A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN INTERPRETATION SKILLS FACED BY SENIORS IN ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

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ABSTRACT

Today, in the context of enhanced globalization and integration throughout
the world, the role of interpreters in international relations is also increasingly
enhanced. The interpreters play important role in interpreting in important
diplomatic and political conversation, directly affecting the image of the country
in the eyes of international friends or interpreting commercial deal, contribute to
the overall economy of the country.
That's the reason why the requirements for this profession are increasing.
Just knowing English does not mean you can become a good interpreter, it must
be fluent and fluent in both words and grammar in both mother tongue and
foreign language, knowledge of diplomacy and international integration, as well
as understanding the differences between the two cultures to be able to convey
content from words source language into the target language completely.
However, there are many seniors who have to face certain problems in
interpretation skill. Recognizing the negative impact of these difficulties, the
researcher conducted a small study to identify some common problems during
interpreting. The purpose of the research is to identify and explain these
difficulties, and to provide some methods for students to be good at interpreting
and have their own experience in the following working process. There are 120
people who are the fourth – year students of English Majors at Thuongmai
University participate in this study. They have taken the interpretation course
and have experienced with doing interpreting test.
Therefore, in the hope of improving the students' interpreting competence
with the enthusiastic help of participants, the researcher hopes this study will be
useful for everyone.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the process of doing the graduation paper, I have received a lot of
necessary help as well considerable encouragement and valuable guidance from
my teacher, my family and friends that guide and encourage me to overcome all
difficulties and finish this graduation paper.
First and foremost, I would like to show my gratefulness to my supervisor,
Ms. Phan Tu Lan, whose give me assistance, guidance, precious ideas,
encouragement and kept me confident to accomplish successfully this study.
Also, I would like to show my sincere thanks to all my teachers at English
faculty, Thuongmai University, who has given me useful knowledge and lessons,
whole – hearted advice during four years studying here.
I’m grateful to fourth – year English majors at Thuongmai University for
their enthusiastic participation and help. Their sharing has been the prime
sources of data in my study.
Last but not least, I would like to thank to my family, my friends who
always support and become a great motivation to help me overcome difficulties
in the process of doing this research.
Because of the limited time, knowledge and practical experiences, there
will have some defect and mistakes in this study. Therefore, I sincerely hope to
take your remarks and suggestions for my better graduation paper.
Ha Noi, April 24th, 2020
Student
Vu Thi Hoa

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TABE OF CONTENTS

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

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No

Abbreviation

Meaning

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TMU

Thuongmai University

2

US

United State


LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH
1.1. Research issues and reasons for selecting topics
1.1.1. Research issues
In 2016, the app iTranslate Converse was launched. The app iTranslate
Converse has the ability to translate and speak languages directly on the device
and supports translating/ interpreting more than 100 different languages. Using
this tool is very simple: Users only need to select the source language and target
language, then hold down the screen and start speaking. The length can be in a
sentence, a word and released after speaking. The application will interpret the
text displayed on the screen and pronounce it for the opposite person, but this
tool will not replace the role of the interpreters, because it is essentially a
system. It is just a system, so it cannot fully understand the meaning of
sentences, especially when in sentences, paragraphs using cultural elements or
words with multiple levels of meaning. So sometimes this tool produces very
funny interpretation results, for example, the word "bánh ít" which refers to a
type of cake (glutinous rice cake), but this app interpreted this word into
English: "little cake" because it does not understand the word "ít" does not mean
little. Only interpreters who have undergone a thorough training in language and
interpretation skills can see it. Interpretation is a job that requires logical
thinking about language and skill in using fluent and fluent language, so it can
never be "dead" and cannot be replaced by technology.
Recognizing the importance of interpreting in areas of life, Thuongmai
University has standards for students in the English Faculty. All students of
English Faculty must pass interpretation course in the final year. In my opinion,
this is a great preparation for career in the future.
However, during the learning process, due to various reasons, students have
encountered many problems leading to poor academic results. These issues are
largely related to differences in English and Vietnamese language and culture.

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Recognizing these difficulties, the researcher wishes to find the right solution to
solve an important contribution to help students learn better in this subject,
thereby equipping themselves with good knowledge and experience. Almost of
study is about interpreting English into Vietnamese and contrary action.
1.1.2. The reason to choose the topic
As we all know, the high marks of interpretation course of seniors of
English Faculty is slightly rare. It is easy to see the reason here is that the new
subject, many students cannot adapt immediately so the learning results are not
high. And there are many other reasons. The bad study of the interpretation
subject may be due to the fact that students have not actively learned and
improved subject knowledge or have not studied well the subjects which are
prerequisites or parallel to the Interpretation subjects such as Translation
practice, Specialist English... leading to uncertain knowledge about English and
Vietnamese, which makes it impossible to learn interpretation. Vietnamese is the
language that is from the East and English is from the West, there are marked
differences in grammatical structure, vocabulary & reflection in these different
cultures. If you learn interpreting without good foundation as well as you are not
really hard to learn, the results will not be high. In addition, complex sentence
structures and specialized words are also a big obstacle for students, because
having to work with a language that is strange to the everyday language makes it
difficult for many students. Therefore, in this study, the researcher wants to
delve into some of the main issues in the interpretation skills: issues from
majors, language differences, sentence structure and cultural factors. At the same
time, the researcher also suggests some solutions in the hope that enable partly
solve these difficulties, thereby improving their academic results.

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1.2. Previous studies
1.2.1. Previous studies abroad
In the foreign context, the Marta Arumí Ribas's study (2013) wrote about
problems and strategies in consecutive interpreting. The study looks into
problems (objective obstacles) and difficulties (subjective obstacles) that
simultaneous interpreters have in order to establish certain universalities as well
as to address the issues related to skill acquisition. The results are drawn from an
experiment that was carried out with 18 interpreters (10 students and 8
professionals).This study mainly aims to identify some general patterns in the
emergence of problems and strategies reported by students at two different
stages of training in consecutive interpreting. This study has shown that there are
some commonalities among all the students when tackling certain problems,
novice students report more problems than the advanced students and the
problems that crop up tend to be different in kind, depending on the level of
training.
In the studies published in 2002 and 2009, Gile analyzed interpreting
difficulties and strategies through his Effort Model. In this Model, Gile talked
about processing capacity, which is finite and which enables us to see the faults
in the interpretation process and propose solutions to these difficulties.
In 1996, Alessandra Riccardi had a study that talk about the problems
encountered and the strategies brought to bear by interpreters with differing
degrees of experience as they tackle a simultaneous interpreting task. From a
more theoretical point of view, in 1998 Riccardi has reflected on the creative
component in interpreting strategies. In her study published in 1999, Riccardi
emphasized that there are general strategies, which are applicable to all language
combination, and specific strategies applicable to the individual language pairs
in question.

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1.2.2. Previous studies in Viet Nam
In Vietnam, there are some research articles on this topic. The first study
the researcher wants to mention is the study which is finished by Tran Thi
Huyen (2017). This study was an attempt to identify difficulties caused by
cultural differences in interpreting Vietnamese into English faced by English
majored final year students at Ha Tinh University. It gained significant results.
The writer clarified how English-majored seniors overcome cultural differences
difficulties in interpreting. As a result, some useful solutions to deal with these
kinds of problems were presented in this study.
Another study the researcher wants to mention is the study of Nguyen Thi
Mai Anh (2012). This study finds out the main difficulties in learning English –
Vietnamese consecutive interpreting for the third-year English majors at
Haiphong Private University and suggested solutions. The study has the aim of
improving interpreting performance, the teaching and study quality of
interpretation, this research discusses the interpreting students’ difficulties that
often occur in learning English –Vietnamese consecutive interpreting and
suggested solutions.
Clearly, all of these studies have one thing in common: an analysis of
difficulties in interpretation. However, the objects of these studies are slightly
common and not specific. In my study, I want to research in a more deep way all
difficulties that fourth-years students, particularly students of English Faculty in
Thuongmai University have to encounter.
1.3. Research questions
This thesis firstly focuses on the general knowledge of the subject of
interpretation skills, then, highlights the practical difficulties that seniors have to
face. This study was conducted at the time this group of students had just
completed the Interpretation course. Therefore, the writer poses three research

questions as follows:

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1. What problems did seniors encounter during interpretation course? How
can these problems be categorized?
2. What are the reasons for these difficulties?
3. What should be done to help students to overcome difficulties and
improve interpretation skills?
1.4. The aims of the study
This study has three main purposes:
-Firstly, the researcher wants to analysis the basic knowledge about
interpretation.
-Secondly, the researcher finds and points out the common difficulties of
fourth-year students of English Faculty, Thuongmai University in learning
interpretation, as well as classifies them and explains the reasons for these
difficulties.
-Thirdly, the researcher proposes some solutions to help students overcome
the above problems.
1.5. Significance of the study
The purposes of the study are to find out the difficulties and then propose
some solutions to improve interpretation skills in the interpretation course.
Therefore, this research is expected to bring significant benefits and become a
useful resource for both students and teachers.
Firstly, for students, through this research, they will find out their
weaknesses when doing an interpreting test so that they come up with
appropriate solutions and apply it to fix their problems.
Secondly, when this research has been completed, its findings and
suggestions will become one of the most effective tools to help the further and

deeper investigations.
1.6. Scope of the study
The study focuses on the interpretation skills in interpretation course of
fourth-year students, English Majors at TMU. However, to make the study be
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clearer and more detailed, the researcher makes some comparisons and
examples. Because of the limitation of time as well as knowledge, the shortage
of information, this study cannot cover all of them. It is mainly about
interpreting skills in interpreting course of Thuongmai University. In addition,
due to a large number of students in TMU, it cannot investigate all of them who
took interpretation course. Therefore, this study only focuses on the seniors of
English majors at TMU.
1.7. Research methodology
This study is carried out in both qualitative and quantitative method.
Therefore, I conduct the research with some following steps:
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Firstly, I search some necessary documents in web sites on Internet.

Besides, I read some previous studies related to Interpretation skill .In addition, I
borrow books from library to have directions for my study.
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The study includes survey questionnaires and interview questions for

students who are seniors of English faculty at Thuongmai University. The survey
investigates 30 students at TMU who took or are taking the interpretation
course.

After getting results from survey, the researcher will amass and start
analyzing them by using tables and charts.
1.8. Organization of the study
Except for chapter 1 (introduction) introduced above, the rest of the study
consists of four chapters as below:
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Chapter 2, the literature review, it has the theoretical background of

interpreting skill which is the basic foundation of data analysis.
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Chapter 3, Data analysis and research findings, present the method used

for data collection and data analysis process. Besides, it will discuss the findings
of data analysis.
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Chapter 4, recommendation and suggestion, it will give some solutions

to improving interpreting skills in tests.
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Chapter 5, conclusion, it has the summary of the whole study,

limitations of the study, and suggestions for further studies.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Interpretation skills
2.1.1. Definition of interpretation
By studying some linguistic scholars’ works on subject of interpretation
and translation, I have to conclude that there is not any regular definition of
interpreting. To give a clear definition of interpreting, at first, I will relate it to
translation which interpretation is often mistaken for. Pochhacker (2004) stated
that interpretation is a special form of translation or "it is immediate oral
translation" as Roderick Jones (2002, p 3) said. So, the main difference is that
translation is written, while interpreting is verbal. Mahmoodzadeh gave more
detailed definition of interpreting: "Interpreting consists of presenting in the
target language, the exact meaning of what is uttered in the source language
either simultaneously or consecutively, preserving the tone of the speaker (1992
p.231)
In all my knowledge, interpreting is the act whereby an interpreter
translates a sentence, a piece of text from one language into another language
but their meaning does not change. Interpretation is completely different from
translating word for word.
The person who performs the interpretation is called an interpreter. Good
interpreters are those who are always flexible. They know how to handle
situations when interpreting, so they can still keep the meaning of sentences and
paragraphs intact. The product of interpreting is verbal - it's a verbal
conversation from one language to another. Interpreters work directly with
customers, sometimes by phone or other means. The interpreting process can be
done in two ways: simultaneously or consecutively.
2.1.2. Main types of interpretation
In interpretation, there are many different types of interpreting. When you
select type of interpreting for a meeting or event, it is extremely important to
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consider specific conditions, goals and communication environment. In my
research, I want to introduce four most common types of interpreting.
2.1.2.1. Consecutive interpreting
During consecutive interpreting the speaker stops every 1–5 minutes
(usually at the end of every “paragraph” or complete thought), and the
interpreter then steps in to render what was said into the target language.
Consecutive interpreting may be used for a small space with few
participants such as an interview, human resource training, press conferences,
presentations, trade deals, smaller business meetings or in court on the witness
stand. This is a back and forth style of interpreting, with speakers of multiple
languages taking turns speaking and being interpreted.
2.1.2.2. Simultaneous interpreting
In simultaneous interpreting, the interpreter must translate the speech into
the target language while simultaneously listening to and catching on the next
sentence. Strictly speaking, “simultaneous” is a inaccurate name: the interpreters
cannot initiate interpreting until they understand the general meaning of the
sentence.
Simultaneous interpreters process and memorize the words that the sourcelanguage speaker is stating now, while simultaneously outputting in the target
language, the translation of words the speaker said 5-10 seconds ago. The goal
for simultaneous interpreting is not to paraphrase, but to convey the exact
language. Simultaneous interpreting is used for big congresses, meetings or
trade shows.
2.1.2.3. Relay interpreting
Relay interpreting is similar to simultaneous interpretation but it is more
complex. The interpreter will not only translate one, but must translate more
languages than two. For example, a meeting has delegates from four countries of
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and the US. There will have three relay interpret
cabins, using English as a common language: English-Vietnamese cabin,
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English-Lao cabin, English-Cambodian cabin .When delegates speak English,
all three interpreters simultaneously interpreted into Vietnamese, Lao, and
Cambodian to the delegates of these countries. Then, when a Vietnamese
delegate speaks, an interpreter in Vietnamese cabin will interpret the speaker's
speech into English. At the same time, interpreters in English-Laos and EnglishCambodian cabins have to listen to the interpreter from the Vietnamese cabin
and interpret English into Lao and Cambodian.
This type of interpretation maybe causes discrepancies, as many
interpreters are involved in the interpretation process. It is used for big meetings,
conferences or trade shows…
2.1.2.4. Whisper interpreting
Whisper interpreting is similar to simultaneous interpreting but the
interpreter does not use a headset or microphone, rather the interpreter take a
seat next to the person (or groups of people), who require interpreting and coo or
whispers softly while outputting in the target language.
This is often used for a business meeting where just one person requires
interpreting, or for example, in a courtroom…
2.1.3. The importance of interpreting
In the past, interpretation was the continued transition from one language to
another. Today, interpreting directly participate in all of stages of the
development process of society: Economics, culture, politics, commerce...
Just imagine if there was no interpreting on one day, the Third World War
would be triggered by the climax of political conflict and language barrier.
People will be increasingly limited in the land of their barren language.
Therefore, interpreting is a language bridge that has responsibility to operate all
of activities such as economic, cultural, political or commercial... Interpreting
creates opportunities for continuous development, updating the trend of modern
technology and new chemical...Interpreting play an important role as a link
between people, we exchange information and understand each other and
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cooperate with each other. When peoples have the same language, everything
becomes extremely easy. Interpreting also increase professionalism in each
conference, government...
In that context, interpreters are thought that have an extremely important
role. That is the reason why interpreters should keep tireless efforts to improve
interpreting skills.
2.1.4. Factors affecting to interpretation
To have a good translation, we need a harmonious combination of
elements. Each element has a certain level of contribution so you can improve
your interpretation skills.
2.1.4.1. Grammar structure and vocabulary
These are the two great factors that contribute to 50% into improving your
interpretation skills. In other words, this is a very important factor. To become a
good interpreter, you need to master these factors. You should improve your
grammar structures ability and cultivate a great deal of vocabulary for both
source and target languages.
In interpretation, just using the correct word to express is not enough, but
you need to use different sentence structures to convey appropriately and
smoothly. For English, a word can have many separate meanings that are not
related to each other. Therefore, mastering all the meanings of each word is
extremely important. It is also necessary to help you using language fluently,
thereby improving your interpreting skills. It can be said that vocabulary and
grammar are foundation and framework for all the remaining issues. This
element must be good, you can achieve other things.
2.1.4.2. Differences between source language and target language
About 30% of the success of the interpretation is affected by this element.
This difference includes differences in the use of words, words, tones and
especially cultural differences .This requires you to understand all these

languages as well as the customs between the two countries in order to use
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words appropriately. In other words, many words, phrases or sentences in one
language seem to be understandable, but it is not easy to put them into the ear in
another language. For example, in Vietnamese, one of the top notes that is
always mentioned when you interpret or translate English texts into Vietnamese
is translating so that it is "pure Vietnamese".
2.1.4.3. Experience and knowledge
The rest that determine the perfection of interpretation, are interpreter's
experiences and knowledge. Experiences include life experiences, experiences
in interpreting services. Simply, when you have no experiences on a field, the
first time you hear it, you will not be able to understand, let alone interpret into
another language properly.
Experiences will help you handle situations in more easily way, and only
experience will help you access such knowledge quickly. Knowledge includes
both basic knowledge and in-depth knowledge. Each person has his or her forte
areas that directly related to the job. If you have only the basic knowledge, it
will not be easily to deal with the fields that require intensive knowledge.
Therefore, you need to cultivate knowledge to keep flexibility in all of
situations.
2.1.5. How to interpret effectively?
In order to interpret effectively, the interpreters need to have interpretation
skills. According to the study that is published in 2013, Jing Ma identified that
there are four main groups of skills which make a perfect interpretation. These
groups include listening skills, decoding skills, recording skills, re-expression
skills. In each group, Jing Ma mentions all of specific skill. However, in my
research, I prefer dividing interpretation skills into four skills and they are the
key tools to help us interpret effectively. They are listening skill, memorization

skill, note-taking skill and re-expression skill.

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2.1.5.1. Listening skill
Listening in interpretation has many similarities with normal listening
comprehension however it has its own characteristics. In order to understand the
content of the message accurately and interpret, interpreters need to practice
many important operations such as psychological preparation, prediction and
listening selectively.
Effective listening is very important for comprehending the discourse.
However, it is quite possible that the interpreters will get nervous when they are
listening to the speaker’s speech. So, psychological preparation is extremely
important. The interpreters should set up confidence and enhance spirit to
overcome difficulties. They should learn how to listen effectively. To listen
effectively needs attention and concentration. Concentrating properly does not
mean adopting a certain posture, frowning and straining with clenched fist, but it
means to focus on the speaker’s speeches. When interpreters hear an idea that is
not immediately clear to them, or miss an idea in the heat of the moment, the
interpreters should keep calm and cautiously.
Prediction is an important means that helps the interpreter to relieve the online memory load so that the processing capacity can be preserved for other
efforts. During the interpreting process, we can anticipate and prepare for some
contents that may be mentioned. Thus, when the speaker mentions that fields we
do not feel strange and grasp information easily.
Besides, listening selectively is also an important skill. Jing Ma (2013) said
"Interpreting work requires concentrated or discriminative listening, also known
as active listening, which means avoiding all distractions and learning to be
alert. The redundancy present in speech is a great advantage for the interpreters.
In other words, they should learn to distinguish useful information from

redundant information, and only concentrate their attention on the essential
information." The interpreters need to select and classify any information that
they hear.
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2.1.5.2. Memorization skill
It is undeniable that listening to and repeating exactly what you just heard
is too difficult for any learner. However, the exact and full repetition is not really
necessary. Because listeners only need to memorize main ideas, key words, and
convey information to their mother tongue or to a language on demand. As you
listening selectively and categorize information, you'll know you need to
remember more important information and skip any information that can be
ignored. Therefore, memory skills are also understood as skills to draw out the
main idea of the listening lesson.
2.1.5.3. Note-taking skill
Similar to the memorization skill, the note-taking skill does not mean to
record all information that you hear. In fact, this is almost impossible, because
the speed of speaking will always be faster than the speed of writing. So, how
should interpreters take note? Here the note should be made in two basic steps:
shorthand and note taking. Based on the ability to remember and draw the main
idea above, the interpreter just needs to write down a summary of what he has
just heard and processed. Interpreters also need to choose for themselves the
most effective way of writing shorthand.
2.1.5.4. Re-expression skill
Paraphrasing and explaining is an important step in interpreting. Because of
the limitation of one’s processing capacity, it is quite possible that the interpreter
may miss some information. On such occasions, the interpreter may reformulate
the main idea in a general way. Though the accuracy of the discourse decreases,
the audience can still get a whole picture of what the speaker has said. If the

interpreter understands the meaning of the terms used in source language, but
can hardly find the equivalent words in the target language, they can use
paraphrasing or explaining method to get the meaning across (re-expression
skills).

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2.2. Difficulties in interpreting
2.2.1. Difficulties in listening to the speech
There are many difficulties in the process that the interpreters listen to the
speaker's speech. These difficulties affect directly to interpretation's result.
2.2.1.1. The interpreters do not recognize English sounds
When the researcher asked about the causes of difficulties with English
sounds, some interpreters coughed that they could not distinguish English
sounds, homophones, especially the sounds that have same pronunciation. In
particular, the confusion between positive and negative forms is the main reason,
especially they don't recognize the main information because of some
characteristics of connected speech such as : elision, weak form, assimilation,
contraction, linking ...
Thus, the learners do not recognize English sounds because: they cannot
distinguish homophones and words with similar pronunciation, they confuse
positive and negative form, especially some characteristics of connected speech.
Besides, an interpreter with limited vocabulary and poor grammar structure
also make him/her do not recognize English sounds. May the interpreters have
learned quite a bit of vocabulary, but when listening to a foreigner saying, they
were "frozen", and wondering "what words are they saying?". Sometimes
interpreter may be mistaken for a lot of vocabulary. They know a lot of words
about tourism, economics, and sewing but they have limited vocabulary to use in
the fields that the speaker mentioned, then how do they listen to the speaker’s

speech. About the grammar problem, it does not depend on the number of
vocabulary and structure that you own, but it depends on how many words you
can remember and use it in interpreting situations. Poor grammar structure make
it is more difficult to listen to the speaker.

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2.2.1.2. The interpreters are lack of concentration
The reason for the lack of concentration may be caused by inexperience in
listening .Then,it make it harder and harder for the interpreters to concentrate on
the listening.
2.2.1.3. The interpreters have difficulties on grasping main ideas of the
speaker's speech
Some interpreters do not consider important information to hear. Or
because the listener is unable in deducing the main content of the text from key
words, so they are unable to grasp the main idea.
2.2.1.4. They don't keep up with the speaker's speed
The interpreters may not keep up with the speed of the speaker because
during listening process, they always translate all of information you hear into
Vietnamese, then their brain will have to do three action at the same time:
listening, translating , and understanding .Therefore, when they hear and
understand a sentence, the speaker has said 2nd and 3rd sentences, this make
them do not understand what the speed is said. Besides, foreigners still stick
their tunes with each other, it may lead them to unfamiliar listening, and they
don't keep up with the speaker's speed .
In conclusion, for the interpreters who make an English-Vietnamese
interpreting have many problems in this step, we could not negate that listening
and understanding a strange language is not eassy. For the interpreterswho
interpreting Vietnamese into English, they have to face this problems rarely,

however.
2.2.2. Poor vocabulary
Vocabulary is often considered an important tool for language learners
especially interpreters. Schmitt (2000) emphasized that vocabulary is the heart
of communicative competence and second language. Some of researchers such
as Laufer and Nation (1999), Read (2000), Gu (2003), Marion (2008) and
Nation (2011) have realized that vocabulary acquisition is essential for using
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second language successfully and plays an important role in completing spoken
and written texts.
For interpretation, vocabulary is even more important. When the researcher
conducted this study, many students admitted that they had poor vocabulary and
it made it difficult to interpret. In English-Vietnamese interpreting, the
interpreters can't even hear or understand the source language (English). It
seems to Vietnamese-English interpreters, this is not really difficult when they
listen to source language. However, their poor vocabulary intimidates them
when they interpret the speech into target language.
2.2.3. Lack of grammar
Grammar is like the skeleton of a body that named language. It helps us to
be within a certain framework. If the interpreters want to interpret naturally,
their sentences should not be constrained by theoretical grammatical structures.
However, weakness at grammar will also make you have problems in
interpreting. When you are unclear about a grammar structure, you may not be
able to understand what the speaker is saying.
Some interpreters are still lack of grammatical structures.In EnglishVietnamese interpreting, almost we can guess the content through the
vocabulary. So, some interpreters disregard grammar problems. However, in
Vietnamese-English interpreting, the problem of grammar has a great influence.
If the Vietnamese-English interpreters do not understand grammatical structures

that the speaker mentioned, how can they make their customers understand the
content they have to interpret ? Mistakes in nearly identical structures can also
cause a completely wrong translation. Therefore, interpreters must be extremely
careful to strange structures and they need to improve their grammar skills
constantly.
2.2.4. Lack of materials
Because of the lack of background knowledge (or materials), many
interpreters are having difficulties in their work. I have to identify that
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background knowledge is an effective assistant of an interpreter. A lot of
knowledge is required for an interpreter. It may be language, culture, specialized
knowledge in each field. Once you have excellent background knowledge, you
have rich vocabulary as well as a thorough understanding all of issues that are
mentioned in your interpreting. Background knowledge may be related to
different fields such as culture, economics, science, politics ... Especially, in
each specialized field, there are specific terms and expressions.
For an interpreter, though they may not be good as a professional, they
must be able to grasp at least their connotations. Each person has a certain
amount of knowledge in some fields. The same goes for the interpreters. We
cannot deny that there are a number of areas that we do not fully understand.
During my research, many students who completed the interpretation course,
thought that the amount of knowledge required for interpretation was too much
and they don't have background knowledge enough for their work.
This difficulty is a big problem for both English-Vietnamese interpreters
and Vietnamese-English interpreters.
2.2.5. Cultural barrier
Cultural problem is a difficulty that both English-Vietnamese interpreters
and Vietnamese-English interpreters have to encounter. However, some students

or even professional interpreters consider that they cannot overcome this
difficulty completely.
Culture affects directly to interpretation and cultural barrier is partly
affected by language. Language is considered as the most crucial element in
culture. Since verbal communication is important in every context, the
understandings of the meaning of words are also important. The language barrier
occurs not only because of differences in language but also in the forms of a
variety of dialects. So, this barrier caused many difficulties for interpreters
especially for students.

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Cultural norms and values is also an important cultural barrier. Each culture
holds its own values, meaning and norms different from another. This difference
is caused because of truth, belief and judgment through which they acquired
knowledge about society and culture.
It is important to avoid or overcome any kind of cultural barrier for any
effective interpretation.
2.2.6. Weak re-expression ability
The ability to express one's thoughts fluently, and make it engaging and
appealing to listener is an important skill in communication. This skill is
extremely important in interpreting. Some interpreters admit that they have
difficulties in interpreting because their weak re-expression ability. VietnameseEnglish interpreters have to face regularly. A part of the reason for weak reexpression ability is bad language skill and poor thinking ability. If the
interpreters have rich vocabulary, grammar structure and good flexibility, this
difficulty will no longer be a big concern. In addition, the confidence will
contribute to re-expression skill that the interpreters make their interpretation be
clear. Many interpreters said that sometimes they aren't confident and their low
self-confidence affected interpretation directly .If you have listened and
understood the speech, but you can't complete the last step which is re-express

your interpretation for customer. How sad it is?

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH FINDINGS
3.1. Methodology
3.1.1. Context of the study
In the context of international integration and globalization, English is
considered to be the most necessary luggage for us to develop ourselves and our
career. Currently, many English Majors students are passionate about
interpretation. However, the passion is not enough and the interpretation skills
are the most important things to pursue this career. Recognizing the importance
of interpretation skills, Thuongmai University has organized interpreting courses
for the seniors of English Majors .It is considered as one of the most difficult
compulsory courses for English Faculty students.
The interpreting course is thought to be great tool which help the students
get better career opportunities. However, besides the excellent students, there are
still many students who have difficulties in this course. The difficulties not only
reduce the score but also cause low self-confidence in finding a job in the future.
The difficulties and causes for these difficulties are also very diverse. So, this
study is conducted to find out the difficulties which the fourth – year English
Majors at TMU encounter during interpreting course in particular as well as the
students in some schools and universities in general. At the same time, the
researcher wants to find the causes and suggest the remedies for these
difficulties.
3.1.2. Participants
This study is carried out in the English faculty at Thuongmai University.
The main participants are the fourth – year English majors at TMU. The research
is limited to the seniors, not the first and second, third year students because of

some following reasons.

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