A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University

A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in Vietnamese English interpreting encountered by English major students at Thuongmai University

Interpreting is one of obligatory subject which was designed for students ofEnglish Department at Thuongmai University There are two sections of interpreting:English – Vietnamese interpreting and Vietnamese – English interpreting Theinterpreting course is is taught for the students of English falcuty from the secondyear For many students, the subject of practicing interpreting is a difficult task,especially the Vietnamese – English interpreting section This study was conducted tofind out the difficulties which was encountered by English majored students at TMU

in learning Vietnamese – English interpreting Due to the reason that this subject isonly taught for second and third – year student, the research would focus the studentshave been studying for the 2nd and 3rd year The research methods used in this studyare the questionnaire – a list of questions and the interview questions to find out thedifficulties that students usually face in the learning process From the resultscollected, the researcher would give some recommendations and suggestions for bothstudents and teachers of English Department at TMU in order to create a appropriateteaching – learning invironment which brings more effective lessons

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor,Mrs Nguyen Bich Hong for her guidance and encouragement during my completingthe graduation paper With her insight of science as well her experience for manyyears are the biggest inspiration for me in completing my thesis This thesis could not

be done successfully without her valuable advice and support

Moreover, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the teachers of theEnglish faculty, Thuongmai University for their dedication to imparting knowledgeduring the four years of study

I also would like to sincerely thank Thuong Mai University, which provides anactive learning environment, that help me obtain various knowledge and methods tostudy and research myself Thanks to that I can complete my graduation paper in thebest way

Besides, I owe sincere and earnest thankfulness to all the students who spent theirtime answering my questionnaire as well as interview questions to help me in my datacollection

Additionally, I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of thebooks, magazines, and the other materials listed in the reference part for their ideasthat have been reflected and developed in the study

Especially, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my parents and myfamily for nurturing and teaching me to be a good person as well as giving me goodconditions to study and develop

Once again, I would like to show my wholehearted gratitude to all peoplesupporting me to finish my graduation paper

Hanoi, April 11th , 2021

Student - Nguyen Thi Huyen

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES vi

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 2

1.3 Aims of the study 4

1.4 Research Subjects 4

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Research methodology 4

1.7 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Definition of Vietnamese – English interpreting 6

2.1.1 Concepts of interpreting 6

2.1.2 The definition of Vietnamese – English interpreting 7

2.2 The importance of Vietnamese – English interpreting 7

2.3 Modes of interpreting 8

2.3.1 Consecutive interpreting 8

2.3.2 Simultaneous interpreting 9

2.4 Interpreting process 10

2.5 Some helpful skills for interpreting 11

2.5.1 Hearing ability 11

2.5.2 Public speaking skills 11

2.5.3 Coversion skills 11

2.5.4 Memory skills 12

2.5.5 Note – taking skills 12

2.6 The factors influencing interpreting process 12

2.6.1 Influence of the mother tongue 12

2.6.2 Words and choices of word meanings: 13

2.6.3 Grammartical struture 14

2.6.5 Context 15

2.7 Common errors in Vietnamese – English interpreting 16

2.7.1 Wrong words order 16

2.7.2 Wrong choices of grammartical structure 16

2.7.3 Cultural error 17

2.7.4 Errors of interpretation quality 18

2.7.5 Wrong note – taking style 18

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 20

3.1 Results collected from the questionnaire 20

3.1.1 The student’s attitude towards Vietnamese – English interpreting section 20

3.1.2 Difficulties in learning V – E interpreting of English majored students 22

3.1.3 The methods of students when studying V – E interpreting 24

3.1.4 The influence of teachers on learning V – E interpreting of the students 26

3.2 Results collected from the interview questions 27

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS 30

4.1 Suggestions for students 30

4.2 Suggestions for teachers 32

CONCLUSION 34

REFERENCES 1

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONARE 2

APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTION 4

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES

2 Table 1: Student’s attitude towards

interpreting course at TMU

6 Table 3: The difficultíe students have to

face during interpreting Vietnamese into English

26

7 Pie chart 3 External difficulties

influencing V – E interpreting learning

27

8 Table 4 The amount of time students

usually spend on studying V – E interpreting

28

9 Table 5 The ways students apply to

improve their V – E interpreting

28-29

10 Pie chart 4 The influence of the

teachers

29

11 Table 6 The ways teachers should

apply for teaching and learning V – E interpreting

30

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

In the context of globalization today, people may ask themselves a question:How am i able to integrate with all the people round the world if we cannot understandwhat we are saying? And English is that the right answer to the current question.Through thousands of years of development, English has played a vital role within theintegration of the whole world We cannot deny that English is one in every of thekeys which motivated the event of both the economy and society of persons Althoughit's not the foremost used language within the world, it's the foremost versatile andpopular language English is considered the official language of about 60 countriesround the world English has been becoming the most popular means ofcommunication among people

We all know that people can’t live without communication, and English has beenmiraculously performing its bridging role In fact, there is no way to express our ideas,feelings, happiness, sadness without communication I can understand that the coreprinciple of communication is using mutual language, so pondering the whole world'scase, I am able to determine English should be the core of world communication It'sdominating all areas of human social life from economy, politics, entertainment,culture, and arts…

Nowadays, the majority kinds of documents, business contracts, or internationalconventions are written in English At international meetings or conferences, English

is nearly used as a standard language Many companies and corporations, whetherlarge or small within the world, believe that English proficiency could be a necessarycondition in recruiting personnel For the entire world to be integrated into a typicalenvironment, we must understand what others want to say and English is that invisiblelink And the foundation of that bond is translation and interpretation Translation andinterpreting indeed play an irreplaceable role within the process of exchanginginformation among countries It's considered an efficient means to find out a way toembrace different cultures, communities, and other things from any country orterritory within the world Through translation and interpretation, citizens of every

country can understand each other's cultures and move towards mutual integrationwithin the global multicultural community.

However, with a language as complex and in-depth as Vietnamese, English translation and interpretation still has many great challenges Translating andinterpreting are not simply the substitution of words from one language to a different,they are the intersection of two different cultures Therefore, not all learners can avoidmaking mistakes Perhaps, due to the difference in culture, mother tongue, orawareness , Vietnam's English faculty students normally and English students atThuongmai University particularly still make lots of errors within the process ofinterpreting documents and bulletins or speech messages from Vietnamese intoEnglish In fact, there are quite many students making studies on difficulties ormistakes within the practice of translation, but the topic of interpreting practice has notyet been carefully explored As an English major at Thuongmai University, I see theimportance of the practice of translating and look forward to studying it further

Vietnamese-For those reasons, I have got decided to choose the study “A study on difficulties

in Vietnamese - English interpreting encountered by English major students atThuongmai University” I hope this study will contribute to clarify the difficulties oflearning interpreting practice Additionally, it will help to find out solutions to assiststudents of English people department at Thuong Mai University improve theirlearning and practice efficiency, contributing to improving their English speakingskills to support their future work

1.2 Previous studies

Globalization has become the most popular trend, and Vietnam is not out of thisconcept Global integration means citizens of other countries must have good Englishproficiency, however, Vietnamese still face various difficulties to meet these needs Ifound that almost all Vietnamese students studying English can translate and interpretwell content from English to Vietnamese, but from English to Vietnamese, it is quiteweak Besides, many students are majoring in the English language or majoring intranslation and interpretation researched topics in translation - interpreting practice.However, for the subject of practice interpreting, the number of studies is still quite

With a particular issue of difficulties in translating practice, I have collected aninteresting and practical research paper Thus, I would like to depend on this study asreference materials for my graduation paper.

The study was conducted by Ms Nguyen Thi Bich Hang – a student of theForeign Language faculty at Danang Architecture University in 2019 Her title studyis: “Difficulties in interpreting English for foreign teachers in children's Englishclasses at English for Success center.” The purpose of the study is to find out thedifficulties when interpreting for foreign teachers in communication English classes atthe English for Success Center Since then, proposing solutions to overcome thosedifficulties to make their translation work better as well as advising students who havebeen and are about to perform this interpretation work The above research topic hasmentioned quite clearly the problems and obstacles when practicing interpreting fromEnglish to Vietnamese and vice versa However, the downside here is that the topic ispresented entirely in Vietnamese that made the topic lose its professionalism because it

is a topic related to foreign language academic translation and interpretation action.Besides, the topic was researched by the qualitative method and the subjects were theteaching assistant of the center, so the conclusion of the study is of a small group ofsubjects The strength of the topic is the practicality of the survey and finding out whatthe specific difficulties are due to the working environment in direct contact withforeigners

The study's conclusions have shown the following difficulties:

- The first is that listening and understanding skills are not good, so theinterpreting process is hesitant, leading to poor quality of the lessons

- The second is poor speaking skills and incorrect pronunciation leading tomisunderstandings between foreign couchers, and students

- The third is that the lack of English vocabulary makes the interpretationquality not good

- Sometimes foreign couchers use slang words that make their teachingassistants confused and unable to accurately translate the content This is the fourthdifficulty related to cultural factors

- The last is a lack of confidence in speaking or giving public presentations.This is also one of the difficulties that students often encounter.

From the above research results, some suggestions and solutions have been given

to improve the quality of interpreting of the individual researcher as well as otherteaching assistants I highly appreciate the research direction of the topic as well as itsresults and conclusions This topic will help me complete my graduation thesis andclarify other issues about Vietnamese - English interpreting Since then, the results ofthis study will be really useful for me as well as for the students of the Englishdepartment of Thuongmai University

1.3 Aims of the study

This thesis is intended to find out the difficulties faced by students of the Englishdepartment in the course of studying interpreting practice The study also aims toknow students' expectations in learning the subject, thereby proposing solutions thatcan overcome their problems and satisfy their expectations to enhance and adjust bothways of learning - teaching styles and methods

1.4 Research Subjects

Subject: English majored students’difficulties in learning interpreting practices atThuongmai University and finding out some solutions to improve the efficiency ofleaning this subject

1.5 Scope of the study

For students of the Business English Faculty, the practice of translating is anobligatory subject of the course This is also one of the most difficult subjects forstudents Starting from the second year, students will be exposed to translation theoryand in the 3rd and 4th years students will learn more deeply into translation andinterpreting Therefore, this study will focus on 3rd and 4th-year students of theEnglish department at Thuongmai University

1.6 Research methodology

One of the decisive factors to the success of the research is that the researchmethodology Today, many resources such as books, newspapers, and especially the

Internet are used to serve the researches Besides, there are many research methodsthat students can prefer to do their studies For this thesis on students' difficulties inlearning the practice of interpretation, the two research methods used are qualitativeand quantitative In order to get accurate results for the research, I created arandomized questionnaire and examined online 90 students who are of courses 53 and

54 to synthesize data in a short time

The quantitative method will then be used to collect data to analyze throughdisplaying ratios and numbers This is to find out difficulties in the students' translationprocess and provide suggestions for teaching and learning Vietnamese-Englishinterpreting at Thuongmai University

All comments, recommendations, and conclusions provided within the studywere based on analysis of research data

1.7 Organization of the study

The study includes four main following chapters:

 Chapter 1: Overview of the study: The first chapter is a description of theresearch that provides general information about the study It consists of seven parts:rationale, previous studies, aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study,research methodology, and organization of the study This chapter is an overview ofissues related to the research object and specifically here are the difficulties ofmembers when studying translating practice

 Chapter 2: Literature review: This is the chapter that synthesizes theoreticalcontent related to the practice of interpreting These include definitions, concepts, theimportance of interpreting, modes of interpreting, the process of interpreting, skills,and common errors when interpreting from Vietnamese into English

 Chapter 3: Research findings: This chapter describes the process ofresearching and provides data analysis, results, and conclusion of the researchprocedure

 Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions: In this chapter, suggestions,and recommendations of problems are given to help students improve theireffectiveness in translating practice and also help teachers improve teaching efficiency.These suggestions and recommendations are based on the research results of chapter 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of Vietnamese – English interpreting

2.1.1 Concepts of interpreting

Writers defined interpreting in different ways, their concepts depend on how theyview language and interpreting There are so many concepts of interpreting and thefollowing definitions have been selected because of being really typical in some sense.According to Cambridge Dictionary, interpreting is simply defined as thechanging what someone is saying from one source language into the words of anotherlanguage (target language)

Freeman Tilden (1957) indicated that: “Interpreting is an educational activitywhich aims to reveal meanings and relationships through the use of original objects, byfirsthand experience, and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicatefactual information.”

Another concept of interpreting given by Interpretation Canada – the Canada'snational association for heritage interpreters, interpretive guides and museumeducators is that:"Interpretation is a communication process, designed to revealmeanings and relationships of our cultural and natural heritage, through involvementwith objects, artifacts, landscapes and sites."

In general, these definitions of interpretation mentioned above have three mainsimilar ideas First of all, interpretation is a process of rendering meaning, ideas, ormessages from one language into another language (from the source language to thetarget language) by means of speaking The aim of interpretation is to find theequivalent meaning of the source language expression in the target language Thus, themeaning is being interpreted is very important and it must be kept consecutively.Secondly, interpreting is an immediate action, and cultural interaction is an extremelyimportant thing in the process of this action Therefore each interpreter needs to payattention to and study carefully before doing their interpretation.The last one is thatinterpreters have to preserve the equivalencies between two languages The above

definitions can help us understand the concept of interpreting to obtain an overallpicture of the interpreting process.

2.1.2 The definition of Vietnamese – English interpreting

From the definition of translation, we can indicate that Vietnamese - Englishinterpreting is a small branch in the process of interpreting in general It is acommunication action performed to convert information and messages from theVietnamese language into the English language by the spoken means This processmust ensure the accuracy of the information converted through careful study of theword equivalence as well as the cultural exchange between Vietnam and English-speaking countries

For instance, the Vietnamese idiom: “ Đứng núi này trông núi nọ.” can beinterpreted into English as: “The grass always looks greener on the other side of thefence” In this situation, if the interpreter does not understand both two languagesdeeply, he can interpret like this: “Stand in this mountain and see another mountain.”

If this happens, the listener will misunderstand the original meaning of the Vietnameseidiom

2.2 The importance of Vietnamese – English interpreting

Nowadays, with global integration, the requirement of using a common languagefor the whole world becomes more essential than ever Therefore, English has beenchosen and considered as a common language system for most countries We arealways aiming for interference and integration, what is the prerequisite for achievingthem? It is cultural understanding, linguistic understanding, and more specificallyunderstanding what we are thinking and saying? From the above reasons, I canrecognize translating and interpreting as the origin of this interference For a simpleexample, when we travel to a foreign country we will often have to hire a tour guide

In this case, the tour guide is our interpreter, he or she helps us understand the culture

of the country and, more importantly, understand the voices and customs of theindigenous people

With a country on the impetus of integration like Vietnam, translation andinterpretation have become even more necessary and especially the aspect of

Vietnamese-English translation More and more foreign companies choose to dobusiness in Vietnam and of course, they will have to recruit staff with English skills toserve the most basic need that is communication That is why we young Vietnamesetoday need to have English proficiency, especially Vietnamese English interpreting sothat we can express our own thoughts and show the world the good qualities andculture of Vietnamese people.

For education, especially teaching and learning English, Vietnamese Englishinterpreting becomes even more important If students lack Vietnamese Englishinterpreting skills, how can they integrate and interact with students around the worldand how can they show their abilities and knowledge

Freeman Tilden said that: "Through interpretation, understanding; throughunderstanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection." I completely agree withhis observation If we - young Vietnamese students want to show our internationalfriends our values and capabilities or, moreover, protect the image of Vietnam and theVietnamese in the international arena, we need to be proficient in our Vietnamese-English translation skills

2.3 Modes of interpreting

There are two modes of interpreting recognized by the interpreting professionand have been adopted in federal and state statutes and court rules: simultaneousinterpreting, consecutive interpreting, and sight translation Each mode fits particularneeds and circumstances in the judicial process and in legal and quasilegal settings

2.3.1 Consecutive interpreting

In a consecutive interpreting situtaion, the interpreter waits until the speaker hasfinished before rendering speech into another language The interpreter must give sstructured and accurate rendering of the meaning of the statement with no majordistortions of meaning, changes to the logical order of the statement or seriousomissions detail Consecutive interpreting is used for accompanying a non – Englishspeaking group within a large garthering English speakers at a trade fair or exposition

In addition, consecutive interpreting may be used for conferences where smaller

working parties meet in room without interpreting facilities, and interpreters will sitalongside speakers and interpret at intermission of the speakers.

Consecutive interpreting is devided clearly into two different modes: unilateraland bilateral

 Unilateral interpreting is that while the interpreting process, the interpretermust rendering sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph of the speaker into thetarget language and most of speech in this case may last five, ten minutes, up to half anhour or an hour

 Bilateral interpreting or liaison interpreting often used by interpreters whichwork in or out of two languages And in Vietnam , one of languages must beVietnamese This kind of interpreting is often used in business meetings, professionconferences and so on

To performing a good consecutive interpretation, interpreters need thesefollowing qualities:

 Proficiency in two languages and two cultures

 Quickness of speech and mind

 Good techniques in memorizing verbal utterances and converting themrapidly,and accuratly

 Ability of concentration

 High moral standards

 Responsibility with your interpretation

 Knowledge of a wide range of specific terms and siituation such as health,education, legal, etc

 Note- taking skills of a very high order

 Ability of working under stressful conditions

2.3.2 Simultaneous interpreting

Simultaneuos interpreting is a process in which interpreters do not wait thespeakers to complete a segment and pause before beginning to interpret but follow thespeaker and interpret what the speaker is saying Simultaneous interpreting helps peplesave much of time and limit disruption of the interpreting process

Simultaneous interpreting is common used at international conferences andforums This mode of interpreting requires equipment for interpreters and interpretersare paid higher for simultaneous interpretation.

Simultaneous interpreting includes three different types: sight translation,whispered interpretation and electronic hook – up

 Sight translation means a written SL text is read aloud as if written in the TLtext

 Whispered interpretation is often used at a meeting without interpretingequipment or in court

 Electronic hook – up is often used at a conference with microphones andheadsets and booths for interpreters

2.4 Interpreting process

Image The process of interpreting

The process of interpreting includes seven main stages: input stage,understanding, deciphering, tranference, context and culture, output 1 and output 2

 I – Input stage During this stage, the interpreter must hear carefully andreceive the message from the speaker without interference

 U – Understanding This is the most stage of interpreting process Theinterpreter must understand accurately the meaning of the message received Notunderstanding will result in a breakdown of communication

 D – Deciphering At this stage, the interpreter gets rrid of all the words,retaining the concept, the idea.

 T – Transference The concept or idea is transferred into the other language

 C + C – Context and Culture It is considered as a part of the transferencestage The interpreter converts the meaning of message under contextual and culturalconsiderations

 O1 – Output 1 During this stage, the interpreter finds an equivalent idiomaticexpression

 O2 – Output 2 The last stage, the interpreter transfers meaning in targetlanguage by his/her voice

2.5 Some helpful skills for interpreting

For interpreters, giving out the most accurate and perfect interpretation is verydifficult They have to go through a long process of learning and training to obtain awide range of knowledge for themselves Especially with Vietnamese - Englishinterpretation, students need more practice to master the skills needed to be able toserve study as well as work in the future Following are the skills that are critical andnecessary for Vietnamese - English interpreting

2.5.1 Hearing ability

In translating and interpreting, hearing ability is a very important thing thattranslators must practice In fact, students often think that listening skills in EnglishVietnamese interpreting are more important than Vietnamese English interpreting.However, when translating from Vietnamese to English, we also need to have goodlistening skills because the local language is one of the barriers in listening andinterpreting For example, in many regions of Vietnam, people often pronounce the "n"sound and "l" sound incorrectly If the interpreter does not have a good hearing ability,

it will lead to incorrect interpretation

2.5.2 Public speaking skills

For obvious reasons, the interpreter need to have a clear, well – modulated voiceand a smooth style of delivery The professional interpreters need to transfer theirinterpretation confidently with a confident and rhythmic voice that was neither too fast

nor too slow Leaners who feel insecure when speaking in public might considerjoining a club to develop their speaking skills.

2.5.3 Coversion skills

Interpreting is an immediate process so that interpreters must have ability ofthinking quickly and “on their feet” If the interpreters do not have the ability toconvert quickly, the interpreting process will be interrupted and make the listener notreally believe in the accuracy of the interpretation

2.5.4 Memory skills

The short – term memory skill is used for the temporary storage of segments ofspeech so that they can be decoded and re-encoded To improve short – term memoryand speaking style, students should practice exercises such as news paper translation,translating from speech, translating from radio news, and practicing interpreting withfriends

2.5.5 Note – taking skills

This is an important skill for interpreters because it giúp them from missinginformation when interpreting Interpreters should begin taking notes as soon as thespeaker starts speaking However, the interpreter needs to take notes properly to getenough information without distracting himself too much from taking notes Eachinterpreter should make his/ her own note taking system A system of arrows is often

an intergral component of a general system of notes For example:

 Some symbols can be used to replace words while writing:

: this sign can be replaced for some words such as tendency, towards, trend, turn

2.6 The factors influencing interpreting process

2.6.1 Influence of the mother tongue

During the process of learning a foreign language, our mother tongue has a biginfluence on our way of thinking and, to some extent, our use of the target language(word order, word choice) Thanks to the translation, we understand better theinterference of the mother tongue when learning a foreign language We will be able toexplore the potential of both languages – their merits and shortcoming – by usingcontrastive analysis The following example is used to illustrate more about thedifferences between word orders in Vietnamese and English:

“Anh ấy là một công dân tốt Tên của anh ấy là Nam”

In the first underline phrase, “công dân” is a noun, “tốt” is an adjective In thelater, “tên” is a noun, and “của anh ấy” is possessive adjective As we seen inVietnamese, an adjective or possessive adjective follows a noun However, in English,

an adjective precedes a noun and the same position for possessive adjective as in thefollowing formula:

Vietnamese: N + Adjective/ N + possessive Adjective

 Vietnamese: N + Adjective/ N + possessive Adjective

English: Adjective + N/ possessive Adjective + N

 Vietnamese: N + Adjective/ N + possessive Adjective

Therefore, the phrases above is rewritten in English as:

“He is a good citizen His name is Nam”

Adj Noun Possessive Noun Adj

2.6.2 Words and choices of word meanings:

Words play a crucial role for any language learners to build their own vocabularysystem to get advantages in their language learning Vocabulary is the fundamentalcomponent of communication The more vocabulary one has, the more advantages forhim to obtain effective communication Developing this basic tool with create manyopportunities in learning translation subject well within a translation text If learnershave no difficulty in new words, it will be easy for them to translate into the targetlanguage text In contrast, they seem to fail translating Most of English words have

many meanings, so choosing a suitable and appropriate word, which has the exactmeaning to apply into the target language text sometimes, create many confusing forinterpreters The exact meaning of one word can be expressed only in context, as in thefollowing example:

“My uncle ran for governor so he was a fair game for the press The reportersdug back into his past and printed things about him that happened way back inchildhood But they found nothing that looked too bad and he did get elected” Theword “ran” is the past and past participle of “run” means “chạy”, “vận hành”, “chạytrốn”, „tranh cử”, „bò”, etc, and the meanings of the word “dig” which is the present of

“dug” in dictionary are “đào bới”, “xới”, “khơi”, “khai quật”, etc

If the meaning of these words is not selected carefully and appropriately,translator will have a bad interpretation in consequence like in the following sentence:

“Ông cậu của tôi chạy trốn Thống đốc vì thế ông là mục tiêu đáng chú ý cho báogiới soi mói Các phóng viên đã quay lại bới móc cái quá khứ của ông và đăng ranhững gì đã xảy ra trong thời thơ ấu Nhưng họ không tìm thấy được cái gì quá xấu vàchú tôi đã đắc cử”

Suggested version:

“ Ông cậu tôi ra tranh cử vào chức vụ thống đốc, vì thế các phóng viên đã quaylại khơi dậy lại quá khứ của ông Tuy nhiên, họ không tìm thấy được điều gì quá tệ vềông và cậu tôi đã đắc cử”

Obviously, vocabulary is one of the most important parts helping interpreterscreate a good interpretation The more meanings of a word we know, the moreadvantages we have in interpreting process Paying attention to meanings of word willpartly help translation products sound smoother and more exactly

especially in the case where the speaker uses the abbreviated structures or thestructures which are not equivalent Therefore, the interpreter needs to know how tochange the structure to match between Vietnamese and English In English, there aremany tenses being used with a particular structure In case, an untrue tense is used,readers can not understand or misunderstand its meaning.

For instance:

“Tôi đã sống trong căn nhà này 10 năm nay”

Suggested version:

“I have lived in this house for 10 years”

The tense of the verb is the present perfect tense, it shows an action whichhappened in the past and up to now or in the future However, there are no rules ofusing the different verb forms to express the time when an action happens inVietnamese With the present perfect tenses above, the sentence can be translated as:

“Tôi đã sống trong căn nhà này được 10 năm rồi”

In this way, the verb “sống” has no inflection and the meaning of the sentence ismaintained

In short, grammatical structures in English are so complicated and not easy tomaster There is no way to master it without practice It requires the learners have tofind on effective way of learning to study and practice more if they want to limitgrammar errors in using English in general and specially in studying translationsubject to become a skilled translator

2.6.4 Pronunciation

Pronunciation is one of the factors determining the success of the translator.Translators may have a good vocabulary and grammar and the ability to convertquickly, but if their pronunciation is not correct, the listener will not understand thetranslation For example in the following scenario:

"Cô ấy đã sống ở đây 3 năm trước"

You can translate it like this: "She lived here three years ago." But if thetranslator incorrectly pronounce the word "lived" to "leaved", the meaning of thesentence changes completely: "She leaved here three years ago” (Cô ấy đã rời khỏi đây

3 năm trước)

2.6.5 Context

Language plays a crucial role in conveying information; it is the vehicle of ourideas, thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of our world Interpreting is consideredbeing a process of carrying the meaning of s speech from one language to anotherlanguage This process involves interpretation of the meaning of the source text andproducing the same meaning of this text by mean of another language Meaning is theentire environment in which the word or sentence is expressed or stated by the context.For example:

- The uses of the word “work” in the following sentences:

+ I work at Ministry of Education and Training

+ Kieu story is a famous work

+ After graduating, I will look for work

The “work” in the first example is a normal verb It means the activity by whichone makes a living In the second one, “work” means the output of a creative writerwhereas “work” in the last example has another different meaning, that is a nounrelating to a job or an employment

Context is really important and necessary in helping us decide which wordshould be chosen to obtain the suitable meaning in our interpreting If wemisunderstand the context, it leads to choosing of inappropriate meanings of words It,therefore, results in a bad interpreting Context partly contributes to create a trueinterpreted output that is considered the most important requirement of interpreting

2.7 Common errors in Vietnamese – English interpreting

2.7.1 Wrong words order

The order of words in a interpretation also has a great influence on its meaning.The different order will lead to the very different meaning of a speech For example:Tim hit his classmate on the nose

 Tim đánh vào mũi bạn cậu ta

Only Tim hit his classmate on the nose

 Chỉ có Tim đánh bạn cậu ta vào mũi

Tim only hit his classmate on the nose

 Tim chỉ đánh bạn cậu ta vào mũi thôi.

Tim hit only his classmate on the nose

 Tim chỉ đánh mình bạn cậu ta vào mũi

2.7.2 Wrong choices of grammartical structure

Grammar errors are some common errors related to tenses, the form of words, thesentence structures found in the interpretation product

The grammar errors that are related to the misuse of verb forms often occur whenthe interpreters keep Vietnamese structures to interpret the Vietnamese sentence intoEnglish The following sentence is considered to have grammatical error because theinterpreter misused the voice

“Đổi mới giáo dục là con đường tất yếu, nhưng đổi mới như thế nào vẫn còn làmột câu hỏi đặt ra cho nhiều nhà giáo dục học.”

 “Educational innovation is absolutely essential, but how should it innovate isstill a big question which pose for many educators.”

The errors of this example is the verb “innovate” and “pose” which is in activeform It must be in passive form “be innovated” and “is posed” because education cannot innovate by itself and question can not itself pose for educators

the Vietnamese sentence should be interpreted as: “Educational innovation isabsolutely essential, but how should it be innovated is still a big question posed formany translators.”

Besides, there are also grammartical errors related to converting Vietnamesetense into English tense The following example describes how interpreters makemistake with tense

“Cô ấy đã sống ở căn nhà đó 5 năm và rời đi cách đây 2 năm”

In Vietnamese, the two part of this sentence both belong to the past tense butwhen interpreting this sentence into English interpreter must used two types of tenseincluding past perfect tense and simple past tense Therefore, this sentence should beinterpreted as: “She had lived in that house for 5 years and then left there two yearsago.”

These above two examples demonstrate some of the grammartical errors whichmay be caused during the interpreting process