DỊCH THUẬT hỗ TRỢ bởi INTERNET DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN BIÊN – PHIÊN DỊCH, ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN

Since the Internet boom all over the world, almost all translationrelated activities have occurred on the Internet, including information search, translation, communication with clients, and so on. It is undeniable that thanks to the great assistance from the Internet, the world’s translation industry has gained amazing achievements. With each passing day, more qualified translations are produced with less time and less human resources. However, translation technology is still something new in Vietnam to both translators and students. Up to now, there have not been any serious studies on the issue in ULIS, which somewhat was the inspiration for this modest research. With 80 third and fourthyear students majoring in translations in FELTE, ULIS, VNUH as the subjects, the research aimed to evaluate their understanding on Internetaided translation (IAT) and their ability to apply the Internet in translation practices. Besides, it provided students the chance to show their views on the most appropriate way to improve their IAT capacity. Regarding the significance, through the study, students and the school would be more aware of students’ translation ability, so that a better curriculum could be designed for students to prepare themselves for the working market. The research is also the basis for further studies on the same topic.

Since the Internet boom all over the world, almost all translation-relatedactivities have occurred on the Internet, including information search,translation, communication with clients, and so on It is undeniable that thanks

to the great assistance from the Internet, the world’s translation industry hasgained amazing achievements With each passing day, more qualifiedtranslations are produced with less time and less human resources However,translation technology is still something new in Vietnam to both translatorsand students Up to now, there have not been any serious studies on the issue

in ULIS, which somewhat was the inspiration for this modest research With 80third and fourth-year students majoring in translations in FELTE, ULIS, VNUH

as the subjects, the research aimed to evaluate their understanding onInternet-aided translation (IAT) and their ability to apply the Internet intranslation practices Besides, it provided students the chance to show theirviews on the most appropriate way to improve their IAT capacity Regardingthe significance, through the study, students and the school would be moreaware of students’ translation ability, so that a better curriculum could bedesigned for students to prepare themselves for the working market Theresearch is also the basis for further studies on the same topic

TABLE OF CONTENT

Page Acceptance page

4.1 What is Internet-aided translation from students’

4.1.2 IAT’s advantages and drawbacks perceived by students 17

4.2 How effective students’ coping tactics in Internet-aided

translation?

22

4.3 What should be done to expand students’ capability for

Internet-aided translation, suggested by students?

27

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Translation automation measurement scale (Hutchins &

Somers, 1992)

7

Figure 2: Frequency of Internet usage in translation by students 17

Figure 4: Assessments of the usefulness of common programs by

students

21Figure 5: Suggestions on IAT ability improvement by students 27

List of tables

Table 2: Students’ purposes in the use of Interenet in translation 17Table 3: IAT’s advantages and disadvantages by students 18

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CAT: Computer-Assisted Translation

FAHQT: Fully Automatic High Quality Translation

HAMT: Human-aided machine translation

FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teaching EducationIAT: Internet-aided translation

MAHT: Machine-aided human translation

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this first chapter, a concise overview on the research is provided,namely the rationale, aims and research questions, scope, methodology,significance, and the organization of the study

1.1 Rationale

Born in the 1960s and first launched in 1970s, the Internet is undoubtedlyone of the greatest inventions in mankind’s history With its global spread andcontinuous information availability, strong contributions have been made tothe development of business, communication, medicine, sciences, education,entertainment and even politics Translation is no exception Thanks totremendous support of the Internet, translation services in this twenty-firstcentury are much faster and of higher quality Modern translators can easilylook up terminologies and specialized knowledge necessary to the translationfrom reliable online resources, which used to be a difficulty for mosttranslators before the twentieth century In addition, they have more access toonline training courses so that they are likely to improve their qualification.Another benefit the Internet brings about for nowadays translationpractitioners is opportunities for translation jobs both domestically andinternationally In one word, translation has become a real industry in virtue ofthe Internet in recent days

Unfortunately, those advantages of the Internet, which are listed above,may be somehow unknown to many translation and interpreting students Ifyes, not all students know how to make best use of them so as to improve theirwork and translation skills Therefore, as a senior student majoring inTranslation and Interpreting, I would like to carry out the study with the hope

that it will raise would-be translators’ awareness of the role of Internet to theirtranslation career

1.2 Aims and research questions

The study, firstly, aims at assessing the understanding level of translationand interpreting students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU of Internet-aided translation.Secondly, it is about to test students’ ability to apply the Internet to overcomesome certain difficulties in rendering Lastly, based on students’ responses tothe research, recommendations would be made to the University so that themost appropriate program could be designed to enhance students’ IAT skills

In short, the study is intended to address the following questions:

1 What is Internet-aided translation from students’ point of view?

2 How effective students’ coping tactics in Internet-aidedtranslation?

3 What should be done to expand students’ capability for aided translation?

Internet-1.3 Scope

Because of the limited time and capability, this research’s focus is mainly

on students majoring in translation in FELTE, ULIS, VNU and their competence

in the utilization of Internet for translation Specifically, the target population

of the study is 3rd and 4th-year students of Translation and InterpretingDivision, ULIS, VNU in the school year of 2012-2013

Moreover, the thesis pays attention to making some recommendations onhow to help students be more accomplished in IAT

1.4 Methodology

For the most possibly comprehensive result, the research was conducted

on the whole population of third and fourth-year students (QH09 & QH10) inTranslation and Interpreting Division, FELTE, ULIS, VNU

The sole research instrument was a survey questionnaire which was built

to address all the three research questions In order to achieve reliableanswers, the questionnaire was basically designed in the open form so thatrespondents had to write down their own answers rather than select fromamong existing ones

After being collected from respondents, replies were carefully selected,and those which met the requirements were critically analyzed according tothe two main methods: the quantitative and qualitative one

1.5 Significance of the research

This research is seemingly the first one on IAT skills carried out withTranslation and Interpreting Students in ULIS, VNU as the subject Therefore,its findings would be the original reference for those who intend to pursuefurther researches on related issues with related subjects

As for students directly participating into the study, they have a chance toexplore powerful Internet applications for translation practices and self-assesstheir IAT skills through answering the survey questionnaire

Finally, for teachers and the school, the study would function as asuggestion for them to make appropriate adjustments in the curriculum, sothat their students’ translation skills are honed

1.6 Organization of the research

Following is the construction of the study:

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is written to offer an in-depth look at the theoretical

background of the study It starts with the definition of translation and itscontext before and after the 21st century, followed by a detailed insight intotranslation technology At the end of the chapter, some previous researches inthe same field are shown and analyzed

2.1 Translation

2.1.1 Definition of Translation

Simply put, translation, as defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner’sDictionary (OALD, 8th Edition), is “the process of changing something that iswritten or spoken into another language”, or it can be a product, that is, “a text

or work that has been changed from one language into another”

However, in the view of a professional, translation is more than that.Larson, as cited in Le and Nguyen (2008, p.4), argued translation, as a process,

“consists of studying the source language text (lexicon, grammatical structure,communication situation, and cultural context); analyzing it in order todetermine its meaning; then reconstructuring this SAME meaning using thelexicon and grammatical which are appropriate in the Target language and itscultural context.” As for being a product, a translation, according to Lilova,should maintain “the invariance of content, qualities of the original andauthor’s authenticity” of the source text (Sokolovsky, 2010, p 286)

To produce the most possibly ideal translation, a translator needs notonly knowledge but also skills, creativity and taste Therefore, translation can

be seen as “a skill, which calls for appropriate language and acceptable usage;

an art, which distinguishes good from undistinguished writing and is the

creative, the intuitive, sometimes the inspired, level of the translation; a matter

of taste, where argument ceases, preferences are expressed, and the variety ofmeritorious translations is the reflection of individual differences.” (Newmark,

1988, p 6)

2.1.2 An overview on translation before the twenty-first century

Given the twenty-first century as a landmark, the history of translationcould be divided into two periods: before and after the twenty-first century,without and with the assistance of the Internet

The period before the twenty-first century undoubtedly formed the shape

of translation studies It was the time when basic theories about translationsuch as translation methods, translation procedures, equivalence in translation

or assessment criteria for a translation were developed Noticeably, theseissues were approached differently by different key thinkers in translationstudies For example, when it comes to the equivalence in translation, Jakobsonargued that “equivalence is always possible (regardless of the cultural orgrammatical differences between ST and TT)” (Le, H.T PhD & Nguyen, N.B.MA., 2008, p.42), and classified it on the basis of meaning, while Nida andTaber (1982) came out with functional/dynamic equivalence and formalequivalence, and Baker (1992) with equivalence at word level, equivalenceabove word level, grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence, and pragmaticequivalence This made a great contribution to building up a vivid andcomprehensive picture of translation studies though

Also in this period marked the occurrence of computer-assistedtranslation or computer-aided translation, often known as CAT Thoughprimitive and limited, CAT tools such as word processors, spell and grammarcheckers and terminology bank brought about a positive change in the waytranslation practices were performed Instead of using pen, paper, and printedmaterials, translators then made best use of computers and CAT tools for muchfaster and more effective translations In other words, the “printed culture”

gradually gave way to the “screen culture” (Olivia Craciunescu, ConstanzaGerding-Salas, Susan Stringer-O'Keeffe, 2004).

2.1.3 An overview on translation after the twenty-first century

Together with advances in information technology (IT) and the rapidspread of the Internet on a global scale, translation practices have gained manyimprovements in both speed and quality “The Internet with its universalaccess to information and instant communication between users has created aphysical and geographical freedom for translators that was inconceivable inthe past” (Olivia Craciunescu, Constanza Gerding-Salas, Susan Stringer-O'Keeffe, 2004) The “freedom” here could be understood as translators’ freeaccess to information, materials, as well as job opportunities all over the world.Still, as a coin always has two heads, those changes undoubtedly shape a stifferand more competitive translation environment than ever, which forces moderntranslators to perfect themselves for survival Following in the next sectionsare detail descriptions of Internet’s impacts on translators and translationpractices

2.2 Technology and translation

2.2.1 Computer-assisted translation (CAT)

Computer-assisted translation or computer-aided translation is a

form of translation where a human translator translates texts using computersoftware designed to support and facilitate the translation process (Ulitkin,2011)

Another term relating to computerized translation is machine translation (MT) which, according to Blatt et al, is a system fully automatic in

a translation process without or with a little involvement of human translator

for post-editing (Baker, 1998) Up to now, these two terms Computer-assisted translation and Machine translation have still been confused with each other

by many translators

Taking the degree of automation and human involvement in thetranslation process as the criterion for classification, as Hutchins and Somers(1992) suggested, CAT and MT could be distinguished as follow:

Figure 1: Translation Automation Measurement Scale (Hutchins and Somers,

1992)

As showed in the figure above, fully automatic high quality translation

(FAHQT) has the highest degree of mechanization and the least of humaninvolvement in the scale Therefore, FAHQT can be seen as MT, and “highquality” is the goal that MT’s developers have been aimed to for long Besides,

this figure divides CAT into two sub-types: human-aided machine translation (HAMT) and machine-aided human translation (MAHT) HAMT refers to

systems in which the translation is mainly carried out by the program itselfwith the intervention of human translators at any stage in the process such asresolving specific language problems in the source text or correcting the targettext Meanwhile, MAHT describes a translation process which is essentiallydone by a human translator with the support of computer tools, for instance,spelling, grammar and style checkers, dictionaries, and encyclopedias Strictlyspeaking, no matter how good a machine translation system is, theintervention of a human translator in the translation process is still needed togenerate a precise work Hence, in this paper, MT is somehow regarded asHAMT – one of the CAT’s sub-types

In general, CAT, including MT, is a large and complicated system coveringvarieties of tools The following is the list of common “pure” CAT tools, that is,tools without the need of the Internet.

-Spelling, grammar, and style checkers, included in word processors such

as Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org Writer

-Electronic dictionaries like Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

(OALD), Cambridge Dictionary, or Longman Dictionary

-Translation Memory Systems such as SDL Trados, Wordfast, DéjàVu, or

OmegaT, whose function is to allow translators to leverage previoustranslations when translating new documents This tool works best for texts ofhigh repetition like contracts, legal texts, certificates, application forms andCVs

-Terminology Tools including term-extraction and concordance tools such

as WordSmith Tools, TextStat, and AntConc and terminology management tools

like MultiTerm or TermStar All these tools help translators maintain theterminological consistency during the translation process, especially whentranslating in group or in a big translation project

-Machine Translation Systems such as Systran enabling the translator to

shorten the time for simple texts and to focus efforts on places where needed.Some editing is recommended before the translation process to get a targettext as good as possible

2.2.2 Internet-aided translation

Needless to say, MT and CAT drove a marked and decisive shift intranslation practices; however, it was not until the “Internet boom” that theshift became a historic turning-point in the translation industry That theInternet has become a global phenomenon changed a lot the way translatorstranslate, research for references, and get jobs Though the term “Internet-aided translation” has hardly been used officially in any documents, therelationship between Internet and translation has been touched on quite a lot

in many recent researches In this paper, the term is utilized by the author tomention translation practices which are performed with the assistance ofInternet-related CAT tools and machine translation systems and other Internetapplications.

Fortunately, since the Internet boom, most CAT tools and MT systemshave incorporated desirable and useful functionalities More online databaseapplications have been established, for example, online electronic dictionariesand corpora (including thesaurus, antonym, and idioms dictionaries), onlineelectronic encyclopedias like Wikipedia or www.encyclopedia.com, and online

MT systems such as Altavista's Babelfish babelfish.altavista.com, lingo24.com,and most commonly Google Translate translate.google.com

More importantly, the translator community all over the world hasbenefited directly from other new features of the Internet, as described below(Sánchez, 2006):

-Web Browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google

Chrome enable translators to access to the majority of information globally

-Free webmail e-mail services like Hotmail, Yahoo! or Gmail have

completely replaced traditional letters in the communication betweentranslators and clients They can easily send and receive many types ofdocuments like images, contracts, or papers in just few seconds no matter howfar they are

-Search Engines such as Google or AltaVista have played an important

role in helping translators fill in the gaps in their knowledge of a specific field

Thanks to Search Engines, researching comes much easier and more

convenient for translators than before

-Specialized Databases (or the so-called “Invisible Web”) like Web of

Knowledge, ProQuest, SCOPUS, and PubMed can be regarded as indispensabletools for translators when they have to hunt information not available on

normal Search Engines These databases are like research platforms or

electronic libraries providing specialist knowledge of fields such as medicineand sciences.

-Chats and Other Online Communication Systems such as Yahoo!

Messenger and Skype are powerful instruments for translators to keep intouch with their colleagues and clients at a distance in cheap costs Just with acomputer connected to the Internet, translators can call others how long theywant without concern about the bill

-Social media such as blog, twitter, or facebook could function as a forum

where the translation community can freely share ideas, opinions and anymatter concerned with each other Some examples of these social media areTranslation Notes (http://transnotes.blogspot.com/), Slashdot

(http://www.nakedtranslations.com/fr/blog.php/), and Curioso Pero Inútil(http://www.curiosoperoinutil.com/) Besides, by virtue of the updatedness ofsuch sites, translators can draw upon them to modernize their vocabulary such

as terminology, slangs, idioms and knowledge relating to their workinglanguages

Amazingly, according to Minako O’Hagan (1993) that the Internet formedthe modern telecommunications systems put in the coming of a new kind of

translation: Teletranslation This female PhD and at the same time a lecturer

in Translation Technology, SALIS argued that it is in the age oftelecommunications that the demand on translation is higher than everbecause of the soaring demand on tele-learning, tele-conferences, andlocalization The world now is increasingly flatter, and modern translators,interestingly, can sit at home while translating for any conference or meetingthousands of miles faraway, or education and shopping websites in the need oflocalization

In short, it is strongly apparent that Internet had revolutionized the world

of translation and made translation become a thriving industry with thesupport of high technology Thus, Internet-aided translation skills are what any

modern translator should obtain so as to survive in the era of informationtechnology.

2.3 Related researches

As mentioned above, the marriage between translation and Internet hasbeen touched on in quite a few researches Nevertheless, most of them merelyspeak about the theory face of the issue rather than focus on pointing out theapplication of Internet features by a particular target group to their translationpractices

Cheerfully, there used to be several studies conducted to show thepractical use of Internet-facilitated translation programs by a specific targetgroup and their behaviors towards these programs The first study whichshould be cited is the research project set up by Heather Fulford and JoaquínGranell-Zafra from Business School, Loughborough University in the UnitedKingdom (Heather Fulford, Joaquín Granell-Zafra, 2005) This project aimed toinvestigate the adoption of information and communication technologies by

UK freelance translators to support their various activities in translationprocess, as summarized in the table below:

Table 1 : ICT Support for Freelance Translators

communication technology

support Document production

e.g creating and formatting

target texts; overtyping sources texts

with target texts

Word processing software Graphical/ presentation software Web publishing software

Desktop publishing software

Information search & retrieval

e.g locating background and

reference materials; locating client

Internet search engineElectronic encyclopedia/ referencework

company information; identifying

terminology; locating definitions of

terms; finding examples of

terminology usage; managing

personal terminology collections

Terminology databankText corpus/ document archiveElectronic library

Electronic dictionaries and glossaryDatabase software

Terminology management software

Translation creation

Formulating translation

Translation memoryMachine translation

Communication

e.g liaising with clients;

networking with colleagues

Electronic mailElectronic mailing listsOnline discussion groups

procurement

e.g promoting translation

services; searching for clients; bidding

for translation contracts

Having own web siteOnline marketplaces

Business management

e.g client & contact data

management; contract quotations;

management

Database softwareSpreadsheet softwareAccounting/ bookkeeping package

Most of the survey participants (about 80%) were quite experiencedtranslators (over six years’ experience), while the remaining 20% were relativenewcomers with up to five years’ experience Sadly, the findings of the surveyrevealed that despite their widespread adoption of general-purpose softwareapplications, respondents hardly use more special-purpose ones such asterminology management tools and translation memory Besides, levels ofawareness of translation-specific software were low, and many translatorsseemed skeptical about the value of such technologies

Recently, a more in-depth study has been carried out by a PhD candidatenamed Vanessa Enríquez Raído in Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain so as toinvestigate the web search behaviors of translation students (Raído, 2011).Again, the samples of this research all were experienced in translation, four ofwhom were postgraduate translation trainees (in their first year of studies),one was PhD student of translation with three years of casual professionaltranslation experience, and the rest is a translation teacher with over 15 years

of experience By asking participants to translate two popular-science textsfrom Spanish to English, the study aimed to examine their online searchbehaviors in relation to a number of translation task attributes and userattributes For conclusion, the study pointed out factors affecting the searchbehavior of translators, including the translator’s level of translation expertise,the level of perceived domain knowledge and web search expertise, thecomplexity degree of translation task, and the amount of time spent onsearching

In Vietnam, aside from some articles merely offering a short and generaloverview on the issue there has not had any serious study conducted Similarly,

no standard has been set to evaluate the capacity of Vietnamese translators,both experienced and fresh, for applied translation technology

Inspired by that fact, the study presented in the rest of this paper is todraw attention to the never-aimed target population, i.e translation-specialized students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU with the hope that more suggestionsand strategies would be offered after the study to help these would-betranslators sharpen their translation skills

Conclusion: Presented in the chapter is the strong theoretical background

of this research, including theories about translation, the overview ontranslation before and after the 21st century, the relationship between the

Internet and translation, and related researches This is the basis for theresearch’s reliable outcomes

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, important matters relating to the study are clearlyunveiled, including research subjects, research instruments, the way and themeans findings are analyzed

3.1 Participants

As the main subject of the research, students who are in the third andfourth year of Translation and Interpreting Major, ULIS, VNU, Hanoi werechosen to be participants of the study In general, these students have beentrained quite well in both translation theory and practices Besides, with moreexperience in accessing recognized translations as well as in doing translationthemselves, they have obtained a certain number of skills and techniques forrendering More importantly, under the pressure of employment aftergraduation, most of them have a greater occupational awareness, alwaysthirsty for things that can enhance and maximize their translation capability Incontrast, freshman and second-year students normally pay less attention tothose aids as they are fairly new to translation and have not undergone thebasic training That is the reason why this study gives the central focus to thirdand fourth-year students in the major

For the reliability and validity of the result, the research was to beconducted on the whole third and fourth-year students (approximately 80ones) majoring in Translation and Interpreting

3.2 Data collection instrument

The single instrument utilized during the research process was a surveyquestionnaire

With the aim of performing assessments as subjunctively andcomprehensively as possible, the questionnaire was delivered to the entireresearch population In terms of the content, it contains six questions, in which,the first four ones address the research question 1, the fifth one answers theresearch question 2, and the last one solves the issue in the research question

3 Regarding its form, almost the questions (except the sixth one) are in openform, requiring respondents to respond honestly In contrast, the form of thequestion 6 is partly closed; that is, respondents can choose among a number ofavailable choices and make their own suggestions and comments at the sametime

3.3 Data collection procedures

After the questionnaire’s design was completed, it is necessary for theresearcher to contact students who were expected to participate in the survey.Then, the questionnaire was delivered to students both by hand and by email,

so that they were willing to finish them effectively Once having finished,participants could give back the questionnaires either by hand or by email,whatever they prefer

3.4 Data analysis methods and procedures

Data, after collected from the survey, was categorized into the two types:quantitative and qualitative one

For quantitative data, they were examined in numbers or percentage, andpresented logically in the form of tables and graphs

For qualitative one, the answers of participants to open-form questions inthe questionnaire were used as the basis for analysis Those data wereinterpreted and presented rightly and clearly

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this chapter, findings and results of the research questions will bepresented neatly and then be examined minutely and fully one by one

4.1 Research question 1: What is Internet-aided translation from students’ point of view?

With the aim of assessing students’ understanding degree of aided translation, this research question was addressed at the top Forcomprehensive and detailed data, it was split into the first four questions in thesurvey questionnaire In detail, the question 1 was to identify the frequencystudents use the Internet in translation and their purposes; the question 2 was

Internet-to determine IAT’s strong and weak points perceived by students; and thequestion 3 and 4 were to test students’ knowledge on IAT’s tools Generallyspeaking, though frequently utilizing the Internet in translation, students stilldid not exploit it to the fullness

4.1.1 Frequency and purposes of Internet use in translation by students

According to the data from the first question in the questionnaire, theInternet, predictably, is employed habitually in translation by the majority ofrespondents Specifically, the Internet is the translation aid to 86% of surveyedstudents, whereas 12% of them merely occasionally use this global network,and the surprising 2% never think about it when translating Noticeably, the2% was totally from the third-year students, which partly proves the integralrole of the Internet in seniors’ translation practices Following is the pie chartshowing how often students use the Internet to support their rendering

Figure 2: Frequency of Internet Use in Translation by Students

Concerning students’ purposes when using the Internet in rendering,more than half of the students of the first two groups (68%), sadly, onlymentioned some common functions without clarity For example, they gavevague answers like “search for information” or/and “search for terminology”.The rest (32%), more decently, managed to specify carefully their uses as thetable below

Table 2: Students’ Purposes in the Use of Internet in Translation

Terminology - Search for cultural equivalence, slangs, idioms

- Search for technical terms

- Search for synonyms and collocation

- Search for neologism and its source

- Check the usage of an expression or a structure

- Check the existence/ usage frequency of anexpression/ phrase

Translation - Translate roughly/ word for word

- Refer to recognized translations

4.1.2 IAT’s advantages and drawbacks perceived by students