Trends of English-Thai Translation Errors in word, phrase, and sentence levels: A Cases Study of Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University Students

Abstract

The research aimed to studytypes and trends of English-Thai errors in word, phrase, and sentence levels: a case study of Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University students. In addition, the purpose of the research was to compare the different errors made by the students who had different levels of English proficiency. There were 156 students from English and Business English at Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University participating in the research. All of them were asked to do the English proficiency test. 78 out of 156 students were selected according to the test. They were divided into three groups based on the English proficiency levels: low, moderate, and high levels. Each group consisted of 26 students. All the 78 students were asked to translate a short English paragraph into Thai. The results of the translation were collected as data used to analyze to find the types and the trends of the errors. The results
of the data analysis revealed four main types of translation errors:
mistranslation, over translation, under translation and disordering in words and phrases. The main causes of these translation mistakes were that the students did not understand the meanings of words in contexts and English syntax structures. Moreover, the present research also found that the students in all levels of English proficiency made mistakes in translating the same information in the same amount and types of the errors. Therefore, these results can be used to conclude that there was no correlation between the different English proficiency levels and the translation performance of the students