Common errors in writing essay of english majored students at vietnam national university of agriculture

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS COMMON ERRORS IN WRITING ESSAY OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE NHỮNG LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP KHI VIẾT BÀI LUẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : Than Thi Hoan Student code : 621242 Major : English Linguistics Supervisor : Tran Thi Tuyet Mai, M.A Hanoi – 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS COMMON ERRORS IN WRITING ESSAY OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE NHỮNG LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP KHI VIẾT BÀI LUẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : Than Thi Hoan Student code : 621242 Major : English Linguistics Supervisor : Tran Thi Tuyet Mai, M.A Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “Common errors in writing essay of English-majored students at Vietnam National University of Agriculture” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi 2021 Than Thi Hoan Approved by SUPPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date…………………… i ABSTRACT Writing is a very important skill in teaching and learning English especially academic essays writing However, the second- year English major at Vietnam National University of Agriculture still encounter a lot of many difficulties in academic essay writing In order to have an overview onto this problem, I decided to a research on “Common errors in writing essay of the Englishmajored students at VNUA.” In this study, basing on the score of writing subject 3, the researcher selected 80 students with scores from to to survey and teachers, information was collected and analyzed The result gained from the analysis of students‟ questionnaire has revealed five common errors made by second year English major and five actual causes to these categories of errors Suggested solutions on how to deal with students” errors are also proposed ii C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude towards teachers at Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages -Vietnam National University of Agriculture Especially, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Ms.Tran Thi Tuyet Mai who has enthusiastically helped and encouraged me during the period of writing this research paper Without her experienced guidance, valuable comments and tireless help, I cannot complete the study on time My warmest thanks also to second - year English major at Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages, who helped me collect the data If it had not been their support, this research would not have been accomplished Finally, gratitude is given to my family and friends who encouraged and supported me throughout conducting this paper process If hadn‟t been for their help, my study couldn‟t have been successfully completed Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn iii C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an TABLE OF CONTENT CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Design of the study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Review of the previous studies 1.1.1 In the world…………………………………………… ……………… 1.1.2 In Vietnam 1.2 Review of theoretical background 1.2.1 Definition of errors 1.2.2 Classification of written errors 1.2.3 Causes of written errors 10 Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn iv C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an 1.3 Summary 13 Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 14 2.1 Research governing principles 14 2.1.1 Research question(s) 14 2.1.2 Principles/ criteria for data collection and data analysis…………………14 2.2 Research methods 14 2.2.1 Research methodology 14 2.2.2 Research setting/context 14 2.2.3 Data collection 15 2.3 Summary 15 Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 16 3.1 General information 16 Participants 16 How often you write essay? 17 Do you use proofreading software when writing? 18 3.2 FINDING AND DISCUSSION 19 3.2.1: Grammar errors 20 3.2.2 Errors related to general items 21 3.2.3 Lexical item 23 3.2.4 Mechanic errors 25 3.2.5: Sematic errors 26 3.3 FINDING AND DISCUSSION 28 3.3.1 Mother tongue interference 30 3.3.2 Overgeneralization 32 3.3.3 Ignorance of rule restrictions: 32 3.3.4 Incomplete application of rules 33 3.3.5 False concepts hypothesized 33 3.4 Summary 34 Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn v C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an PART 3: CONCLUSION 34 Recapitulation 35 Concluding remarks 36 Limitation of the current research: 36 Recommendations future research and solutions 36 4.1 Recommendations future research 36 4.2: Solutions 37 4.2.1 Peer-correction 37 4.2.2 Teacher correction 38 REFERENCES 39 APPENDIX (If any) 41 Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn vi C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES LIST OF TABLE Table 1: Written errors of second- year students at VNUA as synthesized from teachers‟ questionnaire 19 Table2: Typical examples of spelling errors are provided by the teacher 22 Table 3: Typical examples of lexical items 24 Table 4: Examples of common mechanics errors 26 Table 5: Teachers‟ rating the significance of causes to students common written errors 28 LIST OF FIGURE Figure 1: Participant 16 Figure 2: How often you write essay 17 Figure 3: Use proofreading software when writing 18 Figure5:Grammar errors Grammatical errors obtained from survey questions for students…………………………………………… 21 Figure 6: Written errors belonging to general items 22 Figure 7: Lexical items 23 Figure 8: Mechanic errors 25 Figures 9: Semantic errors 26 Figure 10 : The popularity of each kind of causes to students‟ common written errors 29 Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn vii C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations English Meaning EFL English as a Foreign Language VNUA Vietnam National University of Agriculture Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn viii C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an for “believe” earn a prevailing occurrence In short, mother tongue interference is relatively popular among students‟ written errors It is not only makes students‟ writing less smooth but also impedes the conveyance of the meaning at times 3.3.2 Overgeneralization Overgeneralization is present in errors related to noun number, subject and verb agreement, and too formal language style In particular, students overgeneralize the rule that every expression of quality which is used to denote the concept of “plurality” will be followed by a plural noun Students, therefore, would see that “every” also denotes a plurality concept and accordingly, it should be accompanied by plural nouns For example, students would be likely to produce errors like” everything, every people, every bad thing” They may also expand the rule that plural nouns taking zero articles refer to a group of people or things and adopt it to non-count noun Hence, it is common to encounter such errors as “advices, equipments, informations.” In fact, the number of the verb “to be” should be determined by the nearest noun following it This accounts for the presence of such sentences as “there is many new friends/ there is many facilities at the center of town”, etc 3.3.3 Ignorance of rule restrictions: The presence of ignorance of rule of restrictions is seen in errors concerning lexical items and prepositions usage Specifically, students often ignore the restriction of contexts wherein rules are applied and produce a deviant form or structure For example, on account of students‟ limited knowledge of the language, they may use adjective like “truthful, honest”, which refer to human characteristics to denote thing characteristics while these two words all belong to the semantic field of being “real” Such sentences as “the story is truthful or the news is honest” can be detected among students‟ writing samples Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 32 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an Furthermore, it does not come as a surprise that students unconsciously put words into a surrounding where they are supposed not to appear Terminologically, collocation aspect of the language is troublesome to students In other words, students ignore the restriction use of verbs like “overcome, open, shoot”; thus, they produce such combination as “overcome your question, open HBO channel and shoot fireworks” Besides lexical items, ignorance of rule restriction also results from students‟ analogy which can be seen in their wrong use of proposition For example, student may infer that preposition “for” indicates “purpose” or the object targeted at, which is evident for the usage of “for” in “there is a letter for you”, “it‟s a book for children”, “we got a new table for the dining room” or “this is the place for me” 3.3.4 Incomplete application of rules Incomplete application of rules has much to deal with students‟ inability to apply rules into contexts although they have been taught that language item many times This type of cause is prevailing in errors related to verb tense and article usage In terms of the former, the use of present simple tense and present continuous tense is problematic to students Although they have been taught that the present continuous tense is used to denote a “happening action at the time of speaking” and the present simple tense is for time timetable a happen event, they still fail to apply the rules For example, students produce sentences like “His train is leaving at a.m tomorrow." instead of" His trains leaves at 6a.m tomorrow." 3.3.5 False concepts hypothesized Due to students‟ limited exposure to the second language and their unawareness of the differences between two languages, it is likely for them to form a false hypothesis of the target language This provides the explanation for students‟ inappropriate use of language style Students create inappropriate Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 33 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an language style in two dimensions: either too formal or too informal Too informal language style results from students‟ adaptation of spoken language into written language Students falsely assume that when the target audience is over-familiar with them, integration of spoken elements involving abbreviate for example student write "don't" instead of "do not" This is indeed a violation of language style as written language is more or least different from spoken language In an adverse dimension, students may resort to highly formal structures to use in informal writing because of their false assumption that complexity in structures proves a high proficiency of the target language In the meantime, complexity in informal writing is not expected in standard written English This phenomenon can be exemplified by the presence of such structures as “I would you like to be visited by you next week/ I‟m writing to inform you that …” in an informal piece of writing To sum up, the aforementioned justification of the actual causes to students‟ common written errors has proposed a panorama on the research problem Relative as it is, this justification has offered further insights into the five major causes to students‟ written errors involving mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules and false concept hypothesized 3.4 Summary In summary, this chapter has revealed the data analysis to find out the answer to the research questions All the data were obtained from the survey questionnaire for teachers and students Then it has discussed the finding in terms of types of common errors in essay writing and causes of students‟ common written errors Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 34 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an PART 3: CONCLUSION Recapitulation This part is supposed to review the major findings presented in chapter three and limitations of the research paper would also presented so that it can serve as aiding tool later researchers Main findings Generally, the research paper has pinpointed two main findings, namely the common written errors by the second-year major-students at Vietnam National University of Agriculture and causes of these errors As for the former, the researcher has detected five types of common errors They are grammar errors, general items, mechanics, lexical items and semantic errors It comes as a surprise that grammatical errors make up the highest portion among common errors detected Those students, whose writing samples are collected, are all newcomers at university However, in order to admit to this university, they were all to deal with a national-wide sorting exam Thus, they are expected to acquire a relative volume of grammatical items and only minor grammatical errors are accepted as a result of students; carelessness or slips of pens Nonetheless, the dominant appearance of grammatical errors claims a different panorama This means that English grammar is problematic to second-year major students at VNUA In terms of the later the overwhelming presence of mother tongue interference the very causes of students‟ written errors is predictable It is of nature that students will resort to their first language to express what they would like to convey when they have the relevant second language in hands Besides, as students fail to express themselves concisely, there is a tendency for them to express in a lengthy and complexly grammatical way Thus, students are at a risk to produce both collocation/expression errors and grammatical errors simultaneously Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 35 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an Concluding remarks Common mistakes in essay writing by 2nd year English language students at VNUA are inevitable The main reasons are due to communication in the mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rule and false concepts hypothesized The most important cause of errors in essay writing is the direct influence of the mother tongue on the second language Limitation of the current research: Because of the researcher‟s limited tie, resources and capacity, researcher could not investigate further into error correction, a closely related aspect to errors identification If further study had been accomplished in the field of error correction, the study would be more in-depth and valuable Therefore, any studies on this field would be highly appreciated Besides, although researchers have developed an error checklist to maintain consistency and objectivity throughout the study, the performance is in to some subjective degree Hence, the reliability of the research could be counter-affected In addition, the task of identifying the source of the students' written errors is primarily based on the researcher's personal perspective, with the help of the previously presented theory Thus, the justification of causes of common written errors in chapter is not highly satisfactory Moreover, the same error may result from different sources of causes, the researcher only counts on the most prevailing degree of frequency to determine whether a certain causes is responsible for a specific category of errors This may lead to subjectivity or a fallacy of the result under discussion Recommendations future research and solutions 4.1 Recommendations future research The followings are suggested to be taken into consideration in further research: Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 36 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an Future researches should study common errors in writing paragraph of nonEnglish major Future researches should concentrate on the causes of errors in writing paragraph at VNUA 4.2: Solutions 4.2.1 Peer-correction The help provided from students‟ peers are highly appreciated as it benefits students in many ways Students‟ active involvement in correcting their peers‟ errors would encourage them to think critically and engage them intellectually during the process of error correction Besides, a cooperative environment would be created and there would be a shift from the teacher as the main corrector to students as beneficiaries and correction providers That is, two head are always better than one Peer correction can be conducted in the form of pair work, group work or whole class correction When students have finished their writing, the teacher asks students to sit in pairs or groups, exchanging each other‟s work, find the errors and correct them It is advisable that student of higher competence work in groups with weaker ones In order to diversify group work correction activity, teachers can divide the class into four groups of four to five members Each week, there will be a group in charge of correcting all the class‟s writings These four groups will take turns to be the correction group Accordingly, each student in the correcting group will have paper of his/her own and two or three papers of their peers to comment on In so doing, students‟ correction will not be limited to the one in their pairs groups They will be enabled to approach the whole class‟s writings and learn from their errors Alternatively, the teacher can offer a chance for the whole class to participate in the correction process by organizing whole class organization That is, the teacher will select the most common and the most serious errors to Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 37 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an write on the blackboard The whole class will contribute ideas as to how to correct the errors This way helps the whole class learn from typical errors 4.2.2 Teacher correction Teachers need not to be an over-corrector, that is, point outs and corrects all errors detected Instead, they can employ the following techniques to deal with errors Firstly, with each set of student papers, there is no point in frying to mark all the errors It is advisable that teachers decide in advance what kinds of errors they are going to deal with Another alternative is that teachers can choose to mark errors that affect the intelligibility of the writing For instance, the following sentence “English language uses much people” are erroneous “Much” needs to be replaced by “many”, the definite article “the” should be added before “English” and the word order in sentence should be changed However, the first two errors does not impede meaning as much as the other; consequently, it is the word order that should be corrected here That is, much people use English language Secondly, it is important for teachers to bear in mind that errors are to be examined carefully Careful analysis of the cause of errors is required in this case Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 38 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an REFERENCES Batram, M & Walton, R (2001) Correction: Mistake management: A positive approach for language teachers Corder, S.O (1967) Error analysis and Interlanguage Orford: Oxford University Press Crystal Lee D (197) A dictionary of linguastis and phonetics Second Edition New York: Basil Blackwel Inc Cunningworth, A (1987) Evaluation and Selecting Teaching Materials Edge, J (1997) Mistakes and correction New York: Longman, (p.10-50) Hinkel, E (2002) Second language writtens’ text Linguastic and Rhetorical feature Seatle Univeristy Jakobovits (in Richards), LA (1969) A psycholinguistic Analysis of Second Language Learning and bilinguialism Institue of Communication Research Illionois Norish, J (1987) Language learning and their errors London: Macmilla Richards, J.C (1970) A non constrastive approach toerror analysis Sokolik, M Writing In D Nunan (Ed) Practical English Language Teaching China: McGraw-hill Companies, Inc and Higher Education Press, 2003 10.Roger, G., D Phillips, and S Walters Teaching Practice Handbook China: Macmillan Heinesnann, 1995 11.Byrne, D Teaching Writing Skill London: Longman, 1988 12.Dana, F & John, S.H Teaching ESL Composition Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, publishers, 1998 13.Hornby, A S Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English Oxford University Press, 2002 14 Dao, V D (2008) Some Vietnamese students‟ problems with English grammar: A preliminary study Hawaii Pacific University TESOL Working Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 39 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an 15 Dam, P (2001) Old habits die hard: Persistent errors in English Written by Vietnamese Speakers-Texas Woman’s University Paper presented at the national Association for Bilingual Education-Annual conference, Phoenix, Arizona, Feb-2001 (pp.20-24) 16 Tang, G M (2007) Cross-Linguistic analysis of Vietnamese and English with implications for Vietnamese language acquisition and maintenance in the United States Journal of Southeast Asian American Education Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 40 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an APPENDIX (Survey questions for teachers) Question 1: How often your students make written errors on the following items? (Ticking X into the table) Give examples for each type of error Frequency (never) (rarely) (often) (usually) (always) Items of errors Idea organization Lexical items Inappropriate language style Wrong format Grammar Mechanics (punctuation and spelling) Expression Word choice Question In your opinion, what are the major causes to you/ students‟ written errors? Please rate them from (most significant) to (least significant) in blank with these choices: Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 41 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an A Mother tongue interference: Students carry the characteristics of their first language into the target language B Overgeneralization: Students use the available strategies to apply in the new situations C Ignorance of rule restrictions: Students apply rules to context they not D Incomplete application of rules: Although students have been taught that language rules many times, they fail to apply them E False concepts hypothesized: Students have a false comprehension of distinction on the target language Your rating: 1: …… 2: …… 3: …… Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 42 4: …… 5: …… C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an APPENDIX (Survey questions for student) Question 1: Which class are you in? A: K64ENGA B: K64ENGB C: K64ENGC D: K64ENGD E: K64ENGE Question 2: Do you often write essays? Put an X in the corresponding box Never Hardly Sometimes Often 1-2 times/ week 3-4 times/week 6-7 times/ week 8-10times/ weeks >10 times/ week Question 3: When writing essays, you use proofreading software? a: Yes Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 43 Usually C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an b: No 2.1: If yes, what software did you use? a: Free grammar check at GrammarBase.com, b: Free Online Grammar Check, Spelling, and More | PaperRater c: (others)…………………………………………………… …………………… 2.2: If you don't use proofing software, which method you use? a peer correction b teacher correction Question 4: What mistakes you often make? Tick the corresponding box Never Hardly Sometimes Verb tense Sentence structure Coordination Relative clause Singular/ Plural Verb omission Subject Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 44 Often Usually C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an omission S-V agreement Fragment Noun Pronoun Verb Adjective Adverb Article Preposition Word form Interjections Word choices Punctuation Capitalization Spelling If any Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn 45 C.vT.Bg.Jy.Lj.Tai lieu Luan vT.Bg.Jy.Lj van Luan an.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an.Tai lieu Luan van Luan an Do an Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhd.vT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.LjvT.Bg.Jy.Lj.dtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn.Stt.010.Mssv.BKD002ac.email.ninhddtt@edu.gmail.com.vn.bkc19134.hmu.edu.vn