Luận văn english adjectives an analysis of errors made by vietnamese high school students

Vinh university Foreign languages department  Ng« thÞ yÕn English adjectives: an analysis of errors made by vietnamese high school students Ph©n tÝch lçi thêng gÆp cña häc sinh

Vinh university Foreign languages department



Ng« thÞ yÕn

English adjectives: an analysis

of errors made by vietnamese

high school students

( Ph©n tÝch lçi thêng gÆp cña häc sinh phæ th«ng viÖt nam trong viÖc sö dông tÝnh tõ tiÕng anh)

Graduation thesis Field: linguistics

Vinh, may 2010

Vinh university

Foreign languages department

-English adjectives: an analysis

of errors made by vietnamese

high school students

( Ph©n tÝch lçi thêng gÆp cña häc sinh phæ th«ng viÖt nam trong viÖc sö dông tÝnh tõ tiÕng anh)

First of all, at the completion of this graduation thesis, I would like to express mysincere thanks to my supervisor, Mrs Vu Thi Viet Huong (M.A) who has given mevaluable suggestions and corrections as well as taken troubles with this

Then, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Mrs Nguyen Thi Bich Hien(M.A) for her great support and helpful advice on my study

My debt of gratitude also goes to my lecturers in Foreign Languages Department,Vinh University for their valuable lectutres which help me in the topic

In addition, I also would like to express my thanks to my students of class 11B6and 11B7 at Nguyen Cong Tru high school during my practical time, who have helped

me to answer the survey questionaire of this thesis

Finally, I am in large measure indebted to my family and my friends who haveencouraged me much and especially have helped me much with collecting relevantmaterials

Vinh, May 2010

Ngo Thi Yen

List of abbreviations

E.g: ExampleEtc: Et cetera

* : Incorrect sentence

List of tables

Table 2.1 Result of section 1

Table 2.2 Result of section 2

Table 2.3 Result of section 3

Table 2.4 Number of errors and their causes in section 1

Table 2.5 Number of errors and their causes in section 2

Table 2.6 Number of errors and their causes in section 3

Table of contents ……… iv

Part I: Introduction ……… 1

1 Rationale of the study……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 1

3 Scope of the study……… 2

4 Methods of the study……… 2

5 Design of the study……… 2

Part II: Investigation ……… 3

Chapter I: Theoretical background……… 3

1.1 Kinds of English adjectives……… 3

1.2 Syntatic function of English adjectives……… 5

1.2.1 Attributive……… 5

1.2.2 Predicative……… 5

1.2.3 Postpositive……… 6

1.2.4 Head of noun phrase……… 6

1.2.5 Verbless adjective clause……… 7

1.2.6 Exclamatory adjective sentence……… 7

1.3 Positions of English adjectives……… 7

1.3.1 Syntactic positions……… 8

1.3.1.1 Both attributive and predicative……… 8

1.3.1.2 Attributive only……… 8

1.3.1.3 Predicative only……… 10

1.3.2 Semantic positions of adjectives ……… 10

1.3.2.1 Stative and dynamic……… 10

1.3.2.2 Inherent and non- inherent adjectives……… 10

1.3.2.3 Gradable and non- gradable adjectives 11

1.4 Formation of english adjectives………11

1.4.1 Prefixation……… 12

1.4.1.1 Negative prefixes……… 12

1.4.1.2 Number prefixes……… 12

1.4.1.3 Conversion prefixes ……….13

1.4.1.4 Other prefixes ……… 13

1.4.2 Suffixation ……… 14

1.4.2.1 Nouns  adjective suffixes……… 14

1.4.2.2 Adjectives  adjectives suffixes……… 15

1.4.2.3 Verb  adjectives suffixes……….16

1.5 Errors in language learning process……… 16

1.5.1 The notion of errors……… 16

1.5.2 Errors and mistakes……….17

1.5.3 Causes of error in second language learning……….17

1.5.3.1 Interlingual errors……… 17

1.5.3.2 Intranlingual errors……… 18

Chapter II: The study……… 20

2.1 Research questions……… 20

2.2 Research setting……… 20

2.3 Description of subjects……….20

2.4 Description of tasks……… 21

2.5 Procedure……… 21

2.6 Preliminary results and data analysis……… 21

2.6.1 Results of section 1……… 21

2.6.2 Results of section 2……… 22

2.6.3 Results of section 3………22

2.7 Errors and their causes……… 23

2.7.1 Errors and their causes in section 1……… 23

2.7.2 Errors and their causes in section 2……… 27

2.7.3 Errors and their causes in section 3……… 29

Chapter III: Findings and Implications……… 33

3.1 Research question revisited……… 33

3.1 Research question 1……… 33

3.1 Research question 2……… 33

3.1 Research question 3……… 33

3.2 Implications for teaching and learning English adjectives……… 34

3.2.1 Suggestions for teachers……… 34

3.2.2 Suggestions for students………38

Part III: conclusion ……… 39

1 Recapitulation of the study……… 39

2 Suggestions for further research……… 40

References

Appendix

Part I: introduction

1 Rationale of the Study:

As we know, English is used as an official language in many countries in over theworld Thus, studying English has always been one of the most biggest interests ofVietnamese people English even becomes a compulsory subject in most schools,colleges and universities in Vietnam Students have to learn English at school like manyother subjects However, it is not easy for students to use English correctly, taking theclass of adjectives as an example Vietnamese learners, especially high school students

may be familiar with some forms of adjectives like adjectives ending in “al” (national, practical, etc), “y” (lovely, friendly, etc), “ful” ( beautiful, ueseful, etc) and so on, but there are also many adjectives which do not have identifying shape (long, bad, etc).

Besides, the positions and functions that adjectives act in each noun phrase, eachclause and each sentence are quite different and difficult to learn Thirdly, like othersubjects, English is one of the subjects of which the tests are done by examinees todecide whether students can go to the university or not In addition, during the 8 weeks

at Nguyen Cong Tru high school, the author found that the lesson and sections teachingadjectives in the two existing systems of English course books do not give studentsenough knowledge about English adjectives Moreover, students are much affected bythe way we use adjectives in Vietnamese Thus, it is necessary for teachers to find outthe errors made by students in order to help them to use English adjectives properly andeffectively

From the above reasons, the author has decided to choose the topic: “English

adjectives: an analysis of errors made by Vietnamese high school students” for the

study

2 Aims of the Study:

The thesis aims to :

- Identify common errors in using English adjectives

- Find out the major causes and sources of errors made by Vietnamese highschool students

- Make some suggestions for learning and teaching English adjectives

3 Scope of the Study:

Adjectives play an important role in English grammar In this study the authoronly focuses on researching English adjectives to find out the errors made by NguyenCong Tru high school students

4 Methods of the Study:

In order to solve the above mentioned aims, the author used some methods asfollows Firstly, the author has used collective method to collect informations aboutadjectives in English that she can consult from some grammar referent books Then, theauthor has descriptived and analyzed the collected data

5 Design of the Study:

This study consists of three main parts and three chapters which are organized asfollows:

Part I Introduction In this part, the author give some information about the

reasons for choosing the study, aims, scope, methods and design of the study

Part II Investigation This part consists of three chapters

Chapter I Theoretical background gives an overview of the relevant literature related

to the issue under investigation It provides all concepts related to the study Error

analysis as the main theoretical tool for analyzing data will also be reviewed Chapter II

The study is the main section of the thesis This chapter describes research setting,

participants of the study And then results, data and data analysis of the study are given

in this chapter Chapter II Finding and implication summarizes the major findings and

gives some suggestions in teaching and learning English adjectives

Part III: Conclusion concludes what has been discussed in the thesis Some

suggestions for further research are also presented

Part Ii: investigation Chapter I: theoretical background 1.1 Kinds of adjectives.

English adjectives have many kinds According to Trinh Quang Vinh in “ The

formation of Adjectives”(1993), there are eleven main kinds of adjectives as follows:

- Proper adjectives:

E.g: A Chinese book.

A Vietnamese people

- Descriptive adjectives:

E.g: Some naughty chilren.

A brave woman.

- Distributive adjectives are such words as:

Each, every, either, neither

E.g: Show me either of your books.

Give each of the boys a cake.

- Quantitive adjectives:

Quantitive adjectives consist of: much, little, few, any, no, many, some, half,enough

E.g: She has not had enough food.

They had some bread.

- Numeral adjectives:

There are two kinds of numeral adjectives:

+) Cardinal numbers:

E.g: one, two, three, etc

There are fourty students in my class.

+) Ordinal numbers:

E.g: first, second,etc

The first chapter is very difficult.

- Interrogative adjectives are which, what, whose

E.g: Which book are you reading?

What country will you come to?

Whose bike did you borrow?

- Demonstrative adjectives are such words as: this, that, these, those

E.g: This is my house.

Those are my books.

- Relative adjectives:

We use the structure: “which/ what + noun” as a relative adjective, and it usually

stands in the middle of sentence

E.g: Bring me the book which thing I had forgotten.

I gave her what money I had.

- Emphasizing adjectives:

Emphasizing adjectives are words like: very and own, etc

E.g: He came back on the very day of her wedding.

- Possessive adjectives:

My, our, his, her, their, your, its are possessive adjectives

E.g: Our book is interesting.

Their books are old.

Besides, in “A practical English grammar” A.J.Thomson and A.V.Martinet

(1985) added two kinds of adjectives They are:

- Adjectives of quality:

It is used to mention the character of person or thing, such as: clever, fat, heavy,square, quick, etc

- Participles are used as adjectives:

E.g: The film is boring but I still watch because I do not know what to do.

I am surprised when he comes to class late.

1.2 Syntactic functions of English adjectives.

According to Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaun (1973), adjectives have six

syntactic functions.They are: attributive, predicative, pospositive, head of noun phrase,verbless adjective clauses and exclamatory adjective sentences

1.2.1 Attributive

This is considered the major function of English adjectives Adjectives areattributive when they premodify noun That means when they appear between thedeterminer and the head of noun phrase

E.g: The beautiful painting.

His main argument.

E.g: Mary is pretty.

Adjective can be complement to a subject which is a finite clause

E.g: Whether she will come is uncertain.

Besides, they can also be complement to non – finite clause subjects

E.g: Learning English is not easy

Predicative adjectives which modify subject or are subject complements alwayscome after verb “tobe” and some link verbs such as: appear, grow, fell, seem, keep,smile, stay, go, get, look, become, sound, turn and taste, etc

- Object complement:

The adjectives function as object complement are the ones which modify theobject through the verb

E.g: He made me sad.

Predicative adjectives which act like object complement can be complement tofinite clauses

E.g: I find what he did foolish.

They can also be the complements of object, which are non- finite clauses

E.g: I consider playing so hard foolish

1.2.4 Head of noun phrase

Another function of adjectives is a head of noun phrases To do so, they do notinflect for number or for the genitive case and must take a definite determiner Mostcommonly, such adjectives have personal reference but sometimes they have abstractreference

*) Most adjectives qualifying personal nouns can be noun phrase heads

They usually have plural and generic reference because you can add a generalword for human beings such as “ people” (then, the definite determiner is normallyomitted)

E.g: There is a big gap between the young and the old.

The wise look to the wiser for advice.

The adjective can itself be modified, usually by restrictive modification

E.g: The young in spirit enjoy life.

The old who resist change can expect violence.

The definite determiner “your” in the following example restricts the quantity ofreference:

E.g: We will nurse your sick and feed your hungry.

Adjectives functioning as noun phrase heads generally require a definitedeterminer, they sometimes appear without a determiner, though, if they are conjoined

E.g: He beloved by both rich and poor.

*)There are adjectives functioning as noun phrase heads when they have abstractreference These take regular concord A few are modifiable by adverbs and particularlythey include superlatives:

E.g: He went from the sublime to the extremely ridiculous.

The lastest is that he is going to run for election.

*) Some adjectives denoting nationalities can be noun phrase heads

E.g: The Bristish have control of the bridge

The industrious Dutch are admired by their neighbours

1.2.5 Verbless adjective clause

According to Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaun (1973), an adjectiv (alone or

as head of an adjctives phrase) can function as a verbless clause It can take differentpositions but it usually precedes or follows the subject of the superordinate clausebecause the implied subject is usually the subject of the sentence

1.2.6 Exclamatory adjective sentence

An adjective can be an exclamation when it acts as head of an adjective phrase or

as its sole realization

To sum up, through all of the above things we can see that English adjectiveshave some syntactic functions of which attributive and predicative are the two majorones Besides, adjectives also have some other use such as pospositive, head of nounphrase, verbless clause and exclamatory adjective sentence

1.3 Positions of English adjectives

English adjectives can be sub - classified in different ways according to manydifferent grammarians who take different criteria and aspects to look at them

Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaun (2003) displayed two ways: syntactic andsemantic positon of English adjectives

1.3.1 Syntactic positions

Syntactically, English adjectives can be divided into 3 main kinds: the adjectivesfunctioning both attributive and predicative, the adjectives functioning attributive only,the adjectives functioning predicative only

1.3.1.1 Both attributive and predicative

The majority of adjectives function both attributive and predicative

E.g: The poor man ~ the man is poor

The handsome boy ~ the boy is handsome

Sometimes the meaning of adjectives, however, change when moving from thisposition to another

E.g: The early bus or the late bus ( the bus scheduled to run early or late in

the day)

The bus is early (the bus is before its proper time).

The bus is late (the bus is after its proper time).

is “old”, it can refer to a person who has been a friend for a long period of time, so that

we can not relate her old friend and her friend is old “Old” refers to the friendship and does not characterize the person In that use, “old” is attributive only.

It is common that the adjectives which do not characterize the referent of the noundirectly are attributive However, some of them occur also predicatively For example,

in both “a new student” and “a new friend” The first can be used predicatively: that student is new while the second can not There are some kind of adjectives which are

attributive only as follow

a Limited adjectives

They particularize the reference of the noun

E.g: The same student.

The main reason.

b Intensifying adjectives

This kind can be sub-divided into emphasizers and amplifiers according

to our present purpose While emphasizers have a general heightening effect, amplifiersscale upwards from an assumed norm, denoting a high point on the scale Besides, there

is a third kind called downtoners and having lower effect

- Emphasizers are attribute only

E.g: a real hero, a true scholar, the simple truth.

- Amplifiers are attributive only but rarely because they are central adjectives ingeneral

E.g: a complete fool, a firm friend, a close friend, a strong opponent.

- A few intensifying adjectives with strongly emotive value are restricted toattributive position

E.g: you poor man, my dear lady.

c Denominal adjectives

They are the adjectives derived from nouns Some of them can function asattributive only

E.g: Criminal law ~ law concerning crime.

A medical school ~ a school for stidents of medicine.

d Adjectives related to adverbial

Some adjectives related to adverbial functioning as attributive only These are theadjectives which we can transfer into adverbs in any ways

E.g: A hard worker ~ a worker who works hard

A fast train ~ a train that one driver fast.

My former friend ~ formely my friend.

1.3.1.3 Predicative only

By contrast with some adjectives functioning attributive only, there are someadjectives which are restricted to predicative position They are commonly like verbs,adverbs and tend to refer to a temporary condition rather than a permanentcharacteristic

There is a number of adjectives that can or must take complementation and many

of them closely resemble verbs semantically

E.g: She is afraid of doing it ~ She fears to do it.

He is fond of her ~ He likes her.

1.3.2 Semantic positions of adjectives

Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum divided English adjectives into classes

sub-1.3.2.1 Stative and dynamic

Adjectives are characteristically atative because the majority of them can not beused with the progressive aspect or with the imperative However, some of them can beseen as dynamic in their use with the progressive aspect and imperative For instance, a

stative adjectoves such as ‘long’ can not be used in: “it is being long” or “be long”!

Incontrast, we can use ‘honest’ as a dynamic adjective: “he is being honest” and “be honest!”.

Some adjectives can be used dynamically such as: funny, rude, clever, noisy, good, brave, calm, careless, faithful, etc.

1.3.2.2 Inherent and non- inherent adjectives

Inherent adjectives are the ones that characterize the referent of the noun directly

In contrast, the adjectives that do not characterize the referent of the noun directly arecalled non – inherent adjectives Combined with what have been said as far as positionsare concerned we should say some adjectives which occur attributively only orpredominantly in attributive position are non inherent

E.g: An old friend ( one who has been a friend for a long time not with

the sense of old age)

A fast road, a great supporter, etc.

On the whole we can say most adjectives are inherent The reasons why we cannot say all of them are the above thing and one more type of adjectives they are wooden,silken, etc, they do not characterize the referent of the noun directly

E.g: The actor is being wooden.

1.3.2.3 Gradable and non- gradable adjectives

E.g: Small smaller smallest.

Beautiful more beautiful most beautiful.

Adjectives which can be modified by some other forms of intensification are alsogradable

E.g: very young

extremely useful

Moreover, all dynamic adjectives are gradable and most stative adjectives aregradable, too So we can see that the number of gradable adjectives is very large and it islikely that most adjectives are gradable.

b Non- gradable

Only some English adjectives are non – gradable They are technical adjectivesdenoting provenance

E.g: atomic, hydrochloric, British, Jewish, etc.

1.4 Formation of English adjectives

Adjectives in English are mainly formed by means of affixation which can bedivided into two kinds: prefixation and suffixation

Negative prefixes often carry the opposite meaning to the roots Negative added

to the root adjectives can form many new adjectives We can see in the followingexamples:

Prefixes Examples Meaning

Un- Unfair, unhappy, unlike, uncertain,

uncomfortable, unchangable, etc

The opposite or not

In- Incorrect, intolerant, inevitable, etc Not

Im- Impossible, impolite, imoral, etc Not ( before labials)

Il- Illogical, illegal, illiterate, etc Not ( before l)

Ir- Irrelevant, irregular, etc Not ( before r)

Dis- Dishonest, disloyal, etc Not

A- Amorial, amorphous, etc Lacking in

Non- Non-smoking, non-gradable, etc Not

1.4.1.2 Number prefixes

Some root adjectives can change their meaning into the others with sense ofnumbers by being added number prefixes

Uni - Unilateral, unisextual, etc One

Di - Dichromatic, distransitive, ect Two

Tri - Triangulate, triandrous, ect Three

Poly - Polysyllabic, polymorphous, ect Many

Multi - Multiracial, multinational, ect Many

Prefixes Example Meaning

Anti- Anti-social, anti-cultural,etc Against

Hyper- Hypercritical, hyperactive, etc Extra specially

Inter- International, internet, etc Between, among

Mal- Malformed, malodorous, etc Badly

Mis- Misleading, misconducted, etc Wrongly, astray

Over- Overcoscientious, overconfident, etc Too much

Sub- Subhuman, substandard, etc Lower than, less than

Super- Supermodel, supersensitive, etc Above, more

Pseudo - Pseudointellectural, etc False, imitation

Ultra- Ultraviolet, ultramodern, etc Beyond, extremely

Under- Underdeveloped, etc Less than, lower than

Homo- Homosextual, homophonic, etc Share the same

1.4.2 Suffixation

Suffixation is the way of forming new words by adding suffixes to the root word.Unlike prefixation, suffixation often changes the part of speech of the word Andadjectives are mainly built from nouns or verbs in this way

The following are the most common suffixes used to create adjectives

1.4.2.1 Nouns  adjective suffixes

These suffixes are used to change nouns into adjectives This is considered themost common way of building adjectives because English adjectives are often formedfrom nouns by means of suffixation

Suffixes Example Meaning

- ful Useful, helpful, meaningful,beautiful, etc Full of, having

- al Central, national, political, etc Belonging to

- ly Mainly, monthly, daily, normally, etc Having the quality of

- y Rainy, healthy, sandy, windy, etc Full of, like…

like Warlike, childlike, cowlike, etc Having the quantity of less Careless, harmless, childless, restless, etc Without, not giving

- like Warlike, childlike, cowlike, etc Having the quality of

- less Careless, shapless, useless, meaningless, etc Without, not giving

- ish Foolish, Spanish, childish, etc Having the character of

- an(ian) Indonesian, Asian, etc In the tradition of

- en Golden Wooden, leatheren, etc Made by

- ern Southern, eastern, etc Showing direction

- some Bothersome, policsome, etc Having the character of

- worthy Praiseworthy, seaworthy, etc Deserving to

- ous Nervous, humorous, etc Full of

1.4.2.2 Adjectives  adjectives suffixes

Some adjectives can be formed from other adjectives by means of suffixation butthese suffixes are rare

Suffixes Example Meaning

- ish Reddish, blackish,etc Nearly approaching to thee condition or quality

- some Gladsome, etc Having the character of

1.4.2.3 Verb  adjectives suffixes

These are suffixes added to verbs to form adjectives

Suffixes Example Meaning

-able Acceptable, readable, drinkable, etc Able to be

- y Dreamy, sleepy, etc In the state of

- ive Atractive, active, etc Being able to, full of

- ed Bored, tired, interested, etc Being

- ing Boring, interesting, existing, etc Being able to,

making people+V-infinitive

1.5 Errors in language learning process

1.5.1 The noition of errors

Learning a foreign language is very difficult The difficulties may reside in thelanguage itself or in other factors which include differences between the base languageand the target language Thus, errors are unavoidable part in the process of learning alanguage There are many definitions proposed by different grammarians

Corder (1967) said that “ An errorcan be definite as a deviation from the norms ofthe target language”

In “ Errors in language Teaching and Use”, Carl Jame defined that “ Errors as

being an instance of language that is intentionally deviant and not self- corrigible by itsauthor”

Errors are understood as a consistent and based on a miss- learned generalization

by Penny Urin in “ A course in language teaching” (1996).

Jame (1998:112) refers to an error as a linguistic form which is eithersuperficially deviant or inappropriate in terms of the target language.

1.5.2 Errors and mistakes

It is difficult to distinguish between “error” and “mistake” because the distinctionbetween the two terms is not very clearly

According to Noam Chomsky (1965), errors have two different types: oneoriginating from verbal performance factor and the other from inadequate languagecompetence

Coder (1967: 59) had a comparison between errors and mistakes, he said that amistake is a random performance slip caused by fatigue, excitement, ect, and thereforecan be readily self- corrected Besides, an error is a systemantic deviation made bylearners who have not yet mastered the rules of the second language, he can not self-correct an error because it is a product reflective of his current stage of second languagedevelopmentor underlying competence

1.5.3.Causes of error in second language learning

Learning a foreign language is not easy for learners, therefore, they will makeerrors in the process of learning

In “Errors Analysis: perspective on Second Language Acquisition” Richard(1971:173) showed that errors made by learners can be derived from the interference oftheir mother tongue, called “interlingual errors” and the other called “ intralingualerrors” which is caused by language learners regardless of their mother tongue

Lado (1957:2) says that second language learners “tend to trasfer the forms,meaning and the distribution of forms and meaning of their native language and culture

to the foreign and culture”

Here are some examples:

+ Cô ấy là một cô gái đẹp

 She is a girl beautiful.*

+ Mary cao hơn Tom

 Mary taller than Tom.*

To sum up, interlingual errors are common in the process of foreign languagelearning Thus, it is necessary to point out this kind of error for learner to advoid andfind out effective learning methods

1.5.3.2 Intranlingual errors

In his research, Richard (1971) said that intralingual errors are those which reflectthe general characteristics of rule learning and developmental errors It illustrates thatthe learners tend to buil up hypothesis about the second language from their limtedexperience of it He also divided the causes of this errors into four types: over-generalization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomple te application of rule, falseconcept hypothesized

a Over- generalization

Over-generalization is defined by Jacobovit (1969:55) as the use of previouslyavailable strategies in new situations Some of these stragetegies for some reasons will

be available and inapplicable

Over- generalization occurs when learners use the same structure for new itemsbased on what they have learned

For example: “tall” and the comparison of this adjective is “taller” Some learners think that the comparison of the adjective “beautiful” is “beautifuller”, but the correct is “more or less beautiful”.

b Ignorance of rule restrictions

In this case, the learners is using a previously acquired rule in a new situation,they ignores the restrictions of existing structure, thus, the application of rule to contextwhere they do not apply.

c Incomplete application of rules

Incomplete application of rules is caused by the fact that second language learnersare perhaps primary interested in efficient communication without the need of masteringthe rules It involves a failure to learner more complex of structure

For example:

Mother’s question: What did you do yesterday?

Son’ answer: I do my homework.*

d False concepts hypothesized

We use the term “False concepts hypothesized” to regard to a class ofdevelopmental errors resulting from faulty comprehension of distinction in the targetlanguage (Richard,1984)

For example:

Vietnamese learners are confused in using “were, was” in the past tense, or between “come and go”, and so on.

Chapter 2: The study

This chapter is presented in order to understand more about the topic and to workout the common mistakes made by Vietnamese high school students when using Englishadjectives Specifically, the chapter will begin with a description of the research sitesand subjects Then, techniques in data collection will be presented Finally, the results ofthe study will be shown in tables

2.1 Research questions

The study reported in this thesis was to solve the following questions:

1 What difficulties do high school students have in learning English adjectives?

2 What might be the causes of the errors in learning English adjectives?

3 What suggestions can be made in order to help students to use English adjectives correctly?

2.2 Research setting

The study was conducted at Nguyen Cong Tru high school, Ha Tinh province.Each week there are three 45 minute periods of English and this procedure lasts 20weeks a term, totaling 60 periods of learning English As a matter of fact, many studentshad learned much more by taking private courses

2.3 Description of subjects

The author has spent a two- month period practicing teaching English at NguyenCong Tru high school All of these students have been learning English for a least fiveyears In eight weeks, the author had some modelling periods, and the author found thatthe students have been practising English adjectives but they still make mistakes whenusing the English adjectives

2.4 Description of Tasks

In order to work out the common mistakes made by Vietnamese high schoolstudents when using English adjectives the author has designed a test It consists of 3sections:

- Section 1: Ask students to choose best answer

- Section 2: Require students to answer the questions

- Section 3: Require students to decide which sentences are wrong and whichones are right and correct the mistake

Therefore, the test can help the researcher collect interlingual errors made bystudents in using English adjectives

2.5 Procedure

The test has been done by 89 students at Nguyen Cong Tru high school, Ha Tinhprovince There are 45 students from class 11B6 and 44 students from class 11B7 All ofthe 100 students are asked to do the test under the same conditions The time was 90minutes They had to do the test on their own and were not allowed to use any referencebooks, they did the test under the teacher’s supervision

After all, the errors have been identified A classification of errors with aspecified quantity of each type is to be given The results of the tests were presented in 6tables The errors that students made will be then discussed based on the theoreticalbackground of English adjectives

2.6 Preliminary results and data analysis

2.6.1 Results of section 1

In section 1, students are required to make choice by putting only one tick beforethe sentence There are eight sentences and no one could have full correct answers Thetotal of errors in using English adjectives is 339 errors Some students could not givetheir answer The following tables present the results of this section

Sentence

number

Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage

Sentence

number

Correct Incorrect No answer

Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage

Table 2.3 Results of section 3

2.7 Errors and their causes

2.7.1 Errors and their causes in section 1

Question 1: In a noun phrase, the adjectives usually stand (before/ after) the head noun to modify it.

In this question, 10% students could not give the correct answer It can be seen

that they chose the answer : “In a noun phrase, the adjectives usually stand after the head noun to modify it” Because they can not know the position of the adjective in a

noun phrase In fact, in a noun phrase the adjectives always stand before the head noun

to modify it Thus, the correct answer is : “In a noun phrase, the adjectives usually stand before the head noun to modify it” The correct example is “ a new house” This

error is related to false concept hypothesized

Question 2: Which is the grammatically correct sentence? (1) You should go somewhere exciting (2) You should go somewhere excited (3) You should go excited somewhere (4) You should go exciting somewhere.

According to the table 2.1, the number of students who make errors in thissentence is 43, accounting for 48% They could not decide when to use adjectives

ending – ed and – ing so they chose the incorrect answer, instead of the correct answer “ you should go somewhere exciting” In this case, the errors might be due to the lack of

language knowledge

Question 3: Which is the correct sentence?

(1)He makes me shocking because there is something surprising in his speech (2)He makes me shocked because there is something surprised in his speech (3)He