An analysis of errors commonly committed by high school students in using english questions

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN DIỆU HƯƠNG AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS COMMONLY COMMITTED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN USING ENGLISH QUESTIONS MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN DIỆU HƯƠNG

AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS COMMONLY COMMITTED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

IN USING ENGLISH QUESTIONS

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

VINH - 2011 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN DIỆU HƯƠNG

AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS COMMONLY COMMITTED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

IN USING ENGLISH QUESTIONS

PHÂN TÍCH NHỮNG LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP Ở HỌC SINH TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG

CÂU HỎI TIẾNG ANH

FIELD: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60.14.10

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr VÕ ĐẠI QUANG

VINH - 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved supervisor, Associate Professor Võ Đại Quang (PhD) for the invaluable support, enthusiastic guidance, and encouragement he gave me throughout my research I am truly grateful to him for his advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage Without his untiring patience in reading the manuscript and clarifying my ideas, the thesis would have never been in the current shape

Secondly, I would like to thank all lecturers at Department of English, Vinh University and VNU University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable teaching and tremendous assistance that have enlightened my study path.

I would like to thank Mr Hồ Sĩ Dương, my head master, who has facilitated

at his best to offer me time and necessary assistance from the beginning to the last moment of my master course Many thanks also go to my classmates at the Master Course Class and to all of my colleagues at Tĩnh Gia II High School who have taken time and trouble to alert me to errors in my thesis and provided me with useful data on which this thesis is based.

I also wish to send my sincere thanks to the students of the classes I visited in order to gather information for my survey questionnaires Without their help, this study could not have been successful.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to family members whose support and encouragements have greatly contributed to the completion of my study.

This research was conducted to investigate the errors commonly committed bystudents at Tinh Gia 2 High School in using English Wh – questions The major issuesdealt within this thesis are the errors commonly committed by the 10th form students

at Tĩnh Gia II High School in using English Wh – questions, the main causesleading to these errors and possible solutions to the problems relating to theteaching and learning of English Wh – questions

In order to gain information for the research, the author used a combination

of four major methods: qualitative, quantitative, descriptive and data analysis.Besides, questionnaires, written tests, informal talks and class observations are used

as data collection instruments to gather information for the study

The results of this study has shown that the 10th form students at TinhGia 2 High School often commit errors in using English Wh – questions Besides,the study has revealed that most of these errors belong to five main categoriesnamely: misordering errors, misformation errors, misselection errors, omissionerrors and additions errors The research has pointed out that these errors are rootedfrom both internal and external factors in language learning and teaching process.This study has also suggested some solutions to deal with these errors in order toimprove the teaching and learning of English at high schools

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

PART A INTRODUCTION 8

1 Rationale 8

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 9

2.1 Aims of the Study 9

2.2 Objectives of the Study 9

3 Research questions 9

4 Scope of the Study 9

5 Significance of the Study 10

6 Organization of the Study 10

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 12

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 12

1.1 Factors influencing language learning and teaching 12

1.1.1 External factors 12

1.1.1.1 First language 12

1.1.1.2 Language environment 13

1.1.1.3 Formal teaching 14

1.1.2 Internal factors 15

1.1.2.1 Motivation and attitudes 15

1.1.2.2 Learners’ aptitudes and intelligence 17

1.1.2.3 Learners’ personality 19

1.2 Errors in language learning 20

1.2.1 Notions of errors 20

1.2.2 Errors, Mistakes and Lapses 21

1.2.3 Different attitudes toward errors 23

1.2.3.1 Error is a sign of failure 23

1.2.3.2 Error is a sign of progress 25

1.2.4 Error Analysis 28

1.2.5 Causes of errors 31

1.2.5.1 Mother tongue interference 33

1.2.5.2 Mother tongue independent interference 37

1 3 Questions in English 42

1.3.1 Definition of questions 42

1.3.2 Classification of English Questions 42

1.3.2.1 Classification of questions according to purposes of communication .43

1.3.2.2 Classification of questions according to types of answers 44

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 51

2.1 Major methods employed for the research 51

2.2 Research questions 52

2.3 Descriptions of participants and setting 53

2.3.1 Research setting 53

2.3.2 Descriptions of participants 53

2.4 Data collection instruments 55

2.4.1 Written Tests 55

2.4.2 Survey questionnaires 56

2.4.3 Class Observation 57

2.4.4 Informal Talks 57

2.5 Data collection procedure 58

2.6 Data Analysis 58

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 59

3.1 Finding obtained via Survey Analysis 59

3.1.1 Frequency of students’ committing errors in using English Wh -Questions 59

3.1.2 Attitudes toward errors relating to Wh - questions 60

3.1.3 Reasons for error correction 62

3.1.4 Students’ attitudes toward teachers’ correction 63

3.1.5 Students’ views about teachers’ attitudes toward errors 64

3.1.6 Frequency of the detection of the sources of errors 65

3.1.7 Techniques employed by teachers to treat errors 67

3.2 Error classifications 69

3.3 Finding obtained via written tests 71

3.3.1 Addition errors 77

3.3.2 Misordering errors 79

3.3.3 Omission errors 83

3.3.4 Misselection errors 87

3.4.5 Misformation errors 89

3.4 Discussion 90

PART C: CONCLUSION 96

1 Rcapitulation 96

2 Concluding remarks on each of the objectives elaborated into research questions 96

2.1 Concluding remarks on objective 1 96

2.2 Concluding remarks on objective 2 96

2.3 Concluding remarks on objective 3 97

3 Implications for teaching 97

3.1 Techniques for the teaching of Wh - questions 98

3.2 Techniques for error correction 98

3.2.1 Teachers should try to make use of peer - correction 98

3.2.2 Teachers should consider the students’ preference 99

3.2.3 Teachers should knowing what errors to correct and when to correct .99

3.2.4 Teachers should be consistent while correcting errors 100

3.2.5 Teachers should encourage students to use self correction and discovery techniques 101

4 Suggestions for further research 102

REFERENCES 103 APPENDICES

Appendix 1: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT THỰC NGHIỆM

Appendix 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS

Appendix 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

CAH: Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

e.g : Exempli gratia (for example)

EFL: English as Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

etc : et cetera

LAD: Language Acquisition Device

L1: First language

L2: Second language

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other LanguagesSLA: Second Language Acquisition

Q - Element: Question - element

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1.1: Examples of incomplete application rules

Table 2.1: Information about teachers’ background

Table 2.2: Information about students’ background

Table 3.1: List of Wh – words in accordance with their functions and examples

to illustrate

Table 3.2: Number of errors commonly committed by 11th form students at Tinh

Gia II High School in using English Wh – questions

Table 3.3: Distribution of error types

Table 3.4: Distribution of the most common sub – types of addition errors

Table 3.5: Distribution of the most common misordering errors

Table 3.6: Distribution of the most common omission errors

Table 3.7: Distribution of the most common misselection errors

Table 3.8: Distribution of misformation errors

Figure 1.1: Psycholinguistic sources of errors

Figure 1.2: Model for adult second language performance

Figure 1.3: James’ representation of interlanguage (James, 1998:3)

Figure 1.4: Classification of Yes – No questions by Vo (2000)

Figure 2.1: Major methods employed in the research

Figure 3.1: Frequency of students’ committing errors in using English Wh –

questions

Figure 3.2: Frequency of students’ committing errors in using English Wh –

questionsFigure 3.3: Students’ attitudes towards errors

Figure 3.4: Teachers’ attitudes towards errors

Figure 3.5: Reasons for error correction

Figure 3.6: Students’ attitudes towards error correction

Figure 3.7: Teachers’ attitudes towards students’ errors

Figure 3.8: Students’ reactions to teachers’ error correction

Figure 3.9: Frequency of teachers’ finding out main causes of errors.Figure 3.10: Techniques used in error correction

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE

During the time working as a teacher at Tinh Gia II High School, the authorhas had a hard time correcting errors related to the English Wh - questionscommitted by the students there The researcher has also realized the fact that theerror commitment of students may result from the following factors:

 The students have not fully mastered the structures of English questions,

especially the structures of English Wh - questions

 They may not fully realize how to use of English Wh - questions effectively

in different communicative contexts

 They lack confidence in how to use English Wh - questions to serve theintended communicative goals

 Negative transfers between English and Vietnamese often mislead students inusing English Wh - questions

Being a high school teacher of English, the author always keeps in mind thedesire to be able to provide students with some basic knowledge of English Wh –questions in order to help them well communicate in English and use English as akey to success

That is the reason why the author decided to choose the topic entitled “An

analysis of errors commonly committed by High School students in using English questions” as the theme for the research in order to detect these errors as well as to

find out the main causes leading to these errors as the first step to the pedagogicalsolutions The author hopes that these solutions would help learners achieve theircommunicative goals as well as avoid making mistakes, and then to some extent, togive some practical value in language teaching

2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

2.1 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The research is aimed at providing a reference related to common errors committed

by high school students in using English Wh – questions

2.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives set forth for the study are:

 Providing as comprehensible an account of types of errors commonlycommitted by 10th form students at Tinh Gia II High School in using English Wh –questions and features of English Wh-questions

 Pointing out the causes of errors commonly committed by 10th form students atTinh Gia II High School in using English Wh – questions

 Establishing possible solutions to different types of common errors made byVietnamese high school students relating to English Wh - questions at high schools

2 What are the main causes leading to these errors?

3 What are the possible solutions to the errors relating to English Wh - questions athigh schools?

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is confined to:

(i) Problems related to English Wh-questions

(ii) Errors committed by students at Tinh Gia II high school

(iii) Possible solutions to the identified problems lie within the scope of this thesis

5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

English questions in general and English Wh - questions in particular appear

as one of the most dominant factors that often make not only Vietnamese studentsbut Vietnamese teachers as well encounter a lot of troubles and even make themconfused during teaching and learning process These troubles result from somereasons such as the poor understanding about the structures of English questions,the lack of confidence in using questions to communicate, the negative transfersbetween the English and the Vietnamese Wh - questions and even the bad habitsformation during teaching and learning process Therefore, it is necessary to providethe readers insight about some question types in English in general and the English

Wh - questions in particular in order to help them overcome some difficulties inusing English Wh - questions More importantly, the analysis of some commonerrors mistakes that Vietnamese students often commit in using Wh – questions andmain causes leading to these errors will be useful for English teaching and learning.What is more, it also greatly contributes to the second language teaching process,for this may provide better understanding about the difficulties that students andteachers often encounter during the teaching and learning process Last but notleast, some pedagogical implications, to some extents, would be of great value forthe teachers in their making effort to improve English teaching and learning process

in Vietnam

6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.

The study consists of 3 main parts:

Part A is the “INTRODUCTION”, which presents the background to the study,

aims of the study, research questions, methods of study, scope of the study, and anoverview of the thesis

Part B is the “DEVELOPMENT” of the study with 3 chapters

Chapter 1 is “LITERATURE REVIEW” which provides the readers with the

literature review of the research, which attempts to present the theoretical

background including general understanding about language learning process, anoverview of errors in language learning and insights about questions in English.

Chapter 2 is “METHODOLOGY” which describes in detail the research

methodology which comprises the information of the subjects, instruments of datacollection and methods of data analysis

Chapter 3 named “DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION” presents the two

main issues The first focuses on the main features of English Wh – questions Thesecond issue is statistical results and the analysis of the data The statistical resultsare shown in the tables which are the basement to analyze the common errorscommitted by high school students in using English Wh - questions

Part C is the “CONCLUSION” This part provides conclusions on each of the

objectives, implications for teaching and suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 FACTORS INFLUENCING LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

It is believed that the language, bears a lot of influences on language learningprocess and the factors that affect language learning might be classified into twotypes The first one named external factors consists of the first language, thelanguage environment and the formal teaching The second one called internalincludes learners’ motivation and attitudes; learners’ aptitudes and intelligence; andlearners’ personality

1.1.1 EXTERNAL FACTORS

1.1.1.1 FIRST LANGUAGE

According to Chomsky, “The foreign language learner does not come tolanguage as an organism initially uninformed as to its general character”.(Chomsky,1965: 58) It might be inferred that the mother tongue, which made

“transfer” or “interference” to the target language, may be more or less useful for

the learners of a new language, as they have already learned how to do with that

language The terms “transfer” mentioned here can be suggested as two types The

first one which occurs when the first and the target language share similar features

is positive transfer while the second one called negative transfer appears when thereare different features between the two languages To some extents, universalfeatures shared by language may facilitate their learning a new language However,

it is a fact that learners of different backgrounds experience failures in controllingthe foreign language learning As far as we are concerned, the first language mayinfluence the learners’ inter – language in some ways When learners reach a certainstage and perceive a similarity to their first language, for instance, they may lingerlonger at that stage or add a sub -stage, to the sequence, which is similar across

learners, regardless of their first language Further more, the learners may learn asecond language rule but restrict its application

In summary, learners’ mother tongue has great influence, (both negative andpositive) on second language learning process The understanding about “transfer”

or “interference” viewed from different aspects may bear significance to languageteaching, for it sets good foundation for the teachers by providing basis for theirteaching Besides, current views of learners’ mother tongue influence put anemphasis on the fact that there is an important interaction in the first language (orother previously learned languages), some universal knowledge or processes, andthe samples of the target language which learners encounter in the input However,the first language is not the only external factor that bears great influences onlanguage learning There still exist many other factors among which languageenvironment is considered a dominant one that may affect this process

1.1.1.2 LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENT

Like the first language experience, language environment can greatlycontribute to the success of a new language learning process It is undeniable thatlanguage environment is also of great help to success in learning a foreign language

In fact, a child can successfully acquire his first language during his childhoodbecause he is constantly exposed to it As far as we have known, a child has a lot ofopportunity to acquire his mother tongue by hearing the sounds around him, feelingwhat is happening, imitating these sounds and then, talking in a variety ofinteractive situations like verbal public exchanges, daily conversations with friends,parents and other people in the community, and even through public media, etc.Learning a foreign language, however, always lacks a natural environment Thisgreatly affects the success of learning process because the linguistic input mostlycomes from the environment around the learners but when learning a foreignlanguage, usually learners get linguistic input from the classroom teachers whousually have insufficient mastery of the language they are teaching and sometimes,from his classmates This leads to the fact that they may encounter a lot of

difficulties in mastering the language and therefore, making errors in using foreignlanguage in their communication is inevitable Meanwhile, during the lesson, themain purpose of teaching is only to develop learners’ competence of the targetlanguage’s rules and the focus often falls on the formal aspects of language As aresult, although this conscious knowledge of linguistic rules can be useful inincreasing accuracy in some situations, it is not successfully taught for the learners

In short, language environment has great influence on language learningprocess because it is the main source providing linguistic input for the learners.Good language environment creates a great deal of opportunities for the learners togain success in their linguistic processing whereas language learning process will

be limited due to the lack of a good place for students to do with language,especially with foreign language

1.1.1.3 FORMAL TEACHING

The success of language learning process is greatly influenced not only byfirst language and language environment but also by the teaching process itself It isknown that whether formal teaching is of great use for the learners or not depends

on the situations where the language is taught What is more, certain techniques ormethods prove to be relevant in particular groups of learners In fact, theeffectiveness of teaching a foreign language is unquestioned when it is taught in ahost environment, for learners have a lot of chances to acquire that language outsidethe classroom However, without a natural environment, it would be hard for thelearners to be successful in their language mastery Therefore, formal teaching, inthis case, would be really a crucial factor to success of learning The term

“teaching” mentioned here refers to such things as teaching techniques, teachingmethods, teachers’ mastery of the language they are teaching, etc Yet, certaintechniques and teaching methods applied in teaching process would matchparticular groups of learners Therefore, different learners with the same teachersand same techniques would not acquire the same amount of linguistic knowledge.For example, using pictures or visual aids would be effective techniques for some

learners but does not work well with those who are suitable with taking part indiscussions or seminars Besides, frequent use of foreign language in classroomsmay dominate mechanical drills in accelerating learning Further more, thetechniques used to teach adults and adolescents are not usually the same as thoseused to teach small children For example, providing an explanation for a specificstructure before giving learners time to practice seems to be an effective activity inteaching language for adults while using games or body movements to conduct alesson would be efficient in teaching small children

It is concluded that there still exists a close connection between formalteaching and language proficiency as all the factors related to the formal teachinglike teaching methods or techniques greatly contribute to the effectiveness oflanguage learning process Therefore, in order to help learners to have a goodcontrol of the language they are learning, we should account for all the factorsconcerning formal teaching However, apart from external factors, languagelearning is also greatly influenced by many other factors among which learners’characteristics like motivation, aptitude, personality, intelligence, learnerspreferences, etc functioning as internal factors appears as the most dominant ones

1.1.2 INTERNAL FACTORS

It is clearly shown that although “all normal children, given a normalupbringing, are successful in the acquisition of their first language” (P.M.Lightbown and N Spada, 1999: 45), their experience of a second or foreignlanguage may vary greatly because this process depends much on learners’characteristics The term “learners’ characteristics” here refers to many things butdue to the limitation of this paper, the author only mentions some of the mostdominant ones

1.1.2.1 MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDES

There has been a great deal of research which points out that motivation andattitudes play an essential role in language learning It is clearly said that positive

motivation and attitudes are related to learners’ success in their learning a language.However, it is not easy to indicate precisely how motivation is related to learningsince “we do not know whether it is the motivation that produces successfullearning or successful learning that enhances motivation or whether both are

affected by the other factors” (P.M Lightbown and N, Spada, 1999: 56) In fact,

minority group members learning the language of a majority groups may havedifferent attitudes and motivation from those of majority group members learning aminority language Motivation in second language learning is considered a verycomplex phenomenon that can be classified into two types The first one calledintrinsic (integrative) motivation refers to language learning for personal growthand cultural enrichment and the second one called extrinsic (instrumental)motivation refers to immediate or practical goals of the learners Both integrativeand instrumental types of motivation are related to success in second languagelearning and most second language learning situations involve a mixture of eachtype of motivation Besides, motivation, which can be defined in terms of twofactors: learners’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the secondcommunity, may help learners acquire more proficiency in their learning in caselearning a second language is a source of personal growth or cultural enrichment ormay resent learning process when motivation is regarded as external pressure.However, motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic types is often affected by manyfactors among which social dynamic or power relationship between the languageare the most influenceable ones It is the fact that languages exist in social contextcannot be overlooked when we seek to understand the variables which determinelanguage proficiency

From the above mentioned ideas, it can be inferred that motivation is of greatimportance in language learning, especially, in learning a second or foreignlanguage Thus, in a language class, it is necessary to create a supportive and non-threatening learning atmosphere by making our classrooms places where studentsenjoy coming In order to do that, the lesson should be carried out in the way that

the content is interesting and relevant to learners’ age and level of ability, thelearning goals are challenging yet manageable and clear By doing this, we canmake a positive contribution for students to learn.

1.1.2.2 LEARNERS’ APTITUDES AND INTELLIGENCE

The term “aptitude” mentioned here refers to potential for achievement and there is no doubt that some individuals have an exceptional “aptitude” for language

learning Actually, aptitude for language learning is usually composed of fourdifferent types of abilities: the ability to identify and memorize new sounds, theability to understand the function of particular words in sentences, the ability tofigure out grammatical rules from language samples and the ability to memorizenew words However, successful language learners are often not strong in all of thefour components above Some individuals may be good at identifying andmemorizing new sounds but have no ability to memorize new words The other mayhave strong memories of new words but are not able to figure out grammatical rulesfrom language samples There fore, it is advisable that students who were high onanalytic ability but average on memory should be assigned to teaching that focuses

on grammatical structures, while learners who are strong in memory but average onanalytic skills are advised to be placed in class where teaching is organized aroundthe functional use of the language in specific information Learning quickly is,moreover, one of the most distinguishing features of aptitude People who haveremarkable talent in language learning are usually the quick - minded ones Theyoften have good memory to remember new words and sounds and (or) do not wastemuch time to figure out specific structure from language sample In short, peoplewith exceptional aptitudes for language learning often well perform in languagelearning process for they have specialized ability to attain significantly high levels

of achievement Therefore, for educational purposes, the teachers should bear inmind the fact that “knowing the aptitude profile of their students will help them inselecting appropriate classroom activities for particular groups of students” (P.M.Lightbown and N Spada, 1999: 54)

Apart from aptitude, intelligence is also a strong factor which decides thesuccess of language learning process Traditionally, intelligence refers to the mentalabilities that are measured by an IQ (intelligence quotient) test The IQ usuallymeasures only two types of intelligence: verbal / linguistic and mathematical /logical intelligence Besides, there are other types of intelligence such as spatialintelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonalintelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence Linguistic intelligence indicates theability to speak, to use words, to write, to give presentations, and to solve wordproblems Logical-mathematical intelligence refers to the ability to use numbers,logic or calculations, the ability to learn and understand grammar rules Spatialintelligence means the ability to draw, paint, use color, art, graphics, pictures, maps,and charts Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence shows muscular coordination, athleticskill, body language, drama and theater Musical intelligence is the ability to usemusic and tones, hear and produce the intonation and rhythm of a language.Interpersonal intelligence regards to the ability to talk with other people, understandthem, and the ability to use language to communicate Intrapersonal intelligence isviewed as self-knowledge, self-confidence, and the ability to use language toanalyze things These types of intelligence are related to the development oflanguage learning process However, some recent studies have shown thatintelligence may strongly influence certain kinds of language abilities than others.

In conclusion, “aptitude” and “intelligence” are two factors that directly

influence the result of language learning process However, not many people areborn with exceptional aptitude What is more, intelligence and although somelearners are considered intelligent but they are not really successful in learning asecond or foreign language while some others who may weakly perform inacademic field but can experience considerable success in learning second orforeign languages Therefore, it would be unfair when we keep in our minds onething that only people with noble intelligence and aptitude can be successful inlanguage learning process

1.1.2.3 LEARNERS’ PERSONALITY

It is supposed that learners’ personality characteristics are likely to affectlanguage learning to some extents In fact, there are a number of personalitycharacteristics that may be of great influence on second language learning, such asextroversion vs introversion, inhibition vs risk-taking, self-esteem or self-confidence, anxiety, empathy

Some studies have found that learners’ success in language learning isassociated with extroversion such as assertiveness and adventurousness, whileothers have found that many successful language learners do not get high scores onmeasures of extroversion Inhibition, which is considered a factor discouraging risk– taking, one thing necessary for progress in language learning, is a negative forcefor second language pronunciation performance Several other characteristics such

as self – esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness, etc are also regarded asinfluenceable personality variables in language learning However, in general, theresearch does not show a clearly defined relationship between personality andsecond language acquisition Personality may be a major factor only in theacquisition of conversational skills like oral communicative ability but not in suchacquisition of literacy skills as reading and writing skills Although there arecontradictory and the problems involved in carrying out in the area of personalitycharacteristics, it is still believed that personality is of great influence on progress in

language learning However, it is surely that not personality alone, but there stillexist many other factors that contributes to proficiency in language learningprocess

1.2 ERRORS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

1.2.1 NOTIONS OF ERRORS

A far as we have known, the term “error” is used in a variety of ways in

linguistics and language teaching theory, in error analysis research, in Englishlanguage teaching (ELT) including Teaching English as a Second Language(TESOL), and not least in the ordinary classroom Although “error” has beenclearly defined in error analysis research and in ELT, interpretation and usage ofthis term specifically for error correction purposes has nevertheless been less thansystematic Errors, in fact, play an important role in English learning processbecause committing and analyzing errors will help learners realize and try to avoidthem better Up to now, there are a variety of definitions of errors made by manygrammarians and linguists

In English language teaching, the term “error” appears to differ markedly from

that of “errors” in linguistics / psycholinguistics In English language teaching,

“errors” refer to the pedagogical notion of “errors” in the context of language

learning and language teaching In the early 70's, research into “errors” (forexample, by Corder 1967, Selinker 1972, Nemser 1971, Richards 1973, Dulay andBurt 1974) has demonstrated that learner errors are indicative of both the state ofthe learner's knowledge and of the ways in which the second language is beinglearned According to Corder (1975), an error is referred to as a linguistic form that

is either superficially deviant or inappropriate in terms of the target language CarlJames, moreover, defined errors as “being an instance of language that is

intentionally deviant and not self-corrigible by its authors” (Carl James, 1980: 129) Hendrickson, in methodology in TESOL (1987) says that an error is “an utterance

form or structure that is a particular language teacher seems unacceptable because

of its inappropriate use or its absence in real life discourse”

A lot of definitions of errors have been given due to various standards and fromthose, it can be concluded that errors are what the second language learnersproduce, which are unacceptable, unnatural and faulty to native speaker in theparticular context

1.2.2 ERRORS, MISTAKES AND LAPSES

As far as we have known, errors, mistakes and lapses are near synonyms.However, they have distinctive features different from each other In fact, thedistinction between errors, mistakes seems to cause a lot of troubles for readers toidentify and realize That is the reason why so many researchers and linguists havetried to point out the distinction between them

According to James “mistakes are viewed as slip of tongue or ofhandwriting” (Carl James, 1998: 6) He also claims that mistakes are quickly andeasily self-correctable Edge supports this viewpoint by adding that a “slip” hasoccurred “if the teacher thinks that a student could self-correct” (Edge, 1989:9).Corder, however, argues that mistakes are of no significance to the learninglanguage process, thus they do not reflect a defect in our knowledge but aretraceable to performance failure The learner is normally immediately conscious ofthe mistakes and can self-correct them to some extent Both native speakers andlearners may make mistakes

Errors, on the other hand, are deviances caused by a lack of competence, aresystematic (Corder, 1967: 166), and are a “noticeable deviation from the adultgrammar of a native speaker” (Brown, 1994:205) Errors are not self-correctable butthe teacher may think that the learner is familiar with the form (Edge, 1989) CarlJames, moreover, argues that an error is committed because of the writer’s orspeaker’s semantic and structure intentions If the learner is inclined and able tocorrect a fault in his or her output, it is assumed that the form he or she selected is

an untended fault or a mistake while it is assumed that the form the learners use wasthe intended one, which is an error James adds that language learners cannotcorrect their errors until they have additional knowledge on the topic These errorsoccur during the course that learners attend because they have not acquired enoughknowledge Once they acquire additional knowledge, they will be able to correcttheir errors, and the more errors the learners correct, the more conscious of languagethey will be.

Richard et al, in “Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics”(1992) also claims that a learner makes a mistake when writing or speaking because

of lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness or some other aspects of performance.Meanwhile, an error is the use of linguistic item in a way that a fluent or nativespeaker of the use of the language regards it as showing faulty or incompletelearning

Rod Ellis, thinks that there is not a simple binary distinction between “error”and “mistake” for deviances, but it is possible that the learner’s knowledge of thetarget form is only partial; the learner may not have learnt all the contexts in whichthe form can be used It could be also that a certain form could have been “known”

or partially known at one point in time, but not known at a later point due tomemory limitations, for example (Rod Ellis, 1994: 54) Ellis, however, in anotherbook published in 1997, points out that

“Errors reflect gaps between learners’ knowledge They occur because thelearner does not know what is correct Mistakes reflect occasional lapses inperformance They occur because in a particular instance, the learner is unable toperform what he or she knows” (Rod Ellis, 1997: 17)

Norrish (1988) said that there is another wrong use which is neither amistake nor an error and can happen to everyone, which is treated as a lapse Alapse is involved in the lack of concentrations, shortness of memory, fatigue, etc

From the above mentioned, it can be concluded that errors are linked tofailure in competence, mistakes are associated with failure in performance andlapses are related to performance with occasional effects.

1.2.3 DIFFERENT ATTITUDES TOWARDS ERRORS

A far as we are concerned, making errors during language learning is acommon phenomenon We are all aware of the fact that in normal adult speech inour native language we are continually committing errors of one sort or another.This results from our memory lapses, physical states, such as tiredness andpsychological conditions such as strong emotions The notion of errors in theprocess of learning a second language is, in fact, really complicated by its nature.Thus, researchers and linguists differ in their views about errors In the field oftheory, there have been two schools of thought in respect of learners’ errors.Behaviorists, on one hand, maintain that “if we were to achieve a perfect teachingmethod, the errors would never be committed in the first place, and there fore, theoccurrence of errors is merely a sign of inadequacy of our teaching techniques”(Richards, 1974:20) Furthermore, they view errors as symptom of ineffectiveteaching or as evidence of failure They also think that errors in language learningresult from the first language interference and when errors occur, they are remedied

by a “bombardment of correct forms” (Hubbard et al 1983: 144) which can beachieved by the intensive drilling or over teaching Mentalists, on the other hand,argue that errors are inevitable because during language learning, learners oftenstore the new data in their mind and come up with a set of rules that producespatterns in target language

1.2.3.1 ERROR IS A SIGN OF FAILURE

According to behaviorists, error in language learning is sign of ineffectiveteaching or evidence of failure They claim, “The pupil does not learn by makingmistakes but by having correct responses properly reinforced” (Hubbard, 1989:144) It can be inferred that behaviorists have negative attitude towards errors The

behaviorists believe that in foreign language learning process, learners often imitatewhat they have been taught and develop habits by routine practice In this light, thelearners are thought to relate what they know of their first language to what theyrecognize in second language Therefore, “positive transfer” is regarded as the result

of similarities between the first and the second language due to the fact that habitsused in the first language are easily transferred to the second one On the other

hand, “negative transfer” is caused by differences between the first and the second

language, because errors result from using habits from the first language to thesecond one What foreign language teachers should do is to be tolerate with theirstudents’ errors which appears to be “dismissed as a matter of no particularimportance, as possible annoying, distracting, but inevitable by – products of theprocess of learning a language about which the teacher should make as little fuss aspossible” (Corder, 1967: 19)

Affected by view of behaviorists which states that the occurrence of errors is

a sign of failure, many teachers bear in mind the fact that a perfect teaching methodmust aim to avoid students’ committing errors It can be inferred that in languagelearning process, learners’ making errors is unacceptable and if that happens, errors,then, should be corrected as soon as possible In this sense, making errors isconsidered a sin, which needs to be eradicated immediately They also emphasizethat teachers should rectify their students' mistakes right away for them to useEnglish correctly and achieve English proficiency This is based on the perspectivethat if students' mistakes are not corrected, they will make the same mistakes overand over again

Due to this fact, the analysis of mistakes and errors committed by learners insecond language learning would be essential for the teacher since it helps theteacher foresee the difficulties learners might encounter, and therefore, specialattention would be paid to the teaching process in order to help their studentsovercome difficulties or even avoid committing errors and mistakes (Mc Keating,1981: 212) Although the behaviorists’ opinion about errors greatly contributes to

the process of language teaching, there still exist some shortcomings that should betaken into consideration

Problems with this view about foreign language learning include the fact thatimitation does not help the learner in real-life situations Learners are continuallyrequired to form sentences they have never previously seen Another problem withthis view is that many of the errors made by foreign language learners are not based

on the first language Instead, the problems most often encountered by learnersresemble errors made by children during the period of first language acquisition.Therefore, if teachers keep correcting students errors and mistakes all the time,students, then, would be careful not to say anything because they are afraid ofmaking mistakes This will discourage risk – taking, one factor necessary forprogress in language learning As a result, there needs to be another way for errors

to be viewed and treated so that proficiency in language learning would beenhanced

1.2.3.2 ERROR IS A SIGN OF PROGRESS

On the contrary to the behaviorists, who always have negative attitudestowards errors in language learning process, the philosophy of the second school ofthought about errors is that we live in an imperfect world and consequently, errorswill always occur in spite of our best efforts Our ingenuity should be concentrate

on techniques for dealing with errors after they have occurred It can be inferredfrom this point of view that the only way to gain experience in language learning,the only way to get better at it, the only way to get richer and more accurate models

of what is going to happen next is to make lots of errors, to make lots of mistakes,and to focus on learning from these errors and mistakes People, who support thisschool of thought also advocates that errors should not be corrected immediately asthey are normal and inevitable during the learning process Mistakes, in this sense,are regarded as a part of an active and creative process As a result, no one isexempted from making mistakes, which include slips of the tongue As far as these

linguists are concerned, foreign language learners are considered “activelyconstructing rules from the data they encounter and gradually adapting rules in thedirection of the language system” (Littlewood, 1998: 22) Errors, according toLittlewood, are viewed as a sign which indicates that learners are investigating thesystem of the target language, and then, making progress in their language learning.

In support of Littlewood, Richards claims: “No one expects a child learning hismother tongue from the earliest stages only forms which, in adult terms, are correctand non – deviant” (Richards, 1974:22) It can be interpreted that no one, in theirlearning a language, especially learning a second language, can avoid makingmistakes and mistakes are considered evidences to show learners’ progress in theirlanguage acquisition Brown and Frazer (1964) point out that the best evidenceshowing that a child possesses construction rules is the occurrence of systematicerrors because when the child speaks correctly, it is quite possible that he is onlyrepeating the language he has heard, not the language he, himself, can produce.And when he, himself, tries his best to acquire language, mistakes are of greatsignificance to the process of language learning Therefore, if adults, such asparents, correct every single mistake made by their kids, their children are likely tolose motivation and their flow of thinking will be disrupted This would be the samewith the learners in their learning of a second or foreign language

In short, people who support the second school of thought about errors arguethat learners' errors committed in language learning process help constitute normallanguage development Learners’ committing errors shows that they are attempting

to figure out the patterns or rules that govern the language What actually looks like

a basic mistake in learners’ language can actually be a sign of progress and learning.Thus, when their mistakes are corrected all the time, they may lose their self -confidence In some instances, they harbor hatred toward the people who alwaysfind fault and correct the mistakes in what they are saying In this circumstance, it isunderstandable if students sometimes hate teachers who always correct them Asevery learner of a foreign language knows, being corrected all the time can be

embarrassing, insulting and de-motivating To other learners of English as a foreignlanguage, a teacher who constantly butts in and interrupts students to correct themcan be annoying and disruptive, especially when lack of accuracy does not hampercommunication

To sum up, there are different views towards learners’ errors among whichthere exist two most dominant ones The first school of thought considers errors asign of failure and the second one sees errors as a sign of progress Teachers all overthe world may differ in their ways to view and to treat errors but on the whole, theyoften support one of the two schools mentioned above Language teachers,however, are sometimes under pressure when facing with learners’ errors So whenshould teachers correct their students' errors and how these errors should be treated?

To answer these questions, teachers need to seriously look at their objectives Theyneed to consider whether they are focusing on accuracy or fluency Teachers shouldhave a clear aim in mind and let students know what the teachers are expectingstudents to do If they aim at fluency, then error correction can be ignored Teachersshould bear in mind not to stage a learning experience as a fluency task and thenassess the students on every single mistake that they make On the other hand, if theobjective is accuracy, error correction is necessary Accuracy can be the goal whenstudents are asked to perform a role-play or make a presentation and have beengiven enough time to prepare However, in assessing students' performance, itwould be of great help to the children if they have an idea of what they are beingassessed on If teachers have to correct, it would be more effective if they do it in apositive way and explain why it is wrong, thus providing meaningful comments.Likewise, if there are frequent mistakes, teachers can just make a mental note toprovide feedback after a certain activity Correcting mistakes does not have to bedone by teachers alone Students can rectify their own mistakes When correcting,the first port of call can be the students themselves Sometimes, students' mistakesare merely slips of the tongue and students are aware of the correct version.Teachers can also involve students in correcting their peers or classmates They can

be asked to make different assessment tools such as rubrics or checklists to correctmistakes Peer correction or assessment helps to create a positive learningenvironment, as students are made aware that they can learn from one another.Teachers do not have to be the only source of knowledge

1.2.4 ERROR ANALYSIS

As far as we have known, contrastive analysis plays an important role in theformulation and development of linguistics According to the contrastive analysis(CA) hypothesis, “while the child is learning a second language, he will tend to usehis native structures in his second language structures, and where structures in hisfirst language and his second language differ, he will goof” (Jack C Richards,1974: 95) Therefore, what contrastive analysts have found out, according tomodern linguists, is considered of great importance in second language teaching andlearning for several reasons In the first place, it points out that the main difficulties

in learning a new language are caused by interference from the first language,which is significantly valuable for explaining a certain amount of learners’ errors.Secondly, thanks to contrastive analysis, these difficulties might be predicted inorder to help reduce effects of interference Lastly, based on these difficulties,effective and appropriate teaching methods will be applied in teaching process so as

to help learner overcome challenges they may encounter in their learning a newlanguage

Although the significance of contrastive analysis is undeniable, there stillexist some critical arguments against this hypothesis due to some reasons Wilkin,initially, in his book, argues that not all errors are cases of transfer from mothertongue Therefore, language teachers sometimes encounter challenges caused byunpredicted errors that learners commit in language learning process He, then,claims that some of the differences between learners’ mother tongue and their targetlanguage pointed out by contrastive analysts show no real language difficultiessince errors do not occur as predicted He also refers to the circumstance when the

positive transfer predicted by contrastive analysts occurs; errors are still committed

by learners (Wilkin, 1972: 199 – 200) It is clearly pointed out that not all errors inlanguage learning process are caused by differences between learners’ mothertongue and target language through language transfer Therefore, first languageinterference should not be considered as the sole cause leading to errors Thereneeds to be another theory concerning errors in language teaching and learningprocess The error analysis supplanted Contrastive Analysis and became arecognized part of Applied Linguistics owing to the work of Corder (1967) who saw

it from a different point of view

Error analysis in SLA, alternative to contrastive analysis, was established inthe 1960s by Stephen Pit Corder and colleagues It appears as an approachinfluenced by behaviorism through which applied linguists sought to use the formaldistinctions between the learners' first and second languages to predict errors Erroranalysts argue that although more valuable aspects of contrastive analysis have beenincorporated into the study of language transfer, it was unable to predict a greatmajority of errors A key finding of error analysis has been that many learner errorsare produced by learners making faulty inferences about the rules of the newlanguage

Error analysts aim at distinguishing between errors, which are systematic,and mistakes, which are not In fact, the “errors” learners make in their learning anew language are significant in a number of respects According to Corder (1967),errors help tell the teacher how the learner is progressing towards his or herlanguage goal and provide the learner with an opportunity to test their secondlanguage hypotheses Besides, errors provide the researcher with evidence ofstrategies or procedures the learner employs in language learning Errors analystsoften seek to develop a typology of errors Error can be classified according to thefollowing basic types: omissive additive, substitutive or related to word order, theycan be classified by how apparent they are: overt errors such as “I angry” areobvious even out of context, whereas covert errors are evident only in context

Closely related to this is the classification according to domain, the breadth ofcontext which the analyst must examine, and extent, the breadth of the utterancewhich must be changed in order to fix the error Errors may also be classifiedaccording to the level of language: phonological errors, vocabulary or lexical errors,syntactic errors, and so on They may be assessed according to the degree to whichthey interfere with communication: global errors make an utterance difficult to

understand, while local errors do not In the above example, “I angry” would be a

local error, since the meaning is apparent

Error analysis is closely related to the study of error treatment in languageteaching Today, the study of errors is particularly relevant for focus on formteaching methodology According to those who support error analysis, errors inlanguage learning are not caused by the interference of learners’ mother tongue but

by learners’ learning strategies Corder proposes that the process of error analysisconsists of three stages namely recognition, description, and explanation Thesethree stages are interdependent and have great influence on one another The firststage is regarded as a process of comparing original utterances while the secondstage is related to the linguistic problem which concerns with the rules learnersusually break and the third one seeks to explain the reasons that make learners breakthese rules Richards, one famous linguist, suggests that error analysis aims at thefollowing main points Firstly, it focuses on identifying strategies which learnersuse in their language learning process Secondly, it tries to identify the causes oflearners’ errors Thirdly, it obtains information on common difficulties in languagelearning (Richards, 1992: 127)

From the beginning, error analysis was beset with methodological problems

In particular, the above typologies are problematic: from linguistic data alone, it isoften impossible to reliably determine what kind of error a learner is making Also,error analysis can deal effectively only with learner production (speaking andwriting) and not with learner reception (listening and reading) Besides, researchersfind it difficult to conduct their error analysis for the following reasons To start

with, error analysis is considered the main cause of confusion of error descriptionwith error explanation It, then, lacks precision and specificity in the definition oferror categories (Dulay et al 1982: 141) Furthermore, it cannot account for learneruse of communicative strategies such as avoidance, in which learners simply do notuse a form with which they are uncomfortable For these reasons, although erroranalysis is still used to investigate specific questions in SLA, the quest for anoverarching theory of learner errors has largely been abandoned In the mid-1970s,Corder and others moved on to a more wide-ranging approach to learner language,known as interlanguage

1.2.5 CAUSES OF ERRORS

The realization of the errors that learner often commit during their learning anew language are potentially important for the understanding of the processes of thesecond language acquisition However, for error analysts, not only identifying anddescribing the learners’ errors but also explaining why such errors occur are of greatsignificance in providing the teachers valuable information which helps find outeffective ways to treat errors

Figure 1.1: Psycholinguistic sources of errors.

However, it is, in fact, really complicated to explain where errors come fromand why errors occur in language learning process because errors often result fromdifferent sources They may be the result of psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic,epistemic factors or may reside in the discourse structure In SLA researches, onlypsycholinguistic sources which are considered main causes of competence errorsand performance errors have been taken into account The figure 1.1 would be thebest representative for this kind of source

In terms of the Monitor performance model, interference is the result of theuse of the first language as an utterance initiator: first language competence mayreplace acquired second language competence in the performance model, as infigure 1.2 From the data we have so far, this hypothesis correctly predicts that thoseaspects of syntax that tend to be acquired are also those that show first-language-influenced errors in second language performance

Figure 1.2: Model for adult second language performance

(Source:http://sdkrashen.com/SL_Acquisition_and_Learning/

SL_Acquisition_and_Learning.pdf)

However, due to the limitation of the study, only two main causes of errorsfrom which competence errors are generally rooted would be mentioned The firstcause refers to mother tongue interference and the second one refers to mothertongue independent interference

1.2.5.1 MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE

Language transfer has been considered a controversial topic in Englishlanguage teaching Transfer, in fact is a psychological term originally and can beclassified into two categories: positive transfer and negative transfer People,however, always put emphasis on the negative transfer and even some researchers

argue that mother tongue is “interference” for English language learning One thing

that should be noticed here is that both teaching and learning processes are carriedout in Vietnamese environment Therefore, mother tongue transfer cannot beavoided in English language learning Mother tongue transfer is, as far as we haveconcerned, regarded as an important source of errors in the English languagelearning process and its influence can be seen in the course of learning all thesystems of English language That is why so many researchers and linguists are soabsorbed in theory of mother tongue transfer

Ellis (1994) and Odlin (1989) use the terms “positive transfer” and

“facilitation” to refer to those aspects of the first language that “facilitate second language learning” (Ellis, 1994:302), whereas “negative transfer” or “interference”

is used to describe learner errors caused by transfer of first language forms It can

be argued that negative transfer could indeed facilitate learning if errors werecorrectly identified and appropriate actions are taken

Schwartz and Sprouse (1996), propose in their “Full Transfer / Full Access”model that a learner will rely on his or her entire first language when initial learningstarts Gradually the learner will replace aspects of his representation of the targetlanguage when, from input, he or she determines which aspects of the foreignlanguage are different from his or her native language James (1998) can be seen totake a similar view by close study of his diagrammatical representation (figure 1.3)

of interlanguage from which one could assume that an interlanguage would be acombination of both mother tongue and foreign language

Figure 1.3: James’ representation of interlanguage (James, 1998:3)

(Source:http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/misselection)

According to Newmark (1966) “mother tongue interference” is not the first language “getting in the way” of second language skills Rather, it is the result of the performer “falling back” on old knowledge when he or she has not yet acquired

enough of the second language Therefore, interlingual transfer is considered as asignificant source for language learners’ errors In the Dictionary of LanguageTeaching and Applied Linguistics (1992), interlingual errors are defined as beingthe result of language transfer, which is caused by the learner’s first language.However, this should not be confused with behaviorist approach of languagetransfer Error analysts does not regard them as the persistence of old habits, butrather as signs that the learner is internalizing and investigating the system of thenew language

Moreover, Wilkin, in his book, claims that we should be able to identify themother tongue of our students basing solely on the recurring errors It can beinferred that different learners often make some mistakes that have something incommon These mistakes are thought to be the result of mother tongue interference.For Vietnamese learners, errors and mistakes committed during their learningEnglish are inevitable for the reason that there exist many significant differencesbetween English and Vietnamese For instance, the verbs in Vietnamese are notinflected for tense or person, the nouns in Vietnamese are not inflected for numberand the word order does not always fit into English language system (inVietnamese, adjectives often stand behind nouns whereas in English, adjectives areplaced in front of the nouns)

Corder, besides, argues: “a learner of a second language transfers intoperformance in his second language the habits of his mother tongue” (Corder, 1974:130) Under the light of this view, it would be understood that the similaritybetween the two languages may enhance the language learning process and thedifferences would hinder the learner in his attempt to learn a new language Corder(1997) also states that a learner of second language transfers into the learner’sperformance in the second language the habits of his mother tongue On this theorythe making of errors is an inevitable part of the learning process It also accounts forthe similarity of many errors to the forms of mother tongue We can call these

transfer errors, for example: “They sing with happy” A learner of second language

makes errors because he has not yet discovered the precise set of categories towhich the rule applies Errors of this sort are errors of overgeneralization or

analogical errors Thus it is not surprising that errors like “he singed”, “he cans come” and “many mans” are produced by learners with any mother tongue.

Analogical errors are inherent in the learning process

Errors resulting from mother tongue interference may occur at differentlevels such as transfer of phonological, morphological, grammatical and lexica-semantic elements of the native language into the target language For example, at