An error analysis of collocation translation from Thai  into English of Thai EFL university students

Witsanu Chaiyaphat; Jarurat Thammawong

doi:10.62819/jel.2024.508

Authors

Witsanu Chaiyaphat Udon Thani Rajabhat University, Udon Thani, Thailand
Jarurat Thammawong Udon Thani Rajabhat University, Udon Thani, Thailand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62819/jel.2024.508

Keywords:

collocation, error analysis, translation

Abstract

The researchers reported that Thai EFL students typically struggled with accurately combining words. Previous research revealed that Thai EFL university students had poor productive collocation abilities and lacked collocation understanding. Relatively few studies on collocation acquisition through instruction have been conducted in Thailand. Thus, the current study was conducted to investigate the use of English collocations by second-year English major students at Udon Thani Rajabhat University when translating a Thai news article from Thai into English. The participants were 36 English major students enrolled in the Translation II course in the academic year 2023. The students were tasked with translating a Thai news article into English within a three-hour period. The researchers analyzed the students' translations to examine the use of English collocations when translating a Thai news article from the students’ first language into the target language. A quantitative analysis was conducted to investigate the collocation translation errors made by English major students. The study employed Benson et al.’s (2009) framework of six collocation types: verb + noun, adjective + noun, noun + verb, noun + noun, adverb + adjective, and verb + adverb. The findings revealed that the most common error made by the students was in translating "verb + noun" collocations from Thai into English. Conversely, students were successful in producing "adjective + noun" and "verb + adverb" collocations. Additionally, this study discusses collocations in translation and provides recommendations for pedagogy and future research in this area.

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