An Approach to Avoid Translation Errors Made by the Students Learning Korean as a Foreign Language.

Abstract

Learning a new language and translating it into another language is not an easy task. However, currently there is a significant emphasis on translating one language into another. The term of “Translation” has come into effect recently to facilitate the evaluation of the accuracy of a language translation. This process is now considered as an important method to ensure the accuracy of the work. The main objective of this research is to analyze the errors in the translations done by Korean language learners. This study is based on the students of the University of Kelaniya who study Korean as a compulsory, optional or an auxiliary subject. This research also ascertain the extent of the influence on writing, reading, listening and speaking of Korean language by translation. Writing outcomes of the class assignments of thirty participants in the Korean language class of level two and level three of University of Kelaniya has been collected as primary data to be analyzed. Data analysis of writing outcomes is focused on word formation, sentence structure, grammatical errors and meanings of words. This study discusses the reasons for students to make errors in translation and proposes a method to avoid translation errors. Moreover, by applying the proposed method in specific teaching environment, improvement in Korean language and translation and contribution to learner‟s language development is expected. Given that the study primarily attempts to investigate the student‟s errors in their Korean language studies, it is strongly believed that the result of this study will facilitate the teaching and learning process.