An investigation into common paragraph cohesion errors in english language writings by 11th grade students at tùng thiện high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* TẠ THỊ THANH LÊ AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON PARAGRAPH COHESION ERRORS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE WRITINGS BY 11TH GRADE STUDENTS AT TÙNG THIỆN HIGH SCHOOL (KHẢO SÁT CÁC LỖI LIÊN KẾT ĐOẠN VĂN THƯỜNG GẶP TRONG BÀI VIẾT TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11, TRƯỜNG THPT TÙNG THIỆN) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* TẠ THỊ THANH LÊ AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON PARAGRAPH COHESION ERRORS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE WRITINGS BY 11TH GRADE STUDENTS AT TÙNG THIỆN HIGH SCHOOL (KHẢO SÁT CÁC LỖI LIÊN KẾT ĐOẠN VĂN THƯỜNG GẶP TRONG BÀI VIẾT TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11, TRƯỜNG THPT TÙNG THIỆN) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: DR NGÔ TỰ LẬP HANOI – 2015 DECLARATION I, Tạ Thị Thanh Lê, hereby certify that this thesis, which is entitled “An Investigation into Common Paragraph Cohesion Errors in English Language Writings by 11th Grade Students at Tùng Thiện High School”, is the sole author of this thesis This thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution It is not containing materials written or has been published by other people and other people‟s ideas except the information from the references Hanoi, 2015 Tạ Thị Thanh Lê i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not be achieved without the support, guidance, advice, help and encouragement I received from many individuals and organizations I would like to express my deepest thankfulness to: - my supervisor, Dr Ngô Tự Lập for his detailed advice, experienced guidance, invaluable comments and suggestions Without his support, this thesis would be impossible - all of my lectures and the Post-Graduate staff at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University for their valuable lectures on aspects of my concern - my students and English teachers at Tùng Thiện high school who have participated and give support in the study with their priceless time, attempt and keenness - my parents and parents-in-law for their wholehearted support and motivation - my small beloved family who has facilitated and encouraged to finish this study I could have never thanked you enough and never been able to reply everything that have done and given to me ii ABSTRACT This research investigates the common paragraph cohesion errors in 672 paragraphs taken from writings by 11th grade students at Tùng Thiện high school The analysis of this research is based on Halliday and Hasan‟s (1976) cohesion categorization This study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to find out the types of paragraph cohesion errors with a clear linguistic description Besides, one aim of this research is to discover the sources of cohesive errors rooted in the combination of two models described by Richard (1974) and James (1998) together with the error analysis of Ellis (1997) Results of this study shows a total of 253 errors are identified in students‟ paragraph that includes errors in the use of reference, conjunction and lexical cohesion Errors in the use of substitution, ellipsis, temporal and collocation are not found The percentage of errors in the use of conjunction is 53.8 %, followed by reference category 37.9% and lexical ones 8.3% The dominant number of error belongs to conjunction; reference is the second dominant error and lexical cohesion is the last dominant error The main reasons for committing common cohesive errors rooted in three main sources: (1) intra-lingual errors (the interference between English items), (2) inter-lingual (the interference between Vietnamese and English) and (3) other extra-lingual factors like the performance pressure, false conceptualization, the limited foreign language environment, learners‟ attitudes, learners motivation and goal which come both from the teachers and the learners The study proposes practical implications for both teachers and students to eliminate these kinds of errors and improve the quality of students‟ writing iii LIST OF TABLES: Table 1: The number of errors in the use of cohesive devices Table Errors and their causes Table 3: Errors in the use of demonstrative reference “the” Table 4: Errors in the use of demonstrative reference “there” Table 5: Errors in the use of comparative reference Table 6: Errors in the use of personal reference Table 7: Errors in the use of adversative conjunction Table 8: Errors in the use of causal conjunction Table 9: Errors in the use of additive conjunction iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration by author………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………… iii List of table ………………………………………………………………… iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scopes of the study Significance of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEWS 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 Cohesion 1.1.1.1 Concept of cohesion 1.1.1.2 Cohesion vs Coherence 1.1.1.3 Cohesive devices 1.1.2 Paragraph and paragraph cohesion 10 1.1.2.1 Definition of paragraph 10 1.1.2.2 Paragraph cohesion 11 1.1.3 Error and error analysis 12 1.1.3.1 Errors 12 1.1.3.2 Errors vs mistakes 13 1.1.3.3 Sources of errors 14 1.1.3.4 Error analysis 16 1.2 Literature review 17 CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 21 v 2.1 Subject 21 2.2 Data collection instrument and data collection 21 2.3 Methods of data analysis 22 CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 24 3.1 Errors in the use of reference 25 3.1.1 Errors in the use of demonstrative reference 26 3.1.2 Errors in the use of comparative reference 29 3.1.3 Errors in the use of personal reference 30 3.2 Errors in the use of conjunction 32 3.2.1 Errors in the use of adversative conjunction 32 3.2.2 Errors in the use of causal conjunction 35 3.2.3 Errors in the use of additive conjunction 36 3.3 Errors in the use of lexical cohesion: Errors in the use of repetition 39 PART C: CONCLUSION 41 Research findings 41 1.1 What are the types of paragraph cohesion errors committed by the 11th grade students at Tùng Thiện high school? 41 1.2 Why students commit those errors? 42 Implications 43 Limitations and suggestions for further research 45 REFERENCE: 46 APPENDIX:…………………………………………………………………………….I vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Of all four English skills, writing is always of a great concern to learners In fact, it poses the most challenging task for English learners in Vietnam; although most of them have learned English since primary school, many feel frustrated and consider writing as a big headache problem for them Especially, the quality of English written paragraph is limited due to the lack persuasiveness, satisfactory and logical connection of ideas Several problems that students encounter when writing an English paragraph refers to usage of cohesive device Besides, a paragraph must flow through a sequence of sentences In a good written text, each sentence needs to be connected with one another to illustrate the meaning intended by writer To make readers comprehend this connection, the skillful use of cohesion is demanded to help the students to articulate ideas systematically, logically as well as to avoid creating ambiguity and misinterpretations between what are currently said and what already said previously Moreover, the written language must be more accurate, more explicit, more effective than spoken one Learners fear making errors in their writing, but avoiding errors, their focus on writing on is often concentrated on generating grammatically correct sentences rather than on logic and meaning In fact, basing on the errors that students make in their writing, the teachers and researchers can find out the solution to writing problems like the doctors find the symptoms to diagnose a disease In the thesis, “An Investigation into Common Paragraph Cohesion Errors in English Language Writings by 11th Grade Students at Tùng Thiện High School” I want to investigate into one of major problems faced by English learners as well as to develop a better teaching writing composition; strategy for teaching The present study investigates errors in the use of cohesive devices in the paragraph by 11th grade students at Tùng Thiện high school Several specific research questions addressed by this study are: What are the types of paragraph cohesion errors committed by the 11th grade students at Tùng Thiện high school? Why students commit those errors? Answering these two questions implies solutions to remedy paragraph cohesion Aims of the study Based on the problems of the study above, the aims of the study are to: - identify the types of cohesive paragraph errors written by 11th grade students at Tùng Thiện high school - explain the causes of the written errors of English committed by the eleventh grade students in Tùng Thiện high school - provide suggestions for teaching and learning paragraph writing to Tùng Thiện high school students to reduce and prevent the problems - provide suggestions for further research Scopes of the study The study focuses on common paragraph cohesion errors that 11th grade students at Tùng Thiện high school have made in their writings Besides, basing on their analyses, the thesis will present some solutions to these problems Population: 84 students at class 11A3, 11A6 at Tùng Thiện high school in the academic year of 2012/2013 Significance of the study Given that there haven't been any research on the topic so far, the study expected to contribute to understanding paragraph cohesion errors and teaching writing at school both theoretically and practically + Theoretically: This research provides a linguistic description and explanation of cohesive errors + Practically: a For learners, this research shows their common errors, therefore they are interested to improve their perception on cohesive devices and be able to apply it appropriately in their writing b For teachers, the findings of this research suggest some teaching approaches and methods that they should use to produce better English essays V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX ... this thesis, which is entitled ? ?An Investigation into Common Paragraph Cohesion Errors in English Language Writings by 11th Grade Students at Tùng Thiện High School? ??, is the sole author of this... Research findings 1.1 What are the types of paragraph cohesion errors committed by the 11th grade students at Tùng Thiện high school? Investigating the common paragraph cohesion errors in 672 paragraphs... writing problems like the doctors find the symptoms to diagnose a disease In the thesis, ? ?An Investigation into Common Paragraph Cohesion Errors in English Language Writings by 11th Grade Students