TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀ NỘI

KHOA TIẾNG ANH



KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

ĐỀ TÀI
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF COLLOCATIONS IN
TRANSLATION FROM VIETNAMESE INTO ENGLISH AMONG SENIOR
ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS IN HANOI UNIVERSITY

Số phách Người chấm Điểm

(Do Khoa ghi) ( Ký, ghi rõ họ Bằng số Bằng chữ
tên)

........................................................................................................................

Số phách
(Do Khoa ghi) Giảng viên hướng dẫn: TS. Ngô Văn Giang
Họ và tên: Hoàng Phạm Việt Anh
Năm sinh: 21/02/1998
Lớp: CNTN-16
Mã sinh viên: 1607010006
Ngày thực hiện: 6/2020

Hà Nội - 2020
 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis
is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other
purposes. I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my
own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources
have been acknowledged.

Date: ______________________

Signature: ______________________
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ............................................................................iv

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.1. Background of the study .................................................................................... 1

1.2. Rationale ............................................................................................................ 1

1.3. Scope of the study .............................................................................................. 2

1.4. Significance of the study .................................................................................... 2

1.5. Research questions ............................................................................................. 2

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 4

2.1. Working definition of translation and collocation… ........................................... 4

2.2. The importance of collocations…....................................................................... 5

2.3. Collocation-related problems….......................................................................... 5

2.4. Strategies in translating collocations……………………………………….....…7

2.5. General problems of collocation translation…………………………………….8
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 10

3.1. Research design ............................................................................................... 11

3.2. Research setting ............................................................................................... 11

3.3. Data collection method..................................................................................... 11

3.4. Data analysis method ....................................................................................... 12

CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................ 12

4.1. Students’ perception on ability to use collocations in translation … ................. 12

4.2. Problems in the use of collocations in translation … ........................................ 13

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 4.3. Strategies in collocation translation utilized by students … .............................. 18

4.4. Perceptions on the cause of difficulties in using collocations in translation…...21

4.5. Solutions to improving the use of collocations in translation………………….23

CHAPTER 5. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION .............................. 26

5.1. Recommendations ............................................................................................ 26

5.2. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 26

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 27

APPENDIX ................................................................................................................... 35

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................... 40

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 ABBREVIATIONS

SL Source language
TL Target language
ST Source text
TT Target text
EFL English-as-a-foreign-language

iii
 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

F.1. Figure 1 12
F.1. Figure 2 13
F.3. Figure 3 18
F.4. Figure 4 22

iv
 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the study

It is widely believed that languages play a key role in addressing the need of
communication and information exchange among human beings (Bellos, 2011). In
the context of globalization and widespread immigration, it is undeniable that
English has become the world’s most prominent language. Despite it prevalence,
not everybody is able to communicate in English. In those cases, translation is the
solution to such language barrier and thus is considered to be a transportation of
knowledge (Newmark, 1991). As a result, rendering one language to another has
become “natural and unavoidable around the world today” (Bellos, 2011, p. 12),
thus leading to growing demand on translation.
However, rendering a message from one language into another is never easy.
Particularly, it is found that learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) have to
deal with a variety of linguistic components and thus may not have a competent
capability to translate naturally (Nguyen, 2013). Collocation is a typical example.
Collocations, i.e. the way words have a tendency to co-exist, pose great challenges
to students (Bhahns & Eldaw, 1993). The arbitrariness accompanied with the
cultural differences between SL and TL result in the incompetency in translation
(Mahmoud, 2005).
In order to deal with these challenges, translators apply different strategies and
techniques. Numerous studies on Vietnamese-English translation have been carried
out, however, there are few researches specifically focusing on the use of
collocation in translation from Vietnamese into English. This study will shed light
on this issue.

1.2. Rationale
In this study, the researcher aims to discover the difficulties encountered by students
in the use of collocations in translation from Vietnamese into English. Besides,
different kinds of strategies in rendering Vietnamese collocations into English

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equivalences are also explored. Apart from that, the present study focuses on
exploring self-reflective solutions taken by students to the problems which they face
in Vietnamese-English collocation translation.

1.3. Scope of the study

It is the translation from Vietnamese into English that the researcher wished to
investigate. However, with the ubiquitousness in English accompanied with the
great challenges for translators, it is the collocation in translation that the researcher
wants to focus on.
Moreover, the study only looks into Vietnamese-English translation direction and is
limited to written translation. The restrictions are due to limited time and scope of
the study.

1.4. Significance of the study

This research is aimed at making a robust contribution to a better recognition of the
importance of collocations and the problems of using collocations in translation.
More importantly, it is expected that EFL students could have an improvement on
the Vietnamese-English translation proficiency. Besides, translation teachers could
better benefit their students with more appropriate teaching methods from the
knowledge of this study.

1.5. Research questions

To meet the objectives above, the research focuses on the following questions:
Question 1: What is the self-assessment on collocation competency of the
majority of students?
Question 2: What are the most difficulties encountered by students in
collocation translation?
Question 3: What is the most significant cause of these difficulties?
Question 4: What are the most-used strategies by students in collocation
translation?

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Question 5: What are the solutions in improving the use of collocation in
translation?

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 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Working definition of translation and collocation

2.1.1. Translation
Newmark (1988, p. 5) stated that translation is “rendering the meaning of a
text into another language in the way that the author intended the text”.
Similarly, Nida (1964, p. 65) defined translation as “reproducing in the
receptor language (target language) the closest natural equivalent of the
source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of
style”. However, the abstractness of idea accompanied with the deep-seated
unique linguistic and cultural characteristics in languages pose great
difficulties for the translators (Hill, 2000). Hence, translation is described as
“an art which requires appropriate knowledge of both source and target
language” and it demands “real understanding of the culture of the societies
concerned” (Almad, 2010, p.7).

2.1.2. Collocation
Various definitions on collocations have been given by scholar but in a
relatively similar way. Firth (1957) who coined the term collocation defined
it as the way words associated with each other. Likewise, Ghazala (1995)
indicated that “a collocation is a combination of two or more words that
always occur together consistently in different contexts in languages”. Other
scholars refer collocations to habitual co-occurances of words (Crystal,
1986). Lewis (2000, p. 8) considered collocation as a “compostitional”
process in which words habitually co-exist together, more specifically, “the
readily observable phenomenon whereby certain words co-occur in natural
text with greater than random frequency”. Benson and Ilson (1988) regarded
collocations as fixed, non-idiomatic and recurrent combination. Abu-Ssaydeh
(1991) considered collocations as dynamic instead of a static phenomenon.

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For the present study’s focus on the use of collocations in translation, the
Ghazala’s concept of collocation is chosen as the working definition.

2.2. The importance of collocations

Collocations have been received great concern by scholars because it is
regarded as the prominent focus in language processing and acquisition as
well as in translation (Schmitt, 2010). Since collocations account for 70% of
language which greatly outnumber individual words (Hill, 2000), the
proficiency in learning a foreign language heavily relies on the competency
in using collocations (Palmer, 1933). Seretan (2013) considered collocations
to be the key factor in Natural Language Processing (NLP) since they
provide language learners with the linguistic naturalness instead of the word-
for-word processing. In short, the “library” of collocations of a language
learner dictates his linguistic performance (Firth, 1957).
In translation, collocations are even of more importance. The use of
collocations dictates the translator’s competency and the translation quality,
i.e. “it is assumed, accordingly, that a translation that employs TL
collocations has to be described as more fluent, natural, coherent, cohesive,
appealing and even more aesthetic” (Bzour, 2006, p. 39). In her article
Collocation Puzzle, Dalia compared selecting the proper collocations in
translation as solving a puzzle game in which the collocations had to be
compatible with its neighboring words (as cited in Bzour, 2006). On the one
hand, it can be concluded that collocations provide TT with increasing
translation quality, but on the other hand, translators are confronted with a
great number of collocation-related problems which are to be reviewed
below.

2.3. Collocation-related problems

It is widely proven that EFL students encounter many difficulties in
translating collocations.

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Firstly, most of the collocation errors made by EFL students are due to the
lack of collocation knowledge (Modarresi, 2009). Similarly, Rabeh (2010)
found out that students did not pay much attention to the acquisition of
collocations which strongly correlates with the result of poor performance of
collocation translation by Moderrseri (2009). It is also found out that EFL
students take collocations for granted because they tend to ignore this
phenomenon after they already recognize the explicit semantic form of
specific collocations (Lesniewska, 2006).
Secondly, it is the arbitrariness and unpredictability of collocation, i.e. the
random linguistic convention that dictates the ability of a word to co-occur
with another one. EFL students might get confused why strong tea is used
instead of powerful tea, or why rancid could only collocate with butter or
bacon, but not with eggs or brain (Palmer, 1967). Even native speakers could
not explain this phenomenon and the proper use of language is guided
unconsciously by a system so-called correct collocations (Duan & Qin,
2012).
Thirdly, Boussalia (2010) attributed these errors to the semantic and cultural
differences between SL and TL in which he refered to the linguistic
untranslatability (as cited in Shraideh & Mahadin, 2015). The duty of a
translator is even more of requirement when it comes to cultural-specificity,
i.e. when collocations are used to express figurative meaning or specific
ideology, or when a translators encounters an unfamiliar collocation structure
(Baker, 1992). Unfortunately, there are hardly any existence of exact
equivalent collocations between SL and TL (Enani, 1994) which imposes
great necessity on translator’s ability to analyze the ST context and give the
most appropriate equivalence. Having said that, EFL students often resort to
literal translation as the primary strategy in collocation translation (Rabeh,
2010). Dvorkin (1991) suggested that “collocations are problematic when
their meaning is apparent at first glance but their constituent elements cannot
be given their translation equivalents” (as cited in Bartan, 2019, p. 75). The

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incompetency in translating collocations may result in the meaning loss or
strangely-produced expressions for recipients and even misunderstanding
(Obeidat & Mahadi, 2019). Moreover, the heavy dependence on bilingual
dictionary of EFL students worsens their performance since it accidentally
puts students in danger of committing grammatical and semantic errors in
which cultural knowledge should take place (Lu, 2016).
Among other studies, the collocation-related problem model by Baker (1992)
stands out to be the most comprehensive. This model includes 5 problems,
which is applied and elaborated in chapter 4 of the present study, as follows:
2.3.1. The engrossing effect of the source text patterning.
2.3.2. Misinterpreting the meaning of a source-language collocations.
2.3.3. The tension between accuracy and natural.
2.3.4. Cultural-specific collocations.
2.3.5. Marked collocations in ST.

2.4. Strategies in translating collocations

Shraideh & Mahadin, (2015) suggested collocation translation strategies
including synonymy, omission, paraphrasing, approximation, and
elaboration
2.4.1. Synonymy
Synonym is defined as forms with related meanings (Yule, 1997).
There is hardly any inter-linguistic equivalence at word level (Enani,
1994). Newmark (1991) supported this idea by suggesting that perfect
translation equivalence is apparently impossible. Having said that,
EFL students often try to substitute a word in SL with its synonym in
TL without being aware of inappropriate use of collocation, mainly
because of the lack of TL competency (‫ﺃﺣﻤﺪ & ﺍﻟﻨﺨﺎﻟ ﺔ‬, 2018).
2.4.2. Approximation
This strategy is based on the idea of creating the naturalness and an
equilibrium between the aesthetic and the cultural value of the ST and

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 the TT. Although this strategy technically allows translators to render
the ST, however, the intended connotation of the ST might be lost and
transformed into a neutral style (Bruno, 2004).
2.4.3. Omission
According to Ivir (1987), omission is utilized when a translator
considers a cultural term might negatively affect a specific
communicative situation (as cited in Ghada, 2018). This strategy is
suitable when there is a discrepancy in culture among SL and TL
(Dickins, 2016), especially when a cultural taboo comes into place.
Besides, omission makes the information presented more concise in
which instead of deletion, the omitted information is implied in “what
was preserved” (Dimitriu, 2002, p. 166). However, it is advisable that
translator should only use this strategy as the last resort.
2.4.4. Elaboration
If ST contains an expression which sounds strange to the TT
readership, a translator may use elaboration strategy to provide
detailed explanation for clarification. (Shraideh & Mahadin, 2015).
2.4.5. Paraphrasing
In definition, paraphrasing is to express the same content of ST in a
different form in TT. A translator might use this strategy when
encountering a cultural-specific expression in which he could not find
the equivalence in TL (Newmark, 1988). However, this strategy might
“result in a TT version that can be described as loose, in some
contexts even undertranslated. Semantic components at the lexeme
level tend to be disregarded, in favour of the pragmatic sense of some
higher unit such as a whole clause.” (Chesterman, 1997, p. 104).
This framework of collocation translation strategies is applied in chapter 4 of
the present study.

2.5. General problems of collocation translation

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Corder (1967) suggested two main problems in collocation translation:
2.5.1. Interlingual errors: the errors which are caused by the negative
influence of SL and the assumption that the patterns of SL and
TL are the same.
2.5.2. Intralingual errors: the errors which occurs in the language
itself. There are 3 errors in this category. Firstly, the lack of
experience of TL results in the overgeneralization. Secondly,
inappropriate application of collocating rules results in the
ignorance of rule restrictions. Thirdly, semantic errors occur
due to establishing false concepts.
According to Shitu (2015), there are 3 sources of collocation errors:
2.5.3. The native language influence
Despite the differences between SL and TL, students still tend to
think about the patterns in their mother tongue before rendering
into TL. As a result, many collocation errors are produced in TT.
2.5.4. Translating strategy type
It is known that specific translation strategies such as synonym,
approximation, etc result in the poor quality of the translation. For
instance, when using synonym, EFL students tend to replace a
word in SL with its synonym in TL, however, there are hardly any
perfect synonym between languages.
2.5.5. Lack of collocation competence
It is reported that the lack of collocation knowledge is a major
source of collocation errors. For example, collocation of verb +
noun and verb + preposition are the most collocation errors made
by student (Shitu, 2015).
The framework of sources of collocation errors by Shitu (2015) is applied
and elaborated in chapter 4 of the present study.

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 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research design

This research employs two major instruments: questionnaire and document
analysis.
The use of questionnaire for data collection is highly appropriate because it
provides opinion-related data which are greatly compatible with the research
questions. Moreover, it is more economical and convenient for quick data
processing compared to other methods.
The document analysis involves a translation test of which the respondents
were required to do. The purpose of this test is to have a deeper look into
their use of collocations in translation, their translation strategies as well as
to provide examples for the collocation errors of the respondents.

3.2. Research setting

Senior English-majored students of Hanoi University were chosen as the
subjects for the present study. This selection of respondents is due to the fact
that they have experienced at least 6 terms focusing on language skills and
another 2 terms on translation and interpretation which should provide them
with the language competency and essential skills in translation. Hence, the
students are highly qualified subjects, thus are fully expected to understand
and complete the questionnaire and the translation test.

3.3. Data collection method

For the effectiveness of data collection, a pilot survey was conducted in class
CNTN-16. The results of the survey revealed some problems with the
questions in the translation tests. Based on those, adjustments were made
immediately.

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The questionnaires and the translation tests were created in Google form and
distributed online, particularly on Facebook groups of 5 classes of English
departments.
Finally, 53 responses were collected and all of them were eligible.

3.4. Data analysis method

In the first question, the number of ticks for each option was counted to
unveil students’ self-assessment of their competency in using collocations in
translation. The second question revealed the frequency of collocation errors
perceived by the students. The researcher worked out the data to turn it into
form of percent for clear presentation. Typical translation answers of
respondents were used to illustrate these collocation errors. Also by carefully
analyzing all the translation answers, the collocation translation strategies
were categorized to answer the third question, i.e. to find out the most-used
strategy. The forth question sought for the students’ perception on the causes
of collocation errors. Ticks of frequency were calculated and also
transformed into percent format. The final question tried to elicit possible
solutions from the students to improve their collocation competency as well
as how theirs teacher can help them.

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 CHAPTER 4. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Students’ perception on ability to use collocations in translation from

Vietnamese to English

Figure 1: Students’ perception on ability to use collocations in translation

Figure 1 illustrates the percentage of 4th-year English-majored students assessing

their ability to use collocations in translation. As it is clearly seen that most of the
respondents acknowledged their moderate competency in collocation translation
(85%), accompanied by Well able (17%). Only 3% of the respondents reported to
have the perfect ability and none of the students had any degrees of inability in the
use of collocations in translation. This indicates that 4th-year English-majored
students of Hanoi University have confidence in their language competency. In
other words, using collocations in translation is not a problem to most of the
students, which perfectly correlates with the study by Higuchi (1999) who
conducted a research on collocation competency among his English-majored

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students. Having said that, the students still faced a number of difficulties in using
collocations, which are elaborated in the following bar chart.

4.2. Problems in the use of collocations in translation

Figure 2: The most frequent problems in the use of collocations in translation

This section applies the Baker’s model of collocation errors (1992). It is clearly
seen from the Figure 2 that the cultural-specific collocation (75%) and the
engrossing effect of the source text patterning (60%) and are the most frequent
problems faced by the students, followed by the tension between accuracy and
naturalness, mark collocation and misinterpreting the meaning of a source-
language collocation which accounted for 25%, 20% and 12% respectively.

4.2.1. Cultural-specific collocation

The cultural setting of the ST is sometimes different from that in TT so ST may
contain collocations which render unfamiliarity to the readership in TL. In fact, this
type of error was faced with the most frequency among the students (75%).

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 ST: Người Sài Gòn nô nức đi tảo mộ cuối năm.

TT 1: At the end of the year, Saigon people rush to visit their

ancestral graves.
TT 2: Many Saigonese are going to graveyards to worship their
ancestors as the year is about to end.
In Vietnamese, tảo mộ means to clean and decorate one’s ancestral graves. It is
worthy of notice that none of the respondents produced the appropriate cultural
equivalence of this collocation. Instead, it should have been rendered into the noun
collocation Festival for Tending Graves which is its most proper equivalence in
English. This finding correlates with the one found in study by (Obeidat & Mahadi,
2019) which indicates that the diversity of linguistic cultures turned out to be the
most problematic issue for EFL students.
ST: “Bắt vợ” cho đến nay vẫn là một phong tục lâu đời của đồng bào
Dân tộc H’mông.
TT 1: “Catching wives” has long been a traditional custom of H’mong
people.
TT 2: “Kidnapping wives” is a traditional custom of H’mong ethnic
people.
TT 3: Bat vo (Kidnapping a girl to make one’s wife) is a traditional
custom of H’mong ethnic people.
These are translation examples in which the translators struggled to render the ST
collocation. “Bắt vợ” posed a great challenge for the students as it stood out to be
the most unique cultural collocation. While the first and second translator could not
render the ST collocation in an appropriate manner, the third translator seemed to
provide the most proper translation as s/he elaborated the meaning of the ST
collocation for better understanding of the TT readership.
As can be clearly seen, the distinct cultural differences between SL and TL,
particularly between Vietnamese and English well explain for the extremely high

14
frequency of this type of error in students’ translation which bore similarity with
findings in Obeidat & Mahadi (2019).

4.2.2. The engrossing effect of the source text patterning

The results from the qualitative test shows that most of the students were faced with
the problem of the engrossing effect of the source text patterning which accounted
for 60% of the frequency. This means that the respondents were confused by the
differences in the surface pattern between TL and SL and thus failed to find an
appropriate verb or an adjective for a noun. In other word, they found it difficult to
choose an appropriate equivalence in TL. First reason can be attributed to the literal
translation among students.
ST: Tuy nhiên, khi dựa vào lí thuyết Dow, bạn phải phân tích thị trường
theo tiêu chí khách quan.
TT 1: However, when leaning on Dow’s theory, you must analyze the
market according to objective criteria.
TT 2: However, on working on Dow’s theory, it is critical that you
analyze the market objectively.
In this example, translation errors emerged since translator 1 used literal translation to
render the collocation dựa vào lí thuyết Dow in Vietnamese into leaning on Dow’s
theory in English. Lean on does not collocate with theory; instead, work on as used by
translator 2 does (Oxford Collocation Dictionary, 2009). This problem was also
mentioned by Gorgis (2013) as students often suffered heavy dependence on the
transference of literal meaning as faithfully as possible.
ST: Hiện nay, trên địa bàn thành phố Phủ Lý, không khó để tìm một
tiệm sửa quần áo
TT 1: Nowadays, in Phu Ly, it is not difficult to find a clothes-repair
shop.
TT 2: It is not very hard to find a shop which mend clothes in the area of
Phu Ly nowadays.

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In this example, translation 1 was negatively affected by the ST collocation. Sửa may
have a number of equivalences in English such as fix, mend, repair, etc. However,
only mend can collocate with clothes (Oxford Collocation Dictionary, 2009) which
indicates that translation 2 achieved the grammatical and semantic accuracy. It is
observed that not only Vietnamese EFL students are challenged with this problem, but
also international English-majored students in various studies by Ridha & Al-Riyahi
(2011), Bahns (1993) and Chen (2002).

4.2.3. Tension between accuracy and naturalness

There are approximately one third of all the translations encountering troubles with
this collocation error (25%). Rendering a collocation which is natural, while at the
same time, accurate into the target language may not be always achieved.
Translators often have to sacrifice the former for the latter and vice versa, which
means that naturalness in TT may not represent the original meaning of the ST and
while focusing on the accuracy of ST may produce odd collocations in TL. A
translation is considered to be successful once both accuracy and naturalness are
achieved (Obeidat & Mahadi, 2019). This often creates the tension in the process of
translating.
ST: Con người vì ham sống nên mới sợ chết
TT 1: Because people love life so they fear death.
TT 2: People desire life so they fear death.
TT 3: People cling to life so they fear death.
The example above clearly illustrates the tension to achieve a good translation. The
first translator endeavored to keep the naturalness by producing a familiar
collocation in TL (love life in English). However, the meaning of the TT collocation
somewhat does not fully represent the meaning of the collocation in ST (ham sống
in Vietnamese). Conversely, translator 2 literally translated the ST collocation into
desire life which preserves the shade of meaning in ST, however, the readership in
TL may find it somewhat awkward since desire does not collocate with life (Oxford
Collocation Dictionary, 2009). The translation 3 succeeded in finding the English

16
equivalence for the verb ham in Vietnamese in this context, i.e. cling to and it well
collocates with life (Oxford Collocation Dictionary, 2009). Thus, the rendered
collocation fully presented the author’s idea and made the message in TL accurate
and natural.

4.2.4. Misinterpreting the meaning of SL collocation

This error is caused due to translator’s failure in understanding the ST and thus s/he
provides the semantically inaccurate collocation. According to Baker (1992), this
problem is credited to the interference from SL. A particular collocation in SL
appears to be familiar with the translator, hence it is taken for granted and rendered
carelessly into TL.
ST: Chí Linh là một yếu điểm quân sự nên quân ta cần tập trung hỏa
lực ở đây.
TT 1: Chi Linh is a weak point of military, hence we need to focus
on fire here.
TT 2: We should have fire force gathered around here as Chi Linh is
of military importance.
The collocation yếu điểm in Vietnamese refers to a focal point in English. However,
the translator 1 mistook this collocation with điểm yếu (weak point). Hence, the
whole meaning of the message has been totally distorted by the misinterpretation of
ST collocation. Conversely, translator 2 succeeded in reading the ST collocation
correctly, thus provided an appropriate translation into TL. The low frequency of
this error suggests that the students did not have many difficulties in understanding
the ST.

4.2.5. Marked collocation

It is noted that the respondents reported such a low rate of having stumbled on this
problem with only 20% of the frequency. Marked collocations are defined as
collocations which create figurative images within the mind of recipients (Baker,
1992).

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 ST: Và cậu ấy, từ hôm ấy, đã đánh cắp trái tim em
TT: And he, since that day, stole my heart.
Nearly 100% of the respondents translated the collocation đánh cắp trái tim in
Vietnamese into stole heart in English. The figurative image is well rendered with
its impact and beauty preserved.
ST: Điều này hứa hẹn sẽ có một làn sóng thay đổi tại các công ty
chứng khoán trong thời gian tới.
TT 1: This is expected to bring a tide of change in stock companies
soon.
TT 2: This will trigger a wave of change in a lot of stock companies
in the upcoming time.
Most of the respondents render the collocation làn sóng thay đổi as either tide of
change or wave of change. Both of them are acceptable collocation equivalence
(Oxford Collocation Dictionary, 2009). It is clear that EFL students do not have
many difficulties in translating marked collocations, which was also found out by
Obeidat & Mahadi (2019).

4.3. Strategies in collocation translation utilized by students

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Figure 3: Strategies in collocation translation utilized by students

Figure 3 unveils the strategies which were utilized by the students in translating
collocations. As it can be clearly noticed that the majority of students used synonym
(46%) and paraphrasing (30%). The least frequently used strategies are
approximation and omission which accounted for 17% and 7% respectively.

4.3.1. Synonym
It is shown that the most conspicuous strategy used by students in collocation is
synonymy with 46% of the student’s response. Marked collocations in SL such as
đánh cắp trái tim and làn sóng thay đổi were also rendered by finding synonymous
words in TL as stole one’s heart and tide of change respectively. Another marked
collocation where synonyms were correctly used to find its appropriate equivalence
is as following:
ST: Nhà Trắng đang cân nhắc gỡ bỏ hàng rào thuế quan đối với 112 tỷ
USD hàng hóa nhập khẩu từ Trung Quốc.
TT: The White House is taking into consideration the tariff barrier
lift for imported merchandise of $112 billion from China.
The dominated utilization of synonym by the respondents suggests that this strategy
should be taken into careful consideration. Although in many cases, translating a
collocation bear much similarity to finding its synonyms in TL, careless use of
synonym may result in awkwardness in meaning (as sửa quần áo in Vietnamese
was rendered into fix/repair clothes instead of mend clothes in English) which is
caused by the lack of collocation competency (Dweik & Shakra, 2010).

4.3.2. Paraphrasing
This strategy is the second most used which accounts for 30% of the respondents’
answers. The students used this strategy by producing a different version of
translation, i.e. by definition or description with the meaning unchanged from ST.
For example, in translating the collocation tảo mộ, students tried to give

19
descriptions, i.e. go to graveyard or clean and decorate graves. Another use of
paraphrasing can be seen in rendering the collocation bắt vợ into kidnapping a girl
to make her one’s wife. Although there is minor change in the shade of meaning, the
readership could still understand the TT. As it can be seen that this strategy is used
largely for cultural-specific collocation in which detailed description is pivotal for
the understanding of the TL readership (Dweik & Shakra, 2010).

4.3.3. Approximation
One of the less frequently used strategies in the collocation translation test is
approximation (17%). This strategy is used when a translator fails to find the
specific equivalence for the collocation in TL, thus s/he resorts to give a more
general meaning. For example:
ST: Tuy nhiên, khi dựa vào lí thuyết Dow, bạn phải phân tích thị trường
theo tiêu chí khách quan.
TT: However, when referring to Dow theory, you must analyze the
market under objective criteria.
Clearly seen that this student could not find the exact term for the intended
collocation, hence s/he used a much general word (i.e. refer to). However, without
much meaning changed, the TL recipients may not have any challenges in
understanding TT. Having said that, the use of approximation is not always
acceptable, as it is shown in this example:
ST: Thi sau khi gây thương tích cho anh Hà thì có đến thăm anh Hà
tại bệnh viện.
TT: After hurting Mr Ha, Thi visited him in hospital.
This is considered to be a poor translation since it overgeneralizes the meaning of
the ST collocation. Hurting can be either physical or mental, moreover, it does not
express the appropriate shade of meaning of ST collocation (gây thương tích). This
may bear difficulties for the readership to completely comprehend the meaning of
the message. Instead, the collocation should have been rendered into inflicting
injury since inflict well collocates with injury (Oxford collocation dictionary, 2009)

20
and the collocation succeeded in representing the TL collocation. Therefore,
approximation should be used carefully in specific contexts to avoid distortion in
the original meaning (Dweik & Shakra, 2010).

4.3.4. Omission
Omission is the least utilized strategy in collocation translation with 7% of the
received responses. This strategy emerges due to the fact that there are some
specific collocations which a translator could not translate, for example cultural
terms, special jargons, hence s/he has the tendency to eliminate those lexical
constituents to avoid unnaturalness. In the examples above, omission is used in the
following example:
ST: Hiện nay, trên địa bàn thành phố Phủ Lý, không khó để tìm một tiệm
sửa quần áo

TT: Nowadays, it is not hard to find a tailor shop in Phu Ly province.

It is noticed that this translator could not find the proper equivalence of the ST
collocation (sửa quần áo), thus s/he deleted one of the lexical item, i.e. sửa to
simply translate the phrase as tailor shop. It can be seen that the use of omission is
acceptable when unimportant words are deleted as shown in the above example;
however, distortion of meaning may occur if translators attempt to eliminate
important words of the sentence. It is advisable that this strategy is used in low
frequency.

4.4. Perceptions on the cause of difficulties in using collocations in

translation

21
 100

90

80

70 65

60
50
50

40
30
30

20

10

0
Native language influence Inappropriate translation strategy Lack of collocation competency

Figure 4: The causes of difficulties in using collocations in translation

This section is based on the cause of collocation errors model by Shitu (1992).
Figure 4 demonstrates the frequency of the causes of difficulties which influenced
collocation translation among the students.
It is clear to see that lack of collocation competency is the most recurrent cause
among the students with 65% of the frequency. This creates a consistency with the
finding on moderate collocation competency of the students. Once again, this shows
a weakness in the competency of using collocations among senior English-majored
students in Hanoi University despite many years of learning English and practicing
translation. It shares a similar results with the studies carried out by Liu (1999),
Nattinger (1998) and Taiwo (2004) in which lack of collocation competency is
found as a major cause of collocation errors.
Native language influence is reported to be the second most frequent cause of
collocation errors among EFL students with 50%. It is noted that the students still
habitually negatively transferred their Vietnamese collocation knowledge into the
translation of English collocations which results in errors despite the differences in

22
linguistic patterns between Vietnamese and English. Similar findings on the
interferences of SL on rendering collocations into TL can also be found in Ridha &
Al-Riyahi (2011), Bahn & Eldaw (1993) and Bahn (1993).
The inappropriate translation strategy is reported to be the least frequent cause
among the respondents with only 30%. Tendency to utilize literal translation results
in collocation errors (Farghal & Obideat, 1995); misuse of approximation strategy
might overgeneralize the understanding of recipients and the use of omission
strategy might not complete the meaning of ST (Howarth, 1998).

4.5. Solutions to improving the use of collocations in translation

It can be seen that 4th-year English-majored students in Hanoi University had a
number of different ways in how they could enhance their competency in using
collocations in translation as well as how their teachers could do to help them. The
researcher collected and compiled students’ ideas into following categories:

4.5.1 Students’ approach

Concerning the use of collocation in translation, students revealed diverse
approaches. Firstly, it is suggested that avoiding literal translation and
understanding the ST thoroughly is a must. For example:
ST: “Bắt vợ” cho đến nay vẫn là một phong tục lâu đời của đồng bào
Dân tộc H’mông
TT: “Catching wife” is a traditional custom of H'mong people.
As it is seen that literal translation is destructive for target audience, translator
should keep away from it. This strategy should be used as the last resort (Fox,
1959).
Secondly, looking up a collocation dictionary whenever possible was advised. Due
to the unpredictability and arbitrariness of collocation, it is better not to collocate
one word with another for granted (Bahumaid, 2006). Oxford Collocation
Dictionary (2009) and Macmillan collocation dictionary (2010) provide a wide

23
range of modern-used collocation which better the use of collocations in translation
for EFL students.
Thirdly, remembering words in combination with their exemplifications was
proposed. It is critical for students to learn vocabulary in form of collocation to
avoid using word-for-word translation and cause the unnaturalness in TT (Baker,
1992).
Finally, the students believed they should get more exposed to English materials
and translation practice. A method to enrich the bank of collocations is through
books, news, podcasts, movies (Ghada, 2018). It is interesting to note that there was
one student who frequently attended online webinar on Skype to exchange relevant
topics on translation-related problems. Besides, recurrent practice on translation is
out of the question. It not only improve the skills need in translation in general, but
also enhance the competency in using collocations in particular.

4.5.2. Teachers’ approach:

Firstly, the students suggested teachers’ in-depth instruction on the proper strategies
in collocation translation. As indicated above, senior English-majored students still
stumbled on a number of collocation errors related to the misuse of translation
strategies. Thus, with their profound knowledge and experience, teachers should
provide more information on how to acquire a set of appropriate strategies in
collocation translation. (Ghada, 2018).
Secondly, according to the students, teachers should show the similarities and
differences in collocation patterns between English and Vietnamese. This is a very
interesting and specific idea raised by one of the student. As it can be shown that the
engross effect of source text patterning can negatively affect the translation,
teachers should put more effort into teaching how to render ST into TT with
appropriate pattern. In fact, differentiating the patterns between the SL and TL
greatly enhances the translation performance of students, particularly in collocation
translation (Bahn & Eldaw, 1993).

24
Finally, it is advised that teachers should provide translation exercises with a wide
range of collocation use. Students should be exposed to not only translational
materials but also collocations in other specific contexts as much as possible.

25
 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

5.1. Recommendation
In the context of increasing global integration, translation is expected to
achieve a much higher position. Hence, more studies should be conducted to
address other translation-related problems. Collocation is a typical example.
To novice translators, or even professional translators, enriching the stock of
collocations on various aspects of life is highly suggested. To translation
teachers, the students’ collocation errors as well as their suggested solution
should be taken into consideration to apply in translation subject-based
curriculum. Further researches on solutions for specific problems in the use
of collocations in translation are highly expected.

5.2. Conclusion
To summarize, the research offers an investigation into the use of collocation
in translation from Vietnamese into English among 4th-year English-majored
students of Hanoi University. The study has revealed the following points:
Firstly, the majority of the students assessed their competency in using
collocation in translation as moderate. Secondly, Cultural-specific
collocation and the engrossing effect of the source text patterning were
considered as the main difficulties in using collocation in translation.
Thirdly, the students used different strategies in translating collocations in
which synonym is the most frequently used strategy. Fourthly, the lack of
collocation competency was the prominent cause which resulted in the
unsatisfying collocation use. Finally, the students suggested various ideas for
what they could do to improve their collocation competency as well as how
their teachers could help them in the use of collocation in translation.

26
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34
 APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear respondents,
I am Hoang Pham Viet Anh from class CNTN-16, English Department, Hanoi
University. I am conducting a survey to investigate the use of collocation in
translation of Vietnamese into English among senior English- majored students
in Hanoi University. Please take a few minutes to answer these following
questions carefully and honestly. All your responses will remain anonymous and
be used for this research only.
Thank you for your cooperation!
I. The translation test
Instruction: Translate the following sentences into English. No dictionary
or related material is allowed.
1. Tuy nhiên, khi dựa vào lí thuyết Dow, bạn phải phân tích thị trường
theo tiêu chí khách quan.
Your translation:
2. Hiện nay, trên địa bàn thành phố Phủ Lý, không khó để tìm một tiệm
sửa quần áo
Your translation:

3. Người Sài Gòn nô nức đi tảo mộ cuối năm

Your translation
4. Điều này hứa hẹn sẽ có một làn sóng thay đổi tại các công ty chứng
khoán trong thời gian tới.
Your translation:
5. Và cậu ấy, từ hôm ấy, đã đánh cắp trái tim em
Your translation:
6. Nhà Trắng đang cân nhắc gỡ bỏ hàng rào thuế quan đối với 112 tỷ
USD hàng hóa nhập khẩu từ Trung Quốc
Your translation:

35
 7. Chí Linh là một yếu điểm quân sự nên quân ta cần tập trung hỏa lực ở
đây
Your translation:
8. Con người vì ham sống nên mới sợ chết
Your translation:
9. “Bắt vợ” cho đến nay vẫn là một phong tục lâu đời của đồng bào Dân
tộc H’mông
Your translation:
10. Thi sau khi gây thương tích cho anh Hà thì có đến thăm anh Hà tại
bệnh viện.
Your translation:
II. The questionnaire
1. How able are you to use collocations in translation of Vietnamese into
English?
(Put a tick () at your option)
 Completely unable
 Quite unable
 Moderately able
 Well able
 Perfectly able
2. How often do you have specific difficulties in the use of collocation in
translation of Vietnamese into English?
(Put a tick () at your option)
No. Difficulty Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never

1 I don’t clearly understand

the collocation in the
source language (SL)

36
 2 I don’t know how to
translate cultural-specific
collocations. E.g. rước lân,
tảo mộ, etc.

3 I don’t know how to

collocate words in the TL
even though I understand
the collocation in SL (e.g. I
don’t know if make or do
goes with excuse)

4 I don’t have both accuracy

and naturalness in the
translation at the same time

5 I don’t know how to

translate when there’s a
figurative collocation in the
SL (e.g. “Cả một biển
người náo nức trong ngày
lịch sử trọng đại của dân
tộc”)

6 Other (please specify)

3. What are your causes of your difficulties in the use of collocation in

translation of Vietnamese into English?
(Put a tick () at your option, “5” and “1” is ranked as the most and the least
frequent causes for you respectively)

37
 No. Cause 1 2 3 4 5

1 The heavy influence of my

mother tongue on English

2 My inappropriate translation
strategy

3 My lack of collocation
competency

4 Others (please specify)

4. What can you do to improve your use of collocation in translation of

Vietnamese into English?
(Write at least 3 ways)
5. What can your teachers do to improve your use of collocation in
translation of Vietnamese into English?
(Write at least 3 ways)

The end of the questionnaire. Thanks for your cooperation. God save you.

38
 Suggested translation answers
1. However, when working on Dow theory, you must analyze the market under
objective criteria.
2. Nowadays, it is not hard to find a clothes-mending tailor shop in the area of
Phu Ly.
3. Saigonese rush to Festival for Tending Graves at the end of the year.
4. This is expected to create a tide of change in stock companies in the near
future.
5. And he has stole my heart since that day.
6. The White House has considered to lift the tariff barrier for 112 billions of
goods exported from China
7. Chi Linh is a focal military spot so in here must we focus our fire power
here.
8. We human are afraid of death so we cling to life.
9. Bat vo (Kidnapping a girl to make one’s wife) is a traditional custom of
H’mong ethnic people.
10. After inflicting injury to Mr. Ha, Thi went to hospital to visit him.

39
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The graduation paper would not have been completed without the enormous
help of several people who in one way or another contributed their special
assistance in the preparation and completion of the paper.

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the English
Department of Hanoi University for granting me an opportunity to write this
graduation thesis.

Secondly, I wish to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Mr. Ngô Văn

Giang, Ph.D who had guided me through the mist of uncertainty and the ocean of
irrelevance. I really appreciate his valuable instruction and patience.

Thirdly, I would like to express my gratitude to all of my fellow friends and

the respondents who participated in my research.

40