An Investigation into common written errors committed by first year students at Nghe An Economics and Technology College = Khảo sát lỗi viết sinh viên năm thứ n

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---NGỤY VÂN THÙY AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON WRITTEN ERRORS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-NGỤY VÂN THÙY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON WRITTEN

ERRORS COMMITTED BY FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT NGHE AN ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

Khảo sát lỗi viết sinh viên năm thứ nhất trường cao đẳng

Kinh tế – Kỹ thuật Nghệ An thường mắc phải

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGỤY VÂN THÙY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON WRITTEN ERRORS COMMITTED BY FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT NGHE AN

ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

Khảo sát lỗi viết sinh viên năm thứ nhất trường cao đẳng

Kinh tế – Kỹ thuật Nghệ An thường mắc phải

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Phạm Thị Hạnh, M.A

HANOI - 2010

1.5.2.3 Incomplete application of rules 11

Chapter II: Research Method 16

2.3.1 Context of teaching and learning at NgheAn Economics and

3.2.2.3 Ignorance of rule restrictions: 32 3.2.2.4 Incomplete application of rules: 33

Chapter IV: Pedagogical Implications and recommendations 35

4.1.2 Implications for syllabus designers 35

List of Abbreviations

EA: Error Analysis

L1: The first language

L2: The second language

List of tables

Table 1: Collected data about errors made by students in their free writings 21 Table 2: Collected data about errors made by students in their final writing tests 22 Table 3: Comparative data about errors made by students 22 Table 4: Frequency of each types of errors 23

Part A: Introduction

1 Rationale of the study

English has recently been used in many fields of life in Vietnam It has entered into politics, economics, tourism, electronics, telecommunication, culture and science and technology It is not only a means but also a key to accessing the latest achievements of science and technology Further more, it‟s English that brings Vietnam closer to many other countries in the World Therefore, it is necessary for many Vietnamese to have a good command of English to satisfy the growing needs in a developing country like Vietnam

Learning a language is a lifelong process And whenever a language is learnt or acquired, one is faced with the problem of errors As a famous saying goes “to err is human” In the process of language development, this is also the case When the utterances produced by learners are examined and compared with the target language norm, they are often found to be full of errors Errors are an inevitable feature of learning process

As it is known in 1950s, behaviourist learning theory described language learning as habit formation and explained why learners made errors According to based language teaching, old habits hinder or facilitate forming new habits That is why errors are unwanted Since the errors were result of non-learning rather than wrong learning, there was a danger of errors becoming habits if they were tolerated, so like sin, error should be avoided However, in recent years, many experts on Communicative language teaching have emphasized the significance of EFL/ESL learners‟ errors which have been considered

as “a way of learning” (Olsson,1974), as “strategy the learner uses in order to learn” (Corder,1981), as “a natural and unavoidable part” of their language learning process (Doff, 1988), and as the learners‟ “learning steps” (Edge,1989) Nunan (2001) believed that “linguists and educators began studying the specific language learners used as they attempted to communicate in the target language” and that “errors were seen not as evidence of pathology on the part of learners, but as normal and healthy part of learning process ”.They are not problems to be overcome or evils to be eradicated They, in fact, are part of learning and reveal the strategies that learners use to learn a language They provide valuable insight into the language learning process

Being a teacher of English at Nghe An Economics and Technology college for five years, I have marked many students‟ final written tests I found that, students made a lot of mistakes and errors in their writings The errors they have made were grammatical errors, vocabulary errors, semantics errors, or errors of coherence and cohesion ect… As teachers, how should we treat those errors? how to make their writing better? Having realized the significance of focusing on learners‟ errors in learning and teaching a language, I do this research to investigate into the most common errors committed in the process of foreign language acquisition by first year students at Nghe An Economics and Technology college

to find and draw out the best possible solutions to solve the problems mentioned above This research attempts to overview the background theories of learners‟ errors analysis, investigate and find out the causes of those errors More importantly, this study tries to give some suggestions on how to treat students‟ errors in the process of foreign language acquisition

2 Aims of the study

This study tries to:

- investigate the errors made by first year students of Nghe An Economics and Technology college in their written work

- identify and classify the errors into various categorizations

- draw out the most common errors that committed by first year students of Nghe An Economics and Technology college in their written work; and

- recommend methods of treating errors for teachers and students of English at Nghe An Economics and Technology college

3 Scope of the study

Learning a foreign language is a step by step process, during which errors or mistakes are to be expected These errors and mistakes are now considered a part of language learning process Therefore, instead of seeing errors negatively as a sign of failure, we can see them positively as an indication of what still needs teaching However, due to the limitation of time, and more importantly, the requirements of academic thesis, this study could not cover all types of errors of all four language skills I just focus on the analysis of written errors, especially the grammatical errors which are committed by first year students

at Nghe An Economics and Technology college under the study of their writings, thereby

making some pedagogical suggestions for error treatment that I believe may be appropriate

to the context of Nghe An Economics and Technology college

2 What are the main sources of those errors?

5 Structure of the study

The study was structured into 3 main parts

Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope and the structure of the study are presented

Part B is the development of the study in which 3 three chapters are presented Chapter I consists of the literature review in which various perspectives on error and error analysis which have been documented in the literature are reviewed to provide a theoretical background of the study Chapter II is about the research methods in which the research questions, research approach, research instrument, data collection, participants and context

of the study and procedure of investigation are given Chapter III is about findings and discussion Some pedagogical implications and recommendation are included in chapter IV

of this part

Part C is the conclusions which deal with the main summary of the study Limitations and suggestions for further study are presented in this part as well

Part B: Development

This chapter, Literature Review, will present the previous studies related to the errors analysis in the context of second language teaching The pertinent literature will be reviewed and analyzed with the intention of providing a theoretical foundation to the current study The literature review will initially look at the terms concerned in the study

It will then concentrate on the issues related to errors analysis in second language acquisition Classification and sources of errors are two main issues which will be carefully discussed in the review Finally, a summary of the chapter will conclude the literature review

In fact, there are some acts of writing which can be used as the basis for conceiving the meaning of writing Those acts of writing are in line with the development of learning

to write through which a student should pass

Writing involves more than just producing words and sentences To be able to produce a piece of writing, we should be able to write a connected series of words and sentences which are grammatically and logically linked, so that the purpose we have in our mind will suit the intended readers In this way, it is meant that the style of language used

in a piece of writing designed for layman and people living in the village, for example, should be different from the one designed for educated people such as students, teachers, doctors, professors, etc Therefore, in presenting a piece of discourse we should consider the correctness of form, the appropriateness of style, and the unity of topic (Harmer, 2004)

Just like speaking, writing is a way of communicating a message with an intended audience It is a means of expressing thoughts, ideas, and feelings By writing we may flow out a burden occupying our mind offer our ideas and concepts to others, and share our knowledge and experiences

Writing as one of the four language skills, in real world contexts, is not a solitary enterprise It has a relation with grammar, reading, listening, and speaking Most students find foreign language writing is difficult; they will rarely need to write in adult life, so they will decrease the amount of writing Rivers as quoted by Swarbick (1994: 142) describes five stages of development which students need to go through in acquiring competence in writing, i.e.: copying, reproduction, recombination, guided writing, and free writing

In short, writing is the most complex skill to show the relationship of ideas which needs the willingness to write and some practices done step by step to pass on knowledge

or messages So, writing is one way to speak what is on our mind It involves more than just producing words and sentences To produce a piece of writing, we should be able to write a connected series of words and sentences which are grammatically and logically linked

1.2 Paragraph

According to Hornby (1989:895), paragraph is distinct section of a written or printed text, usually consisting of several sentences dealing with a single theme and starting on a new line In tone with it, Tidyman (1987:10) says that a paragraph is a group

of sentences that develop a point on an idea Further he explains that the important feature

of paragraph is that it has unity when all of its sentences are related to the main point So, a paragraph is a group of sentences dealing with a single theme that develop the main point

on an idea

The form of paragraph can be written into 12 kinds of genre Those genres are recount, report, discussion, explanation, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, news item, anecdote, narrative, procedure, description, and review Each of them has different social function and characteristics

1.3 Errors and Mistakes

Making errors is the most natural thing in the world and it is evidently attached to the human being But, how do we define error? A number of experts in linguistics have presented various definitions of error Among them, Norrish (1987) considers error a systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong Cunning Worth (1987) defines error as systematic deviations from the norms of language being learned It seems that the phrase “systematic deviation” in these two definitions is a key word which can be interpreted as the deviation which happens

repeatedly Chaudron (1986) reviews error as (1) “linguistic forms or content that differed from native speaker norms or facts, and (2) any other behaviour signaled by the teacher as needing improvement” George (1972) defines error as “an unwanted form, specifically, a form which a particular course designer or teacher does not want” Johansson (1975) believes that “If native speakers hesitate about the acceptability of a word or construction it should not be considered an error” However, it is necessary to differentiate between error and mistake Corder introduced the distinction between systematic and non-systematic errors Unsystematic errors occur in one‟s native language; Corder calls these "mistakes" and states that they are not significant to the process of language learning He keeps the term "errors" for the systematic ones, which occur in a second language According to him, errors are typically produced by people who do not yet fully command some institutionalized language system (Corder, 1974: 29) A mistake is also a deviation of the norms of the language but is not systematic It means that the use of the norm of the language in the sentences is sometimes right and sometimes wrong Norrish (1983) says that a mistake is an inconsistent deviation that is sometimes the learner „gets it right‟ but sometimes wrong Richards et.al (1985) states that mistake is made by a learner when writing or speaking which is caused by the lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or other aspects of performance

From the linguists‟ opinion above, it can be concluded that a mistake is a non systematic deviation from the norms of language A mistake refers to the failures to use the language system correctly caused by some factors such as carelessness, memory lapses, and physical condition while error refers to the failure to use the system correctly caused

by the lack of the learners‟ competence, ignorance of appropriate rule and interference of the learners‟ mother tongue and the general characteristics of the rule learning

Error is a complicated concept by nature However, for the purpose of this research,

I adopt the definitions by Norrish and Cunning Worth because these two definitions are adequate to reveal the errors showing up in the written texts

1.4 Classification of errors

When a learner develops his second or foreign language system, he makes errors

In first language learning, these errors are “lapses” or “slips of the tongue” due to physical

or psychological reasons (Brown, 1980) However, in second language and foreign

language learning, these errors are reviewed carefully Corder (1973) introduces the distinction between systematic and non-systematic errors Non-systematic errors occur in one‟s native language, Corder calls these "mistakes" and states that they are not significant

to the process of language learning They can be self-corrected when attention is called He keeps the term "errors" for the systematic ones, which occur in a second language He believes that errors are the evidence of the language system that the learner is using at a particular point in the course Corder (1973) refers to three types of errors These are : 1) transfer errors; 2) analogical errors and 3) teaching-induced errors Chomsky classifies learners‟ errors into: 1) performance error and 2) competence error Competence is the

„speaker-hearer‟s knowledge of his language‟, while performance is the actual use of language in concrete situations Heaton (1998) and Littlewood (1984) divide errors into two main types: global and local errors Richard (1974) and some other researchers distinguish between interlingual errors and intralingual errors

Obviously, errors are classified differently according to perspectives On the whole, the most popular classification of written errors that earns scholars' consensus prevailingly

is the division of errors into interlingual errors and intralingual errors Because, two major factors that contributed to the presence of errors in students‟ written work are interlingual transfer and intralingual transfer The elaboration of these categories is illustrated as below:

1.4.1 Interlingual Errors

According to Brown (1980:173) the beginning stages of learning a second language are characterized by a good deal of interlingual transfer from the native language Richard (1974:35) says that interlingual errors are errors due to transferring rules from the mother tongue They are the incorrect elements under the influence of learners' native language Therefore, interlingual errors are errors which are caused by interference from native language to the target language they learn So, before someone really master the concept of their target language they will always use the concept of their native language When it happens all the time and they do not realize it, it can be called interlingual errors

Obviously, the understanding of intralingual and interlingual error enables teacher

to perceive language teaching form a two-way perspective, which is different from traditional teaching which only emphasizes target language This classification could help

the teacher deal with the relationship between L1 and L2 in teaching practice, to trace the origin of errors, and to decide what language points need more attention

1.4.2 Intralingual Errors

After learning second language or foreign language for some time, learners‟ previous experience and their existing subsumes begin to include structures within the target language itself According to James (1998:183), the less the learner knows about the target language, the more he is forced to draw upon any other prior knowledge he possesses While Brown (1980:173) says that it is clear that intralingual errors or intralingual interference-the negative transfer of items within the target language, or put another way, the incorrect generalization of rules within the target language is a major factor in second language learning Intralingual errors refer to those out of the influence within the developmental system of target language, such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules, and so on (Ellis, 1999:58)

1.5 Sources of errors

We all know that errors are unavoidable in language learning process These errors occur because of many reasons By identifying the sources of error, the teacher begins to know how learner‟s cognitive and affective self relates to the linguistic system and also to formulate his process of learning a foreign language

However, it is by no means easy to identify the actual sources of written errors in the field of English Language Teaching Different classifications of errors provide us with different perspectives to analyze the causes of errors Brown (1980:156) states that errors are caused by the lack of knowledge about the target language Edge (1989:7) claims that the source of learner‟s errors is the interference from the speaker‟s first language In tone with it, Richards (1974:174) says that the source of errors in studying a language might be derived from the interference of the learners‟ mother tongue and the general characteristics

of the rule learning

In summary, errors can be ascribed to many factors Some of learners' errors are due

to learners' language competence, some due to cultural interference; some are results of learners' learning strategies, while others are the products of communicative strategies; some are classroom induced errors, while others are the results of individual variables , and

so on Diverse as these viewpoints are, there should be an intersection among different schools of thoughts or a clear-cut justification among them so that these causes are figured

out and proper error correction is offered In general, the very causes of written errors can

Undoubtedly, differences and similarities between L1 and L2 will affect the learning of the target language greatly The consideration of the contrast and comparison between the two languages will for sure contribute to the analysis of learner' errors The differences between Vietnamese and English are manifested in pronunciation, grammatical rules, lexical meaning, and word order is considered another factor of the interlingual interference as well

1.5.2 Intralingual Interference

Interferences from the students‟ own language is not the only reason for committing errors During the process of analyzing the causes of errors, a large number of errors are found to be the result of intralingual interference within the target language As soon as the learner has begun to acquire some parts of the new language system, more and more intralingual interference will occur The errors from intralingual interference normally follow a natural route As the learner progresses in the second language, his

previous experience and his existing knowledge begin to permeate for producing new progress, at the same time arousing new errors Intralingual interference is the negative transfer of items within the target language such as the overgeneralization, the wrong application of rules and results in false conceptualization on the part of the learner (Richards 1974:96)

According to James (1998), intralingual errors can be divided into 4 items:

1.5.2.1 Overgeneralization

Another possible cause of written errors to be mentioned is overgeneralization It occurs when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other structures in the target language It generally involves the creation of one deviant structure in place of two target language structures Consequently, students automatically apply rules wherein they are not allowed to For example:

She will cries aloud

He can speaks English well

We are hope to see you

In the examples, the learners overgeneralize that the simple present tense „s‟ ending

is required by the third person singular Whereas, the form of English sentences are not fully the same as they expect In addition, they may reduce their linguistic burden To know their mistakes in constructing sentences, I give the correct sentences as follows:

She will cry aloud

He can speak English well

We hope to see you

1.5.2.2 Ignorance of rule restriction

This types of errors involves the application of rules to contexts where the learner does not apply Here the learner fails to observe the restrictions of existing structures For example:

He asked to me about my family

She told to me her big problem yesterday

He showed to me his new cars

In this case, they should reduce „to‟ in the sentence “He asked to me” because he applied the same preposition to different verbs The following sentences are the correct forms of the sentences above:

He asked me about my family

She told me her big problem yesterday

She showed me his new cars

1.5.2.3 Incomplete application of rules

This kind of intralingual error is converse of overgeneralization and represents the degree of development of the rule required to produce acceptable sentences It is typically related to analogy It involves a failure to fully develop a structure Thus learners of L2 English have been observed to use declarative word order in questions (for example, “You like to sing?”) in place of interrogative word order (for example, “Do you like to sing?”) This type of intralingual error corresponds to what is often referred to as an error of transitional competence (Richards, 1971)

1.5.2.4 False concepts hypothesized

The last category of intralanguage error, that is sometimes called semantic error is false concepts hypothesized It derives from incorrect comprehending of distinction in the target language These particular errors are the result of poor gradation of teaching items The form „was‟ for example, may be interpreted as the marker of the past tense, as in “one day it was happened”

1.6 Error analysis

It is to S.P Corder that Error Analysis (EA) owes its place as a scientific method in linguistics As Rod Ellis cites (p 48), "it was not until the 1970s that EA became a recognized part of applied linguistics, a development that owed much to the work of Corder" According to James (1998:7) error analysis is a methodology for dealing with data rather than a theory of acquisition The data can be taken by conducting a test with the students as the respondents Further he (James 1998:1) says that the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes, and consequences of unsuccessful language learning While Brown (1980:166) states that error analysis is the fact that learner do make errors and that these errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system operating within the learners The purpose is to show some problems faced by the students

It is a key to understand the process of foreign language acquisition

Richards et.al (1985:96) states that error analysis is the study of errors made by the second and foreign language learners Error analysis may be carried out in order to (a) find out how well someone knows a language, (b) find out how a person learns a language, and (c) obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid in teaching or

in the preparation of teaching materials This definition stresses the functions of error analysis

Another concept of error analysis is given by Crystal (1987:112) He considers error analysis a technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics

From those explanations it can be concluded that error analysis is a methodology for dealing with data which can be observed, analyzed and classified to reveal or determine the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language learning within the learners In other words, error analysis is an activity to identify, classify and interpreted

or describe the errors made by someone in speaking or in writing and it is carried out to obtain information on common difficulties faced by someone in speaking or in writing English sentences

1.7 Significance of error analysis

Many scholars in the field of error analysis have stressed the significance of second language learners' errors According to Corder as cited by Richards (1974) noted that errors

“could be significant in three ways: (1) they provided the teacher with information about how much the learner had learnt By error analysis, teachers will get an overall knowledge about the students‟ errors Foreign language learning is a process of hypothesis and trial and error occurrence is inevitable So the teacher should learn to tolerate some errors, especially some local errors; (2) they provided the researcher with of evidence of how language was learnt Errors can tell the teacher how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and consequently, what remains for him or her to learn So students‟ errors are valuable feedbacks We can do some remedial teaching based on their errors; and (3) they served as devices by which the learner discovered the rules of the target language Errors are indispensable to the learners themselves, for we can regard the making of mistakes as a device the learner employs in order to learn

In conclusion, error analysis theory together with other theories have enriched the second language learning theory in that learning involves in a process in which success comes by profiting from mistakes and by using mistakes to obtain feedback from the environment With the feedback they make new attempts to achieve the more closely

approximate desired goals However, some errors need to be handled, otherwise, they will become fossilized

1.8 Error Frequency

High-frequency errors, has been suggested for language teachers when they respond

to written products (Allwright, 1975, Mings, 1993) Walz (1982) defines frequent errors as meaning those that are frequently committed by individual students and by many students

in a class, and they are normally produced on common features of grammar Thus, learning the right forms has more value for students than learning the right forms of minor errors Hendrickson (1980, p.161) claims that the examination to find out the frequently committed errors at various stage of SLA is necessary, because it could provide the information to build “hierarchies of language learning features” In fact, some researchers have found errors that are frequently produced by ESL learners As an illustration, the

following shows the most common errors made by ESL learners introduced by Dulay, et

al in 1982

(1) Omitting grammatical morphemes, which are items that do not

contribute much to the meaning of sentences, as in He hit car

(2) Double marking, a semantic feature (e.g past tense) when only one

marker is required, as in She didn’t went back

(3) Regularizing rules, as in womans for women

(4) Using archiforms – one form in place of several – such as the use of her

for both she and her, as in I see her yesterday Her dance with my

brother

(5) Using two or more forms in random alternation even though the

language requires the use of each only under certain conditions, as in the

random use of he and she regardless of the gender of the person of

interest

(6) Misordering items in constructions that require a reversal of word-order

rules that had been previously acquired, as in What you are doing?, or

misplacing items that may be correctly placed in more than one place in

the sentence, as in They are all the time late

(Extracted from Dulay et al., 1982, pp.138-139)

In Vann et al.‟s 1984 study that examined university faculty‟s opinion of ESL errors,

they chose the following as common ESL writing errors:

(Vann et al., 1984, p.431)

There is also a useful checklist developed by Robinett in 1972, which contains the frequent errors of ESL learners This checklist consists of 18 areas, and the types of frequent errors in each area are described in detail, so that the teachers can use them to evaluate compositions in a more objective way (for more detail, see Walz, 1982)

(Robinett, 1972, extracted fromWalz, 1982, p.35)

In addition to the above studies, Ferris and Roberts‟s (2001) recent article introduces the following five categories that represent the five most frequent errors found

by Chaney‟s analysis of learner errors in 1999

Description of Error Categories

including relevant subject-verb agreement errors

Noun ending errors Plural or possessive ending

incorrect, omitted, or unnecessary;

includes relevant subject-verb agreement errors

incorrect, omitted, or unnecessary

choice or word form, including preposition and pronoun errors

Spelling errors only included if the (apparent) misspelling resulted in

an actual English word

Sentence structure Errors in sentence/clause

boundaries (run-on, fragments, comma splices), word order, omitted words, or phrases, unnecessary words or phrases, other unidiomatic sentence construction

It‟s obvious that common ESL writing errors are identified and classified differently according to the reseachers‟ perspectives However, in order to achieve the study‟s objective of finding 5 most frequent errors made by students of Nghe An

Economics and Technology college, I have adapted the way Chaney (1999) analyzed

learner‟s errors This will be discussed carefully in chapter 4 of this current study

In summary, the literature relevant to the issue of learners‟ errors has been reviewed carefully by the researcher in this chapter Learner‟s error is a complicated issue which is viewed differently from different perspectives Due to the complexity of the question under discussion, I have adopted Norrish‟s and Cunning Worth‟s definition of errors as an operational definition for this study For the purpose of the study, the term error is used to refer to the linguistic deviants made within the learners‟ underlying system

Chapter II: Research method

In the previous chapter, some theoretical backgrounds related to the subject of the study have been thoroughly analyzed This chapter is covered with research questions, research methodology, participants and context of the study, research instruments and procedure of data collection in which introduced five steps of analyzing students‟ errors in their writings

2.1 Research questions

As stated in 1.4, I set the aim to seek answers to the following research questions:

1 What are the most common written errors committed by first year students at Nghe An Economics and Technology college?

2 What are the main sources of those errors?

2.2 Research method

In order to meet the aims set in this current study, the researcher has used the quantitative approach in which the data were obtained from the students‟ written work under the form of paragraphs These writings were then analyzed In analyzing these writings, the researcher has employed the method which Corder as quoted by Ellis (1994:48) suggests to conduct an error analysis research This method consists of five steps

3 Classification of errors Grouping the errors that have been found and stating

the classes of the errors

4 Explanation of errors Explaining the errors by establishing the source of

the errors and calculating how often the errors appear

5 Evaluation of errors Evaluating the errors step involves tabelizing the

errors and drawing conclusion

2.3 Context and participants of the study

2.3.1 Context of teaching and learning at Nghe An Economics and Technology college

In the context of Nghe An Economics and Technology college, English is a major but a compulsory subject with two sections: 75 periods for General English which is taught in the first year and another 75 periods for English for Specific Purposes which is taught in the second year New Headway Pre-intermediate has been used for General English This book consists of fourteen lessons and is designed for a development of four language skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking However, the limitation of the time and the pressures of the College English Test and the College English curriculum have prevented teachers from covering all language skills carefully Only speaking and reading are introduced and practised at the classroom Listening and writing are often practised at home by the students themselves

non-2.3.2 Participants and their background

The participants of the study are forty first-year students in the academic year of 2009

- 2010 who I took randomly as sample to my study They are from classes K5- 05, K5- 06, K5- 07, K5- 08 Business Accounting of Nghe An Economics and Technology college They are at elementary level and all major in Business Accounting

They all have studied English as a compulsory subject at high school for at least three years and they have passed the entrance examination to the college Therefore, they all know how to write a paragraph The age of the participants varies from 18 to 22 Four

of them were male They come from different parts of the province Some of them are from Vinh city and districts around the city And some of them are from rural or remote areas, where they have no good opportunities for studying English

The other participation in the research paper were 40 first-semester final writing tests which I was allowed to copy from the Training Department of Nghe An Economics and Technology college In order to get the allowance of copying those tests, the researcher had consulted with the Head of the Training Department about the needed samples and explained to him what the researcher was doing The samples were taken randomly as well There was no written work of the same students These samples were collected from official tests, so there is a low risk that students may copy down from the others, the