Vai trò của hoạt động dịch trong việc học thuật ngữ tài chính ngân hàng đối với sinh viên biên phiên dịch trong cuốn sách tiếng anh tài chính ngân hàng của pgs ts nguyễn xuân thơm

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

THE ROLES OF TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES IN
LEARNING FINANCIAL AND BANKING
TERMINOLOGY IN THE BOOK “ENGLISH FOR
FINANCE AND BANKING” BY ASSOC. PROF. DR.
NGUYEN XUAN THOM TO FELTE STUDENTS
MAJORING IN TRANSLATION

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Thanh Vân, M.Ed
Student: Đỗ Thị Ngoan
Course: QH 2011. F1. E20
HÀ NỘI_2015


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHĨA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

VAI TRỊ CỦA HOẠT ĐỘNG DỊCH TRONG VIỆC
HỌC THUẬT NGỮ TÀI CHÍNH NGÂN HÀNG ĐỐI
VỚI SINH VIÊN BIÊN PHIÊN DỊCH TRONG CUỐN
SÁCH “TIẾNG ANH TÀI CHÍNH NGÂN HÀNG”
CỦA PGS.TS. NGUYỄN XUÂN THƠM

Giáo viên hƣớng dẫn:Nguyễn Thị Thanh Vân, M.Ed
Sinh viên:Đỗ Thị Ngoan
Khóa: QH2010.F1.E20

HÀ NỘI – 2015


I hereby state that I: Đỗ Thị Ngoan, QH.11.E.20, being a candidate for the
degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College
relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in
the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in
the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the
care, loan or reproduction of the paper.
Signature

Đỗ Thị Ngoan
Date: June, 4 th 2015


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
On the completion of this thesis, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to
my supervisor, Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, M.Ed who gave me benefit of her wisdom
and her expert knowledge in English for Specific Purposes as well as her constant
encouragement from the very first stage of shaping the idea for the thesis, working
out the research proposal to the final stage of writing up the thesis. Without her
critical comments and valuable suggestions, this study could not have been
completed.

I owe a special debt of gratitude to my lecturer Nguyen Thuy Phuong Lan
who shared with me valuable experiences in choosing the topic and gave me
useful lectures during the course of English for Finance and Banking.
I also take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers in the
Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU for their useful
lectures.
Next, my grateful appreciation goes to participants from 11E20, 11E18, and
11E19. Without them, this study cannot be accomplished.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents, my friends who have
been a constant source of encouragement, support, love, and care during the
course of my writing.

i


ABSTRACT
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the efficiency of
translation activities in the acquisition of financial and banking terms in the
“English for Finance and Banking” course. Next, it attempted to provide
recommendations for better integrating translation activities into the course. This
study was based on a brief theoretical literature overview, analysis of the results
from the survey questionnaires and the translation test. The findings of the survey
suggested that translation was an effective tool for students’ acquisition of
financial and banking terms in the “English for Finance and Banking” course in
the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU.

ii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 1

1.1. Statement of the research question .................................................................. 1
1.2. Research objectives ........................................................................................... 2
1.3. Research questions............................................................................................. 2
1.4. Significance of the study................................................................................... 2
1.5. Scope of the study.............................................................................................. 3
1.6. Organization of the study.................................................................................. 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................... 5
2.1. Terminology ....................................................................................................... 5
2.1.1.

Definition of terminology ............................................................................. 5

2.1.2. Main characteristics of terminology ................................................................. 6

2.2. Translation .......................................................................................................... 7
2.2.1.

Definition of translation ................................................................................ 7

2.2.2.

Translation as an ELT methodology ............................................................. 8

2.2.3.

Translation as a vocabulary builder .............................................................. 8

2.2.4.

Translation activities in the “English for Finance and Banking” course ...... 9

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY ................................................ 11
3.2. Materials............................................................................................................ 11
3.3. Data collection procedures ............................................................................. 12
3.4. Data analysis..................................................................................................... 12
iii


CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................................................... 14
4.1. The efficiency of translation activities in learning financial and banking
terms 14
4.2. Suggestions for better applying translation activities to the course .......... 28
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................... 30
5.1. Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 30
5.2. Limitations and suggestions for further studies ........................................... 31
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 32
APPENDIXES ................................................................................................................ 34

iv


LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES
TABLE AND FIGURES
Table 1

Participants’ translations of the most commonly mistranslated
terms and recommended translations by the researcher

Figure 1

Participants' improvement in their translation of financial and
banking terms

Figure 2

Students' evaluation of the importance of financial and banking
terms in the course

Figure 3

Students' perception on their acquisition of financial and banking
terms through translation activities

Figure 4

Students' perception on their opportunity to apply financial and
banking terms during translation activities

Figure 5

Students' perception on their teacher's explanation of new terms

Figure 6

Students' perception on their opportunity to have translation errors
related to financial and banking terms corrected by the teacher

Figure 7

Students' perception on their ability to discuss the translation of

financial and banking terms with their partners

Figure 8

Students' perception on their understanding of the content of
financial and banking terms through translation activities

Figure 9

Students' perception on the importance of translation activities to
their acquisition of financial and banking terms

v


ABBREVIATIONS
1. FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education
2. EFL: English as Foreign Language
3. ESP: English for Specific Purposes

vi


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter aims to present the research statement, research objectives,
research questions, research significance, scope of the research, and the
organization of the study.
1.1. Statement of the research question
The financial system plays a vital role in the functioning of any economy as a
whole, and banks are central to the financial system. The financial system has

become even more important to Vietnam, a developing country trying to further
integrate into the global market. During its globalization, there is a significant
increase in financial and banking activities with other countries. As a result, the
number of financial documents in English is ever-increasing, creating a
considerable need demand for understanding these documents for successful
transactions. Given the importance of comprehending financial and banking
documents, there is a question, which is how to fully understand financial and
banking texts in English. William and Chesterman (2002) attach great importance
to high level of knowledge and proficiency of the related terminology in an
attempt to understand technical texts, including ones in economics. In addition,
Leonardi (2009) believes that a large number of culture-bound terms are one of the
characteristics of business and financial texts which students should know to boost
their comprehension of the text.
It is evident that terminology plays a pivotal part in technical texts in
general and financial and banking texts in particular. There is a number of learning
strategies of terminology, namely repetition, dictionary, social strategies and so
on. Among them is the strategy of learning terminology through translation
activities. The researcher was studying the course “English for Finance and
Banking” at the time of this research, and translation is among the most popular
1


activities applied during the course. As a fourth-year student whose first major is
English translation and interpretation and double major is international economics,
the researcher has a great passion for translation activities provided during the
course. Therefore, the researcher has come up with an idea of making an
investigation on “roles of translation activities in learning financial and
banking terminology in the book “English for Finance and Banking” by
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thom to FELTE students majoring in
translation”

Hopefully, the study may be of some use to learners and teachers of the
ESP course, in general and English for Finance and Banking, in particular.
1.2.

Research objectives
The problem discussed in the paper is the roles of translation activities in

the acquisition of financial and banking terminology. Firstly, this study would
examine how translation activities can contribute to the acquisition of financial
and banking terminology. Next, the study would offer suggestions for better
applying translation activities into the course.
1.3. Research questions
To achieve this goal, the current research tries to answer the following
questions:
1. To what extent do translation activities help students to acquire financial
and banking terminology?
2. What are the suggestions to better integrate translation activities into the
course, as perceived by students?
1.4. Significance of the study

2


First and foremost, the study is expected to be beneficial for learners of the
“English for Finance and Banking” course. They may be well aware of the need of
understanding terminology for a better access to financial and banking documents.
Next, they may, to a certain extent, recognize the importance of translation
activities in acquiring financial and banking terminology. As a result, they may be
more active in taking part in these activities.
Secondly, the study is also expected to serve as a preliminary document for

further investigation on the issue. The researcher has no ambition of investigating
the roles of translation activities in learning terminology to EFL students of all
majors but those majoring in translation, who have little or no experience of
economic knowledge. Therefore, the study may help to establish the foundation
for further investigation on translation activities as a terminology learning method
in particular, and on the roles of translation activities as a teaching method in
general.
1.5. Scope of the study
Within limited time, resources, conditions, and the length of the thesis, the
researcher focuses only on the roles of translation activities during the “English for
Finance and Banking” course in learning terminology to FELTE students majoring
in translation. The population is the fourth-year students majoring in translation,
whose experience of economic knowledge is little or nothing.
1.6. Organization of the study
The study consists of five chapters as follows:
Chapter 1 is a brief introduction of investigated translation phenomenon and
the main content of the study.
Chapter 2 presents relevant knowledge as well as available research findings.
Chapter 3 informs research methodology applied in the study.
3


Chapter 4 is to present and analyze the results obtained after data collection
stage.
Chapter 5 is to present conclusion.

4


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a review of literature related to terminology and the
use of translation activities as a learning method.
2.1.

Terminology

2.1.1. Definition of terminology
Terminology, as being defined by Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is the set of
technical words or expressions used in a particular subject. According to the
definition given by the International Association of Terminology in 1982,
terms do not just relate to knowledge in general but to a particular field of it. It
states that “terminology is concerned with the study and use of the systems of
symbols and linguistic signs employed for human communication in
specialized areas of knowledge and activities”. Terminology has been also
defined differently by both domestic and abroad foreign linguists. For instance,
Do, H. C (1981) defines terms as specialized words of a particular field.
Compared to the definition proposed by Do, the one by Nguyen, T. G (1998)
seems to be more informative. Nguyen defines terms as a special linguistic
unit of language with exact definition and objectives, belonging to a specific
aspect of science. From this definition, we can understand that a term is a
specialized word in relation to its meaning and the field in which it is used.
Such definitions raise the need of making a distinction between terms and
words. In order to establish the limit between a term and a word, it is important
to know the characteristics of terms in a specialized language. According to
Nguyen, T. G (1998), characteristics of terminology are accurateness,
systematicism, internationalism, popularity and nationality. In addition, Baker
(1998, p. 261) adds further important differences between terms and words as
follows:
5

1. Terms have special reference within a particular discipline whereas
words function in general reference over a variety of subject fields.
2. Terms keep their lives and meanings only for as long as they serve the
system of knowledge that gave rise to them.
2.1.2. Main characteristics of terminology
Both Nguyen, T. G (1998) and Luu, V. L (1977) agree that characteristics
of terminology are accurateness, systematicism, internationalism, popularity and
nationality
Accurateness
A term needs to be accurate and clear because basically it reflects an exact
concept of a science.
Systematicism
Any field of sciencees has its own system of concepts, or a system of terms.
Internationalism
Terms are used internationally because they are special words expressing
common scientific concepts. Therefore, agreements on terms are of great
significance to the development of various aspects of life.
Popularity
Popularity means that terms should be close to the language of the masses.
In other words, terms should be easy-to-remember, and easy-to-understand.
Nationality

6


Despite belonging to a particular subject field, terms are still a part of a
language system of a nation. They, therefore, bear all the characteristics of a
nation’s language in terms of lexicology, forms and grammar.
2.2.

Translation

2.2.1. Definition of translation
Many translation theorists regard translation as a transfer process from the
source language to the target language. Nida (1964, p.83) defines translation as
“reproducing the receptor language the natural equivalent of the source language
message, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style.”. Similarly,
Catford (1965, p.20) defines translation as “the replacement of textual material in
one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language.”
However, many theorists in translation regarded a translator as a “message
conveyor.” For instance, Peter Newmark (1981, p.7) defines translation as “a craft
consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one
language by the same message and/or statement in another language
Therefore, translation may be defined as a process whereby a message is
linguistically transformed for TL readers to understand.
Definitions of technical translation
The first feature of technical translation is specialized terms. According to
Newmark (1988), despite accounting for only 5-10% of technical text, terminology
is what distinguishes technical translation from other forms of translation. Sofer
(1999) also claims that the translation of a text may be called technical when it
requires specialized terms in a particular field.
Through two definitions above, it is evident that technical translation is viewed
as specialized translation. Furthermore, Newmark (1995, p.152), mentions three
7


types or levels of technical language, namely “academic style associated with
academic papers”, “professional style which refers to formal terms used by
expert”, and “the popular one including familiar alternative terms”.

2.2.2. Translation as an ELT methodology
Translation has long been a controversial issue on whether it is an effective
tool in foreign language learning. Its roles are perceived differently by different
linguists and teachers. Newson (1988) criticizes translation for having four
negative impacts. Firstly, translation encourages students to think in one
language, and translate into another, which interrupts learning process.
Secondly, translation deprives students of opportunities to practisce foreign
language. Thirdly, translation gives students the false belief of having perfect
one-to-one equivalent between languages. Finally, translation does not support
students’ achievements of generally accepted aims.
However, recently there has been an increasing interest in the translation
activities in the foreign language classroom. Many studies have shown positive
effects of translation in the foreign language classroom. For example, a study
conducted by Laufer and Girsai (2008) shows that the use of translation to
explain differences in words and expressions between two languages proves to
be the most effective way for vocabulary acquisition.
2.2.3. Translation as a vocabulary builder
Vocabulary is a key element in second language learning. This is because
though grammar is important for meaning, without vocabulary no message is
conveyed. Vocabulary learning does not simply involve individual words.
There is always a wide range of other words which can co-occur or collate with
a given word. Moreover, business and financial texts are characterized by
specialized terms which should be known by students in order to boost their
8


comprehension of the texts. For example, the term “advance” may be
interpreted either as money paid earlier than expected, or as an increase in the
price or the value of something. Given those characteristics of vocabulary in
general, and business terms in particular, translation has proved to be an

effective tool in vocabulary learning. Thanks to translation, students can find
an equivalent in their mother language tongue to a term in the second language.
Students learn vocabulary through translation in two stages. Firstly, students
are taught to make a connection between the meaning and the form of the
word. Then, they learn when to use or not to use the word, its word
relationship, its nuances, and so on. Through translation activities, students are
encouraged to take specialized terms into consideration in order to get a
successful translation. In addition, for the best result, the texts chosen for
translation should be authentic.
2.2.4. Translation activities in the “English for Finance and Banking”
course
There are two main activities applied during the course, which are sight
translation and written translation.
Sight translation: Sight translation is the oral rendition of a SL written text into
a TL text in a moment.

Sight translation involves the ability of writte n text

comprehension or reading skills and the ability of oral rendition or speaking skills.
During the course, students were sometimes required to perform translation in
class in an attempt to comprehend the knowledge or content of each chapter.
Written translation: Written translation is the rendering of a written text in
one language into a relevant written text in another language. Written translation
involves the ability of written text comprehension or reading skills, and the ability
of written rendition. Unlike sight translation, written translation provides greater
amount of time and other resources for translators to find out the best translation
9


approach to the original text. During the course, students regularly did written

translation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa at home. The teacher then
checked and gave comments on students’ translation drafts.

10


CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOG Y OF THE STUDY
This chapter discusses in detail the research methodology adopted in this study
with description of the participants, materials, data collection procedures, and
data analysis.
3.1.

Participants

With the population of 90 students, 74 fourth-year students from 11E18,
11E19, and 11E20 were selected to be the participants of the study. The
participants were studying the course “English for Finance and Banking” at the
time of this research. The researcher chose the sample size of 74 students with the
aim of reaching the confidence level of 95% and the confidence interval of 5%.
3.2.

Materials

To answer the research questions, the first translation drafts were collected and
analyzed. In addition, a test and a survey questionnaire were developed and
administered respectively to the same participants.
In the course, students had to prepare translation tasks at home after each
lesson. First drafts of E-V and V-A translation were collected and analyzed. The
researcher found translation errors related to financial and banking terms and used
those errors as materials to design the test.

A multiple-choice translation test in finance and banking from English to
Vietnamese and vice versa consisted of 20 sentences for translation. Each item
was an English or Vietnamese sentence extracted from the translation exercises of
the book “English for Finance and Banking”. Those sentences included financial
and banking terms that were commonly mistranslated by the participants. Each
item had four equivalents, only one of which was the best and the most accurate
translation of that sentence. The others were the wrong translations of the
participants.
11


Questionnaires were designed as a tool to get students’ evaluation on the
effectiveness of translation activities and their suggestions for better integrating
translation activities into the course. Questionnaires would help to answer the
questions of “To what extent do translation activities help students to acquire
financial and banking terminology?” and “What are the suggestions to better
integrate translation activities into the course, as perceived by students?”
3.3.

Data collection procedures

The first phase: the researcher collected and analyzed the first translation
drafts of the participants to find mistranslated terms of finance and banking.
Sentences including the most commonly mistranslated terms were gathered to be
used as materials for the test.
The second phase: the test and questionnaires were administered to the
participants at the beginning of the fourth year’s second semester. At this time, the
participants had completed the “English for Finance and Banking” course.
Therefore, the time of implementing the test was also suitable to assess whether
the participants made any improvements in acquiring financial and banking terms

through translation activities.
3.4.

Data analysis

To assess the extent of impacts of translation activities, the researcher
calculated the percent improvement rate of the participants’ term translation from
their first translation drafts to the test. The improvement rate was calculated from
the

formula:

×100. In which, IR was the

improvement rate, P(test) was the percentage of participants mistranslating
financial and banking terms in the test, and P(1st draft) was the percentage of
participants that made translation mistakes related to financial and banking terms
12


in their first translation drafts. The improvement rates would show the relationship
between translation activities and students’ acquisition of financial and banking
terms.
The collected data from the survey questionnaires would be presented in
graphs, and discussed in details. The results from survey questionnaires would
show the participants’ assessment of the significance of translation activities and
their suggestions for better applying translation activities into the course.

13

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, all the collected data from the translation test and the
survey questionnaires were respectively presented and discussed. Charts and table
were used for better presentation.
The survey questionnaires and translation test were distributed to 74
students from 11E18, 11E19, and 11E20; however, only 68 students responded.
The results were presented and discussed in detail as follows.
4.1.

The efficiency of translation activities in learning financial and
banking terms

Translation activities are applied in the course with the aim of improving
students’ understanding of specialized knowledge. Translation activities in this
course did not aim to train professional translators, but to help learners gain
general knowledge of finance and banking.
Fourth-year students majoring in translation are considered to be proficient in
English, but Finance and Banking is not their major. Generally, they do not have
deep understanding of this field. In fourth year’s first semester, English for
Finance and Banking was introduced to fourth-year students majoring in
translation with the purpose of equipping them with general knowledge and
common terms in Finance and Banking, which aimed to open their future job
opportunity. Given the importance of financial and banking terms, the relationship
between translation activities and the acquisition of financial and banking terms
was questioned in the present study. This relationship is of great significance when
there is a lot of controversy about whether translation should be applied in a
language class. The present research studied the impacts of translation activities on
the students’ acquisition of financial and banking terms. If a high correlation
happens between translation activities and students’ acquisition of financial and

14


banking terms, one may claim that translation activities have positive influences
on students’ term acquisition. However, if a low correlation happens between
translation activities and students’ term acquisition, one may doubt that translation
activities help students acquire financial and banking terms. In other words, the
lower the correlation is, the less important the roles of translation activities in
students’ term acquisition are. In order to find the answer solutions to this
problem, the researcher assessed students’ improvement in acquiring financial and
banking terms through translation activities by comparing the percentage of
participants who mistranslated financial and banking terms in their first drafts and
that in the test. The summary of the participants’ translation of the most commonly
mistranslated terms in their first translation drafts and recommended translations
by the researcher, which were included in the test, was shown in the table 1 below:

No. Financial

and banking Participants’ translation Recommended
translation

terms

by

the

researcher
1

Cơ sở để trao đổi

-

Foundation

for A medium of exchange

exchange

2

Chế độ hàng đổi hàng

-

An exchange basis

-

Good

for

good the barter system

exchange system
-

Good

for

good

formula

15


3

Đặc tính thanh khoản

-

Be

easily mobilized high liquidity

for payment
4

Debt paying ability

Các hoạt động của thị -

Activities of the open open market operations

trường mở

market
-

5

Dự trữ ngoại tệ

The open market
-

Foreign

currency foreign

store
-

currency

reserve

Foreign

currency

accumulation
6

Mức thu nhập của mình trên thực tế

7

8

Lãi suất tiền cho vay

Their own incomes

-

Their income

-

Interest rates

-

Discount rate

their real incomes

Lending interest rates

Hiệp hội có tư cách pháp -

Association with legal A legal entity running

nhân

personality

hoạt

động

kinh

doanh chứng khoán

security stock business

business
-

An

association with

legal

person

status

operating in securities
business
9

Sở giao dịch chứng khoán

-

New York stock New

York

Stock
16