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LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of errors
Encountering errors is a common and seemingly inescapable part of learning a foreign language, particularly English To gain a deeper understanding of these errors, it's beneficial to explore the various definitions provided by distinguished linguists
Jeremy Harmer (2001) described errors as components of a learner's 'interlanguage,' which is essentially the learner's current version of the language at any given stage of their learning journey This interlanguage is continuously evolving as the learner progresses towards achieving complete fluency in the language
According to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982), an error is a persistent language production issue based on the learner's comprehension of correct language use These scholars proposed the concept of "interlanguage," a unique system of grammatical rules and communicative strategies that learners develop as they acquire a second language.
On the other hand, Brown (2007: 215) offered a slightly different perspective
He characterized an error as a distinct deviation from the standard grammar used by native speakers This deviation, according to Brown, is indicative of the learner's 'interlanguage competence', highlighting the learner's current stage in mastering the language Each of these perspectives sheds light on the intricate nature of language learning and the role of errors in the process
Making the difference between grammatical errors and mistakes is crucial in language education It assists teachers in meeting the educational needs of students and enables students to correct their own language Errors in grammar are consistent issues arising from a learner's inadequate grasp of the target language’s grammar rules These errors, usually stemming from either a lack of knowledge or misinterpretation, are generally not rectifiable by the learner themselves For example, repeated incorrect use of verb tenses or problems with subject-verb agreement showcases a deficit in grammatical skills As Richards (2015) points out, these errors are a part of the learner’s evolving comprehension of the language and are inherent to the learning process Error analysis is useful here, as it aids in pinpointing, detailing, and elucidating these errors, thus allowing teachers to modify their teaching methods accordingly James (2013) also notes that such errors are systematic and can be classified to pinpoint specific linguistic challenges faced by learners, facilitating targeted teaching approaches
In contrast, grammatical mistakes are lapses that happen even though the learner knows the correct rule Often caused by external factors like fatigue, stress, or inattention, these are not indicative of a lack of linguistic skill Such mistakes are generally identifiable and correctable by the learner once highlighted Harmer (2015) suggests that mistakes are less grave than errors as they stem from temporary lapses in applying known language rules Hence, mistakes do not suggest a lack of rule understanding in applying them in certain situations
Distinguishing between errors and mistakes is vital in educational contexts Systematic instruction is needed to correct errors, whereas mistakes typically improve with practice and more exposure to the language This distinction greatly influences teaching tactics For errors, teachers may need to go over and strengthen certain grammar rules or concepts Conversely, for mistakes, offering more practice opportunities, like speaking or writing exercises, is more effective Recognizing the nature of a learner's grammatical shortcomings, whether errors or mistakes, is key to efficient language teaching
Grammatical errors and mistakes, though both common in language learning, stem from different sources and necessitate distinct educational strategies Errors suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of grammar rules requiring direct instruction, whereas mistakes, tied to performance, can often be self-corrected by the learner This knowledge is crucial for educators to effectively aid language learners in their path to fluency
Language learning encompasses the development of both oral and written skills It's common for learners to encounter mistakes and errors as they strive to refine each of these skills Errors typically arise from a lack of understanding of grammar rules, the appropriate usage of words, or sentence construction The occurrence of errors is not merely a setback but a crucial element that provides insights into the learning process, whether the errors stem from grammatical mistakes or slips of the tongue in either spoken or written language
Davis and Pearse (2002: 103) posited that "errors are an integral part of language learning and not evidence of failure to learn." This perspective underscores the importance of analyzing errors, as they contribute significantly to our comprehension of how language is acquired Errors offer learners valuable feedback, serving as a guide for identifying new strategies to accomplish their learning objectives Furthermore, the nature and patterns of these errors can reveal the strategies learners employ in their language acquisition process, rendering errors a vital component in the study of foreign language learning This constructive view emphasizes that errors should not be seen merely as missteps, but rather as informative milestones in the ongoing journey of language mastery
Corder (1973) proposed a nuanced classification of errors by comparing a learner's utterance with a reconstructed (correct) version, categorizing errors into four distinct types:
1 Omission: This occurs when a learner omits a necessary element in their utterance
2 Addition: This involves the inclusion of an unnecessary or incorrect element
3 Selection: This type of error is characterized by the selection of an incorrect element
4 Disordering: This occurs when the elements in the utterance are in the wrong sequence
Furthermore, Corder expanded the classification by including the linguistic levels at which these errors can occur, specifically focusing on morphology, syntax, and lexicon
Keshavarz (2012), on the other hand, approached error classification from a communicative perspective, distinguishing between:
1 Local Errors: These are errors that significantly hinder communication and affect the overall organization of the sentence Examples include incorrect word order, omitted words, and erroneous or misplaced sentence connectors
2 Global Errors: These are errors that affect individual elements within a sentence but do not generally hinder communication However, they can still interfere with the clarity of communication and disrupt the intended meaning of utterances Examples of global errors include mistakes in noun and verb inflections, articles, and auxiliary verbs
Lee (2009, p.50) took a linguistic viewpoint in categorizing errors into four types:
1 Grammatical Errors: Mistakes related to the structure and grammar of the language
2 Discourse Errors: Errors that affect the overall coherence and cohesiveness of a text or conversation
3 Phonologically Induced Errors: Mistakes arising from incorrect pronunciation or stress patterns
4 Lexical Errors: Errors involving the incorrect use of vocabulary
Each of these scholars provides a unique framework for understanding and categorizing errors in language learning, offering valuable perspectives for educators and linguists in diagnosing and addressing the challenges faced by language learners
Table 1.1 Types of errors classified by Lee (2009)
Grammatical errors Stress the need for grammatical accuracy in both speech and writing, may hinder communication but errors at the sentence level “often reflect performance mistakes” for which immediate teacher correction is not necessarily appropriate
Discourse errors Depend on the observance of the rules of speaking and writing; reflect learners’ cultural and pragmatic knowledge of language use
Phonologically induced errors can result in incorrect pronunciation or intonation In English language learning for non-native speakers, these errors must be addressed promptly by the instructor This is because vowel length, voiced versus voiceless final consonants, and word stress can all play a meaningful role in differentiating words and conveying specific meanings.
Lexical errors Belong to the other linguistic levels; may also hamper communication and intelligibility
Sharing the same opinion, James (2013) emphasized that in the process of learning a foreign language, errors occurred unavoidably at different levels, such as: substantial, text, lexical, discourse and grammatical errors
Grammatical error analysis
Definition of grammatical error analysis
Grammar can be defined as a set of shared assumptions about how language works (Ari Nugrahaeni, 2012) Knowing about how grammar works means understanding more about how grammar is used and misused (Yulianti (2007, As cited in Rachmawati, 2019) Therefore, it is common for language learners to make grammar errors (Wornyo, 2016; Sari, Putrawan, & Deviyanti, 2021) Dulay (1982) categorized grammatical errors into six (6) groups as follows:
Table 1.2 Types of grammatical errors categorized by Dulay (1982)
Types of grammatical errors Description and examples
Omitting grammatical morphemes - Items that do not contribute much to the meaning of the sentences For example: She bought car
Double marking - A semantic feature (e.g past tense) that only one marker is required For example: He didn’t came back
Regularizing rules - For example: “womans” for “women”
Using arch forms - One form in place of several - such as the use of “her” for both “she” and
“her” For example: I saw her yesterday Her talked to my brother
Using two or more forms in random - Alternation even though the language requires the use of each only under certain conditions, as in the random use of “he” and “she” regardless of the gender, person, or interest
When constructing sentences, word order must sometimes be reversed, as in the question "What are you doing?" Additionally, certain items can be placed in multiple locations within a sentence, such as the adverb "all the time" in "They are all the time late."
Other ways of classifying grammatical were mentioned in Chaney’s analysis of leaner errors (1999) as below:
Table 1.3 Chaney’s analysis of leaners’ errors (1999) Verb errors All errors in verb tense or form including relevant subject-verb agreement errors
Noun ending errors Plural or possessive ending incorrect, omitted, or unnecessary including relevant subject-verb agreement errors
Article errors Article or another determiner incorrect, omitted, or unnecessary
Wrong word All specific lexical errors in word choice or word form including preposition and pronoun errors Spelling errors are only included if the (apparent) misspelling is resulted in an actual English word
Sentence structure Errors in sentence/clause boundaries (run- on, fragments, comma splices), word order, omitted words, or phrases, other unidiomatic sentence construction
Sharing the same opinion, James (2013) emphasized that in the process of learning a foreign language, errors occurred unavoidably at different levels, such as: substantial, text, lexical, discourse and grammatical errors:
- Substance errors: “substance errors are those errors that occur at the level of spelling such as those of punctuation and mis- selection of letters and at the level of pronunciation”
Text errors emerge from a lack of understanding and improper application of the lexical and grammatical rules of a language These rules govern the organization and interplay of linguistic structures, and deviations from them manifest as errors Such errors are evident in the relationships between the language's structural elements, revealing a fundamental misunderstanding or misuse of the language's mechanisms.
Lexical errors involve word-level inaccuracies Key aspects of word knowledge include its spelling, pronunciation, syntactic behavior, functional and situational constraints, semantic meaning, secondary meanings, word association, and usage frequency Understanding these elements is crucial for learners to effectively master vocabulary in a language.
- Discourse errors: discourse errors are those errors concerning the coherence of the text and they are differentiated from text errors in that this latter is concerned with the meaning of text, however the former is concerned with the interpretation of the text”
- Grammatical errors: they are those which occur at the level of grammar Hence, the current research is limited and concerned only with grammatical errors which are divided into two categories: morphological and syntactic.
Steps in conducting a grammatical error analysis
It is crucial to point out that the process of grammatical analysis is not only about identifying and detecting errors but actually trying to explain why they are made (Perveen & Akram, 2014) When conducting a grammatical error analysis, there are some steps to follow based on the theory of Ellis & Barkhuizen (2005, p.57) (As cited in Ari Nugrahaeni, 2012) such as: identification of errors, description, and explanation of errors
* Identification of errors: In this step, the researcher identified the existing errors by making a comparison between the correct forms of sentences with the sentences produced by the learners In this sense, this step involves a contrastive analysis procedure as it deals with comparing between utterances to indicate the similarities and differences between them In this regard, Corder (1971, p.166) distinguishes between overt and covert errors Overt errors are those errors which are grammatically incorrect, however, they can be interpreted easily by the learners While covert errors are those errors that are well-formed at the sentence level but can not be interpreted by the learners
* Description of errors: According to James (2013, p 104-106), there are two main taxonomies or what he refers to system of categories: a linguistic taxonomy and surface structure taxonomy
Linguistic error identification requires specifying the level of occurrence (e.g., grammar, lexis, discourse) For example, grammatical errors can be categorized into specific structures like verb phrases, adjectives, or tense usage These categories can be further subdivided to pinpoint specific aspects of the error, such as modal verb usage (James, 2013).
In terms of surface structure taxonomy, the ways surface structures are constructed based on the theory of Dulay et al (1982) suggesting four principal ways in which learners modify the target forms: omission errors - errors caused by the absence of an item that must appear in a well-formed utterance; addition errors - the occurrence of unnecessary elements in the learners’ utterances; misformation errors
- the use of the wrong form of a structure or morpheme; misordering errors - the use of wrong order of words in sentences
In this study, the researcher specified the differences between the forms produced by the learner and the correct forms, that means linguistic taxonomy was best used Because the errors analyzed here occurred at the level of grammar, therefore, the researcher made an attempt to categorize them into verbs, articles, prepositions, pronouns, plurality, word order, and subject-verb agreement
Error analysis involves identifying the causes of errors After identifying and categorizing errors, researchers classify them into specific intralingual source types.
Young language learners possess specific characteristics, including the necessity for continuous exposure to the target language (Harmer, 2001, 2007) They exhibit a natural curiosity and eagerness to explore new linguistic concepts However, abstract grammatical rules can pose challenges for these learners (Harmer, 2001, 2007) Notably, the learning process differs significantly from that of adult learners, as young learners rely heavily on experiential and interactive approaches (Pinter, 2006).
1 Children need a lot of good exposure if they are to acquire a language Although learning for one or two hours a week is not sufficient for their successful language acquisition, it may give them a taste of the new language and make them feel positive about the language other than their own
2 Children take in information from everything around them, not just what is being taught They learn from things they see, hear, touch, and interact with This is just as important as formal explanations
3 Children are usually curious about things around them and like learning
4 Children often find abstract concepts such as grammatical rules hard to understand
5 Many children are happy to talk about themselves, and like learning experiences which involve and relate to their own lives
6 Children are pleased to have the teacher’s approval
7 Children often find it difficult to concentrate on the same thing for a long time
According to Pinter (2006, p.2), the ways young learners learn a language is much different from adult ones This distinct difference can be seen in Table 1.4 below
Table 1.4: Characteristics of young and adult language learners
They have a holistic approach to language They understand meaningful messages but cannot analyze the language yet
- They are well-established at school and comfortable with school routines
- They begin to take an interest in language as an abstract system
They have lower levels of awareness about themselves and about the process of learning
They have a growing level of awareness as children and as learners
They have limited reading and writing skills in their first language
They are developing readers and writers
They have a limited knowledge about the world
They have a growing awareness of the world around them They also have a growing awareness of others and their viewpoints
They enjoy fantasy, imagination, and movement
They begin to show interest in real life issues.
Previous studies
Many researchers in the world such as Huang (2001) investigating the nature and distribution of different kinds of grammatical errors made by 46 English majors of a Taiwanese university A total of 1700 errors were found and categorized into 13 error types The top six common errors were: (1) verb; (2) noun; (3) spelling; (4) article; (5) preposition, and (6) word choice
Song and Kim (2016) analyzed grammatical errors in English writing among three elementary student groups to determine effective teaching methods for grammar and writing Errors were categorized into four types: addition, omission, substitution, and word order Each category was further divided into sub-items, including verbs, articles, nouns, and punctuation The analysis revealed that verb errors were the most frequent, particularly third person singular, tense, and overgenerated be-verb errors Omission of articles, punctuation errors, and capitalization/small letter errors were also prevalent.
Alka, Dzulfikri, & Khusna (2023) identified different types of grammatical errors made by primary school students since some previous studies only conducted the same research with high school students as the participants This study used a descriptive qualitative research design The participants were 40 fourth-grade students from SD Muslim Cendekia Batu Students' writing products were used as the instrument The data were analyzed, identified, and classified based on Dulay’s (1982) surface strategy taxonomy The data shows that the students made 79 grammatical errors, with errors of omission accounting for 25 items (31.6%), 21 (26.5%) errors in addition, 26 errors (32.7%) in misformation, and 7 (9.2%) errors in misordering The findings reveal that students lack grammar mastery; therefore, they frequently create their own rules in writing a text
In Vietnam, study on grammatical errors in writing was carried out by a variety of researchers Nguyen (2011) conducted a research study on analyzing errors made by students at Phu Cat 3 High School in Binh Dinh province in English written paragraphs By taking 240 tenth graders’ writing into consideration, the author concluded that many errors in the students’ writing were due to morphological errors and syntactic errors Tran (2015) carried out a study on common grammatical errors in paragraph writing committed by first year English major students at School of Foreign Languages - Thai Nguyen University (SFL-TNU) and the causes of these errors After collecting 50 paragraphs and analyzing the result of students’ free writing by means of both qualitative and quantitative methods, she realized that the participants made a total of 296 common errors which were classified into 7 groups including 17 types of errors The research results showed that first year English major students at SFL- TNU often made errors in sentence structure, verb usage, preposition usage and singular/plural nouns Thai, Vuong, and Phu (2017) conducted research on common mistakes in paragraph writing of the first-year English-majored students at Can Tho university in the academic year 2013-2014 The data for the study was collected from 60 written products on the topic “Your new life in Can Tho University” with the word length of 120 words and the in-depth interviews with three teachers of English The research findings indicated that the number of word formation and word choice mistakes were the most frequent while the least common ones were subject-verb agreement and word order.
Research gap
Studies have predominantly examined grammatical errors committed by adult or adolescent participants in secondary or higher education settings, leaving a research gap in the analysis of errors made by primary students This research aims to address this gap by investigating common grammatical errors in the writing of primary students, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of their grammatical proficiency and the need for targeted instructional interventions.
“Grammatical errors in writing made by the fourth graders at a primary school in Bien Hoa city”.
Conceptual framework
The main objective of this research is to find out grammatical errors made by the fourth graders at Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary school and investigate common grammatical errors committed by them Based on the research results, pedagogical implications are given for teachers of English to help learners avoid making the same grammatical errors in their writing
To achieve these desired aims, the researcher relies on theoretical framework of previous studies and literature review referring to errors, error analysis, grammatical error analysis, writing skills, grammar, etc The research is conducted on the basis of Chaney’s theory (1999) of which grammatical errors are classified in terms of elements of grammar The conceptual framework of the study is clearly illustrated in the following figure
Figure 1.1: The conceptual framework of the study by the researcher
This conceptual framework is built on various fundamental elements, each playing a significant role in creating an all-encompassing understanding of the topic It recognizes the pivotal stage of language acquisition in primary school education, particularly focusing on fourth graders During this phase, children are in the process of not only expanding their lexicon but also dealing with the intricacies of grammatical structures, a point highlighted by Richards (2015) The research suggests that examining grammatical errors at this critical stage could shed light on the natural progression of language learning in young students
Verb tenses (past & present simple, pre progressive, & be goining to
Wrong words (wrong word order, preposition, possesive pronoun) Nouns (Countable & uncountable)
At the core of the thesis is the differentiation between grammatical errors and mistakes James (2013) outlines grammatical errors as systematic discrepancies stemming from a lack of knowledge about the language's grammatical rules These errors are typically regular and signal the need for more directed educational support Conversely, grammatical mistakes, as Harmer (2015) explains, are execution errors that happen even though the learner understands the correct grammatical rule These types of mistakes are usually correctable by the learners themselves and do not necessarily indicate a profound misunderstanding of the language The study investigated the form and the meaning of the errors
The methodology for identifying and classifying grammatical errors forms a crucial part of the framework This process involves the analysis of both written and oral language samples from fourth-grade students to detect error patterns and frequencies This study used the mixed method to find out the grammatical errors made by the fourth graders in two classes (4/1 and 4/4) in their English learning The qualitative approach analyzed the errors, the qualitative approach indicated the primary students, improvements Grounded in language acquisition and error analysis theories, this analysis considers several factors, including the influence of the first language, the educational environment's role, and the cognitive development of children at this age, as discussed by Dulay et al (1982)
This thesis explores the educational insights gained from a study on grammatical errors in fourth graders It investigates how these findings can inform teaching strategies to enhance language instruction The thesis analyzes the impact of corrective feedback, diverse teaching approaches, and external factors such as motivation and language exposure on improving grammatical proficiency.
Chapter summary
This chapter has discussed the related literature including the concepts of and previous studies, which shed light on the content of the next chapters The chapter mentions related theoretical review such as, overview of errors and error analysis; issues concerning grammar including its definition, types of grammar, grammatical competence and its role in writing; writing skills and characteristics of young learners, etc Following that, a summary of previous studies regarding error analysis in the context of oversea countries as well as in the context of Vietnam was presented as well The research methodology will be mentioned in the next chapter.
METHODOLOGY
The study is carried out in the theory of Chaney (1999) because according to his classification, grammatical errors were classified in terms of elements of grammar, which proved to be easier and feasible to apply in collecting and analyzing grammatical errors of primary students Besides, due to the main aims and objectives of the study, description, statistics, analysis are also regarded as supporting methods Classifying the errors by conceptual categories to find out which types of grammatical errors in writing are made by the participants of the study Then, the statistical and descriptive methods are used to investigate the most common grammatical writing errors, thereby the research can propose some corresponding pedagogical recommendations for both learners and teachers
According to Kothari (2004), “there are two basic approaches in research which are quantitative and qualitative approach Quantitative approach was used for the phenomena which could be delivered and explained in quantity”
Seliger, Shohamy and Shohamy (1989) said that it involved a collection of techniques which were used to specify or describe naturally occurring phenomena without experimental manipulation Qualitative study contains an intensive and comprehensive description and analysis of an entity, phenomenon, or a social unit”
This study employed a mixed-methods approach, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative techniques to examine common grammatical errors in writing among fourth graders Sixty students from two classes were randomly selected and their writing samples were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods The identified grammatical errors varied among students, and the frequency of their occurrence was carefully assessed to determine areas for improvement.
In analyzing the data, the researcher undertakes some steps as suggested by Corder (1973: 43) As mentioned before, the data is taken from students’ writing Thus, the first step done in this research is collecting the students’ writing After that, the errors are identified, counted, and categorized by the researcher For the next step, the data is reconstructed, and the feedback is given to the students to raise their awareness of grammar in their writing
In other words, the research method of analysis applied in the study consists of five main steps, namely collecting the errors, identifying errors, classifying errors, explaining errors, and evaluating their frequency The flexibility of a qualitative study is important because the aim of this qualitative research was to sample individuals with rich and varied insights into teaching foreign language grammar to students at primary schools
This research utilizes a mixed method quantitative approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative data, to conduct a case study at Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary School The case study methodology is employed as it allows for an in-depth examination of a specific phenomenon within a real-world context, providing a comprehensive understanding of the situation under investigation (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2018).
It is a case study with an embeded single-case design, including teachers and students as the two units of analysis The study focuses on errors made by students of grade 4 in the progressive tests in terms of nouns, verb tenses and wrong words, and their improvement of errors through the error analysis for research question 1 and through the t-test to anwer research question 2
Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary school was founded more than 60 years ago It is located at number 66, Nguyen Van Tri Street, Hoa Binh Ward, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Currently, there are about 120 students of grade 4 (N0) and 3 teachers of English teaching All the English teachers here are experienced, and hold required certificates from the Ministry of Education The students in grade 4 are distributed equally in class 4/1 (31 students), 4/2 (30 students), 4/3 (30 students), 4/4 (29 students) Learners in these classes learn the coursebook “Global Success” in the educational program
2018 designed by the Ministry Every week, these students learn 4 English periods with Vietnamese teachers They often have English lessons with Vietnamese teachers to improve reading, writing and grammar proficiency and with English teachers to practice listening and speaking
The themes and situations throughout the books are popular to children nationwide Students are regularly presented with new vocabulary and structures so that they have adequate and necessary language to communicate Major grammatical points and writing topics are taught in these six units include the following issues
The study involved 60 fourth-grade students from Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary School Due to practical constraints, classes were predetermined, with participants from classes 4/1 and 4/4 A control group of 60 students (29 males and 31 females) was purposefully selected to align with the study's objectives English grammar instruction was provided during regular English classes.
The study was carried out during the first term of the academic year 2023-2024 at Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary school by analyzing common writing grammatical errors made by students in grade 4 There are 120 primary fourth -grade students The participants of this study consisted of 60 students with good, fair, and low grammar proficiency who are chosen conveniently from 2 classes 4/1 and 4/4 The main reason for choosing the fourth graders is that at the age of 9 after the time of exposure to English learning compared to other graders, these students have sufficient vocabulary and grammar knowledge to expand the writing topic in short paragraph In addition, the researcher decided to choose class 4/1 and 4/4 because the number of the students in these two classes are almost identical (There are 31 students in class 4/1 whereas class 4/3 has 29 students) All the students learnt English for one year when they were at grade 3 Besides, both follow the same intensive program using the same coursebook and duration of learning time Finally, these two classes were taught by the researcher, which data collection was feasible and advantageous
Instruments played an important role in research because they could have a strong impact on the data collected To obtain adequate data for the study, the researcher would like to collect a variety of data collection through the results of pre- test and post-test The pretest and posttest were used since both tests measure students’ English grammar before and after the intervention They consisted of writing tasks to assess students’ proficiency in using grammar in various contexts
As stipulated by the Ministry of Education for the teaching of English to the primary students, the coursebook “Global Success” was used Based on the curriculum of this coursebook for the first semester in the school year 2023-2024 which comprises 6 units, the data were collected from the tests which consist of different tasks including grammatical exercises and writing topics such as below
- Topic 1: Write about your plans for the weekend/Write about your plans for next summer vacation
- Topic 2: Write about your favorite food/Write about your eating habits
- Topic 3: Write about your last trip/Write about your last summer vacation
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, both quantitative and qualitative data were derived from a collection of written works submitted by fourth-grade students at Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary School The chapter begins by concisely presenting the findings in response to two research questions Following this, substantial effort has been dedicated to discussions grounded in a comprehensive analysis of grammatical errors in the students’ writing This analysis focused on two principal research objectives: identifying the types of errors made by the participants in the study and examining the commonality of these errors in terms of their frequency and percentage followed by the use of paired samples t-test to find out whether fourth graders could improve their grammatical errors
3.1.1 Types of grammatical errors made by graders 4 at Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary School
The data demonstrates that the most frequently committed errors related to the past simple tense in the affirmative form were the errors when students misspelt some regular and irregular verb forms Here are the illustrations:
Table 3.1: Typical errors related to the past simple tense in affirmative form
1 He drinked tea this morning He drank tea this morning
2 Last weekend, she was play soccer with her friends
Last weekend, she played soccer with her friend
3 They goed to the movie last Saturday They went to the movie last Saturday
4 She maked a sandwich yesterday she made a sandwich yesterday
5 Last Saturday, I were at home and watched TV
Last Saturday, I was at home and watched TV
6 Last Sunday, my father rided a bike in the park near my house
Last Sunday, my father rode a bike in the park near my house
7 Last Sunday, we did go on a business trip to a city
Last Sunday, we went on a business trip to a city
8 she sitted next to her best friend in the car she sat next to her best friend in the car
9 At lunch time, they eated outside At lunch time, they ate outside
10 Then he sleeped on the bus on the way back to school
Then he slept on the bus on the way back to school
11 After the trip, she feeled very tired but happy
After the trip, she felt very tired but happy
12 I think it were a great trip and I wanted to come there again
I think it was a great trip and I wanted to come there again
13 Last summer vacation, we were go to
Last summer vacation, we went to Nha Trang
14 We runned to the market yesterday We ran to the market yesterday
Taking the above errors into careful consideration, the participants tended to add ending “ed” to any verbs in past form regardless whether they are regular or irregular verbs This type of error making is clearly indicated in examples 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10,
11 when the students could not give the correct past forms of some irregular verbs like: drink – drank; go – went; make – made; ride – rode; sit – sat; eat – ate; sleep – slept They seemed to overgeneralize the rule of adding “ed” to all verb forms when they want to put the verbs in the past simple tense In other words, the participants applied the past forms of irregular verbs in incorrect way
Another type of error related to the past simple tense in affirmative is the case when students could not differentiate the use of “was” and “were” with appropriate subject The most common error they often made was using “were” with first-singualr pronoun and third-singular pronouns as subjects like “I” and “he, she, it” These errors can be seen in example 5, 12 Besides, the participants also thought that using “was” or “were” before any verb was a correct way to put these verbs into the past simple tense (Examples 2 and 13 are a clear evidence of this error type) Maybe the learners here believed that “was/were” is how past time is marked in English, so they tried to produce such kinds of sentences which are caused by false concepts hypothesized In these examples, the participants made the error “was go” instead of “went” because they believed that the auxiliary “was” refers to something in the past The participants tended to use the auxiliary “was” plus a verb because they knew that “was” expresses an action done in the past
In negative form of the simple past tense, the fourth graders at Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary School were most likely to put the main verbs into past forms even after the auxiliary “did” For instance:
Table 3.2: Typical grammatical errors related to the past simple tense in negative form
1 I didn’t went to school last weekend
I didn’t go to school last weekend
2 She didn’t heard the music at the party
She didn’t hear the music at the party
3 He didn’t played soccer last
He didn’t play soccer last Sunday
4 We didn’t saw any cows in the field
We didn’t see any cows in the field
5 My mother didn’t cooked yesterday
My mother didn’t cook yesterday
In negative or question form, students were taught that they must put the main verb in bare infinitive form after the auxiliary verb “did” Yet, they tended to ignore the rule restrictions of existing structures and still put the main verbs in the past form
● Present simple and present continuous tenses
In terms of errors related to the present simple tense, learners had a tendency of not putting the verbs into the correct form after the third-singular subject pronouns, especially whenever there exist adverbs of frequency in those sentences Here are some examples:
Table 3.3 Typical errors related to the present simple tense
1 He never go to school by bus He never goes to school by bus
2 My younger brother always wear a hat
My younger brother always wears a hat
3 Her whole family sometimes eat out
Her whole family sometimes eats out
4 My father usually cook in my family
My father usually cooks in my family
5 During the week, my motehr usually make breakfast at home
During the week, my mother usually makes breakfast at home
Regarding errors related to the present continuous tense, students were likely to misspell the “ing-form” or forget to use “am/is/are + V.ing” Instead, they only used V.ing form after the subject For example
Table 3.4 Typical errors related to the present continuous tense
1 She’s siting at the big table today She’s sitting at the big table today
2 He’s readding a new book today He’s reading a new book today
3 Today, They are eatting at a cafe near their house
Today, They are eating at a cafe near their house
4 Nam talking to the waiter Nam is talking to the waiter
5 She reading the menu at the moment
She is reading the menu at the moment
In example 1, it can be indicated that the learners did not remember the rule of doubling the last final consonant in the verb “sit-siting” This error may be caused due to incomplete application of rules At the same time, in example 2, 3, 4 they applied false-overgeneration when trying to double any last consonant syllable in the verbs: eat-eatting, talk-talkking and read-readding
Another error type concerning the misuse of these two tenses is that the participants could not differentiate the usage between the present simple and the present continuous tense They put the given verbs in the wrong tenses even with the presence of time markers in the simple present tense, such as: always, often, sometimes, rarely, never, everyday, every week or time markers in the present progressive tense like: now, right now, today, at the moment Particularly, when mentioning changes, almost all participants put the verbs in the present simple tense instead of the present continuous tense Here are some examples:
Table 3.5 Typical errors related to the present simple and present continuous tense
1 He is eating there every week with his mother
He eats there every week with his mother
2 We usually eat rice, but today we eat sandwiches and cake
We usually eat rice, but today we are eating sandwiches and cake
3 Nga usually wears pants and a
T-shirt, but today he wears a nice dress
Nga usually wears pants and a T-shirt, but today she is wearing a nice dress
4 Nam always eating lunch at school
Nam always eats lunch at school
5 She is never going to school on foot
She never goes to school on foot
6 We watch TV right now We are watching TV right now
7 She works in the office now She is working in the office now
8 He read a book right now He is reading a book right now
● Future expression with “Be going to”:
When indicating near future or future intention, the structure: “Be going to + V” is used However, the learners often made errors in some sub-types such as lacking the verb “to be” in the form of “am/is/are”, not using the bare infinitive verb after the expression “Be going to”, or using the verb form of “be” incorrectly Some illustrations are shown as follows:
Table 3.6 Typical errors related to future expression with “Be going to”
1 Nam going to eat out with his family tonight
Nam is going to eat out with his family tonight
2 She am going do her homework after school
I am going to do her homework after school
3 Tomorrow morning, we are going go shopping with my mom
Tomorrow morning, we are going to go shopping with my mom
4 Robert are going to play football with his friends tomorrow
Robert is going to play football with his friends tomorrow
5 They are going to flying to Hue this summer vacation
They are going to fly to Hue this summer vacation
6 We are not going stay home tonight
We are not going to stay home tonight
Researchers found that 20% of noun-related errors made by students at Nguyen Khac Hieu Primary School stemmed from misconceptions about countable and uncountable nouns This confusion led to incorrect usage of articles and plurality Examples include:
Table 3.7 Errors related to plurality and indefinite article
1 She’d like a toast She’d like some toast
2 He’d like to have some sticky rice and a coffee for breakfast
He’d like to have some sticky rice and coffee for breakfast
3 Nam would like a bread and a pear Nam would like some bread and a pear
4 Her favorite foods are noodles, chickens and pizzas
Her favorite foods are noodles, chicken and pizza
5 He usually has a chicken, some rices and vegetables for lunch
He usually has chicken, some rice and vegetables for lunch
6 She likes eating fruits because it is good
She likes eating fruit because it is good
7 His favorite meats are beefs and porks
His favorite meats are beef and pork
8 We usually eat pastas and salad for lunch
We usually eat pasta and salad for lunch
9 On Saturday, I’m going to do my homeworks
On Saturday, I’m going to do my homework
10 Then, they are going to have a lunch together
Then, they are going to have lunch together
In Vietnamese language and culture, there is no distiction between countable or uncountable nouns Perhaps this interlingual transfer is the main cause of students’ making errors as the result of adding ending “s” in some uncountable nouns in English such as: fruit, pasta, beef, pork, chicken, pizza, homework or misusing the article
“a/an” before some uncountable nouns like: chicken, bread, toast, coffee, lunch
Concerning this type of error, the researcher realized that there existed two causes of errors grade 4 th students made The first type comes from the over- generalization which happens in example numbers 4 and 5 Here, they thought that