DIFFICULTIES IN THE VIETNAMESE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE FOURTH YEARENGLISH MAJORS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

PART I: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
In today’s globalization and internationalization, it cannot be denied the
importance of English in people’s life and social development. No English
means no communication. Without communication, there is no way to express
thoughts, ideas, and feelings. And how can the country’s economy develop
when the countries tend to integrate international economy for the whole
development? English becomes a common languagewhich helpspeople
understand each other more in the process of diplomaticrelation and economic
cooperation and many other fields in today’s era.
English is the most effective international communicative language. It
is also the official language in a large number of countries.According to
Wikipedia, there are more than 400 million people in the world using English
as a mother tongue, and more than 1 billion people using English as the
second language. English is the third language which is widely used only just
after Chinese and Spanish. All most of the international events and global
organizations are using English as the default language of communication.We
again cannot deny the advantages of English bringing to us, especially in the
booming age of information and technology. Because knowing English and
using computer more effectively are demands of job’s requirements if you
want to get one’s dream job in any international company, earn more money
or communicate more effectively with more people around the world.
When Vietnam became one of the members of World Trade
Organization in 2006 encountering the difficulties in communicating with
international friends,ithas more and more requirements for Vietnamese to
have expert English skills, especially translation skill whichis considered as a
bridge helping Vietnam connect withpartners,enhance international economy
1


and exchange our culture with other countries in the world. Therefore, the

demand of professional translation is getting more necessary than ever.
Translation is essential to learn, but it doesn't mean it is simple for
learners. To master translation is not easy for almost all English learners.
Many Vietnamese people have faced with many challenges when translating
our mother tongue into English. This can be very difficult for learners who
begin to study written translation or even for those who are fluent in several
languages, and there is no exception for English majors at Haiphong
University. How to deal with this actual situation is still a question.
These wondering and interesting facts, ideas promote me to carry out this
study: “DIFFICULTIES IN THE VIETNAMESE - ENGLISH TRANSLATION
OF THE FOURTH -YEARENGLISH MAJORS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY
AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS.” I hope it will be new and contributive to help
students understand their difficulties and overcome these obstacles in learning
process as well as get high mark in their exams.
1.2. Aims of the study
For this study, I expect to clarify two main issues. The first is
toinvestigate some common difficulties in the Vietnamese - English
translation of the fourth-year English majors at Haiphong University. The
second is to make suggestions that can help them deal with the problems.
1.3. Research questions
To achieve the aims, this research is carried outby answering two
following research questions:
-What are the difficulties ofthe fourth-year English majors at Haiphong
University encounter when translating texts from Vietnamese into English?
- What are the solutions to help students overcome these problems?
2


1.4. Scope of the study
Based on in term of studied subject, the study involves Vietnamese

written texts, documents and their English equivalents in different fields,
which sources may be from books, magazines or Internet.
The

fourth-year

English

major

students

in

BA

English

A

K13class(2012-2016 curriculum) at Haiphong University are also the targeted
objects of this research.
1.5. Methods of the study
Questionnaire analysis: consisting of eight questions answered by 40
participants. The respondent’s answers were analyzed to point out:
•

The students’ attitude towards translation subject

•

The students’ difficulties in translating Vietnamese-English texts

•

How students deal with a Vietnamese-English text

•

Methods of studying translation and the amount of time students usually
spend on it
Interview analysis: Two interview questions are designed to make the
study more reliable. Interviewees are teachers teaching Translation.
1.6. Design of the study
This study consists of the following parts:
Part I: Introduction
The first part will give readers an overview of the study including
rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of study.
Part II: Development
This part consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature Review
It focuses on knowledge theoriesrelated to translation such as: the
concepts, the importance, strategies and difficulties in Vietnamese-English
translation.
3


Chapter 2: Methodology
In this chapter, the writer will show methods carried out during the
research process

Chapter 3: Results and discussion
It will focus on analyzing common difficulties and giving solutions for them.
Part III: Conclusion
The last part will summarize the study and comment limitations of the
study and suggestions for further study.

4


PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.1. Definition of translation
There are many the concepts of translation that have been discussed
and presented by many scholars with different perspectives for many
historical periods.
Firstly, numerous linguistic scholars mainly focus on finding the
equivalence (of meaning, grammar, content, etc.) between source language
and target language. According to Catford (1965), “Translation is the
replacement of textual material in one language (source language) by
equivalent textual material in another language (target language)”. They add
Translation “consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closet
natural equivalent of the source language message, first in term of meaning
and second in term of style.”(Nida & Taber (1969). Hartman and Stork
(Newmark, 1995) also define that “Translation involves replacing a text in
one language by an equivalent text in a second language.” Bell.R. (1991)
gives the same point when saying that “Translation is the replacement of a
presentation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text
in a second language.”
Another idea shows that “Translation is a transfer process, which aims
at the transformation of written source language text into an optimally

equivalent target language text, and which requires the syntactic, the semantic
and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the source
language.” (Wilss, 1982). Barkhudarov says that “The transformation of a
speech product in one language into that of other language keeping content
(or meaning) unchanged.” Bao and Thu (1999) defines that “Translation is
rendering a written text into another language in the way that the author
5


intended the text. Translators are concerned with the written word. They
render written texts from one language in to another.” Besides, Koller (1995)
indicates the equivalence relation among languages when saying that
“Translation can be understood as the result of a text-processing activity, by
means of which a source-language text is transposed into a target-language
text. Between the resulting text in the target language text and the source
language text, there exists a relationship which can be designated as
translational, or equivalence relation.” Although there are many different
standpoints, all most of them emphasize the significance of “equivalence” in
both languages.
Secondly, based on Culture and Context theories (by Peter Newmark
1982 [49, p.25],) concentrate on culture and context during the translation
process. He defines “Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace
a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message of
textual material in one language into another language in the way that the
author intended the text.”
Besides, functionalists do not pay attention to the source texts. Their
main is to point out the power of translation. Hamtim & Mason (1990) say
that translation has communicative function when stressing that “Translating
is a communicative process which takes place within a social context.” They
also add that “Translation is an act of communication which attempts to relay,

across cultural and linguistic boundaries, another act of communication.”
(Hatim and Mason - 1997:1). Other scholars say that “Translation is an
extremely motivated industrial activity, supported by information technology,
which is diversified in response to the particular needs of this form of
communication.” ( Sager,1994) or “Translation, as the process of convey
message

across

linguistic

and

cultural

barriers,

is

an

eminently

communicative activity, one whose use could well be considered in a wider

6


range of teaching situations than may currently be the case.” (Tudor, cited in
Duff 1989)

Nord (2007) describes “Translation is the production of a functional
target text maintaining a relationship with a given source text that is specific
according to the intended or demanded function of the target.”
Briefly, it can be said simply that “Translation is the process of
changing something that is written or spoken into another language.”
(Advanced Oxford Dictionary) All above definitions of translation share the
same idea that Translation is the process of replacement or substitution a
written text or an utterance from one language into another language, which
remains equivalence in content, the purpose of communication, or pragmatic.
2.1.2. The importance of translation
Nowadays, Translation plays an important role in our life. The
twentieth century is the age of translation. All fields of human lives such as
economy, education, politics, tourism and so on use the specialized materials
which need to be translated from the original language to another language.
With the trend of integration and enhancing international economy,
Translation helps people overcome the barriers of multi-cultural and global
communication as

Newmark says that “Translation facilitates mutual

understanding among different and conflicting racial, ethnic, religious and
cultural groups.” Especially when Viet Nam has become member of World
Trade Organization, the demand to have expert translation is necessary and
significant. It is true that all of the contracts, emails, agreements, or
conventions, etc., in English need to be translated exactly and effectively to
avoid some regrettable misunderstandings.
Italo Calvino,an Italian journalist, short story writer, novelist, and
essayist has a comment on the importance of translation that "Without
translation I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The
7

translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world." Without
translation,all the classic works of humanity, ancient civilizations along with
endless source of knowledge will be unknown.Through the process of
translation translators can expand our knowledge as Stuart says that
“Translation can support for the writing process, especially at lower levels.
Research has shown that learners seem able to access more information in
their own language, which they can then translate.”
2.1.3. Translation equivalence
House (1997) states the notion of equivalence is the conceptual basis of
translation. According to Catford, “Translation equivalence occurs when an
SL (source language) and TL (target language) texts or items are related to (at
least some of) the same relevant features of situation substance.”(as cited in
Broek, 1978). Halverson (1997) says that equivalence is the relationship
existing between two entities, and the relationship is described as one of
similarity in terms of any of a number of potential qualities. Although there
are many concepts of equivalence translation, theorists share the same ideas in
finding the effective equivalence between SL and TL.
Koller (1979) divides into five types of equivalence:
•

Denotative equivalence: The SL and the TL words refer to the same thing in the
real world. It is an equivalence of the extra linguistic content of a text.

•

Connotative equivalence: This type of equivalence provides additional value
and is achieved by the translator’s choice of synonymous words or
expressions.

•

Text-normative equivalence: The SL and the TL words are used in the same
or similar context in their respective languages.

•

Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and TL words
have the same effect on their respective readers.

8


•

Formal equivalence: This type of equivalence produces an analogy of form in
the translation by either exploiting formal possibilities of TL, or creating new
forms in TL.
Equivalence plays a crucial role in translation which is also the matter
of establishing equivalence between S.L and T.L. Catford (1965) states that
“the central problem of translation practice is that of finding TL equivalents
and the central task of translation theory is therefore that of defining the
nature and conditions of translation equivalence” ( p. 21). He realizes that
there are two factors which affected the equivalence i.e. linguistic and cultural
factors, leading to two kinds of equivalents i.e. linguistic and cultural
equivalents. This finding of Caford is very significant for linguistic scholars
when they identify the difficulties in translation.
2.1.4. Common difficulties in Vietnamese-English translation
2.1.4.1. Difficulties in linguistic

2.1.4.1.1.Words and choices of word meanings
The difference of vocabulary system sometimes creates many
confusing for translators. A word in the source language has many meanings,
and so choosing suitable and appropriate words for the target language text
can be hard work.Newmark said that: “a word denoting an object, an
institution, or if such exists, a psychological characteristics peculiar to the
source language culture is always more or less untranslatable.” (quotes in
Weston 1983:207). In fact,the equivalence of an institution, a division, a
concept, or a term may be not found in the target language. When you
translate a text from Vietnamese to English and vice versa, it is often the case
that there is no direct equivalences can be found in English for Vietnamese
words. Translators may encounter a new concept in general, and a difficult
one to understand and explain it in many languages. Or it may be that the
concept is known or readily understood but there is no specific English word
9


to express it. Another difficulty is that, in addition, some words have special
connotations that are not conveyed by the English word for the same thing.
In some cases, it may be appropriate or necessary for translators to
examine the English context and decide which Vietnamese word is suitable.
This usually involves choosing among several different words, as there are
many English words that can be correspond to the general category or
meaning expressed by the Vietnamese terms. For example, the Vietnamese
word“đàn” can be collocated with many different nouns such as “cá”
(fish), “chim” (bird), “sư tử” (lion), “gia súc” (cattle). On the contrary, in
English there are many words meaning “đàn” as follows: “flock”, “herd”,
“pack”, “school”, “pride”etc. In these cases, aVietnamese word alone is not
enough to determine for the appropriate English translationand it is necessary
to put it in the phrase and specific context.

A flock of birds/ sheep: đàn chim/ cừu
A herd of cattle/ buffaloes: đàn gia súc/ trâu
A pack of dogs/ calves: đàn chó/ bê
A school of fish/ chickens: đàn cá/ gà
A pride of lions: đàn sư tử
Therefore, translators have to learn by heart to avoid misusing.
In other cases, it is appropriate to use a more general word to translate
Vietnamese with no specific English equivalent. For instance, Vietnamese
have many words or phrases with different shades of green/blue such as: xanh
thẳm, xanh rợn, xanh um, xanh biếc, xanh lá mạ, xanh cổ vịt, xanh lam, xanh
da trời, xanh lá cây…, but English has only two words (blue = xanh lá
cây/green = xanh da trời).
Reduplication (từ láy) is found widely in Vietnamese. They are formed
by repeating a part of a word to form new words, altering the meaning of the
original word. Its effect is to sometimes either increase or decrease the
intensity of the adjective, and is often used as a literary device (like
10


alliteration) in poetry and other compositions, as well as in everyday speech.
It is very difficult to translate reduplicative words from Vietnamese into other
languages because it requires the equivalence of form and the semantic
nuances.For example, Vietnamese has the word “đo đỏ” translated as
“somewhat red” in English. Another example, the words “héo hon”, “héo
hắt”, “heo héo”in Vietnamese are translated as “wither” (onlymeans
“héo”)in English.It can be easily seen that English words only express the
meaning of the words, and they have not shown the intensity of the
adjective.Therefore, due to the fact that Vietnamese has a much greatly
abundant vocabulary stock, it poses challenging difficulties in choosing its
English equivalence.

Sometimes, we cannot find equivalent English words for Vietnamese
ones. It is just an explanation of word meaning, not translate. Here are some
typical examples:
“lơ láo” = “look lost and out of one’s element”
“mơn mơn” = “Freshly tender, freshly young/ In the prime of youth”
In short, words play a crucial role for any language learners to
build their own vocabulary system to get advantages in their language
learning. Vocabulary is the fundamental component of communication. The
more vocabulary you have, the more advantages for you to obtain effective
communication. Paying attention to meanings of word and using words in
context exactly will help translatorscreate a good translated text.
2.1.4.1.2. Using suitable grammar and grammatical structure in the
target language to transfer the ideas
The differences ofgrammar or grammatical structure also cause the
difficulties for translators.Insufficient knowledge on either of the two areas may
lead to poor quality of translation. If compared to other languages, English is a
very flexible language. It goes by very strict structures while the Vietnamese
language is much more flexible by the way it does not always use rules.
11


 Word order

There are rules, which tell us how to put the words together. Every
language has its own order words in the sentence and we must respect that.
The following example is used to illustrate more about the differences
between word orders in Vietnamese and English.
Vietnamese: “Cô ấy là một người bạn tốt.”
N

Adj

English: “She is a good friend.”
Adj

N

During the process of learning a foreign language, our mother tongue
has a big influence on our way of thinking and, to some extent, our use of the
target language (word order, word choice). Thus, for many Vietnamese do not
understand the rules of word order hardly avoid the mistakes – wrong English
word orders. For example, they may translate the “Cô ấy là một người bạn
tốt” as “She is a friend good.”
Sometimes, there are similarities between Vietnamese and English in
word order. Relative pronoun and object structures are typical examples.
- Mô-za là nhạc sĩ (mà) tôi yêu thích nhất.
= Mozart is the musican (whom) I admire.
- Người phụ nữ tôi trông thấy trong công viên đang cho chim bồ câu ăn.
= The woman I saw in the park was feeding the pigeons.
 Tense

12


In English, there are many tenses being used with a particular structure.
In case, an untrue tense is used, readers cannot understand or
misunderstand its meaning.
For instance: “Anh ấy đang học tiếng anh”.
It can be translated as: “He is studying English now”.
The tense of the verb is the present progressive tense, it shows

an action

taking place in the moment of speaking.To express tense in

English, we must change the verb- form while there are no rules of using
the different verb forms to express the time when an action happens in
Vietnamese. With the present progressive tense above, it can be proved that
English has a very clear distinction between tenses whereas tense is not
usually required in Vietnamese. For Vietnamese, past tense is indicated by
adding the word “đã”, present progressive tense by the word “đang”, and
future tense is indicated by the word “sẽ”.
 Difference parts of speech

There is often no equivalent in the target language for a particular form
in the source text. For example:
- “Mưa tầm tã.”
N

Adj

= “Raining cats and dogs.”
V

N

- “Ngủ ngon!”
V
13

Adj

N


= “Good night!”
Adj

N

 Misuse of prepositions

In English, prepositions themselves are difficult to use. So the use of
prepositions becomes even more complicated. And the errors relates to the
misuse of prepositionsare common and unavoidable. It often occurs when the
translators keep Vietnamese structures to translate the Vietnamese sentence
into English.
Example:
- Bọn trẻ chơi ngoài vườn
= The children play out the garden. (incorrect)
= The children play in the garden (correct)
- Anh ta nói bằng tiếng Anh
= He speaks by English.

(incorrect)

= He speaks in English.

(correct)

- Họ bơi dưới sông.

= They swim under the river. (incorrect)
= They swim in the river.

(correct)

From the above mentioned examples, it can be seen that the translator
tended to choose the English preposition basing on Vietnamese meaning
without paying attention to their variations.
 Voice:

14


Vietnamese tend to use active sentences in their speech while the
passive voice is used very frequently in English, which poses some problems
for translators. For example:
The following sentence is considered to have grammatical error
because the translator misused the voice.
“Đổi mới giáo dục là con đường tất yếu, nhưng đổi mới như thế nào
vẫn còn là một câu hỏi đặt ra cho nhiều nhà giáo dục học.”
= Educational innovation is absolutely essential, but how should it
innovate is still a big question which pose for many educators.
The errors of this example are the verb “innovate” and “pose” which are
in active form. It must be in passive form “be innovated” and “is posed” because
education cannot innovate by itself and question cannot itself pose for
educators. Therefore, the Vietnamese sentence should be translated as:
“Educational innovation is absolutely essential, but how should it be
innovated is still a big question posed for many translators.”
In Vietnamese, there are some cases where you see the word “bị”,
“được”, but they are not passive sentences in English at all

Example:
- Anh ấy bị ngã = He falls.
- Tôi bị ho= I have a cough.


Number:
Though both English and Vietnamese have similar notions of number
and countability, each language expresses in very different ways. In English,
15


number is expressed as a grammatical category that is they are different in
grammatical forms for the singular and plural nouns. The final letter “_s”
represents plurality in English. It occurs in the grammar as a suffix of the
nouns or verbs or both. In Vietnamese, some plural makers such as “các”,
“những”, “tất cả”, “mọi”, “mỗi”, etc. can be used in addition to the noun.
“Các” generally means all of a given category of thing, whereas “những”
refers only to some of the total number of things being discussed. “Mỗi”
emphasizes the identity of the individual members of the category without
connoting anything of their totality, while “mọi” expresses both individuality
of the items and the totality of the category. However,number is often not
expressed at all. Sometimes, no such distinction in Vietnamese is made
grammatically.
Example: Phụ nữ = can mean either woman or women
Đàn ông = can mean either man or men
Trẻ em = can mean either child or children.
Some words that can be countable in Vietnamese but are uncountable in
English that makes translator confuse sometimes. Here after are examples of
some of them such as information, advice, furniture, potential, equipment, etc.
In short, grammatical structures in English are so complicated and not

easy to master. There is no way to master it without practice. It requires the
learners have to find on effective way of learning to study and practice
more if they want to limit grammar errors in using English in general and
specially in studying translation subject to become a professional translator.

2.1.4.2. Difficulties in cultural awareness
There are universal cultures that can exist in every community.When
talking about the separation of the two relatives, it can be easy for everyone to
16


understand the meaning of the sentence by the familiar metaphor images
(sunny day, rainy day, the moon, the sun)
“Hai ta như ngày nắng tránh ngày mưa
Như mặt trăng mặt trời cách trở.”
But if we say:
“Hai ta như sen mùa hạ, cúc mùa thu
Tháng mười hoa hồng, tháng năm hoa nhãn.”
Or:
“Hai ta như sao Hôm sao Mai không cùng ở”
Only Vietnamese can deeply understand the meaning of the verses
because these comparative images exist in Vietnamese only.
In the world, there are two cultures which create a big difference:
Oriental culture (Vietnam) and Western culture (England). Each nation has its
own characteristics of geography, history, physical life, etc. which are
reflected in the language clearly, especially in vocabulary of each ethnic
group. The source language word may express a concept which is totally
unknown in the target culture. For example, Vietnam is located in the tropical
monsoon with complex terrain, and it is famous for the ancient agriculture.
Therefore, things, events, phenomena and concepts related to that

characteristics that reflect markedly in the name, production tools, rice
processing like “cày sâu cuốc bẫm, gieo mạ, làm cỏ, gầu giai, gầu sòng, bón
thúc, bón đón đòng, xay, giã, giần, sàng, thúng, mủng, nong, nia, sọt, gạo tẻ,
nếp cẩm, tám xoan, tấm, cám, trấu; bánh đa, bánh đúc, bánh chưng, bánh
dầy, bánh giò, bánh khúc, bánh cốm…” Besides,there are words about the
customs of marriage(dạm ngõ, ăn hỏi, thách cưới, nộp cheo…) and religion,
creed (đình, chùa, miếu, am, phủ, điện thờ, bàn thờ, ngai, bài vị, mẫu thoải,
chúa thượng ngàn…) For Vietnamese people, these words and phrases are
very popular, but they are extremely strange to Westerners. Therefore, it is
very difficult for translators to translate these words into other languages
17


because the target language has no similar culture, even there is no
corresponding words.
Another example, when British refer to the word "pub" (a place where
alcoholic drinks can be bought and drunk) as a traditional culture. It is an old
and antique place with dear images. In the pub, they might have no music, or
they do have music but it’s very quiet, for a cozy comfortable atmosphere. In
contrast, "pub" in Vietnamese means "bar" - a noisy place and the music
might be really loud to encourage people to have fun, drink a lot and make
people dance. Overall, “bar” has long created a negative impression with
social evils in people’s mind.
Moreover, it is very hard for translators to translate idioms and fixed
expression fromVietnamese into English. It is sometimes possible to find a
English idiom or expression with a similar meaning to an Vietnamese idiom
or expression. For example, the idiom “xa mặt cách lòng”is translated into
English as “out of sight, out of mind”, or the idiom “im lặng là vàng” is also
translated as “Silence is gold”. However, sometimes no English idiom or
expression with a similar meaning to this Vietnamese idiom can be found.

For example:
- “Ai giàu ba họ, ai khó ba đời”
= “Every dog has its day
= “The longest day must have an end”
= “The morning sun never lasts a day”
It is also possible and usually easier to find a English idiom with a
similar meaning to an Vietnamese idiom, but which is expressed differently.
One typical example for this is the translation for “Nhập gia tùy tục”, which is
translated as “When in Rome, do as Romans do”.

18


After going through a careful analysis about cultural differences
between the two countries, a conclusion could be drawn, that is culture can
partly affects translation process. Misunderstanding of culture can lead to bad
translation product and sometimes makes it funnyand even insulting to
readers of the target language. “There is the existence of this dividing line
between linguistic and cultural challenges facing translators. He thinks that
differences between cultures cause many more severe complications than do
differences in language structure.” (Nida, 2000) Therefore, translators should
make it easy for readers to see and understand the text in terms of their own
cultural background.

19


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this chapter is to present the methodology used in this
thesis. It consists of research participants, data collection instruments and

research procedure.
2.2.1. Participants
2.1.1.1. The researchers
The study is carried out by Dang Thi Hong Gam, the fourth-year
student of English A class K13, Foreign Language Department, Haiphong
University.
2.1.1.2 The subjects
The subjects of the thesis are the fourth- year students of English major
2012- 2016 curriculum at Haiphong University. This year is the second year
for them to study Vietnamese-Englishtranslation subject. They have finished
2 courses relating translation before (Translation Practice 1 and Translation
Practice 2)
2.2.2. Data collection instruments
2.2.2.1. Questionnaire
The questionnaire is designed carefully to help students realize the
status of studying Vietnamese-English translation and their difficulties in
studying this subject. In this study, the questionnaire consists of 8 questions
written in English.
The aims of those questions can be described as follow: The first part
concluding four questions (question (1), (2), and (3) were designed to seek the
student’s attitude towards translation subject in general.

The next two

questions (question (4) and (5) were used to find out the student’s difficulties
in their Vietnamese-English translation. In order to know how students do
20


when they encounter a Vietnamese-English text,question (6) was designed to

clarify that. The two last questions (question (7) and (8)were asked to indicate
the methods that the students usually apply to improve their translation skill.
2.2.2.2. Interview question
In this study, Interviewees are the teachers who have taught the
Translation subject in Foreign Language Department at Haiphong University.
The aim of interview question is to get more information about the student’s
difficulties in translating a text from Vietnamese into English and to know more
clearly about the solutions, so the thesis is discussed in detail and deeply.
2.2.2.3. Research procedure
It took me about three months to finish the study at Haiphong
University. From the beginning of March, I started to choose the topic then
searched the materials from the internet and reference books to figure out the
outline. After that, the questionnaire was designed and delivered to the
students of fourth- year of English major at the end of April. Forty copies
were delivered to the students of BA English A K13 class, and forty copies
were collected. The interviewed questions were also designed and
implemented interviewing was also on statistic to collect data for the study.
Finally, I started to write the study to find out the student’s difficulties in
Vietnamese-English translation subject and some suggested solutions were
given as well.

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CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
2. 3.1. Analysis of data from questionnaire
2.3.1.1. The students’ attitude towards translation subject
The question (1) shows that 24 participants (60%) like studying
Translation while others do not like this subject.
Question (2)

Figure 1: The students’ interests in learning translation

From the above figure, it is seen that more than half of students(52.5%)
prove that translation is difficult, but they still feel interested in studying this.
In contrast, the group of students who are not interested in translation
occupies 25 %. They think that translation is either difficult or boring, may be
they cannot find out the suitable way to learn this kind of subject and still not
get motive on studying. Besides,there are 20% students find it normal when
learning translation, and the rest say that it is easy task for them. It cannot be
denied that although translation is a difficult subject to master, most students
still find out their interest in studying and thus they will try their best to learn
and improve their translation skill.
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In question3,the writer asks the participants:“In your opinion, what are the
advantages of studying translation?” and gave them five choices. For this
question, the participants can choose more than one option, and here is the result:
Table 1: The student’s opinions about the advantages of studying
translation

In your opinion, what are the
Options

advantages of studying
translation?
(%)

A. Enhance vocabulary
B. Use grammar structures more correctly

and flexibly
C. Improve language skills especially
writing
D. Expand cultural and and social
knowledge
E. All of them

5
5
10
7.5
72.5

The above table shows that the same number of students (5%) shares
the same idea that studying translation can help them both enhance
vocabulary and use grammar structures more flexibly. There is a few students
(7.5%) thatcan expand cultural and social knowledge through studying
translation. Besides, ten percent of students think that they can improve
language skills through studying translation, especially writing. Most of the
students (72.5%) realizemany advantages concluding the four options above.
Base on the result, it can be said that most of the students are aware of the
advantages of studying translation. Therefore, they have good attitude on

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learning and they are able to find their motivation for studying this subject so
that they can learn it well with their own effective ways.
2.3.1.2 The students’ difficulties in studying translation
There are 33 participants (82.5%) in the question (4) agree that

Vietnamese-English translation is more difficult than English-Vietnamese
one. Therefore, in fact, translation is not easy to master. Vietnamese -English
translation is really a big obstacle for students. Because of many reasons, they
feel a Vietnamese text is more difficult to express by English.
The fifth question requires the students to identify the common
difficulties they encounter when translating Vietnamese text into English one.
The result is described as the following table:
Table 2: The common difficulties students have to face when translating from
Vietnamese to English

What are the common difficulties
Options

you have to face when translating
from Vietnamese to English?
(%)

A. Choosing the equivalent word
meaning in target language
B. Using suitable grammar and

32.5

grammatical structures in the target

67.5

language to transfer the ideas
C. Understanding about culture

7.5

D. Finding the meaning of special
words in target language

10

Others
12.5
The second table reflectsthat almost allstudents have faced with
challenges when translating a text from Vietnamese to English. The number
of people who feel difficult to use suitable grammar and grammatical
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structures in the target language to transfer the ideas account for a
considerable rate (67.5%). Choosing the equivalent word meaning in target
language is the difficulty ranking in the second position (32.5%).Followed by
the difficulty in finding the meaning of special words in target language
occupies 10% of students and understanding about culture (7.5%). Besides,
there are somestudents (12.5%) getting troublewith other challenges. Some
students say that in some cases, it is not easy to understand the intentions of
the writer in the original text, so it is very difficult for themto transfer the
meaning of text in English. Othersstudents reveal that all of four options
above are their challenges. I think these students need to find out an effective
method of studying, and they should try their best to limit the challenges by
spending more time on it.
2.3.1.3. How students deal with a Vietnamese-English text
The purpose of question (6) is to find out the way which students often
do when translating a text from Vietnamese into English.

Table 3: How students deal with a Vietnamese-English text
What do you often do when you do
Options
A. Just read it and do nothing
B. Look up the meanings of new

a Vietnamese-English text?
(%)
5
85

words by using dictionary or internet
C. Find out grammar structures need

37.5

to be used
D. Try to translate it and wait for

22.5

teacher’s feedback
E. Ask your friends or your teacher

12.5

Others:............................................
0
In table 3, we can see that when students were given a VietnameseEnglish translation exercise, 85% of them look up the meanings of new words
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