A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University

A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University

During the process of conducting, I have received a great deal of support andassistance from the teachers, family and friends who bring me a lot of motivation tocomplete this thesis Thus, I would like to show acknowledgement to them

First of all, I would like to express my deepest and most sincere thanks to mysupervisor, Ms Pham Thi Xuan Ha, who is always willing to help me from the topicselection as well as the completing process of this study With her depth ofknowledge, she convincingly guided and encouraged me to be professional and dothe right thing even when the road got tough Without her persistent help, the goal

of this project would not have been realized

Secondly, I wish to show my gratitude to Thuongmai University andespecially the English Faculty’s teachers, who taught me useful knowledge andlessons about life during 4 years Thanks to the assistance of the college board,principal, and teachers, I have been given the best condition and facilities to finish

my college curriculum

In addition, I would like to give my thank to my second-year English majors atThuongmai University for their warm co-operation during the time I collected dataand information for my research

Finally, I would like to express my indebtedness to my family and friends whoalways stand by me and give me their supports to accomplish this study

Because of limited time, awareness and practical experience, the study couldnot avoid shortcomings and errors Therefore, I look forward to receiving commentsand suggestions in order to improve this study

Hanoi, 10 April 2021

Student

Ha Thi Quy Hong

Nowadays, with the development of the world economy, English has become

an extremely important tool in all fields Therefore, translation also becomeindispensable area to help writers convey the message to reader

Understanding the importance of translation, Thuongmai University has puttranslation subjects into operation for students as bachelor of English faculty.However, most of these students met several difficulties in grammar when theyconducted translation This study was carried out to find out the commongrammatical errors in Vietnamese - English translation encountered by second-yearEnglish major students at Thuongmai University The data was collected from 33students of translation class in the second years in English Department.Observation, documentation and questionnaire survey are the techniques incollecting data

The results of the study suggest a number of potential errors students are prone

to making when translating text from Vietnamese to English The researcher found

100 errors in total from nine categories that are subject-verb agreement, tense usage,voice usage, prepositions, articles, adjectives, singular and plural forms, parallelstructure, and word order Then, the study also provides some practical guidelinesfor teachers and students so that they can help students deal with these types oferrors in Vietnamese-English translations

TABLES OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

Every country in the world has its own language, which creates culturaldiversity However, nowadays, to communicate with each other, they need acommon language and that is English In order for the process of cooperation andexchange between countries to take place smoothly, translation into English activityhas become people’s urgent need Thanks to English-translated versions, countriescan have a mutual understanding and a sense of global citizenship in themultilingual world It is considered an effective means to learn how to appreciatedifferent countries, cultures, communities, and people Moreover, Englishtranslation makes people understand each other better in the process of diplomaticrelations and economic cooperation, and other fields when countries tend tointegrate for comprehensive development

In Vietnam, when the country becomes one of the members of the World TradeOrganization, Vietnamese-English translation has gradually become anindispensable and urgent tool, creating the success of individuals, organizations, andeven businesses Because English is considered a second language after only thenative language, Vietnamese students need professional translation skills to meet theneeds of integration into the world economy and cultural exchanges with othercountries The Vietnamese-English translation skill is very useful to help students inanalyzing, producing the document, text for learning, and finding the ideal jobs inthe future

However, translation is not an easy work and is a combination of art and skills

It needs a comprehension of the structure of both source and target language indeed

to make a good translation result One of the language aspects required in a goodand readable translation is grammar The use of grammar influences the meaning ormessage of the translated text since producing the equivalent message Grammarmistakes that appear in translation will deliver different messages that areunacceptable and incomprehensible to the readership Moreover, it will be a greatproblem if errors occur in academic writing In particular, Vietnamese and English

are two languages from the East and the West, which have obvious differences ingrammar The existence of different grammar rules in English and Vietnamese ispossibly the reason why students often do errors For instance, English has theconcept of tenses for verb and subject-verb agreement, while grammar inVietnamese does not have any.

Regarding the existing problem of grammatical aspect and given that thestudents of English faculty at Thuongmai University in particular and othertranslators, in general, make some mistakes in translating Vietnamese -English textwhich leads to not fully convey the meaning of the original to the reader, I have

decided to choose the topic: “A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of second-year English-majored students

at Thuongmai University” for my graduation paper The aim of the study is to

figure out common errors in translation from Vietnamese to English and offersolutions for students in improving translation skills I hope the study can help thestudents have a suitable learning method to get the best result

1.2 Previous studies

Learning English and translation is not easy so many students sometimes meetdifficulties and make errors in the translation process To find out and overcome thedifficulties and the errors, research topics on issues of “common errors intranslation” have been studied by many different researchers around the world ingeneral and in Vietnam in particular Relating my graduation paper’s topic, there areseveral previous studies that I have consulted for my thesis

1.2.1 Foreign researchers

The first study was made by Matius Tandikombong, Haryanto Atmowardoyo

and Sukardi Weda The topic was "Grammatical Errors in the English Translation Made by the Students of English Study Program of UKI Toraja" In this study, they

divided the sample of this study into two groups: the six-semester and the semester students to find out the different levels of UKI Toraja After handing outliterature reviews, she has conducted a real survey and used the findings of thesurvey to verify it The grammatical errors were mentioned in that study were thewrong verb, noun, conjunction, pronoun, adjective, adverb, article, and preposition

fourth-In addition, the study showed that the most frequent errors are errors in verbs andthat most of the errors are due to overgeneralization and ignorance of the rulerestriction.

The second study was "Investigating Grammatical Errors in Translation "

made by Muslih Hambali in Sriwijaya University Palembang, Indonesia Thesample consists of 30 students They were asked about common errors encounteredduring translating process After conducting the study and using a descriptivequantitative method, the research showed that the major types of errors made by thestudents were related to incomplete clauses having no either subject, verbs, orneither both, subject-verb agreement, and the absence of subordinators and pluralnouns Out of the six types of identified grammatical errors, incomplete pluralnouns ranked number one followed by the absence of verb and subject-verbagreement Through this study, the researchers also provided useful informationabout translation and some suggestions to correct these errors

1.2.2 Vietnamese researchers

A study was made by Nguyen Thi Thu Hang and Trieu Thu Hang at VNU

University of Languages and International Studies The title was English translation errors made by second-year translation-major students” The

“Vietnamese-researchers identified common Vietnamese-English translation errors made bysecond-year students and propose some suggestions for the improvement of thecurrent practice After conducting the study and using the descriptive quantitativemethod, the researchers discovered the most common linguistic errors were lexicalchoice and other common errors including lengthy and awkward expressions whilesome grammar errors such as misuse of articles, punctuation, and plural or singularforms were not a serious problem for students Thus, they suggested some valuablesolutions to improve these problems

Another one is the study on “Common structural errors in Vietnamese English translation made by English majored students at Duy Tan University”

-implemented by Bui Thi Kim Phung The instruments in the study includeddocument observations, questionnaires, and interviews The study indicated thatcommon errors made by the students included Omission of Subject, Inappropriate

Choice of Subject or Predicate, Inappropriate Choice of Negative Form, and Lack

of Main Clause in Complex Sentences Noticeably, errors caused by “hidden”elements in Vietnamese sentences were the most common The study not only findscommon errors in translating English text but also figures out factors influencingthe students’ errors in doing translation and suggests solutions to improvetranslation skills

In summary, through these studies above, the researchers investigated somecommon errors in the translating process and some grammatical errors in translatinginto English However, English grammar is extensive and these studies did notcover all problems Therefore, I hope my study can bring full of these errors andcomprehensive solutions to improve this problem

1.3 Aims of the study

Firstly, the main aim of the thesis is to figure out the common grammaticalerrors in translating from Vietnamese text to English faced by second-year Englishmajor students at Thuongmai University so that they are fully aware of and able toavoid them The study also classifies the difficulties and explains the causes whichlead to the difficulties in translating processes Secondly, the report also suggestssome possible strategies for students to help them gain the best learning methods toovercome the problems

1.4 Research Subjects

The research subjects of the study are common grammatical errors faced bysecond-year students when translating from Vietnamese text to English The studyalso offers solutions for students and teachers to obtain the best learning andstudying translation methods

1.5 Scope of the study

According to the curriculum of Thuongmai university, students of Englishmajor at Thuongmai University will take a translation course in the third year.However, to meet the practical needs of students, now second-year students can alsoregister to study translation earlier than the program of study In this subject, theyhave to study both English-Vietnamese translation and Vietnamese- Englishtranslation Because of the limitation of time, resources, and my knowledge, this

study focuses on analyzing the errors in grammar in the Vietnamese-Englishtranslation The study is conducted for second-year students of English faculty whostudy translation earlier than the program of study at Thuongmai University Thereason is that they have knowledge about English and have just got a grammarreview in the first year They understand the importance and difficulty level oflearning English in general and practice translating Vietnamese-English inparticular The study is conducted in semester 2 of the school year 2020-2021.

1.6 Research methodology

To study the grammatical common errors in translating from Vietnamese intoEnglish and get accurate findings, the researcher attempts to address the researchquestions from both qualitative and quantitative approaches, then compare, contrast,supplement, and especially produce the most adequate outcomes

- Document observations

All of the databases are collected some necessary documents from reliablesources via the internet, websites, and books Besides, I read some previous studiesrelated to translation and grammar to get more knowledge to conduct the study

- Questionnaire survey

A survey questionnaire is a method of data collection that has beenimplemented for the surveyed students The questionnaires were designed forstudents in the way that the researcher finds information easily to summarize andanalyze the collected data The researcher research and design questions forparticipants It includes questions related to common mistakes made whentranslating, the factors that cause them, and their solutions to improve Thequestionnaire was conducted through the internet, there will be an applicationsystem that will statistically answer specific questions The questionnaire wasdesigned in the form of Numerical rating scales and Multiple-choice items andcomprised both closed-ended and open-ended questions Then the researcher seekshelp from second-year students major English who are studying translating subjects.For the most objective results, the researcher asks them to pay attention andseriously answer the questions in their own views Participants included 34 studentsfrom K55N in translation class The quantitative method will help the researchers

calculate, analyze and evaluate easily the information and data source Then, it willgive reliable figures which are displayed in charts or diagrams.

- Collected translations from students and tests

The researcher uses mini test papers which help exploit more information anddatabases Besides, some sentences and phrases will be given to them and ask forhelp from them by translating from Vietnamese into English Then, the researcherfinds out the grammatical errors, analysis and corrects them The qualitative method

is used to analyze, synthesize and explain the difficulties of the students

1.7 Organization of the study

This study focuses on four primary following chapters, including:

- The first chapter is an overview of the study The chapter helps readers understandgenerally about the study including seven part: Rationale, Previous studies, Aims ofthe study, Research subjects, Scope of the study, Research methodology andOrganization of the study

- The second chapter is literature review In this chapter, the researcher providesconcepts related to the term of translation, theories concerning Vietnamese-Englishtranslation and it is considered a premise for the assumptions and discussions in thethird chapter

- The third chapter is the research findings In this chapter, the researcher expresseshow to collect and process the data The researcher shows results of the survey andanalyzes them

- The last chapter is recommendations and suggestions After finding out thedifficulties in translating and showing demonstrations through the results of thesurvey questionnaire, the research offers several solutions for both students andteachers to get the most effective learning and teaching methods in the translationsubject

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Translation theory

2.1.1 Definition of translation

There are many ways to define translation which depends on how scholarsview language and translation There are so many concepts of translation and theseveral following definitions are typical ones

According to Wikipedia, translation is the communication of the meaning of asource-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text The text to betranslated is called the "source text," and the language that it is to be translated into

is called the "target language"; the final product is sometimes called the "targettext."

Newmark (1981) indicates that translation is “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” He also describes “Translation is as a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language with the same message and/or statement

in another language”

Roger Thomas Bell (1991) says that translation is the expression in anotherlanguage (target language) of what has been expressed in one language (sourcelanguage), preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences The translation is thereplacement of a presentation of a text in one language by a representation of anequivalent text in a second language He focuses on the expression that has beenexpressed in the written text such as thoughts or feelings of the author thattranslators have to take responsibility to preserve semantic and stylisticequivalencies

In the definition of Ghazala (1995), "translation is generally used to refer to all the processes and methods used to convey the meaning of the source language into the target language" The concept focuses on the notion of meaning as an

essential element in translation When translating, understanding the meaning ofsource text is vital to have the appropriate equivalent in the target text thus, it ismeaning that is translated in relation to grammar, style, and sounds

In the four above definitions, we can see that the definition of Wikipedia is themost basic one The above concepts are aimed at conveying the meaning of thesource text to the target text to help the listener fully and completely grasp the maincontent of the source text However, compared with the basic concept of Wikipedia,the other three concepts of scholars have different elements In particular, in Mr.Ghazala's translation concept, this concept not only refers to the community of thesource text but also related to the process and method to convey the source text intothe target text The important factor when doing the translation process is to focus

on the grammar and style of the source text This method displays the exact

contextual meaning of the original text in such a way that both the content and thelanguage are easily accepted and understood In Mr Roger's concept, the translationshould reveal honestly the thoughts and feelings of the author The translation notonly makes the reader grasp the main idea of the original text but also must capturethe expressed thoughts and feelings This translation is mainly used in novels thathelp listeners to fully step into the real space that the author has drawn.

In summary, although there are many definitions of translation, they supportthat translation is the replacement of a written text or utterance from one languageinto another language, which remains equivalence in content, the purpose ofcommunication, or pragmatic In translation, it emphasizes the “equivalence” of twolanguages, the source language, and the target language

2.1.2 Translation methods

In “A textbook of translation” by Peter Newmark, he has proposed to look attranslation methods as a continuum between the emphasis on Source Language (SL)and the emphasis on Target Language (TL) He considers a scale of eight levels:

(1) Word-for-word translation Adaptation (5)

(3) Faithful translation Idiomatic translation (7)

(4) Semantic translation Communicative translation (8)

Diagram 1: Diagram V Newmark,1988

2.1.2.1 Word-for-word translation

In word-for-word translation, the SL word order is preserved and the wordstranslated by their most common meanings, so translators seek to translate anoriginal word by the same target word as much as possible In addition, the order ofwords of the original language will be followed as closely as possible The main use

of this type of translation is either to understand the mechanics of the sourcelanguage or to construe a difficult text as a pre-translation process

E.g: Tôi biết chơi bóng chuyền

 I know play volleyball.

2.1.2.2 Literal translation

Literal translation is a mode of translation that remains close to the form of theoriginal In other words, “translation which gives priority to lexical correspondencesand results in ungrammatical sentences or it could also mean a translation that is asclose as possible to the original while ensuring TL grammaticality (but notnaturalness)” (Palumbo, Giuseppe)

E.g: He looked up at the Milky Way

 Anh ta nhìn lên con đường màu sữa.

2.1.2.3 Faithful translation

A faithful translation tries to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of theoriginal within the constraints of the target language grammatical structures Ittransfers cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical

“abnormality” (deviation from the source language norms) in the translation Itattempts to be completely faithful to the intentions and the text realization of thesource language writer This kind of translation is used for literary translation,authoritative texts, drafts

E.g: He is as fast as a kangaroo

Anh ta nhanh như một con kanguru.

E.g: She has a sunny smile on her face

 Cô bé có gương mặt với nụ cười tỏa nắng.

2.1.2.5 Adaptation

Adaptation is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes,characters and plots are usually preserved, the source language culture converted tothe target language culture and the text is rewritten Depending on the language andcultural style of the translator, plays and poems are translated differently These

works have original meaning but due to having different writing styles, they makereaders have different feelings about each translation.

E.g: Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way

 Vẫn triền miên như sao trời lấp lánh

Và lung linh trên dải sáng Ngân Hà.

2.1.2.6 Free translation

Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the contentwithout the form of the original Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than theoriginal Free translation focuses on the content of the target text rather than theform, which means that the same content is expressed in the target text but withvery different grammatical structures if need be

E.g: The film was beyond any words

Bộ phim không chê vào đâu được.

2.1.2.7 Idiomatic translation

Idomatic translation is where the meaning of original is translated into formswhich most accurately and naturally preserve the meaning of the original forms.Idomatic refers to being in the common language of average speakers, using thenatural phrases and idoms of the language

E.g: He leads a peasant’s hard life

 Anh ấy sống cuộc sống chân lấm tay bùn

2.1.2.8 Communicative translation

It attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such away that both language and content are readily acceptable and comprehensive to thereadership The communicative translation is freer and gives priority to theeffectiveness of the message to be communicated It focuses on factors such asreadability and naturalness and is appropriate to translations of “pragmatic” textswhere the actual form of the original is not closely bound to its intended meaning.E.g: Safe stopping distance

 Giữ khoảng cách an toàn

2.2 The factors influence the translating process

In fact, there are many factors influencing the translation, such as SL writer,

SL norms, SL culture, SL setting and tradition, TL relationship, TL norms, TLculture, TL setting and tradition, the truth (the facts of the matter), and thetranslator However, in the Vietnamese-English translation process, there are severalfactors that influence the translation most According to Thanh Thuy (Commonerrors on verb tenses and word choices in Vietnamese-English translations), thereare four factors that influence the translating process They are the mother tongue,words and choices of word meanings, grammatical structures and context oftranslation

2.2.1 The mother tongue

The mother tongue is the language we use often in our lives, so it is ingrained

in our thoughts, subconscious and words Therefore, when learning the secondlanguage, we are easily influenced by the mother tongue According Thanh Thuy,

“in the process of learning a foreign language, the mother tongue shapes our way ofthinking, and to some extent, our use of the target language (word order, choice ofwords)” And the translation is no exception Our mother tongue is Vietnamese, and

we all know Vietnamese is a complex language with a variety of structures,vocabulary and Vietnamese have many differences compared to English Therefore,when we learn English, the influence of Vietnamese is natural

E.g: Vietnamese: Tôi muốn mua một ngôi nhà to

English: I want to buy a house big.

Because of the influence of Vietnamese, this sentence is wrong when wordorder is not true It should be “I want to buy a big house” Therefore, we must knowhow to use the similarity between Vietnamese and English, and we must also knowthe difference to be able to translate better

2.2.2 Words and choice of words

Words are essential for any language learner to build their vocabulary to get anadvantage in their language learning Vocabulary is a very important factor ofcommunication; It brings with it the ability to communicate effectively Developingvocabulary will open up opportunities for students to learn translation With a

translation text, when learners have no difficulty in new words, they can easilytranslate into the target language and have a good translation On the contrary, they

do not seem to translate Most English words have many meanings; The exactmeaning of a word can only be expressed in context, so choosing the right language

is crucial for a successful translation, as Thanh Thuy said “with a translation text,when learners have no difficulty in new words, it is easy for them to translate intothe TL In contrast, they seem to fail translating

compared to other languages It follows a very strict structure while the Vietnameselanguage is much more flexible There are many tenses in English, they are usedwith a specific structure In the case, if using the wrong structure, readers cannotunderstand or misunderstand Therefore, using the correct and appropriate structure

is also an important factor to help you have a successful translation

E.g: Vietnamese: Tôi đã học tiếng Anh 7 năm nay

English: I have learned English for 7 years.

The tense of the verb is the present perfect tense, it shows an action whichhappened in the past, and up to now or in the future

In conclusion, grammatical structures in English are so complicated and noteasy to master It requires the learners have to find an effective way of learning tostudy and practice more if they want to limit grammar errors in using English ingeneral and specifically in translation subject as skilled translators

2.2.4 Context of translation

A language is one of the best ways to see and understand the world It is thevehicle of our ideas, thoughts and perspectives of our world Because humans areessentially a social animal we perpetually interact with our environment This

interaction with the environment is a factor of time and space Whenever andwherever we are interacting determines what actually we are meaning.

For example, “Do you see the principal” The word "principal" has a number

of meanings like a head of an institute, the center of something, a protagonist of amovie or a capital source, et cetera Without certain context, we will translate thesentence as "Bạn có nhìn thấy hiệu trưởng không?" Ad in the movie theater scene,when two people are talking about the movie, the sentence translates as "Anh cónhìn thấy nhân vật chính không?” That demonstrates context also influences ourtranslating process

2.3 Grammar

According to Thornbury (1999), grammar is partly the study of what forms (orstructure) are possible in a language Traditionally, grammar has been concernedalmost exclusively with analysis of the level of sentences Thus, grammar is adescription of the rules that govern how language sentences are formed Grammar is

a term used to mean many different things When teachers and administrators growfrustrated over error in students’ writing, they often call for a return to “the basic”which they define as grammar (Williams in Andy, 2012)

Another viewpoint said that “Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use language.

T can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available n English And it can help everyone not only teachers of English but teachers of anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning” (David Crystal, “in Words and Deed”, TES Teacher, April 30, 2004).

Wikipedia also defines that “Grammar is the set of the structural rules thatgoverns the composition of clauses, phrases and words in any given naturallanguage The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includesmorphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semanticsand pragmatics”

Besides, we can see another definition about grammar is that “The wholesystem and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as

consisting of syntax and morphology, etc A particular analysis of the system andstructure of language or of a specific language”.

In general, grammar is the structure and system of a language, which help usunderstand a language And English grammar is the way in which meanings areencoded into wordings in the English language This includes the structure ofwords, phrases, clauses, and sentences, tenses and right up to the structure of wholetexts

2.4 Error

2.4.1 Definition of error

According Oxford Dictionary, error is the state or condition of being wrong inconduct or judgement Merram Webster also defines that “error is the amount ofdeviation from a standard or specification” In general, error means an act involving

an unintentional deviation from truth or accuracy

2.4.2 Errors in English grammar

According to Corder (1981), the grammatical errors are divided into fourclassifications: error of omission, error of addition, error of selection, and error ofordering

Another model of grammatical errors classification is created by Keshavarz(1994) that classified the grammatical errors into 14 types the collected into twomain categories The first main category is Lexico-Semantic category and thesecond main category is Syntactico-Morphologycal category The first maincategory covers cross-association and false cognate, therefore the second maincategory covers errors in the use of tenses, the use of subject-verb agreement inindirect questions, the use of quantifiers and intensifiers, the use of prepositions, thearticles, active and passive voice, the relative clauses and pronoun, errors in the use

of “it is” instead of “there is”, lack of subject-verb inversion in wh-question, wronguse of parts of speech, errors due to lack of concord, and use of parallel structuresand word order

2.4.2.1 Combination between Subject and Verb (Subject-Verb Agreement)

In English, subject-verb agreement is important Unlike in other languages thatrequire that subject and verb agree in both number and gender, English verbs are not

conjugated for gender and so require only that they match in number For example,

if a subject is singular, the verb form must also be singular Likewise, if a subject isplural, the verb must also be plural

E.g: Incorrect: She see you

Correct: She sees you.

2.4.2.2 Tense usage

The term “tense” simply indicates the time Therefore, we form a relationship

in time in utterance or speech by using the correct tense of Verb

According to Quirk R (2010), there are only 2 main tenses in English: presentand past tense which cannot be considered separately from 4 aspects (denote themanner in which the action is performed): simple, progressive, perfectiveprogressive aspect

have/ has +been+ Ved2

Ving had + Ved2 had been +Ved2

Table 2.1: Tense in English

There is no obvious future tense in English corresponding to the time/ tenserelation for present and past Instead, there are several possibilities for denotingfuture time Futurity, modality, and aspect are closely related, and future time isrendered by means of modal auxiliaries or semi-auxiliaries, or by simple presentforms or progressive forms The errors in tense occur when learners combine two ormore tenses that are not synchronic in a sentence or they have difficulty in choosing

a tense that suits the context of the sentence

E.g: Incorrect: She promised she will not tell anyone my secret

Correct: She promised she would not tell anyone my secret

2.4.2.3 Voice usage

An author may write a sentence in one of two "voices"- active or passive Theactive voice emphasizes the performer (or agent) of the action The active voice is

direct, vigorous, clear, and concise The reader knows who is responsible for theaction.

The passive voice, in contrast, emphasizes the receiver (or product) of theaction The passive voice is indirect and can be weak, awkward, and wordy Passivevoice uses a form of the verb to be followed by a past participle (e.g., dispersed,investigated) and a by phrase The reader will not directly know who or whatperformed the action

However, the active and passive voice are not grammatically correct orincorrect; translator often choose inappropriately which voice to use The passivevoice has the effect of removing the actor from the subject position or from thesentence entirely This removal is appropriate in certain situations, particularly inscience and business Otherwise, you should typically use the active voice

E.g: Incorrect: I poured the solution into the beaker

Correct: The solution was poured into the beaker

In this example, the active voice would be inappropriate here if this is part of alab report In science writing, the person performing an experiment should beirrelevant to the process We should use the passive voice, the "I" can be removedfrom the sentence

2.4.2.4 Prepositions

According to Cambridge Dictionary, a preposition is a word that is used before

a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun, connecting it to another word Prepositionsindicate direction, time, location, and spatial relationships, as well as other abstracttypes of relationships

Direction: Look to the left and you’ll see our destination.

Time: We’ve been working since this morning.

Location: We saw a movie at the theatre.

Space: The dog hid under the table.

Unfortunately, there’s no reliable formula for determining which preposition touse with a particular combination of words Some preposition errors are missing,redundant, or misuse of prepositions

2.2.4.5 Articles

In English there are three articles: a, an, and the Articles are used beforenouns or noun equivalents and are a type of adjective The definite article (the) isused before a noun to indicate that the identity of the noun is known to the reader.The indefinite article (a, an) is used before a noun that is general or when itsidentity is not known There are certain situations in which a noun takes no article.Definite article: the (before a singular or plural noun)

Indefinite article: a (before a singular noun beginning with a consonant sound)

an (before a singular noun beginning with a vowel sound)

For the purposes of understanding how articles are used, it is important toknow that nouns can be either count (can be counted) or noncount (indefinite inquantity and cannot be counted) In addition, count nouns are either singular (one)

or plural (more than one) Noncount nouns are always in the singular form

For example, if we are speaking of water that has been spilled on the table,there can be one drop (singular) or two or more drops (plural) of water on the table.The word drop in this example is a count noun because we can count the number ofdrops Therefore, according to the rules applying to count nouns, the word dropwould use the articles a or the

However, if we are speaking of water in general spilled on the table, it wouldnot be appropriate to count one water or two waters there would simply be water

on the table Water is a noncount noun Therefore, according to the rules applying tononcount nouns, the word water would use no article or the, but not a

2.4.2.6 Selecting adjective

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun It "describes" or

"modifies" a noun In English, a word can create two or more adjectives withdifferent meanings, especially, there are many adjectives that we have in Englishthat end in -ED or -ING An adjective that ends in -ING is used to describe thecharacteristic of a person, a thing or a situation An adjective that ends in -ED isused to describe a feeling (or how a person feels) or an emotion It is used todescribe a temporary thing

Eg: My girlfriend is bored - (My girlfriend feels bored)

My girlfriend is boring - (My girlfriend is a boring person)

So, if we don't remember it will cause confusion and lead to errors in the use

of adjectives

2.4.2.7 Singular and plural forms

Singular means only one Plural means more than one In order to make anoun plural, it is usually only necessary to add “s” However, there are manyirregular nouns that add “es” The rules for spelling plural nouns are based on theletters at the end of the word Singulars and plurals are interchangeable dependingupon the tense, the amount and the context of the statement However, are youaware about the fact that some singulars are the same even in their plural version.People often make mistake in irregular noun plural forms (e.g woman-women, child-children, knife-knives); some nouns have the same singular and theplural forms (e.g sheep-sheep, species-species); some nouns are count and non-count; using plural nouns with singular verbs (e.g The news is not good.); useplural nouns with plural verbs (e.g Her scissors are sharp./Those reading glasses aremine)

E.g: Vietnamese: Tôi có ba người con

Incorrect: I Have Three Childrens

Correct: I Have Three Children / I Have Three Kids

Correct: Marissa stopped at the grocery store, the bank and the library

In this sentence, the words in the series are all nouns with the word the beforethe noun For this sentence to be correct, the last part ran to the library should bechanged to the library

2.4.2.9 Errors of order

Word order refers to the conventional arrangement of words in a phrase,clause, or sentence Compared with many other languages, word order in English isfairly rigid

A sentence’s standard word order is Subject + Verb + Object (SVO)

E.g: The dog (subject) + eats (verb) + popcorn (object)

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, adding things like time,manner, degree As a rule, an adverb (or any modifier) should be as close aspossible to the thing it is modifying But adverbs are special because they canusually be placed in more than one spot in the sentence and are still correct.Therefore, without knowing the rules of word order in sentences, translators maymake many mistakes when creating sentences, especially the errors in the order ofadjectives and noun phrases in the sentences

E.g: Incorrect: I go to the gym morning early

Correct: I go to the gym early morning.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS

This chapter with the data collected from the questionnaire along with testpapers will categorize kinds of errors in translating text from Vietnamese to English

by second-year students of English faculty, Thuongmai University Then, it willpoint out difficulties which the students usually encounter in translating process inorder that they can find the best learning methods to improve their translation skills

3.1 Results collected from the questionnaire and paper test

In order to find out the common errors in translating texts from Vietnamese toEnglish, the survey investigated 33 second-year students from English Faculty,Thuongmai University and the survey questionnaire consists of twelve Englishquestions The students were asked to tick the most suitable answers whichcorrespond with their opinions In the question, there are some options, the studentscan choose more than one option The reason why the researcher chose this kind ofquestion is that it is very useful to select many different opinions of participants, sothe researcher can deeply and clearly understand what the students are facing with

3.1.1 The students’ attitude toward Vietnamese-English translation

Question 1: What do you think about the

Table 3.1: The students’ attitude toward the important of translation

This chart indicates that most students are aware of the importance oftranslation In particular, the number of students who feel that translation isimportant accounts for 57.6 percent There are 13 students (39.3 percent) whoassume that translation is very important The reason to explain this is that all areas

of human life such as economics, education, politics, tourism, etc, using specializedmaterials that need to be translated from the original language into anotherlanguage With the trend of integration and strengthening of the internationaleconomy, translation helps people overcome the barriers of multicultural and global

communication Besides, the percentage of students who think translation is quiteimportant is only 3 percent and no one denies the importance of translation.

Question 2: In your opinion, translation can help

choices

Percentage

A Find materials and learn other subjects 15 45.5%

C Enlarge your vocabulary and grammar 26 78.8%

Table 3.2: The benefits of students when learning translation

There are many benefits when students learning translation The findings ofthe survey reveal that translation is a useful subject helping them in many differentaspects When the students were asked about the benefits of studying translation,most of the students (78.8 percent) answered that because it can enlarge theirvocabulary and grammar When we study the translation subject, we haveopportunities to translate many different fields such as fields of economy, politics,society, and culture from which we can learn new vocabulary and grammar Due totranslating many different fields, 63.6 percent of the students agreed that it helpsthem to broaden their knowledge There is 63.6 percent of students showed thattranslation is a money-making tool to help them get a good job in the future.Besides, translation also helps them look for materials supporting their study so that45.5 percent of the students considered that the reason for studying translation is tofind materials and learn other subjects Finally, only one student says thattranslation is useless to her In a word, the majority benefits of the translationsubject are enlarging their vocabulary and grammar, broadening their knowledgewhich motivates them to get a good job in the future