INTRODUCTION
Rationale
English is a crucial communication tool, and Vietnamese students increasingly recognize its importance for their education and future Proficient English communication skills significantly enhance students' success in school and throughout their lives Unfortunately, many students fall short of meeting employers' expectations, particularly in oral communication skills.
At Dong Trieu High School, English is a mandatory subject and a key component of the high school examination, aimed at equipping students with essential communication skills and serving as a gateway to science and technology Despite this emphasis, students face significant challenges, often remaining silent during speaking lessons due to a lack of confidence in their spoken English While many demonstrate strong grammar knowledge and excel in reading and writing tasks, they struggle to articulate their thoughts and formulate questions effectively, frequently making errors with question words and the structure of wh-questions.
Questions are essential for effective communication, both in speaking lessons and daily interactions They facilitate the exchange of information, ideas, feelings, and knowledge Additionally, questions can serve other purposes, such as seeking confirmation, expressing irony, or avoiding direct responses Ultimately, questions are indispensable in fostering meaningful communication.
English wh-questions have been extensively researched by various linguists, contributing significantly to the understanding of this question type for Vietnamese learners of English Notable MA theses on the subject include Hoa N.T.X (1996), who examines English questions through the lens of subject-predicate inversion, and Ms Nguyet D.T.M (1996), who focuses on teachers' questions and politeness strategies Additionally, Tuyet L.T.A (1996) offers a comparative analysis of English wh-questions.
This article explores English wh-questions and their Vietnamese counterparts, focusing on their syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features A notable Ph.D dissertation has examined these aspects, particularly the semantic and pragmatic dimensions of English wh-questions in comparison to Vietnamese While previous research has approached the topic from various perspectives, primarily emphasizing either syntactic and semantic features or offering a general overview of wh-questions in both languages, there remain significant gaps that require further investigation.
This paper focuses on the linguistic features of English wh-questions and their implications for teaching The author investigates common mistakes made by students at Dong Trieu High School when using wh-questions Based on these findings, the author offers suggestions to help students overcome difficulties and improve their fluency in forming questions.
Aims of the study
The aims of the study are to:
(i) help students gain an insightful look into linguistic features of English WH-questions
(ii) deepen the author's knowledge related to the theme with a view to improving the teaching o f English WH-questions to Vietnamese learners of English.
Objectives of the study
The objectives of the study are:
(i) examining as closely as possible linguistic features of English WH- questions
(ii) identifying some common errors and mistakes made by Vietnamese students in using WH – questions
(iii) proposing some possible solutions to the problems identified
The objectives of the study can be elaborated into these research questions:
1 What are the linguistic features of English WH-questions?
2 What types of errors and mistakes do students at Dong Trieu High school often make in using English WH-questions?
3 What should be done to improve students' skills in using English WH- questions?
Scope of the study
This study examines the structural, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of WH-questions in English, specifically targeting information-seeking and rhetorical WH-questions Additionally, it aims to identify common errors made by English learners at Dong Trieu High School.
Methods of the study
This study employs a combination of research methods, starting with the descriptive method to identify the linguistic features of English WH-questions It will involve meticulous collection of materials from diverse sources Additionally, a survey will be conducted to identify the common categories of mistakes made by Vietnamese students when using WH-questions The analysis of students' errors will lead to the proposal of potential solutions to address these challenges.
Design of the study
This thesis consists of three main parts:
Part 1 is the Introduction to the study It includes the rationale for choosing the topic, the aims, the objectives, the scope, the research methods, significance and design of the study
Part 2 consists of three chapters, in which chapter 1 provides readers with (i) previous works related to the thesis and (ii) some theoretical background on English questions in general, and WH - questions in particular Chapter 2 provides a detailed analysis of English WH-questions in terms of p r ag ma t i c and semantic features Chapter 3 presents a survey of common mistakes made by Vietnamese students in using English WH-questions Also, suggested solutions are offered
Part 3 is the conclusion of the study It provides specific conclusions on each of the thesis objectives, in addition to a summary of the main points presented in the thesis and suggestions for future research.
Significance of the study
The thesis can be employed as a reference that provides a systematic report on theoretical issues related to WH - questions in English
To some possible extent, this thesis would facilitate the teaching and learning of
WH - questions in English via the obtainable information and research results provided in the thesis.
DEVELOPMENT
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Review of previous works related to the theme of the thesis
So far there have been a lot of research works ranging from journal articles to MA theses, PhD dissertation to ministry - level research projects in and outside Vietnam
Understanding of English questions in general and WH - questions in particular can be obtained via the following MA theses:
(i) Hoa N.T.X (1996) English questions in terms of S-P inversion, MA thesis
(ii)Tuyet L.T.A (1996) English questions and politeness strategies, MA thesis
Prominent among research works on English questions are the projects by Suu, Nguyen Dang and Quang, Vo Dai In the unpublished Ph.D dissertation entitled
“English questions as contrasted with those in Vietnamese” (2001) Suu, Nguyen
Dang has offered a clear insight into English questions non-proper
Research by Vo Dai Quang (2000) provides valuable insights into the semantics and pragmatics of English question types, particularly focusing on alternative questions This study also draws comparisons with Vietnamese, enhancing the understanding of question structures across both languages.
Vo Dai Quang's research explores the semantic and pragmatic characteristics of English question types, particularly focusing on non-choice questions and the expression of interpersonal meaning in both English and Vietnamese His studies, published in LANGUAGE magazine and supported by a Ministry-level research project at Vietnam National University, analyze various elements such as question patterns, interactional features, and modality markers Building on these foundational insights, this thesis aims to apply these research findings to enhance the teaching of WH-questions to Vietnamese learners of English.
1.2 Review of relevant theoretical preliminaries employable as tools for the research
Questions are commonly defined as sentences that seek information and are typically followed by a question mark (?) The Longman Dictionary of the English Language provides a detailed definition of a question.
A question is defined as a command or an interrogative expression aimed at eliciting information or a response, as well as testing knowledge According to Lynch (1991), a question functions as an utterance with specific illocutionary forces Additionally, Quirk et al (1970 and 1985) describe a question as a semantic class utilized to seek information on a particular topic.
And another linguist, Givon (1990), observes that language employ at least three, non-exclusive, devices to signal a question:
(ii) the addition of morphology or independent lexical items (“Q- markers”);
Quirk (1978) identifies three criteria for classifying an utterance as a question: the placement of the operator before the subject, the positioning of an interrogative or wh-element at the beginning, or a rise in intonation at the end of the utterance.
1.2.1.2 Definition and types of Wh-questions in English
According to Quirk et al (1978), wh-questions are formed with the aid of one of the following interrogative words (or wh-words or sometimes called wh-elements)
Wh-questions are a specific type of inquiry that start with words such as who, whom, whose, which, where, when, and why Notably, while "how" does not begin with "wh," it is often included in discussions about this category of questions.
Unlike yes-no questions, wh-questions generally have falling intonation However, they sometimes have rising tone, which concerns the interest in the answer
A wh-question is often formed according to the following rule
- The wh-element (ie the clause element containing the wh-word) come first in the sentence apart from some conjuncts such as on the other hand
- The wh-word itself takes first position in the wh-element However, in more formal style, the preposition precedes the complement
For questions that are seeking information, you place an interrogative-word before the inversion, such as:
The answer here will be the “what”, and you should see that in the statement form (of a full answer), this information replaces the interrogative pronoun and becomes the object:
Because all you are asking for the “what”, you an also give a very short answer
What are you studying? English
A wh-question is an open-ended inquiry that seeks specific information, identified by a wh-element such as "who," "what," "when," or "how." In these interrogative forms, the wh-element is positioned at the beginning of the question, regardless of its grammatical function in the clause, whether as a subject, adjunct, conjunct, or complement Essentially, wh-questions aim to convey information about a person, object, time, manner, and more.
Wh-information questions, unlike yes/no questions, inherently carry a presupposition For example, the question "What did John do?" implies that John indeed performed an action.
2a How did they do it? They did it somehow
2b Where did John go? John went somewhere
2c Whose book was stolen? Someone’s book was stolen
2d What has he done? He has done something
2e Who is doing it? Someone is doing it
Rhetorical questions often utilize wh-words but are not intended to elicit information or expect answers Instead, they serve to convey the speaker's strong opinions or feelings, emphasizing their perspective rather than engaging the listener in a dialogue.
E.g 1 Who does she think she is? She had no right to use my computer
2 What on earth do you think you are doing? It’s my private land
In wh-questions, the wh-word typically precedes a verb, which may be a modal verb like can, could, may, or might, or an auxiliary verb such as do, be, or have.
These modal verbs or auxiliaries are called operators Operator is the term that is given to the part of the verbal group that comes before the split in a question
E.g 1 Is the lilltle girl sleeping?
2 Does she still love you?
3 How long have you been waiting for me?
In English, the operators "Is," "Does," and "Have" are essential for forming questions, often requiring the inversion of the subject and the operator When no auxiliary verb is present in a statement, "do" serves as the operator in the question Additionally, the lexical forms of "be" and "have" in British English can also function as operators.
E.g 1 What do you often do in your free time?
Question words, commonly starting with the wh-form, are essential for seeking missing information These words, known as wh-question words, typically begin with "wh," with "how" as a notable exception They can function as pronouns, adverbs, or determiners, effectively introducing noun phrases The key wh-question words include who, whom, whose, which, what, where, when, why, and how.
1.2.3.1 Functions performed by the Wh-word
1.2.3.1.1 Wh-words as interrogative pronouns
Wh-words in questions, known as interrogative pronouns, share characteristics with other pronouns by replacing nouns or entire noun phrases According to Quirk (1978), these pronouns typically do not occur with determiners like the definite article or pre-modification The five wh-words that function as pronouns include who, whom, whose, what, and which.
Who, whom, and whose are forms that represent subjective, objective, and genitive cases, respectively, and they reflect personal gender In contrast, what and which lack gender and case distinctions, allowing them to be used for inquiries about both people and objects.
As a pronoun, the interrogative pronouns can be used as the subjects of the questions
Most of the interrogative pronouns can act as the subjects of the wh-questions except whom, even whose can also appear alone as an anaphoric noun phrase
1 Who taught you some Italian?
2 Which is his father’s car?
Who, whom, which and what can be used as an object of a verb or prepositional complement
E.g 5 Who(m) did you meet at the party last night?
6 Which do you want to buy this one or that one?
7 What did your friend give you yesterday?
However, when used as an object, whom is considered to be more formal and only whom can normally follow the preposition In daily conversations, who is normally used
E.g 8 To whom are you writing?
9 Who are you writing to?
10 Whom are you writing to?
Both who and whom can take initial position, as in (9) and (10) leaving the preposition deferred at the end of the clause
The pronoun "what" can refer to both personal and non-personal subjects, but when used for people, it is restricted to inquiries about their profession, role, or status.
As a pronoun, what acts as a head of a noun phrase to identify certain kinds of property, profession, religion, race, nationality, etc
B: It’s 52 Quang Trung, Hai Duong
14 A: What is your father doing now?
B: he’s repairing my old bike
15 A: What was the concert like last night?
What can occur in prepositional compliments with the preposition either in intitial or in final (deferred) position; but with an initial preposition, the construction is formal and rather rare
E.g 16 What are they looking for?
17 About what are they talking?
METHODOLOGY
The research approach in the study is used that qualitative research and inductive
The main instrument employed to gather data in this study are:
2.1.2.1.1 Objectives of the survey questionnaire
The survey questionnaire is designed to identify the common mistakes made by eleventh grade students in using English wh- questions The findings from this survey will inform the author's recommendations aimed at enhancing students' proficiency in formulating questions.
A survey questionnaire was administered to 50 grade 11 students, enabling the collection of qualitative data This method is advantageous as it simplifies the summarization, analysis, and reporting of the data, given that all participants responded to identical questions.
The questionnaire, which is detailed in the appendix, has been meticulously crafted to align with the objectives of my study It consists of a total of 20 questions, including pairs designed to contrast their functions and structures effectively.
“who” in which the first one acts as the subject of the question, the second one is the object Five what-questions are used (Q3,Q5,Q15,Q19,Q20) “What” in question 5 and
The article discusses the usage of the word "what" in various questions, highlighting its different functions In question 3, "what" refers to a person's profession, while in question 19, it serves as the subject of the sentence Question 20 employs "what" as a determiner with indefinite reference, contrasting with question 8, which has a definite reference Additionally, question 6 uses "what like?" to inquire about appearance, in contrast to question 7, which uses "how" to ask about health Questions 9 and 10 both utilize "when," with the former serving as the subject and the latter as an adjunct of time.
The article discusses the usage of "where" and "when" as both adjuncts and subjects in English wh-questions It aims to identify common mistakes related to the structure, word choice, and grammar in the formation of these questions.
The study collects the data from reliable sources is that students’ actual test and questionnaires
In this study, the techniques employed in the analysis process are:
The subjects for this research were 50 students who were selected deliberately from the 11 th form at Dong Trieu high school in the first semester 2013-2014 Most of grade
Students in the 11th grade at Dong Trieu High School, aged 16 to 17, have varying levels of English proficiency, having studied the language for at least five years While some students excel in English, the majority face challenges in their language skills All students share a common background, hailing from the Dong Trieu district.
The main research methods employed for the study are:
- Descriptive methods are used to describe the actual errors committed by the students
- Error analysis and action research
The other research methods used for the study are:
- Statistical analysis methods are used to describe the actual errors committed by the students
This chapter outlines the study's methodology and provides an overview of the English teaching and learning environment at Dong Trieu High School, involving 50 eleventh-grade students To meet the study's objectives, the researcher utilized two primary instruments: a survey questionnaire and students' tests, along with observational methods The use of these instruments aims to ensure the collection of reliable and valid data.
FINDINGS AND DICUSSIONS
In this chapter, the author explores the linguistic characteristics of English wh-questions, focusing on both structural and semantic-pragmatic features The discussion includes a comprehensive examination of wh-questions in daily discourse, culminating in an analysis of their semantic features, particularly presuppositions.
3.1 Lingistic features of Wh-questions
3.1.1 Wh-words as subjects of the wh-questions
In the initial section of chapter 2, the author aims to explore the structure of wh-questions where the question words serve as the subjects of the sentences.
When asking about the subjects of the wh-questions, we often use such wh- words as what, who, whose, which, how much + noun(noncount) and howmany + Noun (pl)
For example: 1 Who helped you to finish the work yesterday?
3 How much money is spent on advertising everyday?
4 How many people took part in the games last Sunday?
In questions where the wh-element functions as the subject, the sentence structure remains unchanged, with the wh-element positioned at the start For tenses such as the simple present and simple past, auxiliary verbs like "do" or "did" are not added.
In the first example, the subject is "who," with the predicate encompassing the rest of the sentence The question is structured by placing the wh-word "who" in the subject position, focusing on the subject of the sentence The speaker is aware that someone assisted with the work yesterday but is uncertain about their identity In the second example, the subject is "what," and the predicate includes the remaining elements The question, which pertains to the subject of the sentence—indicating that something occurred—is formed by inserting the wh-word "what" into the subject position, requiring no additional modifications aside from the question mark.
A subject wh-question is an open-ended inquiry that can yield multiple answers, seeking specific information about the subject performing the action in a sentence To construct such a question, a "question element" must be placed before the subject, following established grammatical rules.
To create a subject Wh-question in English, substitute the subject with a question word, using "who" for people and "what" for non-persons The word order remains the same as in a positive sentence, and there is no auxiliary verb in subject Wh-questions for the Present Simple and Past Simple tenses Essentially, the question word directly replaces the subject in the sentence structure.
Hower, do can be used after a subject question word for emphasis, to insist on an answer
5 Well tell us – what did happen when your father found you?
6 So who did marry the Princess at the end?
When who, what and which serve as the subjects of the wh-question, They can be considered either singular or plural form The following pairs of examples illustrate this:
7a Who is in favour of the proposal?
7b Who are in favour of the proposal?
8a Which member of the carbinet leaked the information to the press? 8b Which members of the carbinet leaked the information to the press?
Whether the wh-word is singular or plural depends on the situation and the presupposition of the speaker
Let’s consider the first pair 7a and 7b This pair of examples is given by a chairman as part of a voting procedure
In the voting process, there are two main groups: those in favor and those against Typically, only one individual can represent either position Therefore, if the voting outcome is unclear, the inquiry about the voters should be framed in plural terms Conversely, if it is established that only one person holds a specific stance, the singular form should be used.
In pairs 8a and 8b, leaking specific information is generally perceived as an individual activity, although it can involve multiple individuals Consequently, using the singular form is appropriate in this context.
These considerations seem to conclude that there is no clear grammatical distinction between singular and plural forms of wh-words
In questions where wh-elements are not the subject, the structure is formed by inverting the auxiliary verb and the subject In cases where there is no auxiliary verb, such as in the simple present and simple past tenses, "do" is used as the operator Additionally, in British English, the lexical verbs "Be" and "Have" can also function as operators in question formation.
1 Who did you meet at the reunion party yesterday?
2 when did your father give up smoking?
3 how long have you been waiting for me?
In the first example, the presupposition is that "You met someone at the reunion party yesterday." Here, "You" serves as the subject, while the predicate is "met someone at the reunion party yesterday." The complete sentence underlying the question reveals that the unknown information pertains to the direct object of the verb "met." From this, we can derive a key rule regarding sentence structure and presupposition.
To form a correct question about a recent encounter, start with the statement "You met who at the reunion party yesterday?" Then, invert "who" to the front: "Who you met at the reunion party?" Next, add the operator "did" before the subject and change the verb "met" to its base form "meet." The resulting question is: "Who did you meet at the reunion party yesterday?"
In formal contexts, "whom" can replace "who," but it is rarely used in questions Native speakers typically avoid using "whom" in casual inquiries.
The structure of the question above is: Who/Whom + operator + Subject + verb?
The same procedures can be applied to question 2 and 3 There fore, we can have the following structure
Adjunct/ Wh Operator Subject Verb ?
Questions words and expressions can be used to ask for most kinds of word- for example a subject ( who, what, which), and object (who, whom, what), a determiner
In English, we use words like "what," "which," and "whose" as adjectives, and expressions such as "where," "when," "why," and "how" as adverbials However, there is no straightforward word or expression to inquire about a verb To address this, we typically construct a sentence using "what" in combination with "do."
1 What are you doing next weekend? Resting
The answer to what ….do can include a verb together with what follows it
2 What’s Helen doing? Getting all the rubbish out of the car
To ask for a transitive verb when the subject and the object are both mentioned, we use what ….do to/with
3 What have you done to your leg? Broken it
4 What are you doing with my camera?
When a question word is the object of a preposition, the preposition most often comes at the end of the clause, especially in informal usage For example:
1 Who is the present for?
2 What are you looking at?
3 Where did she buy it from?
Some questions consist simply of question word + preposition
However, this structure is unusual when there is a noun with the question word Inthis case, preposition often precedes the question word
On the other hand, in a more formal style, a preposition is often put earlier in questions, before the question words
8 With whom did she go?
However, in a very formal style, a prepositions are not often put at the beginning of questions which have “be” as the main verb
9 Who is it for, madam?
Certain question structures, including "where to?", "what like?", and "what for?", follow a fixed order In these instances, we typically do not place the preposition at the beginning of the questions preceding the question words.
10.Where shall I send it to?
11.What does she look like?
12.What did she buy that for?
To express surprise, dismay, or perplexity in wh-questions, one effective method is to include an expletive following the wh-word Here are some mild examples.
1 What on earth have you done to yourself?
2 Where the hell have you been all this morning?
3 Why the devil did they leave so early?