A study on common errors related to the usage of DO and MAKE collocations by English non-major students at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration (TUEBA)

A study on common errors related to the usage of DO and MAKE collocations by English non-major students at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration TUEBA Phạm Thị

A study on common errors related to the usage of

DO and MAKE collocations by English non-major students at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration

(TUEBA) Phạm Thị Ngà

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract The students at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business

Administration as EFL learners often use uncommon phrasing patterns which make native English speakers find it harder to understand This thesis investigated common errors occurred when the student used collocations with DO and MAKE in the “verb + noun” pattern Three types of tests were employed as the data collection instruments The results collected from the students’ tests represented the current state of error types as well as confirmed the low vocabulary proficiency among students It was found that errors were made when students did not understand the constituents of the collocations Studying

another type of error in different patterns could be necessary for future research

Keywords Ngôn ngữ; Tiếng Anh; Ngữ pháp

Content

1 Rationale of the study

“No piece of natural spoken or written English is totally free of collocation” (OCD, 2009)

Therefore, learning collocation is important for EFL learners For students, choosing the right collocation will make his/her speech and writing sound much more natural, more native-speaker-like Poor collocation in exams is also likely to lead to lower marks However, during the time working as a teacher of English at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration (TUEBA), I have found out that English non- major students at different levels often make mistakes in using DO and MAKE collocations For this reason, I decided to choose this

as the theme for my MA thesis

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The ultimate purposes of the research are:

i To help English non-major students gain an insight into DO and MAKE collocations

ii To examine the influenced factors to possible errors made by the students

iii To improve my own teaching of English at TUEBA

To achieve these aims, the following objectives are pursued forward:

 Establishing the types of errors related to DO and MAKE collocations commonly committed by English non-major students at TUEBA

 Finding out the causes of students’ errors related to the usage of DO and MAKE collocations

 Working out possible solutions to the problems encountered by students in using collocations with DO and MAKE

3 Scope of the study

The survey was conducted at TUEBA The population was not large, only 300 Accounting students who were at pre-intermediate level of English Only errors related to the uses of DO and MAKE

collocations in the form of “verb + noun” pattern were taken into consideration

4 Significance of the study

It is much to the author’s expectation that the research results will help students gain a more

insightful look into English MAKE and DO collocations And, on account of this, well-formed utterances containing DO and MAKE collocations might be produced And, this constitutes the

practical value of the research

5 Structure of the thesis

The thesis consists of three main parts: Part A, B and C Part A is an introduction that gives a rationale behind the study It also presents the aims, objectives, the significance as well as scope of the study Part B is divided into three chapters; chapter 1 both reviewed some previous studies related to the research area of the thesis and provides theoretical background to the concerning matters In chapter 2, the methodology of the thesis including research-governing principles and research methods are introduced Chapter 3 analyzes data collected from the students’ tests Additionally, some significant findings of the study are written up and discussed

Part C concludes the main issues which dealt with in the previous parts Accordingly, some concluding remarks are drawn out

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