Mother tongue interference in learning english writing of first year english majors students at vinh uiniversity

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT * * * * * * * * * * MOTHER- TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING OF FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY ảnh hởng của tiếng

(ảnh hởng của tiếng mẹ đẻ trong việc học viết tiếng

anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngữ

trờng đại học vinh)

GRADUATION THESIS Field: Linguistics

Vinh 2009 VINH UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

* * * * * * * * * *

MOTHER- TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING OF FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY

(ảnh hởng của tiếng mẹ đẻ trong việc học viết tiếng anh của sinh viên CHUYÊN NGữ năm THứ nhất

trờng đại học vinh)

GRADUATION THESIS Field: Linguistics

Student: Lê Thi Mai Hoa, K46B

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Tờng, M.A

Vinh 2009 ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

For the completion of this work, I have been fortunate to receiveinvaluable contributions from many people First of all, I should like to

express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyen Thi Tuong, M.Afor her absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, usefuladvice and detailed critical comments, without which the work would nothave been complete.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all my lectures of ForeignLanguages Department at Vinh University for their constant support andencouragements

I repeat my thanks to all the first-year students of Foreign LanguagesDepartment at Vinh University in the academic year: 2008- 2009 for theirenthusiastic participation in answering the questionnaires and, to all myfriends for their various kinds of help and encouragement

My warmest thanks are due to my loving parents, my older brotherand my older sister for their love, support and encouragement

Vinh, May 6, 2009

Le Thi Mai Hoa

ABBREVIATIONS & SYMBOLS

L2: second language / language 2

LIST OF TABLES v

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.Justification of the Study ……… 1

2 Aims of the Study ……….2

3 Methods of the Study……….………2

4 Scope of the Study……….…………2

5 Design of the Study……….…… 2

PART II: CONTENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Error and Error Analysis……….… 4

1.1.1 Definition of Error……… 4

1.1.2 Error Analysis……… 4

1.2 Mother- Tongue Interference……… 5

1.3 Classification of Mother- Tongue Interference……… 6

1.3.1 Morphological Mother- Tongue Interference…….…6

1.3.2 Semantic Mother- Tongue Interference………….….7

1.3.3 Syntactic Mother- Tongue Interference ………… 8

CHAPTER 2: MOTHER- TONGUE INTERFERENCE ERRORS 2.1 Morphological Interference Errors ……….… 9

2.1.1 Tense- Marker Omission ……… 9

2.1.2 Plural-Marker Omission ……… 10

2.1.3 Suffix Problems……….11

2.1.4 Incorrect Use of Pronoun Forms ……….….12

2.1.5 Omission of the- ER Comparative Adjective/ Adverb Ending……… 13

2.1.6 Omission of the -ING Verb Ending……… 14

2.2 Semantic Interference Errors……….… 14

2.2.1 Incorrect Use of Preposition ……… 14

2.2.2 Incorrect Use of Pronoun……… 20

2.2.3 Incorrect Use of Verbs ………22

2.2.4 The Countable/ Uncountable Non- Distinction… 24

2.2.5 Omission of Articles……….25

2.2.6 Tense Problems ……….… 26

2.2.7 Faulty Passivization……… 27

2.3 Syntactic Interference Errors……… 28

2.3.1 Word- Order Problems ……… 28

2.3.2 “Be” Omission ……… 32

2.3.3 Infinitive “To” Deletion……… 33

2.3.4 Confused Expressions: “There be” versus “Have” 34

2.3.5 Relative Pronoun Omission……… ….35

2.3.6 Subject Ellipsis ……….… 36

2.3.7 Impersonal “It” Problems ……….…37

2.3.8 Misuse of Conjunctions………38

2.3.9 Incorrect Use of Subject Clauses……… 39

2.3.10 Other “VietEnglish” Structures……….… 40

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS, FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 3.1 Results……… ………45

3.2 Major Findings……… ………… ….48

3.3 Suggestions ……… ……… 53

3.4 Suggested Exercises……… ……… 56

PART III: CONCLUSION……… ……….60

REFERENCES APPENDIX: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE LIST OF TABLES Chapter 3 Page Table 1.3: First year students’ ideas about learning ESL writing……… 46

Table 2.3: First- year students’ ideas about the level of difficulty of some

problems in writing……… 48 Table 3.3: First year students’ ideas about the difficulty of writing task…52

Part I: INTRODUCTION

1 Justification of the Study

We all know that writing is a basic skill in four skills (listening,speaking, reading, and writing) of ESL learning The better you learnwriting, the better you learn other skills According to Raimes (1983:03); Bello (1999: 01); Phu (1993: 05), “Writing helps to foster the otherskills.”

However, it is not easy for Vietnamese learners of English to learnwriting skill well due to a lot of the grammatical dissimilarities betweenthe MT (Vietnamese) and the TL (English) That is the reason whythere can be found a lot of errors in their English writings One of themost popular errors is MT interference error As a matter of fact, thenegative effects of MT in learning a second language is an undeniableproblem, especially in writing skill Brown (1994: 90) maintains, “It isclear from learning theory that a person will use whatever perviousexperience he or she has had with language in order to facilitate thesecond language learning process”

Besides, the first- year students had little chance of practicingEnglish writing skill before studying in university In addition, writingskill is especially important to the first year students of English becausewriting is a key skill which may lead to success or failure in thesecond , third and fourth year when they are expected to write more andmore in English

More importantly, the thesis is made in order to help the learnersrealize the negative effects of the MT interference in L2 acquisitionthen avoid errors and improve their writing skill

All above-mentioned reasons have inspired the author to choosethe topic: “Mother - Tongue Interference in Learning English Writing ofFirst- Year English Majors Students at Vinh University”

2 Aims of the Study

With the ambition of helping the learners overcome the MTinterference problems when learning English writing, the study aims at:

- Identifying possible causes of Vietnamese learners’ MT interference

in learning English writing

- Pointing out particular interference errors in three grammaticalcategories: morphology, semantics and syntax; and explaining whyand how the errors are made

- Suggesting ways limit the negative effects of MT, correctinterference errors and improve the learning of ESL writing inEnglish

3 Methods of the Study

- Descriptive method

- Statistic and classifying

- Analytic and synthetic method

- Qualifying the materials

4 Scope of the Study

The study deals with particular interference errors in threegrammatical categories: morphology, semantics and syntax

5 Design of the Study

The thesis consists of three parts:

Part I: Introduction

This deals with the Justification, Aims, Methods, Scope and the Design

of the Study

Part II: Content

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

Chapter 2: The Mother- Tongue Interference Errors

Chapter 3: Results, Findings and Suggestions

Part III: Conclusion

regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning (in the speech or writing

of a second or foreign language learner) (, Platt, J & Platt, H 1992)

A distinction is sometimes made between an error, which results fromincomplete knowledge, and a mistakes made by a learner when writing orspeaking and which is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, orsome other aspect of performance (Richards, et al 1995)

Errors are sometimes classified according to vocabulary (lexicalerror), pronunciation (phonological error), grammar (syntactic error),misunderstanding of a speaker’s intention or meaning (interpretive error),production of the wrong communicative effect e.g through the faulty use

of a speech act or one of the rule of speaking (pragmatics)

In the study of second and foreign language learning, errors havebeen studied to discover the processes learners make use of in learning andusing a language

1.1.1 Error Analysis

According to (Richards, et al 1995), error analysis is the study andanalysis of the errors made by L2 learner

Error analysis may be carried out in order to:

a identify strategies which learners use in language learning

b try to identify the causes of learner errors

c Obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as

an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials

Error analysis developed as a branch of applied linguistics in the1960s, and set out to demonstrate that many learner errors were not due tothe learners’ MT but reflect universal learning strategies Error analysiswas therefore offered as an alternative to contrastive analysis Attemptswere made to develop classifications for different types of errors on the

basis of the different processes that were assumed to account for them(Richards, et al 1995)

A basic distinction was drawn between intralingual and interlingualerrors Intralingual errors were classified as overgeneralizations (errorscaused by extension of TL rules to inappropriate contexts) Interlingualerror results from language transfer, that is, which is caused by thelearner’s native language (Richards, et al 1995)

1.2 Mother- Tongue Interference

The interference or language transfer means the effect of onelanguage on the learning of another Thus, the mother- tongue interferencemeans the effect of MT on the learning of the TL (the second language) There are two kinds of language transfers: negative and positivetransfer Negative transfer is the use of a native- language pattern or rulewhich leads to an error or inappropriate form in the TL In other word, it is

MT Interference error Brown (1994: 90) maintains, “It is clear fromlearning theory that a person will use whatever previous experience he orshe has had with language in order to facilitate the second languagelearning process.” According to him, when parallel features of the twolanguages do not correspond exactly, there is a negative transfer from L1 toL2, i.e interference

There are different categories of MT interference errors that thelearners often cause when writing especially the first-year students

Within the limit of this thesis, the author only examines theinterference errors in these three grammatical categories: morphological,syntactic and semantic

1.3 Classification of Mother- Tongue Interference

1.3.1 Morphological Interference Errors

The errors in this category are about the incorrect use of inflectionalsuffixes and derivational affixes These errors result from the considerabledifferences between the MT (Vietnamese) and the TL (English), becauseVietnamese is an isolating language whereas English is an inflectinglanguage Byleen (1986: 02) writes: “their first language may havepredisposed them (i.e., Vietnamese writer- notes mine) to certaininterference errors in English.”

English has a clearer distinction among nouns, verbs, adjectives andadverbs As we saw with Vietnamese, the same words can function both asadverbs and adjectives, verbs can function as nouns and adjectives, allwithout change in form Word order within the sentence indicates therelationship between words

Inflectional suffix and derivational affix cause problems toVietnamese writers of English because the writers’ MT has no inflectionalsuffix and derivational affix

According to Ngoc (1997: 179), “English morphemes, such as theplural morpheme, the possessive morpheme and so on present seriousproblems for the Vietnamese learner of English, because they are non-existent in the structure of Vietnamese words.”

According to J P Kaplan (1989: 77), there are eight inflectionalsuffixes in English:

- plural (-s and its irregular variants, e.g., as in men)

- past tense (-ed and its irregular variants, as in went and slept)

- ’s (possessive)

- s (verb suffix for third person singular present tense)

- ing (verb suffix meaning “in process”)

- er (comparative)

- est (superlative suffix)

- past participle (“perfect” suffix on verbs)

The derivational affix is a bound morpheme added to a base or stemand makes it change the meaning or/ and the part of speech, such as:

- “ness” in “happiness, kindness, goodness …”

- “er” in “worker, teacher, learner …”

1.3.2 Semantic Interference Error

The interference errors in this category result from the dissimilaritybetween the two languages, in the way the speaker view the world aroundthem In other word, the semantic interference error is caused by thedifferences between the two cultures Ways of thinking in differentlanguages are not the same across languages In Ellis (1996, p.69),

“Speakers of different languages, he says, views the world in differentways”

Bloomfield, in Smolinski (1984: 40), “the words of differentlanguages are not just externally different labels for the same things; theyapply to different ranges of objects and events The differences are subtleand extend to flavor and connotation.” Bloomfield’s opinion is totallyagreed upon by 100% of the teachers when the question what semanticdifferences between the two languages may cause L1 (MT) interference isposed to them

Not only words but also sentence structures are systematically related

to meanings, uses and situations Therefore, a meaning differenceunderlying a certain structure makes it impossible to use the same structure

in both languages in some cases

1.3.3 Syntactic Interference Errors

The interference error in this category is about structural problems.When writing, Vietnamese students might be confused with sentence

patterns, word order, and the information structure of English sentenceswhich differ from those in their MT because according to Dyvik (1984),

“Vietnamese is topic-prominent, English is subject-prominent language” It

is the differences in syntactic structures that may lead to syntacticinterference errors That is the reason why there are many “VietEnglish”sentences In other words, they apply their mother tongue’s syntactic rules

to the target structure, consequently, their English sentences sound veryVietnamese

Chapter 2: MOTHER- TONGUE INTERFERENCE

ERRORS

2.1 Morphological Interference Errors

2.1.1 Tense- Marker Omission

ing (progressive) Meanwhile, in 1997, NguyÔn §øc D©n states that theVietnamese language has no tense Actually, we can see easily that verbform always remains the same in Vietnamese According to Honey (1991:244), “the language – the Vietnamese (notes mine) - is without the oftencomplex structure of tenses and moods” Thuy (1975, in Byleen 1986: 05)points out that the English language does have tense while “nothing in theVietnamese language corresponds directly to the system of tense.” Byleenhas a further comment on the absence of tense in Vietnamese:

The complex interactions of the auxiliaries and suffixes which comprise these tenses are extremely difficult to master for students whose native language does not have an even vaguely related system In most Vietnamese sentences, it is not necessary to indicate tense You can understand by context whether you are referring to an event in the present, past or future When it is necessary to indicate tense, the form of the verb

stays constant and expressions meaning yesterday, last night, tomorrow,

etc are used.

 She lives in Paris.

MÑ t«i viÕt th cho t«i ba lÇn mét tuÇn My mother write to me three times a week.

 My mother writes to me three times a week.

Chång t«i xem tivi mçi tèi My husband watch television every night.

 My husband watches television every night

 Why are you laughing?

 Water is boiling.

Anh trông bận rộn quá, thế anh đang

làm gì vậy?

You look busy What do you do?

 You look busy What are you doing?

Ngôi trờng đó đã đổi tên vào năm

1956.

In 1956 the school change its name.

 In 1956 the school changed its name Thầy giáo môn khoa học có vẻ nh đã

The reason is that there is no distinction between the singular andplural nouns in the Vietnamese language The fact is that in Vietnamese,there is no plural marker; plurality is implied in the quantity expressionsuch as “hai” (two), “ba” (three), “vài” (several), “nhiều” (many), etc

Cây xanh giúp môi trờng xung quanh

trong lành.

Trees help to create a peaceful surrounding.

 Trees help to create a peaceful

surroundings Những cái quần mới của tôi bị đổ đầy

sơn trắng.

My new trouser was covered in white paint.

 My new trousers were covered in white paint.

Vào những đêm trăng sáng, tôi thờng

ngắm nhìn các vì sao.

I usually gaze at star on moonlit night.

 I usually gaze at stars on moonlit nights.

Ông Smith phản đối lời đề nghị vì một

2.1.3 Suffix Problems

In Vietnamese, a word or word form is used as different parts ofspeech; its grammatical function in a sentence is shown through the contextand the word order In contrast, in English, the suffixes are especiallyimportant to distinguish among nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs Because

of this, the Vietnamese learners use the word “sợ hãi” into English in thesame way for all cases It is wrong to use “lazy” as a noun (without “ness”)

in the sentence: “Laziness is the cause of his failure” and as an adverb (without “ly”) in the sentence: “Tom works lazily” The use of unmarked

adverbial forms occurs very often in the Vietnamese learner’s sentences Infact, English derivational suffixes with certain grammatical properties pose

a problem to the English Vietnamese learners

Lời biếng là nguyên nhân dẫn đến sự thất

bại của anh ấy.

Lazy is the cause of his failure.

 Laziness is the cause of his failure.

 Tom works lazily.

Tôi không thể tởng tợng cô ta có thể đối

xử với anh ấy tồi tệ đến mức nào.

I don’t understand how she could treat

Tôi sợ hãi đến nỗi không bớc đi đợc I was too frighten to move.

 I was too frightened to move.

2.1.4 Incorrect Use of Pronoun Forms

The inexperienced learners are often at a loss to learn which correctform of an English personal pronoun to use In English, there is a cleardifferent in pronoun form based on how a pronoun functions in a sentence.The following examples show typical errors in this area.

 Don’t talk to me like that.

T«i thêng tù hái m×nh sao t«i l¹i lµm

viÖc vÊt v¶ nh vËy.

I often ask me why I work so hard.

 I often ask myself why I work so hard.

T«i liÕc nh×n t«i (m×nh) trong g¬ng I glanced at I (me) in the mirror.

 I glanced at myself in the mirror.

Nµng chÊp nhËn lêi mêi cña t«i The girl accepted the invitation of I.

 The girl accepted my invitation.

 This book is mine.

The Vietnamese pronoun “t«i” is respectively equivalent to “I” or

“me” in English, depending on whether it is in the subjective or objectivecase in the sentence Especially the reflexive pronoun “myself” is used toshow that the action of the verb is performed on its subject As for thepossessive pronoun, “cña t«i” is sometimes rendered in English by “my”,sometimes by “mine”; as illustrated in the last two examples Similarly, theVietnamese learners have difficulties with the usage of other pronouns:

“he”, “him”, “his”, “she”, “hers”, “them”, “their” and so on The choice ofEnglish pronoun forms makes the Vietnamese learners quite confused

[

2.1.5 Omission of the -ER Comparative Adjective/Adverb Ending

In Vietnamese, there is no inflection for comparative forms, whichare signaled by the word “h¬n” (= than) after adjectives and adverbs.Meanwhile, comparative in English is formed with the suffix “er” afteradjective and adverb Therefore, the Vietnamese learners are likely toignore the -ER ending in English sentences

 My sister is taller than me.

Anh ta lµm viÖc siªng n¨ng h¬n t«i nghÜ He works hard than I think.

 He works harder than I think.

 She got up later than usual.

2.1.6 Omission of the -ING Verb Ending

Still more confusing for the Vietnamese learners is the use of thegerund, which has no equivalent in their own language The learners tend

to use infinitive instead of the -ing verb ending in the sentences whichrequire a gerund

Ngåi phÝa sau t«i lµ hai c« g¸i ngêi §øc Sit behind me were two German girls.

 Sitting behind me were two German girls.

§¸nh r¨ng hµng ngµy lµ rÊt cÇn thiÕt Clean your teeth regularly is very

2.2 Semantic Interference Errors

2.2.1 Incorrect Use of Preposition

Errors in preposition usage form the largest group in this semanticcategory Though it is possible to indicate equivalences betweenVietnamese and English prepositions, there are so many instances wherethere is no match

2.2.1.1 The most common error is incorrect use of prepositions as

shown in the following typical examples:

Nµng ngåi díi bãng mét gèc c©y to She sits under the shape of a big tree.

 She sits in the shape of a big tree.

 He walked in the rain.

 The boat sailed on the river.

 There are a lot of stars in the sky.

 The baby is in bed.

The explanation for such a wrong choice of place preposition is theVietnamese learner simply translates “díi” and “trªn” from Vietnameseinto English with no consideration of the concept underlying the Englishprepositions “under” and “on” How can the two persons in the twoexamples: “she sits under the shape of a big tree” and “He walks under therain” be under the “rain” and the “shade” unless they are underneath the

earth? They must be inside the rain and the “shade” In the example: “thebaby is on the bed”, the learners use the preposition “on” because theyconceptualize the “bed” as a flat and level surface or a plane The English,

on the contrary, do not have the same concept of the bed; in their view ofgeometrical conceptualization, the bed is a confined area, so “in bed” isreasonable The reason why the Vietnamese learners wrongly use “on thesky” is the same The English do not think of the “sky” as a surface, butspace or continuous expanse in which all things including stars exist Thisproblem is clarified in the following pair of examples:

He sits on a chair (A surface)

He sits in an armchair (a confined area with two arms at two sides)

As for the usage of Vietnamese preposition with that of Englishprepositions, professor NguyÔn §øc D©n, in his article “TiÕng ViÖt LýThó” (KiÕn Thøc Ngµy Nay, 1997, 265:5) presents a clear analysis of theVietnamese expressions “díi s«ng” and “trªn s«ng” The Vietnamesesentence “ThuyÒn ch¹y díi s«ng”- literally rendered “The boat sailed underthe river”- sounds incomprehensible to the English, who think it right tosay, “The boat sailed on the river” The Vietnamese speakers also say

“ThuyÒn ch¹y trªn s«ng” (=the boat sails on the river) when they considerthe position relationship of the boat and the river As customary practice,however, the Vietnamese usually regard themselves the speakers as center

or starting point of vision From their position on the mountain top, forinstance, the speakers look down to the boat and the river below and say,

“thuyÒn ch¹y díi s«ng”(= The boat sailed under the river) Similarly, theVietnamese speakers can say either “bän trÎ ch¬i trong s©n”, or “bän trÎch¬i ngoµi s©n”, “anh Êy ®i vµo vên”or “anh Êy ®i ra vên”, depending onthe point of vision in making an utterance The two sentences in each casewill be, however, the same in English “the children are playing in the yard”and “He went into the garden” respectively

About time relations, the English language has made the Vietnameselearners confused a lot While the Vietnamese have only one word “vào”,the English use some words “at”, “on”, “in”, depending on whether thespeakers indicate a point of time or a period of time, short or long.Therefore, the Vietnamese speakers have difficulties in making cleardistinction of time length in their expressions, and may lead to frequentmistakes:

Họ gặp nhau vào các buổi sáng thứ hai They meet in Monday morning.

 They meet on Monday morning.

họ thờng gặp nhau vào 8h sáng They usually meet in 8 a.m.

 They usually meet at 8 a.m.

Cuộc họp vào ngày mồng 1 tháng giêng

Moreover, the Vietnamese learners also tend to misuse some othercommon prepositions in English, especially “with”, “for” and “about”, forthey expect these English words to have the same coverage of meaning asthe Vietnamese ones: “với”, “cho”, “về”

Đó là quãng thời gian hạnh phúc nhất

trong cuộc đời tôi.

It was the happiest time in my life.

 It was the happiest time of my life.

Bạn có thể ngửi thấy mùi sơn trong khắp

 She refuses to talk to me.

Cô ấy mù quáng với những lỗi lầm của

mình.

She is blind with her own faults.

 She is blind to her own faults.

John lái xe với tốc độ rất chậm John drove with a very slow speed

 John drove at a very slow speed Khi anh ấy trở về nhà mẹ anh ấy ra mở

cửa rồi mỉm cời với anh ấy.

When he arrived home, his mother

opened the door and smiled with him.

 When he arrived home, his mother

opened the door and smiled at him.

Cái đó không ích lợi gì cho cô ta It’s no good for her.

 It’s no good to her.

Ông ta hiến mình cho một sự nghiệp cao

cả.

He devoted himself for a noble cause.

 He devoted himself to a noble cause.

Có nhiều câu giải đáp cho vấn đề đó There are a lot of answers for the matter.

 There are a lot of answers to the matter.

Tôi chịu trách nhiệm về sự lầm lẫn đó I am responsible about the confusion

 I am responsible for the confusion.

 They were surprise at the news.

Bà ta hãnh diện về con trai mình She is proud about her son.

 She is proud of her son.

2.2.1.2 The Vietnamese frequently use redundant prepositions after

certain English verbs In their MT, these verbs always require prepositionswhile they do not in English because the meaning of prepositions isimplied in that of English transitive verbs Errors like these are common inthe Vietnamese learners’ writing

Chúng ta hãy cùng nỗ lực giúp đỡ cảnh

sát chiến đấu chống lại tội phạm.

We should all try to help the police in their

efforts to combat against crime.

 We should all try to help the police in their efforts to combat crime.

Ngay khi lịch kì nghỉ đợc ấn định, tôi

sẽ liên lạc với anh.

I shall contact with you again as soon as

the dates of the trip have been confirmed.

 I shall contact you again as soon as the dates of the trip have been confirmed.

Chúng ta sẽ bàn về vai trò của truyền

hình trong giáo dục.

We will be discussing about the role of

As the teacher approached near the class,

the children were silent.

 As the teacher approached the class, the children were silent.

Sau bữa ăn tối cô ta vào trong phòng After dinner, she entered into the room.

 After dinner, she entered the room

2.2.1.3 Contrast to the above problems is the lack of necessary

prepositions, especially in end- position, after certain English verbs To theVietnamese, the following sentences make a complete sense withoutprepositions:

 The woman asked me for a cigarette.

 He is always asking for money.

 Someone was knocking at the door slightly.

 Children need friends to play with.

Cô ấy đem cho tôi cái ghế để ngồi. She brought me a chair to sit.

 She brought me a chair to sit on.

Đó là ngời tôi đã trò truyện tại bữa tiệc

tối hôm đó.

It is the man I talked at the dinner party.

 It is the man I talked to at the dinner party.

Tôi xin lỗi nàng vì đã đến trễ. I apologized her for arriving so late.

 I apologized to her for arriving so late.

 He waited for me at the street corner.

2.2.2 Incorrect Use of Pronoun

The differences in pronoun usage between the two languages causethese following problems

2.2.2.1 The system of personal pronouns in Vietnamese is

extremely complex in comparison with that in English Since Vietnam is ahierarchical society, where age, social status, relationship, attitude, and so

on are of great consideration, the use of personal pronouns will bedetermined by such external non- linguistic connotations That is, anEnglish personal pronoun has various equivalents in Vietnamese Forexample, “she” is “cô ấy”, “cô ta”, “chị ấy”, “bà ấy”, “con ấy”, “nó”, etc.Therefore, the lack of choice in English embarrasses the Vietnamese.Moreover, a striking point is that in the Vietnamese language, kinshipterms such as: grandfather, aunt, uncle, elder sister, etc are widely used asrespectful personal pronouns, which sometimes appear in the Vietnameselearners’ sentences due to word- for –word translation under the influence

of Vietnamese

Tôi không đồng ý với chú ấy về vấn đề

ấy.

I don’t agree with that uncle about it.

 I don’t agree with him about it.

Tôi thấy chị làm việc suốt cả ngày I saw sister working all day long.

 I saw you working all day long.

 She will come with him.

2.2.2.2 In addition, English uses reference pronouns especially

possessive pronouns much more Vietnamese, which tends to drop themwhen they may be understood In these sentences, lack of reference

pronouns in the object case, in the possessive case, even in the subject casewill not destroy the meaning of the sentence This kind of interferenceerror is common:

Chị ấy rửa mặt và đánh răng. She washed face and clean teeth.

 She washed her face and cleaned her teeth.

 He changed his address.

 The boy hit his head against the door.

John đã mua quyển sách trớc khi rời

cửa hiệu.

John bought the book before left the shop.

 John bought the book before he left the shop.

Khi đi qua cầu ông ta thấy phía dới một

ngời đánh cá.

When cross the bridge, he saw a fisherman

under.

 When he was crossing, the bridge he

saw a fisherman under him.

Anh ấy đọc một câu chuyện tiếng anh

và kể cho chúng tôi nghe.

He read an English story and told us.

 He read an English story and told it to

us.

Also strongly influenced by the MT, the Vietnamese learners tend torepeat the noun or noun phrase already mentioned before withdemonstratives: “này” (this), “đó” (that) instead of using appropriatereference pronouns as the native English speakers usually do

2.2.2.3 Besides, in the following examples the Vietnamese speakers

rarely use the pronoun “it” to refer to objects or things

thích thứ tiếng đó like that language.

 We learn the English language because

we like it.

Huế là thành phố đẹp của nớc ta Thành

phố đó rất nổi tiếng nhờ có dòng sông

Hơng đầy thơ mộng Không một du

khách nào đến Việt Nam mà không đến

thăm thành phố đó.

Hue is a beautiful city of our country That

city is very famous for the poetic Perfume

river Not a tourist who comes to Vietnam

fails to visit that city.

 Hue is a beautiful city of our country It

is very famous for the poetic Perfume river Not a tourist who comes to Vietnam fails to

visit it

2.2.3 Incorrect Use of Verbs

Transfer effects can be observed in the incorrect use of verbs Theexplanation for errors in verb selection is that the Vietnamese given tolearners are to a large extent false equivalents, which often lead to

“VietEnglish” or even nonsensical errors

Câu chuyện của anh ấy khiến tôi cời phá

lên.

His story led me to laugh loudly.

 His story caused me to laugh.

Anh ta đã đi về nhà (từ văn phòng). He has come home from his office.

 He has gone home from his office.

Hãy mang những quyển sách này đi! Bring these books away.

 Take these books away.

Tôi nghe ai đó nói rằng ngời lái xe đã

She said the doctor that she was unable to sleep.

 She told the doctor that she was unable to sleep.

Mỗi khi đi xa tôi rất nhớ cô ấy I remember her a lot whenever I am far away.

 I miss her a lot whenever I am far away.

 They put the car in the garage.

Anh ta häc ë Oxford He learned at Oxford.

He usually sees the newspaper during breakfast.

 He usually reads/ looks at the newspaper during breakfast.

Th»ng bÐ cha bao giê tr¶i qua khã

kh¨n.

The boy has never spent difficulties.

 The boy has never experienced difficulties.

Bµ ta quªn « ë trong xe buýt She forgot her umbrella on the bus.

 She left her umbrella on the bus.

T«i tù hái anh Êy ®ang lµm g× I wonder what he was working.

 I wonder what he was doing.

In the above sentences, pairs of verbs such as “study”/ “learn”,

“remember”/ “miss” can both be translated into only one Vietnamese word:

“häc”, “nhí” respectively In practice, however, these verbs aredifferentiated by the shades of meaning each of them possesses There isgeneral vagueness of linkage between concept and word, indeed Notknowing this subtle difference, the Vietnamese learners consider theseverbs to have the same meaning and take them to be both equivalents to aVietnamese verb

2.2.4 The Countable/ Uncountable Non- Distinction

The distinction between the countable and uncountable is also aproblematic to Vietnamese learners because there is the different

conception of countable nouns and uncountable nouns What istroublesome is the fact that many Vietnamese nouns are uncountable, whiletheir English counterparts are countable In such cases, there may betransfer error:

For example: Apple is very good for heath

 Apples are very good for heath ( T¸o rÊt tèt cho søc khoÎ)

We can see that “t¸o” in Vietnamese is uncountable However, it canbecome countable by the addition of a classifier “qu¶”

Talking about this problem, Ngoc (1997: 259) writes: “Some semanticcategories enter into English as count nouns.” For example, nouns ofanimals, fruits, trees, things are normally count in English but non- count

in Vietnamese A large number of English non- count turn to be “count” inVietnamese

Besides, the countability of English nouns is rarely complicate It is adiscouraging fact that a number of English nouns can be either countable oruncountable, depending on each particular case:

I’d like some beer, please (beer as a kind of drink  uncountable)I’d like three beer, please (= three glasses of beer  countable) Moreover, errors would be possible if number is involved Hanh(1991: 24) points out:

For Vietnamese learners of English, the system of number expression in Vietnamese with which they are familiar makes it difficult for them to work out the correct use of number in nouns In the first place, number in Vietnamese is not an obligatory syntactic category For that reason, number may or may not be indicated If the learners were to translate from Vietnamese into English, he would have to conscious

of number in the nouns used This is not at all simple because a “plain” noun in Vietnamese (i.e noun without modifiers) can be countable or uncountable; definite or indefinite; singular or plural.

Tôi không thể đi đợc vì có quá nhiều

Họ không thể cung cấp cho tôi bất cứ

một thông tin cụ thể nào.

They couldn’t give me a detailed

information.

 They couldn’t give me any detailed

information.

Trận lũ lụt mới đây đã gây ra những

thiệt hại đáng kể về tài sản.

The recent flood caused considerable

damages to property.

 The recent flood caused considerable

damage to property.

Có nhiều quạ và cừu trên cánh đồng The fields were full of crows and sheeps.

 The fields were full of crows and

sheep.

2.2.5 Omission of Articles

The article system proves to cause a problem for the Vietnameselearners because the English definite and indefinite article “the”, “a”, “an”have no exact parallels in Vietnamese To make similar distinctions innouns, the Vietnamese speakers use a type of word termed classifier such

as “cái”, “con”, “chiếc”, etc the word for one or a deictic adjective (inSwan and Smith 1987: 246):

cái nhà= the housemôt cái nhà = a house nhà này = this house

However, not all Vietnamese words occur with classifier; that is, suchnouns distinction are not emphasized and usually go unexpected inVietnamese Consequently, the Vietnamese learners confused by the use of

English finite and definite article, very frequently drop necessary articles inthe following sentences, translating roughly from Vietnamese.

 My brother is an electrical engineer.

Cô ấy thờng uống nửa cốc sữa She often drinks half glass of milk

 She often drinks half a glass of milk.

Ngời dân nớc Anh rất yêu thích thể thao English are fond of sports.

 The English are fond of sports.

Anh ta nhìn hộ chiếu của tôi rồi hỏi tôi

mục đích của chuyến đi.

He looked at my passport and asked me about purpose of my visit.

 He looked at my passport and asked me

about the purpose of my visit.

Trăng chiếu sáng qua cửa sổ Moon is shining through the window.

window.

2.2.6 Tense Problems

As explained in category of morphological interference (tense- makeromission), “the Vietnamese language has no tense”, in other word, theconcept of tense does not exist in the Vietnamese mind In Vietnamese,tenses are not important in comparison with the actions, time is not directlyexpressed but can be easily understood from the context, from timeexpressions such as “yesterday”, ‘today”, “tomorrow”, etc., or from tensemarkers such as “đã, “đang”, “sẽ”, etc Because of the simplicity of theVietnamese expressions of time, the Vietnamese learners find Englishtenses, especially the perfect tenses confusing and make mistakes of all inthis area

Anh ấy làm việc ở đây gần 12 năm rồi He is working here for almost 12 years.

 He has worked/ been working for

 By the end of this month, he (will)

have had the result.

In the first sentence: “He has worked/ been working here for almost

12 years.” to the Vietnamese, the fact that she is still living here now at thepresent requires only a present tense They all know to use past tense forthe sentence “Unfortunately, the car had been sold before I arrived”, andfuture tense for the sentence: “By the end of this month, he (will) have hadthe result”, they are often confused to use the exact forms They are at loss

to account for the use of perfect tenses in English

s2.2.7 Faulty Passivization

There is no passive voice in Vietnamese, however, the passivemeaning is mostly understood from the word “bị”, “đợc”, which show theattitude of speakers towards the event or action expressed in the sentence.Due to their customary practice, the Vietnamese speakers use “bị” toindicate something bad or unlucky and “đợc” to indicate something good

or lucky Moreover, Vietnamese passive can be used in a wholly activesense to show respect and reserve Their concepts of “bị”, “đợc” are carriedover into English passive sentences, resulting in typical errors as follows:

Vợ anh ấy bị chết trong một tai nạn ô tô His wife was died in a car accident

 His wife died/ was killed in a car accident

Nhiều cây to bị đổ trong cơn bão Many big trees were fallen in the storm.

 Many big trees fell in the storm.

 The boy met his mother.

Chúng tôi đợc học nhiều điều hay ở trờng We have been learnt many interesting

things at school.

 We have learnt many interesting things at school.

2.3 Syntactic Interference Errors

2.3.1 Word- Order Problems

In the case of errors in sentence structures, the most typical groupconcludes the wrong position of words Obviously, the main cause is lack

of L1- L2 equivalence

2.3.1.1 Since pre- modification is not common in Vietnamese,

Vietnamese learners are usually confused with the order of premodifiers inheavy noun phrases They might write a phrase like this:

Five these charming country cottages

( CORRECT: these five charming country cottages)

Noun modifiers in Vietnamese, no matter whether they are adjectives

or nouns, come after the nouns they modify So English premodifiers oftenpose a problem to the Vietnamese learners In production, errors like theseemerge:

 They are looking for a car key.

Ông ta là một ngời đàn ông to cao He is a man big.

 He is a big man.

 She has a black cat.

Một đám cháy khủng khiếp đã xảy ra! A fire terrible happened!

 A terrible fire happened!

Vào mùa hè cô ấy thờng đội mũ rơm She usually wears a hat straw in summer.

 She usually wears a straw hat in

2.3.1.2 In description of size of things or people, the English make

it as a rule to put expressions of measurement before adjectives Notacquainted with this rule, the Vietnamese learners tend to apply theVietnamese word- order to the English sentences, using expressions ofmeasurement after the adjective head

 The room is four metres wide.

 He is two years older than me

Nhµ t«i c¸ch xa trêng n¨m c©y sè My house is far from school five kilometers.

 My house is five kilometers far from

school.

2.3.1.3 The Vietnamese learners also have difficulties with English

question word-order In general, Vietnamese word- order is identical in

both statements and questions, namely “Subject + Verb + Object”;

Vietnamese does not ask questions by inversion and by using auxiliaryverbs, e.g “Do you?”, “Did they?” Because of this, inversion in Englishinterrogative sentences may be ignored Some examples of WH questionswill make this point clear

 Whom did you meet yesterday afternoon?

 Which did she choose?

When did it rain?