CHAPTER IV
DISCUSSION AND RESULTS
4.1 The results and analysis
The following section describes the result of the instruments used for the data
collection; the main strategy that is used to illustrate the values obtained is the use
of a table and two graphics which made the presentation of the data clearer. First
of all, In the first graphic is showed the results obtained of the translation of
cognates. In the second graphic is showed the results of consecutive interpretation
of cognates.The last one is a table which shows a set of cogntes with its respective
equivalences which the students should have used. All the results obtained is
going to explain in detail below.
4.2 Report of Quiz
This Quiz was made in order to know the knowledge that the students have about
cognates (cognates are words that in two languages have a common etymology,
therefore are similar or identical) and false cognates or falsos amigos (they are
words that look or sound similar but have a totally different meaning). This quiz
was applied to 10 students of eight semester translation area from Unacar. They
were not allowed to use dictionary or another tool.
As can be seen in the graph 4.1, the 100% of students could translate the
cognates “planet, astronomy, and eclipse”. The 90% of the students could translate
the cognates “calendar and universe”, the 80% of students could translate “visible”
and the 70% “balance”, the 50% “astronomy”, the 60% fact. These results show
that all the students can identify the cognates although some of them have
problems to choose the useful word. For example, some students translated fact
as “factor”, emengence as “emergencia , and the words balance, emergence,
calendar poverty, universe, fact and visible were explained not translated.
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Graph 4.1 Translation of cognates
In this same graph can be noticed that two words were difficult to translate or find
the equivalence. The 30% of students just could find the correct equivalent of
“emergence” and the rest of them could not. The 45 % also could find the correct
equivalent of “poverty”, cognate that most of the students translated as “pubertad”.
4.3 report of check list
This instrument was made in order to analyze the translation of the cognates but in
consecutive interpretation. In the record the cognates that were used are the same
that were used in the Quiz. In this section is also used a graph to present the
results. Following in the graph 4.2 is shown that the 100% of students could
interpret right the cognates “planet and eclipse”, the 90% “calendar and universe”,
the 80% “visible”, the 70% “balance”, the 60% “fact”, the 50% astronomy, the 10%
“emergence” and finally the 30% of students could interpret the cognate “poverty”.
As can be observed in the graph the students had problems to interpret e the
cognate “emergence and poverty”.
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Graph 4.2 Consecutive interpreting of cognates
Finally in the table 4.1 is shown the right equivalence of cognates. As can be seen
the cognates “Astronomy, visible, balance, calendar, universe, planet and eclipse
are true cognates which its equivalent is the same in English and Spanish. Most of
students did not have many problems with these words.
As long as another
students had problems to interpret the word “emergence and poverty” that are false
cognates. Likewise in the graph 4.1it is shown that the percentage of “emergence
and poverty” is low as well. In this table is showed the equivalence that the
English
Spanish
Astronomy
astronomia
Emergence
surgir
Poverty
pobreza
Fact
hecho
Visible
visible
Balance
Balance o equilibrio
calendar
calendario
universe
universo
planet
planeta
Eclipse
Eclipse
Table 4.1 correct equivalence of cognates
Students should
have
used
in
both Quiz and
consecutive
interpretation.
4.4 Discussion and results
Taking into account the values presented above, it can be seen that the group of
students evaluated know that some words (cognates) can be translated in the
same way and few of them do not. The graph 4.1 is shown that the students have
more problems with false cognates than cognates. For example, the two words that
are false cognates are “emergence and poverty” which most students literally
translated as “emergencia and pubertad”. In the table 4.1 shows the equivalence of
all the cognates that were used. In fact, the rest of the words are true cognates
which are words that in TL and SL are the same equivalent.
According to Burgo, C. (n.d) the cognates are words that are very morphologically
and phonologically similar to their translation into another language. What it means
that in the results obtained the students confused the cognates because they were
not allowed to use dictionary, therefore, they considered that the words were to
translate the same way. In respect, it is worth mentioning that translate this kind of
words the trainers need to have a wide knowledge about “false and true cognates”
to not make mistakes.
It is true that the true false cognates and cognates are similar to the target
language (TL) but some words are translated in the same way the source language
(SL) and others change their meaning entirely. Whether the students make errors
translating a false cognate as it appear to mean, as result the sentence does not
have coherence. For example one of subject translated these sentences to the TL
in this way.SL: For children, there are “food for education” programs where the
children are provided with food when they attend school. Their education will help
them to escape from poverty.
TL: Para los niños, hay los programas “comer para educar” donde a los niños se
les da comida cuando van a la escuela. Su educacion los ayudará a escaper de la
pubertad.
SL: His late writings examined the emergence of Russia as a world power, opening
an era of global imperialism and war.
TL: Sus últimos escritos analizaron que la emergencia de Rusia como poder
mundial, con el cual se daría una era de imperialismo y guerra.
These are one of those sentences that contain the Quiz which one of the students
could not find the appropriate equivalence of shaded words. These sentences are
taken as example because most of students mistranslated these false cognates.
According to Chacón,R(2006), he considers that the false cognates are specially
problematic for language learners as they tend to over generalize and assume that
they know the meaning of these words, which are actually misleading. In the table
4.1 is showed the equivalence of those words, which can be compared with the
words that the students translated; which do not have to do with the appropriate
equivalent.
Moreover the lack of knowledge of students regarding to cognates is due to
different factors, for example, the lack of attention during the class, or during their
translation. When they translated and use the dictionary or any tools, they have to
pay a lot of attention to that kind of words and keep in mind that they can find these
words in the future.
The second instrument to continue with this research was a listening that contained
the same cognates used in the Quiz but with another sentences obviously. The
listening was carried out in consecutive interpreting. Although the subjects were
very nervous, they enjoyed much more this activity than the previous one. As can
be seen in the graph 4.2 the results obtained almost were similar to the first activity
that the results can be seen in the graph 4.1 the students also had problems with
“emergence and poverty” in the consecutive interpretation. During the activity the
students asked the favor that the record were repeated more than twice. Because
they consider that the listening is more difficult than reading and writing.
Comparing the two graphs, in the 4.1 it is shown that the 100% of students could
write the equivalent of “astronomy”, and in the graph 4.2 can be noted that the 50%
of students in the consecutive interpreting could not say the correct equivalent.
Dollerup,C & Loddegaard,A (1992) say that the consecutive interpretation is when
the interpreter waits until the speaker has uttered one or more sentences or a
paragraph before rendering it into another language. So the students made the
same procedure, they listened and then translate in another language (from
English into Spanish). It is possible that the students not heard either the words or
could not clearly identify the pronunciation and made them very difficult to interpret.
Some subjects stayed silence because could not identify the words although the
recording is of a native speaker.
To sum up, from the point of view of some students, they like to listen to teachers
speak English because it is more clear than the natives of the same. Coming back
to the analysis in the two activities “Planet and eclipse” were translated and
interpreted the 100%. In both activities is obtained the 60% “Fact” and the 90%
“universe. Where there was inequality was in the two cognates “emergence 30%
and poverty 50% in the translation and in consecutive interpreting, “emergence
10% and poverty 30%. These percentages are the lowest in the graph; this means
that the students had more problems with these two words. So therefore, between
the two activities the listening was more difficult for them.