A study on common grammatical errors in speaking skill of 11th grade students at a high school in vietnam = nghiên cứu về lỗi ngữ pháp phổ biến trong kĩ năng nói của học sinh khối 11 tại một trường cấp 3, việt nam

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE NGUYEN MINH PHUONG A STUDY ON COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN SPEAKING SKILL OF 11 th GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNA

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE

NGUYEN MINH PHUONG

A STUDY ON COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN

SPEAKING SKILL OF 11 th GRADE STUDENTS

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ LỖI NGỮ PHÁP PHỔ BIẾN TRONG KĨ NĂNG NÓI CỦA

HỌC SINH KHỐI 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG CẤP 3, VIỆT NAM)

(Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor of

Arts in English)

Major: English Language Teaching Method

Hanoi, 2019

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN MINH PHUONG

A STUDY ON COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN SPEAKING SKILL OF 11 th GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ LỖI NGỮ PHÁP PHỔ BIẾN TRONG KĨ NĂNG NÓI CỦA

HỌC SINH KHỐI 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG CẤP 3, VIỆT NAM)

Major: English Language Teaching Method

SUPERVISOR: TRẦN THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG, MA

Hanoi, 2019

I would like to convey my thanks to all English teachers of Yen Khanh A High school who have assisted me with lots of useful suggestions and provided with rich and detail data for the study

Also, I wish to express my gratitude to all students from 3 classes: 11D, 11E, 11G at Yen Khanh A High school for their participation, enthusiasm, cooperation during the time I surveyed

I owe a special note of gratitude to English teachers of Ha Noi pedagogical University II, who have enthusiastically taught and conveyed their experiences during the time I started to carry the research

Finally, I would like to thank to my family, friends and relatives, who have always paid attention, encouraged me and supported me throughout the process of studying, conducting and completing the topic

ABSTRACT

students at Yen Khanh A High school In the research, the author combined the use of quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve the desired results The participants of the study is a hundred and twenty students of the 11th grade and ten English teachers at Yen Khanh A High school

Research results illustrates that most of the 11th grade students in Yen Khanh A High school suffer from errors related verb form, prepositions, articles, subject-verb agreement as well Besides, from teacher's point of view at Yen Khanh A High school, the main cause of these errors is the direct impact on students 'psychology; the students' grammatical knowledge is not really deep; the influence of Vietnamese grammar while speaking Specially, they strongly emphasize on performance pressure factor, which is the most common ones In order to minimize these errors, teachers should apply suitable and flexible techniques and create opportunities for students to talk as much as possible Meanwhile, students should communicate regularly with teachers and friends,

as well as having suitable methods for self-study

Key words: grammatical errors, speaking skill, 11 th grade, Yen Khanh A High School

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

high school in Vietnam

I certify that no part of this research has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person‘s work without the proper acknowledgement And the results are my own research, all data are collected from the process of survey and data processing, absolutely no data duplication or fabrication

Date submitted:

LIST OF TABLES

Table1: Common prepositions according to Langen 16

Table 2: Tenses and Structures of tenses according to Quirk(2010) 22

Table 3: Compare the present perfect tense and the simple past tense 24

Table 4: Types of tenses 25

Table 5: Frequency of errors based on linguistic description 34

Table 6: Level of student’ errors based on teacher’s views 41

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure1: The role of speaking skill 37

Figure 2: Students‘ interest in English grammar 38

Figure 3: The role of grammar in speaking skill 39

Figure 4: Causes of errors 42

TABLE CONTENT

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

I.Rationale of the study 1

II.The significance of the study 4

III.Aims of the study 4

IV.Research question 4

V.Scope of the study 4

VI.Method of study 5

`VII.Main contents 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.Literature review in brief……… 6

2.Theories of Speaking 7

2.1.Definition of speaking 7

3.Theories of Grammar 9

3.1.Definition of grammar 9

3.2.Roles of grammar in speaking 9

4.Theories of Error 10

4.1.Definitions of Error 10

4.2.Types of error……… 11

5.Theories of Error analysis 13

5.1.Definition of Error analysis 13

5.2.Significance of error analysis 14

6.Theories of Grammatical error 14

6.1.Definition of Grammatical error 14

6.2.Grammatical errors classification 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 29

2.Participants 29

3.1.Observation 30

3.1.1.Reasons for using observation 30

3.1.2.Description of class observation 30

3.2.Survey questionnaires 30

3.2.1.Reasons for using Questionnaire 30

3.2.2.Description of questionnaire 31

3.3.Recording 31

3.3.1 Reasons for recording 31

3.3.2 Description of recording 31

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33

1.Findings and discussion 33

1.1 Data analysis of observation and recording 33

1.2 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire 36

2 Suggested solution 44

2.1 Suggested solutions 44

PART III.CONCUSION 47

1.Summary of the study 47

2.Limitations of the study 48

3.Suggestions for further studies 48

4.Recommendations 49

REFERENCE 51

APPENDICES 54

PART A: INTRODUCTION I.Rationale of the study

As we all know, language plays a very important role in human life, which is the characteristic of human In daily life, we use language to communicate, also to exchange cultural, economic, political expansion and cooperation in many other aspects of life For international communication, English is used as a bridge between different nations, which is spoken by most countries in the world, including Viet Nam Therefore, we can not deny the importance of this international language in today's society

In fact, enhancing learner‘s communicative capability is one of the main goal of teaching and learning foreign language However, to master a new language is not simple, it requires us to learn all four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing In those skills, speaking requires learners to practice regularly and have their own strategies Besides, a good speaker needs to have good interaction with listeners, fluency and speed of utterance Most students find it difficult to speak English at first Speaking, however, in view of Competence Based Curriculum speaking is one of the four fundamental abilities that the students should gain well It has an essential job in communication Speaking can discover in spoken cycle particularly in Joint Construction of Text arrange (Departmen Pendidikan Nasional, 2004) In other word, speaking is considered as the most important skill for the purpose of communication and one of the key helping learners easily conquer this interesting language

Like writing skill, speaking is production skill If when writing, learners have time to think, also correct grammatical structures, then spoken English is uniquely spontaneous, unplanned and produced in real time with no opportunity for editing (Cullen and Kuo 2007), Obviously, when speaking English, learners do not have time

to think, but must deal quickly with their instincts

According to Azar (2007), Grammar can ―help students discover the nature of language, i.e., that language consists of predictable patterns that make what we say, read, hear, and write intelligible‖ It means that without grammar, people would have only individual words or sounds, pictures, and body language to communicate

meaning Brumfit (1984) as well refers to the accuracy of the language content: grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary

Also, in any language, grammar makes significant contribution to speaking skill This implies linguistic use this rules can offer assistance learners think logically, clearly and accuracy when speaking The fact that each person has a different perspective on teaching and learning grammar For those who are just beginning to learn English or have a short-term goal in this subject, grammar may not be important Sellers or drivers still could speak English simply for sales They only need to grasp basic vocabulary related to the item and the price is enough for customers to listen and understand without much grammar However, when passing the first stage of learning English, people focused more on accuracy It is clear that when evaluating someone's speaking ability, we cannot ignore grammar factor According to Mr Nguyen Xuan Quang (the co-founder and trainer of English pronunciation at Moon ESL) it is extremely difficult

to assess students through their pronunciation If focusing on pronunciation only instead of grammar will put great challenges for the whole system: how to evaluate?

In addition, using the right grammar when speaking also shows respect of speakers to the listeners Obviously, when you are good at grammar, you will hear and understand others more easily Without grammar, you will not be able to understand or misunderstand the meaning of the speaker Compare the two following sentences:

- I am in love with Tien Dung

- I was in love with Tien Dung

The difference is unremarkable (am - was), but the relationship between the speaker and "Tien Dung" is very different in two cases

Or another example, the listener may misunderstand the meaning of the speaker

- Can you take me a pen on my bag ?

-OK….I can’t see it On where?

-On my bag, oh I’m sorry in my bag

As you can see in the above case, the speaker asks to mistake the position of the pen

due to misusing preposition on and in, so the listener misunderstand his meaning and

can not find the pen at first

In the past, when Vietnam had not yet renovated its teaching program, teachers mainly used traditional methods: reading and translating When teaching English, most schools focus strongly on the grammar on the written but lack emphasis on speech What‘s more, teachers almost control students during class time In this situation, Viet Nam‘s education sector today has been renewed, focusing on developing all four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing

Nevertheless, one of the biggest barrier facing Vietnamese students is the lack of experience Particularly, most of time students are taught hundreds of grammar rules but it‘s almost impossible for them to apply these grammar rules accurately and effectively to speaking skill Besides, the time spent on practice speaking is too little for students Especially, a notable situation is that students learn just for points, the form of examinations or tests based on reading and writing skill only Therefore, students do not seem to focus on speaking skill much, which leads to deviations in learning English: understand but not applicable Dr Nguyen Thi Hao (Deputy Head of Education Management Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCM) supposed that many students until the 12th grade, when meeting tourists, cannot guide them by using simple directions structures

Regardless of the changes which should be made in concentrates on grammatical errors in spoken language, such research would fill an instructive need by indicating what students have realized and what they have not yet achieved in speaking English Such study also would contribute to writing on linguistic properties of spoken language for materials improvement Hence, with a reason above, there arises a need of a

at a high school in Vietnam”

II The significance of the study

Making mistakes in speaking is unavoidable, and it is also as one of the researched issues in speaking skill for students in Vietnam Hopefully, this research will be helpful for students, teachers and as well as researchers in the related fields:

under-Firstly, for students, this study can help them recognize some common types of grammatical errors in speaking and employ effective learning methods in studying English speaking skill

Moreover, it will be very useful for teachers in teaching speaking skill since they can understand the common mistakes of students

Last but not least, this paper may be laid foundation for researchers to find out more about their related areas

III.Aims of the study

The minor purpose of the study focuses on investigating some common grammatical errors in speaking skill by students of grade 11 at Yen Khanh A High School Also, the reasons that students often make grammatical errors when speaking and then suggest some solutions for teachers could find out the common mistakes students make

IV Research question

As the aims mentioned above, the researcher contains the research question as follows:

Khanh A school?

V Scope of the study

Grammar is considered as important and difficult aspect in speaking However,

because of the limited time and the restricted experience, I just concentrate on analyzing a number of common students‘ grammatical mistakes in speaking skill Hopefully, this graduation paper is able to provide teachers good and useful information about students‘ common mistakes when they speak, so teachers can make relevant change and adaptation to tackle this problem Furthermore, this study discovers the attitude of students towards speaking English, especially is grammar in speaking skill

VI.Method of study

One hundred and twenty students of grade 11 at Yen Khanh A high school were chosen as subjects of the study They were both male and female between 17 and 18

years All of them have been learning English as a compulsory subject at school for at least six years In this thesis proposal, there were three tools used as effective ways to evaluate the results of the thesis: observation, questionnaire and recording Observation and recording were proceeded in the first five weeks with a view to taking note speeches of students I observed the whole class and recorded 5 to 6 students ‗speeches each time The questionnaires were used in the final week by Yen Khanh A‘s students and the assistance of some English teachers at Yen Khanh A High School to investigate

School

VII.Main contents

Part A, Introduction, offers an overview of Rationale, Aims of the study, Research

questions, Scope of the study, Methods of the study and Significance of the study

Part B, Development, gives information on Literature Review, Methodology, Finding

and Discussion, Implications of the study

Chapter I, Literature review, presents language acquisition, theoretical frameworks of

language learning factors and research framework

Chapter II, Methodology, describes in detail the Participants, Research instruments

employed and Procedure of data collection analysis

Chapter III, Findings and discussion, analyzes gathered data and presents the

discussion of research findings And then give suggested solution for teachers

Part C, Conclusion, summary of the study, limitations and suggestion for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.LITERATURE IN BRIEF

Studying on grammatical errors when speaking is always a topic that attracted many previous researchers, including Clark and Clark (1977), Ellis (1997), Burt and Krashen (1982) and so on They all have different ways of analyzing and classifying errors In general, they stated that speech error and error analysis are closely related

In August 2016, Safrida, Usman Kasim conducted a research on "Grammatical

Errors: An Analysis in Speaking Produced by EFL Undergraduate" taken on the third

semester students of Syiah Kuala University on their speaking in Indonesia The

researcher gave a speaking test to the eight of the third semester English Education students of Syiah Kuala University He used convenience sampling technique to limit the subject chosen The writer asked students to talk about their most memorable experience within 5 to 8 minutes Next he recorded the students' speeches He also asked extensive questions related to the recording topics to gather more data Then, the data, which had been recorded were transcribed and analyzed in several steps The findings showed that the most dominant errors that students produced were in

omission In this research, the students mostly neglected the past forms of both regular and irregular verbs On the other hand, the smallest occurrences of errors were in misordering

Besides, Merlyn Simbolon studied ―An Analysis of Grammatical Errors on Speaking Activities” (September 2015) The number of the research subject was 30 students of

the second year students of English Education Department, Palangka Raya University Qualitative research is the method used in this study The errors were indentified and classified according to Linguistic Category Taxonomy and Richard‘s classification The result indicated that the errors made by students were in 6 aspects; errors in production of verb groups, errors in the distribution of verb groups, errors in the use of article, errors in the use of preposition, errors in the use of questions and miscellaneous errors

Furthermore, Hervina also analyzed grammatical errors when speaking with title

"Grammatical error in speaking made by the third year English Department students

at STKIP Abdi Pendidikan Payakumbuh "performed on 3rd year students of STKIP

Abdi Pendidikan Payakumbuh, published in 2014 The researcher used the qualitative method, including: observation, interview and documentation The writer used 3

activities on data analysis: data reduction, data display, drawing/verification The

results illustrated that most students could not master the use of verb groups They also confused in making the agreement between subject and verb In addition, prepositions were one of the obstacles for students when speaking English

In brief, each of type of error has source of error Depending on different contexts as well as different conditions, learners may make different grammatical errors Thus, it is essential to have a study on common grammatical errors in speaking English of

students at Yen Khanh A High School

is to express our thought to others in oral communication, additionally a handle in which a speaker passes on data or messages to listeners

Furthermore, it is generally believed that speaking skill is one of the important skills that must be mastered by a language learner (according to Goh & Burn, 2012) Indeed,

to become a good language learner, we cannot ignore speaking skill because it is the

main part of communication, which can affect others‘life Also, Thornbury (2005) stated that speaking is a speech production that becomes a part of our daily activities

He said that many people produce many words every day in order to express their idea and feeling Obviously, speaking is an essential part of human life, it appears in all our activities When we want to ask a question, or express our opinions, we all have to speak

The spoken language also has its own rules or structures, which are different from the written language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996) For example we can freely use slangs or idioms during speaking or communicating without boring, but in writing, we are not encouraged to use them regularly, even restrictively

Also, while we use mostly active sentences in speaking to ensure nature: Most people love Quang Hai, we use passive sentences more often in writing: Quang Hai is loved

by most people

As Tarigan (1990) speaking is a language ability that is created in child life, which is delivered by listening skill, and at that period speaking skill is found out He also highlighted that in communication, speaking is also a way to strongly reflect our lives Wilson (1983) defines speaking as the relationship between speaker and listener in communication The principle target of speaking is for communication So as to express adequately, the speaker should know precisely what he/she needs to speak or to communicate, he/she must probably assess the impacts of his/her communication to his/her listener, he/she needs to see any rule that based his speaking either in general or

in individual

To sum up, speaking is the production skill where we use words to produce meaningful messages to convey thoughts and feelings to the participants of the conversation

3.Theories of Grammar

3.1.Definition of grammar

Grammar is the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general,

usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and semantics

Grammar is the foundation of our own ability The more we grasp how it works, the more progress we have and the mastery of that language It can help encourage exactness, distinguish equivocalness, and endeavor the lavishness of articulation accessible in English What's more, it can support everybody, instructors of English, yet educators of anything, for all instructing is eventually a matter of getting to grasps with significance

(David Crystal, ―In World and Deed‖, TES Teacher, April 30, 2004)

3.2.Roles of grammar in speaking

Grammar plays a very important and diverse role, especially in everyday communication The role of grammar can take many dimensions and varies according

to the situation and context in which it is used (according to Zakaria Dalil, June 2013)

.One of the upper most traits of grammar is that it enables learners to make correct sentences, be they spoken or written

―We know that the strength of a tree lies in its roots Similarly the strength of any spoken language lies in its grammar.‖

(Blog, how to improve spoken English)

It means grammar is the foundation when learning a foreign language

Also, Marcel (1853) focused the significant role of grammar on his book that grammar forms for us the habit of correctness of language, while helping us to think more logically, more orderly and more clearly

Moreover, a proper use of grammar is a sign of respect, both for speakers and listeners (Clack, 2010) It means that ―A person with a poor grammar skill can form negative impression on the first time meeting and this may last for a long time‖

( https://www.ukessays.com/essays) Besides, it helps learners to discover the true nature of language, other skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing thus also become easier to understand Without grammar, we will only have words, images, sounds and individual body expressions to

convey information Grammar is the weaving that creates the fabric (Betty Azar,

2007)

Additionally, Swan (1998) held believe that knowing how to build and use certain structures makes communication possible Without the connection between these structures, even simple sentences become very confusing In fact that, correctly

understanding English structures, we can communicate much more fluently He also asserted that in some social contexts, the wrongness of the speaker's use of grammar can lose the integration and arousing prejudice, a poor speaker may be considered disrespectful or uneducated

4.Theories of Error

4.1.Definitions of Error

According to collins dictionary An error is something you have done which is

considered to be incorrect or wrong, or which should not have been done

Different researchers defined different views J Richard et al (2002) described the error may be the wrong way to use a word, speech act or a grammatical structure in such a way it seems imperfect and significant of an incomplete learning

Meanwhile, Norrish (1983, p.7) considered errors occur according to a system, learners may not understand or understand but apply wrongly when practicing This is really problematic because if it is not edited from the beginning, it can become a habit and very difficult to overcome later

As James (1998) considered an error as grammatical correctness and acceptance He judges errors according to ignorance, it is the research on linguistic ignorance, surveys about those mistakes and how people face such ignorance He stated that the ignorance of learners of the target language can be shown following as four categories: grammaticality, acceptability, correctness and strangeness and infelicity

Hendrickson (1987) cited that errors are ‗signal‘ that indicate an actual learning process taking place and that the learner has not yet mastered or shown a well-structured competence in the target language In other word, the error is a signal that the learning process of the learner is having problems, which may be due to the lack of professionalism or the ability of the learner to target the language

It is declared by Brown (2007, p.258) that error as noticeable derivation from the grammar of a native speaker, reflects the competence of the learner and reveals a portion of learners‘ competence in the target language Errors are factors to reflect learners' qualifications and attitudes towards the purpose of language learning

Moreover, Ellis (1997, p.17) revealed errors reflect holes in a students' information; they happen on the grounds that the student does not realize what is correct The fact is that learners make mistakes but they are not aware, this is because the learner's knowledge is not deep enough to realize and correct for themselves

because learners are at the beginning stage or their knowledge are not good

In addition, the cause of making mistakes is due to the difficulty and complexity language itself ( Heydari and Bagheri ,2012,p.10)

Heydari and Bagheri (2012; as cited in Brown, 1994) classified sources of errors into the following categories: Interference transfer, which is the negative influence of the learner‘s mother tongue Secondly is intralingual transfer, the negative transfer of items within the target language In other words, the incorrect generalisation of the rules within the target language Besides, context of learning, which overlaps both types of transfers For example, the context around the classroom includes references to materials, or teachers themselves may be false models In a classroom context, the teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to make a wrong generalisation about the language Last but not least, communication strategies, which are the conscious employment of verbal mechanisms for communicating an idea when linguistic forms are not available to the learner for various reasons

Burt and Kiparsky (1972) showed there are four main types of errors based on surface structure descriptions , including omissions (This is book); additions such as regularizations (two deers) and double markings (I didn't ate it); misinformation errors subcategorized into regularization errors (two childs), archi-forms (this dog here, this dogs here, this dog there, this dogs there), and alternating forms (this dogs, those dog), and misordering errors (Always I go / Where you are going) These examples can be found in Burt and Kiparsky (1972)

Furthermore, one of the classification is to base on the type of linguistic

categories They are phonology /pronunciation, syntax and morphology/grammar, semantics and lexicon /meaning and vocabulary In detail, grammar comprises subject -verb agreement, verb form, preposition, word form, article, pronoun, tense, plurality , question and negation Such a classification is useful to educational modules designers in the association of units in language learning course books, and

to a lesser extent, to language analysis, who can use this sort of categories as one of the approaches to compose the consequences of their research Politzer and Ramirez

(1973) is based on this type of classification.( David E Shaffer, The Internet TEFL Journal September 2005)

In conclusion, errors are classified differently followed by many different researchers‘ perspectives In order to investigate grammatical errors committed by students, the researcher would like to adapt linguistic description of errors in oral interactions way of classifying errors and just concentrate on grammatical errors due to the scope of the study

5.Theories of Error analysis

5.1.Definition of Error analysis

The theory of error analysis was found in the 1970s by Corder and his colleagues Corder (1967, cited in Heydari, 2012) defines Error analysis is a description of the interlanguage ability of language learners and the investigation about the language of the second language learner is called error analysis It means that one of the most points

of error analysis to assist instructors survey more precisely what works would be fundamental for language learners in order to help them limit the most common errors Richards et.al (1985:96), also mentioned Error analysis is the study of errors made by

the second and foreign language learners It has been conducted to recognize

procedures which learners utilize in language learning, to track the causes of

learner‘s mistakes, get data on common troubles in language learning or on how to get ready instructing materials

Brown (1980) defined error analysis as the procedure to observe, analyze, and classify the deviations of the standards of the second language and afterward to uncover the frameworks worked by student It is the way for the teaching-oriented and grasp how their receiving student, helps detect errors that students have, since then supports methods for students to overcome

Crystal (1987) pointed out error analysis is a method for distinguishing, classifying and deliberately interpreting the unsatisfactory structures created by somebody learning a foreign language , using any of the standards and methodology given by

linguistics

By general, error analysis is a term used by researchers for studying learners‘ errors

in learning a new language

5.2.Significance of error analysis

Error analysis is principally important and necessary because, as Jack Richards refers

to Corder‘s observation that Error analysis is only done when the learner makes a mistake, this is really necessary because it is the basis for the teacher to approach the mistakes that the learner has made Therefore, both errors and error analysis are inescapable portion of teaching and learning

Sharma (1980.VI, 74-83.) supposed that error analysis would thus be able to give a solid help for teaching Error analysis is really useful in language learning, because it helps researchers, textbook editors, teachers discover common types of errors from which to design exercises to focus on error and fix them

Corder(1974, p.125) described the investigation of errors is a piece of the examination of the procedure of language learning In this regard it takes after methodologically the investigation of the securing of the native language It provides us with an image of the semantic improvement of a student and may give us signs with regards to the learning procedure

Richards et al (1992 ) stated three main aims of studying of errors are :Firstly,

identify strategies which learners use in language teaching Additionally, identify the causes of learners‘errors is also main purpose of his research Moreover , discovering errors is also a valuable resource for teaching and developing teaching materials.(cited

in Khansir 2008) It is clear that error analysis as a tool for instructing or the

improvement of educating materials, also can offer the assistance instructors assess students‘cognitive improvement

6.Theories of Grammatical error

6.1.Definition of Grammatical error

Grammatical error is a term used in prescriptive grammar to describe an instance

of faulty, unconventional, or controversial usage, such as a misplaced modifier or

an inappropriate verb tense Also called a usage error Compare grammatical

error with correctness Grammatical errors are usually distinguished from (though

sometimes confused with) factual errors, logical fallacies, misspellings, typographical errors, and faulty punctuation

(https://www.thoughtco.com) Burt and Kiparsky (1972) supposed grammatical errors belong to ―local errors‖ which including linguistically morphological, vocabulary, syntactic, and orthographic errors, while worldwide errors implies informative mistakes which show students misconstrue conversational messages It is clear that there are 2 cases of misuse of grammar: in writing, errors related to vocabulary, syntax, spelling…and when speaking, the person involved in communication misunderstands the meaning of the other In addition, Hsu (2013,p.514) highlighted these categories of grammatical errors thus means inaccurate form, semantics meanings, and use L2 learners will use L2 accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately after mastering these three dimensions, these errors belong to local errors which are linguistically morphological, lexical, syntax, and orthographic errors, while global errors means communicative errors which shows that language learners misunderstand the message in communication

6.2.Grammatical errors classification

a.Preposition

According to oxford dictionary, preposition is a word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause, as in ‗the man on the platform‘, ‗she arrived after dinner‘, ‗what did you do

it for?‘

Wishon and Burks (1980, p.288) preposition indicates the connection such as position, place, direction, time, manner, agent, possession, and condition between their objects and other parts of the sentence Prepositions are connective words that demonstrate the connections between the nouns following them and one of the basic sentence elements S, V, O, C Below is a list of common prepositions according to Langen (415)

Prepositions:

Table1: Common prepositions according to Langen

The wrong usage of preposition can be as follow :

Error: Duy Pinky is really interested Football

Correction: Duy Pinky is really interested in Football

Error: I spend a lot of money in clothes

Correction: I spend a lot of money on clothes

Error: Van Thanh got a promotion in last November

Correction: Van Thanh got a promotion last November

b.Question

As definition of collin dictionary, a question is something that you say or write in order to ask a person about something Or If you question someone, you ask them

a lot of questions about something

Cambridge dictionary identifies question is a sentence or phrase used to find out

information It is an exam, a problem that tests a person‘s knowledge or ability questions start with what, when, where, who, whom, which, whose, why and how We use them to ask for information The answer cannot be yes or no (From English

Wh-grammar today) There are two main kinds of questions in English:

General or Yes/No Questions

Regular questions that can be replied with a basic "yes" or "no" are coherently called yes/no questions

Eg: Do you like Van Hau?

Can I call Quang Dai?

Special or Wh-Questions

A special question, uses a specific word toward the start of the sentence The questions words who, what, where, when, why, how, what number of, and so on., are used to start the question:

Eg: Where are you from?

How far is it from your house to the bank?

The wrong use of question can be as follow:

Error: How you find the way to get there?

Correction: How can/do you find the way to get there?

Eg1: Error: So, you are really free tonight?

Correction : So, Are you really free tonight?

Eg 2: Error: -Can you bring this pen for me ?

-Here are you

Correction: Can you bring this pen for me ?

-Here you are

Eg: Error : Hey, do you busy tonight?

Correction: Hey, are you busy tonight?

c.Word Form

In linguistics (particularly morphology and lexicology), word formation refers to the

ways in which new words are made on the basis of other words or morphemes Also

called derivational morphology

(www.thoughtco.com)

There is no formal or careful method for realizing which suffix to include while changing a word from one form to another The strategies for including addition shapes differ A few examples exist, contingent upon whether the starting point of the word is Middle English, Latin, French, Greek, German, and so forth Indeed, even local speakers require a word reference when attempting to choose a specific significance For example, compare uninterested, disinterested and not interested

A word might not have each of the four word forms For instance, the noun fun is broadly utilized alongside its two adjective forms fun (1675-85) and funny (1750-60) However, use of fun as a verb is uncommon and as an adverb is non-existent

A word might be recently instituted (made up) and not yet have different structures

Take the word selfie is an example, it is broadly used as a noun, yet no verb, adjective

or adverb forms exist The verb twerk can be used as a verb, but no one say a twerk

(noun), twerky (adjective) or twerkily (adverb)

(www.grammar-quizzes.com)

Word form may include incorrect use of noun, adjective, verb and adverb forms of the morpheme

Eg1:Error: Trong Dai sings so beautiful

Correction: Trong Dai sings so beautifully

Eg2: Error: Thank you for your inviting

Correction: Thank you for your invitation

d.Articles

In reference to English language grammar, the use of articles is divided into two main types: definite and indefinite articles These articles are considered to be adjectives, as they are usually used before a noun in the English language

According to the Oxford dictionary, ―definite articles‖ refer to the word ―the‖ as it is indicative of something specific that is specific singular, plural, uncountable nouns

On the other hand, the ―indefinite articles‖ unusually refer to the use of ―an‖ and

―a‖ which indicate something unspecific Article a is used before a word that

starts with a consonant sound such as a cat, a dog, a pen, etc while article an is

used before a word starting with a vowel sound such as an actor, an old man, an

engineer, etc…

The student used the wrong article; the student add article or did not use any articles

Eg1: Error: Linda Tham always play piano whenever she is free

Correction : Linda Tham always play the piano whenever she is free

Eg2: Error: It takes me a hour to go to school on foot

Correction : It takes me an hour to go to school on foot

e.Verb form

In English grammar, the base form of a verb is considered as the simplest form It

exists without a special ending or suffix It's the form that appears in dictionary entries

lt is also known as the plain form, simple form, or stem

( www.thoughtco.com) According to www.englishteachermelanie.com, there are 5 forms of a Verb

The base form is used as the base of pretty much every other verb form

Eg: speak, play, study, sing, dance, buy…

It is also used to form the infinitive by adding ‗to‘

Eg: I want to eat more

Adding -s (or -es) to the verb

Eg: Mi Tam always sings whenever she is happy

Hung Dung finishes his homework so early

There are a bunch of verbs that have an unpredictable third individual singular form Eg: Van Lam has a lot of money (have)

It is 7p.m now (to be)

My brother does karate (do)

Adding -ed to the verb infinitive

Eg:Ding Trong called me last week

My mom cooked tomato soup yesterday

The past simple tense can be V-P2 form

Eg :Last year, Lam Tay bought a new motorbike

I spoke to my penpal last week

-The present participle is used in the continuous tenses

Eg: My dad is reading magazine

-The present participle can be also as an adjective

Eg: The film is so boring

There are different types of the past participle For regular verbs, the past participle is formed by adding -ed to the verb infinitive It is the same as the past simple form

Eg: Tien Linh closed the door carefully

Quang Hai turned off the light before leaving room

For some irregular verbs, the past participle is similar to the past simple form:

Eg: I bought this book (buy – past simple)

I have bought this book (buy – past participle)

However, the past simple form are different from the past participle

Eg: Xuan Truong has given her a lot of money so many times (give)

I have never gone this way (go)

Form of the verb has been used incorrectly

Eg1: Error: She often read book and listen to music at the same time

Correction: She often reads book and listens to music at the same time

Eg2: Error: Lam Tay is wearing glasses to avoid to be recognised

Correction: Lam Tay is wearing glasses to avoid being recognised

Eg3: Error: Last year I went to Da Nang and eat a lot of seafood

Correction: Last year I went to Da Nang and ate a lot of seafood

f.Subject- Verb agreement

When writing and speaking in present tenses, the subjects and verbs in a sentence need to be in the same form, or, ―agree‖ with each other, and that‘s called subject-verb agreement (SVA) Subjects and verbs have single and plural forms, and it‘s important not to mix them up All sentences need a subject and a verb to be complete, but if they don‘t match, the sentence won‘t make sense!

(https://englishsentences.com/subject-verb-agreement)

of singular subject and singular verb or plural subject and plural verb Below are a few rules of subject and verb agreement:

-A singular subject goes with a singular verb, a plural subject goes with a plural verb: Examples:

Many people visit Ha Long bay every year

Each students is a different color

-In some cases subjects and verbs words are isolated by a word or an phrase At the point when that occurs, we now and then neglect to influence them to concur in number As in the accompanying sentences

Example: The number of days in a week is 7

Mistakes in use of Subject- verb agreement:

Error: A flock of birds are flying in the sky

Correction: A flock of birds is flying in the sky

g.Plural Form

Collin dictionary defined the plural form of a word is the form that is used when referring to more than one person or thing

Making mistakes in plural forms, perhaps the influence of mother tongue -a conclusion reached by Marlyna Maros et al (2007) Based on the analysis of 120 members of the student, he pointed out that the number or state of the subject does not affect the verb structure in the predicates (cited in Marlyna Maros et al., 2007, p.1) Moreover, an inflectional language, in which prefixes or suffixes play a significant grammatical role (Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, as cited in Jing, Tindall & Nisbet, 2006,

There are several nouns that have irregular plural form

Eg: child- children; man-men; woman-women; person-people

Students may make mistakes in usage of plural form

Error: Most woman like shopping in their free time

Correction: Most women like shopping in their free time

h.Tense

The tense of a verb reveal to you when someone did something or when something happened or existed In English, there are three main tenses: the present, the past, and the future

As Quirk R (2010), there are just 2 fundamental tenses in English: present and past tense which can't be considered independently from 4 aspects (signify the way in which the activity is performed): simple, progressive, perfective progressive aspect

Ved/P2

Table 2: Tenses and Structures of tenses according to Quirk(2010)

There is no undeniable future tense in English comparing to the time/tense connection for present and past Rather there are a few potential outcomes for indicating future time Futurity, methodology, and angle are firmly related, and future time is rendered by means of modal auxiliaries or semi-auxiliaries, or by simple present structures or progressive forms

Shift in tense happens when students combine at least two tenses which are not synchronic in a sentence

Error: My mom promised that she will give me a big gift on my next birthday

Correction: My mom promised that she would give me a big gift on my next birthday

In prescriptive language, authors are forewarned to stay away from superfluous moves in tense Unmotivated shifts between present and past may misunderstanding

meaning and make learners confuse (Richard Nordquist , 2018)

The general truth is an occasion happening in the past or in the present and in incredible plausibility will occur in the future

Example: The earth turns 360º every day

Plants grow in soil

Fire is hot

Sometimes, The general truth regularly makes challenges a sentence in the past tense since students will in general utilize the past tense to express the general truth for this situation

Error: Yesterday, my teacher taught us that people always depended on earth's

resources to survive

Correction: Yesterday, my teacher taught us that people always depend on earth's

resources to survive

We use the past simple for past events or activities which have no association with the present and the present perfect for activities which began previously are as yet

happening now or for completed activities which have an association with the present

Present Perfect Simple tense Simple past tense

Incomplete actions that began in the

past and proceed to the present:

Ex: I've known Quang Hai for five

years (and I still know him)

Complete actions

Ex: I knew Quang Hai for five

years (but now we lost touch)

A complete action in someone's life

(when the person is still alive: life

Ex :My great-grandfather went to

Hue four times

A complete action with a result in the

present

Ex: I've failed the exam! (The result

is that I can't enter my dream university

now)

A finished action with no result in the present

Ex: I failed the exam last year It

was terrible! (Now there is no result )

With an unfinished time word like:

This week, this month, today

Ex: I‘ve seen my old friend today

With a finished time word such as last week, last month, last year, yesterday

Ex: I saw my old friend yesterday

Table 3: Compare the present perfect tense and the simple past tense