VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* TRẦN THỊ HẠNH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Lỗi ngữ pháp trong viết đoạn văn của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành Tiếng Anh tại Khoa Ngoại Ngữ - Đại học Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* TRẦN THỊ HẠNH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Lỗi ngữ pháp trong viết đoạn văn của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành Tiếng Anh tại Khoa Ngoại Ngữ - Đại học Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 SUPERVISOR : PHẠM ĐĂNG BÌNH, Ph.D Hanoi, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify my authorship of the study report entitled “Common Grammatical Errors in Paragraph Writing of First Year English Major Students at School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies- VNU, Hanoi, and this thesis is in total fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts. Thái Nguyên, ngày 6 tháng 4 năm 2015 Ký tên Trần Thị Hạnh i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my many thanks to people who have assisted me when I carried out the research. To my supervisor Dr. Pham Dang Binh, I owe a special debt of gratitude for his profound knowledge, helpful support, and enthusiasm, which are of almost importance to the achievement of my study.
I would like to convey my thanks to all my teachers of Post-Graduate Studies Department who have supported mw with a lot of knowledge. I owe a special note of gratitude to all my colleagues for their invaluable comments, assistance, and advice during the time I was completing my study. I am extremely thankful to all the participants who provided me with rich and detailed data for the study and lent breadth and values to the research findings. I also wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my mother, my father, family members, and friends whose prayers, love and best wishes were a source of inspiration, encouragements, and motivation for me to complete this research.
Finally, I would like to thank my readers for their interests and comments on this thesis. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This paper studies common grammatical errors in paragraph writing committed by first year English major students at School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University (SFL-TNU) and the causes of these errors. To achieve the desired aims of current study, the author combined both qualitative and quantitative methods, including the instrument namely students’ writing analysis. The participants in the research were fifty first year English major students at SFL- TNU.
Research results show that first year English major students at SFL- TNU often commit errors in sentence structure, verb usage, preposition usage and singular/plural nouns. Besides, the main causes of these errors are mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules and false concepts hypothesized; in which interference of native language and overgeneralization are the most common ones. In order to minimize these errors, it is suggested that teachers help students practice writing and correct their writings effectively by suitable and flexible techniques. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .viii PART A– INTRODUCTION. Identification of the problem and rationale of the study.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Structure of the study.
3 PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I – LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of grammar. Roles of grammar in foreign language teaching. Definitions of paragraph.
Structure of a paragraph. Errors in foreign language teaching. Definitions of errors. Errors versus mistakes.
Types of errors. Sources of errors. Mother tongue interference. 12 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Ignorance of rule restriction. Incomplete application of rules. False concepts hypothesized. Definitions of error analysis.
Significance of error analysis. Analysis of composition errors. Procedure for error analysis. Common ESL writing errors.
Types of grammatical errors in ESL writing. 19 CHAPTER II – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Research setting and participants. Data collection instruments.
Reasons for choosing students’ writing task. Description of students’ writing task. Data collection procedure. Classification of errors.
Explanation of errors. Evaluation of errors. 26 CHAPTER III – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The most common grammatical errors committed by first year English major students at SFL- TNU in paragraph writing.
Sentence structure errors. 31 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The causes of errors made by the first year English major students at SFL- TNU in paragraph writing. Ignorance of rule restrictions.
Incomplete application of rules. False concepts hypothesized. Summary of the study. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further studies. I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EA: Error Analysis L1: The First Language L2: The Second Language SFL- TNU: School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1: Error marking symbols Table 2. 2: Error classification Table 3.1; Number and frequency of grammatical errors in paragraph writing by types and by groups Figure 3.1: Frequency of grammatical errors in paragraph writing by groups Table 3.2: Frequency of each grammatical error type Figure 3.2: Frequency of each grammatical error type viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A– INTRODUCTION 1. Identification of the problem and rationale of the study English has become one of the most dominant media in many fields like economy, politics and culture.
Obviously, English is the most popular foreign language taught in Vietnam. This language brings Vietnam closer to other countries in the world. It is the key to access the latest achievements of science and technology. Therefore, it is very essential for Vietnamese to learn English in order to satisfy the needs of society in modern world.
The goal of teaching and learning foreign language is improving learners’ communicative competence. In order to acquire this competence, learners must be good at four skills in English: reading, writing, listening, and speaking; among which writing is considered a very important proficiency. Besides speaking, writing is a productive skill. It helps people communicate with others through messages.
Furthermore, writing makes contribution to enhance other skills in languages and learners’ logical way of thinking, thus facilitating them in their profession. It is undeniable that writing plays the utmost role in learning English. The most effective way to access learners’ writing proficiency is examining their writing papers. There have been a variety of studies regarding analysis of learners’ writing.
For instance, Darus (2009) conducted the analysis of the written English essays by secondary school students in Malaysia; Abeywickrama (2010) implemented the study on errors in English writing of Sinlaha speaking undergraduates. In Vietnam, analysis of students’ writing has also been paid a lot of attention. Hoang Thi Hong Hai (2003) studied grammatical and textual errors in paragraphs by the second year students at English Department – College of Foreign languages – Vietnam National University.A thesis, Do Van Lap analyzed errors made by tenth graders at Thuan Thanh II High School in their English writing. Besides, many other researches on this field have been carried out.
1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com These studies have been implemented on different learning contexts as well as different learners. At School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University (SFL – TNU), English is the most dominant language to be taught, and writing has been paid a lot of attention immediately from the first year of learning course. However, as a lecturer at SFL – TNU for four years, the author find that most of the first year English major students at SFL often make writing errors, especially in grammar. A number of techniques have been proposed in order to improve students’ writing skill.
Nevertheless, at SFL – TNU, there has been little concern to common errors in students’ writing, why they commit errors and how to prevent and reduce these errors. Hence, with a view to solve the problem above, there arises a need of a research on “Grammatical Errors in Paragraph Writing of First Year English Major Students at School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University”. Aims of the study This research is carried out with the following aims: Investigate the grammatical errors in paragraph writing of first year English major students at SFL – TNU and the causes of these errors. Suggest some possible implications in teaching and learning writing at SFL - TNU.
Research questions To reach the aims mentioned above, the researcher supposes two research questions as follows: 1. What are the common grammatical errors committed by first year English major students in writing paragraph? 2. What are the major causes of these errors? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Scope of the study Due to the limited time and the restricted scope of a minor thesis, the study focuses on exploring students’ errors in writing short paragraph because first year English major students at SFL – TNU are taught to write paragraph.
In addition, this study could not cover all types of errors. The researcher just focus on a number of grammatical errors committed by first year English major students at SFL –TNU under the study of their writing, thereby proposing some pedagogical suggestions for teaching and learning writing skill at SFL – TNU. Significance of the study As one of the under-researched issues in teaching writing skill for students in Vietnam, the present study will, first and foremost, help students to improve their writing skill, and then make certain contributions to students, teachers and educators, as well as researchers in the related fields. Firstly, as for students, this study will help them realize how much progress they made towards the target language, especially in written proficiency.
They are able to understand deeply about types of errors in writing and adjust effective learning methods in studying English writing skill. Secondly, the study is expected to help teachers in particular and educators in general understand the nature of errors, which is useful for them in teaching writing skill. Last but not least, the research will serve as a foundation for further related studies. Other researchers may also take the strengths and weaknesses of the study into account to better theirs.
Structure of the study The study consists of three parts, organized as followed: Part A – Introduction This part gives information about the topic of the research, the reason for choosing this topic, the aims, research questions, scope, significance, and structure of the study. Part B – Development 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter I –Literature Review Various perspectives on grammar, paragraph writing, errors, error analysis (EA) are discussed in order to provide a theoretical background of the study. Chapter II – Methodology This chapter mentions context and participants of the study, research instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis methods. Chapter III – Findings and Discussions The data collected will be analyzed in order to give answers to the research questions.