Common errors in vietnamese english translation made by english translator trainees at nui phao mining company limited

In order to achieve this, a case study with 10 English translator trainees working at Nui Phao Mining Company was carried out to find out the most common errors inVietnamese-English tran

MINING COMPANY LIMITED

Những lỗi phổ biến trong dịch Việt-Anh của phiên dịch Tiếng Anh mới

ra nghề tại Công Ty TNHH Khai Thác Chế Biến Khoáng Sản Núi Pháo

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

MINING COMPANY LIMITED

Những lỗi phổ biến trong dịch Việt-Anh của phiên dịch Tiếng Anh mới

ra nghề tại Công Ty TNHH Khai Thác Chế Biến Khoáng Sản Núi Pháo

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: ASSOC PROF., DR LÊ HÙNG TIẾN

Hanoi, 2014

I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “Common errors in Vietnamese-English translation

made by English translator trainees at Nui Phao Mining Company Limited” is the result

of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages andInternational Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi The thesis has not been

submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of

my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research

Hanoi, 2014

Đinh Thị Hòa

as officers working at Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Languages andInternational studies – VNU for their great help and numerous suggestions concerning thisthesis.

Thirdly, I want to extend my special thanks to my colleagues working at NPMC fortheir help and cooperation during my research I am also grateful to my close friends whoencouraged me a lot when I was conducting my research

Finally, millions of thanks go to my beloved family for their love, care and supportduring my MA course, especially the fulfillment of the thesis

Many studies have been carried out to investigate the strategies and procedures intranslation However, there have been few studies reporting on the errors in translationespecially in Vietnamese-English translations The aim of this study was therefore toinvestigate the common errors in Vietnamese-English translations of English translatortrainees In order to achieve this, a case study with 10 English translator trainees working

at Nui Phao Mining Company was carried out to find out the most common errors inVietnamese-English translations They were inexperienced English translators with onlysome months to 2 years experience in an English translator role The data of this studycollected from 30 Vietnamese-English translations of these English translators and thequestionnaires distributed to them In addition, the interview questions also were used toget further information for the study from 4 experienced English translators who have hadmany years in translating and directly helped English translator trainees review theirtranslations Results from errors analysis of 30 Vietnamese-English translations,questionnaires and interviews showed that English translator trainees often made errors inusing of preposition, word forms, word orders, verb tenses, lexical choice and omissionerrors The study also investigated the causes leading to these errors and the ways to voidthem as well as to improve translation skills for English translator trainees viaquestionnaires and interview Finally, some suggestions and recommendations are givenfor English translators trainees as well as English learners to make their Vietnamese-English translations become more perfect and professional

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF CHARTS IN THE STUDY viii

LIST OF TABLES IN THE STUDY viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Error Analysis 5

1.1.1.Definition of error analysis 5

1.1.2.The significance of error analysis 5

1.1.3.The sources and causes of errors 6

1.2 Translation and errors in translation 8

1.2.1 Definition of translation 8

1.2.2 Errors in translation 9

1.2.2.1.Definition of errors in translation 9

1.2.2.2.Categories of translation errors 9

1.2.2.3.Common errors in Vietnamese-English translation 12

1.3 Previous studies in the world and in Viet Nam 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Research Questions 17

2.2 Settings of the study and participants 17

2.2.1.Setting of the study 17

2.2.2 Participants 17

2.3 Data collection 18

2.3.1 Data collection instruments 18

2.3.1.1 The Vietnamese-English translations analysis 18

2.3.1.2 The questionnaire 18

2.3.1.3 The interview questions 18

2.3.2 Data collection procedures 18

2.3.3 Data analysis procedures 19

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20

3.1 Personal information of the participants 20

3.1.1.The first group of participants 20

3.1.2.The second group of participants 22

3.2 Difficulties of English translator trainees in translating Vietnamese-English text22 3.3 Common errors on Vietnamese- English translation made by English translator trainees working at NPMC 23

3.3.1 Overall results from Vietnamese-English translations analysis, questionnaires and interviews 23

3.3.2 Linguistic errors 25

3.3.2.1 Misuse of prepositions 25

3.3.2.2 Misuse of verb tenses 28

3.3.2.3 Misuse of sentence structure 28

3.3.2.4 Misuse of word orders 29

3.3.2.5 Misuse of word collocations 29

3.3.2.6 Misuse of word forms 30

3.3.3 Translation errors 30

3.3.3.1 Addition or omission 30

3.3.3.2 Distorted meaning of source text 32

3.3.3.3 Too literal translation or too free translation 32

3.3.3.4 Lexical choice 33

3.4 The causes of translation errors 34

3.5 Suggestions to avoid the common errors in translation and improve translation skills 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 38

1 Summary of the findings 38

2 Concluding remarks 39

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX I I APPENDIX II III APPENDIX III VI APPENDIX IV VIII APPENDIX V X

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EA: Error Analysis

ETT: English translator trainee

EET: Experienced English translator

ESL: English as a second Language

L2: Second Language

NPMC: Nui Phao Mining Company

ST: Source text

TL: Target language

LIST OF CHARTS IN THE STUDY

1 Total number of common errors made by each ETT 25

LIST OF TABLES IN THE STUDY

1 Background of questionnaire participants 20

2 Kinds of text of Vietnamese-English translation 22

3 Topics in Vietnamese-English translation 21

4 The background of interview informants 22

5 Difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation 22

6 Common errors found in 30 Vietnamese-English 24

translations

7 Errors in using of preposition of each ETT 26

8 Errors in lexical choice of each ETT 33

10 The ways to improve translation skills 37

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

With the continuation of globalization, more and more companies are shifting from justtargeting their local markets to targeting the international markets Many countries haveconsidered Vietnam as a potential market for their investment More and more foreigncompanies have come to Vietnam with the belief of having a good market due to therichness of its workforce and resources Especially, when Vietnam has become one of themembers of World Trade Organization, this trend has become a mutual impact, manycountries locating their companies in Vietnam with the plenty of experts and in contraryVietnam has been searching for the good markets oversea In addition, many companieslocated in Vietnam and owned by Vietnamese but have a great number of experts comingfrom many other countries in over the world and dealing with oversea markets to import aswell as export goods and products

It is undeniable that along with globalization English has become a vital factor making allcountries around the world have the common relationship in many aspects of life such as:economy, politics, education, science and technology English is considered as the mostpopular language used to exchange information and ideas among different nations andcultures today Consequently, English translation has gradually become an indispensableand pressing tool which set the path for the global success of individuals, organizations,and even businesses in the modern time when society is of high development andcompetition amongst countries is relentless There is a need for Vietnamese learners ofEnglish to acquire a professional translation skill in order to meet the high demand ofintegration into the world economy and exchange of culture with other countries As aresult, English translator has become an ideal job for those majoring in English However,Vietnamese-English translation skill is not easy for Vietnamese learners to master, solearners can not avoid making errors in the process of translating Especially, traineeEnglish translators who have just graduated from university without experience and skills,they have to face with many difficulties in translating in the real contexts/situations andthey cannot avoid making errors in their translation works.The problems are mainly due tothe differences in linguistic systems and languages As put by Baker (1992: 20-21) "Errorsand problems in translation mostly result from the non-equivalence between the source and

target languages" Ervin and Bower (1953) stated that linguistic problems in translationmay arise: 1) from differences in the meanings of words, 2) from differences in syntacticaldifferences, and 3) from differences in the cultural context of the readers or hearers.

In Vietnam, many studies have been carried out on error analysis in English learning;however, there have been few studies using this type of analysis to analyze learner‘s errors

in translation especially Vietnamese- English translation

For all the reasons above, the researcher decided to choose the study ―Common errors in Vietnamese-English translation made by English translator trainees at Nui Phao Mining Company Limited‖ which aims at finding out the most common translation errors in

Vietnamese-English translation of English translator trainees working at NPMC and theninvestigating the causes of these errors and finally suggesting the ways to avoid them aswell as the ways to improve translation skills It is a strong belief that the study will be auseful reference helping to improve translation skills for not only English translatortrainees at Nui Phao Mining Company but also all Vietnamese people who are interested intranslation work and really want to become an expert translator It is also expected that thisstudy will contribute the good material for all teachers teaching English translation and allstudents majoring in English especially those who are in the course of English translation

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:

 finding out common errors in translating Vietnamese into English of English translator trainees at NPMC

 exploring the causes of making errors in translating Vietnamese into English

 helping English translator trainees as well as students majoring in Englishtranslation studies be able to recognize their common errors in translating and self-correct theirerrors and find out their own effective ways to improve their translation skills

 providing pedagogical implications for teachers in teaching English translation studies for students

3 Research questions

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

1 What are the common errors in Vietnamese- English translation made by English

translator trainees working at NPMC?

2 What are the causes for these errors?

3 What should be done to avoid these errors and to improve translation skills?

4 Scope of the study

There have been a great number of errors made by English learners and translators in bothVietnamese-English and English-Vietnamese translation However, due to the limitation oftime, this study only focuses on common errors in Vietnamese-English translation ofEnglish translator trainees at Nui Phao Mining Company Limited The data for this studycollected from Vietnamese-English translation works done by English translator trainees,survey questionnaires distributed to them and the interviews done between the author andfour experienced English translators working at NPMC

5 Methods of the study

This study is carried out as a case study In order to answer the research questions, thestudy uses both qualitative and quantitative method Survey questionnaires, Vietnamese-English translations and semi-structured interviews are used to collect data for the study.Firstly, Vietnamese-English translations of English translator trainees are collected andthen analyzed to find out the common errors After that, survey questionnaires andinterviews are designed based on the information collected from Vietnamese-Englishtranslations and distributed to English translator trainees to provide more data for the study

6 Design of the study

The study is separated into three main parts:

Part A: Introduction- provides rationale, the aims and research questions of the study, scope and general structure of the study also are specified in this part Part B:

Development- includes three chapters:

Chapter I: Literature review- states the theoretical background in relation to the topic of thestudy including previous studies in the world and Vietnam

Chapter II: Methodology- presents participants, setting of the study and data collectionwhich consists of providing data collection instruments, data collection procedures anddata analysis procedures

Chapter III: Findings and discussion- offers findings drawn from data analysis, thendiscuss the pedagogical implications for both teachers and students who are involved inEnglish translation studies.

Part C: Conclusion-summarizes the key issues in the study, points out the limitations andprovides some suggestions for further study

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Error Analysis

1.1.1 Definition of error analysis

So far, there have been plenty of definitions of error analysis made by linguists According

to James, (1988) he defines Error Analysis (EA) is one of the most influential theories ofsecond language acquisition It is concerned with the analysis of the errors committed byL2 learners by comparing the learners‘ acquired norms with the target language norms andexplaining the identified errors For Crystal (1999, p 108) Error Analysis in languageteaching and learning is the study of the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning

a language, especially a foreign language

Another definition of error analysis is given by Brown (as cited in Ridha, 2012, p 26) He defines error analysis as "the process to observe, analyze, and classify the deviations of therules of the second languages and then to reveal the systems operated by learner" As stated by AbiSamara (2003), Error Analysis can be viewed as " a type of linguistic

analysis that focuses on errors committed by learners"

Corder (1967) views errors as valuable information for three beneficiaries: for teachers, itclues them on the progress of the students; for researchers, it provides evidence as to howlanguage is acquired or learned; for learners themselves, it gives them resources in order tolearn

Corder (ibid), argues that "what has come to be known as error analysis has to do with theinvestigation of the language of second language learners." One of the main aims of erroranalysis is to help teachers assess more accurately what remedial work would be necessaryfor English as a Second Language (ESL) students preparing for an English Language test,

so as to help students avoid the most common errors

Error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors learners make Itconsists of a comparison between the errors made in the Target Language (TL) and thatTarget Language itself

1.1.2 The significance of error analysis

Error Analysis is significant in the process of teaching and learning second languagebecause it reveals to us -teachers, syllabus designers and textbook writers of what the

problem areas are so that we could design remedial exercises in accordance with theseerrors and focus more attention on the‗trouble shooting‘ areas.

Corder (1967) also states that learner‘s errors can ―provide to the researcher evidence ofhow language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner isemploying in the discovery of the language He also indicates the usefulness of erroranalysis in three respects: the researcher or linguist, to the teacher and to the learnerhimself While analyses of learners‘ errors provide insights into the nature of language,especially into the innate nature of the learner‘s system, they provide more insights into theprocess of language teaching and learning

Corder, (1974) verifies error analysis has two objects: one theoretical and another applied The theoretical object serves to ‗elucidate what and how a learner learns when he studies a second language.‘ And the applied object serves to enable the learner ‗to learn more efficiently by exploiting our knowledge of his dialect for pedagogical purposes‘ According

to Ancker, (2000), making mistakes or errors is anatural process of learning and must be considered as part of cognition

Weireesh, (1991) considers learners‘ errors to be of particular importancebecause making

of errors is a device the learners use in order to learn

Weireesh, (ibid.) says EA is a valuable aid to identify and explain difficultiesfaced bylearners He goes on to say that EA serves as a reliable feedback todesign a remedialteaching method This emphasises the fact that problematicas the errors may be, when theyare identified, learners get helped and teachersfind it easy to do remedial work

Sercombe, (2000) explains that EA serves three purposes Firstly, to find outthe level oflanguage proficiency the learner has reached Secondly, to obtain information about

common difficulties in language learning, and thirdly, tofind out how people learn a

language From this statement it can be concluded that the study of errors should also belooked at as something positive both forlearners and teachers

According to James (1998), ―Error Analysis developed out of the belief that errorsindicate the learner‘s stage of language learning and acquisition The learner is seen as anactive participant in the development of hypotheses regarding the rules of the targetlanguage just as is a young child learning the first language Errors are considered to beevidence of the learner‘s strategy as he or she builds competence in the target language‖

1.1.3 The sources and causes of errors

 Sources of errors:

It can be seen that there are many reasons for how learners make errors Myles (2002) states that the errors take root from both social factors and cognitive factors Selinker (1972) reported five sources of errors:

(1) Language transfer There is positive transfer that helps the learning of secondlanguage There is also negative transfer, that hinders the learning of second language Languagetransfer involves pronunciation, word order and grammars, semantic transfer, transfer in writing,pragmatic transfer and culture transfer

(2) Transfer of training Transfer of training occurs whenever the effects of priorlearning influence the performance of a later activity Transfer of training is the influence ofprior learning on performance in a new situation

(3) Strategies of second language learning This is an attempt to develop linguistic andsociolinguistic competence in the target language

(4) Strategies of second language communication This consists of attempts to deal with problems of communication that have arisen in interaction

(5) Overgeneralization of the target language (TL) linguistic material This happenswhen a second language leaner applies a grammatical rule across all members of a grammaticalclass without making the appropriate exception

In addition, Brown (1980:173-181) classifies sources of error into, 1) interlingual transfer,that is the negative influence of the mother tongue of learner, 2) intralingual transfer, that isthe negative transfer of items within the target language In order words, the incorrectgeneralization of rules within the target language; 3) context of learning, which overlapsboth types of transfer, for example, the classroom with its teacher and its materials in thecase of school learning or the social situation in the case of untutored second languagelearning In a classroom context the teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to makewrong generalization about the language; 4) communication strategies It is obvious thatcommunication strategy is the conscious employment of verbal mechanisms forcommunicating an idea when linguistic forms are not available to the learner for somereasons

Norrish (1983:21-26) classifies causes of error into three types that is carelessness, first language interference, and translation

Another expert who discusses the sources of error is Richards in Schummann and Stenson(1978 : 32) in his article ―Error Analysis and Second language Strategies‖ He classifiessources of errors into (1) interference that is an error resulting from the transfer of grammaticaland/or stylistic elements from the source language to the target language; (2)overgeneralization, that is an error caused by extension of target language rules to areas wherethey do not apply; (3) performance error, that is unsystematic error that occurs as the result ofsuch thing as memory lapses, fatigue, confusion, or strong emotion; (4) markers of transitionalcompetence, that is an error that results from a natural and perhaps inevitable developmentsequence in the second language learning process (by analogy with first language acquisition);(5) strategy of communication and assimilation that is an error resulting from the attempt tocommunicate in the target language without having completely acquired the grammatical formnecessary to do so; and (6) teacher-induced error, that is an error resulting from pedagogicalprocedures contained in the text or employed bythe teacher.

In another article ―A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis‖, Richards 22) classifies causes of error into 1) overgeneralization, 2) incomplete application of rules,3) false concepts hypothesized, and 4) ignorance of rule restriction

(1971:19-1.2 Translation and errors in translation

1.2.1 Definition of translation

There have been a great number of definitions of translation made by many linguists duringthe long history of translation development The following definitions taken from differentsources will give more understanding about this aspect:

Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (source language) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language) (Catford 1965:20) Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another (source language), preserving semantic and stylist equivalencies (Dubois 1973, cited in Bell 1991:5)

Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of written sourcelanguage text into an optimally equivalent target language text, and which requires thesyntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of thesource language (Wilss, 1982)

Translation is the expression in another language (target language) of what has beenexpressed in one language (source language), preserving semantic and stylisticequivalencies (Bell R., 1991).

Translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by arepresentation of an equivalent text in s second language (Bell R., 1991)

Translation is ultimately a human activity which enables human beings to exchange ideasand thoughts regardless of the different tongues used (Antar, 2002: 2) Translation is achannel through which ideas and cultures pass (Hatem and Mason, 1990: 30)

1.2.2 Errors in translation

1.2.2.1 Definition of errors in translation

Errors in translation are also referred to as defects (Pym 1991), mistranslations(Lauscher2000) and mismatches (Hatim and Mason 1997) Pym (1992: 281) defines errors as amanifestation of a defect in any of the factors entering into the two skills of:

• The ability to generate a target-text series of more than one viable term (targetext ' , targettext2, target text3) for a source text

• The ability to select only one target text from this series

"Errors in translation mostly result from the non-equivalence between the source and thetarget languages " (Baker, 1992)

Albir (1995 in Waddington 2001) presents s list of possible errors in translations as

follows:

- Inappropriate renderings which affect the understanding of the ST These aredivided into eight categories: countersense, faux sense, nonsense, addition, omission, unresolvedextralinguistic references, loss of meaning and inappropriate linguistic variation (register, style,dialect, etc)

- Inappropriate renderings, which affect expression in the TL These are divided into five categories: spelling, grammar, lexical items, text and style

- Inappropriate renderings, which affect the transmission of either the main function

or secondary function of the ST

1.2.2.2 Categories of translation errors

According to Pym (1991), errors fall into two categories; 'binary' and 'non-binary' Abinary error, he explains, opposes a wrong answer to the right answer, whereas non-binaryerrors can be judged as correct with some weakness, not demonstrably right or wrong

Binary errors, as Pym puts it, belong to the level of grammar, morphology, system, andlexis, i.e language features Non-binary errors are more translation-based phenomena,based on the misapplication of strategies such as addition, omission, selection andordering Kussmaul (1995:129) also distinguishes between binary and non-binary errors inthe same way In assessing his own translation from Swedish to English, Weinstock (1988)

says he makes two categories of error: intellectual errors and dictionary errors Under the

former he says, "are included errors of comprehension, portions of text that I have simplymisunderstood By dictionary errors I mean cases where I have been led astray by myreference materials"

Although in the field of teaching translation lists of descriptions of errors in translation aremore detailed, from a different perspective the two distinction categorization is alsocommon For example, Steinbach (1981) and Sager (1983) adopt the two distinctionapproach, dividing them according to the type of error and the level of error Following thetraditional levels of linguistic description, Steinbach (1981: 251) classifies errors inorthography, grammar (morphology and syntax) and lexis according to established criteriasuch as non-acceptable spelling, grammatical or lexical choice Classifying by typeinvolves the following: addition, omission, selection, ordering Steinbach adopts a ratingfrom, what he describes as two parallelviewpoint, in classifying and describing translationerrors: one level of analysis (lexis) is constituted by the given meaning in Li and the relatedchoice in L2, whilst a second level (grammar) covers acceptability in L2 independent ofthe meaning in Li (ibid 250) What is problematic about this system of classification is theexclusive distinction between L1 and L2 errors as the case is not always either/or

Alternatively, Sager's (1983) model involves five categories, each working at a linguistic,semantic or pragmatic level The five types of errors are:

He also gives more details for the four above errors as follows:

 Grammatical errors would be characterized as errors dealing with the grammar of the target language, including errors of usage, collocation, syntax and tense

 Mistranslation errors are simply an oversight or an arrogant act or plain ignorance

on part of the translator

 The errors pertaining to localization take place due to the fact that the term to be translated normally does not exist as a concept in the target language

 Errors of inconsistency could create major problems in certain kinds of translation,whereas they may not be important in other types of translation but at the highest levels ofprofessionalism, a translator should not commit any of these errors

In addition, according to Nowak (2006) translation errors include:

1) mistranslating terms and phraseological units (including collocations, word

combinations or syntagms)

2) terminological errors

3) grammatical errors spotted include inflexion errors (e.g incorrect stem or

desinence) and incorrect syntax (e.g government, concord, prepositions, or word order)

4) inappropriate style (stylistic inadequacy)

5) punctuation errors: (i) the lack of a punctuation mark; (ii) an incorrect punctuation mark; and (iii) an excessive punctuation mark

6) nonsense and opposite meaning

Meanwhile, American Translators Association (ATA) suggests a list of 22 types of errors that should be used as criteria for evaluating work done by professional translators:

1) Incomplete passage, 2) Illegible handwriting, 3) Misunderstanding of the original text,4) Mistranslation into target language, 5) Addition or omission, 6) terminology, word choice, 7)Register, 8) Too freely translated, 9) Too literal, word-for-word translation, 10) False cognate,11) Indecision in word choice, 12) Inconsistent, 13) Ambiguity, 14) Grammar, 15) Syntax, 16)Punctuation, 17) Spelling, 18) Accents, 19) Case (upper case/lower case), 21) word form and 22)Style

1.2.2.3.Common errors in Vietnamese-English translation

Na (2007) suggests the model of analyzing errors based on the learning model and content

of translation training in Vietnam which includes comprehension errors, linguistic errorsand translation errors She explained that comprehension errors happen when the learnersmisunderstand the syntax of a certain sentence of the source text, or misread a word andtheir translations were accordingly based on a misunderstood source text Linguistic errorsinclude grammatical errors, syntactic errors, morphological errors, collocational errors andword form Translation errors include omission, addition, inaccurate rendition of individualtext items, distorted meaning of the source text, too free translation, too literal translation,pragmatic error, wrong lexical choice

Comprehension errors: these errors happen when the learners misunderstand the syntax

of a certain sentence of the source text or misread a word and their translations wereaccordingly based on a misunderstood source text

Linguistic errors consist of grammatical errors, syntactic errors, morphological errors,

collocational errors and word form

Grammatical errors: errors occur in the handling of word structure, including lack of

agreement between subject and verb, incorrect verb tenses or verb forms, incorrect case ofnouns, pronouns, or adjectives, and use of an adjective where an adverb is needed.[American Translators Association (ATA) Framework for Standard Error Making] Forexample:

Vietnamese: ―Anh ta nói chuyện thân mật với tôi.‖

English: ―He talked with me friendly‖ (Incorrect)

(Hữu Ngọc, 2009)

The error of this example is the way of using the adjective ―friendly‖ Although

―friendly‖ is suffixed by ―ly‖ but it is an adjective not adverb Therefore, this sentence

should be translated ―He talked with me in a friendly manner‖.

Syntactic errors: errors made when learners have to handle any items larger than word, i.e.

phrase, clause or sentence (James 1998) Errors in this category include sentence

fragments, improper modification, lack of parallelism, and unnatural word order

[American Translators Association (ATA) Framework for Standard Error Making] For example:

Vietnamese: ―Cô ấy là một cô gái rất tốt‖

English: ―She is a girl very nice‖ (Incorrect)

This sentence should be corrected into ―She is a very nice girl‖.

Morphological errors: errors which involve a failure to comply with the noun in supplying

any part of any instance of these word classes: six book*; aboli*shment…are nounmorphology errors

Collocational errors: errors committed in the idiomatic usage of the target language The

errors in grammatical collocation (wrong use of preposition, ect.) are treated asgrammatical errors, not as collocation error

For example:in Vietnamese the word “uống” (drink) can go with many different kinds of

liquid including water, beer, alcohol, medicine and even poison It is incorrect to say

“drink medicine” in English there are clear distinctions as follows: Drink beer/ water/ wine/ coffee But: Take medicine/ poison.

Incorrect word form refers to cases where the the root of the word is correct, but the wrong

correct sentence should be: ―Peoplewith the sense of humor easily make others sympathetic”

Translation errors: These errors happen when the students show the inability to render

the original meaning of the source text into the target text In other words, a sentence isconsidered to have ‗translation errors‘ when it shows traces of distortions of the sourcetext, although the sentence may be grammatically correct Translation errors includeomission, addition, inaccurate rendition of individual text items, distorted meaning of thesource text, too free translation, too literal translation, pragmatic error, wrong lexical

Lexical errors Text a Kha Luân Bố đã a The New World

năm 1842 Christopher

b Tôi đang tìm cuốn b I am looking for

c Michael Faraday c Michael

đã tìm ra máy phát điện Faraday invented the

generator

Word collocation a Đàn chim/ cừu a A flock of birds/

b Đàn gia súc/ trâu sheep

c Đàn cá/ gà b A herd of cattle/

buffaloes

c A school of fish/chickens

Misuse of a thất vọng về a be disappointedpersonal pronouns b quan tâm về in

& prepositions c nhấn mạnh về b be interested in

This river is deep.

Idioms & Khỏe như trâu As strong as a buffalo.

As strong as a horse (Correct).

Structural errors Tôi mất mười phút để đi I go there in ten

doanh nghiệp anh có bán enterprise get us with

ors với giá rẻ không? soft price?informal style in a

It is impossible to usebusiness letter It should

Áo Dài Should be translated as

―ao dai‖ not ― a dress‖

1.3 Previous studies in the world and in Viet Nam

Translation and errors analysis have been researched by many linguists in the world aswell as in Vietnam Especially translation errors from one source language into anothertarget language have been dug out by many studies

Naqvy (2006) shows four types of translation errors in his article which he provides guidefor beginners in translation area He suggests that translation errors include grammaticalerrors, mistranslations, localization errors and errors of inconsistency Zakia (2005)provides a ranked taxonomy of problems in translating from English to Arabic that wasdeveloped through two empirical studies

Hassan and Aref (2013) analyze some linguistic problems in translation between Arabicand English to indicate fundamental weaknesses among students in grammar causing themgreat hardship in comprehending and translating sentences from English into Arabic andvice versa

Nowak (2006) presents a selection of translation errors and mistakes which have beennoticed in Polish versions of EU legal texts

Pym (1992) studies translation error analysis and the interface with language teaching Inhis article, he presents descriptive distinction between binary and non-binary errors intranslation.

Ahmad (2010) reports the difficulties and problems facing English students at QOU in thetranslation process from English to Arabic and their solutions In his article, he dividedEnglish translation problems into linguistic problems and cultural problems: the linguisticproblems include grammatical differences, lexical ambiguity and meaning ambiguity; thecultural problems refer to different situational features

In Vietnam, Na (2007) investigates to what extent the typological differences between twolanguages influence the process of translating authentic Vietnamese sentence into English,though a preliminary report on an error analysis of the Vietnamese-English translations ofVietnamese EFL students

Binh (2002) studies errors in the discourse of the Vietnamese who learn English as aforeign language In his study, he analyzes the common linguistic and cultural errors made

by Vietnamese who learn English and he also presents the causes for these errors

Tuan (2006) shows in his translation 1 & 2 book some common errors in English translation made by Vietnamese students He gives three main types of errors:Linguistic errors, style errors and cultural errors

Vietnamese-CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this chapter is to present the methodology used in this thesis It includesresearch questions, settings of the study and participants, data collection instruments, datacollection procedures and data analysis procedures

2.1 Research Questions

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

1 What are the common errors in Vietnamese- English translation made by English translator trainees working at NPMC?

2 What are the causes of these errors?

3 What should be done to avoid these errors and to improve translation skills?

2.2 Settings of the study and participants

2.2.1 Setting of the study

The study was conducted at Nui Phao Mining Company, one of the subsidiaries of MasanResources Group located in Thai Nguyen province in northern Vietnam which exploresand processes tungsten, fluorspar, bismuth, copper and traces of gold There have been 150foreigners with different nationalities working at different departments in this company.That was the reason why all the documents used for company‘s activities were bilingualand were translated by the English translators working at the company There were about

30 English translators working at different departments in NPMC They all majored inEnglish and they were responsible for translating both Vietnamese-English and English-Vietnamese

2.2.2 Participants

The first group of participants of the study was 10 English translator trainees working atNui Phao Mining Company They all majored in English and studied English translationcourses at their universities They were at the age of 24 to 25 and working at differentdepartments such as Human Resources, Construction, HSS, Environmental, Warehouse,and Maintenance in Nui Phao Mining Company They have worked at this company fromtwo months to two years They all translated both from Vietnamese into English and fromEnglish into Vietnamese Due to the different working departments, their translation topicswere also different

The second group was 4 skilled English translators working at Nui Phao Mining Company.They have worked as an English translator for many years and equipped themselves with alot of techniques and strategies for translating They have worked at NPMC as an Englishtranslator and they also helped English translator trainees to review their translation.

2.3.Data collection

2.3.1 Data collection instruments

2.3.1.1.The Vietnamese-English translations analysis

The researcher collected Vietnamese-English translations made by English translator trainees 30 Vietnamese-English translations were collected with the different topics relating to construction, environment, health, safety, security, commercial operation and processing Each translation consisted of 1 to 3 pages After that, the researchers analyzedand did the statistics on these translations to find out and classify the common errors made by English translator trainees

2.3.1.2 The questionnaire

The questionnaire is considered a very common mean or instrument used to collect data onphenomena, which are not easily observed such as attitude, motivation and self-conceptions, or in other words, those in social science Therefore, to seek for informationabout the translators‘views on Vietnamese-English translation, their recognition ofdifficulties, errors in translating Vietnamese texts into English as well as the ways theyimprove their translation skills, the researcher used the questionnaire to investigate thetranslators The questionnaire, in some extent, can help to find out necessary informationfor the study and suggest appropriate solutions as well The questionnaire was designedbased on the data from Vietnamese-English translations analysis and research questions

2.3.1.3.The interview questions

In order to make the study more reliable, the interview questions were designed for fourexperienced English translators to get more information about the English translatortrainees‘ common errors onVietnamese-English translations, the causes of the errors andthe possible ways to improve Vietnamese-English translation skills

2.3.2 Data collection procedures

Firstly, Vietnamese-English translations of English translator trainees were collected andthen analyzed to find out and classify the common errors After that, survey questionnaireswere designed based on the information collected from Vietnamese-English translations

and distributed to the 10 English translator trainees The questionnaires were collected afterthe English translator trainees answered all the questions Finally, the follow-up interview

of four participants was carried out and tape-recorded to get further information for thestudy

2.3.3.Data analysis procedures

First of all, 30 Vietnamese-English translations collected from the participants wereanalyzed with the support of 4 experienced English translators working at NPMC to findout the errors using categories of common errors in Vietnamese-English translation listed

in Literature Review of this research However, because of the limitation of time andlength of the study, the categories of translation errors have been adapted and redesigned asspecified in the Appendix V attached in this study After that all the errors were classifiedbased on the frequency of each type of error to find out the most common errors Next, thequestionnaires were designed based on the results from translation analysis and threeresearch questions and delivered to 10 ETTs; the data from questionnaires then wereanalyzed to answer the research questions Finally, the recordings from interviews weretranscribed and also analyzed to get more information for research questions

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter deals with the data collected from the questionnaires, interviews as well asVietnamese-English translations in order to categorize kinds of errors and find out commonerrors in Vietnamese-English translation made by English translator trainees working atNPMC This chapter also presents the possible causes of those errors and the techniques toavoid them and to improve translation skills of English translator trainees This chapteraims at answering three research questions mentioned in the thesis

3.1 Personal information of the participants

The subjects of this study were divided into two group including ten English translatortrainees and four experienced English translators They all were working at NPMC asEnglish translators and their main assignments at the company were translating andinterpreting both Vietnamese-English and English- Vietnamese English translator traineeswere the main subject of this study and their Vietnamese-English translations werecollected to analyze and find out the common errors The questionnaires were designed toget data from 10 English translator trainees and the interview questions were designed toget more information from experienced English translators who directly help Englishtranslator trainees to review their translations before officially used in the company

3.1.1 The first group of participants

As mentioned before, the first group of participants consisted of ten English translatortrainees They were all female and their ages were 24 and 25 They were all graduated fromuniversities and majored in English Their personal information was collected from thequestionnaires More detail about questionnaire participants can be shown in the followingtable:

English Translator

Age Gender Years of translating Major Trainees (ETT) experience

ETT 9 25 Female 1 year English

Table 1: Background of questionnaire participants

From the above table, we can see that the participants were at very young ages They hadjust graduated from universities for 1or 2 years and their translating experience was alsofrom some months to 2 years

They were working at NPMC as an English translator and they were working for differentdepartments of the company so that their translating topics and kinds of text for translatingwere also different

Kinds of text for translating:

Kinds of text Number of ETT Percentage

Table 3: Topics in Vietnamese-English translation

From two tables above, we can see that working as an English translator they had totranslate many kinds of texts Three most common kinds which every translator had totranslate were minutes of meeting (90%), official dispatches (80%), and reports (60%).Due to working for different departments of the company, the translating topics of theseEnglish translators were also different The topic relating to construction was account for50%, the majority of translations

3.1.2 The second group of participants

The second group of participants included 4 experienced English translators (EET)working at NPMC They were responsible for translating, interpreting, teaching andreviewing the translations for translator trainees Their personal information is shown inthe following table:

Experienced English Age Gender Years of translating Translators (EET) experience

Table 4: The background of interview informants

From the information in the above table, there were three female and one male experiencedEnglish translators participating in this study Their ages ranged from 33 to 36 and theirexperience of translating varied from 5 to 8 years

3.2 Difficulties of English translator trainees in translating Vietnamese-English text

In order to get the information about the difficulties of English translator trainees, onequestion relating to this was designed and put in both questionnaire and interview

The result from questionnaire for English translator trainee is shown in the table below:

Difficulties Percentage

a Choosing appropriate vocabulary in English 90%

b Finding suitable grammar structures in the target 60%language to transfer idea effectively

c Analyzing the meaning of sentences in the source text 30%

d Understanding special phrases and terminologies in the 100%source text

Table 5: Difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation

It can be drawn from the above table that all English translator trainees felt difficult tounderstand special phrases and terminologies in the source text In addition, 90% of themadmitted that they were also felt hard to choose the appropriate vocabulary in the targetlanguage (English) Otherwise, 60% of them stated that they met difficulties in findingsuitable grammar structures in the target language to transfer idea effectively and only 30%