Effectiveness of cognitive lessons on helping twelfth graders at u minh thuong high school acquire the use of definite the and generic the

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY –HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE LESSONS ON HELPING TWELFTH- GRADERS AT U MINH THUONG HIGH SCHOOL ACQUIRE THE USE OF DEFINITE “THE” AND GENERIC “THE” A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Department of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By HO VAN HAN Supervised by NGUYEN THU HUONG, PhD HO CHI MINH CITY, NOVEMBER 2011 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE LESSONS ON HELPING TWELFTHGRADERS AT U MINH THUONG HIGH SCHOOL ACQUIRE THE USE OF DEFINITE ‘THE’ AND GENERIC ‘THE’ In terms of statement of Requirements for Thesis in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree Ho Chi Minh City, September 2011 HO VAN HAN ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Hồ Văn Hận, 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 Thesis deposited in the University Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the University 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 thesis Ho Chi Minh City, September, 2011 HỒ VĂN HẬN iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to the many people who have helped me undertake this study First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Nguyen Thu Huong, Ph.D who provided insightful discussions, valuable comments, criticisms and support in the preparation and completion of this thesis Second, my special thanks goes to the organizers of this master course and teachers of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their instructions Third, I also would like to thank teachers and students at U Minh Thuong high school for helping me to have enough information for the thesis I also express my warm thank to my best friends who have supported me in positive works Finally, I am indebted to all the support that my family has so lovingly offered me Without their support, the whole thesis would not finish iv ABSTRACT The English article system is not only so complex that philosophers and linguists have difficulties in agreeing on the underlying notions designated by the different forms, but also so different from the Vietnamese system that it must be almost impossible for students to recognize and remember its rules and conventions This research aimed at examining the effectiveness of cognitive lessons written by (Nguyen Thu 2005) on helping twelfth-graders at U Minh Thuong high school acquire the use of definite ‘the’ and generic This is a quantitative research approach, so the researcher mainly uses a pretest to analyze the errors of using English articles before treatment, and a post-test to determine which group performed better (the control group or the experimental group) after treatment of 80 twelfth-graders at U Minh Thuong high school The research compared traditional approaches (which were drawn by (Alexander 1998)) and cognitive lessons (which were written by (Nguyen Thu 2005)) Finally, the results were found and discussed, and recommendations were made by the author with the hope that they will be helpful for teaching and learning English articles, namely definite ‘the’ and generic ‘the’ at high schools v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW I THE MEANING AND USE OF DEFINITE ‘THE’ AND GENERIC ‘THE’ …………………………………………………………………………………… Theories of the meaning of definite ‘the’ .9 Theories of the meaning of generic ‘the’ .16 The differences and similarities between definite ‘the’ and generic ‘the’ 21 4, Approaches To Teaching English Articles 23 II THE MEANING OF DEFINITE ‘THE’ AND GENERIC ‘THE’ IN COGNITIVE GRAMMAR 27 Theories of the meaning of definite ‘the’ ………… 27 Theories of the meaning of generic ‘the’ in cognitive grammar 30 The differences and similarities between definite ‘the’ and generic ‘the’ ……… 31 Approaches to teaching the article ‘the’ 32 vi III THE MAIN PROBLEMS FACED BY LEARNERS WHEN ACQUIRING THE ENGLISH ARTICLES ….33 IV PREVIOUS STUDIES ON EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE GRAMMAR ………………………………………………………………………………… …36 V CONCLUSION .37 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 39 3.1 The aim of the study 39 3.2 The research questions 39 3.3 The student sample 40 3.4 Instruments 43 3.4.1 A survey questionnaire 43 3.4.2 A pretest 44 3.4.3 A post-test 45 3.4.4 A scoring method 46 3.4.5 Validity and Reliability Tests .46 3.4.6 Descriptive statistics .47 3.4.7 Research hypothesis .47 3.4.8 Procedure 48 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 50 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .63 APPENDICES vii Appendix 1: Questionnaire for surveyed twelfth-graders .68 Appendix 2: Norm-references test 72 Appendix 3: Pre-test on the English articles 77 Appendix 4: Using the English article ‘the’ in the current-English 12 ……………81 Appendix 5: The cognitive lesson to using definite ‘the’ and generic ‘the’ 88 Appendix 6: Lesson plan 100 Appendix 7: Lesson plan 115 Appendix 8: Post-test .130 References …………………………………………………………………… 134 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This chapter establishes the scene by presenting some basic issues and ideas, which will be investigated in greater depth in the support of the study It begins with the background to the study in which the main problem for the use of definite „the‟ and generic „the‟ is analyzed This chapter also establishes the tentative points such as the aim, significance, delimitations and structure of the study, and the definition of terms 1.1 Background of the study The English article is one of the determiners used to describe the grammatical element that comes at the beginning of a noun phrase Since every noun requires a determiner, it is not surprising that determiners constitute some of the most frequent words in English Researchers concerned with frequency counts (e.g., Goodman 1987:33, Sinclair 1990:143) agree that „the‟ is the most frequent word in the English language However, one grammatical point that is universally acknowledged to be of great difficulty for non-native speakers of English is also the determiners, particularly those that constitute the English article system In other words, according to a number of authors such as Hawkins (1978), Master (1987), Langacker (1991) cited in Nguyen Thu (2005), the English article system contributes to not only understanding what is said, but also playing an important role in making oneself understood in the discourse that one is engaged in A person may not understand the professor in an utterance like “Where‟s the professor? if he or she does not share the discourse uttered in this sentence The intricacy of the system is reflected through the problems that second language learners encounter when mastering the system In fact, the meaning of the English article used in pragmatic theories assumes that the speaker must share with the hearer in the common ground view of the presuppositions in the discourse The common ground of view can arise naturally from the recognition that utterances typically contain parts that are similar or old information, and parts that are new All new information must be asserted so that anything that is not asserted is old “Old information, then is the sum of „knowledge‟ …evoked in a sentence which a speaker assumes to be already available in the hearer‟s mind at the time of utterance - „the old‟, „the given‟, or „the presupposed‟, … - while „new information‟ is the information added to that knowledge by the utterance itself.” (Lambrecht, 1994: 50) Furthermore, research into the meaning of definiteness has generally be approached from four perspectives, characterizable as „familiarity‟, „identifiability‟, „uniqueness‟, and „inclusiveness‟ However, neither approach alone can account for all felicitous uses of the definite article For example, a unique but unfamiliar entity, or a familiar but non-unique referent, an identifiable but unfamiliar entity, etc may be felicitously referred to through the use of „the‟ In contrast, in cognitive grammar, meaning construction involves two processes: (1) the building of mental spaces; and (2) the establishment of mappings between those mental spaces Moreover, the mapping r elations are guided by the local discourse context, which means that meaning construction is always contextbound The fundamental insight this theory provides is that mental spaces are distinct conceptual regions into which meaning is partitioned when we think and talk (Fauconnier 1985) These theories have provided grounds the elaboration of the meaning of definiteness and genericity under the umbrella of cognitive grammar (These issues will be treated in detail in chapter two) 123 sentence - Gives an evaluation and presents how definite „the‟ - Listen is used Aim: students Presentation: will be able to (appendix 5) understand how -Uses handout - Listen „the‟ is used with proper nouns and names Aim: teacher Practice: will be able to - Uses handout know how - Asks students work in students acquire pairs „the‟ with proper - Suggests some students - Shows the results and nouns and to show their results and explain names explain - Gives an evaluation - Work in pairs - Listen Handouts: Handout 1: warm up: choose the suitable article „a/an‟, „the‟ or „zero‟ to complete the sentences below 123 124 k What time is ……… lunch? l We had …… dinner in a restaurant m Thanks That was ………very nice lunch n Last year, I visited ……… Canada and ………United States o …….Nile is the longest river in Africa p United Kingdom consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland q Is there …….hotel near here? r The President lives in ……… White House s Last week we visited ……Great Wall of China t We are going to go to ………National theater Handout 3: practice: a, Fill „the‟ or „zero‟ before proper nouns and explain Group Group …….Britain ……United Kingdom ……Europe …….Old World …….Philippines … Netherlands ….Red Sea ……Nile River ….New York … Tokyo … Germans … Dutch ….Vietnamese ….Vietnam ….America ……United Stated of America ….USA … Asia 124 125 b, Supply „the‟ or zero‟ Ferguson has traveled everywhere from Central Asia to Arctic I've been to .Brazil and Argentina, but I've never been to USA I'd love to a tour of European capitals and visit …… London, …… Paris, and …… Vienna What's your address? - I live in Montague Road, number 27 I could never afford to stay at hotels like Brown's or Hilton Karl was born in Bavaria, but he now lives in Ohio You can't visit London without seeing Buckingham Palace I've been climbing in Alps, but I've never managed to get up Mont Blanc I'd love to travel down Nile as far as Luxor 10 There's a splendid view of Lake Geneva from this hotel 125 126 LESSON GENERICITY „THE‟ Teacher‟s name: Ho Van Han Teaching date: August, 11th, 2011 Limited time: 60 minutes I, OBJECTIVES: By the end of this lesson, the students will be able to understand how to use generic „the‟ and distinguish between definite „the‟ and generic „the‟ II TEACHING AIDS Handout III TEACHING METHODS Grammar translation IV USING LANGUAGES Both English and Vietnamese V MATERIALS Cognitive lesson (lesson 4) VI TEACHING PROCEDURE No Stages Teacher‟s activities Aim: teacher Warm up: wants to - Uses handout introduce how to - Gives students some use „the‟ in a noun phrases and suggests noun phrase them to indicate which Students‟ activities - work in pairs noun phrase are suitable for each sentence - Asks some students show - Show their results and their results and explain explain the meaning of each 126 127 sentence - Gives an evaluation and - Listen presents how definite „the‟ is used Aim: students Presentation: will be able to (appendix 5) understand how -Uses handout - Listen generic „the‟ is used and how distinction between definite „the‟ and generic „the‟ Aim: teacher Practice: will be able to - Uses handout know how - Asks students work in students acquire pairs generic „the‟ - Suggests some students - Shows the results and to show their results and explain - Work in pairs explain - Gives an evaluation - Listen Handouts: Handout 1: warm up: Choose the suitable noun phrases to complete the sentences below 127 128 the television, the giraffe, the whale, the piano, the bus, the cat, the cheetah 1, John invented ……… 2, I took ……… to your town 3, ………… is a feline 4, ……… is the tallest of all animals 5, ………… is my favorite instrument 6, ………… is the fastest of all animals ………… is a mammal, but it lives in the sea Handout 3: practice: a Compare sentences Which is definite and definite generic, then explain 1, The rich people near my house can buy a car 2, The rich people can buy a car b Choose the correct form, with or without „the’ E.g I‟m afraid of dogs/ the dogs 11 Apples/ The apples are good for you 12 Look at apples/ the apples on that tree! They are very large 13 Women/ the women are sometimes better teachers than men/ the men 14 They got married but marriage/ the marriage wasn‟t successful 15 Do you know people/ the people who live next door? 16 Life/ The life would be very difficult without electricity/ the electricity 17 Second World War/ The Second World War ended in 1945 18 Don‟t stay in that hotel Beds/ The beds are very uncomfortable 19 What time your children finish school/ the school? 128 129 20 President/ The President lives in White House/ the White House c Explain the differences between these sentences: a A lion is a dangerous animal b The lion is dangerous animal c Lions are dangerous animals 129 130 APPENDIX THE POST TEST Time: 50 minutes FULL NAME: …………………………………………… CLASS: 12A Fill in the blanks with the, a/an, or x (zero article) water in the North Sea is usually quite cold I like working with people The organization‟s aim is to educate The wheel was invented by Chinese good woman is hard to find Reading “ people about the dangers of smoking novel is a good way to relax Mr Wilson wanted to see you this morning I don‟t think he is your friend since I haven‟t met him.” How can we combine economic growth and respect for My friend wants to be 10 Tim goes to 11 doctor work by car lion has a mane when it is male 12 We can finish the rest of the bread for 13 The train to Paris leaves from 14 He went to lunch Waterloo Station mountains on vacation 15 bitch is a female dog 16 elephant is a very large grey mammal which has a trunk 17 bull terrier makes an excellent watchdog 18 _ environment? rhinoceros is a very large thick-skinned animal which has one or two horns on its nose 19 I am not 20 Do you have nurse map? 130 131 21 He wants to marry 22 Bill is princess who speaks five languages engineer 23 origins of that fairy tale are unknown 24 train that I took yesterday was delayed 25 New York is the capital of America 26 Lan will have important career later 27 Tom went to market to buy some eggs 28 She is 29 best student of the class university is no place to fight a war 30 He lives in USA 31 I listened to wind blowing through the trees 32 Have you had 33 Is there coffee yet? telephone near here? 34 Visitors can take boat ride along the Hau river and observe the changing landscapes and life on the river 35 We walked over the rice fields and could see that rice seedlings had been growing 36 Yesterday I bought a new car, but radio did not work 37 Sue invited Tom to visit her garden When entering the garden, Tom uttered, “ roses are very beautiful” 38 Did you see cartoon about the cat and the bird in the cage? 39 She is a doctor and her husband is 40 lawyer novel is the most popular form of fiction writing 131 132 2, Decide whether the statements are definite (D) or definite generic (DG) by making a cross “X” No Statements D 41 Thames repaired the radio 42 Thames invented the radio 43 The dodo bird is dead 44 The dodo bird is extinct 45 The lion is a dangerous animal 46 The lion in this zoo is a dangerous animal 47 The rich people can expect to buy that car 48 The rich people in my village can expect to buy that car 49 The meat is more expensive than the vegetables 50 The meat that I have just bought is more expensive than the DG vegetables 3, Decide whether the statements are true (T) or False (F) 51, The story In our zoo, we have two very unusual tigers Most tigers eat meat all the time But our two tigers are vegetarian: they love to eat carrots, and they hate meat Possible target sentences: a The tigers like carrots …… b T igers like carrots … c The tiger like meat …… 132 133 52, The story Last night, I saw a movie about two very strange chickens They have three legs, instead of two! That‟s so weird Everyone knows that a chicken normally has two legs! 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This study seeks to answer the ensuing questions:... with the description of the student -subjects, the aim of the study, the research questions and the data collection instruments 3.1 The aim of the study The aim of the study is to find out the effectiveness. .. (whether cognitive approach or traditional approach) If students acquired the use of definite ? ?the? ?? and generic ? ?the? ??, they could understand the utterance that the speaker used in the discourse and