An investigation into linguistic errors found in 10th graders’ paragraph writing

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY VAN PHI LONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO LINGUISTIC ERRORS FOUND IN 10TH GRADERS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 14 01 11 Supervisor: Trần Quang Hải, Ph.D VINH - 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY VAN PHI LONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO LINGUISTIC ERRORS FOUND IN 10TH GRADERS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION VINH - 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP This study has previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in some universities To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains some materials previously published or written by other researchers and in particular, some reference materials have been used for the thesis Nghe An, July 15th, 2018 Author’s signature Van Phi Long i ABSTRACT The discoveries of this thesis are primarily concentrating on the basic errors found in the tenth form students’ paragraph composing at VTHS The most customary kinds of errors the students made in composing are shown in this investigation The kinds of errors that were found in this investigation were mostly morphological errors, lexical errors, syntactic errors and mechanical errors The investigation also demonstrates the errors of paragraph organization because of the way that students at VTHS need access to the hypothesis of building a paragraph, for example, building topic sentences, creating supporting ideas In light of the discoveries, suggestions for upgrading the effectiveness of English paragraph teaching and learning writing are put forward It is trusted that the consequences of the investigation can be beneficial for both students and teachers ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT Most importantly, I might want to offer my most profound thanks to Dr Tran Quang Hai, my supervisor, for his invaluable advice in the process of completion of my thesis Without his instructions and assistance, this paper could never be finished I would like to thank the staff of Vinh University, faculty lecturers from the Department of Foreign Languages for their essential help and support I also express my deepest gratefulness to the leaders of Viet Trung High School for providing me with the most favorable conditions to my further study Hereby, I wish to thank all the students of Viet Trung High School for answering the questionnaires, which are indispensable for the analysis and discussion in my study I also would like to thank my beloved friends, Ha Thi Lan Anh and Ta Thi Thanh Huyen, who are always ready to share all my happiness and sorrow and give me useful advice when necessary Finally, my gratitude goes to my beloved family whose support is essential for the success of my study iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Scope of the study 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research questions .3 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Structure of the study Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Previous studies 2.2 Theoretical background .7 2.2.1 Definitions of Paragraph 2.2.2 Structure of paragraph 2.2.3 Classifications of paragraph 2.2.3.1 Informative paragraph 2.2.3.2 Descriptive paragraph 2.2.3.3 Narrative paragraph .10 2.2.3.4 Persuasive paragraph 10 2.2.4 Writing process of paragraph 10 2.2.5 Error and error analysis 12 2.2.5.1 Error and error analysis .12 iv 2.2.5.2 Sources of errors 16 2.2.5.3 Errors in writing 17 2.2.5.4 Error classification .18 Chapter METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 Design of the study 22 3.1.1 The situation of teaching and learning English at Viet Trung High School (VTHS) 22 3.1.2 Participants of the study 25 3.1.3 Methods of the study 25 3.2 Procedures of the study .25 3.3 Data analysis .27 3.4 Reliability and validity 27 Chapter FINDING AND DISCUSSION 28 4.1 Error analysis 28 4.1.1 Morphological errors 29 4.1.1.1 Verb errors 30 4.1.1.2 Noun ending errors 34 4.1.1.3 Article or determiner errors 35 4.1.2 Lexical errors 37 4.1.2.1 Errors in word form .39 4.1.2.2 Errors in word choice 40 4.1.2.3 Preposition errors .40 4.1.2.4 Pronoun errors .41 4.1.2.5 Spelling errors .42 4.1.3 Syntactic errors 42 4.1.3.1 Word order 44 4.1.3.2 Omitted words or phrases 46 4.1.3.3 Run-ons-comma splices .47 4.1.3.4 Fragments of the incomplete sentence 49 4.1.3.5 Unidiomatic sentence construction .51 v 4.1.4 Mechanical errors 52 4.2 Paragraph organization 54 4.2.1 Topic sentence 55 4.2.2 Supporting Sentences 57 4.2.3 Concluding Sentence 59 4.3 Some solutions to the problem 61 4.3.1 Suggestions for teaching how to write a paragraph 61 4.3.2 Suggestions for reviewing grammar and practicing writing 63 4.3.3 Suggestions for teachers’ error correction 63 4.3.4 Suggestions for teachers’ checking 64 4.4 Summary .64 Chapter CONCLUSIONS 67 5.1 Conclusions 67 5.2 Implications 68 5.3 Limitations of the study 70 5.4 Suggestions for further studies 70 REFERENCES 71 APPENDIX Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DA: Discourse Analysis EA: Error Analysis EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching VTHS : Viet Trung High School L1: First Language L2: Second Language S: Subject SLA: Second Language Acquisition TL: Target Language V: Verb vii LIST OF TABLES Pages Table 2.1 Common ESL Writing Errors Based on Ferris’ (2005) Model 20 Table 2.2 Description of major error categories (Ferris, 2005) 21 Table 4.1 Categories of errors in the paragraphs written by VTHS students 28 Table 4.2 Morphological errors 29 Table 4.3 Verb Errors 31 Table 4.4 Noun ending errors 34 Table 4.5 Article or determiner errors 36 Table 4.6 Lexical Errors 38 Table 4.7 Syntactic errors 43 Table 4.8 Mechanical Errors 53 Table 4.9 Topic sentence display 55 Table 4.10 Organization of supporting sentence display 57 Table 4.11 Concluding sentence display 59 Table 4.12 Summary of Errors in Writing by VTHS Students 65 viii Chapter CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Conclusions Depending on Ferris’ classification (2005), the thesis has so far solved the common linguistic errors in writing by the tenth-form students at VTHS In this part, I will sum up the investigation and draw some conclusions on the issue Some important information from the students’ writings has been collected for the study Some findings worthy of discussion are: First of all, the investigation indicates some error types that the students made most frequently The highest quantity of errors that happened in this examination are arranged into four classifications: morphological errors, lexical errors, syntactic errors and mechanical errors The errors of the verb, the noun ending and the article or determiner occur in the morphological errors Lexical errors contain errors in word choice or word form, preposition errors, pronoun errors and spelling errors if the misspelling brought about a real English word Most of the errors in the sentence or in the clause are syntactic errors They are likely characterized into word order, omitted words or phrases, unnecessary words or phrases, run-onscomma splices, fragments, and other unidiomatic sentence constructions In mechanical errors, the students utilized wrong punctuation and wrong spelling capitalization While the researcher can understand the students’ overall performance basing on the total error rates, the specific errors the participants made frequently help to clarify what the students’ learning difficulties are Second, there are many syntactic errors in the students’ writing, which may have been related to the language structures of the students’ first language, Vietnamese For instance, a number of English writing samples were picked out with word order between a noun and an adjective from Vietnamese sentences This finding is in accordance with some examination that affirmed the interference from L1 in the process of EFL composing 67 Third, mentioning the errors of paragraph organization, the study states that the students not have enough access to the theory of building a paragraph such as building a topic sentence, developing supporting ideas and particularly setting up a concluding sentence so the paragraph is short of coherence What's more, a few arrangements are recommended for students and teachers of writing in order to deal with the problem to manage the issue Regarding the teachers, they should have an overview to build strategies for teaching writing English paragraphs The teachers should know thoroughly some flexible and effective techniques of error correction and they should also pay more attention to their students’ errors Furthermore, more practical writing tasks should be given to students to decrease errors in their writing In summary, making errors is unavoidable in the language learning process Errors supply replies about the adequacy of the teaching techniques and demonstrate the teachers what part needs further consideration Investigating the learners’ language in terms of errors is an issue that teachers have frequently carried out for practical reasons because it requires the teacher to have skills of diagnoses and cure 5.2 Implications As found in this investigation, the tenth-form students at VTHS cope with three kinds of issues in composing: fragmented learning of syntax rules, deficient learning of composing paragraphs and un-reminiscent vocabulary With a specific end goal to achieve effectiveness in passage composing, the accompanying focuses ought to be given careful consideration to: First, it is basic to build up students’ attention to the significance of composing English paragraphs Students ought to be furnished with a profound hypothetical knowledge into the components of a decent paragraph It is necessary for students to learn how to set up a topic sentence and improve supporting ideas unitively and coherently 68 Second, the impact of the first language is a major reason that prompts the students’ errors It is necessary to make students perceive the contrasts between the utilization of English and Vietnamese in considering and composing in order to reduce this sorts of errors Concurrently, teachers should analyze how a certain first language interference error comes about by carefully explaining the differences between the two languages in term of the particular features Third, with regard to the writing rules, it is crucial for the students to be aware of obstacles they often cope with writing a paragraph and correct their own errors Obviously, practicing writing is the most important thing the students must They necessarily practise writing in class and at home It would be necessary to raise the several of exercises and activities in writing lessons Consequently, the leaners are able to increase their writing skill and self-correction In addition, in terms of error correction, it should be necessary to implement error correction frequently Different techniques of error correction should be applied effectively and flexibly by teachers because presenting the data repeatedly and going through the same techniques can cause students to feel bored Moreover, flexible and effective error correction demands the teacher to understand the source of the errors in order to provide the appropriate solution which will deal with the learners’ problems and permit them to discover the relevant rules On the other hand, it is better that the teachers should not correct the students’ errors directly in correcting written works and they should place marks revealing something wrong with that sentence, word or punctuation Besides this, students should work in teams or groups in class in order to practise together for their presentations in groups on their tasks and correct each other’s errors In conclusion, it is better to have a good awareness of error analysis that is useful for language performance and it also improves a process of teaching and learning writing It is clear that students’ writing competence will be better if students identify how to keep away from errors effectively and how to organize information logically It is hoped that the results of this study can offer some help 69 not only for students to recognize the essentiality of writing in English so as to upgrade their writing skills but also for teachers of English to develop effective measures for teaching the English writing skill 5.3 Limitations of the study Due to the limitation of time, reference materials and ability, certain restrictions in this study are inevitable although the researcher’s great efforts have been made to conduct the study The first limitation is that the study just collected 120 papers from 120 students at VTHS for error analysis That is only a small number Therefore, the consequences of the study might be less convincing In addition to this, the data for analysis were paragraphs which were collected from free-writing tasks so that the students could avoid the structures or words which they felt uncertain or they could look for reference materials or copies from somewhere This means that the study cannot correct all the types of errors which students may achieve Furthermore, the author wishes that the thesis brings a valuable reference for students and teachers 5.4 Suggestions for further studies This research only investigated the most common linguistic errors, not all kinds of errors in paragraph writing and only focuses on linguistic errors in the teaching and learning of writing Therefore, further studies can continue with other types of errors in paragraph writing 70 REFERENCES Alice, O & H Ann (1996) Writing Academic English Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Burt, M and Kiparsky, C (1972) The Goodison: A Repair Manual for English Rowley, Mass: Newbury House Corder, S.P (1986) Error Analysis and Interlanguage (4 Edition), Oxford University Press Corder, S.P (1981) Error Analysis and Interlanguage Oxford University Press Corder, S.P (1967) “The Significance of Learner’s Errors”, International Review of Applied Linguistics p.161-169 Corder, S.P (1971) Idiosyncratic Dialects and Error Analysis, in Richards, J (Ed.).Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition p.158171 Essex: Longman Corder, S.P (1979) Techniques in Applied Linguistics (4 Edition), Oxford University Press Crystal, D (2003) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (5 Edition), Wiley- Blackwell, p.165 Crystal, D (1992) Introducing Linguistics London, Penguin 10 Dulay, H & Burt, M (1974) Errors and Strategies in Child Second Language Acquisition, TESOL Quarterly 8, p 129-134 11 Dulay, H & Burt, M (1974) You Can’t Learn without Goofing, in Error Analysis (Ed) J C Richards, London Longman 12 Dulay, H., Burt, M & Krashen, S (1982) Language Two Oxford University Press 13 Edge, J (1986) Mistakes and Correction London and New York: Longman 14 Ellis, R (1997) SLA Research and Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 71 15 Feist, B (1996) Applied Communication Skills: Writing Paragraphs Cambridge Adult Education 16 Ferris, D.R (2005) Treatment of Error in Second Language Writing Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press 17 Fitikites, T J (1961) Common Mistakes in English London: Longman 18 Gass, S.M and Selinker, L (1994) Second Language Acquisition: an Introductory Course Lawrence Erlbaurn Associates Inc 19 Halliday, M.A.K and Hasan, R (1976) Cohesion in English London and New York, Longman 20 Harmer, J (1998) How to Teach English Malaysia: Longman 21 Hubburd, P., Jones, H., Thornton, B and Wheeler, R (1996) A Training Course for TEFL Oxford: Oxford University Press 22 Huong, T.T, Minh,N.T.T et al (2007) ELT Methodology II-Course book VNU: CFL 23 James, C (1998) Errors in Language Learning and Use London: Longman 24 Lado, R (1964) Language Teaching: A Scientific Approach, McGraw-Hill 25 Lewis, M and Hill, J (1985), “Techniques - Correction”, Practical Techniques for Language Teaching, Commercial Colour Press 26 Norrish, J (1983) Language Learners and Their Errors London: Macmillan Press 27 Nunan D.(1991) Language teaching Methodology GB: Prentice Hall 28 Odlin, T (1989) Language Transfer Cambridge University Press 29 Oshima, A & Hogue, A (1991) Writing Academic English (2nd Ed.), USA: Addison-Wesley 30 Raimes, A (1938) Techniques in Teaching Writing Oxford University Press 31 Richard Larson (1987) Structure and Form in Non-Narrative Prose Ten Bibliographic Essays, ed Gary Tate, Fort Worth: Texas Christian UP 32 Richards, J.C., Platt, J.T & Weber, H (1985) Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics Errors Longman 33 Richards, P.J and Platt, H (1992) Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics London: Longman 72 34 Roger, G., D Phillips, and S Walters (1995) Teaching Practice Handbook China: Macmillan Heinemann 35 Selinker, L (1972 Interlanguage IRAL 10/3 36 Steele, V (2002) Product and Process Writing Retrieved from the World Wide Web 30 December 2007 at: www.teachingenglish.org.uk/thinking/writing/approach.shtml 37 Tripple, C (1996) Writing Oxford: Oxford University Press 73 APPENDIX Appendix QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Introduction: - You are students at Viet Trung High School, you are learning paragraph writing as scheduled - I want to know your needs when you write an English paragraph So with your honest answers, we can enhance the quality of teaching and learning English paragraph writing and I highly appreciate your honesty and cooperation Thank you very much Full name: ………………………………………………………………………… Sex: (Male/ Female)………………………………………………………………… Age: ………………………………………………………………………………… Class: ……………………………………………………………………………… Circle the best answer or write answers in the blanks to the following questions: The types of the errors Do you make linguistic errors in writing a paragraph? ……………………………………………………………………………….……… How often you make errors in writing? A Often B Sometimes C Never What kind of linguistic errors you often make? A Grammar B Vocabulary C Articles What grammatical part you find the most difficult when you write a paragraph? A Verb tenses B Subject-verb agreement C Forms of the verbs Which aspect of vocabulary you find the most difficult when you write a paragraph? A Word choice B Word form C Prepositions D Spelling What you think are the causes of your linguistic errors in writing a paragraph? A Mother tongue interference B Overgeneralization C Ignorance of rule restrictions D Incomplete application of rules E Failed concept hypothesized About paragraph writing skill Which skills of have you ever learned before? A Sentence building B Letter C e-mail D Paragraph E Others: ……………………… ………………………………………… Do you think it necessary to learn English paragraph writing? Why? ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… What you expect after learning English paragraph writing? Point out the necessity for the following items not low necessary necessary necessary very extremely necessary necessary - Vocabulary, sentence structures using in paragraph writing - Visual aids - Paragraph writing process - Idea organization - Social information to write a paragraph 10 What are your difficulties in paragraph writing? ………………………………………………………………………………… 11 What are your recommendations? ………………………………………………………………………………… Teaching method Point out the effectiveness of given methods of teaching by circling the numbers not effective low effective effective very extremely effective effective 12 The way of teacher’s presenting: - While teachers are presenting, he provides students with some questions to brainstorm - Read materials and books of reference and discuss problems with classmates or the teacher - Discuss questions given by teachers - Teachers use visual aids in teaching - Read materials yourself and make conclusion - Discuss with partners in pairs or in small groups - Teachers’ explanation - Translate the paragraph model into Vietnamese 5 13 Method of content analyzing: 14 Practicing and exercises - Work with a text (gap filling, word or sentence order….) - Provide familiar issues or problems for students to think of the ideas and write a paragraph - Correct some remarkable errors only - Ignore all errors but the errors of language and content - Give a comment at the end of the paragraph only - Correct all errors - Others: ………………………………………………… 15 The teacher’s method of correcting errors End of the questionnaire Appendix WRITING TEST Time: 45 minutes TOPIC The chart shows the number of visitors arrives in Vietnam from the USA, France and Australia in 2001 and 2002 Write a paragraph to describe information from the chart You should write about 100 words VISITOR ARRIVALS IN VIETNAM (From the USA, France, and Australia) 300,000 259,967 250,000 230,470 200,000 150,000 99,700 100,000 84,085 111,546 96,624 50,000 2001 2002 USA FRANCE AUSTRALIA SAMPLE DESCRIPTION The chart shows the number of visitor arrivals to Vietnam from the USA, France and Australia in 2001 and 2002 according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism It is clear from the chart that the number of visitors to Vietnam from the USA, France and Australia in 2002 is higher than that in 2001 According to the chart, the USA had the biggest number of tourists to Vietnam with 230,470 visitors in 2001 and 259,967 in 2002 France ranked second with 99,700 visitors in 2001 and 111,546 in 2002 Australia had fewer visitors than France although the number of Australia sightseers to Vietnam increased from 84,085 in 2001 to 96,924 in 2002 Appendix WRITING TEST Time: 45 minutes TOPIC Write a paragraph with the length of 100 words about a famous person you know well SAMPLE DESCRIPTION Neil Armstrong is an American astronaut He is known as the first person to walk on the Moon He was born on August 5th, 1930 in Wapokoneta in Ohio From 1949 to 1952, he worked as a pilot in the United States Navy He received his B.S from Perdue University in 1955 He joined the NASA astronaut programme in 1962 Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon’s surface on July 20th, 1969 He received his M.S from the University of Southern California in 1970 In 1971 he resigned from NASA and from 1971 to 1979, he taught at the University of Cincinnati In 1986, he was appointed as the vice chairman of the committee that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster He is also famous for his saying when he set foot on the Moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” Appendix WRITING TEST Time: 45 minutes TOPIC Write a paragraph about 100 words to depict a movie you have ever watched SAMPLE DESCRIPTION My favorite movie of all time is the Titanic It is the best love story film I have ever watched I have watched this movie several times and I never feel tired of watching it I often burst into tears each time I watch it The reasons why I like it so much are the grand scenery and the romantic content The film is about the sinking of a luxury liner on its first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to America from England The film is made in America It depends on the genuine story of the Titanic catastrophe that ocurred in 1912 The two main characters of the film are Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater The romantic love story of Rose Dewitt Bukater and Jack Dawson was sweetly- described Jack was a free-spirited poor young man but he got a ticket for a luxurious ship, the Titanic Rose was from the American upper class and was engaged to a man She met Jack on the Titanic and they fell deeply in love even though there was a huge gap between them Unfortunately, the liner crashed into a huge iceberg on the way The side of it broke up, the liner was flooded and sank rapidly Not everyone could escape safely Many people died in the disaster, including Jack Rose was survived because Jack helped her to climb on a boat Jack sacrificed himself for Rose Although it was only a classical sad love story, I was touched and especially appreciate the love between them because it showed that the power of love could everything The two main actor and actress, Leonardo and Kate, had an outstanding performance However, the only thing of the film I not like is its unhappy ending ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY VAN PHI LONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO LINGUISTIC ERRORS FOUND IN 10TH GRADERS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION VINH - 2018... Developing the paragraph writing helps students enhance other kinds of writing such as writing a letter, writing an essay, writing a narrative and others because they are set up from paragraphs... conduct this research entitled ? ?An investigation into linguistic errors found in 10th graders’ paragraph writing? ?? with the hope that the research results will provide some linguistically useful practical