An analysis of errors made by high school student in the use of subject verb agreement in english writing = phân tích lỗi sai của học sinh PTTH về sự tương hợp giữa chủ ngữ và động từ trong văn viết tiếng anh

Vinh universityForeign language department ---An analysis of errors made by high school students in the use of subject- verb agreement in english writing phân tích lỗi sai của học sinh

Vinh university

Foreign language department

-An analysis of errors made by high school

students in the use of subject- verb

agreement in english writing

( phân tích lỗi sai của học sinh PTTh về sự tơng hợp giũa

chủ ngữ và động từ trong văn Viết tiếng anh)

graduation thesis Field: linguistics

Student: Cao Thị Việt Hà, 44A2 Supervisor: Vũ Thị Việt Hơng, M.A.

Vinh 2007

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Vũ Thị Việt Hơng, M.A, who gave me the enthusiastic help and encouragement to complete this thesis.

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all of my teachers at Foreign language department of Vinh university for their lectures which enable me to gain a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge.

Furthermore, I want to thank many teachers and students at NguyÔn Du high school- Hµ TÜnh province, who helped me carry out the investigation of the study.

Finally, I am really grateful to my parents and my friends for their

encouragement and support to my process of writing of the thesis.

Vinh, summer 2007

Cao ThÞ ViÖt Hµ

Symbols and abbreviations

SVA: subject- verb agreement

L1: the first language

L2: the second language

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims of the study

3 Subjects of the study

4 Scope of the study

5 Method of the study

6 Design of the study

Part II: Content

Chapter I: Literature review

1.1 The overview of subject- verb agreement in English grammar

1.1.1 Subject and its features

1.1.2 Verb- verb phrase and its features

1.1.3 Definition of subject-verb agreement

1.1.4 Types of English subject- verb agreement and their principles 1.1.4.1 Grammatical concord

1.1.4.2 Notional concord

1.1.4.3 Proximity principle

1.1.4.4 Special agreement problems

1.2 Errors in language and learning process

1.2.1 The notion of error

1.2.2 Errors and mistake

1.2.3 Error analysis

1.2.4 Causes of errors

1.2.4.1 Interlingual errrors and mother tongue interference

1.2.4.2 Intralingual errors and developmental errors

(1) overgeneralization

(2) incomplete application of rules

(3) ignorance of rule restrictions

(4) false concepts hypothesized

2.6 Preliminary results and data analysis

2.6.1 Results of section 1 of test 1

2.6.2 Results of section 2 of test 1

2.6.3 Results of section 3 of test 1

2.6.4 Results of test 2

2.6.5 General tendency

2.7 Errors and their causes

2.7.1 Errors and their causes in section 1 of test 1

2.7.2 Errors and their causes in section 2 of test 1

2.7.3 Errors and their causes in section 3 of test 1

2.7.4 Errors and their causes in test 2

Chapter III: Findings and Implications

3.1 Major findings

3.2 Implications for teaching and learning SVA in English writing to Vietnamese high school students

3.2.1 Suggestion for teaching SVA in English writing

3.2.1 1 Suggestion for presentation

3.2.1.2 Suggestion for practice

3.2.1.3 Suggestion for production

3.2.2 Suggestion for learning SVA in English writing

Part III: Conclusion

References

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Symbols and abbreviations

SVA: subject- verb agreement

L1: the first language

L2: the second language

Part 1: Introduction

1 Rationale for the study

For a long time, English has confirmed its position as an international language It isconsidered as a useful tool to communicate with each other Therefore, it is not surprisingwhen the number of English learners is growing more than ever Together with theincreasing need of studying English, great efforts have been made in order to improve thequality of teaching and learning this subject Textbooks have been renovated, new methodshave been applied and various aspects of teaching English have been covered Realized thatdescription and analysis of students' errors play an important role in the practical teachingand learning, error analysis has been an interesting area which has attracted the attention of

an increasing number of researchers In fact, there are many famous ones on this field.Typically, Corder and Richards have made great contribution to the development of erroranalysis area- a main branch of applied linguistics

Since Vietnamese and English have very distinct grammar systems, Vietnamesestudents tend to encounter alot of difficulties in acquiring the target language Among thesedifficulties is the use of subject- verb agreement (SVA) in English writing It can not bedenied that SVA is an important element in grammar The correct use of SVA contributes

to producing accurate sentences Besides, SVA is so popular that nearly every sentencerequires it Therefore, special attention has been paid to this item of grammar This isrevealed in the works of Swam (1980), Quirk (1972), Maclin (1996) and so on In Vietnam,there have been a number of studies and B.A graduation theses by some linguists andstudents, focusing on SVA, such as NguyÔn §¨ng Liªm (1975), L¬ng Nh HuÕ (2002).However, they mainly focus on the theory of SVA To the best of my knowlege, very little

research so far has been done in Vietnam on the error analysis in the area of English SVA.

In the thesis by L¬ng Nh HuÕ, although the writer predicted difficulties that Vietnamesestudents may face in learning SVA and made some suggestions, no causes of errors havebeen found That is why this study should be carried out

Another reason for my conducting this research results from my own experience ofpractising teaching English at NguyÔn Du high school, Hµ TÜnh province Failure to useSVA is a recurring problem in the students' writing It is the fact that the students usuallymake a lot of errors involving SVA when they write a paragraph or an essay If thiscontinues, it can be a major obstacle to their success Besides, there seems to be a neglect

of SVA in teaching materials , especially at low levels

For all the reasons above, in this thesis, the writer would like to make an analysis oferrors made by high school students in the use of subject- verb agreement in English writing

2 Aims of the study

The study reported in this thesis aims to:

- Identify the errors in using SVA in English writing made by high school students

- Find out the causes of these errors

- Make some suggestions for teaching and learning SVA in English writing

3 Subjects of the study

The subjects of the study include 200 students at NguyÔn Du high school, Hµ TÜnhprovince One hundred of them are in the tenth form The rest are the students who are inthe eleventh form They learn English as a compulsory subject at school All of them arequalified enough to do the test

4 Scope of the study

Due to limitation of time and other objective factors , I do not hope to cover all theaspects of SVA In this thesis, I only would like to deal with the error analysis of SVA inEnglish writing

The study is carried out at NguyÔn Du high school, Hµ TÜnh province

5 Method of the study

In this study, the writer used the methods below:

- Investigating method

- Contrastive analysis

- Analytic and synthetic

- Descriptive method

6 Design of the study

Except for the acknowledgement, the table of contents and the references as well as theappendix, this thesis includes three main parts

Part I: Introduction

In the introductory part, the rationale of the study is presented The aims, subjects,scope and method of the study are then identified The design of the study is also provided

Part II: Content

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter I: Literature review

This chapter will deal with a review of the relevant literature related to the issue underthe investigation It has two sections The first one focuses on the overview of SVA inEnglish grammar The second briefly presents the theory about the sources of errors whichhelp us explain what factors caused errors committed by students in using SVA in Englishwriting Error analysis , the basic tool for analysing the data is also included

Chapter 2: The study

The methodology used to collect data for the research will be presented in this chapter

It includes the information of research setting, participants, and data collection techniques.Besides, it presents some preliminary results of the study, the analysis of errors committedand the general tendency

Chapter III: Findings and implications

This chapter will summarise some major findings The application of the study withsome implications for teaching and learning English SVA is also presented

Part III: Conclusion

This is the final part of the thesis It summarises what has been presented in the thesisand includes some suggestions related to English SVA for further research

Part II: Content Chapter I: Literature review

1.1.The overview of subject-verb agreement (SVA) in English grammar:

Normally, every simple and declarative sentence consists of two obligatory mainelements: a subject and a verb (or a verb phrase) They must agree with each other in

number and person Before their agreement is discussed, their typical features should bedescribled

1.1.1 Subject and its features:

According to Collin Cobuild English grammar (1990),"subject is the noun group in aclause that refers to the thing or the person who does the action expressed by the verb" The more specific features of subject are drawn out by Leech and Svartvik (1975:293):

The subject of a clause is a noun phrase or pronoun, a non-finite verb form, or a

nominal clause, usually with introductory "it" The subject normally occurs before the verb

in statements In questions, the subject occurs immediately after the operator The subject has number and person concord (where this applies) with the finite verb The most typical function of a subject is to denote the actor, that is, the person, etc causing the happening denoted by the verb.

1.1.2 Verb, verb phrase and their features:

According to Collin Cobuild English grammar (1990), "verb is a word used with asubject to say what someone or something does, or what happens to them (e.g: sing, pill,die)

Leech and Svartvik (1975) state that there are 2 types of verb: main verbs (e.g:sleep,learn,go, etc.) and auxilary verbs which include primary auxilaries (do, have, be) andmodal auxilaries (e.g: may, could ) They also argue that "verb phrase consists of either of

a main verb (e.g: She writes several letters every day) or of one or more auxilary verbstogether with a main verb As the name applies, auxilary verbs help the main verb to make

up phrases (e.g: She has been writing letters all the morning)

1.1.3 Definition of subject-verb agreement:

In a sentence, the verb must concord with the subject, or the subject of the sentencedetermines the form of the verb that goes with it This concord is also called subject-verbagreement, whose simple rule can be drawn as follows:

- A singular subject requires a singular verb

- A plural subject requires a plural verb

- A subject of the first person requires a first person verb

- A subject of the second or the third person requires a second or third personverb

E.g: (a) The book is intersting

(b) These pictures are beautiful

In sentence (a), the singular subject "the book" requires the singular verb"is", while insentence (b), the plural subject "these books" requires the plural verb "are" Therefore, theseverbs are said to agree in number with the subjects.

E.g: I am a student

He is an architect

The subject of the first singular person "I" needs the first singular verb form "am", andthe subject of the third singular person "he" requires the third singular verb form "is" It issaid that the different forms of the verb "be"agree with the pronouns as subjects in personand in number as well

1.1.4 Types of subject-verb agreement and their principles:

Quirk et al (1972) classify subject-verb concord into three main types: grammaticalconcord, notional concord and proximity principle Besides, there are other cases of specialagreement

1.1.4.1 Grammatical concord

Grammatical concord is a concord of number and person existing between a verb of a

sentence and its subject

(1) Concord of subject-verb in number

The term "number" indicates whether a noun or pronoun is singular or plural The term

is also applied to verbs

The common rules are as follows:

- A singular subject takes a singular verb

- A plural subject takes a plural verb

E.g: A dog keeps a house

(a dog: singular subject ; keeps: singular verb)

These flowers are beautiful

(These flowers: plural subject ; are: plural verb)

Note: when we use an uncount noun as the subject of a verb, we use a singular form of the

verb

E.g: Knowledge is necessary for every body

(Knowledge: uncount noun ; is: singular verb)

(2) Concord of subject-verb in person

- What is person?

As a grammatical item, "person" means the way the writers express their ideas as their own (the first person), directly to the reader or listener (the second person), or as ideas of others (the third person) Pronoun forms that show these differences are called personal pronouns, which are classified into subject pronouns and object pronouns.

(Maclin, 1994:240)

Here is a list of subject pronouns

person Number

- Rules of Subject-verb agreement in person

As well as concord in number, there is concord in person between subject and verb Therule is that if the subject is in the singular or plural first person, the verb must agree and ifthe subject is in the singular or plural-second or third person, the verb must agree too.E.g: (a) I am your friend (1st person singular concord)

(b) We were going to Ha noi (1st person plural concord)

(c) You are too far from me (2nd person concord)

(d) He plays football very well (3rd person singular concord)

(e) They are my relatives (3rd person plural concord)

1.1.4.2 Notional concord

"Notional concord is agreement of verb with subject according to the idea of numberrather than the actual presense of the grammatical marker for that idea"

(Quirk et al, 1972:360)

(1) Concord of verb and collective noun as subject

- If the collective nouns shows that the members of the group it denotes are considered as asingular unit, the noun takes a singular verb

- If the collective noun shows that the members of the group it denotes are considered asindividual members, then the noun requires a plural verb

E.g: a Family is an important part of the society

b My family are very friendly

In example (a), the collective noun "family" refers to a singular unit, so it takes asingular verb "is" While the same collective noun in example (b) refers to individualmembers, it requires a plural verb "are"

Note that:

1 Some collective nouns always require plural verbs for agreement They are such nouns

as: people, police, cattle, clergy, livestock, vermin and noun phrases derived from adjectives that describle people, for example: the rich, the young and so on.

E.g: The people of our state are voting for a new governor

The police have asked for more funds

The young want to live in cities

2 If you want to refer back to a collective noun, you choose a singular pronoun ordeterminer if the previous verb is singular, and a plural pronoun or determiner if theprevious verb is plural

E.g: The goverment has said it would wish to do this only if there was no alternatives The goverment have made up their minds that they are going to win

(2) Concord of verb and uncount noun ending in "s"

Some nouns end in "s" or "es' and look as if they are plural but in fact, they areuncount nouns Thus, when they are the subject of the verb, the verb must be in the singularform

These nouns refer mainly to subjects of study, activities, games and diseases E.g:acoustics, aerobics, economics, statistics, bowls, cards, darts, measles, mumps, rabies,rickets

E.g: Linguistics interests me much

Billiards is popular in many places

(3) Concord of verb and coordinated noun as subject

- If the elements of the compound subject joined by "and" ,"both and" and "all but" areconsidered separate entities, the subject will take a plural verb because this conjunctionalways suggests more than one This rule must be obeyed regardless of whether theindividual subjects are singular or plural

E.g: Both the boy and the girl are happy

All but Suzie have left

- A subject still takes a plural form when its elements are uncount nouns

E.g: Butter and milk are my favourite food

Note that there are some exceptions as follows:

+ When a compound subject joined by "and" is preceded by the word "every", "each",

"many", "a" or "no", the subject is considered separately As a result, a singular verb isneeded

E.g: Each adult and child has to pay to enter the show room

Every man and woman is asked to vote

Many a youth and many a maiden has misinterpreted freedom

No boy and no girl is eager to go fishing

+ On some occasions, subjects joined by "and" refers to one person or thing or to somethingthat is considered as a unit In this case, the verb must be singular

E.g: Cheese and crackers is my favourite food

( Cheese and crackers is considered one item of food)

The Bat and Ball sells good beer.

( The Bat and Ball names a single pub)

+ When the subject consists of two elements joined by "with' , "together with", "as well as",

"accompanied by", " along with", "in addition", "including", the form of the verb depends

on the 1st element preceding these connectors If it is singular, the verb is singular too If it

is plural, it requires a plural form of the verb

E.g: a The actor, along with some friends, is going to a party tonight

b The chilren, as well as their sick mother, are dying

In the example (a), since "the actor" and "some friends" are joined by along with and

the emphasis is on "the actor", which is a singular subject, so the singular form of the verb

"is" is required In the sentence (b), the additive "as well as their mother" has no influence

on the subject "the chilren" which is plural, so the plural verb "are"is taken

1.1.4.3 Proximity principle

The principle of proximity "denotes agreement of the verb with whatever noun orpronoun closely precedes it, somtimes in preference to agreement with the headword of thesubject"

(Quirk et al, 1972:360)

(1) Concord of verb with disjunctive subject

- According to Crews, compound subjects joined by "or", "neither nor", or " either or" arecalled disjunctive

- The verb agrees with the subject nearest to it in number and person

Neither/either + noun + nor/or + noun(plural) + verb (plural)

noun(singular) + verb(singular)

E.g: Either his friends or the poor boy is going to be punished

Neither John nor his friends are going to the beach today

Neither you nor I am prepared for the exam

(2) Concord of verb and "there" as subject

The form of the verb depends on the number of the noun nearest to it

E.g: a There is a picture and four pencil on the table

b There are four pencils and a picture on the table

In the sentence (a), the singular noun "picture" is nearest to the verb, therefore the verb

is singular Similarly, in the sentence (b), the plural noun "four pencils" is nearest to theverb so a plural verb is taken

[[

(3) Concord of verb and some indefinite pronouns as subject

The proximity principle may lead to plural concord even with the indefinites: each,every, everybody, anybody, and nobody, which are singular

E.g: a Noone except his own supporters agree with him

b Each member of the group of five people work very hard

For such cases, where the proximity principle overrules grammatical concord, the termATTRACTION is often used In two examples above, the plural nouns "supporters" and

"people" are nearest to the verbs so the plural verbs are taken for agreement

Other examples of attraction arise with singular nouns of kind and quantity

E.g: a A large number of people are gathering in the square

b The majority of them are American

c Lots of wood is going to be exported to Japan

In examples (a), (b), the heads of noun phrase is "number", "plenty", and "majority",each of which is singular and thus require singular verbs But the plural forms "people" and

"them" in the "of- phrase" influence the form of the nearby verb

The opposite phenomenon , singular attraction, is observed in example (c) wherephrases like "lots of" are treated as equivalent to singular "much".

(4) Other cases of proximity

- Multiple units in which the first coordinate is negative but the second is affirmative use averb form that agree in number with the affirmative coordinate This is explained byproximity principle

E.g: a Not my younger brother but I am disappointed

b.Not the girl but her friends agree with that idea

Note that the above sentences can be rephrased as follows:

a' I, not my younger brother, am disappointed

b' Her friends, not the girl, agree with that idea

The sentences (a') and (b') can not explained by proximity principle In fact, they obey theprinciple of non- intervention that will be studied in part 1.1.4.4

- Such sentences as "one in nine go out" are also examples of proximity principle

1.1.4.4 Special agreement problems

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(1) Concord of verb and indefinite pronoun as subject

- Here are common indefinite pronouns

+ Singular indefinite pronouns:

anybody anyone anything each

either everyone everybody everything

neither nobody noone nothing

one somebody someone something

+ Plural indefinite pronouns

all enough most plenty any more none some

Whether these pronouns are singular or plural depends on their antecedents If theantecedent is singular, the pronoun is singular If the antecedent is plural, the pronoun isplural

E.g: All of the concert was good

Some of the houses have been painted

- Rule of subject- verb agreement

Singular pronouns as subject take singular verbs and plural pronouns take plural verbsE.g: Everything looks new today

Several of the dishes have been washed

Most of the students are intelligent

Most of food has been eaten

(2) Concord of verb and title of work as subject

Titles of individual books, stories, plays, movies, television programmes and magazinesare generally regarded as singular and therefore take a singular verb even when they have a

plural form Most names of countries, of businesses and of organizations are alsoconsidered singular They take singular verbs for agreement.

E.g: " Crime and punishment " is the best- constructed of Dostoyevesky's novels

Is Honduras in Central America or South America

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(3) Concord of verb and numeral as subject

-When we use any cardinal number except "one" infront of a noun, we use a plural nounand therefore a plural verb is required We use "one" infront of singular nouns and singularverbs are taken

E.g: Eight girls are reading books in the room

There is a flower in the vase

However, when we talk about an amount of money or time, speed or weight, we usuallyuse a number, a plural noun and a singular verb because in these cases, a singular unit ismentioned

E.g: Twenty dollars is too much to pay for that shirt

Three years is a long time

400 metres is the length of this lane

- Ordinals are often used infront of nouns If the noun is singular, then the verb afterwards

is singular If the noun is plural, it requires the plural verb

E.g: The 2nd runner is Mr David

First products have been made by these handy workers

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(4) Concord of verb and fractions, verb and percentages

With fractions and percentages, verb agreement depends on the nouns or clauses afterthem

- With singular nouns, clausal subjects or non- count subjects, the singular verb is taken,and with plural nouns, a plural verb is needed

E.g: 20% of students have failed in the exam

One thirds of this novel focuses on the countryside life

About two thirds of what I planed is done

- With collective nouns, either the singular or the plural verb is required

E.g: Three fifths of our class live/ lives in Vinh city

10% of the population comes/ come from Germany

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(5) Concord of verb and subject in inverted order

Most sentences are in natural order- the subject comes before the verb Some sentences,though, are in inverted order- the subject follows the verb or part of a verb phrase.Regardless of whether a subject is in a sentence, the verb must agree with it in number For an inverted sentence, we should first identify the subject by rewriting the sentenceand then make the verb agree with it in number

There are several types of inverted sentences They may be questions or sentencesinitiating wih "here" or "there"

E.g: Here comes the bus.

There comes the drinks

Is the girl beautiful?

Under the table are some pairs of shoes

(6) The principle of non intervention

A verb always agrees with the subject whether the verb is next to the subject or it isseparated from the subject by other words Some confusion about subject-verb agreementmay be made if there is separation between the main subject and the verb The verb maywrongly agree with the object, instead of the subject if a prepositional phrase or some otherwords which are nearer to the verb Therefore, the rule of subject- verb agreement is asfollows:

The agreement of a verb with its subject is not changed by any interrupting words,phrases or clauses

E.g: The gardens in the valley are full of flowers

The house painted with blue and green is mine

(7) Concord of verb and subject using the word "number"

When the word "number" is preceded by "the", a singular verb is taken When "number"

is preceded by "a" and it refers to a total unit, a singular verb is needed But if it refers toindividual parts, a plural verb is required

E.g: a A great number of pictures were sold before Tet holiday

"Number" in the sentence (a) refers to individual parts

b A number like 13 is not lucky

"Number" in the sentence (b) refers to a total unit

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1.2.Errors in language learning process

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1.2.1.The notion of error

Learning a language in general and a foreign language in particular is really a long andcomplex process in which errors are unavoidable According to Dulay et al (1982:138),errors are understood as "the flawed side of learner speech and writing, those parts ofconversation or composition that deviate from some selected norms"

Corder has the same view as Dulay et al He refers to errors as breaches of the code.Errors deviate from what is regarded as the norm The problem, however, is that sometimesthere is not agreement on what the norm is The norm is affected by the medium, the socialcontext and the speaker- hearer relationship (Els et als, 1984:147) In other words,languages have different varieties or dialects with rules that differ from the standard.Therefore, certain forms or structures which are acceptable in some situations becomedeviant in others

Lenon gives a clear definition of error It is "a linguistic form which, in the samecontext .would in all likelihood not be produced by the learner's native speakercounterparts" (1991:182)

Carl James in "Error in language teaching and use" defines error "as being an instance

of language that is unintentionally deviant and not self- corrigible by its author"

According to Richard et al (1992:95), in "Longman dictionary of applied linguistics",the term "error" refers to "the use of a linguistics item (e.g: a word, a grammatical item, aspeech act,etc.) in a way which a fluent or native speaker of the language regards asshowing faulty or incomplete learning"

An error is also defined as "an utterance, form, or structure that a particular languageteacher seems unacceptable because of its inappropriate use or its absence in real lifediscourse" (James.M.Hendrickson,1987) in "Methodology in TESOL"

1.2.2 Errors and mistakes

In the 1960s, researchers started to pay much attention to the concept of errors inlanguage learning process Although they found it impossible to indicate any cleardifferentiation, distinction was drawn between the two terms "error" and "mistake"

According to Chomsky (1995 ), there are two different types of errors: one orginatingfrom verbal performance factor and the other from inadequate language competence Andthe distinction between error and mistake was introduced into morden debate by Corder(1967) He took advantage of Chomsky's distinction and classified it A mistake, he says, is

" a performance error" and the term "an error" is associated with failures in languagecompetence

Ellis (1997) has the same view: "errors reflect gaps in a learner's knowledge They occurbecause the learner does not know what is correct Mistakes reflect occasional lapses inperformance They occur because , in a particular instance, the learner is unable to performwhat he or she knows"

Mistakes are the result of psychological or neurological factors such as fatigue, lack ofattention or lapse of memory They are also due to physical states such as tiredness (Corder,1992:24) On the other hand, errors are caused by the incomplete understanding of languagecompetence

The intentionality plays an important part in distinguish errors and mistakes James(1998) points out that error is an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and isnot self- corrigible by the learner A mistake is either intentionally or unintentionallydeviant and self- corrigible

The distinction between errors and mistakes also bases on whether it is systematic ornot According to Norrish (1983), errors are " a systematic deviation when a learner has notlearnt something and consistently gets it wrong" He adds that they are generally caused bylearners of English as a second or foreign language In contrast, mistakes arecharacteristically unsystematic And they are made by native speakers as well as foreignlanguage learners

Mistakes are not significant to the process of language learning because they do notreflect a defect in our knowledge but can be traced to performance failure "We are

normally immediately aware of them when they occur and can correct them with more orless complete assurance" (Corder,1967: 167) On the contrary, errors reflect knowledge andcannot be self- corrected until further relevant (to that error) input has been provided andconverted into intake by the learner ( C James, 1998:83) Besides, errors play an importantpart in the process of learning Discussing the significance of learners' errors, Richards(1992) says that they provide evidence of the system of the language that they are using at aparticular point in the course ( and it must be repeated that they are using some systems,although it is not yet the right system) He adds that errors are significant in three differentways:

First to the teacher, in that they tell him, if he understates a systematic analysis, how fartowards the goal his learners have progressed and consequently, what remains for them tolearn

Secondly, they provide the teacher evidence of how language is learned or acquired,what strategies or procedures his learners are employing in their discovery of the language Thirdly, they are indispensable to learners themselves, because the making of errors isregarded as a device learners use in order to learn It is a way learners have to test theirhypothesis about the nature of the language they are learning

For all the reasons above, only errors can be the object of study of error analysis (EA)

It is not interested in mistakes since they do not show the true state of learner 's knowledge

1.2.3 Error analysis

Many of the predictions of the target language learning difficulty formulated on thebasis of contrastive analysis (CA) turned out to be either uninformative (teachers hadknown about these errors already) or inaccurate: errors predicted did not materialise ininterlanguage and some which appeared in fact were not predicted by the CA (James,1998) Pointing out some weaknesses of C A in deciphering learning difficulty, manyresearchers believe that learners' actual errors are worthier These errors are lively evidence

of the failure learners have and they are very helpful in various ways It is in this setting that

a new approach called error analysis came into being

EA has been defined by many linguists in different ways Richards et al ( 1992) givesthe definition of EA as " the study and analysis of the errors made by second languagelearners" Discussing EA, James (1998:1) says: "Error analysis is the process ofdetermining the incidence, nature, causes, and consequences of unsuccessful languages.Cook (1993:22) states: "Error analysis is a methodology for dealing with data rather than atheory of acquisition"

The role of EA is undeniable in language learning and teaching It is claimed that EAhas a number of following benefits in helping construct an account of L2 learners' linguisticcompetence and assisting teachers and researchers in teaching and designing syllabuses

In the first place, one of the functions of EA is to identify the causes of the learner 'serrors which are very useful for teaching and learning languages

Secondly, at the level of classroom experience, we feel that EA supplies a chief means

by which teachers assess learning and teaching and determine priorities for future effort.Lim (1976) states: "One of the main aims of error analysis is to help teachers assess moreaccurately what remedial work would be necessary for English as a second language" The third significance of EA is that the study of learner's errors should permit theformulation of rules for learners' interlingual systems, thus providing incidentally teacherswith information of what remains to be learned

Finally, "EA has an important Applied Linguistic justification in that data from theclassroom can both serve as input to theoretical consideration and after evaluation, feedback

to the designing of remedial curricula" (Richards, 1992)

The procedures for EA consists of the following steps set by Corder (1974):

1 A corpus of language is selected

It is claimed by Richards (1971) that there are two main causes of errors Some errorsresult from mother tongue interference.They are called "interlingual errors" Others arecommited by 2nd language learners regardless of their mother tongue and they are calledintralingual and developmental errors

1.2.4.1 Interlingal errors and mother tongue interference

When learning a foreign language, learners already know their mother tongue It isknown that the habits of their mother tongue affect their acquisition of the second language.They use their previous experience of their first language as a means of organising the L2.They "tend to transfer the form, meanings and the distribution of forms and meaning oftheir native language and culture to the foreign language and culture" (Lado, 1957:2).According to Oldin (1989), transfer is the influence resulting from similarities anddifferences between the target language and any other language that has been previouslyacquired

There are two types of language transfer occurence: positive and negative Positivetransfer or facilitation is the one which makes learning easier and may occur when L1 and

L2 have something in common Negative transfer or inteference is the borrowing of the 1language pattern or rule which leads to an error or inappropriate language usage.Interference may be caused by the difference between the two languages

in subject- veb agreement In the example above, the word "everybody"- "mäi ngêi" isplural in Vietnamese but singular in English Therefore learners use the plural verb "have"incorrectly instead of the singular verb "has"

Another example is:

Vietnamese English

Vietnamese verbs have no conjugation, thus "yªu" can go with any person Thisgrammatical feature of Vietnamese greatly influences the way how Vietnamese studentsconjugate English verbs This usually results in such a phenomenon as in sentence (1)above

1.2.4.2 Intralingual and developmental errors

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According to Richard (1971: 74), intralingual errors are those which reflect the generalcharacteristics of the learning, and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply.Developmental errors illustrate the learner 's attempt to build up hypotheses of it in theclasssroom or text books He presents the causes of the above errors in terms of over-generalization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rule, false concepthypothesized

(1) Overgeneralization

Overgeneralisation is defined by Jakobovits as "the use of previously availablestrategies in new situations Some of these strategies will prove helpful in organising thefacts about the second language, but others, due to superficial similarities, will bemisleading and inapplicable'

In the view of Richards (1972: 174), overgeneralisation covers instances where thelearners create a deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structures in thetarget language It may be the result of the learner 's reducing his linguistic burdens

E.g: They lives in NewYork

Although the subject is "they", the learner adds "s" into "live" This error is due toovergeneralization of the 3rd person singular ending for the 3rd person plural in the presenttense.

Another example is "We was happy yesterday"

Here the form "was" is overgeneralized for all persons and both numbers in the pasttense

"Certain types of teaching techniques increase the frequency of over- generalisedstructures Many pattern drills and transform exercies are made up of utterances that caninterfere with each other to produce a hybrid structure

Teacher: He walks quickly

Instruction: Change to contiuous form

Student: He is walks quickly"

(Richard, 1992:175)

(2) Incomplete application of rules

Incomplete application of rules shows that learners fail to learn complex types ofstructures because they find they can gain effective communication by using relative simplerules It is said that second language learners are perhaps primarily interested in efficientcommunication without the need for mastering the rules For example:

Teacher 's question: Student 's response

What was she saying? She saying She would ask him

Will they soon be ready? Yes, they would be ready

How much does it cost? It cost one dollar

(Richards, 1992: 178)

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(3) Ignorance of rule restrictions

As in the case of overgeneralization of deviant structures, the learner is using apreviously acquired rule in a new situation; he ignores the restrictions of existing structures

In other words, it is the application of rules to context where they should not be applied Some errors of ignorance of rule restrictions may be accounted for in terms of analogy.Others may result from the mechanical learning of rules

E.g: a Bad news always makes people worried

The learner violates the limitation on plural nouns By analogy, he considers all nounswith ending "s" plural, so he chooses the plural verb wrongly

b The girl who I met her is Mary

c "She talked about it" leads to "We dicussed about it"

(4) False concepts hypothesized

The term "false concepts hypothesized" is used to indicate a class of developmentalerrors which derive from faulty comprehension of a distinction in the target language(Richards, 1971: 176)

These errors are due to poor classroom presentation of the teaching items and badpresentation involving contrastive analysis of English and another language or contrastswithin English itself.

E.g: a Family is a cell of society

b Her family are very kind

For many students, they can not distinguish the meaning of "family" in the sentence (a)from the one in the sentence (b) They can not realize whether it refers to a singular unit orindividual members Hence, it results in error in subject- verb agreement

1.2 5 Error correction

(1) Should learners' errors be corrected?

Error correction is said to be an argumentative part in the process of teaching andlearning Some reseachers say that teachers should not make a point of error correctionbecause it is considered to be a kind of criticism or punishment, and errors would be self-corrected by learners

On the contrary, discussing error correction, Raimes shows his favour of it He advisesteachers to see errors as friends and not as enemies to be conquered" Besides, some famouserror linguists like James (1998) and Edge (1989) suggest that it is necessary to correcterrors because it is useful for both teachers and learners In his book "Mistakes andcorrection", Edge (1989:20) argues "We teachers decide to correct our students, we have to

be sure that we are using correction positively to support learning" Sharing Edge 's point ofview, James (1998) claims that learners want all their written errors corrected andcorrection will help them improve He also adds that correction is essential in the caseswhere the language processing task is difficult, because in such cases learners will beunable to self- correct

It is hoped that error correction will help leaners aware of their errors more fully Andtheir subsequent writing will carry less errors of the same type

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(2) Which learners 'errors should be corrected?

Teachers should choose only particular errors to concerntrate on at one time of makingcorrections so as not to depress learners In fact, if all errors are selected, students will feelbored and as a result , this will decrease their motivation It is also advisable that teachersshould make learners pay more attention to the errors which have been repeated by manymembers in class, or to important errors which affect clear communication

There are two categories of second language learners ' errors: those errors that causelisteners or readers to misunderstand a message (global errors), and those errors that do notsignificantly hinder communication of a sentence 's message (local errors) Burt (1975),argues persuasively that the global/ local distinction is the most pervasive criterion fordetermining the communicative importance of errors She claims that the correction of oneglobal error in a sentence clarifies the intended message more than the correction of several

local errors in the same sentence Moreover , she says that limiting correction tocommunicative errors allows learners to increase their motivation and self- confidencetoward learning the target language

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(3) How should learners 'errors be corrected?

It is necessary that teachers should know how to correct learners 's errors effectively andavoid using correction strategies that might embarrass or frustrate learners Some erroranalysts and methodologists like Allwright (1975), Hendrickson (1977) suggest that thereare five techniques for correcting written errors:

(a) The teacher gives sufficient clues to enable self- correction to be made

(b) The teacher corrects the scipt

(c) The teacher deals with errors through marginal comments and footnotes

(d) The teacher explains orally to individual students

(e) The teacher uses the errors as an illustration for class explanation

Allwright (1975) makes a conclusion that any error correction process includes some ofthe following general features: indication that an error was committed, identification of thetype of error, location of the error, mention of who made the error, selection of a remedy,provision of a correct model, the furnishing of an opportunity for a new attempt, indication

of improvement and the offering of praise

Students' participation in error correction is very important The discussion between theteachers and students is very helpful Students understand their errors, develop a positiveattitude towards errors and finally feel encouraged to express them more accurately Foreffective error correction, teachers should write on the blackboard the most important errorsfrom learners ' pieces of writing in class for discussion