HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --------------------------------------- GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON COMMON ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING OF THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC LỖI NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH PHỔ BIẾN TRONG KHI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI KHOA KINH TẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: Truong Thi Huong Student: Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung Student number: 11317085 Hung Yen – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --------------------------------------- GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON COMMON ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING OF THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC LỖI NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH PHỔ BIẾN TRONG KHI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI KHOA KINH TẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Student: Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung Student number: 11317085 Supervisor: Truong Thi Huong (ký tên) Hung Yen – 2021 i DECLARATION I certify that the study entitled “A study on common English grammatical errors in writing of the second-year students of the Department of Economics at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” is the result of my own research and has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions. Hung Yen, Jun 2021 Signature Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am deeply indebted to a number of people for helping me to write this graduation paper. First and foremost, my deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor – Ms. Truong Thi Huong, who supported and encouraged me generously throughout this study.
Without her excellent academic guidance and support, my thesis would not have been completed well. My sincere thanks are also sent to some teachers and students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY for their assistance with statistical issues and for their assistance in editing work. Finally, I need to thank my gratitude to all writers of books, magazines and different materials recorded in the reference part for their thoughts that have been reflected to build up my graduation paper. iii ABSTRACT This study was conducted to find out common English grammatical errors in writing skills, especially writing paragraphs of the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY.
The data was gathered by survey questionnaires for 80 second- year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY Campus 2. Research results show that the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY Campus 2 often encounter various English grammatical errors. It additionally found some main causes of these errors. In order to overcome these errors, some suggested solutions from my research with the desire to improve their writing skills would be given.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education v TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION. iv TABLE OF CONTENT. v LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES.
viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION.2 Aims of study .4 Scope of the study .5 Methods of the study .6 Structure of the study. 3 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Overview of writing .1 Definition of writing .2 The importance of writing .2 Overview of paragraphs .1 Definitions of paragraphs .2 Structure of a paragraph .3 Overview of English grammatical .1 Definition of English grammar in paragraphs .2 Roles of English grammar in writing paragraphs .4 Error in English writing .1 Definition of errors .2 Errors versus mistakes .5 Sources of errors .1 Mother tongue interference .2 Ignorance of rule restriction .3 Incomplete application of rules .4 False concepts hypothesized.6 Types of English grammar errors in writing paragraphs .2 Verb tense and form .3 Subject-Verb agreement. 15 CHAPTER III: THE STUDY .2 Subjects of the study .1 Reasons for using questionnaire .2 Description of survey questionnaires .1 Reasons for using interview .2 Description of interview .3 Data gathering instruments .1 The survey questionnaire. Suggestions for students .2 Suggestions for teachers.
31 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION .1 The summary of the study .3 Suggestion for further studies. 32 viii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: Level of interest in English writing paragraphs. 18 Chart 2: Students’ opinions about English writing paragraphs. 19 Chart 3: The role of English writing paragraphs.
19 Chart 4: The importance of English grammar in writing paragraphs. 20 Chart 5: Number of students who pay attention to English grammar. 21 Chart 6: Students’ common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs. 21 Chart 7: Main causes of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs.
22 Chart 8: Attitude of the teacher about English writing paragraphs. 24 Chart 9: The role of English writing paragraphs. 24 Chart 10: The importance of English grammar in writing paragraphs. 25 Chart 11: Some ways students use in writing paragraphs.
25 Chart 12: Number of students who pay attention to English grammar. 26 Chart 13: Common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs of students. 26 Chart 14: Main causes of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs of students given by teachers. 27 Table 1: Some ways students use in writing paragraphs.
20 Table 2: Some solutions for reducing English grammar errors when writing paragraphs. 23 Table 3: Some solutions for reducing English grammar errors when writing paragraphs .1 Rationale In the era of transcending boundaries in communication, information can be rapidly transmitted from one hemisphere to the other hemisphere within a second. English has been chosen as the medium to communicate among global citizens because the number of English users worldwide is estimated to reach almost two billion people (Crystal, 2008). The significance of English cannot be denied and overlooked in light of the fact that it is broadly used all over.
Particularly, for developing nations, for example, Vietnam, English has educated since the beginning, just as numerous young people know about its significance for reasons like having high-quality work, communicating with the larger world and approaching abroad achievements to enrich their knowledge. However, from the four basic skills of English: listening, speaking, reading and writing, writing needs the most comprehensive knowledge, the strongest application, and the most difficult training. Written communication is an exceptional characteristic of the human species. Writing has helped individuals inform, collaborate, and alert others for hundreds of years, while societies have benefited from written history, culture, and knowledge.
In our time, how you successfully use the gift of writing depends on you. Writing is a life skill, not only an essential job-related skill, because it is often the basis upon which others judge your learning, your values, your ideas and your contribution to society. Hornby (2003, as cited in Murtadha, 2010) explains that writing is a process of expressing ideas down on paper and is a means to transform thoughts into words to communicate information clearly. Besides, writing makes a great contribution to enhancing other skills in language, improving learners’ logical way of thinking as well.
It is undeniable that writing plays the most important role in learning English. To evaluate learners’ writing proficiency, teachers often examine their written papers. This is one of the most effective ways mentioned in a number of studies. For instance, Muammar Rifqi (2016) implemented a study on the analysis of grammatical errors in the writing samples at the English Education Department of Islamic Education; Abeywickrama (2010) conducted an investigation into errors in English writing of Sinlaha speaking undergraduates.
In order to achieve the goal of communication, authors are expected not only to write coherently and coherently, but also to adhere to the rules of grammar and syntax. Hence, writing is considered to be the most complex and difficult skill to master. While 2 writing, there seems to be no denying that writing in a foreign language cannot be separated from mistakes. However, they seem to pay inadequate attention to grammatical error corrections in writing English, which might affect their writing seriously next time.
Similar problems appear to be confronted by non-English major students in the Department of Economics at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education (UTEHY). The study focus of this investigation is to analyze the English grammatical errors in writing of the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY, explore the systematic reasons and finally put forward some corresponding solutions to improve college English writing.2 Aims of study The general aim of the study is to investigate common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs made by the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY. The study objectives include searching out the causes resulting in these grammatical errors and providing solutions to fix those errors.3 Research questions To fulfill the purposes mentioned above, the study aims to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the common English grammatical errors committed by the second- year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY in writing paragraphs? (2) What are the main causes of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs? (3) What are solutions to improve English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs? 1.4 Scope of the study The study is to discover the English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs of the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY Campus 2. Because of the limited writing area of the students that they just study to write paragraphs in the first term in the second year, as well as the constraints of time and knowledge, the dearth of reference materials, this study cannot resolve the relevant errors in writing paragraphs.
It just looks at English grammatical errors. Moreover, the study was unable to include all students at UTEHY. It is designed for second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY Campus 2 only.5 Methods of the study In the process of doing this study, the author used both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather data, including questionnaires for teachers and students and interviews for students. The survey questionnaires were delivered to 80 second-year students and the interview was also conducted by the researcher for three students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY Campus 2 to find out the causes of English grammatical errors of students in writing paragraphs.
Furthermore, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to three lecturers from the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) teaching at the Department of Economics at UTEHY Campus 2 in order to learn about the students' common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs and to get some suggestions to help students solve their grammatical errors in writing paragraphs. By doing so, the researcher will give some solutions with the hope of assisting students in solving their English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs.6 Structure of the study The study is divided into four major sections, which are as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction indicates the rationale of the study, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, methods of study, and structure of the study. Chapter 2: Literature Review including the theoretical background of the study. Chapter 3: The Study that includes an overview of the situation, the research methodology, data collection from the survey questionnaires and interviews, data analysis, findings, and recommendations.
Chapter 4: The Conclusion which is a summary of the study as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study. 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of writing 2.1 Definition of writing There are a lot of concepts about writing which are defined in a variety of ways by different researchers. Therefore, it is very difficult to choose which is the most exact and trustworthy. Firstly, Nunan (2003) states that writing is a series of processes of converting ideas into good and clear statements in the paragraphs.
Meanwhile, Flower (1984) asserts that writing is simply the act of expressing what we think or saying what we mean.