unmarked plural nouns in english and theis difficulties for the 1st year students at the faculty of tourism, honoi university of culture = danh từ số nhiều không có dấu hiệu nhận dạng trong tiếng anh

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1: The mid-term test Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards vocabulary learning Chart 2: Problems in learning English plural nouns Chart 3: Ways of practicin

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality of study project report……… i

Acknowledgements……… ii

Abstract……… ………… iii

Table of contents……….….iv

List of tables and charts……… .vii

PART I- INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale……… ….1

2 Aims of the study……… 1

3 Scope of the study……… 2

4 Methodology……… … 2

The subjects……….…… …2

The instruments……….…… 3

The procedures……….……….3

Data analysis……… …4

5 Design of the study……… 4

PART II- DEVELOPMENT……….… 5

Chapter 1- Literature Review……….……….… 5

1.1 Definition of English nouns……….……….… 5

1.2 Classification of nouns……… … 5

1.2.2 Proper nouns……… 6

1.2.2.1 Definition……… ……… 6

1.2.2.2 Classification……….……… 6

1.2.3 Common nouns……… 7

1.2.3.1 Definition……….7

1.2.3.2 Classification……… 7

1.3 Grammatical categories……… ….7

1.3.1 Number……… 7

1.3.1.1 Definition……… … 7

1.3.1.2 Classification of nouns in terms of number……….……8

1.3.2 Case……… 8

1.3.2.1 Kinds and choice of genitives……… 8

1.3.2.3 Genitive meanings……….… 8

1.3.3 Gender……… ……9

Chapter 2- Grammatical features of plural nouns in English……… ….10

2.1 Definition……….…….10

2.2 Classification……… … 10

2.2.1 Marked plural nouns……… ….11

2.2.1.1 Definition……….………… 11

2.2.1.2 Classification……….……… ….11

(a) Invariables……….……… …….11

(b) Variables……….……… … 12

2.2.2 Unmarked plural nouns……… ……13

2.2.2.1 Definition……… ……… … 13

2.2.2.2 Classification……… … 14

(a) Unmarked plural nouns which are always used with plural verbs 14

(b) Unmarked plural nouns which refer to groups of people or things……….15

(c) Unmarked plural nouns which are formed by ‘the + adjective’… 18

(d) Invariable nouns which can be singular or plurals……….… 19

2.2.2.3 Subject-Verb agreement……… … 20

Chapter 3- Findings 21

3.1 Data analysis results……… ……21

3.1.1 The mid-term test……….… 21

3.1.2 The students’ questionnaires……… …22

3.1.3 The teachers’ interview……… ……27

3.2 Findings……….………… … 30

3.2.1 No inflectional distinction with singular form… ……… … 30

3.2.2 Subject-Verb agreement……… …… 30

Chapter 4- Some suggested solutions……… …… 32

4.1 Towards the students……… … 32

4.1.1 Using dictionary……… … 32

4.1.2 Self-access materials……….… 33

4.1.3 Making a vocabulary notebook……… …34

4.1.4 Group work……… … 34

4.2 Towards the teachers……….34

4.2.1 Using effective teaching techniques……… …….35

4.2.2 Using vocabulary consolidation as warm-up activities……… ……35

4.2.3 Guiding students’ home revision and give them feedback…… … 36

PART III- CONCLUSION……… … 38

1 Summary of the study……… 38

2 Limitation of the study……… 39

3 Suggestion for further study……… 39

References………41 Appendixes……… I

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: The mid-term test

Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards vocabulary learning

Chart 2: Problems in learning English plural nouns

Chart 3: Ways of practicing unmarked plural nouns

Chart 4: Ways of presenting unmarked plural nouns students like

Chart 5: Difficulties caused by unmarked plural nouns

Chart 6: Consolidation of unmarked plural nouns students are most interested in Chart 7: Ways of practicing unmarked plural nouns students like most

Chart 8: Parts students find most difficult in their last exams

PART I- INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In the age of information technology today, English is required as a basic need in any field

of life In our country, at present, learning English is not only a concern but also a practical need for many people Therefore, more and more attention of both the general public and the government has been paid to English learning and teaching at schools, colleges and universities

Learning to master a language is a lengthy and effortful process including both learning the language knowledge: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc and language skills: reading, speaking, writing and listening As the final aim of learning language in general and learning English in particular is communicative, vocabulary is one of the most essential goals to achieve

However, how to learn a language, especially its vocabulary effectively is really a problem

At Hanoi University of Culture (HUC), the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism often report to have a lot of difficulties in learning vocabulary, especially the number category Normally, a noun is marked inflectionally as singular or plural by means of –s (and other markers such as voicing, -en endings, vowel changes or foreign plural) or Ø respectively In some nouns, however, there is no such inflectional distinction (Bache, 1997) Surprisingly, a number of plural nouns in English have no plural endings

(unmarked plural nouns) This is a big problem for students because they cannot realize

these nouns as plural by their forms It arises even more challenges for students when they often make mistakes in making the subject and the verb of the sentence agree

Up to now, no study on this matter has been carried out at HUC Therefore, the situation

encouraged the author to do a research on ‘Unmarked plural nouns in English and their difficulties for the 1 st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of Culture’ It is the author’s hope that this study will be really useful for both teachers and

students in teaching and learning vocabulary in general and unmarked plural nouns in particular

2 Aims of the study

- to provide learners with grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English

- to specify difficulties which unmarked plural nouns in English cause to the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC

- to suggest some solutions for students to overcome the difficulties in their using unmarked plural nouns in English

3 Scope of the study

This study is limited to provide learners with grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English such as definition, classification, agreement with verbs, some usage notes, etc More importantly, it tries to serve the purpose of finding out the difficulties in using unmarked plural nouns in English faced by the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC and seeking for possible solutions to the problems

4 Methodology

The theoretical background in this study is based on the theoretical frameworks by different linguists Quirk (1973, 1990, 1987), Greenbaum (1990, 1996), John (1996), Swan (1995, 1984), Murphy (1994), Collins Publishers (1987, 1990, 1992), Maclin (1994), Sons (1990), etc propose such well known and convincing researches on which we will rely for the theory of plural nouns in general, and unmarked plural nouns in particular The presentation of these linguists’ theory is to give the readers features of plural nouns and especially grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English

Additionally, in order to find out the difficulties of unmarked plural nouns in English for the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC, this study adopts quantitative and qualitative methods Below is a description of the subjects, the instruments, and procedures for the study

4.1 The subjects

There are two types of subjects participating in the study The first type is the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC, and the later is the teachers who have been working with these students for years

90 of the 1st year students were chosen to take part in a questionnaire survey They came from 3 classes in the Faculty of Tourism at the university They are both male and female,

at the age from 19 to 20 and have learnt English for at least 3 years at high schools

In addition, 10 teachers who are working with these students were invited to participate in

an interview held by the researcher They are both male and female, aging from 29 to 50 and have taught at the university for at least 3 years

4.2 The instruments

In order to ensure the validity and reliability of the study, different tools were used, namely written test, questionnaires, and interview

Instrument 1: The mid-term test was used as a tool to investigate the difficulties of

unmarked plural nouns in English which the 1st year students have to encounter in their vocabulary learning This test has much to do with unmarked plural nouns, and includes 4 parts presented in the following order: Gap-filling (10 points); S-V agreement (10 points); Gap-filling combined with S-V agreement (10 points); and Translation (10 points) (see appendix 3)

Instrument 2: Survey questionnaires on the 1st year students were employed to find out what difficulties unmarked plural nouns in English cause to them in their vocabulary learning, what teaching methods used by their teachers they would enjoy, and what they have done to improve their knowledge of unmarked plural nouns in English (see appendix 1)

Instrument 3: An interview was organized with 10 teachers who are teaching English to

the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism at HUC to find out what teaching methods they are using when dealing with unmarked plural nouns in English, what difficulties they find from their students in their learning unmarked plural nouns in English, and some recommendations made by them (see appendix 2)

4.3 The procedures

4.3.1 The mid-term test

90 written tests done by the 1st year students who came from the Faculty of Tourism, HUC

at the middle of the 2nd term were chosen to mark for statistical data The test is scaled by the researcher as follows:

Very bad: 0 – 2; Bad: 3 – 4; Good: 5 – 6; Very good: 7 – 8; Excellent: 9 – 10

4.3.2 Questionnaires

90 questionnaires were delivered to 90 chosen students Each questionnaire consists of 8 items designed with both close-ended and open-ended questions which are to help respondents feel free to express their own ideas

4.3.3 Interviews

An interview was organized between the researcher and 10 teachers mentioned above The interview was a semi-structured kind with 5 items focusing on their teaching methods and difficulties they find from their 1st year students in their learning unmarked plural nouns in English The interview was recorded for later reference

4.4 Data analysis

As above mentioned, the data for this study is collected by the mid-term tests, students’ questionnaires, and teachers’ interview With the mid-term tests, students’ acquisition of

unmarked plural nouns in English can be accurately assessed Information provided from students’ questionnaires will be categorized, tabulated and converted to percentages for the convenience of analysis Moreover, information collected during teachers’ interview is added to assist interpretation

5 Design of the study

This study is divided into three main parts:

Part I: Introduction

The Introduction presents the rationale for the study, states what the study is aimed at and what specific tasks it deals with, and gives the methods by which the study was conducted together with the organization of the study

Part II: Development

The Development includes 4 chapters:

Chapter 1 is concerned with the theoretical concepts, classification and grammatical categories of nouns in English

Chapter 2 deals with the grammatical features of plural nouns in general and unmarked plural nouns in particular

Chapter 3 analyses data collected from the subjects and instruments employed in the research along with some discussion

Chapter 4 suggests some solutions which are expected to improve the 1st year students’ learning English unmarked plural nouns in HUC context

Part III: Conclusion

The Conclusion reviews the major findings of the study, refers to some limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

PART II- DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 – LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, an overview of English nouns is examined to help learners get general ideas about the matter studied This part consists of 3 sections: (1) definition of English nouns, (2) classification of English nouns, and (3) grammatical categories of English nouns

1.1 Definition of English nouns

In Gerald’s view (2001), nouns denote both concrete objects and abstract entities

According to Collins (1992:444), a noun is used to identify a person or thing

Tran (2008:15) defines a noun as ‘a word used to name person, thing, animal or abstract

concept’ For example:

- Names of persons: Tom, John, people, man, boy, woman, etc

- Names of things: bed, chair, table, house, earth, etc

- Names of animals: cat, dog, tiger, lion, etc

- Names of abstract concepts: peace, war, independence, etc

From my point of view, Tran’s concept of English nouns is more concrete Therefore, the definition of English nouns by Tran (2008) is mentioned in this paper

1.2 Classification of English nouns

Different linguists classify English nouns into different kinds According to Collins (1992:444), English nouns can be classified into six main types: count nouns, uncount nouns, singular nouns, plural nouns, collective nouns, and proper nouns In Thomson and Martinet’s view (1986), there are four kinds of nouns in English: common nouns, proper nouns, abstract nouns and collective nouns Tran (2008) classifies English nouns into 2 main types: proper nouns and common nouns For the purpose of this study that focuses on grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English of which collective nouns are consisted, the classification by Tran (2008) is more general and will be used in this paper Let’s look at the diagram to see the classification of English nouns in Tran’s point of view

Nouns

(unique reference) (generic/specific reference)

Tom, John, Mr Smith, etc

Count noun Non-count noun

man, boy, people water, oil, independence

Concrete Abstract

man, boy, water peace, war, independence

The two types of nouns (proper nouns and common nouns) will be discussed hereafter

1.2.1 Proper nouns

1.2.1.1 Definition of proper nouns

According to Collins (1992:448), names of people, places, organizations, institutions,

ships, magazines, books, plays, paintings, and other unique things are proper nouns For

example: Mozart, Romeo and Juliet, the President of the United States, the Seine, etc Gerald (2001:34) defines proper nouns as ‘the names of individual people and places,

including geographical features such as roads, rivers, mountains and ocean’ He gives

some examples of proper nouns as Patrick, China, Hong Kong, Atlantic Ocean, River

Thames, Mount Everest, etc In addition, he also states that the names of institutions, newspapers, buildings, and ships are proper nouns Finally, he presents the days of the week, the months of the year and other periods of the calendar as proper nouns

Quirk (1987:76) states that proper nouns are names of specific people (Shakespeare), places (Milwaukee), countries (Australia), months (September), days (Thursday), holidays

(Christmas), magazines (Vogue), and so forth

In short, proper nouns usually refer to unique individuals, places or events in the calendar Proper nouns have unique reference (i.e they refer to a unique person, country, organization or sometimes a group of these)

1.2.1.2 Classification of proper nouns

According to Quirk (1987) and Gerald (2001), the following list exemplifies the main classes of proper nouns

(a) Personal names: Tom, John, Mr Smith, Bill Clinton, Sir Jones, etc

(b) Geographical names (including names of continents, countries, counties, states, cities,

towns, lakes and mountains): America, Brazil, Arkansas, Boston, Silver Lake, Mount

Everest, the Nile, etc

(c) Names of institutions or organizations: London University, FAO, UNICEF, etc

(d) Name + common noun: Park Lane, Kennedy Airport, etc

(e) Calendar items: January, Monday, Christmas, etc

1.2.2 Common nouns

1.2.2.1 Definition of common nouns

If proper nouns usually refer to unique individuals, places or events in the calendar, all

other nouns are common nouns

1.2.2.2 Classification of common nouns

According to Tran (2008:16), the most important classification of common nouns is the distinction between (a) count and (b) non-count nouns

Count nouns are defined simply by him as those that vary in form For example:

Singular Plural

man, boy, ox men, boys, oxen

Whereas, non-count nouns can be understood as those that have only one form which is

often used in the singular: water, oil, silver, independence, etc

Tran (2008) also states that count nouns and non-count nouns can be concrete or abstract: Concrete Abstract

Count Non-count Count Non-count

man, boy water, gold war, activity peace, independence

1.3 Grammatical categories

Grammatical categories of nouns can be another aspect which needs to be mentioned when dealing with nouns Accordingly, grammatical categories of nouns consist of number, case and gender

1.3.1 Number

1.3.1.1 Definition

Regarding Tran’s view (2008), number is the grammatical category that divides count nouns into singular and plural

For example: Singular Plural

man, boy men, boys

war, activity wars, activities

1.3.1.2 Classification of nouns in terms of number

Tran (2008:17) classifies nouns in terms of number into invariables and variables which can be seen clearly through the below diagrams

(a) Invariables

Singular only Non-count material (water, oil)

I N-ending in –s abstract (peace, freedom)

I Irregular plural +voicing /f/ /ve/ : leafleaves

A +en ending : ox oxen

B +change of root vowel : foot feet

L +foreign plural : phenomenon phenomena

S

Zero plural: sheep, deer, fish, trout

1.3.2 Case

1.3.2.1 Kinds and choice of genitives

Quirk (1987) and Tran (2008) state that there are 2 genitives: ‘s genitives and of - genitives

Accordingly, the choice of genitives will depend on whether the noun is of higher or lower

gender classes The first type is used with nouns of higher gender classes (i.e the boy’s

name) whereas the second one is used with nouns of lower gender classes (i.e the wheels

(a) possessive possession (my father’s hat)

human relation (my sister’s friends)

My father has a hat

My sister has friends

(b) subjective (my father’s permission)

(the arrival of the bus)

My father permits

The bus arrived.

(c) objective (the criminal’s arrest) Someone arrested the

criminal

(d) descriptive (two days’ visit) A visit that lasts two days

(e) appositive (the town of Vinh Yen) Vinh Yen is a town

1.3.3 Gender

Gerald (2001:38) states that nouns in English are not in themselves either masculine or feminine They do not have grammatical gender, though they may refer to male or female people or animals For example:

The waiter was very efficient The waitress was very efficient

According to Tran (2008:18), gender is sometimes considered unimportant, especially formally

Gerald also states gender, however, is important in English when we replace a noun with a pronoun Let’s look at this example:

The waiter was very efficient ~ He was very efficient

The waitress was very efficient ~ She was very efficient

CHAPTER 2- GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF PLURAL NOUNS IN ENGLISH

This chapter covers the following issues of English plural nouns: (1) definition, (2) classification For the purpose of this study which focuses on grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English, the other grammatical features of plural nouns, such as spelling rules, pronunciation, rules of plurality making, agreement with verbs, etc will be discussed in other studies

2.1 Definition

In order to define plural nouns, it is necessary to understand the concept of plural in

general Plural, according to the definition stated in ‘English Language Dictionary’, is the

term used for the state or form of a noun, pronoun, determiner, adjective, or verb when it refers to two or more people, things or groups.’

Naturally, the concept of plural nouns is based on that of plural That is ‘plural nouns refer

to more than one person or thing or consist of different kinds of people or things.’

(English Language Dictionary)

Another concept of plural nouns is defined by Collins (1990) as ‘There are some things

which are thought of as being plural rather than singular, so some nouns have only a plural form For example, you can buy ‘goods’, but not ‘a good’ These nouns are called plural nouns.’

2.2 Classification

As mentioned in the previous chapter, in Quirk’s view (1987), the English number system

comprises singular, which denotes ‘one’, and plural, which denotes ‘more than one’

Accordingly, plural nouns in English include both variable nouns and invariable nouns The classification will be summarized in the below graph which can be realized more easily by readers

N with plural meaning : scissors

Pluralia tantums : customs

Invariables Collective Ns : people

Substantivised adj (Concrete) : the poor

Regular plural: + -s /-s/ books

/-z/ beds

Irregular plural +voicing /f/ /ve/ : leafleaves

+en ending : ox oxen

+change of root vowel: foot feet

+foreign plural : phenomenon phenomena

Zero plural: sheep, deer, fish, trout

From the author’s point of view, plural nouns in English can be classified into 2 major

groups: marked plural nouns and unmarked plural nouns The first group consists of

regular plural nouns (have –s ending) and irregular plural nouns which have markers to be realized, such as voicing, -en ending, vowel change, etc The later consists of nouns which have no plural endings or have same forms with singular nouns or in other words, they are not realized as plural by their forms Below is the description of these two groups, of which unmarked plural nouns will be paid more attention to in order to help learners have better understanding of this type of plural nouns

2.2.1 Marked plural nouns

2.2.1.1 Definition

As aforementioned, marked plural nouns can be understood as nouns which have characteristics to be easily noticed, such as –s endings, -en endings, voicing, vowel changes or markers of foreign plural In other words, people can notice marked plural nouns based on their forms

2.2.1.2 Classification

(a) Invariables

(i) Summation plurals

Quirk (1987) defines summation plurals as tools and articles of dress consisting of two

equal parts which are joined He also adds that countability of this kind of noun can be

imposed by means of a pair of (i.e a pair of scissors, three pairs of trousers)

The following is some summation plurals

bellows tongs pants pliers spectacles shorts

binoculars tweezers pyjamas scales braces suspenders

pincers glasses shorts scissors flannels tights

(ii) Pluralia tantums

Pluralia tantums are defined as nouns that only occur in the plural (Quirk, 1987:169)

Here is the list of these nouns

goods quarters remains clothes means suds

belongings lodgings riches earnings outskirts surroundings

brains looks stairs goods particulars thanks

(b) Variables

The regular plural is formed by means of an –s suffix The following table shows the basic

ways of forming the plurals of count nouns (Collins, 1992: 517)

(i) Regular

Singular form Plural form

regular

hat tree

Add –s (/s/ or /z/)

hats trees

Add –s (/iz/)

roses prizes services ages

Add –es (/iz/)

bushes speeches glasses boxes buses

ending in consonant + y country

lady

Change –y to -ies

countries ladies

Add -s

ending in vowel + y boy

valley boys valleys

(ii) Irregular

+voicing (/f//vz/)

In Quirk’s view (1987:176), some nouns which in the singular end in the final voiceless fricatives /f/ have voicing to /v/ For example:

-f(e) /f  -ves /vz/ : calf  calves

Here is a list of some nouns which have voicing to /v/

-us ending  -i : nucleus  nuclei

-um ending  -a : aquarium  aquaria

-a ending  -e : larva  larvae

-is ending  es : analysis  analyses

-ix or –ex ending : -ices : appendix  appendices

-on ending  -a : criterion  criteria

2.2.2 Unmarked plural nouns

The presentation in this part is to give readers a picture of unmarked plural nouns in English with the following sub-sections: (1) definition, (2) classification, (3) agreement with verbs, and (4) some usage notes (if any)

2.2.2.1 Definition

In order to give a definition of unmarked plural nouns in English, let’s compare the two types of plural nouns to see the distinction between them

Marked plural nouns Unmarked plural nouns

-s ending (books, beds, boxes) No –s ending (police, sheep)

From the comparison, the definition of unmarked plural nouns in English can be given as follows:

Unmarked plural nouns can be understood as nouns that have no plural endings (-s ending,

-en ending) They also have no voicing, no vowel changes or no rules to change into plural like foreign nouns

In other words, unmarked plural nouns are nouns that cannot be realized as plural by their

forms

2.2.2.2 Classification

From the author’s point of view, unmarked plural nouns in English can be classified into 4 major groups that will be discussed hereafter The classification is based on the forms of unmarked plural nouns (whether they are variable or invariable nouns) or the agreement of the verbs following the nouns

(a) Unmarked plural nouns which are always used with plural verbs

Cattle, people and police are plural words with no singular They are invariable plural

ones Therefore, when we refer to a number of things or people, we cannot say ‘polices’,

‘cattles’ or ‘peoples’ In the case we mention a person, for example a person in the police,

we have to say: a policeman, a policewoman or a police officer (not ‘a police’ only)

Agreement with verbs

Obviously, these nouns have plural meanings and always take plural verbs in any cases For example:

Cattle are selling for very high prices this year

(Not: Cattle is selling….)

The police are searching for a tall dark man with a beard

(Not: The police is searching………….)

People are funny

(Not: People is funny)

(Swan, 1984)

(b) Unmarked plural nouns which refer to groups of people or things

These nouns are variable ones (e.g: family, team, crew) They can be changed into plural

by just adding ‘s’ to the end (e.g: families, teams, crews)

However, we do not put these nouns into plural forms when they refer to groups of people

or things In this case, these nouns are known as ‘collective nouns’

Collective nouns are special nouns that stand for a group of people, animals, birds or insects (Maclin, 1994: 209) Words like committee, public, herd, jury, etc are collective

nouns

Collective nouns are defined by Collins (1990) as ‘There are a number of nouns in English

which refer to a group of people or things These nouns are called collective nouns, for example: audience, committee, company, government, family, jury, etc.’

Agreement with verbs

Most collective nouns in English have both singular and plural forms According to the concord of Subject-Verb in number, collective nouns in plural forms always require plural verbs However, collective nouns in singular forms are not the same Since they are grammatically singular but notionally plural, they may take either a singular or plural verb For example:

The public are tired of demonstrations (1)

The audience were enjoying every minute of it (2)

(Quirk, 1987)

Although singular and plural verbs are more or less interchangeable in these above contexts, the choice is based, if on anything, on whether the group is being considered as a single undivided body, or as a collection of individuals Thus, plural is more likely than singular in above examples because consideration is being given to the individual reactions

of members of the public and the audience

In contrast, the singular has to be used in sentences like:

The public consists of you and me (3)

The audience was enormous (4)

unit The following examples will be useful to see the distinction:

My family have decided to move to Nottingham They think it’s a better place to live (5) The average British family has 3.6 members It is smaller and richer than 50 years

ago.(6)

(Swan, 1995)

In example (5), members of the family are acting as individuals -each with a separate opinion, so the verb is plural However, in example (6), the family is seen as an impersonal unit, so the verb is singular

Usage note

(i) We often use singular when we refer to the group’s size or make –up, or how it compares with others For example:

The class consists of twelve girls and fourteen boys

The union is the biggest in the country

(Collins, 1990)

(ii) The plural is more likely when we talk about people’s thoughts, feelings or actions For example:

The class don’t understand what the teacher is saying

The union are delighted with their pay rise

(Collins, 1990)

(iii) In most cases where the individuals composing a group are acting separately, it is

better to use such expressions as the members of the jury, the members of the family These

expressions sound better and clearly indicate that the individuals are acting separately:

The members of the jury have returned to their homes

The people in the audience were waving their hands

(Collins, 1990)

(iv) In the cases where the names of many organizations are collective nouns, either a singular or a plural verb can be used

The BBC is sending him to Tuscany for the summer

The BBC are planning to use the new satellite next month

England was leading 18-0 at half-time

England are seeking alternatives for their B team

(vi) Attention should be paid to collective nouns which have notional regular plural but can

be followed by a singular or plural verb such as the aristeracy, the gentry, the proletariat,

the majority, etc

E.g: The proletariat is/ are determined to protect its rights

(Collins, 1990)

(vii) ‘Offspring’ has notional plural form but can be followed by a singular verb to refer to

one or a plural verb to refer to more than one

E.g: His offspring is very naughty (~ one child)

His offspring are very naughty (~ more than one child)

(Collins, 1990)

(viii) ‘The youth of today’ (i.e all young people) should not be confused with a/ the youth

(i.e a/the young man) which has a regular form ‘youths’

E.g: The youth of today is/ are better off than we used to be

A youth is outside the shop and five youths are in the shop

(Collins, 1990)

(ix) The words ‘bacteria’, ‘data’, and ‘media’ are now often used as collective nouns, that

is with either s singular or a plural verb and no change in form However, some speakers think they should only be used with a plural verb because they have the rare singular forms

‘bacterium’, ‘datum’, and ‘medium’

E.g: Medieval Arabic data show that the length of the day has been increasing more

slowly than expected

Our latest data shows more firms are hoping to expand in the near future

(Collins, 1990)

List of collective nouns

Here is a list of common collective nouns (Collins, 1990)

aristocracy committee enemy herd press

army community family jury proletariat audience company flock media public

bacteria council gang navy staff

brood crew government nobility team

cast data group opposition

According to Quirk (1987), we may distinguish three subclasses of collective nouns:

(a) SPECIFIC: army, clan, class, club, committee, crew, crowd, family, flock, gang,

government, group, herd, jury, majority, minority

(b) GENERIC: the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, the clergy, the elite, the gentry, the

intelligentsia, the laity, the proletariat, the public

(c) UNIQUE: the Arab League, (the) Congress, the Kremlin, the Papacy, Parliament, the

United Nations, the United States, the Vatican

(c) Unmarked plural nouns which are formed by ‘the + adjective’

(i) the + adjective

Adjectives like the following are used after ‘the’ to represent a group as a whole such as

the blind, the deaf, the dead, the rich, the poor, the young, the old, the unemployed, etc

These words refer to a group of people who share the same characteristic or quality For example:

the rich = people who have lots of money

the deaf = people who can’t hear

the dead = people who had died

These nouns are invariable plural ones Thus, we cannot say the olds, the youngs, etc when

we want to refer to more than one person When we want to convey singular meanings, we

cannot say a blind or an injured We must say: a blind man, an injured child, etc

Here are some examples of adjectives which can be used with ‘the’

+ In terms of social status or economic status

disadvantaged, homeless, hungry, poor, privileged, rich, starving, strong, underprivileged, unemployed, weak

+ In terms of health or medical care

blind, deaf, dead, disabled, handicapped, living, sick

+ In terms of ages

elderly, middle-aged, old, over-sixties, under-fives, young

We can sometimes use an adverb before the adjective

The very poor are left without hope

The severely disabled need full-time care

(John, 1996:250)

There are some adjectives in this structure that normally have an adverb

The less fortunate cannot afford to go on holiday

Should the mentally ill be allowed to live in the community?

(John, 1996:250)

(ii) the + adjectives of nationality

We use ‘the’ with adjectives of nationality to mean ‘the people of that country’ For

example:

The French = the people of France

The Chinese = the people of China

These expressions also convey plural meanings When a person is mentioned, English

provides two alternatives: a Frenchman, an Englishwoman or a French, an English, etc

Agreement with verbs

These expressions are always plural in meaning Therefore, they always take plural verbs For example:

The young are usually keen to travel

The homeless usually have great difficulty in getting a job

(John, 1996)

The French are famous for their food

Why do the English think they are so wonderful?

(Murphy, 1994)

(d) Invariable nouns which can be singular or plural

These nouns are names of certain creatures like fish, sheep, deer, etc They have the same spoken and written form in both singular and plural Thus, we can say ‘a fish’ or ‘those

fish’

Note that fishes exists but uncommon It is used to denote different individual or species

For example:

the fishes of the Mediterranean

Quirk (1987) gave some types of fish which do not normally change in the plural

carp pike salmon trout

cod plaice squid turbot

mackerel etc

Agreement with verbs

These nouns are invariable ones Thus, we have to depend on the contexts to decide which verbs are suitable in each sentence For example:

This sheep looks small

All those sheep are mine

(Quirk, 1987)

Obviously, it will be useful for learners to know all the grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English because the acquisition will help learners a lot in widening their knowledge of English vocabulary in general and unmarked plural nouns in particular as well as avoiding making mistakes when dealing with unmarked plural nouns, especially in making the subject and the verb of the sentence agree

CHAPTER 3- FINDINGS

The issues mentioned in the previous chapters only belong to the theoretical category To seek for an insight into the difficulties of unmarked plural nouns for the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC both theoretically and practically, this chapter presents the results derived from analyzing the data collected, thus findings are identified

3.1 Presentation of data analysis results

3.1.1 Mid-term test

Results from marking the tests are ranked in this table and calculated by proportion of students and changed into percentage for data analysis of the study

Very bad Bad Good Very

Table 1 The 2 nd mid-term test

As apparently observed from the table, the number of students who did badly the part Gap- filling combined with Subject-Verb agreement in the text is the highest, counting for 66.6%, followed by the Subject-Verb agreement part with 45.7% The first part (Gap-filling) was done best with the lowest percentage (35.6%) of the students failing The number of students who did not pass the Translation part was 37.7% These figures indicate that there may be some reasons for the problems For the first part of the test, students might not know the meanings of the given words or the meanings of the sentences, which led to their failure to fill appropriate words in sentences For the second one, students were really confused in deciding which verb (plural or singular) to choose

Since unmarked plural nouns like police, cattle, people, etc have no inflectional distinction

with singular forms, students could not realize them as plural Consequently, they often made errors on Subject-Verb agreement Furthermore, students had more challenges when they met collective nouns which can be used with either plural or singular verbs such as

firm, family, orchestra, the BBC, etc Students had to consider whether the group noun

mentions a single undivided body, or a collection of individuals As a consequence, students had difficulty in choosing the right verbs for sentences The third part seems to be the most problematic for students because they were required not only to choose the right

noun but also to decide the correct verb (is or are) to fill in the blanks Compared with the

other parts of the test, the number of students who did not pass this part was much higher (66.6%) The last part deals with the same kind of word with the first one: unmarked plural

nouns formed with the + adjective There were not any new words, phrases or expressions

in this part Unfortunately, these students forgot or could not guess word meaning in contexts The result showed that they failed in transferring Vietnamese meanings into English equivalents

3.1.2 The students’ questionnaires

1 How do you think of the role of vocabulary in learning a foreign language?

It can be easily noticed from this pie chart that most of the 1st year students at the Faculty

of Tourism at HUC are well aware of the importance of English vocabulary learning This

is represented by 80% and 20% of them considering it as very important and important while 0% not important

This number signifies that most of

these students have a very good

attitude towards their vocabulary

learning, leading to a high motivation

in their English learning process

Students' attitude tow ards vocabulary

learning

80%

very important important not important

Chart 1- Students’ attitude towards vocabulary learning

2 What is the most difficult for you when you learn English plural nouns?

As shown in the chart, what students find the most difficult in learning English plural nouns is unmarked plural nouns Students may remember the spelling rules (only 8.9% have problems with this), or rules of plurality making (11% have difficulties in learning this) and know how to pronounce the words (this cause difficulties to only 6.7% of the students) but more than half of the students taking part in the survey (55.6%) are confused with the words which have no markers to be realized as plural when they learn English plural nouns As a consequence, 17.8% of the students find it hard to make the subject and the verb of the sentence agree These may due to the fact that the time allocated is not

enough for the teachers to give

a careful explanation of

unmarked plural nouns such as

rules, classification, S-V

agreement, and some usage

notes, etc to their students

Spelling rules

Pronunciation

Agreement w ith verbs

Unmarked plural nouns

Chart 2- Problems in learning English plural nouns

3 How do you usually practice unmarked plural nouns at home?

As illustrated by the chart,

writing the words in English

many times is widely used by

most of the students, covering

50% Reading unmarked

plural nouns aloud is also

popular among students,

counting for 33.3%

Ways of practicing unmarked plural nouns

Read them aloud

Write the words in English many times

Write both singular and plural forms of the words

Make sentences with words

Do exercises

internet, TV, game

Chart 3- Ways of practicing unmarked plural nouns

Writing both singular and plural forms of the words is also paid much attention by 27.8%

of the students It is surprising from the chart that a large number of students (taking up 25.6%) learn unmarked plural nouns via internet, TV, and games Besides, 22.2% of the students often do exercises on unmarked plural nouns to practice them at home Making sentences with unmarked plural nouns seems to be not attractive to get students involved in

as it takes up only 16.7% It can be inferred that when most students choose to learn unmarked plural nouns by writing the words in English many times, and reading them aloud, or writing both singular and plural forms of the words, they focus only on the spelling and pronunciation of the words rather than how to use the words in sentences or contexts Only a small number of students (16.7%) learn unmarked plural nouns by making sentences, which leads to students’ difficulties in using them in contexts

4 Which way of presenting unmarked plural nouns do you like?

It can be seen from the chart that the biggest choice is made by 63.3% of the students for presenting unmarked plural nouns by translating all the words into Vietnamese The next

choice falls into the way of saying the words clearly one by one and writing them on the board, counting for 58.9%, then comes to making sentences with words (38.9%) The number of students who are interested in presenting unmarked plural nouns by giving games is 17.8% Using visual aids to present unmarked plural nouns receives only 13.2%

of the students

From these figures, it can

be stated that two

techniques, namely

Translating the words into

Vietnamese, and Saying

the words clearly one by

one and writing them on

the board are most

preferred by the students

This may be explained

Ways of presenting unmarked plural nouns

Make sentences with words

Chart 4- Ways of presenting unmarked plural nouns students like

that students find these ways easy to understand unmarked plural nouns than the other ones Making sentences with words is also their favourite choice maybe because students want to know how to use the words in sentences and contexts This is also the reason why most of them do not choose games and visual aids to understand the words Furthermore, it

is not easy for teachers to find appropriate visual aids and organize suitable games to present unmarked plural nouns

5 What difficulties unmarked plural nouns in English cause to you?

Regarding to difficulties which unmarked plural nouns cause to them, most of the students under survey (45%) expressed that the biggest problem is there was no inflectional distinction between unmarked plural nouns and singular forms Students often find it hard

to realize unmarked plural nouns as plural by their forms In other words, unmarked plural nouns have the same form as singular forms Consequently, a fairly similar number of students (40%) often make mistakes in

Subject-Verb agreement

These are considered as

two big problems which

unmarked plural nouns

cause to students

Concerning word use,

24.4% of the students do

not know how to use

Difficulties caused by unmarked plural nouns

No inflectional distinction w ith singular form

Subject-Verb agreement

They have no rules to form plurality

Chart 5- Difficulties caused by unmarked plural nouns

unmarked plural nouns in sentences 22.2% of them make complaints that unmarked plural nouns have no rules to form plurality The difference from Vietnamese plural nouns also causes difficulties to 20% of the students From these figures, there should be more effective methods of vocabulary teaching from the teachers and self-learning methods from the students to help them avoid these problems

6 What kinds of vocabulary consolidation are you most interested in when learning unmarked plural nouns?

As observed from the

chart, doing exercises on

unmarked plural nouns

has the leading position

in all with 32.1% of the

students who were

interested in This may

be due to the fact that

exercises are found to be

useful and practical for

the students to do

Consolidation of unmarked plural nouns students

are most interested in

Discuss Play games

7 Which way of practicing unmarked plural nouns do you like most?