The perception and use of english subordinating conjunctions in writing among twelfth graders at thang long high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - NGUYEN THI HONG THANH THE PERCEPTION AND USE OF ENGLISH SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS IN WRITING AMONG TWELFTH GRADERS AT THANG LONG HIGH SCHOOL Major: English Language Course code: 1741900014 HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - THE PERCEPTION AND USE OF ENGLISH SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS IN WRITING AMONG TWELFTH GRADERS AT THANG LONG HIGH SCHOOL Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language Course code: 1741900014 By NGUYEN THI HONG THANH Supervised by NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, PH.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2020 STATEMENT OF AUTHORITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: THE PERCEPTION AND USE OF ENGLISH SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS IN WRITING AMONG TWELFTH GRADERS AT THANG LONG HIGH SCHOOL In terms of the statement of requirements for Thesis in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Ho Chi Minh, July 2020 NGUYEN THI HONG THANH i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Nguyen Thi Hong Thanh, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in English Language, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis Ho Chi Minh, July 2020 NGUYEN THI HONG THANH ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With sincere affection and deep gratitude, I would like to give my most sincere thanks to Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH), the Faculty of English Language, HUTECH’s post-graduation Institute, and all the teachers who were dedicated to teaching and creating favorable conditions to help me in the process of studying, researching and completing the thesis In particular, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, who has devoted to guiding, educating, and helping me, and encouraging me throughout the process of studying and completing the thesis On this occasion, I would like to sincerely thank the Principal, the board of teachers, and all the teachers and students of Thang Long High School for creating favorable conditions and providing data, materials and enthusiastic comments for me in the research process I would also like to thank my colleagues, friends, family for encouraging and helping me in the process of learning and doing research Despite great efforts, the thesis cannot avoid shortcomings; I am looking forward to receiving the sympathy, guidance, help and comments from scientists, teachers, managers and colleagues iii ABSTRACT Conjunctions in general and subordinating conjunctions in particular play an important role in English, especially the written language because they make ideas in a sentence and the sentences in a paragraph more closely linked The purpose of this study is an attempt to explore and analyze perception and use subordinating conjunctions in essays written by 12th grade students at Thang Long High School, Lam Ha District, Lam Dong Province, those in rural areas not have much English proficiency and have difficulty in writing essays at a syntactic level, especially in creating cohesion between sentences together in the paragraph It is undeniable that the use of conjunctions in general and subordinating conjunctions in particular is one of the key factors in creating cohesion in English texts That is the reason why a survey of awareness and the use of English subordinating conjunctions among twelfth graders at Thang Long High School will be able to help solve problems and improve writing quality for students at the surveyed school The study involved 67 twelfth graders who were studying at Thang Long High School Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained through the 16-item questions and 134 paragraphs with 33,317 words written by 67 students The questionnaire revealed that twelfth graders understood the importance, use, and functions of English subordinating conjunctions and usually used them in their writings Error analysis indicated that the two most common errors concerning the use of subordinating conjunctions are punctuation with comma missing (32 times) and fragment (17 times) Lastly, there is a significant positive correlation between students’ perception and their use of English subordinating conjunctions in their writings Results imply that if students are more aware of the importance and functions of English subordinating conjunctions, they tend to use them more frequently in their writing Key words: cohesion, errors, perception, subordinating conjunctions, twelfth graders iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EA: Error Analysis EFL: English as a foreign language ESL: English as a second language ESC: English subordinating conjunctions L1: First Language L2: Second Language TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………… 1.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Background to the study…………………………………………………………… 1.3 Rationale of the study……………………………………………………………… 1.4 Aims and objectives of the study ………………………………………………… 1.4.1 Aims……………………………………………………………………… 1.4.2 Objectives ………………………………………………………………… 1.5 Research Questions………………………………………………………………… 1.6 Scope of the study ………………………………………………………………… 1.7 Significance of the study ………………………………………………………… 1.8 Definitions of the key terms……………………………………………………… 1.9 Overview of the thesis……………………………………………………………… CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………7 2.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………… 2.2 English Conjunctions ……………………………………………………………….7 2.2.1 Definition…………………………………………………………….…… 2.2.2 Classifications ……………………………………………………….…… 2.3 The important role of conjunctions in learning writing ……………….………… 13 2.4 Problems encouraged by students in the use of English subordinating conjunctions 133 2.4.1 Definitions of errors ………………………………………………… 133 2.4.2 The role of error analysis (EA) in EFL teaching and learning ……… 13 2.4.3 Classification of errors ……………………………………………… 14 2.4.4 The procedure of error analysis ……………………………………… 15 2.4.5 Sources of errors …………………………………………………… 166 2.5 Previous studies ……………………………………………………………… 19 2.6 Conceptual framework ………………………………………………………… 21 2.7 Summary ……………………………………………………………………… 22 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………… 23 vi 3.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………… 23 3.2 Research design ……………………………………………………………… 23 3.3 Research site …………………………………………………………………… 25 3.4 Sampling and sampling procedures …………………………………………… 26 3.5 Research instruments ………………………………………………………… 28 3.5.1 Questionnaire ………………………………………………………… 299 3.5.2 Writing text …………………………………………………………… 311 3.6 Data collection procedures …………………………………………………… 31 3.7 Data analysis procedures ……………………………………………………… 322 3.8 Validity and reliability ………………………………………………………… 33 3.9 Summary ……………………………………………………………………… 355 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ………………………………… 366 4.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………… 366 4.2 Results ………………………………………………………………………… 366 4.3 Discussions …………………………………………………………………… 49 4.4 Summary……………………………………………………………………… 522 CHAPTER CONCLUSION …………………………………………………… 53 5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 53 5.2 Summary of the main findings of the thesis …………………………………… 53 5.3 Pedagogical implications ……………………………………………………… 55 5.4 Limitations …………………………………………………………………… 57 5.5 Recommendations for further studies ………………………………………… 57 LIST OF REFERENCES ……………………………………………………… 59 APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………….… 63 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Common English subordinating conjunctions and their semantic relationships (Sorensen (1997, as cited in Wu, 2019, p 626)……………………… 10 Table 3.1: Descriptions of participant demographics ……………………………… 27 Table 3.2: Reliability results of adjusted questionnaire…………………………… 344 Table 4.1: Students’ understanding of specific English subordinating conjunctions 377 Table 4.2: Students’ perceptions of functions of English subordinating conjunctions in writing……………………………………………………………………………… 388 Table 4.3: Students’ perceptions of importance of English subordinating conjunctions in writing…………………………………………………………………………… 40 Table 4.4: Students’ use English subordinating conjunctions in writing ………… 42 Table 4.5: Frequency of subordinating conjunctions by types …………………… 44 Table 4.6: Frequency of specific subordinating conjunctions …………………… 45 Table 4.7: Positions of subordinating conjunctions used in students’ writing …… 46 Table 4.8: Functions of subordinating conjunctions used in writings …………… 46 Table 4.9: Errors of use of subordinating conjunctions …………………………… 47 Table 4.10: The results of Pearson correlation for perception and use of English subordinating conjunctions ………………………………………………………… viii 49 4.4 Summary In a nutshell, depending on the results collected from the questionnaire and writing tests of 12th grade students at Thang Long High School , the researcher identified that students are highly aware of the functions, importance and use of subordinating conjunctions in their writing The investigation into essays by students also points out that students are capable of using a wide range of subordinating conjunctions in their writing to link components in sentences to create logics, cohesion and structure diversity in sentences Moreover, familiar subordinating conjunctions are more preferred by students than rarely used ones Lastly, despite their understanding students still make errors in using subordinating conjunctions in their writing 52 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 5.1 Introduction In this final chapter, a summary of research findings is firstly presented by the researcher concerning 12th grade students’ perception and use of subordinating conjunctions in their writing and their common errors Depending on findings, some implications of how to improve students’ use of subordinating conjunctions in an accurate, appropriate, and meaningful way in their written texts Lastly, the researcher addresses the limitations of this current study and suggests some recommendations for further researches 5.2 Summary of the main findings of the thesis Subordinating conjunctions are essential parts of complex sentences with include at least two clauses, with one of the clauses being main (independent) and the other being subordinated (dependent) A subordinate conjunction performs some functions within a sentence, including illustrating the importance of the independent clause and providing a transition between two ideas in the same sentence It is recognized that subordinating conjunctions are relatively effectively used by high school students in Vietnam; however, they still make some errors when using subordinating conjunctions in their writing Therefore, in this current study the researcher attempted to explore and evaluate students’ perceptions of functions, importance and use of subordinating conjunctions in writing The researcher employed two research instruments to obtain the research objectives including the five point Likert questionnaire and 134 paragraphs written by 67 students at Thang Long high school The analysis of gathered data produces the following significant findings:  Participants are aware of all subordinating conjunctions categorized as adversative and temporal conjunctions, including Whereas, While, Although, Though, Even though, When, Until, As soon as, Whenever, Every time, Once, Before, and After Other subordinating conjunctions recognized by all of students participating in this current study include such conditional conjunctions as If, Unless, As long as and such causal conjunctions as Because, In order that, So that, and Since There are some subordinating conjunctions are less familiar to 12th graders at Thang Long 53 High School , including On condition Only if, Provided that, So long as, As if, Whether, Supposing, Now that, Seeing that, Lest and Inasmuch because they hardly use them in their writing In terms of students’ perception’ of functions of English subordinating conjunctions, participants understand all the functions of subordinating conjunctions in English Off all functions, 12th graders at Thang Long high school assumed that the most important function of subordinating conjunctions is linking two clauses in a sentence Other functions are also perceived by participants including linking two words together, linking a clause with a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence and starting an independent clause in a sentence Lastly, in terms of students’ perceptions of importance of English subordinating conjunctions, students understand the importance of using subordinating conjunctions in their writing It is perceived by students that English subordinating conjunctions is important tools to promote logical transition between two ideas in the same sentence, sentence cohesiveness, and varied structures in writing English sentences  Students’ use of English subordinating conjunctions: It can be concluded from the results of questionnaire that students usually subordinating conjunctions in their writing Furthermore, there is a tendency that students prefer using familiar subordinating conjunctions rather than new conjunctions The link between the first language (Vietnamese) to the target language (English) is also leveraged by student through word-by-word translation in using subordinating conjunctions in their writing  Use of subordinating conjunctions in writing and error analysis: The analysis of 134 paragraphs written by 67 students who have been currently studying at 12th grade of Thang Long High School reveals that there are 17 popular subordinating conjunctions used by students in their writing which are categorized in all four types of subordinating conjunctions Subordinating conjunctions are used throughout 134 essays in which causal and adversative conjunctions are the most prevalent subordinating conjunctions Other two less popular types of subordinating conjunctions used by 12th graders in this current study are temporal and conditional subordinating conjunctions In more details, “because”, “although”, “if” “So that”, “Since”, and “While” are used with the highest 54 frequencies by 12th graders at Thang Long High School Another finding of this current study is that subordinating conjunctions are used at the beginning of sentence rather than in the middle of sentence  Errors of subordinating conjunctions: It can be concluded that 12th graders at Thang Long High School is relatively competent of using subordinating conjunctions Among five types of errors, the two most common errors concerning the use of subordinating conjunctions are punctuation with comma missing and fragment Other errors made by students in this current study are addition errors, omission errors and mis-ordering errors  There is a significant positive correlation between students’ perception and their use of English subordinating conjunctions in their writings, which means that students will use English subordinating conjunction with a larger number if students are more aware of importance and functions of English subordinating conjunctions 5.3 Pedagogical implications Learner’s errors are seen as an integral part of language learning which is used in teaching grammar, linguistics, and psychology Therefore, it is critical that schools deals with the complexities of second language acquisition for the improvement of teaching methodology, syllabus designs and teaching techniques in English language teaching classroom to enhance students’ foreign language competence Subordinating conjunctions are among the most important and popularly used components in English sentences Therefore, if students want to develop their writing competence, it is important that they understand functions, importance and uses of subordinating conjunctions Due to the significance of subordinating conjunctions to EFL students in their writing, the findings of this current study generate significant pedagogical implications to educational practitioners, English teachers and learners The findings has made great contributions to successive studies in the same interest, which raises awareness among Thang Long high school students in language learning especially those who still confuse when using English subordinating conjunctions in their writing In addition, it is important the teacher should be aware of the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese to draw learners’ attention to inter-language errors, 55 which are considered inevitable by linguists Finally, curriculum and syllabus designers and language policy makers need to be aware of this type of errors so that appropriate adjustments should be made to facilitate teaching and learning For educational practitioners, considering the current educational settings in Vietnam which mainly focus on teaching receptive skills of English such as reading and listening, the gap between the semantic and the grammatical knowledge is understandable Although there has been a growing interest in productive skills since the emergence of the communicative language teaching approach, writing does not still receive enough attention in English classrooms in most Vietnamese high schools As a result, students not receive explicit instruction on how to use different types of English subordinating conjunctions in their writing In fact, reading texts are the main source of their learning the use of subordinating conjunctions This type of reading practice provides the learners with chances to verify their semantic knowledge of English subordinating conjunctions However, this source is not enough for learners’ proper and accurate use of subordinating conjunctions in their writing It is implied that educational practitioners should provide more explicit instruction on the use of English subordinating conjunctions to raise students’ awareness of their grammatical properties More tasks should be included in the texts books to enhance students’ ability to use grammatical components in their writing, particularly English subordinating conjunctions In terms of teachers, they should know the students’ ability in order to know the difficulties that frequently faced by the students, then, the teacher should give more clear explanation on English grammar rules, especially in using English subordinating conjunctions The teacher also should give more exercise to examine the students’ ability Furthermore, teachers should employ different corrective methods to deliver contributive feedbacks to students’ error of use of subordinating conjunctions to improve students’ efficiency in using subordinating conjunctions to develop the logics and cohesiveness in their writing In addition, teachers can use conjunction errors found in learner corpora as a source of their instruction, asking students to find the mistakes and correct them by using appropriate alternatives Whatever form the instruction of the correct use of English subordinating conjunctions takes, it should be noted that the ultimate goal of instruction on the use of English subordinating conjunctions is to help students create a cohesive and coherent writing texts 56 In terms of students, the students should actively investigate and practice more rarely used subordinating conjunctions to enrich their understanding of subordinating conjunctions and diversify their sentence structures Additionally, they should consider feedbacks from their teachers to improve their competence to use subordinating conjunctions in their writing 5.4 Limitations Despite the researcher’s efforts, this current study also has some limitations Firstly, the small sample size (67 12th grade students) limits the generalizations that can be made about high school students’ perception of use of subordinating conjunctions in writing and their common errors with subordinating conjunctions Also, in terms of research instruments, the current study employed only the questionnaire and essays The findings may be more meaningful and valuable to improve students’ understanding and use of subordinating conjunctions if the researcher employed interviews to obtain more in-depth information regarding the use of subordinating conjunctions Lastly, the psychological crowding effects may impact students’ responses to the questionnaire, influencing the study findings 5.5 Recommendations for further studies The use of subordinating conjunctions has attracted the attention of scholars, English teachers and EFL students for years This current study exploring and evaluating high school students’ perceptions of use of subordinating conjunctions and their common errors in their writing has drawn significant findings which can be used as the foundation for further studies The attitudes and perceptions among students found in this study concerning the use of English subordinating conjunctions in their writing shed considerable light on the peculiar situation and the specific needs of learners Therefore, it may be meaningful that further studies can explore how students’ perceptions can affect their use of subordinating conjunctions and other language components in their writing Furthermore, it is suggested that in further studies the researchers can employ interview as a research instrument to validate the research findings Additionally, the research can compare students’ perceptions of use of both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions in the high school context Furthermore, it may be meaningful and valuable if the 57 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New Frontiers in Second Language Learning Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers Tagor P, , Elisa H & Sondang M.,.(2018) The students’ error in using conjunction (because, since, as, in case) in the sentences Canadian Center of Science and Education, 91-100 Wu, H (2019) A corpus-based analysis of TESOL EFL students’ use of logical connectors in spoken English Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 9(6), 625-636 62 APPENDICES QUESTIONNAIRE (English Version) Dear students, My name is Nguyen Thi Hong Thanh I am conducting the research entitled “The Perception and Use of English Subordinating Conjunctions in Writing among Twelfth Graders at Thang Long High School” for my postgraduate study Its objectives are to investigate your perception and your using of subordinating conjunctions in English essay writing I am appreciative of your helping me finish this questionnaire I hereby confirm that all your responses are for study purposes alone and your personal information is kept confidential Please read carefully each question item below before giving your answers SECTION I: BACKGROUND INFORMATION Gender: Male  Female  How long have you been studying English?  5-7 years  7-10 years > 10 years Do you know what a subordinating conjunction is? Yes  No  Have you been taught the use of subordinating conjunctions in writing? Yes  No  SECTION II: PERCEPTIONS AND USE OF ENGLISH SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS Put a tick () next to the following subordinating conjunction(s) that you know the meanings and write their Vietnamese equivalents next to them Types of Types of subordinating Subordinating conjunctions conjunctions Adversative subordinating Subordinating Tick conjunctions Whereas conjunctions Temporal (or When 63 Tick (or contrast) While time) Until Although As soon as Though Whenever Even though Every time Supposing Once So long as Before As long as After On condition Condition that Because Unless So that If Causal (or In order that Provided that reason and Lest Whether result/ (or purpose) not) Inasmuch as As if Seeing that Only if Now that Since 2.Put a tick () in the box whose statement is appropriate (1= Totally Disagree; 2= Disagree; 3= Neutral; 4= Agree; 5= Totally Agree) Statements 2.1 English subordinating conjunctions link two words together 2.2 English subordinating conjunctions link a clause with a noun or a noun phrase 2.3 English subordinating conjunctions link two clauses together 2.4 An English subordinating conjunction begins an independent 64 clause in a sentence 2.5 English subordinating conjunctions can be put at the beginning of a sentence 2.6 English subordinating conjunctions can be put at the end of a sentence 2.7 English subordinating conjunctions can be put in the middle of a sentence Put a tick () in the box whose statement is appropriate (1= Totally Disagree; 2= Disagree; 3= Neutral; 4= Agree; 5= Totally Agree) Statements 3.1 I think subordinating conjunctions are important in writing English sentences 3.2 I think conjunctions using help subordinating illustrate the importance of the independent clause in a sentence 3.3 I think using subordinating conjunctions help provide a logical transition between two ideas in the same sentence 3.4 I think using subordinating conjunctions help a sentence sound smoother 3.5 I think using subordinating conjunctions help vary our sentence structures in writing English sentences 65 3.6 Do you have any other ideas? If yes, please specify here If not, skip this question ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Put a tick () in the box whose statement is appropriate when you use subordinating conjunctions in writing (1= Totally Disagree; 2= Disagree; 3= Neutral; 4= Agree; 5= Totally Agree) Statements 4.1 I especially notice the logical transition between two ideas in the sentence and then decide the suitable subordinating conjunctions 4.2 I study the meaning and examples of every subordinating conjunction and apply them in new writing contexts 4.3 I write the complex sentences with subordinating conjunctions only with my feelings 4.4 I only use familiar subordinating conjunctions 4.5 I translate subordinating word-by-word conjunctions the from Vietnamese into English and then write them 66