A contrastive analysis of word order errors made by chinese learners vietnamese learners of english at flc and some suggestions for improvement

--- NGUYEN THI CHAU ANH A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF WORD ORDER ERRORS MADE BY CHINESE LEARNERS & VIETNAMESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AT FLC AND SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR... I certify my authorship o

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A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF WORD ORDER ERRORS MADE

BY CHINESE LEARNERS & VIETNAMESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AT FLC AND SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF WORD ORDER ERRORS MADE

BY CHINESE LEARNERS & VIETNAMESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AT FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS AND SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

in terms of the statement of the Requirements for Theses and Field Study Reports in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee

Ho Chi Minh City, January 2005

NGUYEN THI CHAU ANH

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THI CHAU ANH, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the university library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the University library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for case, loan or reproduction of theses

I also agree that a copy of the original of my thesis will be sent to Lok-an Taiwanese Grant for Vietnamese Students Scholarship for the purpose of study and research in Taiwan

Ho Chi Minh City, January 2005

NGUYEN THI CHAU ANH

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

hanks to the good conditions created by Bến Tre College and

in particular its Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, English Department, I have been able to finish this work

T

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyễn Bích Hạnh, for her guidance, suggestions and encouragement Without Ms Nguyễn Bích Hạnh, this work would not have been done

I would also like to thank Lok-an Taiwanese Grant for awarding

me a scholarship to do this thesis This scholarship has provided me with the financial assistance to complete the study in HCMC

I also wish to send my sincere thanks to my teachers, Mr Nguyễn Huỳnh Đạt and Ms Cao Thi Quỳnh Loan for their advice And my thanks also go to to Dr Wi-vun Taffalo Chiung for his encouragement and support

I am also grateful to the teaching staff of the Master Course of which I am a student The professors and lecturers of the Master Course have provided excellent materials in TESOL and helped me to understand new concepts in English and English Teaching Methodology

I am grateful to all the teachers of English at Văn Lang Foreign Languages Centers, District 5, HCMC and teachers of English at thành Đoàn Informatics and Foreign Language School, District 1, HCMC, especially Mr Hà Tuấn Hiền and Ms Đặng Thị Kiều Anh who spent a great deal of time with me distributing, collecting questionnaires and tests and discussing the data for the study I would also like to thank all the learners of English at the two schools for their participation in the research Without this help, this thesis could not have been written.

Finally, in the place of honor, I wish to thank my beloved family Their love and support has been wonderful, particularly in the period of compilation of

my thesis

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Hoa Nhà Xuất Bản Khoa Học Xã Hội

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Nhà Xuất Bản Khoa Học Xã Hội

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Learnners’ Written English MA Thesis

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Bản TP.HCM

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationales

Word order (WO) is a universal syntactic device However, it is language specific, differing from one language to another Failure to produce a correct syntactic order may lead to misunderstanding, miscommunication or confusion

For example, if a speaker wants to express the idea that he gave a flower from the garden to his mother

Let’s compare the following sentences:(1)* He gave his mother a flower garden as a birthday gift

And

(1’) He gave his mother a garden flower as a birthday gift

Obviously, a change in WO can bring about a different meaning from what is intended by the speaker

In addition, a change in WO may result in ambiguity or obscurity

(2) * The dog belongs to one of our neighbors that followed us home

The modifier “that followed us home” in the sentence above is misplaced,

and may cause the reader or hearer to think that it is one of our neighbors that followed us, not the dog The modifier, in this case, needs a relative clause to be put in the right place, i.e next to its antecedent, in order to disambiguate the sentence It should be:

(2’) The dog, that followed us home, belongs to one of our neighbors

In the following sentence, the ordering of words causes ambiguity

(3) * The young man is watching a little girl in the park wearing a uniform (obscure)

The sentence (3) above is ambiguous: Where is the young man? And where is the little girl? Are they in the park? Who is wearing a uniform?

This sentence should be rewritten as either:

(3’) In the park, the young man is watching a little girl wearing a uniform

Or (3”): The young man in uniform is watching a little girl in the park Word order errors may also cause obscurity or confusion as seen in (4) (4) * My handbag’s mother is old (Obscure)

This sentence should be rewritten as:

(4’) My mother’s handbag is old

As WO is language specific, it must be acquired by learners, and when errors in WO occur, they may be traced back to the learners’ mother tongue as in (4) Generally speaking, syntactic errors are thought to be interferences from L1

to L2

Brown (1980) argues that, for the beginners of a foreign language, interference of the first language has a great influence on the second language acquisition

“We have all observed children acquiring their first language easily and well,

yet learning of a second language, particularly in an educational setting, often

meet with great difficulty and sometimes failure.” [7:48]

Lado (1957) believes that the grammatical structures, in many cases, tend

to be transferred to the target language [41:58]

Errors in word order can be accounted for by the syntactic order in learners’ mother tongue While some patterns of WO in English are similar to those in Vietnamese and Chinese, for example, Subject – Verb –Object (SVO)

or Subject – Verb – Object -Adjunct (SVOA) structures Others show a

remarkable difference For example, in Chinese the “BA” structure, i.e the structure of SOV(A) and the positions of Wh - question words and word phrases, clause modifiers in Chinese and Vietnamese structures are quite different from those in English Thus, a direct transfer of WO in the mother tongue into the target language would result in ungrammatical or anomalous sentences

Corder (1986), in agreement with Ellis (1985), considers errors as a learning device He claims that it is a proof of a learner’s way of testing his hypotheses about the nature of his learning [15:11]

Errors are meaningful as proofs of learners’ language development When analyzed, errors reveal which item has been incorrectly learned Errors also reflect the manner in which learners internalize the rules of the target language Such an insight into language learning problems is useful to the teacher because

it provides information on common trouble spots, which pave the way for the preparation of effective teaching materials In addition, errors prediction and analysis equip teachers with useful tools to help learners minimize or overcome their learning problems

Subsequently, like a doctor who can only prescribe effective treatment for

a patient through diagnosis (i.e identifying the cause of an illness), a teacher can only help his learners to correct their errors by identifying the cause of the errors and suggesting ways to overcome them

This thesis attempts to investigate errors in WO made by Vietnamese learners and Chinese learners of English at the elementary level with a view to detecting learners’ problems in acquiring WO It also studies the influence of learners’ mother tongue in the acquisition of WO in the target language

1.2 Problems

The open door policy, launched by the Vietnamese government, has made English a matter of public concern, especially for people working in foreign companies Language fluency and effective communication are often favored over accuracy in language learning at Foreign Language Centers (FLC)

However, in the process of language learning, errors are bound to occur and frequent occurrence of errors is a hindrance to effective communication Not only can errors in pronunciation and use of words lead to misunderstanding or confusion, but also syntactic errors such as word order can be problematic Class observation of learners’ performance shows that beginning learners have difficulty in acquiring the correct WO in the target language

According to a previous research in WO carried out by Minh Chau (2001),

WO errors made up 17.7% of the total errors made by college non-major students of English at the College of Economics and Business Administration, Ho Chi Minh City In the research, 1075 students’ common errors were examined and 191 errors were WO errors The number of WO errors was the highest with the learners at the average level group [62:44]

In addition, additional research carried out by G Kavaliauskieneù (2002) was also concerned with word order errors made by ESP learners at Universitas Studiorum Polona Vilnensis, a Polish University In this research, investigations were carried out over a period of three academic years from 1998 to 2001 The research involved gathering data on learners’ views on their learning needs, expectations and on encountered difficulties in learning ESP at university The aim of the research was to consider the issues of learning English at university level and to explore the ways of improving the quality of learning

In a survey carried out by G Kavaliauskiené (2001), students were asked which language areas are the most difficult for them, and the students’ answers are found in table 1 [39:8]

48% of the students asked found word order the most difficult aspect of syntax, while only 26% of the students thought tenses and prepositions are the most difficult The data from the questionnaire are shown in the table below:

Language area The most difficult

ESP listening

Speaking

ESP reading ESP writing

Word order ESP vocabulary

Tenses Prepositions

Table 1: Descriptions of the most difficult language areas in ESP

The language areas of the greatest difficulty are ESP vocabulary and speaking The data show that word order (48%) and ESP writing (44%) are also serious problems for students, even at an advanced level The ranking conducted and presented in the study reveals that the common problematic areas in ESP need a careful consideration

After observing two groups of learners in Ho Chi Minh City, one group of Chinese learners of English group at Van Lang Foreign Language Center (Trung Tâm Ngoại Ngữ Văn Lang) and a group of Vietnamese learners of English at

Ngoại Ngữ Thành Đoàn) for six months, I realized that WO errors occurred frequently in the performance of both groups and that this type of errors deserved careful research It is important for errors to be corrected at the beginning stage, which would form their language background for their language development in later stages While it is recognized that very few studies on beginners’ word order errors in the use of language for communication at FLC have been carried out so far

This thesis studies the mistakes and errors that beginning learners make in word order in English to find out whether they are negative interferences from their mother- tongue or they are universal, i.e they are the result of a normal pattern of development, which is common among language learners Through analysis of this type of errors, we hope to gain insight into the learner’s development of language ability, which will have important implications for heightening the effectiveness of language teaching

1.3 Aims and objectives of the study

1.3.1 Aims

The study attempts to look into errors in WO made by Vietnamese and Chinese beginners of English The analysis of this type of errors will give insight into the learner’s language development and provide teachers with useful information to help beginning learners overcome their difficulty to acquire fluency of the target language

1.3.2 Objectives

- To investigate the English WO errors made by the two groups of learners

at two Foreign Language Centers in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)

- To compare and contrast these errors, frequently made by beginners of each group, as they produce phrases and sentences in English in order to test the three hypotheses of WO errors in their production of language

- To propose suggestions for improving teaching speaking and writing skills to beginners of English

1 4 The significance of the thesis

This thesis will be done with the hope of making a contribution toward improving language skills for beginning learners in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)

Firstly, it is a theoretical basis in understanding the causes of word order errors and the significance of WO errors in EFL learners’ production of language

Secondly, it is a practical basis for improving productive skills of native speakers at the beginning level

non-Finally, from the contrastive analysis of word order errors among Vietnamese and Chinese learners, the thesis can be a reference for any teachers

of English who are concerned with learners’ errors as a reflection of learners’ language development

1 5 The scope of the study

The contrastive analysis was conducted to study WO errors made by the two groups of learners at Foreign Languages Centers in Ho Chi Minh City

The study only focuses on the WO errors that beginners frequently struggle with at the phrase and sentence level in their production of language

The investigations were carried out with the participation of EFL beginners who take the beginning course at the FLC

1.6 Structure of the thesis

The introductory chapter discusses the rationales and the problems needed solving in the study, and the aims and the significance of the study The scope of the study and the thesis structure are also addressed in this chapter

In this thesis, the following chapter, chapter 2, provides some definitions

of the key terms used in the thesis, the background to the study and reviews the relevant literature of this thesis

Chapter 3 describes the hypotheses formulated from the research questions The methodology, research instruments, procedures of data collection and some considerations are also discussed in this chapter

Chapter 4 presents and discusses the findings from the data collected, the class observations, survey questionnaires and the results of a variety of tests on word order

Chapter 5 focuses on the suggestions of how to solve the problem in order

to improve the productive skills for learners at foreign languages centers and concludes the study with the summary of the thesis The limitations and delimitations of this thesis and further research recommended are also

mentioned and presented in the last chapter

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter one provides an understanding of the research Subsequently, chapter two attempts to look at different aspects of the topic and discusses the relevant literature on WO errors in EFL learners’ acquisition

In this chapter, WO of the three languages is discussed, to detect any transfers into the target language, and to develop the thesis background and the significance of WO errors in language teaching and learning This chapter, in turn, leads to the suggestions in the following chapters

2.1 The importance of word order in communication

According to Nunan (1999), syntax is “the study of the rules that govern the formation of grammatical structures” [48:315]

One way of showing the grammatical relationship between words is word order Word order is the arrangements of words into structures such as phrases, clauses and sentences

For example:

(1) Tong killed the lion

(2) The lion killed Tong

(1) differs from (2) only in word order, however, the meaning is quite different from one sentence to the other

In (1), Tong, appearing in the front position, is an agent of the action

while in (2), Tong appearing after the verb, is the receiver of the action “killed”

The arrangements of the words in a sentence sometimes cause ambiguity

(3) He told John to leave at 5 p.m

In (3), this could mean:

(3a) It was at 5 p.m when they told John to leave

(3b) John’s departure was at 5 p.m

Moreover, syntax shows how words are related and combined in a sentence

(4) He likes football more than his wife

The example (4) can be understood in two ways:

(4a) He likes football more than his wife likes football

(4b) He likes football more than he likes his wife

Lê Văn Lý (1983) gives another example in Vietnamese to demonstrate the fact that changing word order may lead to different correct grammatical

sentences which convey different meanings [69:21]

(4) Sao bảo nó không đến?

(Why did you say he would not come?)

(5) Sao nó bảo không đến?

(Why did he say he would not come?)

(6) Sao không bảo nó đến?

(Why didn’t you tell him to come?)

Another example is given by Lê Cận, et al [69:17]

(7) “Ba cây số nữa xe lên dốc.”

(Three kilometers from here, the car will start to go up a slope.)

(8) Xe lên dốc ba cây số nữa

(The car will go up a slope for another 3 kilometers.)

A change in word order may change what we intended to say

(9) Tôi chưa đọc quyển sách này

(I have yet to read this book)

(10) Quyển sách này tôi chưa đọc

(This book, I haven’t read.)

Typically, speakers of different languages tend to place what they want to emphasize at the beginning of the sentence In (10), what is interesting in the example is that the object of the verb is placed at the beginning of the sentence

with an aim to focus on the object “this book”

The positions of nouns and noun as head determine the meaning of a noun phrase Let us now consider the positions of the word “chiên” (fried/ frying) in the Vietnamese language in (11) and (12):

(11) Tôi thích chiên khoai

(I like frying potatoes)

(12) Tôi thích khoai chiên

(I like fried potatoes)

In this case, “chiên” in (11) is used as a transitive verb and its object

“khoai” appears after the verb, whereas “chiên” in (12) is used as an adjective equivalent, appearing after the noun “khoai” and qualifying this noun

Lê Cận, Diệp Quang Ban, Lê Thiều, Hoàng Văn Thung [69] also assert that word order is an important device in expressing meaning According to the authors, when the ordering of the words changes, the parts of speech of the words are changed accordingly

For example, “đẹp mắt” (beautiful to the eyes) is different from “mắt đẹp” (beautiful eyes); and “anh hùng dân tộc” (national heroes) is different from

“dân tộc anh hùng” (heroic people)

Similarly, in Chinese:

(13) Jin nian ta wu shi lai sui le

(Lit: means literally translating from one language to another)

Lit: this year he is five ten years old LE (“le” is a kind of an aspect marker

in Chinese, similar to “already", indicating that the action is completed or finished.)

(This year he is fifty years old)

(14) Jin nian ta shi wu lai sui le

Lit: this year he is ten five years old LE

(This year he is fifteen years old.)

The difference between (14) and (15) is the different word order in

Chinese “shi wu” means fifteen whereas “wu shi” means fifty

Similarly, the arrangement of words in (15) and in (16) gives us an example of different word order leading to different meanings in communication

(15) Jin tian shi wo ma ma de sheng ri

(DE in (15) is a possessive indicator)

Lit: today is my mother of birthday

In (15), when a child talks to his friend “wo ma ma de sheng ri”, he means

today is his mother’s birthday However, in (16):

(16) Jin tian shi wo DE sheng ri, ma ma (To day is my birthday, mother)

Lit: today is my DE birthday, mother

In this case, a child tells to his mother that today is his birthday

2.2 Errors in general

Advocates of audiolingualism, in its prime in the 1950s and 1960s, tried to strike home the concept that learning a new language is forming new habits From the behaviorist point of view, a habit is formed when a particular stimulus

is regularly linked with a particular response The response thus becomes practiced and therefore automatic

Audiolingualism, which is based on the behaviorist theory of learning, encourages learners to repeat grammatical drills to help them establish habits of the patterns that constitute the grammar of the target language In this view, anything that hinders that habit-formation is considered a negative factor to learning Evidence that learners have failed to learn, the behaviorist believes, is found in errors made by learners Errors are undesirable, and they must be avoided at all cost They occur because the old habits of the learner’s mother tongue get in the way of forming new habits Therefore, in the classroom the target language teachers give learners plenty of practice to ensure automatic responses

Time changes, however The communicative approach, which was in vogue in the 80’s and 90’s, held a more tolerant view on learners’ mistakes

It is thought that the achievement of communicative tasks is more important than accuracy Research in language acquisition has found out that learners’ errors, far from being undesirable, can serve as clues to their language

development rather than the signs of their unlearning or unsuccessful learning

2.2.1 Interlanguage

Brown (1980) considers mistakes as

a performance error that is either a random guess or a “slip” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly,

whereas errors of a second language are distinguished from mistake in that an error is

a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of a learner [7:165]

Many linguists have reviewed the term “interlanguage” (IL) in the literature of the relevant research It was used by Selinker (1972), referring to a

system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and the target language [7:163] Various names are used to express the same

phenomenon such as “approximative systems” by Nemser (1971) and

“idiosyncratic dialects” and “transitional competence” by Corder (1971) [12:151]

Corder [15:11] also considers errors as a device in learning and

interlanguage is considered as

a sort of “hybrid” between the learner’s mother tongue and the target language

(Corder, in Minh Chau, 2001:12-13)

The term “error” is used to refer to the form or structure that a native

speaker deems unacceptable because of its inappropriate use or the use of a linguistic item in a way in which a native speaker of the language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning The contrastive analysis and description

of errors are made based on a grammatical model

Errors can also be classified according to categories or subcategories such as: semantic errors (wrong word, poor choice of word, slang or colloquialism) and syntactic errors (i.e errors in verb tenses, prepositions, articles, word order, subject – verb agreement)

As a result, errors are of significance to the process of language learning since a learner’s errors provide evidence of his language performance and competence that he has learnt in a particular stage

Errors are also classified into two kinds They are global errors and local errors Local errors do not cause problems with communication, but global errors contribute to miscommunication (Burt and Kiparsky, in Minh Chau (2001:18))

To describe errors at a rather global level, Brown (1980) describes

general errors as “errors of addition, omission, substitution and ordering”

[7:169]

Local errors are those that do not cause problems with communication A hearer or reader is able to guess the intended meaning Whereas global WO errors violate the overall structure of a sentence and hinder the hearer or reader from comprehending some aspects of message in communication

Since global errors hinder communication, they must be considered important in communicative language teaching WO errors themselves should not be considered as a sign of failure, but an evidence of learners’ active contribution to acquiring their target language step by step [62:18]

In addition, error analysis must be pedagogic and should be evaluated properly in order to take principled decisions in language teaching effectively

2.2.2 Lado’s contrastive analysis

Lado (1957) calls grammatical structure a “system of habits” Habits, in

Lado’s theory [41:57], are based on laws of language learning such as exercise familiarity of response Consequently, according to Lado (1957) & Ellis (1985), most of the difficult areas of the L2 are those that differ most from the L1 (negative transfer), and the areas that are most similar to the native language are the easiest ones (positive transfer) Lado (1957) also asserts that

… the student who comes in contact with a foreign language will find some features of

it quite easy and others extremely difficult Those elements that are similar to his native language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult

[41:2]

Thus, transfer can be negative and positive Linguists and researchers argue that linguistic features of the L1 will facilitate language learning, and those features of the L1 that are different from the TL will hinder learners’ TL acquisition and are the causes of learners’ production errors Thus, language

learning will be successful when the two languages happen to be similar and language teaching should concentrate on the points of difference

One of the examples shown by Lado that the Chinese learners of English

find difficult, is “the man with a toothache” because a phrase such as “with a toothache” comes before a noun in Chinese Thus,

a Chinese speaker learning English has to learn to place after the head those modifiers that are phrases and clauses Conversely, an English speaker learning Chinese has to learn to place before the head modifiers that are word groups [41:61]

Furthermore, other scholars and researchers suggest focusing more on the learners’ interlanguage (IL) as it develops closer to the target language They also note that the learner is not a defective speaker of a target language but is using the interlanguage These issues become central to studies of IL

However, Klein (in Schuter, 1997:30) contradicts Lado’s views In general, he asserts that contrastive linguistics is concerned with the linguistic systems, the structure, whereas acquisition has something to do with the comprehension and language production A specific second language structure may be easy to perceive, but hard to produce, or vice versa Klein points out that deviant constructions and errors are not always due to negative transfers and concludes in his research that the prediction of possible transfers should not be based on comparisons of structural properties, but on the way in which the learner processes these structural properties

In fact, the contrastive analysis approach of comparing two languages to predict interference yields a partial picture of L2 learning To understand the

“picture of L2 learning” clearly, Lado (1957), asserts that the existence of

various forms of transfer is obvious

Schuter (1997), in agreement with Lado, asserts that

We cannot deny that the learner’s knowledge of his first language influences the way in which he approaches and learns a second language

Selinker (1992) also supports the concept of contrastive analysis by arguing that learners fall back on structures of L1 patterns in order to get a message across and this is also a communication strategy which helps them to get over the deficiencies of L2 Selinker also notes that if communication is successful, then transfer will (or may) happen

2.2.3 Universal Grammar and SLA theory

Noam Chomsky (1965) claims that “language is an innate faculty” In his

opinion, learners have a set of rules about language in their heads, which he

refers to as the “Universal Grammar” Chomsky theorizes that children do not

learn a repertoire of phrases and sayings, but they deduce rules from the language they hear around them and can produce sentences that they have never

heard before Children can acquire a language by a “Universal Grammar” that

generates an infinity of new sentences

In Chomsky’s belief, errors made by learners as they are exposed to the language environment, and experiment their hypotheses they make about a pattern As the learners test their hypotheses, the reaction of the people in the environment will help them to adjust their hypotheses in the learning process However, while Chomsky’s theory explains why general errors occur, he doesn’t explain why specific errors occur

Ellis (1985) explains that a child makes mistakes in his communication because the data available from the input are insufficient for him to discover certain rules in grammar And in agreement with Chomskyan tradition, he adds that the child’s grammatical knowledge in L1 is not necessarily determined by

explore and discover which of the various options in his target language is acceptable [17:192-193]

Vroman (1988), who makes an attempt to compare the differences between children’s L1 acquisition and adults’ L2 acquisition, asserts that fossilization and backsliding are common in adults’ L2 acquisition, that is, adults often return to earlier stages of development Instruction in adults’ L2 acquisition

is very helpful and necessary L2 adults are often unable to form clear grammaticality judgments and they are unlikely to achieve perfect L2 mastery L2 adults may be content with less than perfect target language (TL) competence

or more concerned with fluency than accuracy In contrast, children often develop clear intuitions about correctness Thus, L2 adults often vary in overall success and routine degree of success In contrast, L1 children normally achieve perfect L1 mastery and success is guaranteed in language acquisition

Both children and adults, in target language acquisition, need input data to

fix the parameters in their “core rules” by selecting the appropriate options in

the various ones among the input data The contrastive analysis can serve as the

“means” for them to monitor their grammatical forms in their own way in the

target language acquisition

In general, the linguists’ theories of the comparison between L1 and L2 acquisition above are a contribution to guiding language teachers towards remedial work in SLA

2.2.4 A study on L3 acquisition

In agreement with linguists in SLA theory, Proefschrift (2002) in his work

on “Transfer and Access to Universal Grammar in Adults Second Language Acquisition” argued that Universal grammar does not constrain L2 acquisition, but that L2 learners construct natural grammars using general learning strategies

instead On the basis of a comparison between the word order made by child learners of German as a L1 and adult Romance learners of German as a L2, he also argued that unlike child L1 learners of German, who manifest early (unconscious) knowledge of the fact that German is an SOV language, however,

Adult L2 learners of German make use of SVO order, irrespective of their language background, even in those cases in which SOV is suggested by the target language and the source language (Clahsen and Muysken, 1986 :9)

Linguists’ have concluded that the differences in developmental sequences between L1 acquisition and L2 acquisition as evidence against transfer and against the operation of Universal grammar [58]

In addition, another study on L3 acquisition in the literature was conducted

by Fung (2001) This study describes how Chinese students with Chinese (L1) and English (L2) backgrounds acquire their third language, i.e German (L3) Forty five third-year Chinese students taking German courses at Hong Kong University participated in the study

The participants were asked to complete a background questionnaire and write about two sets of pictures in the three languages: Chinese, English, and German The results of the questionnaire show that L3 German is regarded to be closer to L2 English (over 95%), and L1 Chinese is regarded to be far from L3 German (over 50%)

The participants in the study asserted that they are always influenced by English in spoken (80%) and written (75%) German production, and another interesting finding in the study is that only 25% in spoken and 35% in written German are sometimes influenced by Chinese

The findings revealed that the learning experience of L2 affects the acquisition process of L3 learning as learners have become skillful in both metalinguistic knowledge and general strategies

It concluded that L3 learners seem to be more flexible in employing and abandoning production strategies and also claims that the role of L2 seems to be prominent in L3 strategy building [3:6]

It is a point to consider in this study of errors made by Chinese learners who speak Vietnamese as L2 in their daily communication

2.2.5 Error Correction

Brown (1980) states that foreign language teachers’ knowledge of possible sources of errors, understanding of the error analysis and linguistic properties of the second language can help learners with an effective explanation and correction in enabling them to construct efficient systems of interlanguage

It should be clear that an active second language learner whose monitor is fully operating and who is perceptive of the cognitive and affective feedback around him will not need a great deal of overt correction of errors if the constructive and meaningful feedback of communicative contexts is present Some correction, though, is beneficial The teacher must face a twofold problem: what to correct and how to correct [7:185]

In agreement with Brown (1980), Henrickson (1978) addresses five

fundamental questions:

1 Should errors be corrected?

2 If so, when should errors be corrected?

3 Which learners’ errors should be corrected?

4 How should learners’ errors be corrected?

5 Who should correct learners’ errors?

These questions are really the “headache” problems for many teachers of English It is also a base for teachers to look at and attempt to seek an effective teaching technique suitable for their learners in SLA, especially in correcting

WO errors for non - native speakers of English at the beginning level

Based on several methods of correcting errors in the literature, Henrickson remarks some solutions for the problems and suggests possible answers to the questions above [18:116-119]

In my opinion, Henrickson’s ideas and suggestions are a valuable source for reference and provide useful advice for teachers to follow in teaching English

as a foreign language

2.3 Learner strategies and learning strategies

2.3.1 Learner strategies

In the literature, the term “strategy” has also been referred to as

“techniques”, “tactics”, “potential conscious plans”, “problem solving procedures”, “learning skills”, “cognitive abilities”

The term “learner strategy”, as in Anita L Wenden’s belief, refers to

language learning behaviors that learners actually engage in to learn and regulate the learning of a second language This term also refers to how they manage or self direct their efforts in learning another language, i.e what they know about the strategies they use when they are interviewed or write a diary In such cases, they must point to strategies they have used in a particular situation

or they think they should use

“Learner strategies” also refers to what learners know about aspects of their learning a FL In this case, this knowledge may influence a learner’s choice

of strategy For example, they know their personal factors facilitating their L2

learning, principles to learn another language successfully, how well they use the language, and what is specifically difficult in the language [59:6]

2.3.2 Learning strategies

WO errors may be the results of the learner’s strategies as they struggle to put across their meaning Since learners’ learning strategies may cause them to make errors, their activating these strategies is also a concern of this study

Ellis (1985) describes a learning style as “more or less” a consistent way

in which a learner perceives, conceptualizes, organizes and recalls information That is, learners may prefer a visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (moving) or tactile (touching) way of learning In addition, learning styles will be influenced by learners’ culture, previous learning experiences, the society they live in and their genetic make up In Lightbown and Spada’s opinions (1993) on SLA, different learners approach a task with different sets of skills and preferred strategies [43:40] Learners will learn better and more quickly if the teaching methods used match their preferred learning styles Thus, teachers should know about learning styles in order to make learners more interested, have higher self

- esteem and be more successful in learning This has a further positive effect on learning because

When learners are given some freedom to choose their preferred way of learning, they will do better than those who find themselves forced to learn in environments where a learning style, which does not suit them, is imposed as the only way to learn [40 :41]

Ellis (1997), in agreement with Rubin (1981), Corder (1983) and Taron (1983), explains that “learning strategies” are strategies which contribute to the development of the language system the learner constructs and which affects their learning directly

They also state that communication strategies are used by speakers when they are confronted with misunderstanding by a co-speaker Communication strategies are important because they allow the learner to continue participating

in a conversation [18:77]

According to Ellis (1997) and Rubin (1981), learning strategies are classified into two kinds: cognitive learning strategies and metacognitive learning strategies

Metacognitive learning strategies

This kind of strategy influences the learner’s choice of learning strategies Learners use metacognitive strategies to assess their needs and references, to decide what to learn and how to learn a FL Learners may plan their learning strategies and change them if these strategies are not successful

Cognitive learning strategies

To acquire word order of the target language (TL), learners may use the following strategies:

Clarification / verification refers to strategies which learners use to clarify their understanding of the new language

Guessing / inductive inference: strategies learners use to know about their own of a second language, look for a specific rule and infer semantic meaning of speakers’ intention

Deductive reasoning is a problem solving strategy in which the learner looks for and uses general rules or supply instances of the rules that they acquired subsequently in approaching their target language [56:86]

Practice refers to strategies that consist of repetition rehearsal, experimentation, application of rules, imitation and attention to detail

Memorization refers to strategies that focus on storage and retrieval of language The goal of these strategies is the development of an organization which requires learners to focus on certain details to aid in recall, and to know how to find some sort of certain association on the way to acquiring a new language

Monitoring: Krashen (1987) refers to strategies as the learner’s notice of linguistic and communicative errors

In agreement with Krashen (1987), Rubin (1987) also emphasizes that the monitoring process appears to be a combination of metacognitive and cognitive strategies since the learner, in these strategies, observes how a message is received and interpreted by the addressee or the co-speaker, and then decides what and how to do about it

Researchers found that using learning strategies properly helps learners

facilitate their learning process and make them become “good learners” That is,

special learning strategies or techniques might assist a FL acquisition Rubin (1981) also asserts that a good learner might be practicing something special or different that directly affects learning, including clarification, monitoring, memorization, guessing / inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning and practice One of the most successful strategies among the list proposed by Rubin (1981) above is “deductive reasoning” e.g comparing the first language to the target language in order to identify the similarities and the differences

Lado (1957) strongly agrees with Anderson (1997), adding some suggestions that learners should rely on their L1 or on their developing knowledge of L2 to fill the gaps in their learning L1, therefore, helps L2 in learning language structures It also makes us aware of cross- linguistic awareness, that is, learners could be encouraged to note where correspondences

exist between the L1 and L2 while transferring from different learning stages, especially for the low level learners

As mentioned above, it is certainly true that the learners’ strategies are points to consider when word order errors are analyzed

2.4 Word order in Chinese, Vietnamese, and English

2.4.1 Word order in English

The word order of English clauses is determined by the interaction of a number of factors First and most important, word order is used as a syntactic signal

Clearly, Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Cornrad and Edward Finergan’s definition of the term “word order”, emphasize that the English word order has often been described as fixed and the placement of the core elements of the clause is strictly regulated

The term “word order” is most often used to refer to the order of the elements in the

clause, elements which are, of course, often each realized by phrases or clauses rather than just one word each: subject, verbs, objects, predicatives, and adverbials [4:898].

2.4.1.1 Nouns and Noun Phrases

A noun phrase is one part of a complete sentence that describes the subject or object of a sentence

According to Randolph and Jackson (1999), noun phrases can be:

NP (DET) (ADJ) N (PP)

(Determiners (DET), ADJECTIVES (ADJ), Nouns as head (N), prepositional phrases (PP).)

A noun phrase (NP) consists of a noun as head and other constituents that cluster around the noun, including the determinative, premodification (placed before the head) and postmodification (placed after the head)

Premodification consists of determinatives, adjectives or adjective phrases, and nouns

Postmodification consists of prepositional phrases, non finite clauses, relative clauses, and complementation [50:1238 -1239]

NP PRE-MODIFICATION + N + POST-MODIFICATION

2.4.1.2 Adjectives and Adjective Phrases

According to Biber et al, some descriptions of the syntactic of adjectives [4:64]

Adjectives can occur as the head in adjective phrases: very dark, eager to help, guilty of

a serious crime Adjective phrases are typically used as premodifiers in noun phrases and as predicatives in clauses Under special circumstances, adjectives can function as

head of a noun phrase: “Show me how the impossible can be possible!” [4:64]

Attributive adjectives modify nominal expressions, preceding the head noun or pronoun

In most case they modify common noun [4:510]

At the beginning level, most learners tend to place one or more adjectives

after the noun as head in their production of language, for example, “a job good”

or “a man old”, in spite of knowing that these adjectives must be put in a

position before the noun they modify, which is illustrated in table 2

Descriptive adjectives or adjective

equivalent which qualify noun as head

Noun as head

equivalent which qualify noun as head

(an) old

(a) good

(a) leather

man job handbag

Table 2: The positions of descriptive adjectives or adjective equivalent adjectives qualifying a noun

Learners often confuse the two positions of adjectives: they tend to place the attributive adjectives in the post noun position that is reserved for predicate adjectives

Chalker and Weiner (1994) describe the order in which two or more adjectives come in attributive position

When two or more adjectives pre-modify a noun, there is usually a

“natural” or a “better” order for them

Compare the two sentences:

(18) Your wonderful, new, cream, woolen jumper (likely)

(19) * Your woolen, new, cream, wonderful jumper (deviant)

It is generally accepted that a typical order in which two or more adjectives pre-modify a noun is: determiners, “central“ adjectives, color adjectives, inherent characteristics – origin, attributive noun describing purposes Thus, in a sentence, an adjective can be put before a head noun and adjective phrases can be put after a head noun as subject or object of a sentence which can

be described as follows: MODIFIER (1) + NOUN (2) + MODIFIER (3)

(20) The new (1) letter, (2) written by Mr Black, was sent the day before

(21) The (1) lady (2) living in this house is Miss Doris (3)

The table below demonstrates a typical ordering of adjectives before a noun

(3) Descriptive Adjective

(4) Noun or Gerund

(5) Noun

(a) quality

(b) size

(c) color

Table 3: Descriptions of word order in English adjective phrases

2.4.1.3 Adverbs and Adverb Phrases

Adverbs occur as the head of adverb phrases: “very clearly, more eagerly

than I have expected” Adverb phrases are most typically used as modifiers in

adjective and adverb phrases, and as adverbials in the clause [4:101]

Adverb phrases contain an adverb as head Biber describes syntactic roles

of adverb phrases [4:102]:

Modifier in adjective or adverb phrase

He is very strong He runs very fast

Adverbials on the clause level

She smiled sweetly

Pre- and post modifier in noun phrase

The investigation found no evidence that the then Democratic candidate had

been involved in illegal activities

The long journey home was a nightmare

Complement of preposition

There had been no complaints until recently

Pre-modifier in prepositional phrase

He stopped just outside the circle of light

Adverb phrases are similar in structure to adjective phrases Modifiers of adverbs are chiefly expressions of degree

Biber emphasizes the syntactic roles of adverb phrases that the borderline between modifiers and adverbials is not always clear:

(22a) This is a really surprising development

(22b) Really, this is a surprising development

(22c) This development is really surprising

In 22a, really is unambiguously a modifier of the following adjective and

in 22b an adverbial, 22c is structurally ambiguous However, the ambiguity is more structural than semantic, because the overriding meaning in all the examples is an expression of the speaker’s attitude to the message [4:102]

Michael Swan, Raymond Murphy, A.J Thomson & A.J Martinet, describe the ordering of adverbs in a sentence as in the table below:

of direction

Adverb of manner

Adverb

of place

Adverb of frequency

Adverb of time