Undergraduate thesis difficulties and common grammatical and mechanical errors in academic essay writing of english majored sophomores at an giang university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES UNDERGRADUATE THESIS DIFFICULTIES AND COMMON GRAMMATICAL AND MECHANICAL ERRORS IN ACADEMI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY

AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

DIFFICULTIES AND COMMON GRAMMATICAL

AND MECHANICAL ERRORS IN ACADEMIC ESSAY WRITING

OF ENGLISH-MAJORED SOPHOMORES

AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN HOANG HAI SON

AN GIANG, 6-2022

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY

AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

DIFFICULTIES AND COMMON GRAMMATICAL

AND MECHANICAL ERRORS IN ACADEMIC ESSAY WRITING

OF ENGLISH-MAJORED SOPHOMORES AT AN

GIANG UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN HOANG HAI SON

I.D No DTA187157

ADVISOR: M.A, HUYNH CHI XUAN HUYEN

AN GIANG, 6-2022

Thesis Title: DIFFICULTIES AND COMMON GRAMMATICAL AND MECHANICAL

ERRORS IN ACADEMIC ESSAY WRITING OF ENGLISH-MAJORED SOPHOMORES

AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY

By: NGUYEN HOANG HAI SON

Field of Study: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Advisor: M.A, HUYNH CHI XUAN HUYEN

Accepted by the Faculty of Foreign Languages, An Giang University on … June 2022

………

(Dr Tran Thi Thanh Hue) Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages Examination Committee

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to extend my deepest thanks to individuals and institutions for all the support they have given me and my undergraduate thesis

First and foremost, I would like to express my genuine appreciation to

my respectful supervisor as well as mentor – Ms Huynh Chi Xuan Huyen Throughout the time at An Giang University, it was my luck as well as pleasure

to have a chance to be instructed by Ms Huynh Chi Xuan Huyen in many courses Her professional manner in teaching has led me to wonderful achievements in academic records With this thesis, not only did she inspire me

to register for it in the first place but also share her valuable insight into Research Methodology to me During the time of conducting this thesis, she – despite being occupied by her hectic working schedule – was giving me her endless support whenever I was in need Her direct supervision has made an invaluable contribution to the development and completion of my undergraduate thesis

Secondly, I would like to give a special thank to Ms Nguyen Thi Anh Guong, Mr Nguyen Duc Hanh, Ms Ly Thi Minh Trang, Ms Nguyen Thi Anh Nguyet, Ms Truong Nhu Ngoc, and my beloved supervisor Ms Huynh Chi Xuan Huyen for their important assistance in helping me gather data for the thesis They were so kind to give me access to valuable sources of data from the courses and classes under their supervision Moreover, they also showed me their passionate enthusiasm of a teacher in encouraging English-majored sophomores

to help me fill in the questionnaire Without their help, my undergraduate thesis will not go this far

Thirdly, I want to send my best regards to Mr Le Do Thai who was in charge of the course on Research Methodology He had imparted me with inspiring lessons from the course as well as instructed me on using SPSS for data analysis Moreover, I also want to express my gratitude to Mr Nguyen Tien Ngo who is my admiring teacher for offering me materials for referential purposes

Lastly, I would like to thank all the participants who took part in this study Your cooperation is an indispensable part of the completion of this thesis

DECLARATION



I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “Difficulties and Common Grammatical and Mechanical Errors in Academic Essay Writing of English-Majored Sophomores at An Giang University” represents my own work and that has not been previously submitted to any other university or institute in application for admission

to degrees or other qualifications

_

June 2022

Nguyen Hoang Hai Son

ABSTRACT

English is gradually becoming an indispensable language in the modern world Out of the four skills in English, writing is the most difficult one Especially, the difficulty of writing mostly lies in academic writing Hence, this study is carried out with an aim to help students come to be aware of the difficulties, and grammatical and mechanical errors in academic writing, especially essay writing Moreover, this study also aims at providing teachers with useful information about the status quo of students, especially sophomores in writing essays so that they can make good use of such information in their teaching

This quantitative study uses the questionnaires and error analysis of writing samples to figure out the difficulties, and common grammatical and mechanical errors in writing essays of students with the participation of 156 English-majored sophomores at An Giang University and a collection of 20 essays from those students

After surveying students’ perception on five categories of difficulties using a questionnaire, the findings reveal that all the difficulties listed in the questionnaire are encountered by students The most common difficulty among those is time restriction The linguistic category is the most common category of difficulties in which three most recognized difficulties are vocabulary restriction, mother tongue’s influence, and limited paraphrasing ability The commonly committed types of grammatical errors from students are singularity/plurality, verb forms/tenses, sentence structures, prepositions, articles, word classes, and conjunctions Three types of mechanical errors often made by students can be listed as punctuations, spelling and capitalization

The study also reflects its shortcomings and makes recommendations for changes and further studies

Keywords: difficulties, grammatical errors, mechanical errors, academic

writing, essay writing

CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

DECLARATION iii

ABSTRACT iv

CONTENTS vi

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem 2

1.3 Research aims and research questions 4

1.4 Significance of the study 4

1.5 Structure of the thesis 5

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Academic writing 6

2.2 Academic essay types 8

2.2.1 Exposition 8

2.2.2 Argumentation 8

2.2.3 Description 9

2.2.4 Narration 9

2.3 Criteria for essay writing evaluation 9

2.4 Difficulties in essay writing 11

2.4.1 Linguistic problems 12

2.4.2 Cognitive problems 13

2.4.3 Psychological problems 13

2.5 Errors 14

2.5.1 Errors classification 14

2.5.1.1 Linguistic category taxonomy 14

2.5.1.2 Surface strategy taxonomy 15

2.5.1.2.1 Omission 15

2.5.1.2.2 Addition 16

2.5.1.2.2.1 Double marking 16

2.5.1.2.2.2 Regularization 16

2.5.1.2.2.3 Simple addition 17

2.5.1.2.3 Misformation 17

2.5.1.2.3.1 Regularization errors 17

2.5.1.2.3.2 Archi-forms 18

2.5.1.2.3.3 Alternating forms 18

2.5.1.2.4 Misorder 18

2.5.1.3 The comparative taxonomy 18

2.5.1.4 Communicative effect taxonomy 18

2.5.2 Source of errors 19

2.5.2.1 Interlingual interference 19

2.5.2.2 Intralingual interference 20

2.5.2.2.1 Overgeneralization 20

2.5.2.2.2 Ignorance of rule restrictions 21

2.5.2.2.3 Incomplete application of rules 21

2.5.2.2.4 False concepts hypothesized 22

2.5.3 Grammatical errors 22

2.5.4 Mechanical errors 26

2.5.4.1 Capitalization 26

2.5.4.2 Punctuation 26

2.5.4.3 Spelling 26

2.6 Related studies 27

2.6.1 Difficulties in essay writing 27

2.6.2 Common grammatical s and mechanical errors in essay writing 29

2.7 Summary 30

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 31

3.1 Research design 31

3.2 Research participants 31

3.3 Research instruments 33

3.3.1 Questionnaire 33

3.3.2 Analyzing sophomores’ essay samples 34

3.4 Data collection procedures 34

3.5 Data analysis 35

3.6 Validity and reliability 35

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 37

4.1 Findings about the difficulties in essay writing 37

4.1.1 Linguistic difficulties 38

4.1.2 Psychological difficulties 42

4.1.3 Pedagogical difficulties 44

4.1.4 Cognitive difficulties 46

4.1.5 Other difficulties 50

4.1.6 Overall perception of the participants 52

4.2 Discussions of the difficulties in essay writing 61

4.3 Findings about common grammatical and mechanical errors in essay writing 65

4.3.1 Grammatical errors 65

4.3.1.1 Article errors 65

4.3.1.2 Singularity/ Plurality errors 67

4.3.1.3 Word class errors 69

4.3.1.4 Preposition errors 71

4.3.1.5 Verb errors 72

4.3.1.6 Sentence structure errors 75

4.3.1.7 Conjunction errors 78

4.3.2 Mechanical errors 80

4.3.2.1 Spelling errors 80

4.3.2.2 Punctuation errors 81

4.3.2.3 Capitalization errors 85

4.4 Discussion of errors in essay writing 86

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS 92

5.1 Summary of the results 92

5.2 Implications 92

5.3 Limitations 94

5.4 Recommendations for further research 95

5.5 Conclusions 95

REFERENCES 97

APPENDICES 101

APPENDIX A: WRITING RUBRICS 101

APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRE 107

APPENDIX C: BẢNG KHẢO SÁT 113

APPENDIX D: WRITING SAMPLES 119

APPENDIX E: PLAGIARISM CHECK BY TURNITIN 132

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 1 A sample linguistic category taxonomy 14

Table 2 Example of regularization errors 17

Table 3 Simple addition errors 17

Table 4 Classes of the participants 32

Table 5 Genders of the participants 32

Table 6 Academic backgrounds of the participants 33

Table 7 Reliability statistics of the questionnaires for students 37

Table 8 Reliability statistics of the questionnaires for students 38

Table 9 One-sample statistics of the linguistic difficulties 38

Table 10 One-sample test of the linguistic difficulties 39

Table 11 Descriptive statistics of items in the linguistic difficulties 39

Table 12 One-sample statistics of the psychological difficulties 42

Table 13 One-sample test of the psychological difficulties 42

Table 14 Descriptive statistic of items in the psychological difficulties 43

Table 15 One-sample statistics of the pedagogical difficulties 44

Table 16 One-sample test of the pedagogical difficulties 44

Table 17 Descriptive statistics of items in the pedagogical difficulties 45

Table 18 One-sample statistics of the cognitive difficulties 46

Table 19 One-sample test of the cognitive difficulties 47

Table 20 Descriptive statistics of the cognitive difficulties 47

Table 21 One-sample statistics of the other difficulties 50

Table 22 One-sample test of the other difficulties 51

Table 23 Descriptive statistics of the other difficulties 51

Table 24 One-sample statistics of the students’ overall perception 53

Table 25 One-sample test of the students’ overall perception 53

Table 26 Descriptive statistics of the overall mean of 5 categories of difficulties 54

Table 27 Descriptive statistics of all items in the questionnaire in descending order 54

Table 28 Group statistics of the difference in the overall perception between DH21AV and DH21TA 58

Table 29 Independent samples test of the difference in the overall perception between DH21AV and DH21TA 58

Table 30 Group statistics of the difference in the overall perception between male and

female 59

Table 31 Independent samples test of the difference in the overall perception between male and female 59

Table 32 Descriptive statistics of the difference in the overall perception between students with different academic backgrounds 60

Table 33 Article errors 65

Table 34 Singularity/ Plurality errors 67

Table 35 Word class errors 69

Table 36 Preposition errors 71

Table 37 Verb errors 73

Table 38 Sentence structure errors 75

Table 39 Conjunction errors 78

Table 40 Spelling errors 80

Table 41 Punctuation errors 81

Table 42 Capitalization errors 85

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1 Is writing essays necessary? 2

Figure 2 What do you think about writing essays? 3

Figure 3 What do you think about Grammar in writing essays? 3

Figure 4 What do you think about Mechanics in writing essays? 4

Figure 5 Linguistic Difficulties 41

Figure 6 Psychological Difficulties 43

Figure 7 Pedagogical Difficulties 45

Figure 8 Cognitive Difficulties 49

Figure 9 Other Difficulties 52

Figure 10 Overall perception of students with different academic backgrounds 61

Figure 11 Grammatical Errors 79

Figure 12 Mechanical Errors 86

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AGU: An Giang University

FFL: Foreign Language Faculty

L2: Second Language

L1: First Language

IELTS: International English Language Testing System

ELT: English Language Teaching

TOEFL iBT: Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language

TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication

CAE: Certificate in Advanced English

CPE: Certificate of Proficiency in English

GRE: Graduate Record Examination

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

EFL: English as Foreign Language

ESL: English as Second Language

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

The introduction of the thesis contains the research rationale, the statement

of the problem, the research aims and questions, the significance of the research, and the thesis outline

1.1 Rationale of the study

In the globalization era, writing has been increasingly popular as a means of communication in various forms such as emails, letters, contracts, and other important documents In education, it is more obvious to realize how important writing, or specifically academic writing, is For example, writing, such as essays and reports, is a popular assessment form in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) curriculum, according to Paltridge (2004)

Despite the importance of academic writing, it is not an easy task, as Arndt (1991) claims Bracewell (1980) also explains that “writing is the most complex and demanding of all cognitive activities undertaken by human beings” According to Nunan (1989), “writing is an extremely difficult cognitive activity which requires the learner to have control over various factors” That is the reason why writing can be the most difficult skill L2 learners have to deal with In fact, difficulties in writing are usually found in academic writing which requires formal styles and a variety of topics and as a result, writers need a wide-ranging knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, different topics and certain writing techniques It is agreed that academic writing is a difficult skill to be achieved especially in second language acquisition Besides, it is even more challenging at the university level Students at the university level seem weaker in their writing skills, according to Alharbi (2019) In the field of EFL and ESL, most research reports that learners of English at the university level face adversities in writing skill (Bacha, 2012; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; Khalil, 2002; Kharma & Hajjaj, 1997; Tahaineh, 2010), as cited in Alharbi (2019)

Moreover, in the writing process, it sounds impossible to separate writing in a foreign language from making errors People cannot learn languages without making errors (Dulay & Burt, 1982 as cited in Nguyen, 2020) Many studies suggest that the most common errors that students make often involve grammar and mechanics (Fatima, 2015; Frodesen, 2009; Al-Khairy,2013; Alfaki, 2015; Ridha, 2012; Jordan, 1997; Yuliah, Widiastuti & Meida, 2019), cited Nguyen (2020)

It can be easily seen that digging into the difficulties and errors in essay writing has long been an area that attracts many researchers to conduct their studies Not only did these studies yield satisfying results but also reveal many aspects of this research area Despite this, few similar studies are carried out in Vietnam in general and at An Giang University (AGU) in particular Therefore, this study would be a valuable contribution to the body of this research area

1.2 Statement of the problem

At AGU, it is not until the second year that English majors are introduced to writing essays, and essay writing skills will be accompanied them for several semesters Because of this, students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) spend their significant time on writing essays

According to English-majored sophomores’ overall perception, as can be seen in Figure 1, 125 (80.1%) second-year students who participated in the survey agreed that writing essays is very necessary

Figure 1 Is writing essays necessary?

Moreover, a considerable number of students, accounting for 80.7%, expressed that they felt difficult to write essays It is also noticeable that no student perceived writing essays as easy or very easy (Figure 2)

16 0

15

66 59

Strongly disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

Is writing essays necessary?

Figure 2 What do you think about writing essays?

When English-majored sophomores were inquired about their perception of grammar in writing essays, there were up to 136 (87.1%) participants who thought grammar is difficult or very difficult Figure 3 shows that grammar is considered as a difficult aspect in essay writing by most students

Figure 3 What do you think about Grammar in writing essays?

In terms of mechanics, 83 (53.2%) students, which are more than half of the number of participants, expressed their perception on the difficult use of mechanics

in essay writing (Figure 4)

0 0

30

74 52

Very Easy Easy Neutral Difficult Very difficult

What do you think about writing essays?

1 2 17

79 57

Very Easy Easy Neutral Difficult Very difficult

What do you think about Grammar in

writing essays?

Figure 4 What do you think about Mechanics in writing essays?

Therefore, all in all, it is utterly imperative for a study at AGU to be conducted in order to discover students’ difficulties, and common grammatical and mechanical errors in writing essays to provide both teachers and students with useful information for better improvement in teaching and learning essay writing

1.3 Research aims and research questions

This study aims to find out problems of AGU second-year English-majored students in writing essays and the primary focus is to generate the answers to the two questions below:

• What are common difficulties in writing essays English-majored sophomores

at AGU encounter?

• What are the most common grammatical and mechanical errors that majored sophomores at AGU make in essay writing?

English-1.4 Significance of the study

Writing essays is an indispensable part of the curriculum of English majors Since this study searches for difficulties in writing essays, the results of this study could help students to have a better understanding of their own problems in writing

to devise strategies for themselves to tackle the problems Furthermore, teachers could also come to know what difficulties students encounter to support them to overcome their difficulties Second, this study also pinpoints common grammatical and mechanical errors in writing essays to trace the errors’ roots This could be the

3

18

52 58 25

Very Easy Easy Neutral Difficult Very difficult

What do you think about Mechanics in

writing essays?

foundation for teachers to equip their students with deeper knowledge about their errors In the case of students, having a better awareness of the mistakes that they have made is the basis for them to improve their subsequent writing Third, this study hopes to help students realize the importance of academic writing not only in their current academic performance but also in their future career promotion so that they have a more positive and independent attitude toward studying writing essays Lastly, this study also aims at making a small contribution to the development of this research area Hopefully, it would be a useful resource for referential purposes in the future

1.5 Structure of the thesis

The study is organized into five main chapters

Chapter 1 – Introduction provides the information about the rationale of the

study, the statement of the problem, the research aims and questions, the significance

of the study, and the organization of the study

Chapter 2 – Literature Review focuses on the theoretical background of the

study and related studies of the thesis matters

Chapter 3 – Research Methodology describes how the data and information

are collected and analyzed

Chapter 4 – Findings and Discussions presents the results of the data

collected by analyzing the statistics in the graphs and tables Then the findings are discussed

Chapter 5 – Conclusions will summarize the study results, point out

limitations of the thesis, and make recommendations for further research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter introduces the theoretical background of the study There are 7 main sections in this chapter Section 2.1 reviews the definitions of academic writing Next, four types of academic essay writing are presented in section 2.2 consisting of exposition, argumentation, description, and narration Section 2.3 shows the criteria for essay evaluation Section 2.5 gives information about difficulties in writing, including linguistic, psychological, and cognitive difficulties Section 2.5 discusses errors in writing essays comprising error classification, error sources, grammatical errors, and mechanical errors Section 2.6 gives an overview of related studies Finally, chapter 2 is ended with section 2.7, a summary of the literature review

2.1 Academic writing

According to Oshima and Hogue (2007), the type of writing used in an academic context is considered academic writing Academic writing, compared with personal writing and creative writing, is widely different Informality is the characteristic of creative writing and personal writing, so it is acceptable for the use

of incomplete sentences, contractions and even slang In contrast, academic writing

is formal Therefore, the use of slang and contractions is not advisable Also, writing complete sentences and organizing them in a certain way are required in this kind of writing

Academic writing, according to Hogue (1996), is the type of writing done in college classes The goal of academic writing is to explain or provide knowledge about a subject The writers' professors and classmates are the intended audiences Certain abilities are required for academic writing such as the ability to deal with sentence structure (how to organize words in a sentence), the organization of the written work (how to arrange ideas in a paragraph or an essay; and using correct grammar and punctuation are among these abilities

Svyrydova and Ameridze (2016) define academic writing as any writing done

to meet the criteria of a college or university while adhering to academic standards (particular grammatical patterns, organization, and argument) and aimed at academic audiences It signifies that a student's texts are created for educational objectives and

to improve their written communication abilities

Abu-Gharara and Hamzah (1998, as cited in Al Badi, 2015) describe academic writing as "the logical organization and arrangement of the written sentences within a paragraph and paragraphs within the units of discourse… and the expression of the ideas”

It can be defined that academic writing is the construction and development

of university-taught techniques such as organizing and generating ideas, critical thinking, and enriching vocabulary and grammar Moreover, students who take English writing courses should be exposed to features which offer strong vocabulary, good sentence structures, and the organization of paragraphs based on punctuation marks and conjunctions, claims Abdulkareem (2013)

Other basic writing conventions comprise drafting an outline, summarizing, and paraphrasing, without which students may encounter difficulties when completing their assignments (Al-Khasawneh & Maher, 2010, as cited in Al Badi, 2015) According to Amin and Alamin (2012), other basic factors in academic writing are forming, developing, and organizing ideas Furthermore, it is advised that learners carefully analyze the way to develop a thesis statement, compose persuasive supporting sentences, and lastly revise them in order to produce a piece of writing that is free of errors, says Al Samdani (2010) Finally, academic writing learners need to familiarize themselves with punctuation marks such as the period, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, and capitalization (Al Fadda, 2012)

Academic writing is supposed to be exact, semi-formal, impersonal, and objective The goal of academic writing is to deliver knowledge at its most clearly and accurately This distinguishes academic writing from ordinary speech and writing, which are more personal for the use of lively idioms and phrases For example, it is acceptable for a sentence like, “A lot of people think that the weather is getting worse”, in Standard English, but such a sentence is rejected by the conventions of academic writing Therefore, the academic writing style can be “It is widely believed that the climate is deteriorating”, says Tribble (1996)

In short, it can be drawn that academic writing is a form of writing used in educational settings such as high schools, colleges, and universities It involves producing long sentences with no errors, supporting critical ideas with clear evidence, using complex lexical resources, structuring well-organized paragraphs,

and ensuring the connection of sentences within the writing All elements in the piece of writing are expected to abide by academic standards such as mechanics of writing, formal language tone, and intelligibility

2.2 Academic essay types

When it comes to sorts of essays, the following models can be found in most written test tasks: exposition, argumentation, description, and narration, as in the study of Huy (2015)

2.2.1 Exposition

Gee (1970) states that expository writing is a type of writing that is used to explain something There may be argumentation, narration, and description within the body of the composition, but the overall objective of the composition will be explanation

An expository essay, according to Akinborewa and Olagbaju (2010), is a type

of writing that is intended to inform, enlighten, and educate the audience Students must communicate their thoughts, opinions, and facts to the readers via expository writing

2.2.2 Argumentation

As cited in Ferretti, Lewis and Andrews-Weckerly (2009), “argumentative writing is a problem-solving procedure that incorporates the use of goal-directed and self-regulatory processes to handle the task’s prompt” (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987; Hayes, 1996; Hayes & Flower, 1980) When confronted with the vague aim of persuasion, writers must draw on their understanding of argumentative discourse (McCann, 1989; Sprott, 1992) to construct subgoals that allow them to write convincingly (Ferretti, MacArthur, & Dowdy, 2000)

Rahmatunisa (2014) cites that, according to Daly (1997), an argumentative essay is based on a specific statement (or major premise) that is controversial within the subject of study Furthermore, because an argumentative essay is a response to a text, its conclusion may recall the initial notion to which individuals are responding, reminding the reader exactly what they agree or disagree on, according to Bazerman (1985) The content of an argumentative essay also has to be reasonable Writers should have control over their bias when they attempt not to be judgmental

2.2.3 Description

Descriptive text is a type of written text that serves a social purpose by describing a set of characteristics of a specific person, location, item, or phenomena (Wigati, 2014)

According to Mahardika, Sudipa, and Artawa (2021), a descriptive essay is a piece of writing that vividly portrays an event or an object so that the reader can feel

or see what is described

McCarthy (1998) defines descriptive writing as a kind of writing that generates images by using exact words and phrases that trigger the feeling of senses,

as well as devices like metaphor and onomatopoeic words

2.2.4 Narration

Narrative essays report information based on the author's own understanding about a story or events This rather essay has an aspect of telling a story Although this essay is a kind of storytelling, it is obligatory for students to use an appropriate tense for narrative essays to support their own essays, according to Heryanti, Sucipto, and Makmur (2018)

Bruner (1991) interprets narrative writing as an organization of a writer’s reminiscence or life experience which might be factual or fictional, cite Selvaraj, Aziz, Mariam, & Pahat (2020)

2.3 Criteria for essay writing evaluation

L2 writing involves not only using acceptable grammar and vocabulary to compose a text but also the content, organization, and accurate use of language, as well as the proper use of linguistic and textual elements of the language (Chenoweth and Hayes, 2001; Cumming, 2001; Holmes, 2006; Hughes, 2003; Sasaki, 2000; Weissberg, 2000; Wiseman, 2012, as cited in Shabani & Panahi, 2020) Essay, one of the official forms of writing, has become a prominent part of formal education in many countries An essay is employed by several universities and institutes as a means to choose qualified applicants, and the applicants' proficiency and literacy of L2 writing are assessed by their essay writing performance As one of the most formal styles of writing, the essay creates an environment in which thorough explanations and arguments on a certain topic are presented (Kane, 2000; Muncie,

2002; Richards and Schmidt, 2002; Spurr, 2005) An introduction, a body, and a conclusion should all be included in the essay A standard essay comprises four paragraphs; five is preferable, and six is excessive (Biber et al., 2004; Cumming et al., 2000)

According to Huot (1990), writing assessment is challenging because most essays are assessed by more than two or three raters, which might contribute to confusion in writing assessment Subjectivity and bias are common in L2 writing assessment, and "the assessment of writing has always been threatened due to raters' biasedness" (Fahim & Bijani, 2011) Numerous studies show that raters' evaluations and judgments are skewed (Kondo-Brown, 2002; Schaefer, 2008) They also advise that consistent and well-described evaluation measures, such as rubrics, to be developed to decrease bias and subjectivity in assessing L2 writing (Brown and Jaquith, 2007; Diederich et al., 1961; Hamp-Lyons, 2007; Jonsson & Svingby, 2007; Aryadoust & Riazi, 2016) Furthermore, several studies imply that many raters in writing assessment are vulnerable to subjectivity (Eckes, 2005; Lumley, 2005; O'Neil and Lunz, 1996; Saeidi et al., 2013; Schaefer, 2008) In light of these considerations,

it becomes increasingly important to improve consistency among raters' assessments

of writing skills, as well as the reliability and validity of their judgments, in order to prevent prejudice and subjectivity and achieve higher agreement between raters and ratings There should be some set and uniform standards for analyzing different types

of writing tasks to reduce the possibility of subjectivity and personal bias in assessing one's writing (Condonm 2013; Coombe et al., 2012; Shermis, 2014; Weigle, 2013) Using rubrics is the most noticeable step toward achieving this goal (Cumming 2001; Hamp-Lyons, 1990; Hyland, 2004; Raimes, 1991; Weigle, 2002) Rubrics ensure that all raters evaluate a writing work using the same criteria (Biggs and Tang, 2007; Dunsmuir and Clifford, 2003; and Spurr, 2005) These studies are cited in Shabani and Panahi (2020)

Some recent studies have looked into the value of rubrics in L2 writing assessment They frequently regard rubrics as important instruments for assessing L2 writers' abilities, and they claim that rubrics improve the reliability and validity of writing assessments More crucially, they contend that using rubrics can improve consistency amongst raters

Rubrics are lists of criteria for students' work that include descriptions of different degrees of performance quality for each one (Brookhart & Chen, 2014) Rubrics are created to assist scorers in evaluating writers' work by providing them with detailed descriptions about organization and coherence, structure and vocabulary, fluent expressions, ideas and opinions, and other factors They also come

in good use for making clear of one's ability to produce a paragraph with logical sequencing of ideas, sufficient and suitable grammar, and language relevant to the topic (Kim, 2011; Pollitt & Hutchinson, 1987; Weigle, 2002) Using rubrics shortens the time it takes to evaluate a writer's work and, more crucially, well-defined rubrics specify criteria in specific terms, allowing scorers and raters to evaluate a piece of writing using consistent criteria (Gustilo & Magno, 2015; Kellogg et al., 2016; Klein

& Boscolo, 2016)

Many similarities exist among the essay grading rubrics of internationally recognized exams, including organization and coherence, task achievement, range of vocabulary used, grammatical accuracy, and types of errors However, the phrasing employed in different rubrics is frequently different, for example, the IELTS criterion “task achievement” is represented in CPE and CAE as the “realization of tasks”, “content coverage” in GRE, and “task accomplishment” in TOEFL iBT Similarly, it might be claimed that there may be a difference in the rubrics' points of concentration for different tests For example, punctuation, spelling, and target reader satisfaction are specifically stressed in CAE and CPE, but not in GRE or TOEFL iBT Meanwhile, idiomaticity and exemplifications are specified in the TOEFL iBT rubrics, and GRE rating scales emphasize employing adequate supporting ideas to handle the topic and task (Brindley, 1998; Hamp-Lyons and Kroll, 1997; White, 1984)

Information about the detailed description of international English tests’ rubrics such as IELTS, TOEIC, and CAE is displayed in Appendix A

2.4 Difficulties in essay writing

Byrne (1988, as cited in Rahmatunisa, 2014) characterizes writing difficulties

as psychological, linguistic, or cognitive

Muhammed et al (2016, as cited in Nasser, 2018) show that at various phases

of their education, student writers may confront a variety of writing issues and

problems These challenges can be linguistic, psychological, cognitive, or pedagogical

Rahmatunisa (2014) investigated EFL learners’ essay areas of difficulties The study discovered that the learners battled with grammatical forms, paragraph structure, and attitude concerns, in other words, linguistic, cognitive, and psychological challenges

2.4.1 Linguistic problems

According to Byrne (1995), the linguistic problem in writing is that we must make up for “the absence of features”, keep the channel of communication open through our own attempts, and guarantee that the text we generate can be understood

on its own through the sentence structures we use and the way our sentences are connected together, cites Rahmatunisa (2014)

Rahmatunisa (2014) claims that tenses, word formation, word classes, articles are linguistic problems that arise while organizing sentences These issues often develop when the L2 writer passes his / her concept to the L1 written work

Alfaki (2015) discusses some of the linguistic difficulties that EFL students have when writing are grammatical problems, mechanical problems, sentence structures, and diction problems He also suggested that learners of the English language should expand their reading habits, practice free writing, take notes, and remain controlled to overcome these difficulties

Al Fada (2012, as cited in Nasser, 2018) confirms transformation is a common writing challenge for EFL students Students assume that once they can compose sentences and paragraphs in their first language (L1), they will be able to transfer those sentences into the target language Writing is a challenging ability to learn because of "cultural disparities in the way academic register is viewed and understood in different countries" (Klimova, 2014)

Mohamed and Zouaoui (2014) cite Hadifield (1992) that learners face linguistic difficulties because the language used in speaking is not the same as the language used in writing It can be as simple as a shopping list in some circumstances, and as elaborate and formal as an academic paper in others The problem is exacerbated for EFL learners who are ignorant of the discourse patterns inherent in specific genres of writing

2.4.2 Cognitive problems

The cognitive problem in writing identified by Byrne (1995, as cited in Rahmatunisa, 2014) is that writing is taught through a process of instruction It implies that we must master the written form of the language as well as specific patterns necessary for effective written communication

Bian and Wang (2016) contend that undergraduate students encountered process-oriented obstacles during the academic writing process, such as creating ideas, outlining, paraphrasing, and summarizing To address these issues, both the supervisors and the students proposed that teacher-student communication be enhanced

Rahmatunisa (2014) concludes that cognitive problems are associated with paragraph organization, difficulty in remaining word classes, becoming lost in the general structure, drawing conclusions, and adding punctuation

2.4.3 Psychological problems

As cited in Rahmatunisa (2014), according to Byrne (1995), psychological problems in writing stem from the fact that writing is basically a solitary activity The fact that learners are compelled to write by themselves, unable to interact or get feedback and support from anyone makes the act of writing difficult to them

Rahmatunisa says that EFL students confront psychological problems in writing such as egoism, laziness, bad mood, and difficulty starting to write

As cited in Dwihandini, Marhaeni, and Suarnajaya (2013), Brown (2007) argues that students' psychological factors can be discovered through their affective factors Brown says that the affective factors, which become psychological factors, are as follows: (1) Anxiety; (2) Attribution Theory and Self-Efficacy; (3) Empathy; (4) Self-Esteem; (5) Risk Taking; (6) Inhibition; (7); Willingness to Communicate (8) Extroversion; and (9) Motivation

According to Horwitz et al (1986), students' writing weaknesses are related

to their anxiety in communication apprehension, writing test anxiety, and fear of making a mistake To date, results indicate that foreign language anxiety can be measured reliably and validly, and that it plays an essential role in language learning

It is also hoped that students suffering anxiety would be identified so that appropriate classroom and individual interventions can be provided from debilitating

2.5 Errors

2.5.1 Errors classification

Language errors are classified into four taxonomies by Dulay et al (1982, as cited in Ma’mun, 2016)

The categories are as follows:

(1) the linguistics category taxonomy,

(2) the surface structure taxonomy,

(3) the comparative taxonomy, and

(4) the communicative effect taxonomy

2.5.1.1 Linguistic category taxonomy

The linguistic category taxonomies categorize errors on the basis of either the language component or the specific linguistic constituent that is affected by error Components of language include phonology, lexicon, syntax, morphology, semantics, and discourse

Constituents comprise the elements that make up each language component For instance, within syntax, one can wonder whether the error occurs in the superordinate or subordinate clause; and inside a clause, which constituent is impacted, such as the noun phrase, verb phrase, adjectives, adverb, preposition, auxiliary and so on

Table 1 A sample linguistic category taxonomy

No Linguistic Category and

Error Type

Example of Learner Error

• He was tall

• He got up more higher

• The man feet

• The bird help man

• He putted the cookie there

• He was tall

• He got up more higher

• Use of possessive and the article

• Omission of to be

• Omission of to in identical subject construction

• Repetition of the object

• Formation of no

or not without the auxiliary

2.5.1.2 Surface strategy taxonomy

Learners may omit necessary morphemes or words, add unnecessary ones, use the wrong forms or put the language items in an incorrect order As a result, Dulay et al classify the errors into four groups based on surface strategy taxonomy Four types of errors are addition, omission, misorder, and misformation

2.5.1.2.1 Omission

Omission errors are defined by the absence of a required item in a formed utterance Content words, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, carry the core of the referential meaning of a sentence On the contrary, function words such as prepositions, articles, auxiliaries play the role as grammatical units In reality, language learners tend to omit grammatical words much more frequently than content words

2.5.1.2.2.1 Double marking

Double marking occurs when the same items are marked twice as in the following sentence, when the past simple tense is marked in “did” and “went”

Incorrect: Where did you went on vacation last year?

Correct: Where did you go on vacation last year?

2.5.1.2.2.2 Regularization

Regularization errors occur when a marker that is normally added to a linguistic item is mistakenly applied to items belonging to irregular cases that do not accept a marker The following table illustrates this type of errors

Table 2 Example of regularization errors

2.5.1.2.2.3 Simple addition

Simple additions have no distinguishing characteristics other than the usage

of an item that should not occur in a well-formed utterance, which characterizes all addition mistakes

Table 3 Simple addition errors

Linguistic Item Added Examples of errors

Verb third person singular The men goes to the pub

2.5.1.2.3 Misformation

Misformation errors occur when the form of a morpheme/ word or structure

is incorrect, e.g The teacher speaked very loudly for all students to hear In this sentence, the verb “speaked” take the wrong form of the simple past tense The correct form should be “spoke”

Misformation errors are subcategorized into three types, namely regularization errors, alternating forms, and archi-forms The following is a more detailed explanation

2.5.1.2.3.1 Regularization errors

Regularization errors occur when a regular marker is substituted for an irregular one For example, “doed” is used instead of “did” or “mans” instead of

“men”

2.5.1.2.3.2 Archi-forms

Archi-forms are errors in which students choose a member of a class form to

represent others in that function's class The following sentence in which “this” is used in place of “these” is an example

Incorrect: I like this jeans

Correct: I like these jeans

2.5.1.2.3.3 Alternating forms

This type of error is resulted from the use of archi-forms that often facilitate the seemingly free alternation of various members of class with each other The following sentence is an example

In correct: The cup was broke by the baby

Correct: The cup was broken by the baby

2.5.1.3 The comparative taxonomy

The comparative taxonomy’s classification of errors is based on comparisons between the structure of L2 errors and certain other types of constructions As a result of these comparisons, the two key categories of error are considered as developmental and interlingual errors

2.5.1.4 Communicative effect taxonomy

The taxonomy of communicative effect focuses on differentiating between errors that appear to create miscommunication and errors that do not Such errors which influence the structure of the whole sentence and therefore make the communication unsuccessful are global errors Errors that only affect a single

sentence element and hence do not usually hinder communication are local errors For example,

Global errors: The thief caught the policeman (Correct: The thief was caught

as cited in Nguy, 2010) claims that the source of learner's errors can be attributed to the interference from the speaker's first language In tone with it, Richards (1974:174, as cited in Nguy, 2010) says that “the source of errors in studying a language might stem from the interference of the learners' mother tongue and the general characteristics of the learning rule.”

Generally, errors can be ascribed to many factors Some of learners' errors are due to learners' language competence, some due to cultural interference; some are results of learners' learning strategies, while others are the products of communicative strategies; some are classroom induced errors, while others are the results of individual variables, and so on As diverse as these perspectives are, there should be a point of convergence or a clear justification among them so that these causes are identified, and suitable correction is provided

In other words, L2 errors are originated from interlingual interference and intralingual interference

2.5.2.1 Interlingual interference

Interlingual interference is the interference of the learner's first language or mother tongue onto the process of learning a second language Mother tongue interference is one of the primary culprits that cause learners to commit errors Learning a language (whether a mother tongue or a foreign language) is a process of habit formation, according to Norrish (1987) When a person is trying to learn a new habit, the old ones will get in the way In other words, "first language interference” is the term that aptly describes this phenomenon Furthermore, being able to completely communicate oneself in another language is always a difficult undertaking As a

result, when a learner's second language is insufficient to communicate himself/herself, he/she is more likely to rely on his/her native language to do so Edge (1989:7) is in line with this thought: "when people do not know how to say something in a foreign language, one possibility is to use words and structures from their own language and try to make them fit into the foreign language." Furthermore, the interference of the mother tongue may be due to the complication of the target language's structure, as Abbott (1981: 230) argue that where the structures of the first and target languages differ, there would be problems in learning and difficulty in performance, and the greater the differences were, the greater the difficulties would

be

Undoubtedly, differences and similarities between Ll and L2 will affect the learning of the target language greatly The consideration of the contrast and comparison between the two languages will for sure contribute to the analysis of learner' errors The differences between Vietnamese and English are manifested in pronunciation, grammatical rules, and lexical meaning Word order is considered another factor of the interlingual interference as well

2.5.2.2 Intralingual interference

Interferences from the students' own language is not the only reason for committing errors During the process of analyzing the causes of errors, a large number of errors are found to be the result of intralingual interference within the target language As soon as the learner has begun to acquire some parts of the new language system, more and more intralingual interference will occur The errors from intralingual interference normally follow a natural route As the learner progresses in the second language, his/her previous experience and knowledge begin to permeate for producing new progress, at the same time arousing new errors Intralingual interference is the negative transfer of items within the target language such as the overgeneralization, the wrong application of rules, and results in false conceptualization on the part of learners (Richard, 1974) According to James (1998), intralingual errors can be divided into 4 categories

2.5.2.2.1 Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization is another likely cause of written errors to consider It occurs when a learner constructs a deviant structure based on the target language's

other structures In most cases, one deviant structure is created in place of two target language structures As a result, students automatically apply rules where they are not supposed to For example:

− He can speaks English well

− We are hope to see you

In the examples, the learners overgeneralize that the third-person singular requires the simple present tense “-s” ending while the form of English sentences is not exactly what they expect The correct sentences are as follows:

− He can speak English well

− We hope to see you

2.5.2.2.2 Ignorance of rule restrictions

This type of error occurs when a learner applies rules to situations where such rules should not be applied Here the learner fails to observe the restrictions of existing structures For example:

− The man gave to me the book

− Her mother told to her about the problem

In this case, “to” is used because learners apply the rule of using the preposition just as other verbs which need it Certainly, the use of “to” is not correct

for those verbs in the above sentences The correct versions of the preceding sentences are as follows:

− The man gave me the book

− Her mother told her about the problem

2.5.2.2.3 Incomplete application of rules

This type of intralingual error is the opposite of overgeneralization and represents the degree of rule development required to make acceptable sentences It

is usually associated with analogy For example, English learners may write a question which is in form of a statement This kind of intralingual error is similar to what is often known as an error of transitional competence (Richards, 1971, as cited

in Nguy, 2010)

2.5.2.2.4 False concepts hypothesized

False concepts hypothesized is the last type of intralingual error Learners’ misconception of distinctions of target language items results in false concepts hypothesized These particular errors are the result of poor gradation of teaching

items For instance, the form “was” may be made sense of as the signal of the past tense, as in “One day it was happened”

2.5.3 Grammatical errors

As cited in Yuliah, Widiastuti and Meida (2019), grammatical errors are a term used to describe the improper application of grammar rules, such as incorrect verb tenses (Nordquist, 2018) Furthermore, according to Novita (2014), grammatical errors happen when words are not properly combined As a result, any grammar rule that is not appropriately applied is labeled as a grammatical error Because grammar

is comprised of various components, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, determiners, particles, and conjunctions, grammatical errors can take many forms (Nordquist, 2018)

According to Li, Ren, and Zhao (2016), grammatical errors can be classified

as follow:

❖ Noun errors

The misunderstanding of singular and plural nouns is a common noun error

Ex: I hope to enlarge knowledges

The word “knowledge” is an uncountable noun and cannot formed with “-s” which indicates plurality

❖ Verb errors

English verbs are often use wrongly, which can be categorized in terms of verb forms and verb tenses The following sentences are incorrect due to verb errors

- She like orange juice

- Listen is not easy

- I will go home when I will finish my assignment

The first sentence has trouble with the verb “like” since its subject requires a third person singular verb “Listen” in the second sentence bears the role of a

subject Therefore, the correct form should be “listening” (gerund) instead of a bare-infinitive In the third sentence, “will finish” should not be used although the sentence refers to a future action because it occurs in the time clause (when-

clause)

The correct versions could be:

- She likes orange juice

- Listening is not easy

- I will go home when I finish my assignment

❖ Adjective errors

Errors found in adjectives are usually in the use of comparative and superlative forms

Example:

Incorrect: Football is interesting than badminton

Correct: Football is more interesting than badminton

❖ Article errors

Articles, including indefinite articles, “a”, “an”, definite article “the”, and

zero article, are the part of speech uniquely in English Although articles appear in all passages, they are problematic for language learners, particularly those whose language systems are negative to the existence of words functioning as articles Article errors can be lack of articles, redundant use of articles, and misuse in articles

• Lack of articles

Incorrect: London is expensive city

Correct: London is an expensive city

Nouns in English, especially countable nouns, when used in a singular form,

require an article before them Hence, the noun “city” must take the article “an”

• Redundant use of articles

Incorrect: Writing is the difficult

Correct: Writing is difficult

"Difficult" is an adjective and there is no noun following it Thus, the article

"the" is unnecessary

• Misuse in articles

Misuse in articles refers to the confusion of the distinctions between "a" and

"an." When the first letter of a word is a vowel phoneme, it is necessary that the modifying article be “an” However, if it begins with a consonant, the selection should be the article “a” There are also cases in which a definite article is used in place of an indefinite article and vice versus Take a look at the given examples

Incorrect:

- She ate a apple

- I met a girl A girl smiled at me

Correct:

- She ate an apple

- I met a girl The girl smiled at me

❖ Adverb errors

The use of adverbs is primarily to modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and other structures In the following sentence, the adverb is used inappropriately

Incorrect: He very likes pop music

Correct: He likes music very much

“Very” is an adverb which modifies an adjective or another adverb but not a

verb

❖ Preposition errors

Errors in prepositions are similar to article errors when there may be misuses

of preposition, redundant uses of prepositions and lack of prepositions

Examples:

- I go in school every day (misuse of preposition “in” instead of “to”)

- She told to her daughter about the job (redundant use of “to”)

- The child looks the toy (lack “at” after “look”)

❖ Conjunction errors

Conjunctions are used to link similar items in sentences However, many English learners do not use them when necessary

Example:

Incorrect: I want to buy a pen, two pencils, three notebooks

Correct: I want to buy a pen, two pencils, and three notebooks

Incorrect: A beautiful sunny day

Correct: It was a beautiful sunny day

❖ Subject-predicate disagreement

Subject-predicate disagreement is most noticeable when the subject does not match the predicate's form in number

Example:

Incorrect: Many students likes teamwork

Correct: Many students like teamwork

The subject of the sentence is "many students" and the predicate is "likes" Since "many students" is plural, it requires a bare-infinitive when used in the present simple tense In contrast, “likes” must take a singular noun

❖ Errors in parts of speech

Some students frequently commit mistakes in parts of speech when writing in English

Example:

Incorrect: He is succeed

Correct: He is successful