Efl Students' Translation Problems And Suggested Solutions In English For Work Office Course, Schools Of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the translation problems and find out the proposed solutions to the above problems in the English for Office Work course. This study focuses on translation problems, namely (1) technical terms, (2) lacking of equivalence, (3) singular and plural forms, (4) multi-meaning words, (5) proper nouns, (6) lacking of background knowledge, (7) abbreviations, (8) word choice, (9) collocations and (10) formal style. In addition, this study also focuses on finding suitable solutions to these problems. The author surveyed 110 students with 34 questions and interviewed 7 students with 5 questions to assess the frequency of problems and students' opinions on solutions. Survey participants are forth-year English Studies students (High-quality program) who have taken English for Office Work and translation courses. The results of the survey showed that students all encountered translation problems. In particular, they very frequently have problems in terms of lack of background knowledge and problem in translating collocations. In addition, the results from the interviews show that technical term is the most difficult problem faced by students. The research results also show the average correlation between the problem of lack of equivalence and the solution using the adaptive translation method. In addition, the study also shows a weak correlation between the problem of translating technical terms and the solution of memorizing both English and Vietnamese vocabulary. The cross-table was analyzed in the study to assess the consistency between the results of the 6 translation test questions and the students' perception of the 10 translation problems. These findings have the value of contributing to raising students' awareness of the translation problems they face in the English for Office Work course and thereby providing appropriate solutions for each problem.