Optimizing graphic organizers to improve students’ reading comprehension

PART A- INTRODUCTION I The reason of selecting the topic In the trend of globalization today, the importance of English cannot be denied and ignored because it is widely used everywhere in the world Along with the development of technology, medicine, engineering and education, English plays a very important role Therefore, learning English becomes even more necessary than ever It can be said that committing errors when learning a second or foreign language is unavoidable This is a natural part of learning process In the past, people considered errors as the result of ineffective teaching or a sign of failure However, there has been a positive change in the attitude towards errors recently According to Richards (1973: 1), the learners’ errors indicate both the state of learner’s knowledge and the way in which a second language is learned In other words, errors now are viewed as an important part of learning process because they can provide useful information about language learning Therefore, it is advisable for teachers to conduct Error Analysis at the beginning of the course before all the language items have been fully learnt and errors are fossilized so that the teachers can improve their teaching skills and the instructional process It is the fact that English has long been a compulsory subject in any Vietnamese high school curriculum Trieu son I high school is also not an exception Students are supposed to complete the general English program After that, they change to study English for specific purposes such as English for communication and English for taking exams At the beginning of the term, the 10th form students have to take a placement test to identify their levels If the students cannot pass the test, they will take part in the General English course at Elementary level However, since most of the students of Trieu son I High school, their English proficiency is not very high Every year, it is about half of the 10th form students are classified to study in elementary-level English course As a teacher of English, I am aware of the fact that these students may commit a considerable number of errors during their learning process Hence, I have decided to conduct an error analysis after the first three weeks to describe and explain errors made by the elementary level students of Trieu son I high school This will beneficial for me to know some types and causes of errors that my students commit in order to determine the adequate sequence and emphasis of instruction as well as to implement necessary remedy The above reasons have inspired me to conduct my initiative with the title " Some tips to help Students solve error identification exercises quickly, effectively" II Basis of practice: The study aims at identifying, categorizing and describing common types of errors in writing made by students at Trieu son I high school Furthermore, it also covers the implications of findings for teaching Since the study aims to identify common types of errors in writing faced by 10th form students at Trieu son I high school after the first term of studying, the language items provided in the samples is limited in the units of the text book Most of the students in class 10C4 and 10 C5 were chosen as the subjects of the study Most of them have learned English in high schools However, for some reasons, they accumulate very little knowledge of English English as an international language, is taught in most of schools; kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools and also senior high schools In senior high school, students are expected to be able to perform their own error identification exercises skill highly Moreover, they are expected to be able to practice like an English native speaker English is also taught in Trieu son High school, however, I realize that there is no motivation for students to solve error identification exercises in English here Based on interviewing with the teachers, many problems faced by the students The students are not confident to writing or doing exercises in English,tests, the teachers used monotonous method (giving material, listen, and giving exercises) then teacher is the main source of the teaching learning process The effects from these phenomenon students tend to be lazy to pay attention to the materials, feel sleepy, make conversation each other and the class cannot control the English writing ability of the students is categorized as low ability This situation is revealed from the mark students got Therefore, the students cannot achieve the criteria Following is the convey on the quality of English of classes through error identification exercise tests: 10C2, 10C5 at the beginning of the first term in school year 2017-2018 Class 10C4 10C5 Number of students 40 38 Mark 7- % 5,0 7,89 6-7 % 12,5 15,79 3-4 26 23 % 65 60,5 0-2 % 17,5 15,8 From the problems above I conclude to increase students sentences ability there are two factors, internal factor and external factor that should be improved Internal factors come from the students There are motivation, self confidence, and background knowledge While, external factors are teacher, method, and environment It is a totally different environment from the secondary school environment If they wish to be a good English speaker, they must put a lot of efforts and find opportunities to help them solve error idenfication exercises PART B- DEVELOPMENT I Theoretical background Concept of error In 1987, Norrish (cited in Hasyim, 2002) stated that “error is a systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong” Cunningworth (cited in Hasyim, 2002) in 1987 gave another definition of “errors” as “systematic deviations from the norms of the language being learned” In brief, it is agreeable that error is a “systematic deviation” from the rules of the target language system It is also essential here to make a distinction between mistake and error In 1985, Richards et.al (cited in Hasyim, 2002) stated that “mistake is made by a learner when writing or speaking which is caused of lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or other aspects of performance” From these definitions, it can be concluded that whereas errors are caused by lack of knowledge about the target language and not recognized by the learners, mistakes are caused by lack of attention, carelessness and self-correctable by the learners Error Analysis (EA) Error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors learners make As to Brown (cited in Hasyim, 2002), error analysis is defined as “the process to observe, analyze, and classify the deviations of the rules of the second language and then to reveal the systems operated by learner.” Choon (1993) mentioned some stages which are involved in Error Analysis: identifying errors, classifying errors, analyzing causes of errors and remeditating for errors According to her, the errors are classified according to categories or subcategories such as semantic errors (wrong word, wrong form, poor choice of word, slang or colloquialism), and syntactic errors (tense, preposition, article, spelling, word order, subject-verb agreement However, she emphasized that the system of classifying errors should be flexible and one should let the error determine the category Transfer errors and Developmental errors Basically, errors are classified into types: transfer errors (mother tongue inference) and developmental errors a Transfer errors (mother tongue inference) According to Corder (1971) transfer errors occur when “the learner’s L1 habits (patterns, systems or rules) interfere or prevent him/her, to some extent, from acquiring the patterns and rules of the second language” This is understood as negative transfer from the first language to the target language Students who commit transfer errors often reply on the first language as the strategy of communication They merely use literal translation to overcome their difficulties in expressing ideas b Developmental errors This type of errors is independent of the first language As to Richards (1974) errors are not only caused by the interference from the mother tongue, but also what he calls overgeneralization, false concepts hypothesized, incomplete application of rules, cross association, and fossilization Overgeneralization: According to Jakobovits overgeneralization relates to “the use of previously available strategies in new situations” Ignorance of rule restrictions: These errors occur when ESL learners “ignore the limitations of the existing structures and apply these structures in contexts where this is impossible.” Incomplete application of rules: These errors reflect the degree of rule acquisition and the ability correct utterances to be produced False concepts hypothesized: Brown (1987) pointed out that “Fossilization referred to as a phenomenon that takes place as a learner internalizes an incorrect form.” II Analyzing some common types of errors in writing made by students at Trieu son I High School All the errors in the sample mainly belong to sources of errors: transfer errors (mother tongue inference) and developmental errors These errors are also classified into these following categories and subcategories: Grammatical errors (verbs, prepositions, articles, singular & plural, adjectives & adverbs, possessive case ) Syntactic errors (coordination, word order , fragments) Semantic errors Spelling errors Transfer Errors (Mother Tongue Inference) (table in the appendix) a Grammatical errors One of the typical features of Vietnamese learners at elementary level, especially those who just start to learn English is that they only try to memorize the individual words without caring of phrases and grammar rules They merely combine individual English words into a sentence with Vietnamese grammar rules + Verbs In English, “verb” is considered as an indispensable component of a sentence A verb can change in various forms to indicate tense, or to show its agreement with the subject However, this is on the contrary in Vietnamese There is no difference between the form of verb in the third person singular and the form of verb in the third person plural When necessary, Vietnamese grammar can express time adequately by means of placing one of several aspect-marking particles in front of the main verb, notably “đã” (for past), “đang” (for present), and “sẽ” (for future) Therefore, Vietnamese students often fail to make sentence with correct verb E.g My family have members (wrong sentence)  The student who writes the above sentence violates the rule of subjectverb agreement Another common error is the way students omit auxiliary verb when they want to make negative sentences E.g Lan not like learning English (wrong sentence) Students tend to refer “not” as “không” in Vietnamese and they think that “not” is enough to make negative sentences: “Lan khơng thích học tiếng anh.” Students also have a tendency to ignore the grammar rule “like + Ving” E.g I like drink milk (wrong sentence) This error can be explained by the fact that in Vietnamese two verbs can stand side by side without changing the form of the latter verb: “Tơi thích uống sữa.” + Prepositions Prepositions pose a great difficulty for an ESL learner since there are various prepositions in English that have the same function As a result, when students are not sure which preposition to use in a certain sentence, they often compare that sentence with its Vietnamese equivalence, giving a literal translation of that Vietnamese preposition in English However, prepositions seldom have a one to one correspondence between English and Vietnamese A Vietnamese preposition may be translated by several English prepositions and vice versa Wrong Sentences Correct Sentences I want to talk with him I want to talk to him Go into the gate Go through the gate John is married with Susan John is married to Susan + Articles Articles in English can be viewed as one of the most difficult areas for Vietnamese learners There are two types of English articles: indefinite article (a/an), definite article (the) English speakers sometimes use indefinite article, sometimes definite article and sometimes no article at all Because there is no exact counterpart of a, an, the in Vietnamese, Vietnamese learners of English frequently confuse to decide which one should be used This uncertainty causes them to write such flawed English sentences as: She’s cook We like going to sea on holiday She works in restaurant  Correct sentences: She’s a cook We like going to the sea on holiday She works in a restaurant + Singular & Plural While Vietnamese not differentiate the form of plural nouns and singular nouns, English plural nouns are always attached by suffix “-s” Hence, a lot of students at high school level forget to add “-s” after the English plural nouns E.g My brother and my sister is student (wrong sentence)  Correct sentence: My brother and my sister are students + Adjectives & Adverbs Most of the students can not make a distinction between the function of English adjectives and English adverbs Thus, this leads to the wrong use of adjectives and adverbs Wrong Sentences Correct Sentences I very love my mother and my father I love my mother and my father very much My family lives very happy My family lives happily b Syntactic errors + Coordination In English, items in a series are separated by commas, and the coordinate conjunction 'and' is used just before the last word On the other hand, in Vietnamese, sometimes people omit conjunction 'and' before the last word E.g There are members in my family: my mother, my father, my sister, I  Correct sentence: There are members in my family: my mother, my father, my sister, and I + Word order The word order in Vietnamese sentence is sometimes very different from this in English sentences That is the reason why when students use translation from Vietnamese into English, it will result in some very amusing sentences Wrong Sentences Correct Sentences My number phone is 0954321968 My phone number is 0954321968 My sister is a teacher good My sister is a good teacher He is handsome more than me He is more handsome than me c Fragments A fragment is a sentence that is missing a subject or a verb Students tend to commit this error when they would like to express more complicated ideas They will translate word by word from Vietnamese into English as the strategy to overcome their difficulties in expression Wrong Sentences Correct Sentences I live in a family has people I live in a family which has people My mother likes cooking for My mother likes cooking for family and family and she thinks happy she thinks it is happy d Semantic errors “Semantic error” is the result of the overuse of literal translation which causes the confusion and misunderstanding from the readers Wrong Sentences Correct Sentences My son is age My son is My father name is Nam and a driver My father’s name is Nam and he is a driver My father and mother work farmer My father and my mother are farmers Developmental Errors (table the appendix) a Grammatical errors + Verbs be + infinitive for infinitive: (overgeneralization) Wrong Correct Mary and Sara are want candy Mary and Sara want candy infinitive + ing for infinitive (rote learning) Wrong Correct I often going for a walk with my friends I often go for a walk with my friends infinitive + s for infinitive: (overgeneralization) Wrong Correct They goes to London They go to London wrong tense: (incorrect understanding of rules) Wrong Correct He’s watching TV everyday He watches TV everyday be + not + infinitive for auxiliary verb + not + infinitive: (overgeneralization) Wrong Correct Nam isn’t like mending cars Nam doesn’t like mending cars wrong form after auxiliary : (overgeneralization) Wrong Correct Nams doesn’t likes mending cars Nam doesn’t like mending cars be + infinitive for be + Ving: (incomplete application of rules) Wrong Correct I am learn with them I am learning with them subject-verb agreement: (overgeneralization) Wrong Correct My brother and my sister is student My brother and my sister are students + Prepositions (incomplete understanding of rules) Wrong Correct I’m from toTrieu son I’m from Trieu son Please ask to help if you want Please ask for help if you want He isn’t good in French He isn’t good at French + Articles (ignorance of rule restriction) Wrong It is an red apple The first sister is a accountant Correct It is a red apple The first sister is an accountant + Singular & Plural (overgeneralization) Wrong Correct She teachs English in high school She teaches English in a high school They have childs They have children The boy ’s year old The boy ’s years old + Possessive case (incomplete understanding of rules) Wrong Correct My father name is John My father’s name is John What is He address? What is his address? b Syntactic errors Fragment (ignorance of rule restriction) Wrong I proud of them My mother a teacher Teacher very good Correct I am proud of them My mother is a teacher My teacher is very good c Semantic errors (incomplete understanding of rules) Wrong Correct I’m 20 old I’m 20 years old d Spelling errors Wrong Correct My mother is a docter My mother is a doctor (Overgeneralization) Implication According to the study, students at Trieu son I high school are facing two main types of errors: transfer errors (mother tongue inference) and developmental errors From the findings, teachers can also determine some suitable teaching methods to help students overcome these difficulties First, it would be very useful to encourage students to read more reading texts and learn some interesting expressions and phrases rather than only trying to memorize the individual words Secondly, teachers should create more group work activities in the class as well as group work assignments at home so that students can exchange their experience in learning and helping each other In addition, teachers can assign some common topics for students to write in class and at home These writing tasks can be assigned for group works so that students in the same group can check errors for each other After that, some samples of their writings need to be transcribed and distributed to them for correction and analysis so that they can learn from their mistakes 10 Through the assessment in class 10C4 nd 10C5with 78 students of my charge, I achieved the following result: Class sizes 40 Good (8-10) = 7,5% Above average (7-8) 13 = 32,5% Average (5-6) Weakness (3-4) 17= 42,5% =17,5% Poverty (0-2) = 0% And class 10 C5: Class sizes 38 Good (8-10) 05=13,16 % Above Average Weakness average (4-6) (3-4) (7-8) 15= 39,47% 16=42,12% = 5,26% Poverty (0-2) = 0% Comparing the results between the two above tables, we see that the number of students of my charge getting average marks has increased This means that most of the students know how to not only correct the mistakes but also each kind of sentences quickly and effectively They tried their best to find out key words in eachsentences, classify each of them, and then scan the the sentences to choose the correct answer By this way, they have enough time to finish their task in advance Through the process of applying these methods to improve mistakes comprehension skills for the 10th graders at Trieu Son I high school, I have found out that most students are interested in doing exercises periods Especially for weak students, less boldly than while doing exercises or doing sentences activities They feel more confident of doing the words, comprehension tasks, and know how to each kind of them under the pressure of time By adapting doing exercises in the books and using these above methods to them, teacher help students become familiar with the mistake tasks appearing in the state’s high school graduation exams Furthermore, this also helps them improve their Speaking, reading,writing,listening,doing exercises skills and find out the best method to choose correct option for each kind of skills 11 PART C- CONCLUSION Summary of major findings The study is intended to investigate the common errors in writing made by students at Trieu son I high School in Thanh Hoa In general, the study has successfully achieved its aim It identifies, categorizes and describes common types of errors in writing of the students as well as covers the implications of findings for teaching Data used in the study are collected through the progress test of the 10th form students in Trieu son I high school From the data, the researcher found that most of errors can be attributed to the first language transfer (transfer errors) and an over application of L2 (developmental errors) Then, the researcher classified errors into smaller categories to describe and explain them in details Finally, the implications of findings for teaching were drawn out Limitation of the study Although the outcomes of the study have provided a number of valuable concerns, due to time limits, lack of resources, the conductor’s ability and experience, it is obvious that the study has got a number of shortcomings Firstly, as the number of participants in this study is a modest one, the study is not intended to be generalized Secondly, the scope of the study is only limited to the knowledge students learnt in the first term of the text book , so some other sound errors might not appear Mastering error skill is very important for all English learners From the writing lesson students can learn about the world, culture, science, technology, art and other aspects they are interested in This helps them broaden their knowledge Furthermore, having a good error skill helps students develop other skills, for instance, writing and speaking, also learn more vocabulary and grammar structures The classification of questions and the adaptation of the doing exercises books make students ease a lot of pressure and difficulties when doing comprehension exercises This, as a result, helps them find out the answers quickly and accurately 12 I hope to receive the support from my colleagues to perfect the research Thank you very much! Thanh Hoa, May, 20 th 2018 I strongly ensure this is my own work Writer Lê Thị Tâm 13 PART D- APPENDIX PROGRESS TEST Time allowed: 45’ I Choose the correct answer (1p) Lan……… An English teacher A is B am C are D does Khoi …………… swimming everyweek A.going B is going C go D.goes They ’re our ………… A child B children C childrens D son My family …………… have a new car A not B don’t C no D doesn’t Do you have ………… novels? A a B an C D the II Correct the mistakes (1p) I have two leaves …………………………………………………… I like learn maths …………………………………………………… She’s loves her job ………………………………………………… It’s an red umbrela ………………………………………………… What is Lan address? ………………………………………………… III Complete sentences with a verb from the box (1p) am / am not does / does not is / is not / not are / are not How …………….you go to school? Rome …………….in Spain It ………….in Italy I and my son………… like tea ………… She have two breads? IV.Complete the fllowing sentences, using the correct form of the verbs in brackets (3p) 14 5.They would be rather offended if I (not/go)…………………to see them 6.He(go)………… to study abroad If his family had had enough money 7.Careful! You(knock)…………………………that jug off the table 8.According to the weather forecast, It (snow)…………………tomorrow 9.The boss telephoned me…………… (invite)me to a party 10.If I were years older,I(help)………………….my mother more V In each of the following sentences has a mistake Find out them in four underlined words and then correct them (2p) 11.There was the big tree in the garden8.The children are exciting about their new clothes -………………………………………………………………………… 12.It’s sometimes embarrassed when you have to ask people for money -…………………………………………………………………………… 13.By this time tomorrow,the announcement will have made by the president -………………………………………………………………………… VI Reading (2p) Dolphins are mammals, not fish They are warm blooded like man, and give birth, to one baby, called a calf, at a time.At brith, a bottle-nose dolphin calf is about 90-130 cms long and will grow to approximately metres, living up to 40 years They are highly sociable animals, living in groups, called pods, which are fairly fluid, with dolphins from other pods interacting with each other from time to time.Dolphins carry their young inside their womb for about 12 months The baby is born tail first, and its mother will feed the calf for up to years However, the calf will stay with its mother for between and years, during which time it will learn all about feeding techniques, social interaction and group hunting What are dolphins ? ……………………………………………………………… What is a baby dolphin called ? ……………………………………………………………… What is the group of dolphins called ? ……………………………………………………………… How long does a dolphin calf stay with its mother ? ……………………………………………………………… What kind of blood does a Dolphin have ? 15 ……………………………………………………………… PART E- REFERENCE Brown, H.D (1987) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching Prentice Hall Choon,T.G (1993) Error Analysis (EA) and Correction (EC) of Written Work in the Classroom* Hasyim, S (2002) Error Analysis in the Teaching of English Volume 4, Number 1, June 2002: 42 – 50 Khodabandeh, F (2007) Analysis of students' errors: the case of headlines The Asian ESP Journal Volume Issue Nishan, TH (n.d) Error Analysis of Present Simple and Present Continuous Tenses in the Interlanguage of Bulgarian Learners of English Richards, J.C (ed) (1973) Error Analysis London: Longman 7.Tips on Group Learning Race, P (2000) 500 London: Kogan Page 8.English language Teaching Methodology by Ministry of Education and Training, 2003 9.Teachers book, text book Grade 10 by Ministry of Education and Training, 2007 16 ... the problems above I conclude to increase students sentences ability there are two factors, internal factor and external factor that should be improved Internal factors come from the students There... the sentences to choose the correct answer By this way, they have enough time to finish their task in advance Through the process of applying these methods to improve mistakes comprehension skills... Basically, errors are classified into types: transfer errors (mother tongue inference) and developmental errors a Transfer errors (mother tongue inference) According to Corder (1971) transfer errors