MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ GRADUATION THESIS AN ANALYSIS OF COMMON ERRORS IN USING SUBORDINATORS MADE BY FFL SOPHOMORES IN WRITING THREE CLASSES AT IUH STUDENT NAME: HỒ NHỰT NAM ID NUMBER: 17061411 CLASS CODE: ĐHAV13B COURSE: 2017-2021 SUPERVISOR NAME: NGUYỄN THỊ THU HẰNG, M. HCMC, 06/2021 MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ GRADUATION THESIS AN ANALYSIS OF COMMON ERRORS IN USING SUBORDINATORS MADE BY FFL SOPHOMORES IN WRITING THREE CLASSES AT IUH STUDENT NAME: HỒ NHỰT NAM ID NUMBER: 17061411 CLASS CODE: ĐHAV13B COURSE: 2017-2021 SUPERVISOR NAME: NGUYỄN THỊ THU HẰNG, M. HCMC, 06/2021 MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ Student name : Hồ Nhựt Nam ID Number : 17061411 Class Code : ĐHAV13B Course: 2017-2021 Supervisor Name: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng, M. Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own work and does not involve in plagiarism or collusion.
It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose else where. I accept heavy penalty for any cheating or plagiarism. Date submitted : 20th June 2020 Signed : Hồ Nhựt Nam Word count : 9829 words AN ANALYSIS OF COMMON ERRORS IN USING SUBORDINATORS MADE BY FFL SOPHOMORES IN WRITING THREE CLASSES AT IUH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I received a plenty of enthusiastic help and support that guide and encourage me to conquer all obstacles and finish this thesis. First of all, I would love to express my thanks to the School Board of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City and the Faculty of Foreign Languages where I have chance to receive knowledge and experience life as a university student Secondly, I am sincerely indebted to Ms.
Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, MA. as our supervisor for instructing me. Based on her sincere comments from the beginning days of this process, I am mature enough in recognizing my hidden potentials and decreasing my weakness. My thesis would be never finished without her encouragement, valuable comments, careful proof-reading and corrections.
Moreover, I would love to say special thanks to my close friends who are also other members in my group. They are Mr. Le Nhat Nam, Ms. Nguyen Khanh Linh, Ms.
Luong Thi Ly who often shared my feelings and gave me timely advice and material during the thesis. In short, I honestly thank to all people helping me to finish this thesis. ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to know the common subordinators error that made by students in writing three classes at IUH and recommend some solutions for students to better learning of English subordinating conjunctions in particular and writing in general. The researcher used quantitative research method.
This research was conducted at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City. The researcher chooses one hundred sixty second-year students majoring in English. The data was collected from the questionare. The students were asked to do four exercises from the questionare.The first step to anayzed the data is identification of the errors, the second is classification of errors, the third is tabulation of errors, an the last is explanation of errors.
The result of this research presented that there are three types of error that students usually made in the writing classes, they are misformation, addition and misordering. The study also discussed some causes of subordinating conjunction errors and some solutions for students in learning English subordinating conjunctions based on the findings Key words: subordinator, error, writing. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………1 1.4 Scope of the study………………………………………………………………………….2 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………. Definitions of terms……………………………………………………………………….2 The significance of writing……………………………………………………………3 2.3 What is academic writing?……………………………………………………………4 2.2 Types of error…………………………………………………………………….3 Part of errors………………………………………………………………………….2 Types of conjunction………………………………………………………………….2 Results of previous studies……………………………………………………………….11 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH DESIGN…………………………………………………….
Research methodology and research methods……………………………………….5 Data analysis………………………………………………………………………………16 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION………………………………………….1 Results of exercise one…………………………………………………………………18 4.2 Results of exercise two …………………………………………………………………25 4.3 Results of exercise three.4 Results of exercise four…………………………………………………………………34 4.2 Classifying The Errors…………………………………………………………………….3 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………… ……39 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….3 Suggestion…………………………………………………………………………………43 REFERENCE…………………………………………………………………………………45 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………………….47 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Kind of subordinator errors in the previous studies……………………………….1 The Data of Students’ Errors in Using Subordinate Conjunction In Exercise One ….2 The Data of Students’ Errors in Using Subordinate Conjunction In Exercise Two …29 Table 4.3 The Data of Students’ Errors in Using Subordinate Conjunction In Exercise Three.4 The Data of Students’ Errors in Using Subordinate Conjunction In Exercise Four.5 Data of common subordinator errors………………………………………………….39 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1 Data on results of question one………………………………………………………19 Chart 4.2 Data on results of question two………………………………………………………20 Chart 4.3 Data on results of question three………………………………………………….4 Data on results of question four………………………………………………………22 Chart 4.5 Data on results of question five………………………………………………………23 Chart 4.6 Data on results of question six…………………………………………………….7 Data on results of question seven………………………………………………….8 Data on results of question eight……………………………………………….9 Data on results of question nine………………………………………………………28 Chart 4.10 Data on results of question ten………………………………………………………30 Chart 4.11 Data on results of question eleven…………………………………………….12 Data on results of question twelve…………………………………………….13 Data on results of question thirdteen……………………………………………,.14 Data on results of question fourteen…………………………………………………35 Chart 4.15 Data on results of question fifteen……………………………………………………36 ABBREVIATIONS IUH: Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City. FFL: Faculty of Foreign Language. AD: Addition OM: Omission Submitted by Hồ Nhựt Nam ID number: 17061411 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Under the influence of globalization, there is a growing demand for individuals to learn foreign language. It is not an exaggerated statement that everyone must have this qualification not only to distinguish themselles from other people in terms of knowledge, skills and social status but also to prove their ability in the increasing requirement of world.
In this period, it is obvious that English has been the most well-known language. Hence, teaching and learning English become essentially significant in many nations's education systems and Vietnam is not an exception. Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City(IUH) is an example. It is the fac that IUH highly appreciates English.
It plays an important subject for students in IUH. Especially, IUH also has a faculty of English for those who are interested in English. In reality at IUH, because of many reasons the students’s communication skills, speaking and writing are not good enough. This can leave an impact on the effectiveness of their everyday correspondence.
In addition, from academic view, they may notable to pursue advanced education if they lack these vital skills, especially writing skill. Writing is considered to be a difficult skill because written structure form is not very easy. They have to take a lot of aspects into consideration: grammar, vocabulary, structure, etc. Sometimes the vocabulary is not appropriate but grammar is suitable.
Especially for sophomores, expressing what they intend to write is actually difficult. They make a lot of errors in structures, vocabulary, using conjunctions,even subordinators. For this reason, the author wants to conduct a study entitled “An analysis of common errors in using subordinator made by FFL sophomores in writing three classes at IUH” to investigate common subordinating conjunction errors in writings made by sophomores at IUH, and find out some solutions to this problem.2 Research Objectives Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng, M. Page 1 Submitted by Hồ Nhựt Nam ID number: 17061411 When this study has been completed, the teachers will find out the most common errors of subordinator in written English made by sophomores at IUH , from which the teachers will give the best solutions to this problem.
This means that students can know clearly and use subordinating conjunctions correctly as well as enhance their writing skills. The study concentrates on the improvement in students’ writing skills in general and in using subordinating conjunctions in particular. This point can be explained by the following objectives: finding out common subordinating conjunction errors made by the second-year students at IUH and recommending some solutions to help students limit these mistakes.3 Research Questions This study is aimed to answer the subsequent research questions: • What are some subordinating conjunction errors made by the second-year English-major students at IUH ? • What are some solutions for students to minimize these errors? 1.4 Scope of the study There are three kinds of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions,correlative conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions, but this study will focus on subordinating conjunctions with common errors that students often make in their writing. Because there is lack of knowledge of using subordinators in writing class, once this study has been completed, the teachers will discover the most common errors of subordinating conjunctions in written English made by the second-year English-major students, from which the teachers will find the best solutions to this problem.
This means that students can understand more and use subordinating conjunctions correctly as well as improve their writing skills. Subordinating conjunction errors will be concentrated on the writing of the second-year English-major students at IUH. Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng, M. Page 2 Submitted by Hồ Nhựt Nam ID number: 17061411 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.
Definitions of terms 2.1 Definition There is no specific definition of writing because each writers define writing in different ways. According to Flower (1981)[8], he says “Writing is simply the act of expressing what you think or saying whatyou mean”, while Brannon et al (1982)[2] considers “writing as a creative art, not as an assembly line operation of locking words together into sentence and bolting sentences together into paragraphs in accordance with a predefined plan”. Writing is not only simply producing words and sentences but also forming ideas, using words and sentences to confess ideas through grammatical structures. Generally, writing is the process of using symbols such as letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces to confess thoughts and ideas in a readable form.2 The significance of writing Writing is a significant skill in learning a language.
Writing becomes a powerful means of communication, which can express people’s thoughts, ideas and feelings. Writing is also considered to be the most difficult skill to achieve, not only in academic writing but also in reality. Therefore, Cross (1992)[7] claims that “In terms of needs and of preparing learners to enter the real world, writing is more difficult to justify than the other skills”. Furthermore, Tribble (1996)[24], regards writing as “a productive and taught language skill which is difficult to acquire”, and “Writing normally requires some forms of instructions.
It is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposing”. Thus, it is necessary for learners to practice to improve writing skill. In short, writing is a complex skill in acquiring as well as leaning a language,especially in learning a second language. It is a complex process of producing words and sentences with the Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng, M.
Page 3 Submitted by Hồ Nhựt Nam ID number: 17061411 help of grammatical structures and cohesive devices to express people’s thoughts, ideas and feelings.3 What is academic writing? Academic writing is any writing assignment accomplished in an academic setting such as writing books, research paper, conference paper, academic journal, and dissertation and thesis. More specifically, it is writing activity performed to meet a demand of a college, university, conference, and publication. According to Oshima and Hogue (2007)[18] states that academic writing is a kind of formal writing used in high schools and a college classes, which is clearly different form personal and creative writing. Different aspects of study have different priorities in terms of the writing they produce.
For example, in scientific writing it’s crucial to clearly and accurately report methods and results; in the humanities, the focus is on constructing convincing arguments through the use of textual evidence. However, all academic writing shares certain key principles intended to help convey information as effectively as possible.1 Definition “To err is human”. This saying shows that it is difficult for everyone,whoever is, to avoid making errors. It can be understood that making errors is the most natural thing in the world.