieu University‖ is purposed to analyze the errors in translation made by students of English majors at Bac Lieu University. It is expected that the research will be a useful reference helping improve translation skill for not only the students majoring in English of Bac Lieu University but also all Vietnamese people who are interested in translation work and really want to become expert translators.2 Aims of the study The primary aim of the thesis is to identify the English majors‘ errors in translating Vietnamese texts into English.
The study also aims at finding causes of these problems and then suggesting some possible strategies to overcome the problems. The targeted subject of this thesis are mainly students; besides, all people who are interested in translation work can consider it as a useful reference for improving their translating skills as well.3 Scope of the study This research only observed the errors in the translation text.