Common grammatical errors made by 12th graders in their writings a study at an upper secondary school in bac ninh province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* TRẦN TRỌNG CƯƠNG COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

TRẦN TRỌNG CƯƠNG

COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS MADE BY 12TH GRADERS IN THEIR WRITINGS: A STUDY AT AN UPPER SECONDARY

SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

(NHỮNG LỖI NGỮ PHÁP PHỔ BIẾN MÀ HỌC SINH LỚP 12 THƯỜNG MẮC PHẢI TRONG CÁC BÀI VIẾT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI MỘT

TRƯỜNG THPT Ở BẮC NINH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English language teaching methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi – 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

TRẦN TRỌNG CƯƠNG

COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS MADE BY 12TH GRADERS IN THEIR WRITINGS: A STUDY AT AN UPPER SECONDARY

SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

(NHỮNG LỖI NGỮ PHÁP PHỔ BIẾN MÀ HỌC SINH LỚP 12 THƯỜNG MẮC PHẢI TRONG CÁC BÀI VIẾT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI MỘT

TRƯỜNG THPT Ở BẮC NINH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English language teaching methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi - 2017

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CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I certify that the thesis entitled “COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS MADE BY 12 TH GRADERS IN THEIR WRITINGS: A STUDY AT AN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE” is the result of

my own research for the Degree of Master of Art at University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi The thesis has not been

submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution

Hanoi, 2017

Trần Trọng Cương

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been materialized without the help of many people, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to them

My first thanks go to my supervisor, Prof Dr Hoang Van Van, for his constant encouragement and invaluable assistance during the process of carrying out this project

I am grateful to all the lecturers at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, VNU University of Languages and International Studies for providing us with knowledge from precious and helpful lectures

My sincere thanks are reserved for all my students and my colleagues at Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School (NDDUS) for their helpful contributions and co-operation in this study

Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks are also reserved for my family and friends for their love and support that have encouraged me a lot in carrying out this study

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ABSTRACT

As teachers teaching English writing skills, we have always hoped that through teaching our students are able to produce an organized, neat and error-free

piece of writing, but this seems to be a lifelong dream for us The purpose of this

study is to find out common grammatical errors committed by the twelve-form students at NDDUS in their writings The study was carried out in NDDUS with 90

12th form students involving in The data showed that the greatest number of errors committed by our students is verb tenses and aspects, sentence structures, articles, prepositions and nouns The causes of those mistakes are numerous; but two are representative: student‟s lack of understanding of English grammar and, in particular, their lack of writing practice They do not have time and environment to practise English outside the classroom; they have quite vague knowledge of grammar; and accordingly they are not sure whether they write correct English From the findings, some pedagogical suggestions are offered to improve the learning of grammar of twelve graders at NDDUS It is hoped that this study would make a small contribution to the study of errors analysis in foreign language teaching in Vietnamese schools

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION ……… ……… 1

1 Rationale ……… ……… 1

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study ……… ……… 2

2.1 Aim of the Study ……… ……… 2

2.2 Objectives of the Study ……… ……… 3

3 Research Questions ……… ……….3

4 Scope of the Study …… ……… 3

5 Methods of the Study ……… ……… 3

6 Significance of the Study ……… ……… 4

7 Design of the Study ……… ……… 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ………… ……… 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW… ……….5

1.1 Grammar ……… 5

1.1.1 Definitions of Grammar……….5

1.1.2 Scope of Grammar……….6

1.1.2.1 Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum………7

1.1.2.2 Richard Hudson……….……… 8

1.1.2.3 Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freemen…… ……….10

1.1.2.4 George Yule……… ……… 11

1.1.2.5 M A K Halliday……… 12

1.2 Summary……… ……….13

1.3 Error……… …………13

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1.3.1 Definition of Error……… ……….13

1.3.2 Distinction between “Error” and “Mistake”………… ……… 14

1.3.3 Classification of Error……… ……… 14

1.4 Review of Previous Studies……… ………16

1.5 Concluding Remarks……… ……… ……17

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY……… ……….18

2.1 An Overview of the Research Site……… ……….18

2.1.1 About the School……… ………18

2.1.2 About the Teachers of English……….19

2.1.3 About the Syllabus and the 12th Graders‟ English Learning……… 19

2.2 Methods of the Study……… ………….20

2.3 Participants………20

2.4 Description of the Sample……….20

2.5 Data collection procedure……….……….21

2.6 Scope of Data Analysis……….21

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……… 23

3.1 Findings……….………23

3.2 Discussion……….………27

3.2.1 Verb Errors……….……….27

3.2.2 Sentence Structure Errors……… ……… 29

3.2.3 Article Errors……… ……….31

3.2.4 Preposition Errors……… ……… 32

3.2.5 Noun Errors……….…………33

3.3 Some Possible Solutions to Minimizing Errors………34

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3.3.1 Deductive Teaching………34

3.3.2 Inductive Teaching……….36

3.3.3 Interactive Teaching……… 37

PART C: CONCLUSION……….… 39

1 Summary of the Findings……….… 39

2 Limitations……….……… 40

3 Pedagogical Implications ……….……… 40

4 Recommendations for Further Research……….……….41

REFERENCES……….………….43 APPENDIX……… ……….….……….……… I

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure1.1 Frequency of grammatical errors in students‟ writings by categories Table 1.1 Frequency of grammatical errors in students‟ writings by types Table 3.2 Frequency of each grammatical error type

Figure 3.2 Frequency of each grammatical error type

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

NDDUS : Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School

EA : Error Analysis

EFL : English as a Foreign Language

ESL : English as a Second Language

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

It cannot be denied that English plays a very important role in today‟s global

world Quirk (1972: 2-3) stated that “English is the world’s most important language and the world’s most widely used language” English, moreover, is “a top requirement of those seeking good jobs” (Quirk, 1972: 4) Therefore, without

English, it is almost impossible for nations and people to communicate with one

another Consequently, “no language is more widely studied or used as a foreign language than English more timetable hours are devoted to English than any other subject” (Quirk, 1972: 4)

English is becoming more and more needed in Vietnam as more foreign companies and international organizations come to Vietnam to work and do business If one wants to have greater chances in their work and more success in life, he/she must know a foreign language, especially English If students want to have a chance to study abroad, they have to learn English or a foreign language well Because of that, English books in Vietnam are continuously improved to satisfy the increasing needs of the society Therefore, English learners of all ages have greater chances to master the language with good resources; they are also likely to get better learning results and good jobs in the future But during the course of learning English, learners can‟t avoid committing errors All of us are in

“an imperfect world and consequently errors will always occur in spite of our best efforts” (Richards, 1974: 20) Years ago, errors made by students were regarded as

“something undesirable which they diligently sought to prevent from occurring” (Touchie, 1986: 75) On the contrary, people now consider errors “as evidence for a creative process in language learning” (Touchie, 1986: 75) According to Norrish (1983: 6), error is “a necessary part of learning a language” Errors are made by

students both in receptive and productive skills Of the productive skills – speaking

Hoang Van Van et al (2016) The book provides limited time for writing skill It

consists of 16 lessons, each of which is divided into 5 parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language focus Every part is taught in a 45-minute period Thus, writing skill accounts for only one fifth the amount of time for English subject, which is taught three times a week Consequently, the time for the writing part each week that students are taught is 45 minutes And each writing lesson deals with a different kind of writings such as writing a letter, writing a paragraph, writing a description and so on This requirement of writing is good for students in general but causing some difficulties On one hand, students will have good chances

to learn various types of writings On the other hand, the number of mistakes they make is also greater due to the different types of writings they have to cope with Second, students tend to favor receptive language skills rather than productive ones They can do multiple choice tests better than produce a piece of writing

The above reasons constitute the motive for me to carry out the research:

“Common Grammatical Errors Made by 12 th Graders in their Writings: A Study at

an Upper Secondary School in Bac Ninh province”

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

2.1 Aims of the Study

The overarching aim of the study is to find out common grammatical errors made by the twelfth graders at Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School in their

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writings, from which the teachers will use more suitable methods and techniques to teach their students writing more effectively

2.2 Objectives of the Study

To achieve this overarching aim, the following objectives are set for exploration:

1 Identifying common grammatical errors made by the twelfth graders in their writings at Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School

2 Offering some solutions to minimize those errors

2 What possible solutions should be offered to minimize those errors?

4 Scope of the Study

Basing on the aim, the objectives and the research questions above, this research will confines itself to the following tasks: (1) identifying common grammatical errors made by the twelfth grade students at Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School in their writings; (2) offering some solutions to minimize students‟ errors

5 Methods of the Study

The study will employ both qualitative and quantitative methods Qualitative method is used to examine the features of grammatical errors, analyzing the data collected from students‟ writings Quantitative method is used to calculate the number and frequency of grammatical errors made by the twelfth graders at Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School in their writings so as to identify their common writing errors

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6 Significance of the Study

It is hoped that the findings of the study will be useful to both the teachers of English and students of the twelfth grades at Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School It will help the teachers to realize what their students have achieved and what gaps need to be filled concerning their teaching writing skill It will help the twelfth grade students at Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School realize their strengths and weaknesses in writing skill so that they can find ways to minimize errors, to practice more so as to get better results in their writing It will also help students in the 12th grade improve their English grammar in general and writing skill in particular

7 Design of the Study

The study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

The Introduction presents the rationale for the study, the aim and objectives of the

study and research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the design of the study

The Development consists of 3 chapters:

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background for the thesis which includes definitions of grammar and errors; review of some grammar books; distinction between “error” and “mistake”; review of previous studies on grammatical errors made by students in their writings

Chapter 2 presents the methodology of the research: the participants involved

in the study, the data collection procedure and the statistical analysis of data

Chapter 3 presents the findings and discussion of the findings, pointing out the grammatical errors made by 12th form students in their writings, and giving suggestions on possible solutions to minimizing students‟ errors

The Conclusion sums up the things that have been studied, points out the

limitations of the study, and offers some suggestions forfurther study

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is carried out with a view to laying the theoretical background for the thesis As a way of start, the chapter will re-examine some definitions of the term “grammar” Then it will present some English grammar books to identify scope of grammar Third, it will discuss the term “error”, types of error, and make a distinction between “error” and “mistake” In the final section, it will present some previous studies relevant to the current study – students‟ errors in their writings

Affirming the importance of grammar, William Somerset Maugham says that it is necessary to know grammar, and it is better to write grammatically than not, but it is well to remember that grammar is common speech which is

formulated Usage is the only test (William Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up,

1938) When talking about grammar, Palmer (1971: 11) offers his own definition According to him, “Grammar is a device that specifies an infinite set of well-formed sentences and assigns to each of them one or more structure descriptions” Moreover, Penny Ur (1990: 4) regards grammar as “the way language manipulates

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and combines words or bits of words together in order to form longer units of meanings” This is, as we shall see presently, an over-simplification, but it is a good starting point Thus in English “She is a student” is grammatical; “She a student” and “She are a student” are not grammatical at all A specific instance of grammar is usually called a “structure” Examples of structures would be the past tense, noun plurals, the comparison of adjectives, and so on Not all languages, of course, have the same structures: the English verb has “aspects”, for example in progressive: “she is going”, which many other languages do not

In tone with it, in the book entitled Assessing Grammar, James E Purpura

(2004: 6) defines grammar “as a systematic way accounting for a predicting an ideal speaker‟s or hearer‟s knowledge of the language This is done by a set of rules or principles that can be used to generate all well-formed or grammatical utterances in the language.”

In short, grammar is a set of rules in a language that combine language elements together in order to make the language understood among language users

It also creates structures or chunks of words in a logical and comprehensible way so that language users can communicate with one another in a right way

1.1.2 The Scope of Grammar

The definitions of grammar in the above section are general They cannot provide the readers with the range the grammar of a language covers What is grammar as defined generally by the authors cannot provide an adequate framework for this study In order to establish a comprehensive study framework, we have to look at some grammar books to see what grammar consists of As can be seen, books on grammar in general and on English grammar in particular are numerous This suggests that in reviewing them for the scope of grammar, one has to be selective For the purpose of this study, the following works are found relevant for

review: (1) A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum (1990), English Grammar by Richard Hudson (1995), The Grammar Book by Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freemen (1999), Explaining

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English Grammar by George Yule (1998), and An introduction to Functional Grammar by M A K Halliday (1994)

1.1.2.1 Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum

In A University Grammar of English, Randolph Quirk and Sidney

Greenbaum (1990) talk much about parts of speech First, they mention varieties of English Then, they provide readers with elements of grammar In this section, sentence elements, parts of speech, stative and dynamic, pro-form, question and negation are discussed According to the authors, sentences in English have two parts which are subject and predicate In the predicate part, there are such smaller parts as operator, auxiliary and predication Quirk and Greenbaum (Ibid.) discuss in some detail verbs and verb phrases later in their book They mention two types of verbs: lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs They also give details about verb forms, tenses, aspects and mood as well as the verb phrase Moreover, Quirk and Greenbaum help readers understand more about nouns, pronouns and the basic noun phrase Through this chapter, we know noun classes, determiners, reference and articles, number, gender, the genitive and pronouns After reading the chapter, readers can understand the notions of “countable noun” and “uncountable noun” attached to the features “singularity” and plurality” accordingly Adjectives and adverbs are also mentioned in their book Adjectives function as attributive and predicative It can precede nouns and follow verbs of perception and “to be” Adverbs function as modifiers; both adverbs and adjectives can be used to make a comparison Next, prepositions and preposition phrases are discussed Talking about prepositions, we often link them with place, time, adjunct, disjunct, and complementation of verb or adjective The simple sentence is the thing the authors want to introduce to the readers In simple sentences, we get to know clause patterns, elements and their meanings We also know about concord in a sentence Simple sentence is a one-clause sentence It consists of the subject, the verb and some other elements such as object, adverb, complement… The authors deal with adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts, too Then they discuss coordination and

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apposition Next is about sentence connection Readers are introduced more about time relaters, logical connecters, substitution, discourse reference and ellipsis in dialogue Then the authors move on to talk about the complex sentence In complex sentence, we learn more about clauses: finite, non-finite, verbless, nominal and adverbial clauses Subordinators and subordination are in this chapter, too The complex sentence is associated with comparative sentences, the verb phrase in dependent clauses, direct and indirect speech The verb and its complementation are once again discussed This time, phrasal and prepositional verbs are looked into They also provide a clear explanation of complementation of adjective phrase, units

as direct objects, complex transitive complementation, and ditransitive complementation The complex noun phrase in the things they care about In this section, restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses are explained and made clear for the readers The last things Quirk and Greenbaum explore in their book are focus, theme and emphasis To make it clearer, the authors give detailed explanation

of information focus, voice and reversibility, theme and inversion, existential sentences, extraposition and other postponement devices, and emotive emphasis

1.1.2.2 Richard Hudson

Different from Quirk and Greenbaum, in his book English grammar, Richard

Hudson (1995) begins with word classes and discusses the roles of word in the language “word classes are one of the basic components of grammar” (Hudson, 1995: 7) In word classes, Hudson mentions nouns and verbs The author cares much about how words, nouns and verbs are combined to make “good sentences”

He distinguishes nouns and verbs by concerning the meaning of an utterance If an utterance contains a verb, it has meaning If an utterance contains nouns, it has no or bad meaning E.g.: “help Pat!”, “Jo helps Pat.” (good meaning); “Jo Pat.” (meaningless/bad meaning) Hudson considers syntax, morphology, semantic grammar Syntax is the study of how words are combined with one another Morphology is the study of word forms Semantic is the study of words‟ meanings Hudson goes deep into the study of nouns as phrases, which he calls noun

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expansions: heads, dependents, and adjectives He says that a noun has a single or multiple dependents He also provides us with general order of dependents in a noun so that it has good meaning Linking words like prepositions and coordinators are of Hudson‟s great concern in his book He claims that prepositions and coordinators both provide “syntactic glue” though not much meaning Prepositions must have a noun (which normally follows) as a dependent And they go with each other basing on the one-arrow principle: with the exception of coordinators, every word has just one dependency arrow (horizontal or vertical) pointing at it

E.g.: N-> P: take part in

P-> N: with a remarkable ability

Coordinators link words as equal so that they can share dependency relationships These groupings of words are indicated by brackets

E.g.: {[…}] [C…]}: telepathy or mind control

After talking about linking words, Hudson moves on to talk about subclassification

of nouns Nouns belong to one of these three subclasses: common noun, proper noun, and pronoun Verb expansions are the things Hudson discusses next in this book He considers a simple sentence a verb expansion He adds that a noun may depend on a verb in four different ways, which must be distinguished by labeling in the diagrams: as its subject (s), as its object (o), as its sharer (r), or as a simple dependent (no label) Besides subclassification, verb chains are talked about Verbs are either finite or non-finite, auxiliary verbs or full verbs Last but not least, Hudson introduces to readers subordinate clause clues and uses We can identify subordinate clauses by four kinds of “signal”: that, prepositions, wh-pronouns or the verb‟s own non-finite form Subordinate clauses are traditionally classified in terms

of basic word classes: noun clauses and adverb clauses are used roughly like nouns and adverbs, while relative clauses are used somewhat like adjectives

1.1.2.3 Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freemen

In a similar vein but a slightly different perspective, in The Grammar Book,

Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freemen (1999) focus much on

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pedagogical grammar, not linguistic grammar They first introduce the lexicon Here they consider the words and grammatical structures lexicogrammar When talking about lexicogrammar, the authors tend to introduce and lay emphasis on their form, meaning and use The second thing they discuss in their book is subject-verb agreement One of the reasons they talk about it is that form, meaning and use are associated with it In the book, they pay attention to structures, too Rules of structures are introduced here so that English learners use phrases and sentences correctly Next, the book provides us with knowledge of tense and aspect They explain to us the form, meaning and use of the verb tense-aspect system, which will

be used at sentence level Helping the readers master the knowledge of elements, the authors go on to introduce various types of sentences such as statements, negative and interrogative ones Certain types of language elements are additionally taken into consideration by the two authors Such language elements are adjectives, prepositions, phrasal verbs, adverbial, logical connectors Some types of clauses and sentences appear in their discussion, too They provide readers with passive sentences, relative clauses, reported speech, complementation and degrees of comparison In conclusion, the book recalls grammar both abstract system and socially constructed practice As abstract system, grammar can be characterized by certain rules below the level of the sentence; that is, morphological rules (e.g., formation of plurals, subject-verb agreement, and so forth), sentence-level syntactic rules (e.g., those necessary for specifying unmarked and marked sentence word order), and rules above the level of the sentence, discourse rules, which contribute

to the thematic coherence and cohesion of oral and written texts The socially constructed view of grammar applies when we consider what grammatical devices speakers/writers employ to convey what they mean to their listeners/readers

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terminology, such as noun, noun phrase and pronoun Then, he looks at some basic meaning distinctions, explaining the connection between terms such as subject, object, agent, theme, source, and experiencer He also makes a distinction between core and peripheral elements of a message The author illustrates the distinctions of information structures Then he goes into details and discusses articles in English

In this section, the author helps readers know how to use articles correctly by distinguishing between definite and indefinite articles, which articles can be used with countable and uncountable nouns and so forth The second thing discussed in the book is tense and aspect To begin with, the author introduces the basic forms of tense and aspect in English A basic structure for the English verb complex is presented Some basic meaning distinctions between different tense forms are offered The role of tense and aspect is illustrated here After discussing tense and aspect, the author talks about English modals To help readers understand deeply modals, Yule provides form, meaning and use of all the modals in English The he discusses conditionals Here, we know basic forms of if-clauses and main clauses as well as exceptional conditionals Prepositions and particles are the things discussed then After a brief survey of basic forms, distinguishing between prepositions and particles (occur in phrasal verbs), Yule considers the different types of prepositions (simple, complex, lexical and grammatical) and their basic meaning in terms of space, time and metaphor He also introduces the uses of particles, both separable and non-separable, in four different types of phrasal verbs and provides the conceptual meanings of some common particles Then he presents the roles of prepositions and particles in information structure Knowledge of indirect objects is addressed in the book The author makes it clear which prepositions go after the indirect objects and other relevant knowledge Then he moves on to talk about infinitives and gerund He introduces various verb structures and their use He helps readers distinguish pairs of verbs which go with either infinitive or gerund Yule moves to a higher level in language use that is sentence level when introducing relative clauses, direct and indirect speech Here, the author helps us know more

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about how to use relative pronouns and clauses, direct and indirect speech correctly

1.1.2.5 M A K Halliday

In a similar grammar book which has been translated into several languages

including Vietnamese entitled An Introduction to Functional Grammar, M A K

Halliday (1985/1994) tackles grammar from a functional perspective (systemic functional) He claims that every use (or function) of English determines the form

of the language that is used for that particular purpose Grammar is thus a tool for making meaning At the beginning of the book, Halliday introduces to readers the basic grammatical unit – the clause The clause, according to Halliday (Ibid.) is made up of several elements He considers the study of phonology (phoneme, syllable, rhythm (foot), and intonation (tone group) as part of the grammar of English Clauses are treated as messages sending information to readers/hearers Each clause bears a theme that signifies the idea of the writers/speakers Clauses are treated as exchanges in conversation Clauses are considered as representation, realizing what goes on or exists in the experiential world Besides talking about clauses, Halliday studies elements of grammar at a smaller scale below the clause They are groups and phrases According to him, groups have many types which are nominal group, verbal group, adverbial group, conjunction group, and preposition group Each of these groups has a distinct function in a sentence Phrase is mentioned here as prepositional phrase At a bigger scale, above the clause, there is the clause complex which consists of more than one clause Besides the clause, Halliday introduces intonation and rhythm Different from other linguistics approaches when talking about grammar, Halliday considers intonation and rhythm

as belong to the realm of grammar and take them into proper consideration Cohesion and discourse are also what the author explores in this grammar book Beyond the clause, Halliday talks about metaphorical modes of expression He discusses rhetorical reference, grammatical metaphor, ideational metaphors and interpersonal metaphors

1.2 Summary

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It is clear from the review above that grammar is a very complex notion which can be seen from different approaches and covers a number of issues However, given the wide range of grammar and diversity of the issues treated, the authors reviewed share the following issues that constitute the scope of grammar:

- Words (vocabulary): morphemes, parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, conjunction…) and their characteristics

+ nouns: singular, plural, compound, complex …

+ verbs: tenses, voices, aspects …

+ pronouns: I, you (singular/plural), he/she/it,…

+ prepositions: in, at, on, upon, …

+ conjunctions: and, or, but, so, …

- Groups/Phrases: noun phrase, verb phrase … and their characteristics

- Sentence: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex and their

- characteristics (subject-verb agreements in number, passive/active voices…)

1.3 Error

1.3.1 Definition of Error

The term “error” has long been defined and studied by many applied linguists But each of them has different views on this term According to Norrish

(1987: 7), error is “a systematic deviation, when the learner has not learnt

something and consistently gets its wrong” Similarly, Cunningworth (1987: 87) defines error as “systematic deviations from the norms of the language being

learned” According to these applied linguists, “systematic deviation” can be

interpreted as the deviation which happens repeatedly Another definition of error is given by Corder (1973), he suggests that errors are “the result of some failure of performance They may contain what are often called slips of the tongue, false starts, changes of mind, and so on They may be the result of failures in memory.” (Corder, 1973: 162) In contrast, Crystal (2003: 165) says: “Error is a term used in psycholinguistics referring to mistakes in spontaneous speaking or writing attributable to a malfunctioning of the neuron-muscular commands from the brain

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It is thus distinct from the traditional notion of error, which was based on the language user‟s ability to conform a set of real or imagined standards of expression.”

1.3.2 Distinction between “Error” and “Mistake”

Before investigating students‟ errors, it is necessary to make a distinction between mistakes and errors According to Brown (1994), mistakes refer to "a failure to utilize a known system correctly" while errors are concerned with "a

noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner" (1994a: 205) There are two things to be considered here: First, mistakes do not require special treatment assuming they are

recognized Second, error here refers to structures only Both Corder (1967, 1971)

and James (1998) give us an idea that helps us treat them: A mistake is caused by learners lacking attention when using the language If the learners recognize those mistakes, they can self-correct them Whereas, errors are caused by the learners lacking knowledge of the language The learners haven‟t mastered the rules or use

of that language, so they commit errors And therefore, errors can‟t be corrected They need to be treated by others such as the teachers or native speakers Moreover, errors are “systematic” They are likely to happen regularly and are not recognized by the learner Hence, only the teacher or researcher would locate them, the learner would not (Gass & Selinker, 1994)

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problems to single elements in sentences These local errors do not hinder and cause problems with communication as do global errors, such as errors in noun and verb inflection, articles, auxiliaries and the formation of quantifiers

From another perspective, Richards (1971) distinguishes three types of errors: (i) intralingual error, (ii) interlingual errors, and (iii) developmental errors

Interlingual errors, according to Richards (Ibid.), are errors resulting from the use

of elements from one language while writing another In this instance, learners often use ideas and structures of the target language in their foreign language, which

causes some misuses Intralingual errors are errors reflecting general characteristics

of the rule learning such as overgeneralization, incomplete application of rules and

failure to learn conditions under which rules apply And Developmental errors are

errors occurring when learners attempt to build up hypothesis about the target language on the basis of limited experiences

Unlike other applied linguists, Corder (1986) classifies errors into two types:

Error of competence and error of performance Errors of performance, according

to Corder (Ibid.), are the results of mistakes in language use and manifest

themselves as repeats, false starts, corrections or slips of the tongue Errors of performance occur frequently in the speech of both native speakers and second language learners They are especially likely to occur when the speaker suffers from

stress, indecision or fatigue In contrast, Errors of competence show the learner‟s

transitional competence They are the result of the application of rules by second language learner which do not (yet) correspond to the second language norm

1.4 Review of Previous Studies

In his book entitled An Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Writing Made by Turkish Learners of English as a Foreign Language Ibrahim Abushihab (2014)

studied the errors made by students of English as a foreign language in their writings The subjects of his study were twenty students who learn English at Gazi university of Turkey They were all enrolled in a writing course designed for second-year students in the academic year 2011- 2012 The students were asked to

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write an essay of 200-250 words about the difficulties they face in learning English The researcher and two other raters analyzed the written data, and then classified and identified the grammatical errors into errors in the use of tenses, in the use of prepositions, in the use of articles, in the use of active and passive voice and errors

in morphology A total of 179 grammatical errors were found The results showed that the most common grammatical errors were: tenses (15%), prepositions (28%), articles (29%), active and passive voice (9.5%) and morphology (18.4%) With this result, he implied that teachers of English as a foreign language should take the analysis of interlingual or transfer errors as an important strategy in learning process

In his research entitled Error Analysis of Written English Paragraphs

by Jordanian Undergraduate Students: A Case Study Fadi Maher

Al-Khasawneh (2016) studied students‟ errors in their writings His study involved twenty-six students (16 female and 10 male students) They were all studying at Ajloun National University All of the students had their primary education at public schools, in which Arabic was the main medium of instruction English was taught as a compulsory subject within the school curriculum The students come from different majors being taught at Ajloun National University Their age ranges from 20 to 42 years After studying, he came to the conclusion that the students committed writing errors such as: use of articles, use of prepositions, subject-verb agreement, word order, spelling and sentence fragment

In the most recent study entitled Grammatical Errors in Paragraph

Writing of First Year English Major Students at School of Foreign Languages-Thai Nguyen University, Tran Thi Hanh (2015) explored students‟ grammatical errors in writing She used fifty students with one paragraph writing to investigate the grammatical errors Moreover, she investigated the grammatical errors in paragraph writing of major English students Therefore, the types and the ways students commit errors may be different from students in high school whose knowledge of English is still

1.5 Chapter summary

As can be seen, this chapter has been concerned: (i) an overview of the term grammar as defined generally by some scholars and its scope as presented in some English grammar books, (ii) the notion of error, the distinction between “error” and

“mistake”, and the classification of errors, and (iii) the related studies relevant to

my study Now that I have finished my review, I turn to Chapter 2 where I will present my research methodology

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, I will first present an overview of the research site In this section, some necessary information is made clear: information about the school; information about the teachers of English; information about the syllabus and the

12th graders‟ English learning Next, I will present methods of the study, participants and description of the sample Data collection instruments are also presented here The last section of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of data

collection procedure and scope of data analysis

2.1 An Overview of the Research Site

2.1.1 About the School

Nguyen Dang Dao Upper-Secondary School is located in the heart of Tien

Du District, Bac Ninh Province, which is an area being on the way of development combining both agricultural and industrial activities The school was founded in

2005 beginning with 9 classes with 400 students Up to now, the school has got 30 classes with 1,350 students Grade 12 has 10 classes with 450 students In grade 12, there is one class in which students major in Maths, Physics and English, one class majoring in Maths, Literature and English The others major in science subjects Nguyen Dang Dao Upper Secondary School has been headed by excellent leaders All of them have the same purpose: making the school most prestigious in the country As a result, the school has obtained national standard in infrastructure since

2012 with spacious and modernly equipped buildings The quality of the school ranks fifth among over forty schools throughout the province The learning and teaching facilities are good for many subjects such as Maths, Physics, Biology, but the teaching of English subject meets some difficulties There is not enough modern equipment for the subject The number of students in a class is too big to learn effectively

2.1.2 About the Teachers of English

According to educators in Bac Ninh province, English is an important subject that must be paid more attention to in the course of development of the