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 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE NGUYEN MINH PHUONG 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) (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 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN MINH PHUONG 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) Major: English Language Teaching Method SUPERVISOR: TRẦN THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG, MA Hanoi, 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my many thanks to people who have supported me to complete the research To my supervisor Tran Thi Minh Phuong, who directly instructed, encouraged and gave me many valuable ideas I am extremely grateful for her extensive knowledge as well as her enthusiasm, which are of almost significant to the achievement of my research 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 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 i ABSTRACT This paper studied on common grammatical errors in speaking skill of 11th grade 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, 11th grade, Yen Khanh A High School ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: A study on grammatical errors in speaking skill of the11th grade students at a 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: Student Supervisor iii 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 iv 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 v TABLE CONTENT PART A: INTRODUCTION I.Rationale of the study II.The significance of the study III.Aims of the study IV.Research question V.Scope of the study VI.Method of study `VII.Main contents PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.Literature review in brief………………………………………………………………… 2.Theories of Speaking 2.1.Definition of speaking 3.Theories of Grammar 3.1.Definition of grammar 3.2.Roles of grammar in speaking 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 vi 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 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 vii 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 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 In addition, slips of the tongue was also a common problem that caused grammatical errors when speaking by students, which accounted for 30% They knew exactly the grammatical structure but had problems applying them to speaking skills One of the reasons was that they spent less time practicing speaking There were many students with good knowledge of writing skills, they used a proficient grammar structure and had very few grammatical errors However, speaking skills was quiet the opposite, they often had grammatical errors It seemed to be that they ignorded grammar structures or forgot them, just spoke and spoke only to complete their talk without paying attention to the grammatical errors There was a low rate (20%) of teachers choose attitude reason They said that some students showed negative attitudes towards learning These students were not interested in learning grammar because they were too long and complicated to distinguish, remember and apply them to practice Suggested solution After discovering the common grammatical errors of students when speaking, readers can find solutions to these problems The following section gives some solutions for both teachers and students, to help students avoid those errors 2.1 Suggested solutions Teachers are sources of great influence on students' learning attitudes, Also sources of inspiration for them Therefore, teachers should consider the suggestions below so that every speaking lesson has the most effective The most common way is to create a less formal and friendly classroom atmosphere This helps students feel comfortable, natural and unrestricted Teachers should not criticize students whenever they make mistakes Instead of they should have a positive attitude to learners' errors because it is inevitable and practical during speaking And based on these errors that the teacher discovers which errors are common to the student, thereby adjusting the methods appropriate for each student Therefore, students can feel more comfortable and confident to speak, promote effectively their abilities In addition, Teachers should provide a variety of activities in the lesson to reduce stereotypes, while increasing flexibility for lesson 44 Many linguists argue that the main purpose of learning to speak language is interaction Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning are best for this target Communicative language teaching depends on genuine circumstances that require correspondence By using this strategy in ESL classes, understudies will have the chance of speaking with one another in the objective language (The Internet TESL Journal) In other word, teachers should create reallife situations that promote language to speak so that students have the opportunity to experience real situations, stimulate students' thinking, and attract their attention more Depending on the circumstances with different classes and topics, teachers may apply appropriate activities for lessons that are more interesting, stimulating students' curiosity Sometimes it is possible to alternate games into lessons to help students relax, reduce stress and remember longer Here are some activities to prompt students speaking: Information gap Find the difference Discussion Picture describing Brainstorming Picture narrating Story telling Story completion Role play Simulations Interview Playing cards Reporting (The Internet TESL Journal) During the speaking process, teachers should introduce students to grammatical structures and repeat grammatical errors that students may have Teachers, also often ask students to use the structures they have learned to talk about their life, their intentions, their work, their interests For example, you can ask students to talk about their upcoming plans when learning about the future tense This helps students memorize grammar longer and use them in a proactive and effective way Moreover, always encourage students to use the structures that they just have learned to make 45 sentences because knowing many sentence patterns will help students have more flexible expressions For instance, when learning about prefer structure, instead of learning prefer something to something means that if you prefer someone or something, you like that person or thing better than another, and so you are more likely to choose them if there is a choice (definition of Reverso dictionary), but we should make sentence like: “I prefer this glass to the one you wore yesterday” meaning: ―I like the glass you wore yesterday more than this glass.” In Vietnam, English is considered as a foreign language, so being influenced by Vietnamese grammar when speaking English is inevitable Teachers should clearly distinguish the differences between English grammar and Vietnamese grammar, avoid ambiguity for students Because, in English, a word may have multiple meanings or multiple uses, teachers should distinguish and specify the usage of the words according to each situation For example, ―book‖ can be a noun or a verb If we say a book means that a set of pages with writing on them fastened together in a cover but if we say book a tour, meaning to arrange for a tour.( dictionary.cambridge.org) 46 PART III.CONCUSION In this part, the main findings of the study will be concluded In addition, limitations, suggestions and recommendations of the study are also referred 1.Summary of the study The study aims at investigating some common grammatical errors when speaking committed by the students at Yen Khanh A High school Firstly, the study finds out the most frequent grammatical errors types made by students There are 10 types of errors that students make in the speaking process However, errors are considered the most popular by them: verb form, preposition, articles, and the concord of subject and Verb Verb form errors consist of using bare infinitive in many situations when speaking Preposition errors related to using incorrectly prepositions, omitting, and adding unnecessary prepositions Articles errors also include wrong usage of articles, adding or omitting articles The subject verb agreement errors comprise plural verb is incorrectly used with a singular subject or a singular verb is used with a plural subject Also, using the base form of the verb for singular subjects The general error rates help to comprehend student's overall performance while the particular mistakes students make help to characterize students' difficulties in learning English language In addition, the main reasons cause these errors are performance pressure, limit grammatical knowledge , slips of the tongue , students‘attitude and influence of using Vietnamese grammar Among them, performance pressure and limit grammatical knowledge are the prevailing causes To sum up, learners cannot avoid mistakes in the process of learning new languages The fact that finding errors that students often make is very important and necessary for both teachers and students when learning a language Therefore, error analysis can help teachers identify specific types of errors and causes of these errors in speaking They can also predict errors in different contexts From there, they can adjust the method most suitable for their students As a consequence, students can make fewer mistakes when speaking and significantly improve their speaking ability 47 2.Limitations of the study Although the paper finds certain and remarkable results, it still has some limitations due to lack of time and references materials , also limited knowledge of researcher Firstly, the number of recording participants is 30 students It is not certain whether similar situations will occur when the study is conducted in large numbers therefore, the results may be less convincing Secondly, the study period is weeks The students not have more opportunity to show their speaking skill At the same time, the researcher could not sure about their real speaking ability The results may be relative Moreover, criteria to classify errors are too complicated Besides, the cause of the error is mainly based on the teachers‘opinions So, there may be some unpredictably incorrect results Lastly, the study couldn't be led on similar students at various times of their learning procedure 3.Suggestions for further studies Although the study findings are useful in some way, it is vital to go on investigating errors under the following domains First, making mistakes is inevitable in the process of learning a new language so errors are always a matter of interest to many researchers Secondly, the object of the study is 120 students of the 11th grade school at Yen Khanh A High school It would be clearer if further studies can be done with students in grades 10th and 12th Thirdly, The study could not be studied on the same students at different periods of their learning process Hence, the results will be more certain when conducting their errors in different learning stages Fourthly, the research was done in a limited time; As a result, it could not cover all types of errors during speaking Therefore, further researches could be studied on reading, writing or listening as well 48 4.Recommendations Depended on the theoretical background presented in literature review and the main findings, the researcher would like to provide the following recommendations Hopefully these minor proposals could bring benefits for English teachers and researchers relate to this topic From the research results, we find that many YKA‘students have difficulty in speaking skills, especially memorizing grammar rules To address this situation, both teachers and students should consider the following points: Firstly, raising students' awareness of the importance of grammar in speaking skills is really necessary Before speaking fluently, students should be taught basic grammatical structures carefully for meaningful conversations Secondly, among the causes leading to students‘ errors, performance pressure error is the main one In order to minimize this error, the teacher should create a natural atmosphere, less stressful and comfortable for learners Teachers could be student‘s partners in some cases Find out the topics which familiar to students as well as adapt the activities in book to attract students‘participation and encourage them to speak more What‘s more, sometimes interleaving games into the activities of the speak lesson Teacher should students in different group to increase competition among students Reward or give points when students cooperate or have a positive attitude to the lesson Thirdly, in terms of error correction, it is crucial that it must be carried out frequently Teachers should apply different techniques of correction flexibly and effectively Check cross by Peer-correction or group correction are the two common techniques in correcting students‘ speaking In fact, self-correction often helps create a positive classroom atmosphere They can critically recognize their mistakes and avoid them Besides, students will work in a collaborative environment because they can learn a lot from each other Check cross can be in form of pair work, or work in group When correcting errors for students, teachers should not be too controlled or to be an overcorrector The following ways teachers can consider for correcting students when speaking: 49 First of all, it is not worth trying to find out all the errors of students, instead of that teachers decide in advance what types of mistakes they will deal with Correcting accurately and carefully is extremely important Teachers should explain clearly, concisely and concretely the errors student often make This makes it easier for students to understand and not to repeat those errors Finally, teachers should bear in mind that they should apply a variety of correction techniques and depending on different activities In short, knowledge of error analysis is useful and essential for learning a foreign language It also helps to improve the process of teaching and learning English, particular speaking skill It is hoped that the results of this thesis can be of some help not only for students in speaking skill but also reference source for teachers in teaching speaking 50 REFERENCE 1.Books 1.Azar, B (2007) Grammar-based teaching: A practitioner‘s perspective 2.Brown, H D (1980) Principals of Language Learning and Teaching New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc Burt, M and Kiparsky, C (1972) The Gooficon: A Repair Manual for English Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House Burns, A., & Joyce, H (1997) “Focus on speaking” Sydney: National Center for English Language Teaching and Research Carter, R & McCarthy, M (1995) 5.Brumfit, C (1984) Communicative methodology in language teaching: The roles of fluency and accuracy Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 6.Burns, A., & Joyce, H (1997) Focus on speaking Sydney: National Center for English Language Teaching and Research 7.Bygate M, (2009) “Teaching the spoken foreign language”, 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London: Longman 39.Richards, J C (1974).Error Analysis: Perspectives on second language acquisition London: Longman 40.Sharma, S K (1980) Practical and Theoretical Consideration involved in Error Analysis Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics VI, 74-83 41.Sharma, S K (1980) Practical and Theoretical Consideration involved in Error Analysis Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics VI, 74-83 42 Zakaria Dalil, June 2013 The importance of grammar in second language teaching 43.Tetreault, J and M Chodorow 2008 Native Judgments of non-native usage: Experiments in preposition error detection 44.Thornbury, S (2005) How to teach speaking New York: Pearson Longman 45.Wishon & Burks (1980) Let‘s Write English New York: Litton Educational Publishing 53 46.Wilson, S 1983 Living English Structure London: Longman 47.Ur, P (1988) Grammar Practice Activities Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Websites https://www.thoughtco.com/grammatical-error-usage https://www.bodhih.com/grammar-important-communication https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/sentences.htm 4.https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/verb https://vnexpress.net/giao-duc/vai-tro-cua-ngu-phap-trong-giao-tiep-tieng-anh- 3548261.html https://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~krishnachaitanyagudi/btp_report.pdf http://www.journal.tarbiyahiainib.ac.id Research in English and Education (READ) Journal 1(1), 71-80, August 2016 file:///C:/Users/Administrator/Downloads/368-1120-2-PB.pdf 54 APPENDICES SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE These survey questions aim to find common grammatical errors that students have in the speaking process Your answer will be used for my graduation paper ―A study on grammatical errors in speaking skill of the11th grade students at a high school in Vietnam.”What‘s more your cooperation and your honest answer will be a valuable resource to help me complete this research Please choose the answer that suits you best For students: 1.How long have you learnt English at Yen Khanh A high school? a years b years c More than years 2.What you think about the role of speaking skill? a Very important b Important c A little important d Not important 3.Do you like learning English grammar? a Yes b No 4.What you think about the role of grammar in English speaking? a Very important b Important c A little important d Not important For teacher: Please put a tick to the choice if your students ever made these errors while they speak ? 55 Always Mistakes in preposition (Missing preposition ,Wrong preposition,Unnessessary preposition) Mistakes in making questions (Omission of auxiliary verb, or misordering, misinformation and addition.) Mistakes in using word form Error: She sings so beautiful Mistakes in articles (Addition articles or omission articles.) Mistakes in using verb form Error : She is wearing glasses to avoid to be recognised Mistakes in combination between Subject- Verb agreement (S-V concord) 56 Usually Seldom Never Mistakes in using plural form Eg: Error: Most woman like shopping in their freetime Mistakes in tense usage (Misuse of the present, the past, and the future tense.) Mistakes in using pronoun 10 Mistakes in negation From your point of view, Why your students make these above mistakes? Yes Students are bad at grammar Performance pressure (students feel shy and not confident when speaking) Slips of the tongue (students pronunciate wrongly) Attitudes (students not pay attention much on grammars when speaking Influence of using Vietnamese grammar Others 57 No Can you recommend some more suggested solutions for these mistakes your students have made? 58 ... A study on grammatical errors in speaking skill of the11th grade students at a high school in Vietnam II The significance of the study Making mistakes in speaking is unavoidable, and it is also...HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN MINH PHUONG A STUDY ON COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN SPEAKING SKILL OF 11th GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM (NGHIÊN CỨU... Khanh A High School ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: A study on grammatical errors in speaking skill of the11th grade students at a high school in Vietnam I certify that no part of this research