COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESE ENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY

COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY COMMON ERRORS IN VIETNAMESEENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude andappreciation to my supervisor Ms Vu Thi Thu Trang, for her guidance, helpfulsuggestions and encouragement in the preparation as well as during the time I tried

to complete my study I am grateful for being her student, I have learned manyvaluable lessons in study, work and in the life during this study Without hervaluable advices and generous help, I could not have completed this graduationpaper

Secondly, I would like to express my sincerely thank to all the teachers at English faculty of Thuong Mai University for teaching and providing me with a good environment to study, collect data and complete this thesis I also thank all students at the same faculty participating the study by completing the conveying questions as well as answering interview questions

Additionally, I would like to express my thankfulness to my dear friends whoalways help, support and encourage throughout my hard time carrying out the study.Finally, I am very grateful my family, the strongest support for me to studyand complete graduation thesis

ABSTRACT

For students majoring in English, translation is an important subject and basicfoundation for student’s learning and work in the future However, success intranslating is not easy, especially for Vietnamese-English translation During the

Vietnamese English translation process, the students encountered a lot of difficultiesand made errors led to the translation is not completed or the translation was notaccurate, …This study aims to identify and analyze the common errors of Englishstudents in Vietnamese-English translation and the causes of these errors, thenmaking suggestions to overcome these errors in the translation process Afterstudying, we can see that the common errors are mainly due to lack of vocabulary,grammar, differences between Vietnamese and English… In addition, the study alsoaims to provide suggestions as a useful reference to adjust the learning and teachingmethods to obtain the better results in the learning and teaching process.

TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

1 Chart 3.1.1 The student’s attitude towards Vietnamese-English

translation

2 Chart 3.1.2 The student’s opinion about the usefulness of studying

Vietnamese-English translation

3 Chart 3.1.3 The common errors in Vietnamese-English translation

4 Chart 3.1.4 The possible cause of student’s errors in

9 Table 3.1.1 Suggestion when encountering new word or phrase

10 Table 3.1.2 Common errors in Vietnamese-English translation

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale for the study

Today, we cannot deny the importance of English in people’s life and socialdevelopment English has become a popular language in countries all over theworld, including Vietnam We use English as a second language in communication,information exchange and trade English is the most effective internationalcommunicative language In context of globalization and internationalization,English become common language which help people understand each other more

in the process diplomatic relation, cultural exchange, economic cooperation andmany other fields

With the development of English, translation has become increasinglyimportant and necessary We can see that translation appears in almost fields such aseconomy, culture, education, mass communication…It is an important key that canhelp Vietnam get many advantaged opportunities to develop in strongly competitiveeconomy when we integrate into the global economy Besides, translation also plays

an irreplaceable role in the process of cultural exchange among countries Manyspecialized books, magazines, newspapers, ect also translated into English in order

to help people in the world access easily Therefore, Vietnamese-English translation

is very necessary and need to be translated more exactly in order to avoidregrettable misunderstanding Recognizing the important of Vietnamese-Englishtranslation, translation becomes a compulsory subject for English-majored students

in the universities However, Vietnamese-English translation is not an easy task andalmost all students can’t avoid the mistakes As an English-majored student, in thelearning process, I know almost all of English-majored students in Thuong MaiUniversity make many errors when studying translation in general and Vietnamese-English in particular I decided to conduct this study: “COMMON ERRORS INVIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION MADE BY FOURTH YEARSTUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY” with hopethat this research is a useful reference helping to overcome these obstacles andimprove Vietnamese-English translation ability

1.2 Previous study

Translation from one language into another language is a complex process Inthe translation processing, translators can make errors so many studies have beencarried out to help them recognized their common errors and make somesuggestions in order to overcome these errors These studies have been written bywritten by experienced translators who clearly understand the issues related totranslation Thus, I would like to rely on these studies as references materials for mygraduation paper.

The first research is “English major students’ difficulties and expectation in learning written translation at Dong Thap University” which was conducted by

Nguyen Thi Hong Tham and Bui Thi Huyen Tran This study identifies commonerrors that students often make in the process of translation The result of researchshows that the factors influencing translation process are influence of the mothertongue, words and choice of word meanings, grammatical structure, context andcharacteristic of language The researchers found that our mother tongue has a biginfluence on our way of thinking, word order, pronunciation or meaning of word,sentences…, the difference between the two language makes it difficult to learn.Besides, the research also shows the commons errors in written translation such as:word order, syntax/grammatical errors, vocabulary errors, spelling/punctuationerrors, culture errors

The second research is “Common mistakes in learning translation subject by the second-year English major at Dong Thap University” was conducted by Duong

Thi Thuy Hang and Nguyen Thi Cam Xuyen The research found out that thestudents have errors on grammar, word choice and so on in translating Vietnamesetexts into English The study also reveals that lack of vocabulary causes manyproblems in translation process, frequently, students could not choose the right word

in the context or use the right term The researchers suggested some solutions thatthe students must enlarge vocabulary, usually read newspapers, magazine, article ornews, referent document or translation in the internet, these supply muchknowledge about vocabulary, grammar and way of translation

The third research was conducted by Le Thuc Hien, RMIt University, entitled:

“Difficulties in studying translation of International Relation majored students”.

The researchers identified and analyzed the difficulties encountered by InternationalRelation majored students, they are linguistic error, comprehensive error andtranslation error The difficulties in translation committed by the students such asspecialized terms make up 40%, difference in linguistic structure makes up 30%,long sentences make up 20% and cultural factors make up 10% Then theresearchers gave the reasons why students have such difficulties and suggestedsome solutions to help students overcome these problems.

All three studies above have studied on translation and errors translation.However, they only focused on finding out the errors in translation in general, notparticular in Vietnamese- English translation

1.3 Aims of the study

The aim of study is to investigate common errors in Vietnamese-Englishtranslation made by the four-year English majored students at TMU The study alsoaims at finding out the causes of these problems and then making suggestions toovercome the problems

In this thesis, I would like to focus on answering three main question:

• What are the common errors in Vietnamese-English translation of the four-yearEnglish majored students?

• What are the possible causes of these errors?

• What are the suggestions to rectify these errors?

1.4 Research subject

In this study, the research focuses on researching common errors in translationVietnamese texts into English made by four-year students at English faculty, TMU

1.5 Scope of the study

Translation is an indispensable subject for English-majored students Theyhave to study both English-Vietnamese translation and Vietnamese-Englishtranslation However, because of the limitation of time and space, this thesis justfocuses on analyzing the common errors in Vietnamese-English translation of thefourth year students at English faculty, TMU and making some suggestions to helpovercome these errors

1.6 Research methodology

For the purpose of making an investigation to analyze the common errors inVietnamese-English translation The study will be a useful reference with solutionssuggested which help students overcome these errors and find out their owneffective way in learning in order to improve the translation skill While doing thisthesis, I used both qualitative and quantitative research methodology

First is questionnaire, it is considered as a common instrument to collect data

in research It aims at finding attitude and problems of students toward writingsubject, which help provides necessary information and is the basic for analyzingthe study In this study, there are total 10 questions written in English 100 copieswere delivered to the four-year student English majored students and all of themwere collected Most of the comments, recommendations and conclusion used in thestudy were based on the data analysis of the study

Second is translation test which was used to find out the student’s translationerrors common in translating from Vietnamese into English 50 copies of translationtests which have three different passages are delivered to the four-year Englishmajored student

1.7 Organization of the study

The study consists of four main chapter as follow:

Chapter 1: Overview of the study

The first chapter will present overview of the study with rationale, previous study, aims of the study, research subject, scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

It provides a review of theoretical background related to literature, in whichthe definitions of translation, the strategy of translation, methods of translation,translation errors were presented

Chapter 3: Research finding

This chapter will conclude summary, data analysis and discussion of majorfinding

Chapter4: Recommendation and suggestion

This chapter will give a summary of the study and make suggestion helpstudents overcome these problems

Conclusion summarizes the main points which have been explored in the

study and discuss the limitations of the study and make some suggestions for thefuture research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Translation concepts

2.1.1 Translation

There are many concepts of translation from many scholars with differentviewpoints for many historical periods

Firstly, Catford (1965) presented the definition refer to translation as the

“Replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)” Translation is a process in the sense that is an

activity, was performed by people from one language into another language

Hartman and Stork (Newmark, 1995) also define that “Translation involves replacing a text in one language by an equivalent text in a second language” With the same point, Bell.R defines that “Translation is the replacement of a presentation

of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language”.

Next, Wilss (1982) says that “Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of written source language text into an optimally equivalent target language text, and which requires the syntactic, the sematic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the source language”

Besides, Koller (1995) shows the equivalence relation among languages when

saying that “Translation can be understood as the result of a text-processing

activity, by means of which a SL text is transposed into a TL text Between the resulting text in the TL text and SL text, there exists a relationship which can be designated as translational, or equivalence relation.” Although there are many

different perspectives, all most of them indicate the significance of “equivalence” inboth languages

According to Peter Newmark (1982), “Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message of textual material in one language into another language in the way that the author intended the text.”, this definition based on his theories named Culture

and Context, focus on culture and context during the translation process

In brief, it can be understood that “Translation is the process of changing something that is written or spoken into another language” (Advanced Oxford

Dictionary) All above definitions of translation show the same idea that translation

is a process of replacement or transformation a written text, message or an utterancefrom one language into another language, which remains equivalence in content, thepurpose of communication or pragmatic

2.1.2 Strategy of translation

2.1.2.1 Strategy 1: How to deal with non-equivalence at word level

• Translating by a specific word

In some cases, it will be appropriate or necessary to use a more specific word

to translate an English word into Vietnamese This usually involves choosing amongseveral different words, as there are many Vietnamese words that can be correspond

to the general category or meaning expresses by the English terms For example, theEnglish word for “take” can be translated by many different Vietnamese words suchas: lấy, cầm, mang đi, chịu đựng, depending on the context In this cases, an Englishword alone is not enough to determine for the appreciate translation, and it isnecessary to examine the English context and decide which Vietnamese word is to

be used

• Translating by a more general word

In other cases, it is appropriate to use a more general word to translate Englishwith no specific Vietnamese equivalent Similarly, the English words “niece” and

“grand daughter”, “nephew” and “grand son” may all be translated by the

Vietnamese word “cháu gái”, “cháu trai” which create problems of comprehension

in Vietnamese, as it should be clear from the context which of these words is meant

• Translating by cultural substation

This strategy involves replacing a cultural-specific item or expression with one

of different meaning but similar impact in the translated text Translators should beencouraged to question the appropriateness of the documents they are translatingand suggest changes to make them more culturally appropriate

• Translating using a loan word plus explanation

This strategy is very useful when the translator deal with concepts or ideas thatare new to Vietnamese audience, culture specific items and proper names of disease

or medicines that are widely known in English names For example, TV and radioare two loan words that are frequently used in Vietnamese, as they are referred to bytheir English names in almost every part of the world Because these words havebeen in common used in Vietnam for a long time, they are often used without anyaccompanying explanation Whenever a loan word is used, it is better to give anexplanation Another example is the acronym for oral rehydration, or ORS (muối bùmất nước)

• Translating by paraphrase

This strategy can be used when translating an English word or concept thatdoes not exist in Vietnamese, or when the Vietnamese term does not include all themeanings conveyed by the English term for the same concept For example, in thesentence: “pregnant women should avoid alcohol”, in English “alcohol” includes allalcoholic beverages in its meaning The Vietnamese word for “alcohol”, “rượu”,does not include “beer” in its definition, so the Vietnamese translation should addthe word “beer” to reflect the full meaning of the source language sentence “Phụ nữmang thai nên tránh uống rượu, bia”

into Vietnamese by “Nhiều việc có thể làm ngay khi cả khi không có mặt tại cuộchọp…” which omits the word “physically” in the translation.

2.1.2.2 Strategy 2: How to deal with idioms and fixed expressions

• Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning and form

It is sometimes possible to find a Vietnamese idiom or expression with asimilar meaning to an English idiom or expression, and which is expressed in the

same way For example, the idiom “to fight like cats and dogs” Which is expressed using the same words in VietNamese “Cãi nhau như chó với mèo”, another is “Like father, like son”, which is translated as “cha nào con nấy” It is ideal if such a match

can be found, but this kind of correspondence is not common, and it is alsonecessary to use other strategies in dealing with idioms and fixed expression

• Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning but dissimilar form

It is also possible, and usually easier to find a Vietnamese idiom with a similarmeaning with an English idiom or set of expression expressed differently For

example, the translation for “Chở củi về rừng”, which is translated as “to carry

firewood to the forest” However, in English “to carry firewood the forest” is not an

idiom and does not have meaning “chở củi về rừng” The correct English equivalent

of the Vietnamese idiom is “to carry coals to Newcastle By substituting a similarVietnam idiom, the flow and the impact of the original text are retained in thetranslation

• Translating by paraphrase

When Vietnamese equivalents cannot be found, paraphrasing maybe consider

as the best way to deal with an idiom or fixed expression

• Translating by omission

As with single words, whole phrase may be omitted if they are not essential tothe meaning or impact of the text This may be done with phrase that would requirelengthy explanations, awkward paraphrase, or literal and unnatural translations.2.1.2.3 Strategy 3: How to deal with voice, number and person

• Voice

The passive voice is used very frequently in English, and poses someproblems for translation into Vietnamese Passive voice can be translated fromEnglish into Vietnamese and vice versa in the following ways:

(a) – Vietnamese: (i) A được + động từ + (bởi B) (positive meaning)

A được/do + (B) + động từ

(ii) A bị + động từ + (bởi B) (negative meaning)

A bị + (B) + động từ

English: A to be done (by B) = A be V3/ed (by B)

For example: (1) Mary được Peter tặng một bó hoa.

= Mary is given a bunch of flowers by Peter

(2) Ngôi nhà này do ông Tonny xây năm 1960

= This house was built by Mr.Tonny in 1960(3) Tom bị một kẻ say rượu đâm xe vào tối hôm qua

= Tom was hit by a drunker last night(a) - Vietnamese: (i) A được + động từ (positive meaning)

(ii) A bị + động từ (negative meaning)

(iii) Người ta/ai đó + động từ + A

English: A to be done = A be + V3/ed or A has/been + V3/ed

For example: (1) Mary mới được thăng chức gần đây

Mary has been promoted recently

(2) Cái gương đã bị vỡ rồi

“phụ huynh” can mean either parent or parents In Vietnamese, some plural makessuch á “các”, “những”, “tất cả”, “mọi”, “mỗi” … can be used in addition to thenoun

• Person

Participants roles and forms of address are expressed in Vietnamese through avery complicated system of personal pronouns based largely on kinship terms

Unlike their distinction, depending on relationship within the family, familiarity,social status, and even one’s particular mood or attitude in a given situation

2.1.2.4 Strategy 4: How to deal with proper names

“Bộ”, “Sở” = Ministry of…, Department of…

“Ngân hàng”, = Bank for…, Adjective + bank

“Tổng công ty” = Cooperation

For example:

Ngân hàng công thương Việt Nam = Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank

Bộ kế hoạch và đầu tư = Ministry of Planning and Investment

2.1.2.5 Strategy 5: How to deal with non-subject sentences

In Vietnamese-written passages, some non-subject sentences often comeacross In this case, the following techniques of translation can be used:

Ex: Cần đẩy mạnh công nghiệp hóa, hiện đại hóa = Industrialization andmordernization should be promoted.

Or: It is necessary to promote industrialization and modernization

Vẫn chưa có cách chữa trị bệnh AIDS = There has been no cure for AIDS.2.1.2.6 Strategy 6: How to deal with newspaper headlines

Some main characteristic of newspaper headlines:

- Present tense = past tense

- Present participle = event in progress

- To + infinitive = future events

- Past participle = passive voice

- Nouns

- Verbs + Noun

Ex: See you in court = Hẹn gặp tại tòa

2.1.3 Equivalence in translation

House (1997) states the notion of equivalence is the conceptual basis of

translation Catford defined that “Translation equivalence occurs when an SL and

TL texts or items are related to (at least some of) the same relevant features of situation substance.” Halverson (1997) says that “Equivalence is the relationship existing between two entities, and the relationship is described as one of similarity

in terms of any of a number of potential qualities” Although there are many

concepts of equivalence translation, theorist share the same ideas in finding theeffective equivalence between SL and TL

Koller (1979) divides into five types of equivalence:

• Denotative equivalence: The SL and the TL words refer to the same thing in the realword It is an equivalence of the extra linguistic content of a text

• Connotative equivalence: This type of equivalence provides additional value and isachieved by the translator’s choice of synonymous words or expression

• Text-normative equivalence: The SL and the TL words are used in the same orsimilar context in their respective languages

• Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and the TL words havethe same effect on their respective readers

• Formal equivalence: It produces an analogy of form in the translation by eitherexploiting formal possibilities of TL, or creating new forms in TL

2.1.4 Methods of translation

Newmark mentions the difference between translation methods and translation

procedures He writes that “while translation methods relate to whole texts, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language”.

He goes on to refer to the following methods of translation:

- Word-for-word translation: In which the SL word order is preserved and the wordstranslated singly by their most common meanings, out of context

Ex: He is a big liar

->Anh ấy là một lớn nói dối

- Literal translation: In which the SL grammatical constructions are converted to theirnearest Tl equivalents, but the lexical words are again translated singly, out ofcontext

Ex: He is a big liar

-> Anh ấy là một kẻ nói dối lớn

- Faithful translation: It attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of theoriginal within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures

Ex: He is as fast as a kangaroo

->Anh ấy nhanh như một con kangaroo

- Semantic translation: which differs from “faithful translation” only in as far as itmust take more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text

Ex: Right in the heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake is an enchanting body ofwater, a peaceful oasis away from all the hustle of the city

->Nằm ngay giữ trái tim hà Nội, hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp mê hồn,một ốc đảo yên bình tách biệt với sự hối hả bận rộn của thành phố

- Adaption: which is the freest form of translation, and is used mainly for plays, poem

or stories translation In adaption, the themes, characters, plots are preserved, andthe SL culture is converted to the TL culture and text is rewritten

- Free translation: Is when the translator gets out of the limitations of the SL terms offorms and expression to produce a new translation This method is often used forsong translations

- Idiomatic translation: it reproduces the ‘message’ of the original but tends to distortnuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do notexist in the original This method is highly effective for the translation of idiom.Ex: No guide, no realization -> Không thầy đố mày làm nên

- Communicative translation: It attempts to render the exact contextual meaning ofthe original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable andcomprehensive to the readership

2.2 Translation errors

2.2.1 Error

According to Lennon (1991, p.182), “A linguistic form or combination of forms which, in the same context and under similar conditions of production, would, in all likehood, not be produced by the speaker’s native speaker counterparts”

“Error” and “mistake” are two terms which may easily cause confusion,should be differentiated Although many people use both terms interchangeable,there is a distinction between them Goff-Kfouri (2004) distinguishes two terms

when claiming that: “Scientifically speaking, a mistake is generally considered as a fault in performance, it does not occur systematically An error reflects a gap in student’s knowledge and systematic”

2.2.2 Translation errors

In the translation field, Neubert & Shreve (1995) describe a translation error

as something that is very complicated and difficult to define and identify According

to Koller (1979, p.216, cited in Dewi, 2015), “translation error can be considered

as non-equivalence between source text and target text, or non-adequacy of the target text” Pym (1992, p.281) defined errors in translation as a manifestation of

defect in any factors entering into the skills in translation Hatim & Mason (1997,

p.203) consider “translation errors as (1) significant (unmotivated) mismatches of denotational meaning between source and target text (subdivided into omissions, additions and substitutions), and (2) breaches of the target-language system”.

2.2.3 Classification of translation errors

Until now, there are still no universal translation error categories Theclassification of translation errors seems hard to obtain because there are differenttranslation theories, then different definitions of translation errors leading o nouniversally accepted translation error classification

Melis & Albir (2001, p.208) suggest that main question that need to beconsidered are the following:

(1) The difference between errors relating to the source text (opposite sense, wrongsense, nonsense, addition and suppression) and errors relating to the target text(spelling, vocabulary, syntax, coherence and cohesion).

(2) The difference between functional errors and absolute errors

(3) The difference in individual translators between systematic errors (recurrent) andrandom errors (isolated)

(4) The difference between errors in the product and errors in the process

Krzysztof (1992) divides translation errors into four main types: errors ofsyntagmatic surface translation, errors of mistaken interpretation, realization errorsand meta-translation errors The first type includes equivalents, false friends,calques and unjustified borrowings The second type covers misreading syntax andwrong interpretation of verb frame, misinterpret scenes and scripts and misreadingthe text modality The third type covers TL errors, wrong evaluation of recipients’knowledge and insufficient of knowledge of subject-matter The final typecomprises translation technique, additions, omissions, two versions, too many ortwo few footnote, a wrong translation strategy, corrections and changing the text’sintertextuality

According to Nord (1997), translation errors can be classified into fourcategories: pragmatic, cultural, linguistic, and text-specific Pragmatic translationerrors are the ones that come from the problems of how to deal with pragmaticambiguities hidden in the source text Cultural translation errors occur when there is

“an inadequate decision” in adapting source text to the target one in terms of culture(Nord, 1997, p.75) Linguistic translation errors are the failure in using targetlanguage structures to transfer the meaning and sense of source text And finally,text-specific translation errors can be traced from the suitability of the translation tothe target readers

The classification of translation error remains diverse; however, most scholarsagree with Wang BaoRong Baorong arrives at a mutual conclusion that translationerrors should be classified into three main types including pragmatic translationerrors, cultural translation errors and linguistic translations errors

- Pragmatic translation errors are caused by practical issues such as a lack of receiverorientation and background knowledge

- Cultural translation errors are related to equivalent problems and methods to dealwith cultural words.

- Linguistic errors occur due to the lack in the proficiency of the translator AsNewmark points out, linguistic errors involve grammatical mistakes, punctuations,collocations, idioms

2.2.4 Common errors in translation

According to Phu Quynh Nga (2015), translation can be comprehensiveerrors, linguistic errors and translating errors On the other hand, Alseksandra(2009) believes that translation errors include grammatical errors, terminologicalerrors, phraseological errors and stylistic errors Ynhon & Baoling (2011), Batoul(2012) and Dian & Mihaela (2013) share the same idea that translation errors caninclude grammatical errors and lexical errors In this study, translation errors aredescribed with two types including grammatical errors and lexical errors

2.2.4.1 Grammatical errors

Grammar is defined as a system of rules governing the conventionalarrangement and relationship of words in a sentence and plays an important role tolearn as it tells us how to construct a sentence which covers word order, verb andnoun system, modifies, phrase and clauses, ect (Brown, 1994) Any deviation ingrammar in producing a word, phrase or sentence will create a grammatical errorwhich reduces the quality of translated text Grammatical errors include lack ofagreement between subject and verb, incorrect verb tense, incorrect verb form,incorrect relative pronouns, misuse of preposition

- Lack of agreement between subject and verb: the verb does not agree with thesubject

Ex: Floating house still exist and become one of Palembang traditional houses Correction: Floating still exists and becomes one of Palembang traditional

houses

- Incorrect verb tenses: the incorrect verb tense is used

Ex: I have graduated from university 2 years ago.

Correction: I graduated from university 2 years ago.

- Incorrect relative pronouns: a pronoun such as which, who or that used to begin arelative clause

Ex: The first source from the potential investors which are considering to

invest into Vietnam or China

Correction: The first source from the potential investors who are considering

to invest into Vietnam or China

- Incorrect verb form: an incorrect verb form has been used

Ex: He plays basketball when he was a child.

Correction: He played basketball when he was a child.

- Misuse of preposition: the wrong preposition has been used

Ex: Thanks to agriculture’s adaption with free market, Vietnam was the second

biggest rice producer in the world behind Thailand

Correction: Thanks to agriculture’s adaption to free market, Vietnam was the

second biggest rice producer in the world behind Thailand

2.2.4.2 Lexical errors

According to Richard, Platt (1992), lexis is “a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms.” (p.40) Whereas, according to the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995:1331) showed another definition about that “lexis is simply considered as the total number of words in a language.”

a. Words and choice of meaning word

A word has many meanings, so need to choose a suitable and appropriatemeaning words for the target text

Ex: The Vietnamese word “đàn” can be collocated with many different nounssuch as “cá” (fish), “chim” (bird), “sư tử” (lion), “gia súc” (cattle) On the contrary,

in English there are many words meaning “đàn” as follow: “flock”, “pack”,

“school”, “pride”, ect In these cases, a Vietnamese word alone is not enough todetermine for the appropriate English translation and it is necessary to put it in thephrase and specific context

A flock of birds/sheep: đàn chim/cừu

A herd of cattle/buffaloes: đàn gia súc/trâu

A pack of dogs/calves: đàn chó/bê

A school of fish/chicken: đàn cá/gà

A pride of lions: đàn sư tử

b. Word collocation:

Word collocation is defined as a sequence of words or term which co-occurmore often than would be expected by chance

Ex: The word “uống” in Vietnamese can go with many different kinds ofliquid including water, beer, alcohol, medicine and even poison (uống nước, uốngbia, uống thuốc, uống thuốc độc) yet, it is incorrect to say “drink medicine” or

“drink posoin” in English There are clear distinctions as follow: drinkbeer/water/wine/coffee However, it should be “take medicine/poison”

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS

This chapter deals with the collected data, analyzed the statistic in order tofind out the common errors in Vietnamese-English translation made by fourth yearstudent at English faculty, TMU ND the possible causes of those errors

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Result from survey questionnaire

3.1.1.1 The student’s attitude towards Vietnamese-English translation

The question (1) shows the student’s attitude towards Vietnamese-Englishtranslation

Chart 3.1.1: The student’s attitude towards Vietnamese-English translation

From chart (1), we can see that more than half of students 62% of students likestudying V-E translation They feel V-E translation is difficult but it is veryinteresting Besides, 29% of the students feel that learning V-E translation is notonly interesting but it is also very helpful, they can learn many things fromtranslation texts In contrast, 9% of students don’t like V-E translation, they thinkthat V-E translation is either difficult or boring They feel can’t find a suitable way

to learning and don’t realize the progress in this subject This makes them feelboring and don’t like learning it None of them think that V-E translation is easy andhelpless We can’t deny that although V-E translation is difficult to learn, moststudent find out their interesting in studying and thus they tried their best to learnand improve their translation skill

Chart 3.1.2: The student’s opinion about the usefulness of studying V-E translation

The study investigates the student’s awareness about the advantages oflearning translation There are fourteen students (14%) think that V-E translationhelp them enlarge vocabulary Practicing translation contains various words aboutdifferent areas such as economy, policy, culture, social… There are also 14% ofstudents said that practicing V-E translation obviously plays a crucial role in usinggrammar structure more flexible, they have opportunity to access numerous goodstructure in certain contexts which are closely relate to topic translation There aresmall number students (14%) said that they can improve language skills throughstudying translation, especially writing Each topic translation consists of severalacademic words which is useful source in writing Most of students (72%) believethat learning translation brings many advantages concluding four options above.Through the result of question, it is obviously that most students have a sense ofawareness about the role of learning V-E translation

3.1.1.2 The common errors in Vietnamese-English translation

The statistical data showed the student’s evaluation of what kind of translation

is difficult for them to translate It can be clearly that the greatest proportion ofstudents who have difficulties in translating Vietnamese into English, constitutes81% of students While the rest of students (19%) have trouble in translating

English-to-Vietnamese In fact, Vietnamese-to-English translation is really bigobstacle for students Because of many reasons, they feel a Vietnamese text is moredifficult to express by English

Chart 3.1.3: The common errors in Vietnamese-English translation

The chart shows the commons errors in Vietnamese-English translation ofstudents There are 50 students (50%) feel that choosing appropriate vocabulary inthe English language is very difficult and can easily make errors When translatingVietnamese into English, the students need to have a rich vocabulary in differentareas and know how to use them appropriately and accurately Followed bychoosing appropriate vocabulary in the English language, 49% of students madeerrors in finding suitable grammar structures The grammar structure in English has

a lot of difference compared to Vietnamese about tense, verb form, preposition,word order… Moreover, understanding special phrase in the source texts is thetrouble for 18% of students while analyzing word others in Vietnamese texts makes11% of students confuse It means that these student’s knowledge about theirmother language, Vietnamese is quite limited

3.1.1.3 The possible causes of student’s errors in Vietnamese-English translation

In order to get information about the possible causes for the errors in V-Etranslation process that students committed, the question 6 was designed to answer

3.1.1.4 Suggestion to improve translation subject

In order to know what the students do to overcome the translation’s errors, theresearcher designed question 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and analyzed them.

Question 5: What do you do when you encounter new

D. Skip it and translate the other words 15.2%

Table 3.1.1: Suggestions when encountering new word or phrase

When students translate a text from Vietnamese to English, they willencounter some new words and each student will have different ways to deal withthese new words There are 40.4% of students admitted that they often searchgoogle to translate when encountering a new word in order to know its meaning andusing ways 15.2% of students choose to skip it and translate the other words whichcan cut down the flow of smooth in the translate text Looking up Vietnamesedictionary is the way of 34.3% of students apply when encountering a new word.Nowadays internet is very developed, we can search any word we want fast andaccurately, so the dictionary is not popular Only 10.1% of students ask friends orteachers when encountering a new word or phrase

In order to find out the ways which student apply to overcome the errors inVietnamese-English translation, question 9 was analyzed

Chart 3.1.5: The student’s ways to improve their Vietnamese-English translation

skill

The chart shows the different ways to improve their translation skill As it can

be seen from the chart, 26% of students improve their translation skill by learningvocabulary, reading grammar books and doing grammar exercises is choice of 16%

of students Besides, it accounted for 20% of student review teacher’s feedback tolearn vocabulary, grammar and way of using vocabulary While most of students(84%) improve V-E translation skill by reading practicing translation from articles,magazines or newspapers

The question 8 shows the different ways to do after the students finish theirtranslation The result indicates that 20% of students often read the translation again

to correct some mistakes if there are This can help students revise vocabulary,grammar and correct the errors Following it, 37% of students think that reading itagain and try to translate it in another way is the best way There are same number

of students (37%) show that they often wait for teacher’s feedback after finishingthe translation to learn the vocabulary, grammar structure and the way using them.There are only 6% of students said that they share with your friend the translationafter finishing lessons

Chart 3.1.6: The amount time spend on studying Vietnamese-English translation

The chart describes the amount of time which the students usually spend onstudying Vietnamese-English translation From the chart, the number of therespondents spends about 2 hours per week constitutes approximately 51% Most ofstudents still spend less time to cultivate the translation skill 36% of students spendabout 3 or 4 hours per week practicing Vietnamese-English translation The studentswho spend about 5 hours per week for this subject occupied 7% While spendingmore than 5 hours per week to practicing translation only occupied 6% of students

To sum up, majority students spend very little time on studying translation.Apparently, the amount of time is not enough for the students to improveVietnamese-English translation ability It can’t be denied that this is one of the maincauses which leads to the errors when translating Thus, the students should spend aplenty of time on learning translation

3.1.2 Results from paper test

From the teacher’s response and data collected from translation test, there aretwo common Vietnamese-English translation errors that students often make:grammatical errors and lexical errors The result was showed by the table below

Kind of error Number of cases Percentages

Table 3.1.2: Common errors in Vietnamese-English translation

3.1.2.1 Grammatical errors

The differences in grammar structure between Vietnamese and English make alot of difficult for the students when translating Vietnamese into English Using awrong grammar can change the meaning of what the writers want to convey andlead to regrettable misunderstanding for the readers There are five common errors

in grammar which students often make when translating Vietnamese into English.The result was shown by the chart below:

Chart 3.1.2.1: The common grammatical errors in Vietnamese-English translation

3.1.2.1.1 Grammatical errors relating to subject-verb agreement

Subject-verb agreement means the subject and verb must agree in number.This means both need to be singular or both need to be plural except for somespecial cases that do not follow the normal English grammar rules This is one ofthe most errors that students often make

Example 1: The Vietnamese sentence from paragraph number (1) in paper test:

“Chỉ đạo của Thủ Tướng Nguyễn Xuân Phúc được đưa ra vào thứ Tư, yêu cầu mọingười di chuyển từ hoặc quá cảnh tại các khu vực bị lây nhiễm virus corona sẽ đượccách ly chặt chẽ khi nhập cảnh vào Việt Nam” was translated by the students:

a. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's directive were issued on Wednesday, requiring

that people moving from or in transit in areas infected with the corona virus will be strictly isolated when entering Vietnam.

b. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s directive were issued Wednesday, require

everyone traveling from or transiting through areas with the novel coronavirus to

be under strict quarantine upon entering Vietnam

In this sentence, the subject is singular, it is not correct to use plural verb form

as above sentences The verb “were” must be corrected by “was” in both sentences Besides, the verb “require” is not correct, beacuse the subject is singular so it must

be replaced into “requires”.

Example 2: The Vietnamese sentence from paragraph number (3): “Ngành dulịch Việt Nam đã nhận được hàng loạt các giải thưởng uy tìn và đạt được nhiều kỉlục mới trong năm 2019” was translated by the students: