An investigation into how students make and identify oral mistakes and its influences on their motivation to study

I declare that this graduation thesis entitled “An investigation into how students make and identify oral mistakes and its influences on their motivation to study in Faculty of Foreign

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

SAMPLE: ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF

HO CHI MINH CITY

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

SAMPLE: ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF

HO CHI MINH CITY

Student Name: Trần Văn Đoàn

Supervisor’s Name: Trần Kiều Mỹ An

“I certify that this work is entirely my own and has not been accepted as part of a submission

to another purpose elsewhere.”

Signed: ………

Word length: 12156 words

My name is Tran Van Doan, a senior majoring in English in Faculty of Foreign Languages at

Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City I declare that this graduation thesis entitled “An

investigation into how students make and identify oral mistakes and its influences on their motivation to study in Faculty of Foreign Languages at Industrial University of Ho chi minh city” is my own work I also certify that the content of the paper is the result of my hard

working process of creation and effort and does not involve any plagiarism

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Research’s goals 2

1.3 Significance of the research 2

1.4 The scope of the research 3

1.5 Research questions 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Definitions of terms 4

2.1.1 Definition of mistakes 4

2.1.1.1 Definition of mistakes as a noun or a verb 4

2.1.1.2 Definition of mistakes including errors and slips 4

2.1.1.3 The differences between mistakes and errors 4

2.1.2 Definition of speaking 6

2.1.3 Definition of motivation 7

2.2 Kinds of mistakes are made by third-year students 7

2.2.1 Grammatical mistakes 7

2.2.1.1 Some kinds of grammatical mistakes 7

2.2.1.2 Grammatical mistakes in terms of spoken English 9

2.2.2 Pronunciation mistakes 10

2.2.2.1 The importance of pronunciation 10

2.2.2.2 Researches about pronunciation mistakes 10

2.2.3 Lexical mistakes 12

2.2.3.1 The significance of lexical knowledge 12

2.2.3.2 Types of lexical mistakes and relevant research 12

2.3 Identification of students’ mistakes in English speaking 13

2.3.1 Sources of mistakes 13

2.3.1.1 Mother tongue interference 13

2.3.1.2 Loan Words 13

2.3.1.3 Inherent difficulties of the Target language 13

2.3.1.6 Inadequate Exposure to the target language 14

2.3.1.7 Overgeneralization 14

2.3.2 Analyzing errors approaches 15

2.3.2.1 Contrastive Analysis (CA) approach 16

2.3.2.2 Error analysis (EA) approach 17

2.4 Influences of making mistakes to students to studying speaking 17

2.4.1 Positive influences 17

2.4.2 Negative influences 18

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH 20

3.1 Participants 20

3.2 Methods 20

3.2.1 Interviews 20

3.2.2 Questionnaires 21

3.3 Procedures 22

3.4 Data analysis 23

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 25

4.1 Results from the interview: 25

4.2 Result from the questionnaires: 29

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 43

5.1 Conclusions 43

5.2 Recommendations 44

5.2.1 For the students: 44

5.2.2 For the teacher: 45

5.2.3 For other studies 45

REFERENCES 46

APPENDIX 50

Figure 2: Grammatical mistakes based on students’ interview 26

Figure 3: Vocabulary mistakes based on the students’ interview 27

Figure 4: Pronunciation mistakes based on the students’ interview 28

Figure 5: Common mistakes students often make in the previous speaking tasks 29

Figure 6: Grammatical mistakes students often meet in English speaking tasks 30

Figure 7: Vocabulary mistakes students often meet in English speaking tasks 31

Figure 8: Pronunciation mistakes students often meet in English speaking tasks 32

Figure 9: Typical reaction from students after making mistakes in speaking 33

Figure 10: The role of making mistakes in learning English speaking 34

Figure 11: The positive reasons of making mistakes in learning English speaking 35

Figure 12: The negative reasons of making mistakes in learning English speaking 36

Figure 13: The impact of making mistakes to students’ feeling 37

Figure 14: Making mistakes to students’ motivation in learning English speaking 38

Figure 15: The impact of the teacher’s correction and feedback to students’ motivation in learning English speaking 39

Figure 16: Students’ feeling after having feedback from the teacher 40

Figure 17: The role of the last mistakes in improving students’ ability 41

Figure 18: Making the same mistakes from the students after being corrected by teacher 42

FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages

DHAV10: The third-year English-majored class at IUH

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

CA: Contrastive Analysis

EA: Errors Analysis

During the past decades, the learning and teaching foreign language in Vietnamese educational system have been currently being upgraded However, the improvement of it, in one way or another, still has some challenges and difficulties that partly impact on the applying the language of learners in real life situations Making errors or mistakes, along with that, is also the important element contributed to the conveying and acquirement knowledge

of the languages

For this study, with the language of English, I would like to investigate the making oral mistakes and its influences on third yearstudents‟ motivation to study in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City This research is divided into five chapters with different purposes contributed to the topic In the first chapter, the author draws the overviews of the research including its purposes, the significances and the study‟s limitations For the next chapter, I progress reviewing the literature which is related to the research questions of the topic Chapter three is about the methodologies of the topic that are conducted by using the methods of questionnaires and interviews In the fourth sections, the researcher gives the results from the collection data process and discuss more about that The last chapter, I conclude and summarize the whole study and then recommend some suggestions for the next research

Hopefully after this research, the teacher and students can somewhat recognize some common oral mistakes that they often make in the class and can notice partially the roles of making mistakes to the students‟ motivation to study speaking lesson

During the period of the thesis, I received a plenty of enthusiastic help and support motivated

me to fulfill the research with carefulness and thoughtfulness and to overcome all the challenges and difficulties With boundless love and appreciation, the researcher would like to express my profound gratitude to people who helped me finish this thesis

Firstly, I would like to appreciate the School Board of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City and the Faculty of Foreign Languages creating the convenient conditions for me to complete my thesis

Next, the author wants to give his gratitude to the supervisor, Ph.D Tran Kieu My An, whose expertise, consistent instructions and advices and ample time spent that helped him fulfill the paper successfully My struggles and challenges were all resolved through her advice and led

me to the found-out way of difficulty

In addition, I would like to thank all of my best friends who gave me the great support and assistance during the process of doing this research They are somehow the great motivation helped me whenever I fall down and the inspiration for my thesis words

Last but not least, I am grateful to the devoted students in DHAV10 class helped me complete the two methods of interviews and questionnaires enthusiastically and carefully

In short, I would like to thank all great people who supported me to finish this graduation thesis

I‟m so glad to work with Doan during the time for his graduation thesis He has completed his graduation thesis with the greatest effort that he could make He has shown proficiency in most of the key areas, and is well on pace to exceed all relevant skills for doing research Furthermore, he is very open to advice and ideas and has acted on these very promptly He has also built up strong rapport with all the participants involved in this research With his creativeness and required-mind, I strongly believe that Doan will be a successful researcher in the field of language teaching

Signed:

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In our always changing world today, people who know nothing of foreign languages, they are considered like know nothing of their own (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1833) Languages have its particular impacts on people daily lives in any area of the world Along with the development of technology, English itself is more and more important in many fields of life, from education or medicine to technicality or science The English language, in general, is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time (Walt Whitman, 1885) and is sometimes described as a "world language" or a "global lingua franca" As the world is more integrated, the role of English is undeniable and overlooked facts because of the emergence of

it in every corner of society This beautiful language is the significant key to achieving great success in life If you know how to speak English, you will know how to open the door to your bright future

Especially in Vietnam, an Asian developing country, one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economies, English has been taught as a second language for years Vietnamese youngsters also find the essential of this language in daily lives and take this as the chance to seek for an ideal job, to communicate with the world or to approach the knowledge from different cultures That‟s also the reason why lots of universities and colleges in Vietnam have taught many subjects by English and also require the qualification of foreign language (mostly English) as the criteria to graduate for students

For Vietnamese students, learning a foreign language as English is a huge challenge because

of many various reasons such as the differences between two languages, the methods of teaching, the learning conditions or the struggle with skills of English such as listening, reading, speaking and writing Some students believe that English speaking which is one of necessary skills to help people express their thoughts and feeling with foreigners is the most difficult obstacle in their learning process because they make many mistakes They worry about their grammatical points, the amount of vocabulary or their pronunciation when they speak

Making mistakes seems to be an avoidable issue when English learners are giving a talk or joining a conversation in the class They make a lot of mistakes while speaking in the class

and are intensely influenced by that faults These influences can be positive or negative to the students while studying in the classroom and can even affect their motivation to go on speaking Some students can recognize their mistakes and correct it immediately but some need more time to improve it Someone said that if you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything and the doer always make mistakes We all know that making mistakes is ineluctable thing when people acquire a new language as English and there are different impacts of it on students‟ learning process, but for many reasons we should not avoid it Making mistakes is the inseparable and indispensable part in our way to conquer English In other words, if you want to learn English or any other languages, you will have to speak and write, and meantime, you are ready to make mistakes

To find out more about how students make mistakes when speaking English, if they can recognize those mistakes afterward and its influences to students‟ motivation to continue speaking, this research is carried out with the hope that it may contribute to our language teaching process

1.2 Research’s goals

The purpose of this research is to find out how students majoring in English and studying in

an English speaking class make mistakes when they are doing speaking activities in the class

In addition, the author also wants to figure out the reasons why students make mistakes and how teacher‟s correction affect to their study Along the way, how students identify their mistakes is also one of the purposes At last, the researcher wishes to ascertain its influences, both positive and negative impacts to students‟ motivation to go on speaking in the class and helps people to recognize the role of making mistakes in the learning process

1.3 Significance of the research

The study of making mistakes, how students identify that and its influences to students‟ motivation to continue speaking in the class can be a learning paradigm for third year students majoring in English to study better in an English speaking class where mistakes are often made They will recognize the common mistakes that they often meet in the classroom and then elicit themselves the assessment for their own study The research‟s goal is designed to assess the influences of making mistakes to students‟ motivation and then help them adjust their thinking about mistakes, find different ways to improve it and to learn from it, give them some tips to take advantages from that mistakes

1.4 The scope of the research

Due to the time limit, there were still some inevitable limitations This study will work with the participants who are third year students majoring in English in FFL at IUH Therefore, to make the result general for the larger groups, the researcher should have included more respondents at different level The next limitation is that the sample size is just limited to 20 participants in FFL at IUH only because of the time limit In order to give subjective analysis, the author should expand the number of people doing interview and questionnaires In addition, the study is using both the questionnaire and interview that gives students pressure which can affect to the investigation

1.5 Research questions

This research will try to answer the following questions:

Question 1: What kinds of mistakes are made by third year students in speaking?

Question 2: How students identify their mistakes after making those?

Question 3: How does making mistakes influence students‟ motivation to go on speaking in

an oral class?

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definitions of terms

2.1.1 Definition of mistakes

2.1.1.1 Definition of mistakes as a noun or a verb

According to the Cambridge dictionary (2017, the 4th edition), “mistakes” as a noun is “an action, decision, or judgment that produces an unwanted or unintentional result”

Example: “I'm not blaming you - we all make mistakes”

In the case of being used as a verb, this dictionary defined that mistakes are “to be wrong about or to fail to recognize something or someone”

Example: “You can't mistake their house - it has a bright yellow front door”

2.1.1.2 Definition of mistakes including errors and slips

“Mistakes”, according to Corder (1967), “are deviations due to performance factors such as memory limitations” and for example like “mistakes in the sequence of tenses and agreement

in long sentences, spelling, pronunciation, fatigue, emotional strain” “They are typically random and readily corrected by the teacher when his attention is drawn to them” (quoted in Sridhar (1981) in Fisiak (ed)) (p.166)

However, (Mary Spratt, Alan Pulverness and Melanie Williams, 2007) defined “mistakes are often divided into errors and slips” They clarified that “errors happen when learners try to say something that beyond their current level of language processing Usually, learners cannot correct themselves because that they don‟t understand what is wrong Errors play a necessary and important part in language learning.” And “slips are the result of tiredness, worry or other temporary emotions or circumstances These kinds of mistakes can be corrected by learners once they realize they have made them.” (p.14)

2.1.1.3 The differences between mistakes and errors

Mistake and error define something that is done incorrectly or wrong Thus, they are synonyms But there are still some differences between these two words in the context that they are applied in In one way or another, it is really necessary to understand generally the distinctions between errors and mistakes Krushna (2005) pointed out that “mistakes are

random, errors are systematic Mistakes are the early stage of error and the difference is a matter of degree and not of kind” In other way, Norish (1983) called “an error” as “a systematic deviation, when learners have not learned something consistently „gets it wrong” (p.7) A mistake, in contrast, when a student has been demonstrated something a convinced correct form He or she uses the right form at that time and another time he or she applies it differently that is quite inconsistently (Norish, 1983)

According to James (cited by Brown (2007)), the learners are incapable of self-correcting the errors while mistakes can be corrected by themselves Then error correction can be used as a mean for the recognition of errors and mistakes However, Brown noticed that identifying a distinction between errors and mistakes is problematic because if there is no error corrections,

we are not able to distinguish those (2007)

Keshavarz (2008) indicated that there are some differences between two terms of errors and mistakes “Errors are rule governed, systematic in nature, internally principled and free from arbitrariness” In contrast to errors, mistakes are random divergences and unrelated to any structure They are related to the performance of the students and might happen in the speech and writing “like slip of the tongue, slip of the ear, slip of the pen, and false start” Following the statements of Keshavarz (2008), mistakes are causes of non-linguistic elements such as tiredness, strong feeling, the limitations of memory, and lack of concentration and so on If students can pay attention to these kinds of mistakes, they can correct it themselves (p.49)

In accordance with Corder (1967) (cited in Park (2010)), errors mention to students' basic knowledge of the language and mistakes define the wrong forms made by memory gap, slips

of the tongue and other situations of performance errors Corder considered that learners could correct their own mistakes but they could not correct their errors because they do not have enough knowledge to distinguish their own utterance and that of the native speaker He also indicated two explanations with regard to learner mistakes First, "the occurrence of errors is merely a sign of the present inadequacy of the teaching techniques" (p 163) That is,

if it were possible for teachers to carry out a perfect teaching method, there would be no circumstances of student errors in the target language

Corder (1985) distinguished between two kinds of errors in the situations of performance and competence by mentioning to the former as mistakes and the latter as errors (p.25) Larsen Freeman and Long (1991:59), James (1998:78) and Ellis (2000:17) defined the term „mistake‟

as a random slip of a tongue and supplied a criterion that might identify the differences

between errors and mistakes As claimed by these authors, a mistake is a performance fault that the student is capable of being corrected when his attention is paid to it, whereas, an error

is considered to be not self-correcting since a learner cannot correct it when his attention is drawn to it Errors show a lack of learner competence, are systematic, and might occur many times without recognizing by the student

A linguist as Pit Corder (1974) as noted by Rula Tahsin and Islam Mousa made a difference between a mistake and an error and its impact on teaching and learning He introduced the distinction between errors and mistakes as systematic and unsystematic errors According to him, mistakes are believed as unsystematic errors and they occur in one's native language while errors are described as systematic ones which happen in a target language According to him, errors are meaningful to the teacher, researcher, and learner Mistakes allow the teacher

to follow the learners' progress in the language As far as the researcher and learner are concerned, errors help the researcher to identify how a language is acquired by learners and what strategies they use, and help the students to learn from these errors

2.1.2 Definition of speaking

According to the Oxford dictionary (2010, the 8th edition), speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing one's feelings in speech” In other word, speaking is “to say words, to use the voice, or to have a conversation with someone” (Cambridge dictionary,

2017, the 4th edition) Speaking is characterized as an interactive process of composing meaning that involves producing, collecting and processing information Its form and definition are dependent on the context in which it occurs, the participants, and the ideas of speaking (Burns & Joyce, 1997)

Speaking is a language skill that is growth in child life created by listening skill, and at that period speaking skill is acquired According to Grognet A.G (1997), he claims that speaking

is one of the important skills that have to be comprehended by learners in learning English Speaking is an essential tool for communicating (p.136) Meanwhile, Hornby (1995) describes that speaking is the skill that the students will be judged upon most in real-life situations It is an important part of everyday interaction and most often the first impression of

a person is based on his/her ability to speak fluently and comprehensively (p.37)

2.1.3 Definition of motivation

Just like any other word, there are many different definitions to explain a concept Motivation too has various definitions but firstly, it starts with the stem word, motive Webster‟s Dictionary describes the word “motive” as “something that causes a person to act” Thus, motivation can be defined as, the act of giving motive that makes someone act (Shanks, 24)

In other words, in accordance with Nancy Shanks, motivation causes someone to act and someone else cannot make someone motivated It is the caution of the person to decide if they are going to be motivated or not Motivated and unmotivated are not completely different, but instead, there are identifying factors caused someone to be unmotivated According to Ray Williams, the author of Psychology Today, defines motivation as, “predisposition to behave in

a purposeful manner to achieve specific, unmet needs and the will to achieve, and the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal organizational goals” (Williams) A person becomes motivated in order to get their own personal purposes as well as the organizational goals Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, from the University of Rochester, all claimed that motivated means that the person is moved to do a specific act (Ryan and Edward, 2000) The authors describe motivation as, the “orientation of motivation concerns the underlying attitudes and goals that give rise to action” (Ryan and Edward, 2000)

Motivation mentions to “the reasons underlying behavior” (Guay et al., 2010, p 712) Paraphrasing Gredler, Broussard and Garrison (2004) broadly described motivation as “the attribute that moves us to do or not to do something” (p 106) Basic motivation is motivation that is inspired by personal satisfaction, interest, or pleasure As Deci et al (1999) observed that “intrinsic motivation energizes and sustains activities through the spontaneous satisfactions inherent in effective volitional action It is manifest in behaviors such as play, exploration, and challenge seeking that people often do for external rewards” (p 658) Researchers often contrast intrinsic motivation with extrinsic motivation, which is motivation governed by reinforcement contingencies Customarily, teacher consider intrinsic motivation

to be more attractive and to result in better learning effect than extrinsic motivation (Deci et al., 1999)

2.2 Kinds of mistakes are made by third-year students

2.2.1 Grammatical mistakes

2.2.1.1 Some kinds of grammatical mistakes

Errors have been classified in different ways Corder (1971) (cited in Brown, 2000) classified errors in terms of the differences between the learners' utterance and the reconstructed version

in the target language Referring to his model, Brown made a distinction between overt and covert errors: “Overtly erroneous utterances are unquestionably ungrammatical at the sentence level Covertly erroneous utterances are grammatically well-formed at the sentence level but are not interpretable within the context of communication” (p 220)

Richards (1971) as cited by Kaçani (2014) compiled a collection of English errors produced

by speakers from eleven different language backgrounds and identified them by their linguistic type, as errors in:

 the production of the verb group (He was died last year);

 the distribution of verb groups (I am having my hair cut on Thursdays);

 the use of prepositions (entered in the room);

 the use of articles (She goes to bazaar every day);

 the use of questions (Why this man is cold?);

 a dustbin category of diversified errors (I am very lazy to stay at home; this is not fit to drink it) (Johnson & Johnson, 1999, p.111)”

[Kaçani, L., 2014, p.325] Barry Taylor (1975, cited in Brown 225-6) identified nine types of different of intra-lingual errors commonly encountered in English learners from different native language backgrounds: past tense form of verb following a modal, present tense –s on a verb following

a modal, -ing on a verb following a modal, are following will, past tense form of verb following do, present tense –s on a verb following do, -ing on a verb following do, past tense form of a verb following be, present tense –s on a verb following be

Sterbenz (2013) compiled the 11 most common grammatical mistakes people often make whether writing or just chatting with coworkers

(1)"Fewer" vs "Less"

(2) "It's” vs "Its"

(3) Dangling Modifiers

(4) Who" vs "Whom"

(5) Me, Myself, And I

(6) "Lie" vs "Lay"

(7) Irregular Verbs

(8) "Then" vs "Than"

(9)"Nor" vs "Or"

(10) Ending Sentences with Prepositions

(11) Subject (And Possessive Pronoun) and Verb Agreement

According to Kimberly Joki (2016), it‟s really important to recognize grammatical mistakes and find out what learners need to correct them She indicated in her writing 5 of the most common grammar mistakes:

(1) It‟s and its

(2) There, their, and they‟re

(3) Subject-verb agreement

(4) Comma splices

(5) Apostrophes

2.2.1.2 Grammatical mistakes in terms of spoken English

A research was made by Ting, Mahadhir and Chang (2010) in Malaysia investigated “the grammatical accuracy in spoken English in simulated oral interactions among less proficient ESL learners in a Malaysian tertiary institution” The goal of the study was to find out the types of errors and the changes in the accuracy of using grammar during the course of English for Social Purpose concentrated on the oral communication The result was achieved from the counterfeit oral interactions of 42 participants taking part in five role-play situations during 14 weeks of the course The analysis of error data made by the students identified the five common grammar errors which are preposition, question, articles, plural form of nouns, subject-verb agreement and tense The findings also showed that there was a development in the learners‟ grammatical accuracy compared between the beginning of the first role play and the end of the communication course

Along with that, Tarawneh and Almomani (2013) also accomplished a study analyzing of ungrammatical data spoken by some last year students majoring Jordanian English which were conductive to probe whether they are errors or mistakes The paper data consisted of simple short sentences and paragraphs was conducted by one-hundred learner of the English Department at Princess Alia University College chosen as a sample in a Conversation course The research asserted generally that most senior Jordanian English students are incapable of speaking English meticulously though they mostly have acquired the abundance of knowledge

of grammar and vocabulary Students at this university as the learners of English as a second language formed grammatical errors and mistakes due to some reasons like overgeneralization, slip of the tongue, lack of competence, and etc After analyzing the data, the researchers apprehended that some students committed mistakes, whereas others produce ungrammatical utterances as errors

2.2.2 Pronunciation mistakes

2.2.2.1 The importance of pronunciation

Pronunciation consists of some features such as stress, rhythm and intonation (aspects of prosody) It plays a significant part in our personal and social lives because the way we speak reflects our identities, and indicates our association to particular communities (Seidlhofer, 2001) as cited by Shak, Lee , Stephen (2016)

As asserted by Gilakjani (2011), having good pronunciation advances students‟ confidence as they are more able to take part in discussion in class as well as communicate with fellow classmates He further emphasized the importance of having students recognize the essential of having good pronunciation and how it can contribute to the overall sense of achievement

self-2.2.2.2 Researches about pronunciation mistakes

Shak, P., Chang, S.L & Stephen, J (2016) made a research about the pronunciation problems with errors analysis The purpose of the study was to classify the specific sounds that Malaysian students frequently pronounce incorrect The twelve low oral proficiency learners participating in University English course were chosen and identified by purposive sampling and by their English course instructor The criteria to identify the low speaking proficiency students were based on: i) the scores which are graded into six bands, Band 1 to Band 6 of their Malaysian University English Test (MUET); ii) the interaction involvement between the instructor and the students in the classroom From the errors analysis, the researchers found

that the students were to make popularly mistakes in pronouncing fricatives consonants The research identified that among the problematic sounds are the voiced TH /ð/ (i.e then, other, they, and that) and voiceless TH /θ/ sounds (i.e north) Analysis of the errors indicated that Malaysian students have problems with pronouncing the /t/, /d/, and /g/ plosive consonants

Of the pronunciation errors analysis, it was identified that students have problems in pronouncing fricatives (/v/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/), plosives (/t/, /d/, /g/), affricates (/dʒ/), silent consonant (/w/), diphthongs (/eɪ/, /aɪ/, /əʊ/), pure short (/ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ɒ/, /ʊ/, /ə/) and long vowels (/iː/, /ɑː/, /ɔː/, /uː/) Along the way, learners also met pronunciation errors of the –ed form such as in the words „succeeded‟, „considered‟, „agreed‟, „shined‟ and „wrapped‟ in the reading text

Other research about the English pronunciation errors was made by Ojo, B J, Umera-Okeke, Nneka (2007) with the purpose of speaking fluency of Ethiopian learners First and foremost, the paper indicated the inserting automatically of the sound /I/ before the regular plural morpheme /s/ The word “student” with the correct pronunciation of /stju:dnts/, for example, the participants pronounced it like /stju:dentIs/ which is an erroneous pronunciation The next mispronounced morpheme of learners was the observation of the whole regular past tense morpheme to /ed/ The respondents, for example, tended to pronounce the word “Asked” with the incorrect way of /a:sked/ instead of the right pronunciation of /a:skt/ Another erroneous pronunciation was the emphasis of the morpheme /r/ wherever it happens Learners, for entrance, didn‟t pronounce /aIən / for the word “iron” but they adapted /aIrɒn/ The next observable area of erroneous pronunciation was the voiced velar plosive /g/ in word-final position even when the realization should be the velar nasal /ŋ/ Here is an example of this error with the word “Gang”, students pronounced it like /gæng/ instead of pronouncing correct way of /gæŋ/ And the last but not least that was identified was the pronunciation of inter-dental sounds / θ, ð/ as voiced alveolar fricative /z/ “That” was pronounced like /zæt / but the learners didn‟t give the correct form of /ðæt/

Anne Cutler (1980) did a research about the intonation and stress errors which are elements of pronunciation She claimed that “stress placement errors at levels higher than the word also occur with a reasonable degree of frequency; they include errors of stress within nominal compounds and other phrases, errors in placement of primary sentence stress, and errors in assignment of contrastive or emphatic stress” (Cutler, 1980)

About the intonation, as Pike (1945) trenchantly remarks: "If a man's tone of voice belies his words, we immediately assume that the intonation more faithfully reflects his true linguistic intentions" (p 23)

2.2.3 Lexical mistakes

2.2.3.1 The significance of lexical knowledge

The components of the building blocks of language are words conveying the intended meaning of people If learners choose the appropriate words, their conversation will be more smooth and professional But if not, in contrast, the confusion and segmentation of meaning will become a problem.These lexical errors were suggested by Carter (1998: 185) that

„mistakes in lexical selection may be less generously tolerated outside classrooms than mistakes in syntax‟

Also, Vahallen and Schoonen (1989) attest to the significance of the acquirement lexical knowledge and communication in a foreign language They even claim that lexical knowledge

is one of the most important factors in academic success as cited by ShalabyYahya and Komi (2009)

El-2.2.3.2 Types of lexical mistakes and relevant research

Duskova (1969) pointed out four types of lexical errors in her writing of 50 Czech postgraduate students: the disorientation of words with formal similarity, similar meaning, misuse of words made by one or some correspondents between Czech and English, and distortions among lexical nonce mistakes (for example, throw, solve )

However, James (1998) divided lexical errors into two main categories: formal error including formal misselection, misformations and distortions, and semantic error with the confusion of sense relations and collocation errors

In the research about speech errors in English as foreign language, Mirjana M Kovač (2011) identified three subcategories of lexical errors a) idioms, collocations, functional and content words, errors of derivational morphology (1); b) unintentional use of L1 lexemes (2); c) non-existent words (3)

(1) And then they hear some beautifully singing and er, er, knew it was Johnny‟s mother

(2) Johnny Bravo went to the šum-sorry, to the wood

(3) er, so, Johnny Bravo, his mother was making him a sweater of /pineko/

2.3.1.1 Mother tongue interference

In the operation of syntax, grammar, lexis and pronunciation, it all has mother tongue interference Wilkins (1972), observes:

“When learning a foreign language an individual already knows his mother tongue, and it is this which he attempts to transfer The transfer may prove to be justified because the structure of the two languages is similar-in that case we get 'positive transfer' or 'facilitation'- or may prove unjustified because the structure of the two languages are different- in that case we get 'negative transfer'- or 'interference'.”

[1972: 199]

2.3.1.2 Loan Words

BM newspapers in the country are aimlessly using English words into the vocabulary of the national language Due to the spelling follows the pronunciation, learners would find it uncomplicated to remember the spelling of the loan words rather than the spelling of the original English words from which the former are derived

2.3.1.3 Inherent difficulties of the Target language

English is a rich and convoluted language, under the circumstances, concrete features of which are inherently difficult for the learner To mention just a few, in grammar as an example we have "preached" and "reached" as the simple past tense form of "preach" and

"reach" respectively But we can't say that "teached" although the word "teach" rhymes with

"preach" and "reach" and is orthographically very close

2.3.1.4 The model

The teacher may not be a good model of the language in connection with the way he speaks, writes or teaches the language So, some of the errors are absurdly teacher induced Teachers

of English who have no training in phonetics may pronounce English words according to their spelling, as in: Etiquette may be pronounced as / atɪˈkɛt// instead of ɛtɪˈkɛt/

With due respect to the subject teachers who are non-native speakers of English teaching subjects such as history, geography, science in schools and colleges where the medium of instruction is English has not been mentioned, some of them are also a source of errors, especially in spoken English

2.3.1.5 The materials

Materials which have teaching items sequenced in a certain way or which lack organization could lead to errors Norrish (1983) gave example of material-induced errors Although it is the simple present tense which is normally used to describe a sequence of events that take place at the present moment, some teaching materials use the present progressive aspect This consequence in the applicability of English which is neither normal nor natural

2.3.1.6 Inadequate Exposure to the target language

English learner who lives in a country where this language is taught as a foreign language evidently does not have adequate exposure to the target language The chances of improving 4 macro skills of English are limited This, insufficient exposure to the target language, is also a factor that could lead to errors in the fields of grammar, lexis, spelling and punctuation When

a student has a limited exposure to the language learnt, it is possible for him to make errors in all aspects of the language

2.3.1.7 Overgeneralization

Richards (1974) cited that overgeneralization as one of the contributory factors He explained thus; "Overgeneralization covers instances where the learner creates deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structures in the target language."(p.174) After hearing or reading the sentence such as he reached the house a 10:00 P.M, a student may produce he leaved the house at 6:00 A.M Overgeneralization is also applied in the pronunciation of certain words on the basis of what they already know, e.g A word like Arkansas

Beside some of these above factors which are the sources and causes of errors, the UKessays listed many others such as: Indeterminacy, Medium transfer, Communication strategies,

Avoidance, Appeal to authority, Approximation, Word coinage, Circumlocution, Language switch

2.3.2 Analyzing errors approaches

In the past few years, there has been a large and growing amount of literature on error analysis In a recent study conducted by Sarfraz (2011) to examine the errors made by 50 undergraduate Pakistani students in written essays, he found that the overwhelming majority

of errors the students made resulted from learners' interlanguage process and some errors resulted from mother tongue interference Darus and Subramaniam (2009), using Corder's (1967) model on error analysis, examined errors in a corpus of 72 essays written by 72 Malay students They found that students' errors were of six types, viz., in singular/plural form, verb tense, word choice, preposition, subjectverb agreement and word order In addition, Ridha (2012) examined English writing samples of 80 EFL college students and then categorized the errors according to the following taxonomy: grammatical, lexical/ semantic, mechanics, and word order types of errors The results showed that most of the students' errors can be due to L1 transfer Furthermore, she found that most of the learners rely on their mother tongue in expressing their ideas She added that although the rating processes showed that the participants' essays included different types of errors, the grammatical errors and the mechanical errors were the most serious and frequent ones As Shaffer (2008) mentioned, one

of the questions facing every ESL/EFL teacher is how to correct oral errors and how much to correct Researcher opinions vary widely on this: from no correction to extensive correction, from immediate to delayed correction, and from implicit to explicit correction Language learners also have their own opinions on how and whether they wish to have their oral errors corrected by their teacher in the classroom setting These opinions may be at odds with those

of the experts, leaving the classroom instructor with more questions about error correction than answers In his article, Moss (2000) supported this position and claimed that, when deciding how to respond to students' oral errors there are a number of questions we need to ask ourselves First of all, 'Should learners' errors be corrected?' In this regard, there are wide differences of opinion, but perhaps one of the most forceful reasons for carrying out correction is that many learners expect their errors to be corrected and can feel disappointed

or resentful if they are ignored The second reason is that, there is the danger that by leaving errors untreated, the defective language might serve as an input model and be acquired by other students in the class Thirdly, the provision of corrective feedback can speed up the process of language learning by providing information about rules and the limits of language

use, which would otherwise take students a long time to deduce on their own There are two major approaches to analyzing errors committed by a target language learner which are contrastive analysis (CA), and error analysis (EA) And Ellis (2005) claimed that "theoretical base of CA lies in behaviorist learning theory; while the EA is closely related with the emergence of interlanguage theory"

2.3.2.1 Contrastive Analysis (CA) approach

Contrastive analysis is an approach achieved from behaviorist learning theory Through contrastive analysis adopted linguists sought to use the formal differences between the learners' first and second languages to anticipate errors The basic theory behind CA was that

a constitutional depiction of any language could be built up which might then be used in direct identification with the structural picture of another language Through a process of 'mapping' one structure onto another, similar points and different things could be classified Analyzing the differences would make a clear comprehension of the problems that a learner

of the particular L2 would face (Corder, 1983)

Also, Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982) pointed out: “contrastive analysis (CA) took the position that a learner‟s first language „interferes‟ with his or her own acquisition of a second language, and it therefore comprises the major obstacle to successful mastery of the new language” (p.97)

CA emphasizes the impact of mother tongue in learning a second language in phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic levels It arrests that L2 would be influenced by L1

If we consider a language somehow as a set of habits and learning as the formation of new habits, a view emerged from behaviorism, under which language is fundamentally a system of habits Therefore, the challenge encountering the L2 learner is to conquer the interference of L1 habits Basing on the habit establishment, contrastive analysis explores the features of the L2 that contrasted from those of the L1 so that students could be helped to create the new habits of the L2 by practicing them intensively Most of mistakes which are made by L2 learners were the consequence of the differences between L1 and L2 structure (Martin 1996) Dulay and Burt (1973) studied the errors made by Spanish-speaking children learning English

as a second language and claimed that all of the students' mistakes had been conducted, 85% were "developmental" (non-interference), 12% were unique and only 3% were results of L1 interference

2.3.2.2 Error analysis (EA) approach

It is defined as the study of linguistics ignorance, the investigation of what people do not know and how they attempt to cope with their ignorance, by James (2001) Error analysis was first introduced by Fries (1945) and Lado (1957) who have claimed that foreign or second language learners' errors could be predicted on the basis of the differences between the learners‟ native and second languages They have also submitted that wherever the form of the second language are related to those of the students‟ native language, learning will be very simple; contrarily, it will be complicated and target language learners are expected to cause errors Error analysis was an alternative to contrastive analysis, an approach influenced by behaviorism through which applied linguists sought to use the formal distinctions between the learners' first and second languages to predict errors

Error analysis pointed out that contrastive analysis was incapable of predicting a great bulk of errors, although it's more valuable forms have been integrated into the study of language transfer A crucial finding of error analysis has been that many students‟ errors are made by learners making faulty inferences about the rules of the new language This is the examination

of those errors committed by learners in both the spoken and written medium Corder, who has contributed enormously to EA, writes this:

"The study of error is part of the investigation of the process of language learning In this respect it resembles methodologically the study of the acquisition of the mother tongue It provides us with a picture of the linguistic development of a learner and may give us indications as the learning process."

(Corder, 1974: 125)

Error analysts distinguish between errors, which are systematic, and mistakes, which are not Corder (1967) made use of Chomsky's the "competence versus performance" distinction by associating errors with failures in competence and mistakes with failures in performance

2.4 Influences of making mistakes to students to studying speaking

2.4.1 Positive influences

Mistakes are considered as an inseparable part in learning a language no matter how people try to avoid it

In Alina Tugend research (2011), she cited a writing of Carol Dweck (2006), a professor of psychology at Stanford University, she has conducted creative research in this range One of her experiments were to ask 400 children in New York City schools to take an easy short test,

on which almost all did well Half the 5th graders were complimented for "being really smart." The other half was praised "having worked really hard" Then they were requested to take a second test and given the choices of either choosing one that was quite simple and they would do great on, or one that was more challenging, but they might make mistakes Of those students complimented for attempt, 90 percent chose the harder test Of those learners extoled for being clever, the majority chose the simple test Dweck has conducted such experiments and researches in many districts school including low-income, high-income, the same and mixed- culture and races The theory of fixed mindsets and growth mindsets are the keystone

of Dweck's study Those with fixed mindsets, as Professor Dweck claims, believe people are efficient at something, either good at math or baseball or music, or they're not For learners with a fixed mindset, mistakes give no purpose but to stress failure Those with what Professor Dweck calls growth mindsets, who believe that some people are better or worse in certain areas but we can all improve and develop our skills and abilities, are much more likely

to be able to accept mistakes because they know they're part of learning And researches in a secondary school have claimed that when kids are taught about growth mindsets and that the brain is pliable and flexible, their motivation to learn dramatically increases

2.4.2 Negative influences

We, learners and native speakers, couldn‟t deny that making mistakes are the bad things that people never want to encounter The disadvantages of making mistakes all fall in how teachers deal with correction For entrance, if a student depends too much on always asking the teacher, they will never give efforts to do a particular thing on their own Also, most people do best when they do something for themselves at some points rather than just being

"told" or "shown", the best way without attempting on their own

The importance of teacher’s oral correction

Wilga Rivers (1983:53) states that:

"Nothing is more dampening of enthusiasm and effort than constant correction when students are trying to express their own ideas within the limitations of their newly acquired knowledge of the language."

Caleb Gattegno (in Blair, 1982), the developer of the Silent Way, had the following to say:

"(My students) are allowed to try their hand and to make mistakes in order to develop their own criteria of rightness, correctness, and adequacy Correction is seldom part

of the teacher's work.""To require perfection at once is the great imperfection of most teaching and most thinking about teaching."

Krashen and Terre (1983:177) commented: "Our view is that overt error correction of speech even in the best of circumstances is likely to have a negative effect on the students' willingness to try to express themselves."

Unfortunately a lot of teachers still find it very difficult to stay quiet when hearing an error in

a pupil's speech They feel some kind of compulsion that they have to support and to guide the pupil to produce of L2 perfection, which cannot be expected of any L2 speaker still acquiring the language Brumfit (1984:57) mentioned that it may even be perceived as being rude when the teacher butts in to correct an error and it definitely distracts from the message the speaker wants to communicate Most teachers will apparently agree that it is much uncomplicated to refrain from the correction of oral errors, than refraining from the correction of written errors

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH

3.1 Participants

Participants, those who take part in the research process, are an important factor which objectifies the study to make it more cogent and persuasive It is really necessary for the study

to have respondents‟ role which can overwhelmingly support its ideas and purposes and give

a big help in data collection process About the respondents of this research, 20 participants, who are third-year students majoring in English in Faculty of Foreign Languages at IUH, were chosen to participate in the study process

I decided to choose these students to collect data because of the two main reasons For the first reason, they are students who have been studying English for more than 10 years including 7 years of acquiring knowledge at high school and the three-year period of the language speaking training at university So, I firmly believe that they will reflect the data that

I need based on their English vivid foundation and they will have the chance of reviewing what they have learnt in some speaking subjects as well Another reason for this choice is that they have just completed 3 speaking subjects (speaking 1, 2 and 3) of their course at university, so they have experience in identifying their mistakes after making it which is one

of the purposes that the researcher wants to find out

Through the process of collecting the data for the paper, I really appreciate the enthusiasm and devotement of the participants When I came to their class to ask for the data collection, they absolutely accepted to be interviewed They gave me the great effort by answering the questions about their mistakes that they‟ve just made in the interview effectively Thanks to these twenty students, I could partly achieve my purposes of researching and collecting the data which is very meaningful in studying my thesis paper

3.2.1 Interviews

Interviews are the method which is often applied to compile the necessary data exploring the views, experiences, beliefs or motivations on specific matters from a small group of subjects

on a broad range of topics There are three main kinds of this method which are structured, semi-structures and unstructured interviews Structured interviews, like a questionnaire, includes the questions in the same order for each subject and with different choice responses Semi-structured interviewing which is perhaps the most popular type of interview used in qualitative social research In this kind of interviews, the information obtained from participants can be different though the question is constantly the same For unstructured interviews, depending on sorts of subjects the answers given on previous questions, the questions can be different and there is no permanent set of possible replies Interviews are, therefore, most applicable in case little is already known about the study aspects or where detailed insights are required from individual respondents They are also specifically appropriate for exploring sensitive issues, where respondents may not want to speak about that topic in an environmental group In this research, unstructured interview is used in order

to test student‟s speaking ability and to find out some common mistakes that they often struggle with

For such that reasons, I decided to apply this kind of method in my paper in order to make it more persuasive and diversified With three different topic including some distinctive questions related to students‟ previous speaking lesson, twenty-junior participants were asked

to be interviewed The first topic of the interview is about family asking students to express their thought about some questions related to the topic Talking about best friends and discussing about hobbies are another topic which are related to the lesson in student‟s course The content of the interview is all in the student‟s speaking lessons which help them easily give the oral answers I strongly want to find out some common mistakes that they often meet when giving a speaking answer Along with that, the researcher heartily wish to record their answer for analyzing the data of mistakes and their identification

3.2.2 Questionnaires

Questionnaires, which can be thought of as a kind of written interview, give the researcher a relatively economic and efficient way of collecting large amounts of information in large scale In this study, the researcher wants to apply this method to find out how students can identify their mistakes after being interviewed These questionnaires are designed to obtain the information of making mistakes including some common wrong things that students often encounter and how many percent of mistakes that respondents can recognize and identify The

questionnaires were applied to participants after they already had the interview in order to make the result of their mistakes‟ identification more explicit

In case of making the short and central questionnaires and putting less pressure on the students after taking the interview, there are just nine questions in this questionnaires In the first question, finding out some kinds of common mistakes related to the aspects of grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary is the main purpose of the researcher I want to let them revise what they„ve just said in the interview in order to make mistakes‟ recognition From question number 2 to 8, how mistakes influence students‟ motivation in study is focused to identify the role and impact of mistakes in the classroom

be recorded during the interview And then, I will start asking twenty students some questions

in their topics

After doing the interviews, students are asked for completing a questionnaire about some mistakes that they thought they‟ve made in the conversation This last step is guessed to take about 5 minutes per each student and all of them will try to show their pretty job in answering the researcher‟s concern Thanks to these twenty enthusiastic and devoted respondents, I think

I can finish taking the data collection process

Next stage of the analysis is writing the tape script for the interview in order to analyze speaking mistakes of the participants After that, I had to find out the similarities and the differences among the students‟ answers and then counted it and calculated it into percentages Along with that, counting the number of choices for each answer in each question from the questionnaire is also contributed in this stage Statistics should be counted carefully to make the data more reliable This step took much time from the researcher because the interview part is not easy to transfer into percent quickly due to the recording files

Third step of doing the data analysis is to convert these numbers into percentages It is easier and clearer for not only the researcher to analyze the information with the making mistakes‟ percentages but also the elocutionist to follow the ideas of this study

After that, choosing the suitable chart to describe the statistics was the next thing the researcher had to decide Many different kinds of chart such as pie chart, bar chart, column chart were applied with the help of excel tool in the computer to make the results of the study easier to understand

And last but not least, the researcher needed to analyze these information By looking at these charts and the knowledge from the literature review chapter, I started to discuss the results that I obtained The researcher focused on the outstanding points and the main changes between the statistic to analyze and to make it clearer

3.5 Research schedule

Contacting for permission by sending an

official letter to the Department of Foreign

Language‟s Dean of IUH

April 7 through April 8, 2017

Contacting Mrs Tu by email and telephone

Clarifying for third-year students‟ schedules April 9, 2017

Contacting to the lecturers for permission April 9, 2017

Reconfirming the permission and preparing

Data Collection: interview and questionnaire April 10 through April 13, 2017

Rereading and rehearing the notes recordings May 5 through May 6, 2017