Table 2.2: The formation of plural in Vietnamese and English 28 Table 3.1: Correspondence of research questions, analysis procedures, and data sources 37 Table 3.2: Summary of the studen
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
It goes without saying that English plays an integral role as a predominant means of expressing thoughts, opinions, and perspectives for global citizens specified in different domains, such as studying overseas, international corporations, diplomacy, and scientific research, among others Therefore, English has become a global passport to employment and higher academic learning, especially for non-native English learners This tendency gives rise to the high demand for proficiency in English grammar rules to produce English effectively and assist learners in accurately conveying their ideas and messages in specific contexts In Vietnam, English learning as a second language has also increased exponentially in demand due to unparalleled opportunities available for competent English users in various fields Therefore, the need to master English grammatical patterns is also rapidly growing among Vietnamese learners to adequately equip themselves with grammatical competence to possess high precision in English
Given this background, the teaching and learning English grammatical patterns arouse considerable concerns from scholars and researchers in the field According to Larsen-Freeman (2001), English grammar presents a wide variety of rules and structures that may differ significantly from learners’ mother tongues, which gives rise to probable errors and interlanguage interference In particular, once the grammar is referred to, the knowledge implies different developmental stages in acquiring a language To manipulate different linguistic needs, a beginner needs to use appropriate grammatical patterns effectively and precisely This elementary learner only needs to acquire some essential rules just enough to use them, like the fundamental rules of subject-verb agreement (SVA), and know how to apply the rules in forming sentences As for students at advanced levels, they probably need to understand the complexity and other intensive rules of SVA, after which they tend to report grammatical problems to their teachers In fact, English SVA rules and their exceptional regulations have proven to be a great hindrance for elementary and pre-intermediate learners to achieve linguistic accuracy Ammar et al (2010) once stated that English SVA can be complicated for learners due to the various factors influencing the selection of the correct verb form comprising the subject number, person, and intervening elements in the sentence
In addition to that, the presence of proximity concord, collective nouns, and other features demonstrates exceptional cases that learners must navigate
During the process of ESL acquisition in general and being comprehensive in SVA rules in particular, it is the fact that committing errors is inevitable under a number of influential elements such as interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, context of learning, communication strategies, and learning strategies Over the past few decades, the perception of learners’ errors has been transformative significantly because making errors is a fundamental phase of language acquisition Errors made by linguistic learners are the apparent evidence reflecting what learners do not know or have already acquired along the language learning process Academically, Errors Analysis (EA) has been introduced in language research to allow researchers to understand learners’ difficulties when encountering them As a matter of fact, there are many different causes leading to the errors It is stated that “although interference from a student’s first language is the major predictor of phonological errors, interference errors are only one of the types of errors found in the syntax, morphology, and lexicon of student’s speech and writing in the target language” (Burt, 1975:54) Because of that, it is hard to overstate the pivotal role of mother tongue in the acquisition of the second or foreign languages In other words, the phenomenon of committing errors during the process of acquiring L2 can be attributable to either the influence of existing knowledge in the mother tongue or fallible learning of the new L2 knowledge
Similar difficulties also arise in the process of SVA acquisition among Vietnamese students It is the fact that Vietnamese ESL learners in elementary and pre-intermediate levels have problems with subject-verb agreement rules because Vietnamese (students’ L1) is radically different from English In Vietnamese, verbs do not change even when they occur in the past, present, or future, and most of the verb forms stay unchanged regardless of the subject’s number and person Bui (2021) researched written grammatical errors of Vietnamese learners of English, and the findings were recorded that SVA errors were the most common grammatical aspect that Vietnamese students had problems with since most of the respondents failed to perform SVA rules when writing a paragraph Similarly, Nguyen (2020) experimented a study in Hanoi University of Industry, and finally, the author found that SVA errors were one of the most common problems for undergraduates in English writing Therefore, those findings have shed light on how Vietnamese students fundamentally encounter difficulties in acquiring and producing English SVA rules
Recent research has highlighted the significance of error analysis, particularly regarding subject-verb agreement (SVA) errors Despite advancements, there remains a need to investigate these errors among pre-intermediate high school learners Researchers have indicated that many grade 10 students encounter difficulties with SVA in English tests This study endeavors to address this gap by exploring the types and causes of SVA errors in low-level learners, thereby contributing to the comprehension of these errors and their implications for teaching practices.
This study confines itself to investigating common errors of English SVA of the 10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School for certain reasons In Tieng Anh 10 textbooks, the official English materials for teaching and learning in grade
10 composed by the Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam, many different grammatical structures, especially SVA rules, are taught to students Despite being completely immersed in English grammar throughout the curriculum, the teaching and learning of SVA remain a challenge at Nguyen
Khuyen High School owing to a number of causes, which are thoroughly analyzed and discussed in this research.
Aims of the study
Against the backdrop of the teaching and learning English at Nguyen Khuyen High School, the aims of the study are (1) to investigate the types of SVA errors made by 10 th at Nguyen Khuyen High School and (2) to explore the causes of these errors In addition to this, (3) teaching implications are drawn to the SVA errors made by the students
To achieve the objectives of this study, the research questions are presented as follows:
1 What types of SVA errors are made by 10 th graders at Nguyen
2 What are the causes of SVA errors made by 10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School?
3 What teaching implications can be drawn to SVA errors made by
10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School?
Significance of the study
This study delves into the types of SVA errors and their potential causes, offering valuable insights into students' and teachers' perspectives on these errors By understanding these diverse viewpoints, academic instructors can develop more effective approaches to addressing this issue Additionally, the study includes practical pedagogical suggestions from teachers, providing a comprehensive framework for mitigating SVA errors in the academic setting.
Scope of the study
The thesis is expected to reveal what types of SVA errors the students in grade 10 at Nguyen Khuyen High School committed, thus promoting a holistic understanding of students’ common problems in SVA within the learning and teaching of SVA in the high school setting Secondly, the study sheds light on how the learners’ first language is influential in the process of SVA acquisition; therefore, such insights help educators know what they should focus on when delivering SVA lessons, especially the impact of Vietnamese on the possibility that the students are able to make errors Additionally, thanks to the difficulties of SVA learning and the causes of SVA errors identified, they offer a roadmap for designing targeted instructional strategies for ESL teachers In tandem with the challenges and causes mentioned above, collecting teachers’ perspectives on these kinds of errors has produced several pedagogical solutions that provide ESL teachers with profound insights into the teaching and learning of SVA Finally, the integrated research methodology of diagnostic tests, questionnaires, and interviews emphasizes the value of combining quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Organization of thesis chapters
In addition to the abstract, table of contents, list of abbreviations, appendices, and references, the thesis includes five main chapters Chapter 1 presents the introduction of the thesis comprising the rationale, the background of the study, together with the aims, research questions, and the significance of the study Chapter 2 portrays a review of the literature relevant to this study by summarizing significant evidence and insights from various authors in the domain related to error analysis and subject-verb agreement errors Chapter 3 details the methodology employed in the study This chapter also includes the research questions, the research design, the description of the subjects, the instruments, as well as the data collection procedures Chapter 4 explains, analyzes, and discusses the findings of the diagnostic test, the questionnaires, and the interviews Chapter
5 concludes the results and suggests the teaching implication of the English subject-verb agreement.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of subject-verb agreement
English grammatical accuracy is of paramount importance in language production; therefore, one of the pivotal aspects of grammar being highly regarded is subject-verb agreement, which fundamentally governs the relationship between the subject and the verb in a sentence The concept relates to the requirement for the verb form to match or agree with the number and person of the subject Chomsky (2014) once suggested that subject-verb agreement is a morphosyntactic phenomenon that ensures grammatical coherence and clarity in a sentence That is a process based on rules, which establishes a concord between the subject and the verb according to features such as number, person, and sometimes gender According to Straus et al (2014), the SVA can be simply defined as the fact that a singular subject should take the singular verb, whereas the plural subject should take the plural verb
In light of its importance in language acquisition, many researchers have implemented different aspects of SVA taking patterns, rules, and exceptions into consideration Remarkably, two renowned authors in the field of SVA investigation, Bock and Cutting (1992) exhibited the cognitive processes within SVA production, with working memory and syntactic aspects being emphasized Hence, the difficulties in SVA arise when learners' memory about the subject cannot be maintained, as the competition between grammatical and non- grammatical features in the sentence seems to emerge strongly.
Rules of subject-verb agreement
Understanding and applying Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA) rules are crucial for maintaining clarity and coherence in English communication These rules govern the relationship between subjects and verbs, ensuring that they align in number and person By extracting SVA rules from reputable sources, such as academic books, researchers have synthesized a comprehensive set of guidelines that ensure accurate and effective language usage.
Advanced Grammar In Use (2 nd edition) written by Martin Hewings, English Grammar In Use penned by Raymond Murphy, The Grammar Book composed by
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman and other reliable sources Accordingly, the SVA rules are presented in the table of rules (see Appendix 1).
Error Analysis (EA)
Error Analysis has long been employed by many researchers in the field of linguistic learning and teaching Corder (1967) is regarded as the “Father of Error Analysis” because he and his colleagues constructed EA in Second Language Acquisition in the 1970s to gain an understanding of the nature of errors underlying processes of language acquisition and inform language teaching practices In fact, Corder stated that errors are indispensable for learners themselves because making errors can be considered a device the learner uses to learn
To a greater extent, Ellis (1994) conducted a study to investigate the cognitive processes involved in language acquisition The researcher found that errors made by language learners are not coincident but rather a systematic demonstration of their second language acquisition In particular, learners actively construct hypotheses about the acquired language based on the input they have already received in their mother tongue
Being predicated upon the nature of EA, a pivotal characteristic of EA has been claimed that many learners’ errors were generated by learners’ misunderstanding the rules of the new language; thus, EA predominantly focuses on the errors learners make Concretely, according to Corder (1967), EA has two primary objects: theoretical and applied The theoretical object aims to understand what and how a learner learns when he studies an L2 In contrast, the applied object is to enable the learner to learn more efficiently by using the knowledge of his dialect for pedagogical purposes
Error Analysis (EA) has limitations in capturing the complexities of language learning Ellis (1994) notes that EA overlooks learners' conscious avoidance strategies Tarone (1980) similarly observes that EA fails to account for cognitive processes in avoidance strategies Thus, EA focuses solely on observable behavior, potentially overlooking learners' avoidance of challenging structures.
Error analysis in language teaching
Errors are inevitable in language learning and provide valuable insights into student acquisition and progress (Corder, 1967) They serve as feedback for teachers, indicating instructional effectiveness and areas where students require support (Corder, 1987) By analyzing errors, teachers can identify learner needs and modify their teaching strategies to cater to those needs (James, 1998), ensuring that instruction aligns with student learning.
He uncovered the fact that learners’ errors can help teachers to create communicative activities and provide helpful insights into learner needs
Furthermore, errors indicate to the educator which parts of lessons need further attention and enable the teacher to decide whether to continue instructing another item of knowledge As a result, one of the critical abilities of a teacher is to diagnose learners’ errors successfully
As a whole, EA is regarded as a vitally important tool in providing information on the ubiquitous difficulties and potential causes of learners’ errors The implication of understanding errors committed by learners is that the teacher is able to produce materials and aids to deliver lectures in the practical classroom environment effectively.
Errors and mistakes
Mistakes, defined as performance errors originating from system misapplications, differ from errors that showcase an incorrect learner system According to Brown (2000), mistakes are one-time events, potentially self-correctable Conversely, errors are systemic, persistent, and typically unnoticed by learners, indicating a lack of learning Ellis (1997) highlights that performance errors can stem from various factors, including memory lapses and psychological conditions, distinguishing them from errors caused by systemic knowledge gaps.
James (1998) categorized mistakes based on the distinction between global and local mistakes Global mistakes connote those affecting the overall meaning and accuracy of a sentence or utterance These mistakes cause the imprecise selection of lexicons, incorrect word order, or inappropriate use of tense and aspect markers As a consequence, global mistakes can be a contributor to miscommunication and improper use of language In contrast, local mistakes take place at a more specific level within a sentence or phrase These encompass grammatical or syntactic elements, including incorrect verb forms and inaccurate use of articles Despite the fact that local mistakes are not inclined to obstruct understanding, they still exert an influence on the accuracy and comprehensive ability of learners
Errors can be categorized into semantic and syntactic types, reflecting the production and comprehension domains of language Semantic errors involve inaccuracies in word and sentence meanings, while syntactic errors violate grammatical rules This study focuses on subject-verb agreement errors, representing syntactic errors, as a grammatical unit.
Types of errors
As mentioned in the previous section, numerous researchers and scholars elucidated different methods to distinguish the types of errors in their approach While Corder (1975c) categorized errors into four types (omission, addition, incorrect, and mis-ordering of elements), Burt and Kiparsky (1975) suggested two types of errors (local error and global error) However, based on the causes of error, Richards (1974) classified them into interlingual, intralingual, and developmental errors Similarly, Brown (1987) and James (1998) pointed out four types of errors: interlingual transfer (the negative influence of the mother tongue of the learner), intralingual transfer, the context of learning, and communication strategies the learners use, and Norrish (1983) grouped errors into three types consisting of carelessness, first language interference and translation from the first language.
Source of errors
The underpinning concerning causes of errors has received plenty of paramount concerns due to its great importance in second language acquisition As a matter of fact, it is widely acknowledged that errors come from not only the L1 interference but also other sources Brown (2000) and Ellis (1997) found that the sources of errors can be divided into a number of causes, including interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, context of learning, communication strategies, and learning strategies Another argument from Littlewood’s perspective (1984) is that the source of errors comprises transfer, overgeneralization, omission as a simplification strategy, communication strategy, and the effect of pedagogical instructions in the classroom On top of that, Littlewood suggested that performance factors play an integral role in the way learners make errors; meanwhile, Corder (1967) argued that these errors regarding language production should exclusively be considered mistakes The author fundamentally applies these definitions to the current study to comprehensively investigate the SVA errors made by students
During the very initial stages of acquiring a second language, a factor known as cross-linguistic influence is mentioned in a variety of linguistic studies
Odlin (1989) defined this phenomenon as interlingual transfer, which occurs when learners draw upon their existing linguistic knowledge and skills in their native language to transfer into the target language When embarking on a second language acquisition process, learners only know their mother tongue and rely on that as the only linguistic foundation; therefore, it is inevitable that they attempt to transfer their mother tongue to the acquired language Most importantly, Cook (1991) stated that interlingual transfer can occur at any stage of language development and influence both receptive and productive skills However, Ellis (1994) suggested that this transfer may be a precursor to both positive and negative impacts on language learning since learners can benefit from transfer when the structures or features align with the target language Still, it can also lead to committing errors in production or comprehension
Concerning a similar perspective, intralingual transfer is the negative transfer of items within the target language In other words, this is related to the inaccurate generalization of the rules within the target language Brown (1987) elucidated that intralingual errors are those due to the language being learned independently of the native language In fact, intralingual transfer refers to the process by which an individual's existing knowledge of a language affects their acquisition and use of that same language This type of transfer occurs within the same language system, contrary to interlingual transfer, which involves the influence of a person's knowledge of one language on the acquisition and use of another language
Intralingual transfer, the influence of learners' native language on their target language acquisition, is prevalent at all language proficiency levels Learners initially rely on their linguistic knowledge, including grammar and vocabulary, to make sense of the target language This reliance can lead to intralingual errors, such as overgeneralization, rule ignorance, and incomplete application of rules These errors are common in ESL learners and contribute significantly to their error production.
Another critical source of errors can be cited is the context of learning Acquiring a language within an environment such as a classroom, an immersion program, or a naturalistic setting exposes learners to an array of contextual factors that are likely to influence their linguistic production and comprehension Therefore, the relationship between the learning context and learners’ error patterns has long been investigated to see whether it affects learner performance to a certain extent Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991) researched the learning setting and the learners’ interlanguage development They stated that the learning context can facilitate or constrain learners’ ability to acquire target-like linguistic forms (p.125) The context of learning encompasses social, cultural, linguistic, and instructional dimensions, the most important of which is the classroom setting In this context, the teacher or the textbook can lead the learners to make improper hypotheses about the target language Specifically, if teachers instruct oversimplified explanations or demonstrate incomplete knowledge, learners may make errors or produce erroneous hypotheses about the target language Concerning a similar aspect, Ellis (2006) proposed that textbooks providing inaccurate or misleading information can be a principal contributor to learners’ faulty hypotheses and subsequent errors in language production (p.76)
To enhance communication despite language barriers, learners employ communication strategies, classified into compensatory and non-compensatory types Compensatory strategies involve linguistic techniques like paraphrasing, circumlocution, and body language to convey messages despite limited repertoire Conversely, non-compensatory strategies seek assistance from interlocutors through repetition, clarification, and confirmation checks to facilitate mutual understanding.
Nevertheless, Faerch and Kasper also stated that there are possibilities when learners misapply the communication techniques since they employ these strategies inappropriately or excessively Considering a similar viewpoint, Ellis (1994) claimed that communication strategies can be responsible for learners using imprecise language, which leads to probable misunderstanding Therefore, these tactics can sometimes become a source of error
H.D Brown (2000) and Ellis (1997) stated that learning and communication strategies play an integral part in second language acquisition Learning strategies regard the techniques and approaches learners employ to enhance their language learning process Meanwhile, communication strategies are used by learners to overcome communication difficulties and effectively convey their intended message in the target language
Second language learners take advantage of various learning strategies to enhance their interlanguages; consequently, different kinds of errors reflect different learning strategies For instance, overgeneralization errors indicate that learners may apply a rule they have learned appropriately to a new context and attempt to make sense of the linguistic system Moreover, avoidance errors can be considered one type of error that learners intentionally avoid using specific linguistic structures or vocabulary due to a lack of confidence or uncertainty about their correctness
Horwitz et al (1991) emphasize the importance of language learning strategies for teachers, as they enable learners to enhance comprehension and facilitate effective communication The strategies encompass both direct methods (memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies) and indirect methods (metacognitive, affective, and social strategies) By employing these strategies, learners actively engage in the learning process, fostering successful language acquisition.
As the learning strategies and the communication strategies are prone to be one of the fundamental causes of SVA errors, they are mentioned as a foundation for the SVA error analysis in the later chapters of the study However, the investigation into these strategies, as mentioned earlier, is out of the scope of this study; it is left as a recommendation for further related studies.
Accounts of subject-verb agreement errors
There are a number of studies conducted to experiment the SVA errors made by language learners when they practiced English written or spoken production As a matter of fact, Stapa and Izahar (2010) researched SVA errors with 20 teacher-trainees in a teacher’s training college in a northern state of Malaysia; they produced two modes of writing, including factual and argumentative ones It was found that the respondents had errors in all five subject- verb agreement categories investigated in both topics The respondents committed 58% and 57.9% SVA errors regarding topic 1, “Education for Survival,” and topic
2, “College is better than school,” respectively
A similar study investigated SVA errors in the written production of semester three students from the Diploma in Industrial Chemistry by Nayan (2009) The study found that the students had difficulty correctly and effectively using the subject-verb agreement rules in their writing and had challenges in general and sub-rules of subject-verb agreement As a result, his author claimed that one of the factors that cause them to make errors in the subject-verb agreement is the L1 interference (inter-language errors), where these students notice that in their L1, there is no rule that says that a singular subject requires a single form of verb Moreover, faulty generalization or over-generalization also involves a deviant structure that has been constructed by these students based on their experience of other structures in the target language From that point, it is irrefutable that interference with the native language is a source of difficulty in students’ learning process of L2 to a considerable extent
In addition to this, Law (2005) investigated the acquisition of SVA by Cantonese speakers She found that learners showed unmistakable evidence of the influence of their L1, Cantonese It was found that these grammar errors which were related to SVA included plural singular (11.31%), tenses (31.55%), negation (4.67%), and interrogative (4.17%), making up more than 50% of the errors made Based on these practical studies, the writer asserted that subject-verb agreement is problematic for learners at all levels (Celce-Murcia, M & Larsen-Freeman, D, I983, p.37) By the same token, in the study of subject-verb agreement errors made by university students who major in English Education at Universitas Bengkulu, the researchers found that omission was the most dominant subject-verb agreement errors with the frequency of 111 and percentage of 49 %, followed with misinformation with frequency 59 and percentage 26 % and addition with frequency 55 and percentage 25 %
The presence of subject-verb agreement errors has been observed and researched in different former studies Based on these studies, SVA errors might appear when the head noun and the verb are separated by another noun phrase that disagrees with the subject in number According to Quirk et al (1985), this phenomenon is identified as proximity concord since the verb agrees in number with the proximal or local noun phrase rather than the more distant head noun Some examples of this kind of error are presented in the example below:
1a The time for fun and games are over
1b The readiness of our conventional forces are at an all-time low
Proximity concord, specifically called attraction, can be interpreted that “it denotes agreement of the verb with a closely preceding noun phrase rather than agreement with the head of the noun phrase that functions as subject.” In a study to explore the influence of the hierarchical structure on agreement attraction, Franck and Wagers (2020) found that agreement attraction errors are more likely when the attractor is closer to the verb, indicating a proximity effect Furthermore, attraction errors arise due to interference during the computation of agreement dependencies The complexity of the syntactic structure and the presence of intervening noun phrases influenced the occurrence of attraction errors The terminology “attraction” or “proximity” means that learners’ working memory with respect to the number of subject nouns cannot be retained in case the subject and the verb are divided by a local noun During the management of SVA, the number of the subject head nouns has to be maintained in working memory and copied to the verb In the case of “Subject-Verb-Object” sentences, the number of the subject head nouns can be maintained without any difficulty until the verb is produced However, when an interfering noun appears between the subject and the verb, this interfering material is likely to disrupt memory for the number of the subject head noun, and this disruption could increase the possibility of agreement errors, significantly when properties (e.g., number) of the local noun conflict with those of the head noun, and the properties of the local noun inappropriately influence agreement Bock et al (1992) also found that attraction errors reliably occurred only when the local noun’s grammatical number differed from the subject noun’s grammatical number This phenomenon is known as number attraction
2a The drawing of the flowers *are really stunning
Here, are agrees with the plural flowers (a local noun) rather than with the singular drawing (the head noun)
Research examining attraction in English number agreements suggested that attractors specified for number are more likely to influence agreement than attractors having a default number In English, singular nouns, which are unmarked (i.e., default number), are less likely to cause an attraction impact than nouns marks for plurality (Bock et al., 1992) Agreement attraction relates to an erroneous agreement with the local noun In an experiment regarding the agreement elicitation task in Bock and Miller’s research (1991), participants were given sentence preambles in the form of complex subjects, and they needed to repeat each one and complete the sentence The results demonstrated that the most revealing error pattern emerged in the disparity between singular and plural subjects in the mismatch condition
Depending on the number feature of the nouns, each condition is assigned different names as Singular-Plural (SP), Plural – Singular (PS), Singular – Singular (SS) and Plural – Plural (PP) The below preambles illustrate the above conditions:
3a The soldier that the officers accused … (SP condition)
3b The soldiers that the officer accused … (PS condition)
3c The soldier that the officer accused … (SS condition)
3d The soldiers that the officers accused … (PP condition)
Preambles like 3a & 3b where the grammatical number of the subject head noun and the local noun differ, resulting in the probability of more subject-verb agreement errors than preambles like 3c and 3d This is called the “mismatch effect” because the two nouns mismatch in number (Anton-Mendez, Nicol &
The 2002 study by Garret found that preambles like 3a (SP) elicit more errors than those like 3b (PS) Asymmetries exist in error distribution, with errors more likely to occur when the head noun is singular and the local noun plural, leading learners to produce plural verbs Bock and Miller (1991) attributed this to the marking of singular and plural nouns Singular nouns lack explicit number marking, while plural nouns are marked with inflections like "-s" or "-es." This plural marking triggers plural verb agreement while the absence of number information in singular nouns causes verbs to default to singular agreement Consequently, plural-marked non-subject nouns can interfere with agreement, while singular nouns cannot due to their lack of number markers.
Semantic and phonological factors do not influence subject-verb agreement errors, while syntactic factors play a significant role Research by Bock and Cutting (2001) demonstrated that a clause boundary between the subject noun and the local noun leads to an increase in agreement errors.
4a The editor of the history books …
4b The editor who rejected the books …
To provide an explanation for this result, Book and Cutting (2001) stated that the subject and its verb should be bound up with each other in the same clause When the noun phrase belongs to the same clause with its verb, it acts as a better candidate for controlling the subject-verb agreement as opposed to a circumstance that a noun phrase is in a separate clause Therefore, a local noun tied within a prepositional phrase will receive a higher probability score and more significant potential to intervene in the agreement than a local noun in a clausal modifier
Many studies have also drawn attention to the fact that agreement fundamentally occurs between the subject and the finite verb within a hierarchical domain Factors such as syntactic distance and intervening noun phrases can influence the agreement process For example, in sentences with coordinated noun phrases, the agreement may be affected by the closest noun phrase or a default agreement strategy The sentences provided below can be the prime examples for the given aspect
5a Either the students or the teacher is responsible for the mess
In the given example, agreement uses the default strategy as the closest noun phrase "teacher" is singular, and the verb "is" agrees with the singular subject
One further element that made the production of SVA perplexing is the mismatch between notional number and grammatical number Notional number refers to the number intended by the speaker's message, while grammatical number refers to the conventional linguistic number associated with the subject head noun This mismatch can be observed in the following examples:
6a The key to the cabinets … (Single-referent mismatch)
6b The gang on the motorcycles … (Distributive-referent mismatch)
In the instances above, a mismatch can be seen between the number of the head noun phrase and the local noun phrase The phrase in both sets consisted of a grammatically singular head noun (key, gang) followed by a prepositional phrase ending in a plural object noun (cabinets, motorcycles) Therefore, the grammatical number of the phrases was the same (i.e., both singular) However, the conceptual number differed In the first case (6a), the conceptual interpretation implies that there is the key that can unlock many different cabinets In the second case (6b), our understanding suggests that each gang rides an individual motorcycle, resulting in multiple motorcycles, with one gang corresponding to each motorbike Bock and Miller explained that if conceptual number can control verb agreement, then the “distributive-referent” phrases should elicit more plural agreement errors in their completions (e.g., The key to the cabinets ARE lost) than the “single- referent” phrases (e.g., The gang on the motorcycles ARE ferocious) In a similar study regarding the conceptual number to the processes of SVA in English by Eberhard in 1999, it is also noticeable that the conceptual number of a distributive- referent phrase can reliably influence the establishment of verb agreement From what has been discussed above, it is synonymous with the fact that more errors occurred when notional number and grammatical number were mismatched than when they matched
In tandem with this, collective nouns typically pose significant challenges for learners when they attempt to produce subject-verb agreement precisely
Collective nouns differ from ordinary nouns is that they can be followed by either singular or plural verbs when they are in the singular Collective nouns denote a group or collection of individuals, entities, or objects, including separate members such as audience, team, herd, flock, pack, hive, crew, class, family, army, government, gang, team, school, community, and so on The interpretation underlying the concept of collective nouns is that the decision to use a singular or plural verb form with a collective noun depends on the emphasis that is placed on the individual members of the group, then the singular verb form is employed; however, the focus is on the collective entity as a whole resulting in the implementation of plurality of the verb The following examples (7a and 7b) demonstrate different circumstances with respect to collective nouns
7a The family is the basis of most societies all over the world
7b My family have always lived in the East End of London
Accounts related to subject-verb agreement errors of Vietnamese students
English subject-verb agreement errors have long been an outstanding matter in the English learning process of Vietnamese learners In a study experimented with 40 students at Tra Vinh University in Vietnam, Nguyen (2020) pointed out that 100% of participants made errors concerning subject-verb agreement errors
In addition to that, Chi (2020) analyzed 36 Vietnamese students’ composition writings and 36 paragraph writings collected at a university in Vietnam The analysis of the writing errors on compositions indicated that 137 (21.4%) was the subject-verb agreement, which came in as the second-most committed error To a greater extent, the errors from paragraphs showed that subject-verb agreement was ranked the highest, with 130 (21.1%) Another recent case study carried out in
2021 regarding “Common Errors Made by Non-English Majored Students in Speaking Skills” conducted at the People’s Police University in Vietnam, Hoa and her colleagues (2022) claimed that 65% students committed errors regarding subject-verb agreement in this university, which is the third-most common errors made by non-English majored students; meanwhile, 55% students participating in
The impacts of Vietnamese on the acquisition of subject-verb agreement23
of SVA errors made by Vietnamese students, the causes, and the pedagogical implications of dealing with these difficulties in learning SVA
2.10 The impacts of Vietnamese on the acquisition of subject-verb agreement
It is an undeniable truth that in the realm of second language learning and instruction, the significance of native language transfer cannot be overstated There are a number of studies showing that Vietnamese can influence the acquisition of subject-verb agreement in English language learners Indeed, Vietnamese ESL learners face problems in subject-verb agreement because, in their L1, which is Vietnamese, there are no such rules regarding subject-verb agreement As a result, Vietnamese speakers are prone to confronting particular difficulties in absorbing the concept of subject-verb agreement in English, which is based on the grammatical notion of tense Studies have found that Vietnamese speakers tend to make more errors in subject-verb agreement in English than speakers of other languages with a more robust tense system Additionally, researchers have found that explicit instruction and corrective feedback can be effective in improving subject-verb agreement accuracy in Vietnamese speakers learning English
Within the scope of the study, the interfering effects of the mother tongue on the acquisition of English SVA is mainly focused on in this session In particular, language transfer is considered as one of the most ubiquitous sources of errors amongst Vietnamese learners, and the most important of which is the plurality of nouns in English, primarily the wrong use of singular and plural forms Particularly, Nguyen (2004) stated that Vietnamese exhibits a more context- dependent and flexible system, while English follows a more rule-based and explicit approach Likewise, concerning the grammatical aspect, Quirk (1985) affirmed that Vietnamese is not as complex as English, possessing little of what is traditionally known in European languages as inflectional morphology English is an inflectional language in which prefixes or suffixes play a critical grammatical role That leads to the negative results of accuracy in SVA when Vietnamese ESL learners produced written or spoken components in English, whereas they remain affected by their mother tongue In other words, the number realm of nouns and verbs is the predominant hurdle for many Vietnamese students
2.10.1 Pluralization of noun in Vietnamese
Unlike languages in most Western countries, Vietnamese, being an Austroasiatic language, demonstrates distinctive characteristics with respect to the formation of plural nouns The domain of pluralization of nouns in Vietnamese has long been experimented by most of Vietnamese researchers and a number of international authors Nguyen (2004) found that the Vietnamese language employs different approaches to form plurals, including number determiners, classifiers, reduplication, and word order changes In particular, number determiners in the Vietnamese demonstrate plural numbers such as những, mấy, nhiều, các, một vài, and so forth These determiners can be used before a noun to indicate its plural meaning The following examples obviously illustrate these cases:
- lớp học à những lớp học
- học sinh à nhiều học sinh
- con mèo à một vài con mèo
- cái ghế à mấy cái ghế
Similarly, a cardinal number prior to a noun can be added to make plural meaning
These two approaches to creating plural nouns are fundamentally limited However, it is essential to note that in this regard, it is not equivalent to the English plural morpheme – s, – es
Nguyen's (2004) analysis of Vietnamese noun phrases revealed that overt plural markers are absent in the language Instead, plurality is conveyed through context and classifiers, indicating that Vietnamese relies heavily on these linguistic elements to express noun plurality.
2.10.2 Pluralization of noun in English
Noun pluralization in English is crucial, with the addition of "-s" or "-es" being the most common method Irregular plurals, like "women" and "teeth," challenge learners, requiring rote memorization Acquiring these irregular forms is essential for grammatical competence, as irregular plural formation necessitates cognitive mapping between singular and plural forms Exceptional rules must be mastered to enhance one's understanding of English pluralization.
Rule Singular Form Plural Form
In terms of regular plurals, add -S at the end of the word laptop, thought laptops, thoughts
When nouns end with -S, -SS, -
SH, -CH, -X, and -Z, add morpheme -ES at the end of the word bus, lass, galosh, witch, fox, fez buses, lasses, galoshes, witches, foxes, fezzes
When nouns end with -F or -FE, change the -F or -FE to -V, and add -S elf, wife elves, wives
When nouns end with -Y, change the -Y to -I, and add -S bunny bunnies
When Y is preceded by a vowel, add only -S key, essay keys, essays
When nouns end with -O, add -ES hero heroes
When nouns end with -UM, change -UM to -A datum data
When nouns end with -ON, change -ON to A criterion criteria
When nouns end with -IS, change
-IS to -ES crisis crises
When nouns end with -US, change -US to -I radius radii
When nouns end with -EX or -IX, change -EX or -IX to -CES vertex, appendix vertices, appendices
Some nouns that stay the same species, sheep species, sheep
Some nouns that change almost completely person, foot, mouse, woman people, feet, mice, women
Table 2.1 Common rules for plural formation of noun involving -s and -es
According to the above-mentioned principles of pluralization in the two languages, the differentiation between the formation of plural nouns in Vietnamese and English is apparently demonstrated in the table below
The use of a number before a noun to make plural meaning
The addition of the morpheme
Pluralization rule 2 The use of a determiner before a noun
The changing of one or more internal vowels
The use of foreign plurals None
The application of the rules of foreign plurals to English words The same forms of singular and plural nouns
None The use of the same form for singular and plural nouns
Irregulars Irregular plurals exist for certain nouns
Irregular plurals exist for a wide range of nouns
Plural markers may not always agree with modifiers
Subject-verb agreement is essential for plurality
Counting Classifiers are used to indicate quantity
No specific classifiers are used for counting
Singular and plural forms may have similar appearances
Singular and plural forms typically have distinct appearances
Table 2.2 The Formation of Plurality in Vietnamese and English 2.10.3 Verb inflection
In second language acquisition, verb inflection can be considered one of the biggest hurdles because the mother tongue does not require any enumerating of person or number, which triggers difficulties for L2 learners to be excellent in the SVA forms in English Indeed, Swan (2011) claimed that one area of grammar where second language learners often experience difficulties is with verb inflections, such as tense and aspect markers In fact, producing English patterns, the stem -s/-es form spells an eclectic mix of challenges to teachers and learners in classes where learners’ L1 does not possess verb inflection The majority of Asian languages have distinctive verb inflection systems Thus, the given differences can be attributable to the difficulties learners face when acquiring this aspect of second language acquisition Many hindrances are the disparities in linguistic structures, patterns, and cognitive factors about processing verb inflections Similar cases can be seen in the Vietnamese language; it definitely has neither rules for SVA formation nor exceptional rules of pluralization, irrespective of whether the subjects are singular or plural The stem forms in Vietnamese are employed virtually in all contexts The examples below perfectly exemplify the circumstance
10a Lan học Tiếng Anh (Lan studies English)
10b Tôi và Lan học Tiếng Anh (I and Lan study English)
10c Chúng tôi học Tiếng Anh (We study English)
Because of that, Vietnamese learners often struggle to produce proper English SVA because the Vietnamese language does not differentiate among persons, and it is not necessary for verbs to agree with the subject accordingly Conversely, English verbs undergo various inflectional changes to indicate different tenses, such as adding -s, -es for simple present tenses or using auxiliary verbs like "will" for future tense Most importantly, the verb “be” is a complex one because it appears in different forms in various tenses, along with an array of exceptional rules that learners need to be aware of Celce-Murcia & Lasen- Freeman (1983, p.34) provided the following illustration The verb “be” is challenging to use because it exists in five different forms (am/is/are/was/were) These forms exhibit dissimilarities from the stem form, necessitating agreement in terms of person, number, and tense with the subject Consequently, numerous students find themselves perplexed by its usage due to multiple conditions that must be satisfied to employ the suitable forms
2 nd person You are here
3 rd person She/ He/ It is here
She/ He/ It was here
2 nd person You take classes
You (all) take classes You (all) took classes
3 rd person She/ He takes classes
In fact, Ellis (1994) once stated that learners with different linguistic backgrounds tend to encounter difficulties in acquiring the complicated system of English verb inflection, including conjugating verbs according to tense, aspect, mood, and subject-verb agreement By the same token, Pilleux (2003) presented that learners commit SVA errors when they omit the -s inflection from the third- person singular verb because they endeavor to make the verb to be in concord with the singular subject The following sentences demonstrate clearly this common situation
11a She learn English every day
11b It remain unchanged throughout the given period
On the other hand, they also misuse the -s inflection as plural markedness by the fact that they pluralize the verbs by means of adding the -s or -es inflection to make them agree with the plural subjects The two examples below exemplify this circumstance
12a We arrives at the airport at 2:00 pm
12b They likes to spend hours at the library
It is widely acknowledged that the rules for applying the third singular -s and -es inflection are complicated because students must consider the specific context for number distinctions and manipulate the elements that are influential to subject-verb concord It is not an easy job to explain the rules to students because the subject has to be in a certain person and a specific number, along with the fact that the predication has to be in a certain mood and tense In particular, the rules of -s and -es inflection often interfere with other grammatical features and exceptional rules The irregularity of the rule indicates that there are many cases when it is not always accurate to use the verb with -s and -es inflection after the third person singular If the teacher explains this to students by this concept only, that may be erroneous to a certain extent There are many situations when the initial rules are invalid, for instance, in terms of the use of questions that start with
“does” The -s/-es inflection precedes the subjects, and the stem forms follow the subjects, for example, “Does she listen?” or in the negative form, “She does not listen” For the third person singular present tense that is in a sentence with the modal auxiliary verb, the infinitive form is also used, such as “He should come” Another circumstance that can be cited is verb conjugation in imperative sentences, which actually baffles learners in terms of subject-verb agreement Unlike other verb forms, when imperative verbs are employed, the verb form retains its base form irrespective of the subject’s number and person For example, considering the imperative sentence, “Please remain seated until the seatbelt sign is off” Whether the situation addresses a singular or plural subject, the verb form stays unchanged as “remain” both when addressing an individual” and addressing a group In these cases, if the teacher gives the wrong interpretation or ambiguous instances to illustrate the rules, the students may be baffled and disoriented As can be seen from the analysis mentioned above, there are a host of exceptional principles to the general rules of -s/-es verb inflection, such as in question and negative forms, as well as its use after the modal verbs As a consequence, verb inflections act as a significant contributor to learners’ errors in subject-verb agreement
Numerous factors contribute to errors in English as a Second Language (ESL) acquisition, including interference from the learner's first language (L1) Due to the incomplete development of L2 linguistic rules, learners rely on their native language for support, applying its structures and grammatical rules This highlights the importance of clarifying differences between L1 and L2 to aid learners in achieving accurate subject-verb agreement in English.
Subject-verb agreement in language teaching
Subject-verb agreement and its pedagogical implications can be considered as an inseparable relationship because learners are not able to comprehend fully the knowledge of SVA without its efficient teaching methodologies In addition to this, the principal goal of error analysis is to find the solution for learner’s errors
By dint of the analysis of errors, researchers can uncover the relevant pedagogical techniques for teaching SVA Scholars and researchers have provided different perspectives into effective teaching strategies and common challenges on the given topic This section, therefore, is dedicated to reviewing some related literature in the field
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999) proposed that contextualizing grammar rules with meaningful communication is vitally important Instead of rote memorization, learners benefit from real-life examples and interactive exercises that manifest the practical application of subject-verb agreement rules When integrating grammar into communication, students move beyond traditional isolated grammar drills and instead embed grammar with meaningful and authentic language use The process of communication, particularly verbal discourse, becomes a mediating tool through which individuals internalize and refine their understanding of the world (Wells, 2000) As a result, employing communication- based activities, learners can interact with peers, use language for practical purposes, and comprehend SVA rules more effectively
Another approach by Schmidt (1995) is providing consistent feedback on SVA errors, helping students internalize these rules Teachers’ timely correction and clarification of misconceptions act as an important contributor to the improvement of accurate language production since learners can precisely identify and remedy SVA errors in parallel with consolidating the comprehension of grammatical rules Similarly, Black and Wiliam (1998) once affirmed that language learners benefit greatly when they receive feedback promptly after committing errors With respect to SVA pedagogical techniques, these mediums tackle errors as they occur, clarify why they are incorrect, and provide instructional steps to correct them Concrete feedback and correction, with a preference to general praise or criticism, direct learners’ attention to the precise domains of SVA rules that require improvements Moreover, it goes without saying that ESL learners have manifold needs and challenges to encounter in their acquisition of a language Feedback also permits educators and teachers to portray their teaching methodologies to solve individual difficulties Nunan (1999) marked that the recognition of SVA errors is unique to each learner; teachers can provide on the fact that consistent and targeted feedback is considered as a means of effective SVA instruction and language teaching, which facilitates error correction and enhances students’ SVA proficiency in particular and grammar repertoire in general.
Conceptual framework of the study
The construction of a conceptual framework is crucial for guiding the exploration of subject-verb agreement errors This framework provides theoretical grounding, delineates the research focus, and establishes a framework for data interpretation As emphasized by Creswell (2017), aligning data interpretation with the study's theoretical underpinnings is essential Through this framework, researchers can systematically analyze subject-verb agreement errors, utilizing established theories to make informed interpretations about their nature, prevalence, and potential remediation, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Conceptual framework of the study
METHODOLOGY
Research questions
The study has three main objectives, including (1) to investigate the types of SVA errors made by 10th at Nguyen Khuyen High School and (2) to explore the causes of these errors In addition to this, (3) teaching implications are drawn to the SVA errors made by the students Therefore, the study aimed at answering the following questions:
1 What types of SVA errors are made by 10 th graders at Nguyen
2 What are the causes of SVA errors made by 10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School?
3 What teaching implications can be drawn to SVA errors made by
10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School?
These three questions are expected to be answered through the analysis of SVA errors collected from the research instruments, including the diagnostic tests, the questionnaires, and the interviews.
Research design
To find out the answers to the aforementioned research questions, the data collection procedure in this study employed explanatory research design collecting both qualitative and quantitative data As a matter of fact, explanatory research design is particularly valuable when it is purposeful to discern causal relationships among variables By systematically investigating potential cause-and-effect connections, this design helps researchers clarify the mechanisms through which certain phenomena occur (Campbell & Stanley, 1963) In tandem with this, explanatory research design becomes instrumental because it enables researchers to disentangle complex scenarios, providing a clearer understanding of relationships between variables and offering plausible explanations for observed phenomena (Yin, 2018) Therefore, employing an explanatory research design acts as a precursor to discovering the types of SVA errors, their causes, and teaching implications to solve these problems Within the present research, the research tools comprising the diagnostic test, the questionnaire, and the interview were generally employed in the study
This study aims to identify the common types of errors in acquiring English subject-verb agreement through diagnostic tests being employed in the first stage of the research procedure In what follows, the implementation of questionnaires is to explore the causes of English subject-verb agreement errors made by students in grade 10 at Nguyen Khuyen High School and to examine whether the Vietnamese language significantly influences students’ acquisition of SVA In tandem with this, the interview was to uncover a number of pedagogical implications to tackle the causes of SVA errors committed by students
The correspondence of research questions, analysis procedures, and data sources is presented in Table 4 below
Research questions Analysis procedures Data sources
1 What types of SVA errors are made by 10th graders at Nguyen
Quantitative: the frequency of errors was calculated and compared in terms of percentage
2 What are the causes of SVA errors made by 10th graders at
Quantitative: the causes to the errors were discussed quantitively from the data collected in the questionnaires
3 What teaching implications can be drawn to SVA errors made by
Qualitative: thematic analysis of interviews
10th graders at Nguyen Khuyen
Table 3.1 Correspondence of research questions, analysis procedures, and
Context of the study
This section briefly summarizes the research site, Nguyen Khuyen High School – Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Khuyen High School was established in 1978, and since then, many generations of students have been studying and growing from there The school is located in Thanh Thai Street, District 10 – HCMC, under the control of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City The school currently employs English textbooks and the overall curriculum of English subject according to the organizational structure in the education system composed by The Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam.
Participants and sampling procedure
The target subjects of the study consist of 125 students in grade 10 from A11, A12, and A13 classes at Nguyen Khuyen High School in Ho Chi Minh City Generally, most of them have been learning English in elementary, secondary, and currently high school They are supposed to be at the pre-intermediate level of English proficiency With a 9-year comprehension of English subject, the students have learned various sets of grammatical patterns through the national curriculum, including lessons of either and neither, tenses, reported speech, tag questions, relative clauses, comparison, and so on Among the English grammatical knowledge which they have gained, subject-verb agreement has been appropriately integrated into the curriculum of English subject These subjects were chosen because they shared the following elements: (1) they all have acquired a fundamental knowledge of English grammar because they have already taken English Grammar for nearly nine years based on the curriculum of the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, with the exception for some individuals having more or less than eight years of English learning; (2) English SVA has been taught to the students throughout Tieng Anh 10 which is the official materials for most high schools in Vietnam, (3) a report from teachers currently being in charge of the grade 10 th classes pointed out that a majority of these students also encountered difficulties in grammatical structures in the English tests at the school, which predominantly related to subject-verb agreement
Subject-verb agreement errors exhibit intricate complexities, demanding thorough analysis To explore these complexities, the study employed purposeful sampling, allowing for the deliberate selection of 10th-grade participants possessing relevant attributes This approach aligns with Miles and Huberman's (1994) recommendation, enabling researchers to unravel the multifaceted nature of subject-verb agreement errors within the targeted demographic.
It is important to note that only 90 students participated in the process of completing the questionnaires due to the changes in their study schedule Consequently, during the time collecting data for the questionnaires, the students from one class had to join in another scheduled activity; thereby, only the rest of the 90 students engaged in the questionnaire data collection procedure
A summary of the characteristics of the learner subjects in terms of personal attributes is presented in Table 5 below
The duration of learning English
Table 3.2 Summary of the student subjects’ characteristics
Most of the student subjects are young adults under 18 studying in grade
10, roughly 90% aged from 15 to 16 Therefore, Parental Consent Forms were employed to obtain permission from the parents or legal guardians and inform them of the research purposes and procedures that their children will take part in
In addition, by utilizing the consent form, the researcher would like to commit to the ethical standards of the study The documents were delivered thanks to the help of the English teachers responsible for these classes With respect to gender, 53.6% are male and 46.4% are female More than 67% of the subjects have been studying English for 9 to 10 years, and around 32.8% have learned English for five years These figures indicate that a larger portion of the students have studied English for a certain period of time, so their grammar competency is supposed to be at least pre-intermediate level
There are also eight English teachers in charge of these grade 10 classes They participated in the research to provide their insights into students’ errors and pedagogical approaches to remedy the subject-verb agreement errors made by these students
A summary of the characteristics of the teacher subjects in terms of personal attributes is presented in Table 6 below
Participant code Age Gender Years of
Years of teaching at Nguyen Khuyen High School
Research instruments
With respect to the assessment of the quality of the diagnostic test related to the common errors in the English SVA, before it was implemented with the actual subjects in the research, piloting a 60-item diagnostic test and 8-item questionnaire were delivered to thirty students in another grade 10 class which is different from the subject participants and piloting interviews were carried out with two teachers as well The researcher collected the papers, which would be scored and counted afterward The information from the pilot test was used for adjusting and improving the research instruments
Piloting is crucial for gathering information about data collection tools It allows researchers to assess practical aspects (e.g., time, clarity) and evaluate reliability and validity By identifying potential issues, piloting enables researchers to make adjustments and improvements before the main study, ensuring the efficiency and quality of the data collected.
By means of conducting and scoring the pilot test, the researcher adjusted the items in the diagnostic test related to the indefinite expression of the amount and the subject containing nouns of amount as single units since the given outcomes were considered unreliable Another modification is that the number of questions in the diagnostic tests was diminished to 55 items to be relevant for the time allowance
The implementation of a diagnostic test in this study is to disclose the students' “common errors in the use of English subject-verb agreement” This is due to the fact that Hughes (1998, p.13) and Brown (2001, p.4) once stated that diagnostic tests are often used for “gathering information” about the “specific strengths and weaknesses of individual students with regard to a clearly identified body of language knowledge or set of language skills” By applying diagnostic tests, the author of the thesis can identify areas where they inadequately understand SVA and the domain where they may require additional support or instruction
Diagnostic tests play a crucial role in assessing language abilities by measuring proficiency levels and identifying patterns in language acquisition and performance They evaluate grammar, syntax, phonetics, and pragmatics to provide insights into language skills Additionally, these tests aid in diagnosing language impairments, leading to pedagogical solutions Researchers have employed diagnostic tests in various fields, such as syntax, to analyze sentence structures and grammatical rules These tests contribute to the understanding and treatment of language challenges, enhancing language instruction and support for individuals with language difficulties.
The author adapted and adjusted the diagnostic test of 55 sentences by the previous research at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities – composed by Pham (2014) These 55 sentences denote the grammatical structures of SVA that the students often made errors in their writing as well as in their grammar exercises Most of the questions were extracted and cited from English Grammar in Use (Raymond Murphy, 2012), Advanced Grammar in Use (Martin Hewings, 2005), and The Grammar Book (Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, 1999) In tandem with these resources, the diagnostic test was also constructed based on the students’ errors on their former exams in class, which contributes enormously to the diagnostic test's validity and reliability
It is noticeable that while English SVA rules generally apply to indicative verbs, there are some exceptional regulations concerning the use of SVA According to Biber (2021, p.180), there cannot be SVA with modal auxiliaries, non-finitive and imperative verbs, and subjunctives because these verb forms stay unchanged regardless of the subject’s number and person As a matter of fact, in subjunctive constructions, the verb takes a base form or a form that is different from the indicative, irrespective of the subject’s person or number For example, in the sentence “I suggest that he go to the party”, the subjunctive verb “go” is used instead of “goes” to indicate the hypothetical situation Hence, only verbs in the indicative mood can agree with the subject In addition, Huddleston and Pullum (2002, p.499) pointed out that SVA is restricted to verbs in the present tense since it is the only tense that displays variation in number and person (except the verb
“be” which has forms of markedness even in the past tense) As a result, only verbs in the present tense are tested in the diagnostic test The 55-item diagnostic test, as demonstrated in Appendix 1, provides information about the grammatical structure in SVA, in which the students committed errors in their performance in class
The operational construction of the diagnostic test is in Table 7 below
Items The types of errors
Items 1 - 4 the subject is an irregular noun
Items 5 - 14 the subject includes indefinite expression of amount
Items 15 - 19 the head of the subject is separate from the verb by intervening expressions
Items 20 - 23 the subject is joined by correlative conjunction “either or” and
Items 24 - 28 the subject contains nouns of amount as single units
Items 29 - 32 the subject is joined by “and”
Items 33 - 37 the subject is modified by a prepositional phrase
Items 38 - 41 the subject as a collective noun
Items 42 - 43 the subject as a third person singular subject
Items 44 - 47 the subject is modified by a relative clause
Items 48 - 49 the subject is a proper noun
Items 50 - 53 the subject is gerunds and infinitives
Items 54-55 the subject is arithmetical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division)
Table 3.4 Operational construction in the diagnostic tests
The answers were graded as either right or wrong That is, if the item was correct, it would receive a one If not, it would receive a zero The missing item received a zero, too
However, before the data of the whole study was analyzed, the reliability and validity of the instrument were computed by SPSS This helped to ensure that the data analysis was based on reliable and valid data The result of reliability is demonstrated below
To recapitulate, the diagnostic test was conducted in the hope that it could serve as an effective data collection tool to help the author explore the common errors in the English subject-verb agreement made by 10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School
The implementation of questionnaires in this study is to explore the causes of English subject-verb agreement errors made by students in grade 10 at Nguyen Khuyen High School as well as to examine whether the Vietnamese language has significant influences on students’ acquisition of SVA Questionnaires play an integral role in quantitative research since they can generate a wide range of data systematically In fact, by employing questionnaires, researchers can gather data from a large and diverse sample of participants, providing a broad perspective on language use and learning On the other hand, questionnaires are a cost-effective and efficient way to gather data since they can be administered to large groups of participants simultaneously In fact, participants feel more comfortable expressing their opinions, beliefs, or personal experiences through a questionnaire format Bryman (2016) also stated that questionnaires provide participants with a degree of privacy, which gives them opportunities to willingly disclose sensitive or personal information On account of these advantages, this study implemented questionnaires as one of the instruments of the data collection procedure
A handful of questions in the questionnaire employed in this study were adapted and adjusted from the former research conducted by Pham (2014) The construction of the questionnaires is split into two principal parts: Part I collects personal information on the subjects’ age, gender, as well as the period of time they are exposed to English from elementary to high school; part II encompasses five different questions to collect the followings: (1) the difficulties students have in learning SVA, (2) difficulties students haves in producing SVA, and (3) their expectation in the pedagogical methodologies of SVA These issues are addressed in the following items of the questionnaires:
The operational construction in the questionnaire
Item 1 personal information (the students’ age) Item 2 personal information (the students’ genders) Item 3 personal information (years of learning English)
Item 4 an explorative question aimed to discover difficulties the students encounter when learning SVA
Item 5 a question concerned the influence of
Vietnamese on the learning of English SVA
Item 6 a question concerned which types of errors on
Item 7 an explorative question aimed to discover difficulties students have in producing SVA
Item 8 a question which asked for students’ expectations in instructing SVA in class
Table 3.5 Operational construction in the questionnaires 3.5.4 Interview
One of the essential tactics often employed by the researchers, is the implementation of interviews to help engage in the conversation with participants for particular purposes As a matter of fact, interviews can provide researchers valuable insight into participants' experiences, beliefs, and attitudes with rich and detailed data that can help researchers gain a deeper understanding of participants' perspectives and experiences, which can be used to inform language teaching and learning practices In particular, Seidman (2006) once affirmed that interviews create opportunities for participants to share their personal stories and context- specific information that might not be accessible through other research techniques
In this study, after the data were collected, quantified, classified, and analyzed, semi-structured interviews were employed with various open-ended questions The objective of the interview was to reveal a number of pedagogical implications to tackle the causes of SVA errors made by students To answer the third research question, the researcher was the interviewer and the interviewees, including eight teachers who are in charge of English classes of grade 10 at Nguyen Khuyen High School (the school year 2020-2021) Interviews would be used by the researcher to know the condition of participants The interview’s length is around 30 minutes to 45 minutes for each teacher The interview was conducted in English and guided by various questions related to the pedagogical implications of tackling the causes of SVA errors made by students
Data collection procedure
The research sequence commences with the diagnostic tests designed to ask students to do 55 questions regarding SVA, after which those tests were delivered to 125 students in three classes of grade 10, and they had to finish the test in 30 minutes After finishing the tests, the participants were asked to answer the questionnaires In each class, the students spent 15 minutes completing the questionnaires with clear instructions and careful explanations given by the researcher
In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, eight teachers participated in virtual interviews conducted via Zoom to comply with quarantine guidelines These separate interviews formed the basis of the research.
To depict the recapitulation of the research design, the table below represents the procedure of the data collection procedure of the research, providing overall descriptions of the stages in gathering data for the study
The researcher gained permission from the school
The researcher delivered the diagnostic tests and questionnaires
The diagnostic tests were evaluated, and wrong answers were sorted out
Errors of each type was quantified, analyzed, described, and explained
The data from questionnaires were analyzed
The causes of these errors were put into consideration and analyzed (based on the results from the questionnaires)
The data from interviews were analyzed
The teaching implications based on the analysis were drawn
Data analysis scheme
This study employed a mixed-methods approach, integrating both quantitative and qualitative methods Quantitative data, consisting of numerical measurements and quantified variables, was collected through questionnaires and analysis of diagnostic test errors This approach, supported by Creswell (2014), allows for the identification of patterns and trends Qualitative data, comprising detailed descriptions and subjective perspectives, was gathered through interviews with participants This method enables researchers to explore meanings, interpretations, and experiences within the study's scope.
After the test and the questionnaire were collected, the data on errors were collected, evaluated, and analyzed on the basis of SVA rules proposed by many grammarians and published books From the analysis of the data, the errors made by the students are clearly demonstrated and classified The frequency of errors was then calculated and compared in terms of percentage Furthermore, the causes of the errors were also discussed quantitively from the data collected in the questionnaires Finally, the pedagogical implications are qualitatively described based on the interviews with teachers.
Summary of the chapter
Chapter 3 describes the methodology conducted in the study to investigate the common errors in English subject-verb agreement of pre-intermediate students of grade 10 at Nguyen Khuyen High School – HCM City and to find out the causes of these errors in conjunction with the teaching implications to address those sources of errors An explanatory research design, including both quantitative and qualitative methods, was implemented By adopting a diagnostic test, questionnaires, and interviews, the study aims to collect data on subjects’ errors in English subject-verb agreement The data collection is presented in detail in the following chapter.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
What types of errors of English SVA are commonly made by 10 th graders
Through the implementation of the diagnostic test, plenty of errors were committed by 10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School The percentages of 13 categories of SVA errors were demonstrated in appendix 5 The two most common errors were made by students in grade 10 in the given test, including subjects comprised of nouns of amount as single units and the subject joined by “and”, equally registering 57% While 56% of students committed errors when the head of the subject separated from the verb by intervening expressions, the percentages for errors made in the sentence with the subject being an irregular noun and a collective noun were marginally lower, with respective figures being 49% and 48% On the other hand, students erroneously opted for the wrong answers in the sentence with the subject modified by a relative pronoun, the subject as a proper noun, and the subject containing arithmetic operations; these categories of errors equally registered 40% Meanwhile, 38% of students committed errors in both these categories, including the first case, which is the sentences possessing the subject joined by correlative conjunction “either…or” and “neither…nor” as well as the second case, which is the sentences modified by a prepositional phrase, followed by 36% pupils coming up with the false answers in the sentence having subject including indefinite expression of amount The sentence with the subject as the third singular person registered 33% of students wrongly choosing the answer in the test Finally, the least committed error in the diagnostic test was the sentence including the subject as gerunds and infinitives (at 25%)
As a matter of fact, when the students were immersed in the SVA exercises, the researcher noticed the fact that there was a mismatch in agreement The reason behind this phenomenon is that the students erroneously determine the subject in a sentence Bock and Cutting (1991) stated that this condition can be considered as attraction errors, which is the consequence of the negative influence on the agreement between the subject and the verb when the proximity of a local noun impacts the verb in a sentence Accordingly, Bock and Cutting (2001) also found that the main cause of attraction in subject–verb number agreement is the grammatically marked number of a nonsubject noun in the structural vicinity of the verb In tandem with this, the results from the diagnostic test employed indicate that the agreement mismatch has arisen when the sentences § contain the subject as indefinite expressions of amount § contain the subject as intervening expressions § begin with correlative conjunction “either…or’, “neither…nor” § contain noun of amount as single units (fraction and plural unit word) § have a compound subject joined by the conjunction “and” § have the subject modified by a prepositional phrase § contain the subject as gerunds and infinitives § contain the subject as arithmetical operations
4.1.1 SVA with the subject containing irregular nouns
As a matter of fact, the presence of irregular nouns engenders problems for learners Irregular nouns, marked by their deviant pluralization patterns, usually give learners an intuitive sense of subject numbers Under the circumstance where these nouns are the subjects in a sentence, learners may inadvertently make their verb choices concord with the regular plural forms, thus committing SVA errors
Concerning the intrinsic nature, there are a number of singular nouns that display the outward existence of plurality because of the presence of the typical plural markers such as “-s” which is considered as linguistic enigma The instances of this case can be listed as in the fields of mathematics and sciences
“e.g., mathematics, statistics, optics, physics, ethics…), social sciences (e.g, politics, linguistics…,) sports and recreation (e.g., acrobatics, gymnastics, billiards, darts …), names of diseases (e.g., diabetes, measles, aids, mumps, …)
Furthermore, there are a number of frequent nouns apart from the given categories
(e.g., news, series…) As a matter of fact, the circumstance of these singular nouns resides in their inherently non-countable nature For example, the nouns
“mathematics” or “politics” encompass concepts that transcend quantifiability, firmly rooted in the singular domain Consequently, despite their plural guise, they demand singular verbs for proper subject-verb agreement
There are also other cases where nouns denote pluralization without the plural markers -s These include names of animals (e.g., mice, sheep, deer, trout
…) and quantitative nouns (e.g., pound, foot, gross …) Inevitably, there are a myriad of other common nouns not ending in -s (e.g., people, police, cattle, children, women, feet, teeth …) (Quirk, 1985, p.765) It seemed that the students did not recognize these irregular nouns They opted for the singular form of the verb instead of the plural form and vice versa The sentences (1), (2), (3), and (4) in the diagnostic test clearly illustrate the given cases
1 The women play/plays* an important role in a family
2 The mice is*/ are eating cheese
3 The news is/are* always bad nowadays
4 Mathematics is/are* her best subject at school
The sentences (1) and (2) encompass the subjects of the sentence as plural nouns women and mice Despite the fact that these nouns do not have the plural marker -s, it is palpable that they are plural nouns Therefore, they need plural verbs play and are The respondents misled these nouns as singular nouns; thus, they selected the inaccurate verb form On the contrary, the respondents failed to maintain the concordance between the subject and the verb in the sentence (3) and (4) They perceived news, mathematics as plural nouns and selected plural verb forms accordingly
Table 4.1 Students' performance on the SVA with the subject containing irregular nouns 4.1.2 SVA with the subject including indefinite expression of amount
Another type of error being analyzed and discussed is SVA with the subject including indefinite expression of amount These expressions usually trigger ambiguity and challenges when it comes to deciding between singular or plural verb forms As stated in the “proximity concord”, called attraction errors, sentences include subjects as indefinite expressions of amount, and the verb is highly prone to the influence of the noun closest to it rather than the actual subject Regarding this category, 47 of 125 respondents committed errors These errors are shown below:
5 Each of the job applicants *type/types sixty words per minute
6 Each boy in the class *have/has his own notebook
7 A pair of trousers *are/is on the sofa
8 A lot of people were/*was present when it happened
9 All of the students enjoy/*enjoys the debate
10 All of the money *are/is reserved for emergencies
11 The number of students in this course *are/ is 2000
12 A number of students have/ *has dropped that course
13 Half of the students in the class are/*is from Southeast Asia
14 The majority of these subjects are/ *is compulsory
When indefinite words with a singular meaning, such as each, every and any are the subject word, and when they precede the subject word, they take a singular verb This applies to sentence (5) and (6) where “each of the job applicants” and “each boy” act as a singular subject and needs a singular verb types and has
The preceding expressions, such as all, some, a pair of, a number of, a lot of, the majority, half of,… embedded in sentences from (7) to (14), are also problematic for the learners The students use a singular verb with a plural subject in the sentences below
8 A lot of people *was present when it happened
9 All of the students *enjoys the debate
13 Half of the students in the class *is from Southeast Asia
14 The majority of these subjects *is compulsory
Besides, they use a plural verb with a singular subject such as:
7 A pair of trousers *are on the sofa
10 All of the money *are reserved for emergencies
It can be observed that when indefinite expressions of amount with a singular meaning (such as each, every, any) become the subject word and they precede the subject word, they take a singular verb However, when the indefinite expression of amount implies a plural meaning, they take a plural verb This is presented below:
5 Each of the job applicants types sixty words per minute
8 A lot of people were present when it happened
9 All of the students enjoys the debate
13 Half of the students in the class are from Southeast Asia
14 The majority of these subjects are compulsory
The indefinite expressions of amount using the phrase number of are highly reliant on the meaning of the phrase When “number of” is considered a single quantity, they take a singular verb in the sentence (11)
11 The number of students in this course is 2000
Nonetheless, Biber et al (1999) stated that expressions as “a number of” requires plural verb when they denote a significant quantity, reflecting the plurality in nature suggested by the word “number” as illustrated in sentence (12)
12 A number of students have dropped that course
In the diagnostic test employed, the students decided to use the plural form of the verb in these sentences since they perceived the subject of these two sentences as students They do not pay attention to the profound difference between the expressions of amount the number of and a number of
Table 4.2 Students' performance on the SVA with the subject including indefinite expression of amount
Apart from the aforementioned cases, there are some more circumstances in the indefinite expression of amount can indicate both singular and plural meanings depending on the specific context As a consequence, the complexity of subject-verb agreement in cases involving the phrase “number of” can result in a variety of errors committed
4.1.3 SVA with the head of the subject separated from the verb by intervening expressions
The implementation of the diagnostic test also witnessed the fact that the respondents committed errors in the agreement of number between the subject and verb when the subject of the sentence involves intervening expressions Quirk et al (1985) once proposed that intervening phrases, clauses, or modifiers can interrupt the straightforward connection between the subject’s head noun and the corresponding verb The principle of non-intervention is stated obviously in the work of Celce-Murcia & Lasen-Freeman (1983, p.42); it is suggested by many grammarians to elucidate the rule that a singular subject requires a singular verb irrespective of all plural forms in intervening prepositional phrases and other expressions such as together with, along with, as well as, including, accompanied and not others Due to the effect of Proximity Concord or Attraction, a strong tendency is displayed for the verb to concord with the nearest noun or pronoun even if it is not the subject in a sentence The following sentences in the diagnostic test clearly exemplify this situation
15 The president together with his advisors *are/is preparing the report
16 The girl, as well as her roommates, *are/is talking together
17 John along with his brothers often *help/helps out on his uncle’s farm
18 Mary, accompanied by her friends, *go/goes to the movies at the weekend
19 Paul, not his parents, *buy/buys a new car
What are the causes of English SVA errors made by 10 th graders at Nguyen
The questionnaires and the interviews were implemented to amass the data and information to find out the main causes of the errors made by the students The below information is given by the students themselves to indicate the problems towards SVA and some rationales for these difficulties
Figure 5: Causes of the difficulties in acquiring English SVA
The complexity and numerousness of SVA sub-rules pose significant memorization challenges for students, impeding their acquisition of SVA Additionally, the lack of regular practice exacerbates this issue, as time constraints in class make it difficult for teachers to provide ample opportunities for SVA practice Consequently, students struggle to recall and apply specific SVA sub-rules in different contexts.
Approximately 21% of students acknowledged the impact of Vietnamese grammar on their English SVA exercises, highlighting the influence of native language on second language acquisition This is evident in their responses to question 5, which assessed the role of Vietnamese in shaping their understanding of English SVA.
Finally, regarding the fact that the students could give other ideas about the causes of the difficulties in acquiring English SVA, only 1% of the students reported that they have limited lexical resources, hence facing troubles in SVA acquisition
Associating with the interview data, the majority of the teachers who were interviewed claimed that their students committed SVA errors due to the influence of Vietnamese (students’ L1) on the acquisition of SVA Particularly, some opinions of those teachers embedded as below to manifest the most common reasons attributed to SVA errors
…in Vietnamese the usage of subject verb agreement is so simple
Vietnamese students are affected by experience when they learn Vietnamese… in Vietnamese language They have no verb or inflections And in Vietnamese language, the noun doesn’t change its form when denotes plural meaning
The distinction between the Vietnamese mother tongue and English grammar rules contributes to misunderstandings Vietnamese lacks grammar rules governing subject-verb agreement (SVA), a crucial concept in English This difference in grammatical structure can lead to confusion and errors in English language usage.
Beyond that, a large number of the teachers (6 out of 8) interviewed responded that they think that SVA rules are complicated for students to acquire, as well as some teachers proposed that there are many SVA sub-rules that students cannot remember and apply these rules in the SVA production Particularly, teacher 1 said that “I believe that the rules, the rules for subject-verb agreement is kinda really complicated.” Similarly, teacher 4 replied that “I think there are many subject-verb agreement sub-rules that students cannot remember… The subject- verb agreement sub-rules are too difficult to remember or master.”
From what have been illustrated above, it is pronounced that not only
Vietnamese language remain influential in the process of acquiring SVA among students but also the complexity and the richness of SVA rules are, to a great extent, found as a significant source of SVA errors, which necessitate further pedagogical solutions to deal with
Figure 6: The influence of Vietnamese on the acquisition of English SVA
Obviously, this research found that the occurrence of errors in SVA can be explained by the interaction of interlingual influence and intralingual factors It means the different structures between the mother tongue (Vietnamese) and the target language (English) engender plenty of difficulties when the students acquire English SVA
As can be presented from the given pie chart, 43% of students stated that there are no verb inflections (no singular or plural verb form) in the Vietnamese language, while the figure for respondents suggesting that the noun in the Vietnamese language does not change its form when it denotes plural meaning was marginally lower, registering 38% On the contrary, there are 19% of students claimed that there is no SVA in Vietnamese, which led to the errors committed
The majority of SVA errors made by the participants are related to interlingual errors caused by the interference of their mother tongue It is widely acknowledged that the role of the first language in second language acquisition often exerts a negative influence Odlin (1989) and Cook (1993) once asserted that the transfer of linguistic structures from the mother tongue gives rise to a variety of errors in syntax, morphology, and phonology in the second language Naturally, these errors arise from the tendency of learners to resort to their existing linguistic repository and structures in L1, despite the fact that they do not align with the rules in the target language This negative transfer exacerbates the challenges that learners confront when making an effort to navigate the distinctions between the target language that they are learning and the mother tongue
As a matter of course, the Vietnamese language does not have subject-verb agreement markers, which is contradictory with English plural forms and the use of articles, engendering errors in SVA In Vietnamese, there are no SVA rules that employ linguistic devices such as verb inflections based on the number of subjects The suffixes that accompany the 3 rd person singular pronoun in English sentences do not cause any serious concern in Vietnamese sentence structures Furthermore, it is manifest that in the Vietnamese language, the noun remains a consistent form irrespective of whether it denotes a singular or plural meaning Unlike languages in most Western countries, inflected plural forms such as English, Vietnamese employs quantifiers or context to imply pluralization Nguyen (2017) once stated that the absence of pluralization in Vietnamese noun results in the fact that Vietnamese learners struggle to recognize when and how subject number affect the concordance between the subject and the verb in a sentence, which is attributable to the SVA error committed by the students Lastly, no students gave other ideas in terms of the cause of Vietnamese influence on students’ acquisition of SVA
The question number 6 in the questionnaire denotes the cases in which the students often make errors (In this question, the students can choose more than one option)
Students usually commit errors in SVA when …
Percentage a The subject is an irregular noun 43 48% b The subject includes indefinite expression of amount 30 33% c The head of the subject is separate from the verb by intervening expressions 38 42% d The subject is joined by correlative conjunction “either or” and “neither nor 44 49% e The subject contains noun of amount as single units 25 28% f The subject is joined by “and” 19 21% g The subject is modified by a prepositional phrase 40 44% h The subject as a collective noun 25 28% i The subject as a third person singular subject 19 21% j The subject is modified by a relative clause 25 28% k The subject is the proper noun
20 22% l The subject is gerunds and infinitives
24 27% m The subject is arithmetical operations
(addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) 35 39%
Table 4.14 The cases in which the students committed errors
As is presented from the given table, the students mostly faced challenges when the subject is joined by correlative conjunction “either or” and
Of the students surveyed, 49%, 48%, and 44% demonstrated proficiency in using "neither nor" when the subject was an irregular noun or modified by a prepositional phrase Incorrect responses were concentrated in exercises involving arithmetical operations (39%), while errors in other categories ranged from 21% to 28%.
Finally, no students gave other ideas in terms of the cases in which the students committed errors
th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School?
Teaching methodologies
The pedagogical solutions to the given causes of SVA were highly regarded by most of the English teachers in charge of grade 10 at Nguyen Khuyen High School According to the data collected from the interview, most teachers (7 out of 8) who were interviewed agree that the learner-centered approach is one of the most effective methods to help students overcome SVA problems According to Olugbenga (2021), in a learner-centered approach to education, pupils are seen as independent decision-makers It is important to emphasize that the cognitive processes and knowledge retention of students are influenced by several factors, including their prior knowledge, life experiences, educational background, and personal values This is the reason why students are more proactive in learning when they are given the opportunity to express themselves in a lesson and are able to acquire the language features more effectively - SVA in this case Most of the teachers gave similar insights about learner-centered approach as stated below:
In the practice, session, I will use the learner-centered teaching mappers so that they can do the whole exercise by themselves…
I think students student-centered approach is more effective…
I think in teaching students should be a center of all activities not teachers I think in SVA rules, teachers can help students to realize the rules of subject verb agreement For example, instead of giving students the rules on subject verb agreement…
I think learner-centered method is the best way because it helps them see that the students are so important in class, and they are free to demonstrate their language
The learner-centered approach effectively reduces subject-verb agreement (SVA) errors in low-proficiency students It emphasizes active involvement, fostering a collaborative learning environment where students actively correct errors Additionally, it contextualizes language learning within authentic communication, situating linguistic ability in meaningful real-world settings This approach empowers students to engage with language as a tool for expression, rather than a set of rules, enhancing their linguistic precision and communication skills.
Opposite to the learner-centered approach, the teacher-centered instruction is only valued by one teacher from the interview in the interview, teacher 4 stressed the role of both approaches rather than just the student-centered one:
We can do the teacher-centered in the theory sections That means, the teacher can emphasize on that primer point and explain more clearly about which one is correct, which one is not correct And then in the practice session, I will use the learner-centered teaching mappers …
As a matter of fact, using teacher-centered learning, instructors assume the role of key knowledge disseminators, resulting in a lack of student involvement; consequently, any inquiries raised by students are often handled only by the teachers themselves One setback of the teacher-centered approach is the limited individualization and tailoring of instructional strategies According to Hattie (2008), the one-size-fits-all aspect of teacher-centered training tends to overlook low-level students' individual language demands and competence levels, limiting focused remediation of subject-verb agreement problems Aside from that, teacher-centered practice frequently promotes passive learning and low levels of student participation This sort of instruction, according to McCombs and Whisler (1997), tends to position students as passive consumers of information rather than active participants in the learning process As a result, the subtle character of subject-verb agreement problems necessitates a more participatory engagement for effective correction, a factor that is often overlooked under teacher-centered frameworks Finally, the lack of emphasis on contextual learning within teacher- centered systems exacerbates their inefficiency Because subject-verb agreement problems are context-dependent, a learning environment that embeds grammatical rules within relevant language use contexts is required A teacher-centered paradigm frequently fails to provide such authentic contexts, hindering students' capacity to internalize and apply these rules in a variety of communicative circumstances
It could be observed that some teachers raise the role of teachers as the center of the classroom to provide students with adequate conscious insights into the use of SVA before actually using it, for instance, by adding more examples in real-life contexts.
Learning activities
The second solution that can be drawn from the data is the diversity of learning activities First, the utilization of communicative tasks within a lesson is suggested to engage students in the lesson and help them to absorb the knowledge more actively (Nunan, 1991) Some activities include role-play, group discussion, presentation, etc., with a concentration on SVA features, teacher 6 took an example:
Especially one that's one that refers to talking about others … the first talk by themselves and the next pair, we'll talk about what the previous pair has, when we're actually engaged in a conversation
The communicative approach stands out as a powerful pedagogical method, effectively targeting subject-verb agreement errors faced by students with lower language proficiency This approach prioritizes sociolinguistic competence, addressing the root cause of such errors—a lack of understanding of how grammatical rules apply in different communication contexts Interactive language learning, as advocated by Ellis and Shintani (2013), fosters real-time feedback on subject-verb agreement, creating a dynamic learning environment that supports error correction and the development of language proficiency.
In addition to communicative activities, gamification is another implication that has been made to reduce the wrong use of SVA for 10th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School When used in a non-game setting, gamification may be thought of as the incorporation of game components to create an atmosphere similar to that of a video game and encourage participation and learning (Landers et al., 2017) Moreover, gamification, according to Kapp (2012), is about more than just using game principles and aspects to make learning more interesting It is also about raising learner engagement, making learning environments more dynamic, and giving students greater control over their own education In this case, online game platforms are proposed, such as Kahoot, Quizizz or Bamboozle as they are of much help in improving students' SVA knowledge:
… games could work … it depends on the level and the age of the students
And one more, we can use some games so that they can engage more in the lesson
They are very exciting when playing game And they work hard They like the games and the atmosphere in class with teaching using game is very exciting
Incorporating games into language learning facilitates students' comprehension and proficiency Teachers can design games specifically tailored to enhance students' SVA skills Numerous games exist with the primary objective of improving language acquisition in the classroom setting.
Concretely, gamification in language instruction has emerged as a fascinating and novel educational method, displaying significant success in reducing subject-verb agreement errors among students working at lower skill levels For starters, gamification promotes immediate feedback mechanisms, which are critical in correcting subject-verb agreement mistakes (Gee, 2003) Students receive quick feedback on their language usage using gamified language learning tools, allowing for timely correction and reinforcing right grammatical patterns Second, gamification fosters intrinsic motivation and learner autonomy, both of which are critical components of long-term language learning (Deci et al., 1991; Hamari et al., 2014) Students actively attempt to fix subject-verb agreement problems as part of their autonomous language acquisition journey, motivated by the intrinsic rewards encoded in game dynamics This empowerment aligns with contemporary educational theories emphasizing learner agency
Last but not least, other supplementary teaching props (e.g (YouTube) videos or visual illustrations) are also considered to be vital to boost student motivation during the learning process as teacher 3 said that “we can motivate the students’ atmosphere in class” when using these tools.
Error correction
The final suggestion from the data to help overcome SVA errors is how to correct those errors First, most of the interviewed teachers (1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) approve of the employment of peer feedback as well as evaluation in language learning That is, language students benefit greatly from having access to a more diverse group of mentors when using peer feedback rather than just from the teachers (Vuogan & Li, 2022) Therefore, once the students make a mistake using SVA grammatical features, teachers can ask another student to point out the wrong use and help correct it In fact, affirmative feedback and praise for correct subject-verb agreement usage serve not only to motivate low-level students but also to reinforce the acquisition of grammatical structures This positive reinforcement contributes to a conducive learning environment Another merit of this approach is engaging in focused error analysis By systematically addressing subject-verb agreement errors, students gain insight into their grammatical inconsistencies This metalinguistic awareness, crucial for language development (James, 1998), enhances the capacity of low-level students to discern and rectify errors independently
One more solution for this issue is to keep a focus on when to give feedback and error correction While several teachers agree that feedback after class would help keep students confident and not discourage students from trying their best, other teachers suggest immediate error correction during students’ performance
You can correct the mistakes after the students finished their talk That’s why I say that we should correct after that Because this time we can talk to all of the members of the class And if we don't, how can I say, that helps students be more confident to continue the talk and don’t care about making mistakes
The effectiveness of feedback techniques varies based on student personality Shy students may feel discouraged by immediate feedback after errors, while confident students may benefit from it as a valuable learning tool Therefore, tailoring feedback to individual student characteristics ensures optimal results.
The above answer suggested a balance between immediate feedback and delayed feedback The implication here is to take the learner differences into consideration before giving comments on their performances.
Summary of the chapter
Figure 7: Summary of the major findings
Overall, this thesis on SVA provides a comprehensive analysis of the English SVA errors made by 10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School The research showed that SVA appears to be a challenging domain for the students to master The actual results from the diagnostic test and the questionnaire shined a light on the fact that errors arise because of the correlation of interlingual and intralingual elements The students are unable to construct SVA structures properly on account of their lack of knowledge regarding SVA rules, as well as their inability to acquire and apply the rules The findings also depicted that a significant proportion of the students encountered problems in being proficient in English SVA, accounting for over half of the students participating in the research facing difficulties in English SVA exercises In tandem with this, the radically structural differences in the SVA between English and Vietnamese became an enormously potential source of errors, making it difficult for the students to be excellent in SVA Particularly, the students have a tendency to rely upon their existing linguistic knowledge of the L1, and consequently, the learners transfer the L1 to the L2 Furthermore, the teachers’ perspectives collected from the interviews proposed the remedial actions that can be taken to tackle the causes of SVA errors, including the teaching methodologies, the learning activities, and the error correction.
CONCLUSION
Summary of the findings
As stated in the first chapter, the researcher implemented the study with the hope of analyzing the types of errors committed by 10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School Furthermore, by means of the implementation of numerous research tools, other elements, including the causes and thorough insights towards pedagogical solutions to these errors, were also thoroughly investigated for a more sophisticated understanding of the teaching and acquisition of SVA
In general, the results from the study have accumulated sufficient evidence to arrive at the following conclusion The study suggested that notwithstanding nearly 8 years of English learning in schools, most students in grade 10 Nguyen Khuyen High School still made many errors in SVA
Regarding thirteen categories of SVA errors experimented in the study, the students responded with false answers mostly in all types of errors examined The dominant categories of SVA errors committed by students in grade 10 include the subject containing nouns of amount as single units, the subject joined by “and”, and the head of the subject separated from the verb by intervening expressions In what follows, the proportion of errors made in the sentence with the subject being an irregular noun and a collective noun came in second Some other common errors are in sentences in which the subject is modified by a relative pronoun, the subject as a proper noun, as well as the subject contains arithmetic operations; all these three categories were the third-most-popular errors made by 10 th graders Meanwhile, the sentences possessing the subject joined by correlative conjunction
The most prevalent errors in sentence writing, ranking fourth, are "either or" and "neither nor" constructions, as well as sentences modified by prepositional phrases Sentences with subjects including indefinite amounts also share this frequency Conversely, the least common errors occur in sentences with singular third-person subjects and those using gerunds or infinitives.
Furthermore, the causes of the errors were also investigated; this research found that the occurrence of errors in SVA can be explained by the interaction of interlingual influence and intralingual factors It means the different structures between the mother tongue and the target language engender plenty of difficulties when the students acquire English SVA Particularly, the researcher collected the students’ insights about whether Vietnamese influences students’ acquisition and the reasons behind this Most students claimed there are no verb inflections (no singular or plural verb form) in the Vietnamese language Besides that, a large number of students suggested the reason for being influenced by Vietnamese in acquiring English SVA is that the noun in the Vietnamese language does not change its form when it denotes plural meaning In addition, “there are many SVA sub- rules which they cannot remember” turned out to be one of the popular causes of the difficulties in acquiring English SVA that the students encountered The results suggested that a host of SVA rules are enormously diverse for students in grade 10, so the inability to fully remember all of the rules is understandable In tandem with this, the findings also pointed out other causes leading to SVA errors, including the SVA sub-rules being too difficult to remember and the students do not practice SVA regularly Among those, the most important of which is that the students are under the influence of Vietnamese grammar when they do SVA exercises
As a matter of fact, the pedagogical techniques have a considerable influence on the students’ SVA acquisition Particularly, the majority of teachers who were interviewed agree that the learner-centered approach is one of the most effective methods to help students overcome SVA problems Opposite to the learner-centered approach, the teacher-centered one is also valued by some teachers from the interview In addition to teaching methodologies, the utilization of communicative tasks within a lesson is suggested to engage students in the lesson and help them to absorb the knowledge more actively Gamification is another remedial action that has been suggested to reduce the wrong use of SVA for 10th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School The final suggestion from the data to help overcome SVA errors is about how to correct those errors Most of the interviewed teachers approved of the employment of peer feedback as well as evaluation in language learning Finally, one further solution for improving the percentage of SVA errors among students is to keep a focus on when to give feedback and error correction While several teachers agree that feedback after class would help keep students confident and not discourage students from trying their best, other teachers suggest immediate error correction during students’ performance.
Implications
The fact that many students encounter problems related to the application of English SVA in use Addressing these problems requires great attention and effort of teachers as well as learners A number of pedagogical solutions are drawn for teachers as well as students so that the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of English SVA can be certainly improved
Teachers can provide direct instruction on SVA rules, explaining the concepts of singular and plural subjects, as well as the use of third-person singular
Explicit instruction of complex grammatical rules, such as subject-verb agreement (SVA), has been shown to be an effective teaching method Studies have demonstrated that teacher-directed guidance in these concepts can significantly enhance student understanding Therefore, the use of explicit instruction for complex grammatical rules, including SVA, should be considered as a valuable approach in grammar education.
Secondly, the emphasis on the progression of complexity with simple subject-verb agreement exercises and gradually increasing the complexity to challenge learners as they progress This remedial action can help to build a solid foundation in SVA for students before tackling more intricate grammatical structures Moreover, learners are likely not to be overwhelmed with complex grammar rules from the outset, which acts as a precursor to better retention and understanding of the target grammatical structures Nevertheless, the pedagogical method can be adapted to learners with different proficiency levels and contexts, contributing to the practicality in various educational settings
Finally, the ways students apply to acquire SVA are also problematic Most of the students seem not to spend enough time practicing SVA as well as increasing their English language exposure to sufficiently master the target language It is recommended that the students spend more time learning SVA to fully equip themselves with extensive knowledge to manipulate the exercise Moreover, it is suggested that the students must be provided with opportunities to engage in presentations on grammar lessons together with their teacher’s guidance so that they have chances to put the language they learn into practice and evaluate it thoroughly.
Limitations and recommendations for further study
The study experimented the SVA errors and other aspects, which established the foundation for further research to explore various aspect of English SVA errors as well as their implications for English language education On the basis of the results of this research, several limitations and recommendations for further research are discussed in this section
As a matter of fact, due to the limits in time and scope of the study, it is conducted only on the foundation of 125 students in grade 10 of the school year 2020-2021 As a result, the research was delimited to the 10 th graders at Nguyen Khuyen High School in Ho Chi Minh City, which means the findings of this study might not be representative of all populations In addition to this, the student’s level of English proficiency in grade 10 at Nguyen Khuyen High School was diagnosed at the pre-intermediate level It is expected that further studies on the same issue with a more enormous scope and another proficiency level of participants, such as elementary level of English proficiency, will be implemented for better generalization and comprehensiveness
Another recommendation can be cited is that the study only focuses on a number of factors, including interlingual and intralingual ones leading to SVA errors; if other external factors are taken into consideration, such as the influence of sociolinguistic factors, future research is likely to provide more nuanced insights of the causes to the presence of SVA errors
The study identified pedagogical solutions to address SVA errors based on teachers' perspectives However, further research is crucial to evaluate the effectiveness of these solutions in classroom settings with students Investigating the practical implementation of pedagogical solutions for SVA errors is essential for improving English teaching and learning, particularly in grade 10 classrooms at Nguyen Khuyen High School This will help determine the efficacy of these solutions and inform future practices in English language instruction.
It is hopeful that further research conducted on the same issue can take the aforementioned findings and suggestions into consideration, which can help to contribute to the field of error analysis in general, and an investigation of SVA in particular If all these suggestions are taken into account, the prevalence of subject- verb agreement errors might decrease
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Rule Formula Rule’s definition Example
1.SVA with the subject as irregular nouns
A number of singular nouns in English would at first sight seem to be in the plural because they have the typical plural marker –s However, they are singular in nature and therefore used with singular verbs Singular nouns ending in –s include fields of study (e.g linguistics, mathematics, politics, physics ), games and sports (e.g billiards, checkers, darts ) and illnesses (e.g measles, mumps, aids ) In addition, there are several fairly frequent nouns outside aforementioned categories (e.g., news, means, series ) that select singular verb despite the plural inflection –s (Quirk,1985, p.299)
For example: a My feet hurt b Cattle need a lot of looking after c The children read their reports in the class d The news is always bad nowadays e Gymnastics looks difficult, and it is difficult
SVA with the subject as irregular nouns
When indefinite expression of amount with a singular meaning
SVA with the subject subject verb â â
The women have lustrous cascades of black hair subject verb â â
Economics frequently uses the term to describe an unknown product with universal appeal. including indefinite expression of amount
(such as each, every, any) become the subject word and they precede the subject word, they take a singular verb However, when indefinite expression of amount with a plural meaning, they take a plural verb
Apart from the above cases, there are some circumstances that the indefinite expression of amount can indicate both singular and plural meaning depending on the specific context a Each individual needs education in their life b Plenty of errors were found in this writing c Half of what he writes is undocumented d Ten percent of the population is/are bilingual f Three quarters is/are a large amount in terms of calories contained in junk food including indefinite expression of amount
3.SVA with the subject containing intervening expression
The principle of non- intervention is stated obviously in the work of Celce-Murcia & Lasen- Freeman (1983, p.42), it is suggested that many grammarians proposed the rule is that a singular subject requires a singular verb irrespective of all plural forms in intervening propositional phrases and other expressions such as together with, along with, as well as, including, accompanied and not others
The cow and the pig are jumping over the moon
SVA with the subject containing intervening expression
According to Quirk et al
(1985), when "either or" and "neither nor" are employed to combine
For example: a Either the bears or the lion has escaped from the zoo
SVA with the subject having correlative conjunction subject verb â â
Plenty of 5me is needed to finish this project. subject verb ồ ổ õ
A pencil and an eraser make wri$ng easier. subject 1 subject 2 verb â â â Neither the director nor the actors are following the lines closely having correlative conjunction
nor” subjects, the verb's form is determined by the subject closest to the verb If the nearest subject is singular, the verb also takes the singular form; conversely, if the nearest subject is plural, the verb becomes plural as well b Neither the lion nor the bears have escaped from the zoo
5.SVA with the subject containing noun of amount as single units
Quirk et al (1985) once claimed that nouns of amount such as expressions of time, money, and distances can function as singular units when the context treats them as such
For example: a Fifteen dollars in a week is not much b Three years is a long time to wait c Ten kilometers is too far to walk d Six weeks is not long enough
SVA with the subject containing noun of amount as single units
6 SVA with the subject joined by
If two subjects are joined by and, they typically require a plural verb form
However, the verb is singular if the two subjects separated by
"and" refer to the same person or thing as a whole
The cow and the pig are jumping over the moon
Red beans and rice is my mom's favorite dish
SVA with the subject is joined by
7.SVA with the subject modified by a prepositional phrase
Prepositional phrases between the subject and verb usually do not affect agreement
The colors of the rainbow are beautiful
SVA with the subject modified by a prepositional phrase
8.SVA with the subject as
Another reason for the occurring errors in SVA
For example: SVA with the subject as a subject 1 subject 2 verb â â â Neither the director nor the actor is following the lines closely subject verb â â
Ten dollars is a great deal of money to a child. subject verb â â
A pencil and an eraser make wri3ng more easily. subject prepositional phrase verb â â â
Students with disability are very diligent. a collective noun is that the subject in the sentence is a collective
Collectives are nouns which denote a set or collection of separate members, such as army, audience, band, board, choir, class, college, community, crowd, family, gang, group, jury, military, public, press, school, team The explanation for the variation between singular and plural constructions is that the two forms convey two slightly different meanings: the singular is used when the focus is on the group as undivided body, and the plural when the focus is on the group as a collection of individuals a The audience are very large b The audience was laughing their heads off collective noun
9.SVA with the subject as the 3 rd person singular subject
In English grammar, subject-verb agreement is paramount Singular subjects necessitate singular verbs, while plural subjects necessitate plural verbs Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999) highlighted the omission of the third-person singular inflection as a common error in the use of subject-verb agreement forms This rule ensures the harmonious pairing of subjects and verbs, enhancing the clarity and precision of communication.
For example: a Tom usually gets up early in the morning b My mother writes to me 3 times a month c Her sister runs very fast d Even the tall girl is unable to reach it
SVA with the subject as the
3 rd person singular subject subject verb â â
The jury has awarded custody to the grandmother. subject verb â â
The jury members have been arguing for five days. subject verb â â