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Title: A study on common lexical errors in writing made by English-majored sophomores at Industrial university of Ho Chi Minh City Chapter I: Introduction 1.1 Rationale: Of the four English language skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing, Writing has been considered as the most problematic language skill for ESL/EFL learners and even for native speakers (Norrish, 1983) Writing is different from speaking In spoken communication, the most important thing is that the hearer can understand what the speaker means, not necessarily accurate in any respect Writing, on the other hand, is a challenging work In general, it is possible to analyze written language by defining the lexical objects used in the words This implies that Lexis is one of the core elements that needs to create also understand the text well Poor vocabulary and wrong choice of lexical items are major obstacles in successful communication Schmitt (2000) stated that “Lexical knowledge is essential for communicative capacity and to the acquisition of the second language” (p 55) In addition, Folse (2004) also stated that “with poor vocabulary, communication is constraint considerably You can get by without grammar; you cannot get by without vocabulary” (p.2) The inappropriate selection of lexical items in written compositions can provide some influence on the readers such as the misunderstanding about the content or the problem in interpreting the text Moreover, Ridha & Al – Riyahi (2011) claim that the inappropriate lexical choice might affect the effectiveness of communication between the writer and the reader In the same idea, Naba’h (2011) also stated that lexical errors prevent the foreign language learners from conveying their ideas as clearly as possible through their text On the other hand, lexical errors can be used as the quality predictor of the learners’ writing, and the predictor in determining the learners’ vocabulary improvement, lexical proficiency, and overall academic achievement (Llach, 2007, p.3) In addition, Lexical choice in second language writing remains an important issue since the learners almost unavoidable produce various types of errors in the written compositions Among the various types of errors in written compositions, lexical errors occupy the highest number of errors occurring in Students’written compositions (Llach 2005; Shalaby, Yahya & El-Komi 2009; Ander & Yildirim 2014) Besides, native speakers consider lexical errors as the most serious problem compared to the other types of errors (Ridha & Al – Riyahi, 2011) Despite the importance and the frequency of lexical errors in students’ writing, a large number of English major sophomores at IUH not give significant attention to the lexical aspect, they still often make errors in their sentences and have trouble in producing an effective essay In addition, lexical error is still an issue that is rarely investigated, in comparison with studies that examines different problems in writing such as phonological, grammatical, or syntactic errors Many researcher pointed to this fact such as Llach (2005a), Hemchua & Schmitt (2006), Shalaby, Yahya & El-Komi (2009), and Naba’h(2011) Therefore, this research was conducted to fill the gap in the studies of lexical errors.b 1.2 Research Objectives In this study, it attempts to find out attitudes of IUH’s English-majored sophomores towards writing and difficulties that they face when learning this skill In addition, the study has a main objective that is to figure out the common types of lexical error produced by English-majored sophomores at industrial university of Ho Chi Minh city 1.3 Research questions The present study attempts to answer three following questions: 1.What are the attitudes of English major sophomores at IUH towards writing skill? 2.What are difficulties that IUH’s English-majored sophomores face when they learn writing skill? What are common types of lexical errors that English- majored sophomores of IUH have made in their writing? 1.4 Scope of the study This study is conducted to find out the attitudes towards writing and difficulties that IUH’s English-majored sophomores face when learning writing skill Especially, analyze common lexical errors in their writing Because of the limited time, the author conducted the study with 100 English-majored sophomores at IUH through questionnaire distribution Besides, the research also borrowed 100 essay writing of English-majored sophomores of the faculty of foreign language at industrial university of Ho Chi Minh city to make the research more reliable and valid Chapter II: Literature Review 2.1 Definitions of key terms/concepts 2.1.1 Definitions of writing Previous research show that several attempts have been made at defining 'writing' Carrol, et.al (2001: 3) defined writing as the powerful communication tool to express or share ideas on thought in the rest of our life These imply that writing as a tool and skill of writers to communicate information or ideas to readers in written form Even though, writing is extremely important, but it is not easy as people think As Nunan (1999) states that writing is the most difficult skill among the four language skills Graham (2006) and Sandbank & Harris (2014) stated that writing is a preferred tool for students to express what they know in today’s classrooms On the other hand, according to Troia and Graham (2003), writing is one of the most complicated literacy activities for children and even for adults In addition, Broadman (2002: 4) stated that writing is a continuous process of thinking, organizing, rethinking, and reorganizing The mastery of vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation, appropriate content, word selection appropriate to the audience, topic and occasion, are required in writing However, the capacity of thinking and the ability to organize are essential in order to make you express your ideas in well-organized sentences, which have a good coherence and cohesion That is why many people and students find it difficult to write According to Harmer (2004), Writing encourages students to focus on accurate language use because they think as they write; it may well provoke language development as they resolve problems which the writing puts into their minds When writing, students frequently have more time to think than they in oral activities Students can go through what they know in their minds and even consult dictionaries, grammar books, or other reference material to help them From the definitions above, it can be concluded that writing is an activity to express ideas, events, feelings or thought on written form, writing can be a tool to communicate with other people, furthermore, writing is a process requires about cognitive and linguistic ability a lot and it is very difficult to master 2.1.1.1 The importance of writing In discussing the significance of writing, Suleiman (2010) stressed that " Writing is central clement of language, any reading and language arts program must consider the multidimensional nature of writing in instructional practices, assessment procedures, and language development.” (p 155) Writing is both essential part of the learning process and one of the most important ways that historians communicate their ideas and conclusions to one another (Department of Art and History Art, George Mason University, n.d.) In addition, according to Walsh (2010) writing is very important because it’s used extensively in higher education and in the workplace If students don’t know how to express themselves in writing, they will not be able to communicate well with professors, employers, peers, or just about anyone else Much of professional communication is done in writing: proposals, memos, reports, applications, preliminary interviews, e-mails, and more are part of the daily life of a college student or successful graduate Writing has a unique position in English language since its acquisition involves practice and knowledge of other three language skills, such as listening, reading, and speaking Moreover, it requires the mastering of other skills, such as metacognitive skills Learners need to set an objective for their writing, plan it carefully, think over its layout and logical structure, revise it, etc In the process of writing, they have to use cognitive skills; they have to analyze their sources and then synthesize them in a compact piece of writing (Walsh, 2010) 2.1.1.2 EFL learners’s attitudes towards writing skill Most ESL /EFL students have negative attitude to writing They often consider writing, especially in the form of essay composition, is a difficult task Ismail et al (2010) found out that most ESL students are apprehensive to writing activity and have negative attitude to academic writing The students who consider writing skill as difficult, would dislike the activity Some students refrain from writing, and show their unwillingness towards the skill There were some reasons leading to the students have negative attitudes toward writing, namely the lack of time to practice in the class and the ineffective writing course guide and resources to write critically (Ismail et al, 2012) According to Erkan and Saban (2011) “Most students have a negative attitudes towards writing Even students who excel at other language skills encounter the same problems when they are asked to write They fear making writing mistakes and they are not confident to exhibit their thoughts through writing as it is, in fact, beyond their capacity” Consequently, Erkan and Saban (2011) maintained that "success with writing in a foreign language may be related to attitudes towards writing, apprehension about writing, and selfefficacy in writing" (p 168) In addition, Rahmatunisa (2014) pointed out that the reason for EFL students’ dislike to writing is due to the problems they encounter when they perform writing tasks, namely linguistics problems, cognitive problems in relation to paragraph organization and text structure, and psychological problems, such as moods and difficulty to start writing 2.1.1.3 EFL students’ difficulties in learning writing Haider (2012) and Hyland (2003) concluded that students face various writing problems at different stages of their learning Generally, these problems can be classified into linguistic, cognitive, psychological, and pedagogical categories They struggle with the structural components of English because an inappropriate structure complicates the content and comprehension of the text, which a reader deciphers through involvement of a mental process (Quintero,2008; Nik, Hamzah, & Rafidee, 2010) Besides, according to Fareed (2016), Jacobs & L (1981) and Hall (1988) “A text of aneffective ESL writer must be cohesive, logical, clearly structured, interesting and properly organized with a wide range of vocabulary and mastery of conventions in mechanics” Thus, learners often encounter many difficulties in developing effective writing skills In terms of grammar, understanding and applying the English grammatical rules is not easy for EFL students because verbs are usually formed differently to have subject-verb agreement according to the tenses Besides, it is hard for students to learn how to use articles, prepositions, pronouns, and connecting devices appropriately (Hall, 1988) Syntactically, learners often find writing the correct sentence structure challenging because in English syntax, there are various different types of sentence structures with strict requirements on the use of conjunctions and dependent/subordinate clauses In terms of vocabulary, Asep (2014) stated that Vocabulary is the central element in constructing sentences and is the core of effective writing skills Lack of vocabulary has caused the EFL students to face challenges in acquiring writing skills claimed Misbal et al (2017) Learners need to have a large vocabulary range to be able to use them flexibly for each writing topic in order to perform the task well However, they often have trouble choosing the appropriate vocabulary in context In addition, poor spelling is another cause of anxiety for students in learning writing skill and this is supported by Nyang’au Benard (2014) Having good ability in spelling will lead to positive learning of writing skill If the students are struggling with spelling, it will hold them back to move forward The students have the habit to spell according to their pronunciation and this will lead to wrong spelling as mentioned by Afrin (2016) Last but not least, lack of motivation is also a challenge encountered by the EFL students If the students are not motivated, they might not be interested to proceed with their learning process Motivation is an important element in improving students’ learning results claimed Gbollie & Keamu (2017) 2.1.2 Definitions of error Morris (1979: 259) defined that “Errors as an act, assertion, or belief that unintentionally deviates from what is correct, right or true” Webster (1990: 340) defined that “Errors as a deviation from a code of behavior, an act involving an unintentional deviation from truth or accuracy, an act that through ignorance deficiency, or accident fails to achieve what should be done, the quality or state of erring, and the difference between an observed or calculated value and the true value, especially: variation in measurements, calculations or observations of quantity due to uncontrollable factors” Linguistically, Corder (1973: 259) defines "errors as branches of the code." A learner makes errors because of lack of knowledge of the formation rules of the language being learned and therefore the meaning of phrase or sentences produced is unacceptable From those definitions by some experts, it can be concluded that error is a deviation from what is correct, true, and it is caused by the lack of knowledge in the target language According to Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992), a student makes mistakes and errors when writing Mistakes are due to lack of attention, fatigue or carelessness They can be self- corrected when attention is called Errors are the use of linguistic items in a way that a learner of the language regards them as showing faulty or incomplete learning They occur because the leaner does not know what is correct, and thus errors cannot be self-corrected From the explanations by some experts above, we can conclude that error is different with the mistake The mistake can be corrected without the help of other people, but error needs other people to correct it 2.1.3 Definitions of lexis- lexical According to Richard, Platt (1992, p 40), lexis is "a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms." Whereas, the Advanced Learners Dictionary 9th offered its own definition Lexis here is " all the words and phrases in a particular language of subject; all the word and phrases used and known by a particular person or group of people." lexical is also defined that " it connected with the words of language" Besides, according to Hemchua (2006), phrase verbs, adverbial phrases or idioms are also considered to be words or lexical items lexis is the core element which is significantly important in communicating process, either in spoken and written communication, especially in writing Napitupulu (2005) states that people can express feelings, give ideas and thoughts or messages for anyone by lexis Besides, the relationship between knowledge and lexical competence is closely connected The higher lexical ability you have, the wider knowledge you own Moreover, the ability of giving and receiving information is easier than others, Hence, lexical items comprehension is an extremely essential thing which should be learnt and it can be seen as a complex problem In addition, Mackey (1984) accepts the ideas that every word is the center of a group of related ideas, thought or people and all parts support together to present the main idea which the writer want to express Therefore, lexical items are a part which writers can not ignore in constructing any sentence 2.1.4 Definitions of lexical error Llach (2005:16) refers to lexical error as the inappropriate use of lexical items in a certain context as the impact of the confusion between two words, owing formal or semantic similarity, which consists of the L1 or L2 influence In fact, lexical errors can be defined as the deviations from the standard rule of a language lexicon Some linguists explain "lexical error" as meaning "all errors that are not grammatically fit" Others view "lexical error" as a superordinate term for classes of errors such as word formation, collocation, form/semantic confusion and wrong word choice (Llach, 2011: 73) According to Hernandez (2011), lexical errors are caused by choosing the wrong word for the meaning the writer wants to express Webber (1993) states that the most common causes of errors in non-native English speakers are lexical in nature, due to mother tongue interference.Most of researches note to the taxonomy, recognized features, main causes of lexical errors and concern to give a detailed definition of lexical errors Hence there are many lacks of clear definitions of "lexical errors” Nevertheless, it can be seen clearly that lexical errors will affect to lexical words (Celaya & Torras, 20013; Hemchua & Schmitt, 2006) 2.1.5 Types of lexical errors James (1998) classifies lexical errors into two main categories: formal and semantic features For the reader’s information, the error categories are described below in some detail 2.1.5.1 Formal errors Formal errors are classified into three types: (1) formal misselection, (2) mis- formations and (3) distortions (James 1998) Formal misselection They involve similar lexical forms (visual and sound similarity).James (1998) classifies formal misselection into four sub-classes as follow: 1.1 The suffix type They have the same root but different suffixes (for example, considerable /considerate, competition /competitiveness) 1.2 The prefix type They have the same root but different prefixes (for example, reserve/preserve, consumption/resumption/assumption) 1.3 The vowel-based type (for example, seat /set, manual /menial) 1.4 The consonant-based type (for example, save/safe, three/tree) Formal Misformations According to James (1998) formal misformations are the errors that can be created by the learner from the resources of the target language or in the mother tongue James (1998) classifies misformation errors into three types as follows: 2.1 Borrowing L1 words are used in the target language without any change (for instance, after the Shubuh [dawn], the farmers are usually go to the paddy field ) 2.2 Coinage Inventing a word from L1 (for instance, drugging can be very nocive [dangerous] to our health) 2.3.Calque Translation of a word or a phrase from L1 words (for instance, I go to [am going to] school by motorcycle) Distortions The results of distortions generally are nom-existent forms in the target language James (1998) classifies distortions into four types as follows: 4.4.1 The percentage of three main types of formal errors made by the sophomores in writing Chart 12 : The percentage of the three main types of formal errors made by sophomores in writing It can be clearly seen from the table and pie chart that in terms of formal errors, there are three major types namely formal misselection, misformations and distortions In general, distortion reached the highest rate of three main types of formal errors with 107 (table 2) errors with 25.3% Following by formal misselection (25.3%) with 68 errors Misformations was the least type with 21 errors about 7.8% It can be concluded that the sophomores had trouble in spelling and writing a word exactly leading to make a lot of lexical errors with Distortions The finding, however, contradicts the result of Hemchua & Schmitt (2006) which reported that Distortions was the least frequent error Students: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Diệu ID Number: 17024971 4.4.1.1 The percentage of the four types of formal Misselection in writing made by sophomores Chart 13 : The percentage of the four types of formal misselection in writing made by sophomores As we can see clearly from the table and bar chart above, the bar chart illustrates the proportion of four main types of formal misselection namely suffix type, prefix type, vowel based type and consonant based type while the table shows the frequency of each type Overall, the confusion of using right suffixes is a big problem with sophomores in terms of formal errors (17.47% ; 47 errors) Followed by prefix type and consonant-based type with 3.71% (10 errors) and 3.34% (9 errors) in order, only errors from vowel-based type with 0.74% This finding indicated that the students have a more serious problem in selecting the correct word class which owing similar forms rather than the proper use of derivative forms in words the possible reason which can explain why the students have a more serious problem in the selection of suffixes is the inadequate knowledge of words in lexical categories (Schmitt & Meara, 1997) Besides, this finding was different from the result of Wafa Ismail Saud (2018), according to the finding of Wafa Ismail Saud, vowel-based type was the most problematic word for students Supervisor: Đinh Tấn Thuỵ Kha, M.A 33 4.4.1.2 The percentage of the four types of Distortions in writing made by sophomores Chart 14 : The percentage of the four types of distortions in writing made by sophomores The pie chart (chart 4) illustrates the proportion of three main types of distortions namely omission, overinclusion and misordering Overall, omission was the highest rate in distortion, which held more than 21% (58 errors) Followed by misordering with 8.55% (23 errors) Misselection and overinclusion did not have a big difference with 5.20% (14 errors) and 4.46% (12 errors) in order In conclusion, the rate that the students made errors with omission was fairly high It can be seen clearly that students did not remember exactly vocabulary and its letter that led them to make lots of omission error This result was also similar to the finding of Suetae (2010) which reported that the majority of distortions error was attributed to omissions 4.4.1.3 The percentage of the four types of Misformations in writing Chart 15 : The percentage of the four types of Misformations in writing The bar chart above gives information about the percentage of misselection including three types which were calque, coinage, and borrowing Generally, of the three types of misformation, students only made error with calque which accounted to 7.80% (21 errors) from the total number of lexical errors, Fortunately, coinage and borrowing did not appear in 100 essays In conclusion, calque was one of the most frequent lexical errors that occurred in the students’ writings According to James (1998) “calque is the result of literal translation due to the influence of the first language” Therefore, it can be said that the students had a tendency to depend on L1’s linguistic knowledge in order to produce some words or phrases in English (Jame, 1998) Based on all the charts given above, at individual level of formal error category, distortion was the most frequent major category of lexical formal errors (54.60%) while misformation was the least frequent one (10.7%) At the individual level of lexical formal errors, the most frequent type in writing was omission (21.56%), coinage and borrowing were not problematic at all (0%) 4.4.2 The percentage of two main type of semantic error made by the sophomores in writing Chart 16: The percentage of two main type of semantic error made by the sophomores in writing The chart (chart 6) above shows the proportion of two main types of semantic errors which were confusion of sense relations and collocation errors It can be clearly seen from the chart that confusion of sense relations has the highest proportions with up to 19.7% (53 errors) while collocation errors only had 7.4% (20 errors) in the total number of semantic errors In addition, The result of this study was also similar to the finding of Wafa Ismail Saud (2018) 4.4.2.1 The percentage of the four types of Confusion of sense relations made by sophomores in writing Chart 17 : The percentage of the four types of Confusion of sense relations made by the sophomores in writing The bar chart above gives information about the percentage of four types of confusion of sense relations It can be clearly seen from the bar chart that using synonyms is the most common type of confusion of sense relations produced by the sophomores with 18.95% (51 errors) Followed by inappropriate co-hyponyms with only 0.74% (2 errors), and there were no occurrences of others at all (the categories of using a Superonym for a Hyponym, using a syponym for a superonym) In conclusion, wrong near synonyms was the most frequent errors of confusion of sense occurred in essays writing of the sophomores, This result indicated that some of the students have a tendency to apply their linguistic knowledge to make English synonymous words However, the meaning of these words are not exactly the same Besides, this research result was also consistent with the analysis by Wafa Ismail Saud (2018) Students: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Diệu ID Number: 17024971 4.4.2.2 The percentage of the three types of colocation errors in writing made by the sophomores Chart 18 : The percentage of three types of Colocation errors in writing made by the sophomores The pie chart (chart 8) shows the proportions of three major types of colocation errors namely semantically determined word selection, statistically weighted preferences, arbitrary combinations and irreversible binomials It can be seen that semantically determined word selection was the most frequent type of colocation errors There was not a great difference in proportions of statistically weighted preferences and arbitrary combinations and irreversible binomials with 1.11% (3 errors) and 1.85% (5 errors) in order In conclusion, at individual level in terms of semantic errors, wrong synonym of confusion of sense relations and semantically determined word selection of colocation errors were the most frequent types in writing made by the sophomores Supervisor: Đinh Tấn Thuỵ Kha, M.A 38 Students: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Diệu ID Number: 17024971 Chapter V: Conclusion Supervisor: Đinh Tấn Thuỵ Kha, M.A 39 This chapter summarizes the main research findings and makes recommendations to IUH English major sophomores and FFL teachers to improve students' attitudes towards learning writing and writing skills levels 5.1 Conclusions Here are some main conclusions drawn from this study ๏ An overview of the sophomores of FFL s' attitudes towards learning writing skill Firstly, most sophomores of FFL appreciated the importance of writing skill As can be seen from the results of questionnaire, nearly half of the total participants (49%) thought that writing is very important for their future job However, this thing did not make their attitudes towards writing become more positive since when they were asked about the feeling when they study this skill, most of them (64%) expressed that they dislike learning writing skill, besides, they found writing difficult, even the most difficult skill of the four English skills Secondly, their level of writing proficiency reflected their practice methods and the time they spent practicing this skill In particular, more than 60% of them considered that their level of writing proficiency were intermediate, the researcher realized that most of participants (61%) just practice writing from to times a week at home They tend to practice through complete tasks assigned by writing teacher In addition, a small number of participants have a low level of writing proficiency, this is the result of lack of practice, the author found that these students only practice in writing classes and not practice at home, which leading to their level of writing were low This shows that the students not really take responsibility for learning writing ๏ An overview of common difficulties in writing encountered by FFL’ s sophomores The majority of participants often encountered various problems in the process of practice essays writing The researcher found that lack of vocabulary (49%) and grammar knowledge (47%) are the two most common difficulties faced by sophomores of FFL, which means that vocabulary and grammar play a leading role in essays writing Therefore, it is very necessary for students to be more focused on aspects of vocabulary and grammar knowledge In the way, students can complete their essays writing easier and better ๏ Common lexical errors in writing made by FFL’s second years students of at IUH Common lexical errors in essays writing produced by English-majored sophomores at IUH were classified lexical errors into two main categories namely formal and semantic categories Each category was divided into subcategories The result of this study revealed that students made more errors with the form of words (72.8%) than semantics Regarding Formal errors, Distorions (39.7%) was the most frequent major category of lexica Formal errors while Mis-formation (7.8%) was the least frequent one At the individual level of Formal errors, the students committed Omission Errors (21.56%) and Suffix type (17.47%) most frequent, Borrowing and Coinage were not problematic at all In terms of Semantic errors, Confusion of sense relations 14 (10.22) was the most frequent among lexical semantic errors, At the individual level of lexical semantic errors, the most problematic words for students were near synonyms (18.95%) None of them made errors with Using a Superonym for a Hyponym and Using a Hyponym for a Superonym 5.2 Recommendations 5.2.1 Recommendations for the FFL teachers Teachers should help students to have a positive attitude to Writing as it can help them to achieve better writing achievement According to Gbollie & Leamu (2017), if students are not motivated, they might not be interested to proceed with their learning process Motivation is very important in improving students’ attitudes and learning results Therefore, teachers should motivate students by rewarding them with simple motivational phrases Positive rewarding can change the students’ attitudes and improve their writing achievements Teachers should to be aware of the challenges faced by students in writing process in order to give guidance and feedback Teachers could provide students with feedback on their mistakes and emphasize their correction, in an appropriate way, in order to raise their learners’ awareness and ability to correct themselves The results indicated that students’ essays had many types of lexical formal and semantic errors Those errors may be due to lack of practice, or to the inadequacy of the amount of knowledge they receive They did not have enough vocabulary to express their ideas accurately Therefore, teachers could help them by designing activities for areas that need to improve It is also recommended that instructors give more emphasis on spelling Students: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Diệu ID Number: 17024971 practices, selecting suitable suffixes, and on near-synonyms Such activities could help them master their vocabulary Besides, teachers should teach vocabulary in context rather than teaching them in isolated lists 5.2.2 Recommendations for FFL students Students who have more positive writing attitudes have better writing achievement than other students who have less favorable writing attitudes (Gupta & Woldermariam, 2011) In others words, writing attitudes can predict writing achievement of students Therefore, it is crucial for students to shape a positive attitude towards writing to have better writing achievement Practice makes perfect for learning English language in general and learning writing in specific Thus, it is very necessary for students to practice writing skill regularly Besides practice by write essays assigned by teachers, students should get themselves into an effective habit of learning writing such as write diaries, take notes in English every day, write about favorite topics, read academic materials for reference etc Students should pay more attention to learning vocabular since vocabulary plays a leading role in the production of written texts Reading is a good way for students to improve vocabulary and spelling Furthermore, reading also helps the writer to build analysis and argument which is very beneficial to writing In addition, using dictionary can assist the learning of vocabulary efficiently The author strongly suggests that the students should use the monolingual English dictionaries such as Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary, Oxford Collocation Dictionary and Cambridge Dictionary,Longman Dictionaries of Contemporary English 5.3 Limitations Despite our best efforts to complete the research, limitations are still unavoidable Firstly, as the limited time, the number of participants of the research is only 100 students Therefore, the findings may not be generalized for all sophomores of FFL at IUH Secondly, this research lacked the participation of writing teachers, who have the most accurate assessment of students' writing ability Next, if the study was applied with more research methods for data collection such as interview, observation, the results of the research would have been more valid and reliable Supervisor: Đinh Tấn Thuỵ Kha, M.A 42 References Ander, S., & Yildirim, Ö (2014) Lexical Errors in Elementary Level EFL Learners’ Compositions Procedia Social and Behavioral 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Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City The author decides to use IUH as a main place to conduct the thesis since it is one of the longstanding educations and training institutions in Vietnam Currently,