VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

ERRORS IN VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH
COLLOCATION TRANSLATION MADE BY
STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES
AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (ULIS)

Supervisor: Nguyen Viet Ky, M.A.

Student: Vu Thi Kim Lien

Year of enrolment : QH 2009

Hanoi, May 2013

 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CÁC LỖI DỊCH CỤM KẾT HỢP TỪ VIỆT-ANH CỦA

SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ-ĐẠI
HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Ths. Nguyễn Việt Kỳ

Sinh viên: Vũ Thị Kim Liên

Khoá: QH.2009

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2013

 ACCEPTANCE
I hereby state that I: Vu Thi Kim Lien, class QH2009.F1.E25, being a candidate
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the
University 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

Hanoi, April 24th, 2013

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and for most, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr.
Nguyen Viet Ky, M.A. for his valuable suggestions, critical comments and great
support.

Also, I am profoundly grateful to Ms. Nguyen Thi Cam Linh, Ms. Ngo Ha Thu, and
Ms. Nguyen Thi Dieu Thuy for their substantial assistance. In addition, I am much
obliged to all the students in Translation and Interpreting Division, ULIS, especially
the two interviewees for providing me with their translations and spending time
participating in the interviews.
Last but not least, I am eternally indebted to my parents and my friends who always
stand by me and offer me considerable encouragement so as for me to be able to
complete this research.

i
 ABSTRACT

Collocation is one of the most challenging problems to the majority of English

students. It is quite difficult for students to render a collocation from the SL into the
TL due to the non-equivalence between two languages. As a result, students with
limited linguistic competence often make mistakes when rendering collocations. It is
necessary for them to be aware of these mistakes and know ways to tackle them. This
study investigates errors in the translation of Vietnamese collocations into English
collocations made by students majoring in English translation and interpreting at the
University of Languages and International Studies. The study also comes up with
translation procedures which are deployed to produce good translation of collocations.
Data analysis and interview are used to collect and analyze common collocation
translation errors made by students and the procedures they use to create appropriate
word combinations. The results of the research show that the participants frequently
make such errors as ignorance of rule restrictions, using improper synonyms and
literally rendering the collocations. Findings from data analysis and interview reveal
that paraphrase, using lexical synonymy and shift or transposition are recommended as
effective translation procedures for rendering collocations. The conclusion can also be
drawn that students should comprehensively read and listen to both authentic
Vietnamese and English resources so that they will have adequate linguistic
competence and be able to avoid making collocation translation mistakes.

ii
 Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................. i

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ........................................................................... viii

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

1. Statement of the research proposal and practical rationale for the study. ............ 1

2. Aims and objectives of the study.......................................................................... 2

3. Significance of the study. ..................................................................................... 3

4. Scope of the study. ............................................................................................... 4

5. Organization of the study ..................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................ 6

1. Definitions of translation. ..................................................................................... 6

2. Definition, collocation types and characteristics of collocations. ........................ 7

2.1. Definitions of collocations. ............................................................................ 7

2.2. English collocation types. .............................................................................. 8

2.3. Vietnamese collocation types. ..................................................................... 10

2.4. Characteristics of collocations ..................................................................... 11

3. Collocation errors ............................................................................................... 12

iii
 3.1. Definitions of collocation errors. ................................................................. 12

3.2. Types of errors ............................................................................................. 13

3.3. Sources of collocation errors ....................................................................... 15

4. Procedures deployed in collocation translation .................................................. 17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................ 19

1. Selection of subjects ........................................................................................... 19

1.1. Setting .......................................................................................................... 19

1.2. Participants .................................................................................................. 19

1.3. Materials ...................................................................................................... 20

2. Data collection instruments ................................................................................ 20

2.1. Semi-structured individual interview .......................................................... 20

2.2. Content and statistic analysis ....................................................................... 21

3. Procedures of data collection.............................................................................. 21

4. Procedures of data analysis ................................................................................ 22

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................... 24

1. English corresponding collocation patterns for each type of Vietnamese

collocations translated. .............................................................................................. 24

2. Common collocation translation errors made by the ULIS students. ................ 25

2.1. Ignorance of rule restrictions ....................................................................... 26

2.2. Improper synonyms. .................................................................................... 27

2.3. Literal translation ......................................................................................... 29

2.4. Overgeneralization/ false analogy. .............................................................. 30

iv
 2.5. Addition ....................................................................................................... 31

2.6. Spelling ........................................................................................................ 33

2.7. Word coinage. .............................................................................................. 34

2.8. Summary of the findings. ............................................................................ 35

3. Good translated English collocations and the translation procedures deployed. 35

3.1. Paraphrase .................................................................................................... 35

3.2. Shift or transposition.................................................................................... 37

3.3. Reduction or expansion ............................................................................... 38

3.4. Lexical synonymy. ....................................................................................... 39

3.5. Modulation. .................................................................................................. 40

3.6. Summary of the findings. ............................................................................ 41

4. Further discussion of collocation translation errors made by students. ............. 41

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 43

1. Summary of the findings. ................................................................................... 43

2. Limitations of the study. ..................................................................................... 44

3. Suggestions for English collocation learning and teaching as well as directions

for further research. ................................................................................................... 44

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 46

APPENDIX 1................................................................................................................ 49

APPENDIX 2................................................................................................................ 65

APPENDIX 3................................................................................................................ 71

v
APPENDIX 4................................................................................................................ 73

vi
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

adj Adjective

adv Adverd

BĐKH Biến đổi khí hậu

n noun

prep preposition

SL Source language

TL Target language

ULIS University of Languages and International Studies

v Verb

vii
 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table Page

Table 2.1. English grammatical collocation patterns 8

Table 2.2. English lexical collocation patterns 9

Table 2.3. Vietnamese collocation patterns 10

Table 2.4: Liu‟s classification of collocation errors. 14

Table 4.1: Vietnamese collocation patterns and their corresponding 24

English collocation pattern
Figure 4.1: Collocation translation errors 26

Table 4.2: Ignorance of rule restrictions 27

Table 4.3: Improper synonyms 28

Table 4.4: Literal translation 29

Table 4.5: Overgeneralization/ false analogy 30

Table 4.6: Addition 32

Table 4.7: Spelling 33

Table 4.8: Word coinage 34

Table 4.9: Collocations translated by paraphrase 36

Table 4.10: Collocations translated by shift or transposition 37

viii
Table 4.11: Collocations translated by reduction or expansion 38

Table 4.12: Collocations translated by lexical synonymy 39

Table 4.13: Collocations translated by modulation 40

ix
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter will provide the rationale, the aims and objectives, the significance
and the scope of the study. In addition, research questions and organization of the
study are also presented in this introductory part.

1. Statement of the research proposal and practical rationale for the study

The twenty first century marks the tremendous progress of global integration,
leading to the growing demand for exchanging information among different countries.
As a result, translation has become more important than ever before because it helps
remove language barrier. In recent years, translation has become ever more popular in
Vietnam, attracting many people to the profession. However, a lot of students
majoring in interpreting and translating confess that they face a lot of difficulties in
translation. The translation of English collocations is one of the greatest challenges for
translators and students since there is no fixed rule for it. In addition, there may be
some collocations whose equivalents in the target language cannot be found. Speaking
about the significance of collocations, Zhang (cited in Parastuti, A., n.d., p.1) suggests
that collocation is the measure of students‟ writing quality. Lauder (2010, p.3) adds
that collocation is something that translators need to be aware of. As collocations pose
a lot of challenges to find the TL equivalents, students may mistranslate collocations
due to various factors, typically their limited knowledge and the influence of their
native language. However, in order to become competent translators and interpreters in
the future, it is necessary that they be well aware of their errors and know how to
correct them. Lewis (2000, p.36) claims that only helping students pay more attention
to their collocation mistakes can raise their awareness of collocations. In this way,
students will gradually realize that learning vocabulary is not just learning new words,
but focusing more on word combinations. Examining the reality, the researcher finds
out that there still exist some problems relating to the collocation capacity of ULIS

1
students. Many of them make inappropriate collocations in their writings and
translations, for example, drink medicine instead of take medicines. In addition, there
still lacks a careful and in-depth analysis on ULIS students‟ collocation errors. Finding
that it is really essential that a thorough and detailed study on students‟ collocation
errors and strategies for translating collocations be made, the researcher decided to
carry out a study on “Errors in Vietnamese - English Collocation Translation
Made by Students at the University of Languages and International Studies
(ULIS)”. This study aims at investigating mistakes in Vietnamese-English collocation
translation made by students at the University of Languages and International Studies
with a view to raising their awareness of collocation translation. The study also
suggests strategies for collocation translation and examines good collocations made by
students and point out the strategies adopted.

2. Aims and objectives of the study

The study is designed to examine:

 English corresponding collocation patterns for each type of Vietnamese

collocations translated.

 Errors in collocation translation committed by students at the University of

Languages and International Studies.

 Good collocations made by students and translation procedures used.

2
With a view to attaining these goals, the current research tries to answer the following
questions:

1. What are the English corresponding patterns for each type of Vietnamese
collocations translated into English collocations made by ULIS students?
2. What are the errors in Vietnamese-English collocation translation made by ULIS
students?
3. What are the procedures that ULIS students use in the translation of Vietnamese
collocations into good English collocations?

3. Significance of the study

This study is hoped to benefit students as well as teachers in teaching and studying
English collocations. Besides, it is expected that the result of this research will also be
of great use to translators, language material designers, dictionary designers and other
researchers.

 Students: this study helps students realize their common collocation errors and
therefore can avoid such mistakes. In addition, the result of this research
provides them with appropriate strategies in dealing with various kinds of
collocations. Thanks to the outcome of the study, students will be well-
equipped with knowledge about collocations and skills in tackling collocations
in their work later.

 Teachers: this study helps teachers identify students‟ errors and problems in
dealing with collocations so that teachers can raise students‟ awareness of using
collocations. Furthermore, teachers can promote students‟ autonomous practice
of collocations and aid their development in various ways.

 Translators: this study is hoped to benefit translators as well because not only
students but also translators may still commit collocation errors. Therefore, it is

3
 important that translators recognize common errors and know ways to deal with
them.

 Language material designers: this study shows great need for designing
proper language materials and activities that focus more on collocations and
ways to tackle the errors.

 Dictionary designers: this study emphasizes the great demand for designing
bilingual collocation dictionaries (English-Vietnamese and Vietnamese-
English) in order to provide students with a reliable source of collocations.

 Researchers: collocation errors and strategies to tackle them is a fruitful

linguistic research area for many other researchers, especially there have been
few systematic and in-depth analysis in this matter. Therefore, other researchers
can develop this study to find out many significant results.

4. Scope of the study

The researcher will examine the translations made by second year, third year and
fourth year students majoring in English translation and interpreting at the ULIS in
their exams and their regular class activities. About 200 collocation errors and 100
good collocations will be investigated in order to find out the results.

5. Organization of the study

The rest of the paper consists of five chapters as follows:

 Chapter 2 (Literature Review) presents the theoretical background of the study,

including the definition of translation in general and an overview of English
collocations, their characteristics and collocation types. In addition, this part
will also deal with collocation errors and translation procedures which are of
great use in translating collocations.

4
 Chapter 3 (Methodology) describes the participants and the procedures
deployed in the study.

 Chapter 4 (Results and Discussion) provides detailed answers to all research

questions raised in the study as well as a comparison between factual findings
and assumptions discussed in the Literature Review.

 Chapter 5 (Conclusion) summarizes all problems discussed in the paper, the

limitations of the research, some pedagogic recommendations for teachers and
students and several suggestions for further researches in this field.

 Chapter 5 is followed by references and appendices.

5
 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This part will take a careful look on the literature review of the study, especially
the background of collocation errors and strategies used in translating English and
Vietnamese collocations. Firstly, a review of the nature of translation will be included.
The second part will deal with collocation definition, collocations types and
characteristics of collocations. Next, findings about translation errors, specifically
types of collocation errors and their sources will be presented. Finally, the researcher
will concentrate on several procedures deployed in the translation of collocations.

1. Definitions of translation
For ages, translation has been broadly defined. A number of linguists have come up
with the conclusion that it is a process of reproducing the message from a source
language to a target language with grammatical and lexical adaption while some other
linguists have considered translation as a process of conveying the message without
style adaption. Many specialized linguistics have conducted in-depth analyses of
translation process so as to meet the definition of translation.

Dubois et al. (1973, p.22) concludes that “translation is the expression in another
language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language
while still preserving the semantic and stylistic equivalence.” Nida and Taber (1974,
p.12-13) agree when they write “translating consists of reproducing in the receptor
language the closest natural equivalent to the message of the source language, first in
meaning and secondly in style.” They emphasize that the translating must prioritize the
message and focus on closest equivalence.

In their writing, Hartman and Stork (1972, p.713) insist that the aim of translating is to
preserve as accurately as possible all grammatical and lexical features of the „source
language” text by finding equivalents in the “target language.” Furthermore, all factual
information contained in the original text must be retained in the translation.

6
Larson (1984, p.3) complicates the matter further when he writes “Translation consists
of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural
context of the source language, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, then
reconstructing the same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which
are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context.” What Larson really
means by this is that translators need to preserve as many features of the source texts
as possible and render them into the target language, making readers see all the
messages that the authors of the source texts want to express.

2. Definition, collocation types and characteristics of collocations

2.1. Definitions of collocations

Newmark (1988, p.212) concludes that collocation is typically clarified as the
habitual co-occurrence of individual lexical items. According to Benson, Benson and
Ilson (1986, p.130), collocation is defined as specified, identifiable, non-idiomatic and
recurrent combinations. Baker (1992, p.47) defines collocations as semantically
arbitrary restrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of a
word. Basically, Baker is saying that meaning cannot always account for collocation
patterning. She also adds that words, which we might think of as synonyms or near-
synonyms, will have quite different sets of collocates. For instance, it is commonly
said break rules or break the laws in English; however, we do not say break
regulations.
Larson (1984, p.159) says that collocations are words joined together in phrases or
sentences to form semantically unified expressions. These words are often fixed
combinations, which means that they always occur in certain orders. For example, in
English, there are many fixed expressions such as to and fro, now and then, pros and
cons. We cannot reverse the order of words in these expressions into fro and to, cons
and pros or then and now as they have been widely accepted in such order for a very
long time.

7
 2.2. English collocation types
As collocations are used in many fields such as linguistics, science, economics,
etc., there are different ways of categorizing collocations. Cowie and Markin (1975)
argue that collocations and idioms fall into four types based on idiomaticity from most
to least fixed: pure idioms, figurative idioms, restricted collocations and open
collocations.
Meanwhile, in his study, Hill (cited in cited in Boonyasaquan, 2009, p.100), basing
on the connectivity of words in a phrase, suggests four kinds of collocations as
follows:
 Unique collocations. e.g: foot the bill
 Strong collocations. e.g. moved to tears
 Weak collocations. e.g. good weekend
 Medium-strength collocations. e.g. do the laundry
To conclude with the comprehensive and clear classification, Benson, Benson and
Ilson (1986, p.132-136) classify collocations into two types, namely lexical
collocations and grammatical collocations. They determine grammatical collocation as
a phrase consisting of a dominant word (noun, adjective, and verb) and a preposition
or grammatical structure such as an infinitive or clause. There are typically 8 kinds of
grammatical collocations:
Table 2.1. English grammatical collocation patterns
No. Grammatical Example
collocation pattern
1 noun + preposition blockade against, apathy towards
2 noun + to-infinitive He was a fool to do it; they felt a need to do it.
3 noun + that-clause We reached an agreement that she would represent
us in court. He took an oath that he would do his
duty.

8
4 preposition + noun by accident, in agony

5 adjective + preposition fond of children, hungry for news

6 adjective + to- it was necessary to work, it’s nice to be here

7 adjective + that-clause she was afraid that she would fail, it was imperative
that I be here
8 19 different verb verb + to-infinitive (they began to speak), verb +
patterns in English bare infinitive (we must work) and other

Meanwhile, lexical collocation is defined in contrast to grammatical collocation

as normally not containing prepositions, infinitives or clauses and typically consisting
of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Benson, Benson and Ilson (1986, p.133-136)
point out 7 typical types of lexical collocations as follows:
Table 2.2. English lexical collocation patterns
No. Lexical collocation Example
pattern
1 verb (which means come to an agreement, launch a missle
creation/action) +
noun/pronoun/prepositional
phrase
2 verb (which means reject an appeal, crush resista
eradication/cancellation)
+noun
3 [adjective + noun] or [noun strong tea, a crushing defeat, house arrest, land
used in an attributive way reform
+ noun]

9
4 noun + verb naming the bombs explode, bees sting
activity which is performed
by a designate of this noun
5 quantifier + noun a swarm of bees, a piece of advice
6 adverb + adjective hopelessly addicted, sound asleep
7 verb + adverb argue heatedly, apologize humbly

This study will pay special attention to lexical collocation as this type often poses a
lot of challenges to students and translators. Therefore, the errors they make with this
collocation kind are often various and fruitful for researching.

2.3. Vietnamese collocation types

In his PhD thesis, Trinh, F.N. (2001, p.129) classifies Vietnamese collocations into
seven regular patterns which are shown in the table below.

Table 2.3. Vietnamese collocation patterns

No. Collocation type Example

1 Noun-adjective Bệnh hiểm nghèo

2 Verb-noun Rợn người

3 Noun-noun Tình người

4 Verb-adjective Sống lầm lũi

5 Noun-verb Người ta đồn

6 Adjective-noun Dồi dào sức sống

7 Verb-verb Khóc thét

10
 2.4. Characteristics of collocations
In her book, Baker (1992, p.47-53) demonstrates some typical characteristics of
English collocation as follows:
Every word often belongs to a range of items with which it is compatible. Range
here refers to a set of collocates which are frequently associated with each other. Some
words may have a much broader collocational range than others. For example, the verb
shrug has a very limited collocational range as it can only collocate with shoulder.
Run, in contrast, can be associated with a large variety of nouns such as company,
business, stockings, debt, bill, river, water and so on.
It is also argued that “collocations are made in terms of what is typical or untypical
rather than what is admissible or inadmissible.” (Baker, 1992, p.50) This is because
collocational ranges are not fixed and therefore, there emerge new collocations all the
time. We cannot say that a new collocation is unacceptable as we may not be unable to
realize newly formed collocations.
Besides unmarked collocations which are common combinations of words such as
heavy drinker or heavy smoker, there are also marked collocations. These are unusual
combinations of words which “challenge our expectations as hearers or
readers.”(Baker, 1992, p.51). Those collocations are often used in fiction, poetry,
humor and advertisements. In her book, Baker (1992, p.51) exemplifies with a
sentence “Could real peace break out after all?” Normally, we often use war breaks
out, and peace prevails but here peace breaks out is used to create certain special
effect.
Baker (1992, p.52) says that collocations are not always typical or untypical in
relation to the language system as a whole. Some collocations may be untypical in
everyday language but are common in specific fields. For instance, biased errors and
tolerable error are acceptable in statistics but may not be appropriate in everyday
language.

11
 The final feature pointed out by Baker (1992, p.53) is that the meaning of a
word is largely dependent on its collocational pattern. For example, when determining
the meaning of the word dry, we have to put it in its combinations such as dry sound,
dry voice, dry bread, dry country, etc.
Baker (1992, p.48) argues that “the patterns of collocation are largely arbitrary
and independent of meaning.” Specifically, a word can collocate with other words in
some of their forms but not in all forms. For example, we often say bend rules in
English, but cannot use rules are unbendable. Instead, we have to say rules are
inflexible.
However, Hill (cited in Ardhiani, n.d) disagrees with Baker‟s point of view that
collocations are largely arbitrary. In his opinion, lexical collocations are not arbitrary.
He presents some features of lexical collocations as follows:
a. The lexicon is not arbitrary. The lexicon is not randomly produced. In other words,
lexicon must obey the language rules.
b. The pattern of collocations is predictable. To a certain extent, vocabulary choice is
predictable. For example, when a writer is thinking about friend, he may have a large
number of word combinations for friend, such as best, loyal, old, personal, school, etc.
Yet the pattern of verb-noun lexical collocation is often unpredictable.
c. The size of the phrasal mental lexicon is large. We need to limit the predictability by
definition of collocation. Those collocations must constitute the major proportion of
the whole naturally-occurring text, both spoken and written texts.
3. Collocation errors

3.1. Definitions of collocation errors

As the researcher‟s concern is collocation errors, it is essential not to overlook the
term errors in general. Errors are systematic mistakes which occur repeatedly and
often not recognized by learners. Corder (cited in Mashharawi, 2008, p.47) observes
that learners' errors indicate both of the state of the learners' knowledge and the ways
in which a second language is learned. Larson (1984, p.146) concludes that collocation

12
errors may be either grammatical or lexical, in which words put together do not
naturally match with each other. In Larson‟s words, these errors are called
collocational clashes. These errors are often made by people using languages which
are not their mother tongues.

3.2. Types of errors

There are various ways of categorizing errors. However, the researcher will only
present some most typical types which are of great application to the study on
collocation errors. First, according to Corder (cited in Mashharawi, 2008, p.49), errors
fall into four main kinds, namely omission of some required elements; addition of
some unnecessary or incorrect elements; selection of an incorrect element; and
misordering of elements. The details are as follows:
 Omission: Certain linguistic forms may be omitted by learners because of the
form complexity in production. For example, there are a number of fixed
expressions or idioms in English characterized by omission of certain syntactic
elements. For example, Beg your pardon? Long time no see. Had a nice day?
 Addition: Learners not only omit elements which they regard as redundant but
they also add redundant elements. At the lexical level, learners may add an
unnecessary word. For example, I stayed there during five years ago, instead of
I have stayed there for five years.
 Selection: Sometimes, learners make errors due to the wrong selection of
vocabulary item. For instance, learners sometimes select words which do not
entirely convey their intended meanings. Robin, for example, is sometimes
referred to as a general word for bird.
 Ordering: At the lexical level, learners may reverse elements of a compound
word. Car key may become key car, which may be regarded as a car carrying
keys or the most important car in a caravan.

13
 Having a different way of grouping collocation errors, Dahlmeier and Tou (n.d.,
p.109) conclude that those errors fall into four major kinds as follows:
 Spelling: This error is caused by similar spelling, e.g. critics for criticism.
 Homophones: This type is quite identical to spelling but it is caused by similar
pronunciations, e.g. insure for ensure.
 Synonyms: Some words may have the same meaning but they collocate with
different words, e.g. energy that we can apply for energy that we can use.
 L1 transfer: Errors are caused if the erroneous phrase and its correction share a
common translation in the target language.
In another research, Liu (cited in Li, 2005, p.21-22) categorizes collocation errors
into five main types, among which, negative transfer turns out to be the most frequent
error source. Those sources of errors are shown in the following table.
Table 2.4: Liu’s classification of collocation errors
Types of errors Example

Negative transfer Eat vitamins for take vitamins

Ignorance of rule restrictions Make Jane surprise for make Jane
surprised
Overgeneralization I am used to take for I am used to taking
Use of synonym Receive other people’s opinions for
accept other people’s opinions
Approximation Middle exam for midterm exam

In his study, Mashharawi (2008, p.50) investigates many different ways of

classifying errors and synthesizes into kinds which, as he states, all relate
approximately to the context of the study.

14
  Overgeneralization / Faulty Generalization / False Analogy / False
Concepts Hypothesized: expanding a certain form or expression to a different
contextual use in the target language.
 Literal Translation: manipulating the native language into the target language
production in case of lacking necessary knowledge relevant to the target
language.
 Words Coinage: creating new words or phrases which are usually non-existent
to convey the intended meaning.
 Avoidance: refraining from giving responses.
 Paraphrasing and Circumlocution: describing the characteristics of the target
object or action because of unfamiliarity with the appropriate item.
 Assumed Synonyms: using synonymous words that share with the term certain
semantic properties.
 Approximation: using words which are less specific than the intended meaning
to express the meaning as closely as possible.
 Imitation of Literary Style: selecting big sounding words that make their
target statements more impressive and literary-like.
 Graphic Ambiguity: certain forms have similar orthographical scripts.

3.3. Sources of collocation errors

There are various causes of students‟ collocation errors. Nevertheless, it is likely
that the most interesting and valid factors contributing to those errors are related to
students, to the source language and their application of the knowledge of the native
language to the foreign language, (Sirinna, n.d., p.83).
Huang (cited in Sirinna, n.d., p.83) presents two main factors that influence the
translation of collocations by students. The first point is their native language
interference in translation. In other words, students seem to think about collocations
which are acceptable in their native language and literarily translate them into English.
The other factor is learners‟ collocational competence. Meanwhile, Zughoul (cited in

15
Sirinna, n.d., p.83) has found that wrong collocations are caused by learners‟
inadequate experience in reading English, resulting in their inability to produce
appropriate collocations. Second, when translating, students rely too heavily on
bilingual dictionaries which only present a synonym without any explanation or
sample sentences.
In her research, Baker (1992, p.54-62) discovers five basic roots of collocation
errors, namely the effect of the collocation pattern of the source text, the
misinterpretation of the source-language collocations, the decision to choose between
accuracy and naturalness in translating collocations, culture bound factors and marked
collocations in the source text. The details are as follows:
 Effect of the collocation pattern of the source text: the writer is strongly rapt
by the source text and as a result, he may produce the collocation which is not
acceptable in the target language.
 Misinterpretation of the source-language collocations: a translator may
easily misinterpret a collocation in the source text due to impact from his/her
native language.
 The tension between accuracy and naturalness: sometimes translators
encounter a difficult choice between what is typical and what is accurate as they
may not be able to preserve both.
 Culture-specific collocations: Source texts may contain some collocations
which target readers cannot understand if these collocations are literally
rendered. Such culture-specific collocations express ideas which are unpopular
or previously unexpressed in the target language.
 Marked collocations in the source text: Similar to culture-specific
collocations, marked collocations also challenge translators as they are unusual
word combinations in the source-text. Therefore, translators will have to make
effort to make them equally marked in the target-text.

16
4. Procedures deployed in collocation translation
General procedures can be applied in the translation of collocations. Newmark
(1988, p. 81-93) points out the following procedures.
 Cultural equivalent: Using this strategy, the translator renders a SL cultural
word into a TL cultural word. These cultural equivalents are extremely specific,
belonging purely to the culture of that language, and the latter may not
represent the exact equivalent.
 Through–translation: This procedure entails the “literal translation of
common collocations, and names of organizations.” Normally, through-
translation should be used only when the terms are already widely recognized.
 Lexical synonymy: In the process of translation, the translators may sometimes
fall into the situation of “word stuck”, which means they fail to find the exact
TL equivalent for the SL item, thus they should opt for a near TL equivalent.
Newmark (1988, p.84) acknowledges that this strategy “is only appropriate
where literal translation is not possible and because the word is not important
enough for componential analysis.”
 Componential analysis: This strategy is “the splitting up of a lexical item into
its sense components, often one – to – two, - three or – four translations.” When
the lexical item is important in the text, for example it is a key word,
componential analysis is more preferred than synonymy.
 Translation label: This is a provisional translation which is often used for
institutional terms. Collocations in this procedure should be in “inverted
commas.”
 Paraphrase: This technique is an explanation of several parts of a source text.
It is used in poor written texts or when it has important applications and
omissions.
 Reduction and expansion: According to Newmark (1988, p.90), these two
types of translation are “imprecise translation strategies.” Baker (1992) suggests

17
 that a translator adopts the strategy of reduction when “a lexical item has no
close match in the target language, its meaning cannot be easily paraphrased.”
 Shift or Transposition: This is the strategy that relates to the replacing of one
grammatical form by another.
 Translation couplets: This strategy is commonly deployed for common for
cultural words, if transference is combined with a functional or a cultural
equivalent.

 Modulation: This technique refers to a variation through a change of

viewpoint, of perspective and very often of category of thought. It involves
“variation in point of view”. Modulation is of two types: standard modulation
and free modulation. Translators usually use the second type “when the TL
rejects literal translation” (Newmark, 1988, p.88).

 Transference (loan words, transcription, adoption): This is one of the most

important techniques which translators may resort to when they cannot find its
equivalence in the target text. Transference can be defined as the process of
transferring a SL word to a TL text as a translation procedure.

 Foot- notes and end-notes and glosses: This technique if often used when the
term in the SL is unpopular and often difficult to understand in the target text.
Deploying this procedure, translators create “additional information” to the
target text to make readers have better understanding about the term.

18
 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

1. Selection of subjects

1.1. Setting
The study is conducted at the University of Languages and International
Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The instructional settings are translation
training courses at three levels, namely intermediate, upper-intermediate and
advanced. The objective of these courses is to provide students with necessary
knowledge and translation skills so that they can perform their work well as
professional translators and interpreters in the future. During these courses, students
have chances to practice translating with texts organized in accordance with popular
topics such as economics, health, environment, culture, etc. Most of the articles for
translation practice are up-to-date and really fruitful with a lot of useful words, phrases
and structures. The practiced texts are also of various forms, such as interview scripts,
stories, poems, but the most popular one is newspaper articles.

The participants in this study are sophomores, juniors and seniors attending
intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced translation training courses
respectively. They are all in Translation and Interpreting Division at ULIS. In those
three courses, there are three fast-track classes and six main-stream classes. Students
are all taught by Vietnamese teachers at the Division. In these courses, students have
to complete their weekly assignments which are articles chosen by teachers for
translation practice.

1.2. Participants
The participants of the study are 100 students from Translation and
Interpretation Division at the University of Languages and International Studies. They
have studied English as a foreign language since they were at lower-secondary schools
and all of them passed the entrance exam with English marks fulfilling the university‟s

19
requirements. Especially, students at three fast-track classes had to pass a translation
test to be admitted to this program. Students at three courses have attended other
classes which help build up their language competence such as reading, listening,
writing, speaking, phonetics and grammar. Besides, as they are in Translation and
Interpreting Division, they have chances to study translation theories which are really
advantageous for their translation.

1.3. Materials
Materials collected from participants are 200 copies of their weekly translation
tasks with the word limit of 500 words for each article. These writing samples are used
for the examination of participants‟ collocation errors in translation as well as their
fine collocations. From students‟ collocation errors, the researcher detects problems
that participants encounter in translating.

2. Data collection instruments

2.1. Semi-structured individual interview

Individual interview is an effective tool to gather information in this study as it
can “elicit additional data if initial answers are vague, incomplete, off-topic, or not
specific enough” (Markey & Gass, 2005, p.173). In addition, with individual
interview, researchers can collect detailed information from the interviewees, dig
deeply into the topic and understand thoroughly the answers provided (Harrel &
Bradley, 2009, p. 27).
The interview is of semi-structured type, which is a qualitative method of
inquiry that combines “a pre-determined set of open questions (questions that prompt
discussion) with the opportunity for the interviewer to explore particular themes or
responses further” (Evaluation Toolbox, 2010). With questions prepared before hand,
researchers can obtain similar general information from all the interviewers.
Meanwhile, follow-up questions offer researchers the opportunity to catch more
comprehensive information from each individual.

20
 To carry out the interview, two voluntary students majoring in translating and
two teachers teaching translation are invited to take-part-in semi-structured interviews.
The interviews with students are designed to get their perception and points of view
about their errors in collocation translation. Furthermore, teachers‟ opinions and their
recommendations on collocation translation are also discovered in the interviews.
The interview includes both closed and open-ended questions and lasts about
fifteen minutes each. The participants are interviewed in a friendly and natural setting.
In order to make it convenient for the interviewees, the interviews are carried out in
class or at the school yard. In addition, all interviews are conducted in English to
assure the authenticity and validity of the collected data.
To facilitate data analysis, all interviews are recorded with the permission from
the respondents. Note-taking is also deployed as another useful tool.

2.2. Content and statistic analysis

Content analysis is an empirically grounded method, explanatory in process, and
predictive or inferential in intent (Krippendorff, K., 2004, p.17). Using this method,
the researcher collects students‟ translations, sorts out and analyzes the data.
Specifically, collocation translation errors are grouped into error types. The researcher
analyzes each type of errors, illustrates by examples and points out the characteristics
of each error type. Similarly, good collocations are also classified into groups
according to the translation procedures used to translate them. Besides presenting the
data, the researcher also makes prediction and inference from the data.

3. Procedures of data collection

Step 1: Contact participants with the help of teachers and students in the division

At this stage, the researcher talks to selected participants about the purposes and
significance of the study. Participants are notified how the study will help them in
realizing their errors in translating collocations and acknowledging ways of

21
improvement. In addition, the researcher also guarantees the confidentiality and
anonymity of their participation in the research.

Step 2: Design collection schedule

The researcher draws up a detailed report for data collection and depends on each
due date in the schedule to collect data.

Step 3: Collect copies of translation tasks from participants, both soft copies via
e-mail and hard copies via face-to-face collection

The researcher tries to contact the monitor of each class to facilitate the collection
of translation copies from class members. Copies from sophomore, junior and senior
classes and fast-track classes and mainstream classes are collected separately.

4. Procedures of data analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in analyzing the data. For
qualitative method, the researcher examines students‟ translations to find out their
collocation translation mistakes and strategies used in appropriate collocations.
Quantitative method is deployed when the researcher counts the frequency of each
type of mistakes and the strategies which are used.

Data analysis procedure for qualitative method

Step 1: The researcher reads translation copies from participants at least twice and lists
all collocation translation errors found.

Step 2: At this stage, all errors are classified into different categories according to their
types. The researcher sorts them into grammatical and lexical collocation mistakes.
After that, errors of each type are grouped into sub-categories.

Step 3: The typical mistakes in each type are analyzed. The researcher goes into
specific errors and determines the sources of each mistake.

22
Step 4: The researcher consults translation teachers for some suggestions on
appropriate translation strategies used for those collocations. Meanwhile, the
researcher also takes a look at good collocations which are translated by students and
determines the strategies used.

Data analysis procedure for quantitative method

Step 1: Mistakes in collocation translation are classified into different categories

according to their types.

Step 2: The researcher counts their occurrence to determine which mistakes are most
commonly made. In addition, the researcher also investigates the most common
strategies used in good translation of collocations by students.

23
 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The fourth chapter concentrates on the presentation, interpretation and discussion
of the data. The aim of the first three parts is to deliver the results of the study by
answering three research questions. Firstly, English corresponding collocation patterns
for each type of Vietnamese collocations translated will be found out. After that,
common types of collocation translation errors made by students will be presented via
data analysis. The last question will also be addressed based on data analysis and
interview results. At the end of each part, a brief summary of findings will be
presented. In the next part, findings for the research questions will be gathered and
discussed. Finally, suggestions will be offered for the minimization of students‟ errors.
1. English corresponding collocation patterns for each type of Vietnamese
collocations translated.
Some Vietnamese collocations are translated into English collocations using the
same corresponding patterns; some, however, are rendered into different patterns to
adhere to English grammar rules. The specific results are shown in the table below.

Table 4.1: Vietnamese collocation patterns and their corresponding English

collocation pattern
Corresponding
Vietnamese
No. English collocation Example
collocation pattern
pattern
Những cơ hội thuận lợi -
1 favorable opportunities
Noun-adjective Adjective-noun
Giải quyết các vấn đề -
2 Verb-noun Verb-noun
address problems
Mạng lưới y tế - health care
3 Noun-noun Noun-noun
network

24
 Tài nguyên thiên nhiên -
Adjective-noun
natural resources

Verb-adverb/ adverb-
4 Verb-adverb Hội nhập hoàn toàn - fully
verb
integrate
Tòa tha bổng - the court set
Noun-verb
5 Noun-verb (him/her) free
Adjective-noun Thịt đông lạnh - freezed meat
Dồi dào sức khỏe - in perfect
6 Adjective-noun Adjective-noun
health
Paraphrased by đi đánh xứ người - be
7 Verb-verb different patterns of competitive with other
English collocations international partners
Mối đe dọa đối với - a threat
8 Noun-preposition Noun-preposition
to
Trên bờ vực của - on the
9 Preposition-noun Preposition-noun
verge of
Adjective- Giàu có về - rich in
10 Adjective-preposition
preposition
11 Quantifier + noun Quantifier + noun Một đàn cá - a school of fish

2. Common collocation translation errors made by the ULIS students.

ULIS students may commit various types of collocation translation errors.
However, this paper only focuses on demonstrating the most common ones. The
proportion of each error type is depicted in the following pie chart.

25
 Figure 4.1: Collocation translation errors
The results, as seen in the chart, indicate that ignorance of rule restrictions is the
most popular translation errors, accounting for 28%. Improper synonyms, literal
translation and overgeneralization are the second, third and fourth most common errors
respectively. The smallest proportion belongs to word coinage which makes up only
7% of the total translation errors. Detailed analysis for each error type will be
presented in the following parts.
2.1. Ignorance of rule restrictions

It is obvious from the pie chart that this error type makes up the majority of
collocation translation errors, which is 28%. These errors are made as students fail to
apply linguistic rules, especially grammatical rules. Incorrect combinations of parts of
speech as well as articles with nouns are frequently made by most participants.
Another typical problem is that students make wrong preposition collocations. The
below table with common examples of this errors type will provide a more thorough
illustration.

26
Table 4.2: Ignorance of rule restrictions

Source collocation Collocation translation Suggested collocation

error

Trong những năm gần đây recently years in recent years

Một dải đất có hình chữ S a S-shaped strip of land an S-shaped strip of land

Thêm 9 năm nữa 9 more years 9 years more

Có sự quan tâm đúng đắn give the sound attention at pay full attention to

Ở một mức độ đáng báo in an alarming rate at an alarming rate

động

Looking at data from the table, it can be clearly seen that those errors are caused as
students do not fully master the rules. Some fixed collocations such as pay attention to
require students to learn by heart. As a result, they often create wrong phases because
of their limited language proficiency. These frequent errors, however, also do not
considerably alter the meaning of the collocations. They just result in confusion and
displeasure among readers.

2.2. Improper synonyms

This type of error is made when students use synonymous words which share
certain shades of meaning with the right words and therefore create inappropriate
collocations. The statistics show that this error type makes up the second largest
proportion which is 18%. Typical examples of this error type are displayed in the table
below.

27
 Table 4.3: Improper synonyms
Source collocation Collocation translation Suggested collocation
error

Bồi dưỡng nhân tài grow talents Nurture/ foster/ cultivate

talents

Giáo dục của Việt Nam Vietnamese education Vietnamese education

không thể cất cánh cannot boost cannot take off

Làm suy giảm khả năng deplete human immunity impair human immunity
miễn dịch của con người

Analyzing the above errors, it is obvious that most students are confused about
synonymous words. They fail to thoroughly understand the differences in meaning of
those words. In addition, students do not realize that they make collocations by words
which cannot collocate with each other. For example, the word grow is often use with
the meaning to make plants develop or make a person or animal become bigger and
taller. As a result, it is unusual to combine grow with talents. What‟s more, grow is
often used to describe the physical development. The proper word for this collocation
should be nurture or foster which means to make something or a person develop
mentally and become successful. In the second collocation, though having the meaning
develop or become successful, boost cannot go with education in such a way, as it is a
transitive verb which requires a direct object. The right word here must be take off,
flourish or thrive which indicates to develop quickly and be successful. Though those
words are used improperly, they do not greatly affect the content of the text.
Apparently, readers can still understand the messages that authors want to express.

28
Instead, those anomalous word combinations just make the text imprecise and
unprofessional.

2.3. Literal translation

This error type accounts for 14% of the total collocation translation errors. This is a
very common error among students, especially those who lack language competence.
These errors consist of the collocations which are literally rendered into the target
language. As students are not aware that there are non-equivalents between the SL and
TL, they just exactly follow the original phrases. Therefore, unnatural and uncommon
collocations are created. The table below will provide a more through illustration for
this error type:

Table 4.4: Literal translation

Source collocation Collocation translation Suggested collocations

error

Vấn đề toàn cầu nóng bỏng A hot global issue A burning global issue

Bốn mùa rõ rệt Four clear seasons Four distinct seasons

Một hình ảnh đại diện cho an avatar for Vietnamese A representative for
các doanh nhân Việt businessmen Vietnamese businessmen

Mang tinh thần carry the spirit have/show the spirit

tài nguyên trí tuệ vẫn còn intellectual resource is still intellectual resource hasn’t
bị bỏ trống vacant been fully made use of

29
 It is apparent from the table that the translated collocations are not appropriate in
English. For example, vacant often collocates with seat or hotel room with the
meaning empty or not being used, so it cannot go with intellectual resource in this
situation. The phrase tài nguyên trí tuệ vẫn còn bị bỏ trống here should be paraphrased
as intellectual resource hasn’t been fully made use of. Similarly, in the phrase một hình
ảnh đại diện cho các doanh nhân Việt, the object uses avatar-a picture instead of
representative-a person. Although several TL readers may still be able to follow the
message of the phrase, they have considerable confusion. Obviously, literal translation
negatively affects the quality of the translations, making the translations unnatural to
native speakers.

2.4. Overgeneralization/ false analogy

Overgeneralization is nearly as common as literal translation, making up 13% of

total errors. When students expand the meaning of a certain word, interpreting it in a
different way and therefore using it in a disparate context, they make false analogies.
This error type is made because students do not have a comprehensive understanding
about the source text, or they may fail to find the exact words to make sound
collocations. Illustrative examples together with their analysis are presented as
follows:

Table 4.5: Overgeneralization/ false analogy

Source collocation Collocation translation Suggested collocation

error

Máy đóng gói canning machine packaging machine

Người cực đoan tôn giáo extreme religion religious extremist

30
Giành được độc lập tự do have democracy and gain democracy and
freedom freedom

Năng lượng tái tạo được renewed energy renewable energy

Khí hậu nhiệt đới gió mùa a windy tropical climate a monsoon tropical climate

In these above errors, students misinterpret the SL words; as a result, they use
general collocations which do not successfully convey the accurate meaning of the
source text. In the first errors, đóng gói is interpreted as đóng chai and therefore
translated as canning machine. Likewise, gió mùa is simply understood as gió and
rendered as windy instead of monsoon. The reason may be because that student fails to
find out the exact word for gió mùa. There are also some cases in which source
collocations are totally different from the translated ones. For instance, người cực đoan
tôn giáo is rendered into extreme religion which means tôn giáo cực đoan rather than
religious extremist. These errors, though still relate to the source phrases to a certain
extent, greatly alter the meaning of the source text. As a result, readers will have
misunderstanding about the SL content. Moreover, this error type may lead to serious
consequences, especially when the information is important.

2.5. Addition

This is also a common error among most investigated participants. Because

students are strongly affected by Vietnamese which is rather lengthy, they add
unnecessary words to the phrases. Let us have a look at the following example table.

31
 Table 4.6: Addition

Source collocation Collocation translation Suggested collocation

error

ảnh hưởng xấu đến môi affect badly to environment badly affect the
trường environment

Nhu cầu ngày càng cao increasingly higher increasing demand

demand

Những học sinh tốt nghiệp high school graduate high school graduates
trung học phổ thông students

Tình trang chạy đua vũ arms race situation arms race

trang

Đứng trước những thử facing to a serious facing a serious challenge

thách nghiêm trọng challenge

There are two main trends in this error type. The first trend is that students add
unnecessary prepositions and the second trend is made when they use two words with
the same meaning in one collocation. For example, affect does not require to after it.
However, students tend to translate đến as to so they add this word to the collocation.
In addition, students is redundant in the phrase high school graduate students as
graduates already means students. Another problem is that unnecessary words such as
vấn đề or tình trạng are commonly used in Vietnamese; therefore, students often
render these words into the TL though it is not proper to do that. Specifically, in the
phrase tình trạng chạy đua vũ trang, arms race is enough and there is no need to add

32
situation. Addition errors, though make the translations sound unprofessional and
unfriendly to TL readers, do not have big impact on the text meaning.

2.6. Spelling

This error type accounts for a small proportion of the total translation errors, which
is 8%. Students are often confused among words with close spelling. As a result, they
create spelling mistakes because they do not double-check the words. For example:

Table 4.7: Spelling

Source collocation Collocation translation Suggested collocation

error

Tác động củadân số the affect of population the effect of population

Bồi dưỡng nhân tài foresting talents fostering talents

Không khí bị ô nhiễm the populated air the polluted air

Làm suy giảm hệ miễn deplete human community deplete human immunity
dịch của con người

Động lực driver force driving force

Since in this error type, participants create totally different collocations from the
original ones, the content of the source text is tremendously influenced. In such
inaccurate collocations as the populated air or deplete human community, the message
is completely distorted. Though readers can still make out the right collocations basing

33
on the spelling closeness in some situations, this error type can cause grave
consequences if the mistakes are involved in crucial information.

2.7. Word coinage

This is the least popular error type made by most participants. This error type figures
out non-existent expressions which were invented by participants. Typical examples of
this error type are presented below:

Table 4.8: Word coinage

Source collocation Collocation translation Suggested collocation

error

Đào tạo tại chức at-job education part-time education

Khả năng miễn dịch immune ability immunity

Thường xuyên bị thiên tai usually-occurred disasters Frequent disasters

Giá trị đa dạng sinh học multi-biology value biodiversity value

These errors are made when students literally translate or paraphrase the
collocations, especially fixed combinations or specific terms. For instance, đào tạo tại
chức is translated as at-job training instead of part-time training. The student fails to
find the accurate word for tại chức so s/he translates as at-job to convey the meaning
that this education type is for working people. Similarly, multi-biology is used instead
of biodiversity which means đa dạng sinh học. This error type does not greatly affect
the content of the text but it makes the text lengthy and unnatural.

34
 2.8. Summary of the findings

Analyzing the results of the interview, the researcher finds out that two research
instruments come up with similar findings. Specifically, all the interviewees point out
that the most frequent translation errors are ignorance of rules restrictions, spelling and
literal translation. Interestingly, those three error types account for 60% of the total
errors found in data analysis. The interviewees also acknowledge that
overgeneralization and spelling are the most serious errors as they can totally distort
the meaning of the source texts. There are some error types which do not greatly affect
the SL message such as improper synonyms or addition. In conclusion, all the errors
found out in this part are the most typical mistakes by students. Normally, these errors
are made mainly due to students‟ shortcomings in collocation competence as well as
their failure to double-check the translated word combinations. Besides these errors,
there are a large number of good English collocations translated by the participants.
These collocations together with the translation procedures used will be presented in
the next part.

3. Good translated English collocations and the translation procedures

deployed

In this part, the researcher will attempt to answer the last question. Appropriate
collocations translated by students will be classified and analyzed basing on the
translation procedures used. The assessment criteria for good collocations consist of
accuracy, naturalness and creativity, especially for dealing with collocations with no
English equivalent.

3.1. Paraphrase

According to Newmark, (1988, p.90), this technique is an explanation of several

parts of the source text. In other words, deploying this procedure, the translators re-
express the messages of the source text using different words, making the source text

35
become TL reader-friendly. The following table presents some typical good English
collocations rendered from Vietnamese collocations using this procedure.

Table 4.9: Collocations translated by paraphrase

Source collocation Translated collocation

tinh thần dấn thân The daring to face new challenges

đi đánh xứ người be competitive with other international

partners

Lực bất tòng tâm So much to do but so little done

gây lũ lớn và nhiều hơn Cause an increasing number of heavier

floods

cứu cánh cho nền kinh tế the last resort for the economy

As can be seen from the table, paraphrase is often used when students fail to find
the English equivalents for the source collocations. As a result, they have to clarify
these word combinations to facilitate TL readers‟ understanding. For instance, there is
no English equivalence for tinh thần dấn thân, which means willing to face difficulties
without being afraid of any danger. Therefore, the student opts for explaining the
meaning of this phrase and translates it as the daring to face new challenges. Likewise,
lực bất tòng tâm is a common Vietnamese saying but it has no similar expression in
English. In this case, it is creatively and effectively translated as so much to do but so
little done. In addition, paraphrase is also used for poor written texts which generate
confusion among TL readers. For example, the phrase gây lũ lớn và nhiều hơn is quite
vague as readers may not realize nhiều hơn here refer to more floods. Dealing with this

36
case, the student changes the order of the phrase and interprets it as cause an
increasing number of heavier floods, making it clearer to readers.

3.2. Shift or transposition

This technique involves a change in the grammar/ part of speech from SL to TL.
(Tien and Bac, 2008, p.36). Due to the differences in linguistic structure between
Vietnamese and English, translators often have to change the parts of speech or
phrases‟ order to create appropriate and natural collocations. More specifically, the
Vietnamese often use verb phrases while noun phrases are commonplace in English.
As a result, it is necessary to switch between these two kinds of phrases to ensure the
accuracy and naturalness for the translations. Typical examples of good collocations
translated via these procedures are shown in the following table.

Table 4.10: Collocations translated by shift or transposition

Source collocation Translated collocation

Vấn đề liên quan đến nhiều người nhất An all-stakeholder issue

Những cái nhìn dài xa đến tận chân trời Cast our vision to the horizon

Tạo ra một phát ngôn trên toàn cầu Have an international voice

Nhiễm độc thực phẩm ít khi chết ngay Poisoned food doesn‟t trigger an
immediate death

Xuất khẩu tăng nhanh Soaring exports

As can be seen very clearly, if verb phrases are maintained in the TL, they will
become very lengthy. For example, vấn đề liên quan đến nhiều người nhất is
translated as an all-stakeholder issue, making the collocation much more concise as

37
compared to a problem which relates to the biggest majority of people. Similarly, the
noun soaring already means increase quickly, so there is no need to interpret xuất khẩu
tăng nhanh as export increases quickly. In addition, the collocation soaring exports
can make the translated text sound more authentic and professional.

3.3. Reduction or expansion

In this procedure, translators may add more words to make the expression more
specific and comprehensible. In addition, they may leave out some unnecessary words.
Let us look at the table below to have a more adequate understanding.

Table 4.11: Collocations translated by reduction or expansion

Source collocation Translated collocation

đạt được sự đồng thuận reach the mutual agreement

cà phê pha trộn “cấp phối” coffee mixed with additives

Xanh non mơn mởn, hồng tươi roi rói eye-catching green and pink

Thở phào sigh in relief

Hơn lúc nào hết More important than ever before

In the phrase cà phê pha trộn “cấp phối”, the student adds additives to express
what exactly coffee is mixed with. Likewise, important is also added when rendering
hơn lúc nào hết to make the collocation more understandable and natural to TL
readers. As this procedure aims at facilitating TL readers‟ understanding, it is very
reader-friendly.

38
 3.4. Lexical synonymy

Using this technique, translators opt for a near TL equivalent to an SL word in a

context, where a precise equivalent may or may not exist (Newmark, 1988, p.84). This
procedure is commonly deployed by students as there are various non-equivalent word
combinations between English and Vietnamese. However, using this technique, it is
necessary that students be creative and careful in selecting the synonyms. Otherwise,
they may make collocation translation mistakes. The table below provides a more
thorough illustration for appropriate collocations translated via this procedure.
Table 4.12: Collocations translated by lexical synonymy

Source collocation Translated collocation

dân khí people determination

thoát nhục escape inferiority

gà vịt quang quác noisy poultry

lao xao chạy đuổi nhau heartily chase after each other

tay dang ra phóng khoáng nonchalantly outstretch our arms

Vietnamese has a lot of onomatopoeias which create great challenges to translators

as it is very difficult to find the equivalents for those words in TL. As a result, they
have to go for other words which have the similar meaning although these words may
fail to express the sound as compared with the source onomatopoeias. For example, gà
vịt quang quác was translated as noisy poultry because the student fails to find the
equivalent for quang quác. Therefore, s/he re-expresses the word as noisy which is still
acceptable. In this case, s/he has to sacrifice accuracy to ensure naturalness.

39
 3.5. Modulation
According to Newmark (1988, p.88), it refers to a variation through a change of
viewpoint, of perspective and very often of category of thought. There are several sub-
types of modulation namely one part to another, passive to active, positive for double
negative, abstract for concrete, cause for effect and reversal of terms. Let us have a
look at the following table.
Table 4.13: Collocations translated by modulation

Source collocation Translated collocation

Dựng một ngọn cờ Serve as a flagship

Chúng tôi không võ đoán We base ourselves on sound reasons

Không ít thách thức Numerous challenges

Tác động của biến đổi khí hậu không loại Climate change has impact on every
trừ quốc gia nào country

Vẫn còn bị bỏ trống Hasn‟t been fully made use of

In the first phrase, ngọn cờ here has an abstract meaning; therefore, it would turn
out to be unusual if the student literally rendered it as raise a flag. Using abstract for
concrete technique, s/he translates this collocation as serving as a flagship which is
very natural and comprehensible. Similarly, the student deploys positive to double
negative to interpret không ít thách thức as numerous challenges, making it much
more concise and natural as compared with being literally rendered as not so many
challenges.

40
 3.6. Summary of the findings
Findings from the interview indicate that paraphrase, through translation and
reduction are most frequently deployed by students to translate Vietnamese
collocations into English collocations. Normally when rendering collocations, most
students are not aware that they are using certain translation procedures. Many of them
admit that they just translate as what they are thinking and opt for an English
collocation which they consider appropriate and natural.

4. Further discussion of collocation translation errors made by students

The results show that many students are struggling with collocation translation.
The main source of collocation errors are related to their limited linguistic
competence. Specifically, students may not understand thoroughly the grammar as
well as vocabulary of both source language and target language. As a result, they just
literally combine the words and make translation errors. Sometimes they even fail to
comprehend the meaning of the Vietnamese phrases and therefore create inappropriate
English collocations. The excuse for students‟ poor grammar and vocabulary is that
they do not make effort to enhance their linguistic competence by comprehensively
reading and listening. Students fail to make themselves familiar with authentic English
collocations and therefore they make unsuitable word combinations. Another reason is
that students are strongly affected by Vietnamese way of thinking and tend to cling to
the original collocations. Sometimes they just literally render the phrases without
bearing in mind that these words may sound unusual in English. In other cases, errors
may be caused by students‟ carelessness. They may fail to cross-check the collocations
as they just rely on their memory. Sometimes students have to translate under time
pressure, for example when they sit for an exam, so they may also make collocation
translation errors.

It is also revealed from the results that the frequency of collocation translation
errors is smaller among fourth-year students than that of third-year or second-year

41
students. This finding may be quite reasonable because senior students often have
better linguistic competence. They have the ability to understand the texts and judge
whether a collocation is suitable in a certain context. In contrast, sophomores or junior
students have not made themselves familiar with authentic English collocations.

Analyzing the data, the researcher also comes up with several effective strategies
and procedures for collocation translation. It is recommended that students should try
to focus on the message and avoid being affected by their mother tongue. For hard-to
solve collocations, they need to identify the key words such as the verb or the noun
and then look for the collocations in the dictionary. It is also necessary that they cross-
check the phrases by the Internet or consult the native speakers in order to produce
appropriate English collocations. The translation procedures recommended by teachers
include lexical synonymy and paraphrase. Students are strongly advised to use these
procedures, especially when they have to translate under time pressure so that they will
not have to waste time finding the exact word combinations. Shift or transposition is
also highly recommended for those with better linguistic competence. By switching
back and forth the structures, students will make the translated collocation natural and
sound more authentic.

42
 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

This chapter will summarize and evaluate the results of the whole paper by
summing up the findings responding to the three research questions, stating the
limitations of the study as well as providing several suggestions for further
investigations on collocation translation errors made by students.

1. Summary of the findings

In general, there is a correspondence between the factual findings and the
assumptions discussed in Literature review. Specifically, the researcher comes up with
common collocation translation errors which have been pointed out by previous
studies. In addition, most of the translation procedures pointed out in Literature review
are found to be deployed by ULIS students.
Initially, it is revealed from the study that due to students‟ limited linguistic
competence, they frequently make collocation translation errors. The most common
ones include ignorance of rule restrictions, improper synonyms and literal translation.
Some errors may distort the message of the source text; others, though do not
misrepresent the content, make the translations unnatural and unprofessional. Most
students are not aware that they are making mistakes. They often rely on bilingual
dictionary to create collocations without cross-checking by monolingual or collocation
dictionary. The study also finds out that collocation translation errors are more
common among sophomores and junior students than those of senior students who
have better linguistic competence.
Finally, it can be concluded from the findings that students deploy a variety of
translation procedures in order to create good collocations. The most frequently used is
paraphrase and shift or transposition. The former is used when students have
difficulties finding the exact term in the TL or when they have to translate under time
pressure. Meanwhile, the later procedure is mostly deployed by students with good

43
linguistic competence in order to make the translation natural with authentic
collocations. Though some students bear in mind that they need to use certain
procedures to create good collocations, some just using the strategies without being
aware that they are using them because they make word combinations basing on their
memory and feelings.

2. Limitations of the study

Despite of the researcher‟s considerable efforts, certain limitations are unavoidable.
Firstly, it should be noted that due to time pressure, this study has examined only
about 200 collocation errors and 100 good collocations translated by students. The
number of interviewees is also small, which may lead to the overgeneralization of the
results. In addition, data is collected from students of varied linguistic competence.
Therefore, some results of this study cannot be taken as evidence for certain groups of
students. For instance, ignorance of rule restrictions may be the most common among
second-year students but this is not true for fourth-year students.
Second, the researcher does not cover every type of collocation translation errors in
the findings. She just investigates the most typical and prevalent errors among
students. As a result, the findings do not imply that students only commit seven types
of errors pointed out. There are still other mistakes made by students which may be
further investigated in other researches.

3. Suggestions for English collocation learning and teaching as well as

directions for further research
In translation teaching, teachers should raise students‟ awareness of collocations so
that they can make appropriate collocations in both English and Vietnamese. It is
advisable that teachers organize activities for students to study English collocations,
especially marked collocations as this is the most challenging type. In collocation
learning, students should make a habit of reading and listening to authentic English
and Vietnamese in order to create the most natural and appropriate word combinations.

44
Students should also learn to make good use of dictionaries and other reference
sources such as the Internet or newspapers to find out good collocations. It is
recommended that students develop their own strategies and tips to remember
collocations and therefore can achieve better translation quality in the long term.
For further research, other types of collocation translation errors should be tackled
in order to provide a more comprehensive classification of these errors. The sample
should also be larger with students of similar linguistic competence. In addition,
further research may also investigate translation errors for each type of collocations
and find out which type is the most challenging to students. Strategies to translate each
collocation type should also be addressed in future research.

45
 REFERENCES
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Hartman, R.R.K., & Stork, F.C. 1972. Dictionary of language and linguistics. London:
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Larson, M.L. (1984). Meaning-based translation – a guide to cross-language

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english.um.edu.my/anuvaada/PAPERS/LAUDER.pdf
Lewis, M. (2000). Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical
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writing. (Master dissertation, Ming Chuan University, 2005). Retrieved January
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Mackey, A. & Gass, S.M. (2005). Second language research: method and design.
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thesis, Macquarie University, 2001).

48
 APPENDIX 1
Collocation translation errors

1. Ignorance of rule restrictions

No. Vietnamese Erroneous translated Suggested collocation

collocation collocation
1 ngộ độc thực phẩm food poisonous food poison
2 dự án hàng nghìn tỉ đô a multibillion dollars a multibillion dollar
la project project
3 đầu tư vào giáo dục investment on education investment in education
4 phù hợp với khả năng suitable with capacity suitable to capacity
5 vào mùa hè on summer in summer
6 tác động tới môi affect to the environment affect the environment
trường
7 thành tựu về khoa học achievement about science achievement in science
8 đi đến một quyết định arrive a decision arrive at a decision
9 đến sân bay reach to the airport reach the airport
10 một chính sách hiệu a high efficient policy a highly efficient policy
quả cao
11 Trong những năm gần Recently years in recent years
đây
12 Chúng ta đã không we were not succeeded in we were not successful in
thành công trong giáo education education
dục
13 Cần được tổ chức và need organized and need organizing and
quản lí tốt managed well managing well
14 Những vấn đề lớn greatly global issue great global issue

49
 mang tính toàn cầu
15 Hơn việc đào tạo nhân than to training people than to train people
lực
16 Một dải đất hình chữ a S-shaped strip of land an S-shaped strip of land
S
17 Những điều kiện ideal advantage conditions ideal advantageous
thuận lợi lý tưởng conditions
18 Cho sự phát triển kinh for economic for economic development
tế
19 Tốc độ tăng trưởng annually population annual population growth
dân số hàng năm growth rate rate
20 Thêm 9 năm nữa 9 more years 9 years more
21 Thương hiệu việt Vietnam brand Vietnamese brand
22 Biên giới đất liền của Vietnamese’s land Vietnam’s land boundary
Việt Nam boundary
23 Gần trung tâm châu Á near by the centre of Asia nearby the centre of Asia
24 Giờ nắng hours of sunny sunny hours
25 Can thiệp vào The intervene onto The intervene into
26 Giàu có về các khoáng rich of many other mineral rich in many other
sản khác minerals
27 Cần có sự quan tâm Give sound attention at pay sound attention to
đúng đắn tới
28 Nằm ở phía đông Located in the eastern Located in the east
29 Nhiều tài nguyên a diverse natural resources diverse natural resources
thiên nhiên đa dạng
30 Vào ngày 2/9/1945 in September 2nd, 1945 on September 2nd, 1945
31 Đổ bộ vào Việt Nam landed in Vietnam landed onto Vietnam

50
32 Hiện nay In the present at the present
33 Chúng ta là những we pioneer we are the pioneers
người tiên phong
34 Có ảnh hưởng tới đất have influence with the have influence over
nước country thecountry
35 Những vị trí quan almost important positions The most important
trọng nhất positions
36 Bảo vệ Việt Nam protection Vietnam protect Vietnam
37 Tập trung vào concentrate in concentrate on
38 Sống bằng nghề nông make a living by farming make a living from
farming
39 Với một tốc độ đáng in an alarming rate at an alarming rate
báo động
40 Tại các trường đại học in universities and colleges at universities and
và cao đẳng colleges
41 Đúng độ tuổi in right age at right age
42 ở tất cả các cấp độ in all levels at all levels
43 Thực hiện kế hoạch carrying on family carrying out family
hóa gia đình planning planning
44 Phía bắc giáp với borders with Chinese in the borders with Chinese to
Trung Quốc north the north
45 Xếp thứ 13 trên tổng ranks 13th in more than 200 ranks 13th among more
số 200 quốc gia nations than 200 nations
46 Có dân số 85 triệu have a population of 85 have the population of 85
người million million
47 Những công nhân có skill workers skillful workers
kỹ năng

51
48 Đến cuối năm 2005 in the end of 2005 by the end of 2005
49 Sống bằng nghề nông lived by agriculture lived on agriculture
50 Một thách thức đối a challenge for Vietnam a challenge to Vietnam
với Việt Nam
51 Những ngày mưa rain days rainy days
52 Hứng chịu thiên tai suffer disasters suffer from disasters
53 Leo thang thành cuộc escalate the complete war escalate into the complete
chiến tranh toàn diện war

54 Một kết quả không A unexpected result An unexpected result

ngờ
55 Chủ yếu dựa vào trí bases significantly in bases significantly on
tuệ intelligence intelligence
56 Đào tạo nguồn nhân human resources training human resource training
lực

2. Improper synonyms

No. Vietnamese Erroneous translated Suggested collocation

collocation collocation
1 chống chọi lại với rebel the invasions resist the invasions
những tấn công
2 văn hóa đặc thù characteristic culture Distinctive culture
3 tôn ti trật tự xã hội social chronology Social hierarchy
4 tôn trọng luật pháp esteem the laws respect the laws
5 triệu tập hội thảo gather a workshop convene a workshop
6 hội thảo bế mạc the meeting terminates the meeting finishes

52
7 đơn đăng ký được A thirsty application form A covetous application
nhiều người thèm khát form
8 lối học vẹt máy móc routine memorization mechanical memorization
9 cải cách sâu rộng absolute reform comprehensive reform
10 tư duy phê phán disapproving thinking critical thinking
11 Có các điều kiện Contain conditions has conditions

12 Có khí hậu khắc experience harsh climate has harsh climate

nghiệt
13 Bồi dưỡng nhân tài grow talents nurture talents

14 Đưa đất nước thoát help the country out of bring the country out of
khỏi nghèo nàn poverty poverty
15 Mạng lưới giáo dục education net education network
16 Giáo dục Việt Nam Vietnamese education Vietnamese education
không thế cất cánh cannot boost cannot flourish
được
17 Xã hội hóa sâu rộng wide-rangingly socialize comprehensively socialize
18 Đô thị hóa đã mở rộng urbanization has urbanization has expanded
progressed
19 Lồng ghép các vấn đề include population‟s integrate population‟s
dân số problems problems
20 Một sự lựa chọn quyết a tense choice a tough choice
liệt
21 Làm suy yếu khả năng deplete human immunity impair human immunity
miễn dịch của con
người

53
22 Vượt quá giới hạn cho exceeded allowed exceeded allowed
phép threshold limitation
23 Mối quan tâm của mọi The cared of every person The concern of every
người person
24 Đào tạo sinh viên generate students educate students
25 Môi trường bị suy depleted environment degraded environment
thoái
26 Đạo tạo những công produce qualified workers train qualified workers
nhân có trình độ
27 Sự can thiệp leo thang The interference increased The interference escalated
28 Rút lui hoàn toàn completely left completely withdrawn
29 Duy trì sự phát triển keep the sustainable maintain the sustainable
bền vững development development
30 Xếp sau Malaysia standing under Malaysia standing below Malaysia
31
32 Đem lại thu nhập tốt give good income generate good income
33 Nghị quyết đúng đắn the resolution was correct the resolution was sound

34 Vùng biển rộng bao la infinite waters vast waters

35 Lũ lụt diễn ra thường floods take place usually floods are frequent
xuyên
36 Tốc độ tăng trưởng population increasing rate population growth rate
dân số
37 Động vật rừng bao Forest animals include 275 Forest animals consist of
gồm 275 loài thú types 275 types
38 VIệt Nam cũng rất Vietnam is also plentiful of Vietnam is also rich in
giàu có về các khoáng other minerals other minerals

54
 sản khác
39 Làm phong phú thêm diversify more the richness further diversify the
sự giàu có richness

40 Sống rải rác Live scatteredly live sparsely

41 Sự cạnh tranh khốc fierce battle fierce competition
liệt

3. Literal translation

No. Vietnamese Erroneous translated Suggested collocation

collocation collocation
1 sức sống vững chắc firm vitality strong vitality
2 thu được những thành collect considerable attain considerable
tựu đáng kể achievements achievements
3 từ tay trắng thành anh from white hand into a from zero to hero
hùng hero
4 đại gia big man Tycoon
5 khiến chúng ta đau bring us a headache make us concerned
đầu
6 dựng một ngọn cờ create a banner serve as a flagship
7 tài nguyên trí tuệ vẫn intellectual resource is still intellectual resource
còn bị bỏ trống vacant hasn’t been fully made use
of
8 giao thông crowded traffic heavy traffic
đông đúc
9 nền công nghiệp còn young industry fledgling industry
non trẻ

55
10 Vấn đề toàn cầu nóng hot global issue burning global issue
bỏng
11 Kéo dài 1650 km lasts 1650km stretches 1650km

12 Bốn mùa rõ rệt Four clear seasons Four distinct seasons

13 Tầm quan trọng sống survival importance vital importance
còn
14 Đứng trước tình hình Being front of that situation facing that situation
đó
15 Con cháu của chúng our children will have to our children will have to
ta sẽ phải trả giá vì pay for the fact that we suffer because we have
chúng ta đã phá hủy have destroyed forests destroyed forests
rừng

16 Miền Nam chịu sự the South has been affected the South has been
ảnh hưởng của by the West dominated by the West
phương Tây
17 Một cụm từ mang tầm A macroscopic phrase A phrase at macro scale
vĩ mô
18 Đưa ra khái niệm gave out the concept formulate the concept
19 Mượn cà phê “borrowing” coffee taking advantage of
coffee
20 Than chì black lead graphite

21 Có 4 mùa rõ rệt there are four seasons there are four distinct
obviously seasons

56
22 Xử lí các vi phạm processing violations addressing violations

23 Dựng một ngọn cờ hang a flag serve as a flagship

24 Tầm cỡ toàn cầu global stature global scale

25 Nhận được nhiều sự received many suspicions encountered many

nghi ngờ suspicions
26 Một hình ảnh đại diện an avatar for Vietnamese A representative for
cho các doanh nhật businessmen Vietnamese businessmen
Việt
27 Mang tinh thần carry the spirit have the spirit

4. Overgeneralization

No. Vietnamese Erroneous translated Suggested collocation

collocation collocation
1 trạm xá Local clinics commune health center
2 khởi xướng chính Build policy initiate policy
sách
3 hàng tiêu dùng Trading goods consumer goods
4 chấn chỉnh quản lí correct administration align administration
5 tự chủ về tài chính Financial independence Financial autonomy
6 hàng rào phi thuế non –tax barriers non – tariff barriers
quan
7 bảo hộ mậu dịch commercial protection trade protection

57
8 sức mua exchanging power purchasing power
9 Dạy thêm tràn lan profligately tutoring spreading tutoring
10 Giá trị đa dạng sinh biological value biodiversity value
học
11 Các nguồn tài nguyên maritime resources marine resources
biển
12 Hiệp ước hòa bình peaceful treaty peace treaty

13 những dấu hiệu khủng signs of crisis have erupted signs of crisis have been
hoảng đã lộ rõ apparent
14 Được giả phóng hoàn perfectly liberated Totally liberated
toàn
25 tỉ lệ bỏ học Roll-out rate Drop-out rate
16 Nối lại quan hệ unite relations Resume relations
17 Nguồn tài nguyên diversified natural diverse natural resources
thiên nhiên đa dạng resources
18 Được ghi trong sách included in the World‟s recorded in the World‟s
đỏ của thế giới Red List Red List

19 Đã trải qua 400 năm Has suffered 4000 years of Has undergone 4000 years
lịch sử history of history
20 Giá trị đa dạng sinh high bio-diversified value High biodiversity value
học cao
21 Đại diện cho tài, trí, gain talent, knowledge and represent talent,
khí của người Việt spirit of Vietnamese knowledge and spirit of
Vietnamese
22 Máy đóng gói canning machine packaging machine

58
23 Những phần tử tôn extreme religion religious extremists
giáo cực đoan
24 Cuộc chiến thời bình War peacetime War in the peacetime

25 Khái niệm địa lý cơ mere mechanical simple geographical

học đơn thuần geographical concept concept
26 Thường tức hàng ngày permanent hourly present at any time
hàng giờ
27 Giành được độc lập tự have democracy and gain democracy and
do freedom freedom
28 Đặt quan hệ ngoại putting diplomatic making diplomatic
giao với relations with relations with
29 Tài nguyên tái tạo renewed resource renewable resource
được
30 Đường bờ biển sea line coastal line

31 Khí hậu nhiệt đới gió a windy tropical climate a monsoon tropical
mùa climate

5. Addition

No. Vietnamese Erroneous translated Suggested collocation

collocation collocation
1 giá cao hơn more higher prices higher prices
2 tác động xấu negatively bad impact bad impact
3 các doanh nghiệp top leading businesses leading businesses
hàng đầu

59
4 học sinh lớp 12 high school senior students high school seniors
5 trẻ em thừa cân overweight obese children overweight children
6 giai đoạn ban đầu the first initial stage the initial stage
7 sự nghiệp công industrialization career Industrialization
nghiệp hóa
8 những khó khăn nặng more worsen difficulties worsen difficulties
nề hơn
9 một chương trình phát a totally comprehensive a comprehensive
triển toàn diện development program development program
10 tình trạng thiếu thuốc the shortage situation of the shortage of medicines
men medicines
11 Người Kinh the Kinh people the Kinh
12 Tác động xấu tới môi affect badly to the affect badly the
trường environment environment
13 Nhu cầu ngày càng increasingly higher increasing demand
cao demand
14 Gửi ra nước ngoài sent to abroad sent abroad
15 Những học sinh tốt high school graduate high school graduates
nghiệp cấp 3 students
16 Gần với near to Near
17 Nâng cao ý thức hơn raise more the awareness Further raise the
nữa awareness
18 Nạn phá rừng nghiêm serious deforestation evil serious deforestation
trọng
19 Tình trạng chạy đua arms race situation arms race
vũ trang
20 Vấn đề ô nhiễm môi Environment pollution Environment pollution

60
 trường issue
21 Không riêng một quốc no one country alone no country alone
gia nào
22 Đối mặt với những facing to a serious facing a serious challenges
thách thức nghiêm challenges
trọng
23 Kéo dài đến năm lasted to the year 1979 lasted to 1979
1979
24 Hệ động thực vật a rich fauna and flora rich fauna and flora
phong phú
25 Dân số sẽ là 85 triệu population will reach the population will 85
number of 85 millions millions

26 Ngày càng nhận thức increasingly more aware of increasingly aware of

thêm
27 Yếu tố thực thi performance factor performance

6. Spelling

No. Vietnamese Erroneous translated Suggested collocation

collocation collocation
1 các nhà lãnh đạo cộng immunist leaders communist leaders
sản
2 tốc độ tăng trưởng manual growth rate annual growth rate
hàng năm
3 tổng sản phẩm quốc cross domestic product gross domestic product
nội
4 Khu vực Châu Á Thái Asia-Pacific religion Asia-Pacific region

61
 Bình Dương
5 Người nhập cư Emigrant people immigrant people
6 Hối lộ giáo viên Bride teacher bribe teacher
7 văn bản được đệ trình Summitted document submitted document
lên
8 quan chức cấp cao High-ranking office High-ranking official
9 những đứa trẻ được Pumpered children pamprered children
nuông chiều
10 truyền thống ẩm thực Culinarly tradition culinary tradition
11 thu nhập thấp Indispensable income dispensable income
12 Tác động của dân số the affect of population the effect of population
13 Bồi dưỡng nhân tài foresting talents fostering talents

14 Không khí bị ô nhiễm the populated air the polluted air

15 Làm suy giảm hệ deplete human community deplete human immunity
miễn dịch của con
người
16 Động lực driver force driving force
17 Điều đó tác động tới it effects on the society it affects the society
xã hội
18 Ô nhiễm môi trường Environmental population Environmental pollution
19 Điểm cực bắc northmost point northernmost point
20 Chiếm 20% count for 20% account for 20%
21 Thành lập công ty found the company founded the company
22 Rút lui hoàn toàn completely withdrawed completely withdrawn
23 Khí hậu khắc nghiệt hard climate harsh climate
24 Nhận được rất nhiều received many suspects received many suspicions

62
 nghi ngờ
25 Quyền lực mềm invisisable power invisible power

7. Word coinage

No. Vietnamese Erroneous translated Suggested collocation

collocation collocation
1 Đào tạo tại chức at-job education part-time education

2 Khả năng miễn dịch immune ability immunity

3 Thường xuyên bị usually-occurred disasters Frequent disasters
thiên tai
4 Giá trị đa dạng sinh multi-biology value biodiversity value
học
5 các chính sách thân American-friendly policies pro-american policies
Mỹ
6 tỉ lệ tử vong trẻ sơ Infant Dead rate Infant mortality rate
sinh
7 thảo dược Grass medicine herbal medicine
8 nhi khoa Children branch pediatrics
9 sản khoa Birth department obstetrics
10 xoa bóp Rub the body massage
11 dị tật bẩm sinh born defect birth defect
12 vòng tránh thai anti-birth circle intrauterine device
13 lớp học thêm plus class after-school class
14 tiểu phẫu tiny operation minor surgery
15 Đổ bộ conducted to land Land

63
16 Nhu cầu gia tăng inclining demands increasing demands
17 Mối quan hệ qua lại interrelation affair mutual relation
18 Các nước chậm phát lowly developing countries under-developed countries
triển
19 Thiên tai thường usually-occurred disasters frequent disasters
xuyên
20 Giá trị đa dạng sinh high multi-biology value high biodiversity value
học cao
21 Người làm cà phê a coffee worker a coffee producer
22 Điểm cực bắc Pole Northest northernmost point
23 Điểm cực nam Pole Southest southernmost point
24 Sản phẩm bán chạy the most trading product best-seller
nhất

64
 APPENDIX 2
TRANSLATION PROCEDURES

1. Modulation

Source collocation Translated collocation

dựng một ngọn cờ serving as a flagship

chúng tôi không võ đoán we base ourselves on sound

reasons

không ít thách thức Numerous challenges

Tác động của BÐKH không loại Climate change has impact
trừ quốc gia nào every country

vẫn còn bị bỏ trống hasn‟t been fully made use

of

Nguồn tài trợ nước ngoài cần Inevitable foreign funding

thiết

Bị đình trệ với năm ngày giảm Snapped a five-day decline

điểm liên tiếp

Không đáp ứng được nhu cầu Fail to supports its rising
giáo dục tăng cao education demand.

Mới đây thôi Not long ago

65
2. Paraphrase

Source collocation Translated collocation

tinh thần dấn thân The daring to face new

challenges

đi đánh xứ người be competitive with other

international partners

làm đến nơi đến chốn get everything done

không giải quyết gì về đời sống isn‟t pro-ethnic people

cho đồng bào dân tộc cả

Lực bất tòng tâm So much to do but so little

done

cứu cánh cho nền kinh tế the last resort for the
economy

chỉ chúi đầu vào tivi become lazy couch potatoes

người chen chúc trong những elbow themselves into the

dòng chảy trên đường crowd on the street

gây lũ lớn và nhiều hơn Cause an increasing number

of heavier floods

danh lam thắng cảnh places of interest

sơn hào hải vị luxurious food

Liền anh liền chị quan họ Folklore singers

66
 Không nhiều đại biểu A handful of delegates

Bị lạc trong dòng xe máy đông Blithely wandering into the

đúc stram of motobikes

tạo ra một phát ngôn trên toàn have an international voice

cầu

Vấn đề liên quan đến nhiều an all-stakeholder issue

người nhất

3. Shift or transposition

Source collocation Translated collocation

nhiễm độc thực phẩm ít khi chết poisoned food doesn‟t trigger
ngay an immediate death

những cái nhìn dài xa đến tận cast our vision to the horizon
chân trời

xuất khẩu tăng nhanh Export soaring

The third achievement is the

Thành tựu thứ ba là nhiều dịch vụ ra appearance and development

đời và phát triển of many kinds of services

xoá đói giảm nghèo Poverty reduction and hunger

eradication

môi trường pháp lý được hoàn thiện A more completed legal

hơn environment

67
Vụ một nhà ông trùm ngân hàng bị bắt The arrest of a banking
giữ tycoon

Ngân hàng chưa trích lập dự phòng đầy Inadequate bank provisioning
đủ cho nợ xấu for bad debt

Thu nhập vài chục nghìn một ngày Make a few dollars a day

Khi bà được trả tự do On her release

Không hề giống với Bear no resemblance to

“mượn” cà phê “taking advantage of” coffee

đạt được sự đồng thuận reach the mutual agreement

4. Reduction or expansion

Source collocation Translated collocation

cà phê pha trộn “cấp phối” coffee mixed with additives

Xanh non mơn mởn, hồng tươi eye-catching green and pink
roi rói

hương vị thật tươi roi rói a garden-fresh food

Thở phào sigh in relief

kinh tế thế giới đầy biến động Volatile world economy

càng phức tạp

68
 Hơn lúc nào hết More important than ever
before

Các khoản nợ xấu Non-performing loans

Bánh đà chính thúc đẩy nền kinh The main driver of the
tế economy

Cổ phiếu Việt Nam giảm mạnh Vietnam‟s stocks plunged

Những lo ngại về tác động tới Environmental concerns

môi trường

Một dân số với trình độ giáo dục A more educated populace

cao hơn

Tấm giấy đăng ký học mà nhiều The coveted application form

người hèm khát

Các vụ bê bối trong giáo dục Education-linked scandals

5. Lexical synonymy

Source collocation Translated collocation

dân khí people determination

thoát nhục escape inferiority

gà vịt quang quác noisy poultry

69
 lao xao chạy đuổi nhau heartily chase after each
other

tay dang ra phóng khoáng nonchalantly outstretch our

arms

Vựa muối Salt field

lá chắn sóng Seawall

Vấn đề bế tắc Deadlocked issue

Tâm thế Thinking

Những chiếc thuyền ọp ẹp Rickety boats

Tình trạng thắt lưng buộc bụng Extreme austerity

khắc nghiệt

Lấy hết sức bình sinh để kéo Strain to pull

Hệ thống cống nước ọp ẹp Precarious plumbing

Những ngón tay nhanh thoăn Nimble fingres

thoắt

Từ tay trắng thành anh hùng Going from zero to hero

lợn nằm lê lết Immovable pigs

70
 APPENDIX 3
Interview questions

Interview with students

This interview is being conducted to find out common collocation translation errors as
well as good translated collocations made by students. The researcher promises to
ensure the confidentiality of this interview. The interview will be recorded.

1. Which types of collocations in the provided collocation classification table

do you find most challenging to translate?

Probe: Can you explain more about the reasons why you find them difficult?

2. In your opinion, which types of collocation errors in the provided list do you
frequently make?

3. In your opinion, what are the reasons leading to your errors in collocation
translation?

4. What are your strategies to deal with those mistakes?

5. Which methods do you use to make good collocations? (referring to

collocation dictionaries, exploiting internet, asking friends, teachers, etc.)

Probe: a. Among those methods, which one do you often use?

b. Which one do you think most effective?

5. Which translation procedures in the provided list do you often use in

translating Vietnamese collocations into English collocations?

Probe: Which procedures do you find the most effective?

Thank you very much for your participation!

71
Interview with teachers

This interview is being conducted to find out common collocation translation errors as
well as good translated collocations made by students. The researcher promises to
ensure the confidentiality of this interview. The interview will be recorded.

1. In your opinion, to what extend is collocation translation difficult to

students?

Probe: Why do students find collocations difficult to translate?

2. Which collocation translation errors in the provided list of errors are

frequently made by students?

3. What are the sources of those errors?

4. In your teaching, do you raise your students' awareness of English

collocations?

5. Which translation procedures in the provided list of translation procedures

are frequently deployed by students to translated Vietnamese collocations
into English collocations?

6. Do you explicitly suggest your students some strategies to translate

Vietnamese collocations into English collocations? What are they?

Thank you very much for your participation!

72
 APPENDIX 4
Interview Scripts

Interview with the first teacher

Interviewer: Firstly, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to you for attending
this interview. As you know, this interview is being conducted to find out common
collocation translation errors as well as good collocations translated by students.

The first question I would like to ask you is that in your opinion, to what extend is
collocation translation difficult to students and why do they find it difficult?

Interviewee: I think for students in general, and for translation and interpreting
students in particular, collocation translation is very difficult. It is something very
original in English. If they don‟t know it before hand or if they don‟t have resources to
check authentic collocations in English, they will fail to translate the Vietnamese
meanings or Vietnamese ideas into English collocations.

Interviewer: The second question, which collocation translation errors in the

provided list are frequently made by students?

Interviewee: I find here you‟ve classified it into 7 groups of errors and I think, from
my observation, students have difficulty in all of these errors. I mean, they make
mistakes in all of these. But notoriously, I think number 4- literal translation is the
most frequently made error. As I mentioned earlier, when students don‟t have the input
in authentic English, they just combine the words together and make literal translation.
That‟s why I think literal translation is the most common errors made by students.

Interviewer: And I would like to ask which errors affect the translations most
seriously?

73
Interviewee: I can‟t say very clearly which are the most serious errors caused by the
inappropriate collocations translated by students.

Interviewer: Well, I mean which errors change the meaning of the source text most
seriously?

Interviewee: Yes, do you mean that which errors may distort the message in the
translation?

Interviewer: Yes, that‟s what I mean.

Interviewee: I can‟t say for sure. If it is an error, it means that the message has been a
little bit change from the original message. For the example here, I think perhaps
addition or overgeneralization is not very serious… I can‟t say for sure which one is
the most serious.

Interviewer: Alright thank you. So now we come to a very significant question, what
are the sources of those collocation translation errors?

Interviewee: Yes, I think for students in general, the major reason that they make
these errors is that they don‟t have a lot of vocabulary or collocations in authentic
English. That‟s why when they have to translate Vietnamese collocations into English
ones, they just use simple words, phrases or sentences to translate.

Interviewer: And is that the main source?

Interviewee: Yes, from what I have seen.

Interviewer: Besides collocation competence as you‟ve said, are there any other
sources? For example, students are strongly affected by their mother tongue,
specifically here Vietnamese, and they tend to translate in the same way they think in
Vietnamese?

74
Interviewee: Yes because surely they are affected by their mother tongue but no
because most teachers make them be aware that they should not use the way they in
Vietnamese to translate collocations into English. So they have that awareness.

Interviewer: Is there any situation in which students are well aware that they are
making mistakes but they still have to do that because they have to choose between
naturalness and accuracy?

Interviewee: I think so too because if they do not have enough time to look up the
collocations in dictionary or if they have to work under time pressure, I think they will
give priority to accuracy in terms of meaning, not the naturalness.

Interviewer: Well so thank you. Another question, in your teaching, do you raise your
students‟ awareness of collocations?

Interviewee: Yes, particularly for fourth-year students because they will have to make
their translations original and native-like. So that‟s why we strongly advise students to
use collocations.

Interviewer: And how to you do that?

Interviewee: Through everyday teaching or through class activities. And it‟s a long-
term goal. Normally, you may assume that we only raise students‟ awareness for
Vietnamese-English collocation lesson only. But actually, when we teach students to
translate English into Vietnamese, we try to analyze the original English texts, and we
make them be aware of the authentic collocations in the English texts. In so doing, we
teach English-Vietnamese translation but actually we also provide them with the
opportunity to be exposed to English collocations.

Interviewer: Alright, in your opinion, which translation procedures are frequently

deployed by students?

75
Interviewee: They use through translation quite a lot for proper names. They may use
paraphrase for difficult expressions. They may also use shift or transposition and
expansion.

Interviewer: What about modulation?

Interviewee: Yes, for longer phrases, they may use modulation or even transference. I
think it also depends on the genre of the text.

Interviewer: Well so thank you. So what are the criteria to assess a collocation,
whether it is good or bad, proper or improper?

Interviewee: It‟s hard to say. The first criterion I can think of is whether the
collocation is suitable for the context. Even if it is a very good, sophisticated
collocation, but it may be inappropriate if the text is just for the general readers, and
the whole message for translation is communicative for example, and the level of the
readers is much lower than the level of the writer. So the collocation, though it‟s
sophisticated, is still not relevant. Therefore, it depends on the context, whether the
collocation serves the purpose of the context.

Interviewer: Well thank you, so that last question for you. Do you explicitly suggest
your students some strategies to translate collocations and what are they?

Interviewee: Yes, check the dictionary. It‟s a combined a process, not just checking
the dictionary, it‟s also about reading comprehension. And it‟s also about our habit to
pick up a collocation, whenever we find a collocation interesting or new. It‟s not just
collocations in particular but it can also be other original English phenomenons like
metaphors or technical terms and so on.

Interviewer: Do you recommend your students a procedure to find out a proper

collocation?

76
Interviewee: Yes, to deal with hard-to-translate collocations, I recommend them to
find the key in the collocations like the noun or the verb and then check the dictionary
for this. In many cases, when students have to translate collocations into Vietnamese,
they try to evaluate a word or a phrase separately without relating to other elements of
the sentence or even the message of the whole text. So I recommend them to first, try
to find the meaning from the context, which is the contextual meaning. And second, if
they have to look up the dictionary, try to find the key like the nouns or verbs. And the
last, if they fail to find the contextual meaning or even after looking up the dictionary,
I recommend them to consult to other sources like the native speakers.

Interviewer: Yes I think only native speakers can have the most proper assessment of
the collocations.

Interviewee: It‟s not 100%, perhaps many collocations take roots in the old English
and perhaps most native speakers cannot know that. Even for Vietnamese, we just take
many collocations in daily language for granted, but in written language, we don‟t
know for sure.

Interviewer: Thank you very much for attending this interview!

77
Interview with the second teacher

Interviewer: Firstly, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to you for attending
this interview. As you know, this interview is being conducted to find out common
collocation translation errors as well as good collocations translated by students.

The first question I would like to ask you is that in your opinion, to what extend is
collocation translation difficult to students and why do they find it difficult?

Interviewee: Well, a really tough question, because you ask a lecturer about the
difficulties of students. It‟s very difficult for me to tell from students‟ perspective. But
I think it depends on students‟ linguistic ability. If they are fluent users of English,
they understand the grammar rules, the way to combine words or I may say they have
good linguistic ability, they will find no difficulty translating collocations. But very
few students can do so, even me when I was a student. So the main problem is that
they can‟t understand very well the grammar of English, the features of the target and
source languages. Even some of them cannot understand why there is such collocation
in Vietnamese. So they make mistakes, mainly because of the grammar, poor
vocabulary, failing to find the right words. So that‟s the direct result of lazy reading,
choosing inappropriate reading, not focusing on academic books or literary books
which can widen their vocabulary and collocations, so they have poor translation of
collocations.

Interviewer: The second question, which collocation translation errors in the provided
list are frequently made by students?

Interviewee: Once again, it depends on students‟ linguistic ability. With those who
have poor linguistic skills, they make all these kinds of sources. Because they can‟t
understand the source words and then they provide a total different word. So literal
translation, ignorance of rules, addition or I should call redundancy when they keep
repeating the words, and the spelling as well are common errors. I myself find it hard

78
to explain for students why I chose “foster talent” rather than “grow talent” because
they can‟t understand. All I can say is that because native speakers use those words,
it‟s my gut feeling, I feel that it‟s right because I experience or see it somewhere in the
native newspapers for example. I see that they use it, so I use it and recommend them
to use it. But sometimes I can‟t give the precise reason so they can‟t remember and use
it later.

Interviewer: So which errors are the most serious mistakes, I mean those which can
change the meaning of the source texts?

Interviewee: Well, I as far as I remember knowledge from discourse analysis, every

sentence has certain parts, so even when foreign speakers use the wrong word,
everyone can still understand with such certain parts. I remember that it‟s the
proposition. So like the improper synonyms, although students use the wrong words,
we or even the foreigners can still understand the meaning. Only with
overgeneralization, people can understand wrongly; and spelling of course because
you create a total different word. For other errors, readers can still understand.

Interviewer: So now coming to a significant question, what are the sources of those
errors?

Interviewee: Well, as I‟ve already mentioned, the poor vocabulary and grammar
understanding of both SL and TL, so students can‟t understand the meaning of the
Vietnamese words and they can‟t figure out the exact meaning of the word and then
literally transfer into English and therefore make mistakes.

Interviewer: Are there any other sources?

Interviewee: So you have to take into consideration every factor. Usually, when you
have time, or all kinds of supporting sources like the dictionary or internet, you can
hardly make the mistakes because you can cross check. But under time pressure like

79
when you sit for an exam, and a lot of noise and stress, so properly, you make
mistakes. Or due to the memory, you just feel, I see this word somewhere and then use
it, but later you realize that it‟s wrong.

Interviewer: What about the effect of the source language on students? I mean,
Vietnamese students tend to think in Vietnamese way and then they literally translate
into English. So can you elaborate it?

Interviewee: For example like this one, we tend to use a lot of common nouns, and
students are easily affected by this. Like this one “lượng mưa” when we have the term
“rainfall” or “precipitation” in English, but to some students, they tend to translate as
“the amount of rainfall” and they think that it‟s the right collocation and a very precise
way to translate. So they are easily affected by the word “lượng”. Yes, as earlier I told
you that students today are quite lazy at reading, it‟s just like the fast-food culture, so
they get any word that comes into their minds without thinking or cross-checking with
other people, even when they sit in front of the computer, but they don‟t cross-check
with Google, just write down the word they have in their minds.
Interviewer: Well, in your teaching, do you often raise your students‟ awareness of
collocations?
Interviewee: Yes, I try to. Although sometimes I don‟t speak straightforwardly like
collocation is very important so you have to use it. But I try to emphasize that if you
want to make your translation sound native-like, that‟s the way you should do, this
word goes better with this word, or you shouldn‟t use that word because no native
speaker uses it. So rarely I say that you have to learn collocations, because they are not
pupils any more, if they find that it‟s necessary, they will learn it on their own. So I
don‟t force them to learn, just recommend them to learn.
Interviewer: So the next question, in your opinion, which collocation translation
procedures in the provided list are frequently deployed by students?

80
Interviewee: I think lexical synonymy. Actually, I encourage them to use this
procedure, especially under time pressure when they have to sit for an exam. But if
they have time, just find the exact collocations. And the paraphrase as well. The shift
or transposition is just common among students who are quicker and have better
vocabulary and grammar understanding because they can switch back and forth the
structures of the sentence, so they are quite active. And until now I encourage all
students to change or break down the structures of the sentences, try to think of various
ways to translate, do not just focus on the original words, as long as you can express
the message. So to conclude, common procedures include lexical synonymy,
paraphrase, shift or transposition and modulation.

Interviewer: What about reduction and expansion?

Interviewee: Well usually reduction, because they can‟t understand, so they cut it out.
For expansion, I don‟t see them add more words to the source collocations, only after
being recommended by teachers.
Interviewer: Yes, I see, because adding words may lead to overgeneralization.

Interviewee: Yes, overgeneralization or too specific. So they are scared, because

sometimes they don‟t understand as they fail to read the source text properly.
Therefore, they hesitate to paraphrase or use the right word to express their ideas. So,
only with fixed collocations like the grammatical collocations or everything related to
grammar, I require them to be precise. But with the more flexible one, if they have
another way to translate, I encourage them as long as I find the translated collocations
acceptable.

Interviewer: So in your opinion, what are the criteria to assess a collocation, whether
it is proper or improper?

Interviewee: Yep, it‟s really hard to say. Because as I told you, it depends on the
context, the ability and how deep your understanding about the collocation is. Maybe I
will depend on my gut feeling and check the internet to find out the frequency of the

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word combinations. If the frequency is not high, I may not accept it. It‟s also quite
hard to assess because we are not the native speakers, we just depend on our feelings.

Interviewer: What about the accuracy or naturalness?

Interviewee: Yes, as I told you, accuracy is very important. But naturalness is

something very ambiguous.

Interviewer: Yes, so now come to the last question. Do you explicitly suggest your
students some strategies to make good collocations?

Interviewee: Strategies? I encourage them to read more. They have to read documents
written in both Vietnamese and authentic English. They have to choose reliable
sources. They have to learn Vietnamese first and revise their English capacity as well.
Sometimes they don‟t understand the writing style, whether a document is academic,
literary, formal, informal. They just automatically use the collocations like a machine
without thinking whether it is suitable in the context. Therefore, I force them to read,
but it‟s just the first step. It takes time and depends on the students as well. The second
one is dictionary, it‟s a must. When we are not native speakers, we have to depend on
the dictionary and the internet which are reliable sources to check. Other strategies, I
think, when they translate, if they translate from Vietnamese into English, I encourage
them to focus on the messages, don‟t be affected by fixed terms or the new words as
long as they can understand. So sometimes I just ask students to read orally, close the
books, retell what they have said so far. You know, I try to separate them from what is
written in the book. If they understand, they can translate it, so they can forget all the
redundant words and translate well. Besides, they should learn fixed terms, the idioms,
and revise their translation, cross check with the internet.

Interviewer: Thank you very much for your participation in this interview!

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Interview with the first student

Interviewer: Firstly, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to you for attending
this interview. As you know, this interview is being conducted to find out common
collocation translation errors as well as good collocations translated by students.

So the first question for you. In your opinion, which types of collocations in the
provided collocation classification table do you find most challenging to translate?

Interviewee: I find that "verb-adverb" and "adjective-noun" are the most challenging
types for me when translating.

Interviewer: Can you specify the reason why?

Interviewee: Because I have to find the most suitable adv or adjective in Vietnamese.
I find that many adv and adjective in English does not have equivalents in Vietnamese.
Or sometimes if I keep their meanings, the translated phrase will sound very funny.

Interviewer: What do you mean by "funny", you mean “strange” or “weird”?

Interviewee: Yep. I mean the words will not sound natural.

Interviewer: Yes, I see.

Interviewer: So the next question for you, which collocation translation errors in the
provided list of errors do you frequently make?

Interviewee: I think they are improper synonyms and literal translation. Therefore,
finding a synonym in another language, I think, is difficult. So if I don't have
dictionary I will translate them literally or use improper synonyms. So I think they are
the two errors that I often make.

Interviewer: Yes, thank you so much. Now for the third question, in your opinion,
what are the reasons leading to your errors in collocation translation?

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Interviewee: I think the first one is new word in the collocation. As I said, if I don't
have a dictionary when I meet a new word, actually I can guess the meaning.
However, not all my guesses are correct, so new word is the first reason.

Interviewer: Yes, I can see that the main cause is the linguistic competence right?

Interviewee: Yes. You're right.

Interviewee: Secondly, I misunderstand the meaning of the words, not new words. If
you can master English, can use it as fluently as your Vietnamese, I think that those
errors will be reduced a lot.

Interviewer: Yep, I see. Are there any other reasons, like the influence of mother
tongue on your translation?

Interviewee: Yep, sometimes. I find that sometimes Vietnamese words we often use
are not used in English in the collocations.

Interviewer: Ok, thank you, coming to the next question. What are your strategies to
deal with those mistakes?

Interviewee: I often use dictionary, especially collocation dictionary when I have to

translate from Vietnamese into English. It's easy for me to look up the collocation
dictionary to find the finest collocations. However, translating from English into
Vietnamese is more difficult because we don't have Vietnamese collocation dictionary.
So I use the Internet. I search my translation on Google and choose the most frequently
used result. I also read books or newspapers that may contain collocations or ask my
friends and teachers for help.

Interviewer: As I see that the biggest problem is linguistic competence. So what have
you done to enhance your competence? In other words, what have you done to create
authentic English collocations when translating Vietnamese collocations into English
collocations?

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Interviewee: I have a notebook. I write the words that I translated correctly or are
checked by my teachers in the notebooks and learn by heart. I often learn the
collocation by heart. I think linguistic competence is just a part of this problem. If you
can remember as many collocations as possible, you can reduce your errors.

Interviewer: Yes, thank you. Do you read or listen a lot to make yourself familiar
with authentic English so that you can use it spontaneously and therefore be able to
make suitable collocations?

Interviewee: Not really. I read more than listen. I can learn best by seeing and writing.
So I often read and then write down what I read to remember them. When listening, I
do not pay much attention to the information as when reading.

Interviewer: Now the last question for you. Which translation procedures in the
provided list do you often use in translating collocations?

Interviewee: I often use shift or transposition to translate collocations. In English,

noun is preferred while in Vietnamese, verb is preferred. Therefore, when translating,
to have the best collocations in the target text, I often use this procedure. The next
procedure I often use is through translation. Because in the texts I needed to translate,
there were many names of organization. Cultural equivalent is also often used. It helps
me make my translation sound natural.

Interviewer: Thank you very much for attending this interview!

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Interview with the second student

Interviewer: Firstly, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to you for attending
this interview. As you know, this interview is being conducted to find out common
collocation translation errors as well as good collocations translated by students.

So the first question for you. In your opinion, which types of collocations in the
provided collocation classification table do you find most challenging to translate?

Interviewee: It's hard to say, you know. Normally I do not classify types of
collocations. So I do not know which one is the most difficult, but in the provided
table I think noun-noun is the most difficult one.

Interviewer: Can you specify the reason why?

Interviewee: I think maybe I don‟t know when to use Adjective-Noun when to use
Noun-Noun for a Vietnamese Noun – Noun.

Interviewer: So the next question for you, which collocation translation errors in the
provided list of errors do you frequently make?

Interviewee: I think it must be addition because Vietnamese is quite lengthy while

you know English is concise. When translating, I tend to think like a Vietnamese,
hence I will preserve the original word order. I mean, if the original says “hôm nay là
một ngày cực kỳ đẹp trời”, I will translate like “it's such a very beautiful day” you
know. Another error might be improper synonyms as I‟m not an English. Like the
example in the table, even now I think that many Vietnamese translate like “grow
talents”, it sounds ok. For others, I don‟t think I committed such errors. Spelling, no,
we have spelling checking right? I am not confident enough to create new words;
literal, sometimes but not a big deal. Ignorance of rule restriction, no, never, I don‟t
think a translator can translate like “recently years”, you know, that's stupid.

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Interviewer: But you know, most of my objects are students, some of them, especially
second-year students often make this mistake because they are not careful.

Interviewee: Yes, I got it.

Interviewer: Yes, thank you so much. Now for the third question, in your opinion,
what are the reasons leading to your errors in collocation translation?

Interviewee: I think due to the lack of background knowledge, I mean terminology,

idioms, etc. We do not know them all in English. Hence, it's unavoidable to commit
those errors. You know, for experienced translators, they have them all so they
translate correctly, I think so. Besides, as you said before, it might be because students
are careless. They do not check their translations carefully. However, I think
background knowledge must be the major cause. That's all.

Interviewer: Have you ever misunderstood the SL collocations and therefore make
the wrong translation into English?

Interviewee: I don‟t think that I mistranslate words due to misunderstanding the

source text. If so, I would translate the text wrongly, I mean the idea.

Interviewer: I mean, if you misunderstand the SL text, you can transfer the wrong
message.

Interviewee: Yep, sometimes we still translate words and word phrase correctly but
wrong ideas.

Interviewer: Ok, thank you. Coming to the next question, what are your strategies to
deal with those mistakes?

Interviewee: You know, using collocation dictionary, that's all. I mean, I just look up
words there and choose suitable words, there's no other secret when I translate. I look

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up words and words that can go with them then choose. I do not translate like word-
for-word from Vietnamese into English. Collocation dictionary is my only tool.

Interviewer: Do you read or listen a lot to authentic English so that you can make
yourself familiar with English and therefore can make right collocations
spontaneously?

Interviewee: Oh, no, I'm not that hard-working, you know. Reading, I think, just
broadens your knowledge, I mean general knowledge. For words and structures, you
must use them. I don‟t think you can learn 100 words via reading, you learn those 100
via using them. So reading is not helpful for me. When translating, I just read what I
translate and look up words; by that way I remember some words and structures for
other translation.

Interviewer: Now the last question for you. Which translation procedures in the
provided list do you often use in translating collocations?

Interviewee: As I said I look up words in dictionary and then translate them, through
translation is the procedure I use most. Besides, I think functional equivalence for
things like Adjective-Verb, then it might be modulation, you know, English prefers
passive voice to active.

Interviewer: What about other procedures like lexical synonymy or paraphrase, like
when you don‟t remember or can‟t find the exact collocation, you can explain it. Or
use the words which share the same meaning with it.

Interviewee: Yes, I also use paraphrase for long and complicated phrases. Lexical
synonymy, yep, sometimes; actually, when I have to translate under time pressure and
without the help of translation tools, I prefer these two procedures.

Interviewer: Thank you very much for attending this interview!

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