Trang 1 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON COMMON ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRIT
HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON COMMON ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING OF THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC LỖI NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH PHỔ BIẾN TRONG KHI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI KHOA KINH TẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: Truong Thi Huong Student: Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung Student number: 11317085 Hung Yen – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON COMMON ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING OF THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC LỖI NGỮ PHÁP TIẾNG ANH PHỔ BIẾN TRONG KHI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI KHOA KINH TẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Student: Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung Student number: 11317085 Supervisor: Truong Thi Huong (ký tên) Hung Yen – 2021 i DECLARATION I certify that the study entitled “A study on common English grammatical errors in writing of the second-year students of the Department of Economics at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” is the result of my own research and has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions Hung Yen, Jun 2021 Signature Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am deeply indebted to a number of people for helping me to write this graduation paper First and foremost, my deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor – Ms Truong Thi Huong, who supported and encouraged me generously throughout this study Without her excellent academic guidance and support, my thesis would not have been completed well My sincere thanks are also sent to some teachers and students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY for their assistance with statistical issues and for their assistance in editing work Finally, I need to thank my gratitude to all writers of books, magazines and different materials recorded in the reference part for their thoughts that have been reflected to build up my graduation paper iii ABSTRACT This study was conducted to find out common English grammatical errors in writing skills, especially writing paragraphs of the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY The data was gathered by survey questionnaires for 80 secondyear students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY Campus Research results show that the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY Campus often encounter various English grammatical errors It additionally found some main causes of these errors In order to overcome these errors, some suggested solutions from my research with the desire to improve their writing skills would be given iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education v TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION iv TABLE OF CONTENT v LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 Structure of the study CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of writing 2.1.1 Definition of writing 2.1.2 The importance of writing 2.2 Overview of paragraphs 2.2.1 Definitions of paragraphs 2.2.2 Structure of a paragraph 2.3 Overview of English grammatical 2.3.1 Definition of English grammar in paragraphs 2.3.2 Roles of English grammar in writing paragraphs 2.4 Error in English writing 2.4.1 Definition of errors vi 2.4.2 Errors versus mistakes 2.5 Sources of errors 2.5.1 Mother tongue interference 2.5.2 Ignorance of rule restriction 10 2.5.3 Incomplete application of rules 10 2.5.4 False concepts hypothesized 10 2.5.5 Carelessness 11 2.6 Types of English grammar errors in writing paragraphs 11 2.6.1 Passive voice 12 2.6.2 Verb tense and form 12 2.6.3 Subject-Verb agreement 13 2.6.4 Word order 13 2.6.5 Prepositions 14 2.6.6 Articles 14 2.6.7 Plurality 14 2.6.8 Pronouns 15 2.7 Summary 15 CHAPTER III: THE STUDY 16 3.1 Methodology 16 3.2 Subjects of the study 16 3.3 Survey questionnaires 16 3.3.1 Reasons for using questionnaire 16 3.3.2 Description of survey questionnaires 17 3.4 Interview 17 3.4.1 Reasons for using interview 17 3.4.2 Description of interview 17 vii 3.4.3 Data gathering instruments 17 3.5 Data analysis 18 3.5.1 The survey questionnaire 18 3.5.2 The interview 28 3.6 Findings 29 3.7 Recommendations 31 3.7.1 Suggestions for students 31 3.7.2 Suggestions for teachers 31 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 32 4.1 The summary of the study 32 4.2 Limitations 32 4.3 Suggestion for further studies 32 viii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: Level of interest in English writing paragraphs 18 Chart 2: Students’ opinions about English writing paragraphs 19 Chart 3: The role of English writing paragraphs 19 Chart 4: The importance of English grammar in writing paragraphs 20 Chart 5: Number of students who pay attention to English grammar 21 Chart 6: Students’ common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs 21 Chart 7: Main causes of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs 22 Chart 8: Attitude of the teacher about English writing paragraphs 24 Chart 9: The role of English writing paragraphs 24 Chart 10: The importance of English grammar in writing paragraphs 25 Chart 11: Some ways students use in writing paragraphs 25 Chart 12: Number of students who pay attention to English grammar 26 Chart 13: Common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs of students 26 Chart 14: Main causes of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs of students given by teachers 27 Table 1: Some ways students use in writing paragraphs 20 Table 2: Some solutions for reducing English grammar errors when writing paragraphs 23 Table 3: Some solutions for reducing English grammar errors when writing paragraphs 28 28 Some solutions Percent Students should invest more time in writing practice 100% Students should reinforce vocabulary, structure and grammar 66.7% Students should expand their own social knowledge 0% Teachers should promote students' self-correcting abilities Students should 66.7% self-check their papers in pairs, according to teachers 33.3% Teachers should regularly correct and correct errors for students 0% Organize seminars and seminars on writing paragraphs 33.3% Table 3: Some solutions for reducing English grammar errors when writing paragraphs As per table 3, 100 % of teacher agree that students should devote more time to writing practice Students should practice their vocabulary, structure, and grammar, and teachers should encourage their students' self-correcting abilities, which account for a relatively high rate of failure (66.7%) Only a few people believe that students should selfcheck their papers in groups of two, organize seminars and seminars on writing paragraphs (33.3%) No one thinks that students should expand their own social knowledge and teachers should regularly correct and correct errors for students 3.5.2 The interview Three open-ended questions comprise the student interview questions The author can learn about second-year students' perspectives on difficulties and suggest some solutions for improving English grammatical errors in paragraph writing by asking these 29 questions I interviewed second-year Economics students at UTEHY Campus and gathered a lot of useful information Question 1: How often you practice English writing paragraphs in class? Most of the students confirmed that they did not frequently practice English writing paragraphs in class They just practiced when their teachers asked them to Question 2: Do you think that English grammar in writing paragraphs is important? According to the responses of five students, they all believe that English grammar is important when writing paragraphs Because that is the foundation for a good paragraph, as well as proper structure and grammar Question 3: In your opinion, are the most common English grammatical errors in paragraph writing? According to the responses of five students, when writing paragraphs, the students discovered that they made a lot of English grammar errors The four most common errors encountered by them were verb tense and form, word order, plurality, and subject-verb agreement Question 4: In your opinion, what are the main causes of English grammatical errors in paragraph writing? In this answers, they also mentioned some of the main causes of the four specific errors they mentioned in their answers above Three of the five students polled stated that the main reason was a lack of time to practice writing paragraphs as well as a limited vocabulary and grammatical structure The other two students blamed it on their poor writing abilities and lack of social knowledge Question 5: As for you, what solutions should be done to improve students' ability to write paragraphs? In response to this question, the majority of students stated that they would spend more time practicing every day, they would like to enrich their vocabulary and English structure to become better at writing paragraphs 3.6 Findings This chapter discusses the study's findings in order to answer the three research questions raised in the introduction 30 Question 1: What are the common English grammatical errors committed by the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY in writing paragraphs? In the first research question, survey responses revealed that both teachers and students reported that students frequently make English grammatical errors when writing paragraphs Specifically, there are five common errors, including verb tense and form, word order, prepositions, subject verb-agreement and plurality The majority of errors are related to verb tense and form, with pronouns being the least common The number of errors which they commit in these types of grammar suggests that the students need to more work on those crucial grammatical concepts Question 2: What are the main causes of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs? According to the surveys, the researcher solved the research problem in the second research question mentioned in the first part after conducting an analysis of the major causes of students' grammatical errors mentioned above There are five common causes of written errors: insufficient writing practice, a lack of vocabulary and structure, carelessness, a lack of writing skills, and ambiguous grammar The main reason is a lack of writing experience The influence of their mother tongue is thought to have the least influence on students making errors when writing paragraphs Question 3: What are solutions to improve English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs? After discovering the causes of common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs, students can find solutions to their errors The researchers used data analysis to devise several solutions to the problem of making errors Some solutions are widely accepted by both lecturers and students, with a high rate of agreement that students should devote more time to writing practice Following that, students should review vocabulary, structure, and grammar Furthermore, teachers must correct and correct students' errors on a regular basis In summary, the researcher identified common English grammatical errors made by second-year students in the Department of Economics at UTEHY when writing paragraphs after collecting data Furthermore, the researchers discovered the primary causes of those 31 errors There is a foundation for developing some solutions to improve and limit English grammar errors in writing based on this 3.7 Recommendations According to the theoretical background presented in the literature review and main findings, the researchers would like to propose some recommendations which hope to benefit teachers as well as other possible researchers 3.7.1 Suggestions for students Basing on the result of study, it is an undeniable fact that second-year students in the Department of Economics at UTEHY are also weak in grammar, they often face a lot of problems in writing as well as in learning grammar rules In order to achieve effectiveness in teaching and learning writing, the following points should be paid attention to: First, every student must be made aware of the significance of writing paragraphs as well as grammar in writing when learning English Therefore, it is essential for students to be taught basic grammar carefully before practicing writing Second, after analyzing students' study questionnaires, the researchers discovered that a lack of writing skills is the primary cause of students' errors So, it is very necessary to help students know how to set up an outline, writing topic sentences, conclusion sentences, mastering how to write sentences and paragraphs This can help them avoid language inference and reduce these kinds of errors Thirdly, students’ writing error corrections must be carried out frequently In English writing, the flexible and effective use of various correction techniques such as peer-correction and teacher-correction should be practiced An undeniable fact is that peercorrection would encourage students to think critically and be aware of the errors they should avoid In addition, it would create a cooperative environment in classrooms Peer correction can be in the form of pair work, group work or whole class correction 3.7.2 Suggestions for teachers When correcting students' errors, teachers should avoid being overly corrective They can apply the following ways to deal with errors Firstly, it is pointless to try to mark all the errors Teachers should decide in advance what kinds of errors they will deal with Secondly, it is important for teachers to analyze errors carefully and to provide explanations in detail as well as corrections Finally, teachers should bear in mind that certain errors require different techniques to correct 32 In brief, the author hoped that the results of this thesis could provide some help not only for students in learning writing skills but also for teachers in teaching writing skills CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION This chapter will deal with a summary of the major findings, limitations of the study, and some suggestions for further studies 4.1 The summary of the study The aim of the study is to investigate the common grammatical errors made by the second-year students of the Department of Economics at UTEHY The study satisfied two research questions mentioned in the first part First, an examination of study questionnaires for both students and lecturers, as well as student interviews, revealed the most common grammatical errors made by students Among eight types of errors, including passive voice, verb tense and form, subject-verb agreement, word order, prepositions, articles, plurality and pronouns, the researchers found that the greatest numbers of errors belonged to four groups, namely, verb tenses and forms, word order, prepositions, and passive voice Second, the main causes of these errors are a lack of vocabulary and structure, carelessness, the influence of the mother tongue, and a lack of writing practice Among them, due to low vocabulary and structure and the interference of native language are the prevailing causes In conclusion, it is impossible for learners to make any mistakes in the process of learning a second language In fact, investigating the errors learners frequently make is essential for teachers and learners in teaching and learning a new language 4.2 Limitations It is important to note that this study has some limitations First and foremost, the study's population is quite small Second, the research period is relatively short, and the writer's knowledge is limited, making it difficult to draw a convincing conclusion Finally, the methods provided are monotonous More solutions should be presented in the thesis to assist students in writing paragraphs 4.3 Suggestion for further studies As a result of the research findings and the study's limitations, several issues warrant further investigation Firstly, a similar study should be conducted with a larger number of participants or over a longer period of time to ensure the reliability of the results Secondly, more research into using visual aids in teachers' error correction to 33 improve student error making Finally, it is hoped that the findings of this study will be used to evaluate their effectiveness Overall, despite the study's limitations, the researcher completed the work under the supervision of the supervisor and through self-effort Any comments or criticism will be greatly appreciated in order to improve future research 34 REFERENCES Abeywickrama, R (2010) An Analysis of Errors in English Writing of SinhalaSpeaking Undergraduates Abaramuwa University Journal, (1), 97- 114 Abushihab, I (2014) An analysis of grammatical errors in writing made by Turkish learners of English as a foreign language International Journal of Linguistics, 6(4), 213-223 Alexander, L G (1998) Longman English grammar practice: For intermediate student New York: Longman Azar, B S., & Hagen, S A (2006) Basic English grammar New York: Pearson Longman Azar, B S., & Hagen, S A (2009) Understanding and using English grammar New York: Pearson Longman Brown, H D (2007) Principles of language learning and teaching New York: Pearson Education, Inc Brown, H D (2003) Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices New York: Longman Byrne, D (1988) Teaching writing skill Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers Longman: London Candling, R.B (2001) Vocabulary and Language Teaching New York: Longman Inc 10 Chomsky, N (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax Cambridge: MIT Press 11 Corder, S (1967) The significance of learners’ errors International Review of Applied Linguistics, pp 161-70 12 Corder, S (1974) Error Analysis - The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics Oxford: OUP 13 Corder, S (1979) Error Analysis and Interlanguage Oxford: OUP 14 Cunning, W (1987) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents 15 Crystal, D (1990) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of English Language NY: Cambridge University Pres 16 Darus, S (2009) Error Analysis of Written English Essays of Secondary Students in Malaysia: A Case Study European of Social Science, (3) 35 17 Dulay, B (1974) Natural Sequences in Child Second Language Acquisition Language Learning, 24 (1): 37-53 18 Dulay, H C ET al (1982) Language Two Oxford: OUP Eastwood, J (2002) Oxford guide to English grammar New York: Oxford University 19 Ferris, D R (2001) Treatment of Error in Second Language Student Writing Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press 20 Flower, W S (1984) Progressive Writing Skills Nelson 21 Heydari, P (2012) Error Analysis: Sources of L2 Learners’ Errors Theory and Practice in Language Studies, (8), 1583-1589 22 Hourani, T M (2008) An analysis of the common grammatical errors in the English writing made by 3rd secondary male students in the eastern coast of the UAE (Doctoral dissertation) British University Dubai 23 Hsu, C H (2013) Revisiting causes of grammatical errors for esl teachers Educational Research, 4(6), 513-516 24 Hubbard, P ET al (1993) A Training Course for TEFL Oxford: OUP 25 James, C (1998) Errors in Language Learning and Use Addison Wesley Longman Limited 26 James, C (2001) Errors in Language Learning and Use England: Longman 27 Khansir, A A (2012) Error Analysis and Second Language Acquisition Theory and Practice in Language Studies, (5), 1027-1032 28 Klassen, J (1991) “Using Student Errors for Teaching” FORUM, Vol XXIX No.1, Jan 29 Richards, J C (1970) A non-contrastive approach to error analysis London: Longman 30 Richard, J C ed (1989) Error Analysis - Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition London: Longman 31 Sercombe, P G (2000) Strategizing Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century Proceedings of the International Conference on Teaching and Learning Faculty of Education: University Kebangsaan Malayisa, Bangi 32 Stobbe, G (2008) Just enough English grammar New York: The McGraw Hill Companies I APPENDICES APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENT My name is Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung and I am a senior of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education This survey questionnaire is designed for the study of "A study on common English grammatical errors in writing of the second-year students of the Department of Economics at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education" I would very much appreciate it if you could spend time providing us with the necessary information It is confirmed that your personal identity will remain strictly confidential Thank you so much for your assistance! I General information Fill in the information where appropriate What is your gender? A Male B Female What is your class? …………… What is your age? ………………… How long have you been studying English? …… Years II A common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs Question Your level of interest in English writing paragraphs: A Very interested B Normally interested C Not interested Question What you think of learning English writing paragraphs? A Very difficult B Difficult C Normal D Easy E Very Easy Question How important you think about English writing paragraphs? A Very important B Important II C Little important A Not important at all Question How you think about the importance of English grammar in writing paragraphs? A Very important B A little important C Unimportant Question What ways you often use when writing paragraphs? A Do not write drafts, write directly B Write in the order of steps C Refer to the same article to write D Rewriting several times Question Do you pay attention to English grammar when you writing paragraphs? A Never B Sometimes C Usually D Always Question Please put a tick to the choice if you ever made these errors while writing English paragraphs () in the appropriate column) Errors Very often Passive voice Verb tense and form Subject verb- agreement Word order Prepositions Articles Plurality Pronouns Often Occasionally Rarely Never III III The cause of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs Question What are the main causes of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs? (You can choose more than one answer) A Due to the influence of the mother tongue B Not good writing skills (not knowing how to set up an outline, writing topic sentences, conclusion sentences, not mastering how to write sentences and paragraphs) C Due to little practice in writing D Due to low vocabulary and structure E Due to uncertain grammar F Due to limited understanding of social knowledge G Incomplete application of rules H Careless I Because teachers' teaching methods and error correction methods are generally ineffective IV The solutions to improve English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs Question What solutions you think should be implemented to improve students' ability to write paragraphs at UTEHY's Department of Economics? (You can choose more than one answer) A Students should invest more time in writing practice B Students should reinforce vocabulary, structure and grammar C Students should expand their own social knowledge D Teachers should promote students' self-correcting abilities E Students should self-check their papers in pairs, according to teachers F Teachers should regularly correct and correct errors for students G Organize seminars and seminars on writing paragraphs IV APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS Question 1: How often you practice English writing paragraphs in class? Question 2: Do you think that English writing paragraphs is important? Question 3: What, in your opinion, are the most common English grammatical errors in paragraph writing? Question 4: In your opinion, what are the main causes of English grammatical errors in paragraph writing? Question 5: As for you, what solutions should be done to improve students' ability to write paragraphs? V APPENDICES APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHER My name is Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung and I am a senior of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education This survey questionnaire is designed for the study of "A study on common English grammatical errors in writing of the second-year students of the Department of Economics at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education" I would very much appreciate it if you could spend time providing us with the necessary information It is confirmed that your personal identity will remain strictly confidential Thank you so much for your assistance! I General information Fill in the information where appropriate What is your gender? A Male B Female What is your age? ………………… How long have you been teaching English? …… Years II A common English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs Question What you think of learning English writing paragraphs? A Very difficult B Difficult C Normal D Easy E Very Easy Question How important you think about English writing paragraphs? A Very important B Important C Little important D Not important at all Question How you think about the importance of English grammar in writing paragraphs? VI A Very important B A little important C Unimportant Question What ways your students often use when writing paragraphs? A Do not write drafts, write directly B Write in the order of steps C Refer to the same article to write D Rewriting several times Question Do your students pay attention to English grammar when they writing paragraphs? A Never B Sometimes C Usually D Always Question Please put a tick to the choice if your students ever made these errors while writing English paragraphs () in the appropriate column) Errors Very Often Occasionally Rarely Never often Passive voice Verb tense and form Subject verb- agreement Word order Prepositions Articles Plurality Pronouns III The cause of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs Question What are the main causes of English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs? (You can choose more than one answer) VII A Due to the influence of the mother tongue B Not good writing skills (not knowing how to set up an outline, writing topic sentences, conclusion sentences, not mastering how to write sentences and paragraphs) C Due to little practice in writing D Due to low vocabulary and structure E Due to uncertain grammar F Due to limited understanding of social knowledge G Incomplete application of rules H Careless I Because teachers' teaching methods and error correction methods are generally ineffective IV The solutions to improve English grammatical errors in writing paragraphs Question As for you, what solutions should be done to improve students' ability to write paragraphs at UTEHY's Department of Economics? (You can choose more than one answer) A Students should invest more time in writing practice B Students should reinforce vocabulary, structure and grammar C Students should expand their own social knowledge D Teachers should promote students' self-correcting abilities E Students should self-check their papers in pairs, according to teachers F Teachers should regularly correct and correct errors for students G Organize seminars and seminars on writing paragraphs