some common errors of english majored freshmen at industrial university of ho chi minh city in writing paragraphs

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY IN WRITING PARAGRAPHS 73Monday, June 10, 20248:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM73Monday, June 10, 20248:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM73Monday, June 10, 20248:33:49 PM8:3

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INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY IN WRITING PARAGRAPHS

73Monday, June 10, 20248:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM73Monday, June 10, 20248:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM73Monday, June 10, 20248:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM

Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

73Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsMonday, June 10, 2024

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MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Supervisor : PHAN THỊ BÍCH NGỌC, M.A

Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own work and does not involve in plagiarism or collusion It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose else where I accept heavy penalty for any cheating or plagiarism

Date submitted : June 20th, 2021

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SOMECOMMON ERRORS OF

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY IN WRITING

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ABSTRACT

Writing is considered one of the four indispensable skills in learning English or any other language in the world Writing is an important skill but it is also a complicated one compared to other skills because it requires learners have not only a thorough understanding of background knowledge (Grammar and Vocabulary) but also skills to write Thus, writing is regarded as a difficult skill for students in learning English The research was entitled “Some common errors of English-majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs” to figure out common errors and the causes of the errors in writing paragraphs for improving students’ writing skills The participants for the research were English-majored freshmen from the Faculty of Foreign Language at IUH The survey was administered by means of using a questionnaire to collect data from 211 students The research was divided into five chapters consisting of Introduction, Literature Review, Research Design, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion To be more specific, in chapter I, the content included the aim of the study, research objectives, research questions and scope of the study Chapter II contained the two main items of definitions of key terms including (1) definitions of writing, (2) definitions of academic writing, (3) definitions of paragraph, (4) definitions of errors and (5) types of error in paragraph writing and another one was theoretical framework involved (1) relevance of errors and (2) errors in writing paragraphs Chapter III covered (1) research setting, (2) participants, (3) research methodology and research methods, (4) Procedures and (5) Data analysis Chapter IV presented the results of students’ responses to the questionnaire and the discussion of the findings Lastly, chapter V stated the conclusion of the research, suggested some recommendations and assessed limitations of the research The objectives of the research were to figure out popular errors and the causes of the errors that students often have trouble in writing paragraphs Additionally, the researcher also offered some solutions through the findings to help students improve their writing skills for better in the future

Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs732410068:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM732410068:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM732410068:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM

Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

During the period of internship, I received a plenty of enthusiastic help and support that guide and encourage me to overcome all difficulties and finish this hard but meaningful time Firstly, I would like to express thanks to the School Board of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City and the Faculty of Foreign Languages creating favorable conditions for me to complete my thesis Secondly, I sincerely thank to Ms Phan Thi Bich Ngoc, my supervisor who gave me useful guidance and advice that help me to finish my graduation thesis successfully She also gave me professional guidance and insightful comments that considerably help me gain a lot of experiences in the period of writing my thesis From these advices, I can improve my English skills and strategies greatly Thirdly, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to teachers who taught Writing I subject gave me chances to collect data from their classes Furthermore, I would like to thank my group member, Pham Thi Thao Nguyen who often shared my difficulties and gave me timely advice during the process of writing graduation thesis Last but not least, I am grateful to all of lovely students of Writing I classes who contributed to help me complete the questionnaire In short, I really thank to all people helping me to finish this graduation thesis

Keywords: Common errors, IUH, English-majored freshmen, paragraphs, writing

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1.4 Scope of the study 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Definitions of key terms 5

2.2.2 Errors in writing paragraphs 12

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH DESIGN 14

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

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4.1 Student’s responses to the Questionnaire 20

4.1.1 Student’s attitude towards their writing skills 20

4.1.2 The common errors that students face difficulty in writing paragraphs 22

4.1.3 The causes of the common errors 29

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1 Students’ self-evaluation towards their writing skills 20

Figure 4.2 Students’ attitudes towards writing skills 21

Figure 4.3 The difficulties in the process of writing paragraphs 22

Figure 4.4 The students’ frequency of making errors in writing paragraphs 23

Figure 4.5 The students’ frequency of making grammatical mistakes in writing paragraphs 24

Figure 4.6 The students’ frequency of making vocabulary mistakes in writing paragraphs 25

Figure 4.7 The students’ frequency of making mistakes related to ideas in writing paragraphs 26Figure 4.8 The students’ frequency of making mistakes related to paragraph structures in writing paragraphs 27

Figure 4.9 The topics which often faced difficulties in writing paragraphs by freshmen 28

Figure 4.10 The students’ frequency of practicing writing paragraphs after school 29

Figure 4.11 The reasons causing errors when writing paragraphs 30

Figure 4.12 The ways to recognize students' mistakes when writing a paragraph 31

Figure 4.13 The students’ solutions to improve their writing skills 32Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

IUH: Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City

FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages

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1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, Viet Nam is one of the developing countries which have good cooperation with other countries around the world Therefore, this created opportunities for people in Viet Nam to have a good job with a high salary in working in foreign companies inside and outside the country In order to reach achievement, English is the main instrument that brings people to come to success quickly English is considered as the most popular language in the world, it is used widely not only in daily life but also in international business With the integration of the world and foreign companies' penetration into the Vietnamese market, the importance of English is even more evident English becomes an essential factor that employees must have when they want to apply to a company with a lucrative job For this reason, nowadays, many people from old to young started to study English in order to achieve great success in work

Especially, English is seen to be a subject that has a range of troubles for all students Studying English includes 4 skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing Among these skills, writing plays a significant and indispensable role in studying English In English, writing is not the same as speaking skills because it is not a skill that we naturally acquire, even in our native language, it needs to be practiced regularly Writing is a great capacity or ability of each person to perform the act of writing in order to achieve an effective communication goal In fact, students often spend more time on learning other skills than writing skills such as speaking or listening skills because they just focus on communication Many students think that writing is not necessary to learn so they do not habitually practice their writing Consequently, when taking the exams of writing, students often make a variety of remarkable errors in the test Therefore, to make a success in English, students need to focus on writing by means of practicing writing skills regularly Writing is a learned skill that requires learners to take the initiative to approach every day so that in the process of writing, learners can discover their own mistakes and correct them promptly Therefore, if students want to be mastered at writing, they have to spend much time on practicing

Similarly, students at Industrial University, especially the English-majored freshmen of the Faculty of Foreign Language face many difficulties when studying writing subjects in general and writing paragraphs in particular This problem stems from lack of vocabulary, background knowledge, grammar, and ideas influenced by Vietnamese style, etc In addition, students have a passive way of learning, they just complete all homework from the teacher instead of actively searching or Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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reading information, articles, magazines, etc Unfortunately, this problem currently does not much be noticed by students Consequently, this research was conducted to figure out the common errors in writing paragraphs of English-majored freshmen at IUH and the causes of the errors Since then, students can comprehend common mistakes, avoid typical errors in writing paragraphs and improve their writing ability

1.2 Research Objectives

This study was conducted in an attempt to:

(1) Find out some common errors in paragraph writing made by English-majored freshmen at IUH

(2) Find out causes for the common errors

1.3 Research Questions

The research was conducted to deal with the two main following questions:

(1) “What are some common errors faced by English-majored freshmen at IUH in writing paragraphs?”

(2) “What are the reasons for the common errors?”

1.4 Scope of the study

Writing is a skill that is expected to use fluently by foreign language students The main purpose of this study is to find out some common errors in writing paragraphs and the causes of the errors The study focused on a number of English-majored freshmen at IUH and because of the large number of students of FFL, this study would be carried out by using the questionnaire to make sure the validity and reliability of the research

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

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2.1 Definitions of key terms 2.1.1 Definitions of writing

Writing is the fourth of the four language skills, which are Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing and it is considered as one of the indispensable skills in the process of learning for English learners Writing is a means of communication from person to person in relation to the performance of a language with written symbols such as letters of the alphabet, punctuation and thoughts in a written form There are a variety of definitions of writing In the Cambridge dictionary, writing is defined as “the skill or activity of producing words on a surface” According to Florian Coulmas (1999), a German linguist and author said that “A set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way, with the purpose of recording messages which can be retrieved by everyone who knows the language in question and the rules by virtue of which its units are encoded in the writing system.” It indicates that it is crucial to comprehend the basic system of a language in order to write obviously To make a good background of writing, it requires the writer to understand the knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure, correct spelling and especially vocabulary In other words, without extensive knowledge of writing, the writers may have difficulty in expressing and arranging into sentences or paragraphs and from then, writers find it difficult to express their message to the reader Based on the definition of writing, it can be concluded that writing is the capacity or the possibility of each person to perform the act of writing in order to achieve an effective communication goal

2.1.2 Definitions of academic writing

As referring to writing, it would no longer find unfamiliar with a term of academic writing It is not tricky to approach academic writing if more notice is taken Academic writing is a formal style of writing that it is straightforward to see in a wide range of writing from journal articles, fiction, book reports, research proposals including research in facilities for the natural sciences or social sciences, thesis, dissertations, biographies in an academic style

Academic writing, as defined by James Hartley (2008) “Academic writing refers to a style of expression that researchers use to define the intellectual boundaries of their disciplines and specific areas of expertise” Academic writing serves many different fields with the main purpose of building a convincing argument, analyzing academic concepts and theories, conveying ideas or explaining complex research issues or topics to a large audience Academic writing is rigorously Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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required to used words, paragraphs structure, style and expression It generally applies quite formal, precise word choice and objective (impersonal) Academic writing serves for a group of the audience who has a superb qualification in their fields such as professors or instructors Academic text requires learners to have unified and extensive knowledge in mentally represented to arrange the process of writing fluently (Lennart Björk et.al., 2003) In academic writing, the audience is regarded as one of the main factors to concentrate on in writing tasks, the writer needs to have a comprehension of the audience’s aspirations, prior knowledge because these will impact on the process of writing In addition, academic writing must ensure objectivity in the transmission of information, the arguments based on validated pieces of evidence and existing in practice, not the author’s preconceptions

L Lennie Irvin (2010) noted that: “Your success with academic writing depends upon how well you understand what you are doing as you write and then how you approach the writing task” (p.3) Students in new college, for instance, may have a variety of challenging and nervousness about the writing that will be done in college Writing in college may resemble playing a familiar game by completely new rules It is not like writing in a storytelling way based on one's own experiences or describing someone when taking a writing task in high school It required the writer to abide by an academic setting and have an understanding of logical thinking and pieces of evidence supporting that thinking Being aware of these things will make it easier than ever to deal with academic writing

2.1.3 Definitions of paragraphs

Paragraphs play a significant role in writing and have been considered as a fundamental factor of writing A text is usually divided into several blocks called 'paragraphs' to make it easier to read Paragraph division is always indicated by starting the text on a new line and indenting (leaving a space at the beginning of the line) According to Cambridge dictionary, paragraph is defined as: “A short part of a text, consisting of at least one sentence and beginning on a new line It usually deals with a single event, description, idea, etc.” Writers can show the structure of the essay by dividing the paragraphs in the right positions In this way, dividing the essay into paragraphs gives readers more time to pause and think for a while if needed or when writers want to move to another stage of the story, a new point in the opinions or a new part of the description

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A paragraph, as defined by Dorothy Zemach and Lisa A Rumisek (2005), a paragraph is “a group of sentences about a single topic” Together, the sentences of the paragraph explain the writer’s main idea (most important ideas) about the topic In basic writing, a perfect body paragraph must have a topic sentence, supporting sentence and concluding sentence A topic sentence is the first sentence in the body text Simply put, the topic sentence introduces the topic of the paragraph and is also the main idea of the paragraph The supporting sentences of a paragraph are the sentences that support the topic sentence intended to explain the points of the paragraph, and the concluding sentence is the last sentence with the summary to end up a paragraph by repeating the main idea or delivering the personal opinion about the topic

2.1.4 Definitions of errors

In human behavior, error is the most natural thing in the world It can be derived from a wide range of theoretical and practical viewpoints According to Cambridge dictionary, error is explained that “something done or written by accident that is not correct, not accurate, or does not give the right result” Meanwhile, Collins Dictionary points out that error implies deviation from truth, accuracy, and correctness Following second language acquisition perspectives, there are several ways to think about errors in writing in general and texts, context and the writing process in particular And that’s what the research is intended to focus on

For learners who acquire the second language generally will produce texts with numerous of errors about grammatical and rhetorical errors Whether error considered as a systematic deviation when learners fail to acquire knowledge in the learning process and continually make mistakes as stated by Norrish (1983) either Hendrickson (1978) mentioned that errors are 'signals' that indicate an actual learning process taking place and that the learner has not yet mastered or shown a well-structured competence in target language? Also, Mizuno Harumitsu (1991) regarded learners’ the making of errors to be as a significant device that learners use to learn The capability of good writing is not a skill that is naturally absorbed by learners, especially for those writing in a second language Oftentimes learners have not the assurance of what they want to express, which could cause them to make errors in any language

Furthermore, all the concepts seemed to emphasize only the errors made by the learner in the language learning process, but the occurrence of the error is not caused only by the learner has not sufficient acquired knowledge but according to Corder (1967), teaching methodology was also one Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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of the aspects that raised the problem Corder (1967) linked error to teaching method, making his own ideological argument that if there is a suitable teaching method, then no mistake will be made Over the years, error has always been something that people tried to eliminate in the learning and teaching process However, it is a natural condition that exists in humans, so people are unable to avoid making errors The reality should learn to accept and bring together work to figure out solutions to solve them

2.1.5 Types of error in paragraph writing

Paragraph writing includes errors that related to grammatical errors, vocabulary errors, ideas errors, paragraphs structure errors, and coherence and cohesion errors

*Grammatical errors

Grammatical errors described by Richard Nordquist (2020) are "an instance of faulty, unconventional, or controversial usage." In fact, grammatical error is a common mistake made in the process of writing by non-native speakers who expect to use English fluently as native speakers This part indicates 7 kinds of grammar error including tense error, relative clause error, article error, preposition error, comparison error, reported speech error and punctuation error

 Tense error

Generally, there are twelve tense in English and each tense has its own distinctive signals and usages Due to a lack of knowledge about basic grammar, students often produce wrong tense sentences in the process of writing People often select to rote learning grammatical structures and apply them mechanically to their work Gradually, only focusing its recognizable signals in the sentence without really understanding the nature of the tense With mistaken tense, the sentence will be become cluttered in terms of time, causing confusion for readers

 Relative clause error

Relative clause is connected to the main proposition by relative pronouns: who, whom, which, whose, that or relative adverbs: when, where, why Relative clause is widely used, though, the error is frequently made high in using Some typical errors can be mentioned as confusion in the use of relative pronouns, commas or verbs and subjects not getting along with each other

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 Article error

Article in English is seemed to be incredibly simple but it is able to be easily confused by whether the noun is determined or not It can be noticed that in English there are countable nouns and uncountable nouns or even nouns having both of such characteristics, which undoubtedly causes mistakes when writing in a paragraph if learner is unable to identify the noun following that article

 Preposition error

Preposition is short words but it plays an important role in the process of forming a sentence Prepositions are assumed as words that have the function of linking nouns and pronouns and other necessary information of the sentence The position of prepositions in a sentence is usually before the noun, after the verb, and after the adjective Especially, learners may have difficulty

distinguishing prepositions on, in, and at because other languages may use only one or two

prepositions equivalent to these three prepositions in English The use of mistaken prepositions can influence the quality of information in written language

 Comparison error

Comparison is a popular grammar point that language learners often make errors in English There are 3 main types of comparison: equal, comparative and superlative Because of complication in using, oftentimes learners find it difficult to keep in mind the structures and flexible application of writing in sentences

 Reported speech error

In linguistics, reported speech (also called indirect speech) is a grammatical structure for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it In reported speech, the tense of verbs, pronouns and possessive adjectives can also be changed following the sequence of tense when the acts differ in time and place This will cause many challenges for the students and make a confusion in changing tense of verbs, words indicating place and time

 Punctuation error

Richard Nordquist (2020) made a definition of punctuation: “Punctuation is the set of marks used to regulate texts and clarify their meanings, mainly by separating or linking words, phrases, and clauses.” In terms of making a punctuation mistake, it will cause the reader to be embarrassed The Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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unpunctuated text affects the meaning of the sentence, it could make the message that writer wants to express to be destroyed and turned into a farce Even the reader’s faith in the text may be faded by the incorrect use of punctuation

* Vocabulary errors

Vocabulary is a decisive factor and the foundation of foreign language learning Having a wide vocabulary in a target language will support the four skills of language: reading, writing, listening and speaking Errors regarding vocabulary included 3 main types: spelling, word choice and collocation

 Spelling error

Spelling error is a common error that not only occurred in foreign language learners, but even native speakers sometimes make Spelling errors in email messages, reports, presentations and other business documents, etc Incorrect spelling may not cause a huge consequence in the understanding of meaning in the context but it somewhat makes the reader feel uncomfortable and reflect unprofessional behavior at work

 Error in word choice

As a writer, selecting the right words in the process of writing is a necessity, especially in academic writing Choosing carefully the words to write that will help the ideas come to light, as a consequence, a firm word choice makes it easier for readers to comprehend the content of the text But sometimes every writer definitely struggles with choosing word choice from time to time The errors in word choice involve: being redundant, clichés and misunderstand of word meaning

 Collocation error

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines collocation as “a noticeable arrangement or conjoining

of linguistic elements (such as words).” Take make a decision, have a good day, make a difference, do business for instance Lexical and prepositional miscollocation being the two common types of

error of foreign English learners When writing formal academic writing or any form of writing, collocation makes the English works sound more fluent and native-like

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* Ideas errors

It is so amazing to have wanted ideas if it always poop up into the writer’s mind at the time to write But the truth is not always the case There will be sometimes ideas are restricted or even a blank mind It can be seen that lack of background knowledge and developing ideas are one of the biggest errors that foreign language learners usually struggle with

 Lack of background knowledge

Tenaha O'Reilly remarks that: "Background knowledge plays a key role in students' reading comprehension If students don't have sufficient related knowledge, they'll probably have difficulties understanding text" Background knowledge, in other words, is a glue that sticks information and learning together In an academic sense, background knowledge includes academic language and vocabulary necessary for comprehending content information Having prior knowledge about a topic is a well-prepared way to understand clearly what need to write and make the writing will be evident and well-structured

 Developing ideas

One of the most noticeable difficulties that learners often have in the process of writing is developing ideas Generally, learners who struggle with developing ideas have weak vocabulary, easy distractibility during writing tasks, difficulty with structure arrangement and word order The purpose of writing is to convey ideas to others This means that before getting to put pen to paper, the writer must know exactly and organize the ideas they want to express

2.2 Theoretical Framework 2.2.1 Relevance of Errors

Errors are regarded as the use of words, speech acts, or grammatical items in a way that can be discovered as wrong, or the making of mistakes According to Ancker (2000), making mistakes or errors is a natural process of learning and must be considered as part of cognition On the other hand, it is explained by Norrish (1983) as a systematic deviation that happens when a learner has not learned something and consistently gets it wrong Making errors is always a companion with language learning and second language acquisition Indeed, Hendrickson (1978) mentioned that errors are ‘signals’ that the learner has not yet mastered or shown a well-structured competence in the process of learning Errors used to be “flaws” that needed to be eliminated However, Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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Olasehinde (2002) believes that learners make mistakes that are inevitable, surely He also argues that errors are an unavoidable and indispensable part of the learning curve This view also seems to be shared by Stark (2001) in his study He points out that teachers need to have a more positive view of the mistakes committed by learners because they were unable to absorb sufficiently the structures and procedure during the process of learning Making errors is a completely natural and normal thing in humans, especially in language acquisition As such, it should be seen as a process of acquiring knowledge and not as a behavior to be denied

Corder (1967) stated an incredibly different point of view According to his opinion, those errors are “important in and of themselves” Analyzing errors in a systematic way supports foreign language learners identify sections that they need strengthening in teaching In addition, he also contended that error includes three significant things of meanings, one of which, errors provide researchers evidence of how learners acquire the language, what strategies and procedures the learner is employing in his discovery of the language

2.2.2 Errors in writing paragraphs

According to previous studies, the common types of mistakes that were committed by learners in writing paragraphs are tense, preposition, poor vocabulary Vahdatinejad (2008) observed that students committed many errors in tenses, word choices, and prepositions in their study Similarly, Saadiyah Darus (2007) also conducted an analysis of Malaysian learner’s errors concerning English written essays The results of the analysis divulged that the finding of common errors has been that many learner errors were produced by tenses, prepositions, articles, word choice, mechanics, and verb to be Cong Dan, Minh Duc and Hong Chau (2017) conducted a case study concerning common mistakes in paragraph writing of Can Tho university’s learners The results of this study revealed that the most common errors committed by the participants were word formation, word choice, spelling, organization and verb tense Their research shows that paragraph writing is a solid foundation for learners, especially freshmen, who need to practice writing skills to support the next semesters They found that, however, students are often not exposed to writing paragraphs as much In high schools of Vietnam, most of the teaching and learning of writing skills often focus on grammar rules only to achieve high scores in final exams or even at the national examination

Indeed, at Industrial University, the first-year students is discovered 4 skills, in which writing is one of the 4 skills that are focused on in the first semester The reason why writing becomes the Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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subject that is first approached by learners is that it is a fundamental background that helps them have an overview and master general knowledge about writing skills, thereby can easily learn subjects that are related to writing skills for the following semesters Nonetheless, the fact is that the first-year English majored students at IUH typically get many troubles with writing paragraphs Learners often reach an impasse on ideas when they are asked to write about a suggested topic, they are anxious that they cannot express themselves coherently so that the reader can grasp the information as clearly as possible

There are worthwhile noticeable reasons why the process of learning writing in university is so difficult for learners It is impossible not to mention that learners have become familiar with the teaching and learning of writing in high school In fact, they simply is required to complete kinds of exercise in only grammar, arrange sentences in the correct form or correct mistakes, or even just take multiple-choice As can be seen, students rarely get to practice various types of writing tasks to enhance writing skills Thus, when they go into the university and is asked to write a paragraph, they often make many errors of vocabulary, grammar, organizational structure, the way of idea expression, etc

In short, the researcher have a clear awareness of the weaknesses of students, especially majored students in writing Thus, the aims of the research is to find out some common errors of English-majored freshmen in writing paragraphs and the causes of these errors in order to improve their writing skills

English-Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsEnglish-Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsEnglish-Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsEnglish-Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs732410068:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM732410068:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM732410068:33:49 PM8:33:49 PM

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CHAPTER III: RESEARCH DESIGN

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3.1 Research setting

After spending nearly 4 years studying and working at the Faculty of Foreign Language (FFL) at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH), the researcher took a decision to conduct this research at IUH with the participants being English-majored freshmen that aims to find out the common errors in writing paragraphs and the causes of such errors

IUH is known as one of the top 10 famous universities in Vietnam which the main campus is located at 12 Nguyen Van Bao Street, Ward 4, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City The university is established in 1956 At present, there are over 1000 lecturers teaching in IUH including 15 professors, 110 doctors and 700 masters Additionally, there are more than thousands of students joining and studying in diverse majors at IUH every year IUH is noticed by its modern facilities and well-equipment in each department and classroom for lectures, staff and students consisting of a multifunction library, parking lots, dormitories, a canteen, laboratory, conference room, etc

Especially, the Faculty of Foreign Language (FFL) which is one of the biggest faculty at IUH The office of FFL was established in 2005 and now it is placed on the ground floor of building B in the Industrial University Currently, the Faculty of Foreign Language includes 6 Doctors of Philosophy, 50 Masters, 2 Bachelors in English Teaching Methods and numerous professional lectures and staff Notably, in September 2019, the Bachelor of FFL at the Industrial University has been assessed that meet the requirements of the ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance in the 154th ASEAN UNIVERSITY NETWORK (AUN)

3.2 Participants

The first-year English-majored students from FFL were the objects selected for this research and come from classes of DHAV16 such as DHAV16A, DHAV16B, DHAV16C, DHAV16D, DHAV16E and DHAV16F at IUH In the first year of English-major students, they are required to study the four basic skills of English, in which, writing skill is the subject that this research focuses on Learners of the subject are necessary for having background knowledge about writing in English By this way, they are easily be interested in the research and willing to share their difficulties with learning writing in general and writing paragraphs in particular

The researcher collected 211 answer sheets from the students It can be seen that students primarily wereconfused about extensive knowledge about writing, lack of experience and skills in writing Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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in practice As a result, students' chances of making mistakes were often substantial Through this study, it was possible to find out the common mistakes that first-year students often make and the causes of those errors Since then it could help students overcome difficulties when learning writing and to be successful in writing skills

3.3 Research methodology and research methods 3.3.1 Research methodology

The research wasconducted by a quantitative method that intended to state common mistakes and causes of those mistakes of English-majored students in writing paragraphs by using the questionnaires in the survey Quantitative method is the systematic empirical investigation of phenomena observed through statistics in order to collect data about human behavior and the reasons that influence it Because of including statistics, large-scale survey research, having objective conclusion, choosing a quantitative method was a necessity for this study

3.3.2 Research methods

The questionnaire is a commonly used tool to gather information from respondents with a variety of questions The use of questionnaires brought many benefits to this research including noteworthy reasons mentioned that high accuracy, cost-effectiveness, being convenient for data analysis, receiving a large number of respondents, etc

The questionnaire was divided into 3 main parts The first part was intended to ask personal information questions and student’s attitudes towards writing skills The second part aimed to state some common errors that students often made in writing paragraphs The last part was formed to indicate the causes of such errors and suggest some solutions to help students improve writing skills in paragraphs The purpose of each question in the survey was set up in the following order:

Question 1 examined stages that students often faced difficulties in the process of writing paragraphs

Question 2 asked about the frequency of making errors in 6 main problems including Grammar, vocabulary, format, ideas, coherence & cohesion and influence of Vietnamese styles

Question 3 investigated students’ frequency of making grammatical errors Question 4 investigated students’ frequency of making vocabulary errors

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Question 5 investigated students’ frequency of making errors in ideas Question 6 investigated students’ frequency of making errors in format

Question 7 asked students to share topics that they got into trouble with approaching writing paragraphs

Question 8 measured the students’ frequency of practicing writing paragraphs after school

Question 9 figured out the causes of making errors in students writing paragraphs

Question 10 required students to give information about the ways they recognized mistakes when writing paragraphs

Question 11 investigatedsome solutions that students use to improve their writing skills

3.4 Procedures

In the first step, the researchers discussed with the group to choose a topic for the research and then, the supervisor was responsible for reviewing and confirming for the final topic After the final confirmation, the researchers were required to write up an outline to specify research questions, objectives of the research, the participants joining in the survey and methods used for the research and then submit it for the supervisor to check before the process of conducting the survey Next, the researcher based on research questions to design a questionnaire that reached the questions and the objectives mentioned in the survey to collect data Besides, researchers asked permission from teachers of Writing I classes to borrow some of students’ paragraph writing samples to get information for questionnaire making process Then, the researchers come over to the classes which were studying Writing I subject with the permission from the teacher of these classes to collect data and asked the first English-majored students to complete the questionnaire At the end of the survey, the researchers expressed their gratitude to the students who completed the questionnaire by giving them candies and saying “Thank you for your cooperation” The researcher gathered 211 student’s answer sheets after visiting 6 classes of Writing I The procedure of data collection directly made information accurate, honest and objective for the research

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3.5 Data analysis

After the data was fully collected, the researcher designed a questionnaire on Excel program and transferred all the students' answers into Excel for data analysis Analyzed data are shown by pie charts, column charts, tables with percentages and numbers presented on each answer

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CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

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In this section, the writer reported the results of the study according to each gathered question about some common errors and the causes of each error in writing paragraph

4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Student’s attitudes towards their writing skills

Question 1: How well are your writing skills?

Figure 4.1 Students’ self-evaluation towards their writing skills

The pie chart presents the results of a study of English-majored freshmen's self-assessment of their writing skills, including five choices in the participants' responses: Bad, below average, average, good and excellent

It can be clearly seen that the majority of freshmen self-evaluated their own writing skills as average, which were accounted for more than half of the total votes of nearly 52 percent On the other hand, the number of participants who rated their writing skills as good and excellent was very low, it was only about 4 percent In addition, more than two-fifths of the rest considered themselves to be below average and bad, 28% percent and 17.5% orderly

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Question 2: What do you think of writing skills?

Figure 4.2 Students’ attitudes towards writing skills

In this pie chart, attitudes towards writing skills of the English-majored students of IUH were based on four opinions: very interesting, interesting, no idea and not interesting/ boring It is obvious to recognize that more than nearly two-thirds of the participants found writing skills to be interesting Looking at the information in more detail, we can see that nearly half of students of FFL indicated that they were interested in writing skills and over 15% of students figured out writing skills very interesting By contrast, approximately 34% answered that they had no idea about writing skills which means that writing skills were normal with them Curiously, there was only a small percentage of students who responded writing skills were boring or not interesting

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4.1.2 Some common errors in writing paragraphs

Question 3: What stages do you often have difficulties in the process of writing paragraphs?

Figure 4.3 The difficulties in the process of writing paragraphs

The chart above shows the number of factors that English-majored freshmen at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City often struggle with in the process of writing paragraphs consisting of choosing the topic, narrowing down the topic, planning, brainstorming ideas, drafting and revising & editing

From this chart, it can be seen that brainstorming ideas were the most popular choice among freshmen, accounting for 58.3% of the participants with the highest number of respondents, 123 students Next, 36% of planning wasthe second most challenging factor for students in the process of writing paragraphs The proportion of first-year students choosing revising and editing was ranked at the next position with nearly 30 percent In the rest of the chart, 147 answers of the remaining participants claimed that their writing difficulties were mainly caused by choosing, narrowing down the topic and drafting

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Question 4: How often do you make these following errors?

Figure 4.4 The students’ frequency of making errors in writing paragraphs

The bar chart indicates the frequency of committing errors by the English-majored freshmen of FFL, including the popular errors stated as grammar, vocabulary, paragraph structures and ideas as well as the prevalence of mistakes on different levels: never, sometimes, often, always and no idea

Looking at the graph, it is readily apparent that grammar and vocabulary were the two popular mistakes that were always made by the highest quantity of learners To be more specific, a very large majority also confirmed that grammar and vocabulary were a great obstacle in their writing paragraphs, more than four-fifths of students addressed that they often struggled with these two factors On the other hand, also of note are there was the number of respondents who declared that they always coped with grammatical errors and vocabulary that was higher than other errors, it made up about nearly 50 answerers in a total of each error Additionally, errors of paragraph structures and ideas were answered that they sometimes had been with the responses of 102 and 109 people respectively in a total of votes On the other hand, in referred errors, no idea and never belonged to the least rates in the survey

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Question 5: How often do you make mistakes related to grammar?

Figure 4.5 The students’ frequency of making grammatical mistakes in writing paragraphs

The bar graph in Figure 4.5 indicates numerous types of grammatical mistakes from the first-year students at IUH in writing paragraphs Moreover, the result of this research mentioned 8 popular grammatical errors which often occurred in students’ writing consisting of tenses, relative clauses, articles, prepositions, comparisons, if clauses, reported speech and punctuation

In general, the participants had difficulty with most of the errors listed above It can be seen that most of the errors were voted in the frequency of sometimes with nearly 100 participants, especially, the occurrence of sometimes in tenses and if clauses were chosen by more than 100 voters Similarly, the degree to which participants responded that they often made mistakes also ranged from 55 to 75 respondents Meanwhile, the rate of answers that they always make in each grammatical error was considered lower than other levels, it only less than a third at all and the Some common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphsSome common errors of english majored freshmen at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in writing paragraphs

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number of people who answered that they never had any problems with grammatical errors were very low

Question 6: How often do you make mistakes related to vocabulary?

Figure 4.6 The students’ frequency of making vocabulary mistakes in writing paragraphs

The bar chart gives information about the frequency of usual mistakes made by the first IUH English-majored students in terms of vocabulary including spelling, lack of vocabulary, misunderstanding of words’ meaning and collocation It is equivalent to five various levels: never, sometimes, often, always and no idea

Looking at the chart from Figure 4.6., lack of vocabulary, misunderstanding of words’ meaning and collocation had the highest rate of participants voted for mistakes related to vocabulary To be more specific, 37 respondents stated that lack of vocabulary was always a barrier that prevented them from good at vocabulary Moreover, misunderstanding of words’ meaning was a highlighted mistake that students regularly produced errors referred to vocabulary, it accounted for 36 answers of the participants Finally, the proportion of freshmen choosing collocation was the third popular mistake which they always had trouble with vocabulary occupied 31 participants from the chart

above The least popular answer was for both no idea and never

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Question 7: How often do you make mistakes related to ideas?

Figure 4.7 The students’ frequency of making mistakes related to ideas in writing paragraphs

The bar chart from Figure 4.7 compares the 1st English-majored participants’ responses at IUH with regard to regular ideas’ errors in writing paragraphs As can be seen from the chart, the frequency which learners responded that they sometimes and often made 3 common mistakes about ideas such as lack of ideas, lack of background knowledge and developing ideas when writing paragraphs was comprised the largest voters To be more specific, the answerers said that they sometimes making errors of lack of ideas accounted for 95 responses, 87 votes of lacking background knowledge and 75 people in approval on developing ideas Referring to answers of the frequency of often, there were ranged from 83 to 96 responses in three common errors of ideas Whereas, the results of a survey of people who selected that they always had troubled with those errors were lower It just had 25 votes for always lack of background knowledge and developing ideas, lack of ideas was 23 participants

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Question 8: How often do you make mistakes related to paragraph structures?

Figure 4.8 The students’ frequency of making mistakes related to paragraph structures in writing paragraphs

The bar chart from Figure 4.8 illustrates troubles which the English-majored freshmen who werestudying at IUH got in the structure of writing paragraphs According to the results of the survey collected, paragraph structures problems in writing paragraphs contained three main matters: topic sentences, supporting sentences and concluding sentences

Looking at the graph, it is readily apparent that most of the learners had difficulty with errors in paragraph structures at the largest rate of sometimes and often In terms of topic sentences, the participants stated that they sometimes spent a hard time on topic sentences’ matter in the highest incidence of the survey, it made up more than half of answers, while 54 students were said to be that they often struggled with topic sentences every time they wrote paragraphs and it just 22 people thought they always had those problems Relating to supporting sentences and concluding sentences, more than 90 freshmen who participated in the survey answered that they sometimes made mistakes with those problems in writing paragraphs, followed by 83 students said to often happen in the frequency of supporting sentences and 72 students in concluding sentences respectively Next, the proportion of students who voted on the frequency of always making mistakes in each problem fluctuated from 22 to 28 voters Finally, the least number of answers belonged to both never and no idea