High school students’ errors in using English Articles as shown in their written exercises = Những lỗi trong việc sử dụng mạo từ Tiếng Anh trong các bài viết củ

MINOR THESIS High school students’ errors in using English Articles as shown in their written exercises Những lỗi trong việc sử dụng mạo từ Tiếng Anh trong các bài viết của học sinh

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

MAI THI NGAN M.A MINOR THESIS

High school students’ errors in using English Articles as

shown in their written exercises

Những lỗi trong việc sử dụng mạo từ Tiếng Anh trong các bài viết của học

sinh Trung học phổ thông

Field: Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Hanoi – 2011

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

MAI THỊ NGÂN M.A MINOR THESIS

High school students’ errors in using English Articles as

shown in their written exercises

(Những lỗi trong việc sử dụng mạo từ Tiếng Anh trong các bài tập viết của

học sinh Trung học phổ thông)

Field: Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm

Hanoi – 2011

ABSTRACT

In the process of learning English as a foreign language, Vietnamese high school students

do have to face a lot of problems English article is considered as one of the most troublesome problems for every learner because of its complex uses This MA minor thesis

is an attempt to point out some problems in using English articles of students in writing It

is hoped that the study would be useful for teachers and students in teaching and learning English at high schools

In order to achieve the goal, two data collection instruments were used including exercises and interviews While the exercises were designed to collect information reflecting real problems in using English articles, the interviews following that were developed to find out the problems in using articles and some possible causes as well

Results of the study show that Articles in English are complicated words which cause a lot

of difficulties for Vietnamese students Seven problems: substitution errors, indefinite article forms, deletion of the articles, problems in using indefinite article with marked and unmarked plurals, problems in using indefinite article with uncountable nouns, problems in covering the uses of definite articles and overusing articles were committed in the process

of learning and using Articles Besides, this research also found out that it is the interference of mother tongue, avoidance, overgeneralization and the conditions of learning / training that have great influence on students’ foreign-language learning

It is hoped that from this study, teachers and students would be more aware of the problems to be solved and from the identified problems, they would develop teaching and learning methods accordingly

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT……… ……….i

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… ii

LIST OF TABLES………iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… v

PART I: Introduction 1.1 Rationale……… 1

1.2 Aims of the study……… 2

1.3 Research question………… ……….………2

1.4 The scope of the study……… 2

1.5 Methods of the study……… 2

1.6 Organization of the study……… ……… 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 Basic concepts……….4

1.1.1 Articles in English……… 4

1.1.2 Classification of English articles ……… …… 4

1.1.2.1 Indefinite articles……… … ……… 4

1.1.2.2 Definite articles … 6

1.2.3 Articles in noun phrase………… ……… 8

1.3 Review of previous studies ……… … 8

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Research questions……… 13

2.2 Data collection instruments……… 13

2.2.1 Exercises……….……….13

2.2.2 Interviews……….……… 14

2.3 The participants……….14

2.4 Analytical framework………15

2.5 Data analysis……… 16

2.5.1 Uses of articles………16

2.5.2 Types of exercise……….20

2.5.3 Interviews………23

2.6 Discussion……… 23

PART III: Conclusions 3.1 Major findings ……… 28

3.2 Implications for teaching and learning English Articles……… 28

3.3 Limitations of the study……… 29

3.4 Suggestions for further studies……… 30

REFERENCES

Appendix 1……… .I

EXERCISES……….……… I

Appendix 2……… IV

STUDENT INTERVIEW………IV

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 1: The Uses of English Articles……… 14 Table 2: Results by the issues/ exercises……… 17 Table 3: Results by the types of exercises……… 20

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled:

High school students’ errors in using English Articles as shown in their written

exercises

is the result of my research for the Degree of Master of Art at College of Language and International Studies, Ha Noi National University, and the thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution

Signature:

Mai Thi Ngan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

who has given me much invaluable advice and careful instructions since the very beginning and has always been my frequent secure for many invaluable insights I am also grateful to her for reading and helping me make the necessary changes

I am indebted to all the lecturers of the Post-Graduate Department, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable teaching and assistance during my study at the College

I must in particular thank Assoc Prof Dr Le Hung Tien, the Head of the Post- Graduate Department, and the lecturer of Scientific Research for his useful and precious instructions during the course

My sincere thanks are due to the students and teachers at Thach Thanh High School No.3, Thanh Hoa, who have provided me with the valuable data

Finally, I am grateful my family and my friends for their great support and encouragement in the accomplishment of this study

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

English as native language or second language is the most widely used throughout the world Since English has become an effective means of international communication and it can be instrumental to personal and professional success, it has been the first choice of most Vietnamese learners of foreign languages But in the process of learning, Vietnamese learners do have to face a lot of problems English article is considered as one of the most troublesome problems for every learner because of its complex uses

The English articles “a(n), zero, the” are quite difficult to acquire not only for ESL / EFL

learners but also for children learning English as a first language Articles are believed to

be a source of difficulty for learners (and teachers) of English as a second / foreign language, especially for those whose native languages do not have articles English articles are hardly crucial communication devices, which are supported by the fact that they are dropped in telegraphic exchanges They are generally overlooked by learners when processing language primarily for meaning According to Pienemann (1998), the difficulty

of the meaning expressed by an article is determined by the novelty and abstractness of the concept, not to mention learners' changing hypotheses about article usage at different stages in interlanguage development and the potential influence of the native language which may further complicate the task

Articles do not impede understanding, for in oral communication, they are generally unstressed and almost inaudible Nevertheless, given the fact that they are among the most frequently used words in English (Master, 2002), it is significant that students have some control of their usages When you learn English articles, you are learning one of the easier components of this language But if you want to master articles, one of the first things you must perfect is your understanding of their nuances However, if the very concept of articles does not exist in your native language – as is true of many Asian countries including Vietnam, then it can be quite a daunting task to learn English articles and use

them appropriately Most Vietnamese learners defined that the definite (the) and indefinite (a, an) are presented and the different cases where they are applicable But many of them

can’t explain why is it correct to say "a horn" and not "an horn"; but "an hour" and not "a

hour"; "a unit" and not "an unit"; but “an utterance” and not “a utterance” They even

have difficulties in explaining a / the before “dentist” in two following sentences I don’t

like going to the dentist and A dentist is a person who checks your teeth Or there are

instances where no article must precede a noun, and fixing an article before it can change

the meaning , which confuses students as well For example, "Clothes are expensive" implies that all clothes in general are expensive, but "The clothes are expensive" implies

that only the clothes that one is talking about are expensive …

These questions remain quite problematic for Vietnamese students Therefore, it is necessary to carry out this research about problems in using English Articles of students at High Schools.Hopefully, this study may be of some help to those who are interested in the topic

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aims at identifying problems in using English articles in writing by students of Thach Thanh High School No 3 and suggesting some possible solutions to overcome the problems

1.3 Research question

The study was set up to answer the following question:

What problems in using English Articles do students of Thach Thanh High School No.3 usually encounter in their writing?

1.4 The scope of the study

The reseach will be studied to find out the problems in using both indefinite and definite articles in writing sentences by students of Thach Thanh High School No.3

The exercises used in this study were taken from the textbook “Tieng Anh 11 and Tieng

Anh 12 - chuong trinh co ban” and the basic grammar books in which the examples

involved have been examined, described and classified for pedagogical purpose

1.5 Methods of the study

In order to identify what problems high school students have in using English Articles in their writings, Quirk’s framework was used to the descriptive statistics for data analysis

1.6 Organization of the study

The study consists of three main parts Part one, Introduction, includes the rationale, the aims, the scope, the research question, the methodology and the organization of the study Part two includes two chapters Chapter one provides the theoretical background on English Articles A comparison between the definite article and indefinite articles is also given in this chapter and review of previous studies on using English Articles by learners

of English Chapter two discusses the data collection instrument, the participants, the analytical framework and the data analysis including results from the survey exercises and interviews Besides, some discussions about the results can also be found in this chapter Part three presents the conclusions of the major findings, the implications for learning and teaching English articles, and suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical background of the research in general It is divided into two main sections Section 1.1 discusses some basic concepts of English articles via the definition, classification and usage system of English articles A minor comparison between the definite article and indefinite articles is also given in this chapter Section 1.2 discusses some previous studies on using English articles by learners

of English

1.1 Basic concepts

This section begins with a brief overview of articles in English (1.1.1) The classification including form, uses and omission for each article used in the study are discussed (1.1.2) It then followed by a brief summary of articles in noun phrases (1.1.3)

1.1.1 Articles in English

According to Erichsen (2005), English articles are somewhat arbitrarily defined as a small group of determiners that are placed before nouns Articles standing alone have little meaning; when used with a noun they can indicate whether the noun refers to a specific

one or ones of its type or whether it refers to its type in general It means that the English article is the part of speech used to indicate and specify nouns

To clarify the definition above, classification and usage system of English articles are considered in the following section

1.1.2 Classification of English articles

There are two types of English Articles They are indefinite and definite articles:

1.1.2.1 Indefinite articles

a Form: A - An

A is used before a word beginning with a consonant, or a vowel with a consonant sound:

a European a one-way street

An is used before words beginning with a vowel(a, e, i, o, u) or words beginning with a mute h

E.g an apple an island an uncle an egg an hour an onion

- Or individual letters spoken with a vowel sound

- A / An is the same for all genders

E.g a man a woman an actor an actress a table …

b Uses of A / An

- Before a singular noun which is countable (i.e of which there is more than one) when it

is mentioned for the first time and represents no particular person or thing

E.g They live in a flat He bought an ice-cream

- Before a singular countable noun which is used as an example of a class of things:

E.g A car must be insured (= All cars / Any car must be insured.)

- With a noun complement This includes names of professions:

E.g She’ll be a dancer

- In certain expressions of quantity:

E.g a lot of a great many a great deal of a couple a dozen

- With certain numbers:

E.g a hundred a thousand a half kilo of…

- In expressions of price, speed, ratio…

E.g four times a day sixty kilometers an hour …

- In exclamations before singular, countable nouns:

E.g Such a long queue! What a pretty girl!

c Omission of A / An

A / An is omitted:

- Before plural nouns A / An has no plural form So the plural of “a dog” is “dogs”, and

“an egg” is “eggs”

- Before uncountable nouns

- Before names of meals, except when these are preceded by an adjective:

E.g We have breakfast at eight But He gave us a good breakfast

1.1.2.2 Definite articles:

a Form: The

The is the same for singular and plural and for all genders:

the boys the girls the days …

b Uses of The

- When the object or group of objects is unique or considered to be unique:

- Before a noun which has become definite as a result of being mentioned a second time

E.g His car truct a tree; you can still see the mark on the tree

- Before a noun made definite by the addition of a phrase or clause:

E.g The girl in blue The man with the banner

The boy that I met The place where I meet him

- Before a noun which by reason of locality can represent only one particular thing:

E.g Ann is in the garden (the garden of this house)

Please pass the wine, please (the wine on the table)

- Before superlative and first, second… used as adjectives or pronouns, and only:

E.g The first week the best day the only way the second part

- Before certain proper names of seas, rivers, group of islands, chains of mountains, plural names of countries, deserts, regions:

E.g The Atlantic The Netherlands The Thames The Sahara

The Azores The Alps The Strand The Sudan

- Before other proper names consisting of adjective + noun or noun + of + noun:

E.g The National gallery The Tower of London

- The + singular noun can represent a class of animals or things:

E.g The whale is in danger of becoming extinct

The can be used before a member of a certain group of people:

E.g The small shopkeeper is finding life increasingly difficult

- The + adjective represents a class of persons

E.g The old = old people in general The rich = rich people in general

- The with names of people has a very limited use The + plural surname can be used to

mean ‘the… family’ E.g The Smiths = Mr and Mrs Smiths (and children)

c Omission of The

The definite article (the) is not used:

- Before names of people

- Before abstract nouns except when they are used in a particular sense

E.g Men fear death (But: The death of Prime Minister left his party without a leader.)

- After a noun in the possessive case, or a possessive adjective

E.g The boy’s uncle = the uncle of the boy

It’s my (blue) book = the (blue) book is mine

- Before names of meals

E.g The Scots have porridge for breakfast

(But: The wedding breakfast was held in her family’s house.)

- Before names of games

E.g He plays gold

1.1.3 Articles in Noun Phrase

Singular count nouns in English always follow one of the articles "a, an, the", while count nouns require the "zero" article or a definite article "the" Quirk and Greenbaum

non-(1973) set up two different systems of article use depending on the type of reference:

Ink

With definite specific reference, the definite article is used for all noun classes:

E.g Where is the pen I bought? Where are the pens I bought?

Where is the ink I bought?

With indefinite specific reference, singular count nouns take the indefinite article a(n), while non-count and plural count nouns take zero article or unstressed some (any) in non-

assertive contexts

E.g I want a pen / some pens / some ink

I don’t want a pen / any pens / any ink

1.2 Review of previous studies

The problems encountered by English learners whose mother tongue does not have an article system have been researched extensively A detailed account is given of the commonest types of errors, classified according to the misuse of each article It is found

that the commonest errors involve misuse of the definite article for generic reference

Master (2002) showed that the is the commonest word in English and a in the top five and together the and a make up 8.5% of all English text (Berry, 1993) Scott and Tucker (1974)

found article errors among the top four types of error among high school graduate But many studies do not all classify errors in the same way or count the same things; Batainehs

(2005) only looks at a, for example Scott and Tucker (1974) and Bataineh (2005) do not

tally accurate use instances so an overall success or failure rate for each article cannot

be calculated In Scott and Tucker’s (1974) and Bataineh’s (2005) data, “Ø-for-a” is the more frequent error subtype; in Kharma’s data “the-for-a” is slightly more

frequent

Kharmas (1981) data is the most detailed about types of article use; he identified 5 types of

use for the and a and 3 for Ø Of the ten most common mistakes in his cloze test six

are categorized as instances of generic or general use (3 where the correct answer

was Ø, and 3 where it was a), and 3 as misrenderings of idiomatic phrases (e.g for an

example)

In a range of idiomatic uses learners are likely to “reinstate” definite articles omitted in English (e.g I went to the bed)

Kharma and Hajjaj (1997) add four other likely transfer problems:

Non-ellipsis of articles in compound noun

phrases

The salt and the pepper [ pepper]

use of the definite article in generic plural

noun phrases

The horses [ Horses] are useful

animals use of the definite article for abstract nouns All men fear the death [ death]

use of the definite article for mass nouns The milk [Milk] is nutritious to the

In terms of the role of transfer in causing errors, Scott and Tucker (1974) attributed half their subjects article errors to transfer, and Kharma (1981) attributed the majority of his subjects errors to transfer but adds the compounding effect of “inadequate

instruction” Bataineh (2005) considered transfer responsible only for “Ø-for-a” errors

and even then only as a possibility, citing overgeneralization, training transfer, learning

and communication strategies as other possible causes

A frequent and persistent grammatical problem many EFL teachers encounter in

schools, colleges and universities is the misuse or omission of the articles a, an and the in both written and spoken language This is a serious linguistic problem for

several reasons:

- Articles occur frequently … The American Heritage Word Frequency Book

(Carroll et al, 1971) lists the as the most commonly used word in the English language, and a as the fourth

- Misuse of articles can lead to serious errors because of resulting meaning variations, since ‘the distinction they mark is obligatory’ (Matthews, 1997, p.26) Master (1994, p.230) notes that the need for accurate use of articles increases with writing, since readers do not have the luxury of extralinguistic clues to help understanding

- The problem is persistent, even to higher-level learners Claire and Greenwood, (1988, cover page) state that… Articles “are often the last grammatical item that distinguishes the native-speaker of English from the foreign-born speaker ”

There is a wide range of complications in tackling a language target of this sort The

question of the use of a and the, far from being an isolated point of language, is intimately

tied into a variety of closely-linked language questions, such as pronoun use, plurals, countable and uncountable nouns, zero article, language ‘chunks’ which include articles, and those ‘rules’ which seem to be clear cut, such as naming hotels and rivers In addition, there seem to be numerous anomalies, or sub-rules which complicate the issue for both student and teacher

E.g We go to the bathroom ( but not to the bed.)

We also go to work ( but not to office.)

Students are likely to be baffled when British people say that someone is ‘in hospital’, meaning they have been admitted, but someone went to ‘the hospital’ to visit a sick person

Analyzing the errors made by Taiwanese EFL college students, Li-Ling Chen (2006) showed that another grammatical error that is frequently found in Taiwanese EFL students' compositions is the misuse of English articles Chen (2000) considered that English articles could be one of the most difficult grammatical parts for Taiwanese EFL students as there is not an equivalent syntactical device to the English article system Master (1988) further indicated that beginning level EFL learners tend to be more interfered by such a linguistic difference between Mandarin and English

In a few matters of form, Trunk, Jr (1918) showed the problem in using articles is that

omitting initial a or the from titles when you place the possessive before them for the titles

of literary works

E.g The Iliad The Odyssey To a Skylark …

In addition, some researchers employed error analysis to examine the error types in Taiwanese EFL students' English writings (Horney, 1998; Kao, 1999; Lin, 2002; Tseng, 1980; Ying, 1987) Horney (1998) investigated compositions written by 80 Taiwanese EFL students The results revealed that errors in the use of articles had the highest percentage (11%)

In the book “Common mistakes at the certificate…and how to avoid them” Susanne

Tayfoor (2004) showed that we use the to talk about a particular thing / person when the speaker and listener know which one we are referring to We use a, an to refer to something for the first time, and the to refer it again And then he showed four cases we don’t use the Those often causes problems to students at High School

We don’t usually use the in four following cases:

- to talk about people / things in general

- for countries, mountains or seas, unless it is a group or states or islands:

- with meals (E.g have breakfast; eat lunch; finish dinner)

- with certain common daily routines (E.g Go to work/ school, be at home; be at work/

school; go by bus/ car; go home; watch TV)

( pp 50-51)

In sum, there were many problems for students in using the English articles in the writings, but within a limited time, results of the study will be taken based on the following usages; the uses of articles including errors in using definite article for specific things, errors in

using articles for definite or indefinite meaning, errors in misusing articles (as in using the

for generic plural or uncountable noun phrases, abstract nouns, mass nouns, using the instead of Ø with generic plural noun phrases, using the in generic singular noun phrases where English would require a, using indefinite article for specific singular noun phrases, using Ø instead of the with the only one of something, not using the for classes of people,

universally unique items, items unique to a situation, diectically obvious items, items of

anaphoric reference, items defined by a relative clause, superlatives, not using the to talk

about a particular thing / person, when the speaker and listener know which one we are

referring to, not using the to talk about people/ things in general, using a / an for

uncountable nouns, not using a, an to refer to something for the first time, and the to refer

it again…)

The types of exercises including filling in, multiple choice and correction exercise and the interviews were also mentioned

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter outlines the research question, data collection instruments, the participants analytical framework, data analysis and discussion Section 2.1 discusses research question while section 2.2 presents two data collection instruments Section 2.3 discusses participants joined in interviewing and doing exercises Section 2.4 presents a brief overview of the articles’ usages, it’s used to analyze the data in section 2.5 Section 2.6 discusses the data of the study

2.1 Research question

In order to achieve the aims of the study the research question below will be addressed:

- What problems in using English Articles do students of Thach Thanh High School No.3 usually encounter in their writing?

2.2 Data collection instruments

Section 2.2 provides an overview of data collection instruments Data was collected via exercises and interviews

2.2.1 Exercises

All exercises were designed based on the uses of articles and these types of exercises: filling

in the blanks with the suitable article, multiple choice and mistake correction

These exercises were designed to students in both close-ended and open-ended questions

Four main exercises (see Appendix 1) which were taken from the textbook “Tieng Anh 11

and Tieng Anh 12 - chuong trinh co ban” and the basic grammar books, were used to

collect data

A set of exercises was designed in the survey which were delivered to 100 students and required to do in class during one 45-minute period in order to find out what problems are raised in using articles and why it is difficult for them The survey consists of three common types of exercises, with which students have already been familiar with during their learning process of any English language items These exercises, of course, focus on the relevant matter, the usages of English articles

Exercise 1 including 15 questions was designed to distinguish these issues: a vs an, the

vs Ø, a vs the by circling the best answer Exercise 2 including 10 questions was about

the uses of articles by the filling-in exercise The same number of questions was also pointed in exercise 3 but in different type of exercise: multiple-choice These exercises aimed at checking the uses of articles, following that problems in using English Articles were found Besides, exercise 4 was designed as the rewritten exercise to check the positions as well as the uses of English Articles, which answer the research question about the problems in using English Articles of students at High School

2.2.2 Interviews

Like exercises, the interviews were designed for the students (see Appendix 2) to have an insight into the answers collected throughout the exercises However, unlike the exercises which included both the close-ended and open-ended questions, the interviews comprised

of only open-ended ones and belonged to semi-structured type This type of interview was chosen because it was believed to get more information of problems which students usually made in using English Articles

The students were asked about the uses of articles, the difficulties they often encounter in using articles The information collected helped a lot in answering the research question The last question which is about their suggestions, would help a lot in the final chapter of this research about some suggestions for better teaching of English articles This interview was ensured to take place in a very informal and comfortable atmosphere so that the students can share their opinion openly and freely

2.3 The participants

100 students at random from A1 to A5 (including 52 male and 48 female) at Thach Thanh High School No.3 in Thanh Hoa took part in the survey The students aged from 17 to 19 are learning in 12th form Most of them have been learning English since they started high junior school, i.e they have been learning English for at least more than 6 years

In the total of 100 students above, 20 students were chosen (including 40% male and 60% female), all of whom were between 17 and 19 years of age and got marked 3 or 5,7,9 in their exercise papers (5 students (25%) per each mark), were selected for the interview