luận văn tiếng anh :the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of firstyear students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education

the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of firstyear students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of firstyear students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education

Foremost, I would like to gratefully and sincerely thank to my supervisor – Mrs TrịnhThị Kim Dung, MA of Faculty Foreign Languages for her guidance, understanding, patience,and most importantly, her relationship during my graduate studies at the Foreign LanguagesDepartment of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education Her mentorship wasparamount in providing a well rounded experience consistent my career goals She is alwayswilling to give me valuable advices and suggestions I will face many difficulties without herhelp

I would like to thank to the teachers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Hung YenUniversity of Technology and Education for their useful lessons and whole-hearted advices

I would also like to thank to all the authors of the books, magazines, and other materialslisted in the reference part for their ideas that have been used and developed in the study

I would like to extend my special thanks to my family and friends who haveencouraged and supported me very much in the completion of this thesis If there had notbeen great help from them, the study could not have been completed

Last but not least, I would like to thank the students who willingly took part in thesurvey of this paper For any errors or inadequacies that may remain in this work, of course,the responsibility is entirely my own

The study deals with finding the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of first –year students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering at Hung Yen University of Technologyand Education

In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, the study presents the keytheories related to rewriting English sentences.The researcher carried out surveyquestionnaires among 157 first-year students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY

to get their opinions The definition ,the formation, the seating arrangement ,and the role ofthe learners in rewriting English sentence lessons are also mentioned

A survey on the use of rewriting English sentence exercises at Hung Yen University

of Technology and Education are conducted in the process of doing this study The results ofsuch research showed that the data analysis as well as the interpretation of the resultsobtained from the questionnaires is also given

Last but not least, the study gives some difficulties and solutions to improvestudents’ability in rewriting English sentences at Hung Yen University of Technology andEducation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement………

Declaration…….………

Abstract………

Table of contents………

List of abbreviations………

List of charts and tables………

Chapter 1: Introduction………

1 Rationale of the study………

2 Aim of the study………

3 Research questions………

4 Scope of the study………

5 Methods of the study………

6 Design of the study ………

Chapter 2: Literature review………

2.1 Overview of teaching English grammar………

2.1.1 Overview of writing………

2.1.1.1 Definitions of writing………

2.1.1.2 The importance of writing………

2.1.1.3 Writing errors………

2.1.2.2 The importance of teaching grammar………

2.1.2.3 Grammatical error………

2.1.2.4 Grammar Rules………

2.2 Overview of the feature forms in rewriting English sentence exercises 2.2.1 Phrase structure rules………

2.2.2 Run-on sentences………

2.2.3 Parallel sentences structures………

Chapter 3: Methodology and data………

3.1 An overview on current situation of teaching and learning in rewriting English sentences in Faculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY………

3.1.1 Objectives of the English course in FAE, UTEHY ………

3.1.2 Learners ………

3.1.3 Teachers ………

i ii iii iv vi vi 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 4 6 6 7 8 9 10 11

11 14 14 14 14 14 14

3.2 Research questions……… ………

3.3 The subjects of the study………

3.3.1 Student subjects………

3.3.2 Teacher subjects………

3.4 Data collection instrument………

3.4.1 Questionnaire………

3.4.2 The interviews………

3.5 Procedures of data collection………

3.6 Summary………

Chapter 4: Data analysis, main findings and discussion………

4.1 The opinion of students in rewriting English sentences……….

4.1.1 The difficulty………

4.1.2 The importance………

4.1.3 The frequency………

4.1.4 The New Headway textbook………

4.2 Current situation of learning in rewriting English sentences at FAE, UTEHY 4.2.1 Students’ difficulties in rewriting English sentences………

4.2.2 The assessment of pre-rewiting English sentences………

4.2.3 Students’ mistakes in rewriting English sentences………

4.2.3 Students’ activities to improve in rewriting English sentences………

4.2.3.1 Students’ practicing………

4.2.3.2 Techniques before rewriting English sentences………

4.2.3.3 Techniques after rewriting English sentences………

4.2.3.4 Activities for improving in rewriting English sentences………

4.3 Main findings and discussion……….

4.3.1 Opinions of students about rewriting English sentences………

4.3.2 Current situation in studying the rewrite English sentences………

Chapter 5: Recommendation for improving rewriting English sentences 5.1 Techniques to improve the grammar………

5.2 Techniques to improve sentence structure………

Chapter 6: Conclusion………

6.1 Summary of the study………

6.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study………

References………

15 16 17 17 17 27 28 29 30 30 31 31 31 32 32 34 35 35 35 37

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

FAE: Faculty of Automobile Engineering

UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education

S: student

Ss: students

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Table 3.2.1: The interview results of students’ assessment in rewriting English sentencesTable 3.2.2: The interview results of students’ assessment on the importance of rewritingEnglish sentences

Table 3.2.3: The interview results of students’ opinions about the frequency in rewritingEnglish sentences

Table 3.2.3: The interview results of students’ opinions about the suitableness of the NewHeadway textbook

Table 3.2.5: Students’ difficulties in rewriting English sentences

Table 3.2.6: Students’ mistakes

Table 3.2.7: Students’ techniques before rewriting English sentences

Chart 3.2.1: Students’ assessment on the difficulties in rewriting English sentences

Chart 3.2.2: Students’ opinions on the importance of rewriting English sentences

Chart 3.2.3: Students’ opinions about the frequency of rewriting English sentences

Chart 3.2.4:Students’ opinions about the suitableness of the New Headway textbook

Chart 3.2.5: Students’ opinions about the assessment of pre-rewriting English sentencesFigure 3.2.6: The frequency degrees of students’ rewriting English sentences

Chart 3.2.7: Students’ techniques after rewriting English sentences

Chart 3.2.8: Students’ opinions about the activities for improving in rewriting Englishsentence

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, English is very popular in the world and even become the mostinternational language English is used in global commerce, communication, education and so

on Many countries consider English a national language,such as the Philippines, Hong Kong,Singapore (as a second language) English has been considered very important in everycountry, and English is a language of progressive science and technology, trade and culturalrelations English is so powerful that it has been used when negotiating with very prominentpersonalities with regards to international meetings

In our country, English plays a vital part in integrating into the world Vietnam tookpart in WTO, so Vietnamese companies will trade with companies in other countries As aresult, English has been a compulsory subject at schools, colleges and universities.Moreover,it would know about the importance of English teaching and learning if weunderstand the relations among language, grammar and vocabulary Therefore, the goals ofEnglish language teaching are not only to help the students learn language, but also moreimportantly to use language fluently Besides, English began to be used widely in educationand in daily-life activities It is obviously seen that many Vietnamese students have a littleexperience of writing since leaving secondary schools or colleges when they presentingwritten work in a daily life Moreover, they may be very anxious about having to writeessays, letters and curriculum vitaes

Because of the importance of learning English, Vietnamese students hope to improvethe four language skills but they rarely have opportunities to use English outside the class.Most writing programs are still taught using the traditional model, emphasizing accuracy ofgrammatical structure and vocabulary Besides, the formative tests in most writing programsstress objective-type questions, which require sentence completion, reordering sentences,reordering words and error correction Students have very few actual chances tocommunicate and widen knowledge

Therefore, using the four language skills, is essential to English non-major students atFaculty of Automobile Engineering (FAE) at Hung Yen University of Technology andEducation (UTEHY) in particular Because the students must take the B1 including the four

language skills, writing seems to be the most difficult but really important skill among thefour skills Moreover, writing skill include rewriting English sentences and writing lettersaccounts for 30 over 100 marks; separately writing English sentences accounts fot about tenmarks with five rewriting sentences When students pass the B1 exam, they will develop fourskills, and they can speak fluently and get better jobs in foreign companies However, allstudents find that they had more difficulties rewriting English sentences with grammarstructures and vocabulary because this course require students to write letter and rewriteEnglish sentences Thus, its is very important to find out the effective methods in rewritingEnglish sentences for all English non-major students as well.

In conclusion, in order to find appropriate methods, techniques to rewrite English

sentences better, a study entitled: “The difficulties of first-year students at Faculty of

Automobile Engineering, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting English sentences and some suggested solutions” is conducted because of all above

mentioned reasons

1.2 Aims of the study

This study is aimed at investigating the reality of difficulties and solution in rewritingEnglish sentences of the first-year students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY

To be specific, the aims of the study are:

+ To clarify of the importance of grammar and vocabulary in rewriting Englishsentences

+ How to help the students have better understanding about rewriting English sentenceexercises for the first year students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY

+ To find the factors causing the difficulties for students in the rewriting Englishsentence exercises of the first year students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY + To recommend practical suggestions for improving rewriting English sentences of thefirst year students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY

1.3 Scope of study

To improve the effectiveness in rewriting English sentences of the first year students

at UTEHY, the researcher intends to investigate the difficulties in rewriting English sentences

of the first year students at UTEHY then giving some methods for improving it.Because ofthe limitations of time and knowledge, the shortage of reference materials, this study can notcover the whole issue of writing skill It only focusses on exploring common classroomactivities used by students’ attitudes towards those activies.

Moreover, the study could not touch upon all the students at UTEHY It is confined tothe first year students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY only

1.4 Research question

The above aims of the study are to answer the three following research questions:

1 What are the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of the first-year English major students atFaculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY ?

non-2 What are students’ attitudes towards rewriting English sentence exercises atFaculty ofAutomobile Engineering, UTEHY?

3 How to motivate for students in rewriting English sentence lessons at Faculty ofAutomobile Engineering, UTEHY?

1.5 Methods of study

In order to examine the situation of the study, the research used the following

methods: questionnaires and informal interviews are also includimg To collect the data forresearching, the author use both quantitative and qualitative methods including questionnairesfor students and interview questions for students The interview questions and thequestionnaires were designed based on the main aims of the study After getting the results,the author used the tables and charts for presenting the collected data The interview resultswhich were recorded carefully and the tape script will be used as another data for theanalysis, comment, discussion and recommendation

1.5.1 Questionnaires

A survey research with quantitative method is used and considered the most suitable

to obtain the aim The study targets at analyzing the outcome with numbers and figures.Therefore, the data were collected by means of questionnaires which were designed andhandled to a defined population The answers are completely objective, not controlled by theresearcher

1.5.2 Interviews

Interview has long been accepted as an important feature in language teachereducation and supervision By interviewing in different writing classes in the department offoreign language, UTEHY, some interviewing data will be collected and analyzed to supportthe process of interpreting data

1.6 Design of the study

The study consists of six chapters, organize as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction- Gives information about the topic of this paper, background to the

study, the reasons for choosing topic, the aims of the study, the scope of the study, methods

of the study and an outline of the thesis in this paper

Chapter 2: Literature review- Discusses the relevant theories related to writing, grammar

and effective techniques of teaching grammar

Chapter 3: The study

- Methodology and data – Mentions to the methods of the study, the participants of the

study, data collection instruments and procedures of data collection

- Data analysis and results –Analysises the data collected in order to find out the fact of

teaching grammar for thefirst-yearstudents at Faculty of Automoble Engineering atUTEHY

- Recommendations for improving rewriting English sentenses - Gives some suggested

techniques to help students improve the rewriting English sentences

Chapter 4: Conclusion- Provide some effective techniques in rewriting English sentences

for the first-yearstudents at Faculty of Automoble Engineering at UTEHY Some briefinformation about the limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies will be alsoadded here

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Overview of teaching English grammar

2.1.1 Overview of writing

2.1.1.1 Definitions of writing

Writing has been defined in various ways by different researchers

Firstly, according to Brannon at (1982, p.2) defines writing as a creative art, not as anassembly line operation of locking words together into sentences and bolting sentencestogether into paragraph in accordance with a predefined plan Moreover, Byrne, (1988, p.1),writing can be considered as an art of forming graphic symbols, that is, letters or thecombination of letters on one level, writing can be said to be the act of forming thesesymbols, or more clearly the act of making marks on the flat surface of some kinds

However, in language teaching and learning process, Tribble (1996, p.3) defineswriting as a language skill that involves “not fusta graphic representation of speech, but thedevelopment and presentation of throughts in a structured way” According to Murray, (1987,p.29) and Perl (1979, p.43), writing as a creative discovery procedure characterized by thedynamic interplay of content and language: the use of language to explore beyond the knowncontent

From another point of view, writing is a language skill which is difficult to acquire(Tribble, 1996, p.3) Tribble also impresses that writing normally requires some form ofinstruction and that it is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure (1996,p.11) Tayor( 1984, p.4) express that the act of writing, upon examination ,and turn out to be a complexprocess where in writers use language as a tool to discover and clarifying meaning onexperience in order to say exactly what they mean

In short, in most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language.Writing is not a language but a from of technology Within a language system, writing relies

on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and semantics, withthe added dependency of a system of signs or symbols, usually in the form of a formalalphabet; an art that writers want to communicate with certain groups of audience to express

oneself efficiently Through the mastery of writing, individuals come to be fully effective inintellectual organization, in the management of everyday affairs, in the expression of ideasand arguments Therefore, academic writing requires conscious effort and much practice incomposing, developing and analyzing ideas.

2.1.1.2 The importance of writing

As you know, both in studying and working in our modern life, writing brings a lot offunction, it can be considered as a instrument for communication When someone wants toimply a message or a purpose, he or she can make a piece of writing According to Nunan ,(1991, p.84), writing is:

Primarily for action: public signs (on roads and station), products labels andinstructions (on food, tool, or toy purchased), receipes, maps, television and radio guides, bill,menus, telephone directories, etc For social contact: personal correspondence, letters,postcards, greeting cards

Primarily for information: newspapers and magazines, non-fiction books includingtextbooks, public notices, advertisements, guidebooks and travel literatures, etc

Primarily for entertainment: light magazines, comic strips, fiction books, poetry anddrama, film subtitles, game including computer games

- Nunan (1991, p.84) – Besides, writing also plays an important role in school We are able to share ideas,arouse feelings, persuade and convince other people White (1981, p.1) gives some reasonswhy writing merits a place in the language syllabus:

Writing remains the commonest way of examining student performance in English(all public examinations include a composition) Consequently, ability to write remains a key

to examination success

In the eyes of both parents and students, ability to write may be associated withevidence of having learnt the language Writing is tangible- parents and students can see whathave been done and what have been achieved So it has high “face validity”

In the classroom, writing may be used as one of a number of techniques to help add varietyand interest to lesson

Teachers may use writing as a testing device to provide feedback on what studentshave learnt Students’ writing can provide useful evidence of success of failures in learning,

of confusions and errors

Writing requires thought, discipline and concentration It is relatively a permanentform and readers judgeus by our style, contents and logics So writing English demands careand thought.

White (1981, p.1) Moreover, Raimes dicussed about this issue with some opinions:

Firstly, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that wehave been teaching our students

Secondly, when our students write, they also have chance to be adventurous with thelanguage, to go beyond what they have just learnt to say, to takes risks

Lastly, when they write, they necessarily become very involved in the new language,the effort to express ideas and the constant used of eyes, hands and brain are a unique way toreinforce learning

Moreover, Khoii (2011, p.493) emphasizes on the importance of writing skill in thefield of second and foreign language learning and teaching, learning to write fluently andcorrectly seems to be of prime importance as a gate-keeping activity Therefore, writing hasmany important roles not only in studying but also in many fields in life

2.1.1.3 Writing errors

According to Bartholomew (1980, p.255) “errors can be only understood as evidence

of intention” In addition to that, he views errors as “one of the most marked characteristics ofsentences or utterances, which deviate from the norm of language” Richards (1984, p.4) findthat errors can be seen as evidence of language transfer, they are “inter-systemicinterference” In addition, Choon (1993) have the opinion that: there are some categories oferrors such as semantic error (wrong words, wrong form, etc ) , grammatical errors (tense,preposition, etc,…) global and local error She suggested that “the system of classifyingerrors should be flexible” (p.2) and adds that teacher can learn and decide what should befocused more in there syllabus after analyzing the specific and common language problemtheir students have; she advised teacher to conduct Error Analysis at the beginning of thecourse when the items have not been fully learnt and remedy these first

In addition, Gower and Walters (1983, p.147) suggested about a distinction between

an error and a mistake A mistake is really a slip of the tongue or the pen The student is able

to correct it himself, either completely unprompted or with the guidance of the teacher andother students An error is much more ingrained The student might believe what he is saying

is correct, not know what the correct form should be and know what the correct form should

be but can not get it right There are many kinds of errors: semantics errors, grammartical

errors, global and local errors Therefore, Hence, that is why the error correction is paid somuch attention to in the process of teaching writing Generally, the definition of error isalways given in connection with that of mistake.

2.1.2 Overview of teaching English grammar

2.1.2 1 Definition of Grammar

Throughout history, Grammar is simply defined by the linguists David Crystaldefined Grammar as “Grammar is the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how itworks” Linguistics tries to codify or describe Grammar in term of Language Branches Theydefine Grammar in term of phonology as sounds of language In Morphology, they describeGrammar as structure and forms of words In syntax, they define it as an Arrangement ofwords into larger units In Semantics, they describe it as Meaning of language In Pragmatics,they define it as Functions of language and its use in context

Chomsky in ON Nature and Language defines grammar as the grammar of a naturalLanguage is a systematic description of Linguistics abilities of its native speaker, and thoseabilities would enable any native speaker to speak and understand his/her language fluenntly.Part of these linguistics abilities could be characterized as a native intuition or GrammaticalCompetence about the sentence well formedness and sentence structure of his/ her mothertongue That’s to say, a native speaker of a natural language is able to tell whether a givensentence in his/ her mother tongue is well formed or not, and whether a given sentence in his/her mother tongue can be well formed in different senses, we are concerned with its syntacticwell formedness He also points out that a native speaker grammatical judgment not onlyholds for the sentence that he or she has never said or heard before, but also holds for thosethat he or she has never said or heard before In other words, a native speaker of a naturallanguage (Chomsky, 1972)

The analysis and comparison of the grammatical structures of related languages.Contemporary work in comparative grammar is concerned with “a faculty of language thatprovides an explanatoty basic for how a human being can acquire a first language In thisway, the theory of grammar is a theory of human language and hence establishes therelationship among all languages.”(R Freidin, Principles and Parameters in ComparativeGrammar MIT Press, 1991) The generative grammar stored in the brain that allows aspeaker to produce language that other speakers can understand “All humans are born withthe capacity for constructing a Mental Grammar, given linguistic experience; this capacity forlanguage is called the Language Faculty (Chomsky, 1965) - Grammar is the mental system ofrules and categories that allows humans to form and interpret the words and sentences of their

language “A grammar formulated by a linguist is an idealized description of this MentalGrammar.”(P.W Culicover and A Nowak, Dynamical Grammar: Foundations of Syntax II.Oxford Univ, Press, 2003).

According to M.” Ángeles Escobar Álvarez, (2011, p.14), “Grammar is the system of

a language People sometimes describe grammar as the “rule” of a language; but in fact nolanguage has rules If we use the word “rule”, we suggest that somebody created the rulesfirst ang then spoke the language, like a new game Neverheless languages did not start likethat Language started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases andsentences No commonly-spoken language is fixed All languages change over time What wecall “grammar” is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.”

According to Thombury, (1999, p.13), grammar is:

A description of the rules for forming sentences, including an account of the meaningsthat these forms convey; and Grammar adds meanings that are not easily inferable from theimmediate context While Swan in his book, Practical English Usage (2005, p.xix), definesgrammar as the rules that show how words are combined, arranged and changed to showcertain kinds of meaning

It is probably a correct saying that there are very few inflexions in English grammar.Ithas grown up as an easy and simplified language Thus, Sir Philip Sidney towards the end

of his essay The Apologyie for Poetrie states that “Nay, truly, it hath that praise, that it wantsnot grammar; for grammar it might have, but needs it not; being so easy in itself, and so void

of those cumbersome differences of cases, genders, moods, and tenses; which, I think, was apiece of the tower of Babylon's curse, that a man should be put to school to learn his mothertongue” (Sidney) And he has accepted the criticism that English has little grammar On such

an issue, George Perkins Marsh, American philologist, in his Lectures on the EnglishLanguage (1866) which was published more than a century ago is of the opinion that Englishlanguage as “having no grammar” (Marsh, p.73 )

Grammar challenges but brings more benefit such as: for teaching concepts onsubject, verb, clause and phrases, for teaching the translation method, for teaching bilingualmethod, and for teaching structural approach and traditional Methods

It is said that knowing a language is not the same thing as knowing about it Knowing

a language means mastering over its four basic skills, viz., “(a) Listening, (b) Speaking, (c)Reading and (d) Writing” (Kohli, p.32) Here, the listening and the reading are passive skillswhereas the speaking and the writing are active skills The Knowledge of the language makes

us to know the meaning of isolated words or sentences or the rules of grammar Talking

about the language does not mean knowing language and using it If we consider language asspeech, as the linguists do, then knowing a language means to use its grammatical patterns aswell as proper usage.

2.1.2.2 The importance of teaching grammar

Grammar is important because it is the language that makes it possible for us to talkabout language Grammar names the types of words and word groups that make

up sentences not only in English but in any language As human beings, we can put sentencestogether even as children we can all do grammar But to be able to talk about how sentencesare built, about the types of words and word groups that make up sentences - that is knowingabout grammar And knowing about grammar offers a window into the human mind and intoour amazingly complex mental capacity People associate grammar with errors andcorrectness But knowing about grammar also helps us understand what makes sentences andparagraphs clear and interesting and precise Grammar can be part of literature discussions,when we and our students closely read the sentences in poetry and stories And knowingabout grammar means finding out that all languages and all dialects follow grammaticalpatterns

Grammar rules facilitate clear and concise communication Errors in verb tense,sentence structure, contractions, punctuation, spelling and word usage detract from yourintended message Being an effective communicator helps you make a positive impression onothers, which impacts your overall happiness, social life and employment opportunities Yourverbal skills and self-confidence contribute to your public persona In fact, the AmericanPsychological Association suggests that the first few minutes of meeting someone shapes thecourse of the relationship such as: carrer success, professional communication, personalcommunication, academic achivement

Therefore, the value of grammar teaching is important in English language teachingfield Grammar is the base of English language It is not acquired naturally, but learning, itneeds be instructed Grammar operates at the sentence level and governs the syntax or wordorders that are permissible in the language It also works at the subsentence level to governsuch things as number and person agreement between subject and verb in a sentence Togrammar learning, some students may have a more analytical learning style than others, but ifone hope to use English language accurately and fluently, it is necessary for him to receivegrammar rules instruction Grammar is not different from anything else, it is likely thatstudents will learn at different rates In a short word, grammar teaching is necessary inEnglish language teaching

Of course one should never say,’good grammar’ or ‘bad grammar.”’

(J T Baker, Correct English, Mar.1, 1901)

2.1.2.4 Grammar Rules

In the Longman Active Study Dictionary ‘rule’ is defined as:

- A principle order which guides behavior, says how things are to be done etc, or

- The usual way that something happens

- With regard to grammar, the first type of rule is often called precriptive rule and thesecond a descriptive rule For many people, grammar instruction is traditionallyassociated with the first type of rules – that is, prescriptions as to what should be said

or written:

+ Do not use different to and never use different than Always use different from

+ Never use the passive when you can use the active

+ Use shall for the first person and will for second and third persons

- Second and foreign language is primarily concerned with descriptive rules, that is,with generalizations about what speakers of the language actually do say rather thanwith what they should do Thus:

+ You do not normally use ‘the’ with proper nouns referring to people

+ We used to with the infinitive (used to do/ used to smoke, etc) to say that somethingregularly happened in the past bt no longer happens (from English Grammar in Use byRaymond Murphy) Until recently most so called descriptive rules were based in hunches andintuitions

2.2 Overview of the feature forms in rewriting English sentence exercises

Rewrite sentences without changing the meaning

2.2.1 Phrase structure rules

In generative-transformational grammar theory, phrase structure rules illustratemathematically our knowledge of how the basic units of a sentence are assembled The

theory of phrase structure rules states that there is a limited number of rules that are carefullyordered:

+ There is a limited number of rules which serve to reflect the linguistic competence andknowledge of a native speaker

+ These rules are arranged in an order: rule 1 must preceded rule 2, which must precede rule

3, etc

+ The rules can be illustrated in phrase structure trees

+ These rules can be equated mathematically in phrase structure rules

According to this theory, you can take a sentence and mathematically divide it into parts Chomsky explains that phrase structure rules are are basically "rewriting" rules For instance, a sentence can be rewritten as a noun phrase plus a verb phrase In the notation of transformational grammar, this rule is written as:

S > NP + VP "a sentence consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase"

A sentence can be further illustrated by a phrase structure tree, like this:

Starting with this base, we can begin to build rules which will allow us to generate an infinite number of sentences

2.2.2 Run-on sentences

A RUN-ON SENTENCE (sometimes called a "fused sentence") has at least two parts,either one of which can stand by itself (in other words, two independent clauses), but the twoparts have been smooshed together instead of being properly connected Review, also, thesection which describes things that can happen between two independent clause.It isimportant to realize that the length of a sentence really has nothing to do with whether asentence is a run-on or not; being a run-on is a structural flaw that can plague even a very

short sentence: “The sun is high, put on some sunblock” An extremely long sentence, on the

other hand, might be a "run-off-at-the-mouth" sentence, but it can be otherwise sound,

structurally When two independent clauses are connected by only a comma, they constitute arun-on sentence that is called a comma-splice The example just above (about the sunscreen)

is a comma-splice When you use a comma to connect two independent clauses, it must be

accompanied by a little conjunction (and, but, for, nor, yet, or, so) “The sun is high, so put on

some sunscreen”

Run-on sentences happen typically under the following circumstances:

- When an independent clause gives an order or directive based on what was said in the prior independent clause

- When two independent clauses are connected by a transitional expression

(conjunctive adverb) such as however, moreover, nevertheless

- When the second of two independent clauses contains a pronoun that connects it to the first independent clause

2.2.3 Parallel sentence structures

Parallelism in sentences refers to matching grammatical structures Elements in asentence that have the same function or express similar ideas should be grammaticallyparallel, or grammatically matched Parallelism is used as a rhetorical and stylistic device inliterature, speeches, advertising, and popular songs

“I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son” – Edward Gibbon

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Joseph Addison

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” – John F.Kennedy

Parallelism lends balance and grace to writing It can make a sentence memorable Even in prose not destined for greatness, parallelism is important

+ Faulty parallelism

A failure to create grammatically parallel structures when they are appropriate isreferred to as faulty parallelism In the following examples, note the difference betweencorrect parallel structure and faulty parallelism

What counts isn’t how to look but how you behave

Not What counts isn’t how you look but your behavior.

+ Parallel structure in a series

When your sentence includes a series, make sure you have not used different

grammatical structures for the items The elements would remain parallel even if the phrasesfollowing the gerunds were changed or omitted The length of the items in the series does notaffect the parallel structure It doesn't matter what grammatical structure you choose for yourseries as long as you keep it consistent

When you use words such as to, a, an, his, her, or their with items in a series, you can

use the word with the first item, thus having it apply to all the items; or you can repeat it witheach item If you choose to repeat it, you must do so with all the items, not just some of them.When you are comparing items in a sentence, obviously parallelism will be important Makesure that the elements you are comparing or contrasting are grammatically parallel

In antithetical constructions, something is true of one thing but not another But

not and rather than are used to set up these constructions As with comparisons, both parts of

an antithetical construction should be parallel

+ Parallel structure with correlative conjunctions

Errors in parallel structure often occur with correlative conjunctions: either …or;

neither …nor; both …and; not only …but also; whether …or The sentence structure

following the second half of the correlative conjunction should mirror the sentence structure following the first half

The scientists disputed not only the newspaper article but also the university's official

statement (parallel: phrase with phrase) The scientists disputed not only the newspaper article but also they disputed the university's official statement (faulty parallelism: phrase

with clause) Be sure that any element you want to repeat appears after the first half of the correlative conjunction Look at the position of as in the following examples In the second sentence, as appears before either and is repeated after or, which makes the construction not

parallel

They acted either as individual citizens or as members of the committee.

NOT They acted as either individual citizens or as members of the committee.

In the following example, the last sentence, we expected appears before the first half of the

correlative conjunction and should not be repeated after the second half

We expected not only to be late but also to be exhausted.

OR We expected to be not only late but also exhausted (better)

BUT NOT We expected not only to be late but also we expected to be exhausted.

+ Parallel structure with verbs

When you have more than one verb in a sentence, be sure to make the verbs parallel

by not shifting tenses unnecessarily Also, don't shift from an active to a passive verb

Kate prepared the speech on the plane and delivered it at the conference (parallel: both verbs

are active)

Kate prepared the speech on the plane, and it was delivered by her at the conference (faulty

parallelism: active verb followed by passive verb)

Sometimes sentences use a single verb form with two helping verbs Look at the following example

Robert has in the past and will in the future continue to support the measure (incorrect)

To support belongs with will continue, but not with has If you read the sentence without and will in the future continue, you will see this: Robert has in the past to support the measure

Rewrite the sentence to include a participial form for has.

Robert has in the past supported, and will in the future continue to support, the measure.

OR Robert has supported the measure in the past, and he will continue to support it in the

future

CHAPTER 3 THE STUDY 3.1 Methodology and data

This study, as indicated in Chapter one, was intended to find out the difficulties inrewriting English sentences of first – year students at Faculty of Automobile Enginerring atUTEHY In this section, the data collected from the questionnaire and interview werepresented and interpreted

3.1.1 An overview on current situation of teaching and learning the rewriting English sentences in Faculty of Automobile Enginerring (FAE), UTEHY.

3.1.1.1 Objectives of the English course in FAE,UTEHY

Faculty of Foreign Languages used to be a section of foreign language teachingEnglish as a non- language major course in which two stages of teaching and learning arefocused: the stage for general English and the stage for English for specific purposes Since itwas developed into a faculty, another stage has been established aiming at training students

of non - major English That is helping all students at Faculty of Automobile Enginerring atUTEHY finish successfully B1 Course with fours skills (such as: listening skill, speakingskills, reading skill and writing skill)

The English course for them, therefore, lasts eight terms with different subjects inEnglish The four English skills are taught during four year together with a system of veryprofessional textbooks “New Headway” composed by John and Liz Soars

The main goals of English teaching and learning in FAE are very clear At the end ofthe course, students are required to obtain:

- The ability to communicate with foreigners both in spoken and written English

- The ability to understand and use the professional terms and structures…

3.1.1.2 Learners

Being students at Faculty of Automobile Engineering at this university, they had topass a very challenging university entrance examination The students here come from allparts of the country but almost all of them come from rural areas in the northern provincespart of Vietnam Although their level of English is really not quite high, their ability ofEnglish is quite the same.That is, most of the students have learnt English for at least 7 years

at secondary and high schools However, they are not good at grammar, speaking as well aspronunciation, they were not taught carefully because they essentially studied Math, Physicsand Chemistry to take the University Entrance Examination It means that they know a little

or nothing about doing grammar exercises, they can not speak fluently and most of them donot feel confident in communicating in English The students are between 20 and 21 yearsold, both males and females but females make up for a majority in the target population

3.1.1.3 Teachers

A very important factor to make the learning and teaching of English better isteachers In the section of major English of the foreign language department, there are38teachers of English One special point making the section different from the others is theyoung ages of the teachers Almost all of them are the graduates from many well-knownuniversities of the English majors in Hanoi such as Vietnam national university, HanoiUniversity, or Hanoi Foreign Trade University, etc Almost all of teachers have MA degreesbut many of them are either attending their MA courses so they are quite busy teaching andlearning together

3.1.2 Research questions

The study has to answer the following questions to achieve its aims:

1 What are the difficulties in rewriting English sentencesfor the first-year English major students atFaculty of Automobile Engineering, UTEHY ?

non-2 What are students’ attitudes towards rewriting English sentence exercises atFaculty ofAutomobile Engineering, UTEHY?

3 How to motivate for students in rewriting English sentence lessons at Faculty ofAutomobile Engineering, UTEHY?

3.1.3 The subjects of the study

3.1.3.1 Student subjects