VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION TRANSLATION
AND INTERPRETATION DIVISION

GRADUATION PAPER

PARAPHRASING PRACTICE IN IMPROVING

CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING QUALITY
- A CASE STUDY AMONG STUDENTS AT FELTE,
VNU-ULIS

Supervisor : Tran Phuong Linh, M.A.

Name of student : Nguyen Phuong Thao
Year of enrolment : QH2019.F1.E20

HANOI –December 2022

 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

THỰC HÀNH KỸ NĂNG DIỄN DỊCH TRONG VIỆC

NÂNG CAO CHẤT LƯỢNG PHIÊN DỊCH
- NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỂN HÌNH TẠI KHOA SƯ PHẠM
TIẾNG ANH, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ-
ĐHQGHN

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.s Trần Phương Linh

Sinh viên : Nguyễn Phương Thảo
Khoá : QH2019.F1.E20

HÀ NỘI – Tháng 12 năm 2022

 ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Phương Thảo, student of QH.F1.2019.E20, being

a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National Studies,
Hanoi 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

Nguyen Phuong Thao

Date: 06/03/2023

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my

supervisor, Mrs. Tran Phuong Linh for her invaluable guidance and support
throughout the process. Her advice and feedback had a profound impact on my
way of conducting the study and writing the paper. Without her, the thesis would
hardly have been completed.

In addition, I am grateful to a group of 8 participants from the Faculty of English

Language Teacher Education (FELTE), the University of Languages and
International Studies (ULIS) for their cooperation. Their active participation in the
interview greatly assisted the data collection process and was instrumental in the
success of the study. Last but not least, I gratefully acknowledge the helpful
comments and suggestions from my classmates, the members of class 19E20.

Besides, the completion of my thesis would not have been possible without the
continuous encouragement from my parents who always have a profound belief in
my abilities.

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 ABSTRACT

Paraphrasing as a kind of strategy that is often used in translation and

interpretation between two languages, it is also one of the ways to solve
consecutive interpretation problems, specifically when the word level between
two languages is different and it requires interpreters to paraphrase their
interpretation in the target. This research paper also identifies the effectiveness of
using paraphrasing activities and exercises in interpretation training. A case
study conducted with a group of 8 interpreter participants in this study suggests
that paraphrasing skill may be an effective teaching approach, which support
students to interpret from a high-context language as Vietnamese to a low-
context language as English. The data from the research indicates that paraphrase
exercises improve students' capacity to understand the source language on both a
structural and informational level, as paraphrasing in interpreter training is not
limited to semantic and syntactic changes. Besides, the articulation together with
the activity of checking the paraphrased version regularly would help the
interpreters to enhance source language comprehension and organization, which
results in a better rendition in a target language. In order to enhance the
paraphrasing skill of students, apart from equipping them with a host of
strategies, it is vital to have continuous practices during the interpretation lessons
in class. Therefore, based on the findings, several pedagogical implications are
provided for teachers in the process of introducing the concept and designing
tasks for practice.

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 Table of Contents
ACCEPTANCE ..................................................................................................... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................. ii

ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... iii

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1

1.1 Rationale for the study .......................................................................... 1

1.2. Research Objectives, Research Questions, and Scope of the Study ..... 2

1.2.1 Research Objectives .............................................................................. 2

1.2.2 Research Questions ............................................................................... 2

1.2.3 Scope of the Study................................................................................. 3

1.2.4 Structure of the Study ............................................................................ 3

CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................... 5

2.1 Interpreting Review ...................................................................................... 5

2.1.1 Definitions ............................................................................................. 5

2.1.2 Modes of Interpreting ............................................................................ 6

2.1.3 Consecutive Interpreting ....................................................................... 6

2.1.4 Basic skills in consecutive interpreting ................................................. 7

2.2 Definition of paraphrasing............................................................................ 8

2.3 Paraphrasing in Consecutive Interpreting .................................................... 8

2.3.1 Paraphrasing as one aspect of Consecutive Interpreting ....................... 8

2.3.2 Paraphrasing training in Consecutive Interpreting ............................ 9

CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................... 14

3.1. Sampling .................................................................................................... 14

3.2 Research Design ......................................................................................... 15

3.3 Data collection instruments ........................................................................ 16

 3.3.1 Test ...................................................................................................... 16

3.3.2 Grading ................................................................................................ 17

3.3.3 Reflective report .................................................................................. 17

3.4 Data collection procedures ......................................................................... 18

3.5 Data analysis method.................................................................................. 19

3.6 Ethical concerns ......................................................................................... 20

CHAPTER 4 – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .......................................... 21

4.1 Paraphrasing in improving the interpreting quality ................................... 21

4.1.1 Quantitative results .............................................................................. 21

4.1.2 Qualitative analysis ............................................................................. 22

4.2 Student’s perception on paraphrasing practice in interpreting learning ..... 27

4.3 Summary .................................................................................................... 29

CHAPTER 5 – RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION ..................... 31

5.1 Pedagogical recommendations ................................................................... 31

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further research ....................................... 33

5.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 34

References ........................................................................................................... 36

APPENDIX A ..................................................................................................... 40

APPENDIX B ...................................................................................................... 41
Figures

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

FELTE : Faculty of English and Language Teaching Education

ULIS : University of Languages and International Studies

VNU : Vietnam National University

CI : Consecutive Interpreting

SL : Source Language

TL : Target Language
 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

Studying and teaching interpretation, especially consecutive interpreting, is
considered to be a complicated task as it requires multiple skills linguistically and
great cognitive concentration. Despite being a long-lasting subject in comparison
with others, there are some aspects of the consecutive interpretation course that
could be further investigated to improve the interpreting quality. Among those,
paraphrasing which is considered as an important skill for any interpreter in the
consecutive interpretation course to facilitate the understanding of the source
language. Despite being a meaningful strategy to support interpreters in CI, there
has been little research in linguistics to fully utilize this technique. According to
Newmark (1988), paraphrasing is the explanation for a passage, or words in an
"anonymous" text when it is badly written or contains significant implications and
omissions. Nida (1964) believed in his study that paraphrasing supports the more
general sense of text processing. However, in most previous studies, those on
paraphrasing exercises training only have focused on the use in writing to help
students avoid plagiarism. As the result, there should be more studies about the
effectiveness of paraphrasing strategy and exercises in helping students to practice
in the consecutive interpreting course.

At the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National

University, most previous studies related to paraphrasing also mainly concerned
the aspect of paraphrasing in writing tasks as “Students’ perceptions of
paraphrasing in academic writing” by N.T.T.Tam (2017), “An investigation in
paraphrasing experienced by Vietnamese students of English in academic writing”
by T.M.Dung (2010). There has been no research on the impact of paraphrasing
techniques on students’ interpreting skills. In order to explore how students utilize
paraphrasing techniques in interpreting classes and how paraphrasing could
support and improve their consecutive interpreting, “Paraphrasing practice in
improving consecutive interpreting learning - A case study among students at
FELTE, VNU-ULIS.” has become the topic for this research paper.

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1.2. Research Objectives, Research Questions, and Scope of the Study
1.2.1 Research Objectives
In practicing interpreting, it is argued that an equivalent and suitable
translation could not be produced without some textual elements and factors by
the interpreter. Firstly, it is proved in this research paper that paraphrasing plays
an important role in enhancing the interpreting quality among students as it would
simplify the understanding of the source language in the target language. Secondly,
major issues concerning the contribution of paraphrasing practice and the
effectiveness of incorporating paraphrasing exercises into interpreter training,
specifically in relation to interpreting from Vietnamese to English in order to
improve students’ performance in their interpretation and achieve equivalence at
the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National
Universities Hanoi (VNU). Therefore, the interpretation course for students at
ULIS, VNU could be considered to improve in terms of paraphrasing practice as
well as interpreting quality. Thirdly, the study would help indicate some common
problems encountered by students in studying consecutive interpreting by
analyzing the interpreting tasks. Then, these tasks are believed to not only shows
what students get from lessons in class but the research also results in the solutions
for paraphrasing training in teaching and studying interpreting. Last but not least,
the researcher hopes that the study would become a valuable contribution to
further study in interpreting courses at the University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

1.2.2 Research Questions

To achieve these goals, the research aims at answering the following question:

• How paraphrasing practice could contribute to and facilitate the

interpreting learning at FELTE, VNU-ULIS?

This study is expected to determine whether employing a paraphrasing strategy

and exercises in consecutive interpreting lessons could help students improve
their interpretation as well as their ability to achieve equivalence between the
source and target language. By identifying and analyzing the students’

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performances, the

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researcher hopes to make useful implications about the effectiveness of
paraphrasing practice, especially at the University of Languages and International
Studies.

1.2.3 Scope of the Study

The topic of the research paper could have been done extensively in order to
evaluate and have better findings. However, due to several limitations, which give
an opportunity for further research in the future, the study only concentrates on the
most important aspects of the paraphrasing instruction at FELTE, VNU-ULIS.
At first, the researcher wants to choose all the students who are studying
consecutive interpreting at ULIS, VNU. As a result, it would provide the research
with a more precise result. Then it was soon found to be difficult to approach all
students during the intended time for the research. Furthermore, the methodology
for the study is a case study, it would be impossible to analyze it on a large scale
of results. To get more precise results, the participants should also have a similar
level of English and Vietnamese, and study the same consecutive course to conduct
a paraphrasing test. Otherwise, third-year students have already completed the
interpreting course. They would be suitable candidates to evaluate how the
paraphrasing technique could support their interpretation. Finally, the researcher
decides to choose a group of 8 fourth-year students from QH2020 for this study.
In terms of the topic, paraphrasing strategy has always been studied in various
aspects, especially in enhancing the writing skill of students to avoid plagiarism.
In this study, the researcher would like to investigate the effectiveness of
incorporating paraphrasing strategy and exercises into Vietnamese and English
interpreter training.
1.2.4 Structure of the Study
Chapter 1: Introduction
In this chapter, the researcher would provide an overview of the study
involving the reasons for choosing topic, purposes and the scope deployed for
implementation of the research.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

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 This chapter discussed the theoretical background relating to consecutive
interpreting, paraphrasing, and the training of paraphrasing.

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 3 concerned the methods applied in this study.

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

This chapter analyzed and discussed from the materials collected to answer
for the research questions.

Chapter 5: Recommendation and Conclusion

Basing on the findings, chapter 5 presented the recommendations for

improvement of paraphrasing training and give an overview, strength and
shortcomings of the thesis.

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 CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Interpreting Review

2.1.1 Definitions of Interpreting
There are various perspectives about the definition of interpreting. Hence, each
perspective explains a specific aspect of interpreting. Webber (1989) concluded
interpreting definition in a conference as “the oral transposition of an orally
delivered message at a conference or a meeting from a source language into a target
language performed in the presence of participants”. Besides, the point that
interpreting is performed in oral form is also supported by Brislin (?) when he
mentions three subjects participating in this activity: speaker, interpreter and
listener. The interpreter plays an important role in switching the source and target
language between the speaker and listener.
“Interpretation is one type of translation, and refers to oral communication
situations in which one person speaks in the source language and interpreter
processes this in inputs and produces output in a second language, a third person
listens to the target language version”. (Brislin, p.14)
Moreover, depending on organizational requirements, interpretation has been
continually changing. Interpretation, in contrast to translation which emphasizes
textual communication, is only concerned with spoken communication. According
to Hatim (1997), interpretation is not an easy work to do as it is not a matter of
substituting words in one language for words in another. It is a matter of
transferring of meaning and sense expressed in one language and then explaining
it using the resources and cultural nuances of another language, therefore, they are
able to translate the original text or speech into the target language in a way that
sounds natural. As a result, interpretation could be simply understood
as ―immediate oral translation (Jones, 2002, p.3), it means that the interpretation
process relates to the form of speaking and usually speeches.
According to Pöchhacker (2016), interpretation is not a matter of substituting
words, it requires an understanding of the source language and the ability to

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understand as well as render it into the target language. Comprehension seems to
be very difficult when interpreting from a foreign language, at the same time,
making oneself understood can be similarly difficult when interpreting into a
foreign language.
While Pöchhacker (2016) highlights the understanding of the source language to
render into the target language in interpretation, Luyen (1998) defines the role of
the interpreter as a person who performs the mental process and interpreting as
“mental process of transferring messages/ information from source language to
target language in which the interpreter receives them in the form of the oral source
language by his own ears, and then speaks out in the target language”. (Luyen,
1998)
“Phiên dịch là một quá trình chuyển giao các thông điệp hoặc thông tin từ ngôn
ngữ nguồn sang ngôn ngữ đích trong đó phiên dịch viên tiếp nhận ngôn ngữ nguồn
dưới dạng văn nói và bằng đôi tai của mình và sau đó phát đi ngôn ngữ đích dưới
dạng văn nói”.
In conclusion, in spite of many definitions of interpreting, according to
translation theory, interpreting should be considered as a form of translation, in
which the source language is rendered in the target language under oral form. In
general, all the theories share some common points of interpreting
characteristics.
2.1.2 Modes of Interpreting
The three basic interpretation modes, in which interpreting is performed, are
simultaneous interpretation for an international conference setting (SI),
consecutive interpretation with note-taking (CI), and whispered interpretation.
However, in this research, the researcher would focus on the aspects of consecutive
interpretation (CI) because it relates to the topic of research.
2.1.3 Consecutive Interpreting
In consecutive interpreting, the interpreters listen to the source language from the
speakers and have some note-taking to reproduce the information in the target
language. Consecutive interpreters normally conduct their interpretation in several
segments depend on the length of the speech. It is claimed that memory is an

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advantage, but good note-taking and other techniques are also important tools.
According to Pochhacker (2004), consecutive interpreting is a direct type of
translational activity that aims to assist persons who want to engage in
communication but face linguistic and cultural difficulties. According to Russell
(2005), CI is the act of interpreting after the speaker has finished expressing one
or more concepts in the source language (SL) and pausing while the interpreter
transfers those ideas to the target language (TL).

2.1.4 Basic skills in consecutive interpreting

To each phase in consecutive interpreting, there are several fundamental skills
which corresponding to. Together with linguistic abilities such as listening and
speaking, the interpreters are required to practice in note-taking, reformulation
(paraphrasing) and short-term memory.

2.1.4.1. Note-taking

For a number of reasons, note-taking is a crucial skill in consecutive interpreting.

First of all, as the interpreters are unaware of how long is the speaker’s speech
before they may begin interpreting. Also, a professional interpreter should not
interrupt the speaker while they were speaking. Hence, note-taking will help them
interpret accurately and effectively. Particularly in negotiation interpreting, the
outcome of the negotiation might be determined only by the minor understanding
of a single word. Secondly, taking notes while interpreting is different to other
types of notes. In other notes, people may review their notes if they need to find
the main points. However, interpreters do not have time to reconsider or rearrange
the information as they would deliver their interpretation after the speaker. Thus,
interpreters should practice how to make their note-taking scientifical and effective.
Last but not least, note-taking should also be conducted before the consecutive
interpreting to provide an interpreter with an overall outlook on the topic. “.A good
interpreter should always take preparation.” (Richard, K.Seymour, C.C.Liu 1994,
p.11).

2.1.4.2. Short-term memory in consecutive interpreting

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Even if some information has already been recorded in notes, other information
should be retained in short-term memory and reorganized into a series of naturally
sounding target language sentences. (Basic concepts and models for interpreter and
translator training, Gile.1996)

2.1.4.3. Reformulation

In Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training, Gentile
(1996) states that reformulation is utilized to get rid of potential consequences of
production problems or in the event that short-term memory is overwhelmed. In
his book, he also discussed a few methods of reformulation.

2.2 Definition of paraphrasing

It was suggested by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary that the word
“paraphrasing” was first used in 1548. According to Loh (2013), “paraphrase”
originally comes from “paraphrasis” in Latin and “paraphrazein” in Greek which
means “to point out”. From then on, it has become a popular concept to be used in
academic writing. Despite the fact that there is no agreement on a single definition
of paraphrasing (Hirvela & Du, 2013; Shi, 2012; Yamada, 2003), there are some
common points in the studies of different researchers. The most popular point
presents in the use of someone’s own words. (Akbar, 2020; Howards et al., 2010).
To Howards (2010, p.81), he defines “paraphrasing is re-delivering the ideas in
one’s language” or Driscoll and Brizee (2011) claim that paraphrasing is “your
own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else,
presented in a new form”

2.3 Paraphrasing in Consecutive Interpreting

2.3.1 Paraphrasing as one aspect of Consecutive Interpreting
Interpretation requires not only advanced linguistic skills but also high
cognitive strategies, broad background knowledge, and quick reaction. Moreover,
to master the field, the interpreters have to cultivate multiple skills themselves
such as note-taking, memorizing, paraphrasing, ...etc. Among those skills,
language teachers consider paraphrasing to be useful due to the fact that it involves

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a number of interconnected sub-skills necessary for the use of language, such as
"reading, understanding, learning, relating, planning, writing, revising, editing and
orchestrating," (McCarthy, Guess & McNamar, 2009). In order to become a
skilled translator, one must also develop these subskills. In terms of paraphrasing
skills, Seleskovitch and Lederer (1989) also suggested that it might be
advantageous to include paraphrasing activities in the early stages of interpretation
training when the same meaning is expressed in the same language using different
terms.

Many academics have examined the phrase "paraphrasing" from a variety of

angles, but most of them agree that it is a form of interpretation or illustration. The
use of this technique helps to avoid wasting time spent on misunderstanding.
Paraphrasing means putting information from a source into one's own words.
Carrove (1999) asserts that one technique professional interpreters employ to
preserve linguistic naturalness and attain a high degree of accuracy in defining
professional meaning is paraphrasing.

2.3.2 Paraphrasing training in Consecutive Interpreting

To paraphrase is often defined as "repeating back in your own words what you
interpret someone else to be saying" (Kraybill, 2004). In order to achieve a
successful paraphrase when interpreting, the interpreter need to facilitate their
cognitive and linguistic skills. By understanding the meaning of the speech
properly, which facilitates their listening ability (Wette, 2010). Then, between two
segments of the interpretation, they need to base on their notes to select important
information of the speech in order to produce their interpretation in a meaningful
and proper way for the listeners. Therefore, some lexical items should be
paraphrased before or after being interpreted to conduct this transformation
successfully. As a result, Bailey (2006) recommended that the interpreter could
utilize synonyms, changing word form or mix method. Moreover, Rogers (2007)
also suggested different sentence structures (e.g. from active to passive, direct
speech to indirect speech) while paraphrasing. For these two techniques above,

10
paraphrasing could be considered to be such a great tool in supporting students in
consecutive interpretation.

a) Paraphrasing strategies and exercises to enhance interpreting

It could be argued that paraphrasing leads to a communicatively acceptable
translation. According to Pernilla Danielsson(2007) from the University of
Birmingham, there are three categories that interpreters could practice to improve
the quality of the interpretation by using paraphrasing strategies.

(1) Alternative lexis

This type of paraphrasing is the most basic; a word is exchanged for another
word or a group of words in the target language so that it would be understandable
to the audiences. This category allows the interpreter to start with a single word,
the look-up term, and then provide an equivalent word or, in some circumstances,
a short sentence as potential substitutes.

Example: Some people believe that environmental protection is the

responsibility of politicians, not individuals as individuals can do too little.

No paraphrasing With paraphrasing

E-V: Một số người cho rằng bảo vệ môi E-V: Người ta tin rằng các chính trị gia
trường là trách nhiệm của các chính trị nên có trách nhiệm bảo vệ môi trường
gia, không phải của các cá nhân với tư chứ không phải các công dân vì họ có
cách cá nhân có thể làm quá ít. rất ít quyền lực.

(2) Alternative phrases

In Alternative Phrases, Pernilla(2007) points out the fact that each word or phrase
is often part of units of meaning. Therefore, a large unit with clear or unclear
semantic meaning from a target language could be paraphrased in order to achieve
the equivalence after the interpretation of the target one based on the formality of
the context.

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Example: Nowadays, children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and
behave more like adults than they used to.

No paraphrasing With paraphrasing

E-V: Trẻ em ngày nay nói giống người E-V: Ngày nay, hành xử trong lời ăn
lớn, mặc giống người lớn và cư xử tiếng nói và cách ăn mặc của trẻ em
cũng giống người lớn hơn trước. giống với người lớn hơn trước.

(3) Alternative grammar

In the interpreting profession, the interpreter may use alternative grammar
technique to paraphrase. This is a technique of cutting long, complex sentences
into shorter and simpler sentences, replacing relative clauses (who, which, that,
where, ...) with long subordinate clauses to make the sentence shorter. easy to
understand, or change the active sentences (in Vietnamese) into passive sentences
(in English), or vice versa, in order to get a suitable translation for the style of the
target language.
Example: Mỗi ngày người ta đánh bắt đươc 200 nghìn tấn cá, hút hết 9 triệu điếu
thuốc lá.

No paraphrasing With paraphrasing

V-E: Everyday, people caught V-E: Two hundred thousand tons of

thousand tons of fish and smoked nine fish are caught every day, nine million
million cigarettes cigarettes are smoked.

Tasks that require paraphrasing can help students become more aware of the
implications of the original phrase. Nevertheless, it would be challenging to
evaluate quality without quantifying "completeness." Keck (2014) developed a
taxonomy of paraphrase types by counting the amounts of words from the source
excerpts to be used in the paraphrased text. (Table 1)

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To restate the same message using new words is one of the most fundamental
components of paraphrasing. For people without a sufficiently broad vocabulary,
this might be challenging. Similarly, interpreting learners may need to make
adjustments beyond simple lexical and syntactic ones in order to make these
activities to be relevant and successful. Moreover, the focus is also on
deconstructing and rearranging what is unclear into something clearer and more
comprehensible. Paraphrasing is specifically defined as “analyze, synthesize and
evaluate” (Choy & Lee, 2012) the original text to “altering the grammar and
vocabulary of the original without changing its meaning” (Anderson, 1996).
Similar to interpretation, interpretation includes not only translating a message
from one language into another but also synthesizing, analyzing, and evaluating
the original. Therefore, paraphrase tasks provide students the chance to
comprehend the original without being overwhelmed by language switching.
Seeing that interpreting and paraphrasing display similarities, paraphrasing
exercises have also been incorporated into interpreter training.
However, the cultural aspects of applying paraphrase exercises in interpreter
training are rarely acknowledged, despite the fact that the goal of interpreting is to
enhance cross-cultural dialogue. The semantic and synthetic levels of the source

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texts are the main subjects of discussion when it comes to incorporating paraphrase
exercises into interpretation training. It is suggested that paraphrasing activities be
included in interpreter training, initially at the sentence level to the length of an
entire paragraph, and that paraphrasing should be practiced in one’s native
language before a foreign language. Specifically, according to Liu (2012), when
paraphrasing for interpreter training, learners should be encouraged to break up
long sentences into short ones and change parts of speech and sentence
structure. Although paraphrase practice exercises have been suggested for use in
interpretation training, there has been very few researches examining their
effectiveness.

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 CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides descriptions of and justifications for the setting, research
design, participants, data collection instruments, data analysis method, data
collection and analysis procedures.

3.1. Sampling
The research will be conducted in the University of Languages and International
Studies where the researcher has relevant practical expertise. The author, who is a
student at the university, is knowledgeable about the current academic practice. In
the university, paraphrasing instruction is included in the interpreting class.
Specifically, for the fast-track program, paraphrasing accounts for one lesson of an
interpreting course in the program. In this lesson, students are introduced to the
commonly used paraphrasing strategies such as using synonyms, changing
structures, adding and deleting words, etc. In other academic courses, paraphrasing
is practiced in a great deal as students are often required to use different sources
for writing assignments. However, to answer the Research Question, it is important
to have the participation of those students who are learning interpreting among
students at FELTE, VNU-ULIS, Hanoi. To select suitable participants out of the
sample pool, participants will be picked based on their availability, desire to spend
time exchanging views, capacity for argument and most importantly their level of
English and Vietnamese language. The researcher has carried up a pilot study to
attain this selection purpose, gathering data through some informal group
conversations regarding the students' working schedules, interest in the subject,
and paraphrasing experience. It would be perfect to carry out the study with the
participation of all of the students studying interpreting at FELTE, ULIS, VNU,
Hanoi. However, due to some objective conditions and time limitation, the
participants of this research are a group of 8 fourth-year students at the University
of Languages and International Studies. This group included eight students with
the same band score in the consecutive interpreting course. These students were
chosen by considering that they were expected to be able to show their
paraphrasing practice in interpreting since they completed a consecutive
interpreting course in the previous year. All the students participated in doing the
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Test and after that. In order to reach high level of confidentiality, they were chosen
randomly among QH2020 classes.
3.2 Research Design
Based on those above research objectives and research question, this research used
a comparative descriptive and case study research design to compare and contrast
two groups as well as thoroughly examine the results of the individuals in each
group.

As the aim of this research is to analyze students’ paraphrasing practice in

interpreting class, a case study research design was chosen to help the researcher
collect the final result. According to Yin (1994, p. 13), case study is:

“An empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within

its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and
context are not clearly evident. It copes with the technically distinctive situation
in which there will be many more variables of interest than data points, and as
one result relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to
converge in a triangulation fashion, another result benefits from the prior
development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis.”

Also, as mentioned by Farquhar (2012), a case study focused on examining a

contextual phenomenon, with the research findings being applied to the specific
circumstance. He claimed that a case study is a thorough investigation to uncover
questions and acquire the knowledge necessary related to the issue; however, the
results of the study could not be generalized and evaluated to the same question in
the other context. Meanwhile, with the question that how paraphrasing could
improve the interpreting learning for FELTE students, the writer needed to analyze
the ability to apply paraphrasing skills of FELTE students by several interpreting
test to deeply study toward the question. In addition, in comparison with other data
collection instruments, a case study is more accurate and focused for analysis. As
a result, it would deeply test the student's ability to utilize paraphrasing techniques
for analyzing and providing appropriate solutions. With the numerous advantages
listed above, it is much hoped that the case study design would be useful in
answering the suggested research question and confirming the strengths and

16
validity of the case study method. Those were the motivations for the researcher
to deploy a case study in doing this study.

At first, the researcher integrated the quantitative research method in order to

evaluate the results more objectively by grading the interpreting recordings of the
participants in two groups. However, it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of
paraphrasing exercises and students’ interpreting performances only by the grades
of their performances because the results also depend on numerous factors to
consider. Therefore, another method of the research which was also conducted was
descriptive-qualitative research. According to Pecorari and Petrić (2014), it is more
suitable for paraphrasing-related research compared to quantitative one. Sun (2019)
also advocated and used this approach in their study about paraphrasing due to the
amount of in-depth information obtained. Moreover, Creswell (2012) and Denzin
(2000) asserted, in educational research, qualitative research would offer detailed
description of participants’ experiences, feelings, and opinions, e s p e c i a l l y , in
this study their interpretation of the text.

3.3 Data collection instruments

3.3.1 Test
In order to serve the purpose of analyzing and synthesizing, an interpreting test
was the most appropriate way used as one of the tools to collect the data in this
study. The researcher would have a control experiment to certain whether the
training methods are effective. It means that the participants would be separated
into two groups and one group would receive the exercises along with the training
method for about 45 minutes. Then, the researcher would make a comparison of
the two groups’ performances to conclude. As a result, the test would be developed
by the researcher for the purpose of finding how paraphrasing skills could help
students in processing the source language and interpreting. After the session of
interpreting, the results from the participants were collected for the further study.
The chosen materials were two recordings: one in English and the other in
Vietnamese. The criteria for selecting these two recordings were: Familiar topic,

17
coherent speech outline, one speaker, clear speaker’s voice with little or no
background noise and medium speed speaker.

With such criteria, the recording did not cause any difficulty for the student in
hearing and understanding the content because the focus of the study was not
listening comprehension.

3.3.2 Grading
The results from the experiment would be collected and the participants’
Vietnamese to English consecutive interpreting performances were graded by a
lecturer in the Translation Division who was familiar with the grading process.
Moreover, the rater was also based on the grading procedures and criteria, as
shown in the table below.

The soundtracks from the participants in group A and B were randomized and
made anonymous in order to test participant performance objectively and thereby
increase the possibility that the paraphrasing strategies and exercises would be
beneficial.

Score

I1. Accuracy 1,2,3,4,5

I2. Completeness 1,2,3,4,5

I3. Coherence 1,2,3,4,5

I4. Fluency 1,2,3,4,5

Overall(I1+I2+ I3 +I4)/4

Table 2: Grading Criteria

3.3.3 Reflective report

A qualitative analysis of the participants’ reflective report was used to reveal how
they perceived the link between paraphrasing and consecutive interpreting

18
performance. All the participants in the group with the exercises and training
method had to submit a reflective report at the end of the experiment. They were
asked to reflect on their process and whether these exercises were helpful to them.
The reports were written in either Vietnamese or English.

3.4 Data collection procedures

With the research question “How paraphrasing could contribute to and facilitate
the interpreting learning at FELTE, VNU-ULIS?”, the case study would have all
the matters which are relevant to serve the research question. Then, some
interpreting tasks that required paraphrasing skills in the process would be drafted.
Next, the researcher asks for comments from the supervisor and peers to produce
the most appropriate test for the case study. The case study was carried out the
same way as other interpreting lessons.
Before the test, the researcher made contact, asked for permission and agreed on a
suitable date and venue for the interview. Students were provided with things to
do for the test and its expected length. The researcher arrived at the testing room
15 minutes before the scheduled time. First, students were briefly introduced the
research purpose, the overall structure of the interpreting test and assured the
confidentiality of collected data, asked for permission for recording and lastly,
expressed great gratitude for students’ participants. Participants had time to read
and sign in the consent form. Throughout the process, Vietnamese was the used as
the main language for participants to fully understand the requirements and easily
give their experiences and opinions. About the place of the test for the study, it
was delivered to the participants in a classroom in the B3 building which is
equipped with interpreting tools on the campus of ULIS, VNU, Hanoi. The
procedure of data collection consists of three main phases.
Phase 1:
The group of eight students was divided randomly into two smaller groups named
group A and Group B. Each group contained four students.
Phase 2:

19
The students in group A were asked to do an interpreting test as well as use their
interpreting skills in the process. The test included two consecutive interpreting
tasks in English and Vietnamese.
In the process, firstly, the students had to listen to the recordings part by part. After
each part played, the recordings were stopped and the students immediately
translated the recording.
Meanwhile, the students in group B were provided with a set of paraphrasing
techniques and several exercises to practice before they did the same tasks as group
A. It means that the researcher could compare the results of the two groups and
analyze them to find the answer for the research question. The whole process was
supervised by Ms. Tran Phuong Linh. This is normally used in interpreting classes.
With an aim to recreate the atmosphere of the real interpreting class, the researcher
conducted a case study like a mock test in class so that the students would perform
like they normally do. Additionally, the result in their paraphrasing tasks could be
collected with high confidential level.
Phase 3:
All the recordings from both groups then were collected and kept for analyzing in
order to find the answer for the research question above. Moreover, after the
interpreting test, the participants in the group with paraphrasing training method
would be asked to share their reflection on the process.
3.5 Data analysis method
As all the interpretations of the students in the test were transcribed into texts and
the reflective reports are collected in a written form, the researcher decided to use
the content analysis method. According to Vaismoradi, Turunen & Bondas (2013),
this is one of the most suitable approaches in research which included qualitative
studies. He defined that content analysis to be “a systematic coding and
categorizing approach used for exploring large amounts of textual information
unobtrusively to determine trends and patterns of words used, their frequency,
their relationships, and the structures and discourses of communication”. It shows
the interaction of a researcher with documentary materials.

20
There are three main phases in the process of content analysis. First, the researcher
thoroughly studied the data to familiarize themselves with it and understand its
content. Then, the data was coded into themes in order to reveal the relationships
and patterns between the various data sets and themes. Last but not least, the
researcher analyzed the data and produced reports.

In addition, the recordings are graded based on the general criteria (mentioned in
table 1) to give an overview on the results of the students’ performances from two
groups in the test.

3.6 Ethical concerns

Consent forms were sent to participants prior to their participation in the study
(See Appendix D). The participant was informed of the purposes of the study and
data collection method by the researcher. hey were ensured of the anonymity of
their responses and that recordings would be kept for examination. Finally, the
interview received informed consent.

21
 CHAPTER 4 – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

As mentioned in chapter I, the aim of the thesis is to analyze how paraphrasing

practice contribute and facilitate the interpreting learning, followed by an analysis
of the student’s perceptions that they reflected after performing the interpreting
test. After that, based on the findings and reflections of the participants, the
researcher will lay out recommendations on the matter.

4.1 Paraphrasing in improving the interpreting quality

4.1.1 Quantitative results
All the interpreting recordings were given to the researchers after graded by the
lecturer, the grades for participants from group A and group B were ranged from
7.0 to 9.0. Based on the grading criteria given in Table 1, the recordings were
graded in order to give on overall look in the difference between those who have
been aware of the paraphrasing techniques.

Table 3: Students’ grades of group A and group B

Group A Group B

No. Grades No. Grades

1 7.5 1 8.5

2 8 2 8.8

3 8.4 3 7.3

4 8.5 4 9

The average score of group A was 8.1 and group B was 8.4. From the result above,
it could be clearly seen that the results show a minimal discrepancy between their
total grades. However, for those participants in group B, they admitted that their
performances have improved with paraphrasing practice and techniques in
advance. The difference in their performances likely show the fact that
paraphrasing in interpreting is a helpful skill along with various other internal and
external factors that needs practice. Normally, these majority of students typically
22
have a good understanding of what paraphrasing is and how it is used; however
due to their poor perception of appropriate paraphrasing, along with factors like
poor English proficiency, lack of confidence, and difficult texts, may be to blame
for their unsuccessful paraphrasing attempts during the test. It seems that the pre-
test preparation for these students were not long enough to help them master the
skill because paraphrasing in interpreting training not only includes semantic and
syntactic changes but it requires the addition of connectives, repetitions,
elaboration and reduction of redundant information. Therefore, the researcher
believed that paraphrasing practice on a regular basis would help to deal with these
problems and enhance source language comprehension and organization, which
could lead to a better rendition in a target language.

It is possible that those who achieved a good score in the test had a better language
competence than those with lower score and thus might have been more confident
in processing the tasks; hence they performed an outstanding consecutive
interpreting. Even though there is a correlation between group B’s CI
performance and the paraphrasing techniques and exercises trained, it is
challenging to comprehend why the statistical data showed a correlation between
the two variables. Actually, as mentioned above, how paraphrasing practice could
improve the interpreting quality may not be easily identified from quantitative
date only. As a result, the researcher also conducted a qualitative analysis on the
students’ interpretation and reflection to gain a deeper look.

4.1.2 Qualitative analysis

It is important to note that paraphrasing practice is an off-line technique in
interpretation therefore students need to have a certain period of time practicing
the technique to clearly observe the effectiveness of paraphrasing in language
learning in general. However, in order to lay the foundation for further in-depth
and extensive studies related to this topic, the author initially studied and analyzed
the effectiveness of paraphrasing practice on a small scale with eight participants.
This research focuses on analyzing the interpreting performances between two
groups of students at ULIS, VNU who have a major in English language. In this
study, the students from group A conducted an interpreting test as they usually
23
have at school while participants from group B had a lesson to be equipped with
paraphrasing strategies and exercises to practice before the test. The researcher
has transcribed the participants’ recording into eight different texts in order to
analyze whether the paraphrasing exercises could contribute to the quality of
interpretation although the practice time was limited. The foundation of the study
was mainly based on the three categories by Pernille Danielsson (2007) that
interpreters could practice to improve the quality of the interpretation.

Analyses of the two groups participants’ interpreting results revealed that student
performance differed markedly. For those students in group A, their interpretation
seemed to be interpreted word-by-word and tried to interpret the information that
they noted down instead of processing the information. The other participants in
group B, however, they attempted to bring those paraphrasing strategies into
interpreting practice by using different synonyms, structures and grammatical
changes but still keep the meaning of the message of the original text. To be more
specific, there are several types of paraphrasing strategies to be found. They
interpreted the speech by alternative lexis such as using synonyms, alternative
phrases by varied sentence structures, changing word order, condensing the
original, expanding phrase for clarity, alternative grammatical patterns such as
changing active to passive, changing positive to negative, changing parts of speech,
combining sentences, separating long sentence to short sentences.

4.1.2.1 Alternative Lexis

Table 4: Examples of alternative lexis in students’ interpretation

Original Speech (By N.M.P) Group A (By P.T.T) Group B

And we've had to make Vo chunk ta can tạo ra Chúng ta cũng phải thay
changes in the way we thay đổi trong cách đổi cách sống của mình
live our lives, to help sống, bao gồm cả sự lây để ngăn chặn virus lây
contain the spread of lan của virus. lan/ ngăn chặn sự lây lan
the virus. của virus.

24
 Our thoughts are now Suy nghĩ của chúng ta Tâm trí chúng ta hiện
turning to the summer đang về mùa hè và hơn nay đang hướng về mùa
and even further, to the nữa là những nơi chúng hè, và thậm chí những
places we love to travel. ta muốn đi. vùng đất mình muốn du
lịch đến.

Hầu hết khách sạn Việt Most hotels in Vietnam Most Vietnamese hotels
nam đều sống nhờ vào live by international depend on international
du lịch quốc tế. tourism. tourists.

From Table 4, the researcher noticed that some words have been processed by
substitution with synonyms to be suitable with the context of the target language.
Instead of being interpreted word by word, paraphrasing required the interpreter
to process the information before giving the interpretation. As seen in the table
above, the participants from group A kept their interpretation to be the same as
the original. One of them even misunderstood the meaning of the word “live by”
or “contain” while interpreting which somehow changed the original meaning of
thespeech.

Obviously, this paraphrasing technique enables us to address the surface level

of what is actually happening in a sentence like the one above. A more thorough
analysis of the differences between the two sentences would require much more.
For example, in example above, a student from group A interpreted “sống nhờ
vào” into to “live by” in English, however, “live by” means “to agree with and
follow”. Therefore, by paraphrasing the Vietnamese version into another word,
the student from group B found another expression which was more suitable with
thecontext.

4.1.2.2 Alternative Phrases

Paraphrasing in the interpretation, and this expression in particular, facilitate

comprehension. In addition to informational processing, as the example shows,

25
paraphrasing in interpretation can enhance structural processing by creating clear
logical connections between different segments using alternative phrases.

Original Speech (By T.T.K.L) Group A (By N.N.M) Group B

Ví dụ Việt Nam với Hàn 1/ For example, Vietnam 1/ For example, Vietnam
Quốc, anh cho công dân and Korea, you allow my and Korea both agree to
của tôi vào, tôi cho công citizens to go to your let the citizens of the
dân của anh vào, các country, I will also do the other in through travel
điều kiện ví dụ như là same, the conditions bubbles. However, they
giãn cách xã hội, đeo such as social have to practice social
khẩu trang, đo thân distancing, .... distancing measures,
nhiệt ngay từ khi vào, có wear face coverings,
giấy chứng nhận sức have their temperature
khỏe là tôi không bị screened and show
nhiễm Covid-19 cần Covid-free health
đảm bảo. documents.

Some speakers do not use connectives such as “so that”, “then” or “because”, they
tend to imply these words, especially in Vietnamese. For example, the word
“however” is missing from the original speech, yet everyone could understand the
message. As an interpreter, it is important to put appropriate connectives so that it
could facilitate the comprehension in the target language. Interpreters may have
the chance to make connectives that are implicit in the source text more explicit
through paraphrasing, which will enhance the understanding of the English
renditions. From this example, the researcher believes that paraphrasing not only
includes syntactic and lexical changes but it also requires expansion, explanation
using different phrases and connectives to express the message.

From the performance of a student in group B, it can also be seen that paraphrasing
could process the information which has been repeated. An example above shows

26
that the phrase “Việt Nam với Hàn Quốc, anh cho công dân của tôi vào, tôi cho
công dân của anh vào” seems to be repeated; therefore, the interpreters
paraphrased it in the target language by “Vietnam and Korea both agree to let the
citizens of the other in through travel bubbles.” Using alternatives phrases or way
of expression helps the interpreter to avoid parts that are redundant so that these
parts could be discarded, resulting in a clearer and more concise version in the
target language.

4.1.2.3 Alternative grammar

Original Speech (By T.T.H) Group A (By L.N.Y.H) Group B

Nowadays, not only Ngày nay, không chỉ Ngày nay, công nghệ
adults but also children người lớn mà cả trẻ em được người lớn và trẻ
can be able to access it cũng có thể truy cập dễ nhỏ sử dụng hàng ngày
easily by doing web dàng bằng cách lướt cho nhiều mục đích như
surfing, texting with web, nhắn tin với những lướt mạng, nhắn tin,
other people around the người khác trên khắp thế giao lưu xã hội, chơi
world and doing social giới và kết nối mạng xã game và các hoạt động
networking, playing hội, chơi trò chơi tương khác.
interactive games, and tác và các hoạt động
other activity that khác mà công nghệ đã
technology have cung cấp.
provided.

Với tình trạng covid này With this covid I think only when
để có tình trạng bình situation, to have a vaccines or cures for
thường như năm 2019 normal situation like in Co-vid are available, the
trở về trước thì phải có 2019 and earlier, there tourism could be back
vaccine, phải có thuốc must be a vaccine, there like before 2019.
chữa. must be a cure.

27
As the purpose of paraphrase is to “analyze, synthesize and evaluate” (Choy &
Lee, 2012) the original speech to aim at “altering the grammar and vocabulary of
the original” without changing its meaning. In particular, an interpreter has
shortened long phrases and switched up parts of speech and sentence structure
when interpreting using paraphrasing strategy. As it has been reported above that,
alternative grammar may include realization or omission of optional elements,
such as in the interpretation version with paraphrasing technique, the sentence was
changed from active to passive and it still keeps the original meaning. However,
it appears in a more succinct version than the interpretation without any processed
step.

4.2 Student’s perception on paraphrasing practice in interpreting learning

After the test, participants from group B who had been provided with several
paraphrasing practice and exercises had to submit a reflective paper to review
the process. The reflection should focus on their perception toward the
effectiveness of paraphrasing practice in improving the interpretating quality.
All the reflective papers were submitted online via Google Drive for the
researcher to analyze the content. There are two main contributions emerged
from the qualitative result: the informational processing and the structural
processing functions of paraphrasing practice.

One thing the students had in common was that paraphrasing made it simpler for
them to comprehend and make sense of the original material, which made it easier
for them to interpret.

“The paraphrase tasks make me understand the content, and once I do, it's easy
to retell it in a way that makes sense. Once this is achieved, interpreting into
English is simpler because I only have to say the material that I have understood;
in addition, since it is my understanding and my own words, I am no longer
constrained by the source language” _ A student from group B

Other participants admitted that although a complete understanding of the source

language may be helpful in rendering from Vietnamese to English, interpreting
was much more difficult than just a complete understanding of the source
language.

28
 “Since the meaning cannot be misunderstood, I truly need to grasp the complexity
and nuance of the original text. Once I have done this, I may be able to explain it
in Vietnamese, but it becomes very difficult to do it in English because my
vocabulary may not be sufficient to do so.” _ A student from group B

From the reflection above, it seems that paraphrasing practice could also help
interpreters to be aware of their weaknesses in English and improve it gradually
by paraphrasing exercise as well. For those who are conscientious interpreters,
this type of exercise would function in the same way, subsequently, they would
be motivated to improve their English renditions while interpreting.

The informational and structural processing of the source texts is made easier by
paraphrasing. The statement below serves as an example of how paraphrase might
improve information processing.

“While interpreting, it is necessary to explain the meanings of idioms, and those

expressions that are unique in Vietnamese. The English renditions will not make
sense if these are translated word by word; so, a different phrase with a similar
meaning could be used, but doing so doesn’t help interpreting into English, so
sometimes I try to find an explanation for these expressions in Vietnamese first.”
_ A student from group B

Moreover, paraphrase can be useful to the interpreting activity at two different

points. First, gathering and connecting concepts beforehand can help to clarify the
thinking process. As one listens to the spoken utterances, their organization may
continue. The spoken phrase may be understood as the outcome of quiet
processing and audible verification. Compared to a rendition based on a source
text that has not been processed or checked, a paraphrased version that came from
a source text that has been processed and checked may be more coherent and better
organized.

The next reflection shows that practicing paraphrasing could improve the
interpreter’s understanding and information organization when they articulate the
paraphrased version in the source language audibly before interpretation.

“Before the test, I tried to say it out loud when I practice paraphrasing, and if it
didn’t make sense, I did it again. Then, I could find myself a suitable rendition in
the target language that I interpreted.”

29
In fact, not all the participants in group B were convinced that paraphrasing
practice could improve the interpreting quality. On the contrary, there is one of
them who perceived that paraphrasing is unrealistic.

“Paraphrasing doesn't make sense to me because it is neither realistic nor

practical. There is no time for me to restate in the source language while
interpreting so that I think one needs to find a suitable rendition in the target
language immediately which requires a lot of effort.” _ A student from group B

It is important to distinguish between the training techniques used in interpretation

training and the coping tactics employed in interpreting. When performing
interpreting, interpreters use coping tactics that might be thought of as "on-line"
solutions (Gile, 1998; Moser-Mercer, 2000), such as taking notes and reorganizing,
omitting, adding, and approximating ideas. These on-line techniques may have
observable results. When renditions are compared to the speech in the original
language, for instance, notes can be read and the reorganization, omission,
addition, and approximation of ideas can be discovered. In contrast, paraphrasing
is considered to be a training method that can be defined as an “off-line” technique.
Consequently, the results of using an “off-line” strategy may be not easily
observable in participant’s interpreting performance. That conclusion may
explain why paraphrasing practice as a training method in interpretation field has
not been widely researched.

4.3 Summary
The results of this study indicate that consecutive interpreting quality could
improve when the interpreter has understood and interpreted based on a
paraphrased version in terms of informational and structural levels. In the research,
the qualitative results have partly show that paraphrasing practice may help the
interpreters with the overall understanding of the speech to better organize the
information. Once the interpreter thoroughly comprehends the source language,
the content of the speech would be well-organized at the informational and
structural levels. While processing the information to paraphrase, the interpreters
may find suitable modifications for the translation such as clarification of special

30
expressions, connectives and the omission of redundancies. Gradually, with a
continuous practice, paraphrasing exercise and strategies are expected to be an
option to practice in order to improve the interpreting quality.

31
 CHAPTER 5 – RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

This final chapter will review the result and recommend several implications for
improvement along with the discussion of some limitations and suggestions for
further studies.

5.1 Pedagogical recommendations

As approved above, paraphrasing exercises benefit learners’ abilities to process
the source language at both the structural and informational levels. Consequently,
the researcher believes that to bring more paraphrasing exercises into interpreting
lessons is a way to help students improve their ability to cope with lengthy and
coherent speech. Usually, students claim that they have to struggle with the
Vietnamese speeches while doing CI. Some speeches which are long and not
properly coherent, they need to deal with its implication and make it easier to
understand. During the case study, a student in group B who was aware of the
paraphrasing technique made efforts to render and use the technique in her
interpretation.

“…Cứ bốn người nói tiếng Anh trên thế giới thì ba người không phải là người
bản ngữ. Và nó đã thay đổi, tiếng Anh từ là một ngôn ngữ của một quốc gia, tiếng
Anh ngày nay đã mở rộng ra trên toàn thế giới và được sử dụng rộng rãi trong các
lĩnh vực khoa học, công nghệ, thương mại. Và tiếng Anh, một cái điều rất quan
trọng đó là ngôn ngữ giao tiếp giữa các quốc gia và lãnh thổ.” (Doan Hong Nam,
2011)

A student in group A A student in group B

(without paraphrasing techniques) (with paraphrasing techniques)

Among four people speaking English Three out of four people speaking
in the world, three of them are not English are non-native in the world.
native speakers. And English from a English has changed from national to
language of England, now it becomes global to be used in science,
an international language. English technology, commerce... and most
also used in science, technology, importantly, it is used as a

32
 commerce.... And English, the thing is communicative language among
it is communicated between countries countries and regions.”
and regions.

Here is another example to prove that the length of paragraph can be adjusted in
accordance with paraphrasing technique:

“Khách du lịch quốc tế người ta có “If implemented well, travel bubbles

mấy đặc điểm sau mà tôi nghĩ rằng nếu can attract a large number of
mà chúng ta làm tốt được bong bóng international tourists to Vietnam for
du lịch thì nó sẽ đưa một lượng khách following features. First, those who
khá lớn vào. Thứ nhất, những người có travel abroad tend to receive high
tiền đi du lịch nước ngoài đều là những income. Second, those people surely
người có thu nhập cao. Thứ hai tôi have travelled a lot in their own
đảm bảo những người đó đã đi du lịch countries. In fact, even domestic
nước họ, người ta đi nhiều quá rồi. Mà tourism is not really developed such as
có những nước chả có du lịch nội địa, Singapore and Hong Kong. Third,
ví dụ như Singapore họ đi du lịch nội travelling is irreplaceable for these
địa ở đâu? Singapore hay Hong Kong tourists as they need to relieve stress
làm gì có chỗ nào đi du lịch nội địa. after their hard work”
Thứ ba, nhu cầu du lịch với họ gần như
là nhu cầu thiết yếu vì đấy là những
người làm việc rất căng thẳng. Họ cần
một thời gian khoảng lặng để xả
stress.”

From the example above, it is clearly seen that the interpreter could logically
rearrange the structures and ideas to make a clear, coherent and fluent version. In
other words, they resort to the ability of paraphrasing. Therefore, if getting
frequent paraphrasing practices, the interpreter may improve in analyzing and
construing delivered information.

33
It is necessary for us to constantly practice with an aim to gain and take full
advantage of this ability. These steps below are recommended to practice:

• Read a short text of 300-400 words/Listen to a short speech of 1 minutes

• Highlight/Note down main ideas

• Construe the draft above in every aspect (grammar, lexical, terminology)

• Paraphrase

Moreover, the topic of the speech as well as the difficulty level may influence the
performance of students when adopting the paraphrasing technique. As a result,
teachers should be selective when assign students tasks to practice each technique
in paraphrasing skill. For example, for structure paraphrasing, they can start from
texts about familiar topics and vocabs. By this way, students do not have to
struggle with interpreting the speech and paraphrasing at the same time. Starting
from an “in-between stage” to support students’ comprehension is mentioned by
Wette (2010, P.170). Specifically, to fully take advantage of paraphrasing
techniques in interpretation, it is advisable that students should practice
paraphrasing skill by orally summarize a text or speech then create a graphic map
of it to show their understand before paraphrasing in the source language ( Wette,
2010).

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further research

There are a number of limitations which present after this research. Firstly, the
results could not be generalized due to the limited sample group. Additionally, the
participants share several characteristics in common. They have a similar cultural
and English background knowledge and have had paraphrasing experiences
before. As a result, the findings do not represent for all seniors of higher learning
or to students with limited or poor language skills. Therefore, more research into
this could be further investigated.

34
Secondly, there might be a discrepancy between students’ awareness and their use
of paraphrasing techniques in interpretation. It is likely that when students
interpret, they will encounter more difficulties. Therefore, paraphrasing practice
is not the only way to improve their interpretation. Moreover, the participants in
the case study who were provided with the paraphrasing techniques and exercises
only had a short period of time to practice so that the results do not truly reflect
the effectiveness of paraphrasing. To be more specific, although they are aware of
paraphrasing techniques including the change of lexis, phrases and structures, they
may struggle with the difficulty in listening skills. As a result, further studies on
the same topic may conduct a control experiment in a long period of time to test
whether this training methods are effective. In such an experiment, research
participants with similar backgrounds will be required to show evidence practicing
paraphrasing by submitting a weekly practice or the audio recordings, including
the interpreting and paraphrasing exercises. Consequently, it will complement this
study’s result.

Thirdly, during the case study, only recordings and videos were employed for the
task of practicing paraphrasing skills in interpreting. Therefore, it is suggested that
more different type of tasks namely as texts or other reading genres with varying
levels of difficulty should be taken into account to help students improve their
paraphrasing techniques before using them in interpretation.

5.3 Conclusion
Since the dawn of human communication, interpreting has played a crucial role in
bridging linguistic and cultural divides (Pochhacker & Shlesinger M 2002). More
studies are being conducted with the goal of developing a thorough understanding
of interpretation and raising the level of interpretation. To me, what I have
attempted to do in this thesis is to make my contribution to these researches by
identifying the effectiveness of paraphrasing practices in improving interpreting
quality, especially consecutive interpreting.

35
Using an intra-participant research method in order to compare the performances
of research participants in two groups, the study has provided some first insights
about how paraphrasing practice could improve students’ performance in
consecutive interpretation. It could be clearly seen that being aware of
paraphrasing definition and appropriate paraphrasing identification while
interpreting may help students to accurately convey meaning from one language
into another, especially Vietnamese into English as Vietnamese meanings are
sometimes expressed in a more implicit manner than in English. These results are
expected to serve as a source of reference for teachers in teaching interpreting.
Furthermore, pedagogical implications may offer teachers with several methods
in designing activities and selecting exercises for students in consecutive
interpreting to give the teachers a support in their work in general. In conclusion,
hopefully further studies which involve a larger group of participants and longer
period of time, may be conducted to examine students’ interpreting products after
practicing paraphrasing exercises from various sources.

36
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 APPENDIX A

CONSENT FORM

CONSENT FORM

FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE CASE STUDY ABOUT “PARAPHRASING

PRACTICE IN IMPROVING CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING QUALITY -
ACASE STUDY AMONG STUDENTS AT FELTE, VNU-ULIS”

I, , have carefully been informed about the purpose and nature

of the study “PARAPHRASING PRACTICE IN IMPROVING CONSECUTIVE
INTERPRETING QUALITY - A CASE STUDY AMONG STUDENTS AT
FELTE, VNU-ULIS”. I understand that the information and the result of the case
study I give will be kept confidential. I also understand that I may decide not to
answer any specific question or withdraw from the research at any point without
negative consequences. My signature below verifies that I have agreed to
participate in the case study.

My signature below also verifies that I grant the researcher permission to record
the case study session and use the data collected in the researcher's publications
on this topic.

Agreement to Participate

Participant’s Signature

Date

40
 APPENDIX B

A CASE STUDY ON PARAPHRASING PRACTICE IN

IMPROVING CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING
QUALITY
My name is Nguyen Phuong Thao from the Faculty of English Language
Teacher Education. I am conducting a research into the use of paraphrasing
practice in improving the quality of students’ interpretation. I would like to ask
you to complete this test as part of the data collection process. The purpose of
the test is to measure the effectiveness of using paraphrasing in interpretation
and collect information for data analysis.
FOR GROUP A STUDENTS
GENERAL TOPIC: TRAVELING DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC
SECTION 1: English – Vietnamese
Topic: How to coordinate a safe return to travel and tourism during the covid
pandemic
Phrases to note:
- Coronavirus
- Spread of virus
- Lockdown
- Transport links
- Lifting restrictions
SECTION 2: Vietnamese – English
Topic: Travel bubbles – a new solution for tourism during the Covid
pandemic
Phrases to note:
- Bong bóng du lịch
- Hành lang du lịch
- Kiểm soát virus
- Giãn cách xã hội
- Đo thân nhiệt
- Công ty lữ hành
Thank you for your participation!

41
 A CASE STUDY ON PARAPHRASING PRACTICE IN
IMPROVING CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING
QUALITY
My name is Nguyen Phuong Thao from the Faculty of English Language
Teacher Education. I am conducting a research into the use of paraphrasing
practice in improving the quality of students’ interpretation. I would like to ask
you to complete this test as part of the data collection process. The purpose of
the test is to measure the effectiveness of using paraphrasing in interpretation
and collect information for data analysis.
FOR GROUP B STUDENTS
It could be argued that paraphrasing lead to a communicatively acceptable
translation. According to Pernilla Danielsson(2007) from University of
Birmingham, there are three categories that interpreters could practice to improve
the quality of the interpretation by using paraphrasing techniques.
(4) Alternative lexis
Many people have food delivered to their house many times.

No paraphrasing With paraphrasing

E-V: Rất nhiều người có thức ăn được E-V: Nhiều người thường được giao
chuyển tới nhà nhiều lần. đồ ăn tới tận nhà.

(5) Alternative phrases

Nowadays, children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and behave
more like adults than they used to.

No paraphrasing With paraphrasing

E-V: Trẻ em ngày nay nói giống người E-V: Ngày nay, hành xử trong lời ăn
lớn, mặc giống người lớn và cư xử tiếng nói và cách ăn mặc của trẻ em
cũng giống người lớn hơn trước. giống với người lớn hơn trước.

(6) Alternative grammar

Mỗi ngày người ta đánh bắt đươc 200 nghìn tấn cá, hút hết 9 triệu điếu thuốc lá.

No paraphrasing With paraphrasing

42
 V-E: Everyday, people caught V-E: Two hundred thousand tons of
thousand tons of fish and smoked nine fish are caught every day, nine million
million cigarettes cigarettes are smoked.

GENERAL TOPIC: TRAVELING DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC

SECTION 1: English – Vietnamese
Topic: How to coordinate a safe return to travel and tourism during the covid
pandemic
Phrases to note:
- Coronavirus
- Spread of virus
- Lockdown
- Transport links
- Lifting restrictions

SECTION 2: Vietnamese – English

Topic: Travel bubbles – a new solution for tourism during the Covid
pandemic
Phrases to note:
- Bong bóng du lịch
- Hành lang du lịch
- Kiểm soát virus
- Giãn cách xã hội
- Đo thân nhiệt
- Công ty lữ hành

Thank you for your participation!

43