developing listening skills through songs in teaching english a case study at tran van on high school

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY BÙI THỊ NGỌC AN COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF ARTICLES AMONG NON-MAJOR ENGLISH FIRST - YEAR STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSI

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF ARTICLES AMONG NON-MAJOR ENGLISH FIRST – YEAR

STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY: PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of foreign languages

In partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English

By

BÙI THỊ NGỌC AN

Supervised by

NGUYỄN THỊ CHÂU ANH, Ph.D

BINH DUONG, MAY 2023

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

BÙI THỊ NGỌC AN

COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF ARTICLES AMONG NON-MAJOR ENGLISH FIRST - YEAR STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY:

PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS

MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Supervised By

NGUYEN THI CHAU ANH, Ph.D

BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2023

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my study supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Chau Anh, for her valuable guidance, support, complement and patience throughout my study Without her assistance and useful contributions, this study would not have been completed She also provided me with a great deal of support and encouragement throughout the year She always made me feel comfortable whenever I felt confused and worried during my study She set a good model of teacher for me not only her deep knowledge but also her characteristics

I am grateful to the assistance and support from Dr Tran Thanh Du, and the other teachers (T) and professors at TDMU I also thank my co-teachers, my beloved non-English-major students, and the English program director at TDMU who were willing to become the participants in the study

I would like to express my gratefulness to all of my classmates in the MA program, in the academic years 2019-2021 at TDMU for their available friendship, support and continual assistance throughout the years

Finally, I would like to show my greatest love to my beloved family I would like to spend my special love to my parents for their love and invaluable support so that I could complete my study throughout the year

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I declare that this study titled “Common Errors in the Use of Articles among Non-major English First - year Students at Thu Dau Mot University: Problems and Suggestions” is created by my own findings and I am the unique author of this

thesis To the best of my knowledge and understanding, with the indication of reference materials, this study is conducted by using author’s work and is submitted after a carefully checking progress from my supervisor in order to complete the requirements of the Master’s Degree

Binh Duong, May 2023

Signature

Bùi Thị Ngọc An

ABSTRACT

Articles in English are the grammatical points that seem to be simple but are easy to confuse when students use them This study analyzes common errors in using English articles by first-year students at TDMU The analysis was based on the data collected from the two tests: a free-response test, and a multichoice test provided by 194 non-major first-year students of TDMU and Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry Data from two tests showed that 72 TDMU students in the experimental group received grammar lessons using English articles, while 122 TDMU and HUFI students in the control group did not The experimental group showed better English performance in learning activities, including paragraph writing and speaking English Students with improved awareness of using English articles performed more effectively in these tasks The study's results suggest that experimental grammar and lexical teaching can enhance four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing Possible solutions for these errors were also proposed for improvement Moreover, the results also showed that students with improved awareness of using the articles in English could perform their paragraph writing tasks and speaking tasks more effectively, especially using the articles in English through some language materials (“Outcomes” – students’ book) and

the activities focussing on using the articles (“a”, “an”, “the”), one of the important

grammar points

Key words: grammar, articles, common errors, non-English major students

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2 1: Summary of English articles 7 Table 4 1: Statistical table determiner errors in noun phrase and errors of articles in writing – Preliminary – Servey 49 Table 4 2: Some examples of common errors in Writing test 49 Table 4 7: The length of time for students’ learning English before taking the course (G1) 52 Table 4 8: The length of time for students’ learning English before taking the course (G2) 53 Table 4 17: A rule of thumb for interpreting Cronbach’s Alpha Score 59 Table 4 20: The Mean of the items from 8.1 to 8.10 in Question 8 in experimental group 60 Table 4 3: Frequency of male and female in G1 lxx Table 4 4: Frequency of male and female in G2 lxx Table 4 5: Non – majored students learning English before in G1 lxx Table 4 6: Non – majored students learning English before in G2 lxxi Table 4 9: Reasons for students studying English in G1 lxxi Table 4 10: Reasons for students studying English in G2 lxxii Table 4 11: Students taking in part-time jobs in G1 lxxii Table 4 12: Students taking in part-time jobs in G2 lxxiii Table 4 13: Frequency of students using English at home in G1 lxxiii Table 4 14: Frequency of students using English at home in G2 lxxiii Table 4 15: Students’ attitude toward learning how to use articles in English grammar lessons in G1 lxxiv Table 4 16: Students’ attitude toward learning how to use articles in English grammar lessons in G2 lxxiv Table 4 18: Students’ evaluation of benefirs of the use of articles in noun phrase in learning English grammar in G1 lxxv Table 4 19: Students’ evaluation of benefits of the use of articles in noun phrase in learning English grammar in G2 lxxvi Table 4.21 a Result of the pre-test of 2 groups (G1 and G2) – Independent Samples T Test 63 Table 4.21 b Result of the pre-test of 2 groups (G1 and G2) – Independent Samples T Test 64 Table 4.22 a: Reliability Analysis for students’ attitude towards learning how to use articles in English grammar lessons (N=140) 59 Table 4.22 b: Reliability Analysis for students’ attitude towards learning how to use articles in English grammar lessons (N=140) 59 Table 4.23 a: Reliability analysis of the scale “Students’ evaluation of benefits of the use of articles in noun phrase when learning English grammar” 61 Table 4.23 b: Reliability analysis of the scale “Students’ evaluation of benefits of the use of articles in noun phrase when learning English grammar” 61

Table 4.24 a: Post-test scores of G1 and G2 – Independent samples T Test 64

Table 4.24 b Post-test score of G1 and G2 – Independent samples T Test 64

Table 4.25 a: The result of Pre-test and Post-test of group 1 65

Table 4.25 b: Sig (2 -tailed) of Pre-test and Post-test of group 1 65

Table 4.26 a: Mean of Pre-test and Post-test scores in Pair 1 in G2 – Paired samples T Test 66

Table 4.26 b: Mean of pre-test and Post-test scores in pair 1 in G2 – Paired samples Test 66

T-Table 4.27 a: Statistics analysis of Pair samples in G1 and G2 67

Table 4.27 b: Statistics analysis of Pair samples in G1 and G2 68

Table 4.27 c: Statistics analysis of Pair samples in G1 and G2 68

Table 4.27 d: One way ANOVA 68

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3 1 Stratification (adapted from Haliday & Matthiessen 2004:25) 41

Figure 3 2 Pre-test, Post-test of experimental and control group design (adapted from Muijs, 2004) 41

Figure 4 1: Gender in two groups in Q.1 51

Figure 4 2: Non – majored students in two groups learning English before taking the course 52

Figure 4 3: The length of time for students learning English before taking the course (G1 and G2) 54

Figure 4 4: Reasons for students studying English in G1 (motivation) 54

Figure 4 5: Reasons for students studying English in G2 (motivation) 55

Figure 4 6: Students taking part in part-time job 55

Figure 4 7: Frequency of students using English at home in G1 and G2 56

Figure 4 8: Students’ attitude toward learning how to use articles in English grammar lessons in G1 57

Figure 4 9: Students’ attitude toward learning how to use articles in English grammar lessons in G2 58

Figure 4 10: Students’ taking part in learning activities in their classrooms in G1 (N= 68) 62

Figure 4 11: Students’ taking part in learning activities in their classrooms in G2 (N=72) 62

Figure 4 12: Statistics analysis of Pair samples in G1 and G2 67

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 The aims of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 The scope of the study 4

1.5 The research methods 4

1.6 The significance of the study 4

1.7 The structure of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Definitions of terms (Extracted from Oxford Advanced Dictionary) 6

2.2 Types of English articles 6

2.3 Usage of English articles 9

2.4 The determiners in Vietnamese language 9

2.5.Errors Analysis 14

2.6 Definition of Determiner 27

2.7 Experimental research 30

2.8 Storytelling 32

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 37

3.1 Setting of the study TDMU and HUFI 37

3.2 Participants 40

3.3 Research design 40

3.4 Experimental teaching 43

3.5 Materials 45

3.6 Instruments of data collection 46

3.7 Data collection procedure 46

3.8 Methods of data analysis 46

3.9 Mean (M) 47

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 49

4.1 Common Errors in the use of Articles in Writing Test 49

4.2 Causes of the errors the students make in the use of English articles based on data analysis .51

4.3 Recommendations and solutions for the teachers to teach English articles effectively 56

4.4 Detailed analysis of the result of Pre-test and Post-test 63

4.5 Detailed analysis of ANOVA DATA of the result of Pre-test and Post-test 67

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter of the study presents the seven parts of the research, such as (1) the rationale for the study, (2) the aims of the study, (3) the research questions, (4) the scope of the study, (5) the research method, (6) the significance of the study, and (7) the

structure of the study

1.1 Rationale for the study

English is becoming more and more popular, making learning it more important and necessary than ever Through practice, students (ss) in general and students at Thu Dau Mot University (TDMU) in particular encounter many errors when using articles in English

In writing tests, in Table 4.1 (chapter 4) students usually make some errors, such as spelling mistakes, tenses, determiners, punctuation marks, Inside, determiners account for the highest percentage of errors (479 errors involving determiners and NP),

especially the 272 errors involving articles (“a”/ “an”/ “the”), which take up 56.78%

Beside that, through the process of teaching, through assessment tests, and through observation of writing tests, students often choose the wrong article more than others The aims of the study are to (1) What are the common types of articles? (2) What are the possible causes of the errors the ss make in the use of English articles? (3) What are the solutions and recommendations for the teachers to teach English articles in noun phrase effectively? And the researcher decided to do a research paper on this issue That

is the reason why the researcher choose “Common Errors in the Use of Articles among Non-major English First - year Student at Thu Dau Mot University: Problems and Suggestions” as the title of this research paper

❖ The importance of articles in English language

Articles are quite important in English, as they provide certain information about the nouns they precede The absence or misuse of an article will make a sentence look and sound very strange to the English people

Consider this sentence:

“Dog ate my shoe.”

Although the meaning of this is clear, it is ungrammatical in English because it lacks an article

The definite article “the” specifies, characterizes, and identifies a noun, and often suggests the listener is already familiar with it “The” is also used to delimit– to define

a certain subgroup It is also used with geographical sites (but not names of countries unless there is a noun in the name) For example:

“The Italian people” (not necessarily all Italians but Italians as a group) “That is the most important thing you’ve ever said”

“The cheese I like best is Swiss cheese”

“The dog ate my shoe” (implies a dog you are familiar with) “The North Sea”

“The Republic of South Africa” (but: “South Africa”)

If no articles (“zero article”/ “Ø”) is used (if grammatically possible), the noun becomes more general; nouns are often used in the plural in this case For example:

“Milk is full of calcium.”

“Firearms can be dangerous if they are used by children.”

The indefinite articles “a” and “an” also treat a noun in the general sense and

are also used to state one’s profession:

“A dog ate my shoe.” (implies an unfamiliar dog) “The shots came from a car of unknown type.” “I’m a dentist and she’s an optician.”

Sometimes the article makes little difference in meaning:

“The British people love tea.” “British people love tea.”

Articles in the English system are one of the most difficult aspects of English grammar for ss Articles in English are frequently used and easily confused, which can negatively affect communication

There are three main causes leading to this confusion:

Firstly, articles such as a, an, the are commonly used function words in English,

so when Ss write an essay, applying the rules for using articles causes them a lot of difficulties Secondly, these words as determiners are often spoken with such weak stress, that is also difficult for non-native speakers in learning English Finally, it is

difficult to determine when to use the article “the”, e.g., when writing a number of

students instead of the number of students

Errors in the use of articles can be explained by the fact that Vietnamese does not

have articles which are exactly equivalent to “a”, “an” and “the” in English Instead,

Vietnamese uses a system of word numbers and word types

It is because of this difference between English and Vietnamese that many

Vietnamese people, when using English, have difficulty distinguishing the usage of “a”,

“an” and “the” Many students confuse or even omit these articles when speaking and

writing English

1.2 The aims of the study

This study carries out with the aims:

(1) To identify the students’ common types of errors in using English articles (2) To find out the causes of errors committed by non-major English first-year

students when learning and using English articles

(3) To work out possible solutions to the problems identified

1.4 The scope of the study

Because of time constraints and the length of a master’s thesis, the scope of this study is on the following aspects: research on the different kinds of English tests, focussing on the use of articles and assignments, and teaching and learning activities and academic instructions during the course The participants of this study are 194 non–majored English first–year students at TDMU and HUFI

1.5 The research methods

In order to complete the paper, the quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the main research:

(1) Statistical methods are used to find out and classify the learners’ errors;

(2) Descriptive methods are used to describe the actual errors made by the learners

1.6 The significance of the study

The study will be useful and meaningful not only to the author and her colleagues in improving the teaching quality, but also to the students who will get a lot of benefits from it The result of the study will serve as a foundation for the possible solutions to students’ common errors in using English articles Besides, the study will make some contributions to the field of teaching methodology

1.7 The structure of the study

The study organizes into five chapters as follows:

Chapter 4: Findings and Disscussions

The results of the data are reported, described, analyzed and discussed Therefore, the answers of the three research questions are clarified in this chapter

Chapter 5: Conclusion, Solutions and Recommendations

This chapter provides conclusion, some solutions, and recommendations for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter of the study presents the eight parts of the research, such as (1) definitions of terms, (2) type of English articles, (3) usage of English articles , (4) the determiners in Vietnamese language, (5) errors analysis, (6) definition of determiner,

(7) experimental research, and (8) storytelling

2.1 Definitions of terms (Extracted from Oxford Advanced Dictionary)

As explained by Oxford Dictionary, english article is a word used before a noun

to show whether the noun refers to a particular example of something or to a general example of something

As mentioned by Oxford Dictionary, definite article is a determiner “the” that introduces a NP and implies that the thing mentioned has already been mentioned, or is common knowledge, or is about to be defined

As stated by Oxford Advanced Dictionary, indefinite article is a determiner (“a” and “an”) that introduces a NP and implies that the thing referred to is non–specific (for

example: (1) “in she bought me a book”; (2) “government is an art”; (3) “he went to a

public school”) Typically, the indefinite article is used to introduce new concepts into

2.2 Types of English articles

Thomson and Martinet (1986:15–22) divide English articles into two categories:

definite article “the” and indefinite article “a”/ “an” However, Quirk and Greenbaum (1987) add a new type, “zero article(Ø)”

As a result, the English articles “a”/ “an”, “the”, and “Ø” (“the null” or “zero

marker” or “zero article”).Indefinite and definite articles are the two types of articles

As indefinite articles, singular countable nouns use “a”/ “an” The definite marker for all nouns is “the” The table below summarizes this system:

Table 2 1: Summary of English articles

Indefinite Article Definite Article

Countable Noun Singular “a”/ “an” “the”

Plural “Ø” “the”

Uncountable Noun “Ø” “the”

2.2.1 Definite articles and indefinite articles

“The definite article “the” never varies in form whether it refers to people or

things, singular or plural” (Alexander, 1998:55)

(1) a “Ann is in the garden.” (“the garden of this house”) b “Please pass the wine.” (“the wine on the table”)

(Martinet, 1998:19)

(2) “I don’t like surprises.”

In the example above, the noun “surprises” in the first sentence is referring to

generic surprises as the speaker does not designate what kind of surprises Consequently,

the noun “surprises” does not involve a definite article “the”

Quirk et al (1985:272) give this definition:

The indefinite article is notionally the “unmarked” article in the sense that it is

used (for singular count nouns) where the conditions for the use of “the” do not obtain That is, “a”/ “an” X will be used where the reference of X is not uniquely identifiable

in the shared knowledge of the speaker and hearer

The indefinite article “a”/ “an” occurs in an indefinite singular NP environment to denote the countability of the NP This special syntactic distribution of “a”, however,

signals an important conceptual meaning such as individuating or particularising

2.2.2 Zero articles

Although the term “zero article” traditionally refers to any instance in which a

noun requires no article (zero article/ Ø), the researchers (Yotsukura, 1970; Celce–

Murcia & Larsen–Freeman, 1999) divided the “zero article” into two types: zero and

null To Yotsukura, there is distributional evidence suggesting a form other than the

“zero articles” By using a post modifying restrictive relative clause test, she discovered

that the second zero form is found before singular proper nouns and some common nouns

Chesterman suggests using the term the “null form” for the second zero article

Let us consider examples such as the following from Chesterman (1991:17)

(3) a * “I like London that the tourists see.” b “I like the London that the tourists see.” c “I like cheese that is made of goat’s milk.” (4) a “Word has come that the Pope has died.”

b * “Word that came yesterday was that the Pope has died.” c “The word that came yesterday was that the Pope has died.” (5) a “What about question seven?”

b * “What about question seven you answered before, then?” c “What about the question seven you answered before, then?” (6) a “Breakfast is ready.”

b * “Breakfast you asked for is ready.” c “The breakfast you asked for is ready.”

Through a post–modifying restrictive clause test, it can be seen that there is a

difference between a proper noun such as “London” (with a presumed “null article”) and a common noun such as “cheese” (with a presumed “zero article”) A noun with a

“zero article” can be used with a restrictive clause, but a noun with the “null form”

cannot In order to “identify” the proper nouns in (3b), (4c), (5c), and (6c), “the” should be used instead Master (1997) supports Chesterman when he regards the “null form” as “the null article” To him, “the null article” is the most definite of the articles

2.3 Usage of English articles

“Articles are the most commonly used words in English, and yet their usage is in fact surprisingly complex Part of the complexity can be attributed to the fact that the English article system does not consist of one–to–one form and meaning relationships This complexity poses a number of challenges for L2 learners of English” (Andersen 1984, cited in Butler, 2002:452)

Quirk and Greenbaum’s (1987) classification of usage types is well known and frequently cited Their classification is based on two concepts: specific reference and generic reference From the standpoint of language teaching, this classification has produced a large number of “detailed rules” that can be generalized and re–categorized The three basic functions of the article, according to Quirk and Greenbaum (1987:67–80), are to express (a) specific reference, (b) generic reference, and (c) unique reference

Specific reference addresses the most important aspect of the article, as it

includes the functions of the article as a discourse referent (e.g “A dog and two cats are

sleeping in the cage”) The reference is specific because we are thinking about specific

specimens of the class “cat” Quirk and Greenbaum (1987) In English, new information

is given to the reader at the end of a sentence As a result, new information is marked with an indefinite article, and once the reader has been introduced to the information, it is placed in sentence–non–final position and marked with a definite article

Generic reference, according to Quirk and Greenbaum (1987:68), is used to

describe what is normal or typical for members of a class (e.g “Cats are cute animals”) Because we are thinking of the class “cat” as a whole rather than specific cats, the

reference is general

2.4 The determiners in Vietnamese language

Before we start with a description of the Vietnamese determiners, we will briefly review the construction of the NP in Vietnamese and the issue of noun categorization in languages First, generally, a Vietnamese NP has three parts: a pre–part, a central part, and a post–part The pre–part consists of determiners and quantifiers The central part

consists of nouns, and the post–part of referential particles (i.e “one word”) and

modifiers (Nguyễn Tài Cẩn, 1975)

(7) “Ba viên phấn này” [Pre][Central][Post] (“Three pieces chalk this”) (“These three pieces of chalk”)

In (7) the pre–part is “ba” (i.e meaning “three”, an absolute quantifier), the post part is “này” (i.e a referential particle equivalent to “this”) In the central part, there are two nouns: “viên” and “phấn” The structure of the central part is similar to a

partitive phrase in English This kind of partitive structure is quite abundant in Vietnamese NP constructions It is this central part that has raised a lot of debate among

linguists, namely, which noun is head: “viên” (“piece”) or “phấn” (“chalk”)?

The first view holds that the nucleus of the central part lies in the second noun

(i.e “phấn” = “chalk”) rather than in the first noun, which is a classifier (i.e “viên” = “piece”) The second view, by contrast, maintains that the nucleus should be the first

noun, not the second noun It is also worth noting that according to Cao Xuân Hạo (1999), who advocates the second view, the first noun is a count noun rather than a classifier, and the second noun is a non–count noun, which acts as a post modifier (See Cao Xuân Hạo (1999) for his detailed argument.) These views are interesting, but we will not take a position because we merely want to focus on the similarities and differences between the Vietnamese and English systems to understand what is so difficult for Vietnamese learners In this description, the analysis will base on Cao Xuân Hạo’s view concerning the NP construction That is, if there are two elements in the central part of a NP, the first noun is the head, being a count noun, which is modified by a non–count noun that follows as is seen in (7)

Second, in order to understand the noun system in Vietnamese in relation to English, we need to deal with the categorization of mass and count nouns Linguists have agreed that different languages have different ways of categorizing a noun as count

or mass For example, in English “furniture” is non–count while “cow” in Vietnamese

is a mass noun, and it is a count–noun in English We can mention in passing that different ways of categorizing nouns can influence the semantic correspondence

between nouns across languages Therefore, if “cow” is used as an example again,

“cow” in English is equal to “con bò” in Vietnamese, whose structure consists of count

noun (“con” = head) modified by a non–count noun (“bò=cows”) The non–count noun

“bò” in Vietnamese is only semantically equivalent to the plural count noun “cows” in

determiners: “những”, “các” (plural markers), “một” (= “a”/ “one”), “null–form” and “zero article” However, some other linguists do not agree on categorizing “những” and “các” as articles, but consider them numerals (Emeneau, 1951) Cao Xuân Hạo (1999) still considers “một”, “zero”, “những”, and “các” quantifiers Although the issue is

controversial, in this section we will provide a sketch of the grammar of the article–like determiners with regard to the marking of definiteness and nondefiniteness based on Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (1975) In this description we will use the term determiner for what some linguists considered as articles (Nguyễn Tài Cẩn, 1975; Đinh văn Đức, 1986) and

for the word “cái”, which is quite controversial This presentation will reveal some

difficulties Vietnamese learners may encounter when acquiring the English article

system Let us now start with the determiner “một”

Linguists generally agree that the Vietnamese article system can be compared to the English article system in terms of determiners Vietnamese has four determiners,

according to Đinh Văn Đức (1986): “những”, “các” (plural markers), “một” (= “a”/

“one”), “null–form” and “zero article” However, some linguists disagree that “những”

and “các” are articles and instead consider them numerals In this study, I will refer to

what some linguists call articles as determiners This paper will discuss some of the difficulties that Vietnamese learners may face when learning the English article system

“Một”

“Một” (a), derive from the numeral “một” (one), is an indefinite determiner in

Vietnamese “Một” is quite similar to a in English in terms of non–definite and specific

use

(8) “Một tách trà.” “A/one cup tea.”

“A cup of tea.”

However, “một” + N does not seem to be an equivalent of “a” + N in English

with respect to predicate nominative constructions and generic use

(9) “Ông ấy là bác sĩ.” “Ông ấy là một bác sĩ.”

illustration is in (10)

(10) “Bất kỳ con sư tử nào cũng là thuộc loài động vật có vú.” “Any lions also belong class mammal.”

“A lion is a mammal.”

Hence, “một” in Vietnamese is used with a count noun having either a specific

or a non–specific sense However, in constructions like the predicate nominative

construction, “một” is not an equivalent for a because non–count nouns occur in this

construction in Vietnamese.Thus the use of the indefinite article in a predicate nominative construction is expected to be a potential difficulty for Vietnamese learners Also the indefinite article in a generic sense is expected to be difficult

In example (11), the uncountable nouns “furniture” and “clothing” when first

mentioned are not preceded by a determiner When they are repeated the second time,

they must be preceded by the definite article “the” Whereas, in Vietnamese, no

determiner is used in both cases

As mentioned, the two no–article forms in Vietnamese are “null” and “zero” “Null” is used before a count noun with a definite sense “Zero” is used with non–count

nouns, which are neutral to being definite or non–definite It is the latter that may present

difficulty for ss when acquiring “the” in English For most nouns in endophoric uses (i.e situation uses such as “the supermarket”, “the park”) which take “the” in English

will take zero articles in Vietnamese because the nouns used in these cases (i.e

“endophoric uses”) in Vietnamese are mostly non–count Also, “the special null” as in

(11) in cases of second mention can influence Vietnamese learners’ decision in using

the or “null” when a noun is later referred to in English

Also, in cases of second mention, Vietnamese learners may use a “zero article” before an English noun (instead of using “the”) as a result of the influence of “the

special null” as illustrated in (8) For in Vietnamese after a count noun is introduced, a

non–count noun may be used for a second mention In this case, a “zero article” (i.e “the special null”, as labeled by Nguyễn Tài Cẩn) is used We will now turn our attention to “những” and “các” (“numerators”)

“Những”/ “Các”

“Những” and “các” are literally plural markers They are used with count nouns

to mark plurality

(12) “Những vì sao” (“the stars”)

“Các vì sao” (“the stars”)

However, they are a little different from the

(13) “Phía sân khấu là một nhóm các nhạc công Những nhạc công đó chơi nhiều loại nhạc cụ phương đông.” (“Behind the screen was a group of Ø musicians The musicians played various oriental instruments.”)

In the above example, the first time the word “musicians” appear, they are not

preceded by determiners, because the thing referred have not been mentioned

previously The second time the word “musicians” appear, they are preceded by “the”, since the thing have already been mentioned However, in Vietnamese, “những”/ “các”

appear whenever nouns are plural

Both English and Vietnamese have count and non–count nouns, but English must mark for plural whereas Vietnamese does not Hence, it can be expected that there is some systematicity to the errors made by Vietnamese learners, but that problem may occur with all articles in English.

2.5 Errors Analysis

2.5.1 The notions of errors in language learning

A number of experts in linguistics have presented numerous notions of error Norrish (1992:7) calls “a systematic deviation when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong, an error”, while Corder (1992) maintains that errors are systematic and consistent deviances characteristic of the learner’s linguistic system at a given stage of learning

2.5.2 Definition of Error analysis

In the late 1960s, EA emerged and subsequently became the optimal choice over CA This does not imply a complete rejection of CA; it remains foundational since it gave way to errors analysis But EA reveals a wider dimension of likely errors rather than monopolizing it in one dimension as in CA

Brown (2000:166) states that EA is the fact that learners do make errors and that these errors can be observed, analyzed and classified to reveal something of the system operating within the learners The purpose is to show some problems faced by the Ss It is a key to understand the process of second or FL acquisition

2.5.3 Errors versus mistakes

In any discussion of errors, the two common questions are of what is meant by an error and how an error can be distinguished from a mistake Corder (1967, 1971) and James (1998) reveal a criterion of self–correctability to make such a clear–cut distinction A mistake can be more or less self–corrected while an error cannot be recognizable by the learners and is, therefore, not amenable to self–corrected The learner’s instrument of correction is their grammatical knowledge of the target language

Furthermore, Brown (1980: 165, 1994: 205) has also shown that a mistake is “a

performance error that is either a random guess or a slip in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly” whereas an error is “a noticeable deviation from the adult

grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of a learner”

Similarly, according to Richards et al (1992: 127), the term error is “the use of a

linguistic item (e.g a word, a grammatical item, etc.) in a way which a fluent or native speaker of the language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning” The authors

also make a clear–cut distinction between an error that “results from incomplete knowledge” and a mistake that “is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or

some other aspects of performance”

The differences between “performance errors” and “competence errors” should not be neglected As in first language learning, some of errors are “lapses” or slips of

the tongue” due to physical or psychological reasons and they are non–systematic (Corder: 1981) Some errors, on the other hand, occur regularly and show the misunderstanding of the L2 system The first kind of error is what Chomsky (1965) calls “performance error” and the second kind “competence error” The competence is “the speaker–hearer’s knowledge of his language” while performance is “the actual use of language in concrete situation” (Chomsky, 1965: 4)

This thesis aimed at examining the students’ ability in their use or usage1of English articles as well as analyzing their common errors in terms of linguistic aspect;

therefore, the term “errors” will be frequently used in this thesis

2.5.4 Approaches to errors

In the fifties and early sixties, language learners’ errors were considered undesirable and looked upon as “a sign of learning failure”, i.e something not having adequately acquired (Littewood, 1984: 22) In other words, “errors were the results of non–learning, rather than wrong learning” (Ellis, 1994: 47) Lado (1957) proposed a scientific description of both the learners’ first and second or Foreign Language (FL)

1 Although Widdowson (1978) first makes a distinction between use and usage in facilitating a language

pedagogic discussion, these terms are equally applicable to language acquisition Therefore, they are used

interchangeably in this M.A thesis According to Widdowson (1978: 3, cited in Ellis, 1994: 13), usage is “that

aspect of performance which makes evident the extent to which the language user demonstrates his knowledge

of linguistic rules” while use is “that aspect of performance which makes evident the extent to which the

language user demonstrates his ability to use his knowledge of linguistic rules for effective communication”

Language pattern from the learners’ first language were taken to be a major cause of errors in their target language At that time, “the prevention of errors was more important than the identification of errors” (Ellis, 1985: 51) This outlook owed a great deal to structuralist views of language and behaviourist views of human learning, with the belief that if the teacher taught well, taking great care to help his/her learners avoid errors, and if the patterns of the new language were drilled efficiently, there was no reason for the learners to make any errors at all Thus, Ts and learners had to engage in repetition, language drills, and over mastery of language items (Richards and Rogers, 1986); furthermore, “massive practice” was emphasized to “ensure correctness” (Brumfitet al, 1980: 134)

It was not until the 1970s, these foundations fell into disrepute as linguists began to look at learners’ language errors in a new way There was “a resurgence of interest in EA” (Ellis, 1985: 519) At that time errors were no longer seen as “unwanted forms” (George: 1972) to be eliminated but were used as data for analysis and as evidence of learner’s active contribution to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) The goal of language teaching shifted, at the same time, from linguistic competence to communicative competence EA became development that owed much to the work of Corder, who “published a number of seminal articles” in which he examined errors “as a way of investigating learning processes” (Ellis, 1994: 19) As more and more studies have been undertaken, it has been proved that “learners must make errors as an unavoidable and necessary part of the learning process and errors is a visible proof that learning is taking place” (Brumfit et al, 1980: 135)

According to Ellis (1994), if a regular pattern of errors could be observed and the learners were seen to progress through this pattern, it was a sign of achievement in learning With this change in attitude, the emphasis of EA has also changed from “the product”, i.e the errors themselves, to “the process” or the system behind these errors It was realized that the learners evolved a system for themselves, which was much simpler than the system of language being learnt by them: they seemed to ignore certain redundancies and revised some rules if necessary, simplifying their learning tasks The learners were also found to change this system as the increasing exposure to the language they were learning According to Richard (1974), errors can be looked upon as a developmental phenomenon, providing evidence regarding the rules and

categories used by the learners in a particular time

2.5.5 Significance of errors analysis

Bartlett (2002: 68) states that the theoretical frameworks of Contrastive Analysis (CA), EA, and Interlanguage2 were established to react to the CA Hypothesis, which attempts to “predict the errors in L2 that the learners of various L1 backgrounds will make” (Larsen–Freeman and Long, 1991: 52–55) In this thesis, EA was considerably concerned

Richards et al (1992: 127), theoretically supported by Ellis (1994: 47), define EA as “the study and analysis of the errors made by second or FL learners” or as the study of “errors in learners” “interlanguage systems” (Brown, 1994: 204) “Whereas CA looked at only the learner’s native language and the target language, EA provided a methodology for investigating learner language” and did “help construct an account

of the second–language learners’ linguistic competence” (Ellis, 1994: 48)

Prior to the early 1970s, EA involved “impressionistic collections of “common” errors and their linguistic classification" (Ellis, 1994: 48) It had long been a part of language pedagogy – “errors provided information which could be used to sequence items for teaching or to devise remedial lessons” (Ellis, 1985: 51) French (1949) took a comprehensive account on common learner’s errors and Lee (1968) reported on an analysis of some 2,000 errors in the learners’ written work However, “such traditional analyses lacked both a rigorous methodology and a theoretical framework for explaining the role played by errors in the process of L2 acquisition” (Ellis, 1994: 48) Corder (1967:167) in his series of work had developed a methodology for carrying out an EA systematically He noted that “learners’ errors are significant in that they provide the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learners are employing in the discovery of the language.” In agreement with Corder, Richards et al (1992: 127) pointed out three purposes of

2 Interlanguage, a term that Selinker (1972) adapted from Weinreich’s (1953) term interlingual, refers to (1) “the

separateness of a second language learners’ system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target language” (Brown; 1980: 163, 1994: 203) or to (2) “a dynamic and evolving linguistic system that the learner constructed from target-language input through the use of innate learning strategies and heuristics” (Richards, 1985: 63) Finegan (1994: 467) confirms, “the grammar of an interlanguage can differ from the grammar of the target language in various ways: by containing rules borrowed from the native language, by containing overgeneralizations by inappropriately marking certain verbs in the lexicon as requiring (or not requiring) a preposition and so on”

Until now, there has been a great deal of EA studies including Lott (1983), Ghadessy (1985), Kharma (1987), Butler (1990); especially, approximately 5,398 studies in Spillner’s (1991) comprehensive bibliography in the field of EA have been carried out in different countries all over the world For this reason, the author of this thesis made a decision to use EA as a tool for investigating students’ common errors in the use of English articles – one of the important determiners in front of the noun as head or in a noun in the position of modification and complementation

2.5.6 Steps in the process of error analysis

EA is carried out in five successive steps as mentioned by Corder (1974): 1 Collection of a sample of learners’ language

2 Identification of errors 3 Description of errors 4 Explanation of errors 5 Evaluation of errors

Among the above-mentioned steps, Step 5 is not included in many studies since “the evaluation of learners’ errors has generally been handled as a separate issue” (Ellis,

1994: 48) The author of this thesis has adopted these steps in analyzing the errors of English articles made by a number of students in the in-service section of FLC, at TDMU

In Step 1, such things relating to samples of learners’ language as the size, the

homogeneity with regard to the students’ age, L1 background, stage of development, used for subsequent analysis and the ways of collecting these samples are decided Lococo (1976; cited in Ellis, 1994: 50) found, “differences in the number and types of errors in samples of learners’ language are collected by means of free compositions, translation” Svartvik (1973b: 12) noted, “most errors analyses use regular examination papers such as written tests, compositions, translations, etc for material” Hence, in this thesis, a composition and a diagnostic test have been chosen as a tool for EA

Even more important is Step 2 in EA research namely identification of errors

Corder (1974) suggested a procedure of identifying errors which insists “the importance of ‘interpretation’ and distinguishes three types: normal, authoritative and plausible3” (Ellis, 1994: 52) He also attempted to make a clear distinction between

overt and covert errors “Overtly erroneous utterances” are those that are clear

deviation forms in the target language rules while “covertly erroneous utterances” are superficially and “grammatically well-formed but not interpretable within the normal context of communication” (Brown, 1994:208) The procedure shows clearly that in both cases “if a plausible interpretation can be made of the sentence then one should form a reconstruction of the sentences in the target language, compare the reconstruction with the original idiosyncratic” (Brown, 1980:167) Once the recognition has taken place, description could begin This procedure was adopted in this thesis to identify the idiosyncrasies due to mother tongue interference (MTI) errors

In Step 3, different categories for description of errors have been identified by

3 “A normal interpretation occurs when the analyst is able to assign a meaning to an utterance on the basis of the rules of the target language An authoritative interpretation involves asking the learner (if available) to say what the utterance means and, by so doing, to make an ‘authoritative reconstruction’ A plausible interpretation can

be obtained by referring to the context in which the utterance was produced or by translating the sentence literally into the learners’ L1” (Ellis, 1994: 52)

Paul Lennon (1991) and reported by Brown (1994: 210):

1 The most generalized breakdown can be made by identifying errors of

addition, omission, substitution, and ordering, following standards mathematical categories But such categories are clearly very generalized 2 Within each category, levels of language can be considered: phonology or

orthography, lexicon, grammar, and discourse

3 Errors may also be viewed as either global or local (Burt and Kiparsky, 1974)

Global errors hinder communication; they prevent the hearer from

comprehending some aspect of the message … Local errors do not prevent

the message from being heard, usually because there is only a minor violation of one segment of a sentence, allowing the hearer/reader to make an accurate guess about the intended meaning

4 Finally, Paul Lennon (1991) suggests that two related dimensions of errors,

domain and extent should be considered in any EA Domain is the tank of

linguistic unit (from phoneme to discourse) must be taken as context in order

for the errors to become apparent and extent is the rank of linguistic unit that

would have to be deleted, replaced, supplied, or reordered in order to fix or revise sentences

In this thesis, when describing errors in using English articles before a noun,

in NP when considering the 3 kinds of English articles (“a”/ “an”, “the”, or “Ø”),

the author classified them into subcategories: addition, omission, substitution or misuse These errors were regarded as local because they were just a minor violation of some segment of a sentence and the students’ intended meanings could be predicted

On the other hand, Corder’s framework (1974; cited in Ellis, 1994: 56) for describing errors is “more promising.” He distinguishes three types of errors systematically:

1 Presystematic errors occur when the learner is unaware of the existence of a

particular rule in the target language These are random

2 Systematic errors occur when the learner has discovered a rule but it is the

wrong one

3 Postsystematic errors occur when the learner knows the correct target language

rule but uses it inconsistently (i.e makes a mistake)

Explanation of errors, which is concerned with determining the source of

errors, is the most important step for SLA research because it establishes the processes responsible for L2 acquisition EA becomes distinguished from CA because it examines the errors that are attributable to all possible sources such as "interlingual errors of interference from the native language, intralingual errors within the target language, the sociolinguistic context of communication, psycholinguistic or cognitive strategies, and no doubt countless affective variables” (Brown, 1994: 206) Among these sources of errors, the psycholinguistic one concerning the nature of the L2 knowledge system and difficulties that the learners have in using this grammar point, in production should be identified, e.g the researcher tries to establish which of the five processes such as native language transfer, overgeneralization, transfer of training, communicative strategies and learning strategies is responsible for each errors

When the researcher has decided to give an explanation from a particular point

of view, “classification of the errors” should be carried out Richard (1992: 27)

classifies errors “according to vocabulary (lexical error), pronunciation (phonological error), grammar (syntactic error), production of the wrong communicative effect e.g through the faulty use of a speech act or one of the rules of speaking (pragmatic error)” In this study, errors in the use of English articles belong to lexical and syntactic errors

Corder (1973) also refers to three types of errors that are more or less similar to that suggested by Selinker (1972) to explain the nature of errors These are: (1) transfer errors, (2) analogical errors, and (3) teaching-induced errors The sources of errors are described in detail in the following part

2.5.7 Sourses of errors

A full explanation of L2 acquisition will need to take account of both external

and internal factors and how they interrelate In this study, “language transfer”, one of

the learner-internal factors is the primary source that is considerably concerned

Brown (1980: 84) defines “transfer” as “a general term describing the carryover

of previous performance or knowledge to subsequent learning” Specifically, Ellis

(1994: 28) refers L1 transfer to “the incorporate of features of the L1 into the knowledge systems of the L2 which the learner is trying to build.” Odlin’s definition of transfer

(1997: 27) is often cited because it is broad enough to encompass many different viewpoints: "Transfer is the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired”

There is generally consensus among researchers that language transfer is more likely to occur at lower levels of proficiency (Poulisse and Bongaerts, 1994; Odlin, 1997) This confirms the transfer-as-strategy perspective, since learners often draw on their L1 to fill a lexical or syntactic gap when they lack the linguistic means of expression in the L2 (Ringbom: 1986; Fuller: 1999) However, Odlin (1997) points out that the correlation between low L2 proficiency and transfer applies primarily to negative transfer, whereas certain types of transfer, such as cognate vocabulary use, occur even at high levels of proficiency

2.5.7.1 Interlingual transfer

According to Lado (1957), Ellis (1994), Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991), SLA is strongly influenced by the learner’s first language As Lado (1957: 2) claims, “those elements that are similar to his native language will be simple for him, and elements that are different will be difficult.” Beginners’ errors are considerably owed to “interlingual transfer” as they have a tendency to apply the rules that they have acquired in their mother tongue to produce their target language Nicol (2001) argues that though they have automatized the retrieval and use of L2 rules, even highly proficient L2 speakers might unconsciously use production routines from their native language, leading to ungrammatical L2 utterances

In agreement with Lado (1957), Ellis (1985), Wood (1999), Swan and Smith (2001: 6) indicated “whether the mother tongue has no equivalent for a feature, learners have particular problems in the relevant areas The equivalences between languages are rarely exact” Lado (1957), Odlin (1989), Brown (1980), Richards (1992), Ellis (1994),

Swan and Smith (2001) call this “negative transfer” or “interference”, in that

“previously learned material interferes with subsequent material – a previous item is incorrectly transferred or incorrectly associated with an item to be learned” (Brown,

1980: 85) It is not surprising that the role of “interference” is stressed in L2 teaching

since it is surely the most immediately noticeable source of errors In fact, due to MTI,

Vietnamese learners tend to use wrong articles in many different situations in the

reseacher’s classes

For example, the meanings of two pairs of the following sentences are different

1a/ “I want to marry a foreigner.”

1b/ “I want to marry the foreigner.”

2a/ “I will buy a car.”

2b/ “I will buy the car.”

On the contrary, positive transfer occurs when “the prior knowledge benefits the

learning task-that is, when a previous item is correctly applied to present subject matter” (Brown, 1980: 84) Positive transfer may facilitate SLA In fact, similarities in the lexicon, e.g striking lexical similarities in Romance languages, may make it easier for learners to acquire vocabulary (Odlin: 1997) Similarly, analogies in L1 and L2 may provide learners with advantages in the acquisition of certain grammatical structures (Ellis, 1994) For example, Vietnamese learners tend to use some English NP that have the equivalent meaning and usage to the Vietnamese ones4, as shown in the following

example: “They are (zero articles) engineers.”

In this thesis, only negative transfer employed in the acquisition of English modifiers for a noun in a NP, not positive transfer

pre-Richards (1971) focuses on several types of errors which do not derive from

transfer from the mother tongue These kinds of errors are called intralingual and

developmental errors

2.5.7.2 Intralingual transfer

As Brown (1994: 214) confirms,

One of the major contributions of EA was its recognition of sources of error that extent beyond

4 It is illustrated by many correct cases in the student subjects’ essays

just intralingual errors in learning a second language Researchers (see especially Taylor,

1975) have found that the early stages of language learning are characterized by a predominance

of interference (interlingual transfer), but once learners have begun to acquire parts of the new system, more and more intralingual transfer – generalization within the target

language – is manifested

Richards (1974) implies, “intralingual interference refers to items produced by the learner which reflect not the structure of the mother tongue, but generalizations based on partial exposure to the target language.” In other words, an intralingual error may be caused by the influence of one target language item upon another while “developmental errors occur when the learner attempts to build up hypotheses about the target language on the basis of limited experience” (Richards, 1971b; quoted in Ellis, 1994: 58) In this thesis, intralingual errors are also named errors due to ‘other learning problems’ (OLP)

Intralingual errors can be subdivided into four kinds:

❖ Overgeneralization: Brown (1980: 174) calls overgeneralization “negative

intralingual transfer” The author believes that no one can say for sure about the source of an intralingual errors, but the ambiguity of a single observation of an error will be removed by repeated systematic observations of the learner’s speech data Overgeneralization is “a particular subset of generalization” (Brown, 1980: 85), and “a device used when the items do not carry any obvious contrast for the learners” (Richard, 1974; cited in Ellis, 1985: 53), i.e overgeneralization occurs when learners deduce rules from patterns that are incorrectly perceived as being similar

There exists a misconception that interference and overgeneralization are the two separate strategies in SLA In fact, they are related to each other because “all generalizing involves transfer, and all transfer involves generalizing” and “interference of the first language in the second is simply a form of generalizing that takes prior first language experiences and applies them correctly” while “overgeneralization is the incorrect application – negative transfer – of previously learned L2 material to a present L2 context” (Brown, 1980: 87)

❖ Ignorance of rule restrictions: It refers to the application of rules to contexts

where they cannot be applied In other words, learners have known certain rules of L2

but still produce incorrect patterns by applying them to other new situations This can

result from “analogical extension or rote learning of rules” (Ellis, 1985: 53) Analogy seems to be the main explanation for the misuse of English articles, e.g., in this case, the Ss tend to use a particular article attached to a noun, but in another case, they may attempt to use the same article with similar nouns in different sentences:

“She talks about the lessons” leads to “She discusses about the lessons.”

❖ Incomplete application of rules: Richards (1974: 177) points out, “under

this category we may note the occurrence of structures whose deviancy represents the degree of development of the rules required to produce acceptable utterances.” In other words, it is regarded as “a failure to learn the more complex types of structure because the learner finds he can achieve effective communication by using relatively simple rules” (Ellis, 1985: 53)

In general, according to Ellis (1994: 59), it is very difficult to distinguish transfer and intralingual errors, and it is not easy to recognize various kinds of intralingual errors

❖ Context of learning

The third major source of errors is the context of learning The students often

make errors due to a “misleading explanation from the teacher, faulty presentation of a structure or word in the textbook” or due to “a pattern that was rotely memorized in a drill but not properly contextualized” This kind of source has not been explored in this thesis, except for an interview that somehow makes it clearer

In brief, knowledge of the methods of EA and of possible sources of errors can help FL Ts provide a grammatical explanation or correction that is effective in enabling learners to construct efficient systems of interlanguage

2.5.8 Errors correction

Errors correction has played an important role over the past few decades since the focus of classroom instruction has changed “from an emphasis on language forms to attention to functional language within communicative contexts” (Brown, 1994: 219) Also according to Brown (1994), one of the keys to successful learning lied in the feedback that a learner receives from others As he reported the implication of Vigil and Oller’s model (1976: 286) for the theory of errors correction

Cognitive feedback must be optimal in order to be effective Too much negative cognitive feedback – a barrage of interruptions, corrections, and overt attention to malformations – often leads the learners to shut off their attemps at communication… on the other hand, too much positive cognitive feedback – willingness of the teacher–hearer to let errors go uncorrected, to indicate understanding when understanding may not have occurred – serves to reinforce the errors of the speaker–hearer

Errors treatment options can be classified in a number of possible ways but Balya (1985: 111, reported in Brown, 1994: 221) recommends a usefull taxonomy with seven “basic options” complemented by eight “possible features” within each option:

BASIC OPTIONS:

(1) To treat or to ignore

(2) To treat immediately or to delay

(3) To transfer treatment (to, say, other learners) or not

(4) To transfer to another individual, a subgroup, or the whole class (5) To return, or not, to original errors maker after treatment

(6) To permit other learners to initiate (7) To test for the efficacy of the treatment POSSIBLE FEATURES:

(1) Fact of error indicated (2) Location indicated

(3) Opportunity for new attemp given (4) Model provided

(5) Error type indicated (6) Remedy indicated (7) Improvement indicated (8) Praise indicated

All the basic options and features within each option are crucial modes of error correction in the classroom Therefore, “the teacher needs to develop the intuition, through experience and solid theoretical foundations, for ascertaining which option or combination of options is appropriate at given moments.” Brown (1994: 222)

2.5.9 Definitions of English articles

In English grammar, an article is a type of determiner that comes before a noun and provides context for that noun in a NP A determiner is a word or set of words that

describes, identifies, or quantifies the noun or NP that comes after it In English, there are only two sorts of articles: definite and indefinite In English grammar, the articles

“the”, “a”/ “an” and “zero articles(Ø)” are the three basic articles

Determiner, according to Richards and Schmidt (2002), is a word that is used with a noun and limits the noun’s meaning in some way The article is the most common type of determiner in English

The Six Types of Determiners Determiners are classified into six types in traditional grammar

2.6.1 Demonstratives

“Demonstrative determiners”, also known as “demonstrative adjectives”, are

adjectives that show where the noun or pronoun is in relation to the speaker “This”,

“that”, “these”, and “those” are some examples of “determiners” Take note of the

overlap between “demonstrative pronouns” and “determiners”

“This” and “that” should be used before singular nouns This is for something

the speaker is holding or close to In the meantime, “that” indicates a distant object

“These” and “those” should come before plural nouns “These” are items that

the speaker is holding or is close to Those point to several distant objects

“Adjectives” and “pronouns” are vastly different Keep in mind that

“demonstrative pronouns” are not followed by nouns Meanwhile, “demonstrative

determiners” are followed by a noun, either abstract or concrete

For examples:

(a) “That meal was so unforgettable that I sometimes dream about it.”

(b) “Is this paper yours?”

(c) “Those books were owned by the founder of this organization.”

2.6.2 Articles:

An article is a word that indicates that a noun is a noun but does not describe it

They include “a”, “an”, and “the” The is a definite article, also known as a common determiner, whereas “a” and “an” are indefinite articles

Indefinite articles are used for names that are not specific, whereas definite articles are used for names that are specific For example, because the solar system

contains only one sun, we say the sun rather than a sun

Use “a” for consonant sounds and “an” for vowel sounds in the following noun For example, we might say “an apple” and “a raspberry”

For examples:

(̣a) “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

(b) “A warm light bulb will make your bedroom appear cozier.”

(c) “The man next door introduced himself to Ruby.”

2.6.3 Possessive Pronouns as Determiners:

In English, a possessive adjective/ pronouns or determiner indicates ownership of the noun or NP preceding it.Possessive pronouns are a type of personal pronoun that

replaces entire NP, whereas “Possessive Determiners” can be used with both nouns and

(3) “his” (singular,

third person, male)

(4) “her”

(singular, third person, female)

(5) “its” (singular,

third person, object)

(6) “our” (plural,

first person)

(7) “their” (plural/

singular, third person)

For examples:

(a) “You should visit my house this weekend.”

(b) “Our goal is to help improve the quality of life without spending a lot.” (c) “That plate has her favorite pattern.”

2.6.4 Quantifier:

Determiners known as quantifiers express the amount of something without

revealing the precise number Quantifiers like “more”, “much”, “less”, and “few” are

frequently used The determiners that are included in the category of quantifiers are listed below

For examples:

(a) “Many people went to the fair last month.” (b) “We need to spend more time together.” (c) “Some priests walked with the nuns.”

2.6.5 Numbers:

Determiners that come before a noun are numbers or numerals These indicators

may be the simplest to identify Some examples of phrases with numbers include “three

spoons”, “twenty–seven cakes”, and “six instruments” For examples:

(a) “I received twenty-seven cakes on my twenty-seventh birthday.” (b) “She adds three sugar spoons to her cup of soy milk.”

(c) “She has six instruments in her house, and she can play them.”

2.6.6 Ordinals:

Ordinals are also expressed numerically, but in a different way You might use

the term “the third spoon” indicating ordinals is used as an example

Words that lack numbers are a variety of ordinals But they are associated with

“first”, “second”, “third”, etc General ordinals are the name given to these

determinates They are also used as determiners before nouns, just like ordinals,

numbers, and other terms “The previous game” and “next week” are two instances of

expressions using universal ordinals For examples: