A study on sentence errors of the english compositions of the second year students at diplomatic academy of vietnam

Sentence fragments, as incomplete sentences, can confuse your reader or make your meaning unclear.” par.4 They define run-on sentences as follows: “A run-on sentence is a sentence in whi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG

A STUDY ON SENTENCE ERRORS IN THE ENGLISH

COMPOSITIONS OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT

DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

(NGHIÊN CỨU LỖI VỀ CÂU TRONG CÁC BÀI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN

NĂM THỨ HAI HỌC VIỆN NGOẠI GIAO VIỆT NAM)

M.A Minor ProgrammeThesis

Supervisor : Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Code : 60 14 10

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG

A STUDY ON SENTENCE ERRORS IN THE ENGLISH

COMPOSITIONS OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT

DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

(NGHIÊN CỨU LỖI VỀ CÂU TRONG CÁC BÀI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN

NĂM THỨ HAI HỌC VIỆN NGOẠI GIAO VIỆT NAM)

M.A Minor ProgrammeThesis

Supervisor : Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Code : 60 14 10

Supervisor : Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi, 2013

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 The frequency of sentence structure errors

Table 2 The frequency of fragments

Table 3 The frequency of run-on sentences

Table 4 The frequency of stringy sentences

Table 5 The frequency of “the sentence structure errors of the other types” Table 6 The sources of errors

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

Statement of authorship i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

List of tables iv

Table of content v

Part A: Introduction 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims 2

3 Methods 3

4 Research questions 4

5 Significance 4

Part B: Development 5

Chapter 1: Literature review 5

1.1 What is an error? 5

1.2 Errors and mistakes 5

1.3 Error analysis 6

1.4 Causes of errors in language learning 7

1.4.1 Mother tongue interference 7

1.4.2 Overgeneralization 7

1.4.3 Fossilization 8

1.4.4 Errors due to the effect of teaching 8

1.4.5 Errors due to carelessness 8

1.4.6 Inadequate learning 9

1.5 Sentence errors 9

Chapter 2: Findings and discussion 12

2.1 Subjects 12

2.2 Procedures 13

2.3 Report on the results about the kinds of sentence errors 13

2.3.1 Stringy sentences 14

2.3.2 Fragments 15

2.3.3 Run-on sentences 16

2.3.4 “The sentence errors of other types” 17

2.4 Report on the results about the frequency of the sentence errors 19

2.4.1 Frequency of fragments 20

2.4.2 Frequency of run-on sentences 20

2.4.3 Frequency of stringy sentences 21

2.4.4 Frequency of the other sentences 21

2.5 The explanation of the errors 22

2.5.1 The explanation of fragments 22

2.5.2 The explanation of stringy sentences 24

2.5.3 The explanation of the “sentence errors of other types” 25

2.5.4 The explanation of run-on sentences 26

2.6 Discussion 28

2.6.1 Research question 1 28

2.6.2 Research question 2 31

Part C: Conclusion 34

1 Recapitulation 34

2 The major findings of the research 34

3 Pedagogical implications and recommendations 35

3.1 To the syllabus 36

3.2 To the learners 36

3.3 To the teachers 37

3.4 Limitations and suggestions for further study 42

References 43

Appendices 44

Study-to investigate errors in writing skills such as Nguyễn Thị Hương, (2007), Nguyễn Văn Lợi, (2007), Nguyễn Thị Duyên, (2007) Some others have also examined the writing errors but in the specific terms such as articles Mai Thị Ngân, (2011) or errors in using cohesive devices Trần Thị Hải Bình, (2007) and errors in many other word classes of English language such as prepositions, two-word verbs, auxiliary verbs and so on There have been the studies which investigated the errors in speaking such as Lê Thu Hương, (2011), An Thị Ngà, (2011) Thus, the errors in both types of learning outputs – writing and speaking have been investigated Together with the investigation into the errors sentence constituents such as prepositions, kinds of verbs, articles and so forth This research is intended to gain insights into the errors in term of sentence structure with the hope to contribute to the findings of grammatical errors in writing by Vietnamese students

As for the motivation of carrying out this research, there are three elements inspiring the author to implement this study First, it was observed that there have been many sentence errors especially the errors in sentence structures in the writings of the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) In the process of checking the writings, the author saw that almost all the students made the errors This actually exerted a bad influence on their writing performance Secondly, the students‟ demand of limiting the errors they make in writing is

author “How can I limit my errors? Could you please give us some ways to do so?” Actually, the students knew they were making errors They have tried to get rid of doing this They however, have tried in vain because there were still a lot of errors

in their writings Lastly, one more motivation for carrying out this study is the demand of effective and interesting writing teaching It can be said that writing is one of the most difficult skills in English learning It is either boring or exhausting Analyzing the errors to prevent making them is assumed one of the good ways to make the teaching more efficient This is because good writing performance with no error will give students interest to learn and learn effectively

2 Aims

The present study has two main goals The first one is to find out the sentence errors made by the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam There is a wide range of sentence errors in the students‟ writings To get

an insight into the errors, the author should know what kinds of sentence errors they are Actually, there are a number of sentence errors which have been found by many other scholars and researchers This study needs to find out if the participants of this institution made the entire sentence errors mentioned in the literature review Beside, this minor thesis also needs to find out if there are any other sentence errors only made by these students One more question concerning sentence errors this study need to clarify is how frequent these errors are

The second aim of this minor thesis is to find out the causes of the sentence errors made by the students There must be reasons why the errors came into existence Actually, in the field of error analysis, many causes of errors have been offered This research should also consider if all the causes for the errors the students made are the same as the causes which have been reviewed Finally yet importantly, the present study is also aimed to see if there are any other causes else leading to sentence error existence

In deed, the overall goal of this study is to improve the students‟ academic

causes which were found out There may be some changes in the teaching process

or in the design of the writing syllabus By doing so, the students‟ academic writing skill will be improved in more than one ways The first way is that they will not make such kinds of sentence errors The second one is that the students will be able

to put more ideas into their writing This, in turn, will make students to organize better their essays and thus the coherence and cohesion are all improved then

As for data analysis, basing on the types of sentence errors which were reviewed in the literature review and the features of the sentence errors the author then classified them into small types Next, the author analyzed the features of the errors in term of sentence structures After that by employing quantitative analysis, the author did the calculating to see the frequency of the errors Then, basing on the social and linguistic contexts, the sources of these errors were explained Finally, some suggestions for preventing the sentence errors were made Actually, this error analysis research was carried out according to the procedure of an error analysis which consists of the steps as being suggested by Corder (1981: 36): 1) identification of errors, 2) description of errors, and 3) explanation of errors

4 Research questions

1 What are sentence errors made by the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam?

2 What are the causes of the sentence errors made by the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam?

5 The significance

The study was supposed to have a great deal of significance The first one is for the students This research will help to improve one of the most significant English skills for the students That is because the students will be noticed what mistakes, errors they are likely to make They are also given more knowledge about English and then they will not write the sentence errors causing by their lack of knowledge about English To the teachers, the research also helps them in their writing teaching With the results found out, their academic writing teaching will be more effective and more straightforward That is because the teachers at the Academy would know what their students know already and what they do not Beside, the teachers would not try many ways in vain to prevent the errors because they have known the causes already The present study also contributes its findings

to the field of error analysis to confirm the already found findings Furthermore, the

study affirms that error analysis is crucial in writing teaching

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

As the title suggests, this study is concerned with the sentence errors made

by the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam In order to carry out this research, this chapter attempts to provide the background related to error analysis terms and studies which have been stated and done by various scholars It will first examine the notion of error and its characteristics Then it will reexamine the notion of error analysis This will be followed by another part in which the author presents the causes of errors in language learning The final section is devoted to sentence errors found out by previous researchers

1.1 What is an error?

First, the author would like to find out what is an error To answer the question, the author is going to look at some definitions of errors by some scholars For Halliday, McIntosh and Strevens (1964:119), a mistake or an error in English can be described as complete inaccuracy being reference solely to the description of English without taking any account of the students‟ native language For them each mistake stated is also a specific deviation from described English feature This is because; it deals with how language is grammatically structured According to Richards (1974), “the only sentences in anyone‟s speech which could be called erroneous are those which result from some failure of performance These may contain what often called slips of the tongue, false starts, mind changes and so on” (p.162) He also says, “Mistakes are by-products of the process of learning a language about which a teacher should make as little fuss as possible.”

1.2 Errors and mistakes

Many scholars have stated the distinction between errors and mistakes, though it is still hard to indicate a sharp differentiation According to Chomsky (1965), there were two types of errors: one resulting from verbal performance factors, the other from inadequate language competence Later, Corder (1967)

named the former mistakes and the later errors Mistakes are said to be unsystematic

in nature and correctable when attention is drawn to its producers Errors on the other hand, refer to any systematic deviations from the rules of the target language system In short, errors are caused by the lack of knowledge about the target language or by incorrect hypothesis about it; mistakes are caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, and carelessness and so on If we are uncertain of whether one of the learners has made an error or a mistake, the crucial test must be like "can he correct himself when challenged?" If he can, probably it is a mistake; if not it is an error However, in this thesis, the author call the two above terms with a name error We would like to discuss the problematic sentences are errors or mistakes in the part error explanation

1.3 Error analysis

Error Analysis (EA) as a method of the study of errors played a new role in second language (L2) acquisition research in the 1970s EA became the principal methodology used for investigating learner language and L2 acquisition (Corder, 1975) EA is concerned with the learner language and the process of language learning Corder (1981: 36) suggests three key steps of EA research: 1) identification of errors, 2) description of errors, and 3) explanation of errors Among the steps, explanation for cause of errors is regarded as the most important stage as it deals with how and why errors are made, which will then give insights into what and how a learner learns Choon (1993) gives some suggestions on carrying out an error analysis research According to her, one has to identify the errors first, and then the errors are classified according to different categories She suggested that the system of error classification should be flexible The last step is

to determine how much they deviate from the target language norm, to what extent they affect communication Error analysis can help a language teacher deal with the specific and common language problems students have so that he or she can know what should be focused more in a syllabus

1.4 Causes of errors in language learning

There are many views about the causes of errors in second language learning These views are the interlinguistic causes, intralinguistic causes and teaching-induced causes, which can be subdivided as follows:

1.4.1 Mother tongue interference

According to the behaviourist theory: “Foreign language learning is basically

a mechanical process of habit formation” River, (1987:50) Moreover, individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture According to Lado (1957) “the prime cause or even the sole cause of difficulty or error in foreign language learning is interference coming from the learner‟s native language.” (p.21) On the face of it, interference would be the biggest cause of errors Interference will be of two ways: it may be negative when there are differences between the first and the second language habits, and positive when the first and the second language habits are the same

1.4.2 Overgeneralization

Apart from the main causes of errors in second language learning above, there is another cause called overgeneralization This is simply the expansion of the foreign language patterns into areas in which they do not apply Overgeneralization

is the consequence of insufficient exposure to the target language - a lack of data from which more complex rules can be derived Another reason for overgeneralization is that having learnt a rule, which appears to work well, the learner, is not inclined to look for exceptions which can make them confused In other words, the learners possess new data in their mind and produce rules for its production based on evidence Richards explained overgeneralization as follows:

"Overgeneralization covers instances where the learner creates a deviant structure

on the basis of his experience of other structures in the target language." (p 174)

This is his example After having read or heard sentences such as He reached the house at 10.00 p.m a student may produce, He leaved the house at 6.00 a.m A

learner may write She walked fastly to catch the bus because he already knows He walked quickly to catch the train

1.4.3 Fossilization

Normally, it is expected that a learner progresses further along the learning

continuum, so that his “inter-language” moves closer and closer to the target language system and contains fewer and fewer mistakes However, learners may produce errors or mistakes many times and they never disappear entirely Such errors are often described as being fossilized, which means that they have become permanent features of the learner‟s output Touchie (1986:78) confirmed this as

“Some errors, specially errors in pronunciation, persist for long periods and become quite difficult to get rid of.”

1.4.4 Errors due to the effect of teaching

Most foreign language learners acquire the target language by constantly exposing to materials and certain teaching methods Therefore, second language acquisition is affected by the way the target language is presented In the case when there is an over-emphasis on some certain language knowledge, learners may also overuse the language knowledge Sometimes, there are also the faulty rules given

by teachers, according to Hubbard (1983) “the teacher can also induce mistakes by indulging in some overgeneralization himself, indicating that students are sometimes given inadequate rules which cause mistakes when they follow them.” (p.61)

1.4.5 Errors due to carelessness

Carelessness is one of the major causes leading to errors The carelessness may result from learners‟ tense, excitement, or lack of motivation Furthermore, this

is also the consequence of learners‟ failure to follow a known rule According to (Edge, 1989:7) Mistakes can happen because someone is in a hurry, tired, or thinking of something else.”

1.4.6 Inadequate learning

Touchie explained this cause as follows: “The errors are sometimes caused

by ignorance of rule restrictions or under differentiation and incomplete

learning An example is omission of the third person singular „s‟ as in: He want.”

(p.79) Thus, if students do not study enough language forms and structures, they

may not know how to make them correct

To sum up, errors can be caused by many factors which sometimes overlap each other Any particular mistakes or errors may be the result of one factor on one occasion and the other factor on another

1.5 Sentence errors

There are quite a lot of errors within sentence level Various kinds of

sentence errors have been classified For Dr Doug Dangler in The website of Ohio

State University, he divided this kind of error into 3 common types: comma splices, sentence fragments and run-ons The authors of this article talk about the characteristics of comma splices as follows: “Comma splices entail the incorrect use

of a comma (hence: comma splice) to join two (or more) independent clauses

together in a single sentence.” (par.2) For them, “A sentence fragment is a group of words masquerading as a complete sentence Sentence fragments, as incomplete sentences, can confuse your reader or make your meaning unclear.” (par.4) They define run-on sentences as follows: “A run-on sentence is a sentence in which several main clauses are strung together without proper punctuation and so run together as if they were one sentence Run-on sentences make your reader's job difficult; they interrupt the rhythm of your writing and condense too much information into a small space.” (par.9) Thus, these three sentence errors mentioned above are defined through their obstacles to the writing performance A comma splice is a sentence with the wrong use of a comma, while a fragment is an incomplete sentence or only a group of words A run-on is a sentence with more than two clauses together with the incorrect use of punctuation

Nicolette Amann from the university of Humboldt State University also has the same ideas about the common types of errors at the sentence level as the above authors Here is her definition about fragments: “A sentence fragment is a word, a phrase, or a dependent clause presented with the capitalization and punctuation appropriate to a complete sentence Although sentence fragments are sometimes acceptable, they should be usually avoided (par.3) Her definition about a run-on sentence is a bit different from the one cited above For them, “A run-on sentence consists of two independent clauses run together and is punctuated as one sentence.” (par.5) As for a comma splice, they say that it occurs when only a comma separates two independent clauses

The authors of the book, Academic writing English - Level fourth classify and define the sentence-boundary errors as follows: “A run-on sentence is a sentence in which two or more independent clauses are written one after another with no punctuation The author would like to cite here another opinion about run-

on sentences by (Heffernan & Lincoln, 1986:279) For them, a run-on sentence is defined as “a sentence which joins two independent clauses or sentences with no punctuation or conjunction between them.” Together with this, the authors of

the book Academic Writing English, say, “A similar error happens when two

independent clauses are incorrectly joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction This kind of error is called a comma splice.” (p 184) For them, sentence fragments are the incomplete sentences or parts of the sentences because a complete sentence must contain at least one independent clause For example,

“Because students work part time while taking a full load of classes.” (p.184) For

the authors of this book, this incomplete sentence is a dependent clause beginning with a subordinator „because‟ It does not express a complete thought because there

is no independent clause Choppy sentences for them are too short sentences For

examples, „wind is an enduring source of power Water is also an unlimited energy source Dams produce hydraulic power They have existed for a long time Windmills are relatively new.‟ Beside from the three kinds of errors, they also name

another kind as a stringy sentence which is defined as a sentence with too many clauses usually connected with „and‟, „but‟ and „so‟ sometimes „because‟ It often results from writing the way you speak going on and on little a string without an

end For example, „many students attend classes all morning, and then they work all afternoon, and they also have to study at night, so they are usually exhausted by the weekend.‟ Another author-(Demirezen, 1993:158) talked about stringy sentences as

follows: “In a stringy sentence many independent clauses are joined together with coordinating conjunctions (often „and‟, „but‟ „for‟, „or‟, „so‟) They are longer then they should be

Thus, commonly there are three types of sentence errors: run-ons, fragments and comma splices Apart from these, there are the others such as stringy sentences and choppy sentences Various authors defined the mentioned sentence errors a bit differently They, however, have the same characteristics For the fragments, they are the incomplete sentences which lack at least one of the constituents such as subject, predicate, and so on For the run-ons, they are the sentences in which the punctuation is wrongly put or no punctuation or no conjunction between the independent clauses Whereas, the comma splices are the ones with the wrong use

of a comma Another kind among these-stringy sentences is the one with too many clauses together with the incorrect use of linking words The other kind is choppy sentences which are too short sentences put right next to each other

Thus, in this chapter, the author has reviewed some of the important concepts

in the area of error analysis in foreign language teaching The first parts show that errors and error analysis are of certain significance in foreign language teaching The later parts deal with the sources of the errors which are supposed to help teachers see where their students are The final part presents us the fact that sentence errors are of a large number of types and should be paid attention to because of their obstacles to language proficiency With the background above, this research was implemented as in the following chapter

CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this part, the information of the subjects would be presented This consists

of the subjects‟ physical background and their writing levels After that, the data and data collection procedure are described

2.1 Subjects

As for the subjects physical background, the subjects of the present study are

10 non-English major classes of the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam The total number of the students is 328 students whose ages are around

20 However, the real subjects are only 50 students – 5 from each of 10 classes

As for the writing levels, the second years students are of different English levels because a part of them were students who took English as a subject for their university entrance examination and the other did not These students also come from different regions of Vietnam which also contributes to the variety of their English levels The students have been working with the same syllabus in their university time so far In the first semester, they studied to write sentences In the second semester, they were taught to master paragraphs writing skills In third semester when this present study was carried out-the second semester of the study year 2012, they worked with the ways to write academic essays of various types such as argumentative, process, compare and contrast, and cause and effect essays Beside, in this semester the learning of sentence - the consolidating part was the homework for self-study at home

As for the data, this is primary data which were randomly selected from the subjects‟ in-class-time writings The total number of the writings is 50 which were the products by the 50 subjects The data for analyzing is actually the erroneous sentences in the writings whose number is 129 This accounts for 15 % of 864 total sentences in 50 writings

on the corner of the paper Next, the errors were put into distinguishing categories for easy analysis later (See appendices 1, 2, 3, 4)

By looking at the errors which were classified, the describing in the second step was done as follows The author again divided the errors into the sub-types according to their features For the sub-types which still had the various features, they then were again classified Thus, after doing so, it was easy to see the errors‟ characteristics The author then pointed out what the errors were and what in their structures were problematic Beside, in order to see the frequency of the errors, the quantitative analysis was deployed (See tables 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Finally, basing on the theoretical background about errors, linguistic and social contexts, and the author suggested the specific reasons why the students made the kinds of sentence error The sub-types of sentence errors were again examined one by one to see what elements lead them come into existence

2.3 Report on the results about the kinds of sentence errors

In this part of the thesis, the author would like to present the results that were found about the kinds of sentence errors the students at DAV made

In the students‟ writings, there were all kinds of sentence errors which are reviewed in chapter II These types of error are run-on sentences, comma splices, fragments, stringy sentences There are some sentence errors which cannot be

classified into the above errors The author would like to call them as “the sentence errors of other types.”

2.3.1 Stringy sentences

Of all the stringy sentences found out in the pieces of writing, the writer

again classified them into different types according to their various characteristics

There are a number of them, which are named as follows

 Stringy sentences with linking word: „and‟

 Stringy sentences with more than one linking words

 Stringy sentences with „if‟

Stringy sentences with linking word „and‟: In this kind of error, „and‟ is

the main connector used to link all of the other clauses to make the stringy Here is

an example: „It is clear that in the last 10 years the climate is warmer and El Nino phenomenon happens unpredictable and it causes a lot of challenges for pp in the future.‟ Two „ands‟ were used to connect three dependent clauses into one stringy

sentence

Stringy sentences with more than one linking word: In these cases, many

linking words were used to put too many clauses into one string By looking at the strings, it can be seen that there are many kinds of conjunctions which should be

present only in separate sentences Here is a good example: „After retirement, people can go to visit anywhere they desire that they don‟t have time to visit while young time or they can help their children take care of their grandchild so that their children would spend more time on working.‟ In the sentence, there are several

linking words such as „after‟, „that‟, „while‟, and „so that‟

Stringy sentences with „if‟: There was also a string made with more than

necessary „if‟ in one sentence Here is a string: „For example, if one old person has some serious diseases like cancer, if we were in the past, there were no modern

machine to prevent and cure these diseases.‟

There are also several stringy sentences which are the same as the examples having been cited (See appendix 2)

2.3.2 Fragments

Among the total number of the fragments found (see appendix 1), the author classified them into different types according to their different characteristics They are named as follows

 Main verb lacking fragments:

- Main verb lacking fragments as questions

- Main verb lacking fragments as statements

 Subject lacking fragments

 Main clause lacking fragments:

 Complement lacking fragments

 Fragments of a group of words

Main verb lacking fragments: This error can be divided into the sub-types

as follows

- Main verb lacking fragments as questions: These are interrogative

fragments without auxiliary „to be‟ These are some of the errors: „What effects and causes of inflation in the world?‟, „So, what benefits and effects of globalization?‟,

„Do you know how much your country‟s average life expectancy now and 20 years

ago? In these sentences, the auxiliary of an English question is omitted

- Main verb lacking fragments as statements: In these sentences, there is a

lack of a main verb which should be „be‟ By looking at the sentences, it is visible that right after their subjects are the nouns or the adjectives considered as the verbs

These errors are cited as „Every people want to live as long as they can, but some dead because of illness.‟ Or „However that culture can‟t instead of our culture.‟

Among these fragments, there is also a type of fragment which lacks the auxiliary

„to be‟ in the present continuous tense Here it is „Ice melting doing rise level sea,

so square area decline.‟ This is a mistake because with the students‟ English level,

they at least know how to make a sentence with this tense

Subject lacking fragments: Here is an example, „Should clearly distinguish

economic globalization with the broader concept of globalization in general.‟ The

subject of this fragment must be in the places around it The other cases are as

follows: „Conclusion, have some causes and factors make inflation.‟ and „And take advantage of it‟

Main clause lacking fragments: For this error, the main clause is the other

sentence which is right next to it Here is a good example: „Because increase life expectancy means we have more labor resources‟ or „Such as, import or non-toxic product‟ This is only an adverbial clause or a complement which should

accompany main clauses to make complete sentences

Complement lacking fragments: Beside from the fragments the author

mentioned above, the other kind is predicate lacking fragments This is an example:

„The reasons of this phenomenon are:‟ In the writing paper, there are many

paragraphs following this sentence Thus, instead of the nouns standing right after

to be „are‟ to make a complete sentence there were the presence of paragraphs (See

appendix 5)

The fragments of groups of words: For these fragments, the author does

not see any typical characteristics to classify them except for the fact that they are the group of words Actually, this group of words should have been added to the sentences around them They are the nouns such as „Political system, culture, human well being.‟ the adverbial clause such as „Especial to macro economy.‟ The

other case is that the fragment is just a jumbled words such as „Rise in sea levels worldwide‟ or „Management class easier and the can feel less pressure.‟

2.3.3 Run-on sentences

There are a few small types of this sentence error found in the students‟ writing (See appendix 4) These are named as follows:



 Comma splices

Run-on sentences with no or wrong punctuation: These are the sentences

in which there is no punctuation or its misuse Here is an example of a run-on

sentence with no punctuation: „Burning fuel can make N2O, CO2, SO2 and acid rain it can destroy environment and cause global warming.‟ Here is the other one with wrong punctuation: „However, there are 2 faces: one face is improving economic and other face lead to inflation.‟ Actually, in the sentence, three

independent clauses were linked into one sentence with a colon which should be followed by the linking words such as „such as‟ or „as follows‟ and nouns

Comma splices: These are the sentences, as being defined in the literature

review, having the presence of commas but without the linking words to connect the

independent clauses This fact is shown at this splice: „In Vietnam, every year, there are many national to return to country, they bring many foreign culture, information and agree with domestic culture.‟ or „Increase life expectation but rate

of born is low can lead old population, there is 1 amount of population is out of labor.‟ Actually, in the sentences, there are other types of error, however; the fact

that the sentences are the run-on ones is the most visible

2.3.4 “The sentence errors of other types”

This is a new type of sentence error the author found in the present study It contains many small types They are the new sentence errors which the researcher could not put into any of the above mentioned sentence structure errors The author

of the present study would like to call them “the sentence errors of other types.” However, these ones for us are the important elements among the findings of the present study By looking at “the sentence errors of other types” (Appendix 3), we can see that there are a large number of “sentence errors of other types” which can

be named according to their various characteristics as follows:

 Sentences with the incorrect use of linking words

 Sentence with the incorrect use of relative pronouns

 Sentences with subject abundance

 Sentences with verb abundance

Sentences with the incorrect use of linking words: This is an example:

„Reducing class size has many positive effects thanks to it help student to develop a better comprehension and to allow the development of friendship between all classmates.‟ It could be said that this sentence is neither a fragment, a run-on

sentence nor a stringy one It is certainly not a fragment because of the presence of subjects and predicates Besides, it is not a run-on sentence either as there is only one independent clause In addition, it is not a stringy one at all for there is only one linking word „thanks to‟ to connect the main clause with the dependent clause However, the problem here is the use of the linking word „thanks to‟ After „thank to‟, it should be a noun or a gerund In this sentence, though it is a dependent

clause The structure of the sentence is problematic indeed

Sentences with verb abundance: These are sentences which contain more

than one main verb There are so many of these sentences in the present study The

author would like to cite here some of them as follow: „Globalization helps people can choice education environment that best way „So, medical technology develops help to diagnosis and treatment favorable than.‟ or „It leads the life expectancy also increases.‟ There should be the non-finite verbs in the above sentences such as

infinitive without „to‟ - „help people choose‟, - gerund – „the increasing of‟ …

Sentences with the incorrect use of relative pronouns: After the relative

pronoun, the use of verbs is wrong Here is an example: „From this cause, global warming have many negative effect such as accelerating see level rise, drought, floots, storms, melting ice which threatening to life‟s people and animals.‟ In the

other case, the relative pronoun was not used to make a correct dependent clause

Here is the sentence: „I think it mean that machines choose good coffee beans and

reject beans not good quality.‟

Sentences with subject abundance: In this case, the pronouns such as 'this',

'it', and 'that' were often put right after another subject in a sentence These are some

of the errors: „If we want to have better education for ours, reducing class this is the

best way to do.‟ and „The labor resources are the element that it is very important.‟

In short, there is the presence of the common sentence errors which have been defined by many other scholars in the present study The characteristics of these errors made by the students in the institution though have their own typical features However, several other sentence errors were also pointed out and classified by the author according to their specific traits

2.4 Report on the results about the frequency of the sentence errors

In this part of the study, their frequency of sentence errors by the participants would be presented basing on the deployment of quantitative analysis

The total sentences of the 50 pieces of writing are 864 in which there are 129 sentence structure errors Thus, the average number of sentences in a piece of writing is 17 sentences The average number of sentence structure errors in each writing paper is 3 sentence errors Among the total number of the errors, the most problematic sentences are fragments which consist of 40% The number of

“sentence errors of other types” is a bit lower than the above accounting for 33% The remaining problematic sentences are run-on sentences (20%), and stringy sentences (7%) The frequency of the sentence errors is shown in the table below

Table 1 The frequency of the types of sentence structure errors

Sentence errors Numbers Average percent

“The sentence errors of other types”

- sentences with verb abundance

- sentences with subject abundance

- sentences with the incorrect use of

relative pronouns

- Sentences with the incorrect use of

linking words

2.4.1 Frequency of fragments

Table 2 The frequency of the types of fragments

%

Rank

By looking at the table above, it can be seen that the most frequent fragments are those which are the groups of words (31%) The second most frequent is main clause lacking fragments which consist of 25% The other types containing a rather large number is main verb lacking fragments which account for 21% and subject lacking fragments accounting for 19% The least frequent is lacking predicate fragments with only 2%

2.4.2 Frequency of run-on sentences

Table 3 The frequency of the types of run-on sentences

3.4.3 Frequency of stringy sentences

Table 4 The frequency of stringy sentences

%

rank

Stringy sentences with more than necessary

linking words

It is visible that the most common stringy sentences are the ones with more than one linking word consisting of 78% The remaining cases account for the equal number of 11%

2.4.4 Frequency of “the sentence structure errors of the other types”

Table 5 The frequency of “the sentence structure errors of the other types”

In the table, it is obvious that the most popular errors of this kind are the ones with verb abundance which account for up to 86% The other types such as the sentences with subject abundance, incorrect use of linking words or the incorrect use of relative pronouns are only of small numbers which are 7%, 2% and 5% respectively

2.5 The explanation of the errors

In this part of the present thesis, the author is going to take a consideration into the sources of the sentence errors we collected basing on the causes other scholars have stated as follows

2.5.1 The explanation of fragments

Main clause lacking fragments as the results of insufficient understanding of linking word use: There is a large number of this error in the

present study By looking at the errors (Appendix 1), it can be said that the first reason of this error in here is the wrong placement of a full stop Here is an

example: „Because doctors are becoming more and more advanced in their specialist and the development of high-quality medical equipments and drug can help you overcome dangerous diseases” Those who made these errors of this kind

might think that these linking words can start a sentence but actually, they cannot be used so Coming back to the causes of errors in the literature review, these errors are actually the results of none of the cited reasons by the scholars They may be the consequence of the insufficient understanding about the linking devices such as

„because‟, „since‟ These linking words are only used to connect a dependent clause with a main clause

Complement lacking fragment as the result of inability to make sentences: Some cases of the fragments are those without predicates Here is an

example: „The reasons of this phenomenon are:‟ The student writers might think

this is a complete sentence but actually after to be „are‟ at least a complement is needed If this student writer had known the English structure sentence, there would

not have been this fragment

Subject lacking fragments as the results of carelessness and inability to use pronouns: Beside, there are some other fragments in which there is a lack of a

subject such as: „Should clearly distinguish economic globalization with the broader concept of globalization in general.‟ and , „Increase your life expectancy

and improve your health and feel as you age.‟, For this kind of fragments, the

causes may come from the fact that the student writers were discussing about a subject They kept making sentences without giving the sentences the subjects Thus, the subjects might be the ones the writers mentioned in the sentences standing before or after the fragments Therefore, it can be said that these errors are those

made with carelessness and the inability in using pronouns as a mean of cohesion

Main verb lacking fragments:

- Main verb lacking fragments in questions as the result of mother tongue interference and carelessness: Firstly, the author would like to give an example as

follows: „What effects and causes of inflation in the world?‟ This is a question

without the auxiliary verb „are‟ Even the English beginning learners can see the problem of this sentence Hence, this must be a mistake first In addition, the researcher would say this is also the result of mother tongue interference It can be said so because in Vietnamese, auxiliary verbs should not be put before the main verb or as a main verb in a question

- Main verb lacking fragments as the result of the students‟ misunderstanding about word forms: There is also the other kind of fragments in which there are not

verbs but the other like verbs These are some of them: “Factly, we can enough all things, so we use money to relax, take part in social activities.”, “Every people want to live as long as they can, but some dead because of illness.” By looking at

these fragments, it can be seen that these fragments are the consequences of the knowledge lacking of the language functions of the words such as „dead, enough‟ The makers of these fragments might not know that these words should be

accompanied with the verb „to be‟

Fragments of a group of words as the result of insufficient grammar:

The remaining cases of fragments are hard for us to find out the causes because the fragments are the jumbled groups of words It is even harder to understand them

Here are the examples: „In conclusion, globalization continuing progressed virtually in all countries during this century which caused by development of

international trade, demand of cultural interaction and exchange information, the international investment ‟ or Further more, political system, culture, human physical well being.‟ Those who made these groups of word should learn more

English grammar in order that they will not just put randomly words to make meaningless sentences

2.5.2 The explanation of stringy sentences

Stringy sentences with „if‟ as the result of mother tongue interference:

This is an example: For example, if one old person has some serious diseases like cancer, if we were in the past, there were no modern machine to prevent and cure these disease This may be the result of the interference of Vietnamese because in

Vietnamese people can say a sentence with more than one „if‟ In English, however,

the complex sentences with „if‟ have only one independent clause and one „if‟

„and‟ was used more than one times to connect more than two clauses This might

be the result of the mother tongue interference because of the Vietnamese people‟s habit of using „and‟ in their speaking Beside, of course for those who had had good knowledge of English sentence writing, there would not have been such the strings

of words

Stringy sentences with more than necessary linking words as the result

of inability to make sentences or carelessness: These are among the lengthiest

string because too many conjunctions were used incorrectly in complex or

compound sentences Here is a good example: Many schools try to organize small classes because they want to train a group of excellent students, if students focus on learning and don‟t be disturbed by anything else such as chatting, it will be easier

for them to succeed Those who made this sentence may not know what a complex

sentence or a compound sentence is However, it can be said this is the result of carelessness because a full stop replacing the comma will make the string two correct complex sentences In the case, this writer forgot to do so, this is a mistake

2.5.3 The explanation of “the sentence errors of other types”

Sentences with incorrect use of linking words as the result of insufficient understanding about linking word use: These sentences are started with the

conjunctions which are used to connect the sentence constituents to their main parts

Here are some of them: „Reducing class size has many positive effects thanks to it help student to develop a better comprehension and to allow the development of friendship between all classmates.‟ This error was made because of the fact that the

student did not know how to use the conjunction „thank to‟

Sentences of verb abundance as the result of inability to make sentence:

The third type of sentence error in here is a kind of sentences with more than one

main verb These are some of them: „The final reason is globalization help countries attract the international investment and „Increase life expectation but rate of born is low can lead old population, there is 1 amount of population is out of labor.‟ Those who made these sentence errors may lack the knowledge of sentence

making They may be able to make simple sentences but they cannot make the ones that are more complicated Besides, they may not know how to use the verbs

Sentences with the incorrect use of relative pronouns as the result of insufficient understanding about relative pronouns usage: These sentences

show that students should have better knowledge about relative pronouns than they

had This is an example: „From this cause, global warming have many negative effect such as accelerating see level rise, drought, floots, storms, melting ice which threatening to life‟s people and animals‟ The students lacking of understanding

about relative pronouns may cause this kind of fragments Here is another good

example: „I think it mean that machines choose good coffee beans and reject beans