Week 13: Assignment 13 – Analysing quanlitative and quantitative data

Work in your group and report your data collection.

Template for the assignment 13
Group number: 5
Group members: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh, Duong Thi Thanh Tra, Bui Thi Minh Hong, Truong
Thi Lan Anh

Research topic: The difficulties and some solutions for SOFL’s third-year students in learning
Translation
Data collection
Research method: Quantitative.
Instrument: Questionaire surveys.
The researchers had the help of 40 students majoring in English from K65 SOFL in answering
questionnaire lists. The questionnaire survey is designed in Google Form. We will create a
questionnaire survey, to better understand the viewpoints of third year SOFL students about their
translation course, the general challenges they encountered when translating, the techniques they
employed to address these challenges, and how effective these techniques were in themselves,
and how they could be improved.

Research result and analysis:

1. The result in the first translation module

The first translation module is the first time the students have approached to the translation
process after learning theory of translation in the previous semester

Good score (47,5%) Very good score (15%) Average (35%) Weak score ( 2,5%)

2. The difficulties met in the first translation module

Students find:

Vietnamese into English more difficult (55%)

English into Vietnamese more difficult ( 27,5%)

Equal difficulty: (17,5%)

2.1 The difficulties in linguistics

Finding equivalents for the target language: (65%)

Meanings of the words/phrases in the context of the text: (40%)

Recognizing and understanding phrasal verbs: (55%)

Analyzing and understanding complex sentences: (52,5%)

2.2 The difficulties in culture

Students’ cultural obstacles

Understanding the differences between the two languages ( 72,5%)

Finding the cultural equivalents (62,5%)

2.3 The difficulties in background knowledge

Understanding and applying techniques used in each lesson (50%)

Not having the background knowledge in translated topics (65%)

3. The causes of the difficulties in the first translation module

The students were asked how much time they spent on translation (including homework)

2 to 3 hours ( 67,5%)

4 to 5 hours ( 15% )

1 to 2 hours ( 5%)

Never ( 12,5 %)

4. The methods that the students used to overcome the difficulties, their self-evaluation in
these methods and the recommending methods to enhance translation skills

Read more articles (7,5 %)

Asking a consutant for a different point of view (35%)
Using visual aids to express emotions (20%)
Paraphrasing the author's idea using your own thoughts ( 65%)
Using synonyms to translate words which is not crucial ( 62,5%)
Back-translation (32,5%)
Learning the TL's cultural backgrounds ( 47,5%)
5. Summary
The researchers are able to determine the challenges the populace faced throughout the first
translation module by integrating survey data with the process of observation. They have
generally encountered a number of challenges that are specifically related to language, culture,
and background knowledge. The research has looked into the factors that contribute to the
aforementioned concerns from these roadblocks. The evidence suggests that the key factors are
personal attitudes toward the issue, especially when considering how much time is spent in
practicing translation.
Additionally, the survey enables the students to evaluate their own techniques of use, which
reveals that the majority of them are dissatisfied with their efficiency and tactics. In order to
increase their options and help them develop better translation skills for the upcoming semester
and their future careers as translators, we offer many recommendations at the end of the
questionnaire survey that have been shown to be beneficial as described in the literature review.