An exploratory study on the influence of the mother tongue (l1) on the english acquisition of thai students at thai nguyen

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* CẦM THỊ KIỀU ANH AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE (L1) ON THE ENGLISH ACQUISITION OF THAI STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE Tìm hiểu tác động tiếng mẹ đẻ việc học tiếng Anh sinh viên dân tộc Thái trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi - 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* CẦM THỊ KIỀU ANH AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE (L1) ON THE ENGLISH ACQUISITION OF THAI STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE Tìm hiểu tác động tiếng mẹ đẻ việc học tiếng Anh sinh viên dân tộc Thái trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: NGUYỄN HUY KỶ, PhD Hanoi - 2014 DECLARATION I, hereby certify that the thesis entitled „An exploratory study on the influence of the mother tongue (L1) on the English acquisition of Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College‟ is the result of my own research in the fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Hanoi, 2014 Researcher Cam Thi Kieu Anh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would particularly like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr NGUYẾN HUY KỶ for his precious advice, remarkable, suggestions, kind guidance and careful correction Next, I would like to acknowledge all my teachers at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, especially those who are working at the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies for their interesting lectures which enable me to gain a great deal of theoretical knowledge and practical experience I am also indebted to all the students and teachers at Thai Nguyen Medical College for their cooperation and participation in this study Last but not least, my heart-felt gratitude goes to my family for their encouragement and support during the process of study ii ABSTRACT English language teaching in a non-native environment has experienced a variety of obstacles, one of which is the interference of English learners‟ mother tongue The impediment is doubled when English is taught in a multi-lingual environment like Vietnam, and this fact forces Vietnamese instructors of English to seek ways of teaching their cohort of minority students effectively In an attempt to improve of English language teaching in Vietnam, this thesis investigates the possible impacts of Vietnamese Thai on the English written production of Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College, with a detailed contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese Thai which English teachers can use in their practice The study employed a written production questionnaire, which has been widely accepted as a tool for data collection in an interlanguage study The results suggest that Thai non-English major students heavily rely on their mother tongue in their English writing Several suggestions for minimising the influences of Thai learners‟ mother tongue on their English production are provided iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1= Mother tongue or first language L2= Foreign language or second language E = English E1 En = English example 1….n T = Vietnamese Thai T1 …Tn= Thai example 1….n Es = English sentences produced by the participant iv LIST OF TABLES Table1.1 English and Thai types of verbs Table 1.2 English and Thai types of words following a verb Table 1.3 English and Thai use of adjectives and adverbs Table1.4 Formation of tenses in English and Thai Table1.5 Subject-verb relation in English and Thai Table1.6 Negation in English and Thai .9 Table1.7 English and Thai nouns 11 Table1.8 English and Thai articles 12 Table1.9 English and Thai word order 14 Table 1.10 Comparison of errors and mistakes .16 Table1.11 Dušková’s L1-transferred error classification 18 Table1.12 Keshavarz’s L1-transferred error taxonomy 18 Table1.13 Possible L1 interference of the Thai learners of English 19 Table 3.1 Summary of the total number of errors 25 Table 3.2 Errors in verbs 26 Table 3.3 Errors in nouns 29 Table 3.4 Errors in articles 30 Table 3.5 Errors in prepositions 32 Table 3.6 Errors in word order 35 v covered all the possible contrastive aspects of Thai and English Another limitation of the present study is that it is impossible to take into accounts the extent to which transfer occurs at different levels of proficiency 4.2 Suggestions for further study Due to the limitation with respect to the scope of the present study, the investigations into the L1 interference in other language areas and language learning may be of great interests for future research Specially, a relationship between L1 and L2 reading (Bernhardt & Kamil, 1995); long‐term cross linguistic transfer of skills from L1 to L2 (Sparks et al., 2009); the use of L1 reading strategies in L2 reading (Koda, 1990), and many other studies related to cross linguistic transfer of L1 sound system into L2 learning could be good suggestions for further research regarding Thai and English 40 REFERENCES IN VIETNAMESE An Nguyen, N (2011) Thực trạng giải pháp rèn luyện kỹ nghe hiểu việc học ngoại ngữ sinh viên không chuyên trường đại học –cao đẳng Tạp chí khoa học ĐHSP TP HCM, 25, 130-133 Dat Huu, Doi Tran, T., & Lan Đao, T (1998) Cơ sở tiếng Việt Hà Nội, Viêt Nam: Giáo Dục Publishing House Hao Cao, X (2000) Tiếng Việt - 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friend: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) How you know him/her Where he/she is living now What he/she is doing now His/ her personality What you like best in him/her His/ her hobbies Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your future job: Suggested ideas: a) What the job is b) Why you like it I c) Where you want to work d) What makes you suitable for the job e) What you to prepare for the job Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your hometown or your village: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) What the weather is like there How people are How the scenery is How the air is there What people How the food is Anything special II Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your school: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) How your school looks like How the teachers are How the students are What you like best about it If there is anything you don’t like about it How you wish it would be in the future Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your classmates: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) How many people there are Where they come from How they learn What they during a break How they are What you like best about them If there is anything you don’t like about them III Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your English class: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) How the class is How your teacher is How your friends are How much you and your friends talk What topics you and your friends talk about How you think of their English If there are any difficulties Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe one of your unforgettable past events: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) What happened If it was fun or sad for you When and where it happened How the scenery was How people there were If you learned anything from this experience IV Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe changes in your hometown: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) If there have been many changes How people’s life have changed How the weather changed What caused the changes Whether you enjoy the changes or not What you think it will be in the future Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your family: Suggested ideas: a) How many members there are b) What your family members’ job is V c) What you like best about your family life d) If there is anything you don’t like e) How you think your family will be in the future 10 Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your learning of English: Suggested ideas: a) b) c) d) e) f) What you think about your English and English learning How you think English is important How much time you often spend learning English What difficulties you have How difficult you feel English is If you have any plans to improve your English 11 Compose a short paragraph (from to sentences) to describe your daily routines: VI Suggested ideas: a What you in the morning b What you in the afternoon c What you in the evening Many thanks for your assistance VII Appendix B: TOOL FORDATA ANALYSIS Categories Verbs Nouns Articles Prepositions Word order VIII Appendix C: LIST OF CODES Categories Verbs Misuse of morphological marks for tenses Lack of morphological marks for tenses Lack of agreement between subject and its verb Lack of the particle ‘to’ in to-infinitives Lack of auxiliaries in negation Omission of be Confusion of irregular and regular verbs Infinitive instead of past participle Confusion of adverb and adjective Past participle instead of infinitive NOUNS Confusion of countable and mass noun Omission of the plural endings Lack of agreement between a pre-modifier and its noun Inappropriate plural endings Use of classifiers ARTICLES Omission of „a/an‟ Omission of „the‟ Misuse of „a(n)‟, „the‟ and „zero‟ PREPOSITIONS Omission of preposition Inappropriate use of preposition Omission of genitival of Addition of prepositions Lack of preposition in collocations WORD ORDER Adjectives placed after a noun Personal pronouns instead of possessive adjectives More specific adverbials placed after more general ones IX ... influence of the mother tongue (L1) on the English acquisition of Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College‟ is the result of my own research in the fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of. .. minimising the influences of Thai learners‟ mother tongue on their English production are provided iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1= Mother tongue or first language L2= Foreign language or second language... INTRODUCTION This part presents the rationale, the aims of the study, the research questions and the methods used to achieve the research objectives The scope, significance and the organization of the