An investigation into the use of transitional words in writing paragraph by 9th graders at tri ton secondary school in an giang province m a 60 14 10

2.6 Previous studies 23 4.1 Kinds of transitional words used by the ninth grade students at Tri Ton secondary 4.2 Transitional words frequently used by the ninth grade students 42 4.3 Pr

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF TRANSITIONAL WORDS IN WRITING PARAGRAPH BY 9 TH GRADERS AT TRI TON SECONDARY

SCHOOL IN AN GIANG PROVINCE

Submitted by LÂM KIM NGỌC

Supervised by TRƯƠNG HỚN HUY, M.A Senior Lecturer

HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2013

2.6 Previous studies 23

4.1 Kinds of transitional words used by the ninth grade students at Tri Ton secondary

4.2 Transitional words frequently used by the ninth grade students 42 4.3 Problems of transitional words were found in the 9th grade students’ writing at Tri

APPENDIX 2: Activities for the students’ use various transitional words

APPENDIX 3: Activities for avoiding transitional words mistakes

REFERENCES

3.1 Oshima and Hogue (1998)’s framework of transitional words 28 4.1 Transitional words often used by the ninth grade students 43

4.3 The frequency and percentage of spelling mistakes in the students’ writing 46 4.4 Spelling mistakes made by ninth grade students 47 4.5 Misuse of transitional words by ninth grade students 52  

4.4 Transitional words for Compare and Contrast used by the ninth grade students 38 4.5 Transitional words for Cause and Effect used by ninth grade students 40 4.6 Transitional words for Conclusion used by ninth grade students 41 4.7 Problems of transitional words made by the ninth grade students 45

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “An investigation into the use of transitional words in writing an English paragraph by ninth graders at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang province” and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of TESOL is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledged and that this minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university or institution

Ho Chi Minh City, March 20th, 2013

LAM KIM NGOC

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Lam Kim Ngoc, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, accept the requirements

of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be assessable for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of thesis

Ho Chi Minh City, March 20th, 2013

LAM KIM NGOC

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr

TRUONG HON HUY, who offered me valuable comments and guidance Without his encouragement and assistance, this work would not have been completed

Moreover, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all my students who were willing to complete the writing tasks and to the teachers at Tri Ton secondary school

in An Giang for their assistance with the data collection

Last but not least, my special thanks go to my family, especially my husband, who bore a great deal of hardships during the execution of the thesis

ABSTRACT

This thesis aims at (1) investigating kinds of transitional words used by the students at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang; (2) exploring problems encountered by the students in the use of transitional words; and (3) suggesting some possible ways to improve the students' use of transitional words in writing The participants of the study were 106 ninth grade students who were taking a beginners’ course in paragraph writing at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed in this study The data for the study were collected in the first semester of the 2011 – 2012 year The participants were asked to write two argumentative paragraphs The study revealed three problems which the students faced in the use of transitional words: (1) learners did not use a variety of transitional words in their paragraphs; (2) learners mainly made spelling and punctuation mistakes; (3) problems were found in the students’

writing in the use of the five logical connectives ‘however, moreover, also,

furthermore, therefore’ The results showed that learners did not use transitional

words appropriately and correctly They should therefore be given more opportunities

to practice and improve the use of transitional words

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The rationale for the study

Transitions are useful words for assisting a reader in understanding how thoughts are connected in a paragraph Specifically, Tyner (1987: 126) has said that transitions can show the order in which actions, steps, or thoughts take place Also, Oshima and Hogue (1998), Sadara (2006) assert that transitional words signal how sentences within a paragraph are logically linked As

a result, an appropriate use of transitional words can make a piece of writing flow smoothly from one sentence to another in a paragraph

Compare the following paragraphs (cited in Oshima and Hogue 2006: 25 – 26)

One difference among the world’s seas and oceans is that the salinity varies in different climate zones The Baltic Sea in northern Europe is one - fourth as saline as the Red Sea in the Middle East There are two reasons for this In warm climate zones, water evaporates rapidly; the concentration of salt is greater The surrounding land is dry; it does not contribute much freshwater to dilute the salty seawater In cold climate zones, water evaporates slowly The run off created by melting snow adds a considerable amount of freshwater to dilute the saline seawater

One difference among the world’s seas and oceans is that the salinity varies in different

climate zones For example, the Baltic Sea in northern Europe is one - fourth as saline as the Red Sea in the Middle East There are two reasons for this First of all, in warm climate zones, water evaporates rapidly; therefore, the concentration of salt is greater Second, the surrounding land is dry; consequently, it does not contribute much freshwater to dilute the salty seawater In cold climate zones, on the other hand, water evaporates slowly Furthermore, the runoff created by melting snow adds a considerable amount of

freshwater to dilute the saline seawater.

In paragraph 1, no transitional words are used to show how one sentence relates to the next, making it difficult for the reader to identify the two reasons In contrast, paragraph 2 is more logical because transitional signals such as

“first of all, for example, therefore, on the other hand” show how the following

sentence relates to the preceding one For example: “first of all” tells the readers this is the first reason; “second” and “furthermore” explain the second idea is

coming

However, transitional words are really useful when the writers know how to use them because a poorly chosen or incorrect transitional word can completely alter the meaning of a sentence Linda and Carla (2005:63) state that a good writer places transitional words at strategic points to assist their readers in understanding the author's message Unfortunately, some scholars (Celce – Murcia 1983; Raimes 1998; Obrecht 2000; Joy 2008, Wyrick 2001, Dorfman 2009) have found that students often make problems of the transitional words – misuse of transitional words, overuse of transitional words, spelling mistakes, and punctuation mistakes It

is undeniable that transitional words are important in writing, and many students make transitional word problems However, most studies have just focused transitional words used by college students (Matarazzo, 1972; Tang and Ng, 1995; Chen, 2006; Mahanani, 2008; Sugita, 2012) Sugita (2012) and Chen (2006) therefore suggests that some surveys of the secondary school students’ use of transitional words should be carried out because when secondary school students are good at the use of transitional words, it is unlikely that they will face problems

of transitional words at high school and college later Moreover, it is a recognized

by the teachers that although the ninth grade students of Tri Ton secondary school

are supposed to know how to write some genres of writing such as a writing letter, a story, or an argumentative paragraph, they have not sufficiently been aware of the use of transitional words to create a logical paragraph yet As a result, the researcher attempts to conduct an investigation of the use of transitional words in writing by ninth grade students at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang with the aims of exploring the use of using transitional words in writing by the ninth grade students and the problems they make in order to make recommendations that hopefully enhance student writing competence

1.2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study are:

(i) to investigate the kinds of transitional words which the students use in

their writing, (ii) to find out problems students face in the use of transitional words, and (iii) to suggest possible solutions to the problems

1.3 Research questions

The present study aims to find answers to the following questions

1 What kinds of transitional words are used by the 9th grade students at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang?

2 What are transitional word problems faced by the 9th grade students at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang?

1.4 Significance of the study

The study attempts to investigate the types of transitional words used by the ninth grade students at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang province, and to identify the students’ misuses of transitional words Therefore, the study is expected

to have an important role in changing the view of students, and teachers to the use

of transitional words which are necessary for writing besides other issues

1.5 Limitations

The study focuses not only on the types of transitional words proposed by Oshima and Hogue (1998) that are used in the paragraphs written by the 9th grade students of Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang province in 2011-2012 academic years, but also the problems of transitional words faced by these students Due to the limitation of time, the shortage of reference materials and the researcher’s lack

of experience, the recommendations made in this study are to be taken as tentative only to the situation of using transitional words in writing by the ninth graders at Tri Ton secondary school; however, the researcher believes that some drawn conclusions are worth consideration

1.6 Definition of key terms 1.6.1 Transitional words

Oshima and Hogue (1998) define transitional words as the type of cohesive devices that express the logical connections between propositions in discourse They also categorize transitional words into six types – Chronological Order, Addition, Cause and Effect, Compare and Contrast, Example, and Conclusion In this study, transitions by Oshima and Hogue (1998) are used as a framework for investigating types of transitional words (see Appendix 1)

1.6.2 Paragraph

According to Sackler et al (1986), Sadara (2006), Zemach and Islam (2006), a paragraph is a group of related sentences which discuss one main idea at a time, in a unified, coherent, and orderly manner

1.6.3 Secondary school

In Vietnam, a secondary school or middle school is a level of schooling between elementary and high schools The school educates and trains students from around eleven years old to fourteen years old The school has four grades – sixth grade for eleven years old students, seventh grade for twelve years old students, eighth grade for thirteen and ninth grade for fourteen years old students (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Vietnam accessed June 10, 2012)

1.6.4 Ninth graders

Ninth graders are last year students of a middle school and they are aged between fourteen and fifteen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_grade in Vietnam accessed June 10, 2012)

1.7 Structure of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters

Chapter one provides the background to the study, the objectives of the study, the significance, and the limitations of the study

Chapter two mainly reviews the roles of transitional words and problems of transitional words It focuses on the theoretical backgrounds and empirical findings

of the relative studies

Chapter three presents the research methodology employed in the study It describes the subjects’ selection, data collection, and data analysis

Chapter four analyzes the data and discusses research findings

Chapter five concludes research findings, and makes recommendations for teaching and learning transitional words

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is a review of related literature relevant to the study, including

an overview of writing, paragraph, unity, coherence, transitional words, and problems of transitional words

2.1 Writing

Writing is known as a progressive activity because “when we write

something down, we have already been thinking about this Then, after we have finished writing, we read over, make changes and correction what you have written” (cited in Richard et al, 2005: 212) In addition, Richard and Renandya

(2005), and McMillan (2006) define three main stages: prewriting, writing, and post writing In the first stage, prewriting, the writer gathers ideas for the writing task

As a result, prewriting is considered as creating an invisible foundation for completed written work so that the continued discussion in the writing step must refer to that foundation In the second stage, writing, the writer starts to write his or her first draft based on the outline made in the pre writing In this process, the writer attempts to transform his or her ideas into written words In the last stage, post writing, the writer revises the draft to improve what he or she has written In this stage, the writer checks the content and organization for unity and coherence of the written text

2.2 Paragraph

According to Sackler et al (1998) and Hogue (2000), a paragraph is a group of related sentences that discuss one main idea The paragraph can give information, tell an opinion, explain something, or even tell a short story Besides, Zemach and Islam (2006) emphasize that a paragraph should be long enough to develop the central idea and that all sentences of the paragraph are arranged logically so that the reader can easily understand what the writer wants to say Therefore, the structure

of a paragraph often includes one topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence

2.2.1 Topic sentence

A topic sentence is considered the most important element of a paragraph because the topic sentence clearly states the main idea of the paragraph The topic sentence is a helpful guide to both the writer and the reader The writer can see what information to include and exclude, and what a paragraph is going to be about, so the reader can understand the rest of the paragraph According to Lagan (2006), a topic sentence contains a topic and a controlling idea The topic sentence must be a complete sentence with a subject and one verb According to Zemach and Islam (2006), a topic sentence is often the first sentence of a paragraph, or comes at the end of the paragraph However, as stated by Fox (1981:3), a topic sentence is sometimes located somewhere in the middle of a paragraph It is also even possible not to have a topic sentence if a writer wants to avoid a direct statement that seems forced or artificial

2.2.2 Supporting sentences

Another important part within a paragraph is supporting sentences which explain the main idea of the topic sentence Zemach and Islam (2006), Hogue (2000), Checkett (2006) have indicated that the function of supporting sentences is

to develop the topic sentence because the supporting sentences give more information about topic sentence of a paragraph As a result, the supporting sentences explain specific details, examples, quotations, and statistics to support the main idea of the paragraph Fox (1981:8) also stresses that all the supporting sentences must be related to the topic illustrated in the following diagram (see p.8):

2.2.3 Concluding sentence

Zemach and Islam (2006), and Checkett (2006) argue that a concluding sentence should be presented in a paragraph It marks the end of a paragraph by restating the topic sentence of the paragraph, making a prediction or giving advice connected to the paragraph’s topic

2.3 Unity

Unity is one of the most important elements of good paragraph The term

“unity” is derived from the Latin prefix “uni” which means “one” (Saraka, 1988:62) Thus, unity is considered as the unified arrangement of sentences in a paragraph, and means that a paragraph only discusses one main idea A paragraph lacks unity if the supporting sentences discuss a topic that has no relation with the main idea Below is an example of a paragraph that lacks unity

Gold, a precious metal, is prized for two important characteristics First of all,

we can buy gold in everywhere Gold is used for trade in over the world For

example, a Macedonian coin remains as untarnished today as the day it was made 25

centuries ago Cost of gold is changed every day For many years, it has been used in hundreds of industrial applications, such as photography and dentistry The most recent use of gold is in astronauts’ suits Astronauts wear gold – plated heat shields

for protection when they go outside spaceships in space In conclusion, gold is

suitable with everyone (cited in Oshima and Hogue, 2006: 13) The above paragraph lacks unity because the sentences in the paragraph do not support the main idea In fact, the main idea of the paragraph is two important

Topic sentence Supporting sentence Supporting sentence Supporting sentence Supporting sentence

characteristics of gold, but the supporting sentences “we can buy gold everywhere;

gold is used for trade in over the world, cost of the gold is changed every day.” are

not related to the main idea Moreover, the concluding sentence “in conclusion, god

is suitable with everyone” does not restate the topic sentence “Gold, a precious metal, is prized for two important characteristics”

However, the following paragraph is different:

Gold

Gold, a precious metal, is prized for two important characteristics First of all, gold has a lustrous beauty that is resistant to corrosion Therefore, it is suitable for

jewelry, coins, and ornamental purposes Gold never needs to be polished and will

remain beautiful forever For example, a Macedonian coin remains as untarnished

today as the day it was made 25 centuries ago Another important characteristic of gold is its usefulness to industry and science For many years, it has been used in hundreds of industrial applications, such as photography and dentistry The most recent use of gold is in astronauts’ suits Astronauts wear gold – plated heat shields

for protection when they go outside spaceships in space In conclusion, gold is

treasured not only for its beauty but also for its utility. (cited in Oshima and Hogue, 2006: 13)

The paragraph has unity because the main idea of the paragraph is about the important role of gold; hence, all the supporting sentences directly explain and give

clear examples to prove the advantages of gold such as “first of all, gold has a

lustrous beauty that is resistant to corrosion” or “another important characteristic

of gold is its usefulness to industry and science…”; also “the most recent use of gold is in astronauts’ suits”, and so on The conclusion of the paragraph restates the

main idea “in conclusion, gold is treasured not only for its beauty but also for its

utility”

2.4 Coherence

Another important element of a good paragraph is “coherence” which comes from the Latin verb “cohere” meaning “hold together” Halliday and Hassan

(1976:6) define coherence as “the property of signaling that the interpretation of the

passage in question depends on something else” In addition, Bander (1983) states

that a paragraph is coherent when its ideas are clearly related to each other in a logical sequence Sadara (2006:10) also confirms that coherence helps to flow ideas from one sentence to another in a paragraph and to connect the ideas to the topic

sentence Winterowd (1988), Hogue (2000), and Oshima and Hogue (2006) prove

that there are four ways to achieve coherence – repeat key nouns, use consistent pronouns, use transitional words to link ideas, and arrange the ideas in a logical order However, Winterowd (1988), Hogue (2000), and Sadara (2006) have recognized that the use of transitional words is the most simple and effective way to make a coherent paragraph In fact, transitional signals are transitional words such

as firstly, finally, however, or phrases such as in conclusion, on the other hand, as a

result In addition, subordinators ( when, although), coordinators (and, but),

adjectives (another, additional), and prepositions (because of, in spite of) can serve

as transitional signals that tell the reader when the writers give a similar idea (and,

also, in addition), an opposite idea (on the other hand, but, in contrast), an example (for example), a result (therefore, as a result, hence); a conclusion (in short, in conclusion, in summary) In short, transition signals make a paragraph coherent for

smooth movement from one idea to the next Consider the following two paragraphs

(cited in Hogue, 2000: 112):

One difference among the world’s seas and oceans is that the salinity varies in different climate zones The Baltic Sea in northern Europe is one - fourth as saline as the Red Sea in the Middle East There are two reasons for this In warm climate zones, water evaporates rapidly; the concentration of salt is greater The surrounding land is dry; it does not contribute much freshwater to dilute the salty seawater In cold climate zones, water evaporates slowly The run off created by melting snow adds a considerable amount of freshwater to dilute the saline seawater

Paragraph 2:

One difference among the world’s seas and oceans is that the salinity varies in different

climate zones For example, the Baltic Sea in northern Europe is one - fourth as saline as the Red Sea in the Middle East There are two reasons for this First of all, in warm climate zones, water evaporates rapidly;

therefore, the concentration of salt is greater Second, the surrounding land is dry; consequently, it does not

contribute much freshwater to dilute the salty seawater In cold climate zones, on the other hand, water

evaporates slowly Furthermore, the runoff created by melting snow adds a considerable amount of

freshwater to dilute the saline seawater.

In paragraph 1, there are confused ideas such as “There are two reasons for

this In warm climate zones, water evaporates rapidly; the concentration of salt is greater The surrounding land is dry; it does not contribute much freshwater to dilute the salty seawater In cold climate zones, water evaporates slowly The run off created by melting snow adds a considerable amount of freshwater to dilute the saline seawater” As a result, the reader finds it difficult to see the “two reasons”

because the writer does not use any signals to distinguish these reasons In contrast,

paragraph 2 is more coherent because transitional signals such as “first of all, for

example, therefore, on the other hand” show how one sentence relates to the

preceding one For example, “first of all” tells the readers this is the first reason;

“second” and “furthermore” explain that the second idea is coming

2.5 Transitional words

2.5.1 Definitions of transitional words

According to Bellquist (1993), Meyers (2002), and Le (2008), transitional words are conjunctive adverbs, connectives, or linking words which join two main clauses and which are preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma Burchfield (1996) adds that transitional words make clear relationships between ideas in a paragraph Moreover, Sadara(2006) states that transition words are used

as a device to make a paragraph cohesive Transitional words are distinguished from conjunctions by Walpole (1998) that transitional words do not connect grammatical functions in a sentence but rather logical relations between sentences

2.5.2 Kinds of transitional words

• Transitional words of Chronological order

Chronological order is one way of organizing a paragraph Oshima and Hogue (1998) confirm that chronological order means a way of organizing the ideas

in a paragraph or in an essay in the order of their occurrence in time Moreover, chronological order is a common method to organize a narrative or to relate an

event by showing or by writing “what happens first, next, and last” (cited in

Siahaan, 2007:101) To achieve coherence in writing a chronological paragraph or

essay, there are some transitional words that can be used such as firstly, secondly,

then, previously, afterward, before as, and now, and so on Besides, Oshima and

Hogue (1998) introduce some transitional words of chronological order: firstly,

secondly, next, now, then, first of all, after that, finally, last soon, gradually, meanwhile, after, as, as soon as, before, since, until, when, while The example of

the use of transitional words of chronological order is stated below

The cloning of Dolly involved several steps First, cells that had previously been

taken from Dolly’s mother were starved for five days, which caused them to stop dividing This interruption of cells’ division cycle made it easier for them to

reprogram themselves to start growing a new organism After five days, the nuclei

of these cells were removed and transferred into unfertilized sheep egg, from which

the natural nucleus had previously been removed In the next step, the egg was grown in the laboratory for a period of time Then, the egg was implanted into a

different sheep, where it grown normally When the sheep finally gave birth the lamb was the exact genetic copy, or alone, of the sheep that had provided the transferred nucleus, not of the sheep that had provided the egg (cited in Oshima and

Hogue, 1998:58)

• Transitional words of Addition

Transitional words of addition are used to give an additional idea that is related to the previous idea According to Saraka (1988), transitional words of addition show simple addition to the thought in the preceding sentences Similarly, Stephen (1982) explains that employing transitional words of addition aims to indicate further support Oshima and Hogue (1998) mention transitional words of

addition such as next, moreover, furthermore, in addition, besides, also, too, and

another, and an additional + noun that are similar to additive conjunction

categorized by Halliday and Hassan(1976) such as and, also, in addition, moreover,

furthermore The example of the use of transitional words of addition is stated

below

Examples:

1 We have seen the movie twice, and now we want to see it again

2 Cheating is dishonest Moreover, it hinders students from learning

3 Students should be on time Furthermore, they must be prepared

4 You must complete this essay by 5 p.m In addition, you must do the

exercises on page 47 (cited in Surfaifel, 2002:20)

• Transitional words of Cause and Effect

Transitional words of Cause and Effect often appear in cause and effect paragraph According to Reid (1994), if a causal paragraph discusses the causes or the reasons for effect or consequences, an effect paragraph will discuss the effect or consequences of an action, result, or occurrence Especially, Cause indicates something that makes an effect or something that produces something happens Effect’s purpose is for changing or something that causes by something It can be concluded that transitional words of Cause and Effect are words that are employed

as indicators of a cause or an effect of something McMillan (1986) states that some

transitions for Cause are as a result, because, consequently, for that reason, so, so

that, then, and therefore Oshima and Hogue (1998) also introduce transitional

words for Cause such as because of, for, because, since, as, to result from, to be the

result of, and due to The following example shows the use of Causal transitional

words

Example: He jumps out of his seat and tells the pilot to drop below

the cloud because he wants to look at a newly completed power plant.(cited in

Hogue, 2000: 40) Besides transitional words of Cause, transitional words of Effect are

therefore, for this reason, and the main consequence (Stephen, 1982:186) Oshima

and Hogue (1998) also introduce some transitional words of Effect, the first effect,

as a result, therefore, as a consequence, thus, consequently, hence, so The

following example is about the use of transitional words of effect

Example:

During the 1960s, a period of noisy student demonstrations, American colleges and universities

had an easy grading system Therefore, many students were given more A’s and B’s and fewer C’s Some

students still receive inflated grades However, the faculty at many schools has called for an end to grade

inflation Consequently, students will now have to take their classes more seriously (cited in Oshima and Hogue, 1998:135,137)

• Transitional words of Compare and Contrast

According to Oshima and Hogue (1998), transitional words of Compare and Contrast involve the analysis of similarities and differences between two or more items In fact, the transitional words of Compare are helpful for analyzing and discussing the similarities of two or more things, and the transitional words of Contrast reveal differences of two or more ones Reid (1994) shows some

transitional words of Compare: likewise, similarly, in like manner, in the same way,

also, too, the same Furthermore, Oshima and Hogue (1998) not only introduce the

kinds of transitional words of Compare but also classify them based on grammatical

function such as similarly, likewise, also, and too as sentence connector, both

…and…, not only… but also…, as

Example:

I am going to buy either a Rocket minivan or a Super Minivan The Rocket and the Super

have standard dual air bags The Rocket is equipped with four – wheel antilock brakes; also, the Super has

the newest and best braking system The Rocket seats five people in the front and middle seats, plus two more

in the rear of the Van; the Super does similarly (cited in Oshima and Hogue, 1998: 67)

Besides transitional words of Compare, there are words used as transitional words of Contrast categorized by Halliday and Hassan(1976) such as

but, yet, however, in contrast, although, even though, on the other hand, nevertheless, unlike, whereas Similarly, Oshima and Hogue (1998) introduce some

transitional words of Contrast: however, nevertheless, nonetheless, still

Example:

An American breakfast is different from a Japanese breakfast Americans start their

breakfast with orange or grapefruit juice or fruit Moreover, Americans eat harm or bacon and eggs and

toast Nevertheless, the Japanese eat broiled fish, rice, and pickled vegetables Coffee is the beverage for Americans; however, green tea is the favorite drink for the Japanese. (cited in Reid, 1994:101)

• Transitional words of Example

Transitional words of Examples are often used to strengthen the idea or

to give illustrations about the topic discussed on a paragraph or an essay In fact, giving the examples is the easiest way to illustrate the arguments of the writer and

to make it easier for the reader to understand what is being discussed Like other methods of sentence organization, transitional words of examples are employed as signals to give exemplifications on a paragraph or an essay that bring the reader into the illustration of the discussion Hence, McMillan (2006) confirms there are a great

number of words that can be used to show examples such as for example, for

instance, such as Also, Oshima and Hogue (1998) show transitional words of

Examples - for example, for instance, such as, especially

Examples:

1 I have visited too many countries For example, I have been to

Russia and Canada

2 He often eats strange foods For instance, he once ate cow brains

I like to travel Specifically, I enjoy places with old cathedrals (cited

in Hogue, 2000:42)

• Transitional words of Conclusion

Transitional words of Conclusion often stand at the beginning a concluding sentence of a paragraph or the concluding paragraph of an essay It is a fact that the reader will not know when the writer ends the discussion in his or her writing until there is a transitional word which shows that the discussion is being closed Therefore, transition words of Conclusion are used to conclude or to summarize the discussion of a paragraph or an essay According to Wingersky

(1992), transitions of Conclusion are finally, in conclusion, in summary, thus,

therefore, as a result, on the whole Moreover, Oshima and Hogue (1998) classified

transitional words of Conclusion: in conclusion, in summary, in brief, in short, and

indeed

Examples:

…in conclusion, gold is treasured not only for its beauty but also for its

utility

…in brief, learning English is necessary for job, knowledge, and travel

(cited in Oshima and Hogue 1998:25)

2.5.3 Importance of transitional words in writing

Transitional words are necessary for both the reader and the writer First of all, transitional words signal the logical flow of a text because transitional words show relationships between ideas

Example:

The river was gradually changing its course The cliff continued to erode

If the writer adds a connective to the above sentences, the reader can know whether the river is causing the erosion or not that the sentences change into “The

river was gradually changing its course; therefore, the cliff continued to erode”

Moreover, when the writer uses different connectives, the sentence implies different meanings

In addition, Hogue (2000) agrees that transitions help readers understand

how ideas fit together For example, when readers see the word “finally”, they know that the last idea is coming and the phrase “for example” shows that the next

sentence is going to be an example of the idea before it

In other words, transitional words show the reader the structure of a

paragraph For instance, words like “first” or “second” are often used as transitions

to introduce parts of a paragraph, and “furthermore” or “also” are used to indicate

that a new point is being made

In short, transitional words function as signs for readers that tell them how to think about, organize, and react to old and new ideas as they read through what the writer has written

On the other hands, the writer uses transitional words to connect simple sentences to compound sentences, complex sentences and even paragraphs In fact, according to Sadara (2006), Wingersky (1992), transitional words also allow people

to provide a powerful tool to put sentences and phrases together, bringing about coherence and consistency

(cited in Checkett, 2006:142)

In the above paragraph, all the sentences are simple and start with “The” or

“She” only that the rhythm is choppy However, in paragraph 2 (see p.18), the

rhythm is better with transitional words

Paragraph 2

The pilot took off from the airport in bright sunshine; however, the storm clouds on the horizon were thick and black Soon, the small plane began to dip and shake because the winds from the approaching storm buffered the small craft, and the pilot struggled to keep the plane aloft First, she called the airport tower for advice Next, she increased her speed Then, she headed the plane into the wind As a result, the plane responded to the controls Afterwards, she landed the plane safely at her destination Finally, she called the tower personnel and thanked them for their help

(cited in Checkett, 2006:142)

It is clear that the paragraph becomes coherent because each idea is connected to the next idea by a transitional word that help the reader understand the information in the paragraph more clearly

In conclusion, with transitional words, the writing will be clearer and easier to understand that supports the reader to inform better

2.5.4 Problems of transitional words in writing

Problems of transitional words mentioned in this study are mistakes of the connectives that occur in the students’ writing Although errors and mistakes both refer to something which is done incorrectly due to some kinds of personal misjudgment or inattention to something, they have slightly different meanings

Error usually means that the person who committed it did something wrong because they thought wrongly and judged incorrectly It is used for formal situations and is more serious since it is usually a more important problem that occurred due to the misjudgment Moreover, errors are more severe than mistakes,

so Brown (2000) classified errors into “competence errors” or “error of system” According to James (1998), in contrast to mistakes, errors are by any means

“unintentionally deviant” and “linked to incompleteness” Learners make errors when they use a wrong term, word, or form without being aware of that, and “at this

time, an error is made and it is needed for somebody to point it out to the learner to correct it” (Brown, 2000:217)

On the other hands, “mistake” refers to something that is more common

“Mistake” means that learners already know or understand the usage of the language, but unintentionally say or use it in the wrong form However, the most important difference between mistakes and errors is that learners will be able to notice mistakes and self-correct it A mistake is often referred to as a “performance error” (Brown, 2000: 217) or an error of use (Macht, 1998:353) According to James (1998:84), the most important aspect about mistakes is that the learner can be aware of their failure of “imperfection”, therefore should be able to self – correct them when being attracted to them

In short, mistakes and errors are nearly the same, but they have a little bit difference that the learners are unable to correct errors while they can self – correct the mistakes

Celce – Murcia (1983), Raimes (1998), Obrecht (2000), Joy (2008), Wyrick (2001), Dorfman (2009) discussed some common transitional words problems such as misuse of transitional words, overuse of transitional words, punctuation mistakes, spelling mistakes of transitional words

• Misuse of transitional words

Raimes (1998), Obrecht (2000) state that since transitional words indicate relationships between words and ideas, they can be misused if the relationships are not unclear or do not exist

Examples:

1 It is necessary for school children to wear uniforms when they

are at school Moreover, uniforms make school children feel equal to each other”

In example 1, the word "Moreover" does not make sense because the

first sentence confirms the importance of wearing uniforms at school, but the second one explaining equivalent feeling of wearing uniforms is not the additional

idea of the first sentence Therefore, “Moreover” is incorrect in this case

2 She decides to go out into the rain to get the cat Consequently,

her husband sits in bed reading his book

In example 2, "Consequently" is another case of misuse of transition

words because it is unclear how her husband sitting in bed reading is a consequence

of the deciding to get the cat

• Overuse of transitional words

According to Raimes (1998), Wyrick (2001), Joy (2008), although transitional words are useful in bridging the gaps between the ideas of a paragraph

or an essay, the writers should not overuse them because overuse of the transitional words can make a writing confusing In fact, not every sentence needs a transitional word; thus, a transition is used whenever the relationship between the ideas which need clarification

Example:

Writing an essay can be challenging However, there are techniques that can make the

process a little easier For example, taking plenty of notes on the subject can help the writer generate ideas Therefore, note-taking is an important "pre-writing" strategy In addition, some people "free-write," writing quickly for ten or twenty minutes to see what ideas arise However, taking notes and free-writing are only at the beginning Ideas must eventually be organized in a logical way Consequently, an outline can help the writer make sense of the rough material generated through the note-taking and free-writing process Therefore, writing an outline is another important step in the writing process However, some writers are able to conceptualize a sense of logical order for their ideas without actually writing an outline Nevertheless, these writers seem to have some kind of outline in their minds In addition, an outline should help the writer formulate a thesis for the essay Consequently, an outline can help give focus to the essay. (cited in

Wyrick, 2001: 44)

It is clear that there are so many transitional words in this text

“However, For example, Therefore, In addition, eventually, Consequently,

Therefore, However, Nevertheless” that Obrecht (2000) confirms the passage could

be stronger with fewer transitional words, but when the transitions are used at the beginning of each sentence in a paragraph, they can become annoying or even confusing to readers

• Punctuation mistakes

Celce – Murcia (1983), Wyrick (2001), and argue that transitional words are often preceded by a period or a semicolon, and always followed by a comma In case of linking two independent clauses, the correct punctuation is a semicolon after the first clause and a comma after the transitional words

Examples:

I studied hard; however, I made time to see my friends

During my holiday I had to study for exams; therefore, I couldn’t

come back my hometown

Besides, when a transitional word connects two sentences, a full stop

is placed after the first sentence and a comma follows the transitional word which is usually at the start of the sentence

Examples:

Ho Chi Minh city is one of the largest cities in Vietnam Moreover,

it has many modern office building

It has an excellent part Therefore, it is a centre for importing and

exporting

Celce – Murcia (1983), Raimes (1998) also analyze three cases of punctuation mistakes- problem with comma, problem with semicolom, and problem with period First of all, according to Celce – Murcia (1983), when a period or a semicolon occurs before a transitional word , it has a comma after it Based on this theory, some problems with comma in the students’ writing are found The first case

is the lack of commas after transitional words

Example:

Incorrect: He tried every means possible, however, he could not steer

the boat out of the storm

In the example, there is a punctuation mistake with comma because this

is a sentence with two clauses that a semicolon should be put before “however”

instead of a comma like the above sentence Therefore, the correct form is as follows:

Correct: He tried every means possible; however, he could not steer the

boat out of the storm

However, according to Celce – Murcia (1983), transitional words can be bracketed in a comma when it is in the middle of a clause such as the following illustration

Examples:

Incorrect: He tried every means possible However; he could not

steer the boat out of the storm

Correct: He tried every means possible However, he could not

steer the boat out of the storm

Or He tried every means possible; however, he could not steer the

boat out of the storm (cited in Celce – Murcia, 1983: 45)

Thirdly, as the theory mentioned above, a period is known as a signal to end a sentence, and it often stands before a transitional word to divide two sentences The following example which is extracted from the students’ writing reveals another kind of punctuation mistakes associated with the period

Examples:

Incorrect: He tried every means possible However he could not

steer the boat out of the storm

Correct: He tried every means possible However, he could not

steer the boat out of the storm

Or He tried every means possible; however, he could not steer the

boat out of the storm (cited in Celce – Murcia, 1983: 45)

• Spelling mistakes

  Raimes (1998), Dofman (2009), and have found spelling mistakes

of transitional words made by college students such as “Therefor, Specialy, further more, infact, more over, there fore, firsty, fistly, secondely, etc.”

Moreover, Raimes (1998) illustrates some spelling mistakes found

fruit Moreo ver, Americans eat harm or bacon and eggs and

toast (cited in Raimes, 1998: 34)

2.6 Previous studies

It is clear that transition words play an important role in writing because if the number of appropriate transition words is increased, readers will understand a text more fully and precisely Therefore, many scholars have shown an interest in studying transitional words Tang and Ng (1995) investigated the use of connectives

by Hongkong school students, Mahanani (2008) analyzed the use of transitional words by Students of writing II of English Department of the State Islamic University of Malang, Chen (2006) made a survey on problems of cohesive devices

made by 23 EFL college students in National Tsing Hia University, and Sugita (2012) prove transitional words enhance students’ fluency in writing in Japanese University

In terms of the choice of connectives, most studies have focused their investigation on adverbial type of conjunction solely (moreover, on the contrary, however), and the selection of connectives is mainly based on the list in Halliday and Hassan (1976), Oshima and Hogue (1988), and Quirk et al’ scheme (1996) For instance, based on Oshima and Hogue’ list, Mahanani (2008) classified transitional words into six types: addition, compare and contrast, cause and effect, example, conclusion, and chronological order In addition to Oshima and Hogue’ list, Tang and Ng (1995) consulted Quirk et all’s (1998) list and categorized the connectives into seven types: listing, summative, Chen (2006) and Sugita (2012) based on the conceptual framework by Halliday and Hassan (1976) which includes additive, causal, adversative, temporal

Methodologically, the majority of studies adopted a quantitative approach Tang and Ng (1995) collected two corpora consisted of 32 pieces of students’ writing, with 62,152 words from students of Hong Kong school in order to find out the difference between two groups of students in using connectives However, Chen (2006) analyzed connectives which were used in two take – home essays of 23 EFL students who enrolled Basic English Writing course at National Tsing Hua University Sugita (2012) made a comparison between two groups – control group and experimental group to prove transitional words enhance students’ fluency in writing The only qualitative methodology was found in Mahanani’s research (2008) Mahanani (2008) concerned to the discussion about transitional words applied on Malang university students’ essays and the contribution of transitional words in the fulfillment of coherence of those essays

As a result, most of the studies show that only some connectives are popular in students’ writing For instance, Tang and Ng (1995) found ten most

frequent connectives “and, however, for example, since, because, so, as, therefore,

in fact, besides” In the groups of transitional words, Mahanani (2008) saw that

students use a large number of transitional words of addition, chronological order, cause, example, contrast, effect On the other hands, researchers have also found evidence of misuse of connectives Chen (2006) recognized that college students often overuse conjunctive adverbs Tang and Ng (1995) found that their students

had to face with problems of three connectives “and, however, besides”

Despite the fact that problems of transitional words and frequency of connectives were not their primary concern, Sugita (2012) concluded that transitional words enhance students’ fluency in writing Therefore, writing teachers should provide feedback on the use of transition words and teach students the effectiveness of using sentences connectors

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter is concerned with the methodological issues of the study Specifically, it describes: (1) the participants of the study; (2) the collection method; and (3) data analysis

3.1 Participants

There were 106/112(95% of total students) ninth grade students – forty nine male and fifty seven females who were from three different classes at Tri Ton secondary school, involved in this study They were taking the first semester of the school year 2011 – 1012 Most of the students were at the same age – fourteen years old, and they were studying the textbook “Tieng Anh 9” They had three periods per week for English and each period lasted for forty five minutes In these periods, students were taught how to write sentences, paragraphs, and were provided with opportunities to get familiarized with writing styles such as description, argumentation, letters

3.2 Data collection

Due to the limitation of time, the researcher asked the students to write two writing assignments As a result, a total of 212 paragraphs from these two writing assignments were collected and analyzed

Each student was asked to write two separate paragraphs of one hundred or one hundred and fifty words for each In the first paragraph, students were asked to write advantages or disadvantages of using the Internet In the second paragraph, students would argue whether they agreed or disagreed about wearing uniform in secondary school Although there were various genres of writing such as description, cause and effect, compare and contrast, opinion, and so on, the researcher chose two these topics that belonged to only one genre – the

argumentative paragraph to increase the internal validity of this study because the student had more opportunities to elicit the maximum of transitional words with argumentative genre According to Granger and Tyson (1996), transitional words in argumentative essays were more popular than those in descriptions or in other genres Furthermore, in an argumentative writing, students had to pay more attention to the organization of their thought, so more transitional words would be used

3.3 Identification of transitional words 3.3.1 Selection of transitional words

To ensure a comprehensiveness of transitional words selection, it was expected that the list of transition words by Oshima and Hogue (1998) is used as a framework for investigating students’ use of transitional words in this study Oshima and Hogue (1998) categorized transitional words into six types - transitional words of Chronological Order, transitional words of addition, transitional words of Cause and Effect, transitional words of Compare and Contrast, transitional words of Giving Example, transitional words of Conclusion that are summarized in following table

Transitional words of Chronological Order

firstly, secondly, thirdly, next, first of all, finally, then

Transitional words of addition

moreover, furthermore, and, besides, also, in addition

Transitional words of Cause and Effect

as a result, because, consequently, so, so that, therefore, thus, hence

Transitional words of Compare and Contrast

similarly, likewise, but, yet, however, in contrast, although, even though, on the other hand, nevertheless, unlike, whereas

Transitional words of Giving Example

for example, for instance, such as, especially, in fact

Transitional words of Conclusion

in conclusion, in summary, thus, as a result, on the whole, to conclude, in brief, in short

Table 3.1 Oshima and Hogue (1998)’s framework of transitional words

3.3.2 Extraction of transitional words

Each instance of transitional words was highlighted and recorded manually in this study To be marked as transitional words, expressions must contain in the above list (Table 3.1), and they must satisfy the definition of transitional words which were discussed in chapter two (page 11) Moreover, to guarantee the reliability of the marking, two experienced teachers who taught English to students at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang were asked to mark transitional words in the students’ writing

The following sample paragraph, extracted from a student’s writing, illustrated how an expression was identified as the transitional words and how the use of transitional words was considered as problems

Internet in Vietnam is generally favorable for many people but

basically we have the three following advantages Firstly, we get a lot of

information such as news, articles, and weather forecasts very fast and

conveniently For example (*) we can get political news online updated every society as well as we can read the article on the internet Secondly, we can listen to music, watch films, and play games, read books, stories Thirdly (*) internet has communication function For example, we can communicate with the distant friends, relatives In addition, we can even see their pictures through webcam However (*), the internet can help us a lot in life for searching

information, relaxing, and communicating

There were seven transitional words indentified in the sample, four of which were correct uses and three of which were problems The asterisk (*) was used as a signal of problems of transitional words

The transitional word “for example” in the seventh line, which was taken as

an illustration to explain one of the benefits of the internet, was a case of correct use

because “for example” could be located as a type of transitional words - transitional words for Addition Furthermore, “for example” was used to connect two linguistic units “internet has communication function”, and “we can communicate with the

distant friends, relatives In addition, we can even see their pictures through webcam”

The transitional word “however” in the eighth line was considered as a case

of misuse “however” was often used to indicate information that seems very different from what have been just said, but the idea “the internet can help us a lot

in life for searching information, relaxing, and communicating” just summarized

the main idea of the paragraph which was a conclusion of the paragraph instead of

expressing a contrast idea with the previous thought

3.4 Data collection procedure

The thesis was conducted at Tri Ton secondary school in An Giang for two months (from October 1st to December 4th, 2011) Most of the students, who joined this study, had never participated in any research before The steps taken in the collection of data were as follows:

Step 1: Before carrying out the writing tasks, all the students were

explained and assured that their assignments would be only served for the study and would not affect their scores

Step 2: On the first day of October of the academic year 2011 – 2012, the

9th grade students of three classes were required to complete the first writing task:

“Should secondary school students wear uniform or casual clothes when they are at school?” Then, on the first day of November of the academic year 2011 – 2012, the

9th grade students of three classes were required to complete the second writing task: “advantages or disadvantages of using the Internet” Both paragraphs were written about from 100 to 150 words without notes and dictionaries in sixty minutes

in three invigilated classrooms

Step 3: All the students’ writing assignments were collected for analyzing

the data

Furthermore, to obtain the ratios of transitional words in the corpus, the Microsoft Word – 2007 processing program was used to count the total number of words in each paragraph Then, the overall occurrence of individual transitional words in the corpus was divided by the total number of words to get the ratio occurrence in the corpus

3.5.2 Qualitative analysis

The qualitative analysis emphasized the actual use of transitional words in the student writing A table showing the accurate and erroneous uses of individual transitional words in the student writing was generated The transitions that demonstrate occurrence and particularity in this table were selected for a detailed text for analysis “Feature occurrence” means that the transitional words chosen appeared in the student writing “Feature particularity” means that the transitional words problems were identified, analyzed, and demonstrated basing on the checklist

of transitional words problems by Celce – Murcia (1983), Raimes (1998), Obrecht (2000), Wyrick (2001), Joy (2008), Dorfman (2009), as follows:

• Misuse of transitional words

Raimes (1998) and Obrecht (2000) state that because transitional words indicate relationships between words and ideas, transitional words can be misused if relationships, which are indicated by the transitional words, are unclear

or do not exist