Vai trò của hoạt động dịch trong việc học thuật ngữ tài chính ngân hàng đối với sinh viên biên phiên dịch trong cuốn sách tiếng anh tài chính ngân hàng của pgs ts nguyễn xuân thơm

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THE ROLES OF TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER THE ROLES OF TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES IN

LEARNING FINANCIAL AND BANKING

TERMINOLOGY IN THE BOOK “ENGLISH FOR FINANCE AND BANKING” BY ASSOC PROF DR NGUYEN XUAN THOM TO FELTE STUDENTS

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

VAI TRÒ CỦA HOẠT ĐỘNG DỊCH TRONG VIỆC HỌC THUẬT NGỮ TÀI CHÍNH NGÂN HÀNG ĐỐI VỚI SINH VIÊN BIÊN PHIÊN DỊCH TRONG CUỐN SÁCH “TIẾNG ANH TÀI CHÍNH NGÂN HÀNG”

CỦA PGS.TS NGUYỄN XUÂN THƠM

Giáo viên hướng dẫn:Nguyễn Thị Thanh Vân, M.Ed Sinh viên:Đỗ Thị Ngoan

Khóa: QH2010.F1.E20

HÀ NỘI – 2015

I hereby state that I: Đỗ Thị Ngoan, QH.11.E.20, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College 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

Đỗ Thị Ngoan

Date: June, 4th 2015

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the completion of this thesis, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to

my supervisor, Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, M.Ed who gave me benefit of her wisdom

and her expert knowledge in English for Specific Purposes as well as her constant

encouragement from the very first stage of shaping the idea for the thesis, working

out the research proposal to the final stage of writing up the thesis Without her

critical comments and valuable suggestions, this study could not have been

completed

I owe a special debt of gratitude to my lecturer Nguyen Thuy Phuong Lan

who shared with me valuable experiences in choosing the topic and gave me

useful lectures during the course of English for Finance and Banking

I also take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers in the

Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU for their useful

lectures

Next, my grateful appreciation goes to participants from 11E20, 11E18, and

11E19 Without them, this study cannot be accomplished

Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents, my friends who have

been a constant source of encouragement, support, love, and care during the

course of my writing

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the efficiency of

translation activities in the acquisition of financial and banking terms in the

“English for Finance and Banking” course Next, it attempted to provide

recommendations for better integrating translation activities into the course This

study was based on a brief theoretical literature overview, analysis of the results

from the survey questionnaires and the translation test The findings of the survey

suggested that translation was an effective tool for students’ acquisition of

financial and banking terms in the “English for Finance and Banking” course in

the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU

iii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the research question 1

1.2 Research objectives 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Significance of the study 2

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Terminology 5

2.1.1 Definition of terminology 5

2.1.2 Main characteristics of terminology 6

2.2 Translation 7

2.2.1 Definition of translation 7

2.2.2 Translation as an ELT methodology 8

2.2.3 Translation as a vocabulary builder 8

2.2.4 Translation activities in the “English for Finance and Banking” course 9

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY 11

3.2 Materials 11

3.3 Data collection procedures 12

3.4 Data analysis 12

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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 14

4.1 The efficiency of translation activities in learning financial and banking terms 14 4.2 Suggestions for better applying translation activities to the course 28

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 30

5.1 Conclusions 30

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 31

REFERENCES 32

APPENDIXES 34

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LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES TABLE AND FIGURES

Table 1 Participants’ translations of the most commonly mistranslated

terms and recommended translations by the researcher Figure 1 Participants' improvement in their translation of financial and

banking terms Figure 2 Students' evaluation of the importance of financial and banking

terms in the course Figure 3 Students' perception on their acquisition of financial and banking

terms through translation activities Figure 4 Students' perception on their opportunity to apply financial and

banking terms during translation activities Figure 5 Students' perception on their teacher's explanation of new terms

Figure 6 Students' perception on their opportunity to have translation errors

related to financial and banking terms corrected by the teacher Figure 7 Students' perception on their ability to discuss the translation of

financial and banking terms with their partners Figure 8 Students' perception on their understanding of the content of

financial and banking terms through translation activities Figure 9 Students' perception on the importance of translation activities to

their acquisition of financial and banking terms

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ABBREVIATIONS

1 FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

2 EFL: English as Foreign Language

3 ESP: English for Specific Purposes

1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter aims to present the research statement, research objectives,

research questions, research significance, scope of the research, and the

organization of the study

1.1 Statement of the research question

The financial system plays a vital role in the functioning of any economy as a

whole, and banks are central to the financial system The financial system has

become even more important to Vietnam, a developing country trying to further

integrate into the global market During its globalization, there is a significant

increase in financial and banking activities with other countries As a result, the

number of financial documents in English is ever-increasing, creating a

considerable need demand for understanding these documents for successful

transactions Given the importance of comprehending financial and banking

documents, there is a question, which is how to fully understand financial and

banking texts in English William and Chesterman (2002) attach great importance

to high level of knowledge and proficiency of the related terminology in an

attempt to understand technical texts, including ones in economics In addition,

Leonardi (2009) believes that a large number of culture-bound terms are one of the

characteristics of business and financial texts which students should know to boost

their comprehension of the text

It is evident that terminology plays a pivotal part in technical texts in

general and financial and banking texts in particular There is a number of learning

strategies of terminology, namely repetition, dictionary, social strategies and so

on Among them is the strategy of learning terminology through translation

activities The researcher was studying the course “English for Finance and

Banking” at the time of this research, and translation is among the most popular

2

activities applied during the course As a fourth-year student whose first major is

English translation and interpretation and double major is international economics,

the researcher has a great passion for translation activities provided during the

course Therefore, the researcher has come up with an idea of making an

investigation on “roles of translation activities in learning financial and

banking terminology in the book “English for Finance and Banking” by

Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Xuan Thom to FELTE students majoring in

translation”

Hopefully, the study may be of some use to learners and teachers of the

ESP course, in general and English for Finance and Banking, in particular

1.2 Research objectives

The problem discussed in the paper is the roles of translation activities in

the acquisition of financial and banking terminology Firstly, this study would

examine how translation activities can contribute to the acquisition of financial

and banking terminology Next, the study would offer suggestions for better

applying translation activities into the course

1.3 Research questions

To achieve this goal, the current research tries to answer the following

questions:

1 To what extent do translation activities help students to acquire financial

and banking terminology?

2 What are the suggestions to better integrate translation activities into the

course, as perceived by students?

1.4 Significance of the study

3

First and foremost, the study is expected to be beneficial for learners of the

“English for Finance and Banking” course They may be well aware of the need of

understanding terminology for a better access to financial and banking documents

Next, they may, to a certain extent, recognize the importance of translation

activities in acquiring financial and banking terminology As a result, they may be

more active in taking part in these activities

Secondly, the study is also expected to serve as a preliminary document for

further investigation on the issue The researcher has no ambition of investigating

the roles of translation activities in learning terminology to EFL students of all

majors but those majoring in translation, who have little or no experience of

economic knowledge Therefore, the study may help to establish the foundation

for further investigation on translation activities as a terminology learning method

in particular, and on the roles of translation activities as a teaching method in

general

1.5 Scope of the study

Within limited time, resources, conditions, and the length of the thesis, the

researcher focuses only on the roles of translation activities during the “English for

Finance and Banking” course in learning terminology to FELTE students majoring

in translation The population is the fourth-year students majoring in translation,

whose experience of economic knowledge is little or nothing

1.6 Organization of the study

The study consists of five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 is a brief introduction of investigated translation phenomenon and

the main content of the study

Chapter 2 presents relevant knowledge as well as available research findings

Chapter 3 informs research methodology applied in the study

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a review of literature related to terminology and the

use of translation activities as a learning method

2.1 Terminology

2.1.1 Definition of terminology

Terminology, as being defined by Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is the set of

technical words or expressions used in a particular subject According to the

definition given by the International Association of Terminology in 1982,

terms do not just relate to knowledge in general but to a particular field of it It

states that “terminology is concerned with the study and use of the systems of

symbols and linguistic signs employed for human communication in

specialized areas of knowledge and activities” Terminology has been also

defined differently by both domestic and abroad foreign linguists For instance,

Do, H C (1981) defines terms as specialized words of a particular field

Compared to the definition proposed by Do, the one by Nguyen, T G (1998)

seems to be more informative Nguyen defines terms as a special linguistic

unit of language with exact definition and objectives, belonging to a specific

aspect of science From this definition, we can understand that a term is a

specialized word in relation to its meaning and the field in which it is used

Such definitions raise the need of making a distinction between terms and

words In order to establish the limit between a term and a word, it is important

to know the characteristics of terms in a specialized language According to

Nguyen, T G (1998), characteristics of terminology are accurateness,

systematicism, internationalism, popularity and nationality In addition, Baker

(1998, p 261) adds further important differences between terms and words as

follows:

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1 Terms have special reference within a particular discipline whereas

words function in general reference over a variety of subject fields

2 Terms keep their lives and meanings only for as long as they serve the

system of knowledge that gave rise to them

2.1.2 Main characteristics of terminology

Both Nguyen, T G (1998) and Luu, V L (1977) agree that characteristics

of terminology are accurateness, systematicism, internationalism, popularity and

Terms are used internationally because they are special words expressing

common scientific concepts Therefore, agreements on terms are of great

significance to the development of various aspects of life

Popularity

Popularity means that terms should be close to the language of the masses

In other words, terms should be easy-to-remember, and easy-to-understand

Nationality

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Despite belonging to a particular subject field, terms are still a part of a

language system of a nation They, therefore, bear all the characteristics of a

nation’s language in terms of lexicology, forms and grammar

2.2 Translation

2.2.1 Definition of translation

Many translation theorists regard translation as a transfer process from the

source language to the target language Nida (1964, p.83) defines translation as

“reproducing the receptor language the natural equivalent of the source language

message, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style.” Similarly,

Catford (1965, p.20) defines translation as “the replacement of textual material in

one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language.”

However, many theorists in translation regarded a translator as a “message

conveyor.” For instance, Peter Newmark (1981, p.7) defines translation as “a craft

consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one

language by the same message and/or statement in another language

Therefore, translation may be defined as a process whereby a message is

linguistically transformed for TL readers to understand

Definitions of technical translation

The first feature of technical translation is specialized terms According to

Newmark (1988), despite accounting for only 5-10% of technical text, terminology

is what distinguishes technical translation from other forms of translation Sofer

(1999) also claims that the translation of a text may be called technical when it

requires specialized terms in a particular field

Through two definitions above, it is evident that technical translation is viewed

as specialized translation Furthermore, Newmark (1995, p.152), mentions three

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types or levels of technical language, namely “academic style associated with

academic papers”, “professional style which refers to formal terms used by

expert”, and “the popular one including familiar alternative terms”

2.2.2 Translation as an ELT methodology

Translation has long been a controversial issue on whether it is an effective

tool in foreign language learning Its roles are perceived differently by different

linguists and teachers Newson (1988) criticizes translation for having four

negative impacts Firstly, translation encourages students to think in one

language, and translate into another, which interrupts learning process

Secondly, translation deprives students of opportunities to practisce foreign

language Thirdly, translation gives students the false belief of having perfect

one-to-one equivalent between languages Finally, translation does not support

students’ achievements of generally accepted aims

However, recently there has been an increasing interest in the translation

activities in the foreign language classroom Many studies have shown positive

effects of translation in the foreign language classroom For example, a study

conducted by Laufer and Girsai (2008) shows that the use of translation to

explain differences in words and expressions between two languages proves to

be the most effective way for vocabulary acquisition

2.2.3 Translation as a vocabulary builder

Vocabulary is a key element in second language learning This is because

though grammar is important for meaning, without vocabulary no message is

conveyed Vocabulary learning does not simply involve individual words

There is always a wide range of other words which can co-occur or collate with

a given word Moreover, business and financial texts are characterized by

specialized terms which should be known by students in order to boost their

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comprehension of the texts For example, the term “advance” may be

interpreted either as money paid earlier than expected, or as an increase in the

price or the value of something Given those characteristics of vocabulary in

general, and business terms in particular, translation has proved to be an

effective tool in vocabulary learning Thanks to translation, students can find

an equivalent in their mother language tongue to a term in the second language

Students learn vocabulary through translation in two stages Firstly, students

are taught to make a connection between the meaning and the form of the

word Then, they learn when to use or not to use the word, its word

relationship, its nuances, and so on Through translation activities, students are

encouraged to take specialized terms into consideration in order to get a

successful translation In addition, for the best result, the texts chosen for

translation should be authentic

2.2.4 Translation activities in the “English for Finance and Banking”

course

There are two main activities applied during the course, which are sight

translation and written translation

Sight translation: Sight translation is the oral rendition of a SL written text into

a TL text in a moment Sight translation involves the ability of writte n text

comprehension or reading skills and the ability of oral rendition or speaking skills

During the course, students were sometimes required to perform translation in

class in an attempt to comprehend the knowledge or content of each chapter

Written translation: Written translation is the rendering of a written text in

one language into a relevant written text in another language Written translation

involves the ability of written text comprehension or reading skills, and the ability

of written rendition Unlike sight translation, written translation provides greater

amount of time and other resources for translators to find out the best translation

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approach to the original text During the course, students regularly did written

translation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa at home The teacher then

checked and gave comments on students’ translation drafts

11

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOG Y OF THE STUDY

This chapter discusses in detail the research methodology adopted in this study

with description of the participants, materials, data collection procedures , and

data analysis

3.1 Participants

With the population of 90 students, 74 fourth-year students from 11E18,

11E19, and 11E20 were selected to be the participants of the study The

participants were studying the course “English for Finance and Banking” at the

time of this research The researcher chose the sample size of 74 students with the

aim of reaching the confidence level of 95% and the confidence interval of 5%

3.2 Materials

To answer the research questions, the first translation drafts were collected and

analyzed In addition, a test and a survey questionnaire were developed and

administered respectively to the same participants

In the course, students had to prepare translation tasks at home aft er each

lesson First drafts of E-V and V-A translation were collected and analyzed The

researcher found translation errors related to financial and banking terms and used

those errors as materials to design the test

A multiple-choice translation test in finance and banking from English to

Vietnamese and vice versa consisted of 20 sentences for translation Each item

was an English or Vietnamese sentence extracted from the translation exercises of

the book “English for Finance and Banking” Those sentences included financial

and banking terms that were commonly mistranslated by the participants Each

item had four equivalents, only one of which was the best and the most accurate

translation of that sentence The others were the wrong translations of the

participants

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Questionnaires were designed as a tool to get students’ evaluation on the

effectiveness of translation activities and their suggestions for better integrating

translation activities into the course Questionnaires would help to answer the

questions of “To what extent do translation activities help students to acquire

financial and banking terminology?” and “What are the suggestions to better

integrate translation activities into the course, as perceived by students?”

3.3 Data collection procedures

The first phase: the researcher collected and analyzed the first translation

drafts of the participants to find mistranslated terms of finance and banking

Sentences including the most commonly mistranslated terms were gathered to be

used as materials for the test

The second phase: the test and questionnaires were administered to the

participants at the beginning of the fourth year’s second semester At this time, the

participants had completed the “English for Finance and Banking” course

Therefore, the time of implementing the test was also suitable to assess whether

the participants made any improvements in acquiring financial and banking terms

through translation activities

3.4 Data analysis

To assess the extent of impacts of translation activities, the researcher

calculated the percent improvement rate of the participants’ term translation from

their first translation drafts to the test The improvement rate was calculated from

the formula: ×100 In which, IR was the

improvement rate, P(test) was the percentage of participants mistranslating

financial and banking terms in the test, and P(1st draft) was the percentage of

participants that made translation mistakes related to financial and banking terms

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in their first translation drafts The improvement rates would show the relationship

between translation activities and students’ acquisition of financial and banking

terms

The collected data from the survey questionnaires would be presented in

graphs, and discussed in details The results from survey questionnaires would

show the participants’ assessment of the significance of translation activities and

their suggestions for better applying translation activities into the course

14

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, all the collected data from the translation test and the

survey questionnaires were respectively presented and discussed Charts and table

were used for better presentation

The survey questionnaires and translation test were distributed to 74

students from 11E18, 11E19, and 11E20; however, only 68 students responded

The results were presented and discussed in detail as follows

4.1 The efficiency of translation activities in learning financial and

banking terms

Translation activities are applied in the course with the aim of improving

students’ understanding of specialized knowledge Translation activities in this

course did not aim to train professional translators, but to help learners gain

general knowledge of finance and banking

Fourth-year students majoring in translation are considered to be proficient in

English, but Finance and Banking is not their major Generally, they do not have

deep understanding of this field In fourth year’s first semester, English for

Finance and Banking was introduced to fourth-year students majoring in

translation with the purpose of equipping them with general knowledge and

common terms in Finance and Banking, which aimed to open their future job

opportunity Given the importance of financial and banking terms, the relationship

between translation activities and the acquisition of financial and banking terms

was questioned in the present study This relationship is of great significance when

there is a lot of controversy about whether translation should be applied in a

language class The present research studied the impacts of translation activities on

the students’ acquisition of financial and banking terms If a high correlation

happens between translation activities and students’ acquisition of financial and

15

banking terms, one may claim that translation activities have positive influences

on students’ term acquisition However, if a low correlation happens between

translation activities and students’ term acquisition, one may doubt that translation

activities help students acquire financial and banking terms In other words, the

lower the correlation is, the less important the roles of translation activities in

students’ term acquisition are In order to find the answer solutions to this

problem, the researcher assessed students’ improvement in acquiring financial and

banking terms through translation activities by comparing the percentage of

participants who mistranslated financial and banking terms in their first drafts and

that in the test The summary of the participants’ translation of the most commonly

mistranslated terms in their first translation drafts and recommended translations

by the researcher, which were included in the test, was shown in the table 1 below:

No Financial and banking

terms

Participants’ translation Recommended

translation by the researcher

1 Cơ sở để trao đổi - Foundation for

- The open market

open market operations

5 Dự trữ ngoại tệ - Foreign currency

store

- Foreign currency accumulation

foreign currency reserve

6 Mức thu nhập của mình

trên thực tế

- Their own incomes

- Their income

their real incomes

7 Lãi suất tiền cho vay - Interest rates

- Discount rate

Lending interest rates

8 Hiệp hội có tư cách pháp

nhân hoạt động kinh

doanh chứng khoán

- Association with legal personality security business

- An association with legal person status operating in securities business

A legal entity running stock business

9 Sở giao dịch chứng khoán - New York stock New York Stock

17

New York transaction office

- New York Stock Exchange

- Receiving and lending

Receiving deposits and providing loans

11 Hiệu ứng nhân rộng - Scaling effects

- The mounting effect

The multiplier effect

12 Trái phiếu - Stocks

- Securities

Bonds

13 Mất giá đối ngoại và đối

nội của đồng tiền

- Money loses its domestic and foreign values

- The devaluation of foreign and domestic money

- Chính sách thuế và chi tiêu tài chính

Các chính sách tài khóa

về chi tiêu và thuế

17 Flexible bargaining power - Sức trả giá linh hoạt

- Khả năng mặc cả linh hoạt

Khả năng xoay sở tài chính

18 Paying larger budgets with

tax revenues

- Trả ngân sách nhiều hơn với doanh thu thuế

- Trả tiền thuế nhiều hơn

Thu được nhiều tiền thuế nhiều hơn

19 Transfers of income - Việc thu nhập được

- Tài liệu nợ nần dài hạn

Công cụ nợ dài hạn