In this part of the study, some previous studies regarding errors in translation at micro level and macro level are briefly reviewed.
First of all, micro-level and macro-level errors in translation, which were combined to investigate, were found in some studies. For example, Qassem and Vijayasarathi (2015) conducted their study to investigate the problematicity of translating cultural idiomatic expressions from English into Arabic and to provide insights into how its difficulties can be sorted out. The study involved forty adult Yemeni students of translation in their final year of graduation. Seven authentic translation texts from English into Arabic were used. As the results, the students‟
errors were classified into addition, modification, omission, selection, and avoidance. Also, the authors claimed that insufficient knowledge of English
idiomatic expressions and the lack of training in using translation strategies and techniques were the causes of those errors.
To investigate the hindrances encountered by the fourth year translation majors when translating political terms and expressions from English into Arabic, Qassem (2014) conducted his paper in which forty graduate students of translation took part in. The results revealed that the students‟ percentage of errors reached 64% and the percentage of those who used the dictionary to solve the translation problem was 38%, which showed the students' considerable difficulty in translating such political expressions. Also, he found that the causes of those errors were insufficient knowledge of English political culture and a lack of training in translating political culture.
Al-Dahesh (2008) conducted a study on problems which Arab professional translators and Arab translation students faced when translating idiomatic English phrasal verbs into Arabic. The instrument used was translation test. The result showed that numerous errors in translation committed by participants. Failing to achieve functional-pragmatic equivalents of verbs was the most important aspect of such difficulties. He also listed some overtly erroneous errors and covertly erroneous errors that caused the failure in the translation tests.
The most serious problem that translators faced when rendering collocations in religious texts such as the Holy Quran, the Hadith and the Bible was investigated in the study of Dweik and Abu-Shakra (2011). The study used translation test as an instrument and involved thirty five graduate students enrolled in translation programs at Universities of Petra, Yarmouk and Jordan. Accordingly, the study showed that translators encountered difficulties regarding lexical and semantic collocations.
Besides, there are many studies on errors in translation at micro level. Firstly, Krisetyawati (2010) conducted his study to find out the students‟ errors in translating English noun phrases into Indonesian and to describe the frequency distribution of errors made by the students. There were thirty students took part in the study. The instrument used to collect data was an essay test with the six types of English noun phrases. As a result, four common errors including omission errors, misformation errors, disordering errors, and addition errors were found. From the four types of error, omission errors had the highest number of errors. In the context of Vietnam, the study entitled “Vietnamese – English translation errors made by second year translation-major students: An initial step towards enhancing translation standards” was conducted by Nguyen Thu Hang and Trieu Thu Hang (2015) with the purpose of recognizing and correctly naming common Vietnamese – English translation errors made by second-year translation and interpretation majors and proposing suggestions for the improvement of the current practice. The study involved eighty one Vietnamese-English translations by second year translation and interpretation majors. The results showed that the most common linguistic errors were lexical choice, lengthy and awkward expressions. Also, some suggestions for improving students‟ performance were given.
To carefully analyze the senior students‟ self-assessment on their translation and interpretation abilities at Ho Chi Minh City Open University and their feedback on the teaching methods and curriculum, Pham Vu Phi Ho and Phu Thi Kieu Bui (2013) conducted the study named “Senior students‟ reports on their translation and interpretation abilities, teaching methods, and curriculum at Ho Chi minh City Open University”. The participants of the study were twenty-four senior students in Business and Tourism Translation - Interpretation. As a result, the requirements of translation - interpretation skills were not met. In terms of materials and teaching methods, out-of-date information and monotonous teaching methods made the senior students unsatisfactory.
Another study conducted by Huynh Thanh Thuy (2012) aimed to find out the common errors on verb tense and word choice in Vietnamese-English translation made by the second-year English majors at Dong Thap University. The participants of the study were the second-year English majors at the university. After the data were analyzed, errors regarding misuse of verb tense, verb forms and incorrect structures, and using vocabulary in context inappropriately were indicated.
With the purpose of investigating into common problems encountered by Vietnamese learners of English with tense and aspect, particularly the simple and progressive aspects, the copula “be”, and adverb positions in verb and adjective phrases, Dan Van Dao (2008) conducted a study named “Some Vietnamese students‟ problems with English grammar: A preliminary study”. Twenty-five first- year English majors and 47 first-year non-English majors at Kien Giang Community College in Vietnam took part in the study. The results revealed that these areas of English grammar errors have been widespreadly made.
To investigate what types of errors which the students often made in translating topic-comment structure, Pham Phu Quynh Na (2005) carried out her study in which ninety-five students from English translation classes in their first, second, third, and fourth year of the Department of English Language and Literature at University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Vietnam were invited to take part. As the result, the five types of errors committed by students such as omission of subject, repetition of subject, inappropriate choice of subject, no logical connection between subject and predicate, and inappropriate connection between subject and passive verbs were found. Specially, the most frequent type of error among all types of errors relating to the sentence‟s subject was the omission of subject. Also, the author suggests some strategies to prevent the possible problems that have been stressing translating topic-prominent structures of Vietnamese into English.
All of the above-mentioned studies show that classifying students‟ translation errors is essential work to be done. Also, based on those studies, the root causes students to make errors were really found and may be solved. It is worth mentioning that, of all previous studies above, each one, however, just focuses on one particular aspect such as cultural idiomatic expressions, political terms and expressions, idiomatic English phrasal verbs into Arabic, collocations in religious texts, English noun phrases, verb tense and word choice, tense and aspect, and topic-comment structure. One more thing, as noticed before, text types strongly influence on translation process, thereby it seems very necessary to compare which one proves most difficult to students. In addition, most of those studies only use translation test as data collection instrument. Since not only students‟ paper can talk but also students do, we should listen the voice of them via interview to find out what is not available in translation tests. At DNTU, no study on Vietnamese-English errors that students at DNTU made has been found; it is believed that there is a need to get a whole view of translation errors and their possible causes. This leads to the gap that presses the researcher to carry out the study entitled “Common translation errors (Vietnamese –English) committed by the third-year English majors: A case at Dong Nai Technology University” to fulfill. Separated from above-mentioned studies, the current study focuses on four significant aspects. Firstly, it focuses on Vietnamese- English errors in translation at both micro and macro level. Secondly, the participants of the study are third-year English majors at DNTU. Thirdly, translation test and interview are used as data collection instruments. Fourthly, text types are put in translation tests to investigate its influence on students‟ translation. In a nutshell, the study will more or less gain an advantage of providing some of the most popular types of errors occurring in Vietnamese-English translation as well as the reasons which cause these errors.