Báo cáo thực tập tốt nghiệp tiếng anh (3)

Part I: 1.1 Introduction Rationale of the study English is the language of international communication In recent years there are more and more people considering about the need of English learning In order to improve the quality of English learning and teaching many great efforts have been made These include the search for and implication of new and more effective teaching methods Special attention has also been paid to research in different areas of the teaching and learning English In the processes of learning, however, learners cannot avoid errors As Spada and Lightbown (2002, p.167) stated that: “Errors are natural part of language learning The errors reveal the patterns of learners’ developing interlanguage systems – showing where they have over generalized a second language rule or where they have inappropriately transferred the first language rule into the second language ’’ For second language learners in general and for second language students at secondary school in particular, or even others who have acquired a high level of English proficiency still make errors in their production of the second language We can see clearly the evidences of these errors in different parts For example: In syntax, Vietnamese learners made errors in following areas: wrong use or omission of prepositions and articles as in the following example sentence (In the left bank of Huong river *), wrong use of word order in the sentence (She very much needs to meet them *) Alternatively, wrong form of verbs in tenses is also a difficulty as (He goes to school yesterday *) In learning English grammar, especially the learning tenses, there are many difficulties and errors for Vietnamese learners of English as well as students at secondary schools Although they have been taught and understood the rules of grammar clearly, they often make errors and some kinds of errors even become habitual These errors can be seen in both learning process at school and the results of the exams at the end of each term Therefore, it is necessary to carry out an investigation into the use of tenses, especially into the use of the present perfect tense to study errors, which made by students to identify their causes and find out the solutions to help improving the effects of teaching and learning English For the reasons as above, the writer has decided to choose the topic “An investigation into errors of the use of the present perfect tense by second language learners at secondary school’’ 1.2 Aims of the study The study reported in this thesis aims to: - Identify errors in using the present perfect tense faced by Vietnamese learners at high school - Find the major causes and sources of the errors committed by high school students in using the present perfect tense, and - Make some suggestions for teaching and learning this tense 1.3 Scope of the study English grammar is a complex field for both learners and researchers Due to limit time and research condition, this study does not aim at covering all problems or difficulties met by students in learning English grammar This thesis will focus on investigating students’ errors in the acquisition of English particular grammatical case: The uses of one English syntactic structure named the present perfect tense, which is often used incorrectly by Vietnamese students 1.4 Methods of the study To meet the aims of the study, we apply the following methods: - Investigating and analyzing method - Explanation method - Comparison method - Synthesis method 1.5 Design of the study There are three parts in this research paper Part I: Introduction This part deals with the rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of the study Part II: Content This part consists of three chapters: Chapter I: Theoretical background This chapter will provide an in-depth review of the relevant literature related to the issue under investigation Especially, a review of the uses of the present perfect tense in English will provide the theoretical framework for the identification of the errors that students made In addition, theories about the sources of errors will help explore what factors caused students’ commitment of errors in using the present perfect tense Error analysis as the main theoretical tool for analyzing data will also be reviewed Chapter II: The study This chapter will present the methodology adopted to collect data for the research, which includes the description of research questions, setting, instrumentations, and data collection techniques This chapter will also present and discuss the results and findings of the study Chapter III: Findings and discussion This part will summarize major findings, suggest some implications for teaching and learning the present perfect tense in English Suggestions for further researches will also be presented Part III: Conclusion This part will summarize what have been presented in the thesis The appendixes and references are placed at the end of the study Part ii: content Chapter I: Theoretical background 1.1 Tense and aspect in English There are various traditional school grammarians as well as linguists paying attentions to English tense and English aspect category They considered the category as a complex study According to Geoffrey Leech who identified verb tense and verb aspect as “two of the most troublesome areas of English’’ (Jacobs, 1985, p.187) With the aims at helping learners to understanding further this field, the thesis would like to introduce some general points of view about this 1.1.1 Tense in English According to Quirk et, al (p.40) “Time is a universal, non-linguistic concept with three divisions: past, present, future’’ The diagram of time Past present future Diagram 1.1.1 The diagram of time In English Syntax, Jacobs (p.187) believes that “Aristotle who is said to have been the first to recognize the category of tense’’ He also observed, “there were systematic variations in the form of Greek verbs, variations that could be correlated with time notions such as past and present’’ This lead to some different definitions of other linguists Quirk et, al, (2003, p 40) defined tense as “the correspondence between the form of the verb and our concept of time’’ Jacobs, (1995, p.187) defined that “tense is the grammatical marking on verbs that usually indicates time at which some other situation was in force’’ It refers to absolute location of an event or action in time of either speaking point or others It is remarked by inflections such as “s /es’’, “d / ed’’ or other past participle verbs For example: It snows in Alaska (1) present tense It snowed in Alaska, yesterday (2) past tense (Azar, 2004, p 3) The first sentence is the present tense when the action (event) which is happened in time of speaking and marked by an inflection “s” However, the first sentence’s tense would be the past tense if the narrative sentence’s action (event) happened the past and now it is retold The verb will be marked by an inflection “d / ed ’’ The second sentence is in the past tense because time reference is in the past “yesterday” and verb is marked by an inflection “ed” The tense system involves distinctions of time reference, and is grammaticalized to give only two tenses: past and present Studying English tense, Jacobs also mentioned that there is “a two-tense system” in English, which is past tense and present tense Present tense: Time reference of action can be in the past time, in time of speaking, even in future time The grammatical markings are inflection “s”, “es” For example: Lady Godiva rides on a snow- white house (Jacobs, 1995, p.190) Past tense: Time reference of the action has to be in the past time, recent moment The grammatical markings are the inflections “ed”, “d”, and different forms of verb past For example: Yeltsin greeted the new ambassador (Jacobs, 1995, p 196) In a short word, tense in the concept in the grammatical category that involves on verb form and time reference when the action (event) which happened either in time or not in time Tense is released by an inflection of the verb, so that we easily find that, there are two tenses in English, as the linguists’ saying “is two-tense systems” 1.1.2 Aspect in English What is aspect? Answering this question, some linguists provided definitions of aspect as follows: “Aspect is the general name given to verb forms used to signify certain ways in which an event is viewed experienced” (Jacobs, 1995, p 199) Discussing about aspect, Quirk et, al defined as “the manner in which verbal action is experienced or regarded” (p.40) For example: Jane Austen was writing her greatest novel Maureen Duffy has now written a novel about two friends (Ja cobs, p 201) The first sentence’s tense is the past tense, it refers to a time in the past and the writing act was continuing at the time referred to Tense is marked by form of verb “be”, and aspect is progressive aspect because the effect of verb “be” on the main verb showed the ongoingness of the situation at that time Hence, the sentence’s tense is the past tense, its aspect is the progressive aspect The second sentence’s tense is the present tense Although the action took place and completed in the past, time reference is now Because the action took place quite recently and still suits to the time of speaking The use of perfective auxiliary “have / has” with the main verb in past participle form which follows “has” to show the aspect Thus, the sentence’s tense is the present tense and its aspect is the perfective aspect Form of aspect: Progressive aspect: Be + Ving Perfective aspect: Have / has + V (PII) These are grammatical markings mark aspect in English The lexical meaning of verb can also convey aspectual meaning For example, when a verb signifies a temporary state or continuing activities tend to be a progressive aspect When a verb signifies pre-existing states and indicates completed actions tend to be the perfective aspect For example: I’m writing an essay He has just changed his style In conclusion, aspect is a “complicated phenomenon” Linguists have presented two aspects in English including progressive and perfective aspect basing on grammatical category and meaning of verb As Quirk et, al said that the aspect concerns the verbal ongoing actions or verbal complicated actions 1.1.3 Time reference Thomson and Martinet: “English uses its two tenses as part of a complex system for marking time reference” (A practical English Grammar P.166.OUP) The tense is used as past tense, the speaker is referring to a time in the past, but still relates to now The time reference relates to now For example: The murderer will have been arrested when he arrives next week (Jacobs, 1995, p 194) The action “arrest” will have been occurred in a prior of time when the murderer comes, the time is not to now The time reference is when she arrives on next week It is related to some times after now To sum up, time reference is time relative to some fixed reference point, (i.e the reference point can be the time of speaking “now” or can be some other time such as “past”, “future”).The complexity of the relationships between tense and aspect as well as tense and time reference has raised some difficulties for both studiers and learners The combination among tense, aspect and time reference have constructed a system of “compound tense” which lead to confuse to learners 1.1.4 The present perfect tense in English The present perfect tense is the present tense – perfect aspect combination with different time references “The present perfect tense has perfect aspect which means that it is used to refer to a subject’s past action or states while keeping the subject in a present state of reference or in a present state of mind” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//presen t _perfect tense) Leech’s opinion shows that the present perfect tense means, “Past – time – related – to – present – time” (Leech, G 1987, p.35) Other definition of the present perfect tense is a perfect tense used to express action that has been completed with respects the present It is formed by an auxiliary “have / has” embedded a past participle form of verb S + have / has + V (PII) For example: I have gone to school The use of the present perfect tense has been presented by different point of views of linguists as follows: The book Understanding and using English Grammar has given three uses of the present perfect tense 10 S + have / has + V (PII) E.g I have eaten Trang Tien ice cream since I was in Hanoi Or: She has read this book for a year When students have a basic knowledge of this tense, some types of exercise will be given for practicing Students are required to make sentences with given contexts; applying the newly learned rules to translation; and doing exercises of tense by types of tests such as multiple choice, gap-filling However, in order to avoid and prevent their errors (interlingual and intralingual errors) that they committed, there are some suggestions will be given for teaching this tense 3.3.1.1 Teaching meaning based on context The present perfect tense in English is one of the difficult tenses for Vietnamese students to learn The learners can recognize the form of this tense but they are puzzled to apply it in L2 production In order to help students to have a sufficient knowledge of the meaning of this tense, teachers should try to show the meaningfulness of it with creativity and carefulness by giving contexts Teachers should explain to students how the present perfect tense is required in a particular context or not in the other one Students will have an opportunity to discover how to use the present perfect tense use to express different meanings and how different language features compare and contrast in normal language use 57 Example: You went out last Sunday Now, you come back The house is very dirty You say I have not cleaned it since last Sunday (A resultative sentence) 3.3.1.2 A comparison of L1 and L2 grammar In the theoretical background chapter that has mentioned that in English, there is the grammatical category of tense but there is no one in Vietnamese In English the present perfect tense means “past-time-related-to-presenttime” The form of main verbs changes depending on the subjects and the tense choice However, in Vietnamese the particles as “đ·”, “rồi”, “vừa mới”, etc, are used to show a perfect action or a past action and the form of main verbs never changes In many cases, the particles are not used but time reference is understood by context or paralinguistic elements Hence, there is a difference to express the perfect aspect between English and Vietnamese that is in English it can be found in both semantic and syntactic features while in Vietnamese it is only from the semantic feature Example: Anh Êy ®· häc TiÕng Anh đợc hai năm He has learnt English for two years Anh đà ăn cơm cha? Have you had the meal? 3.3.1.3 Teaching each use with different duration of time 58 There are four uses of the present perfect tense in English and it is an abstract tense for learners of second language Up to now, teacher cannot teach all of the uses at the same duration of time In order to teach this tense getting best results as well as easier, a comparison of the four uses should be given as follows: Uses Past Present Adverbs Duration Began in the Continue up to Since, for of state up past the present moment Indefinite Began at Leading up to Never, past unspecified the present ever, to the present time within a before, time already, period(may be once, completed or twice,… not) A completed or The result with yet Just, Resultative recently some present already, perfect completed importance yet action A completed The experience Ever, experiential action(not or knowledge never perfect recent) Table 3.3.1.3: A comparison of the four uses of the present perfect tense 59 With a comparison of the four uses of the tense students will understand better, and avoid some errors that they usually commit in learning process 3.3.2 Suggestions for learning the present perfect tense In learning English, students partially depend on the teachers’ teaching methods In this part of the thesis, the researcher would like to give some suggestions for students In order to help them mastering the rules of English grammar in general and the uses of the present perfect tense in special The researcher hopes that the following suggestions would be partially contribute to the studying of students - Understand the uses of the tense as well as the adverbs of each use, know what functions it has, and how it is used in different contexts - Practice a lot with different types of exercise on the tense such as multive choices, gap-fillings, translations, syntax completions, etc, and try to make an habit of using the present perfect tense naturally in real situations - Detail discussions about the similarities and differences between the uses of the present perfect tense in English and in Vietnamese - Share knowledge, experience, difficulties, etc, with partners and teachers 3.4 Suggestions for further research The investigation has not been carried out broadly and deeply because of the time limit and scope of the study The 60 study has done only with two classes 11A and 11D at Hermann Gmeiner high school In order to ensure a higher validity of investigation as well as to help Vietnamese students to acquire good knowledge of the uses of the present perfect tense and good ability to use the tense The researcher would like to give suggestions for further study such as: An analysis of errors in using the present perfect tense with the participation of a greater number of students at different levels of English from different learning backgrounds With these suggestions, the researcher hopes that it will benefit for those who concern about teaching English in general and teaching the present perfect tense in special as well as who wish to carry on a research in this field 61 PART III: CONCLUSION An investigation into errors of the use of the present perfect tense by the learners at the secondary school has shown that students at Hermann Gmeiner high school often confuse the present perfect tense with the past simple tense or the present tense, and also commit other types of errors on their productions The study is also a partial analysis of errors made by secondary school students in four main areas of the uses including: Duration of state up to the present (Use 1); Indefinite past (Use 2); Resultative past (Use3); Experiential perfect (Use 4) The study is carried out by investigating errors of students’ productions in order to know how the uses of the present perfect tense is used by secondary school students, how it is taught at secondary schools and then 62 some suggestions are given to avoid errors committed in using these uses of this tense by the students From the study, which has proved that Vietnamese students at secondary school have a lot of difficulties in using the present perfect tense correctly By qualitative and quantitative methods, all of the errors collected have been classified into two types: Interlingual errors and Intralingual errors The causes of these errors also revealed that the causes of interlingual errors are mother tongue interference (Negative transfer) The causes of intralingual errors are overgeneralization, incomplete application of rules, ignorance of rule restrictions and false concepts hypothesized Other noticeable cause that leads to commit errors is poor knowledge of the learners In order to limit the errors that the learners often commit, there are some suggestions, which have been raised for teaching the present perfect tense to Vietnamese learners Teaching based on contexts, this method will help students to discover the ways how to use the present perfect to express different meanings correctly A comparison of L1 and L2 grammar and each use with different duration of time should also be applied to teach English at secondary schools Besides, some suggestions for learning are also presented to students of English These suggestions have been given with a hope that the learners will get mastering in using this tense and avoid the errors that they commit in their English learning Finally, in order to ensure the validity of investigation, there are some suggestions for further research have also 63 been raised With these suggestions, the writer hopes that it will be useful to people who wish to carry on research in this area and one who concern about this field of investigation REFERENCES 64 Azar, B S (2004) Understanding and Using English Grammar Nhà Xuât Tuổi Chomsky, N (1965) Aspect of the theory of Syntax Cambridge MA: M.I.T Press Doff, A (1988) Teach English A training Course for teacher Cambridge University Press Jacobs, R A (1995) English Syntax A Grammar for English language professionals Oxford University Press Jacobovits, L A (1969) A psycholinguistic Analysis of Second Language Learning and Bilingualism Illinois James, C (1980) Contrastive Analysis Longman Group Limited Hewing, M (1999) Advanced Grammar in Use Cambridge University Press Kathleen S and Kenji (1996) Teaching Grammar The international TESL Journal, Vol 2, No from the World Wide Web: http://iteslj.org/articles/kitao-Testing Grammar htlm Leech, G (1987) Meaning and the English Verb Longman Group Limited 10 Liz and Soars, J (1987) Headway Elementary Oxford University Press 11 Murphy, R (2005) English Grammar in Use A self-study reference and practice book for intermediate students of English Nhà Xuất Giáo Dục Thµnh Phè Hå ChÝ Minh 12 Richards, J C (1992) Errors Analysis: Perspective on Second Language Acquisition Longman Group Limited 13 Swam, M (1992) Practical English Usage Oxford University Press 65 14 Spanda, N and Lightbown (2002) How Languages are Learned Oxford University Press 15 Thomson, A and Martinet, A (1986) A Practical English Grammar of English Oxford University Press 16 Quirk, R and Green Baum, S (1976) A University Grammar of English Longman Group Limited 17 Ngo Van Trong (2008) English Object – An analysis of errors made by high school students Vinh University 18 Nguyen Thi Van (2005) English coordinators: And, but, or as cohesive devices: An analysis of errors made by secondary students Graduation thesis.Vinh University 19.Tran Thi Anh Thi (2007) An error analysis of using reference in written English by secondary-school students Graduation thesis Vinh University 20 Diep Quang Ban (1992) Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt, tập 1+2 Nhà Xuất Giáo Dục 21 Hoang Van Hanh Et, al (2008) Từ Tiếng Việt, Nhà Xuất Văn Hoá Sài Gòn 22 Nguyen Kim Than (1997) Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt Nhà Xuất Giáo Dục 23 Website: http://www.Google.com.vn 24 Website: http://en.wikipedia.org.vn 25 Website: http://iteslj.org/articles/kitao-Testing 66 APPENDIX ENGLISH TEST Time allowed: 90 minutes Full name:…………………………………… Class:…………………………………… I Grammar: Put the verbs in the blankets in to the correct tense John (be) absent from class for nearly a week now On the way to school, I always (meet) people who (go) to work Terry (give) up playing football since he (break) his ankle That man who (walk) before my house, (be) my neighbor My mother (go) to Hanoi on business and she (not return) yet Can I borrow your bicycle for a day? My (break) down Look! A man (run) after the bus, he wants to catch it Natasa (be) in Vietnam many times She (say) Vietnam is a beautiful country You (hear) anything? I can hear nothing 10 I (see) you in Royal hotel last night No, it (not be) me I (never be) there 11 I (never read) an article as shocking as this before 67 12 They (just see) their friend off Answers: 1:…………… 2:…………./………… 3:……………/ …………… 4:……… /………… 5:………… /……… …… 6: 8:……………./……………… 9: ………………… 7:…………… ………………… 10:……… / … ……/… …… …… 11:…… ……… 12: ……………… II Vietnamese-English translation: Translate the following sentences into English Tôi đà đọc tiểu thuyết Vũ Phụng Bây đêm Có lẽ chúng đà ngủ Mình đà không gặp Lan từ năm 2005, nhớ cô Anh ta vừa với ngời bạn Khi ngồi quán thấy cô ta ngang qua Tôi không gặp Ba đà lâu Lần cuối gặp anh Hà Nội 68 HÃy đến thăm bạn có thời gian rỗi Tôi phân vân trớc không thăm Bạn đà tng đến nớc Anh cha? 10 Họ đến thăm Việt Nam nhiỊu lÇn råi Hä cã thĨ nãi tiÕng ViƯt Nam 11 Mẹ anh đà chuẩn bị xong bữa tra à? 12 Chúng đà gặp mẹ Nam vài lần III Syntax completion Write one sentence in English for what you or the person in the following situations say about, using the words in the blankets (HÃy viết điều mà bạn ngời nói dựa vào tình dới đây, sử dơng tõ ngc) Example: John was hit by car He cannot go to school by himself He says about his legs (Break) ………… I have broken legs……………………………………………… 69 my A foreigner wants to go to Ho Chi Minh Square He does not know the way He meets you He asks (tell) ……………………………………………………………………………… You had a cell-phone last year Now, you still have it You say about owning this phone with the time of your ownership (have) ……………………………………………………………………………… Lan wants to ask you to go swimming, but she does not know if you can swim She asks you.(ever/swim) ……………………………………………………………………………… A guest buys a hat in your shop He asks you its price (cost) ……………………………………………………………………………… Kathi is your closest friend She left town and began living in Hue two years ago You say about her living with the duration of time in Hue (be) ……………………………………………………………………………… Your sister learned cooking when she was 20 years old Now, she cooks well She says about this (I/learn) ……………………………………………………………………………… It’s a nice day You want to go shopping, but you not have enough money You ask your mother for money (give) ……………………………………………………………………………… Your ankle is still bad because you had an accident yesterday You say about your ankle (I/injure) ……………………………………………………………………………… You have just written a letter Now, you want your brother to send your letter You say (help) ……………………………………………………………………………… 70 10 Minh finished his lunch five minutes ago When his father arrives at home, Minh tells about this (just/have) ……………………………………………………………………………… 11 Your friend tells you about his trip to countryside He asks you if you know there You answer (come/once) ……………………………………………………………………………… 12 Dung read the story “Chi Pheo” five years ago She still finds it is interesting now She talks to you (I/read) ……………………………………………………………………………… 71 ... used For example: T«i sÏ giúp anh với điều kiện anh phải cố gắng 31 (Nguyen Thi Van, 2005) Chú Nam cảnh sát giỏi đến tất đồng nghiệp phải khâm phục (Tran Thi Anh Thi, 2007) This kind of test... actions could be repeated in the present For example: A new bridge has been built across the river (3) The present perfect tense used for actions occurring in an uncompleted prior It implies that... the existence of the stable state of affairs over a continuous period of time up to the present (3) The change of state uses: (Resultative perfect) perfect aspect refers to a present state as