The survey on common translation errors of Vietnamese students learning Japanese

Abstract

This article presents the survey results of common translating errors in 388 translations by third-year students participating in a translation course on commercial economics at a university in Hanoi. Based on the content translation error analysis framework, we analyzed students' forward and back translations from Japanese (source language) to Vietnamese (target language) and from Vietnamese (source language) to Japanese (target language).  Our analysis pointed out frequent translation errors in terms of grammar and vocabulary, and their causes. Drawing from the results of the analysis, we have proposed pedagogical suggestions to help instructors/lecturers to orient their teaching implementation, to help students minimize errors when practicing translation, thereby improving the overall quality of teaching and learning in these courses .