the kinds of errors made by thirdyear english language study students in translating articles in terms of generic reference

Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

THE KINDS OF ERRORS MADE BY THIRDYEAR ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDY
STUDENTS IN TRANSLATING ARTICLES IN
TERMS OF GENERIC REFERENCE
B.A THESIS

Field
of Cần
study: Thơ@Tài
English Language
Trung tâm Học liệu
ĐH
liệu Learning
học tập và nghiên cứu

Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan, M. Ed Researcher: Tran Anh Thu
Student ID: 7044868
Letters of English Class 03 Course 30

Can Tho, May 2008

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

CONTENT
Content -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
Acknowledgement ------------------------------------------------------- 3
Abstract -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Interpretation Page ------------------------------------------------------ 5
Chapter I Introduction ----------------------------------------------- 6
Chapter II Literature Review---------------------------------------- 9
I. Definition of the Article -------------------------------------- 9
II. Types and Usages of the Article----------------------------- 9
1. Types of the Article----------------------------------- 9
2. Usages of the Article --------------------------------- 10
III. Reference and the Article------------------------------------ 13
IV. Generic Reference -------------------------------------------- 14
V. Translation ----------------------------------------------------- 16

Trung tâmChapter
Học liệu
ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
III Research Methodology -------------------------------- 19
I. Research Aim -------------------------------------------------- 19
II. Participants ----------------------------------------------------- 19
III. Instruments ---------------------------------------------------- 19
IV. Procedure ------------------------------------------------------ 20
Chapter IV Data Analysis and Discussion ------------------------ 22
I. Data Collection------------------------------------------------- 22
II. Data Analysis -------------------------------------------------- 22

1. Data Analysis for Items of A/An ------------------- 23
2. Data Analysis for items of The---------------------- 29
3. Comparison between Data Analysis of “A/An”
and “The” ------------------------------------------------- 34
4. Analyzing the Problems That Cause Making Errors of
Students ---------------------------------------------------- 35
Chapter V Conclusion, Suggestion, and Limitation ------------- 37
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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

I Conclusion------------------------------------------------------- 37
II. Suggestion ------------------------------------------------------ 38
III. Suggestion for Further research ---------------------------- 39
IV. Limitation ----------------------------------------------------- 39
References ----------------------------------------------------------------- 40
Appendices ---------------------------------------------------------------- 42

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


First of all, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my
supervisor, Mr. HỒNG LƯ CHÍ TOÀN, who constantly gave me
useful advice, tirelessly corrected my draft and actively encouraged
me to work better and better on my research thesis.
Also, I have the greatest respect for and gratitude to Dr.
NGUYỄN THU HƯƠNG’s real help, positive encouragement to my
desirable study and also adequate provision of materials for
reference.

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
I would further like to acknowledge Mr. ĐÀO PHONG LÂM

and two teachers from the Department of Vietnamese, Mr.CHIÊM
VĂN BÉ and Mr. NGUYỄN VĂN NỞ, for their substantial help.
My sincere thanks go to all my close friends, my best friends,
and my participants – B.A students of English from course 31, for
their voluntary involvement in my thesis. And special thanks go to
my life friend who gave me mental support at the time I was
disheartened on my thesis work.
Last but not least, thank English Department for giving me an
opportunity to accept challenge for carrying out a thesis.

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

ABSTRACT

This thesis deals with the English – Vietnamese translation in terms of
English article related to generic reference. The research is conducted to point
out the errors that students commit, to find out the causes that lead to the
errors and to come up with a suggestion of paying attention to article with
regard to translation. The data were collected from a translation test consisting
of 14 single – sentence items and 2 extra questions responded by 60 juniors of
English at Can Tho University. The result shows that the minority of the
participants(28.57%) yet commit errors on the articles in terms of generic
reference. Also, the main causes of the errors are that some of the participants
do not have a thorough understanding of reference of article, have a habit of
translating word - for – word, cannot express Vietnamese equivalences for

Trung tâm
Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
some sentences in the test though they know the meanings of each word n
those sentences. Importantly enough, some of the participants assume that
some new words prevent them from doing the translating naturally and
accurately. This mistranslation indirectly left a limitation for the data analysis
because I found it hard to affirm whether the errors committed in their
mistranslation were caused by the new words or by their own incomplete
understanding on the articles in terms of generic reference. To sum up, articles
in terms of generic reference are yet considered simple or sometimes rather
easy, students commit errors when they work with them in English –
Vietnamese translation, though.

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

INTERPRETATION PAGE
The citations of linguists in Literature review as well as in other
parts of this thesis research without interpretation of page numbers (e.g.
McArthur: 1998; Ehrlich: 2000) were cited from websites (see reference
page).

Table 1. Master’s Summary of Aspects of Classification and Identification
(1990).
Table 2. The summary of the use of articles (adapted from Byrd & Benson
:1992).
Table 3. Vietnamese versions of items of “A/An”.
Table 4. Figures in the scales of Vietnamese versions of “A/An” .

Trung tâmTable
Học5. liệu
ĐH CầninThơ@Tài
liệu học versions
tập vàofnghiên
The percentages
the scales of Vietnamese
“A/An”. cứu
Table 6. Vietnamese versions of items of “The”.
Table 7. Figures in the scales of Vietnamese versions of “The”.
Table 8. The percentages in the scales of Vietnamese versions “The”.

Table 9. The comparison Vietnamese versions between “A/An” and
“The”.
Chart 1. Vietnamese versions of “A/An”.
Chart 2. Vietnamese versions of “The”.

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
Vietnam’s joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) has promoted a
significance of English in the country where English is employed to make
itself globally understood. Consequently, learning English in Vietnam has
been a nation – wide race. Vietnamese have been involved in learning it as
proficiently and professionally as possible.
The integration into WTO requires English not only in listening, speaking,
reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary, but also in translation (written
translation) which is mostly manipulated in documents, agreements,
negotiations, law, and many other necessary paper work.
As far as translation is concerned, most students may think that if they are
good at English, especially in grammar and vocabulary, they are able to do the
translating
However,
translationliệu
asks học

for much
than that.cứu
Trung tâm
Học accurately.
liệu ĐH Cần
Thơ@Tài
tập more
và nghiên
Students have to be proficient in both English and their mother tongue –
Vietnamese so that the version into English or Vietnamese could be accurate
in the target language and faithful to its original one.
In translation, the article system causes quite a few problems to deal with.
Actually, I myself have faced difficulties in translating “article” which is
really thought easy and simple by most students. As Celce-Mucrcia and
Larsen-Freeman (1983), and Huong (2005) have pointed out that article
problems, unlike other grammar or syntactic problems, do not disappear as
students become more proficient. They also state that the article system in
English is notoriously difficult to acquire, probably because Vietnamese has a
classifying system in which, among other things, distinctions are made
between human, animal, concrete and abstract, whereas English distinguishes
between count and non- count noun, which is related to boundedness. Also,
another obvious evidence about the problems Vietnamese learners getting
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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

with the English article system is that the absence of article system in

Vietnamese (Butler 2002; Berry 1991; Master 1988; Thomas 1989; Yamada
& Matsuura 1982). Therefore, it is very difficult for Vietnamese learners to
find the equivalence between English and Vietnamese when translating some
text relating to the English article.
In addition, even though article is hard to acquire, students’ attitude toward
it is not positive. They invest less time in it. In fact, they just search for and
read what is needed for the exams. They do not explore it in depth. As a
result, they get confused when they work with article in translation. For
example, “A woman always remembers her first love with affection” (Thu
Uyen, 2007, P.176) cannot be completely natural in Vietnamese like “Một
người đàn bà luôn thương nhớvềngười tình đ
ầ
u tiên của cô ấ
y”although the
version is understandable and acceptable in Vietnamese. When a translation
version differs somewhat from the original one, it is easy to give rise to
readers having a different look at what the writer wants to convey. The above

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
– mentioned translation version might lead to a look that the writer refers to a

specific woman whereas the writer really does not. Rather, the writer makes
the reference of “woman” in general. Then, that sentence should be better
translated as follows “người đàn bà luôn nhớthươ
ng người tình đ
ầ
u tiên”(Thu
uyen, 2007,248). In other words, the article “A” is not translated in
Vietnamese version.
What has been mentioned from the beginning of the introduction inspires

me to carry out an investigation into what majoring – English juniors at Can
Tho University work with English article system in translation.Therefore, my
research will try to answer two questions:
(1)

Do third –year English language study students commit errors in

translating the English articles in terms of generic reference?
(2)

What causes the errors?

The research is outlined as followings:

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter II: Literature review
Chapter III: Research methodology
Chapter IV: Data analysis and discussion
Chapter V: Conclusion, suggestion and limitation

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW
I.

DEFINITION OF ARTICLES:

Article is a word which is used with a noun, and which shows whether the
noun refers to something definite or something indefinite (Richards, J.Platt
and H. Platt: 1985:22). Also, article is a word whose role is to mark noun
phrase as either “definite” or “indefinite”. For example, definite the in the girl,
indefinite a in a girl (Mathew: 1997:25). Thus, articles are described as
“markers” that accompany a noun or a noun phrase and that denote qualities
of “definiteness” or “indefiniteness”.
the ĐH
fact that
articles
accompany
a noun
a noun
theycứu
Trung tâmOwing
Học toliệu
Cần

Thơ@Tài
liệu
họcortập
và phrase,
nghiên
are considered as noun modifiers or noun markers (Ehrlich: 2000). However,
they are not adjectives because they do not describe the noun. Rather, they
indicate the type of reference being made by the noun or the noun phrase.
Articles work as noun modifiers or noun markers, but not as noun describers.
As a result, they are named determiners that are involved “a/an” and “the” and
classified as types of articles.

II.

TYPES AND USAGES OF ARTICLES:

1. Types of Articles:

According to McArthur(1998) and Ehrlich(2000), there are only two types
of article in English: the, the definite article, and a/an, the indefinite article. In
contrast, Quirk (1973), Murphy (1985), Eastwood (1999) and Hewings(1999)
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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

state that article system involves three types: definite article (the), indefinite
article (a/an) and zero article. In fact, zero article is really the omission of the

definite article which is omitted when the writer does not specify a particular
amount or quantity of the noun (Ehrlich: 2000). For example, “Salt is an
important commodity”. In other words, zero article has the same sort of
indefinite meaning as a/an before singular nouns. This convention and the
usage it describes are distinct from the suppression of articles in certain kinds
of writing and speaking, such as note-taking (have suitcase, will travel: I have
a suitcase and I am willing to travel) and elliptical instructions (as in dramatic
scripts: leaves room: the actor leaves the room) (McArthur: 1998). However,
zero article, more or less, makes sentences change their meaning (Swan:
2004:55)

2.

Usages of Articles :

Trung tâmArticle
Học use
liệuis ĐH
CầnonThơ@Tài
liệu học
và speaker,
nghiênnotcứu
dependent
the representation
soughttập
by the
on rule (Hewson: 1972:94). Actually, article use may have more to do with
communication and communicative competence than with grammar and
linguistic competence (Pica: 1983:222). To a great extent, we depend on
discourse context to determine what is definite and what is indefinite (Celce

Muricia and Larsen Freeman: 1983). The indefinite article(a/an) is used when
we have a singular countable noun that is unknown or not specific to the
hearer, while the definite article( the) is used or the reader knows what
specific noun we are talking about( Swan:2004:56).
Largely, Mizuno (1993a) describes the process of choosing an article as
binary, in that there are levels of test criteria that can only be answered with a
"yes" or "no". According to Mizuno, there are four criterion levels: (1)
Discourse Labeling (Is the object new to the discourse?), (2) Numeric
Labeling (Is the object countable?), (3) Class Labeling (Is the object plural or
singular?), (4) Phonetic Labeling (Does the noun which follows begin with a
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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

vowel?). However, Master (1990) proposes a binary system. Master’s
rationale for article choice is based not on "yes" or "no" decisions, but on the
concepts of "identification" (marked by the) or "classification"(marked by a or
Ø) (table 1). He states that determining the correct article requires a

consideration

of

definiteness

(+

definite),

specificity

(+specificity),

countability (+ count) and number (+ singular).He suggests collapsing these
categories into a system in which + definite and + specificity would become
"identified", taking the definite article. The cases of definite and specific
would be considered "classified" (Master: 1990:465). Therefore, in many
cases, choosing a or the is only a matter of viewpoint and style
(Chistophersen: 1993). As a result, Byrd & Benson (1992) give the summary
of the use of articles (table 2)

Table1. Master’s Summary of Aspects of Classification and Identification (1990)

Identification (the)

Classification(a; Ø)

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
Count/noncount
First mention

Subsequent mention
Ranking adjectives
Shared knowledge

Defining postmodification

Limiting postmodification

Partitive of-phrase

Descriptive of-phrase

Intentional vagueness
General characteristics
Existential there and it
Generic the
Classified proper nouns

Proper nouns (Ø and the)

Idiomatic phrases

Idiomatic phrases

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

Table2. the summary of the use of articles (adapted from Byrd & Benson :1992)

Articles

Usage

A(n)

1. with indefinite singular or plural count nouns (“Indefinite”
means that the speaker thinks that the listener does not know
what is being talked about.):e.g. I met a musician at the concert.

The

1.with definite singular or plural count nouns(“Definite means
that the speaker thinks that the listener knows what is being
talked about.):e.g. I bought the required textbook(s) for this
class yesterday.
2. with definite noncount nouns: e.g., I found the information
for my research project.
3. with generic singular count nouns: e.g. Modern life has been

Trung tâm Học liệu
ĐHbyCần
Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
changed
the computer.
4. With some proper nouns that are plural or collective
semantically: e.g. the United States; the Soviet Union.
Zero

1. with most proper nouns: e.g., John lives in Alaska.

article (Ø) 2. with generic plural nouns: e.g., Tigers are both beautiful and
dangerous.

3. with generic noncount nouns: e.g., people need water to live.
Two

1. Singular-count nouns must have an article or another central

important determiner (see Note)
facts

2. For generic meaning, noncount nouns never have an article or

about

another central determiner

articles

Note. Determiners are used to specify the reference of a noun, “and there
are three subgroups among them: pre-, central-, and post- determiners (Biber
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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

et al.:1999: 258). Central determiners include articles, demonstratives (e.g.
this, that), possessives (e.g. my, her, their), universal (each, every), dual
(either, neither), WH (what, which, whose) determiners, assertive/nonassertive (some, any), and negative (no) (Master: 2002: 339-340).
Generally, both articles and determiners play an important role in
specifying the reference of a noun.

III.

REFERENCE AND THE ARTICLE:

According to Richards, J. Platt and H. Platt (1985), reference is the
relationship between words and the things, actions, events and qualities they
stand for. Reference in its wider sense would be the relationship between a
word or phrase and an entry in the external word (the word TREE refers to the
object TREE). Reference in its narrower sense is the relationship between a
word or phrase and a specific object (Peter’s horse refers to a horse which is

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
owned by Peter).Moreover, Master(1990) argues that “whether or not we
mean a specific , actual tick [as in A tick entered my ear] or a generic one [as
in A tick carries disease],we still classify that tick when we use the article
“a”(Master:1990:467). However, in case of “I need a digital camera, but I
couldn’t find it versus I couldn’t find one, the distinction between specific and
generic reference is very important. Thus, readers can guess which word or
phrase is specific or generic basing on context because context, in turn, has an
important influence on article choice (Zalewski: 1993:696).
For those reasons, Quirk & Greenbaum (1973) classify reference of the
English article system into Unique reference, Specific reference and Generic
reference. Unique reference also divides many small pieces involving proper
nouns, Personal nouns, Calendar items, Geographical names, Name+common
nouns, and Proper nouns with definite article(Quirk:1973:76-79).Specific
reference is mentioned by indefinite a/an and definite the, and Generic

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

reference is concentrated much on nationality words and adjectives as head
(Quirk & Greenbaum:1973:68-73).Moreover, it is essential to make a
distinction between specific and generic reference (Quirk:1973:67)

DEFINITE

INDEFINITE

the tiger

SPECIFIC

a tiger
the ink

REFERENCE

the tigers

(some)ink
(some) tiger

the tiger
GENERIC

a tiger

REFERENCE

tigers

IV.

ink

GENERIC REFERENCE:

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
Generic reference is a type of reference, which is used to refer to a class of
objects or things rather than to a specific member of a class. (Richards, J.Platt
and H. Platt: 1985:155).Actually, in terms of semantic, we are seldom
interested in one kind of sentence referring to a class of objects or things that
are used very much in our daily communication in both conversations and
academic texts. This kind of sentence is called generic sentence, which is used
as the aim of generic reference of speakers or writers (Thu Uyen: 2007). For
example,
“An honest woman always has friends, and is never separated from her
family” [17, p. 538]
“ Đàn bà đứng đ
ắ
n, ai là chẳ
ng có bè bạ
n, và có bao giờlạ
i cắ
tđ

ứt hoàn
toàn quan hệvới gia đ
ình” [16, p.514].
Grammatically, Thu Uyen emphasizes that generic sentence is an ideal
structure for the combination of words, but the entities or the subjects
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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

mentioned in this kind of sentence always manifest their inherent attributes.
For instance,
“…a man, who labours under the pressure of pecuniary embarrassments,
is, with the generality of people, at a disadvantage”.
“….một con người loay hoay trong cả
nh túng bấ
n vềtiề
n tài thì phả
i ởđ
ị
a
vịbấ
t lợi hơn so với phầ
n lớn những người khác”
.( Thu Uyen:2007:536)
In a simple term, generic sentences are used when one refers to a whole
group or class, to generalize about all possible member of a group without
distinguishing with any specific individual or any individual in that group or

class.(Hurford: 2001:56; Fillip and Carlson: 1997:176) such as
“The whale is a mammal”
Cá voi là loài đ
ộng vậ
t có vú”or
“Dogs are animals”
“Chó là đ
ộng vậ
t”(Nguyễ
n Minh: 2005:56)
More specifically, Thewlis (2000 states “Both the and a (n) can be used to

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
express generic statements” like

“A lion is a mighty creature” or
“The computer is changing the business world”. (Master: 1996).
Similarly, Berry (1993) emphasizes that use of generic The to indicate
Membership like
“The third task of the teacher is criticism” or
“The kitchen can be a very suitable place to take a nap”, and
In a narrower sense, the definite plural can also be used generically with
nouns of nationality and names of animals and plants representing groups
larger than species (Lyons: 1999:181) as in
“The Swiss consume a lot of chocolate” or
“The cats- at least the big ones like tigers and pumas – are particularly
fierce predators”.

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

However, the problematic nature of using article in terms of generic
reference is that one form of article a/an or the represents multiple functions
(McEldowney: 1977).This is illustrated as the following examples:
(1) The American is a good debater.
(2) An American is a good debater.
(3) The Americans are good debaters.
(4) Americans are good debaters.
Depending on the context, the subject in each of the above can fulfill the
same generic function (McEldowney: 1977).Convincingly, Weeble (2007)
exemplifies exactly the same as McEldowney’s analysis. For instance,
(1) The teacher is low-paid everywhere.
(2) A teacher is low-paid everywhere.
(3) Teachers are low-paid everywhere.
(4) The teachers are low-paid everywhere.
These four examples are totally the same information that the

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
speaker/writer wants to convey that “ởđ
âu thì giáo viên( giáo viên in general)
cũ
ng bịtrảlươ
ng thấ
p”
. The only difference between these four sentences is
style. The style from (1) to (4) is from most formal to less formal in uses.

Therefore, sometimes when writing or speaking you are not referring to one
member of a class or to specific entity; instead you want to refer to the whole
class or every member of the whole class. (Weeble: 2007). Therefore, it is
very necessary to have the ways to realize generic sentences and the ways to
translate them into Vietnamese exactly (Thu Uyen: 2007)

V.

TRANSLATION:

Translation, in a simple term, is a process of finding a target language
equivalent for a source language utterance (Pinhuck: 1977). In contrast,
Catford(1965) assumes that translation is the replacement of textual material

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

in one language by equivalent textual material in another language or is the
replacement of written message in one language by the same message in
another language ( Newmark: 1981). On the other hand, Translation involves
the rendering of a source language text into the target language so as to ensure
that the surface meaning of the two will be approximately similar to the
structure of the source language and will be preserved as closely as possible,
but not so closely that the target language structure will be seriously distorted(
McGuire:1980). More deeply, Will in Noss (1982) defines translation as a
transfer process which aims at the transformation of a written source language

text into an optimally equivalent target text, and which requires the syntactic,
the semantic, and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of
the source language. For example, A/An has different meanings in
Vietnamese, A/An is translated as “ MỘT” in case of
“I was beginning to mix with people of a kind I’d never mixed before”
“Tôi bắ
tđ
ầ
u hòa mình với những người là mộ
t loại người(Môt loại trong

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
nhiề
u loạ
i # The kind : loại người đ
ó)tôi chưa từng trà trộn trước đ
ây.”
(Lê
Vă
n Sự: 2003:18)
A/An is translated as “NÀO ĐÓ” in case of
“On this particular morning, he sat facing a new client, a Mr.redginal
Wade”
“Vào buổ
i sang đ
ặ
c biệ
tấ
y, ông ta ngồi đố
i diệ

n một khách hàng mới, ông
Redginal Wade nào đó”( Lê Vă
n Sự:2003:19), and
A/An are not translated in case of
“Unless I can get to a major competition and win it, I haven’t a chance of
establishing myself here”
“Trừkhi tôi có thểdựmộ
t cuộ
c tranh tài lớn và thắ
ng cuộ
c , tôi sẽkhông
có cơhộ
i làm ă
n ởđây”(Lê Vă
n Sự:2003:20).
A/An in three cases of those examples above clearly illustrates Master’s
account about “classification” as in table1 since three cases lies in the

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

classification of Master. Therefore, Translation is really good when the
translation in target language is natural and right to the aim that source
language conveys (Duff: 1989).
Mistranslation can result from incomplete understanding of grammar;
inability to pick out an appropriate meaning from a list of meaning of a word

in the dictionary; and failure in finding an equivalence in the target language.

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
I.

Research aim:

This descriptive research aim to find out the errors students made during
the process of translation related to the English article system in terms of
generic reference. This study, moreover, also aims to identify the main
problems or difficulties that they get while translating sentences related to
genericity.

II.

Participants:

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
The participants in my research are 60 third-year English Language Study

students from Course 31. They have been chosen randomly to take part in this
study. They have been found in the random alternative of participants since
they have completed the modules of translation, theory of translation one and
grammar. In other words, they have acquired basic as well as advanced
knowledge of articles. Actually, before tackling “generic reference terms”,
students need to have understood the article in nongeneric contexts at their
intermediate level. (Peter Master).

III.

Instruments:

Two main instruments that are used in this study included a translation test
and a questionnaire. The translation test (see appendices page) is drawn up
with 14 single items that requires students to translate them from English into
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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

Vietnamese. These 14 sentences all contain the English article in terms of
generic reference. Concretely, seven sentences contain the article “The” and
the others contain “A/An”. They are disposed in a random order. Two
questions are attached to the test in order to ask students to present their
problems or difficulties while they were translating. The answers to the two
questions are an effective instrument to find out the items they are faced with,
and these are also an important part to put forward the suggestion in this
study.

Fourteen sentences in isolation were not made up on my own, but
collected from many different textbooks, scientific studies and journals, and
internet sources (see reference page). Particularly, they are selected in the part
of generic reference that is mentioned in each book or research I consult to
write literature review.
I have chosen these sentences to make up the translation test because they
have noticeable features for the purpose of my study, and they are also reliable

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
sources illustrated in literature review.

Also, an important and decisive instrument of this study is interviewing
teachers whose major and interest are Vietnamese Language Study. Their
excellent and positive suggestions are one of the criteria for the data analysis
in this research.

IV.

Procedure:

The test was passed out to students, and they did the test in the atmosphere
of doing a translation exercise. That is to say, they did the test with the help of
dictionaries.
The answers or responses are used as a precious material to find out the
answer to the research questions, and information that are not related to

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

research questions and supported by the answers of those students will be
considered suggestions in this research.

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS AND DICUSSION
I.

Data collection:

An English – Vietnamese translation test was passed out to sixty students..
However, 59 papers could be used as data for analysis because one paper was
not completed. In this paper, only three out of 14 sentences were done, so it
was eliminated with a view of incomplete responses.
As for the two supporting questions attached to the test, they were replied
by all the sixty students.

II. Data Analysis:

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
The test consists of 14 sentences in which seven deals with “a/an” and
seven deals with “the”. Therefore, there will be two main parts and two minor
parts of analysis. The first part of analysis deals with sentences with “a/an”.
The second one deals with sentences with “the”, and two others are the
comparison between two parts above and summary of the causes of making
errors of students.
The correctness and accuracy of the students’ versions of the Vietnamese
sentences are ranked as follow: excellent, acceptable, incorrect and others.
The meanings of the ranks are somehow explained basing on the definitions of
translation in the literature review.
“Excellent” – the versions of the target language (Vietnamese) or the
translation into Vietnamese is close to the source language ( English) in
meaning that is transferred in a natural and smooth way. If possible, the

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

versions of the target language may be close to or even better than the
suggested answer which is used as a tool of reference.

“Acceptable” – the translating is not done in a natural and smooth way,
but it is not misunderstood or understood in another way.

“Incorrect” – the meaning in the target language translation is completely

wrong to the source language that leads the readers to misunderstanding or not
understanding anything at all.

“Others” – the sentences are left unfinished or are not translated.
“Suggested Answer” (see appendices page) – this version was corrected
by two teachers. The former is a teacher of translation and the latter is a
teacher whose PhD dissertation is on “article”. In addition, the version of the
target language (Vietnamese) was also agreed by two teachers who are

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
interested in Vietnamese Language Study.

1.

Data analysis for items of A/An:

Here are the commonest versions transferred by students:

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Supervisor: Hong Lu Chi Toan

Researcher: Tran Anh Thu

Table3. Vietnamese versions of items of “A/An”.
Number

Vietnamese Versions

of
sentences
Excellent
2

4

5

Đĩ
a vi tính đ
ượ
c dùng đ
ểlưu trữthông tin

Acceptable Mộ
t cái đĩ
a vi tính được dùng đểlưu trữthông tin
Incorrect

Ổcứng củ
a máy vi tính dùng đ
ểlưu trữthông tin

Excellent

Báo chí có nghĩ
a vụtìm kiế
m và nói lên sựthậ
t

Acceptable Mộ
t tờbáo có trách nhiệ
m tìm kiế
m và nói lên sựthậ
t
Incorrect

Thậ
t khó biế
t mộ
t tờbáo nói cái gì thậ
t hay giả

Excellent

Chó să
n là loài să
n bắ
t giỏ
i và là bạ
n đồ
ng hành củ
a các gia đình

Acceptable Mộ
t con chó să
n luôn là mộ
t con chó să
n giỏ

i và là bạ
n đồ
ng
hành của các gia đ
ình
Incorrect

Con chó này vừa să
n bắ
t giỏi vừa là bạ
nđ
ồng hành củ
a gia đình

Trung tâm Học
liệu ĐH
Thơ@Tài
liệu
tậpnhát
và nghiên cứu
Excellent
ChóCần
să
n thỉ
nh thoả
ng là mộ
t conhọc
vậ
t nhút
7

Acceptable Mộ
t con chó “
đ
ốm”thỉ
nh thoả
ng là một con vậ
t nhút nhát
Incorrect

Chó să
n thỉ
nh thoả
ng là đ
ộng vậ
t hung dữ/khan hiế
m

Excellent

Con gái tôi đ
ang đ
ược huấ
n luyệ
n đểtrởthành bác sĩquang
tuyế
nX

Acceptable Con gái tôi đ
ang đ

ược huấ
n luyệ
nđ
ểtrởthành một bác sĩquang
tuyế
nX

8
Incorrect

Con gái tôi đ
ang được huấ
n luyệ
nđ
ểtrởthành một phát thanh
viên

Excellent
10

12

Là bác sĩ
, Jill nên biế
t rõ hơn

Acceptable Là mộtbác sĩ
, Jill nên biế
t rõ hơn
Incorrect

Là mộtbác sĩ
, Jill nên biế
t những gì cầ
n làm

Excellent

Quảbóng thì tròn

Acceptable Mộ
t quảbóng thì tròn

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