VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* TRẦN THỊ HẠNH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING OF FIR[.]
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* TRẦN THỊ HẠNH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Lỗi ngữ pháp viết đoạn văn sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành Tiếng Anh Khoa Ngoại Ngữ - Đại học Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* TRẦN THỊ HẠNH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Lỗi ngữ pháp viết đoạn văn sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành Tiếng Anh Khoa Ngoại Ngữ - Đại học Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 SUPERVISOR : PHẠM ĐĂNG BÌNH, Ph.D Hanoi, 2015 DECLARATION I certify my authorship of the study report entitled “Common Grammatical Errors in Paragraph Writing of First Year English Major Students at School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies- VNU, Hanoi, and this thesis is in total fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Thái Nguyên, ngày tháng năm 2015 Ký tên Trần Thị Hạnh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my many thanks to people who have assisted me when I carried out the research To my supervisor Dr Pham Dang Binh, I owe a special debt of gratitude for his profound knowledge, helpful support, and enthusiasm, which are of almost importance to the achievement of my study I would like to convey my thanks to all my teachers of Post-Graduate Studies Department who have supported mw with a lot of knowledge I owe a special note of gratitude to all my colleagues for their invaluable comments, assistance, and advice during the time I was completing my study I am extremely thankful to all the participants who provided me with rich and detailed data for the study and lent breadth and values to the research findings I also wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my mother, my father, family members, and friends whose prayers, love and best wishes were a source of inspiration, encouragements, and motivation for me to complete this research Finally, I would like to thank my readers for their interests and comments on this thesis ii ABSTRACT This paper studies common grammatical errors in paragraph writing committed by first year English major students at School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University (SFL-TNU) and the causes of these errors To achieve the desired aims of current study, the author combined both qualitative and quantitative methods, including the instrument namely students’ writing analysis The participants in the research were fifty first year English major students at SFL- TNU Research results show that first year English major students at SFL- TNU often commit errors in sentence structure, verb usage, preposition usage and singular/plural nouns Besides, the main causes of these errors are mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules and false concepts hypothesized; in which interference of native language and overgeneralization are the most common ones In order to minimize these errors, it is suggested that teachers help students practice writing and correct their writings effectively by suitable and flexible techniques iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES viii PART A– INTRODUCTION 1 Identification of the problem and rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Structure of the study PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I – LITERATURE REVIEW Grammar 1.1 Definitions of grammar 1.2 Roles of grammar in foreign language teaching 2.Writing Paragraph 3.1 Definitions of paragraph 3.2 Structure of a paragraph Errors in foreign language teaching 4.1 Definitions of errors 4.2 Errors versus mistakes 4.3 Types of errors 10 4.4 Sources of errors 12 4.4.1 Mother tongue interference 12 iv 4.4.2 Overgeneralization 13 4.4.3 Ignorance of rule restriction 14 4.4.4 Incomplete application of rules 14 4.4.5 False concepts hypothesized 15 Error analysis 15 5.1 Definitions of error analysis 15 5.2 Significance of error analysis 16 5.3 Analysis of composition errors 17 5.3.1 Procedure for error analysis 17 5.3.2 Common ESL writing errors 18 5.3.3 Types of grammatical errors in ESL writing 19 CHAPTER II – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 21 Research setting and participants 21 1.1 Research setting 21 1.2 Participants 21 Data collection instruments 21 2.1 Reasons for choosing students’ writing task 22 2.2 Description of students’ writing task 22 Data collection procedure 23 Data analysis 23 4.2 Classification of errors 25 4.3 Explanation of errors 25 4.4 Evaluation of errors 26 CHAPTER III – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 27 3.1 Findings 27 3.2 Discussion 31 3.2.1 The most common grammatical errors committed by first year English major students at SFL- TNU in paragraph writing 31 3.2.1.1 Sentence structure errors 31 v 3.2.1.2 Verb errors 33 3.2.1.3 Preposition errors 35 3.1.2.4 Noun errors 36 3.2.2 The causes of errors made by the first year English major students at SFLTNU in paragraph writing 36 3.2.2.2 Overgeneralization 38 3.2.2.3 Ignorance of rule restrictions 39 3.2.2.4 Incomplete application of rules 40 3.2.2.5 False concepts hypothesized 40 PART C- CONCLUSION 41 Summary of the study 41 Limitations of the study 42 Suggestions for further studies 42 Recommendations 43 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX I vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EA: Error Analysis L1: The First Language L2: The Second Language SFL- TNU: School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1: Error marking symbols Table 2: Error classification Table 3.1; Number and frequency of grammatical errors in paragraph writing by types and by groups Figure 3.1: Frequency of grammatical errors in paragraph writing by groups Table 3.2: Frequency of each grammatical error type Figure 3.2: Frequency of each grammatical error type viii 4.3 Types of errors The classification of errors has been proposed by many linguists Richards (1971) classifies errors into three categories: interference errors, intralingual errors, and developmental errors According to him, interference errors result from the use of the elements from one language while speaking/writing another Intralingual errors reflect general characteristics of the rule learning such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn conditions under which rules applied Developmental errors occur when learners attempt to build up hypothesis about the target language on the basis of limited experiences Dulay and Burt (1974, cited in Haydari, 2012) proposes three broad categories of errors: developmental errors (errors that are similar to L1 acquisition), interference errors (errors that reflect the structure of the L1), and unique errors (errors that are neither developmental nor interference In addition, in the 1974 research (cited in Karra, 2006 and Haydari, 2012), Stenson draws attention to another type of errors – induced errors – which result from incorrect instruction of the language Brown (2007, p 260) discusses distinction between “overt errors” and “covert errors” He states that “overtly erroneous utterances are unquestionably ungrammatical at the sentence level”; “covertly erroneous utterances are grammatical well-formed at the sentence level but not interpretable within the context of communication” On the basis of linguistic level, errors are classified into four major categories (Lee, 1990): grammatical, discourse, phonological, and lexical errors Grammatical errors emphasize on grammatical accuracy more than fluency Discourse errors are related to the non-observance of the target language conventions Phonological errors are related to incorrect pronunciation, word stress, and intonation Lexical errors occur when learners use wrong word class and inappropriate words 10 ... “Common Grammatical Errors in Paragraph Writing of First Year English Major Students at School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University? ?? is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master... Languages – Thai Nguyen University? ?? Aims of the study This research is carried out with the following aims: Investigate the grammatical errors in paragraph writing of first year English major students. .. errors Hence, with a view to solve the problem above, there arises a need of a research on ? ?Grammatical Errors in Paragraph Writing of First Year English Major Students at School of Foreign Languages