Báo cáo thực tập tốt nghiệp tiếng anh (3)

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 bystudents to identify t

Part I: Introduction

1.1 Rationale of the study

English is the language of international communication

In recent years there are more and more people consideringabout the need of English learning In order to improve thequality of English learning and teaching many great effortshave been made These include the search for and implication

of new and more effective teaching methods Specialattention has also been paid to research in different areas ofthe teaching and learning English In the processes oflearning, however, learners cannot avoid errors As Spada andLightbown (2002, p.167) stated that: “Errors are natural part

of language learning The errors reveal the patterns oflearners’ developing interlanguage systems – showing wherethey have over generalized a second language rule or wherethey have inappropriately transferred the first language ruleinto the second language ’’

For second language learners in general and for secondlanguage students at secondary school in particular, or evenothers who have acquired a high level of English proficiencystill make errors in their production of the second language

We can see clearly the evidences of these errors in differentparts For example: In syntax, Vietnamese learners madeerrors in following areas: wrong use or omission ofprepositions and articles as in the following example sentence(In the left bank of Huong river *), wrong use of word order inthe sentence (She very much needs to meet them *)

Alternatively, wrong form of verbs in tenses is also a difficulty

as (He goes to school yesterday *)

In learning English grammar, especially the learningtenses, there are many difficulties and errors for Vietnameselearners of English as well as students at secondary schools.Although they have been taught and understood the rules ofgrammar clearly, they often make errors and some kinds oferrors even become habitual These errors can be seen inboth learning 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 bystudents to identify their causes and find out the solutions tohelp improving the effects of teaching and learning English For the reasons as above, the writer has decided tochoose the topic “An investigation into errors of the use of thepresent perfect tense by second language learners atsecondary school’’

1.2 Aims of the study

The study reported in this thesis aims to:

- Identify errors in using the present perfect tensefaced by Vietnamese learners at high school

- Find the major causes and sources of the errorscommitted by high school students in using the presentperfect tense, and

- Make some suggestions for teaching and learningthis tense

1.3 Scope of the study

English grammar is a complex field for both learners andresearchers Due to limit time and research condition, thisstudy does not aim at covering all problems or difficulties met

by students in learning English grammar This thesis will focus

on investigating students’ errors in the acquisition of Englishparticular grammatical case: The uses of one Englishsyntactic structure named the present perfect tense, which isoften used incorrectly by Vietnamese students

1.4 Methods of the study

To meet the aims of the study, we apply the followingmethods:

- 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, anddesign 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 therelevant literature related to the issue under investigation.Especially, a review of the uses of the present perfect tense inEnglish will provide the theoretical framework for the

identification of the errors that students made In addition,theories about the sources of errors will help explore whatfactors caused students’ commitment of errors in using thepresent perfect tense Error analysis as the main theoreticaltool 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 ofresearch questions, setting, instrumentations, and datacollection techniques This chapter will also present anddiscuss the results and findings of the study

Chapter III: Findings and discussion

This part will summarize major findings, suggest someimplications for teaching and learning the present perfecttense in English

Suggestions for further researches will also bepresented

Part III: Conclusion

This part will summarize what have been presented inthe thesis

The appendixes and references are placed at the end of thestudy

Part ii: content Chapter I: Theoretical background

1.1 Tense and aspect in English

There are various traditional school grammarians aswell as linguists paying attentions to English tense andEnglish aspect category They considered the category as acomplex study According to Geoffrey Leech who identifiedverb tense and verb aspect as “two of the most troublesomeareas of English’’ (Jacobs, 1985, p.187) With the aims athelping learners to understanding further this field, the thesiswould like to introduce some general points of view aboutthis

1.1.1 Tense in English

According to Quirk et, al (p.40) “Time is a universal,non-linguistic concept 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 to have been the first to recognize thecategory of tense’’ He also observed, “there were systematicvariations in the form of Greek verbs, variations that could becorrelated with time notions such as past and present’’ Thislead to some different definitions of other linguists Quirk et,

al, (2003, p 40) defined tense as “the correspondencebetween the form of the verb and our concept of time’’.Jacobs, (1995, p.187) defined that “tense is the grammaticalmarking on verbs that usually indicates time at which some

other situation was in force’’ It refers to absolute location of

an event or action in time of either speaking point or others It

is remarked by inflections such as “s /es’’, “d / ed’’ or otherpast 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 is happened in time of speaking and marked by

an inflection “s” However, the first sentence’s tense would bethe past tense if the narrative sentence’s action (event)happened the past and now it is retold The verb will bemarked by an inflection “d / ed ’’ The second sentence is inthe past tense because time reference is in the past

“yesterday” and verb is marked by an inflection “ed”

The tense system involves distinctions of time reference,and is grammaticalized to give only two tenses: past andpresent Studying English tense, Jacobs also mentioned thatthere is “a two-tense system” in English, which is past tenseand present tense

Present tense: Time reference of action can be in the pasttime, in time of speaking, even in future time Thegrammatical markings are inflection “s”, “es”

For example:

Yeltsin greeted the new ambassador

(Jacobs, 1995, p 196)

In a short word, tense in the concept in the grammaticalcategory that involves on verb form and time reference whenthe action (event) which happened either in time or not intime Tense is released by an inflection of the verb, so that weeasily find that, there are two tenses in English, as thelinguists’ saying “is two-tense systems”

1.1.2 Aspect in English

What is aspect? Answering this question, some linguistsprovided definitions of aspect as follows: “Aspect is thegeneral name given to verb forms used to signify certainways in which an event is viewed experienced”

(Jacobs,

1995, p 199)

Discussing about aspect, Quirk et, al defined as “themanner in which verbal action is experienced or regarded”.(p.40)

For example:

Jane Austen was writing her greatest novel Maureen Duffy has now written a novelabout two friends

(Jacobs, p 201)

The first sentence’s tense is the past tense, it refers to atime in the past and the writing act was continuing at the

aspect is progressive aspect because the effect of verb “be”

on the main verb showed the ongoingness of the situation atthat time Hence, the sentence’s tense is the past tense, itsaspect is the progressive aspect

The second sentence’s tense is the present tense.Although the action took place and completed in the past,time reference is now Because the action took place quiterecently and still suits to the time of speaking The use ofperfective auxiliary “have / has” with the main verb in pastparticiple form which follows “has” to show the aspect Thus,the sentence’s tense is the present tense and its aspect is theperfective aspect

Form of aspect:

Progressive aspect: Be + Ving

Perfective aspect: Have / has + V(PII)

These are grammatical markings mark aspect inEnglish The lexical meaning of verb can also conveyaspectual meaning For example, when a verb signifies atemporary state or continuing activities tend to be aprogressive aspect When a verb signifies pre-existing statesand indicates completed actions tend to be the perfectiveaspect

For example:

I’m writing an essay

He has just changed his style

In conclusion, aspect is a “complicated phenomenon”.Linguists have presented two aspects in English includingprogressive and perfective aspect basing on grammatical

category and meaning of verb As Quirk et, al said that theaspect concerns the verbal ongoing actions or verbalcomplicated actions.

The tense is used as past tense, the speaker is referring

to a time in the past, but still relates to now The timereference relates to now

For example:

The murderer will have been arrested when hearrives next week

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

The time reference is when she arrives on next week It isrelated to some times after now

To sum up, time reference is time relative to some fixedreference point, (i.e the reference point can be the time ofspeaking “now” or can be some other time such as “past”,

“future”).The complexity of the relationships between tenseand aspect as well as tense and time reference has raisedsome difficulties for both studiers and learners Thecombination among tense, aspect and time reference haveconstructed a system of “compound tense” which lead toconfuse to learners

1.1.4 The present perfect tense in English

The present perfect tense is the present tense – perfectaspect combination with different time references “Thepresent perfect tense has perfect aspect which means that it

is used to refer to a subject’s past action or states whilekeeping the subject in a present state of reference or in apresent state of mind”

It is formed by an auxiliary “have / has” embedded a pastparticiple form of verb

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 hasgiven three uses of the present perfect tense

S + have / has + V (PII)

(1)The present perfect tense expresses the idea thatsomething happened or never happened.

For example:

I have never seen snow

(2) The present perfect tense expresses the repetition of

an activity before now The exact time of each repetition isnot 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 tothe present

For example:

I have had the same pair of shoes for threeyears

(Azar, 2004, p.30) The three uses of Azar have been mentioned that theevents occurred at some unspecified times in the past, butthe events suit or experience still exists at the present Thesituation 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 Grammarhave introduced the present perfect tense in five items of theuse 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 actionswhose time is not definite It expresses the recent actionswhen the time is not mentioned; Recent actions in the presentperfect often have results in the present; and can also usedfor action which occur further back in the past, provided theconnection with the present is still maintained, that is that theactions could be repeated in the present.

For example:

A new bridge has been built across theriver

(3) The present perfect tense used for actions occurring

in an uncompleted prior It implies that the actions happened

or did not happen at some undefined time during this period

An uncompleted period may be indicated by today, this morning, this day, lately, recently, since, for, ever.

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 andpast It always implies a strong connection with the presentand is chiefly used in conversations, letters, newspapers, andtelevision and radio reports.

Studying about “functions of the present tense – perfectaspect combination” (the present perfect tense), Jacobs hasgiven four major uses as follows:

(1) Past indefinite uses: The present perfect tense refers

to recent events enough to be new and relevant to thepresent, thereby connecting the present to these past events.This function some times called the “hot news” usage Thetime of the events is happened always left unspecified

(2) The state uses: The present perfect is used withperfect aspect, which can be used to report the existence ofthe stable state of affairs over a continuous period of time up

to the present

(3) The change of state uses: (Resultative perfect) perfectaspect refers to a present state as the result of a past event (4) The current uses: Perfect aspect is used withpredicates that refer to actions that are habitual or can berepeated more than once

(Jacobs,

1995, p 201-203)

A part from the above-mentioned uses, there are manylinguists have written about this including: Liz and John Soars(the Student book – Headway), Raymond Murphy (the EnglishGrammar in Use), Michael Swan (the Practical English Usage),Leech (the Meaning and the English Verb), etc

English grammarians have presented this category; fromtheir point of view researcher have found that the Use of

Leech in Meaning and the English Verb has provided a clearunderstanding the present perfect tense The uses are thesummary of other linguists’ point of view They are: (1)Duration of state up to the present moment; (2) Indefinitepast; (3) Resultative perfect; (4) Experiential perfect.

The first uses are the same to those of Azar, Thomas –Matinet, and Jacobs The next use is the same to theclassification of Jacobs and Swan The last is similar to that ofSwan and John and Lizsoar These uses will be described indetails 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 extends over 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 andMartinet, p 168-169)

This use is considered the typical one of the presentperfect tense The linguists have used the use to show therelationship from past time to the present time

This use can be diagrammed as follows:

The action began in the past

and goes on to the presentTime

Past PresentFuture

Diagram 1: Use 1

1.1.4.2 Indefinite past (USE II)

The present perfect is used to express an action orevent, which occurred in the past, but the exact time is notimportant and we, even, do not know the time when iscontinuing 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 Deepblue sea”?

Or I have read the story “Lao Hac” twice

In this case, it is not necessary for us to think of anyparticular actions or of the exact time when the action wasperformed The event or action may have occurred severaltimes In case, if we are thinking about a complete period oftime or we know that the action usually happens at a certaintime or in certain part of our incomplete period, we use thesimple past tense

The use can be diagrammed as follows:

A A A

Past PresentFuture

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 show that the results of an action or event is stilloperative now The resultative perfect is used when we arethinking about past actions or events together with theirpresent results There is nothing unusual or extraordinaryabout the resutlative perfect The use is usually embedded

with adverbs including: just, already, yet

For example:

I cannot come to your party because I havebroken my leg

The use can be diagrammed as follows:

The action happened in the past

(Recent past)Time

Past PresentFuture

- - -: 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 werecompleted in an exact 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’slife 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 PresentFuture

“ ’’: “when” the action happened

Vietnamese, there is no linguist who has given out aparticular part of speech to express tense as a grammaticalcategory There is no definition about tense in Vietnamese.

In Vietnamese, a grammatical category is made up bycombining 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 timesuch as: past, present, and future These words express twoparts of opposite action meanings: The first is action which isnot completed (is happening, is going to happen, repeat, hasnot had the result yet, etc.) and the other is action, which iscompleted (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 withthem

(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 incompleted units of formation, meaning, and grammatical

function They are really words, but they themselves cannot

be a sentence as well as main part of sentence He alsoshows that these words can be combined with the verbs as asignal of tense and 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 grammaticalcategory of tense – aspect, but there is tense – aspect ofwords Tense – aspect of words are the “particles” (Ban –Dan), “adverbs” (Than) which are combined with verbs inorder to express the general grammatical meaning about thetime and tense of actions or events The actions may havebeen 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 thefuture) 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 ofspeaking He indicates grammatical meaning of the presentperfect of verbs by using the particles before verbs

(1)Rồi: Expresses the result meaning of action whichhappened in the past, but we do not know if it has completed

or uncompleted (or goes on until the present)

For example:

Xuất hiện rồi

(A rough translation: It has been appeared)

(2)Xong: Express the meaning of a finished actioncompletely, 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 theparticles, their meaning which are listed in the following partwill 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 andaspect in Vietnamese grammar as a particular grammaticalcategory The concept is realized through the “particles” or

“adverbs”, and implicit of contextual assumptions Thespeakers can choose the present tense or past tensedepending on their choice Where as, in English the linguists

have given the clear definition of tense and aspect as aparticular grammatical category and time is also expressed

by “morphological tenses” Thus, Vietnamese learners ofEnglish always confuse the use of the present perfect tense.This is also one of the major reasons that lead Vietnameselearners commit errors when they use the present perfecttense to express their mind

To conclude, there are some differences betweenVietnamese and English language

In Vietnamese, there is no particular category of tense,but in English is contrasting Especially, in case of the presentperfect tense, there is no equivalent tense in Vietnamese andalso no combination’s notion of past and present time as well

as the different meanings of this tense We have found thatthe forms of English verbs, which are changed depending onthe subjects and tense choice, while Vietnamese usesdifferent particles to denote the aspect meaning and the form

of verbs never, changed

“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 to base on context ofsentences to confirm tense Moreover, in English sentencemust contain a verb, in Vietnamese there are somegrammatical structures without verbs

on practicing the uses of English to reduce errors as well asmistakes

1.3 Errors in language learning process

1.3.1 The notion of errors

Some linguists have presented the definition of errors asfollows:

Leon has defined error as “a linguistic form…which,

in the same context…would in all likelihood not be produced

by the learners’ native speaker counterparts” (1991, p 182) Other linguist as Hendrickson defined inmethodology in TESOL (1987) an error is “an utterance form

or structure that is a particular language teacher seemsunacceptable because of its inappropriate use or its absence

in real life discourse”

According to Richard et, al, in the “Dictionary ofLanguage Teaching and Applied linguistic”, (1992) “In thespeech or writing of a second or foreign learners, error is theuse of linguistic item (e.g a word, a grammatical item, aspeech act, etc) in a way in which a fluent or native speaker

of language regards as showing faulty or incompletelearning”

1.3.2 Errors and mistakes

Realizing the distinction between errors and mistakes isstill a difficulty for readers though they are quite differentfrom each other The distinction between an error and amistake has been paid attention of some linguists

According to Carl James “A mistake may be then defined

as slip of tongue or of handwriting, and an error is committedbecause of the writer/speaker’s semantic and structureintentions If the learner is inclined and able to correct a fault

in his or her output, it is assumed that the form he or sheselected was unintended fault or a mistake On the otherhand, the learner can not correct, it is assumed that the formthe learners use was the intended one, which is an error”

Corder (1967, p 167) showed that mistakes are of nosignificance to the process of language learning; hence they

do not reflect a defect in our knowledge but are traceable toperformance failure The learner is normally immediatelyaware of their mistakes and can correct them with more orless complete assurance Native speakers as well as learnersmay make mistake, on the contrary, errors are of significance

to the process of language leaning They do reflect knowledge

and are not self correctable Only learners of a secondlanguage commit error.

Richard el, al in Dictionary of Language Teaching andApplied linguistic (1992) also revealed that a learner makes amistake when writing or speaking because of lack ofattention, fatigue, carelessness or some other aspects ofperformance Where as, an error is the use of linguistic item

in a way that a fluent or native speaker of the use of thelanguage regards it as showing faulty or incomplete learning Mistakes are the wrong form that can be given correction

by the learners when their wrongness is to be pointed out.Errors are the wrong forms, but the learners cannot correcteven teacher points out their wrongness The lack of sufficientknowledge is the cause of errors, so, a good way to correctingerrors is spending more time on giving knowledge tostudents Whereas, the lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness

or other aspects of performance are causes of mistakes, thus,students can be reminded to correct their mistakes byteacher

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 of language in performance

(Cook, 1993, p.22)

1.3.3 Errors analysis

Corder (1974) has defined error analysis as “bydescribing and classifying his errors in language terms we

build up a picture of the picture of language, which arecausing him learning problems” He also presents five steps

of error analysis including: identification of errors;classification of errors; explanation of errors; valuation oferrors and correction of errors

1.3.4 Causes of errors in second language learning

Second language learners often meet numerous errors.There are some linguists have paid attention to this field such

as Corder, Slinker, Richards, etc According to Richards (1974,

p 174) errors made by learners can be derived from theinterference of their mother tongue, which are called

“interlingual errors” Others are called by second languagelearners regardless of their mother tongue, which are called

According to the behaviorist learning theory, languageacquisition is a product of habit formation Second languagelearners try to respond to external stimulus and receiveproper reinforcement when they learn the second language.The reinforcement makes a proper habit, so that in thesecond language acquisition process, the learners have toovercome the old habits in order to acquire the new habits of

their native language produces or inhabits the learning of newhabits.

Slinker called interlingual as language transfer, which isthe phenomenon of native language influences on thelearning of a second language This is caused by interferencefrom mother tongue

Lado (1957, p 2) defined that “individual tends totransfer the forms, meanings, and distribution of forms andmeanings of their native language and culture to the foreignand 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 popularphenomenon that the learners always meet in secondlanguage learning process Therefore, it is necessary topresent this kind of error for finding out suitable teaching andlearning strategies

1.3.4.2 Intralingual errors

Errors are caused not only by language transfer, butalso by other reasons such as the ignorance of the targetlanguage These errors are called “intralingual errors”

According to the study of Richard (1977.b) intralingualerrors are those which reflect the general characteristics ofrule learning and developmental errors The learners tend tobuild up hypothesis about the second language from theirlimited experience of it This kind of error is caused by lack ofsufficient knowledge as a whole Richard also divided thecauses of intrelingual errors into four types:overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incompleteapplication of rule, false concept hypothesized

1.3.4.2.1 Over-generalization

Lacobovits (1969, p 55) defined Over-generalization asthe use of previously available strategies in new situations.Some of these strategies for some reasons will be misleadingand inapplicable

Over-generalization includes instances where thestudents create a wrong structure on the basic of hisexperience of other structures in the target language In otherwords, this error occurs when students use the samestructure for new items based on what they have learned Forexample, when forming 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 ofstructure caused by a certain type of teaching andpresentation techniques

1.3.4.2.2 Ignorance of rule restrictions

This phenomenon belongs to over-generalization, and ithappens when the learners fail to observe the restrictions For example:

1.3.4.2.3 Incomplete application of rules

Incomplete application of rules is result of the fact thatthe learners perhaps primarily attend to effectivecommunication without the need for mastering the rulers.Other reason for this is the use of question as a technique ofthe 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 hypothesizedrefers to a class of developmental errors resulting from faultycomprehension of distinction of second 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 oferrors in second language learning process These errorsoriginated from many sources The two major types of errorsincluding 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 ofrules, and false concepts, hypothesis

Chapter II: THE STUDY

world as well as in Vietnam such as the studies of Gass andSelinker (1983), Träng (2008), Thi (2007), V©n (2005).Information collected from tests must be systematic, validand reliable In order to have valid and reliable informationthree different tests designed in a written form delivered to

104 students of the two classes 11A and 11D The structures

of sentences in the tests are approximately similar and aredesigned basing on students’ knowledge Each sectioncontains eight sentences, which use in the present perfecttense 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 correctgrammar and usage In almost studies of language or ingeneral English exams in Vietnam use a grammar testbecause it is useful for analyzing and comparing However,there is a limitation that it would not give information abouthow they use the tense in a naturalistic environment Therefore, a translation test and a syntax completion test are going

to be designed to give information that is more necessary (2) Translation test: The translation test will give moreinformation about problems of form and usage whentransferring from source language to target language Thetest of translation seems to be the most efficient way to elicitsyntactic structures from subjects In some studies oflanguage in Vietnam, Vietnamese – English translation testshave also been used

For example:

T«i sÏ gióp anh víi ®iÒu kiÖn anh ph¶i cè g¾ng

(3) Syntax completion test: It is necessary and important

to design a syntax completion test for checking students’knowledge of grammar and translation from differentcontexts A syntax completion test with situations is either atest of grammar or a test of comprehension It tests students’natural language knowledge as well as students’ production.Thi (2007) also used this type of test to elicit informationabout learners’ grammatical knowledge Students are given asentence and they use the given words to complete thesecond sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the firstsentence

forms of gap-filling, Vietnamese-English translation andsyntax completion are chosen They are designed in a writtenform with different language contexts.

2.3.1.1 The grammar test

This type of test is traditional one, which has applied inalmost all examinations It is also the type of exercise inwhich students are asked to fill in each gap with the correctform 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 Therefore, students can avoid errors of tense

In the test, the numbers of sentences testing the fouruses of the present perfect 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 ofVietnamese into English It is designed basing on thesimilarities and differences between the two languages withgrammatical 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 theircauses if there is the influence of mother tongue on thesecond language learners, because of doing this task,

students have to compare the two languages and find outdifferences and similarities.

In the test, the numbers of sentences testing the fouruses of the present perfect 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, becausestudents have to make up sentences basing on the concretedcontexts with universal knowledge of grammar andtranslation Hence, in order to make the test easier andsimpler the verbs and some adverbs are given first inadvance The first sentence have been done as a guide forstudents

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 ofthe two classes 11A and 11D at the 13th week of the secondterm in 2008-2009 course, about the middle of April 2009 Allstudents of two classes are in the best health condition The

test was done in class with the same conditions The studentswere informed in advance that the test would be used forresearch and kept anonymous to ensure there would be nocheating and results would be reliable.

2.4 Investigated procedure

The steps of procures are described as follows:

- All students from the two classes 11A and 11D wererandomly selected and asked to do the test with threesections and the time allowance for doing the test is 90minutes During the time of doing the test, students have to

do the test on their own and not to use any dictionaries orgrammar books

- The test papers are all carefully read and examinedafter handing in, then erroneous forms or structures areidentified and marked

- All errors identified are to be analyzed in detail Thisstep is to investigate causes of errors basing on the chapter

of theoretical background The explanation for erroneous uses

of the present perfect tense has to base on the reliabledocuments

- 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 eachblanket into the correct tense There are eight sentences,which used in the present perfect tense and they are dividedinto four different uses Some students could have full correctanswers in this section The highest number of errorscommitted in the section was found in use 3: 81 errors (39%)