An investigation into the errors in verb tense forms found in paragraph writing by the 10th form students at kim thanh upper secondary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* ĐẶNG THỊ HOÀNG LAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ERRORS IN VERB-TENSE FORMS FOUND IN PARAGRAPH–WRITING BY THE 10th-FORM STUDENTS AT KIM THANH UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL (Khảo sát lỗi dạng động từ thường gặp viết đoạn văn học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Kim Thành) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi – 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* ĐẶNG THỊ HOÀNG LAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ERRORS IN VERB-TENSE FORMS FOUND IN PARAGRAPH–WRITING BY THE 10th-FORM STUDENTS AT KIM THANH UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL (Khảo sát lỗi dạng động từ thường gặp viết đoạn văn học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Kim Thành) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: ASSOC.PROF.DR LÊ VĂN CANH Hanoi – 2016 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, ĐẶNG THỊ HOÀNG LAN, hereby certify that this thesis, which is entitled “An Investigation into the Errors in Verb-Tense Forms Found in Paragraph-Writing by the 10th-Form Students at Kim Thanh UpperSecondary School” is created from my original work I have firmly declared the contribution of others to my thesis such as data analysis, practical strategies, and all other researches that were employed or reviewed in my thesis This thesis is the result of my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Hanoi, 2016 ĐẶNG THỊ HOÀNG LAN i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Canh, whose insightful comments, criticism, direction and kind support were of great assistance to me in carrying out this study My sincere thanks also go to all the lecturers and staff of the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their valuable knowledge and invaluable guidance and help during my two years of study at the Faculty I am also indebted to my colleagues as well as my students at Kim Thanh Upper-Secondary School, who have helped me a lot in my data collection to fulfill this paper Last but not least, I would like to express my appreciation to my family for their understanding and strong encouragement to me throughout the study Đặng Thị Hoàng Lan ii ABSTRACT This study aims at investigating the common errors in verb-tense forms made by the students of grade 10 at Kim Thanh Upper- Secondary School The participants are forty two tenth-grade students at Kim Thanh Upper-Secondary School, where the author is working In order to find out the most common errors in verb-tense forms and factors causing the students‟ making these errors, two data collection instruments are employed: students‟ written paragraphs and individual open-ended interviews The results showed that more errors were made in verb-tense forms than in verb-tense choice Regarding the errors made by the students‟ confusion of different verb tenses, the most and the least erroneous tenses were the Past Simple tense and the Future Simple Tense respectively As to errors in verb-tense forms, omission errors were the most frequent ones, while misordering was the least frequently-made By describing and interpreting the data collected, the researcher managed to find out factors leading to these errors, which consisted of both objective factors and subjective factors Based on the literature review and findings, the author put forward practical suggestions to the teachers of English with a view to improving English teaching and learning at the school iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Objectives of the study Research question Scope of the study Method of study ……………………………………………….……………… Design of the study Significance of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 The writing syllabus for 10th-grade students 1.2 Definitions of errors 1.3 Causes of errors 1.4 The challenges of learning English verb tenses 1.5 Theoretical Foundation of Error Analysis …………………….…………….12 1.5.1 Interlanguage Theory…………………………………………….…………12 1.5.2.Interference of First language (L1) into Second Language (L2)………… 14 1.6 Methods used in researching errors………………………………………….15 1.6.1 S.P Corder‟s Error Analysis Procedure………………………….……… 15 1.6.2 Surface Strategy Taxonomy (Dulay, Burt and Krahsen, 1982) ….……… 16 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19 iv 2.1 Research design and methodology …19 2.2 Participants 20 2.3 Data Collection Instruments 20 2.4 Research Procedures 21 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION…………………… 23 3.1 Common verb-tense errors made by the 10th-form students 23 at Kim Thanh Upper-Secondary School 23 3.1.1 Wrong choice of verb tenses 23 3.1.2 Wrong formation of verb tenses 27 3.1.2.1 Errors of omission 27 3.1.2.2 Errors of addition 29 3.1.2.3 Errors of misformation 30 3.1.2.4 Errors of misordering 31 3.2 Factors that lead to the errors in verb-tense forms in paragraph writing made by the 10th-form students at Kim Thanh 32 Upper-Secondary School 32 3.3 Discussion of the findings 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 36 Conclusion 36 Implications……………………………………………………………………36 Limitations and suggestions for further study 37 3.1 Limitations of the study 37 3.2 Suggestions for further research 37 REFERENCES 39 APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………I APPENDIX A: Questions for interview APPENDIX B: Photocopies of some students‟ writing pieces v LIST OF TABLES TABLES Table 1.1 Page Fossilization Process of Interlanguage (adapted from 13 Selinker 1972) Table 1.2 Positive and Negative Transfer (Adapted from Khansir, 14 2012) Table 1.3 Error Analysis Procedure by S.P Corder 15 Table 3.1 An overview of the errors in verb tense choice 24 Table 3.2 Omission Errors 27 Table 3.3 Addition Errors 29 Table 3.4 Misformation errors 30 Table 3.5 Misordering errors 31 Table 3.6 Summary of the errors in verb-tense forms 31 Table 3.7 Factors leading to the errors 33 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA: Bachelor of Arts M.A: Master of Arts EFL: English as a Foreign Language L1: First language, or Mother tongue L2: Second language vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study In English, the different tenses are signaled by verb endings or by auxiliary verbs The English tense system is quite complicated Therefore, it is not surprising that even though students start from the easiest tense, they find it difficult to understand, remember and use the tense correctly, especially when, besides various uses and forms of different verb tenses, they have to memorize all kinds of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and auxiliaries This will make students bored and make it difficult for them to comprehend English grammar In English writing, verb is the most active part in the sentence for expressing an action, an occurrence, or a state of being Palmer (1965: 5) suggests that “learning a language is to a very large degree learning how to operate the verbal forms of that language.” In English, verbs are inflected for tense while there is no inflection in Vietnamese This causes difficulty to Vietnamese students learning English Through this study, the author tries to find out the common types of errors in using verb-tense forms made by the 10th- grade students at Kim Thanh UpperSecondary School in their written paragraphs As a teacher at Kim Thanh High School, a school in a rural area of Hai Duong province, the author sees that students tend to have problems in using the English tenses in their writings The situation encourages the author to have An Investigation into the Errors in Verb-Tense Forms Found in ParagraphWriting by the 10th-Form Students at Kim Thanh Upper-Secondary School It is hoped that the results of this study will be useful for both teachers and students in teaching and learning writing skill in general and in improving paragraph-writing ability in particular Objectives of the study The main objective of this study is to analyze students‟ errors in using English tenses and identify the sources of errors as taken from the students‟ writings as well as to provide some pedagogical implications for teaching English as a foreign language The objectives of this study are: c She like listening to music c She likes listening to music and chatting with friends and chatting with friends d He is very good at Math, so d He is very good at Math, so he teach me Math every he teaches me Math every Sunday morning Sunday morning e It help you develop your e It helps you develop your brain brain f Reading English books not f Reading English books not only improve my English but only improves my English but also enlarge my knowledge also enlarges my knowledge Omission a If her friends have trouble, a If her friends have trouble, of "to be" she will ( ) ready help them she will be ready help them and and share with them share with them b Oh ( ) clumsy but friendly b Oh is clumsy but friendly and and kind-hearted kind-hearted c Learning English will not ( ) c Learning English will not be difficult if you ( ) really difficult if you are really interested in it interested in it d Her hair ( ) silky and black d Her hair is silky and black e I ( ) fond of watching cartoons e I am fond of watching f Her hobbies ( ) reading cartoons books and listening to music f Her hobbies are reading books and listening to music 28 3.1.2.2 Errors of Addition This research saw two types of addition errors, namely addition of double marking (16 errors), and addition of simple addition (02 errors) Table 3.3: Addition Errors Error Error Sentences Revised Sentences Categories Addition of Addition double of marking auxiliary Addition a She doesn't minds an doing anything for her friends a She doesn't mind doing anything for her friends or an "-e/- b Although he is es" ending handsome and intelligent, b Although he is in negative he is does not arrogant form intelligent, he is not Addition c When she is happy, she c When she is happy, of "to be" is always laughs she always laughs d I am not only study d I not only study alone, alone, but I also study but I also study with a with a group of friends group of friends e I will be study harder e I will study harder f We have been studied in f We have studied in the the same class for years same class for years g I always dreams about g I always dream about of Addition handsome and arrogant simple of -s/-es in becoming an airhostess, becoming an airhostess, addition the so I’m trying to master so I’m trying to master singular English English form h All the things she has h All the things she has done makes me love her done make me love her more more 29 It was not surprising that none of the sentences contained an error classified as addition of regularization since this type of errors were more suitably classified as errors of misformation in terms of their regularization 3.1.2.3 Errors of Misformation The error of misformation found in the students‟ papers were in archi-form and alternating form Besides error in omission of verb inflection, error in misformation of archi-form was another big problem to the students as there were 42 errors being collected, accounting for 28 % of the total errors in verb – tense forms Table 3.4: Misformation Errors Error Categories Misformation Archi-Form Misformation alternating form Error Sentences of a It were written in 1969 Revised Sentences a It was written in 1969 b Bao likes red colour and b Bao likes red colour and he swimming very well he swims very well c The film have a happy c The film has a happy ending ending d Her hobbies are read d Her hobbies are reading comics, listen to music, comics, listening to music, watch action films or play watching action films or online games playing online games e Have you ever see “Big e Have you ever seen “Big Hero 6”? f I will speaking Hero 6”? f I will speak and writing in English and write in English g I met her when we was g I met her when we were studying in the 5th grade studying in the 5th grade of i I seen her helping an old woman cross the busy road 30 i I saw her helping an old woman cross the busy road 3.1.2.4 Errors of Misordering Errors of misordering did not seem to be problematic to most of the students as only errors in all were seen Table 3.5: Misordering Errors Error Categories Misordering Error Sentences Revised Sentences a I very like watching a I like watching romantic romantic films films very much b I very love learning b I love learning English English very much c I will hard learn English c I will learn English vocabulary vocabulary hard *Summary of students’ errors in verb-tense forms as classified by the Surface Strategy Taxonomy The table below shows the frequency of errors in verb tense forms made in each of the four elements of the Surface Strategy Taxonomy Table 3.6: Summary of the errors in verb tense forms Surface Number of Strategy errors Percentage Taxonomy Omission Omission of verb inflection 59 39.3% Omission of “to be” 20 13.3% Addition of double marking 16 10.7% Addition of regularization (marker –s/es) Addition 31 Addition of simple addition Misformation of regularization Misformation of archi-form 42 28.0% Misformation of alternating form 2.7% Misordering 4.7% Total 150 100% Misformation 1.3% From the data in the table above, it is clear that the error with the highest frequency of occurrence was error of omission, which made up 52.6 % of all the errors in verb tense forms The error with the second highest frequency was misformation error that appeared as 30.7 % The next is addition error with 12 % Finally, the element with the lowest error frequency is misordering with 4.7% 3.2 Factors that Lead to Errors in Verb-Tense Forms in Paragraph Writing Made by 10th-Form Students at Kim Thanh Upper-Secondary School As mentioned above, the factors that influence the errors on verb tense forms in this research were determined by interview The interview was conducted with 28 out of 42 participants, given that these 28 students repeatedly made verb tense - related errors Students taking part in the interview were required to look at the errors of verb tense forms in their own writing pieces and answered three questions (See Appendix) given by the teacher - the interviewer The finding is shown in the following table Since there were many similar responses from students, only typical answers are presented in the table 32 Table 3.7: Factors Leading to the Errors Factors Serial Leading to No Students' Common Reponses (*) Errors Direct translation Whenever I have an idea to write, I from Objective Factors mother think about it in Vietnamese first, and I tongue into the express it in Vietnamese After that, I target language translate it into English word by word without thinking While translating, I often pay attention about grammatical to conveying the meaning of the rules sentence without paying attention to English grammatical rules Inappropriate I usually feel sleepy during grammar method of lessons, while I really enjoy learning teaching grammar reading and speaking skills I think the way grammatical items are introduced is rather boring Noisy I am often confused or forget surroundings grammatical rules when my classmates are making noise in the class or when there are voices from the outside Inability to I am not sure of the use of tenses as understand well as how to form sentences using grammatical rules different verb tenses so I often make errors in verb tenses Subjective Factors Lack of - I am not interested in learning motivation or low English motivation Mathematics-Physics-Chemistry because I major in - My plan is to find a job right after graduation, so I don’t spend much time 33 on academic subjects Irregular practice I find writing skill the most difficult of of writing skill all Not only I have to think of ideas for the topics, but I also have to find words and grammar patterns to express the ideas That discourages me from practising writing regularly Confusions There are a lot of patterns that need to between different be used in the sentences, which is uses of similar confusing to me grammatical forms Preconception that I suppose that grammar is very grammar is difficult, and I often apply wrong difficult causing patterns in writing my sentences students‟ lack of interest in learning it Limited My vocabulary is limited, and it is Vocabulary difficult for me to find and choose the appropriate words/phrases in producing the sentences 10 Being under time- I have the habit of looking at my watch pressure when I am doing the papers And I often feel nervous when I see I’m against the clock From that moment on, I just concentrate on expressing my ideas and I almost grammatical rules (*) Students' Reponses have been translated into English 34 ignore the From the students‟ responses above, it can be seen that the objective factors are outnumbered by the subjective factors Of all the 10 factors leading to students‟ making errors in verb tenses, there were three external factors: Mother tongue Interference, Teaching method, and Surroundings The seven objective factors include factors related to students‟ motivation, their input into English study, their innate ability to learn English, and also their psychology (as in the way they made mistakes because of feeling under time pressure) 3.3 Discussion of the findings The results of the research reveal that students made more errors on verbtense forms than on verb tense choice The errors in verb tense forms were grouped into four types: omission, addition, misformation and misordering According to the findings, 24 errors were made by students‟ confusion of different verb tenses Among the most frequently- used tenses, the most and the least erroneous tenses were the Past Simple tense and the Future Simple Tense respectively Regarding verb-tense forms, omission errors were the most frequent ones with 52, %, while misordering ranked the least with 4.7 % In addition, it is important to find out the reasons why the students have committed such errors It can be seen from the reasons for the students' making errors that they not fully understand how to apply verb tenses correctly, especially the past simple tense, when writing English paragraphs Although the causes of errors stem from not only internal factors but also external factors, it can be concluded that the dominant factor is the students' poor understanding of English grammar Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to find the appropriate solution to the problem 35 PART C: CONCLUSION Conclusion There are a variety of differences amongst ESL learners throughout Vietnam In analyzing this particular high school community, it is possible to identify themes in the learning patterns as well as verb formation that may be related to their skill acquisition and the teacher‟s ability to create valuable content and lesson plans These are important distinctions that have been identified through the study and incorporate findings from a variety of beneficial research perspectives Ultimately the differences seen in this environment can be paired to contextual evidence of common errors in learning and language acquisition Implications Interference of the mother tongue in learning English has been seen as a great difficulty for second language learners This type of interference can be seen as a pressing deterrent within language skill acquisition (Richards et al., 1984) It has also been demonstrated that teaching techniques and procedures can make a difference in the structure and development of language skills and secondary language acquisition (Richards et al., 1984) Therefore, the results and implications of this research will change the way that progress is made and derived within the field of English skill acquisition research and teaching training standards These are the best ways that information and understanding of trends can be applied for the benefit of societal gain and language fluency Training teachers in these common errors and focusing on creating materials and resources for the best practice with students will create a better teaching and learning experience in the future Particularly speaking, it is important that teachers have flexible and effective techniques of error correction For instance, teachers can correct the students' writing pieces in class and give clear explanations to them Another way is to put marks indicating that there is something wrong with that sentence It has been well established that self-correction or/and peer-correction has positive 36 effects on students' learning Besides, they should pay much attention to their students' errors by giving more practical writing tasks for students in order to reduce errors in their writing This also help student get familiar with writing, and brings them self-confidence as well as a feeling of comfort whenever they are assigned a certain writing task In addition, in teaching English grammar, teachers should give more easily understood explanations so that students become more interested in learning English, especially English grammar Moreover, the teacher‟s control of his/her students during class is also necessary because it helps create an academic but relaxing study environment Another important point is the teachers' ability not only to detect and describe the errors, but also to understand the factors leading to their occurrence Last but not least, teachers should remind students that the learning of writing skill and grammar can be bettered when it is combined with other skills and a rich vocabulary Limitations and suggestions for further study 3.1 Limitations of the study The greatest limitation of this study lies in its sampling method and the sample size The students chosen for the study were not randomized while the size of the population sample is not large enough to generalize the findings The study fails to identify the repeated errors of the students because of the nature of the study, which is cross-sectional This makes it impossible to decide accurately whether the identified errors are caused by the students‟ lack of knowledge of the English verb tenses or by their carelessness Instead, errors were identified and analyzed according to the so-called Surface Strategy Taxonomy developed by Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982) Therefore, it is difficult to make conclusion about the students‟ interlanguage 3.2 Suggestions for further study Like many other studies, mine cannot cover all aspects of the filed However, it might serve as the starting point for further research on the same issue As mentioned above, the findings of the study can hardly be generalized because of its restricted context Therefore, studies on the same issue yet in 37 different setting with various subjects are needed to get better generalizations of the research results In other words, future studies need to be longitudinal in order to identify the patterns of students‟ errors related to the verb-tense forms and to provide insights into their interlanguage development 38 REFERENCES Brown, D.B (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching Third Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents Choon, T (1993) Error analysis and correction of written work in the classroom” The English Teacher Vol XXII Corder S P (1981) Error analysis and interlanguage Oxford: Oxford University Press Cowan, R (2008) The Teacher’s Grammar of English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cunning Worth(1987) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc Dulay, H., Burt, M , and Krashen, S.,( 1982) Language Two, New York and London: Oxford University Press Ellis, R (2008) The Study of Second Language Acquisition New York: Oxford University Press George, H.V (1972) Common Errors in Language Learning in Norrish, J 1983 Language Learners and Their Errors London: McMillan Housen, A (2000) Verb Semantics and the acquisition of tense –aspect morphology in English Studia Linguistica,54 (2), 249-269 Khansir, A A (2012) Error Analysis and Second Language Acquisition Theory and Practice in Language Studies , 1027-1032 Palmer, F R (1965) A Linguistic Study of the English Verb London: Longman Phap Dam (2006) Analyzing Some Persistent Errors in English Made by Vietnamese Speakers, The Federation of North Texas Area Universities Richards, JC A non-contrastive approach to error analysis English language Teaching, Vol.25.N.3.OUP.1971 Richards, J.C.ed (1984) Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language acquisition London: Longman Selinker, L (1972) Interlanguage International Review of Applied Linguistics, Volume 10, Issue 1-4 39 Problems in Mastering English Tense and Aspect and the Role of the Practitioners (n.d) Retrieved from http:/s/iosrjournals.org 40 APPENDICES APPENDIX A Questions for interview Question 1: Do you know what‟s wrong with the underlined part(s)? ( Em có nhận thấy phần gạch chân sai điểm không?) Question 2: Why did you use this tense/ form of verb tense in this sentence? (Tại em lại sử dụng động từ / dạng động từ đây?) Question 3: In your opinion, how should this sentence be corrected? Why you think the correction is appropriate? ( Theo em nên chữa lại cho đúng? Vì em nghĩ cách chữa đúng?) I APPENDIX B Photocopies of some students’ pieces of writing II ... that this thesis, which is entitled ? ?An Investigation into the Errors in Verb- Tense Forms Found in Paragraph- Writing by the 10th- Form Students at Kim Thanh UpperSecondary School? ?? is created from... describe the types of errors in verb- tense forms made by the 10th- grade students at Kim Thanh Upper- Secondary School as revealed in their writings To describe the causes of errors in verb- tense forms. .. types of errors in using verb- tense forms made by the 10th- grade students at Kim Thanh UpperSecondary School in their written paragraphs As a teacher at Kim Thanh High School, a school in a rural