Tài liệu Common errors on word choices in translating cultural texts of the fourth year english linguistics students at hung vuong university

HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY FACULITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES VUONG THI KIEU ANH COMMON ERRORS ON WORD CHOICES IN TRANSLATING CULTURAL TEXTS OF THE FOURTH YEAR ENGLISH LINGUISTICS STUDENTS AT HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY B.A GRADUATION PAPER Field: English Linguistics Phu Tho, 2018 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyen Thi To Loan, M.A for her guidance and encouragement GXULQJ P\ VWXG\ ,¶P YHU\ JUDWHIXO IRU EHLQJ DFFHSWHG DV KHU VWXGHQW LQ WKLV subject and I really appreciate all her help and suggestions on various drafts of this graduate paper. Without her valuable advice and support, this research could not have been completed on schedule. I would also like to express my full appreciation to all teachers at the Foreign Language Faculty of Hung Vuong University who helped me so much in my data collection. Besides, I want to use this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to all 45 members of class K12 ± English Linguistics for having cooperated in providing valuable information in the survey as well as doing the test. If it KDGQ¶W EHHQ IRU WKHLU KHOS , ZRXOGQ¶W KDYH ILQLVKHG P\ JUDGXDWLRQ SDSHU ZLWK great success. Additionally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my dear friends for their help and warm encouragement throughout my hard times carrying out the study. Without them, I could not have overcome such times and concentrated on my study. Finally, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my loving parents for their continuous support during my study. Their love and encouragement helped me overcome the difficult times during the study. I could not have been able to complete this project without their intense devotion. ii ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to investigate the common errors in word choice in Vietnamese ± English cutural translation committed by fourth - year English majors, Department of Foreign Languages, Hung Vuong University and to propose some specific recommendations for students. Together with the attempt to fulfill the graduation paper, the following processes were made: Firstly, the researcher gave theoretical background about translation, translation methods, errors, and some common errors committed by Vietnamese translation when translating from Vietnamese into English. Secondly, the researcher presented the methodology of the study together with giving a test and implementing a survey by delivering the questionnaire to students of class K12 ± English Linguistics. After that, the researcher carried out the interview to lecturers of Department of Foreign languages in Hung Vuong University. Having collected the data from the test results, survey questionnaire and the interview found that students make various lexical errors in Vietnamese ± English translation. Some common lexical errors of students when translating and the causes of the errors were also identified. Based on the result of the interview, the researcher gives some recommendations for English major students as well as lecturers of English to LPSURYH VWXGHQWV¶ WUDQVODWLRQ skills and help them get better translation performance, especially in cutural translations. iii LIST OF TABLES PART I: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Rationale ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Previous researches ....................................................................................................... 2 1.2.1. In the world ................................................................................................................. 2 1.2.2. In Vietnam ................................................................................................................... 4 1.2.3. Gaps of previous researches ....................................................................................... 5 1.3. Research purposes ......................................................................................................... 5 1.4. Research questions ........................................................................................................ 5 1.5. Settings of the research ................................................................................................. 6 1.6. Significanceoftheresearch ............................................................................................. 6 1.7. Scope of the research ..................................................................................................... 6 1.8. Design of the research ................................................................................................... 6 PART II: DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 8 1.1. An overview on translation ........................................................................................... 8 1.1.1. Definition of Translation ............................................................................................ 8 1.1.2. Translation strategies.................................................................................................. 9 1.1.3. Factors affecting translation process ....................................................................... 19 1.1.4. Translation methods ................................................................................................. 23 1.2. Translation errors ....................................................................................................... 25 1.2.1. Errors......................................................................................................................... 25 1.2.2. Translation errors ..................................................................................................... 25 1.2.3. Classification of translation errors .......................................................................... 26 1.2.4. Common errors in translation .................................................................................. 29 1.3. An overview on cultural texts ..................................................................................... 34 1.3.1. The definition of culture ........................................................................................... 34 1.3.2. The definition and features of culture texts ............................................................. 36 1.3.3. The relation between translation and culture .......................................................... 39 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................ 42 2.1. Participants .................................................................................................................. 42 2.2. Methods of the study ................................................................................................... 42 2.2.1. Qualitative research methods ................................................................................... 42 2.2.2. The quantitative method ........................................................................................... 42 2.3. 2.3.1. Data collection instruments ........................................................................................ 42 Test............................................................................................................................. 42 iv 2.3.2. Questionnaires .......................................................................................................... 43 2.3.3. Interview .................................................................................................................... 44 2.4. Research procedure ..................................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ........................................... 46 3.1. The results from test .................................................................................................... 46 3.1.1. Error 1: Word collocation ............................................................................................. 47 3.1.2. Error 2: Misuse of preposition ...................................................................................... 47 3.1.3. Error 3: Misuse of synonyms ........................................................................................ 48 3.1.4. Error 4: Misuse of part of speech ................................................................................. 49 3.1.5. Error 5: Name of organization ..................................................................................... 49 3.2. The results from questionnaires ................................................................................. 50 3.2.1. 7KHVWXGHQWV¶DWWLWXGHWRZDUGVWUDQVODWLRQDQGZRUGFKRLFHLQWUDQVODWLQJFXOWXUH texts...........................................................................................................................................50 3.2.2. 7KHVWXGHQWV¶GLIILFXOWLHVDQGFRPPRQHUURUVLQWUDQVODWLQJ9LHWQDPHVH- English texts...........................................................................................................................................51 3.2.4. 3.3. 6XJJHVWLRQVWRLPSURYHWKHVWXGHQWV¶WUDQVODWLRQ .................................................... 56 The result from interview ........................................................................................... 57 3.3.1. The result from question 1 ........................................................................................ 58 3.3.2. The result from question 2 ........................................................................................ 58 3.3.3. The result from question 3 ........................................................................................ 58 3.3.4. The result from question 4 ........................................................................................ 59 3.4. Discussions.................................................................................................................... 60 3.4.1. Common errors in word choice made by 4th year students .......................................... 60 3.4.2. The causes of errors made by the students ................................................................... 60 &+$37(55(&200(1'$7,216)25,03529,1*678'(176¶ TRANSLATION PERFORMANCE .................................................................................... 62 Build up vocabulary ± improve background knowledge ......................................... 62 4.1. 4.1.1. Using Word Cards ..................................................................................................... 62 4.1.3. Create vocabulary notebook ± enhance vocabulary ................................................ 65 4.2. More translation practice ........................................................................................... 66 PART III: CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 68 1. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 68 2. Suggestions ...................................................................................................................... 68 3. Implications ..................................................................................................................... 70 4. Limitations of the study ................................................................................................. 70 5. Suggestions for the further study........................................................................70 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 72 v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 2.1: Errors and codes of errors .................................................................. 43 Table 2.2: Contents of the questionnaires ........................................................... 44 7DEOH7KHHUURUVLQWKHVWXGHQWV¶WUDQVODWLRQWHVW ......................................... 46 7DEOH7KHVWXGHQWV¶DWWLWXGHWRZDUGVWUDQVODWLRQDQGZRUGFKRLFHLQ translating culture texts ....................................................................................... 50 Table 3.2: Difficulties in types of translation texts ............................................. 52 Table 3.3: Topics of cultural translation texts that the students easily commit error ..................................................................................................................... 52 &KDUW6WXGHQW¶FRPPRQHUURUVLQZRUGFKRLFHLQWUDQVODWLQJFXWXUDOWH[WV from Vietnamese into English ............................................................................. 54 Chart 3.2: The causes for errors in word choice by students .............................. 55 7DEOH6XJJHVWLRQVWRLPSURYHWKHVWXGHQWV¶WUDQVODWLRQ .............................. 56 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS N0. Codes Name of codes 1 E1 Error of word collocation 2 E2 Error of preposition 3 E3 Error of synonyms 4 E4 Error of parts of speech 5 E5 Name of organization 6 SC Source culture 7 SL source language 8 SLC 9 ST source text 10 TC target culture 11 TL target language source language culture 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale In the modern life, English has become the most widely used language all over the world. It is considered as the medium of communication in many different fields such as science, technology, aviation, international sport, diplomacy, and so on. Therefore, English translations have played a prominent part in globalization, and international integration in recent years. Thanks to English translated versions, countries are able to have mutual understanding and a sense of global citizenship in this multilingual world. Moreover, English translation makes people understand each other more in the process of diplomatic relations and economic cooperation and other fields in today's era when countries tend to integrate for the whole development. As a result, English translation has gradually become an indispensable and pressing tool which set the path for the global success of individuals, organizations, and even businesses in the modern time when society is more developed and competition is relentless. Therefore, nowadays when Vietnam becomes one of the members of World Trade Organization, it is necessary for Vietnamese students of English to have expert translation skill in order to meet the demand of integration into the world economy and exchange of culture with other countries. Nowadays, social and cultural documents display many linguistic peculiarities, as well as social and cultural aspects of our lives and, thus, we can assert that cultural translation is one of the main ways of communication across cultures. Translating these texts, however, is not an easy task, since it certainly poses many problems for the translator. One of the problems a translator can face arises from the fact that word choices. Some words or phrases denoting objects, facts, phenomena, etc, are so deeply rooted in their source culture (SC) and so specific (and perhaps exclusive or unique) to the culture that produced them that they have no equivalent in the target culture (TC), because they are unknown, or because they are not yet codified in the target language (TL). Word choices in translating is an important thing so it requires translators while 2 translating carefully.However, in reality, Vietnamese-English translation skill is not easy for Vietnamese students to master, so learners can't avoid mistakes in their translating practice. Perhaps, because of some influence on the differences about cultures or their own limited language ability, etc, Vietnamese students of English in general still have mistakes on grammar, word choices and so on in translating, and special in translating cultural texts from Vietnamese into English. Students in K12 English Linguistics are no exception. They made a lot of mistakes/errors in choosing vocabulary when translating texts. For those reasons, I decided WRFKRRVHWKHVWXG\³Common errors on word choices in translating cultural texts of the fourth year English linguistics VWXGHQWV DW +XQJ 9XRQJ 8QLYHUVLW\´ with the aim of identifying common Vietnamese±English translation errors made by these students and thereby, proposing suggestions to improve the current practice. 1.2. Previous researches 1.2.1. In the world Translation is a complex process where fragile balance is achieved between the equivalence of the text translated and the linguistic means chosen. In reality, translation from one language into another language is a complex work. In the translation processing, translators may make mistakes so there are many researchers studying on these problems. They can be seen in the following studies: Mossop, B. (1989) in his study about ³Objective and cultural norm of WUDQVODWLRQ´ GHVFULEHVWUDQVODWLRQHUURUVDV³DJLYHQUHQGHULQJZLOOEHGHHPHGWR be no translation if it fails to conform to the concept of translation predominant LQWKHWDUJHWFXOWXUH´+HLGHQWLILHVWUDQVlation errors in terms of cultural norm and formal equivalence. It means that the definition of translation error by Mossop includes the achievement of formal equivalence but excludes other critical factors such as smoothness, readability, and consistency in translational product. 3 A more thorough notion of error is proposed by Pym. A. (1992) in the studyabout ³Translation and text transfer: An Essay on the principles of intercultural communication´. This scholar supposes that translation errors may be attributed to lack of comprehension, misuse of time, inappropriateness to readership, language, pragmatics, culture, over-translation, under-translation, discursive or semantic inadequacy. Krzysztof, H. (1992), in his resarch about ³Translation: A Cognitive Communicative Approach´divides translation errors into four main types: errors of syntagmatic surface translation, errors of mistaken interpretation, realization errors and meta-translation errors. The first type includes equivalents, false friends, calques and unjustified borrowings. The second type covers misreading syntagms and wrong interpretation of verb frame, misinterpret scenes and scripts and misreading the text modality. The third type covers TL errors, wrong HYDOXDWLRQ RI UHFLSLHQWV¶ NQRZOHdge and insufficient of knowledge of subjectmatter. The final type comprises translation technique, additions, omissions, two versions, too many or too few footnotes, a wrong translation strategy, FRUUHFWLRQVDQGFKDQJLQJWKHWH[W¶VLQWHUWH[WXDOLW\1HYHUtheless, this approach is complicated and troublesome for researchers to figure out translations errors of professional translators in general and undergraduates in particular. Wang Baorong (2009) in his research about ³Translating publicity texts in the light of the skopos theory: Problems and suggestions´ arrives at a mutual conclusion that translation errors should be classified into three main types including pragmatic translation errors, cultural translation errors and linguistic translation errors. Pragmatic translation errors are caused by practical issues such as a lack of receiver orientation and background knowledge. Cultural translation errors are related to equivalent problems and methods to deal with cultural words. Linguistic errors occur due to the lack of the proficiency of the translator. 4 1.2.2. In Vietnam Duong T.T.H and Nguyen T.C.X (2010) intheir studies about ³7KH VWXG\ Common mistakes in learning translation subject by the second-year English majors at Dong Thap University´found out that Vietnamese students of English in general still have mistakes on grammar, word choices and so on in translating Vietnamese texts into English. The study also revealed that lack of vocabulary causes many problems in translation process, frequently; students could not choose the right word in the context or use the right term. Nguyen T.T.H andTrieu T.H (2015) intheir studies about ³Vietnamese ± English Translation Errors Made by Second Year Translation - Major Students: An Initial Step towards Enhancing Translation Standards´ pointed out that lexical choice posed the biggest challenges to students, and gave suggestions for LPSURYLQJVWXGHQWV¶SHUIRUPDQFH. The study ³(UURUV LQ WKH WUDQVODWLRQ RI WRSLF-comment structures of 9LHWQDPHVHLQWR(QJOLVK´conducted by Pham (2005) aimed to investigate what kind of errors the students made in translating topic ± comment structure. The participants of the study were ninety-five students from English translation classes in their first, second, third, and fourth years of the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Vietnam. The results showed that students made five types of errors including omission of subject, repetition of subject, inappropriate choice of subject, no logical connection between subject and predicate, and inappropriate connection between subject and passive verbs. The omission of subject was the most IUHTXHQWW\SHRIHUURUDPRQJDOOW\SHVRIHUURUVUHODWLQJWRWKHVHQWHQFH¶VVXEMHFW Huynh Thanh Thuy (2012) VWXGLHG³An analysis of common errors on verb tenses and word choices in Vietnamese-English translation made by the secondyear English majors at Dong Thap University´ aimed to find out the common errors on verb tense and word choice in Vietnamese ± English translation made by the second-year English major students at Dong Thap University. The participants of the study were the second-year students of English majors at the 5 University. After the data was analyzed, grammatical errors about verb tense in misuse of verb tense, misuse of verb forms and incorrect structures, and using vocabulary in context inappropriately were indicated. 1.2.3. Gaps of previous researches Many researchers in the world as well as in Vietnam studied on the translation and translation errors. However, the above researchers have mainly focused on finding out the errors in translation in general, not particular in Vietnamese ± English translation, and cultural texts. There have been causes that lead to the errors and they have also proposed some possible solutions to deal with the problems. However, they did not suggest the specific solutions for a certain groups of learners. The present study would have two aspects that were different from the above studies. The first thing was that the study was conducted to investigate English major students' common error types in word choice in translating cultural text from Vietnamese ± English, the causes leading to those error types, and propose specific recommendation. Another was that the participants of the study were the fourth-year English major students and the translation teaching teachers at Hung Vuong University. 1.3. Research purposes The purpose of this research is to: - Find out the majors' common errors in word choicesin translating cultural texts from Vietnamese into English. - Find out the causes of these problems and then suggest some possible strategies to overcome the problems. 1.4. Research questions - What are the common errors on word choiceswhen translating cultural texts made by fourth year English linguistics students? - What are the possible causes of these common errors? - What are the suggestions to rectify these errors? 7 Chapter 2: Research methodology In this part will focus on the objectives of the research, the scope of the research, research participants, research methods, and data collecting instruments. Chapter 3: Findings of the research This chapter aims to present some common errors on word choices when students translate cultural texts from Vietnamese into English and find out the causes of the errors through the results got from the test, survey questionnaire and interview, thus propose some recommendations for teachers and students to LPSURYHVWXGHQWV¶WUDQVODWLRQVNLOOV Chapter 4: Discussions and suggestions Part III: Conclusion The researcher summarizes the major findings, limmitations of the research, and provides suggestions for further studies. This chapter presents the background of the study and shows the rationale for the study, lists limitations, its implications as well as mentions some suggestions for future study and presents conclusion. 8 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. An overview on translation 1.1.1. Definition of Translation It has been long taken for granted that translation deals only with language. Cultural perspective, however, has not yet been brought into discussion. The first definition presented by Catford (1965: 20) refers to translation as the ³5eplacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material in another language´ - Xem thêm -