iii ABSTRACT In an attempt to improve APA students’ knowledge of English, the thesis is carried out with 97 students to find out their common mistakes in using the English negative patterns. The English negative patterns are chosen in the study divided into four groups: no group, neither…nor, little & few and semi – negative adverbs. The data collected through questionnaires and students’ test help to confirm the assumptions that the lack of knowledge of negative patterns really exists. The major research methods are qualitative and quantitative methods Questionnaires are used to get their attitudes towards their understanding of negative patterns as well as their difficulties in using them and causes.
The students’ test is designed to investigate students’ knowledge and evoke their typical mistakes in using the English negative patterns. The results of the study reveal that APA learners have certain difficulties in using those negative patterns such as confusing the negative words with other, wrongly translating Vietnamese negative sentences into English negative sentences, etc. The main causes of these mistakes are mother tongue inference and overgeneralization. Finally, some suggestions and recommendations are given for APA teachers and learners of English to make their teaching and learning of English negative patterns really effective.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS. vi LIST OF TABLES & CHARTS .vii PART I: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study.
3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Overview of theories of mistake in English language learning. Notion of mistake.
Distinction of error and mistake. Learners’ common mistakes in English negative patterns. English negative patterns. Negative patterns with NO-.
Negative patterns with NEITHER/ NOR. Negative patterns with LITTLE & FEW. Semi – negative adverbs. Common mistakes in English negative patterns.
Problems related to negative patterns using NO-. Problems related to negative patterns with NEITHER/NOR. Problems related to negative patterns with LITTLE & FEW. Problems related to negative patterns with semi – negative adverbs.
Causes of mistakes in English negative patterns. 14 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com v CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY. Data collection instruments. 17 CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.
Results collected from questionnaires. Results collected from exercises. Mistakes in using ‘neither, either, no one, none, nothing, nobody, no, nowhere’. Mistakes in confusion of using ‘little, a little, few, a few’.
Mistakes in wrong uses of positions of semi – negative adverbs. Mistakes in translating negative expressions. 31 PART III: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION. Suggestions for lesson preparation.
Suggestions for presentation. Limitations of the study. XII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS A: Adverb Adj: Adjective APA: Academy of Public Administration Art: Article Aux: Auxiliary Co: Complement Count: Countable Deter: Determiner TESL: Teachers of English as a second language N: Noun NP: Noun phrase O: Object Pre: Preposition Pro: Pronoun S: Subject Ss: Students Uncount: Uncountable V: Verb TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii LIST OF TABLES & CHARTS Table 1: Negative patterns with no-. 7 Table 2: Negative patterns with neither/nor.
8 Table 3: Negative patterns with little & few. 9 Table 4: Negative patterns with semi – negative adverbs. 9 Table 5: Rate of frequencies and confusion of using negative words. 19 Table 6: The correct wrong choice & the wrong choice of exercise 1.
24 Table 7: The rate of choice of little,a little, few, a few. 26 Table 8: Positions of semi – negative adverbs in sentences. 28 Table 9: Negative ideas - their English equivalents made by APA students. 30 Chart 1: Students’ recognition of negative words ….
18 Chart 2: Numbers of students giving correct answers to exercise 1. 23 Chart 3: Correct & incorrect answers in choosing verbs agreed with subjects as neither & negative words of no group. 25 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale ‘Most of people agree that making mistakes is part of learning.
Most of people also agree that correction is part of teaching (Edge, J. Finding mistakes is an interesting issue which draws much attention of researchers as well as teachers. In the field of teaching English as foreign language, Richards is famous for Error analysis (1974), Norrish (1983) is well – known by Language Learners ad their Errors and Corder (1974) is popular with the significance of learners’ errors. As a matter of fact, mistakes appear daily in classrooms.
Working as a teacher of English as a foreign language (TESL), the writer of this study has no doubt about the phenomenon. Recently, there has been increasing realization of the mistakes concerning negative patterns in English language classrooms at the Academy of Public Administration (APA). The variety of English negative patterns makes the students confused. They seem to be familiar only with the negative patterns with not.
Except for the popular negative patterns, these students hardly use other negative patterns correctly. Some students even do not know whether little or a little refers to a negative meaning. This leads to their mistakes whenever they express negative ideas. With ambition to help students to eliminate their mistakes in the most practical way, the study has investigated common mistakes in English negative patterns, specifically the negative patterns without not.
Following is the topic of the researcher’s M. thesis: Common mistakes in English Negative Patterns: The case of Students at Academy of Public Administration. It is hoped that the study will make some contributions to improve the level of teaching and learning process of APA students and teachers. Aims of the study The study is conducted in order to: - find out common mistakes concerning negative patterns without not made by APA students; - figure out causes of these mistakes; - make suggestions to reduce the students’ mistakes.
Research questions These above aims of the study bring us to three major questions: TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 - What are common mistakes in English negative patterns without not made by APA students? - What are the causes of these mistakes? - What should be done to reduce and eliminate these mistakes? 4. Scope of the study Students at different levels face with different difficulties in leaning English. Hence, mistakes made in the learning process are also various. This study has investigated types of mistakes concerning negative patterns derived from writing practice tests made by pre - intermediate non – major English students at APA.
In this study, the writer has also presented different kinds of negative patterns without not, including No- group, neither, little and few, and semi – negative adverbs (Nguyen, Q., 1998: 77) (hardly, scarcely, rarely, etc.) and mainly focuses on analyzing mistakes within those negative patterns. Mistakes of other negative patterns are hoped to be investigated in further studies. Methods of the study To achieve its objectives, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed as the main research methods. Qualitatively, the writer synthesizes theories concerning notions of mistakes, popular structures of negative patterns, common mistakes of negative patterns, and mistake treatment.
After that, the writer bases on the theory background to investigate typical mistakes of negative patterns made by APA students and relevant causes. Quantitatively, the writer collects data through questionnaires and students’ paper tests. In addition, such methods as descriptive, analytic, comparative and contrastive are also utilized to describe and analyze, to compare and contrast the database so as to bring out persuasive findings of the study. Significance of the study The study is expected to bring benefits to teaching and learning English at APA.
In details, this study desires to figure out common mistakes relating to typical negative patterns without not made by non – major English students at APA and causes of these mistakes. From this investigation, the teachers and learners could have a deep insight into the problems they have been faced with and draw out solutions for their better language teaching and learning. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 In terms of material design, the study suggests useful information which is more practical and effective to their learning and teaching environment at APA. Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: Part I – Introduction - provides the rationale, the aims and research questions of the study; it also specifies the scope and the general structure of the study; Part II – Development - consists of two chapters: Chapter 1 - Literature Review - presents the theoretical background related to the topic; Chapter 2 - The study – includes the research setting, subjects of the study, data collection instruments, procedure, analysis of the data and the results; Part III – Conclusion - summarizes major findings of the investigation and provides implications and suggestions for further study.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents theoretical background related to notions of mistake, common English negative patterns and second language learner’s typical mistakes in using them. It also summaries possible causes of the mistakes. Overview of theories of mistake in English language learning 1. Notion of mistake When we use the word mistake in general sense, we all know what it means.
In teaching and learning language, mistakes appear every day in classroom. When a teacher says to a student that his writing is full of mistakes, it seems to be easy to understand the meaning of the word mistake in this situation. However, if we look at it carefully, we can see that the word mistake owns various meanings and there are many different views of its notion. Hence, firstly, the paper would like to review some typical notions of mistake.
From the views of language teachers, Norrish (1983:1) explains that a mistake is an unwanted problem and a sign of failure to students due to lack of paying attention or listening properly. Mistakes may be caused by teachers themselves because they do not give their presentation clearly or do not allow their students enough time to practice what they have been taught. Oxford dictionary (2008: 282) defines ‘a mistake as a wrong action, idea, or opinion’. According to Collin English dictionary (http://dictionary.com/browse/mistake), ‘a mistake is an error or blunder in action, opinion, or judgment, or misconception or misunderstanding’.
In Wikipedia dictionary (http://en.org/wiki/Error), ‘mistake is an error’. In general, mistake refers to a wrong performance in action. From the point of teaching methodology, the writer defines notion of mistake as any incorrect results appearing when students practice exercises or tasks. Distinction of error and mistake In spite the fact that many dictionaries claim that mistake is synonymous with error, arguments concerning the distinction between mistake and error have emerged among researchers.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 5 Liski and Puntanen (1983:227) argue that an error occurs ‘where the speaker fails to follow the pattern or manner of speech of educated people in English speaking countries today’. Another idea of definition of error is discussed by Lennon (1991:182) that an error is ‘a linguistic form or combination of forms which in the same context would in all likelihood not be produced by the learner’s native speaker counterpart’. This view is the same as James’ opinion (1998:1) that defines an error as an unsuccessful bit of language. In terms of comparison, according to Corder (1967: 166), a mistake is regarded as an error of performance meanwhile an error is applied to systematic deviation.
We can rebuild learners’ acquisition of the language when he makes an error. Similar to Coder’s opinion, Norrish (1983: 7 - 8) gives a more detail explanation of differences between mistakes and errors.