Một số lỗi sai của học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khi sử dụng phân từ hiện tại và phân từ quá khứ làm tính từ

In addition, our attention will be paid to the analysis of errors committed by Vietnamese learners in learning English as a foreign language in general and in acquiring English Participi

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

HA NOI, 2011

- o0o -

NGUYỄN THỊ HUẾ

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ERRORS MADE BY ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS

IN USING PRESENT AND PAST PARTICIPLES AS ADJECTIVES

((Một số lỗi của học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khi sử dụng phân từ hiện tại và

phân từ quá khứ làm tính từ)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Vượng, M.A

HA NOI, 2011

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

E.P.Adjs: English Participial Adjectives

P.Adjs: Participial Adjectives

-Ed adjs : Past participial adjectives

-Ing adjs: Present participial adjectives

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1………22

Table 2………23

Table 3………24

Table 4………26

Table 5………28

Table 6………30

Table 7a……… 30

Table 7b……… 31

Table 8a……… 31

Table 8………31

Table 9………32

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1……….22

Figure 2……….24

Figure 3……….25

Figure 4……….27

Figure 5……….29

1.1.4 Participial Adjectives in collocation with nouns 10 1.1.5 The meaning of Participial Adjectives in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

2.4.1.2 Errors in the choice of -ing or -ed P.Adjs (Grammar Exercise 2) 22

2.4.1.5 Errors in Vietnamese-English translation (Grammar Exercise 5) 27

2.4.2.1 The most challenging type of exercise 29

CHAPTER 3: MAJORS FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

33

on grammar than communicative skills and students learn more knowledge of grammar than language skills, the secondary students tend to make more grammatical errors

There are such a lot of types of grammatical errors as errors of verb form, errors in the use of English articles, preposition, etc Among those typical errors, students‟ confusion in using English Participial Adjectives is worth discussing Why do the students find it difficult to acquire the uses and meaning of present and past participles as adjectives A lot of reasons for this are assumed In my opinion, one of the causes for this confusion is that the term “Participial Adjectives” does not exist in Vietnamese grammar Another reason is that Participial Adjectives, with two subclasses of -ing and -ed Participial Adjectives and different meanings The fact that the -ing participial adjectives convey active meaning while the -ed Participial ones convey passive meaning makes Vietnamese learners confused whenever dealing with them

I have chosen the topic of errors in using English participial Adjectives in the hope of supplying Vietnamese learners, especially secondary students with a general view on Participial adjectives I also expect that the analysis of the actual errors and the causes of the errors may help our secondary students avoid mistakes when using the participial adjectives

2 Scope of the study

The study focuses on basic syntactic and semantic features of English Participial Adjectives In addition, our attention will be paid to the analysis of errors committed by Vietnamese learners in learning English as a foreign language in general and in acquiring English Participial Adjectives in particular

Within the scope of a minor thesis, we intend to restrict our study to the analysis of errors made by Minh Dai Secondary School students in using English Participial Adjectives in two positions; pre-attributive and predicative Their problems are the basis to give practical suggestions in both teaching and learning English in secondary schools

3 Aims of the study

a) Identifying the errors committed by Minh Dai Upper Secondary School students when learning and using English participial Adjectives

b) Finding out the sources of errors in using English participial Adjectives by Ethnic Minority Students

4 Methods of the study

In order to realize the above aims, the methods used are mainly statistical and quantitative In the first state, I am going to analyze some features of English Participial Adjectives and the rules of uses and then take these a basis to analyze students‟ performance on survey exercises

Moreover, qualitative method issued based on the interview given to some of participants about their reasons for committing errors

5 Research questions

In the process of the study, the following questions are raised for investigation:

1) What are types of the errors made by Minh Dai Secondary School students in learning and using English Participial Adjectives?

2) What cause the students to commit those types of errors?

6 Design of the study

This paper is divided into two main parts:

Part A INTRODUCTION present the rationales of the study, the aims, research

questions, the scope of the study, methods of the study and also its design

Part B DEVELOPMENT

Chapter I deals with some theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of

the study: features of English participial Adjectives, errors and the sources of errors

in foreign language learning

Chapter II describes the methodology of the study including the context, the

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

Chapter III presents the findings on the grammar test and the student interviews

and applications for the teaching and learning English

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of English Participial Adjectives

1.1.1 The formation of the Participial adjectives

1.1.1.1 Definition of the participles

A participle is a non-finite verb which functions as an adjective or used in passive sentences or used to form progressive or perfect aspect There are two kinds

of participle in English which are the present participle and the past participle (Mc Graw-Hill, 1976)

According to Richards and others, the present participle is formed by adding

-ing to a verb base The present participle is used as an adjective (e.g a smiling girl,

a self-winding watch); it is used with the verb BE to make the progressive aspect (e.g It is raining); it occurs in some expressions such as “Let‟s go shopping”

The past participle is formed by adding -ed to the verb base except some

irregular verbs The past participle is used as an adjective (e.g a broken window); it

is used with the verb BE to form the passive (e.g I was amused by her); it is also used to form the perfect aspect (e.g She has finished her work)

1.1.1.2 Participial Adjectives

From the definitions above, it can be seen that there is a subclass of adjective formally distinguished by -ing or -ed endings Although some -ed forms, such as

“burnt” and “made”, does not end in -ed, this is simply a cover term for this form

Adjectives ending with -ing or -ed are known as Participial Adjectives (P Adjs for short) Apart from the simple form -ing or -ed, P.Adjs are also found in the

form of compounds such as energy-saving, easy-going or heartfelt, dry-cleaned,

etc

1.1.2 Syntactic functions of P.Adjs

As adjectives, P.Adjs tend to appear in two major syntactic positions in clauses: attributive and predicative

They had a boring date They had a bored look on their faces

The child saw a frightening movie (a movie that frightened the child)

The frightened child began to cry (the child who was frightened)

In post attributive position, a P Adj follows a noun as a modifier in a nominal group

Eg

There is nothing interesting here

I watched the match because I knew some of people playing

The people questioned gave very different opinions

We couldn‟t agree on any of the problems discussed

According to Quirk R et al (1985) “Adjectives can sometimes follow the noun or pronoun they modify A post-posed adjective (together with any complementation it may have) can usually be regarded as a reduced relative clause” E.g

There is nothing interesting here (There is nothing which interests us)

I watched the match because I knew some of people playing

(I watched the match because I knew some of the people who were playing) The people questioned gave very different opinions

(The people who were questioned gave very different opinions.)

We couldn‟t agree on any of the problems discussed

(We couldn‟t agree on any of the problems which was discussed.)

1.1.2.2 Predicative

In the predicative position, P.Adjs have two syntactic roles: subject predicative and object predicative

Subject predicative complements a copular verb such as seem, become, feel,

look, etc characterizing the nominal expression in the subject position There is

co-reference between the subject and the subject complement, the two being in an intensive relationship (SVC), characterizing the subject The predicative can be the subject complement to a noun, a noun phrase or a clause

E.g

What he said was interesting

His story was interesting

The last Star Wars movie was amazing

Object predicative follows a direct object, making a prediction about that noun phrase There is co-reference between the direct object and the object complement, the two being in an intensive relationship (SVOC)

E.g

I didn‟t find her story interesting (I didn‟t find that her story interested anyone

of us)

I found what he told me surprising

1.2.2.3 Participles as adjectives or verbs

When P.Adjs are used after a copular verb, it is difficult to distinguish the adjectival use from the verbal use of them However, we can distinguish the two different uses using the following criteria

The first criterion deal with the present participle Actually, a direct object after it shows that the participle here is used as a verb, and the absence of the direct object shows that the participle is a participial adjective The following examples will show this distinction

Adjective Verb

The strange noise is annoying The noise is annoying the neighbors

This problem is confusing This problem is confusing the students

The second criterion is applied to the past participle In fact, the presence of a

by-agent phrase after the -ed form indicates that the past participle is a verb phrase Conversely, the presence of adjectival complement, such as a that-clause or a nonfinite clause or a prepositional phrase indicates that it is an adjective Look at the following examples:

into the room

She was frightened of losing power

She was frightened that I was late

Another criterion which indicates whether a participle is an adjective or a verb is the use of the intensifier “very” before it It can be seen in the following example

The word “charming” takes the

modifier „very‟ so it is an adjective

The word “charming” is followed by a direct object, therefore, it is evidently more verbal Moreover, it is not gradable and can not function as a predicative complement The inability to supply “very” in this case indicates a verbal construction showing the transivity of the verb

However, this criterion can hardly be applied to the -ed form, since „very‟ can sometimes be supplied in both adjectival and verbal constructions as in the following example

into the room

1.1.3 Semantic features of P.adjs

1.1.3.1 Stative versus Dynamic

Quirk (1987:124) shows that “Adjectives are characteristically stative, but many can be seen as dynamic” As we know, the participial adjectives come from the corresponding verbs which denote a state or an action Basing on the meaning of the verb base, we divide the participial adjectives into two groups: P.Adjs of state and P.Adjs of action

P.Adjs of state refer to the ones which derive from some stative verbs expressing feelings or emotions like disappointing, disappointed, interesting, interested, amusing, amused, terrifying, terrified, etc The stative adjectives are both active and passive Usually -ing P.Adjs convey the active meaning and -ed ones passive meaning

Eg

What thrilling news it is! Congratulations!

We were thrilled to hear your good news

Lying in a hot bath is relaxing I feel relaxed when I lie in a hot bath

He gave a boring lecture We were bored with his lecture

P.Adjs of action refer to P.Adjs deriving from some dynamic verbs expressing activity and process like damaging, damaged, stolen, fallen, broken, running, etc Some dynamic P.Adjs are both active and passive while some are either active or passive

E.g

- a damaging earthquake: active meaning (the earthquake which damages everything)

- a damaged house: passive meaning (a house that was damaged)

- A furnished flat: passive meaning, furnishing: non occurring (a flat which is furnished)

- running water: active meaning, run: non-occurring

Besides, P Adjs of action sometimes denote a completed action of a noun referent

as in :

- a retired general ( a general who has retired)

- a faded color ( the color which has faded)

- increased profits ( profits which have increased)

- vanished civilization ( the civilization which has vanished)

1.1.3.2 Gradable

According to Quirk (1987:124), most adjectives are gradable, that is to say, can be modified by adverbs which convey the degree of intensity of the adjective Gradability includes comparison, which can be applied to the Participial adjectives

of state like more interesting, more interested, most exciting, most excited; and other intensifiers like „very, extremely, quite, rather ‟ such as very disappointed,

extremely exciting, quite shocked, rather interesting

E.g

I am absolutely amazed to hear you say that

We are not entirely satisfied with the result

Certain P.Adjs which modify a referent noun can focus on the process as a temporary, non-intrinsic feature of the referent, and not as an intrinsic or permanent quality In this case, the P.Adjs can not be modified by adverbs of degree

E.g

- a approaching storm (not a very approaching storm)

- a dying custom (not an extremely dying custom)

- a sitting sun (not a slightly setting sun)

However, P.Adjs can be modified by adverbs referring to the speed or extent of the process

E.g

- the slowly setting sun

- a horribly injured man

- a fully furnished flat

- a fast approaching storm

- a perfectly planned journey

- a well polished table

1.1.4 Participial Adjectives in collocation with nouns

* Active versus passive meaning

The head noun in the nominal groups which are collocated with P.Adjs plays

an important part in the distinction between active and passive meaning of the P.Adjs Let‟s consider the following examples:

- The boring professor put the students to the sleep

- The boring lecture put the students to the sleep

- The bored students went to sleep during the boring lecture

In “boring professor”, the relationship between “boring” and the noun “professor” can be interpreted as something like “a professor who bores the students” Or

“boring lecture” can be interpreted as something like “a lecture which bores the students” In other words, the -ing P.Adjs of state are used to describe someone or something that causes a feeling or reaction and the head noun is the doer or causer

of the action

In „bored students”, the relationship between „bored‟ and „students‟ can be interpreted as something like “students who are bored by the professor or by the lecture” In other words, when the -ed P.Adjs of state are used to describe someone

or something who experience a feeling or reaction, the head noun is affected by the action

This distinction is also true with the P.Adjs of progress Take the following sentences as examples:

- A damaging earthquake occurred recently People are still in the process of repairing the many damaged buildings and streets

(a damaging earthquake can be interpreted as “an earthquake which cause damage‟ while “damaged buildings‟ as „ buildings which are damaged by something like an earthquake”)

* Being-completed vs completed

In addition, P.Adj of action with -ed or -ing form can bear the distinction interpreted

as being -completed versus completed corresponding to the progress and perfect

tenses Take the following as examples:

- a developed country (a country which has already developed)

- a retired general (a general who has already retired)

- a developing country (a country which is developing its economy)

- a burning house (a house that is on fire)

1.1.5 The meaning of Participial Adjectives in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

Vietnamese adjectives which express the quality of things may be „hay, thú

vị, buồn tẻ, đáng ngạc nhiên‟ These adjectives may be used o talk about someone‟s

feelings For example:

a) - I was very surprised at his exam result

- His exam result was very surprising

b) - She was interested in the cartoon

- The cartoon was interesting

The reason why we can use the same form of adjectives to convey the meaning of the above examples is that in Vietnamese the concept “voice” does not exist Therefore, there is almost no distinction between the active meaning and the passive

meaning of the adjectives It leads to Vietnamese learners‟ difficulties in learning and using E.P.Adjs in both positions: pre-attributive and predicative In contrast, there should be a choice of -ing or -ed adjectives in English language depending on their active and passive meaning as shown in the previous parts

1.2 Learners’ errors

1.2.1 Definitions of error

So far, a number of experts in linguistics have presented various definitions of error Among them, Norrish (1987) considers error a systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong Cunning Worth (1987) defines error as systematic deviations from the norms of language being learned It seems that the phrase “systematic deviation” in these two definitions is a key word which can be interpreted as the deviation which happens repeatedly Chaudron (1986) reviews error as (1) “linguistic forms or content that differed from native speaker norms or facts, and (2) any other behavior signaled by the teacher as needing improvement” George (1972) defines error as “an unwanted form, specifically, a form which a particular course designer or teacher does not want” Johansson (1975) believes that “If native speakers hesitate about the acceptability of

a word or construction it should not be considered an error”

1.2.2 Errors and mistakes

A distinction is sometimes made between an error, which results from incomplete knowledge, and a mistake made by a learner and which is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspects of performance Mistakes are of no significance to the process of language learning However, the problem of determining what is a learner‟s mistake and what a learner‟s error is one

of some difficulty and involves a much more sophisticated study and analysis of errors than is usually accorded them

Corder (1967: 59) made a distinction between a mistake and an error Whereas a mistake is a random performance slip caused by fatigue, excitement, etc,

and therefore can be readily self-corrected, an error is a systematic deviation made

by learners who have not yet mastered the rules of the second language A learner cannot self-correct an error because it is a reflective product of his or her current stage of second language development or underlying competence In other words,

he associates errors with failures in competence and mistakes with failures in performance

1.2.3 Types of errors

Corder (1975) refers to three types of errors including: 1) transfer errors; 2) analogical errors and 3) teaching-induced errors Chomsky classifies learners‟ errors into: 1) performance error and 2) competence error Competence is the „speaker-hearer‟s knowledge of his language‟, while performance is the actual use of language in concrete situations Heaton (1998) and Littlewood (1984) divide errors into two main types: global and local errors Richard (1974) and some other researchers distinguish between interlingual errors and intralingual errors

Obviously, errors are classified differently according to perspectives On the whole, the most popular classification of written errors that earns scholars' consensus prevailingly is the division of errors into interlingual errors and intralingual errors Because, two major factors that contributed to the presence of errors in students‟ written work are interlingual transfer and intralingual transfer The elaboration of these categories is illustrated as below:

1.2.3.1 Interlingual Errors

According to Brown (1980:173) the beginning stages of learning a second language are characterized by a good deal of interlingual transfer from the native language Richard (1974:35) says that interlingual errors are errors due to transferring rules from the mother tongue They are the incorrect elements under the influence of learners' native language Therefore, interlingual errors are errors which are caused by interference from native language to the target language they learn So, before someone really master the concept of their target language they

will always use the concept of their native language When it happens all the time and they do not realize it, it can be called interlingual errors

Therefore, an interlingual error is an error which results from language transfer,

which is caused by the learner‟s native language transference (also called negative transfer) For example, Vietnamese learners of English may produce such errors:

(*) He was died last year (interference from mother tongue “bị”)

(**) I prefer this book than that one (interference from mother tongue “hơn”)

Obviously, the understanding of intralingual and interlingual error enables teacher to perceive language teaching form a two-way perspective, which is different from traditional teaching which only emphasizes target language This classification could help the teacher deal with the relationship between L1 and L2 in teaching practice, to trace the origin of errors, and to decide what language points need more attention

1.2.3.2 Intralingual Errors

After learning second language or foreign language for some time, learners‟ previous experience and their existing subsumes begin to include structures within the target language itself According to James (1998:183), the less the learner knows about the target language, the more he is forced to draw upon any other prior knowledge he possesses While Brown (1980:173) says that it is clear that intralingual errors or intralingual interference-the negative transfer of items within the target language, or put another way, the incorrect generalization of rules within the target language is a major factor in second language learning Intralingual errors refer to those out of the influence within the developmental system of target language, such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules, and so on (Ellis, 1999:58)

An Intralingual error is one which results from faulty or partial learning of

the target language, rather than from language transfer Intralingual errors may be caused by the influence of one target language item upon another For example, a

learner may produce He is comes, based on a blend of the English structures He is

coming, He comes

1.2.4 Sources of errors

We all know that errors are unavoidable in language learning process These errors occur because of many reasons By identifying the sources of error, the teacher begins to know how learner‟s cognitive and affective self relates to the linguistic system and also to formulate his process of learning a foreign language However, it is by no means easy to identify the actual sources of errors in the field of English Language Teaching Different classifications of errors provide us with different perspectives to analyze the causes of errors Brown (1980:156) states that errors are caused by the lack of knowledge about the target language Edge (1989:7) claims that the source of learner‟s errors is the interference from the speaker‟s first language In tone with it, Richards (1974:174) says that the source of errors in studying a language might be derived from the interference of the learners‟ mother tongue and the general characteristics of the rule learning

In summary, errors can be ascribed to many factors Some of learners' errors are due to learners' language competence, some due to cultural interference; some are results of learners' learning strategies, while others are the products of communicative strategies; some are classroom induced errors, while others are the results of individual variables , and so on Diverse as these viewpoints are, there should be an intersection among different schools of thoughts or a clear-cut justification among them so that these causes are figured out and proper error correction is offered In general, the very causes of written errors can be summed up

as below:

1.2.4.1 Interference of the mother tongue

Interlingual interference is the interference of the learner‟s first language or mother tongue onto the process of learning a second language Mother tongue interference is one of the major causes leading to learner‟s committing errors Norrish (1987) states that learning a language (a mother tongue or a foreign

language) is a matter of habit formation Besides, being able to express fully one's ideas in another language is always a demanding task Thus, when learners' second language is not sufficient in expressing themselves, it is likely that they will rely on their first language to express their ideas Edge (1989: 7) is in line with this thought:

"when people do not know how to say something in a foreign language, one possibility is to use words and structures from their own language and try to make them fit into the foreign language." Moreover, the interference of mother tongue may result from the complication of the structure of the target language as Abbort et

al (1981: 230) argues that "wherever the structures of the first language and target language differed, there would be problems in learning and difficulty in performance, and that the greater the differences were, the greater the difficulties would be."

Undoubtedly, differences and similarities between L1 and L2 will affect the learning of the target language greatly The consideration of the contrast and comparison between the two languages will for sure contribute to the analysis of learner' errors The differences between Vietnamese and English are manifested in pronunciation, grammatical rules, lexical meaning, and word order is considered another factor of the interlingual interference as well

1.2.4.2 Overgeneralization

It occurs when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other structures in the target language It generally involves the creation of one deviant structure in place of two target language structures Consequently, students automatically apply rules wherein they are not allowed to For example:

She will cries aloud

He can speaks English well

In the examples, the learners overgeneralize that the simple present tense „s‟ ending is required by the third person singular

1.2.4.3 Ignorance of rule restriction

This types of errors involves the application of rules to contexts where the learner does not apply Here the learner fails to observe the restrictions of existing structures For example:

He asked to me about my family (Correct: He asked me about my family) She told to me her big problem yesterday.(Correct: She told me her big problem yesterday)

He showed to me his new cars (Correct: She showed me his new cars)

In this case, they should reduce „to‟ in the sentence “He asked to me” because he applied the same preposition to different verbs

1.2.4.4 Incomplete application of rules

This kind of error is converse of overgeneralization and represents the degree

of development of the rule required to produce acceptable sentences It involves a failure to fully develop a structure Thus learners of L2 English use declarative word order in questions (for example, “You like to sing?”) in place of interrogative word order (for example, “Do you like to sing?”) This type of intralingual error corresponds to what is often referred to as an error of transitional competence (Richards, 1971)

1.2.4.5 False concepts hypothesized

The last category of intralanguage error sometimes called semantic error is false concepts hypothesized It derives from incorrect comprehending of distinction

in the target language These particular errors are the result of poor gradation of teaching items The form „was‟ for example, may be interpreted as the marker of the past tense, as in “one day it was happened”

1.2.5 Error Analysis in second language acquisition

Errors are now viewed as natural and important part of learning process because they can yield information about language This positive attitude towards errors is especially important in the wake of the Communicative Language Learning and Teaching Many researchers on errors in second language learning have been done by several scholars like Corder (1967), Richard (1992), and Spelunker (1992)

Error Analysis is the study and analysis of the errors made by second and foreign language learners Error Analysis may be carried out in order to:

- identify strategies which learners use in language learning

- identify the causes of learners‟ errors

- obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid

to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials

Error Analysis developed as a branch of applied linguistics in the 1960s, and set out

to demonstrate that many learners‟ errors were not due to the learners‟ mother tongue but reflected universal learning strategies Error Analysis was therefore offered as an alternative to contrastive analysis Attempts were made to develop classifications for different types of errors on the basis of the different processes that were assumed to account for them A basis distinction was drawn between intralingual and interlingual errors

Corder (1974) elaborated the procedure for Error Analysis, distinguishing five stages, as follows:

- selection of a corpus of language

- identification of errors in the corpus

- classification of the errors identified

- explanation of the psycholinguistic causes of the errors

- evaluation or error gravity ranking of the errors Choon (1993) gives some suggestions on carrying out an error analysis research According to her, one has to identify the errors first, then the errors are classified according to categories such as: semantic errors (wrong words, wrong forms, etc.), grammatical errors (tense, prepositions, etc.), global errors and local errors She suggested that “the system of classifying errors should be flexible” (Choon, 1993:2) The last step is determining how much they deviate from the target language norm, to what extent they affect communication Error Analysis can help language teachers manner the specific and common language problems

students have so that he or she can know what should be focused more in a syllabus Choon (1993) advised teachers to conduct Error Analysis at the beginning of the course when the items have not been fully learnt and remedy these first

By classifying errors that learners made, researchers could learn a great deal about the second language acquisition process by inferring the strategies that the learners were adopting For learners themselves, errors are “indispensable” since the making of errors can be regarded as a device the learners use in order to learn (Selinker, 1992: 150)