Luận Văn Grammatical errors made by English major students at Hai Phong Private University when speaking Engl

Khóa luận tốt nghiệp năm 2013
Đề tài: Grammatical errors made by English major students at Hai Phong Private University when speaking English and the solutions




TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION . 1
1. Rationale . 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Methods of the study . 2
4. Scope of the study . 2
5. Design of the study . 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
I. Understanding speaking skill 4
II. Sentence definitions . 5
1. Subject . 6
III. What is concord? . 9
IV. Significance of grammar in speaking English 9
CHAPTER II: COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS RELATED TO
SUBJECT AND VERB IN SENTENCE . 11
I. Mistakes in combination between Subject and Verb 11
1. Subject is not defined clearly 11
2. Elements standing between subject and Verb 12
3. Elements of subject are connected to each other by the conjunction ―or‖ 13
4. Indefinite Pronouns . 14
5. ―None‖ and ―No‖ 14
6. V-ing is used as Subjects 15
7. Collective Noun and definition of ―collective‖ 15
8. ―A number of‖ and ―The number of‖ . 17
9. ―There is‖ and ―There are‖ . 17
II. Common mistakes in tense usage . 18
1. Shift in tense 19
2. The general truth . 19
3. Mistakes between the present perfect tense and the simple past tense . 20
III. Common mistakes in voice usage . 22
CHAPTER III: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS . 26
I. Comment on the interview and survey questionnaires . 26
I.1. Comments on the informants 26
I.2. Comments on the interview 26
I.3. Comments on the survey questionnaires 26
I.3.1. Purpose of the survey questionnaires 26
I.3.2. Design of survey questionnaires 27
II. Data collection and analysis 27
1. Interviewing data collection and analysis . 27
2. Survey questionnaires data collection and analysis 28
2.1. Question 2: What do you think about the role of speaking skill? 29
2.2. Question 3: Do you like learning English grammar? 30
2.3. Question 4: How important is grammar in English speaking skill? 30
2.4. Question 5: How often do you make these mistakes when speaking
English? . 32
2.5. Question 6: Why do you make these above mistakes? 33
III. Main findings . 35
CHAPTER IV: SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS 36
I. Suggested solutions for teacher 36
1. Creating the comfortable speaking environment 36
1.1. Positive attitude . 36
1.2. Take the initiative . 36
1.3. Create conditions for learners 37
2. Speaking teaching tips 37
2.1. Group work and pair work . 37
2.1.1. Interview 38
2.1.2. Telephone conversations . 39
2.2. How to encourage students to speak 40
2.2.1. Encourage student interaction . 40
2.2.2. Make speaking activities communicative 40
2.2.3. Plan speaking activities carefully . 40
2.3. Perfect time to correct the students‘ errors 41
2.3.1. When might teacher avoid correcting students‘ errors? . 41
2.3.2. When and how can teachers give immediate correction? 42
II. Suggested solutions for students 43
1. Simplification 43
2. Ellipsis . 44
3. Formulaic expressions . 45
4. Time-creating devices . 45
5. Be slow and careful . 46
6. If learners are not sure how to say something, don‘t say it 46
7. Speak as much as learners can 47
8. Making a plan 47
8.1. Enrolling on an English course 47
8.2. Speaking English with their friends . 48
8.3. Speaking English to yourself . 49
8.4. Watching English movies or TV series . 49
8.5. Listening to the English radio 49
8.6. Reading an article 49
8.7. Visiting an English-speaking forums/ clubs 49
PART III: CONCLUSION . 50
REFERENCES 52
APPENDIX: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 53




PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Language is a typical and essential product of each nation because it is
the individual feature of each country. When learning a foreign language, it is
necessary for learners to learn four skills: listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Thank to it, learners can master and use this foreign language. In all
four skills, speaking can be considered to be the skill which requires learners
to spend very much time learning and practicing. Most of the students face up
with the difficulties in studying speaking at first. In fact, studying speaking
well is one of the key which helps learners step by step discover this
interesting language.
Moreover, English is not easy to learn because English grammar is
rather complicated. In fact, many English learners have the misconception
that when they have memorized many grammar structures and can write well,
they can speak well. Yet, when they stand up to speak on something, things
do not appear to be as easy as they expected. Sometimes, learners can speak
on something and feel satisfied their speeches after finishing them. But they
rarely take notice of or even recognize some sentence problems related to
grammar structures that may occur. With the hope that learners can find out
some experiences of grammatical errors during speaking and of being
corrected, a study on “Grammatical errors made by English major
students at Hai Phong Private University when speaking English and the
solutions” is chosen as the topic of this graduation paper.
2
2. Aims of the study
This study aims at:
Providing learners an overview of English sentences and some parts of
speech in English sentences (particularly Subject and Verb).
Analyzing most common grammatical errors in English sentences
during speaking related to Subject and Verb.
Giving some causes and suggested solutions to overcome these
mistakes, to help English major students in HPU with promoting and
enhancing English speaking skill.
3. Methods of the study
_ A survey was conducted for the 1
st
and 2
nd
English major students at
HPU about grammatical errors when speaking English and the solutions. The
survey questionnaire has been designed as the key data collection instrument
of the study. Collecting and analyzing data have been used.
_ Interviewing students.
_ Consulting several ideas with supervisor.
_ Gathering information through reference books and related Websites.
4. Scope of the study
In the communication, the mistakes made by learners are unavoidable.
Thus, we had better look at the mistakes, a part of learning English, to answer
the questions: causes and how to correct them. There are many different types
of errors during speaking English: Lexical errors, grammatical errors,
pronunciation errors, written errors However, for the limitation of
knowledge and experience, I am not capable of studying all. Therefore, only
3
the grammatical mistakes related to Subject and Verb are covered in this
graduation paper.
5. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development, Conclusion
_ Part I: Introduction on showing reasons to choose the study, aims,
methods, scope and design of the study.
_ Part II: The main part of the study: including four chapters
Chapter I: The theoretical background of English sentences
Chapter II: Common grammatical errors related to Subject and
Verb in sentence
Chapter III: Data collection and analysis
I. Comment on the interview and survey questionnaires
II. Data collection and analysis
III. Main findings
Chapter IV: Some suggested solutions
_ Part III: Summarize and make a conclusion to the main points which have
been explored in the study, propose recommendations to develop the
effectiveness of teaching and learning English.




REFERENCES
I. Books
1. Burns. A and Joyce. H, (1997) “Focus on Speaking”, Sydney: National
Centre for English Language Teaching and Research.
2. Chaney & Burd (1998), “Teaching Speaking‖, Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
3. Angela Downing and Philip Locke (2006), “English grammar”, New
York, USA: Routledge.
4. Lightbown & Spada (2006) “ How languages are learned” , New York:
Oxford University Press.
5. Bygate. M, (1987) ―Speaking”, Oxford University Press.
6. Bygate. M, (2009) “Teaching the spoken foreign language”, Berlin.
7. Henno Park (2010) “Teaching English as a Second Language” , New
York: Oxford University Press.
8. Randoiph Quirk (2010), “A University Grammar of English”, University
of London.
9. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005), Oxford University Press.
II. Websites
1. Website: http://www-01.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning.htm
2. Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause
3. Website : http://englishplus.com
4. Website : http://www.englishforums.com
5. Website : http://www.trans4mind.com/personal_development/
grammar/parts – of - speech.htm
6. Website: http://grammar.about.com
7. Website : http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com
8. Website : http://www.ecenglish.com