40 Table 3.4: Reliability Statistic of each source of error ...40 Table 4.1: Common written errors in students’ use of passive voice...42 Table 4.2: Sources causing students’ errors in t
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
Grammar is one of the linguistic competences that students should learn; as stated by Cowan (2008, p 3) “Grammar is the set of rules that describes how words and groups of words can be arranged to form sentences in a particular language” In learning English, grammar is one of the most essential aspects In teaching, grammar plays a key part in the way teachers convey their lectures successfully Furthermore, errors in language acquisition are normal and unavoidable; therefore, learning a language cannot be isolated from making errors; as Klapper (2006, p 46) said “errors are a natural, inevitable and indeed essential part of the acquisition process” No matter how great the learning technique, learning environment, or learning conditions are, all language learners are bound to make errors.
Grammatical errors appear to be the most common type of error committed by learners It should be emphasized that grammar is extremely crucial in learning a language as Scrivener (2005, p 252) stated “For many years, learning the grammar has assumed a central role in students’ expectations about what learning a language involves” Batstone (1994, p 4) also mentioned that “it would be impossible to learn language effectively without drawing on grammar in some way” since grammar enables us to “identify grammatical forms which serve to enhance and sharpen the expression of meaning” As a result,grammatical errors are unavoidable for learners who lack grammar knowledge understanding According to Hinkel (2004), one of the most difficult grammatical topics for teachers to teach was verb voices because they required many grammatical elements and L2 learners had difficulty creating them Learners also tend to avoid the passive because they may not fully comprehend the rules.Therefore, it is essential to study errors in order to determine the types of errors made and understand why they occur (Krashen, 2009).
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) noted that ESL/ EFL students made errors when acquiring passive voice because they tend to overuse it or underuse it depending on how frequently it occurs and what it is used for in their native languages The study of passive voice has the potential to provide useful insights on English language teaching and learning because “passive voice is an important part of every English language teaching grammar syllabus” (Cowan,
Besides, Hinkel and Fotos (2001, p.235) believed that “uses, and functions of the passive voice represent one of the thorniest problems in L2 grammar” and
“the form of passive constructions is quite complex” (Parrot, 2000, p 330) In passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb and for the students, it is quite confusing to change the active into the passive of the target language because they have to consider the verbs used in active voice distinct from the verbs used in passive voice In this case, the problem has been experienced by many students learning English as the target language.
Statement of the problem
In general, students believe that mastering the grammar of second language is a challenging endeavor For teachers, determining how well students understand what they are being taught in English as a second language is one of the most challenging parts of teaching English In particular, the application of English passive can be challenging for non-native speakers to understand Then an effective teaching technique will undoubtedly help both teachers and students in this situation.
According to Parrot (2000), when learning passive voice, students have considerable trouble using it First, students often confuse the subject of a sentence with the agent Second, students may omit the auxiliary verb that comes before the past participle Third, students may fail to use the past participle form of the main verb It is possible to draw the conclusion that the challenges that students face in using passive voice are the result of a number of different factors.
The challenges of Vietnamese EFL learners in utilizing English have long been emphasized at all educational levels (Le, 2013) Examining the educational environment in Vietnam at high school level, where English is regarded a foreign language and is a required subject in the school curriculum, the official classroom instruction in a foreign language is often limited to a few hours per week for students.
In the context of Vietnam, there has been a growing focus on the passive in recent years, as evidenced by several studies Bui (2021) and Nguyen (2005) delved into the contrast between English and Vietnamese passive constructions. Besides, Bui (2011) and Tran (2011) conducted two studies addressing errors in meanings and passive constructions However, none of the mentioned works specifically targeted common written passive errors and passive usage. Additionally, few of them had explicit implications for teaching and learning the passive Especially in Dong Nai province, to the best of my knowledge, there have been no previous studies conducted at XLHS to examine errors in the use of the English passive among the students up to this point The aforementioned issues collectively represent the research gap that motivated the author to conduct a study on common written passive errors and the usage of the passive made by students in their use of the English passive This is why the author chose “An investigation into the errors in grade 11 students’ use of English passive voice” as the research title.
Aims of the study
Through this research, the author aims to (1) identify the students’ common written errors in using the English passive voice and (2) find out the factors that cause these errors in using the English passive voice In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives of the study, the two primary research questions serve as the direction for the study:
1 What are the common written errors grade 11 students at Xuan Loc High School make when using the English passive voice?
2 What are the factors that cause the errors in the use of the English passive voice among grade 11 students?
Significance of the study
The justification for conducting this research is its importance to researchers in enhancing students’ understanding of the passive usage. Theoretically, this research seeks to make a substantial contribution to the field of teaching and learning the passive Indeed, the findings of the current study are expected to provide a more complete picture of students’ use of the passive at high school Practically, the findings of this study may help students recognize passive errors cautiously, which will enhance their knowledge of the passive and enable them to create the passive construction successfully Furthermore, the findings of the study should assist teachers and educators in improving their teaching methods, materials, and strategies related to the passive This will ultimately benefit students’ learning and proficiency in this aspect of language use.
Scope of the study
The primary objective of this study is to investigate the students’ errors in the use of the English passive The current study focuses on identifying the students’ common written errors in using the English passive and determining the factors that cause these errors It is worth noticing that the study investigated
120 grade 11 students who were from three different classes in the second semester in the academic year 2022-2023 at XLHS.
This thesis is divided into five chapters Chapter 1 presents the background of the study, statement of problem, aims, research questions, significance of the study, and the scope of the study Chapter 2 reviews the related literature on passive voice and develops a conceptual framework that helps to direct the design of research, data collection, and data analysis Chapter
3 mentions the methodology used to answer to the research questions Chapter 4 presents the analysis of the data collected from two research instruments, namely the test and questionnaire, and discusses the study findings Chapter 5 provides a succinct review of this present study, pedagogical implications, limitations and recommendations for further research.
This chapter offers an overview of the research, including its background and aims In addition, the research questions, the significance and scope of the study are also presented.
Summary
This chapter offers an overview of the research, including its background and aims In addition, the research questions, the significance and scope of the study are also presented.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of passive voice
Stilman (2010) and Joshi (2014) also defined voice as a grammatical term to describe the form of a verb that indicates whether the subject of a sentence is the one performing the action or is the one impacted by it In other words, voice responses the question whether the subject performs the action or receives the action (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999; Carter & McCarthy, 2006) In English, there are two types of voices that are characterized by grammar: active and passive (Somathasan & Saranya, 2015).
Alexander (2004, p 182) stated “In the active, the subject of the verb is the person or thing doing the action In the passive, the action is done to the subject” This is to say the passive voice is a verb form that denotes that the subject of a sentence is the recipient of an action According to Joshi (2014, p 4), passive voice is “the form of a verb in which the subject is affected by the action of the verb” These definitions are comparable with what Foley and Hall (2003) in Longman’s Advanced Learner’s Grammar and Richards and Schmidt (2013) in Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics defined that passive voice is subject-verb relationship in which the subject receives the action of the verb.
(2) Nancy was bothered by the election.
In sentence (1), the verb form “bothered” is in the active, but in sentence (2), the verb form “was bothered” is in the passive because “Nancy”(the subject) receives the action of the verb “The election” is the agent of the action
“bothered”in both sentences Although two sentences have different voices, they convey the same basic meaning, and the emphasis may change, making one type of sentence more appropriate The next section will discuss the features of theEnglish passive to provide a better understanding regarding its structures.
Features of English passive voice
Concerning the features of English passive voice, this part will mention passive construction, the structural difference between active and passive, English passive structures, stative passive and agent and agentless passive.
Thomson and Martinet (1986, p 188) stated that:
The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verbto be into the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb The subject of the active verb becomes the agent of the passive verb, when it is mentioned it is preceded by “by” and places at the end of the clause.
From the definition mentioned above, in active sentences, the doer or agent of the action occupies the subject position, whereas in passive sentences, the recipient of the action occupies that place Then, preposition “by” is used to indicate who the doer or agent is Moreover, Parrot (2000, p 331) also wrote “In passive constructions, the subject still establishes ‘what the clause is about’, but it is the recipient of the action, not the agent”.
Passive:“Turandot” was composed by Puccini.
As we can see that the object “Turandot” of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive And the subject “Turandot” is singular and the tense is past, so the verb “be” must be “was” As a result, the verb “composed” in the active sentence becomes “was composed” in the passive as the passive sentence takes the form “be + past participle”.
2.2.2 The structural difference between the active and passive
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983), Jacobs (1995), Azar (2002) and Cowan (2008) pointed out three major differences between active and passive Firstly, passive sentence includes the phrase “BE…EN” (the auxiliary verb BE plus the past participle) The primary verb is converted into its past participle form, and the appropriate form of “Be”was added before the converted verb Secondly, the sequence of the elements in a passive sentence is reversed compared to that of an active sentence by inverting the agent and the theme In active sentence, the agent is the subject, and the theme is the object with the agent preceding the verb because it acts as the subject In passive sentence, however, the theme becomes the subject and it comes before the verb Thirdly, the preposition “by” is inserted before the agent in passive voice if it has an agent “by-phrase” Passive sentences may appear in any of the tense-aspect combinations The verb in an active sentence determines the form of “Be” The verb in passive sentence agrees in number with the subject that has been shifted into subject position, in accordance with subject-verb agreement.
Active: (a)The choir practiced the song.
Passive: (b)The song was practiced by the choir.
In sentence (a), it follows an order: subject (the choir), verb (practiced), and object (the song) “The choir” is the subject that performs the action
“practiced” “The choir” acts as theagent while “the song” is therecipientof the action In contrast, sentence (b) utilizes a different sequence: object (the song), verb past-participle (was practiced), preposition (by), and subject (the choir). Despite being the subject, “the song” still functions as the recipient, and “the choir” remains the agent.
Besides, Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983, p 224) claimed that
“There are active voice sentences with surface structure objects that do not have a passive equivalent since the verbs are not truly transitive”.
*A car is had by Mike.
*200 pounds is weighed by Roger.
Similarly, there are passive sentences in English that do not have an equivalent active voice phrase.
Mehdi was born in Tehran.
*Someone bore Mehdi in Tehran.
This indicates that in the English vocabulary, all verbs must be annotated according to whether they are compatible with the active, the passive, or both As we have seen, the so-called passive and active forms of a sentence are not necessarily simply variants; we can only use the active or passive with certain verbs and under certain conditions As a result, instead of constructing the passive from the active, we investigated the active and passive as two independent basic structures The following section will mention English passive structures.
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983), Thomson and Martinet (1986), Parrot (2000), Alexander (2004) and Carter and McCarthy (2006) classified the passives into two types: simple passives with BE/ GET…EN and complex passives withBE …EN.
Moreover, Carter and McCarthy (2006) mentioned the term “Pseudo- passives” with have and get They are considered to be examples of passive voice since they have some characteristics in common with regular forms of the passive The term “pseudo” means that it is distinct from conventional passives in both their function and usage The pseudo-passive structures with have and getfollow the form as below:
Both of these constructions are considered to be Pseudo-passive and share the same syntactic and functional properties; specifically, they both take on the identical form of have/ get + object + past participle In short, there are four
1 Simple passives with BE… EN
He was killed in the war.
2 Simple passives with GET EN
3 Complex passives with BE…EN
It was agreed that no action needed to be taken.
4 Pseudo-passives with GET/ HAVE NP EN
I had my hair cut the day before the wedding.
This section describes four English passive structures, the following section is about stative passive.
One prominent example of the passive is the usage of the verb “be” in conjunction with adjectives that characterize an emotional state They are derived from verbs and have the same form as past participles, with the majority of them terminating in the -ed ending On the other hand, rather than denoting an action, they relate to the experience of an emotion as Azar (2002, p 225) stated “When the passive form is used to describe an existing situation or state, it is called the stative passive.”
I am interested in Chinese art.
No action is taking place; the action happened earlier.
There is no by-phrase.
Thepast participle functions asan adjective.
Prepositions other than bycan follow stative passive verbs.
However, Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) also stated that a considerable proportion of passive sentence in English are stative passives This means that they function more like predicate adjectives than they do like passive verbs Furthermore, Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) claimed that stative passives are really just adjectives and not true passives We should be aware that certain sentences that appear to be normal passives are actually stative passives, which do not include an agent and do not have an active counterpart.
Shintani (1979, as cited in Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1983) noted that the vast majority of passive sentences in English do not include specific agents to show exactly who carried out the actions; nonetheless, agents do exist, and they may be stated, if necessary, by a prepositional phrase beginning withby.
The appropriate utilization of the agent and agentless forms of the passive is one of the most challenging aspects of the language The issue of the excessive use of the agent is made worse by the fact that textbooks almost always exclusively demonstrate passive constructions with the agent included.
Passive with agent by- phrase
The most common uses of the passive with the agent are when the agent is new information or a proper name, and when the speaker intends to state who or what is to blame for the aforementioned occurrence (Celce-Murcia & Larsen- Freeman, 1999; Side & Wellman, 1999; Alexander, 2004; Carter & McCarthy, 2006; Cowan, 2008); then we use the preposition “by” to introduce the doer or the agent of the action.
While Jill was walking down the street, her purse was snatched by a young man
The Mona Lisa was paintedby da Vinci
The window was brokenby a slatethat fell off the roof.
Passive without agent by phrase
The use of English passive voice
Foley and Hall (2003, p 107) noticed that “If the subject of a verb is new information, we often make the verb passive so that the new information comes at the end” and passive should be utilized only when necessary since it allows the sentences to appear more beautiful and succinct (Joshi, 2014) Besides, Celce- Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983), Thomson and Martinet (1986), Azar (2002), Foley and Hall (2003) and Joshi (2014) mentioned when to use passive voice:
1 When the action performer is unknown:
2 When the agent is evident from context or common knowledge:
3 When the agent is insignificant or irrelevant:
Wars have been fought throughout history.
4 When the speaker does not want to mention the agent or avoids personal responsibility:
I see that the washing-up hasn’t been done.
5 When the speaker wants to highlight a result:
The research was carried out over a period of six months.
6 When the speaker describes commercial or scientific processes:
The experiments on animals are being conducted regularly.
7 When the speaker describes rules or procedures:
Answers must be written in ink.
8 When the speaker wishes to make a more courteous or formal comment:
The project has not been completed.
However, the usage of the passive depends on its function and meaning in the context Therefore, the usage of the passive such as Be-passive, Get-passive and Pseudo-passive will be explained below.
2.3.1 The usage of Be- passive
In English, Be-passive is the most prevalent form Celce-Murcia and Larsen-
Freeman (1983) stated the following usages ofBe-passive:
Be-passive is used to reflect a state in formal and neutral situations:
He was angered when he realized he was being manipulated (His anger was an immediate reaction to his realization.)
Be-passive can be used in a number of different tenses and aspects:
•With simple present:They are sold in three sizes.
•With present progressive:The house is being sold.
•With present perfect:Has her father been told?
•With simple past:Alison and Jane weren’t asked for their views.
•With past progressive:Did you feel as if you were being ignored?
•With past perfect:I saw at once how it had been done.
•With modals:The top can be left on.
•With “be going to”for future:Diamonds are going to be mined in
Moreover, Be-passive can combine with complements like that-clauses and infinitives to generate complex passive where the agent has no particular interest:
It is rumored that he will get the job.
John is thought to be intelligent.
2.3.2 The usage of Get- passive
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) pointed out that Get-passive is very common in conversational English, and it is used to describe process in informal situations:
He got angered when he realized he was being manipulated (His anger was roused over a period of time.)
Besides, Carter and McCarthy (2006, p.800) also mentioned the usage of Get- passive:
•Get-passive enables a clear distinction to be made between a dynamic event and a state or situation:
The fencegot damaged.(dynamic event)
The fencewas damaged.(not clear if it is a state or a dynamic event)
•Get-passive places a little more emphasis on the grammatical subject or the entities involved:
Well actually I got sacked because I was purposely trying to disrupt the business cos I hate smoking so much.
•Get-passive indicates positive newsworthy events:
Liamgot promotedagain He’s now the sales and marketing director.
• When a reflexive construction is used with Get-passive, it often indicates the involvement or responsibility of the grammatical subject:
Somehow the keygot itself jammedin the door.
2.3.3 The usage of Pseudo- passive
Pseudo-passive with haveandgetis the common in informal English According to Foley and Hall (2003) and Carter and McCarthy (2006), Pseudo-passive can be used to:
• express something that is done for the subject by someone else:
• indicate something that is unpleasant or unexpected:
In short, there is a need to gain a deeper understanding of the passive, including its appropriate usage and the reasons behind its use In the following section, the author will mention explicit and implicit knowledge to highlight the importance of incorporating both types of knowledge into language teaching and learning.
2.4 Explicit and implicit knowledge in grammar learning
In the study of SLA, the concepts of explicit and implicit knowledge have received a great deal of attention In language instruction, the contrast between explicit and implicit L2 knowledge is critical.
Explicit knowledge refers to the knowledge that we are intentionally aware of and can potentially communicate verbally (Ellis, 2004; Hulstijn, 2005; Roehr- Brackin, 2018) It is expressed declaratively, generally retrieved via controlled processing (Hulstijn, 2005) Moreover, explicit knowledge can be acquired when needed (Dửrnyei, 2009) Explicit knowledge includes instructions on grammar principles and it is considered as deductive instructions The utilization of explicit knowledge relies on learners having sufficient time and a clear understanding of the rules; and accessing explicit knowledge can vary in terms of speed (Ellis, 2005).
Implicit knowledge refers to intuitive, procedural, changeable but systematic knowledge It requires a significant amount of input over time (Dửrnyei, 2009). Although the learning process is gradual, this leads to the acquisition of quick knowledge Implicit knowledge may be acquired via autonomic processing and utilized in performance but cannot be brought into consciousness or verbalized (Hulstijn, 2005; Dửrnyei, 2009) Implicit knowledge is also recognized as inductive instructions.
In summary, investigating students’ errors in using the passive requires a comprehensive examination of both explicit and implicit knowledge Explicit knowledge provides the formal framework, while implicit knowledge reveals the practical, experiential aspects that may contribute to errors in passive situations. Integrating these perspectives enhances the overall understanding of the factors leading to passive errors and informs strategies for improvement.
This part will firstly discuss the differences between error and mistake, the significance of identifying learners’ error, classification of errors and sources of errors Then, error analysis and error analysis procedure will be mentioned.
2.5.1 Differences between error and mistake
Error and mistake are technically two quite different occurrences Error can be understood in a number of different ways Dulay et al (1982, p 138) defined error as “flawed side of learner speech or writing” According to Ellis (1997), an error results from learners’ lack of knowledge Meanwhile, Brown (2000, p 226) considered error as “a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of the native speaker, reflects the competence of the learner”.
In contrast to the error, Gass and Selinker (1994, p 102) defined
“Mistakes are akin to slips of the tongue” Besides, Brown (2000, p 226) stated
“A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip, in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly” Based on the definitions mentioned above, Ellis (1997) and Richards and Schmidt (2013) distinguished between error and mistake by stating that an error happens due to the consequence of learner’s lack of knowledge, whereas a mistake arises because of learners’ lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspects of performance.
The errors made by a learner are significant since they provide evidence to the researchers about how language is learnt or acquired, as well as what techniques or procedures the learners are utilizing in the process of the language learning Furthermore, according to Gass and Selinker (1994), when learners made a mistake, they can notice and correct it if necessary Conversely, they are unaware of the errors they made because the errors are systematic and likely to occur repeatedly Therefore, errors are just errors from the standpoint of teachers or researchers, not from the learners In this regard, the author opted to focus on students’ errors in using passive voice rather than mistakes.
2.5.2 The significance of identifying learners’ errors
Making errors is an inevitable part of the process of learning a language.Identifying learners’ errors is significant in the classroom because they give useful information to teachers so that they can figure out effective approaches to teach students According to Ellis (1997), identifying errors committed by learners are valuable to teachers, learners, and researchers For teachers, errors show where learners are in their language acquisition and what they still need to acquire For researchers, errors give data on how learners acquire a language through the use of methods or processes For learners, errors can be served as a tool for language acquisition In the following part, through classification of errors and sources of errors, the author will describe errors learners made.
In order to deal with students’ errors, it is necessary to identify their sources and classify them into categories However, due to different opinions on the problem, there is no consistent classification of errors Classification of errors depends on the purpose and criteria used, making it difficult to come to a general conclusion The different authors have outlined their own ways of classifying errors, some of which have become more widely accepted and mentioned below.
According to Ellis (1997), errors are classified based on the discrepancy between the learners’ utterance and the reconstructed version These methods of identifying errors can help us diagnose learners’ learning problems at any level of development and trace how error patterns change over time Then errors are classified into four types:
(1) Omission:A strange thing happento me yesterday.
(3) Selection:My friend is oldestthan me.
(4) Ordering:“key car” for “car key”
Unlike Ellis’s classification of errors, Richards (2015) divided errors into three categories based on psycholinguistic considerations:
(1) Interlingual errors: are also known as transfer errors, they occur when learners’ habits in their first language interfere with or hinder them from acquiring the patterns and rules of their second language.
(2) Intralingual errors: are inherent to the structure of the English language. they include over-generalization, incomplete application of rules and ignorance of learning conditions.
(3) Developmental errors: are those which describe an attempt learners have made to construct a hypothesis about the target language.
Errors and error analysis
This part will firstly discuss the differences between error and mistake, the significance of identifying learners’ error, classification of errors and sources of errors Then, error analysis and error analysis procedure will be mentioned.
2.5.1 Differences between error and mistake
Error and mistake are technically two quite different occurrences Error can be understood in a number of different ways Dulay et al (1982, p 138) defined error as “flawed side of learner speech or writing” According to Ellis (1997), an error results from learners’ lack of knowledge Meanwhile, Brown (2000, p 226) considered error as “a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of the native speaker, reflects the competence of the learner”.
In contrast to the error, Gass and Selinker (1994, p 102) defined
“Mistakes are akin to slips of the tongue” Besides, Brown (2000, p 226) stated
“A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip, in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly” Based on the definitions mentioned above, Ellis (1997) and Richards and Schmidt (2013) distinguished between error and mistake by stating that an error happens due to the consequence of learner’s lack of knowledge, whereas a mistake arises because of learners’ lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspects of performance.
The errors made by a learner are significant since they provide evidence to the researchers about how language is learnt or acquired, as well as what techniques or procedures the learners are utilizing in the process of the language learning Furthermore, according to Gass and Selinker (1994), when learners made a mistake, they can notice and correct it if necessary Conversely, they are unaware of the errors they made because the errors are systematic and likely to occur repeatedly Therefore, errors are just errors from the standpoint of teachers or researchers, not from the learners In this regard, the author opted to focus on students’ errors in using passive voice rather than mistakes.
2.5.2 The significance of identifying learners’ errors
Making errors is an inevitable part of the process of learning a language.Identifying learners’ errors is significant in the classroom because they give useful information to teachers so that they can figure out effective approaches to teach students According to Ellis (1997), identifying errors committed by learners are valuable to teachers, learners, and researchers For teachers, errors show where learners are in their language acquisition and what they still need to acquire For researchers, errors give data on how learners acquire a language through the use of methods or processes For learners, errors can be served as a tool for language acquisition In the following part, through classification of errors and sources of errors, the author will describe errors learners made.
In order to deal with students’ errors, it is necessary to identify their sources and classify them into categories However, due to different opinions on the problem, there is no consistent classification of errors Classification of errors depends on the purpose and criteria used, making it difficult to come to a general conclusion The different authors have outlined their own ways of classifying errors, some of which have become more widely accepted and mentioned below.
According to Ellis (1997), errors are classified based on the discrepancy between the learners’ utterance and the reconstructed version These methods of identifying errors can help us diagnose learners’ learning problems at any level of development and trace how error patterns change over time Then errors are classified into four types:
(1) Omission:A strange thing happento me yesterday.
(3) Selection:My friend is oldestthan me.
(4) Ordering:“key car” for “car key”
Unlike Ellis’s classification of errors, Richards (2015) divided errors into three categories based on psycholinguistic considerations:
(1) Interlingual errors: are also known as transfer errors, they occur when learners’ habits in their first language interfere with or hinder them from acquiring the patterns and rules of their second language.
(2) Intralingual errors: are inherent to the structure of the English language. they include over-generalization, incomplete application of rules and ignorance of learning conditions.
(3) Developmental errors: are those which describe an attempt learners have made to construct a hypothesis about the target language.
In a sense, Richards (2015) concluded that all errors may be considered developmental errors, and they can be further classified as interlingual or intralingual errors based on the presence of L1 or L2 characteristics.
Besides, James (2013) also mentioned four different categories of errors, which may also be categorized such as: interlingual errors, intralingual errors, communication strategy-based errors, and induced errors.
(1) Interlingual errors:These types of errors are influenced by native languages, which interfere with target language acquisition They consist of markedness (the tendency to happen in pairs of opposites in language, marked versus unmarked) and Ll transfer It is considered as a process in which learners use their first language to learn a second language.
(2) Intralingual errors: These types of errors are caused by the target language itself: false analogy, misanalysis (learners form a false hypothesis), incomplete rule application (this is the opposite of overgeneralization or one could call it undergeneralization as the learners do not use all the rules), exploiting redundancy (this error is caused by carrying significant redundancy), overlooking co-occurrence restrictions (this error is caused by overlooking the exceptional rules) and overgeneralization (this error is caused by the misuse of words or grammatical rules)
(3) Communication strategy-based errors: These kinds of errors are divided into two categories: holistic strategies (when students cannot identify the appropriate form or they try to utilize another near-equivalent L2 item that they have learned) and analytic strategies (indirect expression of a notion by allusion rather than direct reference, also known as circumlocution).
(4) Induced errors: The majority of errors are made by teachers who provide definitions, examples, and explanations like: materials-induced errors, teacher- talk induced errors, exercise-based induced errors, errors induced by pedagogical priorities, look-up errors.
However, Dulay et al (1982, p 146) stated “The most useful and commonly used descriptive classification of errors is linguistic category, comparative taxonomy, communication effect taxonomy and surface strategy taxonomy” Following this, each category will be mentioned as follows:
Linguistic category describes errors based on either the language component or the specific linguistic constituent Language components include phonology (pronunciation), syntax and morphology (grammar), semantics and lexicon (meaning and vocabulary), and discourse (style); meanwhile linguistic constituents are the elements that make up each language component.
Previous studies
Many studies believe that errors in language transfer are sometimes impossible to completely eradicate A significant number of studies have been conducted over the last few decades, allowing researchers and educators to have a holistic perspective on many errors in using passive voice Despite differences in research site, participants, and methodologies, many of these researches have centered around two aspects of this subject: identifying the students’ common errors and finding out the factors that cause the students’ errors in using English passive voice Some empirical studies on these topics will now be reviewed chronologically.
Firstly, to identify students’ common errors in using the passive and determine the causes of errors, Kurniasih (2013) conducted a research The author employed descriptive analysis to explain students’ errors, and the data were evaluated using the formula P = �
� x 100% Besides, the author also used observation and interview with teachers and students The findings revealed that misformation was the common error committed by students These errors are mainly caused by interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, context of learning, and communication strategies.
Secondly, Zulfariati and Amelia (2015) aimed to identify the common errors made by students in the use of the passive and determine the causes of these errors The authors used the observation and document as the research instruments in the study The findings revealed that students predominantly made omission errors, and the causes of these errors were attributed to both intralingual and interlingual transfer.
Next, in Wijaya’s (2016) research, the author aimed to describe the common errors made by students when using the passive and identify the factors contributing to these errors The research employed a test and a questionnaire as research instruments The findings revealed four types of errors made by students: problems of verb changes, incorrect usage of be, problems with subject placement and verb placement The author indicated that intralingual transfer which was identified as students’ insufficient vocabulary, poor understanding of the passive and failure to differentiate between active and passive was the cause of errors.
Furthermore, Mustika (2016) examined the most dominant errors made by students in using the passive The study employed a qualitative descriptive approach, gathering data through observation and document The author found that the most frequent errors committed by students are related to structures, meaning, omission, and tenses.
Later, Yasim et al (2018) and Abualzain (2019) also aimed to identify the common errors made by students in constructing passive voice and to determine the causes of these errors In Yasim et al.’s (2018) research, they employed tests, observations, and interviews as research instruments The results indicated that students primarily made errors in misformation This could be explained by students’ inability to distinguish between subject and object, regular and irregular verbs, and singular and plural forms In Abualzain’s (2019) research, the author used the questionnaire and document as the research instruments The findings revealed that students mainly committed errors in omission and misformation. Additionally, the author stated that both intralingual transfer and interlingual transfer were identified as the causes of these errors.
Subsequently, Lubis et al (2019) and Permatasari (2019) employed only tests as research instruments in their studies Both authors solely focused on identifying the common errors students made when using the passive, and the data were collected and analyzed quantitatively In their data analysis, Lubis et al. (2019) discovered the majority of their students made errors in misformation. Whereas Permatasari (2019) revealed that students mainly made errors in misordering and omission.
Another research conducted by Lamunpandh (2020) utilized two main research instruments, namely test and interview The findings indicated that the majority of students made misformation errors, and these errors were caused by both intralingual transfer and interlingual transfer.
In the Vietnam context, there is little research on this topic For example, Bui (2011) conducted a study with students from three classes of National Academy of Politics and Public Administration in Ho Chi Minh City The author conducted the study using the self-designed test and interview The results revealed that students mainly made errors in meaning and usage of the passive, and the causes of errors are attributed to intranlingual transfer, interlingual transfer (the effects of Vietnamese grammar rules and students’ habit of using Vietnamese active forms)and context of learning.
In summary, although these studies varied in their settings, participants,and instruments, a significant number of them focused on two main aspects: the common errors made by students and the causes of errors in the use of passive voice The table below will outline the instruments and findings of the related studies to provide a general picture of research on using the passive.
Table 2.1: Summary of previous studies
No The author Aim Research instruments Results/ Findings
(2013) To identify the common error made by students in their using the passive and find out the causes of errors.
- Students mainly made misformation errors.
- Interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, context of learning and communication strategies are the causes of errors.
To identify students’ common errors in the use of the passive and find out the causes of errors.
Observation Document - Students mostly committed omission errors.
- Intralingual and interlingual transfer are the causes of errors.
(2016) To describe students’ common errors and factors causing these errors in using passives.
Test Questionnaire - Incorrect usage of be, problems of verb changes, subject placement, and verb placement are commonly made by students.
- Intralingual transfer (students’ insufficient vocabulary, poor understanding of the passive and failure to differentiate between active and passive) is the cause of errors.
(2016) To identify the most dominant passive errors students made.
Observation Document - Students mainly made errors in structures, meaning, tenses and agent omission.
(2018) To identify the common errors made by students and to obtain the causes of errors in constructing passives in
- Students mostly made errors in misformation.
- Intralingual transfer is the cause of errors.
In brief, Table 2.1 provides a general review on the studies on errors in using the passive Because of differences in participants, conditions, researchers used different research tools While many authors used test, observation and interview, others used only test Despite using different research tools, they pointed out that the students’ common errors in using passive voice are misformation, and the causes of errors are attributed to intralingual transfer and simple past.
(2019) To identify students’ common errors in their writing reports and to determine the causes of errors.
Questionnaire Document - Students mainly committed in omission and misformation errors.
- Intralingual transfer and interlingual transfer are the causes of errors.
(2019) To identify the common errors students made in using passives.
Test - Majority of students made errors in misformation.
(2019) To identify the common errors in using passives in simple past.
Test - Students mainly made misordering and omission errors.
(2020) To identify students’ errors in using passives and to find out the causes of errors.
Test Interview - Most students made misformation errors.
- Intralingual transfer and interlingual transfer are the causes of errors.
Bui (2011) To investigate the common errors in using students’
English passives and to find out the causes of errors.
Test Interview - Students mainly made errors in meaning and usage of the English passive.
- Intralingual transfer, interlingual transfer (the effects of Vietnamese grammar rules and students’ habit of using Vietnamese active forms) and context of learning are the causes of errors. interlingual transfer Furthermore, there has been limited research conducted on the investigation of errors related to omission, addition, misformation, misordering, andusage of the English passive Therefore, the present study aims to address this research gap.
Conceptual framework
Based on the review of literature, the author developed a conceptual framework for this research to investigate students’ errors in using English passive voice.
Much research has been conducted on passive errors in various countries;however, research on this subject is still insufficient within the Vietnamese context Moreover, most studies only address passive errors in general, without giving much attention to common written errors and the specific usage of the passive Besides, many studies on this issue primarily focus on identifying passive errors and the factors contributing to such errors (Kurniasih, 2013;
Zulfariati & Amelia, 2015; Wijaya, 2016; Yasim et al., 2018; Lamunpandh, 2020) but they rarely explore whether these errors and factors help teachers engage students in class activities Therefore, this study aims to offer a distinctive perspective on teaching and learning the passive The conceptual framework of this study distinguishes it from others by organizing the research into three distinct stages: (1) theoretical presentation on passive voice, (2) a focused examination of passive structures and the usage of passive voice, and (3) error analysis This structured approach aims to offer a clear and organized progression of the study’s objectives In contrast, many conceptual frameworks in studies such as Kurniasih (2013), Zulfariati and Amelia (2015), Wijaya (2016), Yasim et al (2018), and Lamunpandh (2020) only concentrate on two stages: passive voice and error analysis Furthermore, the third stage is also supported by types of errors (Omission, Addition, Misformation, Misordering, Usage) and sources of errors (Intralingual transfer, Interlingual transfer, Context of learning) This categorization of errors and their sources can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges students face when using the passive.
In summary, the conceptual framework in the current study stands out from others due to its structured three-stage approach, focusing specifically on the passive, conducting a detailed examination of error categories and sources,and providing a contextualized analysis within the scope of the study.
Summary
So far, this chapter has presented a theoretical background for the current study It covered the fundamentals of English passive voice Furthermore, the chapter includes a detailed review of prior studies, laying a solid framework for the following chapter of this study.
METHODOLOGY
Research questions
The present study aims to answer two main research questions: (1) “What are the common written errors grade 11 students at Xuan Loc High School make when using the English passive voice?” and (2) “What are the factors that cause the errors in the use of the English passive voice among grade 11 students?”.These two questions will be addressed through the data collected from the two main research instruments.
Research design
Considering the nature of the current research, the author decided to follow the advice of Creswell (1994) and use the quantitative method Creswell(1994, p 2) defined the quantitative method as “an inquiry into a social or human problem based on testing a theory composed of variables, measured with numbers, and analyzed with statistic procedures in order to determine whether the predictive generalizations of the theory hold true” The descriptive design was chosen from among many other quantitative designs because the goal of descriptive studies is to observe, describe, and document aspects of a situation as they occur in the natural world (Polit & Hungler, 1999).
Context of the study
This study was conducted at XLHS located on Hung Vuong Street, Gia Ray Town, Dong Nai Province in the academic year 2022-2023 This school has a total of 1.784 students, divided into three grades (grade 10, grade 11 and grade12) with an average class size of 40 When compared to other high schools inDong Nai Province, most students of XLHS have fair educational abilities and they only have four English periods per week Besides, XLHS has a good set of facilities and each classroom is equipped with a computer, a projector and received formal training in language teaching at Ho Chi Minh City’s University of Pedagogy and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities The majority of them are eager to try out new approaches to language teaching and learning.
Participants
The participants in this study are grade 11 students, aged 17 at XLHS in Dong Nai province The selection of a sample can be done in either probability and non-probability In the probability technique, participants are randomly chosen from a population to meet the research objectives However, since the author was not allowed to select the classes that he wanted to take at XLHS, it was impossible for him to use a probability sampling method that gave each class an equal chance of being included in the sample Consequently, non-probability sampling, specifically convenience sampling was used to save time and because it is easier to choose participants than other sampling methods as stated byFraenkel et al (2012, p 99), “A convenience sample is a group of individuals who (conveniently) are available for study” Therefore, a total of 120 students(34 males and 86 females) from three classes 11A1, 11A2 and 11A3 out of the total population of 605 students are invited to take the test and complete the questionnaire Additionally, these subjects were selected because they have several things in common: (1) they are the same age and their skill levels range from fair to good; (2) they have been studying English for approximately six years; (3) they have learned about English passive voice in grade 10, and their knowledge of English passive voice has been solidified and developed through general English courses commonly organized at school; (4) they have all used the same English textbook, English textbook 11, published by the VietnameseMinistry of Education and Training.
Research instruments
The data for the study were gathered using the test and questionnaire The test was designed to identify the errors students made when using the passive, while the questionnaire was designed to determine the underlying factors that lead to such errors The next section will explain these instruments in detail.
The first data collection instrument for answering the first research question is a test designed based on explicit and implicit knowledge to provide a comprehensive assessment of the students’ overall understanding and application of the subject matter Explicit knowledge evaluates students’ ability to understand the rules of passive construction, requiring students to transform sentences from active to passive and identify passive constructions within given sentences Meanwhile implicit knowledge assesses their ability to apply the usage of Be-passives, Get-passives and Pseudo-passives in practical and contextual situations Brown (2004, p.3) noted that “test is a method of measuring a person’s ability knowledge, or performance in a given domain” The author used a self-designed test based on the test designed by Bui (2011) and sample tests in the books English Grammar In Use(Murphy, 1985);Advanced Grammar in Use (Hewings, 1999); Understanding and Using English Grammar (Azar, 1999); Understanding and Using English Grammar (Azar, 2002); Longman English Grammar (Alexander, 2004) and Understanding and Using English Grammar (Azar & Hagen, 2016) in terms of forming the passive and the usage of the passive.
The test has 40 items which consist of two parts Part I is related to forming the passive (items 1-25), and Part II is about the usage of the passive (items 1-15) Here are explanations of each part of the test as well as its objectives In part I of the test, there are three subsections In subsection A:
“Change the active sentences to passive sentences if possible Some of the verbs are intransitive and cannot be changed Include the by-phrase only if necessary”, it has 17 items that evaluate the students’ ability to identify passive structures. Also, it helps students learn how to construct the passive and how to turn active into passive They cover some English tenses as well as various passive structures including simple and complex passives with “BE” as well as transitive and intransitive verbs Each item is like this:
People grow corn in Iowa.
Corn is grown in Iowa.
Next, subsection B, “Choose the correct answer”, includes 3 items: 18, 19 and 20.
All of them are Get-passive For each item, students are provided with four choices (A, B, C, D) Each item is as follows:
I think I’ll stop working for the day I’m getting
The last subsection of this part, subsection C, “Decide whether they are passive or not If the sentence is passive, write P, if not, write A in the box”, consists of five items: item 21 and item 24 are stative passive and item 22, item 23 and item
25 are Pseudo-passive These help students to identify passive structures Each item is like this:
Jack is married with Joan
In part II of the test, “Use active or passive, in any appropriate tense, for the verbs in parentheses”, students are tested knowledge of the usage of passive voice Part II has 15 items which consist of several English tenses as well as various passive structures such as Be-passive, Get-passive and Pseudo-passive.
In this section, students are expected to have the full understanding to recognize when to use passive voice in the context After that, it is helpful for the author to verify whether or not students understand the usage of the passive Each item is as follows:
The examination papers are scored by machine The students (tell) their results next week.
Before conducting the test, it was given to one senior lecturer at a university and two English teachers in charge of classes 11A1, 11A2, and 11A3 to gather pilot comments and suggestions, to assess if the test was appropriate for the students’ level, and so on The modified test was piloted among 20 students at XLHS and these students were not among those who took part in the main study After the pilot stage, item 24 and item 31 were replaced because they are component variables with zero variance that should be removed from the scale.The test for students is designed as Appendix 1, and for the answer key of the test,see Appendix 2 The second tool is a questionnaire, as described in the next section.
To address the second research question, a questionnaire was developed as the second data collection instrument This questionnaire was designed to gather information based on explicit knowledge, measuring students’ understanding of a specific topic It achieves this by creating questions that assess students’ comprehension of the rules and structures of the passive, while also seeking insights into their experiences, opinions, and attitudes regarding the passive. According to Mackey and Gass (2005), questionnaires enable researchers to collect information from learners about themselves, such as their views, teaching, and activities In this study, the author incorporated self-designed items as well as other items formulated based on the findings of previous studies (Kurniasih, 2013; Zulfariati & Amelia, 2015; Wijaya, 2016; Yasim et al., 2018; Abualzain 2019; Lamunpandh, 2020; Bui, 2011) and the fundamental principles of questionnaire design provided by Foddy (1993) and Codó (2008) The questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale that lets the participants reply to statements on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
The first version of the questionnaire consists of two main parts: part A and part B Part A is to collect students’ general information, which contains the students’ class and gender Part B consists of 12 closed-ended items labeled from B1 to B12, which aim to identify the factors contributing to students’ errors in using the passive After the pilot stage, three additional items were added to Part B: item B5 (I have difficulty determining the subject and object to form the English passive), item B7 (I cannot distinguish between transitive and intransitive when forming the English passive), and item B10(The habit of using Vietnamese active forms makes it difficult for me to use English passive forms) because the author recognized that he had overlooked other important factors that caused students’ errors Consequently, Part B of the questionnaire now consists of 15 items and is divided into three subsections, each representing one of the three sources of errors: intralingual transfer, interlingual transfer,and context of learning.
Firstly, intralingual transfer is evaluated through a set of 7 items (B1-B7) Each item is presented like this:
I lack knowledge of the English passive.
Secondly, interlingual transfer is assessed by a set of 3 items (B8-B10) Each item is as follows:
I understand the English passive forms but I cannot change from active to passive.
Thirdly, context of learning is assessed by a set of 5 items (B11-B15) Each item is like this:
I am confused by the teacher’s explanations of the English passive and how it is presented in textbooks.
In this study, the author only employed the English version of the questionnaire based on discussions held with participants during the pilot study According to feedback from the participants, all items on the English questionnaire were deemed easy to comprehend without any instances of misunderstanding Please refer to Appendix 3 for the questionnaire.
Data collection procedure
The study was carried out in March 2023 at XLHS after the pilot study had been completed Data collection complies with the following:
Figure 3.1: Flowchart for data collecting procedure
Before administering the test and questionnaire to students, the author informed them that their replies would be used for research only Simultaneously, the test and questionnaire items were properly explained to the participants. Initially, the tests were given to 120 participants in three classes: 11A1, 11A2 and 11A3, and the tests lasted for thirty minutes After that, students were given the questionnaires, which they had ten minutes to fill out More importantly, to assure the quality of the test and questionnaire, the author and the teachers in charge monitored all of the students while they completed them Before leaving the room, the participants were asked to turn in their tests and questionnaires As a result, the author received trustworthy and authentic data Finally, the data were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and the Statistical Package forSocial Sciences (SPSS) program version 20.0 The following will provide a description of the data analysis.
Data analysis scheme
This section explains the analysis of data from two research instruments, namely the test and questionnaire In the pilot study, Cronbach’s Alpha was used to examine the reliability and validity of the test and questionnaire Then, in the main study, data from two types of test and questionnaire were gathered and calculated into frequencies, percentages and means using Microsoft Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 20.0 to answer two research questions.
1 Frequency (F) refers to the number of instances that correspond to each value of a variable (Howitt & Cramer, 2003).
2 Percentage (P) represents the number of instances out of a hundred that belong to a specific category (Howitt & Cramer, 2003).
3 Mean (M) is the most often used measure of central tendency because it takes into consideration all scores (Hatch & Farhady, 1982) The responses of students were interpreted based on the scales of Oxford (1990) as follows: 1.00-2.49 (low level), 2.50-3.49 (medium level), 3.5-5.00 (high level).
In this paper, frequencies were converted to percentages based on Bluman’s(2014) formula to answer the first research question:
F : Frequency of false answers n: Total number of errors
Pilot study
There are several reasons to perform a pilot study Connely (2008) claimed that a pilot study can develop and test research instruments, assess the feasibility of a full study, design and test protocols According to Creswell (2012), a pilot study is helpful for enhancing the practicability, validity, and reliability of research instruments In the current study, a pilot study was carried out with the purpose of determining the reliability and validity of the test and questionnaire.The pilot study, supervised by the author, was conducted in February 2023 to check the validity and reliability of the test and questionnaire It involved the participation of 20 students, which satisfied Connely’s (2008) condition that the number of participants in the pilot should be at least 10 percent of the total study population.
Validity and reliability
In any research, researchers are expected to take certain actions to verify the validity and reliability of their studies, which are the most important criteria of scientific research (Bryman, 2012) In definition, reliability is scores from an instrument that are stable and consistent (Creswell, 2012) Meanwhile, validity is an important factor for assessing research quality and acceptability (Burns, 1999).
3.9.1 Validity and reliability of the test
In terms of reliability of the test, Cronbach’s Alpha is applied to reflect the reliability of the test in the current study in order to evaluate the quality of the measuring instrument The value of Cronbach’s Alpha provides a reliability estimate that indicates the degree of interrelation among the items (Johnson &Christensen, 2019).
Table 3.1: Reliability Statistic of whole test Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items
Table 3.2: Reliability of each part of the test Part Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items
As observed in Table 3.1 and Table 3.2, Cronbach’s Alpha for the whole test is 878, and Cronbach’s Alpha for each part of the test exceeds 70 This indicates that the test is reliable After the pilot stage, item 24 and item 31 were adjusted due to their unreliability, as discussed in Section 3.5.1.
Meanwhile, validity of the test was checked by using face validity Face validity can be established by asking other individuals, particularly those with experience in a certain sector, to determine whether or not the measure is valid (Bryman, 2012) In the current study, the author forwarded the test to his supervisor and two English teachers at XLHS, who were in charge of English classes 11A1, 11A2 and 11A3 to provide their feedback Then, the test satisfied the criteria for face validity and it was appropriate for the level of the participants.
3.9.2 Validity and reliability of the questionnaire
To assess the reliability of questionnaire, the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients were calculated as follows:
Table 3.3: Reliability Statistic of the whole questionnaire
Table 3.4: Reliability Statistic of each source of error
Source Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items
As observed in Table 3.3 and Table 3.4, Cronbach’s Alpha for the whole questionnaire is 844, and Cronbach’s Alpha for each source of error is greater than 70 This result demonstrates that the questionnaire is reliable After the pilot stage, items B5, B7 and B10 were added to the questionnaire, as discussed inSection 3.5.2 Concerning the questionnaire’s validity, face validity was also used to check it The author held a discussion with participants in the pilot study.According to the participants’ feedback, all the items on the questionnaire were found to be easy to understand, and they did not have any further questions This demonstrates the face validity of the questionnaire.
Summary
This chapter provides all of the information regarding the research methodology used to identify students’ errors in using the passive The next chapter presents the results obtained from the research instruments.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Common written errors in the use of passive voice
The results of the test are presented in this section, which depicts the common errors made by students when using the passive A total of 1.912 errors in the use of the passive were identified from 120 students’ tests Based on the classification of errors described in Section 2.5.3, these errors were divided into five types, namely addition, omission, misformation, misordering, and usage.
Table 4.1, which presents the percentages ranked in descending order, illustrates these types.
Table 4.1: Common written errors in students’ use of passive voice
Table 4.1 demonstrates that Misformation is the most prevalent category, accounting for 42.36% with 810 instances Usage comes in second with 41.37%. The next category, Addition , accounts for 9.36% The two smallest categories Omission and Misordering are 4.34% and 2.57% respectively In general, students at XLHS mainly made errors in Misformation and Usage in the use of the passive Each kind of errors will be discussed in detail in the following sections.
No Types of errors Total Errors Percentage
4.1.1 Errors of misformation in the use of passive voice
The first type of error considered is misformation errors Surprisingly, according to Table 4.1, misformation errors have 810 instances, accounting for 42.36% of the totality, this is the highest common type of error committed by students In this study, students’ use of the wrong forms of passive structures, singular-plural, and past participles are considered errors on alternating forms, archi-forms, and regularization, respectively The extracts below contain three misinformation errors in the passive construction, which were identified from the students’ compositions:
That report is *prepared(being prepared) by Alex (Alternating forms)
A new idea *have(has) been suggested by Shirley (Archi-forms)
Corn is *growed (grown) in Iowa (Regularization)
The percentages of errors in misformation errors are illustrated in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1: Percentage of errors in misformation errors
As shown in Figure 4.1, the percentages of errors related to alternating forms account for the highest with 36.4%; the second rank is archi-forms with5.18%; and the lowest is regularization with 0.78% Because alternating forms errors (i.e passive structures) have the highest percentage of misformation errors (36.4%), the author will highlight these errors by presenting them in Figure 4.2. Then each kind of alternating forms errors will be described in detail.
Figure 4.2: Errors in alternating forms
Error in simple passive with Be
Figure 4.2 shows that errors in simple passive with Be account for the highest with 17.47%; that is a significant figure, which means many students at XLHS committed this type of error.
This error type ranks second, comprising 10.98% of the total errors This finding indicates that errors in Pseudo-passive were the second most challenging aspect of the structure for students at XLHS.
Error in complex passive with Be
As previously stated, errors in complex passive withBe account for 6.12%.This number is smaller than errors in simple passive with Be but it remains high compared to other errors committed by students at XLHS.
As shown in Figure 4.2, errors in Get-passive account for only 1.83%, which is the lowest This is to say that students at XLHS have no difficulty determining structures related to Get-passive It appears that the majority of students at XLHS can easily identify this structure in the test.
To sum up, the aforementioned results reflect the percentages of errors related to alternating forms (i.e passive structures), which represent the most prevalent error type among misformation errors Additionally, while errors in regularization (i.e past participles) are minimal, accounting for only 0.78%, errors in archi-forms (i.e singular-plural) are more significant at 5.18% The next section will address errors in the usage of the passive, which represents the second most common error type.
4.1.2 Errors in the usage of passive voice
The second type of error to be identified is errors in the usage of the passive Table 4.1 shows that this kind of error ranked second with 41.37% This figure signifies that the usage of the passive seems to be the second most common challenge faced by students at XLHS in the test The excerpts below contain three errors in the usage of the passive which were detected from the students’ compositions:
The entire valley can *see (be seen) from their mountain home (Be- passive)
We didn’t have a map, so we got *losing(lost) (Get-passive)
Jill didn’t repair the roof herself She had it *be repaired (repaired). (Pseudo-passive)
The percentages of errors in the usage of the passive are illustrated in Figure 4.3.
Figure 4.3: Errors in the usage of passive voice
According to Figure 4.3, the highest percentage (35.25%) is error of the usage of Be-passive At the second position (4.97%) is error of the usage ofGet- passive and the smallest percentage (1.15%) is error of the usage of Pseudo- passive Regarding errors in passive usage, especially the usage of Be-passive, it is clear that students at XLHS struggle to determine when to use Be-passive and when to avoid it Some students may underuse this construction, while others have a tendency to overuse it Therefore, they often make this type of error in the test The next section will delve into addition errors.
4.1.3 Errors of addition in the use of passive voice
The third type of error the author focuses on is addition error The students’ adding “by-phrase” to the sentence which must not appear in a well- formed utterance is considered as simple addition error According to Table 4.1, the percentage of addition errors accounts for 9.36%, this shows that a small number of students made addition errors, suggesting that this is not one of the most prevalent types of errors among students at XLHS The following extract demonstrates an addition error in the use of the passive:
Corn is grown in Iowa *by people.
4.1.4 Errors of omission in the use of passive voice
The fourth type of error to be focused on is omission error In this study,students committed this error type by omitting a word or a phrase which must appear in a well-formed utterance Therefore, the students’ omitting “by-phrase”, marker “ed” and “auxiliary” in the sentence is considered as omission errors. From Table 4.1, the percentage of this error type accounts for only 4.34 %, this indicates that a rather small number of students made omission errors The excerpts below exhibit three instances of omission errors in the use of the passive, identified in the students’ compositions:
A new idea has been suggested(*by Shirley) (by-phrase)
The farmer’s wagon was being*pull(pulled) by two horses (Marker -ED) This antique table*made(was made) in 1734 (Auxiliary)
The percentages of errors in omission errors are illustrated in Figure 4.4.
Figure 4.4: Percentage of errors in omission errors
As shown in Figure 4.4, the percentage of omission errors of by-phrase is the same as the percentage of omission error of auxiliary, which accounts for 1.78% Whereas, the percentage of omission error of marker-edonly accounts for 0.78% This is to say that these are also not the most common errors students at XLHS made in the test The next section will cover the fifth type of error, which pertains to misordering errors.
4.1.5 Errors of misordering in the use of passive voice
The fifth type of error to be considered is misordering errors Misordering errors which occur when the elements of a phrase or a sentence are arranged in the wrong order In this study, the students’ misplacing words or phrases in forming the passive is considered as misordering errors Table 4.1 shows that misordering errors have the smallest percentage with 2.57% The following extract demonstrates a misordering error in the use of the passive:
Pandas *from extinctionshould be saved.
This implies that these types of errors are not the most prevalent among the students at XLHS.
Generally, the common written errors committed by students at XLHS are errors in misformation and the usage of the passive Following are results of data from the questionnaires to answer the second research question.
Factors causing students’ errors in the use of passive voice
To address the second research question, a questionnaire consisting of five scales, ranging from“Strongly disagree” (1) to “Strongly agree” (5), is utilized to measure the participants’ responses regarding the factors that contribute to students’ errors in the use of the passive First, the mean scores for overall sources and each source of errors (intralingual transfer, interlingual transfer and context of learning) are shown in descending order in Table 4.2, then the mean scores for each source of errors are described.
Table 4.2: Sources causing students’ errors in the use of passive voice
It can be seen from Table 4.2 that the mean score for overall sources was 3.466,which suggests that factors causing students’ errors were at a medium level Of the three sources of errors, interlingual transfer received the highest mean score(M = 3.686), which was slightly higher than the mean score of context of learning (M = 3.543) In contrast, intralingual transfer got the lowest mean score(M = 3.317) However, to determine the main factors causing students’ errors,each source of errors will be described as well.
Items B8 to B10 were designed to identify students’ errors caused by interlingual transfer The frequency, percentage, and mean of the 3 items were presented in descending order, as shown in Table 4.3.
With regard to interlingual transfer, most of the students agreed with item B9, “I am affected by Vietnamese grammar rules when using the English passive”, with the percentage of 70% (34.17% strongly agree and 35.83% agree).
This led a high mean value of 3.9167 Therefore, the result reveals how much Vietnamese grammar rules affected the students when they used the English passive.
Likewise, most of the students expressed that they faced the difficulty using the English passive due to their habit of using Vietnamese active forms as
B9 I am affected by Vietnamese grammar rules when using the
Vietnamese active forms makes it difficult for me to use English passive forms.
English passive forms but I cannot change from active to passive.
Average value 3.686 item B10, “The habit of using Vietnamese active forms makes it difficult for me to use English passive forms”, with the percentage of agreement of 70% (28.33% strongly agree and 41.67% agree) Consequently, the mean value of this item was so high (M = 3.8667).
Meanwhile, item B8, “I understand the English passive forms but I cannot change from active to passive”, (M = 3.2750) has the percentage of low agreement of 38.34% (6.67% strongly agree and 31.67% agree) This reveals that students at XLHS could understand passive structures and managed to change from active to passive properly.
To sum up, this part reveals that Vietnamese grammar rules and the habit of using Vietnamese active forms are the causes of errors in the students’ use of the passive.
Items B11 to B15 were centered on identifying students’ errors caused by context of learning The frequency, percentage and mean of 5 items were illustrated in the descending order in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4: Context of learning source
B13 I have less time to practice the
English passive exercises in class.
B15 Teacher provides a few exercises related to the
As shown in Table 4.4, the mean score of item B13 (M = 3.9917) is the highest, the mean score of item B15 (M = 3.9667) ranks second While the mean scores of items B11, B14 and B12 range from 3.2833 to 3.2333 which are at a medium level.
The highest mean (M = 3.9917) of item B13, “I have less time to practice the English passive exercises in class”, show most students agreed with this statement, accounting for 73.34% (39.17% strongly agree and 34.17% agree).
Likewise, item B15, “Teacher provides a few exercises related to the
English passive”, also accounts for 73.34% of the totality (35.84% strongly agree and 37.5% agree) This means that most students agreed with this statement.
Meanwhile, items B11, B14 and B12 have the medium mean values. These reveal that students at XLHS seem to have enough motivation to learn the English passive and they do not also complain about the teacher’s explanations of by the teacher’s explanations of the English passive and how it is presented in textbooks.
B14 The teacher’s selection and grouping of materials for
English passive teaching is inappropriate.
B12 I do not have enough motivation to learn the
Average value 3.543 the English passive, their selecting and grouping the materials for teaching the English passive as well as the presentations of the English passive in textbooks.
To sum up, this part indicates that passive errors caused by students’ having less time to practice the English passive exercises in class and the teachers’ providing a few English passive exercises for students This matches what was found in the analysis of the test above There is no doubt that these findings as causes of passive errors are a useful discovery.
Items B1 to B7 aimed to identify students’ errors caused by intralingual transfer The frequency, percentage and mean of 7 items were illustrated in the descending order as Table 4.5.
B1 I lack knowledge of the English passive.
B3 I cannot differentiate active from passive in
B4 I have a problem with using regular and irregular verbs in English passive constructions.
B7 I cannot distinguish between transitive and intransitive
As shown in Table 4.5, the mean score of item B1 (M = 4.0167) is the highest, the mean score of item B3 (M = 3.9833) ranks second and the mean score of item B5 (M = 2.4333) is at the lowest position While the mean scores of the other items B4, B7, B2 and B6 range from 3.2917 to 3.0583 which are at medium level In relation to students’ general knowledge of the passive as item B1, “I lack knowledge of the English passive”, 88 students agreed (44 strongly agree and 44 agree) accounting for 73.34% while 8 students disagreed (1 strongly disagree and 7 disagree) accounting for 6.66% This demonstrates that students at XLHS have several problems in producing passive sentences due to a lack of the passive knowledge.
Similarly, the number of participants who reached agreement with item B3, “I cannot differentiate active from passive in English”, is 92 students (43 strongly agree and 49 agree) accounting for 76.66% This result shows this is the students’ second challenging aspect of using the passive. the English passive.
B6 I have difficulty using singular and plural in
B5 I have difficulty determining the subject and object to form the English passive.
Conversely, in response to item B5, “I have difficulty determining the subject and object to form the English passive”, there were 60 students (24 strongly disagree and 36 disagree) who disagreed with and it accounts for 50% of the totality This is to say that students at XLHS hardly have difficulty determining the subject and object when forming the passive.
In short, this part shows that majority of students at XLHS made errors in their use of the passive due to their lack of knowledge regarding the English passive and their inability to differentiate between active and passive forms. Overall, the data from the questionnaires indicates the main factors causing students’ errors in using the passive These accord with errors made by students in the test However, certain issues are mentioned that will be addressed in the following section.
Discussion
This section provides a comprehensive explanation for two research questions, drawing on an in-depth study of the data.
4.3.1 Common written errors in the use of passive voice
The results of descriptive statistics pointed out two common types of written errors students at XLHS made in the test Besides, the possible reasons leading to these errors were also investigated in the study.
Firstly, the most popular type of error was misformation errors This finding is in line with some previous studies, such as Kurniasih (2013), Yasim et al (2018), Abualzain (2019) and Lubis et al (2019), who found out in their studies this is one of students’ most common written errors in the use of the passive However, this finding appears inconsistent with the studies of Zulfariati and Amelia (2015), Wijaya (2016), Mustika (2016), Permatasari (2019), Lamunpandh (2020) and Bui (2011), who found in their studies that their students made fewer misformation errors The possible explanation for the results that most students in this study made misformation errors, especially alternating forms (i.e passive structures) in simple passive with Be and Pseudo-passive, is due to the complex nature of passive voice as Parrot (2000, p.330) stated “the form of passive constructions is quite complex” This means that the change in word order from active to passive as well as learners’ struggling to differentiate between Be-passive and Pseudo-passive structures can be confusing, especially for those unfamiliar with the structures Moreover, the varied forms of the auxiliary verb “be” add complexity, requiring learners to choose the correct form based on tense and subject and challenges in correctly using past participles, including distinguishing between regular and irregular verbs, contribute to errors. Besides, due to the test design, only a few items are easy to answer, which lets the author look into students’ common written errors The high degree of the test, time constraints, or students’ perception that the test was not important since it had little effect on their academic results also led to these errors On the other hand, errors in archi-forms (i.e singular-plural) and regularization (i.e past participles) are minimal However, the number of students who committed error in archi-forms is significant This might be due to the language differences between English and Vietnamese In fact, there is no plural form of a noun in Vietnamese, nor is there subject-verb agreement nor ending -s and -es Because nouns and verbs in Vietnamese always have the same form, regardless of whether they are countable or uncountable, singular or plural This demonstrates the impact of the first language on learners (Tran, 2011 & Bui, 2021).
Next, the second popular type of error was errors in the usage of passive voice This finding is also congruent with what Bui (2011) found in her study that most students made errors in the usage of passive voice It is clear that students failed to understand the appropriateness of the passive usage, especially
Be-passive, in each item’s context because “uses and functions of the passive voice represent one of the thorniest problems in L2 grammar” (Hinkel & Fotos,
2001, p 235) There are two possible reasons for this error type The first is probably students’ lack of knowledge regarding passive usage In this case, they are unfamiliar with the structures and struggle to understand the proper usage of the auxiliary verb “be” and the past participle of the main verb in the sentence.This argument aligns with what Wijaya (2016), Abualzain (2019), Lamunpandh(2020) and Bui (2011) found in their studies The second is their inability to distinguish between active and passive, which stems from their confusion in determining whether the person or thing responsible for the action is mentioned in the sentence or not To avoid passive voice and instead use active voice, students should begin by identifying the verb, which functions as the action word in the sentence, and then determine whether it should be expressed in active or passive voice This argument is similar to finding of Wijaya (2016) who found that students’ failure to differentiate between active and passive is also factor contributing to the errors in the use of the passive Consequently, the author believes that Vietnamese learners of English face difficulty in grasping the concept of passive usage.
Conversely, students at XLHS seem to make fewer errors in three other types of errors: addition, omission and misordering These findings partly contradict the results of studies conducted by Zulfariati and Amelia (2015), Mustika (2016), Abualzain (2019) and Permatasari (2019), who found that errors in omission and misordering are the common written errors in their studies. Although errors in addition, omission, and misordering are not the most prevalent types of errors among students at XLHS, the author will still present the causes of these errors.
Firstly, concerning addition errors made by a few students in the test: This could possibly be explained by students’ strong performance in the usage of by- phrase in the passive Additionally, they have had at least 6 years to learn grammatical rules about the passive from teachers and textbooks The students have the option of using the passive with by-phrase if they need to place emphasis on agents who carried out an action Considering the causes of these error types, the author believes that students may have forgotten the rules or instructions presented by their teachers or in the textbooks.
Secondly, regarding omission error which a few students made in the test: This could be attributed to the fact that the majority of students at XLHS comprehend grammar rules pertaining to passive structures The causes of these error types may stem from disparities between English and Vietnamese, as well as students’ lack of knowledge about the passive construction, including the use ofby-phrases, the auxiliary verb, and the past participle.
Thirdly, regarding misordering errors: some students committed these types of errors This could be explained by the fact that students have likely practiced and become more familiar with the structure and organization of sentences The causes of these error types arise from the complexity of word order in English Students may struggle with the correct placement of the subject, auxiliary verb, and past participle, leading to confusion in ordering the elements of a phrase or a sentence correctly The presentation and discussion of the data results from the questionnaires will be addressed in the next section.
4.3.2 Factors causing students’ errors in the use of passive voice
The mean score for the overall sources was at a medium level, indicating that the factors contributing to errors in the use of the passive among students at XLHS were also considered medium This finding significantly contrasts with the studies conducted by Wijaya (2016) and Yasim et al (2018), who found that only factors related to intralingual transfer were the primary causes of errors. This difference can be attributed to the different context of the studies and students’ varied proficiency level The data from the questionnaires identified six factors causing students’ errors in the test; these factors fall into three sources of errors: interlingual transfer, context of learning and intralingual transfer The findings of the data are discussed in detail below.
Firstly, as for interlingual transfer, the author found that the finding agrees with some previous studies conducted by Kurniasih (2013), Zulfariati and Amelia (2015), Abualzain (2019) and Lamunpandh (2020) because they also agreed interlingual transfer was the obstacle for learners In the current study, the author identified two factors associated with interlingual transfer that contributed to students’ errors: the effects of Vietnamese grammar rules and students’ habit of using Vietnamese active forms These findings are consistent with what Bui
(2011) found in her study that influence of Vietnamese grammatical rules and students’ active form use are the obstacles for learners However, these findings contradict the studies of Wijaya (2016) and Yasim et al (2018) A possible explanation for this result is that Vietnamese does not have the same passive structure as English does In Vietnamese, instead of using the passive, the active is used to express the same meaning This means that a passive sentence in English may not have an equivalent passive sentence in Vietnamese. Additionally, many Vietnamese students are not familiar with the concept of the passive, so it makes them difficult to form the passive in English (Nguyen, 2005).
To deal with them, teachers should give their students careful notes so they do not get confused about how to form the passive When teachers tell their students to produce the passive, one suggestion is that they should ignore Vietnamese grammar rules to avoid being affected by these factors.
Secondly, in terms of context of learning, the findings of the study indicated that they appeared to contradict what Zulfariati and Amelia (2015), Wijaya (2016), Yasim et al (2018), Abualzain (2019) and Lamunpandh (2020) found in their studies that intralingual transfer and interlingual transfer are the main sources of errors The differences may be due to the context of the study, the number of participants, and the research methodology with which the studies were conducted While the current study only employed quantitative method, other researchers such as Zulfariati and Amelia (2015), Yasim et al (2018) and Abualzain (2019) applied both quantitative and qualitative method with some research instruments:observation, interview and document in their studies More importantly, in this study, the author identified two factors in context of learning that led to students’ errors: the students’ having less time to practice the English passive exercises in class and the teachers’ providing a few English passive exercises for students This is primarily because reduced practice time inhibits reinforcement and retention of passive voice concepts, while a lack of exercise variety and quantity hinders students’ exposure to different contexts, limiting their ability to apply passive constructions accurately Consequently, students had limited opportunities to become proficient in using the passive, resulting in errors in its application It is suggested that teachers should provide enough exercises related to the passive for students and asked them to complete them with a strict deadline.
Thirdly, concerning intralingual transfer, the findings of the current study support the findings of other studies conducted by Kurniasih (2013), Zulfariati and Amelia (2015), Yasim et al (2018), Abualzain (2019), Lamunpandh (2020) and Bui (2011) that intralingual transfer is the main source of errors In this study, the author discovered students’ errors caused by two factors related to intralingual transfer: students’ lack of knowledge of the English passiveand their inability to differentiate between active and passive in English Without a solid understanding of passive concepts and the inability to differentiate between active and passive structures, students may experience confusion and misapplication, resulting in errors when attempting to use them In essence, these issues hinder students from effectively using the passive and contribute to errors in their language learning This finding is in complete agreement with the study by Wijaya (2016), who discovered that students’ inadequate grasp of the passive and their inability to distinguish between the active and passive forms are the factors causing errors In other words, intralingual transfer causes learners to make errors in SLA This finding agrees with the idea of Brown (2000, p 232) who stated “The early stages of language learning are characterized by a predominance of interference but once learners have begun to acquire parts of the new system, more and more intralingual transfer-generalization within the target language is manifested”.
In conclusion, interlingual transfer was the most common source of errors,followed by context of learning and intralingual transfer.
Summary
This chapter presented the results and the discussion regarding the common passive errors committed by students at XLHS and the factors causing students’ errors in the use of the passive More details about the implications of the current study are presented in the next chapter.
CONCLUSION
Summary of the findings
The primary objective of this study was to identify common written errors made by students in the use of the English passive at XLHS and the factors contributing to these errors These objectives resulted in two research questions.
1 What are the common written errors grade 11 students at Xuan Loc High School make when using the English passive voice?
2 What are the factors that cause the errors in the use of the English passive voice among grade 11 students?
Some major findings were drawn from the results and discussion in the previous chapter.
Firstly, the results from the descriptive statistics indicate that students at XLHS mostly committed errors in misformation and the usage of the passive As for misformation errors, students at XLHS, in general, tend to make more errors related to alternating forms (i.e passive structures) such as simple passive with
Be and Pseudo-passive In terms of errors in the usage of the passive, most of students made errors in the usage of Be-passive In contrast, they appear to make fewer errors inaddition, omissionandmisordering.
Secondly, the results of the mean scores from the questionnaires reveal that the factors causing students’ errors in the use of the passive were at a medium level Among the three sources of errors, students’ errors were mainly caused by interlingual transfer the effects of Vietnamese grammar rulesand their habit of using Vietnamese active forms, followed by context of learningstudents’ having less time to practice English passive exercises in class and the teachers’ providing a few English passive exercises for students and intralingual transfer students’ lack of knowledge of the English passive and their inability to differentiate between active and passive in English.
Implications
The findings of this study provide insights into the teaching and learning of the English passive for Vietnamese students Additionally, this evidence generates numerous pedagogical implications for teachers, students, and educators.
First, teachers can apply both explicit and implicit knowledge to instruct English passive construction In terms of explicit knowledge, teachers should focus on the structures of Be-passive andPseudo-passive, as well as the usage of Be-passive when teaching students Then, it is necessary for teachers to introduce the concept of passive voice, explain its purpose, and delineate when it is commonly used For Be-passive, teachers should provide clear explanations of Be-passive structure, emphasize the role of the auxiliary verb “be” and the past participle and use examples to illustrate For Pseudo-passive, teachers explain the structure ofPseudo-passive, highlight how it differs fromBe-passive and include examples to clarify the concept Concerning implicit knowledge, it involves creating an environment where students learn passively through exposure and practice Teachers should engage students in natural conversations that involve the use ofBe-passive andPseudo-passive, use these structures naturally in speech to expose students to real-life language use Besides, teachers ought to provide students with articles, short stories, or excerpts from literature that naturally incorporate Be-passive and Pseudo-passive to encourage them to identify and understand the usage within the context of the reading More importantly, teachers should give positive feedback when students naturally use Be-passive and Pseudo-passive, without necessarily correcting every error students made.
This positive reinforcement encourages students to incorporate these structures in their language.
Second, teachers should develop targeted strategies to help their students improve their accuracy and fluency with the passive For instance, when dealing with errors arising from interlingual transfer, teachers can help students by explicitly stating the different rules between active and passive forms in both English and Vietnamese Meanwhile, with errors arising from context of learning, teachers may provide grammar books and promote students’ autonomy to improve their competency in using the English passive Finally, encouraging students to review types of passive sentences will help them differentiate between active and passive.
Students also apply both explicit and implicit knowledge to learn the structures of Be-passive, Pseudo-passive, and the usage of Be-passive through a structured and systematic approach.
In terms of explicit knowledge, to comprehend Be-passive and Pseudo- passive, students should begin by thoroughly studying provided materials and textbooks that explain the concepts of Be-passive and Pseudo-passive with Get and Have They need to pay close attention to theoretical explanations and examples Additionally, they should break down the structures of Be-passive and Pseudo-passive into their components to differentiate them effectively Besides, they should practice formingBe-passive andPseudo-passive in different tenses to enhance versatility by referring workbooks.
For implicit knowledge, students are encouraged to read a variety of texts, articles, or academic papers, where Be-passive and Pseudo-passive are used naturally Further, they should apply Be-passive and Pseudo-passive in various contexts without solely focusing on formal grammar rules This diversified use enhances implicit understanding This also ensures that students develop a comprehensive understanding of how to employ Be-passive and Pseudo-passive across different temporal contexts, thereby strengthening their overall language proficiency.
The research findings may provide insights for educators to explore solutions to existing challenges They should design passive teaching materials and activities that enable teachers and students to teach and practice forming and using passive structures in context These materials should specifically address common written errors in students’ use of the passive By concentrating on these areas, educators can play a critical role in assisting both teachers and students in effectively teaching and understanding the English passive.
Limitations of the study
The current study had some limitations to be presented as follows.
Firstly, the study’s limitation concerns its sample size This study was carried out only with 120 participants at XLHS Although this is a reasonable amount for a survey, it restricts the generalizability of the findings.
Secondly, the study’s limitation is associated with the test The test in this study only consisted of two parts: forming the passive and the usage of the passive However, there is an aspect that the test does not cover, namely, the identification of errors in the passive Furthermore, the test concentrated on certain selected instances of the passive but did not encompass all passive constructions that students learned in their courses Besides, the test items were also restricted in rewriting and multiple-choice, and another concern is that only one test was utilized in this study.
Thirdly, due to time constraints, the current study only used a quantitative method with the test and questionnaire as the two main data-gathering instruments Therefore, they may not have been comprehensive enough to capture all the necessary data needed to draw meaningful conclusions Although the data from the test and questionnaire assisted the author in identifying the common written errors and the causes of errors in the passive, they might be biased as the participants may have responded to the survey in a way that is more favorable to their own perspective.
Recommendations for further study
Suggestions for future research can be proposed based on the findings and limitations of the present study.
To ensure a more complete picture of students’ common written errors and the factors causing errors in the use of the passive, it is recommended that future works should be conducted on a larger scale, focusing not only on grade
11 students at XLHS, as the current study did, but also including grade 10 and grade 12 students Even though the number of 120 participants seemed sufficient to cover the sample of grade 11 students, it may not adequately reflect all of the students at XLHS.
With regards to the instruments, further research might enhance the quality of the test Specifically, it is suggested that a variety of the passive and types of test items be included.
In terms of research methodology, it is recommended that further research should combine both quantitative and qualitative methods with more appropriate data collection instruments (observations, interviews, etc.) in order to gain more reliable results.
Summary
This chapter summarized the findings related to the two research questions and made implications for teaching and learning passive voice at XLHS.Furthermore, the chapter discussed limitations of the study and made recommendations for further study.
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I am Phan Võ Tấn Túc - a teacher of Hoa Binh High School in Ho Chi Minh City.
I am pursuing a master program in TESOL at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City, my thesis entitled
“An Investigation Into The Errors In Grade 11 Students’ Use Of English Passive
Voice.” I would appreciate it if you could spare some time to complete the following test Thank you so much for your assistance and cooperation.
Phan Võ Tấn Túc (Mr.)
A Change the active sentences to passive sentences if possible Some of the verbs are intransitive and cannot be changed Include the by-phrase only if necessary.
Question 1.People grow corn in Iowa.
Question 2.Peter came here two months ago.
Question 3.Someone made this antique table in 1734.
Question 4.Someone had already made the coffee by the time you got up this morning.
Question 5.Shirley has suggested a new idea.
Question 6 Alex is preparing that report.
Question 7.Translators have translated that book into many languages.
Question 8.The judges will judge the applicants on the basis of their originality.
Question 9 Two horses were pulling the farmer’s wagon.
Question 10.Kathy had returned the book to the library.
Question 11.People are destroying large areas of forest every day.
Question 12.People were using the tennis court, so we couldn’t play.
Question 13.A special committee is going to settle the dispute.
Question 14.People should save pandas from extinction.
Question 15.It hasn’t rained lately.
Question 16.We consider that the petrol tank is dangerous.
Question 17.We think that the electrical system is a fire hazard.
Question 18.I think I’ll stop working for the day I’m getting
Question 19.Are you going to get ?
Question 20.I didn’t stay for the end of the movie because I got
A bore B bored C interested D am bored
C Decide whether they are passive or not If the sentence is passive, write P, if not, write A in the box.
Question 21.Jack is married with Joan
Question 22.We are having the house repaired
Question 23.He had his nose broken in a fight
Question 24.A person who is addicted to drugs needs professional medical help.
Question 25.I think you should get your hair cut
PART II: THE USAGE OF THE PASSIVE
Use active or passive, in any appropriate tense, for the verbs in parentheses. Question 1 The examination papers are scored by machine The students (tell)
Question 2.Only five of us (work) (2) in the laboratory yesterday when the explosion (occur) (3) Luckily, no one (hurt) Question 3.The entire valley can (see)(4) (5)from their mountain home.
Question 4.The mail (deliver/ already) (6) by the time I left for school this morning.
Question 5.Right now a student trip to the planetarium (organize) (7) by Mrs Hunt You can sign up for it at her office.
Question 6.The first fish (appear) (8) on the earth about 500 million years ago Up to now, more than 20,000 kinds of fish (name) (9) and (describe) (10) by scientists New species (discover)
(11)every year, so the total increases continually.
Question 7.Sarah is wearing a blouse It (make) (12) of cotton.
Question 8.We didn’t have a map, so we got (lose) (13). Question 9.I’ll be ready to leave as soon as I get (pack) (14). Question 10.Jill didn’t repair the roof herself She had it (repair) (15).
-THE END OF THE TEST-
PART I:FORMING THE PASSIVE (25 items)
A.Change the active sentences to passive sentences if possible Some of the verbs are intransitive and cannot be changed Include the by-phrase only if necessary.
Question 1.Corn is grown in Iowa.
Question 3.This antique table was made in 1734.
Question 4.The coffee had already been made by the time you got up this morning.
Question 5.A new idea has been suggested by Shirley.
Question 6.That report is being prepared by Alex.
Question 7.That book has been translated into many languages.
Question 8.The applicants will be judged on the basis of their originality.
Question 9.The farmer’s wagon was being pulled by two horses.
Question 10.The book had been returned (by Kathy) to the library (by Kathy).
Question 11.Large areas of forest are being destroyed every day.
Question 12.The tennis court was being used, so we couldn’t play.
Question 13.The dispute is going to be settled by a special committee.
Question 14.Pandas should be saved from extinction.
Question 16.The petrol tank is considered to be dangerous.
Question 17.The electrical system is thought to be a fire hazard.
C Decide whether they are passive or not If the sentence is passive, write P, if not, write A in the box.
PART II: THE USAGE OF THE PASSIVE (15 items)
Item 4: was hurt/ got hurt
Item 6: had already been delivered
Item 11: are discovered/ are being discovered
QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS TOWARDS PASSIVE VOICE
I am Phan Võ Tấn Túc - a teacher of Hoa Binh High School in Ho Chi Minh City.
I am pursuing a master program in TESOL at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City, my thesis entitled
“An Investigation Into The Errors In Grade 11 Students’ Use Of English Passive
Voice” I would appreciate it if you could spare some time to complete the following questionnaire Thank you so much for your assistance and cooperation.
Phan Võ Tấn Túc (Mr.)
B THE PROBLEMS YOU HAVE WITH LEARNING THE ENGLISH PASSIVE
Please indicate your opinion for each of the following statements by circling the number that matches your situation.
Item Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree
B2 I cannot remember what I was taught about the 1 2 3 4 5
B3 I cannot differentiate active from passive in
B4 I have a problem with using regular and irregular verbs in English passive constructions.
B5 I have difficulty determining the subject and object to form the
B6 I have difficulty using singular and plural in
B7 I cannot distinguish between transitive and intransitive when forming the English passive.
B8 I understand the English passive forms but I cannot change from active to passive.
Vietnamese grammar rules when using the
Vietnamese active forms makes it difficult for me to use English passive forms.
B11 I am confused by the teacher’s explanations of 1 2 3 4 5