AN INVESTIGATION INTO ABILITY TO DISTINGUISH “WILL” AND “BE GOING TO” OF THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT TAY NGUYEN UNIVERSITY 1.1State of the problemEnglish is an international language and furthermore it is a compulsory subject in Vietnam. Learning a foreign language like English, learners have to learn a variety of linguistic points such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation etc. Among these linguistic points, grammar is considered indispensable to any learners of English. Grammar, as it is, covers a lot of different factors like noun, adjective, tense… etc. One of these varied factors is tenses, which may cause substantial difficulties for learners to put verbs in the correct form, is tenses. There are three main types of tense in English, including present tense, past tense and future tense, each of which has its own characteristics that should be analyzed for choosing a correct usage of verb for a certain action or thing. However, at a small scale of study, the researcher’s focus is put on the future tense. It is obvious that different actions occurring in the future can be expressed by the different forms of verbs, e.g. simple present, simple future, present continuous, etc. According to John Eastwood (1992:33), English simple present can be used to express a future scheduled plans, simple future expresses a promise or present continuous expresses an arrangement. However, one action can be expressed by more than one form of a verb, e.g. a plan by simple present, present continuous, simple future or a prediction by “Will” and “Be going to”. This judgment on the variation of using forms of verbs for future actions can, to some extent, be supported by the statement: “When the speaker is making a prediction, either will or be going to is possible.” by Betty SchrampferAzar (1999:66). This fact indicates the existence of differences and similarities among different forms of verbs in terms of usage. These differences and similarities could cause confusion for learners of English when choosing a correct form of a verb to express a specific action in the future if they cannot distinguish them. Therefore, the researcher decided to carry out a study to identify how well learners of English can understand those differences and similarities. Due to limitation of time and the capacity of the researcher, the scope is limited to the two verbs forms: “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention.
TAY NGUYEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES STUDIES GRADUATION ASSIGNMENT TITLE: AN INVESTIGATION INTO ABILITY TO DISTINGUISH “WILL” AND “BE GOING TO” OF THE FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT TAY NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Student : Nguyễn Thị Thúy Nga Class : English Course 2010 Supervisor :Tống Thị Lan Chi ĐắkLắk, April,2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Tong Thi Lan Chi, M.A, a lecturer of faculty of foreign languages studies at Tay Nguyen University for her valuable advice Her guidance helps me in all the time of research and writing of this study Secondly, I would like to give my sincere thanks for the teachers of the faculty of foreign languages studies, Tay Nguyen University for their useful lectures and suggestions and my classmates for their support for my graduation assignment Thirdly, I would like also to express my special thanks to the first year English major students at Tay Nguyen University for their enthusiastic cooperation in my survey Without their help, this study would have been impossible Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family and my friends: my parents, for giving birth to me at the first place and supporting me spiritually throughout my life In addition, my friends are always beside me to give supports and encouragement to me They helped me in the successful completion of my study TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii LIST OF TABLES iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 State of the problem 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Outline of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Form of “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions 2.1.1 Form of “Will” for expressing future actions 2.1.2 Form of “Be going to” for expressing future actions 2.2 The usages of “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions 2.2.1 The usages of “Will” for expressing future actions .6 2.2.2 The usages of “Be going to” for expressing future actions 2.3 The similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention 2.3.1 The similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing intention .7 2.3.2 The similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction .7 2.4 The differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention 2.4.1 The differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing intention 2.4.2 The differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction CHAPTER 3: CONTENTS AND METHODOLOGY 10 3.1 Contents of study 10 3.2 Methodology of the study 10 3.3 Subjects of the study 11 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 12 4.1 The differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention 12 4.1.1 The students’ ability to use “Will” .12 4.1.2 The students’ ability to use “Be going to” 14 4.2 The similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention 16 4.3 Discussion 17 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 18 5.1 Conclusion 18 5.2 Recommendations 18 REFERENCES 20 APPENDICES 21 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Students’ responses in the multiple-choice exercise 12 Table 2: Students’ responses in the sentence completing exercise 13 Table 3: Students’ responses in the multiple-choice exercise .14 Table 4: Students’ responses in the sentence completing exercise .15 Table 5: Students’ responses in the multiple-choice exercise 16 Table 6: Students’ responses from the two exercises 17 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION State of the problem English is an international language and furthermore it is a compulsory subject in Vietnam Learning a foreign language like English, learners have to learn a variety of linguistic points such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation etc Among these linguistic points, grammar is considered indispensable to any learners of English Grammar, as it is, covers a lot of different factors like noun, adjective, tense… etc One of these varied factors is tenses, which may cause substantial difficulties for learners to put verbs in the correct form, is tenses There are three main types of tense in English, including present tense, past tense and future tense, each of which has its own characteristics that should be analyzed for choosing a correct usage of verb for a certain action or thing However, at a small scale of study, the researcher’s focus is put on the future tense It is obvious that different actions occurring in the future can be expressed by the different forms of verbs, e.g simple present, simple future, present continuous, etc According to John Eastwood (1992:33), English simple present can be used to express a future scheduled plans, simple future expresses a promise or present continuous expresses an arrangement However, one action can be expressed by more than one form of a verb, e.g a plan by simple present, present continuous, simple future or a prediction by “Will” and “Be going to” This judgment on the variation of using forms of verbs for future actions can, to some extent, be supported by the statement: “When the speaker is making a prediction, either will or be going to is possible.” by Betty SchrampferAzar (1999:66) This fact indicates the existence of differences and similarities among different forms of verbs in terms of usage These differences and similarities could cause confusion for learners of English when choosing a correct form of a verb to express a specific action in the future if they cannot distinguish them Therefore, the researcher decided to carry out a study to identify how well learners of English can understand those differences and similarities Due to limitation of time and the capacity of the researcher, the scope is limited to the two verbs forms: “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention Objectives of the study The study is aimed at identifying the ability of the 60 the year English majored students at Tay Nguyen University to distinguish “Will” and “Be going to” in terms of usage Significance of the study The thesis, as a whole, is considered to be significant on the two aspects First of all, theoretically, it provides learners of English, not excluding the researcher, with the useful knowledge relating to “Will” and “Be going to” which will help them avoid confusion when applying them for expressing intention and prediction Second, practically, the findings reported by the study offers students the clear picture of how they identified the differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in terms of usage Scope of the study It is essential for the study to be carried out with the involvement of all the English major students at Tay Nguyen University, including the second year and last year students Doing so will help ensure the accurate and convincing result of the study as well as the success of the researcher in his study However, in this study, the focus is put on the first year English major students’ ability to distinguish “Will” and “Be going to” because of the limitation of time as well as of the researcher’s ability Outline of the study The assignment is divided into chapters: Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter provides the background information for the whole assignment: state of the problem, objective the study, signification and scope of the study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the literature related to “Will” and “Be going to” will be presented The first section is about the form of “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions The second section explains the usage of “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions The third and fourth section are to respectively present the similarities and differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention Chapter 3: CONTENTS AND METHODOLOGY This chapter describes the method used to carry out this study It is composed four main parts: Contents of the study, methodology of the study, subjects of the study and procedures Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS This chapter reports and discusses the result from this study Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter presents some suggestions after the findings of the study and gives a summary of the assessment CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the literature related to “Will” and “Be going to” will be presented The first section is about the form of “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions The second section explains the usage of “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions The third and fourth section are to respectively present the similarities and differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention 2.1 Form of “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions 2.1.1 The forms of “Will” for expressing future actions According to Elsworth (2000), the formsof “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions are presented as follows - Positive I He She It We You They - Will (‘ll) Question I He She It We You They Will - I He She It We You They stay stay? Negative Will not ( Won’t) stay 2.1.2 Form of “Be going to” for expressing future actions - Positive I He She It We You They - Am(‘m) Is (‘s) Are (‘re) Question Am Is I He She It We You They Are - I He She It We You They going to pay going to pay? Negative Am not (‘m not) Is not (isn’t) (‘s not) Are not (‘re not) going to pay 2.2 The usages of “Will” and “Be going to” for expressing future actions 2.2.1 The usages of “Will” for expressing future actions • According to Elsworth (2000), “will” can be used to express an intention when this intention is made at the time of speaking: - Example: A: There isn’t any milk left B: Oh, isn’t there? I’ll get some in town I’m going there later on (Elsworth, 2000:56) • According to Cullen (2007), “will” can be used to make a prediction about the future based on opinion - Example: One day people will travel to Mars (Cullen, 2007:39) 2.2.2 The usages of “Be going to” for expressing future actions CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS Chapter III has introduced the research questions as well as described the subjects, the data collection instrument and the procedures of the study In this Chapter, the results from the two exercises were reported and discussed 4.1 The students’ ability to recognize the differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention 4.1.1 The students’ ability to use “Will” As presented in Sub-section 2.2, “will” can be used to express an intention and prediction The students’ perception of this difference has been tested through two groups of questions: Group of Questionnaire (the multiple-choice exercise) and Group of Questionnaire (the sentence completing exercise) The result of this test is displayed in the following two tables: Questions Correct answers Students’ correct responses Number Percentage Question B 26/60 43% Question B 30/60 50% Question 11 B 10/60 17% Question 13 A 19/60 32% Question 15 A 40/60 67% Question 17 A 20/60 33% Average percentage of students’ correct answers 40% Table 1: Students’ responses in the multiple-choice exercise Questions Students’ correct responses Number Percentage Question 19 26/60 43% Question 21 24/60 40% Question 22 19/60 32% Question 24 15/60 25% Question 25 12/60 20% Average percentage of students’ correct answers 32% Table 2: Students’ responses in the sentence completing exercise As can be seen in the two tables above, the majority of the students (60% in Table and 68% in Table 2) recognized that “will” could be used to express an intention and prediction Especially, as seen in Table 1, only 10 out of 60 students (17%) could choose the correct answer to Question 11 and in Table 2, only 12 out of 60 students (20%) succeeded in choosing the correct answer to Question 25 In this case, the students did not recognize that “will” in Question 25 and Question 11 was to show the decision made at moment of speaking, which meant “will” could be used to express an intention Besides, in the two tables, only 19 out of 60 students (32%) could choose the correct answer to Question 13 in Table and Question 22 in Table In this case, the students did not recognize that “will” in Question 13 and Question 22 was to show the decision made at moment of speaking, which means “will”could be used to express an intention Moreover, in both tables, only 20 out of 60 students (33%) could choose the correct answer to Question 17 in Table 1, and in Table 2, only 15 out of 60 students (25%) succeeded in choosing the correct answer to Question 24 In this situation, the students did not understand that “will” in Question 17 and Question 24 was to show the prediction based on opinion of the speaker, which meant “will” could be used to express a prediction In addition, the remaining questions in both tables including Question 2, 9, 15 and Question 19, 21 were given the correct answers (over 40%) In this case, the students knew that “will” in Question 2, 9, 15 and Question 19, 21 was to show the decision made at moment of speaker, which meant “will” can be used to express an intention The difficulty level of the six questions mentioned in Table and the five questions mentioned in Table was the same, so it can be inferred from the two comparisons that the respondents were not sure about their answers to those questions The average percentage of the students’ correct answers in Table was nearly 10%, lower than that in Table 1(40%) Based on this comparison, it can be inferred that when using “Will” for expressing future actions, the students were not as good at the sentence completing exercise as at the multiple-choice exercise In summary, most of the students (60% in Table and 68% in Table 2) did not have correct understanding of the differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention 4.1.2 The students’ ability to use “Be going to” As presented in Sub-section 2.2, “Be going to” can be used to express an intention and prediction The students’ perception of this difference has been tested through two groups of questions: Group of Questionnaire (the multiple-choice exercise) and Group of Questionnaire (the sentence completing exercise) The result of this test is displayed in the following tables: Questions Correct answers Students’ correct responses Number Percentage Question A 10/60 17% Question A 30/60 50% Question A 20/60 33% Question A 19/60 32% Question 12 A 26/60 43% Question 14 A 20/60 33% Question 16 A 45/60 75% Average percentage of students’ correct answers 40% Table 3: Students’ responses in the multiple-choice exercise Questions Students’ correct responses Number Percentage Question 18 26/60 43% Question 20 24/60 40% Question 23 19/60 32% Question 24 32/60 53% Question 25 12/60 20% Average percentage of students’ correct answers 38% answersanswersanswers Table 4: Students’ responses in the sentence completing exercise The average percentage of the students’ correct answers in Table and Table showed that most of the students chose incorrect options Especially, in Table 3, only 10 out of 60 students (17%) could choose the correct answer to Question and in Table 4, only 12 out of 60 students (20%) succeeded in choosing the correct answer to Question 25.In this case, the students did not recognize that “Be going to” in Question and Question 25 was to show the decision that is already made before the time of speaking, which meant “Be going to” should be used Besides, in the two tables, only 19 out of 60 students (32%) could choose the correct answer to Question in Table and Question 23 in Table Moreover, in Table 3, only 20 out of 60 students (33%) could choose the correct answer to Question and Question 14 and in Table 4, 24 out of 60 students (40%) succeeded in choosing the correct answer to Question 20 In addition, the remaining questions in both tables including Question 4, 12, 16 and Question 18 and 24 were answered correctly (over 43%) In this situation, the students did not realize that prediction based on pretend evidence mentioned in Question 4, 7, and Question 12 so they did not choose “Be going to” In some cases such as Question 12, 16, 18, 23 and 24, the student also did not realize that the speaker had the intention before the time of speaking, so most of their answers were not correct As shown in the two tables above, the average percentage of the students’ correct answers to the seven questions in Table was nearly equal to the five questions in Table In comparison with the results presented in Table 4, the average percentage of the students’ correct answers to the seven questions in Table was higher However, these figures were lower than 50%, which meant most of the respondents could not recognize the differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention 4.2 The students’ ability to identify the similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention Questions Correct answers Students’ correct responses Number Percentage Question C 10/60 17% Question C 16/60 27% Question C 20/60 33% Average percentage of students’ correct answers 27% Table 5: Students’ responses in the multiple-choice exercise As seen in Table above, the majority of the students (73%) did not recognize the similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention Especially, only 10 out of 60 students (17%) could choose the correct answer to Question Besides, only 16 out of 60 students (27%) could choose the correct answer to Question and 20 out of 60 students (33%) could choose the correct answer to Question The students did not recognize that in Question 3, when the intention was neither clearly premeditated nor clearly unpremeditated, either “be going to” or “will” could be used In addition, they did not understand that “Will” and “Be going to” in Question were rather similar to express what the speaker thought and therefore, either form could be used 4.3 Discussion Using “will” and “be going to” The differences Will between “Will” and “Be going to” The similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” Be going to Both “will” and “Be going to” Average percentage of students’ Correct answers answers 34% Wrong answers 66% 39% 61% 27% 73% Table 6: Students’ responses from the two exercises As can be seen from Table 6, the percentages of the students who gave the right answers to the two exercises are noticeable As for identifying the differences between “Will” and “Be going to”, only 34% of the students could use “Will” and only 39% of the students could use “Be going to” to express future actions correctly Most of the other students mistakenly used “Will” and “Be going to” and vice versa Similarly, only 27% of the students recognized the similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention correctly Most of them gave wrong answers in the two exercises or just gave wrong answers in the multiple choose exercise and sentence completing one The students’ understanding of “Will” and “Be going to” in Table can be generalized as follow On average half of Tay Nguyen university first year English majored students were able to use “Will” accurately However, they had some problems using “Will” and “Be going to” as follows: Firstly, quite a large number of students (66% in “Will” and 61% in “Be going to”) were unable to distinguish the difference between “Will” and “Be going to” Secondly, most students (73%) were unable to recognize the similarities between “Will” and “Be going to” CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter presents some suggestions after the findings of the study and gives a summary of the assessment 5.1 Conclusion The study is aimed at identifying the students’ ability to distinguish between “Will” and “Be going to” The exercises are used as the data collection instrument to assure some specific understanding as well as some incomplete understanding of using “Will” and “Be going to” of 60 students of the English Class, course 2013 The findings of the study help to make two practical recommendations for the students The first one emphasizes the needs of consulting grammar books for those grammar points which is confusing and of practicing grammar exercises The second one gives a further recommendation on applying grammar points in frequent conversations or writing as much as possible In conclusion, hopefully the study will be useful not only to the first year English major students but also to other students of English and learners of English as a second language However, the study cannot avoid having some limitations The results from the students’ exercises cannot, to some extent, give a full conclusion on such common errors For the multiple-choice exercise, the respondents may have chosen the answers randomly and intuitively, which may result in a limitation of accuracy 5.2 Recommendations The two findings presented in Section 4.3 indicate that most of the respondents did not recognize the differences between “Will” and “Be going to” used for expressing prediction and intention Based on these findings, it is recommended that the students should discover their problems with such studied grammar points as well as other confusing grammar points This work must be done by the students themselves, not by others as Blaise Passcal said: "People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they themselves discovered than by those which have come into the minds of others" (in Scott Thornbury, 1999: 51) Firstly, when realizing their problems with grammar as in the case with the usage of “Will” and “Be going to”, the students ought to read more grammar books which cover those grammar points such as Grammar Practice for Upper-Intermediate Student by Elaine Walkerand Steve Elsworth (2000) As consulting that book or other relevant books, students should spend a sizeable amount of time studying and practicing the usage of “Will” and “Be going to” through exercises both in class and at home that help students to clearly realize both the similarities and differences between “Will” and “Be going to” in expressing prediction and intention The recommended forms of useful exercises are the multiple-choice exercises and the sentence completing exercises that can be found on the website englishexercises.org Secondly, once students fully understand the usage of “Will” and “Be going to” through drilling exercises, they should apply these grammar points in their daily conversations or writing as frequently as possible so that they can get the habit of speaking and writing English in an accurate grammar Building such habit of using grammar is also recommend for other grammar points since this new habit can help students of English to advance much more rather than solely focusing on doing grammar exercises REFERENCES - A.J.Thomson and A.V.Martinet (1960) Practical English grammar - Betty SchrampferAzar (1990) Understanding and using English grammar, third edition, Pearson Education - L.G Alexander (1990), Longman Grammar Practice for intermediate students, Addison Wesley Longman Limited, England - John Eastwood (1992), Oxford Practice Grammar, Second edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford - Elaine Walkerand Steve Elsworth (2000), Grammar Practice for UpperIntermediate Student, England Person Education Limited, Harlow - Diana Hopskins with Pauline Cullen (2007), Cambridge grammar for IELTS - John Eastwood (2005), Oxford learner’s grammar References material from internet resources: - http://hoctienganh.info/read.php?484 http://www.englishexercises.org APPENDIX-STUDENT SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I am Nguyễn Thị Thúy Nga who has been taking 2010 English Language Course offered by Faculty of Foreign Language Studies at Tay Nguyen University This questionnaire is prepared as part of my graduation assignment with the title “An investigation into to the ability of the fist- year English majored student at Tay Nguyen University to distinguish “will” and “be going to” in terms of usage” Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated All the data collected will be used for the research purpose only, and your confidentiality will be secured For each response, please read the questions carefully and circle your answers Your answer would be very helpful to the graduation paper Thank you for your cooperation I Choose the correct answer I have bought some bricks and build a garage A B C am going to will A & B are correct 'There's someone at the door.' 'OK, I answer it.' A am going to B will C A & B are correct I climb that mountain one day A am going to B will C A & B are correct Look at those clouds! It rain A is going to B will C A & B are correct It take a long time to photocopy all the documents A am going to B will C A & B are correct Danny be eight next week A is going to B will C A & B are correct The sun is going down It be dark in half an hour A is going to B will C A & B are correct Oh look! That car crash A is going to B will C A & B are correct 9.“ Shall I ask Sandra?” “No, she want to be disturbed.” A is not going to B will not C A & B are correct 10 It’s raining I take an umbrella A am going to B will C A & B are correct 11 Tom: I’m really worried about my exam next week Ann: Don’t worry, Tom You pass A are going to B will C A & B are correct 12 'I see Hannah and Peter together a lot.' 'Yes They get married.' A are going to B will C A & B are correct 13 A What else I need? Oh, I know I’ll buy some postcards B What else I need? Oh, I know I’m going to buy some postcards 14 A I’m going to buy some postcards, so let’s walk past the shops, shall we? B I’ll buy some postcards, so let’s walk past the shops, shall we? 15 A Did you phone Lucy? ‘Oh no, I forgot I’ll phone her now’ B Did you phone Lucy? ‘Oh no, I forgot I’ am going to phone her now’ 16 A I feel terrible I think I’m going to be sick B I feel terrible I think I’ll be sick 17 A Tell me all about it and I’ll pass on the information to the rest of the team B Tell me all about it and I’m going to pass on the information to the rest of the team II Read the following sentences carefully and complete the sentence that uses ‘will’ or ‘be going to’ (from question number 18 to 25) 18 A: We don’t have any bread B: I know I _ get some from the shop 19 A: We don’t have any bread B: Really? I _ get some from the shop then 20 A: Why you need to borrow my suitcase? B: I _ visit my mother in Scotland next month 21 A: I’m really cold B: I _ turn the heating on 22 A: Are you going to John’s party tonight? B: Yes Are you going too? I _ give you a lift 23 A: What are your plans after you leave university? B: I _ work in a hospital in Africa I leave on the 28th 24 A: what’s the matter with Paula? B: She says she _ be sick A: She _ feel better with some fresh air 25 A: Did I tell you I _ have dinner with Ken on Thursday? B: But we _ see a film with Ray and Mary on Thursday You’re known about it for weeks A: Sorry, In this case, I _sort out a different day with Ken ... aimed at identifying the ability of the 60 the year English majored students at Tay Nguyen University to distinguish “Will” and “Be going to? ?? in terms of usage Significance of the study The thesis,... of the students could use “Will” and only 39% of the students could use “Be going to? ?? to express future actions correctly Most of the other students mistakenly used “Will” and “Be going to? ?? and. .. understanding of the differences between “Will” and “Be going to? ?? in expressing prediction and intention 4.1.2 The students? ?? ability to use “Be going to? ?? As presented in Sub-section 2.2, “Be going to? ??