A study on students’ errors in using the English subjunctive mood = Nghiên cứu tình huống về những lỗi sai trong việc sử dụng thức giả định của sinh viên

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Typical errors made by English major and non-English major students Table 2: Errors of using Verb form in the present subjunctive Table 3: Errors of using Verb fo

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING THE

ENGLISH SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LỖI SAI TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG

THỨC GIẢ ĐỊNH CỦA SINH VIÊN

M.A MINOR THESIS

HANOI – 2012 Major: English teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING THE

ENGLISH SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LỖI SAI TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG

THỨC GIẢ ĐỊNH CỦA SINH VIÊN

M.A MINOR THESIS

HANOI – 201

Major: English teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

PART I : INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale .1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Scope of the study .2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Research Questions 3

6 Design of study 3

PART II : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 An overview of mood 5

1.1.1 Definitions of mood 5

1.1.2 Kinds of mood 5

1.2 Subjunctive mood 7

1.2.1 Definitions of subjunctive mood 7

1.2.2 Classification of subjunctive mood 7

1.2.2.1 The present subjunctive mood 7

1.2.2.2 The past subjunctive mood 10

1.2.2.3 Past perfect subjunctive mood 14

1.3 Passive forms of subjunctive mood 16

1.3.1 Use of the present forms of the subjunctive mood 16

1.3.2 Use of the past forms of the subjunctive mood 17

1.4 Error analysis and error correction in language learning 17

CHAPTER 2: SOME ERRORS MADE BY MAJOR AND NON - MAJOR STUDENTS IN HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

2.1 The teaching – learning present situation of subjunctive mood 19

2.2 Method 19

2.2.1 Participants 19

2.2.2 Instruments 20

2.2.3 Procedures 20

2.3 Results 21

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 Findings 25

3.1.1 Recognition of subjunctive mood 25

3.1.2 The verb forms in the subjunctive mood 29

3.1.2.1 In present form in the subjunctive mood 30

3.1.2.2 In the past and past perfect subjunctive mood 32

3.2 Suggested solutions 36

3.2.1 Teachers‟ teaching method 36

3.2.2 Students‟ learning strategies 47

PART III: SUMMARY 1 Recapitulation 48

2 Conclusions 48

3 Limitations and suggestions for the further study 49

REFERENCES 51 APPENDICES I

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Typical errors made by English major and non-English major students Table 2: Errors of using Verb form in the present subjunctive

Table 3: Errors of using Verb form in the past subjunctive

Table 4: Errors made by students in the questionnaires

Table 5:Typical reasons for students‟ errors in survey questions

Table 6: Errors made by students in grammar test

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

There is a variety of spoken languages all over the world, but English language is the most popular Billions of people are speaking and using English everyday in their life So, English plays an important role in our modern life because it is one of the vital demands of almost English learners

However, it is not easy for learners to get success in learning English because of many difficulties in its grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation… Grammar is one of the most difficult parts which English learners usually meet and make errors In English grammar, mood is a small and special part Although mood is not used as much as other parts, for instance: verb tense, sentences or passive…, it is important for English learners

People often use Mood in normal dialogues and communication In the process of using mood, they rarely use subjunctive mood – one kind of mood It

is harder to explain the subjunctive Five hundred years ago, English had a highly developed subjunctive mood However, after the fourteenth century, speakers of English used the subjunctive less frequently Indeed, the sheer frequency of subjunctive misuse gives me the impression that the subjunctive isn‟t taught at all in school, and if it is, those teaching it may not be teaching it well enough or perhaps few of those they teach get to understand it properly I say this basing on the wrong uses of subjunctive mood in written tests by university students That makes me try to study more on this aspect with the hope that my study is useful for every English learner to understand more about subjunctive mood and avoid making mistakes in using it

2 Aims of the study

The central aims of the study are:

a Investigating the most common errors which non-English major students at Hai Phong Private University often make

b Identifying the main causes of those errors

c Reinforcing and enhancing the students‟ subjunctive mood acquisition

Hopefully, this study can provide readers with overall comprehension of subjunctive mood The research results would be really helpful to not only students but also teachers so they can base on the findings and suggestions to choose as well as design activities for the lesson in a direction

3 Scope of study

Regarding to the scope of the study, mood is rather huge and complicated Consequently, it requires to be taken into consideration carefully in a very long time by the researchers However, due to my limitation of time and knowledge, I could not cover all the aspects of this theme This study only concentrates on the analysis of errors made by first-year non-English majors and the errors are just restricted to the ones related to subjunctive mood

4 Methods of study

This is a survey research which was carried out by means of such data collection instruments as questionnaires and interviews for students and the students‟ writing papers Each of them is conducted with its own direction

First, the interviews were done among twenty first year non-English majors and English Majors at Hai Phong Private University with the questions related to the thesis topic The second study method is to analyze the writing papers of students coming from two groups English majors and non-English

majors with the aim of recognizing as well as classifying the errors exactly The second method is considered as more effective one

5 Research questions

The study aims to answer the two following questions:

1 What are the typical errors that the first-year English majors and English majors often make during their study at Hai Phong Private University?

6 Design of the study

is the most important part

Part one presents an overview of the study in which the rationale for the

research, the research problem, the purposes, the research questions, the scope of the study, the research method, as well as the design of the study were briefly presented

Part two with three main chapters:

Chapter one reviews the literature relevant to the study, including the

definition of mood, as well as an overview on subjunctive mood These lay the foundation for the choice of the medium for the research More specifically, it presents a number of research in which subjunctive mood has been used to help students make improvement in their language study

Chapter two is a detailed discussion of the method used in the study This

chapter presents a thorough justification for the use of subjunctive mood and survey research It also gives a thorough description of the research‟s components, as well as the research program

Chapter three discusses the findings of the study, provides pedagogical

implications, as well as presents limitations of the research It also makes

recommendations for further research in the same field

Part three summarizes the main issues of the whole study with a

conclusion ending the study and supply some suggestions for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

As the subjunctive mood will be analysed in detail in chapter two, this part will deal with not only general view on mood but also particular explanations and concepts related to subjunctive mood It will provide you a closer look at its definition, formation, usage and its problems in present day English Besides, the definitions of errors and correction are also given to make clearer about the aims of this research These below knowledge had been

collected from many believable resources and websites such as www

usingenglish com, www yourdictionary com , tailieu vn, Azar - Understanding and using English Grammar

1.1.2.1 The indicative mood

The indicative mood is the use of verb in ordinary statements and pose question It is regarded as a factual or neutral situations, as something which has occurred or is occurring at the moment of speaking or will occur in the future.It may denote actions with different time-reference and different characteristics Therefore the Indicative Mood has a wide variety of tense and aspect forms in the active and passive voice The indicative mood has three forms: the affirmative, the negative, and the interrogative

E.g - She went home late yesterday

- Has he called her yet?

1.1.2.2 The imperative mood

The imperative mood expresses a command or a request to perform an action addressed to somebody, but not the action itself As it does not actually denote a specific action it has no tense category; the action always refers to the future The imperative mood is used only in imperative sentences and cannot be used in questions The imperative mood is used to give orders and instructions E.g - Go home!

- Come and see me!

Notice that there is no subject in these imperative sentences The pronoun you (singular or plural, depending on context) is the "understood subject" in imperative sentences Virtually all imperative sentences, then have a second person (singular or plural) subject

1.1.2.3 The subjunctive mood

The subjunctive mood shows that the action or state expressed by the verb

is presented as doubts, possibility, wishes, desire or anything else contrary to

fact The subjunctive mood has synthetic and analytical attitude of the speaker to real fact It is not used much on English any longer and can be found in a few phrases

E.g - I wish I were ten years younger

- If you taught me, I would learn quickly

1.2 Subjunctive mood

1.2.1 Definitions of subjunctive mood

In many reference books or websites, the definitions of subjunctive mood have the same meaning These are some definitions of subjunctive mood:

The Subjunctive Mood is used not to indicate that something is being asserted but that it is contrary to fact, supposed, doubted, feared or desired

The Subjunctive Mood is the mood of a verb used to show hopes, doubts, wishes…

The subjunctive mood is used more in writing than in speech It is not used very much in modern British English “The old subjunctive is disappearing

as language usage becomes modified and simplified Current business usage

recognizes it only as a wish mood" (Dumond, 1993)

1.2.2 Types of subjunctive mood

The subjunctive mood is divided in three types They are present subjunctive mood, past subjunctive mood and past perfect subjunctive mood

1.2.2.1 The present subjunctive mood

In the present subjunctive mood, the verb to be has the form be for all the persons-singular and plural, which differs from the corresponding forms of the indicative mood (the present indefinite) Sentences in which normally have used the verbs: “is”, “are”, “was”, “were” or “will be” should have the root word “be”

if they are used in the present subjunctive mood

In all other verbs, the forms of the present subjunctive mood differ from

the corresponding forms of the indicative mood only in the third person

singular, which in the present subjunctive has no ending “–s”

E.g - The Queen lives here (simple present tense)

- Long live the queen! (present subjunctive)

The present subjunctive denotes an action referring to the present or

future This form is but seldom used in Modern English It may be found in

poetry, in scientific language and in the language of official documents, where it

is a living form

There are four ways in which sentences are formed in the present

subjunctive mood:

a Express a wish, a prayer, a hope or a cause in certain fixed phrases

These expressions are fixed There is no change in every part in the

phrase So, the verbs in the fixed expressions are not put I think the learners

should remember and learn by heart their meaning and usage

E.g - Long live the Queen!

- God save the motherland!

A wish can also be expressed by “may + infinitive” (in the present) and

“might + infinitive” (in the past):

E.g - May you be happy all your life

- They prayed that she might soon be well again

b In object clauses

It formed as the object a verb indicating a desire, intension, request,

resolution, command, recommendation…

In object clause after verbs and word-groups, it expresses a will, or a wish for the future, or a desire, intention…Some verbs are normally used in this case:

advise, ask,command,demand,desire,insist,propose,recommend,request +(that)

The present subjunctive mood looks like the infinitive form of the verb, and all persons (including the third person singular) are written or spoken without an “s” in affirmative form and with only “not” in negative form It takes the same form whether we are referring to the present, the past or the future E.g - She urged that he write and accept the post

- We recommend that they not build this company near our resident The present subjunctive is also used in object clauses after impersonal

expressions with the same meaning as the above verbs: It + be + [desirable/

essential/ important ] + that + present subjunctive clause

In fact, we commonly avoid using the subjunctive mood (especially in British English) The present subjunctive mood is often replaced by using the

structure: should + infinitive

E.g - It is our wish that he should do what he pleases

- It is necessary that we should go home early

c In some adverbial clauses

Adverbial clauses of concession are introduced by the conjunctions and

connectives: “though, although, however, no matter, whatever, whoever …”.The

analytical subjunctive with the mood auxiliary may (might) is generally used E.g - Though the whole world condemns him, I will still believe in him

- Whatever obstacles may arise, we shall not give in

When a clause of purpose is introduced by the conjunctions “that, as, so

that, in order that…”, we find the analytical subjunctive with the mood auxiliary

may/might if the principal clause refers to the present or future; if the principal

clause refers to the past, only the form might is used

E.g - She opens the window that she may get a breath of fresh air

- He got up, cautiously, so that he might not wake the sleeping boy

d In inversion of first conditional sentences

Adverbial clauses of first condition containing the verbs could/should in the If clause are often introduced without any conjunction It denotes an unsure

fact

E.g - Should he come this way, I will speak to him

- Should you see Tom, tell him to come to my office

1.2.2.2 The past subjunctive mood

tense as “I was”,“he was”,“they were”,“you were”… But in the past subjunctive

mood, the verb to be has the form were for all the persons singular and plural,

which in the singular differs from the corresponding form of the indicative mood (the past indicative) When the verb is different from be, it has the form the past indefinite of Indicative mood (V-ed) The subordinate clause, if any, in such sentences must also be expressed with verb in the past tenses

It does not necessarily express a past action In adverbial clauses of condition, it denotes an unreal condition referring to the present or future In other types of subordinate clauses, it denotes an action simultaneous with the action expressed in the principal clause; thus, it may refer to the present and to the past The past subjunctive mood is used in the following circumstances:

a In conditional clauses implying a negative or in clauses in which the

condition is combined with reality

In second conditional sentences, it expresses an unreal condition (in the

subordinate clause) and an unreal consequence (in the principal clause)

In sentences of unreal condition referring to the present or future, the past

of the verb to be is used in the subordinate clause; with other verbs, the same

meaning is expressed by the past indefinite of the indicative mood In the

principal clause, we find the analytical subjunctive consisting of the mood

auxiliary should or would and the indefinite infinitive Should is used with the

first person singular and plural, would is used with the second and third persons

singular and plural

E.g - If I were you, I should accept the offer

- What would you say if I asked you to join us for a holiday

In mixed conditional type, it refers to no particular time and the

consequence to the past It has the form:

[If simple past tense, S + would have + PII]

E.g - If he were a good student, he would have studied for the exam yesterday

In inversion of second conditional sentences, adverbial clauses of second

condition containing were in subordinate clause is often introduced without any

conjunction It refers to a difficult fact

E.g - Were I once again among the heather in those hills, I should be myself

b The conjunctions introducing adverbial clauses of condition are: if, in

case, provided, suppose, and some others

* In case and Provided/Providing are chiefly used in sentences of real condition

E.g - In case I do not find her at home, I shall leave her a note

- Providing, you drive carefully, I will lend you my car

* Suppose/Supposing is more common in sentences of unreal condition

E.g - Suppose you were in that haunted house, what should you do?

- Supposing I had a day off yesterday, I would go to Do Son Beach

c In object clauses when the predicate of the principal clause is expressed

by “wish”/ “If only”

It refers to an unreal fact If the action expressed in the object clause is simultaneous with that of the principal clause, the past subjunctive of the verb to

be is used The form [S + wish/wished + (that) + past subjunctive clause]

expresses a regret or a wish about a present situation

E.g

- I wish I were the Prime Minister of India for a year

- I wish my brother were here now so that he could teach me algebra

* “Wish” can be put into the past without changing the kind of subjunctive E.g - He wished he knew her address

- I wished you could drive the car

* “If only” can be used in the same way It has the same meaning as wish but is more dramatic

E.g

- If only he did not smoke!

- If only she were the beauty queen now

d In adverbial clauses of comparison (or manner) introduced by the conjunctions as if /as though

The past subjunctive can be used after as if/ as though to indicate unreality

or improbability or doubt in the present There is no different meaning between

as if and as though If the action of the subordinate clause is simultaneous with

that of the principal clause the past subjunctive of the verb to be is used; with other verbs the same meaning is expressed by the past indefinite of the indicative

mood It has form: [S + verb + as if/ as though + past subjunctive clause]

E.g - George tries to order me about as if I were his wife

- Do you notice Robert walking as though he were drunk?

However the past subjunctive mood is not used in predicative clauses introduced by the conjunctions as if/as though when we find the linking verbs to

be, to feel, to look, to seem, to sound….in the principal clause

e In attributive clauses modifying the noun time in the principal clause “It

is time” or “It is high time”

It indicates that it is already late for taking the indicated action High is added to emphasize this idea In this case, the past subjunctive of the verb to be

is used; with other verbs the same meaning is expressed by the Past Indefinite of

the indicative mood It has form: [It is time + past subjunctive clause]

E.g - The match will commence at 10o‟clock and it is time you got ready Besides, in these following cases, there is a slight difference in meaning

between the forms: [It is time + infinitive] merely states that the correct time has arrived; [It is time + past subjunctive mood clause] implies that it is a little

late and the speaker complains about something should be done

E.g

- It is already half past midnight, and it is time we returned home

- It is time for us to go home on time

f Sentences staring with “would rather” indicate one’s preferences

Sometimes would sooner can be used instead of would rather There is no

difference of meaning between them When the subject of would rather/ would sooner is the same, the past subjunctive mood is not used It is followed by the

bare infinitive It has the form: [S + would rather + (not) bare infinitive]

E.g - I would rather go to a movie tonight than study grammar

When the subjects of would rather are different, we use the past

subjunctive mood after would rather to express the present contrary to fact E.g - Henry would rather that Jane worked in the same department as he does

(but Jane doesn’t work in the same department)

1.2.2.3 Past perfect subjunctive mood

The verb to be in the past perfect subjunctive mood has form had been for all persons singular and plural When the V is different from be, it has the form the past perfect indefinite of indicative mood (had + PII) The subordinate

clause, if any, in such sentences must also be expressed with verb in the past perfect tenses

The past perfect subjunctive expresses the unreal past event It can be considered the past form of the past subjunctive mood which was explained in the previous subsection It is certain that the event was not occurred It often co-

occur with if clause

a In the third condition

In sentences of unreal condition referring to the past perfect of the indicative mood is used in the subordinate clauses; in the principal clause we find the analytical subjunctive consisting of the mood auxiliary should (with the first person) or would (with the second person) and the perfect infinitive It has

form:

[If past perfect tense, S + should/would + have PII]

E.g - If I had known you were in hospital, I would have visited you

of unreal condition referring to the past and the consequence referring to the present or the future It has form:

E.g - The plane I intended to catch crashed and everyone was killed If I had caught that plane, I would be dead now

b The past perfect subjunctive mood expresses an unreal fact or unreal event in the past

It can be considered that past form of the past subjunctive mood It is used

in adverbial clauses of concession with conjunctions and connectives: though,

although, however, no matter, whatever, whoever…

The analytical subjunctive with the mood auxiliary may/might The action

of the subordinate clause is prior to that of the principal clause, the perfect infinitive (may have + PII) is generally used

E.g - However badly he may have behaved to you, he is still your father

It is also used in adverbial of comparison (or manner) introduced by the

conjunctions as if/ as though to indicate the action in the past If the action of the

subordinate clause is prior to that of the principal clause, the past perfect (had + PII) of the indicative mood is used

E.g

- She spoke about him as if she had known him for many years

In object clauses, the past perfect subjunctive is used when the predicate

of the principal clause is expressed by “wish”/“If only” It refers to an unreal past If the action expressed in the object clause is prior to that of the principal

clause, the past perfect of the Indicative mood (had + PII) is used

E.g - I wish John had come on time

- If only my friend had learned by heart the lesson

1.3 Passive forms of subjunctive mood

The passive voice tenses discussed so far have all been in the Indicative mood However, verbs in the passive voice can also be put into the subjunctive mood It has been seen that all of the tenses in the passive voice are formed using auxiliaries As has already been explained, the subjunctive mood of tenses using auxiliaries is formed by putting the first auxiliary into the subjunctive mood

The normal form passive subjunctive: [Auxiliary + Past Participle]

The following table summarizes the formation of the subjunctive tenses of the passive voice:

The formation of the subjunctive mood of the passive voice

were being had been had been being

past participle past participle past participle past participle past participle past participle past participle past participle

1.3.1 Use of the present forms of the subjunctive mood

Like the present subjunctive of the active voice, the present subjunctive of the passive voice is often used in subordinate clause beginning with that in

sentences which contain formal commands, or requests As can be seen from the

table above, the present subjunctive of the passive voice is formed from the invariable auxiliary be, followed by the past participle of the verb The following

sentences are examples of the use of the present subjunctive of the passive voice

E.g - We asked that our suggestions be considered

- They will insist that their colleague be admitted to the association

1.3.2 Use of the past forms of the subjunctive mood

Like the past forms of the subjunctive of the active voice, the past forms

of the subjunctive of the passive voice are used in wishes, and in statements

containing false or improbable conditions

E.g - I wish he were allowed to come

- It would have been better if they had been invited

In the first example, the past subjunctive of the passive voice is used in expressing a wish In the second example, the Past Perfect subjunctive of the passive voice is used in expressing the false condition

The past subjunctive mood of the Passive Voice has the form of the past tense of the passive voice “were/was + PII” but in the past subjunctive, the form

“was” is not used, we just only use the form “were” for all persons

the past perfect tense of the passive voice: [S + had been + Past participle] It

indicates the unreal event in the past or false condition

1.4 Error analysis and error correction

According to Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

(1992) a learner makes a mistake when writing or speaking because of lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspects of performance Mistakes

can be self-corrected when attention is called Whereas, an error is the use of linguistic item in a way that a fluent or native speaker of the language regards it

as showing faulty or incomplete learning In other words, it occurs because the learner does not know what is correct, and thus it cannot be self-corrected

It is inevitable that learners make errors in the process of foreign language learning However, what is questioned by language teachers is why students go

on making the same errors even when such errors have been repeatedly pointed out to them Yet not all mistakes are the same; sometimes they seem to be deeply ingrained, but at other times, students correct themselves with ease Thus, we –language teachers - came to realize that the errors a person made in the process

of constructing a new system of language is needed to be analyzed carefully Error analysis will give benefits in three ways: (1) language errors made by the learners can be a good input for teachers on how far the learners get progress and what areas need to be improved (2) the errors can be an evidence for us on how

to learn a language and what kind of strategy to learn it (3) the errors found out can be used as feedback for the learners After finding out the language errors made by the learners, we need to think about what to do next to overcome the problems Error correction is as important as identification and description of them

Error analysis and error correction will be the two main tasks through this study on errors of subjunctive mood made by English majors and non-English majors in Hai Phong Private University

CHAPTER 2: SOME ERRORS OF SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD MADE BY NON-MAJOR STUDENTS IN HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY 2.1 The current situation of subjunctive mood teaching and learning for students in universities

Curricula for non-English majors require that subjunctive mood teaching should be arranged as part of the program As one of the required parts, subjunctive has been taught to English majors in universities and colleges for years It is known that “One of the most confusing aspects of English for the learners” Especially, the English subjunctive, involving a backshifting of tense and mood, are challenging for Vietnamese learners

Guaranteeing the accuracy of the sentences mainly depends on the learner‟s mastery of grammar Subjunctive mood, which is sometimes an indispensable part of a language, is so important that the teachers and students have always attached great importance to subjunctive mood teaching and learning For the above - mentioned reasons, how to make subjunctive mood teaching and learning effective and efficient is an important task for both English teachers and researchers To find out those things, we must start from the errors which are made by learners, then have suitable solutions for those situations

2.2 Method

2.2.1 Participants

One first year university English major class and one non-major English class of Hai Phong private university participated in the current study All participants (N =90) were native speakers of Vietnamese Those intermediate level learners had had instructions on the subjunctive Thus, these learners

appear to have been at a similar instructional stage Although no claims can be made about the subjunctive instruction participants had received in high school,

in this university language program, subjunctive instruction begins as early as the second semester In this course, participants had already been instructed on the subjunctive in evaluative statements, adverbial clauses, adjectival clauses and noun clauses of desire and influence and on the imperfect subjunctive in „if‟ clauses Forty were female and sixty were male and their undergraduate majors included business, social, sciences Their ages ranged from 18 to 22 years, with an average age of 19.1 years

2.2.2 Instruments

The materials for this study are divided into two parts:

1) Questionnaire of grammar theory: The questionnaires included fifteen sentences in the forms of multiple choice question consisting of three option (A,B,C) but just one of them is right All of these questions are involved in grammatical constituents needed to be identified The participants must complete grammaticality judgment task in which they have to provide correct grammar theory

2) A test of grammatical competence in the subjunctive, which is divided into four different exercises: I) Underline the correct parts + II) Choose the best answers + III) Fill into the blank + IV) Complete the sentences

2.2.3 Procedures

After getting permission from the Head of Foreign Language Department and the main lecturers, the researcher visited those two classes personally and asked for volunteers to complete the test during class time Students were told that the aim of the study was to find out some usual errors the students made and

suggest some suitable solutions to those problems

The first session, the teachers administered the demographical information questionnaire and the questionnaires of grammar theory It took forty minutes to finish this interview part The questionnaire was administered to ensure that students had a certain amount of knowledge of subjunctive and how much they understand about this grammatical problem They will get one point for each correct answer of all fifteen questions In the next session, the grammar test of subjunctive was administered The students had only forty-five minutes to complete that test with four exercises which included fifty sentences To score the test, each correct answer was given 0.2 point

2.3 Results

In order to reveal the problems in using subjunctive mood of students, ninety intermediate-level students of Hai Phong Private University are participants in current research To understand the variables in this study, descriptive statistics analyses were carried out Table 1 through Table 3 displayed typical errors in using subjunctive mood

The result of the statistic analysis were presented in this section to inform the problems with English subjunctive mood The questionnaires and grammar tests were computed for means and standard deviation in order to reveal the errors usages perceived by Vietnamese students at Hai Phong Private University

In each table, we can see the name of typical errors made by students Furthermore, the results are compared between two groups of students: English Majors and non-English majors The data were coded with percentage (%) with two criteria “Correct” and “Incorrect”

Table 1: Typical errors made by English major and non-English major (N=90)

As indicated on table 1, it shows that most of two errors that the students often meet were recognizing the subjunctive mood and using Verb form It can

be seen clearly that 68% Non-English majors make mistakes in recognizing the subjunctive mood Only 32% of them are good at this field Maybe, the lack of practice and knowledge leads to this situation If they can‟t recognize correctly the subjunctive part, it is really difficult for them to choose the correct Verb forms Contrary to this group, almost 95% English major students gave right answers except for a small number of students (5%) But for the errors in using Verb forms, the number of correct students decreased clearly There is 51% for English major Students and 26% for Non-English major students

Correct(%) Incorrect(%) Correct(%) Incorrect(%)

In some certain

Table 2: Errors of using Verb form in the present subjunctive

In Table 2 and 3, we will see more particularly two main error types in using Verb form They are found out in the present subjuntive and past subjunctive The consequence is no longer satisfactory as the table 1 above The data show that the number of non-English majors (68% and 93%) making mistakes is bigger than the number of English majors (24% and 38%) And the errors in the present subjunctive are classified into two types: In some certain fixed expressions and in some object class

We can see more kinds of mistakes that students often make in the past subjunctive in Table 3

Types of errors

Correct (%)

Incorrect (%)

Correct (%)

Incorrect (%)

In clause beginning with “If

In clauses with conjunctions

Table 3: Errors of using Verb form in the past subjunctive

In particular, those errors are found in the second type conditional, in clause beginning with “If only” and “Only if”, in clause with conjunctions “as if,

as though” and in clause after “would rather” The rate of wrong use in the

second type conditional ranks at the highest level (48% of English majors and

90% of non-English majors) The second position belongs to error in clause

beginning with “If only” and “Only if” And the two others have approximately similar pecentages

The results will now be discussed in relation to the research questions First, both participant groups completed the subjunctive written test, but the English major students did this test significantly more than the non-English major ones The data revealing that participants in English major class made fewer mistakes than the non-English majors suggested that these learners have the linguistic ability to complete exercises

More importantly, the data showed that the common grammatical errors appeared in the present subjunctive and in the past subjunctive It proved that our students are getting troublesome in distinguishing subjunctive mood with the other moods and especially, in selecting correct verb form in subjunctive sentences Those results are predictable These problems will be discussed clearly in the next part “Findings and Recommendations”

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In this chapter, the detailed results will be discussed clearly to supply readers with answers to the two main questions for this study:

1 What are the typical errors that the first-year English majors and English majors often make during their study at Hai Phong Private University?

3.1 Findings

3.1.1 Recognition of subjunctive mood

Question

No

Table 4: Results from the Questionnaires

As can be seen from the table above, none of those students finish the questionnaire with 100% correct answers At least, there is one student get one wrong answer (question no.2: 95% correct and 5% incorrect) and almost the students didn‟t get correct answer with question number: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and

13 Those questions focus much on the distinctions between present subjunctive and past subjunctive–2 main types of Subjunctive mood And the other questions like 1, 2, 3, 4, 15 are some general definitions of Mood and Subjunctive Mood, but they still made mistakes with 10%, 20%, 30% respectively

According to the results of my survey questions about twenty students‟ English subjunctive acknowledgement, it is proved that they are still unclear about neither definitions nor kinds of subjunctive mood Some typical reasons for that can be found in the following table:

students

Percentage (%)

Table 5: Typical reasons for students’ errors in survey questions

Most of them are at the intermediate level of study and they have ever studied this grammar aspect at least once at highschool, so no one doesn‟t know this But, sometimes the students didn‟t practice on this grammar as usual as