An error analysis on the use ofcohesive devices in writing by freshmen majoring in English at thang long university

An error analysis on the use ofcohesive devices in writing by freshmen majoring in English at thang long university

Vietnam national university, Hanoi College of foreign languages ====***=== trÇn thị hải bình An error analysis on the use ofcohesive devices in writing by freshmen majoring in English at thang long university phân tích lỗi cách sử dụng phơng tiện liên kết văn viết sinh viên chuyên anh năm thứ trờng đại học thăng long Course work Field: Methodology Supervisor: vũ thúy quỳnh, m.a hanoi, December 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks firstly to my supervisor, Mrs Vũ Thuý Quỳnh, M.A who has enthusiastically helped and encouraged me to finish the research project Without her experienced guidance and valuable comments, my research would still be far from finished I am also indebted to her for her substantial contributions in proofreading and help me make necessary changes My gratitude is also sent to all of my instructors in my M.A courses at Post-Graduate Studies, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Their precious and professional lectures and tutoring have helped me a great deal in understanding profound concepts of the field in English teaching methodology while I attended the courses Last but not least, I appreciate constant supports from my colleagues at Thang Long University, my beloved family and my friends Table of contents Acknowledgement Table of contents List of tables, charts and figures Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Reasons for choosing the topic 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 Organization of the study Chapter Two: Literature review 2.1 Factors affecting language learning 2.2 Errors analysis 2.3 The notion of errors in language learning 2.4 Errors vs mistakes 2.5 Causes of errors in language learning 2.5.1 First language interference 2.5.2 Causes independent from first language 2.6 The concept of cohesion 2.7 Cohesive devices in writing 2.8 Types of cohesion 2.8.1 Grammatical cohesion 2.8.2 Lexical cohesion 2.9 Summary Chapter Three: Research Methodology 3.1 Subjects 3.2 Instruments of data collection 3.3 Method of data analysis 3.4 Summary Chapter Four: Presentation and Analysis of Data 4.1 Errors in the use of reference 4.1.1 Errors in the use of demonstrative reference 4.1.2 Errors in the use of personal reference 4.1.3 Errors in thes use of comparative reference i ii iv 1 2 3 5 6 8 10 11 11 12 17 18 19 19 20 20 21 22 23 23 29 30 4.2 Errors in the use of conjunction 4.2.1 Errors in the use of adversative conjunction 4.2.2 Errors in the use of causal conjunction 4.2.3 Errors in the use of additive conjunction 4.3 Errors in the use of lexical cohesion 4.4 Summary Chapter Five: Implications Chapter Six: Conclusion Bibliography Appendices 32 33 34 36 36 38 39 44 LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES Table 2.1 Types of cohesion at linguistic level Table 2.2 Types of grammatical and lexical cohesion Table 2.3 Personal reference Table 2.4 Demonstrative reference Table 2.5 Comparative reference Table 4.1 The number of errors in the use of cohesive devices Table 4.2 Errors and their causes Table 4.3 Errors in the use of demonstrative reference Table 4.4 Errors in the use of the definite article Table 4.5 Errors in the omission of ‘the’ Chart 4.1 Sources of errors Figure 2.1 Types of reference Figure 2.2 The process of recognizing and identifying errors CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC Since Vietnam has opened its door to the rest of the world, more and more people with their wish to join world trends have rushed to learn foreign languages, especially English This demand in language learning has brought about a great amount of positive changes in language teaching in Vietnam Language teachers have looked for and tried different methods and techniques in teaching and learning in order to find the effective ones The effectiveness of a teaching method or technique is reflected in the learners’ language competence that is their abilities to perform the four language skills: Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking Amongst these skills the two productive skills, writing and speaking, are considered more difficult than the others as the learners need to use the language to convey their messages comprehensibly and accurately in real life communication When a message is unsuccessfully conveyed, the factor, which is most likely to be blamed for is errors in the use of the language It is natural in language teaching that learners make mistakes and errors when writing in English How to cope with and when to give feedback to these errors are vital in teaching language as it may either result in motivation or discouragement in language learning Some teachers’ concern is directed to contrastive analyses of Vietnamese and English with the hope to predict and prevent errors before they appear This theory has been supported by Lado (1957) However, Richards (1971) in his research found out that apart from the first language interference, there were other causes which are products of intra-lingual analogies such as overgeneralization, incomplete application of rules or ignorance of rule restrictions as well as false concepts hypothesized So far, there has been scarily any research on the causes of errors in students’ writing in English in Vietnamese universities Therefore, I am attempted to carry out a research study applying error analysis in clarifying learners’ errors in the use of cohesive devices in writing at Thang Long University as “cohesive devices are crucial in writing” ( Zamel,1983:1) 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to obtain quantitative data for the investigation the types and causes of errors in the use of cohesive devices in writing by first year undergraduate students majoring in English at Thang Long University Thus, it aims to seek answers to the following questions: What are common errors in the use of cohesive devices in the students’ writing? and What are the major causes of these errors? The answers to these questions will serve as help in giving recommendations to reducing and preventing the problems of coherence in students’ writing 1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY It is believed that different types of learners committed different types of errors Also, the type of errors are various according to different stages in learning process Errors are made in both of the productive skills: writing and speaking Due to the limitation of time, the study is confined itself to errors in the use of cohesive devices in the writing by Vietnamese preintermediate students 1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Many studies on errors have been carried out in the field of teaching English in the world Researchers like Zamel (1983), Richard (1971) and Corder (1967) among others emphasized the importance of errors in theory as well as in practice of foreign language learning and teaching According to Corder (1967), errors are traced to their sources are beneficial in different ways Firstly, they help language teachers know how much progress a learner has made in the target language, in which language area he needs help and what sort of help he needs Secondly, they provide researchers with evidence in language learning process; therefore, researchers through errors discover strategies applied in acquiring a language Apart from that, errors can serve as good feedback to learners for self-adjustment Despite these benefits, few studies on errors derived from Vietnamese learners have been made For these reasons, this study should be conducted to find out types of errors, specifically errors in the use of cohesive devices in Vietnamese learners’ writing and what their causes are It is hoped that the findings of the research would be useful to teachers as well as learners of English Once the type and the causes of a particular error are properly found, teachers will have a better understanding of students’ problem in using cohesive devices in writing and can develop proper solutions 1.5 METHODS OF THE STUDY The subjects of the study are two classes of first year undergraduate students at Thang Long University They are at the age ranged from 18 to 19 Their major at the university is English Though they come from different areas in the country, they are considered at the same level of English as they all learned English at high school and have passed the university entrance examination on three subjects including English This is intended to be a quantitative research study using compositions as a technique of eliciting data for the analysis, statistical counting as measurement of results Students’ papers were collected every week Any errors in the use of cohesive devices were found and classified according to the cohesion-category by Haliday and Hasan (1976) Then the occurrence frequency of each error type was counted The data and the list of the errors was the source for the analysis 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY The study is composed of six chapters Chapter one gives reasons for choosing the topic, objectives and methods of the study It also narrows the scope of the study and briefly presents an overall out-line of the research study Chapter two reviews the literature related to the study Firstly, it presents the factors affecting language learning which is divided into two types: external and internal Secondly, error analysis and errors in language learning are discussed The literature related to errors is given; it includes the notion of errors in language leaning, the distinction between errors and mistakes, main causes of errors Lastly, cohesion in writing is mentioned, it consists of the concept of cohesion, cohesive devices and types of cohesion Chapter three describes in detail the research methodology which comprises the information of the subjects, instruments of data collection and methods of data analysis Chapter four presents the statistical results and the analysis of the data The statistical results are shown in the tables which are the basement to determine the causes of each type of errors in the use of cohesive devices in writing Chapter five named Implication with the recommendations for correcting errors in the use of cohesive devices in writing, suggestions for teaching in order to prevent and eliminate these errors Chapter six closes the study with a conclusion which gives a summary of the whole study and provides suggestions for further studies CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the literature related to errors and cohesive devices in writing is discussed in order to provide the study with the sufficient theory background 2.1 FACTORS AFFECTING LANGUAGE LEARNING On the basis of language learning process theories, it is clear that language learning bear a lot of influences and the factors affecting language learning are categorized into two types: external factors and internal factors External factors include: the first language, language environment and the formal teaching First of all, the mother tongue may be more or less helpful for the learners of a new language as they have already learned how to with that language Universal features in languages can assist learners to learn a new language On the basis of behavior psychology, Lado (1957) and Fries (1965) suggested two types of transfers: transfers are positive when the first language and the target language share similar features, negative when there are different features in the two languages Language environment is also of great significance to success in learning a foreign language Lastly, the role of formal teaching was asserted in the research by Littlewood (1980) when he proposed that certain techniques or methods proved to be relevant in particular groups of learners Dulay et al (1982) named two internal factors: the filter and the monitor According to Dulay, language learners not acquire what is exposed to them, but select what they find suitable, relevant and interesting Motivation, as he defined, is understood as “incentive, the need or the desire to learn the second language” (Dulay et al., 1982:47), if motivation is low, failure is likely reported “The monitor is the part of the learners’ internal system that appears to be responsible for conscious linguistic processing” (Dulay et al., 1982:58) It appears when learners try to learn or to apply a linguistic rule or structure or when he is given tasks requiring grammatical judgments Foreign language learning are influenced both outside from teaching and learning environment, and inside from what and how learners process the language 10 ... students majoring in English at Thang Long University Thus, it aims to seek answers to the following questions: What are common errors in the use of cohesive devices in the students’ writing? and What... external and internal Secondly, error analysis and errors in language learning are discussed The literature related to errors is given; it includes the notion of errors in language leaning, the distinction... data analysis 3.4 Summary Chapter Four: Presentation and Analysis of Data 4.1 Errors in the use of reference 4.1.1 Errors in the use of demonstrative reference 4.1.2 Errors in the use of personal