Adverbs of time in english and vietnamese

Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mrs NguyÔn V©n Lam, my supervisor, for her comments, encouragement, guidance, corrections, and useful materials during the course of my writing, without which this study would hardly have been accomplished. And I would like to thank Mr Ng« §×nh Ph¬ng, my examiner who has helped me accomplish this study. I am gratefully in debt to all the teachers of Foreign Languages Department who have taught me the last four years. Thanks are also extended to all of my friends who have encouraged me and helped me to collect documents as well as experience. My thanks also go to the 11th form students for their supply of information in the questionnaire. Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my parents for their support and encouragement in the process of study. AbStract “English is the most widespread language on earth and is the second only to Mandarin Chinese in the number of the people who speak it” ( Musman, 1987). Learning English is very useful. In order to learn it well adverbs and their roles in language should be paid attention to. Although adverb is considered as an optional element in the sentence, it plays a very important part in the formation of the language and its presence contribute well to the meanings of the sentence. English adverbs are very various and Vietnamese ones are, too. However, in this study we only focus on adverbs of time, then finding out major similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese adverbs of time. In addition, we provide learners some useful knowledge and analysis of common mistakes about English adverbs and adverbs of time basing on the survey questionnaire. We also give out some suggestions for teachers and students in teaching and learning English adverbs and adverbs of time in particular and activities for practice. Table of contents Page Acknowledgements Abstract Table of contents Part A: introduction . 1 I. Rationale . 1 II. The Aims of the Study . 2 III. The Objectives of the Study . 2 IV. The Scope of the Study . 2 V. The Methods of the Study . 2 VI. The Design of the Study . 2 Part B: contents . 4 Chapter 1: English Adverbs and Adverbs of Time . 4 1.1. English Adverbs . 4 1.2. English Adverbs of Time . 5 1.2.1. Definition 5 1.2.2. Forms of English Adverbs of Time 5 1.2.2.1. One- word Adverbs 5 1.2.2.2. Adverb Phrases 6 1.2.2.3. Adverb Clauses 6 1.2.3. Classifications of English Adverbs of Time 7 1.2.3.1. Time When Adverbs 8 1.2.3.2. Time Duration Adverbs 9 1.2.3.3. Time Frequency Adverbs 11 1.2.3.4. Other Time Relationships Adverbs 11 1.2.4. Positions of English Adverbs of Time 12 1.2.5. Functions of English Adverbs of Time 12 Chapter 2: Vietnamese Adverbs and Adverbs of Time . 14 2.1. Vietnamese Adverbs . 14 2.2. Vietnamese Adverbs of Time . 16 2.2.1. Definition 16 2.2.2. Forms of Vietnamese Adverbs of Time 17 2.2.2.1. Simple Adverbs 17 2.2.2.2. Compound Adverbs 17 2.2.2.3. Adverb Clauses 17 2.2.3. Classification of Vietnamese Adverbs of Time . 18 2.2.3.1. Time When Adverbs 18 2.2.3.2. Time Duration Adverbs 18 2.2.3.3. Time Frequency Adverbs 19 2.2.3.4. Other Time Relationships Adverbs 19 2.2.4. Positions of Vietnamese Adverbs of Time 20 2.2.5. Functions of Vietnamese Adverbs of Time 21 Chapter 3: Contrastive Analysis between English Adverbs of Time and Vietnamese Ones . 22 3.1. Major Similarities . 22 3.2. Major Differences . 24 Chapter 4: Applications for Learning and Teaching English . 27 4.1. Comments on The Survey Questionnaires . 27 4.2. Collection and Analysis of Data . 27 4.2.1. Collection of Data 27 4.2.2. Analysis of Data 28 4.3. Suggestions and Activities for Practice . 29 4.3.1. Suggestions 29 4.3.2. Activities for Practice 32 Part C: concluSion . 35 Appendix References Part A Introduction I. Rationale Nowadays, English is one of the most popular languages in the world and helps people communicate well in many fields. In Vietnam, English also occupies a specially important status in the development of international relationship. Thus, English programs are offered everyday through all means of mass media. Besides, English has been influenced in our education curriculum as a compulsory subject. In learning English well, adverbs, like other parts of speech play a very important role in making the meaning of the sentence. The functions of adverbs are very complicated in English. They take part in the structure and help express meaning fully and equally to other parts of the sentence structure. In addition, adverbs can modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb. They are, thus, so important in speech. It is necessary to understand the importance of adverbs and how to use them effectively and suitably. However, Vietnamese learners’ mother tongue often interfere when they learn English. Learners sometimes confuse between some adverbs that have two forms but different meanings, e.g: ‘hard’/ ‘hardly’; ‘late’/ ‘lately’. Moreover, learners find it difficult to arrange some kinds of time adverbs in the right order if they co-occur in a sentence such as: time when adverbs, time frequency adverbs, time duration adverbs ,etc. Examples: - Jenifer met Prad Pitt since last Music Grammy once (wrong) -Jenifer met Prad Pitt once since last Music Grammy (right) English and Vietnamese are two different languages. Thus, the adverbs in the two languages are different to some extent. However, it is very difficult to cover all aspects of adverbs in this thesis. The author only focuses on adverbs of time in contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese. It is the author’s hope to give some useful information and knowledge to help learners use adverbs and adverbs of time suitably and effectively. II. The aims of the study - To present the theoretical study of English and Vietnamese adverbs of time. -To find out major similarities and differences between English adverbs of time and Vietnamese ones . - To show some common mistakes based on the survey questionnaire - To provide English learners with some suggestions for using English adverbs of time and activities for practice. III. The objectives of the study To fully achieve the aims above, the study should answer the question: - What are the similarities and differences of time adverbs in English and Vietmamese? IV. The scope of the study It is due to the size of the B.A thesis, the author focuses on major similarities and differences between English adverbs of time and Vietnamese ones. V. The methods of the study - Collecting information and knowledge from useful materials by famous writers. - Analysing the data collected to draw out major similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese adverbs VI. The design of the study The study is divided into three main parts: The first part is the “Introduction”, which gives the reason for choosing the subject and sets up the aims, objectives, scope and methods of the study. The second part consists of four chapters: Chapter 1 provides a brief background of English adverbs and analyzes English adverbs of time in detail. Chapter 2 provides a brief background of Vietnamese adverbs and analyzes Vietnamese adverbs of time in detail Chapter 3 presents some major similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese adverbs of time.