Luận văn english prepositions of place at, on, in an analysis of errors made by secondary school students

Vinh university Foreign language department************ Nguyễn Thị Hơng Trà English prepositions of place At, on, in: An analysis of errors made by Secondary school students phân tích lỗ

Vinh university Foreign language department

************

Nguyễn Thị Hơng Trà

English prepositions of place

At, on, in:

An analysis of errors made by Secondary school students

(phân tích lỗi sử dụng giới từ chỉ địa điểm

at, on, in ở học sinh thpt) graduation thesis pield: Linguistics

by: Nguyễn Thị Hơng Trà supervisor: Vũ Thị Việt Hơng

Vinh, 2005

Acknowledgements

I could not have completed my graduation thesis without theenthusiastic help and encouragement of my teachers, my family as well as myfriends

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor:

Ms Vu Thi Viet Huong, M.A whose useful ideas and advice, enlighteningguidance and encouragement have helped me shape and complete my thesis

I would also like to express my thanks to all teachers in the foreign

language department, particularly Mr Tran Ba Tien who gave me some useful

opinions and materials for my thesis

I would also wish to acknowledge the support of the teachers and

students at secondary schools of Nghi Loc 2 and Cua Lo for giving me a

chance to carry out the research design

I would like to express my special thanks to my parents and my brother

whose encouragements has helped me overcome the difficulty during the time

of doing the thesis

Finally, my sincere thanks are due to my friends, specifically Ms Dang

Thi Manh with her disinterested help

English and Vietnamese are the two different language systems; therefore,

errors in the learning process of English are inevitable The errors in using

prepositions, especially the prepositions of place AT, ON, IN are not

exceptional

The teaching and learning of prepositions have not yet received adequate

attention since prepositions are the small part of speech in English However,

it is obvious that they create trouble and confusion for learners most of the

time A misuse of prepositions is acceptable where communication is

advocated, but it should be considered a big problem where a formal and

standard English is in demands

An analysis of errors in using prepositions of place AT, ON, IN is carried out

to give the answer to the wondering question That whether the errors in using

these prepositions is not in their structure, position or function in sentences

but it is due to their idiomatic usage and the culture differences of two

nations, England and Vietnam

A test-based study is carried out on a group of eighty students in two

secondary schools of Nghi Loc 2 and Cua Lo to get data for the research

Then an error analysis was made, followed by a discussion of the types and

causes of the errors collected On the basis of this analysis, some

recommendations are put forward to make teaching and learning of

prepositions of place AT, ON, IN more effectively

Table of contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

Table of contents iii

Symbols and abbreviations v

List of Tables vi

Part I: Introduction 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims and subjects of the study 2

3 Scopes of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Overview of the thesis 3

Part II: Content 4

Chapter 1: Literature review 4

1.1 The overview of the prepositions At, On, In 4

1.1.1 The concept of prepositions 4

1.1.2 Classification of prepositions 4

1.1.3 General introduction about the prepositions of place 5

1.1.4 Prepositions of place At, On, In 6

1.1.4.1 The uses of prepositions At and In 8

1.1.4.2 The uses of prepositions In and On 10

1 1.2 Errors in language learning process 11

1.2.1 The notion of error 12

1.2.2 Errors and mistakes 12

1.2.2 Error Analysis 13

1.2.4.Causes of errors 14

1.2.4.1 Interlingual errors and mother tongue interference 15

1.2.4.2 Intralingual errors and developmental errors 17

(1) over-generalization 17

(2) ignorance of rule restrictions 18

(3) incomplete application of rules 18

(4) false concept hypothesized 19

Chapter 2: The study 20

2.1.Research questions 20

2.2.Research setting 20

2.3.Description of subjects 20

2.4.Description of Data collection 21

2.5.Procedure 21

2.6.Result of the study, findings and discussions 22

2.6.1 Errors in section 1- test 1 22

2.6.2 Errors in section 2- test 1 24

2.6.3 Errors in section 3- test 1 26

2.6.4 Errors in section 4- test 1 27

2.6.5 General tendencies 29

2.6.6 Errors in translation test 30

Chapter 3: Implications and suggestions 32

3.1 Major findings 32

3.2 Implications for teaching English prepositions of place AT, On, In to

Vietnamese secondary students 33

3.2.1 Suggestions for presentation 33

3.2.2 Suggestions for practice 35

3.3 Implications for translation 38

3.3.1 For translating from English into Vietnamese 38

3.3.2 For translating from Vietnamese into English 39

Part III: Conclusion 40

References 42

Appendix 1 43

Appendix 2 45

part I: introduction

1 rationale for the study

English is used widely in the world It is the first language in Great

Britain, the United States, Australia, etc and is the second or foreign language

in the rest of the world It is preferred as the official language in many

organizations worldwide Moreover, English has confirmed its top position

since the Internet appeared and grows mushroomly in every corner of the

Earth

In Vietnam, English has been the most update foreign language in

comparison with the other ones Everyone who desires to have a large stock of

knowledge, get opportunities with jobs, have success in their career or even

just to communicate with foreigners needs to learn and master English The

trends of learning English grow bigger than ever before since Vietnam is

joining WTO in the near future

Nowadays, English is one of the 3 most important subjects after

mathematics and literature in most of the secondary schools in Vietnam

Textbooks have been renovated, new methods have been adapted in teaching

English so as to make it an active and interesting subject

However, since English is far different from Vietnamese, it is not easy

for learners to have fully understanding about parts of speech in English at the

beginning Prepositions, as well as other parts of speech such as nouns,

adjectives, and verbs are introduced to students in the early classes at the

secondary schools Students need prepositions in order to build up simple

sentences Is it any wonder that prepositions- the small part of speech- create

troubles for most of the learners of English? It is said ' we are AT the hospital

to visit a friend who is IN hospital', 'we lie IN bed but sit ON the bed', 'we

watch a film AT the theater but ON television' The little words 'AT, ON, IN'

present little difficulty for native speakers but they appear to be troublesome

and confusing for the learners of English Errors in the learning process are

inevitable A wrongly use of any prepositions above is acceptable where

communication is advocated However, it should be considered a big problem

in the case that it happens continuously regardless of the need of a formal and

standard English

Is it doubtful that the difficulty and errors in acquiring and using

prepositions of place AT, ON, IN of Vietnamese students is not in their

structures, positions or functions in sentences but it is due to their idiomatic

usage and the culture differences of two countries, England and Vietnam?

Therefore, an analysis of errors in using prepositions of place AT, ON,

IN is carried out to help answer these questions In addition, it also a practical

and applicable study, which provide some suggestions for the improvement of

teaching and learning English prepositions of place AT, ON, IN

2 Aims and Subjects of the study

The study reported in this thesis aimed to

- Identify the errors in using preposition of place at, on, in by

Vietnamese students at the secondary schools

- Find the sources and causes of their errors

- Suggest pedagogic solutions for teaching and learning prepositions of

place at, on, in at secondary schools

Subjects of the study is a group of one hundred students at Nghi Loc 2

and Cua Lo upper- secondary schools

3 Scopes of the study

Within the limitation of a graduation thesis, I would like to deal with

three prepositions of place AT, ON, IN

The survey is carried out at two upper-secondary schools of Nghi Loc

2 and Cua Lo

4 Methods of the study

5 Overview of the thesis

Except the acknowledgements, the table of contents and the references

as well as the appendix, this thesis consists of three main parts

Part I Introduction

In this introductory part, the rationale of the study is presented The

aims, scopes and methods of the study are then identified An overview of the

thesis is also provided

Part II: Content

The second part is the content of the thesis, which consists of three

chapters

Chapter I Literature review

This chapter will provide an in-depth review of the relevant literature

related to the issue under investigation Specifically, a review of English

prepositions of place AT, ON, IN will provide the theoretical framework for

the sources of errors will help explore what factors caused errors committed by

students in using English prepositions of place AT, ON, IN Errors Analysis as

the main theoretical tool for analysing data will also be reviewed

Chapter II The study

The methodology adopted to collect data for the research will be

presented in this chapter It includes the description of research site,

participants, data collection techniques and data analysis methods Then, the

results and findings of the study will be presented and discussed

Chapter III Implications and Suggestions

This chapter will summarize major findings, suggest some solutions for

teaching and learning prepositions of place AT, ON, IN and suggest some

types of exercises

Part III Conclusion

The final part of the thesis will conclude what has been discussed in the

content of

the thesis, point out the limitations of the study and give some

suggestion for further research

part II: content

1.1 The overview of prepositions of place AT, ON, IN

1.1.1.The concept of prepositions

Preposition is one of eight parts of speech It indicates the relationship

between words in a sentence Specifically, a preposition is a connector: it

connects a noun/pronoun (its objects) to another word in a sentence It also

shows how that noun/pronoun is related to the other word Consequently, a

preposition can never stand alone, it must be contained with a phrase called a

prepositional phrase A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition followed

by a prepositional complement, which is characteriscally by a noun phrase or

a Wh-clause or V-ing clause

Preposition prepositional complement

at the station

from what I have read

by attending a methodology course

Most often, prepositions show relationships of direction, place and

time, but they can also express other relationship as well, for instances, the

prepositions but, except, without, show a relationship of exclusion

1.1.2 Classification of prepositions

a Prepositions are classified as simple and complex

-Simple prepositions are single word prepositions

e.g : across, after, at, before, between, by, during, from, in, into, of, on,

to, under, with, without, etc

-Complex prepositions are prepositions which consist of more than one

word Most of these are in one of the following categories

+ adverb of PREP + PREP

e.g : along with, as for, away from, out of, up to, etc

+ verb/adjective/conjunction/etc + preposition

e.g : owing to, due to, because of, etc

+ preposition + noun + preposition

e.g : by means of, in comparison with, in front of

b Depending on the relational meaning, prepositions can be devided

into many types Some popular ones are:

e.g: into, onto, to, toward, etc

1.1.3 General introduction about the prepositions of place

Prepositions expressing spatial relations are of two kinds, prepositions

of place and prepositions of direction Both kinds may be either positive or

negative

a Prepositions of place, which usually appear with verbs describing

states or conditions, especially 'be', identify the static position of entities in

space

at above after between among In front of

on over behind by near beside

opposite

in before under below beneath underneath

etc

b Prepositions of direction, which appear with verbs of motion, identify

the position in the dynamic relations of entities in the world

to into

onto out of etc

In the scope of the thesis, I only deal with positive prepositions of place

that sometimes causes difficulty AT, ON, IN

1.1.4 Prepositions of place AT, ON, IN

When we use a preposition to indicate place, we do so in relation to

the dimensional properties of the location concerned Prepositions differ

according to the number of dimensions they refer to We can group them into

three classes using concepts from geometry: point, surface and area/volume

Point: Prepositions in this group indicate that the noun following

them is treated as a point in relation to which another object is located

Surface: Prepositions in this group indicate that the position of an object is

defined with respect to a surface on which it rests

Area/ Volume: Prepositions in this group indicate that an object lies

within the boundaries of an area or within the confines of a volume

At point

In area/volume

For example:

1 My car is at the house

2 There is a new roof on the house

3 There are four people in the house

All of these sentences answer a question of the form: 'Where is ?',

but gives variety of information

The spatial relations shown in each sentence can be explained

1 The use of AT makes 'the house' a dimensionless location, a fixed

point

2 The house is treated as a surface upon which another object, 'the roof'

is placed The use of ON makes 'the house' a two-dimensional area

3 With IN, 'the house' is treated as a three-dimensional structure,

though IN is capable of being used with objects which are essentially

two-dimensional as IN ‘the cow is in the field’

1.1.4.1 The uses of the prepositions AT and IN

The preposition IN is used for continents, countries, provinces, towns,

villages, squares, streets (sizeable territories of any kind) and any place which

has boundaries or is enclosed

e.g: In Italy I live with my family in Rome in a flat

She has been to many countries in the `world

They stay in the hotels and there they can get food which is cheaper

than in many other seaside towns in Britain.

The preposition AT is used to indicate a general location It is not as

specific as IN

We often use AT to show where something happens, for example,

with meeting places or points in a journey

e.g: You have to change plane at France (France is treated as a point

on a map)

Let's meet at your house

-AT is often used with words for things that people do, or the places

where they do them

e.g: My aunt teaches English at a French school in Canada

Sorry I didn't phone last night, I was at the theatre

Shall we go to the Pop concert at the Rex on Friday at 8.30

-AT is used to indicate presence at an event

AT + a football match

breakfast/lunch

a restaurant

a party

e.g: Were there many people at the party/at the meeting?

I saw Jack at the football match.

-AT is used for specific address

e.g: I live at 58 Albert street

But: David lives in number 103

-AT is used with the name of a person+'s to refer to that person's home

or place of work

e.g: I'll be spending a quiet evening at my brother's and chatting with

him and his family

The Britist spend a lot of time at the dentist's because they are the

greatest sweet eaters in the world

- AT is used before the particular name of a building or organization

e.g: She works at Legal and general Insurance

But: She works in an insurance company

Sometimes, AT and IN are both possible

He is at school / (BrE)

He is in school / (AmE)

We prefer AT when we are thinking about the activity-what we do in

the place, and IN when we think about the place as a three dimensional

structure

e.g: He is in school (BrE) = he's actually inside the building

Some common expressions with AT and IN

In hospital (patient) At home/work/university

In prison (prisoner) At the seaside

In the corner (of the room) At the corner ( of the street)

e.g: My son has been in hospital since he fell off his bike

When summer comes, Nga will stay at home and help mum with the

housework

1.1.4.2 The uses of the prepositions ON and IN

ON is used with one or two dimensional spaces, while IN is used with

two or three dimensional spaces

e.g: -The children are playing in the street

(The street is understood as an area enclosed by the sidewalks on either

side)

But: We should walk on the sidewalk ( the sidewalk is a surface)

-Our house is on Third Street

(ON locates the house on either side of Third Street, it does not mean

that the street is a surface on which the house sits Because the street is

understood as the line next to which the house is situated)

The contrast between ON (surface) and IN (area) has various

implications according to context, as these examples show:

on the window/mirror There's a drop of paint on the window

in the window/mirror I see my face in the window

on the island Robinson Crusoe was marooned on an inhabited island

in the island He was born in Long Island

on the wall The picture is on the wall

in the wall There was a hole in the wall

on the tree There are lots of apple on the apple tree

in the tree The boy is sitting in the tree singing noisily

on the bed She sat on the bed

They are lying on the bed (without blanket)

in the bed/ in bed They are lying in the bed (covered with blanket)

She was ill The doctor advised her to stay in bed

-Both IN and ON are used with names of transportation

ON + train/bus/plane/ship

e.g: He's arriving on the 3.15 train

There's no room on the bus

It took five days to cross the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth

IN +car/taxi

e.g: I read the paper in taxi

The boss went to Hanoi in a car

Some common expressions with ON and IN

on the corner (of two streets) in the corner (of the room)

on the way (enroute) in the way (obstructing)

on television/radio in newspaper/story

on page in a piece of paper

on the front/the back (of a piece of paper) in the front/the back (of a car)

on the beach

on the farm

e.g: The television is in the corner of the room

There is a telephone box on the corner of the street

The map is on page 3 (But: Open your book at page 12)

Have you read this article in the newspaper?

On a modern farm today the work of the farmer is less hard because he

is helped a lot by machines

I m going to spend a holidays on the beach’

`1.2 Errors in language learning process

1.2.1 The notion of error

According to Longman dictionary of Applied linguistic by Richard,

Jetal (1992: 95), error is the use of a linguistic item in the speech or writing of

a second or foreign language learner; such as a grammatical item, a speech

act, etc in a way which a fluent or native speaker of language regards as

showing faulty or incomplete learning Error is the results of incomplete

knowledge

According to Dulay et Al (1982: 138), errors are understood as the

flawed side of learners' speech and writing, those parts of conversation or

composition that deviate from some selected norm

The above-mentioned norm depends on how language is approached

If it is regarded as a code, a set of rules for generating syntactically,

phonologically and semantically well-formed sentences, then a breach of the

code may result in superficially ill-formed sentences (Corder, 1975: 123)

These ill-formed sentences will be considered to be erroneous in a formal

language situation but is still understandable to hearers in a situation where

communication is advocated

The norm also depends on the medium, the social context and the

speaker- hearer relationship (Els et Al 1984: 47) Therefore, a form or

structure may seem non-erroneous in citation but become deviant in its

context

In Vietnam, where English is taught and learnt as a foreign language,

the selected norm here must be the prescriptive English standard usage Any

deviated forms or structures that cannot meet the demand of English model of

usage are considered erroneous, ungrammatical or unacceptable This

viewpoint will also lay a foundation for this thesis

1.2.2 Errors and mistakes

In the 1960s, much attention started to be paid to the concept of errors

in the second language learning Distinction was drawn between the two terms

' error' and 'mistake'

Chomsky (1965) suggested that errors fall into two different types: one

originating from verbal performance factor and the other from inadequate

language competence Later in 1967, the error: mistake distinction was

introduced into modern debate by Corder He made use of Chomsky's

distinction by relating the term 'errors' with failures in language competence

and 'mistakes' with failure in performance

Ellis (1997) shared the same view: 'errors reflect gaps in a learner's

knowledge, they occur because the learner does not know what is correct

Mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance, they occur because, in a

particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what he or she knows'

Mistakes are caused by fatigues, lack of attention or lapses of memory

On the other hand, errors are caused by lack of knowledge, culture, etc

The term 'error' refers to some idiosyncratic or 'un-nativelike' piece of

language produced regularly and systematically by a number of learners This

means only learners of a FL commit errors 'Mistake' refers to occasional

actions which are not systematic Native speakers as well as a FL learner may

make mistakes

Mistakes are of no significance to the process of language learning

(Corder 1967: 167) Mistakes can be awared immediately by the learners and

can be self-corrected On the contrary, errors are of significance to the process

of language learning (Corder 1967:167) Errors cannot be self-corrected until

further relevant (to that error) input has been provided and converted into

intake by the learner (C James 1998:83)

Therefore, mistakes are of no interest to the Error Analysis since they

do not reflect the true state of the learner's knowledge Only errors can be the

object of Error Analysis

1.2.3.Error Analysis

Error Analysis is the study and analysis of the errors made by second

or foreign language learners

Corder, in his serminal1967 paper, made the point that errors are

evidence of what the learners have taken in (intake) rather than what teachers

think they have put in (input) Errors are significant in three respects First,

they tell the teacher what needs to be taught Second, they tell the researchers

how learning proceeds Third, they are a means whereby learners test their

hypotheses about the language they are learning

The procedure for E.A is described basing on the six-step method set

by Corder (1974)

1 A corpus of language is selected

Error Analysis is carried out to serve three different purposes Firstly,

to identify strategies which learners use in language learning Secondly, to

identify causes of learner's errors Finally, to obtain information on common

difficulties in language learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of

teaching materials

1.2.4 Causes of errors

Second and foreign language learners commit a number of errors

Some of those errors are caused by mother tongue interference and they are

called 'interlingual errors' by Richard (1971:17) Others are committed by

second language learners regardless of their mother tongue and are called '

intralingual errors and developmental errors' (Richard 1971:17)

1.2.4.1 Interlingual errors and mother tongue interference

When the learner tries to create new knowledge about the target

language, he first tries to make some hypothesis by using prior knowledge

The learner uses his previous mother tongue experience as a means of

organizing the L2 He attempts to transfer the rules of his first language into

1 A corpus of language is selected

the second language Since this can simplify the task of learning the second

language

In the case that both the L1 and L2 have similar devices, the learner

benefits from positive L2 transfer

On the contrary, when there are differences between the L1 and L2,

he is encumbered by negative transfer or interference (James 1998:179)

Errors are generated from negative transfer

In Both English and Vietnamese, 'At' And 'ở/tại’ have the same

meaning, and their uses are rather similar With the sentence ‘TôI gặp anh ta

tại một trận bóng đá’ the students can transfer successfully into English [I met

him at a football match]

Some more examples are:

Vietnamese English

Quyển sách ở trên bàn The book is on the table

Mẹ ở trong phòng khách Mother is in the dining room

However, in Vietnamese, we say:

Thằng bé đang ngồi trên cây

It' s translated into English: *the boy is sitting on the tree

The learner has committed error, since the correct sentence in English is

The boy is sitting in the tree

This error is generated from the negative transfer, and culture difference

attributes to the negative transfer in L2 learning Lado (1975:1) claims 'errors

are originated in the learner' s disposition to transfer the forms and meanings

of their native language and culture to the FL and culture'

The misuse of prepositions of place AT, IN, ON is from the difference

perception of space of two cultures, Vietnam and England

According to Nguyen Quang (2001:13), there are two basic

perceptions of space The first one is objective perception which seems to

dominate the English point of view

The boy is sitting in the tree

The speaker- the ego- places himself out of the relation of the boy and

the tree The preposition 'in' indicates the relation between only two entities in

the world

The second one is the subjective perception which seems to dominate

in the Vietnamese point of view

Thang be ngoi tren cay

Besides the relation between ‘the boy’ and ‘the tree’ mentioned above,

another relation exists That is the relation between the speaker and the

The position of ego plays an important part in expressing the spatial

relationships It's called 'ego-centric', as Miller and Johnson Laid have

commented' Ego-centric use of the space concept places ego at the center of

the universe From this point of origin, ego can lay out a three-dimensional

co-ordinate system that depends on his orientation'

Therefore, the Vietnamese learners transfer:

anh ta bơi dới sông into * He is swimming under the river

(He is swimming in the river)

Nông dân đang gặt luá ngoài đồng *Farmers are cutting rice out the field

(in the field)

họ đứng dới ma * They stand under the rain(in the rain)

In addition to the differences between L1 and L2, there are generally

four other factors that may be the source of L1 interference in producing L2

(Dulay et al, 1982)

The first source is a lack of common knowledge and linguistic

competence at a certain stage of their learning This often occurs in early

classroom settings where learners are required to produce the new language in

the forms of writing compositions, talking about something or taking the tests

while their language competence is unable to meet their needs of

communication Therefore, the learners have a tendency to base their L2

production on what is most familiar with them in their mother tongue

The second factor is the limited foreign language environment

The third factor is the way learners are asked to produce second

language This involves the tasks having mother tongue influent rooted in

them such as translating a paragraph into the target language, writing an essay

or describing a picture orally, etc

The final factor is the monitor use The learners are said to think in

their mother tongue and attempt to put their idea in the target language

To summarize, interlingual errors are derived from transfer from L1

when there are differences between the L1 and L2 The effect of the L1 and

L2 learning is also conditioned by four main factors:

the performance pressure

limitted language environment

manner of eliciting verbal performance

the monitor use

1.2.4.2 Intralingual errors and developmental errors

Richard (1971:174) suggested that intralingual errors are those which

reflect the general characteristics of rule learning, and developmental errors

illustrate the learner trying to build up hypotheses about the English language

from his limited experience of it in the classroom or textbooks

He presents the different types of the above errors in terms of

(1) over-generalization

(2) ignorance of rule restrictions

(3) incomplete application of rules

(4) false concept hypothesized

(1) Over-generalization

Over-generalization is defined by Jacobovists (1969:55) as the use of

previously strategies in new situation The learner has acquired new rules and

some strategies which he has found helpful in organizing the facts about the

target language; however, he applies them to widely regardless the fact that

'some of these strategies will be misleading and inapplicable (Jacobovists,

1965:55)

e.g : *Who did write this book?

If this sentence is uttered without any emphatic purpose, this means

we have an over-generalization of the rule for inserting 'do' into interrogatives

Similar errors of this type are

We are hope

He isn't works

They comed here

(2) Ignorance of rule restrictions

The generalization of deviant structures is closely related to the

learner's failure to observe the restrictions of existing structures Ignorance of

rule is also a type of generalization since the learner is making use of a

previously acquired rule in a new context where it does not apply

'I made him to do it' ignores restrictions of the distribution of 'make'

(Richard, 1971:175)

Error of this type may result from the rote learning of rules and

analogy

Analogy seems to be the main explanation for the misuse of some items

in English, especially the misuse of prepositions The learner, using a

particular preposition with one type of verb, tries by analogy to use the same

one with similar verb

We talked about it leads to we discussed about it

Go with him gives follow with him

Go by car/bicycle/train go by foot

(3) Incomplete application of rules

Incomplete application of rules involves a failure to learn more

complex types of structure because the learner finds he can achieve/ gain

effective communication by using relative simple rules

Teacher's question Student's response

Ask her how long it takes? How long it takes?

What's he doing? He opening the door