English object an analysis of errors made by high school students = phân tích lỗi thường gặp trong việc sử dụng tân ngữ của học sinh trung học phổ thông

vinh university foreign Language department ===    === ngô văn trọng English Object - an analysis of errors made by high school students (Phân tích lỗi th-ờng gặp việc sử dụng tân ngữ học sinh trung häc phỉ th«ng) graduation thesis Field: Linguistics Vinh - 5/2008 =  = vinh university foreign Language department ===    === English Object - an analysis of errors made by high school students (Phân tích lỗi th-ờng gặp việc sử dụng tân ngữ học sinh trung học phổ thông) graduation thesis Field: Linguistics Student: Ngô Văn Trọng Supervisor: M.A Vũ Thị Việt H-ơng Vinh - 5/2008 =  = Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Vũ Thị Việt H-ơng M.A who gave me valuable advice and help in carrying out this graduation thesis Also, I would like to thank all my teachers at the foreign language department of Vinh university for their lectures which are very useful for me to finish the study I appreciate those who kindly gave me advice and helped me during the course of study at Vinh university I wish to express my deep thanks to my parents and friends who have encouraged and supported me during the period of doing this thesis Finally, I also wish to acknowledge my great appreciation to my students, who took part in my survey actively Vinh, summer, 2008 Ngo Van Trong i TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgements i Table of contents ii List of table and diagram v List of abbreviations and symbols vi Part I: Introduction 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Method of the study Design of the study Part II: Content Chapter I: Theoretical background 1.1 Object in English 1.1.1 Definition of English object 1.1.2 Types of object 1.1.2.1 Direct object 1.1.2.2 Indirect object 1.1.3 English object in Theme - Rheme structure 1.1.4 Object versus subject and complement in English 1.1.4.1 Object and subject 1.1.4.2 Object and complement 1.2 Overview of object in Vietnam 10 1.3 Features of English object 11 1.3.1 Morphological features of English object 11 1.3.1.1 A noun or noun clause as object 11 1.3.1.2 Personal pronoun as object 12 1.3.1.3 Reflexive pronoun as object 12 ii 1.3.1.4 Interrogative pronoun as object 13 1.3.2 Syntactic features of object 13 1.3.2.1 Non-finite clause 13 1.3.2.2 Finite clause 13 1.3.2.3 Transformational relations 14 1.4 Basic and common structures with English object 15 1.5 Errors in language learning process 16 1.5.1 Definition of error 16 1.5.2 Error versus mistakes 16 1.5.3 The concept of error analysis 18 1.5.4 The significance of learner's errors 19 1.5.5 Factors causing foreign language learners to make errors 20 1.5.5.1 Interlingual errors 20 1.5.5.2 Intralingual errors 21 Chapter II: The study 24 2.1 Research questions 24 2.2 Research setting 24 2.3 The subject 24 2.4 Data collection 25 2.5 Procedure 25 2.6 Predictable errors and mistakes made by high school students 25 2.7 Preliminary results and data collection 26 2.7.1 Results of exercise 26 2.7.2 Results of exercise 28 2.7.3 Results of exercise 29 2.7.4 Results of exercise 31 2.8 Errors and their causes 32 2.8.1 Errors and their causes in exercise 32 2.8.2 Errors and their causes in exercise 35 iii 2.8.3 Errors and their causes in exercise 39 2.8.4 Errors and their causes in exercise 42 2.8.5 General tendency 45 Chapter III: Findings and implications 46 3.1 Research question review 46 3.1.1 Research question 46 3.1.2 Research question 46 3.1.3 Research question 47 3.2 Implications for teaching and learning English object 47 3.2.1 Implications for teaching 47 3.2.1.1 Suggestions for presentation 47 3.2.1.2 Suggestions for practice 49 3.2.1.3 Suggestions for production 50 3.3 Implications for learning English object 50 3.4 Suggestions for further research 51 Part III: Conclusion 52 References Appendix iv List of diagrams and tables Diagram 2.1 Evaluation of students’ performance in doing exercise 27 Diagram 2.2 Evaluation of students’ performance in doing exercise 28 Diagram 2.3 Evaluation of students’ performance in doing exercise 30 Diagram 2.4 Evaluation of students’ performance in doing exercise 31 Table 2.1 Errors in exercise 27 Table 2.2 Errors in exercise 29 Table 2.3 Errors in exercise 31 Table 2.4 Errors in exercise 32 Table 2.5: Number of error causes in exercise 35 Table 2.6: Number of error causes in exercise 39 Table 2.7: Number of error causes in exercise 41 Table 2.8: Number of error causes in exercise 45 Table 2.9: Total of number of error causes in the survey 45 v Lists of abbreviations And Symbols Adj : adjective Adv : adverb C : complement Cs : suject complement Co : object complement O : object Od : direct object Oi : indirect object S : subject V : verb Eg : example * : wrong answers/words/sentences made by students Q : question vi English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students Part I: Introduction Rationale of the study Nowadays, tendency of globalization and integration has been taking place strongly in many countries including Vietnam In this process, English is regarded as an effective international communicative language, playing a vital part in making people in different cultures and countries closer Therefore, more and more people attend English classes to learn it To many students, it can help them get a good job in future Some want to study English since they think that it offers a chance for advancement in their professional lives Learning a foreign language also gives us a chance to both master a language and to understand much more our language Any sounds, words or item grammar and lexis of the foreign language may or may not have equivalents in the learner's mother tongue Therefore, advantage or disadvantage of learning a foreign language depends on the similarities and differences between the two languages Vietnamese and English grammars have many different features, which should be taken into consideration more deeply through careful researches Major findings in such researches will be useful to apply into teaching and learning English The differences often make students meet obstacles in their acquisition of the target language Among these difficulties is the use of English object as a sentence element that plays an important role in forming structure "Object" in English was written by many famous authors such as Randolph Quirk and Sidney Green Bacon"A university grammar of English" (1973) or Ronald Carter and Michael Mc Cathy "Cambridge grammar of English".(2006) However, to the best of my knowledge, so far error analysis Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students in area of using object in sentence structure has been carried out very little For that reason, we wish to make a small effort contributing to filling the gap The second reason for the choice of this topic is that its frequencies of occurrence in English basic clause types, ranks third after verb and subject Many Vietnamese learners of English sometimes mistake object for other elements like subject or complement Therefore, they are unable to basic object - related exercises that are very useful for practicing skills in mastering English such as changing sentence from active to passive voice or vice versa, identifying object among other elements For the above reasons, the author has decided to choose the topic: "English object-an analysis of errors made by high school students" Aims of the study The study reported in this thesis aims to: - Identify common errors in using English object - Find out the major causes and sources of errors made by high school students in the area of using object - Make some suggestions for teaching and learning English object effectively Scope of the study - Analyzing errors through the tests - Classifying errors into typical type - Finding out related reasons Methods of the study In order to conduct the research, the following methods are made: - Descriptive method - Statistic and classifying - Analytic and synthetic method Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students students knew this structure but used it wrongly Their answer was: * ― Can you describe she looks like?‖ Compared to the correct answer: ― Can you describe her for me?‖ These errors might be seen as poor language knowledge In question 5: She is proud of being such a good cook  She prides… Like question 4, this sentence was also a problem for students There were correct answers in 82 papers The other gave a wrong answer or did not give their own answers This sentence reminded students to use the structure ― pride oneself on something‖ Students knew the verb ― pride‖ as well as above structure, nevertheless, they used it incorrectly Their wrong answer was: *― She prides oneself on being such a good cook‖ It is advisable to replace ― oneself‖ by ― herself‖ However, they did not realize that These errors might have resulted from incomplete application of rules To sum up, after the last exercise, it has been found that there are various errors and their causes in using objects, including: mother tongue interference, incomplete application of rules, poor language knowledge, false concept hypothesized and ignorance of rule restrictions The main cause in this task is incomplete application of rules, making up 99 errors (approximately 31,6%) In contrast, mother tongue interference has the lowest level, making up 27 errors (8,6%) Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 44 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students Types of error causes interlingual Intralingual Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Total Mother tongue interference 27 Incomplete application of rules 19 80 False concept hypothesized 50 Ignorance of rule restriction 57 Poor language knowledge Total 80 46 57 50 80 80 % 27 8,6% 99 31,6% 50 16% 57 18,2% 80 25,6% 313 Table 2.8 Number of error causes in exercise 2.8.5 General tendency With the 82 students, there are total of 1026 errors, the division of types and percentage can be made as follows: Types of error causes Quantity percentage Mother tongue interference 226 22% False concept hypothesized 254 24,8% Ignorance of rule restriction 93 9% Incomplete application of rule 175 17,1% Poor language knowledge 278 27,1% Table 2.9 Total of number of error causes in the survey Thus, poor language knowledge makes up the highest percentage (27,1 %), compared to ignorance of rule restriction which makes up 9% In term of type of errors, their number and percentage can be listed below: + Morphological errors: 305 errors (29,7%) + Syntactic errors: 721 errors (70,3%) Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 45 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students Chapter III: findings and implications In the previous section, the causes of errors have been mentioned and it has been found that Vietnamese learners committed a great number in using object In this chapter, we will look through major findings and some implications for teaching and learning process with a view to preventing errors 3.1 Research question reviewed 3.1.1 Research question What errors secondary school students commit in using English object? The study shows that students committed a lot of errors in using object Their errors are wrong recognition between object with other elements (exercise and 2) In the distinction between noun phrase and nominal clause (finite and non-finite, especially to-infinitive and ing-participle clause), Vietnamese students easily get confused, hence, misrecognizing of object Another error is violation in passive transformation (in exercise 3) The third error is wrong use of object structures (in exercise 4) Most of students have not known the position of object in sentence 3.1.2 Research question What might be the causes and sources of the errors in using English object? After the survey, it is recognizable that many students had difficulties in comprehending and using English object Therefore, they made a lot of errors All of the errors may be seen from different sides They are interlingual as they results from language transfer and they are intralingual as the result of inadequate knowledge and faulty use of different items of the target language Of all error causes, poor language knowledge seems to be the largest source of errors for students (169 out of 385 errors in exercise 1, 29 out of 123 errors in exercise 3, and 80 out of 313 in exercise See tables 2.5, 2.7, 2.8), and false concept hypothesized ranks the second (169 out of 385 Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 46 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students errors in exercise 1, 35 out of 147 in exercise 2, 50 out of 313 in exercise See tables 2.5, 2.6, 2.8) 3.1.3 Research question What suggestions can be made in the learning and teaching processing order to help students master the use of object in English? After a thorough investigation, it can be seen that students did not really understand use of English object fully Therefore, it is necessary for them to be guided and taught about English object much more Based on types of errors and causes of errors committed by students through tasks, we can make some suggestions in teaching and learning English object as follows: - Giving basic knowledge of object in a systematic way to students (eg: definition, types and features of object) - Showing students rules of passive transformation and object structures - Helping students form a habit of using object correctly in spoken and written language - Asking students to practice use of object much more through different tasks 3.2 Implications for teaching and learning object In order to improve students’ knowledge of object as well as to prevent them from committing errors, we would like to make suggestions for teaching and learning object in English discourse 3.2.1 Suggestions for teaching English object 3.2.1.1 Suggestions for presentation In teaching object to Vietnamese learners of English, the following steps should be applied: First, on the morphological feature, the teacher should give a systematic introduction on a noun or clause noun as an object To carry out it, the teacher Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 47 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students should present the basic sentence patterns containing object, namely SVO, SVOO, SVOC, and SVOA with which the verbs may be of different groups: mono-transitive, ditransitive and complex transitive verbs respectively Second, on the syntactic feature of object, the teacher should aware that object can be a noun, a pronoun, a noun phrase, a nominal non-finite clause (including to-infinitive clause, or, -ing participle, or bare infinitive clause) or nominal finite clause (including that-clause, interrogative clause) S/he can introduce the further sentence patterns of the four a mentioned clause/ sentence types in different situations Third, a typical syntactic feature of the English verb is passive transformation, which involves the change of active object – either direct or indirect into passive subject The teacher should teach students passive transformation on the basis of the following diagram: Active Passive S + V Spassive + be + Ved/pp + O + by agent This diagram may be introduced to the students after certain examples To help students their spoken and written exercises in concrete situation, the teacher should: + Create the different situations where object is used in progressive steps from easy to difficult level + Ask students to practice dialogues and conversations where object is used as well as to write their own compositions + Predict the errors that students may make and be flexible in correcting their mistakes The teacher should have a suitable treatment for each student, which depends on their levels Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 48 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students To sum up, to help students acquire use of English object, the teacher should give a good and skilled presentation in a systematic way with careful explanations and make examples in different contexts In addition, the teacher should predict errors made and point them to students 3.2.1.2 Suggestions for practice Beside the necessary explanations mentioned above, giving the learners as many exercises as possible is also considered a good way to help students use object correctly and flexibly in their speech and writing This part presents some suggested exercises involving use of object for Vietnamese learners Type 1: The aim of this type of exercise is to help students recognize the position of object and distinguish types of objects Identify the way how the object is realized: We brought quite a new car They did not see the man going down the slope We had our car repaired here last week She wanted to cancel the journey All of us wanted them to repeat the tune Type 2: This type of exercise aims at helping students change a sentence from active to passive voice better We bought our daughter a new house These workers built that nice house She painted the door dark brown We elected him president twice Thieves broke into the State Bank last night Type 3: The aim of this type is to show the students the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English objects Translate the following sentences into English: C« mua cho mèo Tôi đ-a cho cô sách hay Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 49 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students Tôi tiếc đà kể cho bạn câu chuyện Chúng thảo luận vấn đề Cô soi g-ơng Type 4: This type of exercise is to help students apply the object structure better Correct the mistakes in the following sentences: Parents should never let very young children to stay at home alone They saw him entered the house She enjoyed watched the sixth channel My sister advised me to stay at home I like cooked for my family 3.1.2.3 Suggestion for production The aim of learning and teaching a foreign language is to communicate, which are directly brought about in the production stage Therefore, Vietnamese students are still having difficulties in using object in a natural way In order to help them get a better knowledge of object, students should be given many real situations that are familiar to them in their everyday life The below exercises are examples: A frightened experience that you underwent A job that you like most Write about your unforgettable memory 3.3 Implications for learning English object Teacher plays an important role in helping students acquire knowledge However, students are decisive element in gaining it They should try their best to study and have a strategy when learning a foreign language They should: + be aware of basic sentences, elements (S, V, O) in a clause + a lot of exercises related to object and practice using object in a real situation + share knowledge, experience with teacher and classmates Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 50 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students 3.4 Suggestions for further research Due to the shortage of time, my limited knowledge and the framework of the dissertation, this research work has got certain restrictions Thus, on three basis of the study, further research may be done on greater details of contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese object, different of contrastive verbs mono-, complex-, and di-transitve verb) as well as tasks which are designed to test different types of object in different sections This may hopefully bring about promising results Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 51 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students Part III: conclusion This thesis has made a linguistic study of object in the light of different view of linguists, taking into the consideration the different features of these sentence elements in English It is concerned with the description of object from different branches of linguistics, mainly morphology and syntax Basing on the previous linguistics’ ideas and concept, we have carried out a rather thorough study on error analysis made by high school students in using object The aim of the survey is to look into how object is taught and learned at a high school Besides, some suggestions have been revealed with a view to improving the process of teaching and learning object In addition, it is also aimed at helping students possess knowledge of English object The study has shown that high school students commit a lot of errors in using object In my concrete analysis carried out here, we realize that Vietnamese students normally made a great number of errors on negative transfer from their mother tongue - the so-called interlingual errors Apart from this, students also made intralingual errors which include overgeneralization, incomplete application of rules, ignorance of rule restrictions, false concept hypothesized Poor language knowledge seems to be the most common one The second cause of errors should be paid attention to false concept hypothesized Besides, mother tongue interference is also a remarkable cause leading to lots of errors Together with error analysis process, some suggestions have been made in order to avoiding and preventing errors through three stages of the teaching process The presentation stage is used for giving a way that could help students fully master use of English object consisting of types of object, features and passive transformation In addition, practice stage is recommended as a good way to employ English object more natural and Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 52 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students fluently Many types of exercises have been suggested for consideration The last stage is served for practicing situations in a real life Finally, suggestions for future research in the area of object have been raised in the hope that anyone who is interested in and wishes to carry out research on linguistics as well as the field of error analysis can make reference and employ them usefully in their study Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 53 References A References in English Amdt, V., Harvey, P., & Nuttall, J (2000) Alive to language: Perpestive on language awareness for English language teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Azar, B.S (1999) Understanding and Using English grammar US: Longman Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Discourse analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Carter, R & Carthy, M (2006) Cambridge grammar of English: a comprehensive guide spoken and written English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Coady, J & Huckin, T (Eds) (1997) Second language Acquisition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Corder, S (1967) The significance of the learners’ errors IRAL, (vol 5.N.4), 161 – 70 Corder, S (1971) Describing the language learner’ s language Interdisciplinary Approaches to language, CILT reports and papers, p.p Corder, S (1974) Error analysis The edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics, Vol 3, Oxford University Press Harmer, J (1991) The practice of English language training London and Newyork: Longman 10 Hewings, M (2000) Advanced grammar in use Vietnam: The Youth Publisher 11 Hoa, Nguyen (2004) Understanding English semantics Vietnam: Hanoi National University 12 Hubbard, Jones et al (1987) A training course for TEFL Oxford: Oxford University Press 13 Hurford, J.R & Heasly, B (2001) Semantics a course book 14 Hendrickson, J.M (1987) Methodology in TESOL Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 15 Quirk, R & Greenbaun, S (1976) A university grammar of English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 16 Quirk, R et al (1972) A grammar of Contemporary English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 17 Swan, M (1995) Practical English Usage London: Oxford University Press References in Vietnamese Ngun Tµi CÈn, (1999) Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt NXB Đại học Quốc gia Diệp Quang Ban, (1992) Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt NXB Gi¸o Dơc Appendix English Test Time allowed: 60 minutes Name: Date: Class: I Find out object in the following sentences by circling A, B, C or D Some sentences may have answers (Tìm tân ngữ câu sau, khoanh tròn đáp án A, B, C D Một số câu có hai đáp án) Example: I gave him a book A B C D Tom gave me his email address A B C D He asked me what they are A B C D He was reading a magazine while she was listening to the radio A B C D I couldn't deny that I loved that girl A B C D He ordered me to that job A B C D II Change these following sentences into passive voice (§ỉi câu sau sang bị động) Example: The cat is chasing by the cat → A mouse is being chased by the cat 1.The workers are pulling down the old buildings We made these toys He has written this story Did the idea interest you? Anyone with the smallest intelligence could understand these instructions III Find out and correct mistakes in these following sentences (Tìm chữa lỗi sai câu sau) Example: He complained with the manager With —> to She admitted him her mistakes She had to deny his request to him My sister advised me stay at home They should never let very young children to stay at home I not enjoy cooking V Rewrite the following sentences without changing their meanings (Viết lại câu sau mà không làm thay đổi nghĩa) Example: He couldn't get his parents’ permission to buy a flat → His parents didn't let him buy a flat The patient had the doctor test his eye-sight  The patient wanted We laughed because his story is very funny  His funny story I pay the woman to clean the shop windows everyday  I have Can you tell me what she looks like?  Can you She is proud of being such a good cook  She prides Answer key I II 1.C, D B, D C, D D C, D The old buildings are being pulled down by the workers These toys were made by us This story has been written by him Were interested by this idea? These instructions could be understood by anyone with the smallest intelligence III him her mistakes —> her mistakes to him deny his request to him —> stay IV —> deny him his request staying to stay —> stay to cook — > cooking The patient wanted the doctor to test his eye-sight The patient wanted to have his eye-sight tested by the doctor The patient wanted to be tested his eye-sight by the doctor His funny story made us laugh I have the woman clean the shop windows everyday /I have the shop windows cleaned everyday by the woman Can you describe her for me? She prides herself on her cooking ... university foreign Language department == =    == = English Object - an analysis of errors made by high school students (Phân tích lỗi th-ờng gặp việc sử dụng tân ngữ học sinh trung học phổ thông) graduation... causes of errors Ngo Van Trong 45B2 - Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 18 English object - an analysis of errors made by high school students - Evaluation of errors: bases on data of. .. - an analysis of errors made by high school students She made me angry Object- complement Comparing to definition of Object mentioned in previous part, we can see that object and complement can