Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 533

Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Asia Association of Computer-Assisted

Language Learning (AsiaCALL 2021)

Insights From Difficulties Encountered Among

Students Whose Major is Translation and &
Interpreting in English
Truong Thi Mai Hanh
Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
One area that remains problematic among students whose major is Translation and Interpreting in English is the
ability to understand and deal with basic and necessary concepts in the field of banking and finance in English. This
article reports initial findings from a case study done with the students taking an English for Banking and Finance
course in a university. The paper initially provides different views of difficulties in learning and proceeds with
describing the present investigation setting. Based on qualitative inquiry, self-reports, and interviews, data are
collected, and themes are drawn. Moreover, the article concludes with useful insights on the students' strategies to
address their own problems and implications for possible techniques in helping students address these issues.

Keywords: English for Banking and Finance, Learning Strategies, Teaching Techniques

1. INTRODUCTION educators develop a critical ethos in facilitating a more

meaningful teaching and learning process.
In times of economic integration, English for
Banking and Finance has become an indispensable
means of communication in the local and 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
multinational banks and financial institutions in
Vietnam. Given the reality, English for Banking and The article is grounded on two related concepts in
Finance has particularly been focused and designed in English language teaching: English for Specific
the university curriculum in recent years in order to Purposes (ESP) and English for Busines Purposes
meet the requirements of the globalized labor force (EBP).
market. It has also been a compulsory course or an
Regarding ESP, Hutchinson and Waters [2]
optional course in the curriculum of students whose
considered ESP as a language learning approach based
major is Translation and Interpreting in English in
on learners’ needs and suggested ESP courses should
many universities in Vietnam. However, the
be designed to meet learners’ needs. In other words,
implementation of the course of English for Banking
ESP is an English course in which the textbooks and
and Finance at the university level in Vietnam has
materials are adjusted to learners' desires and
revealed some difficulties in the teaching and learning
purposes. Learners of English are also defined as
process, which hinders the course's goals [1].
emotional beings and effective factors in the learning
Therefore, in response to this reality, this present process.
article is situated in terms of examining difficulties in
Dudley-Evans and St John [3] suggested the three
learning English for Banking and Finance and
following characteristics (1) ESP meets specific
strategies adopted to deal with these problems from
purposes of the learners; (2) ESP makes use of
learners who major in Translation and Interpreting.
underlying methodology and activities of the
This research attempts at examining the factors that
discipline it serves; (3) ESP is centered on the
contribute to learner's difficulties in accomplishing
language appropriate to these activities in terms of
reading and writing tasks in the hope it can help

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 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 533

grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse, and Dependence on dictionary/lack of skills in using a
genre. dictionary
Dudley-Evans and St John [4] also divided English According to Maruyama [5], many students
for Busines Purposes (EBP) into English for General heavily depend on a dictionary when encountering
Busines Purposes (EGBP) and English for Specific ESP texts due to their lack of ESP terms. Lack of
Busines Purposes (ESBP). EGBP is designed for pre- skills in using a dictionary is also a problem, leading
experience learners or those at the very early stages of to inefficiency in the learning process. Mai Pham and
their careers. EGBP courses are naturally similar to Hoa Nguyen [8] also gave similar statistics (53.87% of
general EFL courses with the material set in business students), which show that dependence on the
contexts. Most units contain work on the traditional dictionary causes difficulties in teaching ESP.
four skills plus specific grammar and vocabulary
Differences between English and students’ mother
development. Typical business carrier content topics
tongue
include organizational charts, marketing, branding,
advertisements, and product developments. In other As far as Maruyama’s concerned [5], Japanese has
words, in EGBP courses, English is taught through no relationship with English, and the Japanese writing
business settings rather than English for specific system is entirely different from English. This makes
business purposes. In contrast, ESBP is for job- Japanese students face many difficulties in learning
experienced learners who bring business knowledge English, especially for the ESP terms. Mai Pham and
and skills to the language-learning situation. ESBP Hoa Nguyen [8] quoted the figure 70.44% of
courses are likely to be intensive and for small groups. respondents, who say that they have difficulties in
learning ESP is due to the big difference between
The article is also based on several empirical
Vietnamese and English involving parts of speech,
investigations on the difficulties in teaching ESP.
pronunciation, word usage, and grammar.
These difficulties are commonly divided into two
groups: (1) difficulties related to students; (2) English proficiency
difficulties related to other factors.
Both Nga Nguyen [7] and Mai Pham and Hoa
Nguyen [8] conclude that difference in students’
Difficulties Related to Students proficiency in the same university and among different
Students’ demands and motivations of ESP universities and different areas throughout Vietnam
has a negative impact on learning ESP. Commonly,
Maruyama [5] implied that students did not need students in foreign language universities or foreign
to know technical words because they were not language departments of universities have higher
common, even rarely used in their daily lives. Suzani proficiency than other departments or other
et al. [6] suggested that students are not ready for ESP universities. It is also very typical that students from
courses because they do not find ESP important for small towns have lower foreign language proficiency
their future job. Nga Nguyen [7] also had similar than those from big cities due to their English
findings when indicated that students lack their acquisition frequency.
motivation in learning ESP due to their awareness that
ESP will not be used in their local workplace. These Difficulties Related to other factors.
similar situations mentioned above have a negative
impact on the learning motivation of individual Textbooks/reference materials
students in the particular and learning environment of
Maruyama [5] suggested that the ESP materials,
class in general.
which are at too high a level compared to students'
Lack of vocabulary proficiency, made students feel bored to learn.
Besides, students cannot expand their understanding
Maruyama [5] gave a list of 60 technical words in
because of limited knowledge of the textbook. Nga
a vocabulary work to 112 majors in electrical
Nguyen [7] also indicated that textbooks in English
engineering in Japan. The result was that none of the
for Banking and Finance are authentic documents
students knew 1/3 of the words, a few knew some
from Britain or America in which the banking and
words of them, and all knew only one word of them.
financial systems are different from Vietnamese’s
Nga Nguyen [7] also mentioned the majority of
systems, so students are much unlikely to compare or
students (78%) find vocabulary extremely problematic
associate these two banking and financial systems.
in reading ESP texts. Moreover, Mai Pham and Hoa
Nguyen [8] concluded in the survey results that Classes with too large student number
59.94% of Vietnamese students have difficulty in
According to Maruyama [5], most students must
vocabulary when learning ESP.
take at least two years to learn English in universities,
so student number of a class is up to 70-90. This has a

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significant impact on ESP teaching efficiency, In addition, interviews with selected students
especially when there is a difference in students' (group leaders) were conducted.
proficiency. Mai Pham and Hoa Nguyen [8] also
In terms of analysis, the data were culled and
released the number of students in ESP classes in
organized into themes. In analyzing the drawing out
Vietnam universities is 40 or more, which results in
the themes, a close reading of reflection papers was
inefficiency in learning.
done to identify recurring key words, phrases, and
sentences. From the initial set of these recurring
patterns of language, they were clustered into themes
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY in which they were further classified through close
reading and validation by two inter-raters. In keeping
3.1 Context of the Investigation with an interpretative view of research, the
respondents were tapped to determine the reliability of
The study was conducted on students majoring in
these recurring themes in the data.
Translation and Interpreting in English in a state
university in Ho Chi Minh City. As part of the 4-year The analysis was made on the two sets of
regular education curriculum, the English for Banking questions in which the initial set of questions was
and Finance course is an intermediate-level elective aimed to assess the students' needs and motivation and
course. The course, which is primarily taught via the the other set was targeted to get the data of difficulties
English for Business Purposes approach, aims to the students encountered when reading/writing the
improve communication skills in which reading and assignments and strategies they adopted to deal with
writing activities are mainly focused. The course these problems.
particularly has some banking and financial closely
related writing activities. Reading activities relating 3.2.2. Participants
to banking and finance contexts are also implemented
in order to train students in enhancing reading ability. 40 students enrolled in the course were tapped to
In addition, group presentations are considered a participate in the investigation. With age ranging from
criterion to assess the learners’ competence. 20-21, the participants were majoring in Translation
and Interpreting in English in the 4-year regular
3.2 Research Design and Method education curriculum offered by the Faculty of
Linguistics and Literature at the university. Similar to
Due to the nature of the problem, a case study other classes taking the course, the class is said to be
approach was deemed appropriate for the homogenous in terms of their language ability. The
investigation. Grounded on a qualitative/ interpretative participants are supposed to have completed the
design, the investigation used interviews with courses of Language skills courses, Advanced
participants and reflection papers provided in the grammar, and Business English. While all students
duration of the course. participated in the reflection and initial survey
provision, six group leaders took part in the interview.
3.2.1. Data Gathering and Analysis
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In terms of data gathering, on the first day of the
The succeeding sections elucidate students'
course, an open-ended survey was conducted to make
problems in taking English for Banking and Finance
a preliminary assessment of the students’ motive and
course.
expectations in learning English for Banking and
Finance. On a piece of paper, the participants were
asked to answer the two following questions: 4.1 Problems related to students’ demands
and motives
(1) Why did you choose this course?
In this theme, most of the students’ answers for
(2) What outcomes are expected after the course?
their choice of the course was that “the course is in the
Moreover, after a group presentation based on list of the courses which the students are supposed to
reading, summarizing and interpreting some reference register online.” Some of the answers were “I have
documents assigned by the researcher, as well as a finished the Business English course and am going to
writing assignment in the duration of the course, the take Business Translation course. I hope the course is
students are required to cover the two following useful for further learning.” In addition, several
questions: students chose the course since they were in “a group
(1) What were your difficulties when of friends that have worked together in other previous
reading/writing the assignments? courses”. Unsurprisingly, none of the students’

(2) How did you address these difficulties?

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selection was due to their needs to meet further job online dictionaries than paper-based dictionaries
requirements. because online dictionaries are much more useful in
helping students understand the concepts in Banking
In terms of the students' perspective outcomes, the and Finance and distinguish the difference between
terms such as “basic words and expressions in the terms.
Banking and Finance” “basic and necessary concepts
in Banking and Finance fields” were recurring terms. 4.2.3. Lack of specialized knowledge in
The students also expected to obtain “basic knowledge Banking and Finance
in Banking and Finance."
The students mentioned other obstacles are their
4.2 Problems related to students’ difficulties shortage of specialized knowledge in Banking and
in reading the assignments and their Finance.
strategies to address these problems “I was responsible for presenting the banking
operations including “the clearing system”. It was not
4.2.1. Lack of vocabulary: much difficult to have the meaning of the term.
However, I had to search the documents from different
The data reveals that students encountered resources to understand and explain the system to the
terminology problems in the fields of Banking and class."
Finance, and it took them much time and energy to
look up these terms in paper-based dictionaries or The facts about banking and financial systems
online dictionaries. from the textbooks and the students downloaded
online are mainly about American and British banking
"It took me lots of time to look up a term in a systems, which are different from the Vietnamese
dictionary while there are many new terms to banking system, so students found confused
understand. I had to take note of the related meaning identifying different types of banks or financial
of the terms to put in the list of vocabulary so that I institutions their operations.
can memorize and explain them to the class in case
other students ask me after the presentation.”
4.3 Problems related to students’ difficulties
“It is sometimes confusing that some English terms in writing assignments and their
have an equivalent meaning in Vietnamese, but they strategies to address these problems
refer to different things in Banking and Finance.
"share", "stock" or "equity" is an example. There are The data gathered indicate that the students were
also some synonyms in English but one equivalence in tasked to write memos or financial reports, which
Vietnamese and vice versa. But the very thing that require them not only linguistic competence but also
makes me more confused is that these terms are not specialized knowledge. For example, the students
interchangeable.” were supposed to write an analyst's report for a
morning briefing with the manager. They did the task
4.2.2. Dependence on the dictionary: by carefully looking at the report sample and
searching for more samples from the internet to study.
The group leaders' interview results indicate the
“but I am not a financial analyst”, said a student.
students used both paper-based dictionaries and online
dictionaries. However, online dictionaries are found It seemed that English competence was not the
much more preferred because it’s faster, more obstacle the students had to overcome in this situation.
convenient and it doesn’t cost any money while it is It was specialized knowledge that hindered their
very expensive, not to mention impossible to get a learning.
paper-based dictionary in Banking and Finance
available on the market. 5. CONCLUSIONS
Due to the lack of terms in Banking and Finance In light of the findings, the following conclusions
mentioned, the students were much dependent on the can be drawn:
dictionary, particularly the bilingual dictionary. It
seems that the students need Vietnamese equivalences 1. Problems in terms of vocabulary continue to be
in order to memorize them better. In other words, an obstacle for learners in performing different
Vietnamese equivalences for English terms are always reading tasks. However, getting an equivalence in
expected. This is what the students have always asked Vietnamese for an English term seems to be not the
the researcher to provide in the course duration. utmost task. It is the insight into the notions and the
concept in Banking and Finance that helps learners
The interview results with the group leaders also most.
show that the students spent much more time using

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2. Difficulties related to writing skills are eventually lead to confidence in the potential real
apparently requirements of learners’ specialized workplace.
knowledge underlying writing tasks rather than
learners’ linguistic competence. Learners are required
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