A study on code switching techniques used in translating english terms and vietnamese equivalents

 



1. Rationale

Nowadays codeswitching has become a common phenomenon occurring in periodicals,

advertisements, or reports on TVs and daily newspapers in multimedia, etc. For students of

technology, this phenomenon has popularly applied for their conversations when they discuss

a topic relevant to functions, features or the operation of an electronic device. Codeswitching

refers to the alternate use of two or more than two languages in the same utterance or a

conversation, (Gumper, 1982). The exchange of information with CS terms has become

favourite, because it is a two- way process of thinking directly used in the utterances to

express the contents quickly, and accurately. Moreover, almost all-electronic terms

codeswitched into Vietnamese utterances are English terms. These characteristics have a

remarkable effect on the students’ attitude towards learning English for electronics with

language skills, even in the oral translation skill. Observations from my collected data in

teaching materials and in lessons of English for electronics have shown that CS is explored

by students in various aspects because of three main reasons as follows. Firstly, the tendency

of using CS terms in the daily utterances in multimedia encourages them to insert English

terms into Vietnamese. Secondly, most of the second-year students of electronics at the level

of pre- inter of English want to express their knowledge of English for electronics and

professional knowledge by using directly CS terms in their utterances to explain a definition

or functions of an electronic device. Thirdly, most of them are bilingual students and know

how to practise computing instructions in English everywhere and every time they meet.

Accordingly, inserting CS terms in Vietnamese utterances becomes a habit and does not

make them misunderstand the content of electronic terms in a particular context. From these

reasons, students of electronics apply CS to develop their language learning activities through

language skills i.e. speaking and presentation. This habit of using CS even occurs in the oral

translation tasks because applying directly knowledge of English and of electronics in

Vietnamese versions in a short time requires students to have an in-time reaction in thought

when producing equivalents adequately. Donal (2004) shows that CS in translations takes

place at a syntactic or semantic level with the use of inserting points to represent electronic

concepts familiar to the participant. For many, translation is an art, which is only done by



exceptionally skilled people who are professionals at it. However, in this thesis, my

investigation is only seen translation as the fifth language skill in language learning activities

and practiced by untrained people who are bilingual students of electronics. Thus, CS is

studied to understand why electronic students, who are competent in two languages, alternate

languages in particular translation tasks. Most of the early researches on translations of

English terms for electronics only focus on analyzing forms of equivalents and ways of

conveying semantic meanings into the target language or even looking at them as borrowed

words. These studies do not describe how students apply CS to extent their communicative

competence for achieving conversations goals during translation. This thesis will concentrate

on this phenomenon “CS in the oral translation”. However, it must be stressed that this thesis

neither is an analysis of electronic terms applying CS techniques for professional translators

nor guides for ESP teachers how to teach CS techniques in translation. It is only a reference

for teachers who wish to use translation as a language learning activity for the language

learning practice and improvement. The major concern of this thesis is to give the answer to

the question: “Why do CS techniques become useful strategies used in oral translating

tasks of electronic terms in the electronic textbook “Basic English for electronics and

telecommunication”? As a result, some suggestions are also given to show the availability,

implications of using CS techniques in the oral translation of electronic terms. For all of

these, it is hoped that this study contributes some efforts to ESP teaching when applying CS

techniques in the oral translation to help students develop their fifth language skill much

more effectively.

2. Aims of the study

Within the framework of a minor thesis, this study is aimed at:

• Presenting fundamental factors affecting the inserting process of CS terms in oral

translation of electronic terminology

• Finding out the translation strategies adequate to CS techniques applied for

inserting CS terms in the oral translation tasks

• Spotting problems while applying CS techniques for electronic terms, thus giving

some suggestions for such problematic translations that can gain benefit for ESP

teaching and learning process



3. Scope of the study

Within the limited time and references, the study mainly focuses on analyzing how CS

techniques are applied for inserting English terms in the oral translating tasks in the course

book “Basic English for Electronics and Telecommunications”, compiled by teachers of ESP,

VNUH, which have been used as a main course book of COTECH, VNUH. Its major subjects

are bilingual students of English at the level of pre-intermediate at the electronic department at

COTECH, who are learning English as a compulsory subject and using the translation skill as

a language learning activity. Narrowly, my investigation focuses on what CS techniques are

applied to codeswitch single terms of electronics in the form of CS nouns and CS verbs when

inserted into Vietnamese versions.

4. Methods of the study

The strategic methods used in this descriptive study are the quantitative and qualitative ones.

By virtue of quantitative research, a number of single terms of electronics in the form of nouns

and verbs from the textbook Basic English for Electronics and Telecommunications” and its

materials are collected to observe and analyze. Again, a questionnaire is carried out to find out

the teacher’s opinions on roles of CS terms in developing the fifth skill in oral translation

process. To study the effectiveness of these CS techniques, the following steps are

implemented:

• Collecting single terms of electronics in the CS forms in the textbook and its

supplementary materials

• Classifying collected English terms inserted in the oral translation according to CS

techniques

• Analyzing specific terms of electronics in the form of English nouns and verbs to

find out the convenience of applying CS techniques in oral translating tasks

5. The research question

To achieve the aims within the scope the research question below is addressed: “Why do CS

techniques become useful strategies used in the oral translation of electronic terms in the

electronic textbook Basic English for electronics and telecommunication?”

6. Design of the study

This thesis is divided into three parts, references and appendices.