Báo cáo thực tập tốt nghiệp tiếng anh (3)

These errors can be seen in bothlearning process at school and the results of the exams at the end of each term.Therefore, it is necessary to carry out an investigation into the use of t

Part I: Introduction

1.1 Rationale of the study

English is the language of international communication In recent yearsthere are more and more people considering about the need of Englishlearning In order to improve the quality of English learning and teachingmany great efforts have been made These include the search for andimplication of new and more effective teaching methods Special attention hasalso been paid to research in different areas of the teaching and learningEnglish In the processes of learning, however, learners cannot avoid errors

As Spada and Lightbown (2002, p.167) stated that: “Errors are natural part oflanguage learning The errors reveal the patterns of learners’ developinginterlanguage systems – showing where they have over generalized a secondlanguage rule or where they have inappropriately transferred the first languagerule into the second language ’’

For second language learners in general and for second languagestudents at secondary school in particular, or even others who have acquired ahigh level of English proficiency still make errors in their production of thesecond language We can see clearly the evidences of these errors in differentparts For example: In syntax, Vietnamese learners made errors in followingareas: wrong use or omission of prepositions and articles as in the followingexample sentence (In the left bank of Huong river *), wrong use of word order

in the sentence (She very much needs to meet them *) Alternatively, wrongform of verbs in tenses is also a difficulty as (He goes to school yesterday *)

In learning English grammar, especially the learning tenses, there aremany difficulties and errors for Vietnamese learners of English as well asstudents at secondary schools Although they have been taught andunderstood the rules of grammar clearly, they often make errors and somekinds of errors even become habitual These errors can be seen in bothlearning process at school and the results of the exams at the end of each term.Therefore, it is necessary to carry out an investigation into the use of tenses,especially into the use of the present perfect tense to study errors, which made

by students to identify their causes and find out the solutions to helpimproving the effects of teaching and learning English

For the reasons as above, the writer has decided to choose the topic “Aninvestigation into errors of the use of the present perfect tense by secondlanguage learners at secondary school’’

1.2 Aims of the study

The study reported in this thesis aims to:

- Identify errors in using the present perfect tense faced byVietnamese learners at high school

- Find the major causes and sources of the errors committed by highschool students in using the present perfect tense, and

- Make some suggestions for teaching and learning this tense

1.3 Scope of the study

English grammar is a complex field for both learners and researchers.Due to limit time and research condition, this study does not aim at coveringall problems or difficulties met by students in learning English grammar Thisthesis will focus on investigating students’ errors in the acquisition of Englishparticular grammatical case: The uses of one English syntactic structurenamed the present perfect tense, which is often used incorrectly byVietnamese students

1.4 Methods of the study

To meet the aims of the study, we apply the following methods:

- Investigating and analyzing method

- Explanation method

- Comparison method

- Synthesis method

1.5 Design of the study

There are three parts in this research paper

Part I: Introduction

This part deals with the rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of the study

Part II: Content

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter I: Theoretical background

This chapter will provide an in-depth review of the relevant literaturerelated to the issue under investigation Especially, a review of the uses of thepresent perfect tense in English will provide the theoretical framework for theidentification of the errors that students made In addition, theories about thesources of errors will help explore what factors caused students’ commitment

of errors in using the present perfect tense Error analysis as the maintheoretical tool for analyzing data will also be reviewed.

Chapter II: The study

This chapter will present the methodology adopted to collect data for

the research, which includes the description of research questions, setting,instrumentations, and data collection techniques This chapter will alsopresent and discuss the results and findings of the study

Chapter III: Findings and discussion

This part will summarize major findings, suggest some implicationsfor teaching and learning the present perfect tense in English

Suggestions for further researches will also be presented

Part III: Conclusion

This part will summarize what have been presented in the thesis

The appendixes and references are placed at the end of the study

Part ii: content Chapter I: Theoretical background

1.1 Tense and aspect in English

There are various traditional school grammarians as well as linguistspaying attentions to English tense and English aspect category Theyconsidered the category as a complex study According to Geoffrey Leechwho identified verb tense and verb aspect as “two of the most troublesomeareas of English’’ (Jacobs, 1985, p.187) With the aims at helping learners tounderstanding further this field, the thesis would like to introduce somegeneral points of view about this

1.1.1 Tense in English

According to Quirk et, al (p.40) “Time is a universal, non-linguisticconcept with three divisions: past, present, future’’

The diagram of time

Past present future

Diagram 1.1.1 The diagram of time

In English Syntax, Jacobs (p.187) believes that “Aristotle who is said tohave been the first to recognize the category of tense’’ He also observed,

“there were systematic variations in the form of Greek verbs, variations thatcould be correlated with time notions such as past and present’’ This lead tosome different definitions of other linguists Quirk et, al, (2003, p 40) definedtense as “the correspondence between the form of the verb and our concept oftime’’ Jacobs, (1995, p.187) defined that “tense is the grammatical marking

on verbs that usually indicates time at which some other situation was inforce’’ It refers to absolute location of an event or action in time of eitherspeaking point or others It is remarked by inflections such as “s /es’’, “d /ed’’ or other past participle verbs

For example:

It snows in Alaska (1) present tense

It snowed in Alaska, yesterday (2) past tense

(Azar, 2004, p 3) The first sentence is the present tense when the action (event) which ishappened in time of speaking and marked by an inflection “s” However, thefirst sentence’s tense would be the past tense if the narrative sentence’s action(event) happened the past and now it is retold The verb will be marked by aninflection “d / ed ’’ The second sentence is in the past tense because timereference is in the past “yesterday” and verb is marked by an inflection “ed” The tense system involves distinctions of time reference, and isgrammaticalized to give only two tenses: past and present Studying Englishtense, Jacobs also mentioned that there is “a two-tense system” in English,which is past tense and present tense

Present tense: Time reference of action can be in the past time, in time ofspeaking, even in future time The grammatical markings are inflection “s”,

“es”

For example:

Lady Godiva rides on a snow- white house

(Jacobs, 1995, p.190) Past tense: Time reference of the action has to be in the past time, recentmoment The grammatical markings are the inflections “ed”, “d”, anddifferent forms of verb past

1.1.2 Aspect in English

What is aspect? Answering this question, some linguists provideddefinitions of aspect as follows: “Aspect is the general name given to verbforms used to signify certain ways in which an event is viewed experienced” (Jacobs, 1995, p 199) Discussing about aspect, Quirk et, al defined as “the manner in whichverbal action is experienced or regarded” (p.40)

For example:

Jane Austen was writing her greatest novel

Maureen Duffy has now written a novel about two friends (Jacobs, p 201) The first sentence’s tense is the past tense, it refers to a time in the pastand the writing act was continuing at the time referred to Tense is marked byform of verb “be”, and aspect is progressive aspect because the effect of verb

“be” on the main verb showed the ongoingness of the situation at that time.Hence, the sentence’s tense is the past tense, its aspect is the progressiveaspect

The second sentence’s tense is the present tense Although the actiontook place and completed in the past, time reference is now Because theaction took place quite recently and still suits to the time of speaking The use

of perfective auxiliary “have / has” with the main verb in past participle formwhich follows “has” to show the aspect Thus, the sentence’s tense is thepresent tense and its aspect is the perfective aspect

Form of aspect:

Progressive aspect: Be + Ving

Perfective aspect: Have / has + V (PII)

These are grammatical markings mark aspect in English The lexicalmeaning of verb can also convey aspectual meaning For example, when averb signifies a temporary state or continuing activities tend to be aprogressive aspect When a verb signifies pre-existing states and indicatescompleted actions tend to be the perfective aspect

For example:

I’m writing an essay

He has just changed his style

In conclusion, aspect is a “complicated phenomenon” Linguists havepresented two aspects in English including progressive and perfective aspectbasing on grammatical category and meaning of verb As Quirk et, al said thatthe aspect concerns the verbal ongoing actions or verbal complicated actions.

For example:

The murderer will have been arrested when he arrives nextweek

(Jacobs, 1995, p 194) The action “arrest” will have been occurred in a prior of time when themurderer comes, the time is not to now

The time reference is when she arrives on next week It is related to sometimes after now

To sum up, time reference is time relative to some fixed reference point,(i.e the reference point can be the time of speaking “now” or can be someother time such as “past”, “future”).The complexity of the relationshipsbetween tense and aspect as well as tense and time reference has raised somedifficulties for both studiers and learners The combination among tense,aspect and time reference have constructed a system of “compound tense”which lead to confuse to learners

1.1.4 The present perfect tense in English

The present perfect tense is the present tense – perfect aspectcombination with different time references “The present perfect tense hasperfect aspect which means that it is used to refer to a subject’s past action orstates while keeping the subject in a present state of reference or in a presentstate of mind”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//present _perfect tense) Leech’s opinion shows that the present perfect tense means, “Past –time – related – to – present – time” (Leech, G 1987, p.35)

Other definition of the present perfect tense is a perfect tense used toexpress action that has been completed with respects the present.

It is formed by an auxiliary “have / has” embedded a past participle form ofverb

For example:

I have gone to school

The use of the present perfect tense has been presented by different point

of views of linguists as follows:

The book Understanding and using English Grammar has given threeuses of the present perfect tense

(1)The present perfect tense expresses the idea that something happened

or never happened

For example:

I have never seen snow

(2) The present perfect tense expresses the repetition of an activity beforenow The exact time of each repetition is not important

For example:

I have flown on an airplane many times

(3) The present perfect tense used with “for” and “since” expresses

situation that began in the past and continues to the present

For example:

I have had the same pair of shoes for three years

(Azar, 2004, p.30) The three uses of Azar have been mentioned that the events occurred atsome unspecified times in the past, but the events suit or experience still exists

at the present The situation of events began in the past and still goes on to thepresent or even continuing to the future

Thomson and Martinet in A Practical English Grammar have introducedthe present perfect tense in five items of the use as follows:

(1)The present perfect tense with “just” for recently completed actions.

For example:

I have just gone out

(2) The present perfect tense used for past actions whose time is notdefinite It expresses the recent actions when the time is not mentioned;

S + have / has + V (PII)

Recent actions in the present perfect often have results in the present; and canalso used for action which occur further back in the past, provided theconnection with the present is still maintained, that is that the actions could berepeated in the present.

For example:

A new bridge has been built across the river

(3) The present perfect tense used for actions occurring in anuncompleted prior It implies that the actions happened or did not happen atsome undefined time during this period An uncompleted period may be

indicated by today, this morning, this day, lately, recently, since, for, ever.

For example:

About one hundred buildings and houses have been destroyed

in the earthquake recently

(4) The present perfect tense used for an action, which lasts throughout

an uncompleted period: The action began in the past and continues to the time

of speaking at the present, however, some time the action finished at the time

of speaking Time expressions can be indicated by since, for, all the time, always, all day.

For example:

It has been rained all day

(5) The present perfect tense used with “for” and “since”

For example:

She has lived in Hanoi for 5 years

The present perfect is a short of mixture of present and past It alwaysimplies a strong connection with the present and is chiefly used inconversations, letters, newspapers, and television and radio reports

Studying about “functions of the present tense – perfect aspectcombination” (the present perfect tense), Jacobs has given four major uses asfollows:

(1) Past indefinite uses: The present perfect tense refers to recent eventsenough to be new and relevant to the present, thereby connecting the present

to these past events This function some times called the “hot news” usage.The time of the events is happened always left unspecified

(2) The state uses: The present perfect is used with perfect aspect, whichcan be used to report the existence of the stable state of affairs over acontinuous period of time up to the present

(3) The change of state uses: (Resultative perfect) perfect aspect refers to

a present state as the result of a past event

(4) The current uses: Perfect aspect is used with predicates that refer toactions that are habitual or can be repeated more than once.

(Jacobs, 1995, p 201-203)

A part from the above-mentioned uses, there are many linguists havewritten about this including: Liz and John Soars (the Student book –Headway), Raymond Murphy (the English Grammar in Use), Michael Swan(the Practical English Usage), Leech (the Meaning and the English Verb), etc English grammarians have presented this category; from their point ofview researcher have found that the Use of Leech in Meaning and the EnglishVerb has provided a clear understanding the present perfect tense The usesare the summary of other linguists’ point of view They are: (1) Duration ofstate up to the present moment; (2) Indefinite past; (3) Resultative perfect; (4)Experiential perfect

The first uses are the same to those of Azar, Thomas – Matinet, andJacobs The next use is the same to the classification of Jacobs and Swan Thelast is similar to that of Swan and John and Lizsoar These uses will bedescribed in details as the following parts

1.1.4.1 Duration of state up to the present moment (USE I)

The present perfect is used to express an action or state, which extendsover a period lasting up to the present moment of speaking or writing It may

continue to the future We will use an adverb of duration as “since” or “for” to express it “Since” is used for a point of time in the past, and “for” is used for

duration of time (period of time)

For example:

I have not seen him since November

I have used my left hand for a month now

(Thomson and Martinet, p 168-169) This use is considered the typical one of the present perfect tense Thelinguists have used the use to show the relationship from past time to thepresent time

This use can be diagrammed as follows:

The action began in the past

and goes on to the present Time

Past Present Future

Diagram 1: Use 1

1.1.4.2 Indefinite past (USE II)

The present perfect is used to express an action or event, which occurred

in the past, but the exact time is not important and we, even, do not know thetime when is continuing or ended The adverbs are used in this case including:

ever, never, before, usually, once, twice, yet.

For example:

Have you ever seen the film “The Deep blue sea”?

Or I have read the story “Lao Hac” twice

In this case, it is not necessary for us to think of any particular actions or

of the exact time when the action was performed The event or action mayhave occurred several times In case, if we are thinking about a completeperiod of time or we know that the action usually happens at a certain time or

in certain part of our incomplete period, we use the simple past tense

The use can be diagrammed as follows:

A A A Time

Past Present Future

A: an action or event

Diagram 2: Use 2

1.1.4.3 Resultative perfect (USE III)

The present perfect is used in reference to a past action or event to showthat the results of an action or event is still operative now The resultativeperfect is used when we are thinking about past actions or events together withtheir present results There is nothing unusual or extraordinary about the

resutlative perfect The use is usually embedded with adverbs including: just, already, yet

For example:

I cannot come to your party because I have broken my leg The use can be diagrammed as follows:

The action happened in the past

(Recent past) Time

Past Present Future

- - -: Results in the present

Diagram 3: Use 3

1.1.4.4 Experiential perfect (USE IV)

It is used to express a past actions or events that were completed in anexact point of time in the past, it is not the recent actions However, we do not

care “when”, we only interest in the experience or knowledge as part of

someone’s life and it is “still with us” The adverbs which are usually used

including: ever, never

The use can be diagrammed as follows:

The action happened in the past

However, we do not care “when”

Time

Past Present Future

“ ’’: “when” the action happened

Diagram 4: Use 4

In conclusion, the present perfect tense is a complex tense and hasseveral uses It is not easy tense for studying

1.2 Tense and aspect in Vietnamese

Vietnamese, there is no linguist who has given out a particular part ofspeech to express tense as a grammatical category There is no definitionabout tense in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, a grammatical category is made up by combining some

particles with a system of verb vocabulary The particles as “đã”, đang“ ”,

“sẽ”, “rồi”, “vừa”, “xong”, etc always stand before the verbs and act three

stagies of time such as: past, present, and future These words express two

parts of opposite action meanings: The first is action which is not completed(is happening, is going to happen, repeat, has not had the result yet, etc.) andthe other is action, which is completed (finished, has had the results).

According to Ban and Dan (1992) the particles as “đã”, “sẽ”, đang“ ”,

“rồi”, etc, play an important part in forming the grammatical aspect for the

verbs which are combined with them

For example:

Thầy giáo tôi đang hỏi những học sinh cha nộp bài

(A rough translation: My teacher is asking some students who havenot given papers to him yet)

The function of these words is to form the grammatical formula for theverbs that they stand before The set of the words is called “particles enrich

meaning of verb” Than (1997) considers the words: đang“ ”, “còn”, “sẽ”,

“vẫn”, “vừa”, “mới”, etc, as adverbs According to him, these words can be

used freely, and can be isolated from other words in completed units offormation, meaning, and grammatical function They are really words, butthey themselves cannot be a sentence as well as main part of sentence He alsoshows that these words can be combined with the verbs as a signal of tenseand aspect

For example:

Tôi sẽ ở nhà này

(A rough translation: I am going to be in this house)

In Vietnamese grammar, there is no grammatical category of tense –aspect, but there is tense – aspect of words Tense – aspect of words are the

“particles” (Ban – Dan), “adverbs” (Than) which are combined with verbs inorder to express the general grammatical meaning about the time and tense ofactions or events The actions may have been completed or uncompleted /perfect or imperfect

According Ban and Dan the particles such as “ vẫn”, đang“ ”, “cha”,

“từng”, “thờng”, “hay” are used to express an completed action at the present (

or may be continuing to the future) when they are placed before the verbs He

also mentions about the set of words including “rồi”, “đã”, “xong” as

expressing the meaning of completed action at the time of speaking Heindicates grammatical meaning of the present perfect of verbs by using theparticles before verbs

(1)Rồi: Expresses the result meaning of action which happened in thepast, but we do not know if it has completed or uncompleted (or goes on untilthe present).

For example:

Xuất hiện rồi

(A rough translation: It has been appeared) (2)Xong: Express the meaning of a finished action completely, however,its result has been left to the present

For example:

Tìm hiểu xong vấn đề

(A rough translation: The issue has been studied)

Basing on Vietnamese linguists’ concepts about the particles, theirmeaning which are listed in the following part will be had a general structure-meaning model as followings:

sẽ (sắp)cha

đã

đang(còn, vẫn)

Read, stand,Seat, listen,…

xongrồi

Table 1.2 Verbs and Particles

The meaning of the particles:

“Sẽ”, “sắp”: Denoting an action or state in the future

đang

“ ”, “còn”, “vẫn”: Denoting an action or state is still going on

“cha”: Denoting an action or state not happened

“đã”: Denoting a past action

“xong”, “rồi”: Denoting that an action or state has finished

As above mentions, there is no definition of tense and aspect inVietnamese grammar as a particular grammatical category The concept isrealized through the “particles” or “adverbs”, and implicit of contextualassumptions The speakers can choose the present tense or past tensedepending on their choice Where as, in English the linguists have given theclear definition of tense and aspect as a particular grammatical category andtime is also expressed by “morphological tenses” Thus, Vietnamese learners

of English always confuse the use of the present perfect tense This is also one

of the major reasons that lead Vietnamese learners commit errors when theyuse the present perfect tense to express their mind.

To conclude, there are some differences between Vietnamese andEnglish language

In Vietnamese, there is no particular category of tense, but in English iscontrasting Especially, in case of the present perfect tense, there is noequivalent tense in Vietnamese and also no combination’s notion of past andpresent time as well as the different meanings of this tense We have foundthat the forms of English verbs, which are changed depending on the subjectsand tense choice, while Vietnamese uses different particles to denote theaspect meaning and the form of verbs never, changed

Example:

Tôi đã ăn cơm rồi

(A rough translation: I have eaten the meal or I ate the meal)

Cậu bé đang chơi ngoài sân

(A rough translation: The boy is playing in the yard)

The verbs ăn“ ”, “chơi” in Vietnamese do not change its form However, the verbs “eat”, “play” in English change into “eaten / ate”, “playing” basing

on the aspect choice In the first Vietnamese sentence, we have found that the

function of particle “đã” is to show a perfect (completed) action ăn“ ”

However, in English sentence the perfect action of verb “eat” is expressed by

both present perfect tense and past tense (tense choice) The learners have tobase on context of sentences to confirm tense Moreover, in English sentencemust contain a verb, in Vietnamese there are some grammatical structureswithout verbs

Example:

I’m tired (S + to be + adj )

Tôi mệt (S + adj )

The learners will have some troublesome with using the right tense forms

to express time and aspect in English, because English grammar differs fromVietnamese grammar However, language still has means to express the samelocations in time Thus, the learners should spend more time on practicing theuses of English to reduce errors as well as mistakes

1.3 Errors in language learning process

1.3.1 The notion of errors

Some linguists have presented the definition of errors as follows:

Leon has defined error as “a linguistic form…which, in the samecontext…would in all likelihood not be produced by the learners’ nativespeaker counterparts” (1991, p 182).

Other linguist as Hendrickson defined in methodology in TESOL(1987) an error is “an utterance form or structure that is a particular languageteacher seems unacceptable because of its inappropriate use or its absence inreal life discourse”

According to Richard et, al, in the “Dictionary of LanguageTeaching and Applied linguistic”, (1992) “In the speech or writing of asecond or foreign learners, error is the use of linguistic item (e.g a word, agrammatical item, a speech act, etc) in a way in which a fluent or nativespeaker of language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning”

1.3.2 Errors and mistakes

Realizing the distinction between errors and mistakes is still a difficultyfor readers though they are quite different from each other The distinctionbetween an error and a mistake has been paid attention of some linguists According to Carl James “A mistake may be then defined as slip oftongue or of handwriting, and an error is committed because of thewriter/speaker’s semantic and structure intentions If the learner is inclinedand able to correct a fault in his or her output, it is assumed that the form he orshe selected was unintended fault or a mistake On the other hand, the learnercan not correct, it is assumed that the form the learners use was the intendedone, which is an error”

Corder (1967, p 167) showed that mistakes are of no significance to theprocess of language learning; hence they do not reflect a defect in ourknowledge but are traceable to performance failure The learner is normallyimmediately aware of their mistakes and can correct them with more or lesscomplete assurance Native speakers as well as learners may make mistake, onthe contrary, errors are of significance to the process of language leaning.They do reflect knowledge and are not self correctable Only learners of asecond language commit error

Richard el, al in Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied linguistic(1992) also revealed that a learner makes a mistake when writing or speakingbecause of lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness or some other aspects ofperformance Where as, an error is the use of linguistic item in a way that afluent or native speaker of the use of the language regards it as showing faulty

or incomplete learning

Mistakes are the wrong form that can be given correction by the learnerswhen their wrongness is to be pointed out Errors are the wrong forms, but thelearners cannot correct even teacher points out their wrongness The lack ofsufficient knowledge is the cause of errors, so, a good way to correcting errors

is spending more time on giving knowledge to students Whereas, the lack ofattention, fatigue, carelessness or other aspects of performance are causes ofmistakes, thus, students can be reminded to correct their mistakes by teacher For example:

She have a beautiful hat

(Students know and usually say; “She has a beautiful hat”)

He swimmed well

(Students do not know the form of verb “swim” in past tense)

In one word, an error is an unsuitable/inappropriate use of language that

is not realized by students, whereas, mistake is caused by the incorrect use oflanguage in performance

(Cook, 1993, p.22)

1.3.3 Errors analysis

Corder (1974) has defined error analysis as “by describing andclassifying his errors in language terms we build up a picture of the picture oflanguage, which are causing him learning problems” He also presents fivesteps of error analysis including: identification of errors; classification oferrors; explanation of errors; valuation of errors and correction of errors

1.3.4 Causes of errors in second language learning

Second language learners often meet numerous errors There are somelinguists have paid attention to this field such as Corder, Slinker, Richards,etc According to Richards (1974, p 174) errors made by learners can bederived from the interference of their mother tongue, which are called

“interlingual errors” Others are called by second language learners regardless

of their mother tongue, which are called “intralingual errors”

second language The reinforcement makes a proper habit, so that in thesecond language acquisition process, the learners have to overcome the oldhabits in order to acquire the new habits of the target language It is said thatthe preceding learning of their native language produces or inhabits thelearning of new habits.

Slinker called interlingual as language transfer, which is thephenomenon of native language influences on the learning of a secondlanguage This is caused by interference from mother tongue

Lado (1957, p 2) defined that “individual tends to transfer the forms,meanings, and distribution of forms and meanings of their native languageand culture to the foreign and culture”

(Nguyen Thi Van, 2005, p 22)

For example:

The form: + Vietnamese Tôi nghe đài + English I listen radio Meaning: + Vietnamese Nam gặp Minh trên đờng + English Nam meets Minh on the street

Culture: + Vietnamese Hơng và tôi đến trờng

+ English Huong and I go to school

In conclusion, interlingual errors are popular phenomenon that thelearners always meet in second language learning process Therefore, it isnecessary to present this kind of error for finding out suitable teaching andlearning strategies

1.3.4.2.1 Over-generalization

Lacobovits (1969, p 55) defined Over-generalization as the use ofpreviously available strategies in new situations Some of these strategies forsome reasons will be misleading and inapplicable

Over-generalization includes instances where the students create a wrongstructure on the basic of his experience of other structures in the targetlanguage In other words, this error occurs when students use the samestructure for new items based on what they have learned For example, whenforming a plural noun, the learners predict that a noun can made plural by

adding “s” in the end of the word He/she thinks that the plural form of “book”

is “books”, so he/she adds “s” after “person” in order to create the plural form

of the word is “persons” *, but its exact form must be “people”, etc.

Over-generalization origins from over learning of structure caused by acertain type of teaching and presentation techniques

1.3.4.2.2 Ignorance of rule restrictions

This phenomenon belongs to over-generalization, and it happens whenthe learners fail to observe the restrictions

one: “said to” – “told to” *.

1.3.4.2.3 Incomplete application of rules

Incomplete application of rules is result of the fact that the learnersperhaps primarily attend to effective communication without the need formastering the rulers Other reason for this is the use of question as a technique

of the teacher to elicit utterances of learners

For example:

Teacher: Where did you stay last night?

Student: I stay at home *

1.3.4.2.4 False concept hypothesized

Richards suggested that false concept hypothesized refers to a class ofdevelopmental errors resulting from faulty comprehension of distinction ofsecond language items

For example:

She is goes to school *

The above example, the learner fails in distinguishing “is” as a marker of

the present tense

To conclude, the learners have met some troublesome of errors in secondlanguage learning process These errors originated from many sources Thetwo major types of errors including interlingual errors and intralingual errors.Interlingual errors result from the interference of the learners’ mother tongue.Intralingual errors include overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction,and incomplete application of rules, and false concepts, hypothesis

Chapter II: THE STUDY

2.1 Research questions

The study in this thesis is carried out in order to answer the following questions:

- What errors do secondary school students have in using the present perfect tense in English?

- What may be the causes and the sources of the difficilties?

- What suggestions can be made in order to help students acquire theuses of the present perfect tense in English?

2.2 Research setting

The study is carried out at Hermann Gmeiner high school, Vinh city.Students, here, are supposed to have three 45-minute periods of English perweek, and their produce of studying lasts 20 weeks a term Therefore, theytake 60 periods of learning English per term

2.3 Instrumentation

An easy way to find out the errors that learners make in their L2production is testing It is considered as a good way to gather information.Testing is the major method which is used to collect data for analysis instudies of language in the world as well as in Vietnam such as the studies ofGass and Selinker (1983), Träng (2008), Thi (2007), V©n (2005) Informationcollected from tests must be systematic, valid and reliable In order to havevalid and reliable information three different tests designed in a written formdelivered to 104 students of the two classes 11A and 11D The structures ofsentences in the tests are approximately similar and are designed basing onstudents’ knowledge Each section contains eight sentences, which use in thepresent perfect tense The test certainly supplements one another to find outthe valid and reliable information

2.3.1 Describe the tests

(1) Grammar test: tests students’ ability to use correct grammar andusage In almost studies of language or in general English exams in Vietnamuse a grammar test because it is useful for analyzing and comparing.However, there is a limitation that it would not give information about howthey use the tense in a naturalistic environment There fore, a translation testand a syntax completion test are going to be designed to give information that

is more necessary

(2) Translation test: The translation test will give more information aboutproblems of form and usage when transferring from source language to targetlanguage The test of translation seems to be the most efficient way to elicit

syntactic structures from subjects In some studies of language in Vietnam,Vietnamese – English translation tests have also been used.

2.3.1.1 The grammar test

This type of test is traditional one, which has applied in almost allexaminations It is also the type of exercise in which students are asked to fill

in each gap with the correct form of the given verb

Some typical adverbs such yet, never, just, since, for are given as clues

for the use of the present perfect tense There fore, students can avoid errors oftense

In the test, the numbers of sentences testing the four uses of the presentperfect tense are:

Use 1: Sentences 1 and 3

Use 2: Sentences 5 and 11

Use 3: Sentences 6 and 12

Use 4: Sentences 8 and 10

2.3.1.2 The Vietnamese – English translation test

This task asks students to translate 12 sentences of Vietnamese intoEnglish It is designed basing on the similarities and differences between thetwo languages with grammatical structures such as SVA, SVC, and SVO with

simple vocabularies There are some words such as “kể từ”, “vừa mới”, “rồi”,

đã từng

“ ” are given as clues for recognizing the tense This type of test is easy

to check errors and their causes if there is the influence of mother tongue onthe second language learners, because of doing this task, students have tocompare the two languages and find out differences and similarities

In the test, the numbers of sentences testing the four uses of the presentperfect tense are:

Use 1: Sentences 3 and 6

Use 2: Sentences 9 and 12

Use 3: Sentences 4 and 11

Use 4: Sentences 1 and 10

2.3.1.3 The syntax completion test

This type of test is difficult for students, because students have to make

up sentences basing on the concreted contexts with universal knowledge ofgrammar and translation Hence, in order to make the test easier and simplerthe verbs and some adverbs are given first in advance The first sentence havebeen done as a guide for students

The distribution of the use of the present perfect tense is as follows: Use 1: Sentences 2 and 5

Use 2: Sentences 3 and 11

Use 3: Sentences 8 and 10

Use 4: Sentences 6 and 12

2.3.2 Testing process

The test papers were administered in 104 students of the two classes11A and 11D at the 13th week of the second term in 2008-2009 course, aboutthe middle of April 2009 All students of two classes are in the best healthcondition The test was done in class with the same conditions The studentswere informed in advance that the test would be used for research and keptanonymous to ensure there would be no cheating and results would bereliable

2.4 Investigated procedure

The steps of procures are described as follows:

- All students from the two classes 11A and 11D were randomlyselected and asked to do the test with three sections and the time allowancefor doing the test is 90 minutes During the time of doing the test, studentshave to do the test on their own and not to use any dictionaries or grammarbooks

- The test papers are all carefully read and examined after handing in,then erroneous forms or structures are identified and marked

- All errors identified are to be analyzed in detail This step is toinvestigate causes of errors basing on the chapter of theoretical background.The explanation for erroneous uses of the present perfect tense has to base onthe reliable documents

- Findings of the study are exposed

2.5 Preliminary results and data analysis

2.5.1 Results of section 1 – Grammar test

Section 1 asks the students to put the verbs in each blanket into thecorrect tense There are eight sentences, which used in the present perfecttense and they are divided into four different uses Some students could havefull correct answers in this section The highest number of errors committed inthe section was found in use 3: 81 errors (39%) in which there are 54 withsentence 6, 27 with sentence 12 The number of errors in use 4 ranks to thesecond position with 76 errors (37%) in which there are 43 in sentence 8, 33with sentence 10 The errors made by use 1 ranks to the third position with 70errors (34%) amongst which there are 27 with sentence 1, 43 with sentence 3.The last position of errors made in use 2 with 64 errors (31%) Thedistribution of them by sentences is as follows: sentence 5: 34 and sentence11: 30