RESEARCH PAPER

THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF TRANSLATION SOFTWARES ON ENGLISH

MAJOR STUDENT’S TRANSLATING ABILITY AND SOLVES
by An Văn Khánh
Student’s ID: 20DH713775
Class: 15100043
advised by Mr. Nguyễn Thượng Trí, M.A.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2023

 TABLE OF CONTENT

TABLE OF CONTENT...........................................................................1
ABSTRACT..........................................................................................2
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION...............................................................3
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................5
2.1. Definition of terms..................................................................6
2.2. Review on related studies......................................................6
2.3. Gap for the present study......................................................7
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY............................................................9
3.1. Methodological Approach......................................................9
3.2. Participants Description.........................................................9
3.3. Data collection........................................................................9
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.......................................11
4.1. Findings.................................................................................11
4.2. Discussion.............................................................................17
CHAPTER V: LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...................18
5.1 Limitations............................................................................18
5.2. Recommendations................................................................18
CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION..............................................................19
REFERENCES.....................................................................................20
APPENDIX A.....................................................................................22

1
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the negative effects of

translation software. The research included participants who were English majors

at HUFLIT. Questionnaires are the instruments in use. The questions focused on

the regular use of TS, whether respondents agreed or disagreed with its usage, as

well as its advantages and, more importantly, its negative consequences. Through

qualitative-descriptive analysis, it was known that most respondents indicated a

high dependency on TS. The findings revealed that every participant used TS often

and had a high level of confidence. It is envisaged that TS can be utilized more

effectively in the future after learning about its use in this study.

2
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
The technological breakthrough known as Technology 4.0 is what produced

translation software. It gives students access to a vast database that they can use

to learn and practice English. Universities are always seeking technology to apply

in teaching and learning nowadays. It is safe to state that information technology

plays a significant role in educational innovation (Leburn, 2007,p.76). Most often,

we observe this in English classes when most students constantly use translation

software to translate words, phrases, paragraphs, or entire documents

One example of software translation is Google Translate (GT). GT is a

Google-developed machine translation tool that translates text and documents

from one language into another. Students can translate all English words using

GT's convenience features, including word and sentence translations, making it

simple to keep up with the learning process. Translation classes regularly use it.

But its translation program does not provide us with an accurate result about

idioms, grammar, etc. Santoso (2010) asserts that idioms and metaphorical

language cannot be translated by software. Moreover, he points out that the

length of the passage affects translation quality, the shorter the passage, the

better the results. Consequently, Jin&Detail (2013) emphasized that instrument

lacks a grammatical feature, GT is utilized as supplemental tool. Despite all its

flaws, translation software is still a use favorite among students since it is cost-free

and easy to use.

3
 Yet, overusing translation software can also be detrimental to students,

particularly in terms of their translation abilities. Students now routinely utilize

translation software to aid in their study both in and outside of the classroom. For

instance, pupils used Google Translate to translate a statement from the class

rather than attempting to do so themselves. Because they do not study hảrd in

class, university students have relatively poor English competence. Their

confidence while translating or elaborating on the meaning of a specific English

sentence for homework is likewise impacted by this behavior. They are not able to

do without checking their translation software first. Even though translation

software has benefited students, the truth is quite the opposite. Nonetheless,

most college students have very poor translation abilities. Insufficient motivation

to learn and low English proficiency might have severe results.

There has been a lot of research done on the effects of using translation

software; however, the findings has been done much at HUFLIT. Furthermore, I

find it crucial to show the negative effects and come up with ways to limit the

usage of translation software by students majoring in English. The writer will be

able to find answers for the following questions: “What are the negative effects of

translation softwares on English major students’ translating ability at HUFLIT and

solutions?”

4
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Definition of terms
The term "translation software" refers to any program that helps human

translators when they are converting texts between two languages.

There are desktop and cloud versions of translation software. Throughout

time, more and more people are using cloud-based translation tools. Because they

are simpler to view using a web browser whenever and from any device as long as

an internet connection is present.

2.2. Review on related studies

A body of research has been conducted on the subject of using translation

softwares by English learners. The majority of research concentrate on the

advantages of utilizing translation softwares when learning English.There aren't

many studies that focus on the negatives of translation technologies for English

language learners, particularly in terms of translation abilities.

A study was conducted by Zong (2018) indicates that the standard of

translated outputs from MT systems is the primary metric for evaluation. Zong

(2018) further spell out that the quality of machine translation (MT) outputs is now

being steadily improved by the deep learning capabilities that have been

established through artificial intelligence. Nonetheless, no one would dare to

assert that MT's output is flawless, despite these continuous advancements in MT

5
in the era of artificial intelligence, as demonstrated by MT's neural approach. As a

result, it is said that there are still a number of translation issues that have not yet

been entirely handled, including the incorrect word choice, incorrect word spelling,

and the translation of words and phrases out of context. Ali (2016) states that the

MT outputs must thus always be revised by human proofreaders in order to fix

faults and raise their quality. Researchers contend that the "quality" of translation

outputs has always been regarded as the fundamental key to determining the

efficacy of machine translation, despite the many evaluation criteria.

Lots of machine translations are freely accessible on the web. However, the

most used and popular one is Google Translate (Aiken and Balan, 2011; Korošec,

2011). According to Clifford et al. (2013), reported in Case (2015), GT provides no

advantages for the learning process because it just creates student dependence, is

inaccurate, and causes students to overlook alternative terms that are often

present in printed dictionaries. Baker (2013) highlighted Pena's survey from 2011

as also indicated that GT has disadvantages for language learning. The findings

motivate the students to correct GT's translations because they are not always

accurate. Moreover, Medvedev (2016) discovered that when it comes to lengthy

documents, GT frequently loses the grammar and correctness. Sukkhwan (2014)

mentioned that sometime GT shouldn't be used to learn languages because it

results in inaccurate translations.

6
 In my opinion, the research by Clifford et al. (2013), Baker (2013), and

Sukkhwan (2014) all seem to agree that adopting GT for language acquisition is not

beneficial for students. It is crucial that the individual utilizing GT is the proper fit

for their requirements because it is neither harmful nor useful. Users should utilize

GT appropriately, such as simply searching vocabulary or pronunciation, to get

better results because, according to study by Medvedev (2016), it will produce

incorrect results for text. Students should avoid using GT to convert their writing

into articles in particular because Baker's (2013) research found that GT is not

useful for writing.

Other noticeable studies were done by Jolley and Maimone (n.d.) pointed

out that depending on how it's utilized, using GT could be morally acceptable. In

addition, Baker (2013) identified three aspects of student concern, including "fear

about ownership, worry about the quality of online translators, and (....) its usage"

(p. 56). Moreover, her student participants agreed that using GT throughout an

essay would be undesirable since the outcome would be untidy and may result in

plagiarism.

2.3. Gap for the present study

As mentioned in the introduction, there is very little study on the impact of

employing translation software on Vietnamese students who are majoring in

English. he majority of students currently rely much too heavily on translation

7
software. This study will demonstrate the negative consequences of utilizing

translation software as well as possible remedies to encourage students to study

creatively and have faith in their abilities to translate. Some earlier studies have

demonstrated potential alternatives to the use of translation software, but I

considered the study data to be unclear even though they served as the

foundation for my research report.

In conclusion, I'm hoping that by conducting this research in Vietnam, particularly

at HUFLIT, I might uncover the answers to the following question:

What are the negative effects of translation softwares on E major students’

translating ability at HUFLIT and solutions?

8
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Methodological Approach
This research applies descriptive qualitative research. Hennink et al. (2020)

assert that qualitative research is frequently employed to give a deep

understanding of the study topics. In other words, researchers want to describe a

certain phenomenon or trait in descriptive research rather than discover or explain

the relationship between variables as in quantitative research. Therefore, the

study wanted to describe the effects of using translation softwares.

3.2. Participants Description

This research paper is situated in the context of Vietnam, namely Ho Chi

Minh University of Foreign Languages - Information Technology (HUFLIT). All

participants are students majoring in English Language. These students have

various majors even though they are all in the same department. The varied

background of the participants is expected to create objectivity and reliability the

routcomes of an attitude test on a topic.

3.3. Data collection

The questionnaire and interview were used as the research instrument. The

researcher created the questionnaire by adopting concepts from the tools used in

earlier study Paramaswari J., Maryam H. & Ilangko S. 2014; Susanto, Riana Devi.

2017) and modified in accordance with this study's aims. The questionnaire was

9
carefully created to assure the standard and quality of the questions. Every

questionnaire contains 5 questions about the frequent use of GT and 10 questions

asking about the agreement or disagreement of using translation software

The data were acquired through many stages:(1) creating the

questionnaire's questions; (2) distributing it to participants (students);(3) asking

participants to complete the questionnaire;(4) gathering the completed

questionnaire

After the data collection procedures had been completed, the data were

analyzed in order to answer the research question. The researcher had several

data analysis techniques such as such as: (1). reading and evaluating each

response, (2). sorting the data, (3). arranging and evaluating the data to create the

research themes, and (4). elaborating the analysis of the data to get the findings.

10
 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS
4.1 Findings
This section covers the findings and discussion of this study, with reference

to the study's goal of describing the negative effects of students on the usage of

translation software. The results were based on how the students responded to

the questions. The questionnaire has choices ranging from 1 to 5 that were

modified from the Likert scale.

The data used in this study were collected from undergraduate English

language majors. Students were asked to tick (√ ) the responses that most closely

matched their personal opinions. Table 1 below shows the percentage of the

frequent use of TS.

Very
Have
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Frequent
Often Used The
Use
Feature

N R S O VO R+S+O
O + VO
+VO
1. check the
meaning of
unknown
words 0% 10% 30% 30% 10% 80% 40%

2. check 10% 10% 30% 20% 0% 70% 20%

synonyms

11
3. translate a
sentence 30% 20%
20% 10% 0% 70% 10%

4. translate a
paragraph
20% 40% 10% 10% 0% 60% 10%

5. translate a
whole
essay/article 40% 30% 10% 10% 0% 50% 10%

The number of people using TS to translate sentences is 60%. Nevertheless,

considering that most participants only sometimes utilized all of the functions

except for sentence translation (20%), the rates of usage were quite low.

In translate paragraph and whole essay/article, it is shown by the

percentage: 60% of the participants had an experience in using TS to translate a

paragraph, and 50% a whole essay/article. Because the majority of participants

lacked prior expertise, there was a low propensity (20%) in interpreting

paragraphs. There was no noticeable difference in the percentage of those who

never used TS to translate a paragraph (20%) compared to those who just

occasionally (40%).

Table 2 will show the percentage of respondents that agree or disagree with

the usage of TS

12
 Strongly
Strongly
disagre Disagree neutral agree agree

Translation softwares is very useful

to me in my language class.
0% 0% 0% 30% 70%

I often translate my class activities

0% 10% 20% 60% 10%
using TS in order to understand
them.

I always use TS to find the

0% 0% 20% 50% 30%
meanings of words.

I find words in English have many

0% 0% 20% 50$ 30%
meanings.

When I have difficulty in

0% 0% 10% 70$ 20%
understanding the meaning of a
word, I use TS.

TS is often grammatically incorrect 60% 30% 10% 0% 0%

When I translate a word, I usually look at the 0% 0% 30% 50% 20%

first meaning given

TS make you damage brain, so lazy thinking to 10% 10% 20% 50$ 10%
translate.

TS can lead to dependency, so lazy to

0% 0% 10% 20% 70%
improve the ability of student translation.

TS has no disadvantages, it's just that the use 10% 50% 20% 20% 0%
13
must be careful and for students to study
diligently, use GT when necessary, so that
users can both learn and think to develop
their ability to translate English,
 Based on the above table, the majority of respondents showed significant

dependence on Translation Software (TS) when completing assignments provided

in the classroom. 80% agree and 20% strongly agree of respondents use TS to

translate words for their classroom activities to understand meaning. Since there

are so many different English semantics, they quite frequently use TS to search for

meanings. All of the respondents concurred that it has become quite difficult for

them to select the meanings of the English words that are most appropriate for

the current situations. As a result, this has led them to depend highly on TS with

80%.

It is show by the percentage: 90% of respondents (70% strongly agree, 10%

neutral, and 20% agree) with the statement in questions (8) and (9) that utilizing

TS will make students lazy and dependent on it. In contrast, 20% agree (10%

strongly disagree, 50% disagree, 20% neutral) with question number (10) that TS

has no disadvantage it should only be used carefully and when necessary. As seen

the data above, Q9, Q10 are the models that have a negative effect when using TS.

Question 10 is just about perception while using TS; while the proportion of

agreement is large (20%) it is not statistically significant compared to questions Q8

and Q9 (90%). The majority of participants also recognized TS's grammatical faults,

with 90% indicating they have done the survey.

The table below is some students’ answers about the best way to use the

translation software for students

14
 Answer
Students
Question: In your opinion, how should use Translation Softwares be use?

So so, when I use GT I still have to pay attention and correct the
S1 sentence because not everything translated by GT is accurate.

Don't use too much

S2

I think using TS we should check the result of a sentence or paragraph we

translate
S3

I feel like I'm relying too much on TS, so we should limit the use of TS
S4

We use TS to look up dictionary or synonyms or speeching, don't

S5
translate sentences or paragraphs.

We should be re- check the results match the original meaning of

S6
the translated text.

I often check TS's translation results, most of them are grammar

S7
incorrect.

In my opinion, we should use GT when necessary, do not rely too

S8
much on it

S9 Don’t use Google Translate

S10 Check the result!!!!!!!!

Based on the question given, the participants gave the best way to use the

translation software for students: should re-check the translation results of TS (S1), (S3),

15
(S6), (S7), (S10); limit the usage of TS (S2), (S4), (S8), (S9); avoiding translating lengthy

texts and sentences(S5). These are the important ways to keep in mind when using TS.

4.2 Discussion

The results of the study on the application of GT reveal that participants regularly

utilize it to translate texts at the discourse level. The findings confirm Kharbach's (2016)

study that students can also use GT to determine the definition of a word. The phrase

translations reveal a low percentage. Moreover, Medvedev (2016) also found that the

results of GT are not accurate when it comes to long text.

As stated in Baker (2013), it was also highlighted that since GT's translation is not

always accurate, pupils need to rectify it. Since GT did not provide good models and not

always correct, they thought that using it would bring negative effects to their language

learning processes. They think that GT still had lots of grammar mistakes, so they might

follow the wrong ones. They believed that if they frequently used GT, they would become

lazy to think and recall even the simplest of facts. They believed that if they overused GT,

they would constantly want its help and would not be able to learn a language

independently, in this case English. This finding supported a research by Clifford et al.

(2013), as cited in Case (2015) which stated that GT has no advantage for learning process

because it will only bring the students’ dependency.

16
CHAPTER V: EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1. Limitations
There were 2 major limitations that could impact the results obtained.

First, due to confidentiality, the researcher was unable to verify whether

the students' responses were accurate.

The second drawback was that only English majors, a small subset of all

university students, were included in this study's subjects. As a result, the

outcomes might not accurately represent the views and involvement of all other

students.

17
 5.2. Recommendations
Future studies should widen the research topic and include more people to

boost the validity and reliability of the research findings. Additionally, in order to

obtain the most accurate results, the research's reach must be expanded beyond

several universities.

It is hoped that employing TS for English translation will be better utilized in

the future given that we are aware of the implications on students' use of

translation software in this study.

CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION

Based on research data and information, the study's findings indicate that

the impacts of translation software include making pupils sluggish and dependent

on TS. (3) Incorrect gramma. However, the research also offered advice for

students on how to utilize translation software effectively.: should re-check the

translation results of; limit the usage of TS ((S4), avoiding translating lengthy texts

and sentences.

18
REFERENCES

Baker, C. L. (2013). Student and instructor perceptions of the use of online

translation in English composition. Mississippi State University. Retrieved

December 12, 2016, from
http://search.proquest.com/openview/a03af45ceb26ab3caad4574e9470a
fbc/1?pq- origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y.

Fitria, H. 2021. Tackling The Negative Impacts of Students’ Addiction to Google

Translate. Vol.9 No.4 Edisi

19
Ignasia, Y. 2018. The Use of Google Translate in EFL Essay Wrting. LLT Journal, e-

ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 21, No. 2

Iman, S. 2020. The Impact of Translation Software on Improving the Performance

of Translation Majors A Case Study of the Saudi Universities. International Journal

of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Vol. 11, No. 4, 2020

Lestiana , T. , and Eka, S, H. 2017. The Effectiveness of Using Google Translation

Students’s Translation at Mathematic Faculty of Universitas Negeri Panang.

Universitas Negeri Padang

Medvedev, G. (2016). Google Translate in teaching English. The Journal of

Teaching

English for Specific and Academic purposes, 4 (1), 181-193.

Mersi, A, and Agus, S. 2020. Students’ Perception of the Use of Google Translate.

Universitas Pendidikan Muhammadiyah Sorong

Sukkhwan, A. (2014). Students‟ attitudes and behaviors towards the use of Google

Translate (Master‟s thesis, Arts Degree in Teaching English as an

International Language of Prince of Songkla University). Retrieved
November 29, 2016, from
http://kb.psu.ac.th/psukb/bitstream/2010/9459/1/387714.pdf.

Tira, N,S. 2021.A Review of Machine Translation Tools: The Translation’s Ability.

Language Circle Journal of Language and Literature 16(1):162-176

20
APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAIRE

I. Background information
Student’s name: ……………………………… Male  or Female 
1. How long have you been learning English?  For ………………… years.
2. Do you use translation software(like Google translate, TFLat…)


II. Learning

4. What do you use it for? Tick  in the box that suits yours.
21
 Strongly
Strongly
disagre Disagree neutral agree agree

Translation softwares is veryNever Rarely Sometimes Often Very Often

useful to me in my language
class.
1. check the meaning of
unknown words

I often translate my class

activities using TS in order to
2. check synonyms
understand them.

I always use TS to find the

3. translate a sentence
meanings of words

I find
4. wordsainparagraph
translate English have
many meanings.

When I have difficulty in

5. translate a whole
understanding the meaning of a
essay/article
word, I use TS.

TS does not give me the exact

meaning that I want.

When I translate a word, I usually look at

the

first meaning given

TS make you damage brain, so lazy

thinking to translate.

TS can lead to dependency, so lazy to

improve the ability of student

translation.

22

GT has no disadvantages, it's just that the

use must be careful and for students to
study diligently, use GT when necessary,
 What do you consider to be the proper use of TS?

Your own ideas: ………………………………………………………………………

23
1
1
1
 6

1
1
APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAIRE

II. Background information

Student’s name: ……………………………… Male  or Female 
1. How long have you been learning English?  For ………………… years.
2. Do you use translation software(like Google translate, TFLat…)


II. Learning

4. What do you use it for? Tick  in the box that suits yours.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very Often

1. check the meaning of

unknown words

2. check synonyms

3. translate a sentence

4. translate a paragraph

5. translate a whole
essay/article

1
 Strongly
Strongly
disagre Disagree neutral agree agree

Translation softwares is very

useful to me in my language
class.

I often translate my class

activities using TS in order to
understand them.

I always use TS to find the

meanings of words

I find words in English have

many meanings.

When I have difficulty in

understanding the meaning of a
word, I use TS.

TS does not give me the exact

meaning that I want.

When I translate a word, I usually look at

the

first meaning given

TS make you damage brain, so lazy

thinking to translate.

TS can lead to dependency, so lazy to

improve the ability of student

translation.

GT has no disadvantages, it's just that the

use must be careful and for students to
study diligently, use GT when necessary,
 What do you consider to be the proper use of TS?

Your own ideas: ………………………………………………………………………

3
1