An investigation into the errors in the english passive voice of students at the national academy of politics and public administration hcm city m a 60 14 10

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MNH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES -o0o AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ERRORS IN THE ENGLISH PASSIVE VOICE OF STUDENTS AT THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF POLITICS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION- HCM CITY STUDENT: SUPERVISOR: BÙI THỊ LỘC Dr NGUYỄN THU HƯƠNG HO CHI MINH CITY, 2011 i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ERRORS IN THE ENGLISH PASSIVE VOICE OF STUDENTS AT THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF POLITICS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION – HCM CITY in terms of the Statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee HCM city, November, 2011 BÙI THỊ LỘC ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Bùi Thị Lộc, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan, or reproduction of the theses Ho Chi Minh City, November, 2011 BÙI THỊ LỘC iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EA : NAPA : National Academy of Public Administration L2 : CUP : Cambridge University Press OUP : Oxford University Press Error Analysis Second Language iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality i Retention and use of the thesis .ii Acknowledgement iii Abstract iv List of abbreviations vi Table of contents vii List of figures .viii List of tables ix Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 The rationale of the study 1.2 Aim of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 General background to the study 1.5 Overview of the thesis Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Differences between the active voice and the passive voice 2.1.1 Structural differences 2.1.2 Semantic and lexical differences .8 2.2 The features of the English passive voice 10 2.3 The contrast between the Vietnamese passive voice and the English passive voice 20 2.3.1 The passive voice in Vietnamese 20 v 2.3.2 The contrast between the Vietnamese passive and the English passive voice 24 2.4 Problems in the acquisition of the passive voice 26 2.4.1 Mistakes and errors 26 2.4.2 Types of errors 28 2.4.3 Sources of errors 29 2.4.3.1 Interlingual transfer 30 2.4.3.2 Intralingual transfer 31 2.4.3.3 Context of learning .34 2.4.3.4 Communication strategies 35 2.4.3.5 Learning strategies 36 2.4.4 Error treatment 38 2.4.5 Related research on errors in the English passive voice Chapter METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions 41 3.2 Research design .42 3.2.1 Subjects of the study 42 3.2.2 Instrument 44 3.2.3 Data collection procedures 49 3.3 Chapter 4.1 Summary 50 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 52 Results from the test 52 4.1.1 Do students make errors in the English passive voice? 52 vi 4.1.2 What are the common errors in the English passive voice made by students at the NAPA? 54 4.1.3 To what extent the students have problems with the meaning and use of the English passive voice? 54 4.1.4 To what extent the students have problems with the form of the English passive voice? 57 4.15 To what extent does mother tongue affect the language transfer in the English passive voice… 61 4.2 Is there a relationship between grammatical proficiency And the errors in the passive voice? 62 4.2.1 Is there a relationship between the scores of two tests?…………………………………….62 4.2.2 Is there a relationship between the grammatical proficiency with the errors in the meaning and use of the passive voice………………………….63 4.3 Results from the interviews .65 4.3.1 What are the teachers’ and students’ views on the types of difficulties?…………………………… 65 4.3.2 What are the causes of the common errors? 68 4.3.3 What are the teachers’ views on the causes of the common errors? 69 Chapter CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 72 5.1 Conclusions 72 5.2 Implications 73 5.3 Limitation of the study and recommendation for further research .77 vii REFERENCE 78 APPENDIX Statistics of the test 83 APPENDIX Diagnostic test 85 APPENDIX Pilot test 88 APPENDIX A copy of the grammatical proficiency test 91 viii LIST OF FIGURES Chapter Figure 4.1 Pie chart of correct answers and errors in the English passive voice 52 Figure 4.2 Pie chart of correct answers in the meaning and use of the English passive voice 55 Figure 4.3 The scatterplot of the diagnostic test and the grammatical proficiency test 63 ix LIST OF TABLES Chapter Table 3.1 Summary of the student subjects’ characteristics…………….43 Table 3.2 Operational constructs of the test…………………………46 Chapter Table 4.1 Results from one sample t-test 53 Table 4.2 Descriptive statistics of the test 53 Table 4.3 Table of errors in the form, the meaning and use of the English passive voice Table 4.4 54 Error types in the meaning and use of the English passive voice 55 Table 4.5 Table of sample errors in the meaning and use of the English passive voice 56 Table 4.6 Table of sample errors in Verbs 57 Table 4.7 Table of errors in the form of the English passive 57 Table 4.8 Table of sample errors in Have-passive 58 Table 4.9 Table of sample errors in complex passive 59 Table 4.10 Table of errors in progressive aspect 60 Table 4.11 Descriptive statistics of interlingual errors 61 Table 4.12 Correlation of two sets of test scores 62 Table 4.13 The crosstabutation between the scores of the meaning and use and the scores of the proficiency test 64 Table 4.14 The summary of teachers’ and students’ responses to the students’ problems in the English passive voice 67 79 Celce – Murcia, M and Larsen-Freeman, D.(1983) The Grammar Book: An ESL/ EFL Teacher’s Course Rowley, MA: Newbury House Celce-Murcia, M and Olshtain, E (2000) Discourse and Context in Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP Đỗ Kim Anh, Phạm Kim Chung, Nguyễn Hiền Trang(2004) Ngữ văn Vol Ministry of Education Publisher Ellis, Rod (1997) Second Language Acquisition Oxford: OUP Ellis, Rod (1985) Understanding Second Language Acquisition Oxford: OUP Finch, G (2000) Linguistic Terms and Concepts London: Macmillan Press Ltd Jacobs, R.A (1993) English Syntax- A Grammar For English Language Professionals First News Gass, S.M and Selinker, L.(1994) Second Language Acquisition- An Introductory Course New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc Lê Xuân Thại (1994) Câu chủ- vị tiếng Việt Hanoi : Social Sciences Publisher 80 Littlewood, William T (1984) Foreign and Second Language Learning Cambridge: CUP McMillan, J.H and Schumacher, S (2001) Research in Education Longman : Addison Wesley Longman, Inc Nguyên Hồng Cồn (2008) Passive Sentences from a Typological Perspective http://vn.360plus.yahoo.com/nghcon/article?mid=26&fid=-1 Nguyễn Hồng Cồn, Bùi Thị Diên (2004) Dạng bị động vấn đề câu bị động tiếng Việt Tạp chí ngôn ngữ No 7:1-12 No 8: 8-18 Hanoi Institute of Linguistics Nguyễn Long Quốc (2009) Passive voice in English and Vietnamese – A contrastive Analysis Parrott, M (2000) Grammar for English Teacher Cambridge : CUP Powney, J and Watts, M (1987) Interviewing in Educational Research Routledge and Kegan Paul : London Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G and Svartvik, J (1985) A comprehensive Grammar of the English language New York: Longman Richards, J C (1974-1994) Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition Longman: Longman Group Ltd 81 Richards, J.C; Platt, J and Platt, H (1992) Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics Longman: Longman Group UK Limited Sandra, N E (2005): Grammar In Context Thomson Heinle Swan, M and Smith, B (1987) Learner English Cambridge: CUP Seliger, H.W and Shohamy, E (1989) Second Language Research Methods Oxford: OUP Skehan, P (1998) A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning Oxford: OUP Yuanying Wang(2009) Research on Three Error Types of Chinese ESL Learners’ Acquisition of Passive Voice www ccsenet.org/journal.html 82 APPENDIX 1: STATISTICS OF THE TEST Statistics MEAN N Valid 106 Missing 6823 Mean Std Error of Mean 00978 Median 6923 Mode 69 Std Deviation 10072 Range 46 Minimum 38 Maximum 85 MEAN Valid 85 Frequency Percent 4.7 Valid Percent 4.7 Cumulative Percent 4.7 83 2.8 2.8 7.5 81 5.7 5.7 13.2 79 4.7 4.7 17.9 77 5.7 7.5 5.7 7.5 23.6 31.1 6.6 6.6 37.7 75 73 71 5.7 5.7 43.4 69 12 11.3 11.3 54.7 67 11 10.4 10.4 65.1 65 9 66.0 63 6.6 6.6 72.6 62 6.6 2.8 6.6 2.8 79.2 82.1 60 58 3.8 3.8 85.8 56 2.8 2.8 88.7 54 3.8 3.8 92.5 52 2.8 2.8 95.3 48 2.8 2.8 98.1 40 9 99.1 38 106 100.0 100.0 100.0 Total 83 APPENDIX 2: DIAGNOSTIC TEST NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION- HCM CITY Name:………………………………… Date of birth :………………………… Years of learning English:…………… Gender : Male Female TEST (Time allowed:60 minutes) Part I Forming the passive 1.1 Change the active to the passive if possible Some verbs are intransitive and cannot be changed Ex : People grow corn in Iowa Corn is grown in Iowa An accident happened at this corner yesterday(no change) My cat died Timmy dropped the cup The cup fell to the floor The assistant manager interviewed me A hurricane destroyed the small fishing village Dinosaurs existed millions of years ago My father has worked in this company for 20 years They will build a new school in my village Two detectives are questioning the suspect 10 Parents shouldn’t allow children to watch television too much 11 It is raining hard 84 12 Barbara traveled to Uganda last year 13 People grow rice in Asia 14 We must finish this work before it gets dark 15 Translators have translated that book into many languages 16 Peter came here two months ago 17 People say that he is a good doctor 18 The research team was considering the new theory 19 The result of my learning satisfied my parents 20 People believe that there is life on another planet 1.2 Find the errors in the following sentences and correct them These flowers should keep in cool place America was discover by Columbus This computer has used for five years He had his car been stolen yesterday He said to be a good doctor PART II MEANING AND USE OF THE PASSIVE VOICE 2.1 Read these passive sentences and choose the appropriate situation in which the writer/ speaker choose to use the passive (Đoc câu bị độâng sau chọn tình thích hợp đo ùtác giả dùng câu bị động) Many homes were damaged by the flood a The focus is on the agent b The focus is on the result of the action c The agent is unknown d The agent is unimportant 85 He was punished by his parents a The focus is on the receiver b The focus is on the result c The writer wants to make the statement sound objective d The action is more important than the agent The mixture is melted and then the hot liquid is blown into the intended shape a The focus is on the result b The focus is on the receiver c The agent is unknown d The focus is on the process Rice is grown in many Asian countries a The agent is unimportant or obvious b The focus is on the receiver c The statement sounds directly d The focus is on the action It is generally agreed that people can learn something much more rapidly the second time a The writer wants to make the statement sound objective b The agent is unknown c The writer wants to emphasize the fact d The writer wants to avoid responsibility Yesterday, I lost my wallet Fortunately, it was found by a colleague after work a The speaker wishes to keep the focus on the noun that is mentioned in the previous sentence b The speaker wants to emphasize the agent 86 c The speaker wants to make the statement more formal d The speaker wants to avoid blaming another person Passengers are requested to remain seated a The passive sounds more formal, factual or authoritative and impersonal than active b The focus is on the receiver c The agent is unknown d The agent is a new information A : What a lovely scarf! B : Thank you It was given to me by Pam a The agent is new information b The focus is on the receiver c The passive sounds more dynamic d The passive is more appropriate 2.2 Read the following sentences and decide whether they are passive or not If the sentence is passive , write (P) If not , write (A) [Đọc câu sau cho biết có phải câu bị đông hay không Nếu câu bị động, ghi (P) Nếu câu bị động ,ghi (A) ] Excuse me Could you show me the way to the Ben Thanh Market? I got lost Christmas is coming , so most of the shops are crowded with shoppers The air in many big cities is seriously polluted 4.John got hurt in the accident Alice had her bag snatched while shopping downtown 87 2.3 Use active or passive, in any approriate tense, for the verbs in parentheses.(chia động từ ngoặc dạng bị động hay chủ động thích hợp) It’s noon The mail should be here soon It (deliver,usually)……… …………… (1) sometime between noon and one o’clock Only five of us (work)……………….(2)in the laboratory yesterday when the explosion (occur)…………… ( 3) Luckily ,no one (hurt)………………(4) I was supposed to take a test yesterday, but I ( not admit)………(5) to the testing room because the examination (already begin) ………(6) Before she graduated last May, Susan (already offer) …………….(7) a position with a law firm 5.Charlotte opened the door, and she (greet) ……………(8)by a strange dog 6.He (fire) ……………(9)because he was lazy and irresponsible 7.Vietnam( locate)………………(10)in Southeast Asia III Translate these sentences into English and decide whether it is the passive or not If you think it is the passive sentence , write(P) Ifyou think it is not ,write (No) [dịch câu sau sang tiếng Anh cho biết có phải câu bị động không Nếu bạn cho câu bị động, ghi (P) Nếu bạn cho câu bị động,ghi (No)] Anh bị bệnh …………………………………………………………………………… Tôi cô mời tới dự sinh nhật cô ……………………………………………………………………………… ………………… 88 Tôi bị điểm môn tiếng Anh ……………………………………………………………………………… ………………… Họ bị tai nạn xe tháng trước ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………… 89 APPENDIX : PILOT TEST Name:…………………………… Date of birth:…………………… Gender: Male Female The Passive voice Part I Forming the passive 1.1 Change the active to the passive if possible Some verbs are intransitive and cannot be changed Ex : People grow corn in Iowa Corn is grown in Iowa An accident happened at this corner yesterday(no change) My cat died Timmy dropped the cup The cup fell to the floor The assistant manager interviewed me A hurricane destroyed the small fishing village Dinosaurs existed millions of years ago My father has worked in this company for 20 years They will build a new school in my village Two detectives are questioning the suspect 10 Parents shouldn’t allow children to watch television too much 11 It is raining hard 12 Barbara traveled to Uganda last year 13 People grow rice in Asia 90 14 We must finish this work before it gets dark 15 Translators have translated that book into many languages 16 Peter came here two months ago 17 People say that he is a good doctor 18 The research team was considering the new theory 19 I had my brother fix my bike yesterday 20 People believe that there is life on another planet PATII MEANING And USE When to use passive voice Choose the contexts or situations in which passive voice is used Passive voice is often used : When the focus is on the agent(who or what performs the action).( trọng đến người vật thực hành động) When the focus is on the receiver , the result of the action or processes involving things rather than people ( nhấn mạnh đến người nhận hành động, kết quả, trình sản xuất ) When the agent is unimportant, unknown or obvious(khi tác nhân không quan trọng, không xác định rõ) When the writer/speaker wants to avoid taking responsibility for an action or to avoid blaming another person.(khi tác giả tránh trách nhiệm tránh đổ lỗi cho đó) When the writer/ speaker wants to express something Yes No 91 directly(khi tác giả muốn diễn đạt điều nói cách trực tiếp) When the writer wants to convey an objective or impersonal tone (khi tác giả muốn diển đat điều cách khách quan 7.When the passive is more appropriate than active in order to keep the focus on a noun that was mentioned in a previous sentence (khi caâu bị động thích hợp để trì ý dand từ nêu trước đó) PART III USING PASSIVE I/ Put each verb in brackets into a suitable verb form, using active or passive The fact about sugar Packet sugar from the supermarket is extracted from either sugar cane or sugar beet These products (mix)……………(21).with hot water, which (dissolve)…………….(22)their natural sugar Sugar (also find) ………….(23) in fruit Some of which, such as dates and grapes, (contain)………… (24)very high amounts of sugar To be a little more specific, sugar should (call)……………(25)sucrose Sucrose (make up)……………….(26)of two substances:glucose, which (use)……………(27)for instant energy and fructose, which (last) ……………(28)longer as a source of energy The sugar in fruit is mainly fructose So when we eat fruit, we also eat quite large amounts of natural 92 sugar Some scientists (believe)…………… (29)that too much sugar (eat)………….(30)in sweets, cake and biscuits It (say)………….(31) tobe generally bad for health, although nothing (definitely prove)…………….(32) so far However , it (know)…………… (33) that sugar (cause )…………….(34)tooth decay As one expert put it : “if other foods damage our body as much as sugar damag our teeth, they (should ban)……………… (35) immediately II/ Use active or passive, in any approriate tense, for the verbs in parentheses It’s noon The mail should be here soon It (deliver,usually)……… …………… (36) sometime between noon and one o’clock Only five of us (work)……………….(37)in the laboratory yesterday when the explosion (occur)…………… ( 38) Luckily ,no one (hurt)………………(39) I was supposed to take a test yesterday, but I ( not admit)………(40) to the testing room because the examination (already begin) ………(41) Before she graduated last May, Susan (already offer) …………….(42) a position with a law firm 5.Charlotte opened the door, and she (greet) ……………(43)by a strange dog I don’t expect ( invite )…………………(44) to their wedding No one likes (deceive) ………………… (45) by another person III/ Translate these sentences into English and decide whether it is the passive or not (dịch câu sau sang tiếng Anh cho biết có phải câu bị động không) 93 Anh bị bệnh …………………………………………………………………………… Tôi cô mời tới dự sinh nhật cô ……………………………………………………………………………… ………………… Tôi bị điểm môn tiếng Anh ……………………………………………………………………………… ………………… Họ bị tai nạn xe tháng trước ... INTRODUCTION This thesis investigates errors in the English passive voice of students at The National Academy of Politics and Public Administration- HCM city Then based on findings and analyzing, the study... linguists argue that there is a change in thematic meaning In other words, the reversal of agent and theme changes the focus of the sentence This means that agent receives the main focus and the theme... here” Grammar has always played a crucial role in language teaching and learning Language teachers and specialists are of the view that grammar can help first, second and foreign language learners