Cohesion errors in essays committed by third year english majored students at thu dau mot university

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY HUYNH TAN VIET COHESION ERRORS IN ESSAYS COMMITTED BY THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES MAJOR CODE: 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES BINH DUONG PROVINCE, AUGUST 2023 BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY HUYNH TAN VIET COHESION ERRORS IN ESSAYS COMMITTED BY THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES MAJOR CODE: 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SUPERVISED BY Assoc Prof HO THI KIEU OANH BINH DUONG PROVINCE, AUGUST 2023 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify that the intellectual content of the thesis "Cohesion errors in essays committed by third-year English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University " is my own work, and it does not contain materials written or published by other people or other people's ideas, except for the information from the references This thesis has not been submitted to any other tertiary institution for the award of a degree or diploma Binh Duong Province, 2023 HUYNH TAN VIET i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Ho Thi Kieu Oanh, who gave me insightful comments and devoted her valuable time to reading my thesis with great care Especially, I am wholeheartedly grateful to her for her unchanging sympathy and unceasing encouragement, which she has given me so far I wish to express my sincere and appreciation to the manager of the English Language Program Tran Thanh Du, Ph.D, who has inspired me to conduct this thesis with his warmly encouragement, enthusiastic guidance and interesting lectures My special thanks go to my lecturers at Thu Dau Mot University, who gave me helpful advice Besides, they also accompanied me during my most challenging time Furthermore, I am truly grateful to my colleagues at Nguyen Dinh Chieu High School because they took on much of my work, and I had more time to finish this thesis Finally, I also want to thank my friends who have supported me I am greatly indebted to my extended family, who have always been supportive and sympathizing, so that I could devote all my time to finishing my thesis ii ABSTRACT Writing skills, particularly essay writing skills, are critical for students majoring in English Cohesion and coherence are two extremely important factors in producing a good essay Therefore, mastering linking devices to connect ideas in an essay would assist students in avoiding errors of cohesive devices The researcher of the current study discovers that students struggle with using connected devices in their writing Furthermore, there have not been many studies on cohesive devices As a result, the researcher employs Halliday and Hasan's theory to identify errors in cohesive devices, classify them, and investigate the causes of these errors to make recommendations for learning and teaching essay writing The study's data consists of 60 essays written by the third-year English-majored students (TYEMS) at Thu Dau Mot University (TDMU) in Binh Duong Province The data on cohesion are quoted, described, and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative approach The current researcher attempts to discover and categorize them into two broad categories: cohesive lexical and grammatical errors The current study's findings indicate that TYEMS' cohesive errors at TDMU are primarily caused by the learners' inability to make use of the target language's grammatical and lexical rules, as well as by the learners' negative transference of their mother tongue's rules Based on these findings, this study offers some recommendations to lecturers, curriculum designers, and students at TDMU to reduce cohesive errors during the teaching and learning process iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations Description TDMU Thu Dau Mot University TYEMS Third-year English-majored students Page p CD Cohesive devices N Number of errors F Frequency iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: CTĐT 2022/TT17····························································· page Table 2.1: Halliday and Hasan’s Cohesion Taxonomy (1976)··························· 21 Table 2.2: Halliday and Hasan’s Cohesion Taxonomy (1976)··························· 22 Table 4.1: Students’ thought about the importance of the writing skill at the University···········································································38 Table 4.2: Students’ thought about how hard the writing skill at the University is····39 Table 4.3: Students’ frequency of writing essays at home································ 39 Table 4.4: Students’ thought about how the teacher taught them the essay writing lesson······································································ 40 Table 4.5: Students’ frequency of their writing essays at home·························· 40 Table 4.6: Students’ suggestions to the lecturers and the university to improve their essay writing skill··························································· 40 Table 4.7: Students’ understanding about cohesive devices······························ 41 Table 4.8: Students’ frequency of using cohesive devices in their essays·············· 42 Table 4.9: Students’ types of errors they usually commit in their essays··············· 42 Table 4.10: Students’ types of errors they usually use incorrectly in their essays····· 43 Table 4.11: Students’ comments on the essay writing material·························· 44 Table 4.12: Students’ causes of cohesion errors in their essays·························· 44 Table 4.13: The frequency of grammatical cohesive devices·····························45 Table 4.14: The distribution of grammatical cohesive errors····························· 46 Table 4.15: The distribution of lexical cohesive errors···································· 49 Table 4.16: Interlingual errors of grammatical cohesion·································· 52 Table 4.17: Interlingual errors of lexical cohesion········································· 55 Table 4.18: Intralingual errors·································································58 v LIST OF CHARTS Chart Title Page Chart 4.1 Percentage of the lexical cohesive errors 49 Chart 4.2 Percentage of interlingual errors of grammatical cohesion 52 Chart 4.3 Percentage of intralingual errors 58 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF CHARTS vi TABLE OF CONTENTS vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study 1.1.1 The Importance of Writing Skills 1.1.2 The Importance of Cohesion in Writing 1.2 Statement of the Problem 1.3 Scope of the Study 1.4 Aims and Objectives 1.4.1 Aims 1.4.2 Objectives 1.5 Research Questions 1.6 Significance of the Study 1.6.1 Theoretical Significance 1.6.2 Practical Significance .6 1.7 Organization of the Study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous Related Studies 2.1.1 Studies in Vietnam 2.1.2 International Studies 2.2 Theoretical Background 10 2.2.1 Definitions of Text 10 2.2.2 Definitions of Essay 10 2.2.3 Definitions of Cohesion in Essays 11 2.2.4 Cohesive Devices Used in Essays 14 2.2.5 Definitions of Error and Error Analysis 17 2.2.6 Studies of Error Analysis 19 2.2.7 Classification of Cohesion Errors in English Essays and Causes 20 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 33 3.1 Research Setting .33 3.2 Research Participants and Subjects 33 3.2.1 Research Participants .33 3.2.2 Research Subjects 35 3.3 Research Design .35 3.4 Data Collection Procedure 36 3.5 Data Analysis Procedure 37 vii 3.6 Reliability and Validity 37 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 38 4.1 Findings from the Questionnaire Analysis 38 4.1.1 Students’ Attitude Towards the Importance of the Writing Skill at the University 38 4.1.2 Students’ Thought on Teachers’ Teaching of Writing Essays and Students’ Frequency of Their Writing Essays at Home 40 4.1.3 Findings Related to Students’ Understanding of Cohesive Devices and their Cohesive Errors 41 4.1.4 Students’ Comments on Essay Writing Materials 43 4.1.5 Causes for Cohesive Errors 44 4.2 Results from Essay Analysis 45 4.2.1 The Use of Cohesive Devices 45 4.2.2 Grammatical Cohesive Errors 46 4.2.3 Lexical Cohesive Errors 49 4.2.4 Sources of Errors 51 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 65 5.1 Conclusion 65 5.2 Implications 67 5.2.1 For Teachers 67 5.2.2 For Students 69 5.2.3 For Curriculum .70 5.2.4 For Textbooks 70 5.3 Limitations of the Study and Recommendations for Further Research 70 REFERENCES 72 APPENDIX A 78 APPENDIX B 80 APPENDIX C 82 viii ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………….……………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………….……………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………….…… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… Họ tên sinh viên:……………………………….Mssv:…………………………… GIÁM ĐỐC CHƯƠNG TRÌNH GIẢNG VIÊN PHỤ TRÁCH HỌC PHẦN 81 APPENDIX C Table 4.16 (in detail): Interlingual errors of grammatical cohesion L1 lexical interference Confusion Category Subcategory of sense errors Reference Exophoric Reference Reference Personal Reference Demonstrati ve Reference Comparative Reference Nominal Substitution Substituti- Verbal on Substitution Clausal Substitution Nominal Ellipsis Ellipsis Verbal Ellipsis Clausal Ellipsis error relation No of Endophoric Collocational % No of errors % L1 syntactic interference No of errors % L1 discourse interference No of errors % 2 1 2 1 0 1 1 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 2 1 0 2 0 5 0 0 82 Additive Conjunction Adversative Conjunct- Conjunction ion Causal Conjunction Temporal Conjunction Total 12 0 13 10 12 13 1 14 10 84 41 69 34 43 21 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95