Errors in vietnamese english collocation translation made by students at the university of languages and international studies ulis

English corresponding collocation patterns for each type of Vietnamese collocations translated.. 14 Table 4.1: Vietnamese collocation patterns and their corresponding English collocation

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

ERRORS IN VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH

COLLOCATION TRANSLATION MADE BY

STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES

AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (ULIS)

Supervisor: Nguyen Viet Ky, M.A

Student: Vu Thi Kim Lien

Year of enrolment : QH 2009

Hanoi, May 2013

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CÁC LỖI DỊCH CỤM KẾT HỢP TỪ VIỆT-ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ-ĐẠI

HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Ths Nguyễn Việt Kỳ

Sinh viên: Vũ Thị Kim Liên Khoá: QH.2009

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2013

ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Vu Thi Kim Lien, class QH2009.F1.E25, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

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

Signature

Hanoi, April 24th, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and for most, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Viet Ky, M.A for his valuable suggestions, critical comments and great support

Also, I am profoundly grateful to Ms Nguyen Thi Cam Linh, Ms Ngo Ha Thu, and

Ms Nguyen Thi Dieu Thuy for their substantial assistance In addition, I am much obliged to all the students in Translation and Interpreting Division, ULIS, especially the two interviewees for providing me with their translations and spending time participating in the interviews

Last but not least, I am eternally indebted to my parents and my friends who always stand by me and offer me considerable encouragement so as for me to be able to complete this research

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the research proposal and practical rationale for the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 3

4 Scope of the study 4

5 Organization of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1 Definitions of translation 6

2 Definition, collocation types and characteristics of collocations 7

2.1 Definitions of collocations 7

2.2 English collocation types 8

2.3 Vietnamese collocation types 10

2.4 Characteristics of collocations 11

3 Collocation errors 12

3.1 Definitions of collocation errors 12

3.2 Types of errors 13

3.3 Sources of collocation errors 15

4 Procedures deployed in collocation translation 17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 19

1 Selection of subjects 19

1.1 Setting 19

1.2 Participants 19

1.3 Materials 20

2 Data collection instruments 20

2.1 Semi-structured individual interview 20

2.2 Content and statistic analysis 21

3 Procedures of data collection 21

4 Procedures of data analysis 22

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 24

1 English corresponding collocation patterns for each type of Vietnamese collocations translated 24

2 Common collocation translation errors made by the ULIS students 25

2.1 Ignorance of rule restrictions 26

2.2 Improper synonyms 27

2.3 Literal translation 29

2.4 Overgeneralization/ false analogy 30

2.5 Addition 31

2.6 Spelling 33

2.7 Word coinage 34

2.8 Summary of the findings 35

3 Good translated English collocations and the translation procedures deployed 35 3.1 Paraphrase 35

3.2 Shift or transposition 37

3.3 Reduction or expansion 38

3.4 Lexical synonymy 39

3.5 Modulation 40

3.6 Summary of the findings 41

4 Further discussion of collocation translation errors made by students 41

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 43

1 Summary of the findings 43

2 Limitations of the study 44

3 Suggestions for English collocation learning and teaching as well as directions for further research 44

REFERENCES 46

APPENDIX 1 49

APPENDIX 2 65

APPENDIX 3 71

APPENDIX 4 73

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1 English grammatical collocation patterns 8 Table 2.2 English lexical collocation patterns 9 Table 2.3 Vietnamese collocation patterns 10 Table 2.4: Liu‟s classification of collocation errors 14 Table 4.1: Vietnamese collocation patterns and their corresponding

English collocation pattern

24

Figure 4.1: Collocation translation errors 26 Table 4.2: Ignorance of rule restrictions 27

Table 4.5: Overgeneralization/ false analogy 30

Table 4.9: Collocations translated by paraphrase 36 Table 4.10: Collocations translated by shift or transposition 37

Table 4.11: Collocations translated by reduction or expansion 38 Table 4.12: Collocations translated by lexical synonymy 39 Table 4.13: Collocations translated by modulation 40

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter will provide the rationale, the aims and objectives, the significance and the scope of the study In addition, research questions and organization of the study are also presented in this introductory part

1 Statement of the research proposal and practical rationale for the study

The twenty first century marks the tremendous progress of global integration, leading to the growing demand for exchanging information among different countries

As a result, translation has become more important than ever before because it helps remove language barrier In recent years, translation has become ever more popular in Vietnam, attracting many people to the profession However, a lot of students majoring in interpreting and translating confess that they face a lot of difficulties in translation The translation of English collocations is one of the greatest challenges for translators and students since there is no fixed rule for it In addition, there may be some collocations whose equivalents in the target language cannot be found Speaking about the significance of collocations, Zhang (cited in Parastuti, A., n.d., p.1) suggests that collocation is the measure of students‟ writing quality Lauder (2010, p.3) adds that collocation is something that translators need to be aware of As collocations pose

a lot of challenges to find the TL equivalents, students may mistranslate collocations due to various factors, typically their limited knowledge and the influence of their native language However, in order to become competent translators and interpreters in the future, it is necessary that they be well aware of their errors and know how to correct them Lewis (2000, p.36) claims that only helping students pay more attention

to their collocation mistakes can raise their awareness of collocations In this way, students will gradually realize that learning vocabulary is not just learning new words, but focusing more on word combinations Examining the reality, the researcher finds out that there still exist some problems relating to the collocation capacity of ULIS

students Many of them make inappropriate collocations in their writings and

translations, for example, drink medicine instead of take medicines In addition, there

still lacks a careful and in-depth analysis on ULIS students‟ collocation errors Finding that it is really essential that a thorough and detailed study on students‟ collocation errors and strategies for translating collocations be made, the researcher decided to

carry out a study on “Errors in Vietnamese - English Collocation Translation Made by Students at the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS)” This study aims at investigating mistakes in Vietnamese-English collocation

translation made by students at the University of Languages and International Studies with a view to raising their awareness of collocation translation The study also suggests strategies for collocation translation and examines good collocations made by students and point out the strategies adopted

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is designed to examine:

 English corresponding collocation patterns for each type of Vietnamese collocations translated

 Errors in collocation translation committed by students at the University of Languages and International Studies

 Good collocations made by students and translation procedures used

With a view to attaining these goals, the current research tries to answer the following questions:

1 What are the English corresponding patterns for each type of Vietnamese collocations translated into English collocations made by ULIS students?

2 What are the errors in Vietnamese-English collocation translation made by ULIS students?

3 What are the procedures that ULIS students use in the translation of Vietnamese collocations into good English collocations?

3 Significance of the study

This study is hoped to benefit students as well as teachers in teaching and studying English collocations Besides, it is expected that the result of this research will also be

of great use to translators, language material designers, dictionary designers and other researchers

 Students: this study helps students realize their common collocation errors and

therefore can avoid such mistakes In addition, the result of this research provides them with appropriate strategies in dealing with various kinds of collocations Thanks to the outcome of the study, students will be well-equipped with knowledge about collocations and skills in tackling collocations

in their work later

 Teachers: this study helps teachers identify students‟ errors and problems in

dealing with collocations so that teachers can raise students‟ awareness of using collocations Furthermore, teachers can promote students‟ autonomous practice

of collocations and aid their development in various ways

 Translators: this study is hoped to benefit translators as well because not only

students but also translators may still commit collocation errors Therefore, it is

important that translators recognize common errors and know ways to deal with them

 Language material designers: this study shows great need for designing

proper language materials and activities that focus more on collocations and ways to tackle the errors

 Dictionary designers: this study emphasizes the great demand for designing

bilingual collocation dictionaries (English-Vietnamese and English) in order to provide students with a reliable source of collocations

Vietnamese- Researchers: collocation errors and strategies to tackle them is a fruitful

linguistic research area for many other researchers, especially there have been few systematic and in-depth analysis in this matter Therefore, other researchers can develop this study to find out many significant results

4 Scope of the study

The researcher will examine the translations made by second year, third year and fourth year students majoring in English translation and interpreting at the ULIS in their exams and their regular class activities About 200 collocation errors and 100 good collocations will be investigated in order to find out the results

5 Organization of the study

The rest of the paper consists of five chapters as follows:

 Chapter 2 (Literature Review) presents the theoretical background of the study, including the definition of translation in general and an overview of English collocations, their characteristics and collocation types In addition, this part will also deal with collocation errors and translation procedures which are of great use in translating collocations

 Chapter 3 (Methodology) describes the participants and the procedures deployed in the study

 Chapter 4 (Results and Discussion) provides detailed answers to all research questions raised in the study as well as a comparison between factual findings and assumptions discussed in the Literature Review

 Chapter 5 (Conclusion) summarizes all problems discussed in the paper, the limitations of the research, some pedagogic recommendations for teachers and students and several suggestions for further researches in this field

 Chapter 5 is followed by references and appendices

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This part will take a careful look on the literature review of the study, especially the background of collocation errors and strategies used in translating English and Vietnamese collocations Firstly, a review of the nature of translation will be included The second part will deal with collocation definition, collocations types and characteristics of collocations Next, findings about translation errors, specifically types of collocation errors and their sources will be presented Finally, the researcher will concentrate on several procedures deployed in the translation of collocations

1 Definitions of translation

For ages, translation has been broadly defined A number of linguists have come up with the conclusion that it is a process of reproducing the message from a source language to a target language with grammatical and lexical adaption while some other linguists have considered translation as a process of conveying the message without style adaption Many specialized linguistics have conducted in-depth analyses of translation process so as to meet the definition of translation

Dubois et al (1973, p.22) concludes that “translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language while still preserving the semantic and stylistic equivalence.” Nida and Taber (1974, p.12-13) agree when they write “translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent to the message of the source language, first in meaning and secondly in style.” They emphasize that the translating must prioritize the message and focus on closest equivalence

In their writing, Hartman and Stork (1972, p.713) insist that the aim of translating is to preserve as accurately as possible all grammatical and lexical features of the „source language” text by finding equivalents in the “target language.” Furthermore, all factual information contained in the original text must be retained in the translation

Larson (1984, p.3) complicates the matter further when he writes “Translation consists

of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, then reconstructing the same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context.” What Larson really means by this is that translators need to preserve as many features of the source texts

as possible and render them into the target language, making readers see all the messages that the authors of the source texts want to express

2 Definition, collocation types and characteristics of collocations

2.1 Definitions of collocations

Newmark (1988, p.212) concludes that collocation is typically clarified as the habitual co-occurrence of individual lexical items According to Benson, Benson and Ilson (1986, p.130), collocation is defined as specified, identifiable, non-idiomatic and recurrent combinations Baker (1992, p.47) defines collocations as semantically arbitrary restrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of a word Basically, Baker is saying that meaning cannot always account for collocation patterning She also adds that words, which we might think of as synonyms or near-synonyms, will have quite different sets of collocates For instance, it is commonly

said break rules or break the laws in English; however, we do not say break regulations

Larson (1984, p.159) says that collocations are words joined together in phrases or sentences to form semantically unified expressions These words are often fixed combinations, which means that they always occur in certain orders For example, in

English, there are many fixed expressions such as to and fro, now and then, pros and cons We cannot reverse the order of words in these expressions into fro and to, cons and pros or then and now as they have been widely accepted in such order for a very

long time

2.2 English collocation types

As collocations are used in many fields such as linguistics, science, economics, etc., there are different ways of categorizing collocations Cowie and Markin (1975) argue that collocations and idioms fall into four types based on idiomaticity from most

to least fixed: pure idioms, figurative idioms, restricted collocations and open collocations

Meanwhile, in his study, Hill (cited in cited in Boonyasaquan, 2009, p.100), basing

on the connectivity of words in a phrase, suggests four kinds of collocations as follows:

 Unique collocations e.g: foot the bill

 Strong collocations e.g moved to tears

 Weak collocations e.g good weekend

 Medium-strength collocations e.g do the laundry

To conclude with the comprehensive and clear classification, Benson, Benson and Ilson (1986, p.132-136) classify collocations into two types, namely lexical collocations and grammatical collocations They determine grammatical collocation as

a phrase consisting of a dominant word (noun, adjective, and verb) and a preposition

or grammatical structure such as an infinitive or clause There are typically 8 kinds of grammatical collocations:

Table 2.1 English grammatical collocation patterns

collocation pattern

Example

1 noun + preposition blockade against, apathy towards

2 noun + to-infinitive He was a fool to do it; they felt a need to do it

3 noun + that-clause We reached an agreement that she would represent

us in court He took an oath that he would do his duty

4 preposition + noun by accident, in agony

5 adjective + preposition fond of children, hungry for news

6 adjective + to- it was necessary to work, it’s nice to be here

7 adjective + that-clause she was afraid that she would fail, it was imperative

Meanwhile, lexical collocation is defined in contrast to grammatical collocation

as normally not containing prepositions, infinitives or clauses and typically consisting

of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs Benson, Benson and Ilson (1986, p.133-136) point out 7 typical types of lexical collocations as follows:

Table 2.2 English lexical collocation patterns

No Lexical collocation

come to an agreement, launch a missle

2 verb (which means

eradication/cancellation)

+noun

reject an appeal, crush resista

3 [adjective + noun] or [noun

used in an attributive way

+ noun]

strong tea, a crushing defeat, house arrest, land reform

4 noun + verb naming the

activity which is performed

by a designate of this noun

bombs explode, bees sting

5 quantifier + noun a swarm of bees, a piece of advice

6 adverb + adjective hopelessly addicted, sound asleep

7 verb + adverb argue heatedly, apologize humbly

This study will pay special attention to lexical collocation as this type often poses a lot of challenges to students and translators Therefore, the errors they make with this collocation kind are often various and fruitful for researching

2.3 Vietnamese collocation types

In his PhD thesis, Trinh, F.N (2001, p.129) classifies Vietnamese collocations into seven regular patterns which are shown in the table below

Table 2.3 Vietnamese collocation patterns

1 Noun-adjective Bệnh hiểm nghèo

shrug has a very limited collocational range as it can only collocate with shoulder Run, in contrast, can be associated with a large variety of nouns such as company, business, stockings, debt, bill, river, water and so on

It is also argued that “collocations are made in terms of what is typical or untypical rather than what is admissible or inadmissible.” (Baker, 1992, p.50) This is because collocational ranges are not fixed and therefore, there emerge new collocations all the time We cannot say that a new collocation is unacceptable as we may not be unable to realize newly formed collocations

Besides unmarked collocations which are common combinations of words such as

heavy drinker or heavy smoker, there are also marked collocations These are unusual

combinations of words which “challenge our expectations as hearers or readers.”(Baker, 1992, p.51) Those collocations are often used in fiction, poetry, humor and advertisements In her book, Baker (1992, p.51) exemplifies with a

sentence “Could real peace break out after all?” Normally, we often use war breaks out, and peace prevails but here peace breaks out is used to create certain special

The final feature pointed out by Baker (1992, p.53) is that the meaning of a word is largely dependent on its collocational pattern For example, when determining

the meaning of the word dry, we have to put it in its combinations such as dry sound, dry voice, dry bread, dry country, etc

Baker (1992, p.48) argues that “the patterns of collocation are largely arbitrary and independent of meaning.” Specifically, a word can collocate with other words in

some of their forms but not in all forms For example, we often say bend rules in English, but cannot use rules are unbendable Instead, we have to say rules are inflexible

However, Hill (cited in Ardhiani, n.d) disagrees with Baker‟s point of view that collocations are largely arbitrary In his opinion, lexical collocations are not arbitrary

He presents some features of lexical collocations as follows:

a The lexicon is not arbitrary The lexicon is not randomly produced In other words, lexicon must obey the language rules

b The pattern of collocations is predictable To a certain extent, vocabulary choice is

predictable For example, when a writer is thinking about friend, he may have a large number of word combinations for friend, such as best, loyal, old, personal, school, etc

Yet the pattern of verb-noun lexical collocation is often unpredictable

c The size of the phrasal mental lexicon is large We need to limit the predictability by definition of collocation Those collocations must constitute the major proportion of the whole naturally-occurring text, both spoken and written texts

3 Collocation errors

3.1 Definitions of collocation errors

As the researcher‟s concern is collocation errors, it is essential not to overlook the

term errors in general Errors are systematic mistakes which occur repeatedly and

often not recognized by learners Corder (cited in Mashharawi, 2008, p.47) observes that learners' errors indicate both of the state of the learners' knowledge and the ways

errors may be either grammatical or lexical, in which words put together do not naturally match with each other In Larson‟s words, these errors are called

collocational clashes These errors are often made by people using languages which

are not their mother tongues

3.2 Types of errors

There are various ways of categorizing errors However, the researcher will only present some most typical types which are of great application to the study on collocation errors First, according to Corder (cited in Mashharawi, 2008, p.49), errors

fall into four main kinds, namely omission of some required elements; addition of some unnecessary or incorrect elements; selection of an incorrect element; and misordering of elements The details are as follows:

 Omission: Certain linguistic forms may be omitted by learners because of the

form complexity in production For example, there are a number of fixed expressions or idioms in English characterized by omission of certain syntactic

elements For example, Beg your pardon? Long time no see Had a nice day?

 Addition: Learners not only omit elements which they regard as redundant but

they also add redundant elements At the lexical level, learners may add an

unnecessary word For example, I stayed there during five years ago, instead of

I have stayed there for five years

 Selection: Sometimes, learners make errors due to the wrong selection of

vocabulary item For instance, learners sometimes select words which do not

entirely convey their intended meanings Robin, for example, is sometimes referred to as a general word for bird

 Ordering: At the lexical level, learners may reverse elements of a compound

word Car key may become key car, which may be regarded as a car carrying

keys or the most important car in a caravan

Having a different way of grouping collocation errors, Dahlmeier and Tou (n.d., p.109) conclude that those errors fall into four major kinds as follows:

 Spelling: This error is caused by similar spelling, e.g critics for criticism

 Homophones: This type is quite identical to spelling but it is caused by similar

pronunciations, e.g insure for ensure

 Synonyms: Some words may have the same meaning but they collocate with

different words, e.g energy that we can apply for energy that we can use

 L1 transfer: Errors are caused if the erroneous phrase and its correction share a

common translation in the target language

In another research, Liu (cited in Li, 2005, p.21-22) categorizes collocation errors into five main types, among which, negative transfer turns out to be the most frequent error source Those sources of errors are shown in the following table

Table 2.4: Liu’s classification of collocation errors

Negative transfer Eat vitamins for take vitamins

Ignorance of rule restrictions Make Jane surprise for make Jane

surprised

Overgeneralization I am used to take for I am used to taking

Use of synonym Receive other people’s opinions for

accept other people’s opinions

Approximation Middle exam for midterm exam

In his study, Mashharawi (2008, p.50) investigates many different ways of classifying errors and synthesizes into kinds which, as he states, all relate approximately to the context of the study

 Overgeneralization / Faulty Generalization / False Analogy / False Concepts Hypothesized: expanding a certain form or expression to a different

contextual use in the target language

 Literal Translation: manipulating the native language into the target language

production in case of lacking necessary knowledge relevant to the target language

 Words Coinage: creating new words or phrases which are usually non-existent

to convey the intended meaning

 Avoidance: refraining from giving responses

 Paraphrasing and Circumlocution: describing the characteristics of the target

object or action because of unfamiliarity with the appropriate item

 Assumed Synonyms: using synonymous words that share with the term certain

semantic properties

 Approximation: using words which are less specific than the intended meaning

to express the meaning as closely as possible

 Imitation of Literary Style: selecting big sounding words that make their

target statements more impressive and literary-like

 Graphic Ambiguity: certain forms have similar orthographical scripts

3.3 Sources of collocation errors

There are various causes of students‟ collocation errors Nevertheless, it is likely that the most interesting and valid factors contributing to those errors are related to students, to the source language and their application of the knowledge of the native language to the foreign language, (Sirinna, n.d., p.83)

Huang (cited in Sirinna, n.d., p.83) presents two main factors that influence the translation of collocations by students The first point is their native language interference in translation In other words, students seem to think about collocations which are acceptable in their native language and literarily translate them into English The other factor is learners‟ collocational competence Meanwhile, Zughoul (cited in

Sirinna, n.d., p.83) has found that wrong collocations are caused by learners‟ inadequate experience in reading English, resulting in their inability to produce appropriate collocations Second, when translating, students rely too heavily on bilingual dictionaries which only present a synonym without any explanation or sample sentences

In her research, Baker (1992, p.54-62) discovers five basic roots of collocation errors, namely the effect of the collocation pattern of the source text, the misinterpretation of the source-language collocations, the decision to choose between accuracy and naturalness in translating collocations, culture bound factors and marked collocations in the source text The details are as follows:

 Effect of the collocation pattern of the source text: the writer is strongly rapt

by the source text and as a result, he may produce the collocation which is not acceptable in the target language

 Misinterpretation of the source-language collocations: a translator may

easily misinterpret a collocation in the source text due to impact from his/her native language

 The tension between accuracy and naturalness: sometimes translators

encounter a difficult choice between what is typical and what is accurate as they may not be able to preserve both

 Culture-specific collocations: Source texts may contain some collocations

which target readers cannot understand if these collocations are literally rendered Such culture-specific collocations express ideas which are unpopular

or previously unexpressed in the target language

 Marked collocations in the source text: Similar to culture-specific

collocations, marked collocations also challenge translators as they are unusual word combinations in the source-text Therefore, translators will have to make effort to make them equally marked in the target-text

4 Procedures deployed in collocation translation

General procedures can be applied in the translation of collocations Newmark (1988, p 81-93) points out the following procedures

 Cultural equivalent: Using this strategy, the translator renders a SL cultural

word into a TL cultural word These cultural equivalents are extremely specific, belonging purely to the culture of that language, and the latter may not represent the exact equivalent

 Through–translation: This procedure entails the “literal translation of

common collocations, and names of organizations.” Normally, translation should be used only when the terms are already widely recognized

through- Lexical synonymy: In the process of translation, the translators may sometimes

fall into the situation of “word stuck”, which means they fail to find the exact

TL equivalent for the SL item, thus they should opt for a near TL equivalent Newmark (1988, p.84) acknowledges that this strategy “is only appropriate where literal translation is not possible and because the word is not important

enough for componential analysis.”

 Componential analysis: This strategy is “the splitting up of a lexical item into

its sense components, often one – to – two, - three or – four translations.” When the lexical item is important in the text, for example it is a key word, componential analysis is more preferred than synonymy

 Translation label: This is a provisional translation which is often used for

institutional terms Collocations in this procedure should be in “inverted commas.”

 Paraphrase: This technique is an explanation of several parts of a source text

It is used in poor written texts or when it has important applications and omissions

 Reduction and expansion: According to Newmark (1988, p.90), these two

types of translation are “imprecise translation strategies.” Baker (1992) suggests

that a translator adopts the strategy of reduction when “a lexical item has no close match in the target language, its meaning cannot be easily paraphrased.”

 Shift or Transposition: This is the strategy that relates to the replacing of one

grammatical form by another

 Translation couplets: This strategy is commonly deployed for common for

cultural words, if transference is combined with a functional or a cultural equivalent

 Modulation: This technique refers to a variation through a change of

viewpoint, of perspective and very often of category of thought It involves

“variation in point of view” Modulation is of two types: standard modulation and free modulation Translators usually use the second type “when the TL

rejects literal translation” (Newmark, 1988, p.88)

 Transference (loan words, transcription, adoption): This is one of the most

important techniques which translators may resort to when they cannot find its equivalence in the target text Transference can be defined as the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text as a translation procedure

 Foot- notes and end-notes and glosses: This technique if often used when the

term in the SL is unpopular and often difficult to understand in the target text Deploying this procedure, translators create “additional information” to the

target text to make readers have better understanding about the term

The participants in this study are sophomores, juniors and seniors attending intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced translation training courses respectively They are all in Translation and Interpreting Division at ULIS In those three courses, there are three fast-track classes and six main-stream classes Students are all taught by Vietnamese teachers at the Division In these courses, students have

to complete their weekly assignments which are articles chosen by teachers for translation practice

1.2 Participants

The participants of the study are 100 students from Translation and Interpretation Division at the University of Languages and International Studies They have studied English as a foreign language since they were at lower-secondary schools and all of them passed the entrance exam with English marks fulfilling the university‟s

requirements Especially, students at three fast-track classes had to pass a translation test to be admitted to this program Students at three courses have attended other classes which help build up their language competence such as reading, listening, writing, speaking, phonetics and grammar Besides, as they are in Translation and Interpreting Division, they have chances to study translation theories which are really advantageous for their translation

1.3 Materials

Materials collected from participants are 200 copies of their weekly translation tasks with the word limit of 500 words for each article These writing samples are used for the examination of participants‟ collocation errors in translation as well as their fine collocations From students‟ collocation errors, the researcher detects problems that participants encounter in translating

2 Data collection instruments

2.1 Semi-structured individual interview

Individual interview is an effective tool to gather information in this study as it can “elicit additional data if initial answers are vague, incomplete, off-topic, or not specific enough” (Markey & Gass, 2005, p.173) In addition, with individual interview, researchers can collect detailed information from the interviewees, dig deeply into the topic and understand thoroughly the answers provided (Harrel & Bradley, 2009, p 27)

The interview is of semi-structured type, which is a qualitative method of inquiry that combines “a pre-determined set of open questions (questions that prompt discussion) with the opportunity for the interviewer to explore particular themes or responses further” (Evaluation Toolbox, 2010) With questions prepared before hand, researchers can obtain similar general information from all the interviewers Meanwhile, follow-up questions offer researchers the opportunity to catch more comprehensive information from each individual

To carry out the interview, two voluntary students majoring in translating and two teachers teaching translation are invited to take-part-in semi-structured interviews The interviews with students are designed to get their perception and points of view about their errors in collocation translation Furthermore, teachers‟ opinions and their recommendations on collocation translation are also discovered in the interviews

The interview includes both closed and open-ended questions and lasts about fifteen minutes each The participants are interviewed in a friendly and natural setting

In order to make it convenient for the interviewees, the interviews are carried out in class or at the school yard In addition, all interviews are conducted in English to assure the authenticity and validity of the collected data

To facilitate data analysis, all interviews are recorded with the permission from the respondents Note-taking is also deployed as another useful tool

2.2 Content and statistic analysis

Content analysis is an empirically grounded method, explanatory in process, and predictive or inferential in intent (Krippendorff, K., 2004, p.17) Using this method, the researcher collects students‟ translations, sorts out and analyzes the data Specifically, collocation translation errors are grouped into error types The researcher analyzes each type of errors, illustrates by examples and points out the characteristics

of each error type Similarly, good collocations are also classified into groups according to the translation procedures used to translate them Besides presenting the data, the researcher also makes prediction and inference from the data

3 Procedures of data collection

Step 1: Contact participants with the help of teachers and students in the division

At this stage, the researcher talks to selected participants about the purposes and significance of the study Participants are notified how the study will help them in realizing their errors in translating collocations and acknowledging ways of

improvement In addition, the researcher also guarantees the confidentiality and anonymity of their participation in the research

Step 2: Design collection schedule

The researcher draws up a detailed report for data collection and depends on each due date in the schedule to collect data

Step 3: Collect copies of translation tasks from participants, both soft copies via e-mail and hard copies via face-to-face collection

The researcher tries to contact the monitor of each class to facilitate the collection

of translation copies from class members Copies from sophomore, junior and senior classes and fast-track classes and mainstream classes are collected separately

4 Procedures of data analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in analyzing the data For qualitative method, the researcher examines students‟ translations to find out their collocation translation mistakes and strategies used in appropriate collocations Quantitative method is deployed when the researcher counts the frequency of each type of mistakes and the strategies which are used

Data analysis procedure for qualitative method

Step 1: The researcher reads translation copies from participants at least twice and lists

all collocation translation errors found

Step 2: At this stage, all errors are classified into different categories according to their

types The researcher sorts them into grammatical and lexical collocation mistakes After that, errors of each type are grouped into sub-categories

Step 3: The typical mistakes in each type are analyzed The researcher goes into

specific errors and determines the sources of each mistake

Step 4: The researcher consults translation teachers for some suggestions on

appropriate translation strategies used for those collocations Meanwhile, the researcher also takes a look at good collocations which are translated by students and determines the strategies used

Data analysis procedure for quantitative method

Step 1: Mistakes in collocation translation are classified into different categories

according to their types

Step 2: The researcher counts their occurrence to determine which mistakes are most

commonly made In addition, the researcher also investigates the most common strategies used in good translation of collocations by students

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The fourth chapter concentrates on the presentation, interpretation and discussion

of the data The aim of the first three parts is to deliver the results of the study by

answering three research questions Firstly, English corresponding collocation patterns for each type of Vietnamese collocations translated will be found out After that, common types of collocation translation errors made by students will be presented via data analysis The last question will also be addressed based on data analysis and interview results At the end of each part, a brief summary of findings will be presented In the next part, findings for the research questions will be gathered and discussed Finally, suggestions will be offered for the minimization of students‟ errors

1 English corresponding collocation patterns for each type of Vietnamese collocations translated

Some Vietnamese collocations are translated into English collocations using the same corresponding patterns; some, however, are rendered into different patterns to adhere to English grammar rules The specific results are shown in the table below

Table 4.1: Vietnamese collocation patterns and their corresponding English collocation pattern

No Vietnamese

collocation pattern

Corresponding English collocation pattern

Adjective-noun Tài nguyên thiên nhiên -

natural resources

4 Verb-adverb Verb-adverb/

adverb-verb Hội nhập hoàn toàn - fully

integrate

5 Noun-verb Noun-verb

Tòa tha bổng - the court set (him/her) free

Adjective-noun Thịt đông lạnh - freezed meat

6 Adjective-noun Adjective-noun Dồi dào sức khỏe - in perfect

health

7 Verb-verb

Paraphrased by different patterns of English collocations

11 Quantifier + noun Quantifier + noun Một đàn cá - a school of fish

2 Common collocation translation errors made by the ULIS students

ULIS students may commit various types of collocation translation errors However, this paper only focuses on demonstrating the most common ones The proportion of each error type is depicted in the following pie chart

Figure 4.1: Collocation translation errors

The results, as seen in the chart, indicate that ignorance of rule restrictions is the most popular translation errors, accounting for 28% Improper synonyms, literal translation and overgeneralization are the second, third and fourth most common errors respectively The smallest proportion belongs to word coinage which makes up only 7% of the total translation errors Detailed analysis for each error type will be presented in the following parts

2.1 Ignorance of rule restrictions

It is obvious from the pie chart that this error type makes up the majority of collocation translation errors, which is 28% These errors are made as students fail to apply linguistic rules, especially grammatical rules Incorrect combinations of parts of speech as well as articles with nouns are frequently made by most participants Another typical problem is that students make wrong preposition collocations The below table with common examples of this errors type will provide a more thorough illustration

Table 4.2: Ignorance of rule restrictions

Source collocation Collocation translation

error

Suggested collocation

Trong những năm gần đây recently years in recent years

Một dải đất có hình chữ S a S-shaped strip of land an S-shaped strip of land

Thêm 9 năm nữa 9 more years 9 years more

Có sự quan tâm đúng đắn give the sound attention at pay full attention to

Ở một mức độ đáng báo

động

Looking at data from the table, it can be clearly seen that those errors are caused as

students do not fully master the rules Some fixed collocations such as pay attention to

require students to learn by heart As a result, they often create wrong phases because

of their limited language proficiency These frequent errors, however, also do not considerably alter the meaning of the collocations They just result in confusion and displeasure among readers

2.2 Improper synonyms

This type of error is made when students use synonymous words which share certain shades of meaning with the right words and therefore create inappropriate collocations The statistics show that this error type makes up the second largest proportion which is 18% Typical examples of this error type are displayed in the table below

Table 4.3: Improper synonyms

Source collocation Collocation translation

cannot take off

Làm suy giảm khả năng

miễn dịch của con người

Analyzing the above errors, it is obvious that most students are confused about synonymous words They fail to thoroughly understand the differences in meaning of those words In addition, students do not realize that they make collocations by words

which cannot collocate with each other For example, the word grow is often use with the meaning to make plants develop or make a person or animal become bigger and taller As a result, it is unusual to combine grow with talents What‟s more, grow is

often used to describe the physical development The proper word for this collocation

should be nurture or foster which means to make something or a person develop mentally and become successful In the second collocation, though having the meaning develop or become successful, boost cannot go with education in such a way, as it is a transitive verb which requires a direct object The right word here must be take off, flourish or thrive which indicates to develop quickly and be successful Though those

words are used improperly, they do not greatly affect the content of the text Apparently, readers can still understand the messages that authors want to express