Problems in acquiring the english relative clause of english majored freshmen at binh dinh college m a 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY–HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE PROBLEMS IN ACQUIRING THE ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSE OF ENGLISH – MAJORED FRESHMEN AT BINH DINH COLLEGE A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By VÕ THỊ KIỀU DIỄM Supervised by NGUYỄN TIẾN HÙNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2011 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: PROBLEMS IN ACQUIRING THE ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSE OF ENLGISH - MAJORED FRESHEN AT BINH DINH COLLEGE in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programmes issued by the High Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, May 2011 VÕ THỊ KIỀU DIỄM RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, VÕ THỊ KIỀU DIỄM, 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 theses Ho Chi Minh City, May 2011 VÕ THỊ KIỀU DIỄM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I really want to express many thanks to all the people who helped me a lot for the completion of my thesis First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Tiến Hùng, for his enthusiastic guidance with valuable comments and encouragement during the time of implementing the thesis Second, I also would like to send all my thanks to all the teachers of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities They provided me with good knowledge about every aspect related to my thesis Third, my sincere thanks are also sent to all of my colleagues in the Foreign Languages Department at Binh Dinh College for their willingness to respond to the interviewed questions Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their deep understanding, support and warm encouragement ABSTRACT English is growing more and more important not only for the all-sided development of a country but also for our everyday communication And when talking about English, four skills such as listening, reading, speaking and writing have been paid much attention to in the course of teaching and learning the language Besides, English grammar plays a crucial role both in communication and in language acquisition Most of students at Binh Dinh College are trained to become teachers of English in the future So to master English grammar is a must for them There are lots of points about English grammar, but during the teaching time for BDC students, it has been clearly seen that the majority of my students at BDC have made so many mistakes in using English relative clauses that I have made up my mind to conduct a thesis aiming at: (1) investigating the first-year English – majored students’ problems in learning English relative clauses at Binh Dinh College; (2) finding out the causes to these problems and from what have been found out, some recommendations have been provided for teachers of English as well as students for better teaching and learning In order to achieve valuable and reliable data, the survey was carried out and based on the questionnaire delivered to 98 English majored freshmen, an interview to 15 teachers of the Foreign Languages Department, and a proficiency test for these student participants With the findings of the study, the thesis author primarily recommends that (1) the teachers need to know their students’ needs and English levels so as to decide what kind of English grammar book should be used in the course of teaching and learning ERC; (2) the students need to know what the effective method in learning ERC is and try their utmost to successfully apply it in the process of learning ERC LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ERC : English Relative Clause BDC : Binh Dinh College LIST OF FIGURES Chapter Figure A hierarchy of syntactic choices defining the verb clause for a relative comment ……………………………………………20 Figure General form of phrase structure for a relative clause where the topic is the subject of the clause ……………………………21 Figure General form of phrase structure for a comment with main verb………………………………………………………… 21 Chapter Figure 4.1 ERC’s translation frequency rate ……………………… …55 LIST OF TABLES Chapter Table 3.1 The participants’ background information ……………… …42 Chapter Table 4.1 Students’ evaluation of their English grammar knowledge 47 Table 4.2 Understanding some aspects of ERC………………… …….49 Table 4.3 Understanding the ERC from the teacher or grammar book.…52 Table 4.4 Possible causes to the students’ problems…………………….54 Table 4.5 Students’ mistakes about relative clauses…………………….57 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Relative clause 2.1.1 Definitions and the syntactic role of the relative clause in sentences 2.1.2 Kinds of relative clause 10 2.1.2.1 Defining relative clauses (also called identifying relative clauses or restrictive relative clauses) 11 2.1.2.2 Non-defining relative clause (also called non-identifying or nonrestrictive relative clauses) 13 2.1.2.3 Omission of relative pronouns in relative clauses 15 2.1.3 Characteristics of relative clauses 17 2.1.4 Relative clauses introduced by relative pronouns, relative adverbs and other words 22 2.1.4.2 INDEFINITE RELATIVE PRONOUNS 24 2.1.4.3 RELATIVE ADVERBS 26 2.1.4.4 BUT and AS 27 2.1.4.5 Cleft sentences: it + be + noun/ pronoun + defining relative clause 29 2.1.5 Vietnamese relative clauses 30 2.1.5.1 Relative clause as subject complement 30 2.1.5.2 Relative clause as object complement 31 2.1.5.3 Apposition 31 2.1.5.4 Possessive case 31 2.1.6 English relative clauses 31 2.1.6.1 Relative pronoun as subject and object 32 2.1.6.2 Relative pronoun as object and prepositional complement 32 2.1.6.3 Relative pronoun as adverbial 32 2.1.6.4 Relative pronoun as complement 33 2.1.6.5 Sentential relative clauses 33 2.2 Factors affecting the students’ acquiring of the English relative clauses 34 2.2.1 The learner 34 2.2.2 The teacher 35 2.2.3 Grammar materials 35 2.3 An overview of typical difficulties for learners in acquiring the English relative clauses 36 2.3.1 Comprehension 36 2.3.2 Speaking and writing 36 2.3.2.1 Using unnecessary pronouns 36 2.3.2.2 Using the wrong relative pronoun 37 2.4 Tips for teaching English relative clauses 37 2.4.1 Teaching English relative clause by Thomas Lavelle 37 2.4.2 Fun with Relative Clause Game 39 CHAPTER 41 METHODOLOGY 41 3.1 Research questions 41 3.2 Subjects 41 3.3 Instruments 43 3.3.1 Survey questionnaire 43 3.3.2 Test 44 3.3.3 Teachers’ interviews 44 3.4 Assumptions 44 CHAPTER 46 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 46 4.1 Findings 46 4.1.1 Students’ responses to questionnaire 46 4.1.1.1 Students’ knowledge about the ERC 47 4.1.2 Teachers’ responses to the interview 59 4.2 Analysis of BDC students’ mistakes in acquiring ERC 60 4.2.1 Fragment 60 4.2.2 Defining or non-defining relative clause 61 Khi học mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh, bạn có thường gặp phải khó khăn khơng? Gặp khó khăn việc phân biệt mệnh đề quan hệ hạn định mệnh đề quan hệ không hạn định Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xun ln Gặp khó khăn việc hiểu sử dụng đại từ quan hệ (which, who, whom, that, whose) Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xun ln 10 Gặp khó khăn việc hiểu sử dụng trạng từ quan hệ (when, where, why) Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xun ln 11 Gặp khó khăn việc hiểu sử dụng mệnh đề quan hệ để nhấn mạnh (it + be + noun/ pronoun + defining relative clause) Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên ln 82 12 Gặp khó khăn việc hiểu sử dụng từ “that” mệnh đề quan hệ Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên 13 Gặp khó khăn việc hiểu sử dụng giới từ mệnh đề quan hệ Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên 14 Gặp khó khăn việc hiểu giảng giáo viên mệnh đề quan hệ Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xun ln 15 Gặp khó khăn việc hiểu cách viết mệnh đề quan hệ sách ngữ pháp Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Ln thoảng xun ln 16 Thật khó để tiếp thu mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh khác biệt với tiếng mẹ đẻ (tiếng Việt) Hồn tồn đồng ý Đồng ý Khơng có Khơng ý kiến đồng ý 17 Thời lượng để trình bày mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh lớp ngắn 83 Đồng Hồn tồn đồng ý ý Khơng có Khơng ý kiến đồng ý 18 Giáo viên dịch mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh qua tiếng Việt so sánh với tiếng Việt Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên III NHỮNG LỖI VỀ MỆNH ĐỀ QUAN HỆ 19 Thiếu động từ câu có sử dụng mệnh đề quan hệ Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên 20 Sử dụng đại từ không cần thiết E.g I work for a company which it controls the local sugar trade (…which controls the local sugar trade.) Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên 21 Sử dụng sai đại từ quan hệ  what thay dùng that  who cho vật  which cho người Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên Các lỗi khác: ………………………………………………… .………………………………………………… ………………………………………………… 84 ………………………………………………… IV CÁC SÁCH NGỮ PHÁP VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP HỌC NGỮ PHÁP CỦA BẠN 22 Bạn sử dụng tài liệu để phục vụ cho việc học Mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh? …………………………………… …………………………………… 3……………………………………… …………………………………… 5…………………………………… 6…………………………………… 23 Giáo trình bạn thấy dễ hiểu nhất? ……………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… 24 Phương pháp thực hành điểm ngữ pháo bạn: ……………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… 85 - APPENDIX C A TEST IN USING ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSES (30 mins) I Combine the following pairs of sentences by using relative pronouns: This house is very modern It has a television and an electronic washing machine …………………………………………………………………………… That man seems lonely His wife and family are away …………………………………………………………………………… Dumas was a famous French novelist He wrote the Three Musketeers …………………………………………………………………………… The lecturer tonight was very interesting He came from Cambridge …………………………………………………………………………… This summer has been very warm That is very unusual in this country …………………………………………………………………………… The mountain is difficult to climb It has many dangerous slopes …………………………………………………………………………… (Department of English, Practical English Grammar) 86 II Pick out the relative clause in each of the following sentences and give the antecedent (something which precedes; noun phrase referred to by a personal pronoun) For example: This is the bicycle that my uncle gave me that …… me : the relative clause BICYCLE: Antecedent These are the cakes that I bought …………………………………………………………………………… Do you know anyone who wants to buy a motor-bike? …………………………………………………………………………… Here are the cakes which I bought …………………………………………………………………………… The man was returning home with the money, which he had put in his pocket …………………………………………………………………………… III Rewrite the following sentences so that each contains a non-defining relative clause Shakespeare was born at Straford and wrote many plays …………………………………………………………………………… The Portuguese sailor, Magellan, gave his name to the famous straits …………………………………………………………………………… The paintings by Vermeer in the Art Gallery are insured for a large amount …………………………………………………………………………… The newly-published book was recently summarized in a Sunday paper 87 …………………………………………………………………………… IV By introducing non-defining relatives, combine each of the following pairs of sentences into one sentence: Toscanini was a world-famous conductor He often visited London …………………………………………………………………………… The Black Death was a terrible pestilence It decimated the population of some parts of England …………………………………………………………………………… Some fine stained glass can be seen in York Minster It is in the North of England …………………………………………………………………………… V Complete these sentences by inserting the correct introductory words He had a natural thoughtfulness such …………is rarely seen in one so young You may ……….ever you like, go ………ever you choose and with …….ever you please I remember the time ……… you could buy a 2-oz bar of chocolate for 2d ‘What chapter have you reached?’ ‘- The one ……….the body disappears!’ VI Rewrite the following sentences so that they contain clauses introduced by ‘but’: Nobody disagreed with your proposal …………………………………………………………………………… 88 There was no one there who didn’t support the action taken by the Government …………………………………………………………………………… There was hardly a year went by that did not bring him further honors …………………………………………………………………………… (C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, A Comprehensive English Grammar) - APPENDIX D QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW (IN ENGLISH) What can you say about your first-year English-majored students’ level? How you feel when you have to teach those students with such different levels? For you, is the English relative clause really difficult to your students? What mistakes in the ERC your students often make during their study? In your opinion, what causes these mistakes? As a teacher of teaching Grammar, can you give out some suggestions to improve the ERC teaching and acquiring ? When teaching this point, you often use Vietnamese equivalents for easy understanding? How good is it? 89 How is the ERC in comparison with other English grammatical items? - APPENDIX E CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN (IN VIETNAMESE) Q thầy chia sẻ chút trình độ sinh viên chuyên Anh năm thứ trường không? Quý thầy cô cảm thấy phải giảng dạy cho đối tượng sinh viên có nhiều trình độ khác vậy? Theo ý kiến quý thầy cô, mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh có thực khó đối tượng sinh viên không? Những lỗi sai mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh sinh viên thường mắc phải q trình học gì? Theo q thầy nguyên nhân gây lỗi sai gì? Với tư cách giáo viên giảng dạy mơn Ngữ pháp, q thầy đưa số đề nghị để công việc dạy học mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh tốt hơn? Khi dạy điểm ngữ pháp này, q thầy có thường sử dụng mẫu câu tương tự từ tiếng Việt để giải thích khơng? Phương pháp tốt nào? 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English grammar materials now, there are also two kinds of relative clauses: defining and non-defining relative clauses 2.1.2.1 Defining relative clauses (also called identifying relative clauses... many mistakes in using English relative clauses that I have made up my mind to conduct a thesis aiming at: (1) investigating the first-year English – majored students’ problems in learning English