An error analysis of using reference in written english by secondary school studend = phân tích lỗi của học sinh THPT tong việc sử dụng phép quy chiếu trong tiếng anh viết

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT ************* STUDENT: TRAN THI ANH THI AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF USING REFERENCE IN WRITTEN ENGLISH BY SECONDARY-SCHOOL STUDENTS ( PHÂN TÍCH LỖI CỦA HỌC SINH THPT TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHÉP QUY CHIẾU TRONG TIẾNG ANH VIẾT) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: LINGUISTICS VINH, 2007 1 VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT ************* AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF USING REFERENCE IN WRITTEN ENGLISH BY SECONDARY-SCHOOL STUDENTS ( PHÂN TÍCH LỖI CỦA HỌC SINH THPT TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHÉP QUY CHIẾU TRONG TIẾNG ANH VIẾT) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: LINGUISTICS Supervisor: Vũ Thị Việt Hương, M.A Student : Trần Thị Anh Thi, 44 B1 VINH, 2007 2 Acknowledgement First of all, I should like to express my heart-felt gratitude to M.A Vu Thi Viet Huong, my supervisor, who has given me precious advice, valuable materials and greatly essential corrections for accomplishment of this thesis. I should also like to extend my deep thanks to all my teachers in the Department of Foreign Language for their helpful suggestion and encouragement during the time my study has been carrying out. Finally, I am particularly grateful to my beloved family and my good friends whose spiritual support has given me great drive to complete the thesis. Vinh, 2007 Tran Thi Anh Thi 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EA : error analysis etc. : et cetra i.e. : That is to say e.g. : For example N.O.T : Number of tokens * : Unacceptable expressions 4 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Direction of reference Figure 2: Demonstrative reference Figure 3: Comparative reference Table 1: Personal reference Table 2.1: Results of section 1 Table 2.2: Results of section 2 Table 2.3: Results of section 3 Table 2.4: Number of errors and their causes in section Table 2.5: Number of errors and their causes in section Table 2.6: Number of errors and their causes in section 3 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .… i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .…… ii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES …….iii TABLE OF CONTENTS …….iv PART I: INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationale of the study 1 1.2 Aims of the study .2 1.3 Research questions of the study 2 1.4 The subjects of the study 2 1.5 Procedure of the study 2 1.6 Scope of the study 2 1.7 Method of the study .2 1.8 Design of the study 3 PART II: CONTENT 4 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .4 1.1 Reference as a cohesive device 4 1.1.1 The definition of reference .4 1.1.2 Direction of reference .4 1.1.2.1 Exophora 5 1.1.2.2 Anaphora .6 1.1.2.3 Cataphora … .6 1.1.3 Types of reference .7 1.1.3.1 Personal reference 7 1.1.3.2 Demonstrative reference .10 1.1.3.3 Comparative reference .14 1.2 Errors in language learning process .16 1.2.1 The notion of errors .16 1.2.2 Error versus mistake 17 1.2.3 Error analysis .18 1.2.4 Causes of errors in second language learning .18 6 1.2.4.1 Interlingual errors 18 1.2.4.2 Intralingual errors 19 a. Over-generalization .19 b. Ignorance of rule restrictions 20 c. Incomplete application of rules 20 d. False concepts hypothesized 21 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY .22 2.1 Research setting 22 2.2 Data collection 22 2.3 Error analysis procedure .23 2.4 Preliminary results and data analysis .23 2.4.1 Results of section 1 .24 2.4.2 Results of section 2 .24 2.4.3 Results of section 3 .24 2.5 Errors and their causes .25 2.5.1 Errors and their causes in section 1 25 2.5.2 Errors and their causes in section 2 28 2.5.3 Errors and their causes in section 3 29 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .34 3.1 Major findings 34 3.2 Implications for teaching and learning English reference .34 3.2.1 Suggestions for teaching English reference .34 3.2.1.1 Suggestions for presentation 34 3.2.1.2 Suggestions for practice .36 3.2.2 Suggestions for learning English reference 38 3.3 Suggestions for further research 39 PART III: CONCLUSION .40 REFERENCES APPENDIX 7 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study To transfer the speaker’s or writer’s thought or ideas to the listener or reader in the process of using English language, the learners are drawn to approach the recognization and creation of coherence of the text. Textual coherence can be acheived by cohesive devices such as: grammatical and lexical ones. Therefore, studying textual cohesive devices should be taken into consideration. Among cohesive devices, reference plays the most significant role in creating cohesion and coherence of the text, so it is very important to identify and interprete the reference items in the text because Halliday and Hasan (1976: 306) state that “the process of identification of the referent becomes a cohesive or text-forming process”. Approaching the use of reference as a cohesive device, being aware of its significant role in creating textual coherence, as well as recognizing proper ways in which it is used by both native speakers and writers make an efficient contribution to teaching and learning English. It is obvious that reference is the cohesive device often demonstrated in the existence of the English language. However, learners of English as a second language in general and secondary-school students in particular often encounter a lot of difficulties and errors in using reference. It is also seen the fact that many linguists or researchers have drawn their attention to reference, this is revealed in the works of Halliday and Hasan (1976), Brown and Yule (1983), Quirk et al (1985), Tran Huu Manh (1999), Ngo Dinh Phuong (1998), Nguyen Huu Chan (2003), but they appeared to focus little on error analysis, espectially error analysis in using reference by secondary-school students. In addition, there seems to be a neglect of reference in teaching materials, especially at low level. Therefore, the one more reason to conduct this research is to identify the causes of errors and to give out some suggestions in teaching and learning English reference. For all the above-mentioned reasons, in this thesis, the writer focuses on “an error analysis of using reference in written English by secondary-school students”. 1.2 Aims of the study The aims of the thesis are: • To identify some common errors in using reference as a cohesive device by secondary-school students. • To find out the major causes of encountering these errors. 8 • To propose some possible solutions to the teaching and learning of English reference. 1.3 Research questions of the study The study is conducted to answer the following questions. • What type of errors do secondary-school students commit in using reference? • What are causes of these errors? • What suggestions will be given in the teaching and learning process in order that the students’errors in using reference can be reduced? 1.4 The subjects of the study The subjects of the study are 100 students randomly chosen from two twelfth classes ( 12C 1 and 12D 1 ) at Nghi Loc I high school. They learn English as a compulsory subject at school. The majority of students have learnt English for 7 years so they have acquired the big amount of English grammar. 1.5 Procedure of the study The procedure to analyze errors made by the students in using reference is described as follows: Firstly, all the 100 students were required to do the test under the same condition. The allowed time to do the test was 90 minutes. They were not allowed to use any reference books or dictionaries and they did it under the writer’s supervision. Next, the collected data were classified and analyzed to get information on how the students did the test and how often reference errors occurred. 1.6 Scope of the study Halliday and Hasan (1976) identified two main types of cohesion: grammartical and lexical cohesion: Reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjuction are cohesive devices belonging to the grammartical cohesion. However, in this study, we only deal with the cohesive device - reference. Because of the significance of reference in creating cohesion in discourse, it is essential to use reference appropriately in written English. In fact, writers tend to encounter common errors in using reference. Therefore, in this study, we only focus on an error analysis of using reference as a cohesive device in writing. 1.7 Methods of the study 9 To meet the aims of the study, we apply both the qualitive and quantitative methodologies to collect students’errors. Collected errors will be classified and analyzed to find out their causes and sources. Basing on that, suggestions will be proposed for teaching English reference. The test is designed in a written form with different language contexts to provoke errors in using reference. The test will be done by a sample of 100 students from two twelfth classes randomly chosen in Nghi Loc I high school without the use of reference books or dictionaries and under the writer’s supervision. 1.8 Design of the study There are three parts in this research paper: Part A: Introduction In this part: The rationale, aims, research questions, subjects, procedure, scope, methods and design of the study are mentioned. Part B: Content This part consists of three chapters: Chapter I: Theoretical background Chapter II: The study Chapter III: Findings and discussion Part C: Conclusion In this part, findings are summarized and some applications as well as some suggestions for further studies are presented. References and Appendix are also provided at the end of the paper. 10 . SECONDARY- SCHOOL STUDENTS ( PHÂN TÍCH LỖI CỦA HỌC SINH THPT TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHÉP QUY CHIẾU TRONG TIẾNG ANH VIẾT) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: LINGUISTICS VINH,. SECONDARY- SCHOOL STUDENTS ( PHÂN TÍCH LỖI CỦA HỌC SINH THPT TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHÉP QUY CHIẾU TRONG TIẾNG ANH VIẾT) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: LINGUISTICS Supervisor: Vũ