COLLOCATIONAL ERRORS IN THE SECOND- DEGREE ENGLISH MAJORS’ VIETNAMESE- ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS AT HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY AND SOLUTIONS

Abstract

The study was conducted with an aim to know more about the causes and the patterns of the collocational errors that the second- degree English majors at Hanoi Open University often make when they do their Vietnamese- English translation. Different pedagogical solutions are suggested to both translation lecturers and students. The writer makes use of both quantitative and qualitative methods to do the research. The data for the study are the lecturer’s and students’ viewpoints, attitudes, in-class translational activities and practice in the results taken from a questionnaire, translation worksheets, mini-translation tests and (in-class, email) interviews with six translation lecturers and thirty-four second- degree English students. Causes and common collocational error patterns in Vietnamese- English translations have been found out side by side with the plausible solutions. The study will be useful for both lecturers and students to improve the quality of Vietnamese- English translations. In particular, the second- degree English majors will have improvements in making their Vietnamese- English translations more natural and better with collocations.