An analysis of 9th graders written errors a case study at vinh thanh seodary schoo

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY BUI TRUONG AN AN ANALYSIS OF 9TH GRADERS’ WRITTEN ERRORS: A CASE STUDY AT VINH THANH SECONDARY SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghe An, 2017 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY BUI TRUONG AN AN ANALYSIS OF 9TH GRADERS’ WRITTEN ERRORS: A CASE STUDY AT VINH THANH SECONDARY SCHOOL MAJOR: TEACHNG ENGLISH TO SPEAKER OF OTHER LANGUAGES (TESOL) CODE: 60.14.01.11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: Dr TRAN BA TIEN Nghe An, 2017 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I acknowledge that this study is my own work The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published elsewhere Author Bui Truong An i TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv ABSTRACT v LIST OF TABLES vi Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 The significance of the study 1.5 Organization of the thesis Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Causes and Sources of Errors 2.2 General introduction on errors 12 2.2.1 Definition of errors 12 2.2.2 Distinction between Errors and Mistakes 13 2.3 Error Analysis 14 2.3.1 Definitions on error analysis 14 2.3.2 Methods on error analysis 16 2.4 Error studies from different countries 17 Chapter METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Research questions 23 3.2 Participants 23 3.3 Research Instruments 24 3.4 Data collection procedure 24 Chapter FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 26 4.1 Results of Error analysis on prepositions 26 4.1.1 Errors on the preposition “in" 29 4.1.2 Errors on the preposition “with” 32 4.1.3 Errors on the preposition “for” 34 4.1.4 Errors of the preposition “to” 35 4.1.5 Errors made with other prepositions 38 4.2 Results of Error analysis on verb tenses 41 4.2.1 Errors on the misuse of verb tenses 44 ii 4.2.2 Errors on the misuse of verb forms 47 4.3 Discussions 49 4.3.1 General remarks on the students’ errors 49 4.3.2 The main causes of the students’ errors 51 4.3.2.1 The influence of mother tongue on their language learning 51 4.3.2.2 The lack of frequent writing practice 52 4.3.2.3 The students’ limited knowledge of grammar and writing techniques 52 4.3.2.4 The teacher’s correction and feedback 53 Chapter IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION 54 5.1 Implications 54 5.2 Conclusion 57 5.3 Limitations 58 5.4 Suggestions 58 REFERENCES 61 APPENDIX 65 APPENDIX 68 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all who have helped me in the completion of this MA, thesis First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my thesis supervisor, Dr.Tran Ba Tien, who provided insightful discussions, valuable comments, criticisms and support in the preparation as well as completion of this thesis I would also like to thank to the teachers, staff in Vinh University, especially Dr.Tran Thi Ngoc Yen, for their legitimate contributions to the success of the course and for their invaluable lectures and encouragement This thesis would never have been possible without the permission, encouragement and support from Mr Le Tan Hung, The Principal of Vinh Thanh secondary school for study support and encouragement Last but not least, my recognition and gratitude are addressed to my family, without their motivation, reassurance, patience, love, and unfaltering support, I would not have managed to complete my master study iv ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore the most common errors made by the 9th graders at Vinh Thanh secondary students in their English essay writing The most common errors which were found in the students’ essays included: faulty prepositions and incorrect verb tenses These errors were classified and tabulated according to their number of frequency in the students’ essays The data for my study was from a random collection of more than 100 pieces of writing papers by the students Under analysis, the data revealed many types of writing errors made by the students, and here in this thesis, I limited to present two main types, namely errors in prepositions and errors in verb tenses Based on the findings, I attempted to point out some reasons leading to the students’ error commitment as well as to suggest some ways to help with correcting, avoiding and limiting errors in 9th graders’ written errors at Vinh Thanh secondary school v LIST OF TABLES Page Table 4.1: Errors with the prepositions - 27 Table 4.2: The tenses in the English language - 42 Table 4.3: Errors with verb tenses - 43 vi Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Learning foreign languages, especially English, has become a popular movement now in Vietnam For practical purposes, the youth now find English an essential tool for pursuing employment and a key to success In addition to learning at schools, they spend more time at language teaching centers or at home learning the language Some learn English with tutors, while others that with the assistance of modern technology, namely computers and the Internet As a result, the fact that today students at school can have a good command of English is not a surprise Admittedly, however, the number of successful English learners at school level is still small, as noted by Brunei’s Minister of Education, SEAMEO 40th meeting in Hanoi, 2004 He said that in Vietnam, a large number of students are excellent in math, merited with good records on math competitions, but not in languages or more exactly in learning foreign languages It is clear that, in student’s performance of productive skills, speaking or writing, thousands of errors remain This phenomenon is rather prevalent; some kinds of errors tend to become deeply rooted in learners and are so serious that, Pham Dang Binh (2002) concluded: “as the students have made progress in their studies, their possibility of committing errors will not disappear as we believe, but it will be on the way to development and become habits” In order for the above - mentioned situation to be improved, it is important that research should be done in the field of student’s learning strategies Do Minh Hung (2007) pointed out that studies on errors made by the learners of foreign language in some countries in the world began in the 1970s, and that certain theories and models on learning procedures, learning strategies, reasons for errors have been described In Vietnam, by contrast, such studies remain incoherent and unsystematic It is quite easy to find teachers’ books, teaching manuals, or teaching guides for teachers, while books mentioning learners’ learning methods or learner error types are not available for students It is strongly believed that once students have knowledge about errors , they will avoid committing them, or they will make them less frequently For the existing errors, perhaps with the help of teachers and friends, they will be able to correct them and reduce the likelihood that they will become habits In Dong Thap, especially in Vinh Thanh, the teaching and learning of English began for years ago Up to now, English has been taught at school from grade to grade The students of many generations have returned and became English teachers Obviously, regarding the development history, the teaching and learning of English in Vinh Thanh have achieved satisfactory results This can be seen in the continuous increase of teachers of English at school during the past ten years However, it is unfortunate to note that until now no studies on the students’ errors have been done in the school although the teachers have often complained about the students’ poor writing performance By practical work with the students, I strongly believe that the students have hundreds of difficulties in learning the language, especially in writing Meanwhile, my colleagues have not found any suitable teaching methods to help the students avoid errors during class time For these reasons, I am engrossed in the issue of errors and decided to make it the topic of my thesis 1.2 Aims of the study The study aims to investigate the most common errors that 9th graders at Vinh Thanh Secondary School made in their writing papers Based on the findings, recommendations and some implications which are of significance to students as well as to EFL teachers are provided At last, it is hoped that the 5.2 Conclusion The study aimed at identifying, describing, categorizing the errors made in 9th students' English essays and the sources of these errors As a result, a number of different errors were found in their English essays These were limited to two major points: verb tenses and prepositions The results of research show that the students’ weak points are seen in the small number of prepositions used, that the utilization of prepositions are of most common prepositions such as in, on, at, with, about, of, from, after rather than compound ones Besides that, very few phrasal verbs were used About the errors on verb tenses, it is notable to see that in their foreign language learning, most of the students were strongly influenced by their mother language The study also reveals that most of tenses the students used in their writing were the simple tenses, especially the present simple Besides that, the students stuck to the language use of their mother tongue and ignored the development nature of the action/ events (aspects), and they broke up the time relation between actions/ events Another thing is that most of the students had difficulties with subject-verb agreement They did not pay attention to the person as well as the number of the subjects, especially when subjects were single nouns or definite pronouns This makes up a big number of verb form error in The Present Simple, The Past Simple and the Present perfect Finally, the students were confused by the differences between the indicative mood and the subjunctive mood The study finally shows that the main reasons for the students’ errors come from: (i) the influence of mother tongue on their language learning, (ii) the lack of frequent writing practice (in-class tasks and home assignments), (iii) the students’ limited knowledge of grammar and writing techniques, and (iv) the teacher’s correction and feedback 57 5.3 Limitations Although the researcher has made a great effort to carry out the study, the study has got a limited number of the linguistic aspects involved in writing due to the limitations of space and time Moreover, the study just collected the data from pieces of 100 students at school for analysis That is only a small number at Vinh Thanh secondary school Clearly, there is a great deal of work to be done in this area in the future 5.4 Suggestions 5.4.1 Suggestions for the teachers Students’ errors are a matter of course and to some extent indispensable in language acquisition The students may correct themselves and avoid committing errors but these jobs could only be done effectively and appropriately with the help of the teachers The teachers’ roles are (1) to help their students to identify errors, both explicit and implicit, and then show them ways for correcting them, (2) to show them appropriate ways of writing which can circumvent errors, or at least, lessen the risk of making them Certainly, whether the students’ writing could improve or worsen depends largely on the teachers Thus, in our opinion, the teachers of English in Vinh Thanh, when teaching writing, should consider the following points (1) The teachers should point out, analyze the errors their students often make so that the students themselves can take it as experience for later work The correction work should be timely, intensive and regularly done (2) The teachers should have some comparisons between the grammar points in Vietnamese and these in English whenever possible This will prevent the students from mechanical translation of one language (Vietnamese) into another (English) (3) The teachers should encourage their students to write more and allow time for cross checking right in the classroom not criticize students for making their 58 errors They should let students know that committing errors is a natural phenomenon in language learning (4) The teachers should make sure that their teaching will be flexible, not necessary that their teaching must closely follow the textbooks More can be added into their lectures/instructions to help with improving the student’s understanding of English grammar, boosting ability of using words and improving writing skills (5) The teachers should apply techniques for error correction, which are very useful and elaborately presented in many teaching methodology books 5.4.2 Suggestions for the students As admitted by many students, writing is extremely difficult, especially essay writing and academic writing The things most students face include the lack of vocabulary, limitation of grammar proficiency and modes of idea expression It is advisable for the students to pay attention to the following points (1) The students should spend more and more time learning about English grammar and vocabulary Vocabulary and grammar are considered the fundamental materials for writing (2) The students must engage in intensive reading Reading will help the students get familiar with English sentence structures and encourage them to imitate good writing style (3) The students should learn more about contrastive linguistics They must master enough basic knowledge of Vietnamese, especially the structures, and the major differences between the two languages (4) They should write more and more, not only in the classroom but also at home The writing topics, writing forms should be optional, diversified, and the length of writing products various (5) They should have their writing products checked and corrected regularly by friends and teachers 59 5.4.3 Suggestions for future studies The findings and limitations of the study indicate some suggestions for further research: The first suggestion is to replicate this study with a bigger size The second one is that both the teachers and the students have coped up with a number of difficulties in the reality of teaching and learning writing One of these difficulties originates from the textbook itself Therefore, an evaluation of the writing sections in the textbook from the teachers’ and students’ perspectives may be helpful 60 REFERENCES Vietnamese: Ban Diệp Quang (2005) Một hướng tiếp cận yếu tố “tính chất thời gian” tiếng Việt, Hội thảo Quốc tế Ngôn ngữ Liên Á VI Bình Phạm Đăng (2001) Một số quan niện khác lỗi trình dạy học tiếng nước ngồi, Ngơn ngữ số Bình Phạm Đăng (2002) Thử đề xuất cách phân loại lỗi người học tiếng nước ngồi nhìn từ góc độ dụng học giao thoa ngơn ngũ, văn hóa, Ngơn ngữ số Bình Phạm Đăng (2003) Khảo sát lỗi giao thoa ngơn ngữ văn hóa diễn ngơn người Việt học tiếng Anh, Luận án Tiến sỹ Ngữ văn Chấn Nguyễn Hữu (2005) Bước đầu tìm hiểu khả sử dụng đại từ quy chiếu phiếm định this/these that/those liên kết văn tiếng Anh sinh viên năm thứ hai, Ngôn ngữ số Chiến Nguyễn Văn (1992) Ngôn ngữ 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38.Yousef S.T (2010) Arab EFL University Students’ Errors in the Use of Prepositions 39.Terlemezian (2009) Error Analysis of Present Simple and Present Continuous Tenses in the Inter-language of Bulgarian Learners of English 64 APPENDIX THE ENGLISH PRESUPPOSITIONS Simple prepositions aboard but outside above concerning over about considering past after despite plus against down regarding along during round alongside except since amid for surrounding among following than anti from through around in throughout as including till astride inside to towards at into under bar like underneath before minus unlike behind near until below notwithstanding up beneath of upon beside off upward besides on versus between onto via beyond opposite vis-à-vis by out with 65 Compound prepositions according to ahead of in compliance with in comparison within conformity all over within consideration of apart from in contrast to as well as in contrast with as against in default of as for in front of away form in favor of by courtesy of in spite of close by in stead of close to in support for back of in term of because of in view of but for irrespective of by means of for fear of contrary to next to due to near to down with on account of down through on behalf of except for on condition of from to on top of in accord with out of in accordance with owning to in advance of regardless of in association with such 67 APPENDIX THE STUDENTS’ WRITING PAPERS 68 69 70 71 72 ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY BUI TRUONG AN AN ANALYSIS OF 9TH GRADERS? ?? WRITTEN ERRORS: A CASE STUDY AT VINH THANH SECONDARY SCHOOL MAJOR: TEACHNG ENGLISH TO SPEAKER OF OTHER LANGUAGES... “good” or natural just as natural as errors that occur in learning a first language The insight that errors are a natural and important part of the learning process itself, and not all come from... understandings and awareness of what errors really are From that, the teachers and learners of language could identify, correct and avoid mistakes in their language manipulation 22 Chapter METHODOLOGY