Multi word verbs in english errors commonly made by students at nguyen hue gifted high school and possible solutions

They often fail to understand the meaning of multi-word verbs and make errors in using them..  To find out the causes of error committed by Nguyen Hue Gifted High school students when l

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

- -NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN NINH

MULTI-WORD VERBS IN ENGLISH:

ERRORS COMMONLY MADE BY STUDENTS AT

NGUYEN HUE GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL AND

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Những lỗi học sinh trường THPT chuyên Nguyễn Huệ

thường mắc và những giải pháp khả hữu)

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

- -NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN NINH

MULTI-WORD VERBS IN ENGLISH:

ERRORS COMMONLY MADE BY STUDENTS AT

NGUYEN HUE GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL AND

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Những lỗi học sinh trường THPT chuyên Nguyễn Huệ

thường mắc và những giải pháp khả hữu)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii List of abbreviations iv

List of tables and figures v Glossary of linguistic terms vi

Table of contents vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

2.1 Aims of the study 1

2.2 Objectives of the study 1

3 Significance of the study 1

4 Scope of the study 2 5 Organization of the thesis 2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 3 Chapter 1: Literature Review 3 1.1 An overview of multi-word verbs in English 3 1.1.1 Definition of multi-word verb 3

1.1.2 Classifications and characteristics of multi-word verbs 4

1.1.2.1 Phrasal verbs 5

1.1.2.2 Prepositional verbs 9

1.1.2.3 Phrasal – Prepositional verbs 14

1.1.2.4 Other multi-word verb constructions 15

1.2 Error and Error Analysis 16

1.2.1 What is “error”? 16

1.2.2 What is “error analysis”? 16

1.2.3 Classification of errors 17

1.2.4 Possible causes of errors in second language learning 18

1.2.4.1 Causes of interlingual errors 18 1.2.4.2 Causes of intralingual and developmental errors 19

1.3 Summary 19

Chapter 2: Research Methodology 20

2.1 The context of the study 20

2.2 Research method 20

2.2.1 Research questions 20 2.2.2 Instrumentation 21

2.2.2.1 Test 22 2.2.2.2 Interview 23

2.2.3 Participants 23 2.2.4 Data collection procedures 23

2.2.4.1 Data collection 23

2.2.4.2 Techniques of analysis 23 2.3 Summary 23

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion 24 3.1 Scoring and evaluation of students’ performance in doing test 24

3.2 Number and types of students’ actual errors 26 3.3 Errors and their causes 28

3.3.1 Intralingual errors 30

3.3.2 Interlingual errors 32

3.3.3 Mixed causes 33

3.4 Summary 33

Chapter 4: Possible solutions to the students’ errors in using English 34

multi-word verbs 4.1 Possible solutions to the errors commonly made by students 34

at Nguyen Hue Gifted High school in using multi-word verbs 4.2 Suggestions for teaching and learning multi-word verbs in English 34 4.2.1 Suggestions for teaching 35

4.2.2 Suggestions for learning 35 4.3 Summary 37

Appendix 1: Written grammar test I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

Vtr Transitive verb

= Equal to / the same as

* An asterisk signifies that what follows it is incorrect

^ Caret indicates omissions

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Taxonomy of errors and their causes (p.29)

Non-pass and pass students (p.26) Causes of error (p.30)

Intralingual errors (p.32)

GLOSSARY OF LINGUISTIC TERMS

Code The systems (grammar, meaning and sound) of a language

Error A systematic deviation from the accepted code

Global error An error which affects the meaning of the whole sentence

Local error An error which only affects the meaning of the clause in which it is

found

L1 transfer Use of what the learner knows about his first language to try and

assist expression in the target language

Interference

from L1

The effects of ‘habit’ formed in the speaker’s first language acting upon the target language (This is the phenomenon of borrowing and transferring learner’s native language patterns into the target language)

Target language The language which the learner is learning

Over-generalisation

A failure by the learner to apply restrictions where appropriate to the application of a rule (It is learners’ previous mother tongue experience that is considered as a means of organizing the second language data.)

L1 First language (usually the mother tongue)

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Multi-word verbs are said to be one of the most important and complicated elements of English In modern English, many multi-word verbs come into existence and cause a lot of troubles for users, especially non-native speakers

As a teacher of English at a secondary school in Hanoi, I found that my students have faced many problems when they learn English multi-word verbs They often fail to understand the meaning of multi-word verbs and make errors in using them

Therefore, the idea of doing something useful for my colleagues and students has urged me

to do the research on “Multi-word verbs in English: Errors commonly made by students

at Nguyen Hue gifted High school and possible solutions” The study is expected to make

a great contribution to improve the quality of teaching and learning English at Nguyen Hue gifted High school

2 Aims and Objectives of the study

2.1 Aims of the study

 To help teachers and students gain an insight into multi-word verbs in English

 To facilitate the teaching of multi-word verbs to Vietnamese learners of English

2.2 Objectives of the study

 To identify the students‟ common types of error in using English multi-word verbs

 To find out the causes of error committed by Nguyen Hue Gifted High school students when learning and using multi-word verbs

 To work out possible solutions to the problem identified

3 Significance of the study

The study will be useful not only to the author and her colleagues in improving the teaching quality, but students will also benefit from it The result of the study will serve as

a foundation for the possible solutions to students‟ errors in using English multi-word

verbs Furthermore, the study will make some contribution to the field of teaching methodology

4 Scope of the study

• English multi-word verbs in terms of: (1) structural organization, (2) Meanings and

usages, (3) Integrity, motivated and non-motivated idiomaticity

• Types of error made by 50 twelfth-form students at Nguyen Hue Gifted High school

in using English multi-word verbs Once problems have been identified, it will be possible

to make suggestions for improvement

5 Organization of the study

The study has three main parts as follows:

Part A: Introduction

This part introduces the rationale, the aims, the objectives, the significance, the scope and the organization of the thesis

Part B: Development

This part consists of four chapters:

Chapter 1 provides literature review focusing on the issues related to multi-word verbs in

English, error and error analysis in second language learning

Chapter 2 presents the methodology applied in this work It also includes an overview of

the context of the study

Chapter 3 discusses the findings of the study based on the test and interview results Chapter 4 offers possible solutions to errors commonly made by students at Nguyen Hue

Gifted High school Some suggestions for teaching and learning English multi-word verbs are also provided

Part C: Conclusion

This part summaries all the major issues in the previous parts with conclusions drawn from

the findings Some recommendations for further research are also included

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

The following issues are to be dealt with in this chapter:

- Definition of multi-word verb

- Classification of multi-word verb

- Error and Error Analysis

- Classification of errors

- Possible causes of error in second language learning

1.1 An overview of multi-word verbs in English

1.1.1 Definition of multi-word verb

Multi-word verbs may be defined differently According to Seidl, multi-word verb is

“…a general term for all combinations of verb + adverbial particle and / or preposition Some examples are fall through, pack something in, put up with someone/ something.”

Jennifer Seidl (1990 Exercises on Phrasal Verbs, p.7)

Martin Parrot, in a narrow view, states that multi-word verbs are made up of a verb (e.g

come, get, give, look, take) and one or more particles, one preposition or one particle and

one preposition to make combinations For example: give up, come across (V + particle);

look after (V + preposition); get on with (V + particle + preposition)

Martin Parrot (2000 Grammar for English Language Teachers, p.108)

Beaumont and Granger (1989 The Heinemann English Grammar, p.281), define that

“multi-word verbs are verbs which change their meaning in some way by adding

particles” For example, the verb look can combine with a large number of prepositions or

particles to form new verbs: look after (= take care of), look down on (= regard someone/ something as inferior), look into (= investigate), look out (= be careful) Also, a single

combination can have different meanings, depending on the words which accompany it,

i.e its „collocations‟ Here are some of the collocations and meanings of take off:

+ The aircraft / flight / pilot took off (= left the ground)

+ The boy / thief / dog (people or animals) took off (= ran away in a hurry)

+ The sales / the economy / the new product took off (= began to improve greatly, make a

big profit)

Jennifer Seidl (1990 Exercises on Phrasal Verbs, p 8)

From the points above, it can be seen that the scholars share the same ideas in defining

multi-word verb These definitions are the guidelines for the researcher to select exercises

for the students‟ written test of this study

1.1.2 Classification of English multi-word verbs

English has a large number of multi-word verbs, which consist of a verb and one or two other elements These multi-word verbs fall into four classes:

 Phrasal verbs (e.g carry out, find out, or pick up)

 Prepositional verbs (e.g look at, talk about, listen to, wait for, depend on, etc.)

 Phrasal-prepositional verbs (e.g put up with, get away with, keep up with, etc.)

 Other multi-word verb constructions (e.g take into account, bear in mind, etc.)

(2009 Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, p.123-124)

According to Jennifer Seidl (1990 Exercises on Phrasal Verbs, p.7), there are three basic

combinations of verb, adverbial particle and preposition These combinations have the structures as follows:

• Verb + Particle: Phrasal Verbs (Vphr)

• Verb + Preposition : Prepositional Verbs (Vprep)

• Verb + Particle + Preposition: Phrasal-prepositional verbs (Vphr.prep)

I‟ll pick you up at six (Collect) How can we deal with the traffic problem? (Take action to solve a problem)

You are going too fast! I can‟t keep up with you! (Stay in the same place as)

Michael Vince (1993 First Certificate Language Practice, p.158-152-151)

 Other multi-word verb constructions

- Verb + prepositional phrase combinations

You have to take into account where the younger shoots are dominant

(= consider)

- Verb + verb combinations

You have to make do, don‟t you?

- Verb + noun phrase combinations

Do you want to have a look?

Douglas Biber et al (1999 Grammar of Spoken and Written English, p.427- 1029) Each class of verb is to be clearly described in terms of both syntactic and semantic characteristics in this chapter

1.1.2.1 Phrasal verbs

The concept of “Phrasal verb” has been defined differently by many authors

In this study, I would like to focus on the definition of phrasal verb by Geoffrey Leech et

al in “Grammar of Spoken and Written English” According to him, “Phrasal verbs are

multi-word units consisting of a verb followed by an adverbial particle” (e.g carry out,

find out or pick up) “These adverbial particles all have core spatial or locative meanings

(e.g out, in, up, down, on, off); however, they are commonly used with extended

meanings” (1999, p.403)

(Adverbial particles are called “adverbs” in many books)

These verbs have the structure:

Phrasal verbs = Verb + Adverbial Particle (V + Part.)

Look Up You can look up any new words

in your dictionary

You can find the meaning

of any new words in your dictionary

Get Through I tried to phone her but I couldn‟t

get through

I tried to phone her but I

couldn‟t get a connection 1.1.2.1.1 Phrasal verbs can be idiomatic and non-idiomatic in terms of usage

 Phrasal verbs are used non-idiomatically This means the meaning of the verb is

the combination of the two elements: E.g Find out (discover); Look over (inspect), Set up (organize), sit down The verb and the particle keep their

individual lexical meanings; therefore, the meaning of these verbs is often deducible from their parts

 Phrasal verbs are idiomatic or highly idiomatic This means the total meaning of the combination may bear no relationship to the meaning of the individual words combined Those verbs have a special meaning which can not be easily guessed

from the meaning of separate words E.g take in (= deceive / cheat sb)

Here is an example using the phrasal verb pack something in In the following sentence it

has a non-idiomatic meaning:

+ She opened her suitcase and packed all the clothes in

However, in the sentence:

+ She decided to pack her job in

The individual meanings of pack and in do not convey the idiomatic meaning, which

(here) is „leave‟ Because of this, phrasal verbs have to be learnt and practised in their

combinations

Jennifer Seidl ( 1990 Exercises on Phrasal Verbs, p.7)

As shown above, semantically a phrasal verb can have a non-idiomatic and an idiomatic

meaning

 Some phrasal verbs have several idiomatic meanings, depending on the words that

accompany them Take the verb put and particle out as an example:

Put out your cigarettes (= extinguish)

We put out a request for volunteers (= issued) They are putting the programme out tomorrow (= broadcasting) This stuff will put you out in no time (= make you unconscious)

Alexander, L.G (1988 Longman English Grammar, p.153)

1.1.2.1.2 Basing on the types of complementation, phrasal verbs are put into two

groups: Transitive and Intransitive phrasal verbs

■ Transitive phrasal verbs (Vtr) are those that always take a direct object The position of the direct object varies They have the structures as follows:

Transitive Phrasal verb = Verb + Direct object + Particle

(V tr + Od + Part.) Transitive Phrasal verb = Verb + Particle + Direct object

(V tr + Part + Od)

E.g She tore up the letter (Vtr + Part + Od)

She tore the letter up (Vtr + Od + Part.)

Colin McIntosh (2001 Oxford Phrasal Verbs, p 12)

- The position of direct object depends on whether it is a noun / noun phrase or a pronoun (me, him, it, us, etc.)

- When the direct object is a noun or noun phrase, it can stand either before the particle or after the particle:

(a) He took George Bush off (i.e imitate someone in a humorous way)

(b) He took off George Bush

- If the noun phrase is long (as a guide-line four words or more), the particle is not placed too far away from the verb Look at the length of the noun phrases and their positions in the following sentences:

He took George Bush off or He took off George Bush

but He took off George Bush and some other politicians

Jennifer Seidl (1990 Exercises on Phrasal Verbs, p 20)

She tore up all the letters he had sent her

Colin McIntosh (2001 Oxford Phrasal Verbs, p 12)

- When the direct object is a pronoun (me, you, him, her, it, us, them), it must stand before the particle:

She brought six boys up

or She brought up six boys (i.e She raised / reared them.)

but She brought them up Not *She brought up them

Jennifer Seidl (1990 Exercises on Phrasal Verbs, p.20)

- Transitive phrasal verbs can be seen in their acceptance of passivization

E.g The rest of the food was thrown away

The house was pulled down

- Transitive phrasal verbs can be used with the pronominal form with “who” or “whom” for people and with “what” for things

E.g Who(m) did John call up? (= summon)

What did John pick up?

They took him `off (= imitate)

Sentence stress applies in other cases:

She has packed her `job in and has gone to `India

He can take George `Bush off `beautifully

■ Intransitive phrasal verbs (Vintr) can not be followed by an object They have the structure as follows:

Intransitive phrasal verb = Verb + Particle (V intr + Part.)

E.g We set off early (Vintr+ Part.)

All the lights in the house have been turned off (Vtr)

Alexander, L.G (1988 Longman English Grammar, p.156)

but Not *The house was walked past by him (Vintr)

- Some intransitive patterns can become transitive by the addition of a direct object:

The driver slowed down (Vintr)

The driver slowed the car down (Vtr)

Note however that the patterns are not always related in meaning, as with take off, take

something off and take someone off

The plane took off (= It left the ground)

He took his coat off (= He removed his coat)

He took Mrs Thatcher off (= She imitated Mrs Thatcher)

- When the intransitive phrasal verb is in isolation, the stress is always on the particle Within a sentence the stress is also on the particle when the phrasal verb stands alone at the end of a sentence (or clause) as in the following:

The lorry slowed `down and came to a halt

Do Tom and the new man get `on?

What time did the flight eventually take `off?

- In other cases, especially when an adverb follows the phrasal verb, the usual rules for sentence stress apply:

The lorry slowed down i`mmediately

Tom and the new man get on `well?

Jennifer Seidl (1990 Exercises on Phrasal Verbs, p.11)

1.1.2.2 Prepositional verbs

The concept of “prepositional verbs” has so far been defined by many authors as follows:

“a prepositional verb is a verb + preposition”

The patient asked for a glass of water

I‟m writing to my sister

John Eastwood (2006 Oxford Practice Grammar, p.304)

In “A University Grammar of English” by R Quirk & Greenbaum”, prepositional verbs

are defined as “the combinations of a verb and a particle which functions as a preposition

which takes an object”

In this part, we adopt the second definition and consider prepositional verbs to be

transitive and have the following structure:

Prepositional verb = Verb + Preposition + Object (V + Prep + O)

I‟m waiting for my boyfriend or I‟m waiting for him

Everyone laughed at the joke

Tom‟s neighbors apologized for the noise

John Eastwood (2006 Oxford Practice Grammar, p.304)

- The particles of the prepositional verbs can not be separated from the verbs

I look after my babysister carefully

Not * I look her after carefully

However, the separation is sometimes possible in relative clauses and questions

The picture at which you are looking was bought at an auction “To whom is John talking?”

- Prepositional verbs allow an inserted adverb after the verb and a relative pronoun after

the preposition:

They called early on the man (= visit) The man on whom they called

- Prepositional verbs can be seen in their acceptance of passivization, whereas verbs with prepositional phrases do not admit of the passive

They called on the man ~ The man was called on

Not * Lunch was called after (Non-Vprep)

- Prepositional verbs accept pronominal question form with who(m) for personal and what

for non-personal objects

Who did you come across yesterday?

What are you looking for?

Sometimes, it is very difficult for learners of English to distinguish prepositional verbs and prepositional phrases Let‟s consider the following sentences:

He looked at the girl

This sentence can be given two analyses In one, there is an intransitive verb (looked)

followed by a prepositional phrase (at the girl) as adverbial In the other, the prepositional

verb (looked at) is a transitive verb and (the girl) is direct object

Quirk, R (1973 A University Grammar of English, p 350

- In his research, Chalker (1984 Current English Grammar, p.213) points out the

differences between Prepositional verbs and Verbs with prepositional phrases basing mainly on syntactic and phonological features Those differences are illustrated as follows:

Prepositional verbs

(What? Who?)

Verbs with prepositional phrases

(Where? When?)

He ran up huge telephone bills He ran up the hill

He turned down my offer They turned down the lane

We joined in the celebrations We joined in April 1980 She waited for her boyfriend She waited for a long time

He looked at his watch I looked at six o‟clock

TABLE 1: Differences between Prepositional verbs and

Verbs with prepositional phrases

Syntactically, prepositional verbs can be divided into monotransitive and ditransitive:

■ Monotransitive prepositional verbs take only one object

The police are searching for the escaped prisoner

- For this kind of verbs, the preposition must always precede its complement or object

I ran into an old friend yesterday (= met by chance)

I ran into her yesterday

- Some of them can take (a gerund) or a (Wh-clause) as their objects

Don‟t look out of the window Concentrate on studying!

It depends on what he does

■ Ditransitive prepositional verbs are the verbs whose direct object must be introduced by

a preposition Verbs of this kind have the form:

Verb + X + Preposition + Y With most of the verbs X is usually a person and Y is usually a thing, so preposition of

ditransitive prepositional verbs is separated from its verb and is placed right after the

indirect object For example, congratulate on, convince of, introduce to, remind of…

When I heard that he had passed his examination, I phoned him to congratulate him

on his success

I love this music It always makes me feel very happy It reminds me of a warm spring day

Raymond Murphy (1985 English Grammar in Use, p.258- 261)

However, there are some exceptions In some structures, X could be a thing and Y may be

a person

I didn‟t have any money I have to borrow some from a friend of mine

The teacher explained everything clearly to her students

Semantically, like phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs are used in their normal sense (e.g

consist of, tell someone about, thank someone for, believe in) or they can vary in their

idiomaticity as in go into (a problem) (= investigate), get over (an illness) (= recover)

Call In Please call in and see us when

you are next in town

Visit a place or person for a

short time, usually when you are going somewhere else

Go With That shirt goes really well with

your blue jacket

If one thing goes with

another, they suit each other

- For prepositional verbs, when the prepositions are monosyllabic, the stress usually falls

on the verb “He `called on the man” But when the prepositions have two syllables, the preposition is usually stressed “Look `into something.”

* The difference between Phrasal Verbs and Prepositional Verbs

According to Quirk, R et al (1972 A Grammar of Contemporary English, p 815-816),

Phrasal Verbs and Prepositional Verbs display certain phonological and syntactical differences:

+ Phonologically, the particle in phrasal verbs is normally stressed and, in final position,

bears the nuclear tone, whereas the particle in the prepositional verbs is normally unstressed and has the „tail‟ of the nuclear tone on the lexical verb

E.g He called `up the man ~ The man was called `UP

He `call on the man ~ The man was `called on

+ Syntactically, the particle of a phrasal verb can often stand either before or after the

noun, but it can only stand after a personal pronoun: Call up the man, call the man up, call

him up, but not *call up him Table 2 shows these and other criteria that distinguish the

two classes of verbs Those differences are summarized in the table below:

Phonological and

syntactic features Prepositional verb Call on = „visit‟

Phrasal verb Call up = „summon‟

Stress placement They `CALL on the man They call `UP the man

Position of personal

pronoun object

They call on him

* They call him on

* They call up him

They call him up

Position of noun object * They call the man on

They `call on the man

They call the man up

They call up the man

Position in relative

clause

The man on whom they call * The man up whom they call

The man who they call up

Adverb insertion They call `early on the man * They call early up the man

They call up the man early

TABLE 2: Differences between Phrasal verbs and Prepositional verbs

1.1.2.3 Phrasal – Prepositional verbs

The third major type of multi-word verb shares characteristics of both phrasal and

prepositional verbs “Phrasal-prepositional verbs consist of a lexical verb combined with

both an adverbial particle and a preposition”

(2009 Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, p.123-124)

They have the structure as follows:

Phrasal prepositional verb = Verb + Particle + preposition

For example, „look forward to’ has the lexical verb look, the adverbial particle forward,

and the preposition to:

I‟m looking forward to the weekend

You should look up to your teachers

Phrasal-prepositional verbs are always transitive because they end with a preposition and must therefore be followed by an object

I don‟t know how you put up with these conditions

Alexander (1988 Longman English Grammar, p.158)

+ Some verbs can be used in the passive but others cannot

All the old regulations were done away with (passive)

I find it difficult to keep up with you (no passive)

+ Adverbs cannot be inserted immediately before the object of these verbs but can be placed between the particles

*He puts up with willingly that secretary of his

He puts up willingly with that secretary of his

We look forward eagerly to your next party

Quirk (1973 A University grammar of English, p.351)

+ In relative clauses and questions, the particles are positioned after the verb

The party which we were looking forward to so eagerly

Who(m) does he put up with willingly?

Or (less commonly) the final particle can be brought into initial position:

The party to which we were looking forward so eagerly

With whom does he put up willingly?

+ Phrasal–prepositional verbs function as a semantic unit and can sometimes be replaced

by a single transitive lexical verb with similar meaning For example:

Put up with such treament (= tolerate such treatment)

Get out of it (= avoid it)

Come up with a proposal (= make a proposal)

(2009 Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, p.133)

+ Like phrasal and prepositional verbs, verbs of this group can be used with their literal

meaning (e.g stay away from, walk up to, run away with, come up to) or they vary in their idiomaticity like put up with (= tolerate), run out of (= use up), look up to (= respect), look in on (= visit) Each verb conveys a single, indivisible meaning

Why don‟t you look in on me next time you‟re in town? (= visit)

We‟re always running out of matches in our house

I‟m not prepared to put up with these conditions any longer

+ The stress of phrasal-prepositional verbs often falls on the particle when the verb is in

isolation or when the object is a pronoun „Did he take you `up on it?‟ When the object is

a noun, the stress applies as followed: „Did he take you up on your invi`tation?‟.(= accept

someone‟s offer)

1.1.2.4 Other multi-word verb constructions

In addition to the three types of multi-word verbs discussed above, verbs are also used in relatively fixed or idiomatic multi-word constructions:

Verb + prepositional phrase combinations

Verb + verb combinations

Verb + noun phrase combinations

+ Many verb + prepositional phrase combinations are idiomatic These include

combinations like bear in mind, fall in love, take into account, take into consideration

Such combinations function semantically as a unit that can often be replaced by a single lexical verb, as in the following sentences:

I also have to bear in mind the interests of my wife and family (= Remember) The triumph came as a surprise to many (= Surprised)

The organization had to take into consideration human feelings (= Consider)

+ A second idiomatic category involves verb + verb combinations, such as make do

(with) and let NP go / be:

Patient had to make do with quiche or ham salad

He was very reluctant to let him go

+ There are a few verbs – such as take, make, have, and do – that can be used for many

meanings These verbs can combine with noun phrases to form idiomatic verbal

expressions In many cases, the combination also includes a following preposition For example:

Yes, I‟ll take care of it

Let‟s have a look at this

But you know how you make fun of me sometimes

Douglas Biber et al (1999 Grammar of Spoken and Written English, p 427)

You have to study harder to keep pace with your classmates

I haven‟t sent letters to her for a long time In fact, we have lost touch with each other I‟d like to take advantage of this opportunity to explain the difficulty I‟ve met

English 12 (2007, p 89)

In short, English multi-word verbs have been described and classified into phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs and other multi-word verb constructions with their own syntactical, semantic and phonological features A clear understanding of the different types of multi-word verbs provides a basis for teachers in analyzing students‟

errors It also enables teachers to better organize the teaching of these special verbs

1.2 Error and Error Analysis

1.2.1 What is “error”?

In language teaching literature, various definitions of errors have been presented by

experts John Norrish in his book (1983 Language Learners and their errors, p 7) calls a

„systematic deviation‟, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently „gets it

wrong, an „error‟

We, for the purpose of this study, adopt the definition of error by Richards stated in

Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (2002, p 184)

“…Error (in the speech or writing of a second language learner) is the use of a

linguistic item (e.g a word, a grammatical item, a speech act, etc.) in a way which a fluent

or native speaker of the language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning”

1.2.2 What is „error analysis‟?

According to Richards, “Error analysis is the study and analysis of the errors made by

second and foreign language learners" Emerged in the 1960s, Error analysis may be

carried out in order to:

a) Identify strategies which learners use in language learning

b) Try to identify the causes of learners‟ errors

c) Obtain information on common difficulties in language learning as an aid to teaching, or in the preparation of teaching materials

Jack.C.Richards & Richard Schmidt (2002 Longman Dictionary of language

Teaching and Applied Linguistics, p 184-185)

John Brian Heaton divides errors into two main types: Global and Local errors

According to him: “Those errors which cause only minor trouble and confusion in a

particular clause or sentence without hindering the reader‟s comprehension of the

sentence are categorized as Local errors” “Global errors are usually those which involve

the overall structure of a sentence and result in misunderstanding or even failure to understand the message which is being conveyed”

J B Heaton (1998 Dictionary of Common Errors, p.154) Richards, Jack C (1984 A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis, p.172-188)

distinguishes three major types of errors: Interlingual errors, Intralingual errors and

Developmental errors

Richards, J.C (1992 Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics) defines

“Interlingual errors as being the result of language transfer, which is caused by the

learner‟s first language” Interlingual errors may occur at different levels such as transfer

of phonological, morphological, grammatical and lexico-semantic elements of the native language into the target language

“Intralingual errors are those which reflect the general characteristics of rule learning,

such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules, and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply”

“Developmental errors illustrate the learners‟ attempt to build up concepts and hypotheses

about the target language from their limited experience of it in the classroom or textbook”

Richards, J.C (1974 “A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis”, p 174-175)

In this study, the researcher would like to adopt the Richards‟ error classification theory to predict and analyze students‟ errors in using English multi-word verbs because sufficient types of errors and causes of errors were much taken into account in his theory

 Distinction between „error‟ and „mistake‟

According to Richards, a learner makes a mistake when writing or speaking because of lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspects of performance Mistakes can be self-corrected when attention is called Whereas, error is the use of linguistic items

in a way that a fluent or native speaker of the language regards it as showing faulty or incomplete learning In other words, it occurs because the learner does not know what is correct, and thus it cannot be self-corrected

Richards, J.C (2002 Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic, p.184)

1.2.4 Possible causes of errors in second language learning

Learners‟ errors occur for many reasons Basing on Richards‟ theory, there are three kinds

of errors: (1) Interlingual, (2) Intralingual, (3) Developmental He also states the possible causes of these errors as follows:

1.2.4.1 Causes of interlingual errors

Traditionally, the notion of interference is understood as negative transfer “Where two

languages are similar, positive transfer would occur, where they are different, negative transfer, or interference would result.”

Ellis, R (1994 The study of Second Language Acquisition, p 300)

According to Richards (1971), interlingual errors are committed because of the interference from learner‟s mother tongue when an item or structure in L2 manifests some degrees of difference from or some degrees of similarities with the equivalent one in the learner‟s L1 In this case, the learner will transfer the realization device from his first language into the second like in this translation:

She married *with a foreigner (= Chị ấy kết hôn với một người ngoại quốc.)

or She informed me*about that new (= Cô ấy thông báo cho tôi về tin đó.)

Along with the differences between L1 and L2, the lack of common knowledge and linguistic competence at a certain stage of learning is another source of L1 interference

1.2.4.2 Causes of intralingual and developmental errors

Four types of intralingual errors - developmental errors have been identified by Richards,

J.C (1974 A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis, p.174-179) as follows:

+ Over-generalization

“Over-generalization covers instances where the learner creates a deviant structure on the

basis of his experience of other structures in the target language.” [174]

+ Ignorance of rule restrictions

“Closely related to the generalization of deviant structures is failure to observe the

restrictions of existing structures, that is, the application of rules to contexts where they do not apply.” [175]

+ Incomplete application of rules

“The learners apply rules incompletely because they are so interested in achieving efficient communication that they do not need a mastery of L2 rules Another reason for