LINH, cÍ QUANG NAM PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THE UNIVERSITY OF QUANG NAM DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES -—-#oERcq—- GRADUATION PAPER AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON ERRORS IN IELTS WRITING TASK1 OF THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR. STUDENT AT QUANG NAM UNIVERSITY Reresearcher DINH THI THU THUY Student Code =: 2113020834 Major : English Academic Course : 2013-2017 Supervisor : NGUYEN THI TINH THAO Quang Nam, May 2017 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this study contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. This graduation paper has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution Tam Ky, May 2017 DINH THI THU THUY ABSTRACT ‘This graduation paper is designed to research common errors in writing IELTS task 1 made by third-year English major students at Quang Nam University. This study focused on four main categories of errors including grammatical, mechanical, and lexical as well as presentation errors, This study is qualitative.
The data was collected from IELTS task 1 test written by 90 students of third- year from English class DT14TAN01 and DT14TAN02 at Quang Nam University. ‘The results show that the grammatical errors and presentation errors were made the most of four errors, Especially, some errors specialize in writing task1, which belong to presentation errors such as unsuitable idea arranging, style, unclear overall and too much information still in high level. This is strong ring to remind English major students to practice their writing skill more. On the other hand, the study gives standards how to get band scores from lowest to highest, examples for each type of chart or diagram and some suggestions for students to enhance their IELTS writing task 1skill.
‘The researcher does hope that through this study, students may be more aware of the importance of IELTS writing task 1 and limit common errors in writing task 1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To begin with, I wish to express my sineere gratitude to all people who helped me in completing my research and of course, my beloved supervisor Nguyen Thi Tinh Thao for her continual assistance and support, valuable advice, wholehearted guidance, correction as well as encouragement during the development of this graduation paper. Tam grateful to all lecturers in Foreign Language Department, Quang Nam University for their useful lectures in my four-long year. Moreover, I would like to send my special thanks to English classes DT14TANO1 and DTI4TAN02 at Quang Nam University for their enthusiastic cooperation for my data collection.
Last but not least, from bottom of my heart, I would like to say thanks deeply to my family and my friends who always stand by me, understand and encourage me in a long process of doing this study. Thank you very much! DINH THI THU THUY TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHOERSHPP. LIST OF TABLES. LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale for research 1. Aims for research. Objectives for research. Scope of the study.
Organization of the study. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. The previous related study. Types of graphs in Writing Task? 2.4, IELTS Writing Taskl band descriptors.1, Definition of errors.
Errors and Mistakes. The role of error analysis in writing. 24, Type of errors in Writing Taskl. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE.
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Common errors in writing Task 1 made by third- year English major students 4.2, Summary CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .As for teachers. As for students. Limitation of the study .4, Suggestions for further research.
LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Percentage of common errors in writing task 1 Figure 2: Percentage of grammatical errors in writing task 1. Figure 3: Percentage of mechanical errors in writing task 1. Figure 4; Percentage of presentation errors in writing task 1. Figure 5: percentage of lexical errors in writing task 1.
Rationale for research Vietnam has become an official member of WTO (World Trade Organization) since 2007. As a result, Vietnam economy is a very attractive market for investment and business growth. Leaming the most popular language is the first thing we should do to communicate and cooperate with foreign investors. In today’s global world, the importance of English cannot be denied and ignored since English is the most common language spoken everywhere.
With the help of developing technology, English has been playing a major role in many sectors including medicine, engineering, and education which in my opinion, is the most important arena where English is needed, Particularly, as a developing country, Vietnam needs to make use of this world-wide spoken language in order to prove its intemational power. This can merely be based on the efficiency of tertiary education. It has become a compulsory subject in many schools, colleges and universities. Moreover, with globalization, IELTS (Intemational English Language Testing System) is the world’s most popular English language proficiency test for higher education and global migration with some million tests taken per year.
IELTS assesses all English skills such as Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking; and it is designed to reflect how a person will use English at study, at work, and at play, or in a new life abroad. The IELTS test is developed by some of the world’s leading experts in language assessment. It has an excellent international reputation, and it is accepted by over 9,000 organizations worldwide, including sehool, colleges, universities, employers, immigration authorities and professional bodies. IELTS is the most widely accepted English language test that uses a one on -one speaking test to assess English communication skills.
This means that a candidate will be assessed by having a real-life conversation with a real person. This is the most effective and natural way of testing English conversation skills. However, it is not easy to master a foreign language. Like many other universities, English major students at Quang Nam University are taught four skills; Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing right from the first term.
And in the following terms, we start to study IELTS program. In general, one of four skills which is considered as the most difficult for English major students is Writing skill. Especially, Writing IELTS contains two compulsory tasks, namely Task 1 and Task 2. To be honest, IELTS has just been popular in Vietnam recently and it is quite a challenge for leamers to get high band in Writing skill.
Normally, English major students at Quang Nam University start to learn IELTS Writing Task 1 in the first semester of the third- year, It is not 1 hard to guess that students meet a lot of difficulties and make many mistakes in Writing Task 1 and do not know how to avoid these mistakes. As a previous learner who also made all the same errors, I think that ifI knew these mistakes before, I would improve my Writing skill and help the other learners so much. That is also the reason why I have chosen: “An Investigation into common errors on Writing IELTS Task 1 of third- year English students at Quang Nam University” as the topic for my graduation paper. Aims for research The major aim is to identify common errors such as grammatical, mechanical, and lexical as well as presentation errors in details, then find out some suggestions on overcoming the difficulties in IELTS writing task clarified in the paper.
Objectives for research The objectives of this study are set out follow: - Finding out the grammatical, mechanical, and lexical as well as presentation errors in writing taskl made by third-year English major students at Quang Nam University ~ Sorting out and making error analysis in writing task ~ Giving some suggestions for English students to deal with these errors 14. Scope of the study Due to limit time as well as knowledge, the study only focused on investigating the most common grammatical, mechanical, lexical and presentation errors made by third-year English major students when they did their writing task 1 test. From that point, I do hope that I am able to carry out the study of identifying these common errors and offer some effective solutions to improve IELTS vaiting task1 skill of English major students. Research questions The study objectives are to seek answers to the following questions: 1.
What are the common errors in Writing Task 1 for IELTS of third year English students at Quang Nam University? 2. Which suggestions can help English students to deal with these common errors? 16. Organization of the study My graduation paper includes five chapters as below: Chapter 1: Introduction - Presenting rationale, aims, objectives, scope, research questions and organization of the study Chapter2: Literature review It consists of two parts: - ‘The first partis the review of previous researches related to the study. - The second part provides the theoretical background for the research questions addressed in the study.
It also defines key terms in the study. Chapter 3: Method and Procedure - In this chapter, the research methodology will be represented which comprises the information of the subjects, instruments of data collection and methods of data analysis. Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion - Clarify the finding of the study and discussion on the research questions. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications - Summarize and conclude what has done in the research, plan implication of the study points and limitations of the study as well as some recommendation for the further research CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is study of what has been published on the topic by accredited scholars researchers which help readers understand what the topic is about.
People can also recognize common errors which they made regularly in process of teaching and leaming on IELTS Writing Task 1 skill. The previous related study In general, it is not easy to find out any thesis of error analysis on Writing IELTS Task 1. There are mainly some small tips to help learners know how to get high band score such as “most common mistakes in IELTS Writing task and how ta learn from them” by The IELTS Coach. On the other hand, there have been many studies related to common errors in writing skill recently such as “/00 writing mistakes to avoid” by Maeve Maddox (2013).
This book is for writers who want to avoid the most common errors of written English without spending a lot of time looking things up. Although it is a practical guide to just 100 common mistakes of spelling, usage, grammar and punetuation, the book helps learners a lot in improving their skill. Moreover, in the thesis “A study on punctuation errors in writing of first year English major students at Hai Phong private university” by Nguyen Cam Van (June 20%, 2010), the author hopes English leamers to have more specific and clear understanding of English writing especially punctuation and know how to avoid these punctuation errors. Another author is Tran Kim Thanh (May , 2014) who also had a master thesis about “ An investigation into common mistakes in essay writing of the first year English majored students a case in Can Tho University”.
Throughout this research, the writer wants to analyze errors in all areas of grammar, spelling, vocabulary and organization for leamer written performance. Although the studies above specialize in essay writing, they help me so much in finding IELTS Writing Task L’s errors of English major students at Quang Nam University. Writing Task1 Writing Taskl is one of two parts which candidates have to finish in IELTS writing exam. It makes up one third of the overall band score.
4 In writing IELTS task 1, candidates have to describe graphs and write a report in order to describe special features in graphs within suggested 20 minutes and at least 150 words. Therefore, candidates must know good tips and standards to get high marks in Writing Taskl.