Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences & Humanities _________________ TEACHING THE VERB PHRASE TO ENGLISH- MAJORED FRESHMEN AT CAN THO IN-SERVICE UNIVERSITY A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) SUBMITTED BY THÁI THỊ BÍCH PHƯỢNG Under the supervision of TÔ MINH THANH, Ph. Ho Chi Minh City, April 2012 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “TEACHING THE VERB PHRASE TO ENGLISH-MAJORED FRESHMEN AT CAN THO IN-SERVICE UNIVERSITY” is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution. Ho Chi Minh City, April 2012 Thái Thị Bích Phượng i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Thái Thị Bích Phượng, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library.
I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction for theses. Ho Chi Minh City, April 2012 Thái Thị Bích Phượng ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and above all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my wholehearted thesis supervisor, Ms. Tô Minh Thanh, Ph.D for her constant enthusiastic guidance, enormously helpful advice, careful proof-reading and line-by-line comments on my writing. Without her help, this M.
thesis would still be far from finished. My special thanks go to all my teachers in the TESOL program. Also, I am grateful to my colleagues at Can Tho In-Service University for their support as well as their contributing ideas to the completion of this thesis. I also owe sincere thanks to 53 English-majored freshmen in the academic year of 2010- 2011 at Can Tho In-Service University for their cooperation and willingness of answering the questionnaires.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my beloved family for their warm love, unending help and support. iii ABSTRACT The study done for and reported in this M. thesis aims at empowering English-majored freshmen at Can Tho In-Service University (abbreviated to CIU) with the ability firstly to identify various English verb patterns and then to use these patterns properly in speech as well as in writing. To accomplish this, the researcher did the study with recourse to a combination of three different research designs called descriptive research, experimental research and comparative research.
Descriptively, the researcher processed the data from the results of the diagnostic test and the achievement test, the feedback from the three questionnaires delivered to 53 students and 8 teachers, and the responses from the interview for the students, she interpreted all the statistics to come up with the nature of the issue in question. Experimentally, the researcher designed 4 lesson plans and instructed the English verb phrase to English-majored freshmen of two different classes in eight forty-five-minute periods during the second semester of the academic year 2010-2011 at CIU. Comparatively, the researcher contrasted (1) the result of the diagnostic test with that of the achievement test to see the students’ progress in identifying as well as using various English verb patterns, and (2) the students’ responses from the first set of questionnaires with those from the second set of questionnaires in order to see whether or not the students had changed their attitude towards the roles of teaching the English verb phrase in Grammar 1. The study’s major findings then revealed that teaching of the English verb phrase in a systematic and communicative manner to English-majored freshmen at CIU have positively contributed to enhancing the students’ ability to recognize English verb patterns of different kinds and to employ these patterns properly in their speech and writing.
What’s more, the study’s findings indicated that there was a sweeping change in the students’ attitude towards the roles of teaching the English verb phrase in the process of the students’ acquiring English as a major at university. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A Adjunct Adj Adjective Adv General Adverb AdjP Adjective Phrase AdvP Adverb Phrase C Complement CIU Can Tho In-Service University Deg Degree Adverbs dO Direct Object EFL English Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching iO Indirect Object NP Noun Phrase O Object oC Object Complement obA Obligatory Adverbial Adjunct opA Optional Adverbial Adjunct P Preposition PP Prepositional Phrase PrepO Prepositional Object S Subject sC Subject Complement V Verb Vgrp Verb Group VP Verb Phrase Vcomplex- Complex-transitive Verb Vdi- Ditransitive Verb Vdi-prep Ditransitive prepositional Verb Vi Intransitive Verb Vintens- Intensive Verb Vmono- Mono-transitive Verb Vmono-prep Monotransitive prepositional Verb v LIST OF ENGLISH VERB PATTERNS Pattern 1: Vcomplex- dO oC complex transitive verb + direct object + object complement Pattern 2: Vdi- iO dO ditransitive verb + indirect object + direct object Pattern 3: Vdi- dO to/for iO ditransitive verb + direct object + to/for + indirect object Pattern 4: Vmono- dO monotransitive verb + direct object Pattern 5: Vmono- dO obA monotransitive verb + direct object + obligatory adverbial adjunct Pattern 6: Vintens- sC intensive verb + subject complement Pattern 7: Vmono-prep prepO monotransitive prepositional verb + prepositional object Pattern 8: Vdi-prep dO prepO ditransitive prepositional verb + direct object + prepositional object Pattern 9: Vi intransitive verb Pattern 10: Vi obA intransitive verb + obligatory adverbial adjunct vi LIST OF CHARTS Chart 5.1: Students’ responses to the question “Have you learnt the English VP?” .2: Students’ understanding of what the English VP is like .3: Students’ understanding of what the clause elements are like .4: Students’ distinguishing obligatory elements from optional ones in the English clause .5: Students’ responses to whether or not a verb with various complementation types can belong to different sub-categories .6: Students’ responses to verb patterns in English taught in class .7: Students’ responses to the amount of time spent in class on teaching the English VP .8: Students’ responses to how important the teaching of the English VP is in their recognizing various verbs patterns in English…………………………………………………………… 48 Chart 5.9: Students’ responses to how important the teaching of the English VP is in improving their ability to express properly in speech as well as in writing .10: Students’ responses to the assumption that CIU English-majored freshmen should learn the English VP in Grammar 1 .11: Students’ responses for the time needed for the English VP to be taught in Grammar 1 .13: Teachers’ years of teaching English .14: Teachers’ responses to the question “Have you taught the English VP to your students?” .15: Teachers’ responses to what English verb patterns have been taught in Grammar 1 .16: Teachers’ choice of classroom activities employed in teaching the English VP .17: Teachers’ viewpoints on the teaching of the English VP…… .18: Teachers’ viewpoints on the time needed for the English VP to be taught in class .19: Students’ results from the diagnostic test’s Section I .20: Students’ results from the diagnostic test’s Section II .21: Students’ results from the achievement test’s Section I.22: Students’ results from the achievement test’s Section II .23: Students’ compared groups from the two tests’ Section I.24: Students’ compared groups from the two tests’ Section II. 63 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Teachers’ personal information .2: Schedule for the experimental teaching .3: Students’ years of learning English as a foreign language .4: Students’ reasons for the answer “No” .6: Students’ mistakes found in the diagnostic test’s Section I .7: Students’ mistakes found in the diagnostic test’s Section II.8: Students’ mistakes found in the achievement test’s Section I .9: Students’ mistakes found in the achievement test’s Section II .10: Students’ results of the achievement test (compared with those of the diagnostic test). 62 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of authorship.
i Retention and use of the thesis. iv List of abbreviations. v List of English verb patterns. vi List of charts.
vii List of tables. viii Table of contents. ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION. Background of the study.
Description of the grammar course for CIU English-majored freshmen. Rationale of the study. Significance of the study. Aims of the study.
Organization of the thesis. 6 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Descriptive approach to grammar. Phrase structure in the light of descriptive grammar.
The English noun phrase. The English verb phrase. The English adjective phrase. The English adverb phrase.
The English prepositional phrase. Clause structure in the light of descriptive grammar. The Subject element. The Verb element.
The Object element. The Complement element. The Adjunct element. Approaches in teaching language.
The Communicative approach to teaching language. Explicit teaching vs Implicit teaching. Common ways of teaching grammatical features. 21 ix Chapter 3: THE ENGLISH VERB PHRASE.
Obligatory and optional elements. The complex transitive verb phrase. An adjective phrase as object complement [C1]. A noun phrase as object complement [C2].
A prepositional phrase as object complement [C3]. A non-finite clause as object complement. The ditransitive verb phrase. The ditransitive VP includes a ditransitive verb followed by its two obligatory constituents.
Verbs contain to when the participant is Recipient and for when it is Beneficiary. The monotransitive verb phrase. The monotransitive VP includes a monotransitive verb followed by its single obligatory constituent – the direct object. The direct object is realised differently by different linguists…………………………………………………28 3.
The intensive verb phrase. The intensive VP includes an intensive verb followed by its single obligatory constituent – the subject complement 30 3. Copular verbs fall into two main classes, according to whether the subject complement has the role of CURRENT ATTRIBUTE or of RESULTING ATTRIBUTE. There are verbs which have this function with severe restrictions on the words occurring in the complement.
The prepositional verb phrase. A monotransitive prepositional verb followed by one and the same element: the prepO. A ditransitive prepositional verb followed by two elements: the dO and the prepO. The intransitive verb phrase.
In its minimal form, the intransitive verb phrase includes only an intransitive verb. An intransitive verb is frequently modified by one or more optional adverbial adjuncts. The intransitive verb may require at least an obligatory adverbial adjunct. The two tests.
The diagnostic test. The achievement test. Students’ two sets of questionnaires. The experimental teaching.
The interviews with the students. Data collection procedures. 41 Chapter 5: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Responses to students’ questionnaires.
Responses for background information. Students’ personal information. Students’ experience in learning English. Responses to research questions.
Students’ responses to their knowledge on the English VP43 5. Students’ responses to the amount of time spent in class on teaching the English VP. Students’ responses to their attitude towards teaching the English VP. Students’ responses to the time needed for the teaching of the English VP in Grammar 1.
Responses to teachers’ questionnaire. Responses to personal information. Responses to research questions. Teachers’ responses to their teaching of the English VP.
Teachers’ responses to their attitude towards adequately and explicitly teaching the English VP to CIU English-majored freshmen in Grammar 1. Teachers’ responses to the time needed for instructing the English VP in Grammar 1. Results of the two tests. Students’ results of the diagnostic test.
Diagnostic test’s Section I. Diagnostic test’s Section II. Students’ results of the achievement test. Achievement test’s Section I.
Achievement test’s Section II. Comparisons of the two tests’ results. Interviews with the student subjects. Students’ previous exposure to the teaching of the English VP………………………………………………………….
Students’ opinions on the experimental teaching and the in-class activities applied in teaching and learning the English VP. 65 Chapter 6: RECOMMENDATIONS RECOMMENDATIONS ………………………………….