Khóa luận An analysis on the influence of Vietnamese style on writing English business correspondence – Situation and solutions

Realizing the importance of business letters and the difficulties writers usually meet, I have decided to choose business letters whose title is “An analysis on the influence of Vietname

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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THƯƠNG MẠI

-o0o -

AN ANALYSIS ON THE INFLUENCE OF VIETNAMESE STYLE

ON WRITING ENGLISH BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE

SITUATION AND SOLUTIONS

(PHÂN TÍCH ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA NGÔN NGỮ TIẾNG VIỆT KHI VIẾT THƯ TÍN THƯƠNG MẠI BẰNG TIẾNG ANH – THỰC TRẠNG VÀ GIẢI PHÁP)

Người thực hiện: ThS Phạm Thị Xuân Hà Đơn vị: BM Thực hành tiếng – Khoa tiếng Anh

Hà N ội, tháng 3, 2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 5

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LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS 6

PART A: INTRODUCTION 7

1 Rationale 7

2 Aims of the study 8

3 The research questions of the study 9

4 Scope of the study 9

5 Significance of the study 9

5 Methods of the study 10

6 Design of the study 10

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 11

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 11

1.1 The importance of business letters in doing business 11

1.2 Definition of a business letter 12

1.3 Kinds of business letters 12

1.3.1 Inquiries 12

1.3.2 Quotations and offers 13

1.3.3 Orders 13

1.3.4 Claims 13

1.4 Features of a goof business letter 14

1.5 The factors influencing translation process 15

1.5.1 Influence of the mother tongue 15

1.5.2 Words and choices of word meanings 16

1.5.3 Grammatical structures 17

1.5.4 Context 18

1.5.5 Characteristic of language 18

1.6 Common errors in Vietnamese-English translation 20

1.6.1 Vocabulary errors 20

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1.6.2 Grammar errors 25

1.6.3 Cultural errors 28

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 30

2.1 Research questions 30

2.2 Research participants 31

2.3 Research procedure 31

2.4 Data collect instruments 32

2.4.1 The test papers analysis and statistic 32

2.4.2 The questionnaire 32

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34

3.1 The findings 34

3.2 Discussion 35

3.2.1 Some difficulties and common mistakes in using correct grammar 35

3.2.2 Power of lexis and Terminology 39

3.2.3 Mistakes and difficulties in set expression and using words 43

3.2.4 Mistakes and difficulties in using words 45

3.2.5 Difficulties in conveying the original writing styles 49

3.3 Causes of business-letter writing problems 52

3.3.1 Causes of grammar errors related to verb tenses 52

3.3.2 Causes of errors on word choices 52

PART C: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 53

1 Implications 53

1.1 Using correct language 54

1.2 Solution to conveying the original writing styles 56

2 Conclusion 59

REFERENCES 60

APPENDICES 62

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APPENDIX A 62 APPENDIX B 64

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to express my gratitude to my colleagues in Faculty of English for their valuable suggestions and advice and encouragement during the development of my research

Besides, I also would like to thank all of my students in Business English 1.4 and 2.3, 2.4 classes Without their supports, it is impossible for me to finish this research

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Chart 3: Levels of difficulty in using Terminology 38 Chart 4: Difficulty of using expression set and word use 41 Chart 5: Difficult levels of conveying original styles 46

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country, and thus the transactions are made in the international language It is very necessary to know a constituent part of business communication because more and more agreements or contracts are made in English

English is used in the global business for transactions in goods and services, technical specifications, financial reports and other purposes among native-speakers and non-native-speakers throughout the world The business transactions are developing quickly linking with the growth of the economy of the country in which the international cooperation is very important

Business letters written in English are viewed as a form of business communication and contribute to the success of the company Although the communication technology has been widely developed in the modern society, business letters are used as a main channel

of business correspondence

Nevertheless, writing a business letter in English well is not easy Realizing the importance of business letters and the difficulties writers usually meet, I have decided to choose business letters whose title is “An analysis on the influence of Vietnamese style

on writing English business correspondence – Situation and Solutions” When doing

my research, I would try my best to recommend suggestions for students in order that they would be able to write an effective business letter at work

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of the study are as follows:

- To point out some difficulties in writing business correspondence

- To figure out the similarities and differences between Vietnamese style and English style when transferring the commercial correspondence from one language to another

- To make the matter of business letters less complicated and upgrade the style of English business letters for the learners

- To give some implications for learning and teaching business letters

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3 The research questions of the study

In order to achieve the aforementioned aims, the study is intended to find out the answer

to four following research questions:

1 What are the influences of mother tongue on the writing of business correspondence?

2 What are common errors on word choices and writing styles which English majors often make in the process of transferring Vietnamese texts into English?

3 Which causes lead to the mistakes?

4 What should be done to avoid the errors in order to make Vietnamese-English business correspondence be smoother and more fluent?

4 Scope of the study

There are large numbers of letters written in business, we cannot include all in this study, but only 5 kinds of business letters are mentioned in this research paper:

5 Significance of the study

The thesis will help the students recognize the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English and the notice when writing business correspondence, identify the influence and common errors on transferring Vietnamese texts into English The study will be a useful reference with the solutions suggested which help the students be able to self-correct their common mistakes and find out their own effective ways in leaning in order to improve their writing skill Furthermore, it helps the students not only improve their language learning in general but also have a great advantage for their future ideal job

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5 Methods of the study

In the completion of the study, a variety of methods has been adopted, among which the main methods are qualitative and quantitative The researcher reviews the theoretical publications relating to the area of study, and collect business letters from business-English classes in Thuongmai university Then, the collected letters are analyzed and investigated to get statistics to find out how Vietnamese style has specific impact on English language during the time students acquire this language for specific purpose

6 Design of the study

The study comprises of three main parts:

Part A – INTRODUCTION specifies the background of the study which covers a wide range of information such as rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods, and design of the study

Part B – DEVELOPMENT is broken into three chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

Chapter 2: The research method of the study

Chapter 3: The findings and discussion of the study

Part C - CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues of the study, accompanied by limitations and suggestions for further study Additionally, some possible implications for language teaching, learning and translations are explored when the subject “Business Correspondence” is taught in classroom

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 The importance of business letters in doing business

Mill (1993, p.1) states that business letters are little ambassadors that go through every corner of the present day commercial world They constitute the biggest source of active liaison that is necessary for producing business In the very strict commercial world that often called “battle field” businesspeople must use many remedies to win the results while dealing The remedies may vary due to the fields, the situations, and even the persons who apply them They may be difficult or easy, take long or short time, require training process or not, and be expensive or cheap There is a very effective way used by

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most companies and firms and can never be replaced, that is writing letter Realistically, the dollars spent to compose and put a letter in the mail is fewer than any others are, so does the time On the contrary, it brings bigger consideration fruits So what a business letter can do is to sell the goods, create new customers, bring back the lost ones, bring good sales representatives, give an incentive to the dealers, bring back confidence among suppliers, instill confidence of buyers, collect bad debts, settle disputes, bring more finance, open new markets, save time, dates with VIP, build a favorable image for companies, and build the nation It is right to say that the success of any modern business, largely, depends on the proper use of business letters

1.2 Definition of a business letter

No one can deny the fact that business letters are becoming more and more important in commercial world Therefore, many economists, specialists in trade field have studied hard so that they can provide readers all over the world with the background of business letters as well as the ways to write them best

In The Language of Business Correspondence in English, Nguyen Trong Dan (1997, p.9)

said, “The business letter is the principal means used by a business firm to keep in touch with customers; very often it is the only one and customers form their impression of the firm from the tone and quality of the letters it sends out”

Business letters may be addressed to a specific individual, but it is likely that many people within the company and possible outside the company will read the letter

Business letters are written on standard – size paper with a matching envelope, they are typed or printed, and formatted and folded in a convenient way Most importantly, the content of a business letter is not about personal matters It conveys an important, necessary exchange of information between people in business (Notes, 1997)

1.3 Kinds of business letters

1.3.1 Inquiries

If your job is a businessperson, request letters are always necessary because of your need for information or special favors, services or products You write an inquiry since you need to get information of prices or technical data; to receive printed matter (such as

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booklets, catalogues etc.) or sample products; to order merchandise; to make reservations

at hotel, restaurants, theaters and so on

Your inquiries should be specific, brief and reasonable and provide complete, accurate information so that your requests can be acted promptly (see sample letter in Appendices)

1.3.2 Quotations and offers

a Quotations

After receiving enquiries for prices, you usually send quotations in which there is an expression of thank for the enquiry; details of prices, discounts and terms of payment; a statement of clear indication of what the prices cover (e.g packing, F.O.B etc.); an undertaking as to date of delivery; the period for which the quotation is valid; an expression of hope that the quotation will be accepted (see sample letter in Appendices)

b Offers

An offer tells your customer whether you can provide the goods or services he has asked about It should convey the name of the goods, quality and specification, price, packing and marking, delivery time, items of payment (See sample letter in Appendices)

1.3.3 Orders

When you accept a quotation or an order, you need to make orders The orders must be complete and accurate in information as incomplete orders can lead to delayed deliveries, and inaccurate facts can result in the wrong delivery from the seller Every order should

be full details of description, quantities, prices and catalogue number; your requirement

as to deliver place and date, mode of transport; the terms of payment agreed in preliminary negotiations (See sample letter in Appendices)

1.3.4 Claims

Sometimes the exchange of money, merchandise, or service will not occur as expected

In that case, the customer needs to inform the company or the organization of the problem by letter, which is called a complaint The letter should be as follows:

+ Begin by regretting the need to complain

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+ Mention the number, the date of the order, the date of delivery and the goods complained about

+ State your reasons for being dissatisfied and ask for an explanation

+ Refer to the inconvenience caused

+ Suggest how the matter should be put right

+ Complain about inferior quality

(See sample letter in Appendices)

1.4 Features of a goof business letter

Business letter plays an important part in commercial activities, and a good business letter is always necessary However, many people raise a question what a good business

letter is “A good business letter is one that obtains the results the letter hoped for” (Poe,

1994, p.4) The definition of a good business letter seems simple and easy to do Please

be careful! You can find it difficult to write a good business letter because that letter must gain the following standards:

- Using the correct layout

- Containing necessary information

- Having no repetition or wordiness

- Using a formal and polite language

- Using correct grammar, punctuation and spelling (See sample letter in Appendices)

People learn to write just as they learn how to read, to type and to use computers However, just like learning to type, learning to write takes work and practice, Gerfner, (1991, p.11) confirms:

“One gets better at it the more one writes In addition, at the progress you get business results that save money, make money, and help you build your organization to peak performance, These results may range from the very simple as a letter that wins as appointment with an important person, instructions on a major project, which are clearly

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understood They can also collect bad debts, or win back a lost customer, all the way up

to writing an winning proposal for a contract, or getting the financing you want”

A letter may be thought of as a substitute for a personal visit Just about everybody finds

it impossible to meet and talk with every person with whom he/she wants to communicate, other friends or relatives in a distant town, fellow employees just three floors or one building away, or clients and suppliers scattered everywhere This fact alone makes the letter a powerful medium of communication in all occupations

Being able to write effective business letters enhances your value to your company, which means faster progress up the promotion ladder, makes new friends and keep old ones for the company, thereby increasing sales and profits, saves a great deal of time and effort that saves money

1.5 The factors influencing writing process

1.5.1 Influence of the mother tongue

In the process of learning a foreign language, our mother tongue shapes our way of thinking, and, to some extent, our use of the target language (word order, choice of words)

Thanks to the transferring of one language to another for a specific purpose, we understand better the interference in the mother tongue when learning a foreign language and will be able to explore the potential of both languages – their merits and shortcoming – by using contrastive analysis

Word order: The differences between word orders in Vietnamese and English are shown

in the following example:

Vietnamese-into-English translation: (i) “Anh ấy là một sinh viên giỏi Tên của anh ấy là Nam.”

In the phrase “sinh viên” is a noun, “giỏi” is an adjective, “tên” is a noun, and “của anh ấy” is possessive adjective

As we know, in Vietnamese, an adjective or possessive follows a noun In contrast, an adjective precedes a noun or possessive adjective has the same position

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And the above phrases are written:

“He is a good student His name is Nam.”

adj n possessive n

However, because of the influence of the mother tongue, many beginners hardly avoid the mistakes – wrong English word orders, as in the example below:

(ii) “Tuy nhiên, một số hãng phần mềm vi tính lại lo ngại về phần mềm mã nguồn mở.”

Beginners sometimes translate in this way:

“However, some companies software computer worry about software open source.”

Suggested English version:

“However, some computer software companies worry about opened source software.”

1.5.2 Words and choices of word meanings

Words are necessary for any language learners to build their own vocabulary to get advantages in their language learning Vocabulary is the fundamental component of communication; it carries with the ability to communicate effectively Developing this basic tool will open up opportunities in learning the subject well With a text, when learners have no difficulty in new words, it is easy for them to transfer into the target language

Most of the English words have many meanings; the exact meaning of one word can be expressed only in context, as in the following example:

“My uncle ran for governor so he was a fair game for the press The reporters dug back into his past and printed things about him that happened way back in childhood But they found nothing that looked too bad and he did get elected.”

The word “ran” is the past and past participle of “run” which mean chạy, vận hành, chạy

tr ốn, tranh cử, bò… and the meanings of the word “dig” are đào bới, xới thọc sâu, khơi, khai qu ật …

It is obvious that there will be a bad translated text if the meanings of the words are not selected appropriately

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“Ông cậu của tôi chạy trốn thống đốc vì thế ông là mục tiêu đáng chú ý cho báo giới soi mói Các phóng viên đã quay lại bới móc cái quá khứ của ông và đăng những gì đã xảy

ra trong th ời thơ ấu Nhưng họ không tìm được cái gì quá xấu và chú tôi đã đắc cử.”

Suggested Vietnamese version:

“Ông chú tôi ra tranh cử vào chức vụ thống đốc vì thế ông là mục tiêu đáng chú ý cho báo gi ới soi mói Các phóng viên đã quay lại khơi dậy lại quá khứ của ông và đăng

nh ững gì đã xảy ra trong thời thơ ấu Tuy nhiên, họ không tìm thấy điều gì quá tệ về ông

và chú tôi đã đắc cử.”

Vocabulary plays an important role in any types of communication How we know about meanings of a words will bring to us many advantages in writing process and thus there will be many chances for us to master the assigned work.

1.5.3 Grammatical structures

Vocabulary is not enough for producing a successful transaction It needs a special mean

to make it meaningful in the sentence That is grammar or grammatical structures In the process of writing, the grammatical structures are indispensable means Insufficient knowledge on either of the two areas may lead to the poor outcome quality English is very inflexible when compared to other languages It goes by very strict structures while the Vietnamese language is much more flexible For instance, the Vietnamese language does not always use articles; there are many tenses in English, they are used with a particular structure

For instance, “Tôi đã học tiếng Trung Quốc 5 năm nay.”

Suggested English version: “I have learned Chinese for 5 years.”

The tense of the verb is the present perfect tense, it shows an action which happened in the past, and up to now or in the future

However, there are no rules of using the different verb forms to express time when an action happens in the Vietnamese language With the above present perfect tense, the

sentence can be translated as “Tôi đã học tiếng Trung Quốc được 5 năm rồi.” In this way, the verb “học” has no inflection and the meaning of the sentence is the same

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In conclusion, grammatical structures in English are so complicated and not easy to master It requires the learners have to find an effective way of learning to study and practice more if they want to limit grammar errors

1.5.4 Context

A language is the vehicle of our ideas, thoughts and perspectives of our world Writing business letters to get in touch with partners from other country is understood as an act of carrying the meaning of a text from one language to another one This process involves interpretation of meaning of the source text and producing the same meaning in another language Texts however, cannot exist out of context By context what is meant is the entire environment in which the word or sentence is expressed or stated Any word in the text is not present in isolation but interacts with other words in the text and with the whole text at large This interaction among words determines their meaning rather than

its isolated meaning For example, the uses of the word “work” in the following

sentences:

(i) I work at Ministry of education and training

(ii) Kieu story is a famous work

(iii) After graduating, I will look for work

The word “work” in example (i) is a normal verb, it means the activity by which one

makes a living; in (ii), it means the output of a creative writer, whereas in example (iii), the word “work” has another meaning – that is a job or an employment

Context helps us grasp what word we should choose to have the suitable meaning in the translated text If we misunderstand the context, it leads to choosing of unsuitable meanings

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they are packaged differently in one language than in another one In most languages

there is a meaning of plurality, for example the English final letter “-s” This occurs in

the grammar as a suffix on the nouns or verbs or both However, in Vietnamese, plurality

is expressed in an isolated word “những, các” or “vài” Many times a single word in the

source language, English, will need to be translated by several words into the target language, Vietnamese, and vice versa

Example:

(i) English: Tom has just bought some English reference books

Vietnamese: Tom v ừa mới mua vài quyển sách tham khảo tiếng Anh

(ii) Vietnamese: Các b ạn trong lớp của tôi đều rất thân thiện

English: My classmates are all friendly

Secondly, it is the characteristic of languages that the same meaning components will

occur in several surface structure lexical items Let us look at the word “sheep” in English The words “lamb”, “ram” and “ewe” also include the meaning “sheep” They

include the additional meaning components of a young sheep in “lamb”, an adult male sheep in “ram” and an adult female sheep in “ewe”

Thirdly, it is about a further characteristic of language that one form will be used to represent several alternative meanings This again is obvious from looking at any good dictionary For instance, the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary give 33 senses for

the verb “run” Most words have more than one meaning There will be a primary

meaning – the one which usually comes to mind when the word is said in isolation – and the contextual/secondary meaning – the additional meanings, which a word has in other

contexts with other words in certain orders In English, we can say “The boy runs” with the meaning “The boy moves fast”, but in the sentence “My uncle runs for governor”,

“run” has the contextual meaning - “to stand as a candidate for the position of a governor of an office”

The principle is not limited to lexical items for it is also true that the same grammatical pattern may express several quite different meanings For instance, the English

sentence like “He made the bed” may mean either “He, a carpenter, made the bed” or

“He put the sheets, blanket, and pillows in neat order on the bed” Just as words have

primary and secondary meanings, grammatical markers have their primary function and often have other contextual functions

We have seen that even within a single language there are a great variety of ways in which form expresses meaning Only when a form is being used in its primary meaning

or function is there a one-to-one correlation between form and meaning The other meanings are secondary meanings or figurative meanings Words have these extended meanings and in the same way grammatical forms have extended usages (secondary and figurative function) This characteristic of “skewing”; that is, the diversity or the lack of

one-to-one correlation between form and meaning is the basic reason why translation is a complicated task If there were no skewing, then all lexical items ad all grammatical forms would have only one meaning and a literal word-for-word and grammatical structure-for-grammatical structure translation would be possible But the fact is that a language a complex set of skewed relationship between meaning (semantics) and form (lexicon and grammar) Each language has its own distinctive forms for representing the meaning Therefore, in a text the same meaning may have to be expressed in another language by a very different form

1.6 Common errors in Vietnamese-English transferring

The following errors are usually found in transferring Vietnamese to English

1.6.1 Vocabulary errors

Word collocation

which leads to wrong and funny collocation For instance, in Vietnamese the word

“uống” (drink) can go with many different kinds of liquid including water, beer, alcohol, medicine and even poison It is incorrect to say “drink medicine” in English there are

clear distinctions as follows:

Drink beer/ water/ wine/ coffee

But: Take medicine/ poison

Another example indicates that in Vietnamese the word “nói” (say) can be collocated with “dối” (a lie), “sự thật” (the truth),”ngôn ngữ” (English, French, Vietnamese…)

However, in English it is incorrect

Say the truth (incorrect)

Say a lie (incorrect)

Say English/ French/ Vietnamese (incorrect)

The phrases must be corrected as “tell the truth, tell a lie, and speak English/French/Vietnamese”

In Vietnamese, the word “đàn” can be collocated with many different nouns such as “cá” (fish ), “chim” (bird), “sư tử” (lion), “gia súc”(cattle) On the contrary, in English there are many words meaning “đàn” as follows

A flock of birds/sheep: đàn chim/ cừu

A herd of cattle/buffaloes: đàn gia súc/ trâu

A pack of dogs/calves: đàn chó/ bê

A s chool of fish/chickens: đàn gà/ gà

A pride of lions: đàn sư tử

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When the word “flock”, “herd”, “pack”, “school”, “pride” are used interchangeably,

errors will occur

The following examples are extracted from the book “Translation 1&2” (Nguyễn Văn

Tuấn, 2006), and they show the wrong collocations:

1 “Chính phủ đã thực hiện nhiều biện pháp ngăn chặn việc buôn lậu ma túy.” (The government has made many measures to stop the drug smuggling.)

2 “Sau khi nghiên cứu thị trường, chúng tôi đã quyết định đưa ra thị trường một sản

ph ẩm gây ấn tượng có thể cạnh tranh với hàng ngoại nhập.” (After making a market research, we decided to launch an impressive product which can compete against the imported one)

It is the mother tongue interference that leads to the mechanic collocation which is unacceptable in target language In fact, each language has its own principles of word collocation Neither English nor Vietnamese is an exception As a result, the above- mentioned examples should be translated more accurately and idiomatically as follows:

1 “The government has made many measures to stop the drug smuggling” should be corrected as “The government has taken many measures to stop the drug smuggling”

can compete against the imported ones ” should be corrected “After doing a market research, we decided to launch an impressive product which can compete against the imported ones”

In a word, it is inevitable for translators to obey the principles of English and Vietnamese word collocations In order to avoid this type of errors, the translator should read as many English books and magazines to take notes of collocated words under the English standard

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1 “Tòa án nhân dân quyết định kết án họ 15 năm tù về tội buôn lậu ma túy.”

(The People‟s Court decided to condemn them to 15 years imprisonment about the drug smuggling)

2 “Là một giáo viên ưu tú trong nhiều năm, ông Nam có nhiều king nghiệm về giáo dục

1 “Tòa án nhân dân quyết định kết án họ 15 năm tù về tội buôn lậu ma túy” should be translated “The People’s Court decided to condemn them to 15 years imprisonment for the drug smuggling.”

2 “Là một giáo viên ưu tú trong nhiều năm, ông Nam có nhiều kinh nghiệm về giáo dục

và gi ảng dạy học sinh” should be translated “As a qualified teacher for many years, Mr Nam experienced in educating and teaching the pupils.”

In English, prepositions themselves are difficult to use, so in order to transfer Vietnamese text into English, the use of prepositions become even more complicated Therefore, the errors related to the misuse of prepositions are common and unavoidable In order to avoid this type of errors the learners should learn the prepositions going with nouns, adjectives or verbs by heart If they do not know how to use prepositions exactly, they tend to translate the Vietnamese ones into English or vice versa As a result, the writers should be provided with as many structures with prepositions systematically as possible

to help them take notes and draw out the formation and rules

Misuse of synonyms

Some writers depend largely on the meaning in dictionary picking out the synonyms without paying much to context In fact, the pairs of synonyms share at least one sense in common, but they do not share all their senses To some extent, they can hardly substitute

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for each other The misuse of synonyms makes the meaning of one of the following sentences unacceptable

“Con sông này sâu lắm.”

“This river is very profound.” (unacceptable)

“Profound” means “showing great knowledge or understanding”, and it cannot be used to describe the depth of the river The sentence “This river is very profound” should be corrected: “This river is deep”

The following misuses of the synonyms were made by some of the inexperienced translators

1 “Cậu bé này rất bướng bỉnh”

(This boy is very stubborn/ unyielding.” (Incorrect)

2 “Người Việt Nam có tinh thần bất khuất”

(The Vietnam ese people are really stubborn.” (Incorrect)

3 “Chính phủ có kế hoạch xây dựng hàng nghìn ngôi nhà cho người vô gia cư.” ( The government plans to build thousands of homes for homeless people.” (Incorrect)

In example 1 “stubborn” is the synonym of “unyielding” and means “cứng đầu, bướng

b ỉnh” in Vietnamese In example 2 “stubborn” fails to evoke the features of positive

meaning which praises the Vietnamese people on their heroism expressing the speaker’s admiration In contrast, it expresses the speaker’s anger and discontent In example 3,

“home” and “house” are places where one lives, meaning “nhà” in Vietnamese However,

in terms of the connotation meaning they are quite different “House” refers to the building or structure while “home” refers to the atmosphere feeling found in the house

Example: “There is no place like home.”

“Home is where the heart is.”

Most of the synonyms have the same meaning in certain context If a writer uses synonyms without referring to the context, (s)/he can make wrong & funny for his

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readers In order to avoid the misuse, the learners should carefully take the synonyms into consideration before using them In addition, it would be better for the learners to consider the differences of the pairs of synonyms when using those words in writing

All in all, some inexperienced communicators committed the vocabulary errors mentioned above in concluding those of word collocation, misuse of prepositions, misuse

of synonyms, and spelling errors They are committed by those who have little knowledge of target language At the same time, they thought that although English is different from Vietnamese, both languages have a correlation about lexical items In practice, it can be chosen the only one appropriate equivalent from this into that language Even more, that equivalent hardly keeps the meaning of the word itself but that

of context Another problem is that some writers did not realize the linking meaning of word units It is obvious that these units link together to create a larger unit of meaning in

a given text The linking meaning itself does not exist in separate word units but in the link of the units constituting the whole text

1.6.2 Grammar errors

Grammar errors are also common mistakes They are errors related to tenses, the forms of words, the sentence structures These errors are caused by the misuse of verb forms, the misuse of relative pronoun, and the misuse of part of speech

Misuse of verb forms

The grammar errors which are related to the misuse of verb forms often occur when the writers keep Vietnamese structures in English version The following sentence is considered to have grammar error because of the translators

The error of this example is the verb “develops”, which is in active form It must be in passive form “is developed” because “Internet or on-line Education” cannot develop by itself Therefore, the Vietnamese sentence should be translated “Internet or on-line Education is a form of education which is developed thanks to information technology.”

Misuse of relative pronouns

The grammar errors related to the misuse of relative pronouns often occur when the complex Vietnamese sentences are transferred into English The following sentence is considered to have grammar error

Vietnamese: “Các nhà khoa học nhận thấy những người phụ nữ ăn nhiều chocolate trong

h ề ăn chocolate trong thời gian mang thai.”

English: “A research group observed that the children of mothers who eat much chocolate during their pregnancy frequently laugh and more active than the children of other mothers.” (Incorrect)

(Nguyễn Thành Đức, 2009)

The error of this example is that the wrong combination of the noun phrase “children of mother s” and the relative pronoun “who” fails to express the meaning “the pregnant women eat chocolate ” In this case, the relative pronoun “who” must be replaced by the relative pronoun “whose” Therefore, the Vietnamese sentence “Các nhà khoa học nhận

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much chocolate during their pregnancy frequently laugh and more active than the children of other mothers.”

Misuse of the part of speech

The following sentences are considered to have grammar mistakes because the communicator misused the part of speech

Example 1:

Vietnamese: “Trong đời sống con người, cười là dấu hiệu của một cơ thể khỏe mạnh.”

English: “In people’s lives, laugh is a sign of a healthy body.” (Incorrect)

(Nguyễn Thành Đức, 2009)

The English sentence “In people’s lives, laugh is a sign of a healthy body” is incorrect because of the subject “laugh” In above Vietnamese sentence, “cười” has a general

meaning, so “a laugh”, “laughing”, or “to laugh” will be the suitable subject Therefore,

there are three ways to transfer the Vietnamese sentence “Trong đời sống con người, cười

là d ấu hiệu của một cơ thể khỏe mạnh” into English as follow:

“In people’s lives, a laugh is a sign of a healthy body.”

“In people’s lives, laughing is a sign of a healthy body.”

“In people’s lives, to laugh is a sign of a healthy body.”

Example 2:

The Vietnamese sentence “Người có đầu óc hài hước thường dễ tạo được sự cảm thông

c ủa người khác” is incorrect to be written in English as “People with sense of humor easily make others sympathy”

(Nguyễn Thành Đức, 2009)

In the example, the English sentence is incorrect because of the word “sympathy” which

is a noun In English, it is incorrect to use the structure “to make + somebody + noun” as

in the sentence, but it has to be written as the structure “to make + somebody + adjective ” Therefore, the noun “sympathy” must be changed into the adjective

As can be seen from the examples mentioned above, some writers focused on the structures of the source language - Vietnamese - so much that they fail to convey all the implicit meaning of the target language - English In fact, it is not necessary to keep the form at all The most important thing is that the translations must be done on the basic of the target language grammar that is familiar to the readers This principle suggests that the writer should not depend largely on the structures of the source language but break them to convey the meaning as much as possible in an appropriate structure in the target language

1.6.3 Cultural errors

Culture could be understood as the total set of beliefs, attitude, customs, behavior, social habits, etc of the member of a particular society In the broad sense, it includes mode of production, production activities, community organization, spiritual life, knowledge of nature and society, emotions, and moral conceptions Language is regarded as both a component of a culture and network through which other elements of culture operate Language therefore uses almost all other cultural elements so as to perfect its universal and self-sufficient nature It could be said that we will not transfer from this to that language perfectly unless we know its relation to its culture

It is commonly known that “ao dai” is a traditional costume of the Vietnamese women

and we never find an equivalent word in English to translate “ao dai” However, some translators translated mechanically “ao dai” into “a dress” How funny it is! It would be preferred to writing down “ao dai” to express the cultural feature to making foreign people misunderstand “ao dai” as “a dress” For example, “Trang phục truyền thống của người phụ nữ Việt Nam là chiếc áo dài, tượng trưng cho sự duyên dáng” should be translated into English as “The traditional costume of the Vietnamese women is ao dai”

which symbolizes the grace Translation is a kind of activity which inevitably involves at

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least two languages and two cultural traditions As this statement implies, translators are permanently faced with the problem of how to treat the cultural aspects implicit in a source text (ST) and of finding the most appropriate technique of successfully conveying these aspects in the target language (TL) These problems may vary in scope depending

on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two (or more) languages concerned

The cultural implications may take several forms ranging from lexical content and syntax

to ideologies and ways of life in a given culture The writer also has to decide on the importance given to certain cultural aspects and to what extent it is necessary or desirable

to transfer them into the TL The aims of the ST will also have implications for the intended readership for both the ST and the target text (TT)

Considering the cultural implications implies recognizing all of these problems and taking into account several possibilities before deciding on the solution which appears the most appropriate in each specific case Before applying these methods to the chosen text, this essay will examine the importance of culture through a literature review The different general procedures of treating the cultural implications will be examined as well

as analyzing the ST and the aims of the author The writing process will also be treated using specific examples found in the ST before discussing the success of aforementioned theoretical methods applied to the TT

Although corresponding to cultural categories examined, the title will be considered separately in order to determine the pertinence of conserving, highlighting, or excluding certain aspects Due to these considerations, the title will be considered after the other aspects as all other cultural implications need to be examined before reaching relevant conclusions

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this chapter is to present the methodology used in this thesis It includes research questions, research participants, data collection instruments and research procedure

2.1 Research questions

To obtain the above stated purposes, the study has to answer the following questions:

1 What are the influences of mother tongue on the writing of business correspondence?

2 What are common errors on word choices and writing styles which English majors often make in the process of transferring Vietnamese texts into English?

3 Which causes lead to the mistakes?

4 What should be done to avoid the errors in order to make Vietnamese-English business correspondence be smoother and more fluent?

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2.2 Research participants

The subjects of the research are the students of English majors at Thuongmai University Those 120 students were taught directly by the researchers in classes Business English 1.4, 2.3 and 2.4 Their main study materials are the selection from unit 5,6,7,8 in textbook

“The Business” at two level Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate, which are published

by Mac Millan Publisher

2.3 Research procedure

It took about eight months to finish the study at Thuongmai University and the researcher adopts three research methods: Qualitative, Quantitative and Comparative – Contrastive First, the researcher went to the library to look for books relating to business letters, language in business letters and essential grammar book, the related previous studies, materials from the Internet and reference books to figure out the outline

Then, the researcher started collecting business letters in English written by majored students in Thuongmai University to search for mistakes in terms of language, grammar, styles and give corrections The collected business letters are closely observed

English-in three maEnglish-in aspects:

+ Using correct grammar: Theoretically, in Close’s (1992, p.1) the first page of his book

mentioned above, “grammar of English is a system of syntax that decides the order and patterns in which words are arranged in sentences” Under the light of this definition, to

have a correct sentence in English, the writer must follow the strict rules of using word’s order and structure

+ Power of Lexis: As mentioned in the book “Basic English lexicology” by Hoang Tat Truong (1993, p.2) ‘vocabulary or lexis is meant the sum total or the system of all the words that a language possesses” When writing business correspondence, a powerful

and wide-scaled Lexis will help the writer a lot Besides, power of Lexis is also means that the writer could draw out the equivalent easier and more exactly In other words, understanding the equivalent is the ability that the writer can find the most suitable words

or equal meaning out of the many synonyms, homonyms and polysynaptic words when rendering a source text in Vietnamese into another language

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+ Terminology: each field has its own terminology, and so does the business correspondence If the writer does not know business correspondence terminology and how to use them correctly, he/she cannot be specialized to be a business correspondence writer

+ Conveying the writing style: being a part of the news writing style, this power acts as the mediation to bring the news or message to the reader, so that the more correctly writers can do, the more academic versions of business correspondence will be

At last, after designing the survey questionnaires, one hundred and twenty people (120) were asked to fill the researcher’s given questions Because this is a field-survey that needs careful scrutiny, a conferring period was obviously given This process lasted for 5 days, and the researcher received 120 feedback copies, which accounted for 100% with full answers for each proposed item For each question, the respondent is expected to tick

no more than one choice at the place where he/she considered it the most suitable

2.4 Data collect instruments

2.4.1 The test papers analysis and statistic

The researcher did the statistics on the final test papers which were taken by Business English class’s students who are the second-year and third-year English majors at Thuongmai University, which were edited by the researcher The researcher introduced several types of business letters, introduced students the structures and also the expressions used in writing those letters Then, the researcher gave writing assignments for students and then gave them corrections as well as analyzed the type of mistakes for students to avoid in the next writings In statistic process, the researcher classified the common mistakes to get the basing for suggesting solutions to the problems

2.4.2 The questionnaire

The questionnaire is considered a very common means or instrument used to collect data

on phenomena, which are not easily observed such as attitude, motivation and conceptions, or in other words, those in social science Therefore, to seek for information about the students’ views on Vietnamese-English writing course, their recognition of difficulties, errors in transferring Vietnamese texts into English to improve their skills,

self-33

the researcher used the questionnaire to investigate the implications of students The questionnaire, to some extent, can help to find out necessary information for the study and suggest appropriate solutions as well In the study, the questionnaire consists of four questions The one hundred and twenty copies of questionnaire in English were given to the students in Business English classes, and all were collected The aims of the question can be described as follow:

Question (2) – Duration of time learning how to write business correspondence: to identify the level of students

Question (3) – Frequency of writing this kind of correspondence: to find out if students are acquaintance with writing business letters

Question (4) – Levels of difficulties expectedly mentioned in writing business correspondence: to identify the difficulties as well as the types of mistakes students often make

Question (5) – Write down the suggestions to the difficulties: consult the feedbacks from the learners

In short, this chapter is about the aspects of methodology of the study such as research question; the researchers, the subjects that directly participated in the study; data collection instruments including the test papers statistics, the questionnaire and theoretical analysis The research questions are going to be solved in the next chapter

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CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter deals with the collected data, analyzed statistics implemented on the responses to the questionnaires as well as the test papers in order to categorize kinds of errors on grammar, word choices and especially writing style in business correspondence produced by Vietnamese students in English Department of Thuongmai University, the possible causes of those errors and the techniques to avoid them and to improve the students’ letter-writing skills

3.1 The findings

After receiving feedback, the researcher has worked on the raw data, analyzed, and summarized them in terms of number of options and the respective percentage for each of them The Table 1 bellow is an overview of the difficulties in writing business correspondence

Not difficult

Using correct

grammar

3.2.1 Some difficulties and common mistakes in using correct grammar

Chart 1: Difficulty levels of using grammar in writing business correspondence

Using correct grammar is very important for anyone who wishes to become a good writer However, English itself is not too difficult to overcome, and this is well proved through the survey’s result Out of 120 respondents, there are only fifteen students, to

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12.5% who think it is difficult Luckily, no one considers it a very or too hard problem Meanwhile, 47.9% of the requested people asserted that grammar is of no difficulty at all The rest is shared between 30 respondents (25%) who regard it as ‘rather difficult’, and

17 other people (14.58%) who cannot decide its level Writing is using grammar, and grammar often puzzles the writers with its vast number of rules Working out all the grammatical errors is impossible, on this survey the author found the most popular one lies in using parallel structure Keeping ideas parallel causes many students a great deal

of troubles because it also requires the grammar to be parallel By using parallelism you

can say to your readers, “here are some ideas which have something in common and which I have arranged in the same grammatical form so that you can understand them easily” When you use parallel structure for your ideas you will see how clear and direct they are expressed

For example,

(1) The mailroom receives incoming mail, which is then sorted and an employee then delivers it

(2) The mailroom receives, sorts and delivers all incoming mail

Sentence (2), expressing the same ideas as the sentence (1), has put them into parallel structure: receives, sorts, and delivers All the words are verbs using the grammatical structure of the third person singular By using parallelism, sentence (2) expresses the ideas much more neatly than the sentence (1)

The word “parallel” means “comparable” or “matching” The following sentence, for example, lacks parallel grammatical structure although it has parallel ideas

Our company has reputation for high quality work, for progressive management, and for being reliable …

There are three prepositional phrases in the sentence: for high quality work, for progressive management, and for being reliable The first two phrases end with a noun

The last one ends with an adjective With the parallelism broken in the last phrase, the entire sentence is weakened

It should be changed:

We are looking for a person who are responsible, hardworking and integrity The parallel ideas are responsible, hardworking and integrity The writer has tried to use

these words, each describing the person that the company wishes to employ It follows parallel structure but it is not correct The writer wants to use three adjectives but integrity is a noun, and it does not have an adjective form in English

Parallel structures work only when all the structures are grammatical correct Otherwise, you have merely written an incorrect sentence For the above sentence, it is better to get rid of parallel structure because it does not work

We are looking for a responsible hardworking person with integrity

The problems occur even more seriously when phrases and clauses have to be kept parallel Many students find difficult when they use the correlatives: both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, etc For one thing, you actually have to count when you use these idea – joiners

For example, the sentence ‘I have seen neither John nor Jinn nor Jane’ is using the wrong structure Neither/nor requires two element – no more, no less The above

sentence has three If you want to keep the three elements, get rid of neither/nor

I have not seen John, Jinn or Jane

At the same time that you are counting elements, you should make sure that the elements contain the same structure

We hope not only to obtain production estimates but also a summary of production goals

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The grammatical forms following each of the correlatives are not equal After “not only”

we have an infinitive phrase After “but also” we have a sentence The result is a very

weak sentence that requires the reader to read it again, simply because the structure lacks balance, it is better: “We hope to obtain not only production estimates but also a summary of production goals”

As far as many linguists are concerned, the first and foremost requirements for any writers when rendering a text of any fields into another language is the ability to understand the text This matter could only be solved once the transmitter could manage

to analyze and comprehend the grammar According to Newmark (1995, p.75), grammar

is the skeleton of a text; vocabulary, or, in a restricted sense, lexis, is flesh; and collocations, the t endons that connect the one to the other” Additionally, grammar not

only brings along with it the major facts about a text, for instance the time, place, statements, questions, feelings, etc., but also provides an effective instrument to link such these things into a logical sentence and a text When eyeing up a text, the first eyesight caught is at the words, however, what actually more important is the structure expressions adopted within the sentences Therefore, a sensitive proficiency in the case grammar is obvious concerned This is an undoubtedly indispensable requirement for the writer Clearly, grammar in English plays an important role in the meaning of sentence, rather than the words’ meaning alone To some extent, it can be accepted that grammar decides the sentences’ implication This is rather different from Vietnamese where the words’ meaning is, in general, the sentence’s intentions

Vietnamese pronouns convey many different peculiarities However, in business correspondence, this is not the very problematic feature for the writer Therefore, the researcher will not take this matter into account the next time

Luckily, since the main characteristic of the writer in the company is to use simple methods of conveying information to readership, the grammar will therefore be less obstructive

In fact, when the researcher sparked out the idea of mentioning the difficulties in understanding and using grammar in writing business correspondence, some of

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researcher’s students asserted that this is not necessary Their reasons were so simple that when one wishes to become a translator, he/she must be good at grammar and its usage This is proved in the survey’s result when the number of respondents (47.9%) who considered it not difficult overwhelmed that of the people who regarded it as either difficult or rather difficult (12.5% and 25%) Out of the group who chose this item to be hard for them, I found that all of them are students and non-professional translator whose working condition is not long enough, just 1 or 2 years Additionally, no professionals expected it to be their obstacles These firmly prove that the longer the working duration

is, the less difficult they will find when facing the grammatical aspects In addition, this could be view as in the following chat

3.2.2 Power of lexis and Terminology

quite sure about the lexis’ difficulty No one selects the last option ”not difficult”

Chart 2: Levels of difficulty in using Lexis