An investigation into common grammatical errors made by IUH English-majored juniors when translating Vietnamese texts into English :Graduation Thesis - Faculty of Foreign Languages

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

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AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS

MADE BY IUH ENGLISH-MAJORED JUNIORS WHEN

TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE TEXTS INTO ENGLISH

STUDENT : LE NGUYEN HONG NGOC

CODE : 17040631

CLASS : DHAV13E

COURSE : 2017-2021

SUPERVISOR : LE THI THIEN PHUOC, M.A.

HCMC, 06/2021

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

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Student’s name : LE NGUYEN HONG NGOC

Student’s ID : 17040631

Class : DHAV13E

Course : 2017-2021

Supervisor : LE THI THIEN PHUOC, M.A.

Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own

work and does not involve plagiarism or collusion. It also has not been accepted

as part of a submission to another purpose elsewhere. I accept a serious penalty

for any cheating or plagiarism.

Date submitted :.........................................

Signed :.........................................

Word count : 7432 words.

THE TITLE:

ABSTRACT

The translation is one of today's most important topics. However, there are many

difficult aspects of translation that impede learners. Grammar mistakes, in particular, are a

source of frustration for all students. In the context of Vietnam, this issue has piqued the

interest of many people, particularly students.

Students majoring in English at Ho Chi Minh City's Industrial University were also

having difficulty learning to translate and were struggling with grammar in translation. As a

result, the school's research topic on grammar errors was very important to the students here.

The purpose of this study was to discover the grammatical errors made by 3rd

-year English

majors at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in order to assist them in identifying

and correcting errors made during their studies. This research combined both quantitative and

qualitative methods. The qualitative method was demonstrated in the study by counting the

number of errors and calculating the percentage. Each type of error committed by each study

participant is quantitatively described. Following data collection, the researcher conducted

data analysis and presents the findings, discussing the findings. The researcher discovered

over 20 grammatical errors as a result of the analysis. However, it is critical to concentrate on

the eight most common grammatical errors.

According to recommendations, lecturers and students should work on improving and

learning better translation skills. For lecturers, the research desired that lecturers be able to

adjust teaching methods as well as control students' grammar problems more effectively,

while also offering measured assistance to students so that they no longer find it difficult to

translate. There were many ways for students to improve their situation, such as learning

through the Internet, newspapers, social networking sites, reading many grammar books,

doing many grammar exercises... As a result, research not only improves students' translation

skills but also makes their future work more convenient and easier.

Keywords: grammar, grammatical error, translation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs. Le

Thi Thien Phuoc, M.A. She provided me with invaluable advice and enthusiastic support, and

she encouraged me to overcome the obstacles I encountered during the research period.

Second, I'd like to thank all of my lecturers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages for

providing me with the fundamental knowledge I needed to finish this study.

Third, I'd like to thank the Faculty of Foreign Languages for lending me documents

about final exams to assist with my research.

Furthermore, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my best friends and my

colleagues in my graduation thesis group for all of their encouragement and support, which

was instrumental in the success of my graduation paper.

In addition, I'd like to thank the authors of the books, magazines, and other materials

listed in the reference section for their ideas, which have been reflected and developed in the

study.

I'd like to thank everyone who has shown me frequent enthusiastic concern and

invaluable encouragement during this stressful period of my research.

.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

1.1. RATIONALE ......................................................................................................................2

1.2. RESEARCH SUBJECTS ....................................................................................................3

1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................................3

1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................................3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................................5

2.1 DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS/CONCEPTS ..................................................................6

2.1.1 Definitions of tranlations 6

2.1.2 Grammar 6

2.1.2.1 Definition of grammar: 6

2.1.2.2 Definition of grammatical errors: 7

2.2 THEOCRATICAL FRAMEWORK.....................................................................................7

2.2.1 Types of grammatical errors: 7

2.2.2 Grammatical errors in translation made by Vietnamese students 9

2.3 RESULTS OF PREVIOUS STUDIES...............................................................................12

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH DESIGN ....................................................................................14

3.1 RESEARCH SITE OF RESEARCH..................................................................................15

3.2 PARTICIPANTS OF THE RESEARCH ...........................................................................15

3.3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH METHODS ..................................16

3.4. PROCEDURES .................................................................................................................16

3.5. DATA ANALYSIS ...........................................................................................................17

CHAPTER IV:FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.....................................................................18

4.1. FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................19

4.1.1 The common grammatical errors: 19

4.1.2 The 8 most common grammatical errors 19

4.1.2.1 Verb errors 20

4.1.2.2 Determiner errors 21

4.1.2.3 Lack of subjects/verbs/objects 22

4.1.2.4 Incorrect subject-verb agreement 22

4.1.2.5 Inappropriate choice of prepositions 22

4.1.2.6 Misuse of pronouns 23

4.1.2.7 Incorrect relative clauses 23

4.1.2.8 Wrong word order 24

4.2 DISCUSSION THE FINDINGS ........................................................................................24

CHAPTER V:CONCLUSION .................................................................................................26

5.1. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................27

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS. ..................................................................................................28

5.3. THE LIMITS OF THE RESEARCH ................................................................................29

5.4. FURTHER STUDY...........................................................................................................29

REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................

APPENDICES..............................................................................................................................

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 4. 1. The common grammatical errors of students studying translations 1 in IUH ......19

Figure 4. 2. The 8 most common grammatical errors of students studying translations 1 in

IUH...........................................................................................................................................20