A study into the use of cat tools in translation practice by fourth year students at felte, ulis

A study into the use of cat tools in translation practice by fourth year students at felte, ulis A study into the use of cat tools in translation practice by fourth year students at felte, ulis

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY INTO THE USE OF CAT TOOLS IN TRANSLATION PRACTICE BY FOURTH-YEAR

STUDENTS AT FELTE, ULIS

Supervisor : Tống Thị Mỹ Liên (M.A.) Student : Ngô Phương Anh

Course : QH2018.F1.E9

Hanoi – 2022

ĐAỊ HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC PHẦN MỀM HỖ TRỢ DỊCH THUẬT CỦA SINH VIÊN

NĂM 4 KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

Giáo viên hướng dẫn : Tống Thị Mỹ Liên (M.A.)

Hà Nội – 2022

Signature of Approval:

_ Supervisor’s comments and suggestions

_

I hereby state that I: Ngô Phương Anh, QH2018.F1.E9, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Mainstream program accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Friday, 29th April, 2022

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This graduation paper would not have been come into reality without the endless support of several individuals who contributed their valuable effort to the completion of this dissertation

First and foremost, I owe the biggest thanks to my supervisor – Mrs Tong Thi

My Lien for her companion with me since the initial days of this journey Without her expertise and disciplined observation, I would have dropped out of the topic that I had been much inspired

I would like to send the deepest thanks to 88 fourth-year students majoring in Translation and Interpreting Division, FELTE, ULIS for their responses to my questions that generated the most important data that decide the success of this paper

Also, I am eternally grateful for my research team, including Mrs Lê Thùy Dương, Nguyễn Minh Anh, and Cao Thị Hà Trang because they have motivated and academically supported me at no time

The most important and special thanks should belong to my beloved family, especially mom and dad Thank you, mom, for covering the housework for me and for your waking up at mid nights to check whether I dozed off or not Thanks, dad, for your silent sacrifice, I won’t let you down at any cost

I could not forget the companion of Nguyễn Mai Phương – the only classmate that chose to adopt thesis for graduation A big thank you to my soulmates Nguyễn Trang Linh, Ngô Thùy Dung, Nguyễn Hải Bình Nhi, and my special friend Trần Trung Nam because you rescued my mental stability, even when doing nothing

And finally, thanks myself for not giving up, and thanks Highlands Coffee Macchiato Phindi for your wonderful taste that kept my chin up all the time

ABSTRACT

The world is experiencing a transfer from the two most cut-to-edge industrial revolutions, which are the Fourth and the Fifth Industrial Revolutions With such achievements acquired in Industry 4.0 like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT), what focuses on every career of Industry 5.0 is the relationship between human beings and technology, particularly how they use those tools to achieve their goals Evidently, the translation industry is never excluded from the technology race when an increasing number of translators are supported by computer-aided translation tools or CAT tools This paper shed the light on the perspectives of ULIS fourth-year students towards the use of CAT tools in translation practice The study was carried out with the participation of 88 fourth-year students of FELTE, ULIS, in which several of them, who had the experiences in learning and working with CAT tools were interviewed The findings revealed the effectiveness of CAT tools in translation practice and the way these facilitate translators in their career

Keywords: CAT tools, perception, TMs

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS

Table 1 Study constructs and number of survey statements Table 2 Responses to the general assessment construct Table 3 Means and Standard Deviations of General

assessment statements Table 4 Responses to the Ease-of-use section

Table 5 Means and Standard Deviations of Ease-of-use

statements Table 6 Responses to statements of Compatibility section Table 7 Means and Standard Deviations of Compatibility

section Figure 1 Students' proficiency in using CAT tools

Figure 2 Students’ frequency of CAT tools usage

Figure 3 Students' assessment of CAT tools' effectiveness

ULIS University of Languages & International Studies FELTE Faculty of English Language Teacher Education TID Translation and Interpreting Division

CAT tools Computer-aided translation tools

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.1 Statement of research problem & rationale for the study 1

1.2 Research objectives and research questions 2

3.3.1.2 Interviews 13

4.1.1 Question 1: What do fourth-year students of FELTE, ULIS perceive about their use of CAT tools in fulfilling the curriculum’s translation practices and their private ones? 16

4.1.2.2 Students’ willingness to use CAT tools 29

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of research problem & rationale for the study

Based on the Babel tower story, which indicates that linguistic misunderstanding was the main cause of the failure to build it, humans could guess that translation has emerged since the very first day of their history The translation is the bridge connecting the world as it plays an essential role in the interaction between distinct cultures (Mohammed, 2018) People anywhere communicate through translation to deal with their daily tasks, update the information or entertain themselves with foreign movies or foreign songs In short, translation exists and supports every aspect of life

Following the four industrial revolutions of the world, translation has experienced a host of changes Thanks to the invention of computer-aided/assisted-translation (CAT) tools since the 1990s, the workload of translators and translation students has been significantly reduced According

to O Mohammed (2018), those have been used to accelerate the translation process because they can ensure the accuracy of the target language text based

on the use of available unified vocabulary and terminology Therefore, the application of CAT tools has revolutionized the translation industry with less expense and effort needed to fulfill every translation criterion With the help of them, translators only need to concentrate on the naturalness and fluency of the target language, so evidently, the outcome is produced with the highest quality

in the shortest period of time Due to this considerable benefit, the competency

of CAT tools usage has become a prerequisite for any translators and interpreters in today’s translation market

For any learners of translation, understanding the use of CAT tools is not only a compulsory requirement at their universities but also a competitive advantage that they should consider equipping themselves with before entering the job market But like most of the supporting materials for other fields, CAT tools are nowhere near perfect According to Iman (2018), it is a bit too expensive for many translators to afford one CAT application like Trados It

also requires much effort at the first stage to grasp full use of the tool (Elimam, 2007) Lebanc (2013) claims that the Translation Memories (TMs) make translators use the approach of single sentences, leading to more complicated effort on each translation unit instead of the whole text

For students of Translation and Interpreting Division (TID), Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), learning to use CAT tools is a part of their requisite subject After the course, they are supposed to be able to apply these into reality However, the class time is hardly sufficient to assess the students’ ability to practice CAT tools, and the number of researchers who study this issue is quite limited This fact motivated the researcher to conduct the study

entitled “A study into the use of CAT tools in translation practice by fourth-year students at FELTE, ULIS.”

1.2 Research objectives and research questions

This study was carried out for the purpose of understanding the perceptions of fourth-year students at FELTE, ULIS towards the use of CAT tools in their translation practices Besides, the researcher also expected to gain

an overview of the effects brought about by the CAT tools, answering the question concerning whether they should be a prerequisite requirement for any translator in the market or not From that base, the paper would provide some valuable recommendations for later research

To accomplish the objectives mentioned earlier, the study attempted to answer two research questions:

1 What do fourth-year students of FELTE, ULIS perceive about their use of CAT tools in fulfilling the curriculum’s translation practices and their private ones?

2 To what extent of effect do the fourth-year students of FELTE, ULIS assess CAT tools?

1.3 Significance of the study

The study might serve various needs of translation instructors, translation students, and others who have a passion for translation

As described in the name of the study, it aimed at exploring students’ attitudes towards the roles of CAT tools in translation practice; therefore, this study could be regarded as a reliable source for educators who are going to make any revolution to the curriculum Moreover, other institutions which also work in translation training could have an insight into their students’ expectations through reading the study

On a broader scale, the study would develop several orientations to reshape the future of translators because it pointed out both advantages and disadvantages of CAT tools Based on that comparison, learners, translators, and even the creators of CAT tools might change to adapt to the new outlooks and new demands of the increasingly harsh market

1.4 Scope of the study

There were 88 fourth-year students majoring in TID, FELTE, ULIS participating in the data collection of the study because they are the ones who had the most recent access to CAT tools in translation practice The researcher also conducted interviews with four students who have already joined a translation company or have done a job enquiring about the use of CAT tools to understand how they use those tools in reality

1.5 Design of the study

In order for the best results, the study utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods in data collection, and this process was divided into two phases

The first phase was to find the answer to the first research question, understanding how fourth-year students of FELTE, ULIS perceived their use of CAT tools for in-class activities and their private jobs With such a huge number of students, the optimum method was the quantitative one, in which students were distributed a copy of the questionnaire about their perception of the use of CAT tools The data were then collected and analyzed to generate findings for the study

The second phase was to elucidate on the way those students assess CAT tools Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this phase

to fully understand their opinions about CAT tools, particularly Trados and Wordfast Some suggestions were also made to bring improvements to this translation assistance

1.6 Organization

This paper is divided into five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion Chapter one is Introduction, which generalizes the information of the thesis It contains six parts, which elucidate the statement of the research problem and rationale for the study, research objectives and research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, and design of the study This chapter is followed by Chapter Two, Literature Review, providing the definitions of the terms used in the research In this chapter, the researcher focused on explaining the scientific meanings of translation, CAT tools, its principles, common-used CAT tools in Vietnam, and the perception in general and that of university students All definitions analyzed in Literature Review then serve as a premise for the next two chapters, namely Methodology and Findings and Discussion the Methodology chapter provides detailed plans to implement the research, including questionnaire and interview plans Also, in the Findings and Discussion Chapter, the results of the interviews and the survey for students of FELTE, ULIS would be presented and evaluated Finally, the Conclusion chapter provided a flashback to the whole paper, including the summary of the findings, implications, limitations and recommendations, and list of references,

as well as Appendices

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of the Literature Review was to provide the readers with a comprehensive overview of the research topic Therefore, CAT tools and the definitions of related terms and keywords was thoroughly described in this chapter In addition, a synthesis of prior research which set the foundation for the present research was also given

2.1 Definition of Translation

The term “translation” has been defined from lots of viewpoints and paradigms but in short, it is “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” (Peter Newmark, 1987,

Regarding Bowker and Fisher (2010), people - human translators - use CAT tools to assist them in the translation process In detail, the term and vocabulary used are mainly created by human translators but facilitated by technology This definition is commented to be one of the most descriptive explanations to understand the nature of computer-aided translation tools

Currently, the most popular CAT tools used in Vietnam are SDL Trados, Wordfast, and an open-source translation memory application represented by Omega T (Nguyễn, 2014) However, only SDL Trados and Wordfast have been integrated into the curriculum for fourth-year translation

students of the FELTE, ULIS - VNU

2.2.2 Principles of CAT Tools

L Polo (2013) lists the components that make the application operate as follows:

2.2.3 Frequently-used CAT tools

As stated by Nguyễn (2014), the two most popular CAT tools used in Vietnam are SDL Trados and Wordfast

user-2.2.3.2 Trados

SDL Trados is the mostly-used CAT software in the world The mainstream functions of Trados include translation with the support of computer, storage, and management of digital terminology bank, generating TMs from documents that have been translated (alignment), and creating an art dictionary personal language

Trados has one outstanding feature, which is the ability to support all text formats, including pdf, html, and xls files However, it also has several limitations such as extremely high cost (Price announced in October 2014 from 896$ to 2890 $ depending on the version) Moreover, its interface is quite complicated and the installation is relatively long, taking up a lot of computer resources

Together with Wordfast, Trados is also officially educated for year students of FELTE, ULIS Especially, it is the prerequisite condition in their end-of-term translation exams

fourth-2.3 Perception

According to Oxford Learners’ Dictionary, perception is an idea, a belief, or an image you have as a result of how you see or understand something This definition, when attached to other fields, brings about different meanings and includes different attitudes

Duke (1977) begins reviewing the diversity of studies concerned with students He selectively reviewed six categories of student perception research concerned primarily with high school students' perceptions of 1) what they learn, 2) how they learn, 3) their attitudes and concerns, 4) their behavior, 5) the quality of teaching and 6) the school environment

In this study, the perceptions adopted by fourth-year students at FELTE, ULIS towards the effectiveness of CAT tools were expected to be divided into six similar categories However, when combining it with that of CAT tools, the researcher found these six categories relatively complicated and lengthy In a related study of Mahfouz (2018), the researchers chose to adapt from the instrument of Moore and Benbasat (1991) to understand CAT tools in three different sections, respectively benefits, ease of use, and compatibility of CAT

tools in use When adopting this construction to the setting of FELTE, ULIS, the author found it easy to understand the opinions of the students there and exploited several valuable aspects of them towards these tools

To sum up, the literature review of this research attempted to shed the light on the theoretical base of the research topic A review of related studies was used as an introduction of the chapter so that the readers could have a profound understanding about the precedent papers Then definitions of key terms were provided as a theoretical background for further developments of

the studies in the following chapters

2.4 Review of Related Studies

In the literature on CAT tools, many studies have been conducted to evaluate the efficiency of those machine assistants, but few pieces of research focus on the attitudes of translation learners towards CAT tools According to Rico (2001), the author utilized a user-oriented framework to understand essential principles such as the context of use of the particular tool, and the adaptability of the system to these specifications An apparent limitation, nevertheless, is that the paper mainly focused on the theory without a practical application

Concerning Translation Memory, which is widely considered as a core important feature of CAT tools, lots of paper also attempted to grasp the users’ perception towards the utility of TMs, the research of McBride (2009) was a telling example The researcher posted survey on discussion boards, mail lists, and promotion materials to find out the opinions of users to the use of TMs On the other hand, Leblanc (2013) used interviewing to collect the data from three different translation institutions in Canada However, these papers were assessed to be too detailed and complicated due to the complex method

In Vietnam, a handful of research were conducted to explore the application of CAT tools, notably the work on overall information technology applications on translation procedures The author listed various terms, definitions related to translation technology and CAT tools, and generalized the support of those applications on two categories of translation logistics and

translation quality A shortcoming of this research, however, is that it did not focus on the opinions of users but the comparison between computer-aided and human-made translation

As illustrated above, many studies have been conducted to get further understandings about CAT tools and its efficiencies, but few of them was to focus on the perception of learners towards the tools that they would be trained

in their university curriculum This reason motivated the researcher of this paper to conduct a study to learn the perception of students in FELTE, ULIS towards the CAT tools educated in their final year at the university Though the research subject was limited to be a small group of students at a university in Hanoi, Vietnam, the researcher still expected to contribute to the CAT tools learning for better changes in the future and make a premise for following researches

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher provides detailed descriptions and analyses of the setting, research design, participants, data collection instruments, data analysis methods, as well as data collection and analysis procedures

3.1 Setting of the study

Concerning the setting, the study took place in the academic year 2021-

2022 at FELTE, ULIS, VNU

ULIS is one of the seven-member universities of VNU, which is a leading higher educational institution in Vietnam It is a prestigious research-oriented university in language education, linguistics, international studies and related social sciences and humanities In 1955, the school was founded as Institute of Foreign Languages, educating foreign language teachers, practitioners and specialists with two languages: Russian and Chinese Thirty-eight years later, the university became a member of VNU and was renamed as University of Languages and International Studies or ULIS-VNU, adding English and French divisions to train foreign language learners about language and cultures From this point on, the translation and interpreting education had received huge notice, and then been developed to become TID, FELTE, ULIS

Students in FELTE, ULIS are divided into two majors, including English language teaching and English for translation and interpreting In the first two years, they are educated the same subjects called English 1 and English 2; then they are trained to be specialized in their majors from the third year at ULIS For students of the Division of Interpreter & Translator Training, they are exposed to Translator & Interpreter Training subject from their third-year curriculum Students of this division have nine subjects to learn, containing six obligatory subjects (Translation, Interpreting, Advanced Translation, Advanced Interpreting, Translation Theory, and Professionalism in Translation and Interpreting) and three optional ones (Specialized Translation, Specialized Interpreting, and Translation Quality Evaluation for Fast-track

program) If fourth-year students do not expect to do their final thesis, they can choose two optional subjects as a substitution

Professionalism in Translation and Interpreting is a subject aiming at equipping students with an adequate set of skills to be ready for the working market This subject is organized in the fourth year of ULIS students, providing both career etiquettes and computer-aided translation tools (CAT tools) instructions for translator- and interpreter-to-be Notably, CAT tools are trained

at the second half of the curriculum, and used as the main evaluation in the end-of-term test Because CAT tools are more focused in this subject, researcher opined that those machine assistance would play an important role

in students’ future career path Expecting to elucidate this viewpoint, the author conducted this study that focused on the perception of fourth-year students in FELTE, ULIS, who were directly educated about translation professionalism, especially CAT tools to understand the importance of learning how to use those tools appropriately

The data derived from the perspective of these students is expected to provide an insightful picture of the actual state of learning and practicing popular CAT tools inside and outside the university

3.2 Participants and samplings

for the use of CAT tools was significantly necessary for the improvement of teaching quality and the university curriculum

3.2.2 Samplings

According to I Etikan (2016), convenience sampling is also known as nonrandom sampling, where the members of one assigned group meet specific criteria like easy accessibility, availability to join an experiment, or simply the willingness to contribute their time for the purpose of the study This technique was regarded as the most suitable form for implementing the quantitative method of the study The researcher involved 88 QH2018 students from four classes of Division of Interpreter and Translator Training of FELTE, ULIS All

of them had finished the seventh semester with a pass for the course namely

“Professionalism for Translators and Interpreters”

It is also written by I Etikan (2016) that purposive sampling technique,

or judgment sampling, is the deliberate choice of a participant due to the qualities the participant possesses In this case, the researcher chose purposive sampling to be the main technique to implement the qualitative method on ten students of QH2018 at FELTE, ULIS, who had already experienced being translators that processed their work with SDL Trados and Wordfast Their sharing in the interviews would become a great source for the researcher to fulfill this paper

in their practice

The questionnaire was the main tool in the study, written in Vietnamese language to get an easier access to the research participants It consisted of three parts The first part investigated the demographic information about the

participants such as the grades that they had gained from Professionalism in Translation and Interpreting subject, or the times they had used CAT tools to fulfill their private tasks or work The second part consisted of some pieces of knowledge they found understandable in class and the third part included the effectiveness of the knowledge they gained while using CAT tools in reality The questionnaire was based on a 5- point Likert scale (see Appendix B) The students were asked to rate the frequency of the effectiveness of the things they have learned, using the following scale:

5= Totally disagree 4= Disagree 3= Neutral 2= Agree 1= Totally agree One of the objectives of the questionnaire was to investigate the effectiveness

of CAT tools when students use in-class knowledge to do their homework and their private tasks After that, the study attempted to identify whether they found CAT tools really effective for their work in real life or not, and to find out if there were differences between using and not using CAT tools in daily translation jobs There were 19 statements included in the survey, categorized

in three study sections and illustrated in Table 1 below:

Table 1 Study constructs and number of survey statements

Constructs Numbers of statements Related keywords

General

assessment

convenience, required, proficiency

quality, training, teamwork Compatibility 8 Translation jobs, affordability,

suitability, DTP-saving, terminology uniformity

interviews Differing from the questionnaire, the interviews were conducted with a list of eight questions in English to assess the students’ understanding about CAT tools’ terms and key features At first, the writer planned on a direct interview to jot down the answers of the interviewees; however, due to the lack

of time and the tight schedules of both participants and the author, the interviews, each of which lasted around three minutes, were recorded, then the researcher noted down the key information for the Finding and Discussion

chapter

3.4 Data analysis

3.4.1 Data analysis instruments

After the information was gathered, the researcher analyzed it using a variety of methods The researcher opted for the most commonly used method, constant comparison analysis (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2007) Constant comparison analysis is a form of qualitative data analysis in which data is organized into meaningful units, or "codes." These codes are themes that researchers identify, interpret and group by similarity (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2007) The researcher used the data from the recorded interviews and categorized them into groups via coding This method of data analysis is commonly employed to group information in a way that aids researchers to access and decode further meaning easily

Regarding this study, semi-structured interviews with students were conducted, audio-recorded, and transcribed The researcher prepared a letter of consent that informs interviewees of the length and structure of the question set

3.4.2 Data analysis procedures

The data analysis procedure was divided into two stages Thanks to the Google Typeform platform, data was filtered into suitable categories The qualitative information was analyzed using code and content analysis of interview transcriptions, while the quantitative data were statistically analyzed using the mean and standard deviation with the help of Microsoft Excel

Finally, the findings from both quantitative and qualitative research were combined and synthesized

In qualitative research, data analysis plays an essential role and exists both before and after data collection, allowing researchers to interpret and compartmentalize the data provided Bogdan and Biklen (2003) suggest that thanks to observation notes taken during interviews, the process of evaluating and organizing data may happen throughout the entire research process The data collected, both verbal and nonverbal, was well documented in this manner Memos were utilized during the data collection process since they could capture themes that interviewees did not express explicitly, which assisted in providing a greater sense of the meaning of the data

In Chapter 3: Methodology, the researcher summarized all the steps of the methods used in this study, from the most profound elements to the most detailed implementation The chapter also provided the explanation why the author chose those methods to collect and process the data With those reasons, Chapter 3 was evidently the premise source for the next chapter of this research – Chapter 4: Finding and Discussion

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results

4.1.1 Question 1: What do fourth-year students of FELTE, ULIS perceive

about their use of CAT tools in fulfilling the curriculum’s translation practices and their private ones?

4.1.1.1 Respondents’ demographics

As it can be seen from the Figure 1, the number of participants who were intermediate and upper-level at using CAT tools composed of the majority of the chart, with the biggest number belonged to respondents with advanced level This meant when participants filled in the survey, most of them chose number 4 on the Likert scale (equivalent to Advanced)

Compared to a precedented research conducted by Tarasenko (2020), the number of respondents who were skillful at CAT tools also bore some resemblance to that of those who were familiar with many new CAT systems and ready to learn even when they were not included in their curriculum Although the data in that study covered a larger aspect, it also reflected the excellent proficiency of university students when using CAT applications

IntermediateAdvancedExpert

In Figure 2, students’ frequency of using CAT tools was clearly illustrated, indicating a high level of usage due to the fact that most of them use CAT applications quite frequently Three quarters of the chart were students with regular use of CAT tools, which means that they mostly marked from number 3 to 5 on the Likert scale (equal to Sometimes and Always) It could be inferred that students used these tools on a regular basis, and this data must have a close relationship with Figure 3 The reason is quite simple; once students found using CAT tools effective and necessary, they used them with great frequency, regardless of the purpose of use

As illustrated in Figure 3, nearly all of the respondents agreed on the positive effects of CAT tools on their translation tasks In details, there were 25% of the participants assessing CAT applications to be quite effective, and 20% of them insisted on total and extreme effectiveness of these machines, while the largest number belonged to those who agreed on the fact that CAT tools were very beneficial to their work (more than 45%) Only 10% of the remaining participants opined that the computer-aided translation tools were useless or lacked applicability