(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) an exploratory study on the influence of the mother tongue (l1) on the english acquisition of thai students at thai nguyen

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 tác động tiếng mẹ đẻ việc học tiếng Anh sinh viên dân tộc Thái trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi - 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.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 tác động tiếng mẹ đẻ việc học tiếng Anh sinh viên dân tộc Thái trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: NGUYỄN HUY KỶ, PhD Hanoi - 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.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 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.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 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.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 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1= Mother tongue or first language L2= Foreign language or second language E = English E1 En = English example 1….n T = Vietnamese Thai T1 …Tn= Thai example 1….n Es = English sentences produced by the participant iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table1.1 English and Thai types of verbs Table 1.2 English and Thai types of words following a verb Table 1.3 English and Thai use of adjectives and adverbs Table1.4 Formation of tenses in English and Thai Table1.5 Subject-verb relation in English and Thai Table1.6 Negation in English and Thai Table1.7 English and Thai nouns 11 Table1.8 English and Thai articles 12 Table1.9 English and Thai word order 14 Table 1.10 Comparison of errors and mistakes 16 Table1.11 Dušková’s L1-transferred error classification 18 Table1.12 Keshavarz’s L1-transferred error taxonomy 18 Table1.13 Possible L1 interference of the Thai learners of English 19 Table 3.1 Summary of the total number of errors 25 Table 3.2 Errors in verbs 26 Table 3.3 Errors in nouns 29 Table 3.4 Errors in articles 30 Table 3.5 Errors in prepositions 32 Table 3.6 Errors in word order 35 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES v PART A - INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Research methods Thesis structure PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 The Thai people and language in Vietnam 1.1.1 The Thai people 1.1.2 The Thai language 1.2 A contrastive analysis of Thai and English 1.2.1 Verbs 1.2.2 Nouns 10 1.2.3 Articles 12 1.2.4 Prepositions 13 1.2.5 Word order 13 1.3 Distinction of errors and mistakes 15 1.3.1 Errors 15 1.3.2 Mistakes 16 1.3.3 Distinction of errors and mistakes 16 1.4 Language transfer and L1 transfer in L2 acquisition 17 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1.5 Possible errors committed by Thai students in their learning of English 18 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 20 2.1 Research setting 20 2.1.1 An overview of the research site 20 2.1.2 The students 20 2.1.3 Learning materials 21 2.2 Participants 21 2.3 Data collection instrument 22 2.4 Data collection procedure 22 2.5 Data analysis procedure 22 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 24 3.1 Data analysis and discussion 24 3.1.1 Identification of interlingual errors 24 3.1.2 Description and discussion of identified errors 24 3.2 Major findings 35 PART C - CONCLUSION 37 Recapitulation 37 Conclusions 37 Pedagogical implications 38 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 39 4.1 Limitations 39 4.2 Suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES I vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.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 worldwide 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.167) 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.g 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, TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com that similar categories could result in positive transfer and so can be neglected in the process of teaching and learning Besides, within a category, L1 interference in different subcategories is various, so some may be more problematic to Thai learners of English than the others It is of great importance for instructors to identify what language areas cause lots of obstacles towards a certain group of the Thai learners so that they can have an appropriate strategy to deal with them or to help their learners cope with them In fact, not all the systematic errors committed by the Thai students in this study are rooted in their mother tongue There are a variety of the subcategories with the mother categories cannot be accounted for by tracing back the Thai students‟ errors to their L1 A stronger argument for these cases is that they can be the result of the sophistication of the English system itself The above conclusion proposes that teaching English to the Thai students requires firm knowledge of English and deep understandings of the Thai language system as well Since the Thai students‟ L1 play a big role in their learning of English, classroom practitioners need to seek appropriate ways to help their students to alleviate their L1based errors, some of which are introduced in the next section of this part Pedagogical implications The findings that the Thai learners of English can be heavily affected by their L1 interference in their L2 learning imply that the teachers of this cohort of learners need to seek effective teaching strategies to help the Thai students to minimise or even alleviate the effect of their L1 in their learning of English The very first thing to be considered is the inclusion of L1 interference in syllabus and curriculum design This is, in fact, suggested by Corder (1967): “We may be able to allow the learner's innate strategies to dictate our practice and determine our syllabus; we may learn to adapt ourselves to his needs rather than impose upon him our preconceptions of how he ought to learn, what he ought to learn and when he ought to learn it”(p 169) Lack of careful calculation of L1 interference could lead to ineffective teaching techniques and ways of giving feedback 38 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Secondly, instructors‟ teaching strategies also need to reflect the possible interference of the learners‟ L1 The L1-specific approach, which was suggested by Carey (2004), should be taken into accounts in the process of teaching and learning This teaching approach employs the comparision of the L1 and L2 in their process of teaching L2 The L1-specific approach gives students and teachers various benefits which the native model focus cannot offer For students, their L1 is a reliable and long standing reference point for effective comparison and contrast between their L1 existing inventory and that of the newly-learned system For teachers, if they implement a contrastive analysis of English and the Thai language, they will be able to predict the areas in which their students may have difficulties; this helps them to deliver the lesson more effectively and meaningfully Moreover, the L1-specific approach allows teachers to reflect on their own English learning experiences as a successful learner, so they can predict the English aspects to which they need to pay more attentions and provide more practice in their teaching Also, they can provide their students with strategies which they have used to deal with English effectively Next, developing L2 learners‟ language transfer awareness could also be beneficial Most native speakers usually not have much declarative knowledge of their L1, so a thorough mastery of some non-native language achieved in a classroom context, might be more useful for the learning of a new language (Ringbom, 2006) Research also states that there was no evidence that students were aware of how their intuitions about L1 grammaticality influenced their L2 judgements (Lightbown & Spada, 2000).As such, incorporating the techniques which help develop language transfer awareness into daily teaching is of great significance Finally, if possible, incorporating previously acquired procedural knowledge (strategic, pragmatic and otherwise) that students have developed through their experience with Vietnamese learning into their learning of English (Marx & Mehlhorn, 2010) Limitations and suggestions for further studies 4.1 Limitations An ambition of covering all of the aspects of L1 which may cause transfers in L2 learning could lead to lack of details and depth in the analysis, so this study has not 39 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com covered all the possible contrastive aspects of Thai and English Another limitation of the present study is that it is impossible to take into accounts the extent to which transfer occurs at different levels of proficiency 4.2 Suggestions for further study Due to the limitation with respect to the scope of the present study, the investigations into the L1 interference in other language areas and language learning may be of great interests for future research Specially, a relationship between L1 and L2 reading (Bernhardt & Kamil, 1995); long‐term cross linguistic transfer of skills from L1 to L2 (Sparks et al., 2009); the use of L1 reading strategies in L2 reading (Koda, 1990), and many other studies related to cross linguistic transfer of L1 sound system into L2 learning could be good suggestions for further research regarding Thai and English 40 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com REFERENCES IN VIETNAMESE An Nguyen, N (2011) Thực trạng giải pháp rèn luyện kỹ nghe hiểu việc học ngoại ngữ sinh viên không chuyên trường đại học –cao đẳng Tạp chí khoa học ĐHSP TP HCM, 25, 130-133 Dat Huu, Doi Tran, T., & Lan Đao, T (1998) Cơ sở tiếng Việt Hà Nội, Viêt Nam: Giáo Dục Publishing House Hao Cao, X (2000) Tiếng Việt - vấn đề ngữ âm, ngữ nghĩa Hà Nội, Việt Nam: Giáo Dục Publishing House Hoa Tran, T K (2010) Lỗi sử dụng từ ngữ Tiếng Việt học sinh Tày-Nùng trường phổ thông vùng cao Việt Bắc Ngôn Ngữ & Đời Sống, (178), 37-41 Quang Mai, L (2004) Glimpses of Vietnam (p 89) Hà Nội: Thế Giới Publishing House Nga Tran, T & Le Hoan, T (2012) Tìm hiểu giá trị văn học tài liệu giảng dạy Tiếng Anh Tạp chí Khoa học ĐHQGHN-Ngoại ngữ, 28, 52-61 Tam Nguyen,T (2011) Tiếng Anh mà chả muốn học tốt Ngôn Ngữ & Đời Sống, 1+2(183+184), 40-42 IN ENGLISH Beebe, L.M (ed.) (1988) Issues in second language acquisition: Multiple perspectives London: Newbury Bernhardt, E B., & Kamil, M L (1995) Interpreting relationships between L1 and L2 reading: Consolidating the linguistic threshold and the linguistic interdependence hypotheses Applied Linguistics, 16(1), 15-34 Camacho, J (1999) From SOV to SVO: The grammar of interlanguage word order Second Language Research, 15(2), 115-132 Canh Le, V (2004) From ideology to inquiry: Mediating Asian and Western values in ELT practice The Journal of Asia TEFL, I (1) 167-183 Carey, M D (2004) CALL visual feedback for pronunciation of vowels: Kay SonaMatch CALICO Journal, 21(3), 571-601 Corder, S P (1967) The significance of learner's errors International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 5(1-4), 161-170 Corder, S P (1973) Introducing Applied Linguistics Harmondsworth: Penguin Education Corder, S P (1974) Error Analysis In J Allen & S P Corder (eds.), The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistic Oxford: Oxford University Press Dechert, H.W (1983) „How a story is done in a second language‟ In C Faerch & G Kasper (eds.), Strategies in Interlanguage Communication London: Longman 41 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Dewaele, J M (1998) Lexical inventions: French interlanguage as L2 versus L3 Applied Linguistics, 19(4), 471-490 Dewaele, J M., & Véronique, D (2000) Relating gender errors to morphosyntax and lexicon in advanced French interlanguage Studia Linguistica, 54, 212–24 Dulay, D C., Burt, M K., & Krashen, S D (1982) Language Two New York: Cambridge University Press Dulay, H., & Burt, M (1977) Natural sequences in child language acquisition New York: Regents Dušková, L (1969) On sources of errors in foreign language learning International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 7(1), 11-36 Eisenstein, M., & Bodman, J (1993) Expressing gratitude in American English In: Kasper, G., Blum-Kulka, S (Eds.), Interlanguage Pragmatics (pp 64–81) New York: Oxford University Press Ellis, R (1997) Second Language Acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press Franceschina, F (2001).Against an L2 morphological deficit as an explanation for the differences between native and non-native grammars In S F Cohen, S & A Nizegorodcew (eds.), EUROSLA Yearbook Volume (pp 143-148) Amsterdam: John Benjamins Fujieda, Y (2006) A brief historical sketch of second language writing studies Second Language Writing, 47, 59-60 Gass, S M., & Selinker, L (2008) Second language acquisition New York: Routledge George, H V (1972) Common Errors in Language Learning: Insights from English Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers Hutchinson, T (1997) LifeLines Pre-Intermediate (Student‟s Book) Oxford: Oxford University Press Hutchinson, T (1999) LifeLines Elementary (Student's Book) Oxford: Oxford University Press Hutchinson, T (1999) LifeLines Intermediate (Student's University Press Book) Oxford: Oxford Jacobs, A R (1995) English syntax Oxford: Oxford University Press James, C (1998) Errors in Language Learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis Boston: Addison-Wesley Keshavarz, M H (2012) Contrastive analysis & error analysis Tehran: Rahnama Koda, K (1990) The use of L1 reading strategies in L2 reading Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12(04), 393-410 Lightbown, P M., & Spada, N (2000) Do they know what they're doing? L2 learners' awareness of L1 influence Language Awareness, (4), 198-217 Liski, E & Puntanen, S (1983) A study of the statistical foundations of group conversation tests in spoken English Language Learning, 33(2), 225–246 42 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Manivanan, G (2006) The importance of the English language Retrieved 30 May 2014, from http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/importance-english-language.html Marx, N., & Mehlhorn, G (2010) Pushing the positive: Encouraging phonological transfer from L2 to L3 International Journal of Multilingualism, 7(1), 4-18 Nooshin, F., Behjat, F., & Rostampour, M (2014) The relationship between L1 grammar and L2 writing for Iranian male students at high school level IJLLALW, (3), 230246 Norrish, J (1983) Language Leaners and Their Errors Macmillar: London Odlin, T (2006) Could a contrastive analysis ever be complete? In J Arabski, Crosslinguistic Influences in the Second Language Lexicon Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd Paragon Software Group (2010) Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary CD-ROM (8th Ed.) Paragon Software Group Richards, J.C (1984) Error Analysis London: Longman Group Limited Ringbom, H (2006) The importance of different types of similarity in transfer studies In J Arabski, Cross-linguistic Influences in the Second Language Lexicon Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd Saporta, S (1996) Applied Linguistics and Generative Grammar In A Valdman (Ed.), Trends in Modern Language Teaching NY: McGraw-Hill Seligar, H (1988) Psycholinguistic Issues in SecondLanguage Acquisition In L M Beebe (ed.), Issues in Second Language Acquisition: Multiple Perspectives London: Newbury Selinker, L (1972) Interlanguage IRAL, 209-231 Sparks, R., Patton, J., Ganschow, L., & Humbach, N (2009) Long‐term crosslinguistic transfer of skills from L1 to L2 Language Learning, 59(1), 203-243 Thanh Pham, T H., & Gillies, R M (2010) Group composition of cooperative learning: Does heterogeneous grouping work in Asian classrooms? International Education Studies, 3(3), 12-19 Vainikka, A & Young-Scholten, M (1996) Gradual development of L2 phrase structure Second Language Research, 12, 7–39 White, L (1985) The pro-drop parameter in adult second language acquisition Language Learning, 35, 47–62 Worth, C A (1987) Evaluation and selecting EFL teaching materials London: Heinemann Education Book Wyatt, D K (2003) Thailand: A short history Connecticut: Yale University Press 43 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDICES Appendix A: QUESTIONNAIRE Dear all, This questionnaire aims to investigate into how your mother tongue might affect your learning of English, so your writings are, by no means, used to assess your English proficiency or the like Please read the direction carefully and compose a short paragraph about each of the given topics The number of the suggested ideas may assist you when you write However, you have your own right to choose what you would like to write about Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your best friend: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) How you know him/her Where he/she is living now What he/she is doing now His/ her personality What you like best in him/her His/ her hobbies Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your future job: Suggested ideas: a) What the job is b) Why you like it I TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com c) Where you want to work d) What makes you suitable for the job e) What you to prepare for the job Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your hometown or your village: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) What the weather is like there How people are How the scenery is How the air is there What people How the food is Anything special II TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your school: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) How your school looks like How the teachers are How the students are What you like best about it If there is anything you don’t like about it How you wish it would be in the future Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your classmates: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) How many people there are Where they come from How they learn What they during a break How they are What you like best about them If there is anything you don’t like about them III TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your English class: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) How the class is How your teacher is How your friends are How much you and your friends talk What topics you and your friends talk about How you think of their English If there are any difficulties Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe one of your unforgettable past events: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) What happened If it was fun or sad for you When and where it happened How the scenery was How people there were If you learned anything from this experience IV TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe changes in your hometown: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) If there have been many changes How people’s life have changed How the weather changed What caused the changes Whether you enjoy the changes or not What you think it will be in the future Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your family: Suggested ideas: a) How many members there are b) What your family members’ job is V TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com c) What you like best about your family life d) If there is anything you don’t like e) How you think your family will be in the future 10 Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your learning of English: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) What you think about your English and English learning How you think English is important How much time you often spend learning English What difficulties you have How difficult you feel English is If you have any plans to improve your English 11 Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your daily routines: VI TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Suggested ideas: a What you in the morning b What you in the afternoon c What you in the evening Many thanks for your assistance VII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Appendix B: TOOL FORDATA ANALYSIS Categories Codes Numbers of errors Vmismorph Vlackmorph Vlackagr VlackTO Verbs Vlackaux VomiBE Vreg-irreg Vinf-part Vadv-adj Vpart-inf Nc-u NomisE-ES Nouns Nlackagr NmisS-ES Nclfier ARTomisindef ARTomisdef Articles ARTmisuse PREPomis PREPmisuse PREPomisOF Prepositions PREPadd PREPlackcollo NPadj-n Word order NPpro-adj Spec-genAdv VIII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Appendix C: LIST OF CODES Categories Codes Verbs Misuse of morphological marks for tenses Lack of morphological marks for tenses Lack of agreement between subject and its verb Lack of the particle ‘to’ in to-infinitives Lack of auxiliaries in negation Omission of be Confusion of irregular and regular verbs Infinitive instead of past participle Confusion of adverb and adjective Past participle instead of infinitive NOUNS Confusion of countable and mass noun Omission of the plural endings Lack of agreement between a pre-modifier and its noun Inappropriate plural endings Use of classifiers ARTICLES Omission of „a/an‟ Omission of „the‟ Misuse of „a(n)‟, „the‟ and „zero‟ PREPOSITIONS Omission of preposition Inappropriate use of preposition Omission of genitival of Addition of prepositions Lack of preposition in collocations WORD ORDER Adjectives placed after a noun Personal pronouns instead of possessive adjectives More specific adverbials placed after more general ones Vmismorph Vlackmorph Vlackagr VlackTO Vlackaux VomiBE Vreg-irreg Vinf-part Vadv-adj Vpart-inf Nc-u NomisE-ES Nlackagr NmisS-ES Nclfier ARTomisindef ARTomisdef ARTmisuse PREPomis PREPmisuse PREPomisOF PREPadd PREPlackcollo NPadj+n NPpro-adj Spec-genAdv IX TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ... 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... the study It first provides an overview of the Thai and their language then presents a contrastive analysis of English and Thai, the definition of ‘errors’ and ‘mistakes’ and their distinction... current Thai students of the college and collect other related information about them Then the researcher asks for the permission from the college for the implementation of the study and contacts