Luận văn tốt nghiệp An investigation of common errors

Especially, learning how to write a Cause/ Effect English essays is one ofthe terrible experiences for students in high school, but it is also one of theessential skills for student in t

PHAM VAN DONG UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

SOLUTIONS.

Field: English

During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received manynecessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from myteachers, family and friends This paper could not have been completed without thehelp, encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve mysincere gratitude and appreciation

First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor - Ms.

Truong Hoang Lan, M A, who has always been willing to give me valuable adviceand suggestions in order that I can complete successfully this study

I also would like to take this opportunity to show my sincere thanks to all mylecturers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Pham Van Dong University, whohave handed me basic knowledge to complete this study

I am so thankful to students of two classes 11A2 and 11A3 at Mo Duc No IIHigh School for their whole - heart participation in the study

I am equally indebted to my classmates for their suggestions and

encouragements

in the progress of my study

Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for theirencouragement and support which played an important role in my graduationpaper

The ability to write meaningful sentences, paragraphs or essays which a readercan easily understand is termed as Excellent Writing Skills It is a perfect way towrite and express your views on the topic you want to address your audience andlisteners Especially, learning how to write a Cause/ Effect English essays is one ofthe terrible experiences for students in high school, but it is also one of theessential skills for student in the future and the tests such as Ielts, Toeic, Toefl,….The students often make some errors when they try to write a Cause/ EffectEnglish essay So, if the students do not attempt to learn the skill of writing at now,they will face difficulties in mastering the skill in their later life This paper aims toexpress the errors which students often make and suggests some solutions to helpstudent can avoid the mistakes and writing easily Moreover, when student learnhow to write a Cause/ Effect essays, they become more capable of analyzing whatthey read, interpret and think

TABLE CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……….iABSTRACT………ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……….iiiLIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………

CHAPTER I:

INTRODUCTION……….1

1.1

Rationale……… 1 1.2 Aims of the

Study………

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, almost countries in the world speak English and English can beconsidered one of the most essential languages for international communication InVietnam, there are a lot of foreign investors, they establish their own companies inVietnam They all speak English and of course, they will employ the people whohave ability of using English Therefore, English is an important criterion to find agood job in Vietnam It becomes the second language to many people When welearn English, we can widen knowledge about culture, customs, and lifestyle of thiscountry However, it is not easy to learn a foreign language well In order to useEnglish fluently, I think the learners have to pay attention to four skills: reading,writing, Listening and Speaking Of four skills, writing is considered the mostdifficult to many Different from the rest, writing requires not only the learners tohave knowledge of grammar (grammatical structures) but also plentiful source ofvocabulary to write a paragraph as well as an essay completely Many learnersthink that when they can speak well, they will automatically write well However,when they begin writing first sentence, everything is not easy as they expected.There are many differences between spoken and written languages So, writingrequires much patience and constant practice

In all walks of life, people use writing as a basic working skill It is aprocess, a skill of hard- work and people must perform almost daily As a student,you will have a lot of writing tasks such as: assignments, essays, graduationtraining report, graduation paper… Therefore, we should think clearly about what

to write, how to write in order to have a good writing

To my knowledge, there are many factors which help the learners to write an essay successfully During of studying writing skill, especially writing essay, I am very interested in Cause and Effect essay, I realized how important it is and its effects when being used to write a paragraph or essay But due to the limitation of

time, the study on how to write a Cause and Effect essay effectively is not

introduced clearly in writing subject Students do not have chance to understand much about them With the hope that I can study more about Cause and Effect essay deeply and share with everybody the useful knowledge of transition signals Thus, I decided to choose a study on how to write a Cause and Effect essay in writing an English paragraph as my graduation paper

1.2 Aims of the study

The study “ Some common errors made by high school in writing Cause/Effect English essays and suggestion for solutions ”is carried out in order tosurvey the attitudes of high school students, especially the students at Mo Duc No

II High School for the intelligent in learning writing skill The study provideslearners with the theoretical background of writing, such as the theory of academicwriting, essay and especially, the theory of Cause and Effect essay It also pointsout the common mistakes facing the learners in the process of writing Case andEffect essay and gives some advices and specific exercises to help English learnersimprove writing Cause and Effect effectively

1.3 Scope of the study

Cause and Effect essay is used in every types of discourse, such as speaking,reading, listening and especially in writing However, due to the limitation of time,

of knowledge and materials, I can only focus on theory of Cause and Effect essay,types of errors which students often make and methods to help students write theessay effectively

1.3 Research questions:

The issues to be discussed in this study are summarized in the followingresearch questions:

1 How do students understand about Cause/ Effect English essay?

2 What is the solution to help students write Cause/ Effect English essayeffectively?

1.5 Methodology

To fulfill the above aims, qualitative and quantitative method was chosen forthe study All comments, remarks, assumptions and conclusion of the study were

based on the data and analysis Data collections for analysis in this study weregained through the following the survey questionnaires resources

The questionnaire was designed just for students However, sometimesinterviews were also applied if the author found that the answer of lowered werenot clear enough

1.6 Organization of the Study

This paper presented in five chapters They are:

Chapter 1 is Introduction in which the author provides information about the

rationale of the study, states the aims of the study, specifies the scope of the study, research questions, research methodology as well as organization of the study

Chapter II (Literature Review) provides the previous study, the theoretical

foundation of teaching listening through English song

Chapter III (Methods and Procedures) mentions methods and procedures

including the research methods and procedures, data collection, data analysis, reliability and validity Chapter IV (Findings and Discussions) elaborates the

procedures of the study in order to give clear answers to the study questions that have been proposed before The findings and discussions presented based on the data that analyzed and they are related to the theoretical background in chapter two

Chapter V (Conclusion and Implications) presents the conclusion of this

study, the implications for teaching and learning, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study

CHAPTER2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of Previous Studies

2.1.1 Effect of English Teaching Writing on Learner’s Attitudes

The way writing is taught has a significant impact on students' attitudestowards this crucial language skill Therefore, beliefs are always changing abouthow to teach/learn writing There have been little efforts to identify student'sattitudes towards writing in a foreign language for general as well as academicpurposes

The correlation between students' attitudes towards learning a language isdeeply related to their performance, Mathewson (1994) and Masgoret & Gardner(2003) Karahan (2007) postulated that when students have positive attitudestowards a language, the gain positive orientations towards that language andincreases their achievement or proficiency Brown (2009) supported these findingswhen he mentioned that such positive orientations increase learners' selfconfidence and self-esteem

According to Dornyei and Csizer (2002), having positive attitude results inlearning a foreign language easily; it facilitates the process while negative attitudehinders learning and; consequently, acts as an obstacle against it Therefore,attitudes, negative, natural, and/or positive, decide, to a large extent, students'success or failure in their endeavors to learn not only a language but also othertopics This means that positive attitude plays a vital role and determines thelearners' attitudes towards the language being processed In other words,maintaining positive or negative attitudes towards a language is likely to result indifficulty or ease of learning

The connection between students' attitude and writing has gained littleattention The attitude towards writing, as a whole, has a significant impact onachievement; it either enhances it or hinders it Graham et al(2005) stated thatwriting attitude is "an affective disposition involving how the act of writing makesthe author feels, ranging from happy to unhappy" (p 518) Yet, not all studentsincline to have positive attitudes towards writing; they may show negative ones.Putting it another way, some students refrain from writing and show unwillingnesstowards the skill Daly and Miller (1975) defined writing apprehension as "ageneral avoidance of writing and of situations perceived by the individual topotentially require some amount of writing accompanied by the potential forevaluation of that writing." Such apprehension results mainly from a writer havinglow self-esteem

Gungle and Taylor (1989) conducted a study to investigate therelationship between writing apprehension and a focus on the form rather than on

the content They also examined the relationship between writing attitudes andstudents' willingness to register in other advanced writing courses They foundnegative attitudes towards studying other advanced writing course, but theresearchers did not find any relationship between the students' attitudes and content

of their writing

Masny and Foxall (1992) maintained that students' attitudes to andperformance in writing depend on their academic achievement They found thatstudents with high academic achievement have positive attitudes towards writingthan those with low achievement Furthermore, the researchers found that studentswere interested in form rather than content, and that students with writingapprehension were unlikely to take other advanced writing courses

Aikman (1985) argued that negative attitudes to writing are manifested in adelaying completing written assignments or homework It results from lack ofconfidence, teaching practices, classroom atmosphere, and first languageinterference mainly translation

The feedback that students normally get from instructors has a significantrole on their attitudes towards writing not only in their first language but also in thesecond language Silva and Brice, 2004; Hedgcock, 2005; Lee, 2008 Ferris(1995) and Montgomery and baker (2007) stated that learners get tremendousinsights about the feedback they receive from instructors; these learners are usuallylooked at, by teachers, as active contributors according to Hyland (2006) andLantolf and Paylenko (2001) That is, of course, because they review their teachers'notes about the writing These notes are mostly considered helpful and useful inidentifying their mistakes and points of weakness The impact of such feedbackdepends greatly on its forms and objectives, let alone its source Students who givetheir peers feedback were found to develop more in writing skills than those whoreceive it (Lundstrom and Baker, 2009)

Attitudes are envisaged differently by scholars They are deeply related topreferences, likes and dislikes Bem,(1979) certain tendencies towards things Eaglyand Chaiken, 1993); readiness or ideas that influence someone to behave or think

in a particular way Triandis, 1971; Travers, 1973 and they are "mental and neuralstate of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive and dynamicinfluence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it

is related" Allport, (1935)

Teaching methods and learning strategies play an important role in definingteachers' as well as students' attitudes towards writing Cohen and Brooks – Carson,2001; Casanave 2002; Griffiths, 2007; Fenghua and Hongxin, 2010, Griffiths,(2007) indicated that teachers encourage positive learning techniques used by theirstudents during writing classes

Cheng et al (1999) carried out a study to investigate the relationshipbetween classroom tension and writing tension They suggested that classroomanxiety and writing anxiety are "two related yet relatively distinguishable anxietyconstructs" Gilmore (2009) that writing in the first language is not welcome bymost students and that writing in a second or even a foreign language is moreterrifying than that in the mother tongue

Kobayyashi and Rinnert (2008) found that students employ first languagerules when they write in another language; language skills and writing techniquesare transferred across languages Some students tend to think in the first languagewhen they begin to write in another language Cohen and Brooks – Carson (2001) conducted a study to see whether thinking through the first language and evenwriting out a text first in that language may result in good writing in the secondlanguage The researchers found that writing directly in the second language worksbetter under time pressure In another study, Wang and Wen (2002) confirmed thatwriting in a second language is a bilingual act

As far as Palestinian students are concerned, Hamad (201)6 conducted astudy to examine Palestinian university students' essay writing and the variousobstacles they face The researcher's study sample consisted of 60 universitystudents who were asked to sit for an essay writing test and then respond to anopen-question questionnaire Three English writing instructors were interviewed bythe researcher to collect data The study findings show that students lackadequate linguistic knowledge, cohesion, and academic style; they also adopt wordfor word translation when they write

In another study, Hammad (2014) investigated the effect of one of teacherwritten corrective feedback types (direct feedback) on the performance of a sample

of Palestinian EFL university female students in essay writing The sample of thestudy consisted of 60 participants who were divided into two groups Theexperimental group received direct feedback over a 9-week period, while thecontrol group received no-feedback at all Two essay tests were administered Thestudy found that while teacher direct written corrective feedback enhanced highachievers' performance in a new piece of writing, it did not improve middle andlow achievers' performance

Hammad (2013) tried to investigate Palestinian EFL university-levelstudents' writing strategies, assess their writing performance, and examine therelationship between English writing performance and their writing strategies Theresearcher administered a self-developed questionnaire, prepared an English essaytest to 66 Palestinian university-level students and conducted semi-structuredinterviews with 9 students selected from the study sample The study concludedthat the participants did not exhibit a satisfactory level of strategy use when writing

in English, and there was a strong positive correlation between the participants' use

of English writing strategies and their EFL writing performance

Abu Shawish and Abdelraheem (2010) carried out a study to identify thereasons why students who study English at three Palestinian universities feelanxious and stressed while they write The study found that students' sex andacademic level were not significant variables in the students' estimates of thecauses of writing apprehension Besides, students' belonging to academicinstitution affected their estimates of the causes and remedies of writingapprehension They also found that high achievers in writing were moreapprehensive than low ones

Abu Jarad (2008) investigated the way Palestinian university students(intermediate and advanced) feel towards peer feedback in EFL writing courses.Twenty-five intermediate university students and twenty-one advanced studentswere asked to respond to a questionnaire that measures attitudes towards feedback;the researcher found that these students improved in maintaining the mechanics ofwriting, content, and organization; they also approved peer feedback to the extentthat it started to be used at higher levels

English can be taught and learned for pure academic purposes wherestudents are taught, usually in a higher education setting, to use the languageappropriately for study English for Academic Purposes (EAP) helps studentsimprove their language skills in listening, speaking, reading, grammar, andvocabulary development In addition, students are introduced to a new way ofteaching, test taking, note taking, academic vocabulary usage, and research andlibrary skills EAP has been shown to effectively prepare students in terms oflanguage for undergraduate programs in college and university level

Jordan (1997)argues that EAP is “concerned with those communicationskills in English which are required for study purposes in formal educationsystems” This field can be divided into two branches: English for specificpurposes and English for general Academic purposes such as academic writing.One of the for writing courses offered by An-Najah University is set for academicpurposes; it is the Technical Writing course Writing and research is also like to beconsidered as a course which focuses on writing for academic purposes

2.1.2 Writing in the English class: The Key to Improve the Vietnamese

eleventh grader as a Foreign Language Learners’ Productive Writing Skill

The number of country scientific community including both Englishlanguage students and other major university students who would like to attend theIELTS and TOEFL courses is on the rise dramatically Investigating the report ofthe test results of different candidates can easily witness the conspicuous weakness

of language learners in writing skill It is obvious that part of these problemsoriginate from the perplexing nature of writing skill itself Other problems are theresult of the teaching approach of this skill that is of a traditional structure ofteacher-student interaction

One researcher, for instance, believes that teacher-student feedback cannot

be free from bias, thus the procedure must be corrected positively Considering thenotion of "affective filter", one can assume that peer correction can lead to moreefficient results because of lack of destructive effects of questioning andanswering Therefore, the researcher believes that considering the limitations ofevaluation and reformation of problems in the form of teacher-student and theadvantages of application of student-student approach, this approach can be a stepforward in the attainment of education objectives of productive writing skill

Freeman (2000) states that when learning is based on cooperation, languagelearners look for helpful results for themselves and their peers In the 2000s,researchers like Zeng (2006), Kamimura (2006), Jiao (2007), and Hirose (2009)investigate the impact of peer feedback in L2 writing classroom and they note thatpeer feedback offers many ways to improve students' writing Caulk quotedRollinson (2005) as saying that “teachers’ feedback is general while students’ ismore specific”

Peer feedback, since it allows students to make negotiation of their strengthand weakness (Williams, 1957) where the students can make negotiation of ideas,comments, corrections, and suggestions (Jiao, 2007; Kamimura, 2006; Zeng,2006), provides opportunities for the students to be better in writing, and alsoreading

Peer feedback generates positive impact if the students are ready and trained and prepared by the teacher (Williams, 1957) It can be assumed that peerfeedback failure is caused by ignoring this aspect, preparation When the studentsare asked to write with sense "to be read" by authentic audience (peers), theirwriting is better than when they are asked to write to be read by teacher (Clark,2003) Rollinson (2005) states that peer feedback also trains students to be criticalreaders on their own writing

well-2.2 Theoretical Background