VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT TRANSLATION AS AN ENABLING STRATEGY
FOR STUDENTS’ READNG COMPREHENSION
OF IT TEXTS

(Sử dụng dich thuật như một chiến lược trong việc day
đọc hiểu các bài khóa chuyên ngành công nghệ thông tin.) M.A THESIS
FIELD : English teaching methodology
CODE : 601410 SUPERVISOR: VU THI THU THUY, M.A
BY : DANG THI THANH VAN HA NOI – 2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i
DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………ii
ABSTRACT iii
ABBREVIATION iv

IT texts. 18
3.4.2.4. Evaluating students’ attitude to translation in post-reading process. 19
3.4.3. Analyzing the data 20
3.4.4. Findings 21
3.5. Conclusion 21
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
4.1. The effects on the students’ attitude towards translation in post-reading process. 22
4.2. The students’ perception of usefulness of translation to reading comprehension 34
4.3. Discussion of the above findings 36
4.3.1. What are the effects of translation on students’ reading comprehension? 38
4.3.2. What are the students’ attitudes towards translation in post-reading? 38
4.3.3. What do IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading
comprehension? 39
4.4. Conclusion 39
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1. Summary of the major findings 40
5.1.1. Students’ positive attitudes towards translation in post-reading process. 40
5.1.2. Students’ perception of usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension
related the strategy for using translation mentioned above. . 40
5.1.3. Students’ opinion on the role of translation to their reading comprehension of
IT texts. 41
5.2. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 41
5.3. Pedagogical implications of the study 42
5.4. Conclusion 42
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
iii

ABBREVIATIONS


English either for careers, or for study purposes. Understandably, reading is useful for
language acquisition provided that students more or less understand what they read, and
the more they read, the better they get at it. Reading also has a positive effect on students‟
vocabulary knowledge, on their spelling and on their writing. However, it is observed that
IT students at HUBT who have to read to get gist information about new technology
always have difficulties in translating IT texts for thorough understanding in their mother
tongue.
For all the above reasons, it is strongly desirable for the researcher to propose
“Translation as an enabling strategy for students’ reading comprehension of IT
texts” as the subject of this study.
1. 2. Identification of the problem
According to the researcher‟ observation and her teaching experience she realizes that her
IT students always encounter difficulties in understanding specialist reading texts

2
thoroughly after they have done many reading comprehension exercises. They always have
to use their mother tongue as an understanding aid. Therefore, there is an additional task
after doing reading comprehension known as translation or translating the text into
Vietnamese (as IT students do at HUBT). In the past, the prevalence of grammar-
translation method led to an extraordinary phenomenon: students were unable to speak
fluently after having studied the language for a long time and until recently, translation was
out of favour with the language teaching community. As pointed out by Duff (1994),
translation was labelled “boring”, “uncommunicative”, “difficult”, “pointless” and the like,
and suffered from too close an association with grammar. For this reason, translation has
been defined as “uncommunicative, boring, pointless, difficult, and irrelevant”.
However, Duff (1994) also sees there has been a revival of interest to translation due to the
shift of its emphasis - to using a mother tongue as a resource for the promotion of language
learning. Duff (1989:7) also notes that translation is of a great value because it “develops 3
qualities essential to all langage learning: flexibility, accuracy and clarity This
combination of freedom and contraint allows the students to contribute their own thoughts

researcher‟s observation of her IT students at HUBT she realizes that students with better
background IT knowledge find it easier to understand technical texts and interpret to others
legibly or clearly. This means that in the case their background knowledge leads them to become
more flexible to cope with challenges of comprehending IT texts.
Therefore, raising learners‟ consciousness can be valuable: teachers can explicitly point out
differences between L1 and L2. For this purpose translation may be useful, because it can
be
interactive, learner-centered, then it promotes learners‟ autonomy by using
authentic materials
(Mahmoud 2006: 28).
Although the use of translation in learning a foreign language is much maligned by
language teachers, translation is widely used in learners‟ foreign language learning
process. It appears that learners often use translation as a learning strategy to comprehend,
remember, and produce a foreign language. Translation has been used by foreign language
learners to facilitate language learning for centuries, but translation has played various
roles under different language teaching methods. While some foreign language educators
may consider translation as a critical means to ensure students‟comprehension and an
important writing exercise, other teachers may totally ban or discourage the use of the
native language and translation in the classroom. As Malmkjar stated, „the issue of the use
of translation in language teaching is one on which most language teachers have a
view‟(1998: 1), but fairly often, teachers‟ views are not strongly in favor of it. However,
relatively little research attention so far seems to have been devoted to a consideration of

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the use of translation in language learning. As an English teacher working with IT students
on ESP at HUBT the researcher always takes this problem onto consideration.
Doing the research the researcher tries to identify the role of translation in post-reading for IT
students at HUBT and to help them use translation well enough for their language learning.
The teacher - the researcher had asked her students to translate their specialist reading into
Vietnamese as a compulsory task in class as well as a homework assignment. She asked them

clarify learners‟ attitude to translation and their perception of the usefulness of translation
to their reading comprehension, interviews were conducted with students as well.
On the other hand, the research was based on the students‟ attitudes to translation learning
through researcher‟s direct observation herself during her teaching process at HUBT.
1. 5. Design of the study
The study is divided into five main chapters:
Chapter one is the Introduction, which states the rationale, the scope, the objective, and the
research questions as well as the methods and design of the study.
Chapter two presents all necessary literature review that relates to the study.
In chapter three, the study solves the two research questions:
1. What are the IT students‟ attitudes towards translation in post-reading process?
2. What do IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading
comprehension?
One of the main contents of the study, the data analysis is reported in chapter four. In this
chapter, the researcher analyzes the data collected using a survey questionnaire and
interviews to reach the findings of the study. The discussion of the findings related to the
research questions with reference to the literature review is mentioned.
Chapter five is the conclusion where the main contents of the study are summarized. In
addition, the pedagogical implications of the study as well as the limitations of the study
and the suggestions for further studies are discussed in this chapter.
Besides, the list of references and the appendixes are also parts of this study.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents some of the most important issues in theory of teaching translation in
general and in language teaching in particular. The main features are taken into
consideration, namely, the concepts related to the study including challenges of

complexity. Most linguists of Vietnamese (Nguyen Anh Que, Diep Quang Ban, Hoang
Trong Phien etc.) have concluded that this grammatical category does not exist in
Vietnamese. Although it seems that it is not difficult to understand those clauses in
English, the translation of such clauses from English into Vietnamese is considered as a
difficult and sophisticated task particularly for IT students.
The next feature of IT texts that should be considered is common pitfalls of the language
such as multi-meanings, complex phrases or sentence structures caused by the differences
in expressions between languages. It is really a difficult task because it conversely affects
the reader‟s understanding as an awkward translation would hinder the ideas in the SL text
to be transferred smoothly and naturally into the TL text.
2. 2. Use of language 1 as support of students’ reading comprehension
The state-of-the-art teaching of languages is based on the communicative method which
only emphasizes teaching English in practical context. However, the idea of abandoning the
native tongue is too stressful to many students of English for IT at HUBT, who need a sense
of security in the experience of learning a foreign language.
Several studies (Block, 1986; Chamot, Kupper, & Impink- Hernandez, 1988a; Chamot,
Kupper, & Impink-Hernandez, 1988b; Chamot, O'Malley, Kupper, & Impink-Hernandez,
1987) have shown that translation, using the first language as a means for understanding
and/or producing the second language, is not an uncommon cognitive strategy for high
school and adult language learners. However, Cook (1992) argues further that all second
language learners access their L1 while processing the L2. Cook also suggests that "the L2
user does not effectively switch off the L1 while processing the L2, but has it constantly
available" Cook (1992: 571). Cook also maintains that when working with second language
learners, teachers must not treat the L2 in isolation from the L1. In fact, according to Cook,
one cannot do so: "The L1 is present in the L2 learners' minds, whether the teacher wants it
to be there or not. The L2 knowledge that is being created in them is connected in all sorts
of ways with their L1 knowledge" Cook (1992: 584).

8
Kern (1994) in his study on the language of thought used by L2 learners in comprehending

9
language competence is a two-way system, that we need to be able to communicate into
and from the language system. Yet little guidance of how to communicate is given back
into the mother tongue, something that many professionals need to do in their daily work.
It is important to remind that the purpose of the use of translation in the foreign language
classroom is neither the major nor minor aim but a tool to promote success in language by
the help of the language 1. L1 is used to clarify meaning, to check the understanding in a
text, to interpret and clarify the new vocabulary by the help of translation. In short,
translation is said to reflect the students‟ abilities to mediate betwween L1 and L2 and
show insight into both languages. Translation appears to be convenient, for students are
said to naturally think in their L1 while learning L2. Translation is seen by sonme as a
reliable test because it measures great deal of language.”( Benssoussan, 1985:45)
2.3. Translation as a classroom technique
According to Duff, there are not only 4 skills in the process of learning in the language
(reading, writing, listening and speaking) but 5, and the fifth is translation. Duff (1989:5)
also stated that four hundreds of years, translation was “right at the heart of language
teaching”.
This means it is worth considering reasons for taking translation as technique in teaching
ESP Reading comprehension. Firstly, as Nunnan (1999) pointed out, what the students
think and feel about language learning is of great importance in language teaching and this
should be taken into account in any course planning. In some cases it is inevitable that
language learners use L1 as a resource. Indeed it is a kind of individual learning style for
some students. They need to be able to relate lexis and structures of target language into
their equivalents in their mother tongue. So a sound pedagogy should make use of this
learning style rather than try to deny it. Secondly, translation makes students develop their
reading comprehension ability in grammar as well as in vocabulary. It is quite obvious that
before translating any text, students should read the text thoroughly trying to make sense
of its features like sentence -structures, context and register. In other words, according to
Chellapan (1982) there should be a kind of textual analysis, which is very important in
reading comprehension. Indeed the difference between translation and reading is the

Mahmoud (2006) points out that the translation is useful for L2 acquisition because,
firstly, it uses authentic materials, secondly, it is interactive, thirdly, it is learner-centered,
and finally it promotes learner autonomy.
The first strategy is suggested because it is based on the fact that learners constantly
wished to check the exact meanings of the professional terms in their native language by

11
consulting bilingual dictionaries or asking for teacher‟s explanations. It is really important
for IT students to clarify technical terms which help them to improve their reading
comprehension. Thus, as for the advantages of translating, the students felt that the ideas
were easier to develop, thoughts and opinions could be expressed more clearly, and words
could be more easily found through the use of dictionary. In addition, translation also can
help in vocabulary acquisition. Prince‟s research results (1996) revealed the superiority of
using translation in learning vocabulary in terms of quantity of words learned Also, researchers
have varied opinions at which stage the use of translation is the most beneficial for learners.
Husain‟s research (1995) suggested that using translation had highly positive effects on the low
and intermediate proficiency learners, but it did not benefit higher level students. Husain also
found that translation strategy could enhance English learning in general.
2.4.2. Performing translation activities in post-reading for clearer comprehending.
According to Mahmoud (2006), raising learners‟ consciousness can be valuable: teachers
can explicitly point out differences between L1 and L2. For this purpose translation may be
useful, because it can be interactive, learner-centered, it promotes learners‟ autonomy, and
uses authentic materials.The ESP learners, specifically IT students use a number of
activities that are beneficial for their linguistic development as well as reading
comprehension. Post-reading activities give students the opportunity to review, summarize,
and react to a reading material through discussions in small or large groups. After having
read a professional passage as a homework assignment or class task, students were
encouraged to generate various comprehension exercises, such as multiple choice
questions, true or false statements, general questions on the contents of a professional text.
Students‟ generated exercises were scrutinized in pairs or small groups. The activity of

resource for advanced learners. He also argues that translation can serve as a problem-
solving exercise as well as a cognitive exercise in the classroom. More importantly, the use
of translation at the advanced level can help learners extend their knowledge of the foreign
language by making reference to their mother tongue, and then help learners clarify the
similarities and the differences between the foreign language and their native language.
Therefore, the third strategy is recommended to improve knowledge of the language
learning which helps students a lot in comprehending IT texts.
Thus, so much benefit is taken from translation activity in post-reading mentioned above,
which is recommended to use translation to support students‟ comprehension of IT texts
which will be made clear by the next section.
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CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY
In this section, besides the minor introduction and conclusion, four main categories are
addressed. The first one is the context of the study, which houses the description of the
students‟ learning context and learning materials in their third year at Hanoi University of
Business and Technology. In the second category, the methods of data collection are
presented carefully. The introduction of the survey research lies in the next part. The most
important part of the chapter, which is the procedures of the study, describes in details the
problem identification and the plan of survey.
3. 1. Context of the study
3. 1. 1. The learning context
The students were in their first semester of the third university year, with 180 class hours
of English study. They studied in a small-sized class of 30 ones; each class had one private
room to study. They had just finished the pre-intermediate level of English and attended 10
class hours of English every week. The students, after two years learning English at Hanoi
University of Business and Technology, are expected to communicate appropriately in
various, simple situations in everyday life as well as to read IT texts quite well.

the process of second language acquisition, as well as meet the course requirements at
university.
3. 2. Methods of data collection
As mentioned above, the study was conducted according to a survey research method. The
purpose of a survey is to learn about characteristics of an entire group of interest (a
population) by examining a subset of that group (a sample). In other words, the purpose of
a survey is to examine one or more variables for larger numbers of entities. The most
prevalent data-collection methods are questionnaires, interviews, and direct observations of
language use.
The sample of the research was 30 students of TH1201 at HUBT. The results of the study
were developed based on the data collected via the direct observation, the survey
questionnaire for 30 students of TH1201, the think- aloud interview. The process of
collecting data was carried out during the students‟ tenth module of English at university.
The first instrument for collecting data was the teacher‟s direct observation during
specialist reading lesson and translation activity in post-reading process to evaluate
students‟ attitude to their class tasks, to translation in post-reading process and their level
of perception, then provides support when it is necessary. The researcher observed the

15
class performance herself during the study. Once she assigned her students any tasks, she
encouraged and silently observed their attitude towards their mission. She walked around
the classroom, kept in touch with every student and helped with difficult vocabulary or
technical terms as well as complicated grammar structures such as relative clauses, -ed
clauses and passive sentences. Specifically, the students were divided into groups based on
their reading abilities and their interests. The observer- researcher- the teacher also noticed
who were really interested in the lesson or who had better reading ability and how each
student deal with vocabulary and grammar structure. Although most of them bring
bilingual dictionaries with them to look up, they still need teacher‟s help.
The second instruments were findings of the survey questionnaires to clarify the two
research questions. The survey questions were designed according to the five-point Likert

As participants of the survey research study, the teachers who were involved in the study
were the researcher herself, who taught class TH1201, another teacher working with her on
the same class.They were from 34 to 43 years of age. They all had six to over ten years of
experience of teaching English to non-major students. They had all participated in one or
more Teacher In-service Education programs (held by Vietnam-Australia Training
Organizations, the British Council, and some other non-government Organizations ). In
addition, both of them had attended a course on English teaching methodology at the
Department of post-graduate studies in Vietnam National University, and they all showed
their interests in the lectures on teaching reading IT texts.
3. 4. The procedures of the study
3. 4. 1. Problem identification
In her English class with the students of class TH1201, the researcher found out a
problem: students‟difficulties and lack of interest in reading comprehension of IT texts,
especially the ones including many technical terms and relative clauses, -ed participles or
passive structures.
To clarify the problem, the researcher observed each reading lesson to discover that the
number of students who were really interested in reading took 27% (eight out of thirty
students), whereas the number of students who did it as a compulsory task were 50%
(fifteen students), and the rest of the students was about 23% (seven students) who had no
sense of reading or learning English as well. It is observed that the students who were
really interested in reading IT texts as well as learning English had the best reading ability
of all. They always accomplished the teacher‟s given tasks in advance, then they tried to do
the next tasks themselves and after that they shared the ideas or difficulties among each

17
other. They only asked teacher for help until they had no idea for that. In contrast, the
students who did the teacher‟s given tasks as a compulsory task did not have good reading
ability. They required teacher‟ support and encouragement more often and completed their
tasks more slowly. The worst of all is the rest of the students in the class. It seemed that
they did not read the text or did any teacher‟s given task. They were usually busy talking

with providing them extra reading including all technical terms related to the new lesson
for good preparation for the next reading lesson. The students felt more confident after
clarifying the problem involved their IT knowledge. The teacher-the researcher and her
colleague also provided the students a glossary file (built by group of IT English Teachers
at HUBT with explanation in Vietnamese) including technical terms and difficult phrases
which helped students to comprehend the specialist reading texts better. The result was
considerably encouraged, most students felt more interested in reading IT texts. After
background knowledge was identified, she tried to deal with their difficulties in syntactic
IT text features. Once the students encountered relative clauses in the texts, the researcher-
the teacher stopped for a while to explain the use, the structure and meaning of the
sentences carefully, specifically –ed or –ing participle for e.g: “Talking to Professor
Cochrane is probably time travelling without leaving the current dimension, as his vision
stretches far into this century and beyond.” (Oxford English for Information Technology,
Eric H.Glendinning John/ Mc Ewan, p.176). The grammatical category –ing participle
(time which travels) may be confused with a noun phrase if the students are not careful. Or
at the same paragraph there is another extract: “In fact BT (British Telecom) is already
sitting on a host of innovation poised to blow your mind during this century”. Poised here
is like an –ed participle (a host of innovation which are poised) too. However, if it is
considered that, the sentence will be very difficult for Vietnamese students to understand
or interpret legibly. Once “poised” is understood by another grammatical category “ready”,
it will be legible for the sentence.
Understandably, it is important to find out how students themselves feel about the problem.
Once they see the problem themselves, they are expected to be willing to solve it and come
through it successfully.
3. 4.2.3. Applying translation activities in post-reading, the direct observation in class
and strategy for using translation to support students in reading comprehension of IT
texts.
With the IT students, the teacher-the researcher has used a number of activities that are
beneficial for their linguistic development. Post-reading activities give the students the


as well as translation as post-reading activities. This means that there are both positive and
negative attitudes to learning Technical English in general and to reading comprehension
tasks or post-reading activities in particular.

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Husain‟s research (1995) suggested that using translation had highly positive effects on
the low and intermediate proficiency learners, but it did not benefit higher level students.
Husain also found that translation strategy could enhance English learning in general. It
was also discovered that students who used translation tended to make more gains in
learning vocabulary and phrases, compared to a lower level gain in learning tenses.
Another important finding was that the intermediate level students made more gains than
those higher level peers did, and the gains made by the lower level students were higher
than those by the intermediate level students. In other words, the higher level students
benefited the least from translation use.
In contrast, other researchers advocate the use of translation at the advanced level.
Advanced learners may have already developed a somewhat solid foundation of the target
language, and thus can be more likely to discern the subtle differences of vocabulary
meaning and grammar usage between their L1 and L2. For example, Perkins (1985:53)
indicated that through translation instruction, „the advanced learner will always gain some
insight into points of L1-L2 difference and conflict on a syntactic, semantic and stylistic
level and this may ultimately improve his L2 competence‟. Translation is seen as an
important tool to upgrade high-level students‟ learning. Titford (1985) shared the same
view and proposed that translation was an appropriate resource for advanced learners. He
argued that translation could serve as a problem-solving exercise as well as a cognitive
exercise in the classroom. Advanced learners are often keen to know the underlying rule
behind a particular foreign language, and tend to ask the question how an expression is
translated in the foreign language and what rules are involved. More importantly, the use
of translation at the advanced level can help learners extend their knowledge of the foreign
language by making reference to their mother tongue, and then help learners clarify the
similarities and the differences between the foreign language and their native language.