Graduation Paper HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES SOME TECHNIQUES TO HELP FOURTH- YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY TO IMPROVE THEIR ENGHLISH - VIETNAMESE TRASLATION SKILL Name of student: Nguyen Dieu Linh Date of birth: 20/08/1993 Class: K18SP Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Dang Suu Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper Hanoi - 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Dang Suu, for his academic guidance and support throughout this study Without his valuable assistance, my thesis would not have been completed I would like to sincerely thank the lecturers of Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University who have provided me with not only knowledge but also the study condition during my student life, as well as their useful advice in this graduation paper I would also like to extend my thanks to 100 fourth-year students of Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University for their aid in implementing survey Finally, I am indebted to my family and friends who have encouraged and supported me so much in the completion of this paper If there had not been great help from the above people, the study could not have been fulfilled Hanoi, 2nd May, 2015 Nguyen Dieu Linh Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper TABLE OF CONTENTS Some Techniques to Help Fourth-year Students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University to Improve Their English - Vietnamese Translation Skills PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and Purposes of the study Scope of the study Research questions Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of translation 1.1.1 The definition of translation 1.1.2 The principles of translation 1.2 Methods of translation 14 1.2.1 Semantic translation 14 1.2.2 Communicative translation 15 1.2.3 Word-for-word translation 17 1.2.4 Literal translation 17 1.2.5 Faithful translation 18 1.2.6 Transliteration 19 1.2.7 Calque 19 1.2.8 Adaptation 20 1.2.9 Descriptive translation 20 1.2.10 Free translation 20 1.2.11 Idiomatic translation 21 Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper CHAPTER II: SOME COMMOM MISTAKES MADE BY FOURTHYEAR STUDENTS IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION 22 2.1 Subjects of the study 22 2.2 Data collection method 22 2.2.1 Questionnaires 22 2.2.2 Interview 23 2.2.3 Translation test 23 2.3 Findings 24 CHAPTER III: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING FOURTHYEAR STUDENTS’ ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION SKILL AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HOU 32 3.1 Background knowledge 32 3.2 Grammar 37 3.3 Vocabulary 46 PART C: CONCLUSION 50 REFERENCES 52 APPENDIX 54 Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper LIST OF ABBREVATIONS Etc : Et cetera HOU : Hanoi Open University SL: source language TL: targer language LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 1: Students‟ attitudes toward learning translation Table 2: Students‟ learning translation problems Table 3: Student‟s understand of translation learning Table 4: Student‟s common ways in translation Table 5, and 7: Student‟s performance in their learning English- Vietnamese translation Table 8: Students‟ comment on teacher‟s method and their expectation Table 9: Result of translation test (percentage of incorrect answers) Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper PART A: INTRODUCTON Rationale The 21st century has experienced the boom of globalization as people all around the world have connected successfully to each other without the boundary of any country Being the tool to communicate of most people, English now plays an essential role in the development progress of human beings as an international language of the whole world Therefore, mastering English is the desire of many students to have better opportunities to get a better job in future In Vietnam as well as other countries, English has been taught for many years and become a compulsory subject at any level of education Pupils are required to expert in simple and basic skills of English such as listening, writing, reading, speaking after graduating high school However, at academic study level, especially at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University, students are demanded not only to be good at basic skills but also to understand English deeply and use them efficiently to become a professional translator Hence, good English - Vietnamese translation skill is one of the most major achievements of all students studying academic English In this study, I would like to carry out a study on how fourth-year students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University are learning English- Vietnamese translation in order to find out their difficulties, to work out the causes, and then to suggest some solutions to deal with these problems Therefore, I decided to choose the topic "Some Techniques to help fourth- year students improve their English- Vietnamese translation skill at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University " Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper Aims and objectives of the study  Giving a brief overview of translation and how fourth-year students at Faculty of English, HOU are learning English - Vietnamese translation  Finding out difficulties and mistakes made by fourth-year students at Faculty of English, HOU in learning English - Vietnamese translation • Giving suggested solutions to learn English - Vietnamese translation effectively Scope of the study The study limits itself to the investigation of the difficulties and their causes of the fourth-year students at Faculty of English, HOU in learning English Vietnamese translation The solutions are provided to help fourth-year students at the Faculty of English, HOU learn English - Vietnamese translation more effectively Research questions  What are the common mistakes made by fourth-year students at Faculty of English, HOU in the process of learning English - Vietnamese translation? • What are some suggestions for fourth-year students to improve their English - Vietnamese translation skill? Methods of the study In this study, I use such methods as descriptive method, questionnaires, quantitative and qualitative, translation test and interviews The combination helps to provide the most exact result for the research about learning English Vietnamese translation at Faculty of English, HOU Design of the paper Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper TABLE OF CONTENTS Some Techniques to Help Fourth-year Students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University to Improve Their English - Vietnamese Translation Skills PART A: INTRODUCTON Rationale Aims and Purposes of the study Scope of the study Research questions Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of translation 1.1.1 The definition of translation 1.1.2 The principles of translation 1.2 Methods of translation 1.2.1 Semantic translation 1.2.2 Communicative translation 1.2.3 Word-for-word translation 1.2.4 Literal translation Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper 1.2.5 Faithful translation 1.2.6 Transliteration 1.2.7 Calque 1.2.8 Adaptation 1.2.9 Descriptive translation 1.2.10 Free translation 1.2.11 Idiomatic translation CHAPTER II: SOME COMMOM MISTAKES MADE BY FOURTHYEAR STUDENTS IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION 2.1 Subjects of the study 2.2 Data collection method 2.2.1 Questionnaires 2.2.2 Interview 2.2.3 Translation test 2.3 Findings CHAPTER III: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING FOURTHYEAR STUDENTS’ ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION SKILL AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HOU 3.1 Background knowledge 3.2 Grammar 3.3 Vocabulary Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper PART C: CONCLUSION REFERENCES APPENDIX Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 Graduation Paper It is strange that he is always late => Điều kì lạ đến muộn How good it is that you are here just at the right time! => Việc bạn đến thật tốt làm sao! - It + takes + (Obj) + (time) + to + V (phải … …) It took three more months to clear out the inside of the boat => Phải thêm tháng gọt dũa xong phần bên thuyền - S + verbs of opinion / perception + it (unreal object) I think it a mistake not to help them => Tôi nghĩ không giúp đỡ họ điều sai lầm - Verb (negative) + Obj (affirmative) = Verb (affirmative) + Obj (negative) = Subj (negative) + Verb (affirmative) We can‟t anything now = We can nothing now => Bây làm Nowhere else they grow so fast => Không có chỗ khác mà chúng phát triển nhanh đến - Whether or (not) (1 Hoặc hoặc; Dù hay không) I don‟t know whether I should cry or laugh Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 46 Graduation Paper => Tôi nên cười hay nên khóc The farmers have to irrigate whether it rains or not => Nông dân phải dẫn nước vào ruộng dù trời mưa hay nắng - No longer / no more: không?/ không (còn) … We‟ll talk about it no more => Chúng không nói chuyện - Not yet : đâu/ đâu She has not sent the letter yet => Cô chưa gửi thư - Except / Besides + N: Ngoài I looked everywhere except in the bed room => Tôi quan sát nơi ngoại trừ phòng ngủ - One by one / at a time: … The child greeted them one by one => Đứa bé chào người - But Here was nothing to but return => Chẳng có việc cần ngoại trừ trở lại Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 47 Graduation Paper - So many/ much + N! Có biết There are so many chairs in this room! => Có biết ghế phòng này! - First, then / first afterwards: … đã/ hẳng … Wait for me one minute first: => Đợi chút Let‟s work first play afterwards => Chúng ta làm việc trước vui chơi - Both and / at the same time While at that time Vừa …vừa/ Cả …lẫn The child was crying and laughing at the same time => Đứa bé vừa khóc vừa cười He had to work while going to school at that time => Anh ta phải vừa học vừa làm - Hardly when / No sooner than: vừa xong … lại She had no sooner finished serving the last customers / guests than she began to carry out the empty trays of those served first Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 48 Graduation Paper => Cô vừa phục vụ cho người khách cuối xong lại bắt đầu mang khay dọn bàn người phục vụ 3.3 Vocabulary Many students claim that the chief difficulties in translating are lexical, not grammatical - i.e words, collocations and phrases or idioms; these include neogisms and "unfindable" words, which the thesis will try to deal with separately Difficulties with words are two kinds: (a) you not understand them; (b) you find them hard to translate If you cannot understand a word, it may be because all its possible meaning is not known to you, or because its meaning is determined by its unusual collocation or a reference elsewhere in the text We have to bear in mind that many common nouns have four types of meaning: (a) physical or material, (b) figurative, (c) technical, (d) colloquial Firstly, the colloquial meaning tied to collocations or fixed phrases And the technical meanings are often the worst translation traps since you expect technical terms to be monospermous, i.e have one meaning only - a widespread illusion The next point is that most nouns, verbs or adjectives can be used figuratively and therefore can have figurative meanings - the more common the word, the more contagious and accessible the figurative meanings If we are desperate, we have to test any sentence for a figurative meaning, e.g.,"The man loved his Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 49 Graduation Paper garden " The garden may symbolize privacy, beauty, simple hard work, sexual bliss, etc Other possible solutions to the "word problem" are that the word may have an archaic or a regional sense (consult appropriate dictionaries), may be used ironically, or in a sense peculiar or private to the writer (idiolect), or it may be misprinted But be assured of one thing: the writer must have known what he wanted to say: he would never have written a drop of nonsense in the middle of a sea of sense, and somehow you have to find that sense, by any kind of lateral thinking: misprint, miscopying, and author's linguistic or technical ignorance You have to force your word (usually it is a word) into sense, you have to at least satisfy yourself at last that there are no other reasonable alternatives, you have to write a footnote admitting this to be a light (actually, a grove) because there is no other light, a reduction to absurdity, and so "not found" So far I have been assuming that the word is more or less context-free - and I think that far more words are more or less context-free than most people imagine However, the meanings of many words are determined by their collocations, whether they appear in compounded nouns, in idioms or as an item in a lexical set Very rarely, they can only be clarified by a reference to the adjoining paragraphs or beyond: any mysterious object qualified by "the" may take you far outside your sentence Another general point about translating is that, in principle, since corresponding SL and TL words not usually have precisely the same semantic Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 50 Graduation Paper range (though many in cognate languages), you are over or under-translating most of the time, usually the latter In fact, since in the majority of text you are more concerned with the message (function) than with the richness of description, and since the meanings of all bur technical words are narrowed down in their context, translation correspondence is usually close However, we must remember that a great number of words in one language include and overlap in varying degrees of meaning the words they appear most obviously to translate into another language Thus French words like "silhouette", "discontinuité", "assurer", "descendre" are much more common and have a wider semantic range than their cognates in English, and therefore more often than not they are translated by several different more specific words This illustrates one of the main problems in translation, the enforced shift from generic to specific units or vice versa, sometimes due to overlapping or included meaning, sometimes to notorious lexical gaps in one of the languages, which may be lacking in a generic word for objects or processes or in common specific terms for common parts of the body Notoriously, there are surprising lexical gaps and virtual duplications in every language, and languages group objects differently it needs a translator to expose the apparent bits of linguistic chaos in another language English, apparently the richest language in the world, cannot better than "bank", "funny", "plane", etc for denoting very different referents (Its numerous monosyllables make it the most pun-prone language in Europe.) However, as long as you are sensitized to these lexical facts, you will not find them a problem unless they are used metalingually Finally, if you have no informant accessible about a new word, it can take you longer than the 10-15 pages of the text which follow, and you have to be Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 51 Graduation Paper prepared to give all that time to it (but not in an exam) In real life, you have to be ready to take more time over checking one figure, chasing one acronym, or tracing one "unfindable" word than over translating the whole of the relatively easy and boring piece you find it in Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 52 Graduation Paper PART C: CONCLUSION CONCLUSION With the boom of globalisation today, human beings thirst for overcoming language and cutural barrier more strongly than ever before Hence, translation is not merely a linguistic process, but can also make a political and social impact as well as an indispensable factor to enhance economic growth As a student of faculty of English at Hanoi Open University, we have an excellent opportunity to study professional English - Vietnamese translation skill and it is also our duty to become good translators in the near future However, no one can deny that it is very difficul to master translation skill because it requires learners to master all other skills such as listening, writing, reading, discourse analysis, etc This paper was carried out with the purpose of finding some difficulties in process learning English - Vietnamese translation of the fourth year students at FOE, HOU First and foremost, in Chapter I, some general literatures about translation have been given to all the students After this chapter, students will have basic information about English - Vietnamese translation such as the definition, importance of translation, the principles of translation and the methods of translation Secondly, in the next chapter, the author has explored the common mistakes as well as the difficulties in learning English - Vietnamese translation skills of the students at English faculty, HOU through a survey with questions and a translation test This survey was carried out with the participation of 100 first-year students Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 53 Graduation Paper Lastly, in the final chapter, based on the survey result, the author has pointed out some effective strategies to help the fourth-year students deal with the difficulties in their English - Vietnamese translation learning Some useful techniques to enhance students' English grammar, vocabulary and cultural knowlegde are presented in order to ameliorate their translation skills Within about fifty pages of the study, I have tried my best to fulfill the work However, some imperfections are unavoidable, and I hope to get sympathy from readers I would like to get feedback from teachers and friends about any shortcomings of this study Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 54 Graduation Paper REFERENCES English materials Basil, H and Munday, J (2004) Translation, an Advanced Resource Book Routledge, London and New York Bassnett, S (2005) Translation Studies Routledge, London and New York Larson, M.L (1984) Meaning-based Translation University Press of America, New York Munday, J (2010) Introducing Translation Studies- Theories and Application Routledge, London and New York Newmark, P.(1987) A Textbook of Translation Prentice-Hall, New York Nida, E.A & Taber, C.R (1982) The Theory and Practice of Translation The Netherlands, E.J Brill Nord, C (2008) Translating as a Purposeful Activity Stjero, Manchester, UK & Northampton Robinson, D (2007) Becoming a Translator Routledge, London and New York Sofer, M (2013) The Global Translator‟s Handbook Taylor Trade Publishing, New York & London 10 Venuti, L.(2004) The Translation Studies Reader Routledge, London and New York Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 55 Graduation Paper 11 Thomson, A.J and Martinet, A.V (1986) A Practical English Grammar Oxford, New York Vietnamese materials 12 Nguyễn Đăng Sửu (2010) Đặc Điểm câu hỏi tiếng Anh đối chiếu với tiếng Việt.NXBKHXH Hà Nội 13 Nguyễn Đăng Sửu, Nguyễn Thu Hường & Đặng Quốc Tuấn (2003) Vietnamese - English Translation - Gíao trình dịch nội Viện Đại học Mở Hà Nội, Hà Nội 14 Nguyễn Đăng Sửu, Nguyễn Thu Hường & Đặng Quốc Tuấn (2003) English - Vietnamese Translation - Gíao trình dịch nội Viện Đại học Mở Hà Nội, Hà Nội 15 Nguyễn Đăng Sửu, Nguyễn Thu Hường & Đặng Quốc Tuấn (2013) Translation-Advanced level- For Students of English Faculty- Giáo trình nội Viện Đại học Mở Hà Nội, Hà Nội 16 Nguyễn Thượng Hùng (2005) Dịch Thuật: từ Lý Thuyết đến Thực Hành.NXBVH Sài Gòn Sources from Internet 17 http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/easy/trans.htm 18.http://huc.edu.vn/chi-tiet/3101/Dich-thuat-va-cac-phuong-phap-dichthuat.html Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 56 Graduation Paper APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is designed to identify the current situation of learning English-Vietnamese translation for the fourth-year students in English Faculty, HOU Your answer to the questionnaire will be for the writer towards problems and suggestions developing vocabulary for the fourth-year students Your cooperation is highly appreciated You can be sure that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Please answer the following questions and circle / write the answer that you think is/are appropriate What is the position of translation in English learning? A Very important B Important C Not important What is the difficulty in your translation learning? (Choose more than one) A Vocabulary B Grammar C Background knowledge What knowledge you have got is helpful for your translation learning? (Choose more than one) A Discourse analysis B Reading skill Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 57 Graduation Paper C Western culture D Native language E Society- related knowledge Which method you usually use to translate? (Choose more than one) A.Word-for-word translation B.Literal translation C.Faithful translation D.Semantic translation E.Adaptation F.Free translation How often you learn translation outside the classroom? A Never B Rarely C Sometimes D Often E Always What you think of learning English- Vietnamese translation? A Head-aching B Boring C Interesting D Very interesting Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 58 Graduation Paper How efficient you think you are in learning English- Vietnamese translation? A Inefficient B Not very efficient C Efficient D Very efficient Do your teachers give you some techniques/advice to help you improve your learning English- Vietnamese translation? A Often B Sometimes C Rarely D Never Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 59 Graduation Paper TRANSLATION TEST Translate these English sentences into Vietnamese 1) She is a black beautiful girl 2) She is a beautiful black girl 3) It is thought that the Prime Minister will visit London next month 4) Many industrial zones are under construction by huge corporations in different provinces 5) We happen to attend the international conference last month in Bangkok 6) The man Botanica met at the party was kind but he was not her cup of tea 7) What is Lord Goring? 8) Which teacher you like best? Thanks for your co-operation! Nguyen Dieu Linh - K18A3 - 2011/2015 60 [...]... if the idiom does not work in the L1, do not force it into the translation 1.2 Methods of translation The main methods of translation: 1- Semantic translation 2- Communicative translation 3- Word-for-word translation 4- Literal translation 5- Faithful translation 6- Transliteration 7- Calque 8- Adaptation 9- Descriptive translation 10- Free translation 11- Idiomatic translation 1.2.1 Semantic translation. .. fact that it was impossible to collect to the data needed for this research study from the whole population of students, the researcher decided to choose 100 4th year students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University as subjects of the study Using statistic, the researcher could provide the estimations for the whole student population from the results of 100 subjects of this study These students. .. like best? Due to the limitation of time, the number of students taking the test is 100 The answers of students to the translation test present some common mistakes made by fourth- year students of English faculty while translating, which will help the researcher find out some suggested solutions to the problem 2.3 Findings Options A Question B C 1 What is the position of translation in English learning?... was to find out the factors which created problems to the translators during the translation process This chapter deals with questionnaires to obtain valid data and analysis The chapter begins with the presentation of data collection methodology of the study, and then the collected data are analyzed to find out problematic area and suggestion to the new program 2.1 Subjects of the study Due to the. .. required to state their attitude towards their learning translation 2.2 Data collection method To assure the validity of the survey, the researcher uses the combination of three following methods: questionnaires, interviews and translation test 2.2.1 Questionnaires Questionnaires are an inexpensive way to gather data from a potentially large number of respondents Often they are the only feasible way to reach... a translation The goal of a translator should be to produce a target language text (a translation) which is idiomatic; that is one translation which has the same meaning as the source language but is expressed in the natural form of the target language The meaning, not the form is retained 1.1.2.2 Form Dealing with the form means referring to the lexicon and grammar of one language The ordering of. .. the surface structure of a language It is the structural part of language which is actually seen in print or heard in speech In translation, the form of the source language is replaced by the form of the target language It‟s obvious that translation consists of transferring the meaning of the source language into the target language This is realized by going from the form of the first language to the. .. the original And since this is so, the first business of translation is to translate 1.1.2 The principles of translation There are some general principles which are relevant to all translation: 1.1.2.1 Meaning The translation should reflect accurately the meaning of the original text Nothing should be arbitrarily added or removed, though occasionally part of the meaning can be “transposed-changed the. ..Graduation Paper PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of translation 1.1.1 The definition of translation What is translation? Often, though not by any means always, it is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text Common senses tell us that it ought to be simple, as one ought to be able to say something as well... The interviews provided the research with the practical and specific answers from students about learning translation They allow the researcher to receive much more detailed information which is essential for the proposed purpose 2.2.3 Translation test The translation test includes 8 English sentences from translation books of 4th year students at faculty of English, HOU: 1) She is a black beautiful