VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING THE ENGLISH SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LỖI SAI TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG THỨC GIẢ ĐỊNH CỦA SINH VIÊN M.A MINOR THESIS Major: English teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 HANOI – 2012 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING THE ENGLISH SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LỖI SAI TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG THỨC GIẢ ĐỊNH CỦA SINH VIÊN M.A MINOR THESIS Major: English teaching Methodology Code: 60. DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ HANOI – 201 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS.iv LIST OF TABLES.vi PART I : INTRODUCTION 1. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
Methods of the study. Design of study.3 PART II : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. An overview of mood. Definitions of mood.
Kinds of mood. Definitions of subjunctive mood. Classification of subjunctive mood.1 The present subjunctive mood.2 The past subjunctive mood.3 Past perfect subjunctive mood. Passive forms of subjunctive mood.1 Use of the present forms of the subjunctive mood.2 Use of the past forms of the subjunctive mood.
Error analysis and error correction in language learning.17 CHAPTER 2: SOME ERRORS MADE BY MAJOR AND NON - MAJOR STUDENTS IN HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The teaching – learning present situation of subjunctive mood.21 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3. Recognition of subjunctive mood. The verb forms in the subjunctive mood.
In present form in the subjunctive mood.2 In the past and past perfect subjunctive mood. Teachers‟ teaching method. Students‟ learning strategies.47 PART III: SUMMARY 1. Limitations and suggestions for the further study.I ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Typical errors made by English major and non-English major students Table 2: Errors of using Verb form in the present subjunctive Table 3: Errors of using Verb form in the past subjunctive Table 4: Errors made by students in the questionnaires Table 5:Typical reasons for students‟ errors in survey questions Table 6: Errors made by students in grammar test iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale There is a variety of spoken languages all over the world, but English language is the most popular. Billions of people are speaking and using English everyday in their life. So, English plays an important role in our modern life because it is one of the vital demands of almost English learners. However, it is not easy for learners to get success in learning English because of many difficulties in its grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation… Grammar is one of the most difficult parts which English learners usually meet and make errors.
In English grammar, mood is a small and special part. Although mood is not used as much as other parts, for instance: verb tense, sentences or passive…, it is important for English learners. People often use Mood in normal dialogues and communication. In the process of using mood, they rarely use subjunctive mood – one kind of mood.
It is harder to explain the subjunctive. Five hundred years ago, English had a highly developed subjunctive mood. However, after the fourteenth century, speakers of English used the subjunctive less frequently. Indeed, the sheer frequency of subjunctive misuse gives me the impression that the subjunctive isn‟t taught at all in school, and if it is, those teaching it may not be teaching it well enough or perhaps few of those they teach get to understand it properly.
I say this basing on the wrong uses of subjunctive mood in written tests by university students. That makes me try to study more on this aspect with the hope that my study is useful for every English learner to understand more about subjunctive mood and avoid making mistakes in using it. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Aims of the study The central aims of the study are: a.
Investigating the most common errors which non-English major students at Hai Phong Private University often make b. Identifying the main causes of those errors. Reinforcing and enhancing the students‟ subjunctive mood acquisition. Hopefully, this study can provide readers with overall comprehension of subjunctive mood.
The research results would be really helpful to not only students but also teachers so they can base on the findings and suggestions to choose as well as design activities for the lesson in a direction. Scope of study Regarding to the scope of the study, mood is rather huge and complicated. Consequently, it requires to be taken into consideration carefully in a very long time by the researchers. However, due to my limitation of time and knowledge, I could not cover all the aspects of this theme.
This study only concentrates on the analysis of errors made by first-year non-English majors and the errors are just restricted to the ones related to subjunctive mood. Methods of study This is a survey research which was carried out by means of such data collection instruments as questionnaires and interviews for students and the students‟ writing papers. Each of them is conducted with its own direction. First, the interviews were done among twenty first year non-English majors and English Majors at Hai Phong Private University with the questions related to the thesis topic.
The second study method is to analyze the writing papers of students coming from two groups English majors and non-English 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com majors with the aim of recognizing as well as classifying the errors exactly. The second method is considered as more effective one. Research questions The study aims to answer the two following questions: 1. What are the typical errors that the first-year English majors and non- English majors often make during their study at Hai Phong Private University? 2.
What are the suggested solutions to those typical errors ? 6. Design of the study The study is divided into three main parts; of which the second, naturally, is the most important part. Part one presents an overview of the study in which the rationale for the research, the research problem, the purposes, the research questions, the scope of the study, the research method, as well as the design of the study were briefly presented. Part two with three main chapters: Chapter one reviews the literature relevant to the study, including the definition of mood, as well as an overview on subjunctive mood.
These lay the foundation for the choice of the medium for the research. More specifically, it presents a number of research in which subjunctive mood has been used to help students make improvement in their language study. Chapter two is a detailed discussion of the method used in the study. This chapter presents a thorough justification for the use of subjunctive mood and survey research.
It also gives a thorough description of the research‟s components, as well as the research program. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter three discusses the findings of the study, provides pedagogical implications, as well as presents limitations of the research. It also makes recommendations for further research in the same field. Part three summarizes the main issues of the whole study with a conclusion ending the study and supply some suggestions for further study.
4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD As the subjunctive mood will be analysed in detail in chapter two, this part will deal with not only general view on mood but also particular explanations and concepts related to subjunctive mood. It will provide you a closer look at its definition, formation, usage and its problems in present day English. Besides, the definitions of errors and correction are also given to make clearer about the aims of this research. These below knowledge had been collected from many believable resources and websites such as www.
vn, Azar - Understanding and using English Grammar. An overview of mood 1. Definitions of mood In grammar, Mood is category that reflects the speaker‟s view of an event‟s reality, likelihood or urgency. There are some definitions of mood : - Mood shows the attitude of the speaker or the writer to the action or state described by the verb.
- Mood is a characteristic of verbs that involves the speaker‟s attitude toward the action expressed. - Mood of a verb expressing wishes, stipulating demands, or making statements contrary to fact… 1. Kinds of mood In English, mood is classified into three types, namely, indicative mood, imperative mood and subjunctive mood. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
The indicative mood The indicative mood is the use of verb in ordinary statements and pose question. It is regarded as a factual or neutral situations, as something which has occurred or is occurring at the moment of speaking or will occur in the future.It may denote actions with different time-reference and different characteristics. Therefore the Indicative Mood has a wide variety of tense and aspect forms in the active and passive voice. The indicative mood has three forms: the affirmative, the negative, and the interrogative.
- She went home late yesterday. - Has he called her yet? 1. The imperative mood The imperative mood expresses a command or a request to perform an action addressed to somebody, but not the action itself. As it does not actually denote a specific action it has no tense category; the action always refers to the future.
The imperative mood is used only in imperative sentences and cannot be used in questions. The imperative mood is used to give orders and instructions. - Go home! - Come and see me! Notice that there is no subject in these imperative sentences. The pronoun you (singular or plural, depending on context) is the "understood subject" in imperative sentences.
Virtually all imperative sentences, then have a second person (singular or plural) subject. The subjunctive mood The subjunctive mood shows that the action or state expressed by the verb is presented as doubts, possibility, wishes, desire or anything else contrary to 6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The subjunctive mood has synthetic and analytical attitude of the speaker to real fact. It is not used much on English any longer and can be found in a few phrases.
- I wish I were ten years younger. - If you taught me, I would learn quickly. Definitions of subjunctive mood In many reference books or websites, the definitions of subjunctive mood have the same meaning. These are some definitions of subjunctive mood: The Subjunctive Mood is used not to indicate that something is being asserted but that it is contrary to fact, supposed, doubted, feared or desired.
The Subjunctive Mood is the mood of a verb used to show hopes, doubts, wishes…. The subjunctive mood is used more in writing than in speech. It is not used very much in modern British English. “The old subjunctive is disappearing as language usage becomes modified and simplified.
Current business usage recognizes it only as a wish mood" (Dumond, 1993) 1. Types of subjunctive mood The subjunctive mood is divided in three types. They are present subjunctive mood, past subjunctive mood and past perfect subjunctive mood. The present subjunctive mood In the present subjunctive mood, the verb to be has the form be for all the persons-singular and plural, which differs from the corresponding forms of the indicative mood (the present indefinite).
Sentences in which normally have used the verbs: “is”, “are”, “was”, “were” or “will be” should have the root word “be” 7 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.