Common translation errors (vietnamese english) committed by the third year english majors a case at dong nai technology university a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the req

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ------ COMMON TRANSLATION ERRORS VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH COMMITTED BY THE THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY A thesis

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY - -

COMMON TRANSLATION ERRORS (VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH) COMMITTED BY THE THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS:

A CASE AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts (TESOL)

Submitted by TRAN THI HOAI NAM, BA

Supervisor NGUYEN HOANG TUAN, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, SEPTEMBER 2016

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis, entitled “Common translation errors (Vietnamese –English) committed by the third-year English majors: A case at Dong Nai Technology University”, is my own work

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, it does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

No other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of this thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2016

TRAN THI HOAI NAM

I would like to gratefully thank my TESOL 08 classmates for the happiness and difficulties we share throughout the course, which would be an unforgettable memory in my life Particularly, I would like to give my special thanks to Mr Nguyen Tri Tuc and Mr Luong Minh Tin for helping me with the analysis of the translation tests of the students

My profound thanks are also reserved for the managing boards, the English lecturers, and the third-year English majors in the academic year of 2015 – 2016 at Dong Nai Technology University, who gave me best possible conditions to conduct the study

And last, but by no means least, I am extremely appreciated the endless love of my family who are always by my side I will never forget day and night supports of my parents, my sisters to overcome all challenges in my life

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, with the trend of globalization in Vietnam, English as an international language is necessary to bring the country‟s image to the world via the articles, journals, research about Vietnamese people and culture Therefore, translation should have been paid much attention to However, majority of the third-year English majors at Dong Nai Technology University (DNTU) find a common problem that they feel difficult to translate from Vietnamese into English and they commit many errors in translation Moreover, there is no study on this case at DNTU Hence, the research was conducted with two main objectives: first, to investigate the common errors in translation from Vietnamese into English made by the third-year English majors at Dong Nai Technology University and second, to find out possible causes of those errors In order to serve the aims of the study, six translation tests were used for thirty third-year English majors Interviews were also carried out with ten students and one teacher of the translation subject The findings revealed that there were a large number of micro and macro-level translation errors, especially errors of word choice, prepositions, articles and tenses made by the students More critically, the causes of those errors included both subjective and objective reasons according to the data collected Subjective causes concerned the lack of knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, culture, text type, and text style, the ability to overcome the negative influence of the mother tongue in language learning, the concentration and motivation in the translation process and the inappropriate use of translation method while objective ones included the differences between English and Vietnamese, the influence of the mother tongue and inappropriate teaching documents and methods Based on the findings of the study, some important conclusions as well as recommendations were drawn, hoping

to improve translation teaching and learning at Dong Nai Technology University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

ABBREVIATIONS iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Rationale for the study 2

1.3 Research objectives 3

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Significance of the research 4

1.6 The scope and limitation of the study 4

1.7 Definitions of terms 5

1.8 Overview of thesis chapters 5

1.9 Chapter summary 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Definitions of translation 7

2.2 Equivalence in translation 12

2.2.1 Definitions of equivalence in translation 12

2.2.2 Types of equivalence in translation 14

2.3 The translation process 14

2.4 Translation approaches 16

2.4.1 Text-type oriented translation 16

2.4.2 Text linguistics 18

2.5 Translation methods 18

2.5.1 Word-for-word translation 19

2.5.2 Literal translation 19

2.5.3 Faithful translation 20

2.5.4 Semantic translation 20

2.5.5 Free translation 20

2.5.6 Idiomatic translation 21

2.5.7 Adaption 21

2.5.8 Communicative translation 21

2.6 Errors in translation 22

2.6.1 Definitions of errors in translation 22

2.6.2 Classification and description of errors in translation 23

2.6.2.1 Micro-level translation errors 25

2.6.2.2 Macro-level translation errors 31

2.6.3 Stages of error analysis 33

2.6.4 Criteria for translation quality assessment 33

2.7 Review of previous studies and the research gap 35

2.8 Chapter summary 40

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 41

3.1 Research site 41

3.2 Participants and sampling 42

3.2.1 Translation test participants 42

3.2.2 Interview participants 43

3.2.2.1 Student participants 43

3.2.2.2 Teacher participants 43

3.3 Methods of data collection 43

3.4 Data collection instruments 44

3.4.1 Translation tests 44

3.4.2 Interviews 45

3.5 Data collection procedures 46

3.5.1 Piloting the translation tests and interview questions 47

3.5.2 Data collection procedures 47

3.5.2.1 Translation tests 47

3.5.2.2 Student interviews 48

3.5.2.3 Teacher interview 48

3.6 Analytical framework 49

3.7 Ethical issues 55

3.8 Chapter summary 55

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 56

4.1 Results and Discussion 56

4.1.1 From translation tests 56

4.1.1.1 Micro-level translation errors 57

4.1.1.2 Macro-level translation errors 72

4.1.2 DNTU students‟ responses to the interview and interview analysis 78

4.1.3 DNTU teacher‟ responses to the interview and interview analysis 82

4.1.3.1 Question 01 82

4.1.3.2 Question 02 83

4.1.3.3 Question 03 85

4.2 The summary of main findings 85

4.2.1 Research question 01 85

4.2.2 Research question 02 86

4.3 Chapter summary 87

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 89

5.1 Conclusions 89

5.2 Implications 91

5.2.1 Recommendations for students 91

5.2.2 Recommendations for teachers 93

5.2.3 Recommendations for The Executive Board of FFL 97

5.2.3.1 Textbooks 97

5.2.3.2 Using Billingual Corpus 98

5.2.3.3 Teaching Grammar modules 98

5.2.3.4 Increasing the credits for each module and setting class-size limits 99

5.3 Suggestions for further research 99

5.4 Chapter summary 100

REFERENCES 101

APPENDIX 1: TRANSATION TEST 1 113

APPENDIX 2: TRANSATION TEST 2 114

APPENDIX 3: TRANSATION TEST 3 115

APPENDIX 4: TRANSATION TEST 4 116

APPENDIX 5: TRANSATION TEST 5 117

APPENDIX 6: TRANSATION TEST 6 118

APPENDIX 7: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS 119

APPENDIX 8: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE TEACHER 120

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Definition of translation 11

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1 Proportion of translation error types 56

Table 4.1 Average errors per texts per category 58

Chart 4.2 Proportion of micro-level translation errors 59

Chart 4.3 Incorrect vocabulary 61

Chart 4.4 Inappropriate vocabulary 65

Chart 4.5 Proportion of incorrect grammar 67

Chart 4.6 Proportion of inappropriate grammar 70

Chart 4.7 Proportion of macro-level translation errors 73

Chart 4.8 Average errors per texts 78

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3 1 The coding scheme to analyze students’ data from translation tests 50 Table 4 1 Average errors per texts per category 58

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter begins by presenting the background and rationale for the study

It will then go on to the objectives, the research questions, the significance, the scope and limitation of the study Finally, definitions of terms, which are used in the research, are also provided

1.1 Background to the study

Translation errors can be found easily in those backgrounds where English is not the mother tongue In Vietnam, English is quite common though it is still positioned as a foreign language For Vietnamese students and teachers, translating

a text from Vietnamese into English and vice versa has been long proved to be convenient for both learning and teaching Consequently, from elementary schools

to universities, translation has been fully exploited and different ways of translation are used in distinctive levels Nonetheless, there are an abundance of obstacles to deal with in the translation process One of those problems takes the researcher to the job of analyzing errors that student translators might have

In language teaching and learning, error analysis is considered as one of the most significant tools Hartmann and Stork (1972) emphasize that it is possible for language learners to make errors Learning how to translate a text from Vietnamese into English is also included in the process of learning English; for that reason, students are expected to make errors during their study But when looking at the bright side of the problem, we see that frequently made errors in translation, once carefully analyzed, can help us to easily understand the way or strategies students often adopt for their learning language (Richards, 1971) With this understanding, teachers can eventually correct students and help them to self-correct and then just move on In order to analyze students‟ errors, it is advised to take into consideration what Ellis (1994) suggests that the process of analyzing errors including those made

in the course of translation which consists of several steps such as collecting

samples of learners‟ language learning, identifying the errors, describing those errors, classifying them into specific categories, and evaluating them according to their seriousness Also, errors made in the process of translation are worth considering Those errors can be the proof that will guide teachers to where students are having difficulties Therefore, Khodabandeh (2007) says that error analysis is beneficial for syllabus makers to decide which is important and crucial to be added

in the translation course For teachers, this really helps to build strong and effective methodologies For the students, this greatly assists them understanding themselves

in terms of their weaknesses and difficulties in the translation process In a nutshell, translation error analysis is the first step which needs to be done in order to improve teaching and learning translation

1.2 Rationale for the study

Translation is one of mandatory subjects that the students from the Faculty of Foreign Languages (short for FFL) at Dong Nai Technology University (short for DNTU) must complete Taken down to the smallest detail, the subject of Translation is divided into four modules which are Translation Theory, which provides students with translation know-how, Translation 01, Translation 02 and Translation 03 All of those modules guide students from theory to practice Each one consists of thirty periods The aims of those modules are to well equip and to further enhance students‟ translation skills for their jobs in the future

Nevertheless, the majority of English majors still face some common translation problems; one of which is that they seem ill at ease to translate a text from Vietnamese into English and it becomes a fear of taking Vietnamese-English translation tests They always make errors and get into many difficulties in their translation process For example, the four above-mentioned modules were taught to the two classes of FFL (2011 and 2012), whereas in general the students‟ translation performance was not as satisfactory as expected Moreover, by observing students

of the class 2013 who have just finished Translation Theory module in the third

semester of academic year 2015, the researcher comes to see that they are extremely scared of translation and worried about how to successfully adapt their translation skills to their work after graduation One of many reasons is that within thirty periods (one period lasts about forty five minutes), the lecturer must cover both translation theory and translation practice; therefore, it does not give her enough time to check all students‟ answers and analyze students‟ errors which can help students exploit their strengths and reduce their weaknesses in the translation process Amongst the known and unknown reasons for why students fail to translate successfully, one has been commonly addressed is that teachers might have not been deeply successful in putting their feet into students‟ shoes to understand them

in detail Therefore, Vietnamese-English translation errors of English majors need

to be classified; however, it seems that no study on this case has been done previously at DNTU To fulfill this gap, the study entitled “Common translation errors (Vietnamese-English) committed by the third-year English majors: A case at Dong Nai Technology University” is conducted

1.3 Research objectives

The research focuses on two main objectives: first, to investigate the common errors in translation from Vietnamese into English committed by the third -year English majors at DNTU and second, to find out what possible causes lead to those errors Based on the results, the students‟ errors and possible causes will be critically analyzed and classified into specific categories to help students avoid such errors in the future Also, some recommendations for improving the current teaching and learning translation at DNTU will be offered

1.4 Research questions

The study is conducted to answer the following two research questions: (1) What are the common errors in translation from Vietnamese into English committed by the third-year English majors at DNTU?

(2) What are possible causes that lead the students to commit those translation errors?

1.5 Significance of the research

This study is carried out to achieve expected outcomes as follows Realistically, the results of this study are intended to help teachers and students at FFL to have a clear picture of what is going on with their teaching and learning translation Also, some recommendations are suggested with the hope that students and teachers can improve their performance in both teaching and learning translation Theoretically, this research will help in contributing to the library of current literature about the theme of translation from Vietnamese to English within the context of DNTU as well as Vietnam

1.6 The scope and limitation of the study

The study was at DNTU in more than one year, from June, 2015 to

September, 2016 Notwithstanding the effort of the researcher, the limitation can be found in the study The first limitation of this study was the sample size Only thirty third-year English majors and one translation teacher at Dong Nai Technology

University involved in the study, thus the generalization and recommendations would be limited to other students at Dong Nai Technology University and to other

universities in Vietnam Secondly, the research only focused on investigating students‟ errors in Vietnamese-English translation Thirdly, only six translation tests regarding business and tourism were used to collect data and they were done in class with the limited time Therefore, the results might not fully show the translation ability of students In addition, suggestions for improving the translation learning were only provided to help English majors In other words, with the bigger sample size including groups of students from different majors and Vietnamese-English as well as English-Vietnamese translation tests concerning variety of topics will allow the researcher to get more outstanding results Also, its recommendations can help different groups of students at DNTU improve their translation skills

1.8 Overview of thesis chapters

The overall structure of the study takes the form of five chapters including (1) Introduction, (2) Literature Review, (3) Methodology, (4) Findings and Discussion and (5) Conclusions and Implications

First of all, chapter one begins by providing background, rationale and objectives of the research Research questions, significance, scope and limitation of the study are stated later Also, definitions of terms come in the end Secondly, chapter two reviews the literature relevant to the research topic, summarizes what has been done and what has not yet been done about the topic so far, points out the gap that the current thesis will bridge Then, the research methodology in terms of the research site, participants and sampling, methods, instruments, procedure of data collection, analytical framework and ethical issues are introduced in chapter three Next, chapter four presents the research‟s results and discussion in detail Finally, chapter five draws obvious conclusions, discusses some important practical implications and gives helpful suggestions for further research

1.9 Chapter summary

The first chapter of this research provides general background and rationale for investigating common errors in translation from Vietnamese into English committed by the third-year English majors at Dong Nai Technology University The aims of the study are first, to investigate common errors in translation from Vietnamese into English made by third-year English majors at Dong Nai Technology University and second, to find out possible causes of these errors There are two research questions which will be answered according to those

objectives The significance, scope, limitation and organization of this research are introduced in the end

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter mainly focuses on five major issues: (1) Definitions of translation, (2) Equivalence in translation, (3) The translation process, (4) Translation approaches (5) Translation methods, (6) Errors in translation, and (7) Review of previous studies and the research gap

2.1 Definitions of translation

Various ways of understanding translation make different ways of translating

It is believed that the lack of understanding of translation might greatly affect the translation quality, thus in-depth discussion about definitions of translation is necessary There are many definitions of translation coming from a variety of authors with different viewpoints Hence, only several typical definitions will be taken into deep consideration within this research

Firstly, Brisset (2000) defines translator‟s task as the replacement the language of the other by a native language This definition seems easy to understand; however, it simply emphasizes the act of change in meaning but not the translation process from one language into another Similarly, Munday (2001) believes that the translation process between two distinct written languages concerns the change of the source text into the target text Overall, those things are true; nevertheless, the mismatch between the two languages, which occurs because every language has its own way to convey messages in both spoken and written forms, is not mentioned in those definitions

Differently, some scholars introduce their definitions of translation to accentuate contents of the text when translating Hartmann and Stock (1972) view translation as the text‟s representation in one language by another equivalent text‟s representation in a second language Likewise, Brislin (1976) points out that translation is the act of changing thoughts and ideas from source language to target one As can be seen from his definition, he pays much more attention to contents of

a text, especially thoughts and ideas in the translation process In a similar vein, Bell (1991) strongly emphasizes that translation directly concerns the transfer of meaning from one language‟s text into another one‟s

Besides, Larson (1998) believes that translation is fundamentally a form change and translator‟s task is to keep the constant of meaning Moreover, he claims that the form of a language refers to the actual words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and the like Importantly, a meaning, which is expressed by a specific form in a language, can be effectively conveyed by a distinct form in another; thus, changing the form in translation process is often essential In simpler terms, the form of the source language is substituted by the form of the receptor language in translation Counting on this definition, Larson states that translation is the changing of form between two languages without changing meaning Remarkably, Sugimoto (2005: 1) considers translation as “the exchange of one set

of clothes for another set of clothes that will cover the same meaning or thought” From Sugimoto‟s definition of translation, the source text‟s meaning and thought should be remained constantly in the source text by different forms of target text Also, a “set of clothes” refers to lexical and grammar This is such an interesting translation definition that teachers can use to help students easily conceive and understand what translation is

Compared with above-mentioned authors, the following ones focus more on equivalence in translation Catford (1965) believes that translation is the act of substituting textual material in one language with equivalent textual material in another He also claims that equivalent plays a key role in translation, thus the crucial task of translation theory is to define the translation equivalence‟s nature and conditions In general, the linguistic view of translation is particularly focused on his theory Similarly, Houbert (1998: 1) states that “translation is to be understood

as the process whereby a message expressed in a specific source language is linguistically transformed in order to be understood by readers of the target

language” Also, Bell (1991: 5) suggests that translation is “the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences” Clearly, from his point of view, equivalence between source text and target one in both semantic and stylistic features plays a central role in translation and the translator has to make a big effort

to ensure it Therefore, according to him, a translator has the choice of “finding formal equivalents which „preserve‟ the context-free semantic sense of the text” or

“finding functional equivalents which „preserve‟ the context-sensitive communicative value of the text” Generally speaking, the close correspondence between the source text and target one is the basis of translation in Bell‟s definition Different from Catford‟s viewpoint, Bassnett (2013) states that translation involves the text representation in one language by another equivalent text representation in a second language in order to ensure that first, the surface meaning of the two closely will resemble each other and second, the structure of the SL will be maintained as properly as possible, without leading to serious distortion of the TL structures

Supporting for the concept of equivalence, Sa'edi (2004: 242) considers translation as “the process of establishing equivalence between the source language texts and target language texts” Adding pragmatic aspect to translation when looking at equivalence, House (1997) views translation as the replacement of a text

in the source language by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent text in the target language Nida (1984: 83) points out that “translation consists of reproducing

in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” It can be deduced that the equivalence in both meaning and style are strongly focused in his definition By and large, the key aspect in the authors‟ definitions is the concept of equivalence which is absolutely vital for the translation process

Adding culture element in his definition, Tudor (1987) defines translation as the process of expressing messages across linguistic and cultural barriers In the

same way, Hatim and Mason (2005: 1) consider translation as “an act of communication which attempts to relay, across cultural and linguistic boundaries, another act of communication” Adewuni (2000: 1) notes that translation is “a reality despite the complications and doubt attached to it based on the nature of the elements involved, the languages, the cultures, and the translator” The researcher totally agrees with Adewuni‟s point of view By this definition, he lists three crucial factors in the process of translation, which significantly affect every aspect of translation quality, are languages, cultures and the translator The important point is that each country has its own language and its own way to convey messages in both spoken and written forms Noticeably, according to Luu Trong Tuan (2011: 1)

“every language has its own beauty” Hence, as noticed by Durdureanu (2011: 1),

“when translating, people find out things about others, about a world which is not theirs” Clearly, the differences in languages and cultures are emphasized in the definition, those are very useful for the current study

Also, translation is considered as a skill which helps people replace a source text by a target one or a task A first definition is given by Newmark (1981: 7), who describes “translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language” Giving strong support to Newmark, Aziz and Lataiwish (2000) define translation as the replacement of a text in one language by another A further definition is given by Kelly (2005) who views translation as the skill of understanding the source text and using the register, the background knowledge, and other language resources to render it into the target language according to the intended purpose Nonetheless, a translator should be a person who mediates between the two languages and cultures to transfer the SL to the TL Hence, the equivalence, from those definitions, is taken into consideration at the whole text level In other words, the whole source text should be replaced by the target one Secondly, the term “a problem-solving task” is used Kaur (2005) to refer

to translation Actually, there are many problems which arise in the translation

process, thus translators have to identify translation problems to find out the most appropriate procedure for translation in order to solve the identified problems For that reason, this definition is generally accepted

Additionally, from cross-cultural communication view, Tianmin (2006) provides a new definition of translation which is “translation is simultaneous decontextualization and recontextualization, hence is productive rather than reproductive” On the contrary, the terms “decoding” and “encoding” are used instead of “decontextualization” and “recontextualization” by Weber (2005) in his theory when he claims that translation includes decoding the meaning of the source language (SL) text and encoding this meaning into a receptor language (RL) text Figure 2.1 illustrates this point as below

Figure 2.1 Definition of translation

Theoretically, from above-mentioned definitions of translation, the researcher has a sound foundation for following two points Firstly, while a variety

of definitions of the term translation have been suggested, this paper will use the definition of Kelly (2005) This is because translation, a crucial notion which is closely related to culture, is considered as the replacement of a text in the source language by a semantically, pragmatically and stylistically equivalence text in the target language To do those things, translators should have good understanding of the source text and full knowledge of languages and cultures Secondly, language, culture and translator are three vitally key factors involving in the translation process Specially, language and culture are closely interrelated Actually, people use translation commonly because people today live in a transparent world in which they barely say where the borders between countries are Globalization makes people closer and closer to each other However, there is a language barrier between people when they approach each other Obviously, a concept of one typical culture

may be a non-exist concept to other culture Thus, how do people understand each other when they become internationally? People use translation to transfer the meanings of a language or culture into their own similar meanings or understandable concepts Consequently, it would be difficult or impossible to communicate with people from other countries, if translation did not exist In order

to make the clear meaning of source language, it is expected that the meaning of target language can be understood by the readers So, the result of translation must

be readable Translation is not only the transmission of words and phrases but also the sense of language, culture and social norm because what translators should translate are messages, senses, and texts It will make the readers easy to understand the content of the text well In conclusion, Cary (1956: 181) concludes that

“translators live off the differences between languages, all the while working toward eliminating them”

2.2 Equivalence in translation

2.2.1 Definitions of equivalence in translation

It is said that no matter how translation is defined, the notion of equivalence

is indivisible from it; thus, equivalence is the key concept in translation Generally, the notion of equivalence occurs when people try to describe and explain the relationship between the source text and the target text (Luu Trong Tuan, 2009) Many researchers try to give out its definition

First of all, House (1997) considers equivalence in translation as “the conceptual basis of translation and, to quote Catford, „the central problem of translation practice is that of finding TL (target language) equivalents‟ (1965:21)” Additionally, Leonardi (2000) states the theory of equivalence is related to the comparison of texts in different languages To talk about the relationship between translation and equivalence, in an interesting way, Pym (1992) views it as a circularity: equivalence is supposed to define translation, and translation, in turn, defines equivalence For Halverson (1997: 207), equivalence means “a relationship

existing between two entities and the relationship is described as one of likeness/ sameness/ similarity/ equality in terms of any of a number of potential qualities” Similarly, Panou (2013) uses the term “equivalence” to refer to some kinds of

“sameness” which source text and target text share From those definitions, it can be deduced that equivalence shows the relationship between a source text (ST) and a target text (TT) and basing on it translators decide whether the TL is considered as a translation of the ST in the first place or not Therefore, it is important for translators to keep equivalence relationships between parts of ST and parts of TL Meetham and Hudson (1969) claim that translation texts in different languages might have differences in equivalent extent (full or partial equivalence), in representation aspects (equivalent in context, semantic, syntax, vocabulary, etc.) and levels (word, phrase, sentence level) Jakobson (1959) realizes that the cardinal problem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistic are equivalence in difference Also, he believes that “there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code–units” In a similar vein, Nida (1984) gives the statement that it is impossible

to reach absolute equivalence in translation Clearly, the notion of equivalence is problematic

From above-mentioned definitions of equivalence in translation especially Meetham and Hudson‟s one, the researcher deduces some significant points which are very helpful for the study, equivalence in translation is the comparison between the source text and the target one in terms of representation aspects (equivalent in context, semantic, syntax, vocabulary, etc.), levels (word, phrase, sentence level) Remarkably, there is no absolute equivalence It is worth mentioning that equivalence is the most important concept that every translator strives for when translating in order to make a good translation for readers

2.2.2 Types of equivalence in translation

Based on different criteria and theories of translation, some distinctly different types of equivalence are suggested According to Nida (1964), the two types of equivalence are formal equivalence and dynamic one Formal equivalence attempts to reach the closest match in terms of form and content while dynamic equivalence strives to achieve the same effect on the target language readers as that experienced by the source text readers from the original text Also, he argues that reaching the equivalence in translation plays a key role in the success of a translation From a linguistic point of view, Catford (1965) suggests two categories including textual equivalence (a parole-related level and an actual level) and formal correspondence (a systematic and vital level) Besides, regarding the translation process, Baker (2011) looks at the concept of equivalence at different levels in all different aspects of translation in which linguistic and communicative approach are put together While a variety of types of equivalence in translation have been suggested, this paper will use the classification suggested by Catford (1965) Apparently, there are no two absolute synonyms within one language, and the same case for two words in two distinct languages Therefore, the crucial task of a translator is to establish the equivalence of the original text in the target text; however, it is not an easy job to do

2.3 The translation process

Three stages of translation, which are analysis, transfer and restructuring, are

introduced by (Nida, 1964)

The first and critical stage is analysis Undoubtedly, Nord (2005: 1) contends that text analysis is considered as “the only way of ensuring that the source text has been wholly and correctly understood” And this is an extremely important step in the translation process that needs to be mentioned when Kelly‟s (2005) definition of translation is used in this research Owing to its importance, Newmark (1988) suggests eleven steps to analyze a text The translator‟s first task is to read the text

for understanding the message that the writer of source text desires to convey or at least making some generalizations about his or her text before selecting an appropriate translation method Secondly, understanding the intention of the text assists translators perceiving the source language writer's attitude towards the

subject matter through the type of language used and the grammatical structures

Thirdly, to choose the suitable method of translation, translators should understand their intentions The fourth step is the text style analysis He introduces four Nida‟s text types including narrative, description, discussion and dialogue The next step is about the readership He writes that “the average text for translation tends to be for

an educated, middle-class readership in an informal, not colloquial style” Also, he emphasizes that two common errors in register that student translators made are

“colloquial” and “intimate” Step six is regarding stylistic scales which encompass officialese, official, formal, neutral, informal, colloquial, slang, and taboo Those stylistic scales concern the ways students use words However, students usually tend

to pay attention to the meaning of a text without putting it in its text style The next

steps are related to the source text writer's attitude and the setting of original text

Besides, to have the right choice of translation method, translators should consider the quality of the writing and the authority of the text (Newmark, 1988) Student translators should try to overcome source language text‟s defects in order to make their translation more natural and accurate (Huynh Van Tai, 2016) Also, both connotations and denotations, which are used in texts, need to be recognized The last step that Newmark suggests is last reading Specially, in this step, all neologisms, metaphors, cultural words and institutional terms peculiar to the SL or third language, proper names, technical terms and 'untranslatable' words should be

paid attention to Those words lead students much more difficulties in translating This step is important because since translators analyze a text carefully, they can

choose appropriate methods for translating

The second stage, transfer, is the process of transferring meaning from source language to target language in the translator‟s mind with an unsophisticated

structure at a simple level Finally, in the third stage, the translator selects to make a decision and draws a distinction between available equivalent sayings in the target language In other words, based on the target readers that the translator intends to reach, he or she restructures the meaning to the level in the target text Clearly, once the first step is successfully completed, it greatly assists translators in other steps

It appears so lucid that this process may be not easy for students to cope with because it requires students to predict what they are going to face while making a move from analysis to transfer or from transfer to restructuring The process depends on students‟ full awareness of English culture in order to choose the most appropriately equivalent translation in English

2.4 Translation approaches

2.4.1 Text-type oriented translation

Since source texts may be in distinctive genres and types, it is advised that dissimilar genres and text types have different ways to translate The first term, genre is used by Dudley-Evans (1989) to mean sorts of activities which frequently happen in society, for example prayers, sermons, songs, and poems The second one, text type refers to groupings of texts which share similarities in relation to the co-occurrence of linguistic patterns (Biber, 1991) Therefore, Magalhães (2000) suggests that “the translators‟ awareness regarding genre should be raised at the beginning of a training course” In fact, Paltridge (1996) claims that “pedagogic applications of genre analyses seem to be based on the notion of „text type‟ rather than „genre‟” On account of the importance of text types in selecting a translation approach, Reiss (1977) comes out three text types and their characteristics as follow: (1) Informative text type which simply conveys facts such as information, knowledge, opinions, facts This text type is mainly focused on the content of topic of communication Scientific, technical, news, reports, textbook, and biography texts are some sorts of informative texts They are usually in passive voice, present tense, present perfect, and past perfect, with full of

technical terms The language dimension applied to transmit the information

is logical or referential Translation methods applied in this type of text are Nida‟s mix of formal-dynamic equivalence approach, and Newmark‟s communicative approach

(2) Expressive text type, in which the author uses the aesthetic dimension of

language, is called “creative composition”, is usually writer-oriented Some examples for this type are poems, novels, and fiction Different from the first type, the form of text is highly focused in this one In those documents, images and emotions are transferred through the language of the text Therefore, translators should use the identifying method and adopt perspective of source language text

(3) Operative text type is the type which aims to appeal or persuade the reader or

receiver of the text to act in certain way For instance, advertisements and business emails are typical for the type with many the existence of many action verbs in them This text type is appellative- focused Therefore, translation methods applied in this text type should be adaptive and equivalent effect to closely preserve positive encouragement and the effectiveness of the translated original text

Generally, Reiss‟s text types greatly assist translators in choosing an appropriate translation method If student translators do not have full understanding of text type of the source text, which might be the result of failing to analyze the source text or the lack of the knowledge of text types, they will face with difficulties in approaches to translation Therefore, to enhance translation quality, it is necessary for translators to fully grasp the knowledge of text types and text-type oriented translation approach

2.4.2 Text linguistics

As mentioned before, translation is the text‟s representation in one language

by another equivalent text‟s representation in a second language (Hartmann & Stock, 1972) In addition, a variety of text type leads to different translation problems From this point of view, De Beaugrande and Dressler (2011) suggest the text linguistics notion which includes the seven standards of textuality and contains the explanation for each component text More specially, in this notion, not only words, sentences and clauses but also the whole text is focused on Those things are to keep the meaning constant in the target text

The seven standards of textuality are cohesion which refers to the relation of meaning within the text, coherence which is the agreement of a text with its situation, acceptability which concerns observing norms, informativity which involves conveying message, intentionality which fulfils the purpose of a text, situationality which is related to comformity with situation and the last one, intertextuality which shows the relations between text components A text, as De Beaugrande and Dressler (2011) define, is “a communicative occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality” More importantly, the authors claim that “if any of these standards is not considered to have been satisfied, the text will not be communicative Hence, non-communicative texts are treated as non-text” To conclude, text linguistics approach from De Beaugrande and Dressler offers translators useful ways to achieve perfect translation product

2.5 Translation methods

One of the pioneers of the theory of translation, Newmark (1988) introduces eight common methods of translation which belong to two categories including source language emphasis and target language one Source language emphasis consists of word-for-word translation, literal translation, faithful translation, semantic translation while target language one includes adaption, free translation, idiomatic translation and communicative one

2.5.1 Word-for-word translation

For Newmark (1988), with word-for-word translation, the word-order of the source language is preserved and the words are translated singly by their most common meaning, out of context Words related to culture are also literally translated Massey (2008) believes that “translation word-for-word is an understandable habit when you are attempting in a new language And you can even learn the use of important vocabulary by trying to look up words that you think you need” Hence this method is useful for understanding the mechanics of the source language or construing a difficult text as a pre-translation process Also, it is normally effective only for brief simple neutral sentences, for example, “Tôi chơi

cờ mỗi ngày”, “I play chess every day” However, word-for-word translation may lead texts into no sense in terms of meaning or lead readers to misunderstand if it is applied for texts which include cultural aspects For that reason, student translators, who overuse this method, can make many errors in translation at both micro and macro level

2.5.2 Literal translation

In his book named “A textbook of translation”, Newmark (1988) states that with literal translation, “the SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context” Also, Munday (2009) describes this method as “the close adherence to the surface structure of the source text message both in terms of semantic and syntax”

It can be deduced that, the meaning of words is picked up from dictionary and grammatical structure is well maintained Literal translation ranges from one word to one word (gạo- rice), through group to group (ở trên bàn - on the table), collocation to collocation (phạm sai lầm - to make a mistake), clause to clause (khi việc đó đã được thực hiện – what done was done), sentence to sentence (Người đàn ông đó đã ở trong ngôi nhà ấy – The man was in that house) However, literal translation can cause unnaturalness in Vietnamese-English translation In sum,

literal translation often concerns grammatical transposition and it is similar to for-word translation in some cases

2.5.4 Semantic translation

Differently from faithful translation, “semantic translation attempts to render,

as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the sencond language allow, the exact contextual meaning of original” (Newmark, 1981) In comparison with faithful translation, semantic translation is more flexible than this one It can be deduced that this translation method tries to represent the cultural and contextual meaning of the source text, which is similar to Nida‟s formal equivalence In brief, semantic translation is helpful in reaching the closest match in terms of form and content Once this method is efficiently used, it can help translator avoid a mountain

of errors in translation Last but not least, semantic translation is usually applied for expressive texts

2.5.5 Free translation

This method allows words and word-order to be changed freely, but the meaning of the source text is respected Particularly, the content of the source text is reproduced freely without keeping the form constant There is a big difference between free translation and Nida‟s dynamic equivalence process because in dynamic translation, the exact equivalent counterpart of the original is simply provided by a translator while the source text in free translation can be paraphrased and added more to produce a target which may be much longer than the source text

2.5.6 Idiomatic translation

Newmark (1981) claims “idiomatic translation reproduces the “message” of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original Later, Walker-Jones (2003) believes that “idiomatic translations attempt to understand the meaning of one‟s language‟s idioms and express the meaning in the idioms that are the special genius

of the translation language” Furthermore, Aldebyan (2008) says that “translators have to be creative in their translations; sometimes opting for coining new idioms or even terms is called for This is in fact the way languages expand and new terms enter any given languages” Generally speaking, this method is applied to translate source texts including language‟s idioms when word-for-word translation and literal translation fail to do

2.5.7 Adaption

It must say that this is the “freest” form of translation that is mainly used for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plot are usually In adaption translation, translators usually convert the ST culture into the TT culture, and rewrite the text

Remarking on those types, Newmark believes that the two main aims of translation, which are accuracy and economy, are fulfilled by only communicative translation and semantic translation Besides, a semantic translation is written at the author's linguistic level, while a communicative is written at the readership's As a word of summary for this part, methods of translation play a crucial role in the success of translation Using an inappropriate method can lead to errors in translation

2.6 Errors in translation

According to Sado Al-Jarf (2007), one of indispensable parts of learning translation is translation error In learning and teaching, errors are not always bad because students can learn things from their errors Actually, error analysis plays a key role in applied linguistic area as well as of second and foreign language learning one Clearly, for Vietnamese students, English is a foreign language, hence error making in English learning is easy to understand Also, errors can help students have better understanding of foreign language acquisition process

2.6.1 Definitions of errors in translation

From different viewpoints, scholars hold different ways of defining what errors in translation are First of all, Pym (1992) defines errors in translation as defects He views errors as an expression of a defect in any of the factors joining into the two skills including the ability to develop a target-text series of more than one possible term for a source text and the ability to choose only one target text from this series For Newmark (1993: 128), an error in translation is considered as

“a case where a back translation or a segment of the translator's version would indisputably produce a segment of text differing from the original segment” Specially, he claims that the translator's ignorance or incompetence is the cause of errors in translation and the result would be a poor translation, of course In an unlikely way, Lauscher (2000) contends errors in translation are mistranslation In addition, the term “errors” in translation are used by Hatim and Mason (2005) to

refer to mismatches They also introduce the notion of “overt errors” and divide them into two categories which are the first, significant (unmotivated) mismatches

of denotational meaning between source and target text (subdivided into omissions, additions and substitutions) and second, breaches of the target-language system (e.g orthography, grammar)

2.6.2 Classification and description of errors in translation

In the field of translation, various classifications of translation errors are found Steinbach (1981) classifies translation errors according to the error type and the error level Firstly, in terms of the level of error, errors are categorized into orthography, grammar (including morphology and syntax) and lexis with criteria such as non-acceptable spelling, grammatical or lexical choice Secondly, type of error concerns addition, omission, selection, ordering In general, those types of errors are linguistically classified Additionally, a taxonomical list of the most common errors in translations at university level, which includes nonsense misunderstanding, tense, structure, grammar, topology, overtranslation, omission, word form, and style, is introduced by Mauriello (1992)

Differently, Pym (1992) divides translation errors into two categories which are binary errors and non-binary ones More clearly, he gives the explanation of a binary error that instead of giving a correct solution, a translator gives an incorrect one In other words, there is only right or wrong for binarism and there are no other possible alternative answers Talking about non-binary errors, he claims that this type of error is caused by the choice from potential TT variants Also, non-binary errors can be evaluated as correct with some weaknesses, not demonstrably right or wrong Thus, to give feedback for students in these cases, teachers often say that “it

is true, but” In other words, the comparison of alternative versions and more fruitful discussion of errors are encouraged by a non-binarism In addition, binary errors concern the level of grammar, morphology, system, and lexis, i.e language features while non-binary errors involve translation-based phenomena regarding the

misapplication of strategies such as addition, omission, selection and ordering In a similar vein, Kussmaul (1995) strongly supports for non-binary error category because he believes that “it provides us with more objective standards than the binary language teaching approach”

The notions of “binary” and “non-binary” of Pym (1992) are developed in the classification of errors in translation by Deeb (2005) Deeb (2005) introduces his categories of translation errors including first, language error category which consists of incorrect sub-category and inappropriate one and second, text level category which encompasses rhetorical and stylistic devices, cohesion, register and style, background knowledge and culture Accordingly, each sub-category in the first one refers to those errors in vocabulary, grammar, addition and omission

Interestingly, Palumbo (2009) classifies translation errors into two categories including micro level which concerns linguistic factors and often desires formal equivalence between source and the target text and macro-level which involves cultural, social, and historical factors Supporting for this point of view, Karimzadeh

et al (2015) conclude that micro level refers to translation methods applied while the macro level refers to external factors that influence the decisions made by a translator More importantly, Othman (2013) introduces the classification of micro-level translation errors which includes syntactic translation errors and semantic translation errors and macro-level translation errors which refers to pragmatic context (problems at style level in translation), contexts that involve cultural values and the intertextual context

From those classifications of error type in translation, especially Deeb‟s types (2005) and Othman‟s (2013) ones, the researcher will adapt them to build the framework for students‟ translation errors for the current study

2.6.2.1 Micro-level translation errors

The micro-level translation errors, those which are the result of structural

differences between SL and TL, are discussed in this part Nord (2005) claims that

the differences in structure between two languages including lexis, sentence structure and suprasegmental features, cause certain problems in translation which happen in every translation product Also, the contrast in grammar between the two languages and some approaches to a kind of “didactic translational grammar” are useful to solve these problems Therefore, it is believed that errors in translation at micro level consist of grammar, vocabulary and spelling errors

Grammatical errors in translation

According to American Translators Association (short for ATA), the largest professional association of translators and interpreters in the United States, “a grammar error occurs when a sentence in the translation violates the grammatical rules of the target language” Clearly, significant problems regarding grammatical errors in the process of translating a text from Vietnamese into English can be found

Firstly, errors in translation regarding parts of speech can be found ATA writes that a part of speech error occurs when “the grammatical form (adjective, adverb, verb, etc.) is incorrect (“conspire” instead of “conspiracy”)” In English, parts of speech include nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, determiners (articles), prepositions, conjunctions and particles (Kirvalidze, 2013) The differences in using parts of speech in Vietnamese and English lead to translation errors For example, most English nouns used in a sentence take either singular or plural forms while Vietnamese words “các” and “những” are used as

“plural noun markers to convey the notion of plurality” (Frank Trinh, 2002) Hence, when translating nouns in a text from Vietnamese to English, students may be confused because they do not know these nouns in English are countable or uncountable nouns and whether they should add “-s”/ “-es” after these nouns or not

According to Ngo Nhu Binh (2001), “các” and “những” can be used before a noun

to indicate that the noun is in plural form; however, in many cases, they are dropped when the context conveys plural meaning, which causes mistranslation The

following example may serve as an illustration In the Vietnamese sentence “Sinh viên lớp này học khá lắm”, the word “Các” before “sinh viên” is usually left out Therefore, the English version such as “Student in this class studies well” can be used instead of the correct one “Students in this class study well”

The next type is word order error Even trained translators also frequently encounter problems with the wording of the original text, in that “they follow the line of words rather than the line of thought” (Duff and Maley, 1992) In written English especially formal documents, noun phrases are quite popular; nonetheless,

it is not a habit of Vietnamese language users (Le Phuong Lan, 2006) Regarding word order in Vietnamese, Ngo Nhu Binh (2001) says that a word follows the noun

that it modifies while it is in reverse in English For example, “văn học Việt” is translated into English is “modern Vietnamese literature” Obviously, word order

in English is quite different from in Vietnamese

Thirdly, one area of English grammar proves difficulties for students are tense usage Tenses in English indicate the time of an action or a state of being as shown

by a verb Clearly, English has a large range of verbal tenses, thus it is important to understand the form and function of English tenses in order to translate correctly Dan Van Dao (2008) states that translation errors in English tenses are commonly made by Vietnamese learners of English In Vietnamese, the problems of tenses still have caused numerous arguments regarding whether Vietnamese has tenses or not language Many scholars such as Jones and Huynh Sanh Thong (1960), and Nguyen Van Tu, Luu Van Lang and Nguyen Kim Than (1960) deny the existence of tenses

in Vietnamese Jones and Huynh Sanh Thong (1960) believe that there are no tenses

in Vietnamese but if necessary, two ways to indicate tenses are, first, using correct the order of clauses and second, using auxiliaries such as “sẽ” to indicate future

tense and “có” to show past tense Also, Nguyen Van Tu, Luu Van Lang and Nguyen Kim Than (1960) claim that although the concept of tenses is non-existent

in Vietnamese, “đã” and “sẽ” can be used to refer to tenses or readers can understand tenses according to the meaning of texts On the contrary, the existence

of tenses in Vietnamese is strongly claimed by scholars, for example Nguyen Hien

Le and Tran Van Chinh (1963) Accordingly, they give three basic tenses including past tense (using the adverb “đã”), present tense (using the adverb “đang”) and future tense (using the adverb “sẽ”) It can be deduced that verbs in English are used

to refer tenses while those things in Vietnamese are done by using adverbs It is believed that English has more grammatical categories of tenses than Vietnamese For example, to express the past in English, there are many tenses such as simple past, present perfect, past perfect, and past perfect continuous while Vietnamese has only the past simple tense to indicate all actions which occurred in the past This divergence between the two languages can pose considerable challenges for translation students To illustrate this point, the following example, written in Vietnamese and English, will be considered:

In Vietnamese: “Sáng nay tôi đã đến thư viện hai lần rồi”

In English: “I went to the library twice this morning” (if the time of speaking

is after 12 a.m.) or “I have gone to the library twice this morning” (if the time of

speaking before12 a.m., this morning is not over)

Additionally, passive voice might cause numerous difficulties in translation for students Voice refers to “whether the subject of a sentence is on the giving or receiving end of the action” (Stilman, 2010) Obviously, passive voice is quite common in English but it is not popular in Vietnamese (Le Phuong Lan, 2006) Moreover, Vietnamese people do not often use passive voice, but usually change it into active voice (Nguyen Long Quoc, 2009) This can be illustrated briefly by an example of Vu Thi Ngoc Mai (2009) that in Vietnamese people often say “Tôi chụp bức ảnh này” while English people usually use “This picture was taken by me” It is

very strange for Vietnamese to say “Bức ảnh này được tôi chụp” and the same thing goes for English people to say “I took this picture” In conclusion, passive voice is widely used in English when active form is naturally preferred in Vietnamese, thus

if students translate from Vietnamese into English word by word, they can make their translation sound not natural

Moreover, a type of error in translation needs to be mentioned is relative

clause one Nguyen Thanh Huong (2011) strongly believes that “if in English, using

relative clauses is very popular and gradually it becomes a stylistic device in writing, the same case does not exist in Vietnamese” Using relative clauses often causes considerable concern for non-native speakers of English; for this reason, Vietnamese students often avoid using relative clauses completely or use them

incorrectly For example, when translating the sentence “Người đàn ông đang đứng

ở đằng kia là bạn tôi”, students might use “The man who he is standing over there

is my friend” instead of “The man who is standing over there is my friend” or “The man that is standing over there is my friend”

Finally, translation errors regarding types of sentence structures can be found

According to Alexander (1998), sentence formations in English can be divided into three types such as simple, compound and complex sentences When producing those types of sentences in English, Vietnamese students usually commit errors such as fragment sentences, run-ons and stringy sentences (Nguyen Thi Hong, 2013) Those errors lead to not good translation products; therefore, translators should take them into consideration

In general, grammatical translation errors encompass parts of speech, word form, tenses, passive voice, relative clause, sentence structure errors A possible explanation for this might be that the differences between the grammatical structures of these two languages The constituents of a sentence in Vietnamese language and the elements of that in English are often greatly different in terms of sentence structures, clauses, prepositions, genders, numbers, etc In this case,