VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* CẦM THỊ KIỀU ANH AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE (L1) ON THE ENGLISH ACQUISITION OF THAI STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE Tìm hiểu về tác động của tiếng mẹ đẻ đối với việc học tiếng Anh của sinh viên dân tộc Thái tại trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi - 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* CẦM THỊ KIỀU ANH AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE (L1) ON THE ENGLISH ACQUISITION OF THAI STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE Tìm hiểu về tác động của tiếng mẹ đẻ đối với việc học tiếng Anh của sinh viên dân tộc Thái tại trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: NGUYỄN HUY KỶ, PhD Hanoi - 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, hereby certify that the thesis entitled „An exploratory study on the influence of the mother tongue (L1) on the English acquisition of Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College‟ is the result of my own research in the fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Hanoi, 2014 Researcher Cam Thi Kieu Anh i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would particularly like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
NGUYẾN HUY KỶ for his precious advice, remarkable, suggestions, kind guidance and careful correction. Next, I would like to acknowledge all my teachers at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, especially those who are working at the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies for their interesting lectures which enable me to gain a great deal of theoretical knowledge and practical experience. I am also indebted to all the students and teachers at Thai Nguyen Medical College for their cooperation and participation in this study. Last but not least, my heart-felt gratitude goes to my family for their encouragement and support during the process of study.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT English language teaching in a non-native environment has experienced a variety of obstacles, one of which is the interference of English learners‟ mother tongue. The impediment is doubled when English is taught in a multi-lingual environment like Vietnam, and this fact forces Vietnamese instructors of English to seek ways of teaching their cohort of minority students effectively. In an attempt to improve of English language teaching in Vietnam, this thesis investigates the possible impacts of Vietnamese Thai on the English written production of Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College, with a detailed contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese Thai which English teachers can use in their practice. The study employed a written production questionnaire, which has been widely accepted as a tool for data collection in an interlanguage study.
The results suggest that Thai non-English major students heavily rely on their mother tongue in their English writing. Several suggestions for minimising the influences of Thai learners‟ mother tongue on their English production are provided. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. L1= Mother tongue or first language 2.
L2= Foreign language or second language 3.En = English example 1…. T1 …Tn= Thai example 1…. Es = English sentences produced by the participant iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table1. English and Thai types of verbs.
English and Thai types of words following a verb. English and Thai use of adjectives and adverbs. Formation of tenses in English and Thai. Subject-verb relation in English and Thai.
Negation in English and Thai. English and Thai nouns. English and Thai articles. English and Thai word order.
Comparison of errors and mistakes. Dušková’s L1-transferred error classification. Keshavarz’s L1-transferred error taxonomy. Possible L1 interference of the Thai learners of English.
Summary of the total number of errors. Errors in verbs. Errors in nouns. Errors in articles.
Errors in prepositions. Errors in word order. 35 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
iv LIST OF TABLES. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study.
5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. The Thai people and language in Vietnam. The Thai people. The Thai language.
A contrastive analysis of Thai and English. Distinction of errors and mistakes. Distinction of errors and mistakes. Language transfer and L1 transfer in L2 acquisition.
17 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Possible errors committed by Thai students in their learning of English. An overview of the research site. Data collection instrument.
Data collection procedure. Data analysis procedure. 22 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Data analysis and discussion.
Identification of interlingual errors. Description and discussion of identified errors. Limitations and suggestions for further studies. Suggestions for further study.
I vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A - INTRODUCTION This part presents the rationale, the aims of the study, the research questions and the methods used to achieve the research objectives. The scope, significance and the organization of the study are also stated. Rationale Today, English becomes an important and influential language worldwide, with over 300 million native speakers and between 400 and 800 million non-native users (Manivanan, 2006). It is considered as a tool for international communication and world- wide data sharing.
English proficiency is of significance for individuals since it enables them to update their knowledge and share their practices and experiences or seek help from other people around the world in case obstacles arise at study and work. English, thus, can “contribute to students‟ personal, linguistic, social, and cultural development” (Canh Le, 2004, p. Apparently, everybody would like to learn English; however, not so many people can study English well (Tam Nguyen, 2011) since L2 learning depends on various factors. Perhaps, of all the difficulties shared by Vietnamese learners of English, e.
lack of supportive learning environment, lack of infrastructure and facilities, etc., minority students have suffered distinctive obstacles in their learning of English, one of which is teachers‟ low English proficiency and low proficiency of the Thai language, which cause difficulties in explaining new grammar terms and language areas to the Thai students. Additionally, students‟ knowledge gaps resulting from their lower levels of learning and learning both Vietnamese and English simultaneously cause lots of difficulties for Thai learners of English. Actually, the above hindrances could be solved if finance is granted and teachers‟ qualification is improved, but there exist impediments–the linguistic differences between L1 and L2-cannot be alleviated even with a complete disappearance of the above obstacles. This claim is strongly supported by L2 researchers who found that L2 learners heavily rely on their L1 in their L2 learning (Dechert, 1983; Ellis, 1997).
Specifically, George (1972) found that one-third of the deviant sentences from L2 learners could be attributed to language transfer. In other words, the L1 interference, which causes interlingual errors, 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com rooted from the differences of the two languages. A distant relation between the L1 and L2 could cause negative transfersinto language learners‟ L2 acquisition, which hampers language learners‟ intelligibility. Research suggests that negative transfers from L1 into L2 does happen to Vietnamese learners of English, whose L1 is very similar to Thai (Hao Cao, 2000; Dat Huu, Doi Tran, & Lan Đao, 1998; Huyen Nguyen et al.
The above discussion suggests that the interference of Thai learners‟ L1 into their English learning is definitely existent. There might be a variety of aspects which are different between the two languages, but Saporta (1966) argues that the grammar of the learners‟ L1 plays a crucial role on their discovery of a new language. Supporting this view, Corder (1969) argues that learning a new language is a simpler task, where language learners only need to find out if the systems of the new language are the same or different from those of the language they know, and if different, what their nature is. Owing to the great importance of L1 grammar into L2 learning, this research aims to investigate the relationship of Vietnamese Thai and English and its possible effects on Thai learners of English with respect to grammatical aspects only.
Aims of the study In an attempt to improve the quality of teaching English to the Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College, this study aims: 1. To investigate how the Thai students‟ L1 might affect their learning of English. To implement a contrastive analysis to figure out the similarities and differences between the Thai grammar and its English counterpart. To offer suggestions for overcoming negative linguistic transfers that the Thai learners of English may encounter in their learning of English.
Research questions The present research aims to answer the following three questions: 1. What are the most common differences between the Thai and English grammar at the word and sentence level? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. How may these differences affect the Thai students‟ English learning at the tertiary level? 3. What teaching strategies could minimise the effects of the Thai students‟ L1 interference in their English learning? 4.
Scope of the study Due to the nature of a minor study, the scope of the present study is limited to a small number of students at Thai Nguyen Medical College, and its very focus is on the impacts of Thai learners‟ L1 on their English written production at the word and sentence level only. Significance of the study As discussed previously, foreign language learners often heavily rely on L1 in their L2 learning; and the greater the differences between L1 and L2, the more errors foreign language learners could make in their L2 production. In other words, language learners‟ L1 could be a major resource of their L2 errors. It is, thus, of great significance to carry out an investigation to figure out students‟ possible L1 transfer into their L2 learning process.
This could be the strength to inform language teachers of the language areas that their students could encounter difficulties in the process of learning and teaching so that they could have appropriate adjustments to their lesson plans and seek strategies to help their students overcome such negative transfers. Research methods This study employed a qualitative approach, and data were collected via a written production questionnaire which was designed to examine whether the Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College suffered from L1 transferred in their learning of English. Thesis structure Part A - Introduction This part presents basic information like the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, significance, methods, and organization of the study. Part B - Development 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Chapter 1: Literature Review The chapter provides an overview of the Thai people, the Thai language and a contrastive analysis of English and Thai, which serves as a theoretical basis for the whole study. Chapter 2: Methodology The chapter includes an overview of the approach used in conducting the study. It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure and the analytical procedure. Chapter 3: Result and Discussion The chapter reports the findings of the study and discusses the prominent aspects to answer the research questions stated in the previous chapter.