First of all, I would like to give my deepest gratitude to Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Dung, M.A, my supervisor. She is the person who made clear my confused initials ideals, step by step guiding me during my writing so that I could finish my study. I am sure it would have not been possible with her help. Secondly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of my teachers who have encouraged and helped me develop ideas for my thesis, especially Mrs. Pham Thi Kim Cuc, my class’s formal teacher who was willing to answer any questions for what I myself could not solve and give me best suggestions;and Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Hoa, M.A for her encouragement and helping me gain materials as well as her advice on my paper. Besides, I take this opportunity to thank the teachers and the students at Ngo Gia Tu high school for their support and helping me to complete my study. Constantly, I would also express thanks to my dear friends who have shared with me a lot during my study and my research as well. Last but not least, rather than final I would like to send my great thanks to all members in my family for their support and encouragement for my study. Without help from these people, I would have met a lot of difficulties in doing this graduation paper.
Trang 11 Background of the study
English is an international language and has been widely used in so manycountries in the world In Vietnamese, is also considered as the most importantforeign language which has been taught as a compulsory subject for many years.There are three important components in a language, namely pronunciation,grammar and vocabulary One of the most important aspects of English isgrammar which is considered as a challenge for many teachers and students ofEnglish at schools Especially for tenses, the play an important part in Englishgrammar, they are always put in tests and exams for students of high schools.However, many students often use tenses incorrectly, especially for presenttenses They are often confused with using present tenses so they make meaning
of the sentences change and make them wrong in grammatical rules
In learning languages, using present tenses cause lots of difficulties forlearners of English as a foreign language It is also one of the basic factors tocomplete grammatical and lexical meaning in a sentence Therefore, usingpresent tenses correctly is very necessary to students learning English
However, there is a fact that English learner in general and students ofgrade 10 students at Ngo Gia Tu High school,Vinh Phuc province in particularstill do not know how to using present tenses in English in a correct way Theymake many mistakes when using present tenses in tests and exams Finding thecommon mistakes in using present tenses will help teachers find out good way
to correct those mistakes for students For main reason above, I choose the
subject: “Common mistakes in using present tenses of grade 10 students at Ngo Gia Tu High school,Vinh Phuc province: the current situation and solutions” for my graduation paper
Trang 22 Previous Research
2.1 In the world
There are many linguistics studying English in general and the grammar
of English in particular such as Vinh Ba, Le Huy Tuong, Micleal, A.J Thompsonand so on They make a great contribution on studying English grammar tolearner Not only has one aspect of English grammar been studied but allstructures of English grammar as well
A study on simple past tense errors is “ L1 influence in simple past tense errors – the case of Mandarin and Tamil ESL learners” by Mike Tiittanen.
This study investigated the types of errors which Tamil and Mandarin L1ESL learners made in obligatory contexts for the use of the simple past tense on
a fill-in-the-gap task and on two oral tasks The results of the study indicate thatboth L1 groups made similar types of mistakes in such contexts (e.g – thebase form) Although learner developmental factors plausibly account for many
of the errors, the frequency of some of the types of errors appears to have beeninfluenced by the learners’ L1 as well
2.3 In Hung Vuong University
This is the first time the research “ Common mistakes in using present tenses of grade 10 students at Ngo Gia Tu High school,Vinh Phuc province: the current situation and solutions” is carried out in Hung Vuong University.
With this research, the researcher hopes that students can understand moreclearly about the present tenses in English and have better results in tests exams
Trang 33 Research Purpose
This study is intended to help students understand the usages of presenttenses in English On the other hand, the researcher wants to reduce student’smistakes when using present tenses in English
This study aims to:
- Studying the usages of present tenses in English
- Giving the current situation and identifying common mistakes on usingpresent tenses in English of grade 10 students at Ngo Gia Tu highschool,Vinh Phuc pronvince
- Suggesting some possible solutions
4 Research questions
The study will find the answers for the following questions:
- What are common mistakes made by grade 10 students at Ngo Gia TuHigh School in using present tense?
- Which solutions should be done to minimize these mistakes?
5 The methods of research
1.5.1 Theoretical research method
The study was based on some theoretical researchers on English tenses ingeneral and the usages of present tenses in particular By theoretical method theresearcher will in the literature study section to get the basis for the research
1.5.2 Statistical method
To make statistics about common mistakes in using present tenses ofgrade 10 students at Ngo Gia Tu High School The researcher uses some tools tocollect data
1.5.2.1 Questionnaires
This research paper was conducted at Ngo Gia Tu High School.Questionnaires were designed for the students to get basic information aboutsituation of teaching and learning present tenses at school
Trang 41.5.2.2 Interview
Besides questionnaires, the researcher also use personal interview to getmore reliable information about common mistakes of using present tenses ofgrade 10 students at Ngo Gia Tu High School
6 The significance of the research
- Firstly and foremost, the paper studies the current situation of usingpresent tenses of grade 10 students at Ngo Gia Tu High School to find outcommon mistakes and then the researcher give out some solutions to helpstudents reduce these mistakes
- Secondly, The result of this research will help teachers and students atNgo Gia Tu High School in teaching and learning English Grammar effectively
- Lastly, the finding of this research may be used as reference for readerswho conduct a research in this field
7 The object of the research
The object of the research will primarily on analyzing the commonmistakes of using present tenses: simple present tense, present continuous tense,present perfect tense The researcher will get data and information from 3classes with 150 students at Ngo Gia Tu high school Additionally, the researchaims at giving out some solutions to correct those mistakes
8 Hypothesis
The researcher bases on the usage of present tenses, finding commonmistakes of grade 10 students at Ngo Gia Tu High School, the causes for thesemistakes and application of proposed solutions will help students to understand
Trang 5and use present tenses in English correctly Their knowledge of how to usepresent tenses correctly will help reduce and overcome their mistakes in usingpresent tenses and improve the results of their English learning.
9 Design of the study
The study consists of 3 parts and references
Introduction
This is the chapter that introduces an overall view of the research
Chapter 1: Literature Review
Literature review of English grammar, present tenses, and mistakes inusing present tenses are provided in this chapter
Chapter 2: The study
This chapter analyzes the data collected from students surveyquestionnaires and an interview for the teachers on teaching and learning presenttenses, collected a written test to find out common mistakes made by students ofgrade 10 at Ngo Gia Tu high school After that the researcher finds the causesfor students’ mistakes
Chapter 3: Suggestion some solutions
In this chapter, the researcher provides some solutions, which followsthese causes in chapter 2
Conclusion
A conclusion of the study gives a summary of the whole research,provides limitations of the research and suggestions for further research
CHAPTER 1
Trang 6LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 English Grammar
1.1.1 Definition of Grammar
According to Ur (1996 : 75) grammar is defined as “ the way words are put together to make correct sentence” or “a set of rules that define how words (or parts of words) are combined or changed to form acceptable units of meaning within a language”.
According to David Crystal, in “Word and Deed” TES Teacher, April 30,
2004, grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves.The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaningand effectiveness of the way we and others use language It can help fosterprecision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available inEnglish And it can help everyone not only teachers of English, but teachers ofanything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning
1.1.2 The importance of Grammar
1.2 English Tenses
1.2.1 The definition of Tenses
The term "tense" is derived from the Latin translation of the Greek word for "time" (Lyons, 1968: 304) The etymological meaning is not much different
from the definitions presented in many dictionaries and grammar references.Generally, most lexicographers and grammarians today define tense as the verb-form denoting time (Hornby and Parnwell, 1979; Urdong, 1968; Guntram 1985;swan, 1980; Hodges et al,1990)
In grammar, the students are provided with many rules of a language.One of them is tense Hornby (1995:123) states that tense is a verb form orseries of verb forms used to indicate the time of the action or state It isimportant for the students to learn tenses since they have great influence informing the meaning of sentences Tense may indicate whether an activity orstate is, was, or will be completed or whether it is, was, or will be in progressover period of time In learning English as a foreign language, it is very
Trang 7important to know the rules of tenses as part of grammar By knowing the rules
of tenses, the students are believed to be able to construct good sentences inEnglish communication In other words, it is believed that by mastering thetenses as one aspect in English grammatical structure, the students will be able
to communicate in English correctly
1.2.2 The classification of Tenses
1.3 Present Simple Tense
According to Krohn (1971), simple present tense is tense denoting anaction happening in this time This tense is used to talk about things in general
We are not only thinking about now, but it is used to say something is true ingeneral
1.6 Distinguishing Present Simple, Present Continuous and Present Perfect
1.6.1 The Present Simple Tense and the Present Continuous Tense
1.6.2 The Past Simple Tense and the Present Perfect Tense
1.7 Mistakes in English
1.7.1 What is a mistake?
According to Norrish (1982 : 138), mistake is a non - systematic codeindicating in complete learning A mistake refers to a performance errors that israndom guess or a slip In that it is failure to utilize known system correctly
Besides, Corder (1994) says that a mistake occurs when learners fail toperform their competence, that is, it is a result of processing problems that
Trang 8prevent learners from accessing their knowledge of a target language rule andcause to fall back on some alternative, non- standard rule that they find easy toaccess.
1.7.2 Common mistakes in English Grammar Tenses
According to the webside: mistakes-english-grammar-tenses-13375.html (23/5/2008), the English languagehas a more complex tense system than many languages do, and it can be difficultfor non-native and even native speakers to master Several common errors inEnglish grammar stem from the way that English conjugates verb tense that is,the way it changes verbs to communicate past, present and future action
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/common- Multiple past-tense markers
Incorrect Tense with a temporal adverb
Incorrect Tense with irregular verbs
Incorrect sequence of Tenses
THE STUDY CHAPTER 2 THE COMMON MISTAKES IN USING PRESENT TENSES
Trang 92.1 An introduction of grade 10 students and teachers of English at Ngo Gia Tu High School
The study was conducted with participation of a total of 150 students of 3classes at grade 10 in Ngo Gia Tu high school Most of them have been studiedEnglish for six or seven years at elementary and secondary school and they arenow at the second term of the the school year
Although the students have been studied English for six or seven years,the fact that they do not really acquaint to basic grammar and main skills inEnglish Besides, they have not been studied each of the aspects carefully anddone variety of exercises Moreover, classes of English as other subjects arelarge, there are frequently 45 to 50 students in a class Thus, time for studentspracticing is limited
Besides, the textbook of 10th grade is designed following with manycommunicable topics The textbook includes 16 units, each of which covers 5parts such as: Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing and Language Forcus.Each unit has a part of the grammar and this is followed by a set of practiceexercises For example, in unit 3, the student will be revised about the present
simple and the present progressive And in unit 4 about “special education”, the
present perfect will be presented
Being a young teaching staff, they give students enthusiasm andresponsibility in training and educational career Besides, they also give newmethods to make students more interested in the English class However, due toeffect of old teaching methods, some teachers have not met demand of studentsyet and students have not played center role in the class
2.2 Data collection
2.2.1 The survey questionaires
2.2.1.1 Causes for choosing the survey questionnaires
2.2.1.2 Description of the survey questionnaires
2.2.2 Test
2.2.2.1 Causes for choosing the test
Trang 102.2.2.2 Description of the test
2.2.3 Interviews
2.2.3.1 Causes for interviewing
2.2.3.2 The description of interviews
2.3 Data analysis, Discussion and Findings
2.3.1 Data analysis
2.3.1.1 Data collection from survey questionnaires
After giving and collecting the survey questionnaires for students, thefollowing result of students’ response were collected:
Table 2.1 The results from survey questionnaires for students
2.3.1.2 Data collected from interviewing the teachers
The aim of interviewing the teachers gets more information of currentsituation The researcher designed 4 questions to get information from 7 teachers
at Ngo Gia Tu high school (For more details, see Appendix 2)
Question 1: How long have you been teaching English?
Question 2: Do your students have problems in distinguishing Present Tenses?
Question 3: What kind of mistakes do they often make?
Question 4: What do you do to help them overcome these problems?
From the data collected, the researcher understood more about the currentsituation of teaching and learning Present Tenses in grade 10 at Ngo Gia Tu high
Trang 11school and the common mistakes made by students This is the usefulinformation for the researcher finding out causes for theses mistakes and givingsome solutions to improve this situation.
2.3.1.3 Data collected from the test
The participants of the study are 150 students from 3 classes of grade 10and 3 tests Therefore, the researcher got 450 tests from 150 students And then,the researcher would count the total of mistakes The table below show commonmistakes made by students of grade 10 at Ngo Gia Tu high school when usingPresent Tenses:
Table 2.2 Common mistakes made by students of grade 10
After giving and collecting the test, the researcher found out 4 commonmistakes made by students of grade 10 when using Present Tenses Thesemistakes belong to three tenses: the present simple tense, the present continuoustense, the present perfect tense The number of mistakes most is (36%) aboutomission (omission of –s/es in the present tense, omission of to be “am/is/are” orverb “ing” in the present continuous tense, and omission of “have/has” or pastparticiple verb in the present perfect tense) Besides, the mistakes about subjectand verb agreement is 24% and 22% is the mistakes of confusion in the usages.Lastly, there are 18% about the mistakes of spelling
2.3.2 Discussion and Findings
2.3.2.1 Discussion
After carrying out the survey, the interview and analyzing data, theresearcher found that the teachers at Ngo gia Tu high school used effectivemethods to transform necessary knowledge in the textbook to the students,