Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
------------------------------
BÙ I THỊ TRÂM
1
ACCEPTANCE
I hereby state that I: Bui Thi Tram, class 061E4, being a candidate
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirement of the
College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation paper
deposited in the library.
In term of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper
deposited in the library should be accessible for the purpose of study and
research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the
librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.
Signature
Bui Thi Tram
2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
3
ABSTRACT
4
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
5
Table 15: Teachers' rating the significance of causes to students' common
written errors ....................................................................................................... 58
Table 16: The popularity of each kind of causes to students' common
written errors ....................................................................................................... 60
Figure 10: The popularity of each kind of causes to students' common
written errors ....................................................................................................... 61
Figure 11: Pair work and group work in peer correction.................................... 66
Figure 12: Error Maze......................................................................................... 67
Table 17: Collocation practice table ................................................................... 68
6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements……………………..………………………………….i
Abstract…………………………………...……...………………………...ii
List of figures and tables…………………………...……………………...iii
Chapter 1: Introduction
7
2.1.5.5. False concepts hypothesized .................................................................. 18
2.2. Error correction ............................................................................................ 19
2.2.1. Different views concerning written error correction ................................ 19
2.2.2. Teacher role in written error correction .................................................... 20
2.2.3. Techniques in error correction .................................................................. 21
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Participants................................................................................................... 23
3.2. Data collection instruments.......................................................................... 24
3.2.1. Document analysis .................................................................................... 25
3.2.2. Questionnaire ............................................................................................ 26
3.3. Data collection procedure ............................................................................ 27
3.4. Data analysis methods.................................................................................. 30
3.5. Data analysis procedures.............................................................................. 30
CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1. Peer-correction ............................................................................................. 61
5.2. Teacher correction........................................................................................ 62
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
6.1. Main findings ............................................................................................... 69
6.2. Limitations of the study ............................................................................... 70
References
Appendices
8
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
9
English Test (PET) to Certificate in Advanced English (CAE).
Accordingly, first year students at the faculty are expected to achieve the
level of PET proficiency in writing skills. Despite the fact that analyzing
those fresh men's written errors would contribute greatly to their learning
process, this area of research has been paid little attention to. Thus, the
researcher would like to conduct a study on "Common written errors
committed by first year students at the Faculty of English Language
Teacher Education (FELTE), University of Foreign Languages and
International Studies, Viet Nam National University-Hanoi " to have a
closer look into this field.
First and foremost, this study is to investigate further into the types
of writing errors made by first year students, and basing on the findings
elicited from the research, suggestions as well as recommendations would
be proposed so that they can serve as practical implications for teachers
along with afterward studies. In general, the study is to address the two
following questions:
1. What are the common written errors committed by first year
students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE),
Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Viet
Nam National University, Hanoi?
2. What are the causes to common written errors made by first year
students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE),
Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Viet
Nam National University?
10
1.3. Significance of the study
11
researched. Chapter 3 presents the setting of the study and how the
research is carried out. Chapter 4 is a justification and clarification of the
data gained from data collection. Accordingly, chapter 5 proposes the
researcher's recommendations on the research problem basing on her own
thoughts as well as her adaptation of relevant reference books. In the last
place, chapter 6 summarizes the main findings of the research and poses a
critical overview on the limitations of the research paper.
12
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
13
problematic to students. Thus, they make errors unconsciously, which
accounts for their incapacity to self-correct.
In the meantime, some experts combine both of the two dimensions
above when mentioning the notion of "errors". Corder (1967: 22) regards
"errors" as the "systematic and regular deviant form of language produced
by second language learners at competence level due to linguistic reason."
Accordingly, second language learners repeatedly produce deviant forms of
language because of their deficient competence of selective items of the
target language but not because of their carelessness or lack of attention,
etc.
In the light of the aforementioned definitions, the researcher would
like to employ the third view by Corder as it proves to be the most
comprehensive. According to Corder, an error is characterized with two
features namely systematic deviancy and learner's deficiency to self-
correct. These two features can be considered criteria to determine whether
students have conducted an error or not.
14
attributable to the malfunctioning of the brain." (Crystal in Lee 1990, p.18).
With a view of the later, the notion of errors appears to differ remarkably
from that in psycholinguistics. In the field of ELT, errors would be
characterized by the deviation in the norm of language due to second
language learner's competence whereas mistakes bear a more similar
meaning to the term "errors" used in psycholinguistics. Figure 1 below, as
proposed by Lee (1990) would offer an obvious graphic representation of
this:
Error
(Umbrella term)
15
Edge (1997) presents a contrasting view to Lee's. He does not put it
straightforward what a mistake is, yet the concept is gradually built up
during his presentation. He considers "mistakes" a broad term involving
mistakes of form and mistakes of meaning. The former contains three sub-
types which are slips, errors and attempts. In accordance with this
taxonomy, Edge (1997: 20) provides simple definitions of each type.
" If the teacher think that the student can self-correct a mistake,
we call that mistake a slip.
…If a student cannot self-correct a mistake in his or her own
English, but the teacher thinks that the class is familiar with the
correct form, we shall call that sort of mistake an error.
…When the teacher knows that the students have not yet learned
the language necessary to express what they want to say, we shall
call their mistakes attempts."
In general, Edge regards all the deviation that leads to
misunderstanding and that contradicts to standard rules of English as
"mistakes"; and "error" is a corresponding sub-type of mistakes. By the
same token, Rebat (2008, p.23) demonstrates a clear-cut borderline
between errors and mistakes: "mistakes are those parts of conversations and
compositions that are deviated from the selected norms of mature language
performance". A mistake is produced at either the competence level or at
the performance level. Technically, mistakes at competence level are
referred as errors and those at performance level are known as mistakes.
To sum up, no matter how varied these schools of thoughts are, they
are by nature the same in the sense that a mistake is caused by non-
linguistic reasons such as fatigue, lack of attention, carelessness, haste or
some other "physical defects" while an error is systematically caused by
linguistic reasons. Thus, it is the error that should be the focus of attention
in the field of language teaching rather than mistake.
16
2.1.3. The role of "errors" in English Language Teaching
17
that the child is learning the language. Thus, there is no point in over-
worrying about the error that he has conducted.
Daddy go work Daddy goed Daddy went
yesterday work yesterday work
yesterday
In particular, errors benefit both the learner and the teacher. As for
the former, errors could assume the role of stimuli to facilitate learning and
assist students with achieving writing fluency (Lyons and Heasley, 1992).
With respect to the later, errors serve as an invaluable implication of what
strategies used by learners and an indication of what they have learnt or
have not (Doff, 1989 and Crystal, 1980). In short, there has been a shift in
the view concerning the importance of errors in the field of English
Language Teaching from a negative to positive spectrum. It can be
concluded that errors are by no means to be avoided at any expense.
18
2.1.4. Classification of written errors in English Language Teaching
Burt and Kiparsky (1974: 74) suggest the two terms "global and local
errors" to indicate a hierarchy among categories of errors:
"Global errors are those that violate rules involving the overall
structure of a sentence, the relation among constituent clauses, or in a
simple sentence, the relation among major constituents. Local mistakes
cause trouble in a particular constituent, or in a clause of complex
sentence."
Ford has always targeted the UK as a potential growth area for its
products."
19
error gravity, as she defines, it is involved with the seriousness of error or
which errors to be corrected to be specific. Error gravity includes errors
that interfere with intelligibility or communication. In other words, they are
the errors that lead to communication breakdown like cohesion and
coherence-related ones. Besides, errors which stigmatize or irritate are
another subtype of error gravity. As its names suggests, this is the type of
errors that "intrudes upon the interlocutor's perception of the
communication." (Ludwig, 1982, p. 275). Nonetheless, it is such subjective
and judgmental a type of errors that it is not the focus of corrective
treatment. Additionally, Lee mentions common errors referring to those
that affect a large group of students and can be easily detected and high
frequency errors related to the repeated occurrence of the same error on the
part of individual students.
20
paragraph patterns. As a result, there is likelihood that they will transfer
their mother tongue paragraph pattern into their target language one.
Figure 2 below, as presented by Sokolik (1990), illustrates paragraph
structures by speakers of different languages: extensive parallel
constructions in the Semitic group, an indirect approach in the Oriental
group, the repeated digressions in Romance and Slavic groups, and the
linear English language writing.
21
reflect the general characteristics of rule learning, such as faulty
generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn
conditions for rule application.” The very source of this type of errors,
according to Richards, originates from the complex structure of English
and students' misinterpretation of grammatical rules due to inadequate
learning, faulty teaching or lack of contrast between both languages.
Brown (1980) states that early stages of language learning are characterized
by the prevailing dominance of inter-lingual transfer errors while intra-
lingual errors are typical for learners at a more advanced competence. In
short, this category of errors deals much with errors related to students'
grammatical and lexical errors at higher competence rather than the first
sub-type of errors.
22
All in all, there is no clear-cut distinction between the three types of
errors presented. As for the same error, it can be classified as inter-lingual
errors for this student but intra-lingual errors for another and
developmental errors for the others. The classification is varied with
regard to different learners; thus, it is vital that teacher well understand
his/her students to work out which type of errors learners are making to
provide necessary correction.
23
(1989: 7) is in line with this thought: "when people do not know how to say
something in a foreign language, one possibility is to use words and
structures from their own language and try to make them fit into the foreign
language." Moreover, the interference of mother tongue may result from
the complication of the structure of the target language as Abbort et al
(1981: 230) argues that "wherever the structures of the first language and
target language differed, there would be problems in learning and difficulty
in performance, and that the greater the differences were, the greater the
difficulties would be."
2.1.5.2. Overgeneralization
24
2.1.5.3. Ignorance of rule restrictions
25
2.1.5.4. Incomplete application of rules
26
not work because these different features may not be the language items
that are most often needed. On the other hand, once contrastive
presentation is involved, a poor or pre-mature presentation would cost
learner's confusion about the differences between the two languages. The
very consequences of this are that students end up with puzzlement and a
disordered knowledge.
27
errors that require more concern from teacher namely errors that interfere
with intelligibility or communication, errors which stigmatized or irritate
common errors and high frequency errors (see 1.3). Some scholars like
Edge (1970) and Van et al (1984) are in favor of the approach that much
weight should be attributed to errors that impede the intelligibility of the
message or errors of meaning as Edge terms. Edge (1970: 11) argues that
"the most important sort of errors is errors of meaning…There is no point
in learning to say correct sentences in English if they do not mean what we
want to say." In terms of errors that deserve more concerns from teacher,
the researcher would like to concur with Edge's view that errors that
impede the conveyance of meaning should be a priority to correction since
writing is at first to "express and impress. Writers typically serve two
masters: themselves and their own desires to express an idea or feeling and
readers, also called the audience, who need to have ideas expressed in
certain ways." (Sokolik, 1990: 88). Thus, errors related to failure to convey
messages would be worth correcting most.
28
Besides, teacher assumes the role as the only linguistic model in their
setting for students to look at. Learners always have a strong desire to be
themselves and to be able to express themselves in English. Teacher, to
some extent, has become the model of the same background culture to
enjoy the language, to express himself/ herself in the target language. Thus,
from students' perspectives, teachers earns their status "based on the fact
that they are successful examples of what their students aim to be; people
from a shared background who have achieved an ability to communicate in
English" (Edge, 1970: 76). Therefore, teachers should provide correction
that helps learner to express themselves more accurately and "make
correction a part of the teaching and learning process, not something to
fight against" or "a kind of criticism or punishment" (Edge, 1970: 75).
This is the very status that teachers should assume in error correction.
29
The techniques involving how to correct written errors can be
divided into teacher correction techniques and student correction
techniques as a whole, Edge (1970: 24). As for student correction, errors
can be corrected by error conductors' peers. That is, peer correction can
contribute to the stage of error correction. The teacher will not correct the
errors but show students that an error has been committed. Peer correction
can take place at the level of individuals, that is, student-to-student
correction and at the level of a whole class, or whole-class correction as it
is named. This type of correction works well with common errors from
students' tests or exercises. In addition to student correction, there remains
another type of correction, teacher correction with two corresponding sub-
types namely full teacher correction and teacher-student correction. In
terms of full teacher correction, all the errors are corrected by the teacher
and then the feedback is handed back to the students. This kind of
correction is useful for errors of various types and errors that are difficult
for students to correct. The teacher-student technique is implemented as
followed: the teacher provide correction in the form of standard codes
which have been agreed in advance by students and teacher. Students are
left to do the correction work themselves afterwards.
30
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Participants
Samples
19 20 19 19
collected
31
The large size of the writing samples, 231 in total, which accounts
for one fifth of the total tests, can be considered eligible for representing
the whole population. Furthermore, these samples are expected to provide
the researcher with a more objective look at students' common written
errors when the identification of errors is implemented on three writing
pieces produced by the same student at different points of time. In so doing,
the researcher is supposed to eliminate the possibility that a mistake is mis-
categorized into an error. In addition, thanks to the convenience that all the
samples to be analyzed are collected from official tests, there is a low risk
that students may copy down from the internet or reference books. This
ensures that the writing samples collected are students' own products and it
would contribute greatly to the reliability of the study.
In order to conduct this study, the researcher has employed two data
collection instruments namely document analysis and survey questionnaire.
32
The combination of these two methods offers the researcher not only
quantitative but also qualitative data for later analysis.
Regarding the very aim and objectives of this study, the researcher
would like to employ document analysis as a feasible method to gain
insights into the research problems. This data collection method is
“considered a research technique that provides objective, systematic and
qualitative data” (Verma and Mallick, 1999). In spite of the large size of
writing samples collected, this method of researching enables the
researcher to summarize a large volume of data into fewer categories
basing on a proper coding system as Stemler (1996) affirms "content
analysis enables researchers to sift through large volumes of data with
relative ease in a systematic fashion". Additionally, it also allows the
researcher to make inferences from data collected, which can be used to
assist the data gained from survey questionnaire as well. However, this data
collection method could be impaired due to the incompleteness or the
missing of students' writing samples. With a stroke of luck, the number of
students' writing tests missed is insignificant enough to ensure the
reliability of the research.
33
word choice. The second column represents typical examples of each
category while the third one is used to list students' errors that the
researcher encountered.
3.2.2. Questionnaire
34
drawback, the questionnaire will be brief and it will also be finished within
the presence of the researcher so that any arising misunderstandings will be
made clear in time.
35
English, it is written in English to ensure that terminologies would not be
distorted as a result of translation into Vietnamese.
Phase 2:
This phase concentrates mainly on such tasks as collecting students'
test and piloting the questionnaire. As for the former, the researcher went
through a series of demanding tasks. Firstly, with the aid of her supervisor,
she was enabled to get access to students' diagnostic and mid-term tests by
borrowing them from teachers in charge of teaching writing to four groups
of E15, E17, E21 and E23. Then it came to the photocopying students'
end-of-term tests. However, the access to this resource is limited; hence,
the researcher's supervisor did her a favor when he asked the Dean of
Division 1 for permission to get access to students' writing tests. These 77
writing tests were scattered alphabetically in 23 testing rooms. In an
attempt to sort them out, the researcher had an initial look at their names in
the testing lists of each testing room to pick out their numerical orders in
the lists. It is worth noting that no examinee's personal information is left
on their tests except for the numerical order of their headings. However,
these headings were cut from examinees' tests to ensure fairness during
marking procedure. Thus, the numerical orders found were used to collate
with the numbers on examinees' headings to make out what the number
written on students' tests. The last step is left to picking out students' tests
based on the numerical order written on each test. After that, all of these
77 examinees' tests were borrowed and photocopied to serve the
researcher's later analysis. Finally, they were returned to exactly where
they used to be to ensure that no missing tests occurred.
With regard to the later, the questionnaire was piloted with the
enthusiastic help of one volunteer teacher in the Department. The
researcher also consulted her with advice to improve the questionnaire to
get the desired effect.
36
Phase 3:
This is the last but by no means the least phase in data collection
procedure. It focuses mainly on delivering questionnaire and analyzing
students' writing samples collected in phase two.
With respect to the delivery of the questionnaires, in order to contact
respondents, the researcher had a quick look at the teacher's list provided
for students to pick out the phone numbers of the selected respondents.
Afterwards, she made short phone calls to these respondents to make an
appointment with them as they were all at work and their free time was not
abundant. Prior to respondents' completion of the questionnaire, the
researcher spent a short time explaining briefly what the respondents were
required to do. Additionally, on account of ethical reasons, their
anonymity was pledged. The researcher's presence was also provided
during the respondents' procedure of completing the questionnaire to
explain anything that the respondents were not clear about. Afterwards, all
the questionnaires were collected and the researcher would have a short
look at them to detect any unexpected outcomes and immediate
remediation would be provided.
In terms of the analysis of students' writing samples, the researcher
grouped their writing tests in accordance with their classes for the sake of
convenience in error detecting. Accordingly, with the aid of the checklist
drafted in phase 2, the researcher detected written errors made by the same
students throughout their three official tests of diagnostic, mid-term and
end-of-term tests. Simultaneously, any errors encountered were noted
down to serve as a justification for the researcher's later generalization and
conclusion.
37
3.4. Data analysis methods
First of all, the data collected from the questionnaire, the document
analysis were classified basing on the two research questions. In other
words, the first questions of the questionnaire and the data gained from
analyzing students’ writings will be used to answer the first research
question “What are the common written errors committed by first year
students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE),
Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Viet
Nam National University, Hanoi?''
The second question of the questionnaire and qualitative data
originated from the analysis of students' writing were employed to answer
the second research question “What are the causes to common written
errors made by first year students at the Faculty of English Language
Teacher Education (FELTE), Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and
International Studies, Viet Nam National University?".
38
Afterwards, numerical data were tabulated and presented in the form
of pie charts, bar charts and tables. Particularly, quantitative data gained
from the questionnaire was tabulated and calculated into percentage. Then,
written errors detected on students' writing samples were categorized based
on the prepared checklist. This step was followed by the counting of the
times that errors of the same category were repeated. Simultaneously,
prominent examples of each category were noted down to exemplify the
researcher's later analysis. Finally, all numerical data will be transferred
into percentage and corresponding charts with relevant coding color system
offered.
39
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As stated in the previous chapter, the first research question " What
are the common written errors committed by first year students at the
Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, Hanoi University of
Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hanoi?" was answered by
the interpretation of the qualitative data gained from analyzing 231 of
students' writing samples as well as the quantitative data collected from
teachers' survey questionnaire.
Following are the tables and the corresponding bar chart to illustrate
first-year main-stream students' written errors.
WRITTEN ERRORS OF FIRST YEAR
STUDENTS AT ED, HULIS
General items 18.99%
Mechanics 10.34%
Grammar 36.21%
Syntax 13.30%
Lexical items 4.99%
Style 27.84%
Layout 3.64%
Idea organization 2.49%
40
Table 2.1: Written errors of first year students at ED, HULIS as
synthesized from document analysis
Items of
1 (never) 2 3 4 5(always)
errors
Idea
0% 40% 0% 40% 20%
organization
Lexical items 0% 0% 40% 60% 0%
Inappropriate
0% 0% 40% 0% 60%
language style
Grammar 0% 20% 40% 40% 0%
Wrong
20% 60% 0% 20% 0%
format
Mechanics 0% 20% 60% 20% 0%
Expression 0% 0% 20% 40% 40%
Word choice 0% 0% 40% 20% 40%
In term of table 2.2, the researcher would like to choose the mean 2.5
as the medium indicator. That is, if most of the teachers agree that a certain
item of errors occur above the mean "2.5", it would be consider a common
error and vice versa. Accordingly, 100 percent of the teachers agree that
expression, word choice, inappropriate language style and lexical items are
common errors. In the meantime, 80% of the teachers are in agreement
with the fact that grammar and mechanics are common errors. Another
portion of 60% of the teachers see idea organization as common errors.
This is, to some extent, quite similar to the data presented in Table 2.1.
41
As for Table 2.1, the researcher would like to employ the percentage
of five as the standard figure to determine whether a certain category of
errors falls into the groups of common errors or not. This figure is chosen
due to the fact that 5% would mean that the category is popular with one
twentieth of the population; in other words, at least one out of twenty errors
encountered will fall into these groups. Accordingly, the six most common
errors are those related to grammar, style, general items, syntax, mechanics
and lexical items with the descending percentage of 37.21%, 27.84%,
18.99%, 13.30% 10.34% and 4.99% (roughly 5%) respectively. The types
of errors concerning inappropriate format and illogical idea organization
are less popular. This can be accounted by the fact that the writing samples
collected by the researcher are all produced during students' first semester
wherein the focus is writing informal letters and postcards. Hence, students
are not required to make use of their logical and critical thinking as much
as in argumentative writing.
In order to illustrate data vividly, a bar chart is provided as below.
Particularly, the vertical axis represents the percentage of each category of
errors while the horizontal axis is a set of bars with corresponding coding
color system
40.00%
35.00% General Items
30.00% Mechanics
25.00% Grammar
Syntax
20.00%
lexical items
15.00%
Stlye
10.00% layout
5.00% idea organization
0.00%
1
42
The detailed description of each category of errors is provided as
below. First of all, it comes to the interpretation of errors concerning
grammar violation.
Grammar errors:
Grammatical errors
Pronoun agreement mistakes 1.06%
Article mistakes 15.18%
Use gerund 2.59%
Use Noun 0.47%
Noun Number 12.00%
Use pronoun 1.06%
Pronoun reference unclear 0.82%
Voice change 0.35%
Subject and verb agreement 9.06%
Wrong verb tense 13.65%
Verb form 2.94%
Modal problem 0.82%
Auxiliary verbs 2.47%
Use infinitive 1.53%
Incorrect formation/use of conditionals 0.71%
Use possessive form 0.71%
Preposition 20.47%
Wrong use of conjunction/connective 12.12%
Link/combine 0.71%
Add relative pronoun 1.29%
43
Pronoun agreement
mistakes
25.00% Article mistakes
Use gerund
Use Noun
Use pronoun
Modal problem
Auxiliary verbs
5.00% Use infinitive
Incorrect formation/use of
conditionals
Use possesive form
0.00% preposition
1 Wrong use of
conjunction/connective
Link/combine
As it can be seen from the chart above, errors involving wrong use of
preposition (20.47%), article mistakes (15.18%), wrong verb tense
(13.65%), wrong use of conjunction/connective (12.12%), wrong noun
number (12.00%), and subject/verb agreement (9.06%) earn the most
prevailing occurrence. These figures show the fact that knowledge related
to noun usage (article mistakes, noun number), verb usage (verb tense,
subject and verb agreement) and preposition usage is problematic to
students. In particular, students often omit articles where they are needed
and insert them into inappropriate places.
44
The same phenomenon is encountered when students' preposition
errors are detected. More or least, they insert prepositions after verbs that
do not carry prepositions and omit them after verbs that are in need of, or
they can replace the frequently used preposition with an inappropriate one.
In the meantime, students' wrong use of noun number is seen in erroneous
structures like "each or every + plural nouns" and their false assumption of
the countability of nouns which partially account for their subject and verb
agreement errors. Besides, such structures as "there + to be + N" pose a
problem to students as they fail to determine whether the verb "to be"
should be in singular or plural forms. Additionally, students' putting verbs
into wrong tense results from the fact that they forget to put verbs into past
tense when they are recounting a story or events.
45
Consider about the time
Telephone to me
Join with us/ in my birthday
Wasting it for playing games
Add prepositions
Prove for her opinion
Suit for you
Answer for your question
Bring for us many useful things
With a high price
Congratulate my brothers in…
Replace During the reading of history
prepositions During 19.00 to 22.00
In other hand
Familiar to
Give me (an) outlook
In (a) clear way
(a) nice garden
Have (a) chance
Article (the) best result
Omit articles
mistakes (the) other side of the problem
Both (the) countryside and (the) town
In such (a) large school/such (a) good
condition
Give me (a) happy time
The next paragraph
The students
Add articles The dinner
Attend the classes
46
Go to the hospital
A good advice
Wrong insertion A best choice
of article A children
A nice people
Today I write this letter…/ I write this card to…
We agreed that we will meet…
Verb tense I'm very happy when I received your letter
You said that you are moving to a different area.
You said that you love watching T.V.
I must go to visit my grandparents on that day. So I can't meet
you.
More and more happy when you ask me to tell you all about my
Conjunction/
favourite programme. And now I'll tell you about it.
Connective
But, there are some shortcomings that make me wonder.
Although its fee is much, it's large and modern. Especially, the
teachers at that school are very well.
Each/every + Plural Nouns
Each others
Every sad things
Every students
Everythings
Noun number Some + Singular countable nouns
Some hobby
Some mistake
Some good point
Some material
Uncountable Nouns in plural forms
47
Equipments
Advices
Informations
There + to be + Noun:
There is many new friends
There is good teachers
Subject/Verb
Singular subject + Plural Verb
agreement
It make me fun and relax me
The story make me…
The author give…
Style errors:
With respect to the second most common errors, style errors, their
elaboration is illustrated as below. The corresponding table shows specific
figures while the pie chart offers a vivid and straightforward representation
of this category of errors.
Too
informal/formal
Faulty parallelism
Transition needed
49
expression accounts for nearly half of the total errors conducted by students
in this kind. In particular, lengthy or clumsy expression is found as
students over-use intensifiers like "very much, really, a lot" or they expand
the sentence unnecessarily whilst it can be shortened instead. For example,
students produce such sentences as "I really enjoyed it a lot" or "I am glad
to know that you move from a large school to another which was smaller"
(instead of "I really enjoyed it" or "I am glad to know that you move from a
large school to a smaller one"). In fact, students are accustomed to the
prevalence of intensifiers in Vietnamese. It is natural for students to
produce sentences like "cô ấy rất xinh đẹp (She is very beautiful)/ tôi rất
thích chạy bộ (I like jogging a lot)/ tôi thực sự thích bong đá rất nhiều ( I
really like football very much)" instead of "cô ấy xinh đẹp (she is beautiful)
/ tôi thích chạy bộ (I like jogging)/ tôi thích bóng đá (I like football)". Thus,
there is a tendency for them to add as many intensifiers as possible;
otherwise, they would feel that they are lacking something significant.
They are not aware of the fact that in certain circumstances, the use of such
intensifiers is not needed as the sentence itself is meaningful and
intelligible. Besides, because of students' word-by-word translation, they
ignore grammatical rules and produce erroneous sentences. For instance,
they would translate "chủ nhật hàng tuần" into English word-by-word as
"Sundays weekly" instead of "every Sunday". Below is the presentation of
data gained and typical examples for expression errors.
GENERAL ITEMS
Meaning unclear 8.75%
Add omitted words 11.11%
Omit words 13.13%
Right words but wrong 22.56%
50
forms
Expression 44.44%
50.00%
45.00% Meaning unclear
40.00%
35.00%
30.00% Add omitted words
25.00%
20.00%
15.00% Omit words
10.00%
5.00%
0.00% Right words but
Meaning
omitted
Expression
words but
words
unclear
Omit
wrong forms
Add
Right
Expression
51
you will lose little. …arrive Vietnam from USA
I really enjoyed it a lot. I felt like someone stand behind me
I eventually never understand what I was taken part in your party
they say in that programme. Small school in the countryside will
Write to me a reply not enough condition to organize.
His hurt is serious very much. My special favourite programme…
I'm glad to write to tell you that I I have to move to a new place which
was interested in the party you gave is far from my village many times.
me yesterday However, nevermind, with your
I prepared dinner on the table study you can learn at the best
school.
Syntax errors
With regard to syntactic errors, the dominant occurrence belongs to
fragment error (39.42%) and it is roughly followed by wrong order and
run-on sentence error with the portion of 15.38% and 10.1% respectively.
Specific data and a corresponding pie chart are presented as below:
52
Fragment error
Run-on sentence
Subject/verb
needed
Wrong order
Sentence
structure
Common
syntactic Typical examples
errors
53
.Some knowledge you can only get from the teacher.
.As it will give you more chance.
Fragment
.Especially I liked the food.
error
.Because the party was so wonderful.
.The subject whether or not they like.
Misplacement of adverbs:
- Adverb of frequency: have been never…
- Adverbs of manner: complete successfully their project/
find easily a good job
Wrong Order
- Adverb of time: What do you think about next week on
Tuesday?
- Adverb of degree: The most thing I remember/ I liked
best the music at the party.
The story he tells is only one case, there are still many people
who is very hard-working at school and the results in a good
future, and someone who spent much time on part-time jobs
couldn't finish their time at university.
Knowing that you and your family are going to move to a
Run-on different area and you are considering about going to a small
sentence school in the countryside or in the centre of town, I'm writing
to give you my advice.
When I read this story, I like very much because it can advises
me what I should do when I am a student and I think that I
should attend the classes regularly in order to that I can gain
more skills and improve my knowledge at university.
54
Mechanics errors
Capitalize
Incorrect
punctuation
Incorrect spelling
55
, such as: Emagining/convinient/
For example: sociaty/ rubbits
As a result: Persuative
Dear Sally!
Lexical items
Students' lexical errors are much concerned with the wrong choice of
words or wrong use of words in inappropriate contexts. Thanks to the
analysis of students' writing samples, the research finds that lexical errors
result from the fact that students do not master words' collocation or
semantic meaning of a word or they translate words by words into the
target language.
56
Vietnamese equivalent, "chân thật". As a result, students produce an
erroneous sentence like "the story is truthful" unconsciously.
57
offered an overall picture of common written errors produced by main-
stream first year students at English Department, Hanoi University of
Languages and International Studies. All the issues under discussion are
tabulated as following.
COMMON WRITTEN ERRORS
Common
Common sub-categories
Categories
1.1.1.Omit preposition
1.1.2. Add preposition
1.1. Preposition
1.1.3. Replace
preposition
1.2.1. Omit articles
1.2. Article mistakes 1.2.2. Add articles
1.2.3. Replace articles
1.3. Wrong verb tense
1.4. Wrong conjunction/connective
1. Grammar 1.5.1.Each/Every +
Plural Nouns
1.5.2. Some + Singular
1.5. Noun number
countable nouns
1.5.3. Uncountable
Nouns in plural forms
1.6.1. There + to be +
Noun
1.6. Subject/verb agreement
1.6.2. Singular subject +
Plural Verb
2.1. Too formal language style
2. Style
2.2. Too informal language style
58
3.1. Lengthy/ clumsy expression
3. General items
3.2. Vietnamese expression
4.1. Fragment error
4.2.1. Misplacement of
4. Syntax 4.2. Wrong word order
adverbs
4.3. Run-on sentence
5.1. Incorrect punctuation
5. Mechanics
5.2. Incorrect spelling
6.1.1. Collocation
6.1.2. Semantic
6.1.Wrong word/ Word
6. Lexical items meaning
choice
6.1.3. Word-by-word
translation
4. 2. Research question 2
59
With reference to the data collected from teachers' survey
questionnaire, it can be seen that there does not exist a consensus among
teachers as to which causes assume a more degree of significance. The
diversity is illustrated in the table below. The continuum from one to five
corresponds with the rating from the most significant to the least
significant. The percentage represents the number of teachers sharing the
same perspective.
Degree of
1 (most 5 (least
significance 2 3 4
significant) significant)
Causes
Mother tongue
60% 20% 0% 0% 20%
interference
Ignorance of rule
0% 20% 20% 40% 20%
restrictions
Incomplete
20% 0% 20% 20% 40%
application of rules
False concepts
0% 20% 20% 40% 20%
hypothesized
60
errors. Then it comes to the overgeneralization and ignorance of rule
restrictions with the portion of 100% and 40% respectively. The least and
nearly least significant causes belong to incomplete application of rules and
false concepts hypothesized with 40% of the respondents' concurrence.
By the same token, data gained from document analysis prove that
mother tongue interference, overgeneralization and ignorance of rule
restrictions are among the three most significant causes. However, the
ranks between incomplete application of rules and false concept
hypothesized permute with each other. Specific figures and corresponding
chart are offered as following:
61
30.00%
mother tongue
25.00% interference
Overgeneralization
20.00%
62
instead of employing over persuasion, which may be considered to be
excessively direct and forceful.
63
conjunctions/ connectives as "Và, bởi vậy/vì vậy, mặc dầu vậy…nhưng
mà…, nhưng" can be used at the beginning of a sentence and serve as an
introduction of an independent sentence. Thus, it is common for
Vietnamese students to use "And, so, although…but…, but" at the
beginning of a sentence and they use these conjunction as preceding
elements of an independent sentence, though they must be used in a
subordinating clause instead. This partially accounts for students' incorrect
use of punctuation. That is, in Vietnamese, it is standard grammar that
commas can be used after such conjunctions as "tuy nhiên, mặc dầu vậy, vì
vậy, nhưng mà". As a result, students will take it for granted that they can
apply the same rule in English. They will add commas after conjunctions
like "although, so, but" while it is indeed deviant.
Overgeneralization
64
students overgeneralize the rule that every expression of quality which is
used to denote the concept of "plurality" will be followed by a plural noun.
Students, therefore, would see that "every" also denotes a plurality concept
and accordingly, it should be accompanied by plural nouns. For example,
students would be likely to produce errors like "everythings, every people,
every bad things". They may also expand the rule that plural nouns taking
zero articles refer to a group of people or things and adopt it to non-count
noun. Hence, it is common to encounter such errors as "advices,
equipments, informations."
65
as a surprise that students unconsciously put words into a surrounding
where they are supposed not to appear. Terminologically, collocation
aspect of the language is troublesome to students. In other words, students
ignore the restriction use of verbs like "overcome, open, shoot"; thus, they
produce such combination as "overcome your question, open HBO channel
and shoot fireworks".
66
instead of "today I'm writing to tell you about my favourite programme"
and "I'm writing this card to thank you for your birthday party yesterday".
67
complexity in structures proves a high proficiency of the target language.
In the mean time, complexity in informal writing is not expected in
standard written English. This phenomenon can be exemplified by the
presence of such structures as "I would like to be visited by you next week/
I'm writing to inform you that …" in an informal piece of writing.
68
CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1. Peer-correction
69
cooperative environment would be created and there would be a shift from
the teacher as the main corrector to students as beneficiaries and correction
providers. That is, two head are always better than one.
F
A B
C D
G
E
70
Alternatively, the teacher can offer a chance for the whole class to
participate in the correction process by organizing whole class
organization. That is, the teacher will select the most common and the most
serious errors to write on the blackboard. The whole class will contribute
ideas as to how to correct the errors. This way helps the whole class learn
from typical errors.
71
errors, teacher can plan their syllabus for the next class. In the case of the
above example, teachers may plan a guided composition in which a student
writes a story in the past tense.
Thirdly, teachers should first and foremost search for what students
have done correctly. Often, a piece of writing contains both correctly and
incorrectly used forms. The students need to have it pointed out that they
have demonstrated the correct grammatical feature and they can use the
correct form easily.
The students are given a maze with numbers connected by black and
white arrows. Below the maze are 15 sentences, some of which are correct
and some wrong.
72
Clear instructions are essential. The students' task is to start at the IN
sentence, visit each number once, and arrive at OUT. First they read the IN
sentence, if they think it is correct, they follow the white arrow to sentence
3; if they think it is wrong, they follow the black arrow to sentence 14.
They then continue in the same way, follow the white arrow if the sentence
is correct and the black if it is wrong.
10. The "No smoking" sign means you don't have to smoke in here.
73
14. If I didn't miss the bus to the airport, I would have been on the plane
which crashed!
7 13 4
9
2
OUT 10
6
8 14
5
11
12
IN
1 3
GRAMMAR AUCTION
This game works well when teachers long students to pay particular
attention to grammatical errors as it has been proved that grammatical
errors lie among the most common written errors by first year students.
74
Prior to the beginning of the game, students are allowed to have a
certain amount of time to determine among provided sentences, which one
is correct and which one is not. They also decide on how much money
they would like to spend on each correct sentence. It is worth noting that
sentences that are difficult to tell whether they are true or not should be
included.
Below is an example of an auction game:
Right or Wrong? Budget
1. Do you have some sugar? _____________ ______
2. I'm very fond of the classical music. _____________ ______
3. She spent $60 for a new dress. _____________ ______
4. Would you like to come round for _____________ ______
supper tonight?
5. This is the best fish I've ever had. _____________ ______
6. She works like a waitress in a _____________ ______
French restaurant.
7. If I could, I would. _____________ ______
8. Turn it off, would you? _____________ ______
9. The bank in Queen Street has _____________ ______
been robbed yesterday.
10. This man worked by my _____________ ______
uncle for ten years.
COLLOCATION PRACTICE
(extracted from Bartram & Wakton)
75
collocation is one major reason leading to students' deviancy in lexical
items. Thus, a well-prepared task can help students eliminate collocation
errors.
Teacher chooses a noun that is important for the theme. Students are
then asked to list five adjectives or nouns that precede immediately the key
noun, three nouns that can follow the key noun immediately and five verbs
that can be the immediate antecedent of the key noun.
Then it comes to students' comparison in pairs or groups and they
will eliminate the least interesting word like old, big, etc. Afterwards, the
groups or pairs will report to the whole class. Finally, teacher suggests
other possible collocations.
Teacher may prepare a card for students to write on. The card may
look like this:
Verbs Adjectives/Nouns
(Key words)
76
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
As for the former, the researcher has detected six types of common
written errors made by first year mainstream students at English
Department, HULIS. They are grammar, style, general items (language
style and expression in particular), syntax, mechanics and lexical items. It
comes as a surprise that grammatical errors make up the highest portion
among common errors detected. Those students, whose writing samples
are collected, are all newcomers at university. However, in order to be
admitted to this university, they were all to deal with a national-wide
sorting exam. Only students of decent capacity can be admitted to
university. Thus, they are expected to acquire a relative volume of
grammatical items and only minor grammatical errors are accepted as a
result of students' carelessness or slips of pens. Nonetheless, the dominant
appearance of grammatical errors claims a different panorama. This means
that English grammar is problematic to first year mainstream students at
English Department, HULIS.
77
they would like to convey when they do not have the relevant second
language in hands. Besides, as students fail to express themselves
concisely, there is a tendency for them to express in a lengthy and
complexly grammaticalized way. Thus, students are at a risk to produce
both collocation/expression errors and grammatical errors simultaneously.
78
REFERENCES
79
Jakobovits (in Richards), L.A. (1969). A psycholinguistic Analysis of
Second Language Learning and bilinguialism. Institute of
Communications Research. Illionois.
La Brant, L. (1946).Teaching high-school students to write. The
EnglishJournal
Lee, N. (1990). Notion of errors and appropriate corrective treatment.
Hong Kong paper in Linguistics and Language teaching 13. Hong
Kong Baptist College. Retrieved 26-November from
http://www.eric.ed.gov/
Ludwig, J. (1982). Native speaker judgments of second language learner's
errors at communication: A review.
Lyons, L.H and Heasley, B. (1992). Study writing. CUP
Norrish, J (1987). Language learning and their errors. London: Macmillan.
Richards, J.C. (1970) A non constrastive approach to error analysis.
English language teaching
80
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16429583/Correction-and-Remediation-
of-Errors
Vann, R.J. et al (1984), Error gravity: A study of faculty opinion of ESL
errors. TESOL quaterly 18/3
William C. Rithchie. 1970. Some implication of generative grammar.
Language Learning Vol XVII.
81
APPENDIX 1
QUESTIONNAIRE
Part 2: Questions:
82
Diagnostic End-of-term
ITEMS Specific errors Mid-term test
test test
-----------------------------
83
APPENDIX 2- ERROR CHECKLIST
TransitionSUB-CATEGORIES
needed Diagnostic Mid-term test End-of-term
ITEMS
LAY-OUT Wrong format test test
Meaning
New unclear
paragraph
IDEA
ORGANIZATI
Coherence
Add omitted(one idea does not lead to the
words
GENERAL
ON next)
Omit words
ITEMS
Lack
Rightof paragraph
word unity
but wrong forms
Expression (affected by L1)
MECHANICS
Capitalize
Incorrect Punctuation
Pronoun agreement
mistake
Article mistake
Use gerund
NOUN Use noun
Number (singular <->
plural)
Use pronoun
Pronoun reference
unclear
Voice change
GRAMMAR Subject/verb agreement
Wrong verb tense
Incorrect verb form
VERB Modal problem
Auxiliary verb
Use infinitive
Incorrect use/formation
of a conditional sentence
Use Adjective
MODIFIERS Use Adverb
Use possessive form
PREPOSITIONSWrong use of preposition
Fragment error
Run-on sentence
SYNTAX Subject/verb needed
Wrong order
Sentence structure
Wrong used oft conjunction/ connective
CONNECTOR
S Link/combine
Add relative pronoun
LEXICAL Incorrect spelling
ITEMS Word choice/ wrong word
STYLE Too informal
Faulty parallelism
Improve topic sentence
84
85