A study on common error for writing skill of first year english major students at hung yen university of technology and education

Trang 1 --- ĐỖ THỊ MINH THÚY A STUDY ON COMMON ERROR FOR WRITING SKILL OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC LỖI THƯỜN

HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACUTLY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ĐỖ THỊ MINH THÚY A STUDY ON COMMON ERROR FOR WRITING SKILL OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP TRONG KỸ NĂNG VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGHÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Major: English language Code: Hung Yen - 6/2021 -i HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACUTLY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ĐỖ THỊ MINH THÚY A STUDY ON COMMON ERROR FOR WRITING SKILL OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP TRONG KỸ NĂNG VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGHÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Major: English language Code: Supervisor: Phạm Ngọc Sơn Hung Yen - 6/2021 -ii DECLARATION I certify my authorship of the study report entitled “A study on common error for writing skill of first year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education'' This graduation paper is the result of my research and the substance of this graduation paper has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution and that if this declaration is found to be false, disciplinary measures and penalties can be taken and imposed following university policies and rules Signature Do Thi Minh Thuy -iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received much necessary assistance, precious ideas, and timely encouragement from my lecturers, family, and friends This paper could not have been completed without the help, encouragement, and support from several people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Mr Pham Ngoc Son, the English lecturers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, who has always been willing to give me valuable advice and suggestions so that I can complete successfully this study I also would like to take this opportunity to show my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, who have handed me basic knowledge to complete this study Besides, I am so thankful to students of K18 at the Faculty of Foreign Languages for their wholeheart participation in the study I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books, magazines, and the other materials listed in the reference part for their ideas that have been reflected and developed in the study I am equally indebted to my classmates for their suggestions and encouragement in the process of my study Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for their encouragement and support which played an important role in my graduation paper -iv ABSTRACT The study deals with the title "the common mistakes in writing English of first-year major students at Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education" Then, the paper investigates the causes of these mistakes Therefore, the study suggests some techniques to overcome these mistakes In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the study presents the key theories related to writing English The author carried out survey questionnaires among 50 first-year major students and lecturers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY to get their opinions Data were gathered by questionnaires while observation during the writing process was used to confirm students’ answers The results of such research showed that the data analysis, as well as the interpretation of the results obtained from the questionnaires, is also given To deal with these issues and the desire of improving the present situation, the author gives some common error and recommended solutions to improve students' ability in writing English at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education -v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER TRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 The aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 The subjects of the study 1.5 The scope of the study 1.6 The method of the study 1.7 Design of the study CHAPTER 2: LITTERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical background of writing skills 2.1.1 Writing definitions 2.1.2 Importance of writing 2.2 Theoretical background of writing error 2.2.1 Definitions of error 2.2.2 Writing error definitions 2.2.3 Classification in writing error 2.2.3.1 Grammatical error 2.2.3.2 Phrase structure rules : 2.2.3.3 Spelling : 2.2.3.4 Run-on sentences 2.3 Overview of paragraph 2.3.1 Paragraph definitions 2.3.2 Type of paragraph 10 2.3.3 Student’s difficulty in learning writing skill 11 2.4 Recommended solution to improve writing skills 12 -vi 2.5 Summary 13 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 14 3.1 Overview of the situation in the current situation of teaching and learning writing skill at UTEHY 14 3.2 The research methodology: 14 3.3 Data collection: 15 3.3.1 Data collection from students: 15 3.3.2 Data collection from lecturers 15 3.4 Data analysis and discussion: 15 3.5 Findings for the study: 26 3.6Suggestions to handle these errors for writing skill of the first year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY 27 3.6.1 Understanding a topic-based writing 27 3.6.2 Focus on ideas 28 3.6.3 Join a Workshop or take a Night class 28 3.6.4 Dissect Writing that students admire 28 3.7 Summary: 29 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 29 4.1 Summary of the study: 30 4.2 Limitation of the study: 31 4.3 Suggestion for further study : 31 REFERRENCES 32 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LECTURERS V -vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages -viii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Chart 3.1: Students’ overview of writing English 15 Chart 3.2: Lecturers’ overview of writing English 16 Chart 3.3: Students’ opinion about importance of writing skill 16 Chart 3.4: Lecturers’ opinion about importance of writing skill 17 Chart 3.5: Frequency of error made by first-years students 18 Chart 3.6: Students’ opinion of frequencies of error 19 Table :The cause of common error in writing of the first-year English major students at UTEHY 20 Chart 3.7: Spelling error of the first-year major students in writing English 21 Chart 3.8: Recommended solution help students improve error of students 22 Chart 3.9: Recommended solution help students improve error of lecturers 23 Table : Students’ opinion on giving solution to improve your students learning writing skills 24 Table : Students’ opinion on giving solution to improve your students learning writing skills 25 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study For many years, English has been considered to be one of the key factors that help our country make faster progress on the way of industrialization and modernization Therefore, the demand to use English fluently as well as to master the four basic skills is becoming essential for all students in general and students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in particular Of the four skills, writing seems to be the most difficult but really important because it is especially necessary for them to acquire IELTS lessons in their last term Recently, every school and university in Vietnam has tried to apply the latest method in teaching writing skills to make language teaching and learning as effective as possible Hung Yen University of Technology and Education is certainly not an exception Faculty of Foreign Languages has offered different curriculum since its establishment in 2006 the Faculty has paid great attention to English as the main subject so that students after graduating should be able to use English confidently in their jobs and read documents written in English in their majors Due to the importance of productive skills, the course for the students at UTEHY pays much attention to writing At UTEHY, paragraph writing is conducted for the first year language students because it is one of the fundamental and basic writing skills Therefore, it is natural that learners make mistakes and errors when writing in English How to cope with and when to give feedback to these errors are vital in teaching language as it may either result in motivation or discouragement in language learning As a result, in order to find out the common error in the English writing process, the author has conducted a study entitled: “A study on common error for writing skill of first-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” Aims of the study The purpose of the study is to survey common error, the causes of these error, then recommend some suggestion to overcome these errors in writing English of first-year major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education Eventually, writing skills is improved for the first- year major students The three principle purposes covering the study are summarized as follows: students should learn from it to make it become their advantages Another recommendation is practicing writing in English daily and writing diary to create a new habit Writing daily in English will soon become natural and something students look forward to They will not see a significant improvement if they are not dedicated to becoming a better writer in English In the writing, students should use self-correction regularly to discover the problems make their own corrections and return their work to the lecturers This gives students the opportunity to reflect on their error and make improvements to their writing It also shows lecturers that students are able to and what still remains common error Lecturers have to check the corrections, and give students feedback on anything that is still wrong or students are been unable to improve Equally important, lecturers' feedback is very necessary for all students in writing Once students have corrected as much as they can, then lecturers concentrate on the remaining problems Rather than just correction, students need to understand why they have some kind of explanation of the particular language point and perhaps one or two examples to show them how to the language should work Feedback can take the form of written notes made error and how to put in right In addition, advices from lecturers are very useful to motivate students' effort in learning Also, lecturers should play an active role as a facilitator to encourage students, and to sustain a longterm learning ability for the subject A constructive criticism will help students recognize their weaknesses in the writing Moreover, most of students need a place to find books or materials, so the author hopes that our school will invest many modern facilities to serve for all students 3.5 Findings for the study: After analyzing all the data, this chapter sought to answer three research questions proposed in the introduction Overall, it is very clear from above the data analysis that both lecturers and students agree that writing skills is importance and have many difficult in the learning process Firstly, it can be mentioned as students discovered many unfamiliar words in writing because they lack vocabulary and grammar Therefore, Instructors and students suggest improving students' vocabulary by reading as much as possible and expanding new words in different areas Secondly, students admitted to having difficulties with learners in many parts They feel difficult in grammar and structures, run-on sentence, and spelling Thus, most lecturers and students strongly agree that students should brush up your grammar, check your spelling before and after writing and read as much as you can In addition, when write, students should write an outline before practice Moreover, when writing a paragraph, the writer needs to learn how to organize a paragraph so that the ideas in each sentence and paragraph are linked together Sometimes, they think that lack of logical thinking and poor ideas To solve these problems, students should try to get someone to read what you’ve written and read as much as you can Lastly, the difficulty of writing skills come from inside learners Vocabulary and grammar are still the main causes of students' errors when learning writing skills Lecturers and students strongly agree that they should enrich their vocabulary and write daily On the other hands, Students needs write diary daily to create good habits In conclusion, after finding out the causes of common errors affecting students and proposing solutions to improve their writing skills, it is very clear that both lecturers and students have plenty of difficulty in teaching and learning by different cause To solve those difficulty, research gave effective solutions for each factor through a chart and a table of surveys base on the option of lecturers and students The author hopes the study can contribute bring effective ideas to them 3.6 Suggestions to handle these errors for writing skill of the first year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY 3.6.1 Understanding topic-based writing To start practicing Writing skills, the first thing students have to is find themselves a topic to write about (also known as a Topic) and choose a writing style that suits that topic Students can find English Writing practice topics everywhere, from a menu to a wedding invitation, a newspaper to a description of a real estate apartment Note: for similar themes, they will share the same features, layout, level of formality and words and vice versa Obviously, writing a product complaint letter is very different from writing a creative poem Today, formal writing is often used in academia and business However, students will have to learn how to use words and conventions to fit each specific context 3.6.2 Focus on ideas Once students have listed the ideas on paper, take a few minutes to think about which ideas are the most important or closely related to the topic on which students are about to put students’ pen down to writing Even if it's a good idea, you can put it as the focus of the article When you write English essays, this is quite an important step and is considered a "mindmap" In English classes, students often encourage their students to write all ideas on the board and can be accompanied by illustrations that help stimulate students to have more ideas When presenting ideas, don't worry too much about grammar or spelling mistakes Students should also prepare yourself a dictionary or any technology that can help students solve vocabulary that you not know Don't let anything stop your idea 3.6.3 Join a workshop or Take a night class Most people balk at the idea of standing in front of a room full of strangers and baring their soul to the world, but joining a writing workshop can be immensely beneficial – and a lot of fun (if students manage to find a good one) These days, content marketing meet-ups and professional development groups are becoming wildly popular Join one of the many content marketing groups on LinkedIn to meet like-minded writers, or search for writing workshops near you on sites like Meetup Pick a topic, write something, listen to the feedback of the group, and then revise it Rinse, repeat 3.6.4 Dissect Writing That You Admire Most people read the same blogs or sites on a regular basis because the material appeals to them – but fewer people understand why their favorite blogs are so appealing Find a handful of recent blog posts you really like, then print them out Next, just like their English lecturers did, take a red pen and highlight things you liked: certain sentences, turns of phrase, even entire paragraphs Examine why students like these elements, and see if there are any common threads in their favored reading material See how writers take one subject and transition into another Apply these techniques to their own work Let’s take a look at a particularly powerful (and memorable piece) from Copy blogger that serves as a great example of this 3.7 Summary: In this chapter, research shows the common error in writing English who are the first-year English majors Besides, the study also commended some solutions to improve their writing skill To sum up the main contents analyzed above, the research introduces the last part as the conclusion of the study CHAPTER 4: CONCLUTION 4.1 Summary of the study: With the hope of finding out the common error in writing skills and recommend solutions for the first-year English major students at UTEHY The research used qualitative and quantitative methods through questionnaires spend on first-years English major students and lecturers of FFL Based on the survey findings, the author finds out some techniques suggested enhancing the first-year students at FFL, UTEHY in writing English including improving grammar and sentence structures These mentioned techniques have also been presented with the hope to give some contributions to improve the current in writing English at FFL, UTEHY The following are some suggestions to students and lecturers of writing in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education First of all, enhancing vocabulary is an important step to write English well If students want to improve their vocabulary more quickly, they have to make at least a small commitment and decide to learn one new word every day or two Students should make vocabulary practical by learning the words that can express what is the most important which related to their business, hobby or career They start learning where they are if they come across an interesting word that they not understand, they should take time to look it up in a dictionary Secondly, improving grammar is an essential part of writing, as it helps students to convey the message or idea they are trying to get across Students should write good, clear, and interesting sentences and paragraphs to ensure that their writing well and flowing Besides, equally important, lecturers' feedback is very necessary for all students in writing Once students have corrected as much as they can, then lecturers concentrate on the remaining problems Rather than just correction, students need to understand why they have made error and how to put them in right At this stage, students need feedback from lecturers - some kind of explanation of the particular language point and perhaps one or two examples to show them how the language should work Feedback can take the form of written notes at the end of the students' work In addition, advice from lecturers is very useful to motivate students' effort from learning Lecturers should play an active role as a facilitator to encourage students to sustain long-term in learning this subject Constructive criticism will help students recognize their weaknesses in the writing process Moreover, most students need a place to find books or materials, so the author hopes that our school will build a library and invest in many modern facilities to serve all students at UTEHY 4.2 Limitation of the study: In the process of concluding the study, although the research has made a great effort, the mistake and shortcomings are inevitable First of all, because of limited time and the period time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the questionnaires were just done with 50 students, lecturers This also affects the validity and reliability of the study Secondly, due to the limitation of the scope of the study and the sampling population, the author only focuses on first-year English major students which account for a small number of students at FFL, UTEHY So, the result of the study cannot be generalized Although the mentioned limitation, the author hopes that this research will contribute to a better situation of teaching and learning writing skills at FFL, UTEHY 4.3 Suggestions for further study: This study only performs with a small scope, so the next research can expand the subject of students and lecturers who take part in the survey and interviews It also focuses on the common error and recommend solutions to improve students’ learning writing skills Therefore, further studies can concentrate on other common error and solutions for reading, writing, and speaking skills However, this study has been able to contribute to our knowledge in general and solutions to learn the writing skills in particular in ways that will benefit both students and lecturers as well However, due to the limitation of time and experience, shortcomings are unavoidable All comments are greatly appreciated REFERENCES [1] Alice, O & H Ann Writing Academic English Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1996 [2] Brown, H Douglas (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching 3rd [3] Canale, M (1983) From Communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy In Richards and Schmidt (eds.): Language and Communication London: Longman pp.2-27 [4] Coder, S (1967) The significance of learners’ error International Review of applied Linguistics [5] Choon, (1993), Error analysis and correction of written work in the classroom, Retrieved from March 15th 2013 [6] Feist, B Applied Communication skills: Writing Paragraphs Cambridge Adult Education, 1996 [7] Gudschinsky, S (1999) A Manual of Literacy for Preliterate Peoples Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: Summer Institute of Linguistics [8] Karen K Lunsford, (1972), Grammar errors in writing [9] Khoii R (2011), A Solution to the Dilemma of writing in a Foreign Language: Adaptive Mentorship, Retrieved March 15th 2013 [10] Lil Brannon and C H Knoblauch, (1982), http://leafstitchword.files.wordpress.com /…/brannon-and-knoblauch [11] Lunsford Andrea A and Karen J Lunsford Mistakes are a Fact of Life: A National Comparative Study CCC 59(2008) 781-806 [12] Longman Active Study Dictionary of English (Paperback, 1983), United Kingdom: Longman EducationThe Limited [13] Penny, Ur (1996) A Course in Language Teaching, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, p 161 [14] Raymond Murphy, English Grammar in Use [15] Taylor, (1984) Accounting and Business Research, pp.4 [16] White (1981, p.1), The Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen APPENDICES APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This questionnaire is conducted in order to find the common error in the writing of first-year English major students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education It is designed for my research on: "A study on common error for writing skill of first-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education" All of your information will be only be used for the study purpose, and all your personal information, as well as your answers, will be kept confidential and not be used for other purposes Thank you for all your time and effort you completing this questionnaire! Please tick(ⱱ) for each response that you choose I Personal information (Thông tin cá nhân) Your gender: 󠆯 Male 󠆯 Female How long have you been learning English? …………………… (Bạn học Tiếng Anh rồi?) II Common error in writing English In your opinion, writing skill is…………… 󠆯 Very difficult 󠆯 Difficult 󠆯 Normal 󠆯 Easy 󠆯 Very easy What you think about the importance of writing? 󠆯 Very important 󠆯 Important 󠆯 Quite important 󠆯 Not important How often you make error in writing? 󠆯 Very often 󠆯 Often 󠆯 Sometimes 󠆯 Rarely 󠆯 Never How often you make the following error during writing English sentences? Error (lỗi) Always Usually Sometimes (luôn (thường (thỉnh luôn) xuyên) thoảng) Never Rarely (không (hiếm khi) bao giờ) Grammar and structure Run-on sentences Spelling Lack of vocabulary Lack of logicl thinking What are your common error in writing English paragraph? (You can choose more than one opinion) 󠆯 Lack of topic sentence 󠆯 Lack of supporting sentences 󠆯Lack of concluding sentence III 󠆯 Spelling 󠆯 Illogical ideas organization 󠆯Run-on sentence The cause of common error in writing English What are the causes of your common error in writing English? (You can choose more than one opinion) 󠆯 Poor ideas 󠆯 Limited vocabulary 󠆯 Limited grammar 󠆯 Limited structure 󠆯 Lack of knowledge How often you write English sentences? 󠆯 Everyday 󠆯 Every week 󠆯 Twice a week 󠆯 Rarely How often you write English paragraphs? 󠆯 Everyday 󠆯 Every week 󠆯 Twice a week 󠆯 Rarely IV Recommended solutions to improve writing English 1.What you often while writing English? (Please write the tick (√) in the blanks) Recommended Very effective solution Keep an effective Ineffective English dictionary Brush up your grammar Check your spelling before and after writing Learn how to organize a paragraph Write an outline Try to get someone to read what you’ve written Read as much as you can Others: In your opinion, what should we to improve English writing? 󠆯 Writing everyday 󠆯 Writing diary Very ineffective 󠆯 Learning English structures 󠆯 Learning English grammar 󠆯 Enriching vocabulary 󠆯 Other: …… Thank you for your kind cooperation! APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONS FOR LECTURERS This questionnaire is conducted in order to find the common mistakes in the writing of first-year English major students at Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education It is designed for the study on: "A study on common error for writing skill of first-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education" Thank you for all the time and effort you completing this questionnaire All of your information will be only be used for the study purpose, and your information will not be revealed in any discussion of the data Thank you for your cooperation! Please tick (ⱱ) or fill words in the blanks to answer the following questions Thank you very much for your cooperation! I The General information Your gender: 󠆯 Male 󠆯 Female How long have you been teaching English at Faculty of Foreign Languages UTEHY? ………………………………………… II Your attitude toward English error in writing What you think of English writing for your first-year major students? 󠆯 Very difficult 󠆯 Error 󠆯 Normal 󠆯 Easy 󠆯 Very easy What you think about the importance of writing? 󠆯 Very important 󠆯 Importance 󠆯 Quite important 󠆯 Not important How often your student make the following error in writing lessons? Always (luôn luôn) Error (lỗi) Usually (thường xuyên) Sometimes (thỉnh thoảng) Rarely (hiếm khi) Never (không bao giờ) Grammar and structure Run-on sentences Spelling Lack of vocabulary Lack of logical thinking What are your first-year major student’s common error in writing English paragraph? 󠆯 Lack of topic sentence 󠆯 Lack of supporting sentences 󠆯 Lack of concluding sentence III 󠆯 Illogical ideas organization 󠆯 Spelling 󠆯 Run-on sentence The cause of common error in writing English? What are the causes of your student’s common error in writing English? (You can choose more than one opinion) 󠆯 Poor ideas 󠆯 Limited grammar 󠆯 Limited vocabulary 󠆯 Limited structure 󠆯 Lack of knowlege How often you assign English exercise for student? 󠆯 Everyday 󠆯 Every week 󠆯 Twice a week IV Recommended solutions to improve writing English What you often while writing English? (Please write the tick (√) in the blanks) 󠆯 Rarely 󠆯 Never Recommended solution Very effective effective Ineffective Keep an English dictionary Brush up your grammar Check your spelling before and after writing Learn how to organize a paragraph Write an outline Try to get someone to read what you’ve written Read as much as you can Others: In your opinion, what should your students to write English better? (You can choose more than one opinion) 󠆯 Writing everyday 󠆯 Writing diary 󠆯 Learning English structures Very ineffective 󠆯 Learning English grammar 󠆯 Enriching vocabulary 󠆯 Other: ……