An analysis of errors commonly committed by high school students in using english questions

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN DIỆU HƯƠNG AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS COMMONLY COMMITTED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN USING ENGLISH QUESTIONS MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION VINH - 2011 i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN DIỆU HƯƠNG AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS COMMONLY COMMITTED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN USING ENGLISH QUESTIONS PHÂN TÍCH NHỮNG LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP Ở HỌC SINH TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÂU HỎI TIẾNG ANH FIELD: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60.14.10 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr VÕ ĐẠI QUANG VINH - 2011 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved supervisor, Associate Professor Võ Đại Quang (PhD) for the invaluable support, enthusiastic guidance, and encouragement he gave me throughout my research I am truly grateful to him for his advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage Without his untiring patience in reading the manuscript and clarifying my ideas, the thesis would have never been in the current shape Secondly, I would like to thank all lecturers at Department of English, Vinh University and VNU University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable teaching and tremendous assistance that have enlightened my study path I would like to thank Mr Hồ Sĩ Dương, my head master, who has facilitated at his best to offer me time and necessary assistance from the beginning to the last moment of my master course Many thanks also go to my classmates at the Master Course Class and to all of my colleagues at Tĩnh Gia II High School who have taken time and trouble to alert me to errors in my thesis and provided me with useful data on which this thesis is based I also wish to send my sincere thanks to the students of the classes I visited in order to gather information for my survey questionnaires Without their help, this study could not have been successful Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to family members whose support and encouragements have greatly contributed to the completion of my study iii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own piece of academic work Author Nguyễn Diệu Hương iv ABSTRACT This research was conducted to investigate the errors commonly committed by students at Tinh Gia High School in using English Wh – questions The major issues dealt within this thesis are the errors commonly committed by the 10 th form students at Tĩnh Gia II High School in using English Wh – questions, the main causes leading to these errors and possible solutions to the problems relating to the teaching and learning of English Wh – questions In order to gain information for the research, the author used a combination of four major methods: qualitative, quantitative, descriptive and data analysis Besides, questionnaires, written tests, informal talks and class observations are used as data collection instruments to gather information for the study The results of this study has shown that the 10th form students at Tinh Gia High School often commit errors in using English Wh – questions Besides, the study has revealed that most of these errors belong to five main categories namely: misordering errors, misformation errors, misselection errors, omission errors and additions errors The research has pointed out that these errors are rooted from both internal and external factors in language learning and teaching process This study has also suggested some solutions to deal with these errors in order to improve the teaching and learning of English at high schools v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .iii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iv ABSTRACT .v TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A INTRODUCTION .8 RATIONALE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 2.1 AIMS OF THE STUDY .9 2.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY RESEARCH QUESTIONS .9 SCOPE OF THE STUDY .9 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 10 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 10 PART B: DEVELOPMENT .12 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 12 1.1 FACTORS INFLUENCING LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING .12 1.1.1 EXTERNAL FACTORS 12 1.1.1.1 FIRST LANGUAGE 12 1.1.1.2 LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENT 13 1.1.1.3 FORMAL TEACHING 14 1.1.2 INTERNAL FACTORS 15 1.1.2.1 MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDES 15 1.1.2.2 LEARNERS’ APTITUDES AND INTELLIGENCE 17 1.1.2.3 LEARNERS’ PERSONALITY 19 1.2 ERRORS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING 20 1.2.1 NOTIONS OF ERRORS 20 1.2.2 ERRORS, MISTAKES AND LAPSES 21 1.2.3 DIFFERENT ATTITUDES TOWARDS ERRORS .22 1.2.3.1 ERROR IS A SIGN OF FAILURE 23 1.2.3.2 ERROR IS A SIGN OF PROGRESS 25 1.2.4 ERROR ANALYSIS .27 1.2.5 CAUSES OF ERRORS 30 1.2.5.1 MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE .32 1.2.5.2 MOTHER TONGUE INDEPENDENT INTERFERENCE 36 a Over-generalization 36 b Ignorance of rule restrictions 38 c Incomplete application rules 38 d False concepts hypothesized 39 1.3 QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH 40 1.3.1 DEFINITION OF QUESTIONS .40 1.3.2 CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH QUESTIONS 41 1.3.2.1 CLASSIFICATION OF QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO PURPOSES OF COMMUNICATION 41 1.3.2.2 CLASSIFICATION OF QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO TYPES OF ANSWERS 43 a Yes – No questions in English .43 b Declarative questions 44 c Tag questions 45 d Wh - questions 46 e Alternative questions .48 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .50 2.1 MAJOR METHODS EMPLOYED FOR THE RESEARCH .50 2.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 51 2.3 DESCRIPTION OF PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING 52 2.3.1 RESEARCH SETTING 52 2.3.2 DESCRIPTIONS OF PARTICIPANTS 52 2.4 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 54 2.4.1 WRITTEN TESTS 54 2.4.2 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 55 2.4.3 CLASS OBSERVATION .56 2.4.4 INFORMAL TALKS 56 2.5 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE 57 2.6 DATA ANALYSIS 57 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .58 3.1 FINDINGS OBTAINED VIA SURVEY ANALYSIS 58 3.1.1 FREQUENCY OF STUDENTS’ COMMITTING ERRORS IN USING ENGLISH WH – QUESTIONS 58 3.1.2 ATTITUDES TOWARDS ERRORS IN USING ENGLISH WH – QUESTIONS .59 3.1.3 REASONS FOR ERROR CORRECTION .61 3.1.4 STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD TEACHERS’ CORRECTION .62 3.1.5 STUDENTS’ VIEW ABOUT TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THEIR ERRORS 63 3.1.6 FREQUENCY OF THE DETECTION OF THE SOURCES OF ERRORS .64 3.1.7 TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED BY TEACHERS TO TREAT ERRORS 66 3.2 ERROR CLASSIFICATIONS 68 3.3 FINDINGS OBTAINED VIA WRITTEN TESTS 70 3.3.1 ADDITION ERRORS 75 3.3.2 MISORDERING ERRORS .77 3.3.3 OMISSION ERRORS .81 3.3.4 MISSELECTION ERRORS 85 3.3.5 MISFORMATION ERRORS 87 3.4 DISCUSSION .88 PART C: CONCLUSION 94 RECAPITULATION 94 CONCLUDING REMARKS ON EACH OF THE OBJECTIVES ELABORATED INTO RESEARCH QUESTIONS 94 2.1 CONCLUDING REMARKS ON OBJECTIVE .94 2.2 CONCLUDING REMARKS ON OBJECTIVE .94 2.3 CONCLUDING REMARKS ON OBJECTIVE .95 IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING .95 3.1 TECHNIQUES FOR THE TEACHING OF WH – QUESTIONS 96 3.2 TECHNIQUES FOR ERRORS CORRECTION .96 3.2.1 TEACHERS SHOULD TRY TO MAKE USE OF PEER CORRECTION .96 3.2.2 TEACHERS SHOULD CONSIDER THE STUDENTS’ PREFERENCE .97 3.2.3 TEACHERS SHOULD KNOW WHAT ERRORS TO CORRECT AND WHEN TO CORRECT 97 3.2.4 TEACHERS SHOULD BE CONSISTENT WHILE CORRECTING ERRORS 98 3.2.5 TEACHERS SHOULD ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO USE SELF CORRECTION AND DISCOVERY TECHNIQUES .99 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 100 REFERENCES 101 APPENDICES 103 APPENDIX 1: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT THỰC NGHIỆM 104 APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS 110 APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS 111 ABBREVIATIONS CAH: Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis e.g : Exempli gratia (for example) EFL: English as Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching etc : et cetera LAD: Language Acquisition Device L1: First language L2: Second language UG: Universal Grammar TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages SLA: Second Language Acquisition Q - Element: Question - element Vs Versus VTTN: Vietnam’s English Teacher and Trainer Network S: Subject V: Verb O: Object A: Adverb C: Complement i Indirect d: direct way that affects learners’ confidence or conveys a bad impression about error correction because if their errors are corrected all the time, the students may lose their self - confidence To make the thing worse, in some instances, the students even harbor hatred toward the teachers who always find fault and correct the mistakes in what they are saying since being corrected all the time can be embarrassing, insulting and de-motivating To other learners of English as a foreign language, a teacher who constantly butts in and interrupts students to correct them can be annoying and disruptive, especially when lack of accuracy does not hamper communication As a result, teachers should be able to differentiate between mistakes and errors in some circumstances because mistakes can probably be self-corrected if the learner’s attention is drawn to them whistle with errors, “the teacher must decide whether an indication of error is likely to provide useful feedback which can help the individual and others in the class to progress in their understanding of the language” (Hedge, 2000:289) Another important aspect that should be taken into consideration is the context in which the error has occurred Being aware of the context in which an error is committed may help teachers to decide whether to correct right an error is made, to leave the correction until the end of the activity or even to ignore the error In context where fluency is focused on, it is advisable to leave feedback until the end of the activity so as to avoid interrupting the student’s flow of events or information they wanted to provide However, in a context where focus is on accuracy, learners should be stopped immediately when an error is committed in order to help students avoid repeating defective language 3.2.4 TEACHERS SHOULD BE CONSISTENT WHILE CORRECTING ERRORS It is advisable that the teachers should be consistent while correcting their students’ errors By this the author means that an error should not be corrected in a specific occasion but ignored in another because overcorrection, in fact can easily confuse the students The reason for this lies in the fact that if the teachers correct an error made by one of the students but ignore the same error made by another students, 98 so many questions would be raised in the students’ mind and the students, inevitably, would get confused to a great extent Thus, when deciding what error should be corrected, one thing the teachers should bear in minds is that the effect of error correction must be on the whole class or a group who might benefit much from the teachers’ correction and feedback To sum up, in order for techniques of error correction to be effective, they should be applied consistently by the teachers in language teaching process 3.2.5 TEACHERS SHOULD ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO USE SELF CORRECTION AND DISCOVERY TECHNIQUES According to those who support traditional teaching method, teachers are considered the only source of knowledge in correcting students’ errors However, in fact, it is advisable that correcting errors should not always be the responsibility of teachers as students can rectify their own errors When correcting errors, the first port of call should be the students themselves Therefore, teachers should train their students to correct their own errors and should give them the chance to so Actually, there are so many ways to help students correct themselves For example, while correcting written tasks, it would be of great help if teachers use some correcting codes to indicate to students that there is an error instead of directly giving them the correction By doing this, the students would be given chances to correct their own mistakes and thus, would be more confident when dealing with errors and as a result, they would not depend much on their teachers’ correction What is more, teachers should be advised to make different assessment tools such as rubrics, checklists or marking scheme to correct mistakes and students should be made to get used to these assessment tools However, it is not necessary to use all these symbols in correcting a students’ written work since overcorrection may disappoint him It would be of great help if teachers mark one or some kind of mistakes which is considered useful for each individual at one time and use others at another time 99 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH (i) The researcher will investigate the mistakes commonly committed by high school students in using other questions types (ii) The focus of the research will be expanded to detect errors committed by high school students in spoken forms of English Wh – questions (iii) The further study will be carried out to investigate the errors committed by high school students in their responses to English Wh – questions 100 REFERENCES Chomsky, N (1965) Aspects of the theory of Syntax Cambridge, MA: M.I.T press Corder, S.P (1967) The significance of learners’ errors Oxford: Oxford University Press Corder, S.P (1973) Introducing Applied Linguistics Middlesex, Penguin Corder, S.P (1974) The significance of learners’ errors Error analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition Longman Corder, S.P (1975) Error analysis Paper in Applied Linguistic Vol.5 London: OUP Dulay, H C et al (1982) Language Two Oxford: Oxford University Press Ellis, R (1997) Second Language Acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press James, C (1980) Contrastive Analysis London: Longman James, C (1998) Errors in Language Learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis London: Longman 10 Quirk, R, and S Greenbaum (1976) A University Grammar of English London: Longman 11 Richards, J C (1974) Error Analysis: Perspective on second language Acquisition London: Longman 12 Richards, J C (1971) A Non-contrastive Approach to Error Analysis English Language Teaching Vol 25 No Oxford: Oxford University Press 13 Richards, J C et al (1992) Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics Essex, Longman 14 Spada, N and P M Lightbown (1999) How languages are learned Oxford: Oxford University Press 15 http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rthompso/interactionquestions.html 16 http://www2.gsu.edu/~eslhpb/grammar/lecture_10/wh_questions.html 101 17 http://www.whitesmoke.com/wh-question 18 http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/wh-question-words.html 19 http://sdkrashen.com/SL_Acquisition_and_Learning/SL_Acquisition_and_Lea rning.pdf 20 http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/misselection 102 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT THỰC NGHIỆM Mục đích: Mục đích phiếu khảo sát nhằm phục vụ đề tài nghiên cứu lỗi học sinh lớp 10 thường gặp việc sử dụng câu hỏi chuyên biệt (wh-questions) Mọi thông tin dùng cho mục đích nghiên cứu, khơng nhằm mục đích khác Sự đóng góp em đánh giá cao Xin vui lịng hồn thành tập I I From question to question 25, use suitable question words to make questions for the underlined parts in the following sentences (Đặt câu hỏi WH cho từ gạch chân câu từ đến 25) Marie Curie was a brilliant and mature student I often receive a lot of presents and best wishes on the occasion of my birthday I have to provide your personal information when you fill in a form I like to see horror films London is famous for many things He will see a very interesting film on TV at p.m tonight He went to Chu Van An High School in 1997 My mother works as a doctor Ha long is a good place for sightseeing 10 He feels much better now 11 My father often goes to work by bus 12 My best friend is tall and fat 13 There was a lot of money in my wallet when it was stolen 14 He was driving his father’s car when the accident happened 15 We eat out twice a week 16 My teacher phoned me when I was having a bath 17 He had to cancel the appointment because of the cold weather 18 We did not receive any news from him during 2010 19 They have learned English since 1990? 20 She started learning English years ago 21 I went there with a friend 22 I prefer the red shirt, not the blue one 23 Monday is the busiest day in a week 24 Peter has left for days 25 He lived with his wife in the centre of the city last year II Questions 26-35 are incomplete sentences Beneath each sentence you will see four words or phrases Choose the one word or phrase that best completes the sentence then circle the corresponding letter A, B, C or D (Chọn từ cụm từ phù hợp để hoàn thành câu sau Khoanh tròn chữ A, B, C hay D tương ứng câu sau để hoàn thành từ câu 26 - 35) 26 I wonder _ on sale A How much cost these shoes B How much these shoes cost C How much these shoes cost D How much are these shoes cost 27 Could you please tell me where ? A is the nearest bus – stop located B the nearest bus – stop is located C is located the nearest bus – stop D located is the nearest bus – stop 28 Because no official records were kept in certain rural areas until recently, some elderly people not know _ A when they were born B when they born C when were they born D when was their birth 29 We are considering buying a house in Nashville, but we want to find out _ there first A what the taxes are B the taxes what are C what are the taxes D the taxes are 30 These photographs will show you our village looks like A what B which C how D how much 31 nothing to with us A What he did is B What he has done is C What did he has D What he has done has 32 By _ was she taught Maths? A who B whom C which D whose 33 _ they visit their parents? A How long B How often C How manyD How much 34 A: _ you find cartoon film? B: I find it interesting A What B How 35 A: How you do? C Where D Which B _? A How you B I am a teacher C I it carefully D I work as a worker III From questions 36 – 40, give the correct forms of the verbs in the brackets Write the whole sentence in the line below each sentence and underline the correct form of the verbs (Cho dạng động từ ngoặc từ câu 36 đến câu 46 Viết lại câu vào phần trống câu gạch chân phần động từ vừa chia) 36 Where you first (meet) your husband? 37 When she (return) home last night? 38 With whom you (come) last Sunday? 39 Do you know where she (come) minutes ago? 40 Do you know how old the Earth (be)? 41 Which lower – secondary school you (attend)? 42 What kinds of films (be) shown on TV at weekend? 43 What you think she (do) tomorrow? 44 Who (teach) you English last year? 45 He asked what you (do) the previous day? 46 How much money she (earn) a month? IV In questions 47- 50 each sentence has four underlined words or phrases The four underlined parts of the sentence are marked (A), (B), (C), and (D) Identify the one underlined word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct Circle the corresponding letter (A), (B), (C), and (D) and write the correct words or phrases in the line besides each sentence (Chọn lỗi sai số từ gạch chân câu sau sửa lại lỗi từ câu 47 đến câu 50) 47 Do you know who is he? A B C ……………………………………… D 48 How come does Jimmy have to wash the dishes at weekend? ……………… A B 49 Whom was helped by the sponsor? A B C D ……………………………………… C D 50.How many books there are on the first self? …………………………………… A B C D V Translation (Dịch) V/a Translate the sentences from 51 – 55 into Vietnamese Then write the translated sentence in the line below each sentence (Dịch câu từ câu 51 đến câu 55 sang tiếng Việt viết câu vào phần trống câu) 51 What the hell are you talking about? 52 What’s up? 53 How you do? 54 How come the party has been canceled? 55 How long has he walked? V/b Translate the sentence from 56 – 60 into English Then write the translated sentence in the line below each sentence (Dịch câu từ câu 56 đến câu 60 sang tiếng Việt viết câu vào phần trống câu.) 56 Bạn thời gian để từ nhà bạn tới trường? 57 Có học sinh lớp Nam? 58 Chiều dài sông Nile bao nhiêu? 59 Tại tối lại không dạo nhỉ? 60 Bạn học tiếng Anh từ nào? Xin cảm ơn em nhiều Chúc em học tập tốt! APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is designed for the research into “An analysis of errors commonly committed by High School students in using English questions” Your information is used for my research only, not for any other purposes Thank you very much for your cooperation Please read the following questions carefully and tick () the answers you choose For some questions, you can have more than one choice Please provide your personal information How long have you been teaching English?: ……………………………………… Have you ever attended any workshops on teaching English?  Yes  No What you think of your learners’ errors in learning English?  It is inevitable  It is unacceptable  It is a sin Why is it necessary to correct learners’ mistake?  Because it helps improve students’ proficiency in English  Because you are asked to so Other(s): ……………………………………………………………… How often your students commit errors in using English Wh – questions?  Always  Sometimes  Never Do you often try to work out the main causes leading to these errors?  Yes, always  Yes, sometimes  Yes, but rarely What are the main causes leading to these errors?  Your students’ low proficiency in English  Students’ mother tongue interference  Teachers’ insufficient mastery of English  Teachers’ inappropriate teaching methods and techniques Other(s): ……………………………………………………………… How often you correct errors committed by your students in using English Wh – questions?  All the time  Sometimes  Never How your students feel when you correct their errors?  They feel uncomfortable  They are interested in getting corrections  They take this for granted Which of the following correction techniques you often use when you deal with your students’ errors?  Peer – correction  Self – correction  Teacher – correction Among these correction techniques, which one seems to be the most effective?  Peer – correction  Self – correction  Teacher – correction Thank you for your cooperation! APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed for the research into “An analysis of errors commonly committed by High School students in using English questions” Your information is used for my research only, not for any other purposes Thank you very much for your cooperation Please read the following questions carefully and tick () the answers you choose For some questions, you can have more than one choice Please provide your personal information Your name: ………………………………………………… How long have you been learning English? : ……………………………………… What you think of your committing these errors?  It is inevitable  It is unacceptable  It is a sin How often does your teacher correct these errors?  All the time  Sometimes  Never How you feel if your teacher corrects your errors whenever you commit them?  I feel frustrated  I get used to this  I feel interested in the correction What you think about your teacher’s attitudes toward your committing errors?  Annoyed and unfriendly  Sympathetic, sensitive and helpful  Others …………………………………………………………… Does your teacher explain the reasons why you have committed certain errors relating to Wh – questions?  Yes  No Does your teacher give you the tips for avoiding those errors?  Yes  No Which of the following correction techniques does your teacher often use to correct your errors? (You may tick more than once)  Peer - correction  Self - correction  Teacher – correction Other(s): ……………………………………………………………… Among these correction techniques, which one you like best?  Peer – correction  Self – correction  Teacher – correction Thank you for your cooperation! ... types of errors commonly committed by 10th form students at Tinh Gia II High School in using English Wh – questions and features of English Wh -questions • Pointing out the causes of errors commonly. ..MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN DIỆU HƯƠNG AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS COMMONLY COMMITTED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN USING ENGLISH QUESTIONS PHÂN TÍCH NHỮNG... difficulties in using English Wh questions More importantly, the analysis of some common errors mistakes that Vietnamese students often commit in using Wh – questions and main causes leading to these errors