Tài liệu The implementation of computer assisted tranlation tools in translating technical documents the case of english translation and interpreting senior students at can tho university

CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE B.A THESIS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED TRANSLATION TOOLS IN TRANSLATING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS: THE CASE OF ENGLISH TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING SENIOR STUDENTS AT CAN THO UNIVERSITY Field of study: English Translation and Interpreting Supervisor: Student: TRƯƠNG THỊ NGỌC ĐIỆP, M.Ed TRẦN ĐỨC TÀI Senior lecturer Student code: 7116873 Class: XH11Z8A1 Course: 37 Can Tho, May 2015 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, and it has not been submitted for any other degrees. All of sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by the complete references. Trần Đức Tài April, 2015 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Mrs. Truong Thi Ngoc Diep, who has given me valuable comments and guidance. Without her dedicated support and patience, the thesis could not have been completed. Next, I would like to appreciate Mr. Chau Thien Hiep for his valuable suggestions on my interview questions. I also would like to express my appreciation to Mr. Le Sang Thien Phu, and Ms. Luu Thanh Phung Co for helping me finding necessary materials to conduct this thesis. Finally, I would like to thank all participants of this thesis. Without their assistance, my research study could not have been completed. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ................................................................ i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. iii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ................................................................. v ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................................ 1 1.2. Research aims ........................................................................................................ 2 1.3. Research significance ............................................................................................ 2 1.4. Research organization ........................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................ 4 2.1. An overview of translation, technical translation, and technical documents ........ 4 2.1.1. Definitions of translation .............................................................................. 4 2.1.2. Definitions of technical translation ............................................................... 5 2.1.3. Definitions of technical documents .............................................................. 5 2.1.4. Types of technical documents ....................................................................... 6 2.1.5. Problems encountered when translating technical document ....................... 7 2.2. An overview of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools .................................. 8 2.2.1. Definitions ..................................................................................................... 8 2.2.2. Types of CAT tools ....................................................................................... 9 2.2.3. Benefits of CAT tools and users’ skill requirements ................................... 12 2.3. CAT implementation in technical translation ....................................................... 13 2.4. Research questions ................................................................................................ 14 2.5. Expected outcomes ................................................................................................ 14 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS ........................................................ 16 3.1. Research design ..................................................................................................... 16 3.2. Participants ............................................................................................................ 16 3.3. Instruments ............................................................................................................ 17 3.3.1. Questionnaire ................................................................................................ 17 4 3.3.2. Interview ....................................................................................................... 18 3.4. Data collection ....................................................................................................... 18 3.4.1. Questionnaire ................................................................................................ 18 3.4.2. Interview ....................................................................................................... 19 3.5. Data analysis .......................................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ................. 20 4.1. Research results ..................................................................................................... 20 4.1.1. Questionnaire ................................................................................................ 20 4.1.1.1. The implementation of online and electronic dictionaries, glossaries when translating technical documents ........................................ 20 4.1.1.2. The implementation of tools that can capture data into electronic form, spelling checker, grammar checker, and Google Translate................................................................................... 21 4.1.1.3. Terminology management methods ..................................................... 21 4.1.1.4. The implementation of translation softwares ....................................... 22 4.1.1.5. Students’ definition of CAT tools ........................................................ 23 4.1.2. Interview ....................................................................................................... 23 4.1.2.1. Frequency of CAT tools use ................................................................. 23 4.1.2.2. Benefits of CAT tools when translating technical documents ............. 25 4.1.2.3. Effectiveness of CAT tools .................................................................. 26 4.1.2.4. Types of documents that students used CAT tools to translate ........... 27 4.2. Discussion .............................................................................................................. 28 4.2.1. The popularity of CAT tools among students when translating technical documents .......................................................................................... 28 4.2.2. The frequency of CAT tools implementation among students ..................... 29 4.2.3. Types of technical documents that students use CAT tools to translate ....... 29 4.2.4. Benefits and effectiveness of CAT tools ...................................................... 29 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS....................................................................... 31 5.1. Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 31 5.2. Limitations ............................................................................................................. 32 5.3. Recommendations ................................................................................................. 32 5 5.4. Directions for further research .............................................................................. 33 REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 34 APPENDIX A .................................................................................................... 37 APPENDIX B..................................................................................................... 39 6 LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 2.1 .................................................................................................................... 6 Table 1 ..................................................................................................................... 20 Table 2 ..................................................................................................................... 21 Table 3 ..................................................................................................................... 22 Table 4 ..................................................................................................................... 22 Table 5 ..................................................................................................................... 23 7 ABSTRACT Computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools are prominent and beneficial tools for translators in the translation process, especially in translating technical documents. Although CAT tools are very popular among translation-majored students, research studies on CAT tools implementation in translating technical documents in Can Tho University have not been found. This research study aims to describe the implementation of CAT tools among students and to explore students’ perception on the benefits of CAT tools application when they translate technical documents. Descriptive quantitative and qualitative data were collected from a 16-item questionnaire and a 6-item interview. There were 60 participants from English Translation and Interpreting major at Can Tho University. The findings suggested that (1) simple CAT tools were more popular than complicated CAT tools, (2) the students used CAT tools very often although they did not have a clear understanding of CAT tools, (3) manuals were the most popular technical documents type that the students use CAT tools to translate, and (4) most students considered CAT tools as effective tools in translating technical documents. This research study can help students and teachers to have a better understanding of CAT tools, thus they can consider teaching or applying these tools for more effective technical translation. 8 TÓM LƯỢC Các công cụ dịch thuật có hỗ trợ máy tính (CAT) là những công cụ nổi bật và có nhiều lợi ích cho dịch giả trong quá trình dịch thuật, đặc biệt là khi dịch các văn bản kỹ thuật. Tuy nhiên các nghiên cứu liên quan đến đề tài ứng dụng của các công cụ CAT khi dịch văn bản kỹ thuật ở Đại học Cần Thơ đã không được tìm thấy mặc dù các công cụ CAT được sử dụng rất phổ biến trong các sinh viên ngành dịch thuật. Nghiên cứu này nhằm mô tả việc sinh viên ứng dụng các công cụ CAT và tìm ra quan điểm của họ về lợi ích của việc ứng dụng công cụ CAT khi dịch văn bản kỹ thuật. Dữ liệu mô tả định lượng và định tính được thu thập thông qua một bảng câu hỏi gồm 16 câu và một bảng phỏng vấn gồm sáu câu. Đã có 60 sinh viên chuyên ngành Biên Phiên Dịch tiếng Anh tại trường Đại học Cần Thơ tham gia vào nghiên cứu này. Kết quả nghiên cứu chỉ ra rằng (1) các công cụ CAT đơn giản phổ biến hơn các công cụ CAT phức tạp, (2) sinh viên sử dụng các công cụ CAT rất thường xuyên mặc dù họ không hiểu rõ về chúng, (3) hướng dẫn sử dụng sản phẩm hoặc thiết bị là loại văn bản kỹ thuật thường được sinh viên sử dụng công cụ CAT để dịch nhất, và (4) hầu hết sinh viên đánh giá công cụ CAT là các công cụ hiệu quả khi dịch văn bản kỹ thuật. Nghiên cứu này có thể giúp giảng viên và sinh viên hiểu rõ hơn về các công cụ CAT và nhờ đó họ có thể giảng dạy hoặc áp dụng các công cụ này nhằm đạt được những bản dịch kỹ thuật hiệu quả hơn. 9 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter describes (1) the rationale of the current research, (2) research objectives, (3) research significance, and (4) research organization. 1.1 Rationale Through out history, translation has been playing an indispensable role in communication by means of written texts. According to Newmark (1988), first signs of translation can be traced back to 3000 B.C, in the Old Egyptian Kingdom era. Translation is a tool for communication and interaction between languages as long as languages contact with each other (Newmark, 1988). In the Eastern world, signs of translation can be traced back to the translation of the Buddhist sutras from Sanskrit to Chinese in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms Period (Munday, 2001). Newmark (1988) also emphasized the importance of translation by addressing the case of the mistranslation of the word mokasuiu in the Japanese telegram sent to the United States of America prior to Hiroshima bombing, when mokasuiu was translated as “ignored” instead of “considered”. Translation also has a great impact on the whole society as it appears in big, international events to small, daily events (Hatim & Munday, 2004). Thus, the importance of translation and translation studies are undeniable. Documents are classified into genres or types. Technical translation is the translation of technical documents. It is stated that any documents in any specialized fields that have technical terms are properly classified in technical documents (Dickins, Hervey, & Higgins, 2002). From a different point of view, technical document is claimed to be the communicating tool used to transfer technical information to a small group of professional readers (Nirmaldasan, 2005). Swift advances in computer technologies and information technologies have resulted in great benefits for translators in the translating process. A new form of translation arrives from these advances is computer-assisted translation (or computer-aided translation, machine-assisted translation) in which human translator incorporates with 10 computer software in the translation process (Wikipedia, "Computer-assisted translation", 2015). Automation, accuracy, time saving, and searching for equivalences have been impressively improved since the appearance of CAT tools. However, few research studies on CAT have been found in Can Tho University, especially in translating technical document. Nguyen (2014) only focused on challenges in translating manuals, a type of technical documents. This is the main reason that motivated me to conduct the research study on “The implementation of computerassisted translation tools in translating technical documents: the case of English translation and interpreting senior students at Can Tho University”. 1.2 Research aims This research study aims (1) to describe the implementation of CAT tools among students, and (2) to explore student’s perception on the benefits of CAT tools application in technical translation. 1.3 Research significance The results from this research study can help students and teachers to have a better understanding of CAT tools, thus it can help them to consider teaching and applying these tools more effectively. In addition, this research study can also be a reference source for further research studies on related topics. 1.4 Research organization The research study is divided into five chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature review, (3) Research methods, (4) Results, discussion and conclusion, and (5) Limitations and recommendation. Chapter One presents the current situation of CAT tools implementation among translation-majored students. Background information about translation, technical translation and reasons to conduct this thesis are also mentioned in this chapter. 11 Chapter Two reviews previous related studies and background information on translation, technical translation and CAT tools Chapter Three includes research method designs, materials, participants and data collection procedures. Chapter Four presents the research results from the questionnaire and the interview, discussions about the findings and related conclusion. Chapter Five covers the research limitations, recommendations and directions for further research. 12 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews some previous theory studies in relation to technical translation and CAT tools. This chapter includes: (1) an overview of translation, technical translation, and technical documents, (2) an overview of CAT tools, (3) CAT implementation in technical translation, (4) research questions, and (5) expected outcomes. 2.1 An overview of translation, technical translation, and technical documents 2.1.1 Definitions of translation Translation is the act of transferring the message in one language to another language (Newmark, 1988). From this point of view, translation attempts to replace the message in the source language (SL) by the same message in the target language (TL) while preserving the message in the SL as much as possible. Translation can also be understood as a process of transferring the written document in one language into another language (Hatim & Munday, 2004). However, whether the focus is on the meaning or on the form of the translated document is not shown. Bhatia (2002) defines translation as an act of communicating the meaning of a document in one language and an equivalent document in another language. This definition focuses on the communicative aspect of translation. Having the same perception, the process of translation includes the reproduction in the TL the closest natural equivalence of the SL message, first in terms of the meaning of the message and second in terms of the style of the message (Nida & Taber, 1982). This definition considers the process of translation as a communicative process and focuses on the TL readers because Nida & Taber (1982) also focus on style. In conclusion, translation can be defined as the process of rendering, in the written form, the message, meaning and style in one language to the equivalent message, meaning and style in another language. Therefore, the term “translation” in this thesis can be defined as the process of rendering the message, meaning and style of the SL document to the equivalent TL document. This definition is contributed from all of the 13 aforementioned definitions, yet it is simple and easy to understand. For that reason, this definition is suitable for students, potential readers of this thesis. 2.1.2 Definitions of technical translation Technical translation is a sub-group of specialized translation which includes technical translation and institutional translation (Newmark, 1988). In this definition, specialized translation focuses on professional fields, while technical translation deals with technical documents such as documents in the field of medical, geography and so on. Technical translation focuses on technological documents such as user manuals, service guides, or documents that belong to subjects that are based on applied knowledge from the natural, scientific fields (Byrne, 2006). Both Newmark (1988) and Byrne (2006) describe technical translation as the one that deals with technical documents. In conclusion, technical translation in this thesis paper can be considered as the translation that focuses on technical documents because this definition is adopted from the definitions of technical translation proposed by Newmark (1988) and Byrne (2006). 2.1.3 Definitions of technical documents Technical documents are the tools for communicating technical information to a small group of professional readers (Nirmaldasan, 2005). It can be derived from this definition that professional documents are written by technical writers and intended for professional readers. Technical writers are professional writers who prepare instruction manuals, journal articles or other types of supporting documents in order to communicate technical information in written form (Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Technical writers”, 2014). Other features of technical documents are described as objectivity, absence of expressiveness and emotion, precision, economy, conciseness, and formality (Baakes, 1994). Newmark (1988) also lists some grammatical features such as: nomination (or nominalization), passive, third person, empty verbs, and present tenses. Based on terminology and syntactic features, and the relationship between subject and matter, 14 Byrne (2006) classifies a number of technical translation features such as nominalization, heavy pre and post-modification, extensive use of passives, third person, long and complex sentences. However, terminology, defined by Cambridge dictionary as “special words or expressions used in relation to a particular subject or activity”, is the most important feature. In addition, Newmark (1988) exerts that terminology is the feature that helps distinguish technical translation to other forms of translation, despite making up only five to ten percent of the documents in terms of the number of words. 2.1.4 Types of technical documents Technical documents such as documents in the fields of geography, medical and so on are probably non-cultural and for that reason, are universal. While institutional translation deals with more cultural documents in the fields of politics, commerce, finance, law, government, etc (Newmark, 1988). The reason for this classification is that terms used in technical documents are common to all languages and not dependent on culture while terms used in institutional translation refer to a specific cultural phenomenon. Specialized translation Institutional Technical Subject field Approach Geography T P Art T P Medical T P Finance T P Law T Politic P T P T (Theoretical approach): textbooks, articles, essays P (Practical approach): rule, code, research Chart 2.1: Division of specialized documents by Newmark (1988, cited in Nguyen, 2014) 15 According to Byrne (2006), technical documents can be classified into four groups: (1) documents that have a function to guide in a procedure such as instructions, (2) documents that describe or explain such as descriptions or explanations, (3) documents that persuade or evaluate such as research proposals, and (4) documents that investigate or report that has the purpose of introducing new information. Byrne’s classification of technical documents is based on the function of the documents and thus, focuses on the practical aspect of technical documents. The definition of technical documents that this thesis paper focuses on adopts Byrne’s classification. The adoption is due to the focus of this thesis paper is on the practical aspect of technical translation. Byrne’s classification is also eighteen years later than Newmark’s and therefore more modern. The more modern it is, the more likely it is compatible with the implementation of CAT tools in translating technical documents. Because CAT tools emerge and change in accordance with computer and information technologies while these technologies are probably changing and developing really fast. 2.1.5 Problems encountered when translating technical documents Translators usually encounter with various difficulties in the translation process. The challenges can be found in many levels from words, phrases, sentences, and even the whole document. Technical translation is not an exception to this overall phenomenon. The general difficulties in translating technical documents are mainly related to terminology and consistency. There are three types of lexical problem that the translator can encounter when translating technical documents (Dickins et al., 2002). These lexical problems can be generalized as terminology problems due to the fact that they all relate to technical terms. According to Dickins et al. (2002), these lexical problems are (1) technical terms that are unfamiliar to the translator as they are only used in the technical documents; (2) technical terms that are familiar to the translator because they are also used in normal, non-technical contexts, but they seem like they are also used by the writer in a technically specialized way in the technical documents; and (3) technical 16 terms that are familiar to the translator because they are also used in normal, nontechnical contexts, but they do not seem like they are also used by the writer in a technically specialized way in the technical documents. Also, according to Nguyen (2014), terminology is the most difficult challenge for translation-majored students when they translate technical documents. When translating technical documents, according to Dickins et al. (2002), conceptual problems are related to the underlying knowledge in the specialized field that the translator does not understand or fully understand due to the fact that the translator is not an expert in the field and also does not have the necessary skills and/or knowledge in that field. Conceptual problems can be seen as the problems when the translators do not understand the underlying message in the technical document. Another type of problems when translating technical documents is consistency (Merkel, 1996). As many technical documents or many translators are involved in the translation process, “it is very difficult to produce consistent translations of recurrent stretches of document, such as paragraphs, sentences and phrases” (Merkel, 1996, p. 1). Interestingly, translation memories, which is one of the main types of CAT tools, are also proposes by Merkel (1996) as a solution to this problem. This is discussed in 2.3. 2.2 An overview of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools 2.2.1 Definitions CAT is a form of translation in which computer softwares are used to support a human translator in the translation process (Wikipedia, "Computer-assisted translation", 2015).As CAT tools cover a wide range, they can include many kinds of tools, from simple to complicated ones. CAT is also defined as the process in which the human translators are responsible for the translation process, but they use computerized tools to help them complete the translation process and improve the translation productivity (Bowker, 2002). Therefore, CAT tools are the computer tools that help the translators to improve the translation process efficiency. 17 Both definitions are rather similar, yet Bowker’s definition of CAT tools states the purpose of implementing CAT tools in the translation process. As this thesis paper focuses on the practical aspect and the use of CAT tools, the definition of CAT tools in this thesis is an adoption of Bowker’s definition of CAT tools: CAT tools are the computerized tools that can assist the translators in their translation process to improve the translation efficiency. 2.2.2 Types of CAT tools Bowker (2002) classifies CAT tools into four main types as follow: (1) tools that can capture data into electronic form for simpler editing: if the translators want to utilize any computerized tools for the translation process and enjoy the benefits of these tools, they must have the documents in electronic form. This is the CAT tools that can capture the data in the printed, hard copy form of documents into electronic form. (2) corpora and corpus-analysis tools: these CAT tools are large collections of texts, built by translators in their research for terminologies, and usually divided into specific fields. These texts can be useful for the translators because they can compare the function, meaning and message of the texts in their contexts or environment; thus helps them to understand better the texts if they encounter them again in other documents. (3) terminology-management systems: the function of these CAT tools is to help the translators to manage their terminology database. Terminologymanagement systems can help the translators to store, retrieve and manage their terminology records. Therefore, the translators have a clear understanding and control of their terminology usage during the translation process, which can help the translators to solve terminologies and conceptual problems when translating technical documents. (4) translation-memories systems: this type of CAT tools is one of the main types of CAT tools which can store segments of the SL and their equivalent segments of the TL in the previous translations. These segment pairs can be used by the translators during their later translation. Also, there are many options for segment pairs that offer the translators many solutions to translate. Bowker (2002) also predicts the developments of CAT tools in the future such as the adjustments of user interface to be more convenient for the translators when they use these CAT tools, and the 18 emergence of localization translation CAT tools. Localization is the process in which the translation process occurs even before the writing process of the documents is finalized. The writing process and the translation process can happen simultaneously. In addition, Craciunescu, Gerding-Salas, & Stringer-O'Keeffe (2004) classify CAT tools into four following groups from the most simple to the most complicated: (1) electronic dictionaries, glossaries, and terminology databases: these electronic dictionaries and databases can help the translators to type and look for words, jargons and terms much faster than printed dictionaries. Moreover, the translators can also manage the finding process. (2) concordances: the definition of concordances is rather similar to the definition of corpus and corpora tools of Bowker. In fact this can be understood as another name of corpus and corpora analysis tools. However, concordances also handle part of the word such as prefix as suffix. (3) online bilingual documents: this is basically another type of concordance but gather their segment pairs from online user and attempt to apply the most-suggested segment pairs in the translation process. This type of CAT tools attempts to store a source document and it’s previously translation. This is called a bi-text; and from this bi-text, segment pairs and options are offered to the translators. (4) translation memories: its definition is similar to Bowker’s one. The segment pairs are primarily offered by translators from the same segment pair occurrence that belongs to previous translations. Wikipedia.org (“Computer-assisted translation”, 2015) also gives a classification of CAT tools and each type definitions as follow: (1) translation memory softwares: This type of CAT tools is already defined by previous studies. However, Wikipedia states that segments can be large units such as paragraphs, to smaller units such as sentences and clauses. (2) spelling checker, grammar checker: This type of CAT tools is used to check for spelling and grammatical errors. A prominent tool of this type is attached to Microsoft 19 Word software, in which errors in grammar and spelling are shown and highlighted to the translators so that they can apply appropriate adjustment. (3) language search-engine softwares: This tool can help the translators to search for previously translated version of the texts. The softwares focus on searching the repositories of the translation memory softwares that are available on the internet. Some notable search-engine softwares are ISYS Search Software and dtSearch. (4) project management softwares or crowd translation: This type of CAT tools can help translation project managers to assign and manage the translation tasks to the translators participate in the translation project. Some examples of this type of CAT tools are Projetex, Quahill, and Project Translation. Trados also has a small extension that functions as a project management tool for individual management purposes. (5) alignment softwares: This type of CAT tools aligns the SL texts and TL texts for better analysis and translation. Some advanced CAT tools can also attempt to determine what segments from both languages can be group into a pair. Thus these pairs can be used to construct database for translation memory softwares. (6) interactive machine translation: In this type of CAT tools, the process of automated translation is based on predicting the way the translator will translate. Then, the translator is free to edit the resulted translation. An example of interactive machine translation is Google Translate. (7) terminology management softwares and electronic dictionaries: This type of CAT tools provides the translators the ability to quickly search for the meaning of terminologies and vocabularies. Some advanced CAT tools can also allow the translators to edit and add terminologies into their terminology databases, or check for errors in using terms. 20