(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) common mistakes in english negative patterns the case of students at academy of public administration

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ABSTRACT
In an attempt to improve APA students’ knowledge of English, the thesis is carried out
with 97 students to find out their common mistakes in using the English negative patterns.
The English negative patterns are chosen in the study divided into four groups: no group,
neither…nor, little & few and semi – negative adverbs. The data collected through
questionnaires and students’ test help to confirm the assumptions that the lack of
knowledge of negative patterns really exists. The major research methods are qualitative
and quantitative methods
Questionnaires are used to get their attitudes towards their understanding of negative
patterns as well as their difficulties in using them and causes. The students’ test is designed
to investigate students’ knowledge and evoke their typical mistakes in using the English
negative patterns. The results of the study reveal that APA learners have certain difficulties
in using those negative patterns such as confusing the negative words with other, wrongly
translating Vietnamese negative sentences into English negative sentences, etc. The main
causes of these mistakes are mother tongue inference and overgeneralization. Finally, some
suggestions and recommendations are given for APA teachers and learners of English to
make their teaching and learning of English negative patterns really effective.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS ............................................................................................. vi
LIST OF TABLES & CHARTS .......................................................................................vii

PART I: INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1
1. Rationale ....................................................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the study .......................................................................................................... 1
3.

Research questions ...................................................................................................... 1

4. Scope of the study ......................................................................................................... 2
5. Methods of the study..................................................................................................... 2
6. Significance of the study............................................................................................... 2
7. Design of the study ....................................................................................................... 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................... 4
1.1. Overview of theories of mistake in English language learning .................................. 4
1.1.1. Notion of mistake ................................................................................................. 4
1.1.2. Distinction of error and mistake .......................................................................... 4
1.2.

Learners’ common mistakes in English negative patterns...................................... 6

1.2.1. English negative patterns ..................................................................................... 7
1.2.1.1. Negative patterns with NO- ............................................................................. 7
1.2.1.2. Negative patterns with NEITHER/ NOR.......................................................... 7
1.2.1.3. Negative patterns with LITTLE & FEW .......................................................... 9
1.2.1.4. Semi – negative adverbs .................................................................................. 9
1.2.2. Common mistakes in English negative patterns ................................................ 10
1.2.2.1.

Problems related to negative patterns using NO- ............................. 10

1.2.2.2.

Problems related to negative patterns with NEITHER/NOR.............. 11

1.2.2.3.

Problems related to negative patterns with LITTLE & FEW ..................... 12

1.2.2.4. Problems related to negative patterns with semi – negative adverbs ........... 12
1.3.

Causes of mistakes in English negative patterns .................................................. 13

1.4.

Summary ............................................................................................................... 14

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 15
2.1. Research setting ........................................................................................................ 15
2.2. Subjects .................................................................................................................... 15
2.3. Data collection instruments ...................................................................................... 16
2.3.1. Questionnaires ................................................................................................... 16
2.3.2. Students’ test ...................................................................................................... 16
2.4. Procedure .................................................................................................................. 17
2.5. Summary ................................................................................................................... 17

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION............................................................. 18
3.1. Results collected from questionnaires ...................................................................... 18
3.2. Results collected from exercises ............................................................................... 22
3.2.1. Mistakes in using ‘neither, either, no one, none, nothing, nobody, no, nowhere’
............................................................................................................ 22
3.2.2. Mistakes in confusion of using ‘little, a little, few, a few’ ................................ 26
3.2.3. Mistakes in wrong uses of positions of semi – negative adverbs ...................... 27
3.2.4. Mistakes in translating negative expressions ................................................... 29
3.3. Summary ................................................................................................................... 31
PART III: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION .......................................... 32
1. Recommendations ........................................................................................................ 32
1.1. Suggestions for lesson preparation ....................................................................... 32
1.2. Suggestions for presentation ................................................................................. 33
1.3. Focused practices .................................................................................................. 35
1.4. Feedback correction .............................................................................................. 35
2. Limitations of the study .............................................................................................. 35
3. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 36
REFERENCES................................................................................................................... 37
APPENDICIES .................................................................................................................... I
Appendix 1..........................................................................................................................I
Appendix 2.......................................................................................................................IV
Appendix 3.................................................................................................................... VIII
Appendix 4..................................................................................................................... XII

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LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS

A:

Adverb

Adj:

Adjective

APA:

Academy of Public Administration

Art:

Article

Aux:

Auxiliary

Co:

Complement

Count:

Countable

Deter:

Determiner

TESL:

Teachers of English as a second language

N:

Noun

NP:

Noun phrase

O:

Object

Pre:

Preposition

Pro:

Pronoun

S:

Subject

Ss:

Students

Uncount:

Uncountable

V:

Verb

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LIST OF TABLES & CHARTS
Table 1: Negative patterns with no-....................................................................................... 7
Table 2: Negative patterns with neither/nor .......................................................................... 8
Table 3: Negative patterns with little & few .......................................................................... 9
Table 4: Negative patterns with semi – negative adverbs ..................................................... 9
Table 5: Rate of frequencies and confusion of using negative words ................................. 19
Table 6: The correct wrong choice & the wrong choice of exercise 1 ................................ 24
Table 7: The rate of choice of little,a little, few, a few ........................................................ 26
Table 8: Positions of semi – negative adverbs in sentences ................................................ 28
Table 9: Negative ideas - their English equivalents made by APA students ...................... 30
Chart 1: Students’ recognition of negative words ….. ........................................................ 18
Chart 2: Numbers of students giving correct answers to exercise 1 .................................... 23
Chart 3: Correct & incorrect answers in choosing verbs agreed with subjects as neither &

negative words of no group .................................................................................. 25

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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
‘Most of people agree that making mistakes is part of learning. Most of people also agree
that correction is part of teaching (Edge, J., 1:1989). Finding mistakes is an interesting
issue which draws much attention of researchers as well as teachers. In the field of
teaching English as foreign language, Richards is famous for Error analysis (1974),
Norrish (1983) is well – known by Language Learners ad their Errors and Corder (1974)
is popular with the significance of learners’ errors. As a matter of fact, mistakes appear
daily in classrooms. Working as a teacher of English as a foreign language (TESL), the
writer of this study has no doubt about the phenomenon.
Recently, there has been increasing realization of the mistakes concerning negative
patterns in English language classrooms at the Academy of Public Administration (APA).
The variety of English negative patterns makes the students confused. They seem to be
familiar only with the negative patterns with not. Except for the popular negative patterns,
these students hardly use other negative patterns correctly. Some students even do not
know whether little or a little refers to a negative meaning. This leads to their mistakes
whenever they express negative ideas. With ambition to help students to eliminate their
mistakes in the most practical way, the study has investigated common mistakes in English
negative patterns, specifically the negative patterns without not. Following is the topic of
the researcher’s M.A. thesis: Common mistakes in English Negative Patterns: The case
of Students at Academy of Public Administration. It is hoped that the study will make
some contributions to improve the level of teaching and learning process of APA students
and teachers.

2. Aims of the study
The study is conducted in order to:
-

find out common mistakes concerning negative patterns without not made by APA
students;

-

figure out causes of these mistakes;

-

make suggestions to reduce the students’ mistakes.

3. Research questions
These above aims of the study bring us to three major questions:

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What are common mistakes in English negative patterns without not made by APA
students?

-

What are the causes of these mistakes?

-

What should be done to reduce and eliminate these mistakes?

4. Scope of the study
Students at different levels face with different difficulties in leaning English. Hence,
mistakes made in the learning process are also various. This study has investigated types of
mistakes concerning negative patterns derived from writing practice tests made by pre intermediate non – major English students at APA. In this study, the writer has also
presented different kinds of negative patterns without not, including No- group, neither,
little and few, and semi – negative adverbs (Nguyen, Q., 1998: 77) (hardly, scarcely,
rarely, etc.) and mainly focuses on analyzing mistakes within those negative patterns.
Mistakes of other negative patterns are hoped to be investigated in further studies.
5. Methods of the study
To achieve its objectives, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed as the main
research methods.
Qualitatively, the writer synthesizes theories concerning notions of mistakes, popular
structures of negative patterns, common mistakes of negative patterns, and mistake
treatment. After that, the writer bases on the theory background to investigate typical
mistakes of negative patterns made by APA students and relevant causes. Quantitatively,
the writer collects data through questionnaires and students’ paper tests. In addition, such
methods as descriptive, analytic, comparative and contrastive are also utilized to describe
and analyze, to compare and contrast the database so as to bring out persuasive findings of
the study.
6. Significance of the study
The study is expected to bring benefits to teaching and learning English at APA. In details,
this study desires to figure out common mistakes relating to typical negative patterns
without not made by non – major English students at APA and causes of these mistakes.
From this investigation, the teachers and learners could have a deep insight into the

problems they have been faced with and draw out solutions for their better language
teaching and learning.

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In terms of material design, the study suggests useful information which is more practical
and effective to their learning and teaching environment at APA.
7. Design of the study
The study is divided into three parts:
Part I – Introduction - provides the rationale, the aims and research questions of the
study; it also specifies the scope and the general structure of the study;
Part II – Development - consists of two chapters:
Chapter 1 - Literature Review - presents the theoretical background related to the
topic;
Chapter 2 - The study – includes the research setting, subjects of the study, data
collection instruments, procedure, analysis of the data and the results;
Part III – Conclusion - summarizes major findings of the investigation and provides
implications and suggestions for further study.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents theoretical background related to notions of mistake, common

English negative patterns and second language learner’s typical mistakes in using them. It
also summaries possible causes of the mistakes.
1.1. Overview of theories of mistake in English language learning
1.1.1. Notion of mistake
When we use the word mistake in general sense, we all know what it means. In teaching
and learning language, mistakes appear every day in classroom. When a teacher says to a
student that his writing is full of mistakes, it seems to be easy to understand the meaning of
the word mistake in this situation. However, if we look at it carefully, we can see that the
word mistake owns various meanings and there are many different views of its notion.
Hence, firstly, the paper would like to review some typical notions of mistake.
From the views of language teachers, Norrish (1983:1) explains that a mistake is an
unwanted problem and a sign of failure to students due to lack of paying attention or
listening properly. Mistakes may be caused by teachers themselves because they do not
give their presentation clearly or do not allow their students enough time to practice what
they have been taught.
Oxford dictionary (2008: 282) defines ‘a mistake as a wrong action, idea, or opinion’.
According to Collin English dictionary ( />‘a mistake is an error or blunder in action, opinion, or judgment, or misconception or
misunderstanding’. In Wikipedia dictionary ( ‘mistake
is an error’.
In general, mistake refers to a wrong performance in action. From the point of teaching
methodology, the writer defines notion of mistake as any incorrect results appearing when
students practice exercises or tasks.
1.1.2.

Distinction of error and mistake

In spite the fact that many dictionaries claim that mistake is synonymous with error,
arguments concerning the distinction between mistake and error have emerged among
researchers.

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Liski and Puntanen (1983:227) argue that an error occurs ‘where the speaker fails to
follow the pattern or manner of speech of educated people in English speaking countries
today’. Another idea of definition of error is discussed by Lennon (1991:182) that an error
is ‘a linguistic form or combination of forms which in the same context would in all
likelihood not be produced by the learner’s native speaker counterpart’. This view is the
same as James’ opinion (1998:1) that defines an error as an unsuccessful bit of language.
In terms of comparison, according to Corder (1967: 166), a mistake is regarded as an error
of performance meanwhile an error is applied to systematic deviation. We can rebuild
learners’ acquisition of the language when he makes an error. Similar to Coder’s opinion,
Norrish (1983: 7 - 8) gives a more detail explanation of differences between mistakes and
errors. When a learner has not been taught the knowledge, he will give an answer which is
incorrect in the same way time from time. We call this phenomenon an error which is
systematic deviation. A child using his own language sometimes makes the same error. For
example, when a learner practices a form of a verb followed by to + verb (V), it is
supposed that he has already learnt that need + to V, want + to V, ought + to V. However,
he has not known about the use of must. He creates the form of must + to V on his own. He
will make the error continuously if no one shows him the correct form. The learner will
make a mistake if he has learnt the right form of must; however the right form is not
always expressed. The last kind is lapse. A lapse is caused by lack of full attention or
memory, etc. It is unlike an error or a mistake. Both native speakers as well as second
language learners could sometimes cause a lapse.
APA students chosen in this study are all learners of English as a foreign language. They
are at different levels. In Vietnam, each university requires taking some specialized
subjects for its entrance examination. These specialized subjects are usually divided into
four main groups such as: group A including Math, Physics, and Chemistry, group B

including Math, Chemistry, Biology, group C including Literature, History, Geography
and group D including Math, Literature and English . Traditionally, if a student chooses a
university requiring taking group A exams, he spends most of his time on those subjects
and just studies other subjects only to pass his final tests. This leads to the case that
normally a student who is good at subjects of group A is hardly good at other subjects or
vice verse. The point here is although these students are in the same class at their high
school, some knowledge of the subject is well – known to this student but unknown or dim

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to other due to their ignorance or less intention during their learning process. The Academy
of Public Administration (APA) selects students who focus on subjects of group A, C or D.
Thus, a class at APA consists of members interested in subjects of group A, C or D at their
high schools. That means in an APA class, there are students who are worse at English
than others. In addition, in rural areas such as Cao Bang, Ha Giang, Lai Chau, etc. foreign
languages are not properly taught at school. There are also high schools in which France,
Chinese or Russia, not English, is taught as foreign languages. Therefore, if there are any
incorrect answers happen while APA students practice English exercises, it is difficult for
the researcher of this thesis to call their wrong answers errors or mistakes for above mentioned objective reasons. For example, there is an exercise as follows:
Task: Rewrite the sentence without changing its meaning beginning with the word given in
the bracket:
She has never bought any red hats. (Never)
-> Never she has bought any red hats. (Incorrect)
-> Never has she bought any red hats. (Correct)
In this case, the writer could not completely call the learners’ wrong answer an error or a
mistake or a lapse because in a such mixed level class, the writer finds it hard to know
whether the learner already learnt but sometimes forgets, or he has not been taught the

knowledge yet.
In summary, ‘the problem of determining what is a learner’s mistake and what a learner’s
error is one of some difficulties and involves a much more sophisticated study and analysis
of errors than is usually accorded them’ (Richards, 1974:123). Moreover, the most
important goal of the study is finding the problems APA students facing with negative
patterns, their causes and solutions to them. So, in the agreement with Edge (1989: 9) and
starting from teaching methodology point of view, the researcher presumes mistakes to be
synonymous with errors and commonly names any wrong answers made by APA
language learner’s mistakes.
1.2. Learners’ common mistakes in English negative patterns
This part of the study focuses mainly on finding typical mistakes made by APA students in
using of four following groups of English negative patterns: negative patterns with no,
with neither…nor, with little and few, and with semi – negative adverbs (hardy, scarcely,

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rarely, seldom, barely, etc.). Mistakes concerning the usage of negative patterns with not
are not mentioned here. Logically, syntactic and semantic features of the negative patterns
are firstly presented in structures. There are examples illustrating those structures.
1.2.1. English negative patterns
An investigation into basic structures of negative patterns in English without not is
presented as follows:
1.2.1.1. Negative patterns with NONo keeps a role as a central determiner and forms part of compound pronouns when
followed by (-) one, (-) body, or (-) thing. Therefore, negative patterns with no refer to
negative words such as: none, nothing, nobody, no one, no where, no more, no longer, no,
etc. These negative words own complex syntactic features. (Please, see appendix 4).
Similar to non – auxiliary negation with not, negation with no might negate elements of a

sentence or clause (ellipse clause). Being originated from criteria of negator positions,
negative patterns with no mainly fall into some typical structures:
Negative patterns with no-

No
1

Examples

(No + Np)/ Nobody/ Nothing/ No one/ Nobody has come yet.
None (of + NP) + [Be + Co)]/[Aux + V]

2

(Quirk, R.,1972:225)

S + [Be + Co]/[Aux + V] + [No + O I’ve seen them nowhere.
(N/Np)]/ Nobody/ Nothing/ No one/ None He’s at school no longer. (unusual)
(of + N)/ A (Nowhere)/ No longer/ No I’m none the wiser now.
more)

3

4

(Quirk, R., 1972:377)

S + No longer + Aux + V

Mrs. Hicks no longer works at the

S + Be + No longer + Co

town hall. (Tran, V.P., 2000: 88)

Negation of ellipse clauses

Would you like me to phone them?
No! (Tran, V.P., 2000: 91)

Table 1: Negative patterns with NO1.2.1.2. Negative patterns with NEITHER/ NOR
Neither or nor is restricted to a set of two people or things. Structures including
neither are various but mainly as follow:

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No
1

Negative patterns with neither/nor

Examples

S (Neither + NP) + [(Aux) + V]/ [Be + Co] Neither accusation is true.
+…

2

(Quirk, R., 1985:392)

S (Neither + of + NP/Pro) + [(Aux) + V]/ Neither of us has ever had a
university education.

[Be + Co] +…

(Quirk, R., 1985:779)

3

4

Preposition + Neither + NP + Operator + In neither case was a decision
S+…

reached. (Nguyen, Q., 1998: 74)

S + [(Aux) + V]/ Be + Neither + NP

The result was she had neither
piece. (Nguyen, Q., 1998: 46)

5

S + [(Aux) + V]/ Be + Neither + of + NP/ I’ve read neither of these books.
Pro

6

(Nguyen, Q., 1998: 69)

S + [(Aux) + V]/ Be + Neither

This one or that one? – I like
neither. (Nguyen, Q., 1998: 69)

7

S + [(Aux) + V]/ Be + pre + Neither + N

They

may

end

up

in

neither

situation. (Nguyen, Q., 1998: 48)
8

Negative statement + Neither/Nor + Bill didn’t stay, nor did Henry.
Operator + S + …

9

(Quirk, R., 1985:125)

Statement containing Neither (mobile in Neither
position) + Nor + Operator + S + …

Peter

wanted

the

responsibility, nor did his wife.
(Nguyen, Q., 1998: 110)

10

Neither + S1 + Nor + S2 + Predicate

Neither Tom nor Jim has it.
(Alexander, L.G., 1975: 66)

11

S + Neither + Predicate 1 + Nor + He neither spoke nor even wrote to
Predicate 2

12

us again. (Alexander, L.G., 1975: 67)

S + Predicate + Neither A (O/C) Nor B I
(O/C)

speak

neither

Chinese

nor

Japanese. (Alexander, L.G., 1975: 66)
Table 2: Negative patterns with NEITHER/NOR

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1.2.1.3. Negative patterns with LITTLE & FEW
We could easily define a sentence as a negative one because of the occurrence of no.
Besides the words having both negative forms and negative meanings, there are words that
have no signal of negative appearance but own negative meanings. Among those words,
little and few take much concern.
Little and few are both negative in meaning (Please, see table 3). They are quantifiers
corresponding to many and much or infinite pronouns.
No
1

Negative patterns with little & few

Examples

S [(Little + Uncount N)/ (Few + Count

Few changes in government have

N)] + [Aux + V]/Be + …

ever taken many people surprise.
(Quirk, R., 1973:380)

2

The + Few/Little + Np + S + [Aux + V]/

The little money I have left.

Be +…

(Quirk, R., 1985:392)

3

S + Be + Few/Little

His faults are few.(Quirk ,R., 1985:392)

4

Few/little + [Aux + V]/Be + …

Marry are called, but few are
chosen. (Quirk, R., 1985:380)

Table 3: Negative patterns with LITTLE & FEW
1.2.1.4. Semi – negative adverbs
Semi – negative adverbs include hardy, scarcely, rarely, seldom, barely, etc. They are
usually followed by non – assertive rather than assertive forms. Their syntactic and
semantic features are presented in the following table:
No Negative patterns with semi – negative adverbs
1

S + Aux/Be+ Never/ Seldom/ Rarely/ Hardly/
Barely/ Scarcely (ever) + (V) + (Any) + O/C

Examples
I seldom get any sleep.
I’ve spoken to hardly anyone
who disagrees with me.
(Quirk, R., 1973:380)

2

Never/ Seldom/ Rarely/ Hardly/ Barely/
Scarcely (ever) + Aux/ Be + S + (V) + (any) +
O/C

Rarely does crime pay so well
as Mr. Benn to think.
(Quirk, R., 1973:380)

Table 4: Negative patterns with semi – negative adverbs

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In general, to aim at giving a clear description of English negative patterns which are
informative to APA learners, this part of the thesis focuses on twenty – two popular
structures of four negative pattern groups without not [negative patterns with no, with
neither…nor, with little and few, and with semi – negative adverbs (hardy, scarcely,
rarely, seldom, barely, etc.)] which share similar syntactic and semantic features and
positions in sentences. The description of the negative patterns creates favor conditions for
analysis of common negative mistakes made by APA learners. Notably, this thesis does not
investigate negative patterns using an auxiliary negative word not or negative patterns with
negative prefixes/ suffixes (un-, im-) as well as implicit negative words (deny, refuse, fail,
forget, etc.).
1.2.2. Common mistakes in English negative patterns
Based on the four negative pattern groups have already been divided in 1.2.1, in this part
typical mistakes in using those negative patterns made by foreign language learners are
listed as one of the theoretical backgrounds of the study.
1.2.2.1. Problems related to negative patterns using NO Syntactic features of negators originated from no such as none, nobody, and nothing
lead many learners to mistakes when using them, especially problems of the concord
between negative subjects and finite verbs. Except for none, most of these negators
take singular forms:
Mistake:

Nobody have complained about the noise.

Correction: Nobody has complained about the noise. (Nguyen, X.T., 2003: 370)
 Nobody, no one, no longer, nobody are used without of ; however, learners of English
confuse them with none which is followed by of:
Mistake:

Nobody of the children was hurt, but the driver of the car died.

Correction: None of the children was hurt, but the driver of the car died.
(Nguyen, X.T., 2003: 370)
 The rules on none are genuinely in flux. Unlike other definite pronouns, none can be
either singular or plural depending on the meaning of your sentence. The rule of
thumb is: if it refers to a group in total, or to thing as a whole, then none is usually
viewed as singular and takes a singular verb. If it refers to a number of things,
meaning your emphasis is on the quantity of the parts and not on the whole, then

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none is considered plural:
Mistake:

He wants a jukebox, but none are available.

Correction: He wants a jukebox, but none is available.

(Batko, A., 2400: 114)

 When a subject is negative (nobody, no one, nothing), its followed verb is positive.
So, instead of using a positive verb with a negative subject, learners normally use a
negative verb with a negative subject:
Mistake:

Nobody in the office could not give me the information.

Correction: Nobody in the office could give me the information.
(Turton, N., 1995: 512)
 No more is different from no longer. No longer often refers to time; however,
sometimes, learners think it is always the same meaning as no more:
Mistake:

My wife had left the hotel and I had no more needed a double room.

Correction: My wife had left the hotel and I had no longer needed a double room.
(Nguyen, X.T., 2003: 371)
 Infinitive verbs in some special negative structures with no are wrongly presented:
Mistake:

It’s no use to cry like a baby.

Correction: It’s no use crying like a baby. (Fitikides, T. J., 1936: 19)
1.2.2.2. Problems related to negative patterns with NEITHER/NOR
 Neither is generally used with a singular finite verb. Because it is restricted to a set of
two people or things, neither with a plural finite verb is frequently misunderstood:
Mistake:

Neither of the governments are willing to give way.

Correction: Neither of the governments is willing to give way.
(Turton, N., 1995: 513)
 Neither is used as both to refer to two people or things; however, this does not mean
both …don’t could be replaced for neither to express negative ideas:
Mistake:

Both of them didn’t go to school today.

Correction: Neither of them went to school today. (Fitikides, T. J., 1936: 39)
 In neither … nor structure, nor divides two parts of a subject and we consider them
separately. Each part of the subject is a singular, so the plural verb is incorrect:
Mistake:

Neither the horse nor the trainer were ready.

Correction: Neither the horse nor the trainer was ready. (Batko, A., 2400: 110)

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 A clause normally has only one negative word:
Mistake:

Neither Helen nor David is not old enough to travel alone.

Correction: Neither Helen nor David is old enough to travel alone.

(Turton, N., 1995: 514)
 We have never had neither without nor when our intention is to compare two things.
We can use neither as a pronoun, as in He invited neither of them. But if we were to
revise that sentence to use neither as a conjunction, nor should be combined with:
Mistake:

He’s not going to school or working, neither.

Correction: He’s neither going to school nor working. (Batko, A., 2400: 154)
 Misplaced correlative conjunctions suggests that two units linked by neither… nor
must be grammatically equal:
Mistake:

Sara speaks neither English or French.

Correction: Sara speaks neither English nor French. (Fitikides, T. J., 1936: 39)
1.2.2.3.

Problems related to negative patterns with LITTLE & FEW

 Few & little are misused as a few & a little. Few & little mean hardly any:
Mistake:

Although the question was easy, a few boys were able to answer it.

Correction: Although the question was easy, few boys were able to answer it.
Mistake:

He took a little exercise and wasn’t very fit.

Correction: He took little exercise and wasn’t very fit.
(Fitikides, T. J., 1936: 110)
1.2.2.4. Problems related to negative patterns with semi – negative adverbs
 Subjects are misplaced when inversions appear with semi – negative adverbs in
sentences:
Mistake:

Never I have heard of such a thing.

Correction: Never have I heard of such a thing. (Fitikides, T. J., 1936: 77)
 The auxiliary do is used before not but not before never, rarely, seldom…:
Mistake:

My mother does never eat meat.

Correction: My mother never eats meat. (Turton, N., 1995: 512)
The researcher has tried to collect materials from different sources by both grammarians
speaking English as the first language and ones speaking English as the second language,
so that common mistakes in using English negation could be fully presented. This provides

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the study with theoretical background of common mistakes in using English negative
patterns without not made by second or foreign language learners of English, and
encourages the author to continue to do research into possible reasons of these mistakes.
Nevertheless, in comparison with reality of learning English at APA, the researcher does
not imply that all mistakes in this part are made by APA learners.

1.3. Causes of mistakes in English negative patterns
Norrish (1983: 21) reviews that one of the most popular causes of mistakes is students’
carelessness. Another cause is mother tongue interference which is named in terms of
linguistic knowledge. According to Lado (1957:1), ‘errors are originated in the learner’s
disposition to transfer the forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the
foreign language and culture’. In general, mistakes in using English negative patterns, as
discussed by many researchers are caused by:
OVERGENERALIZATION
The concept of generalization is discussed by Jacoborits (1969: 55) as ‘the application of
previous available strategies in new situations’. In Richard’s opinion overgeneralization is
considered one of the contributory factors to cause mistakes. Thus, he (1974:174) explains:
‘overgeneralization covers instances where the learner creates a deviant structure on the
basis of his experience of other structures in the target language’. Therefore, after learning
that both is used to refer to two things or people, a learner may say Both of them didn’t go
to school today instead of Neither of them went to school today (Fitikides, T. J., 1936:
110).
IGNORANCE OF RULE RESTRICTIONS
This cause of mistakes is closely related to the generalization of deviant when learners use
already – learnt rules to the contexts where they are not applied. Some mistakes may be
originated from analogy; others are caused by rote – learning of rules. For example:
You went nowhere, didn’t you? (= did you?)
A learner makes the mistake in this case because he is familiar with the formation of a
question tag in which if the previous clause is negative, the question tag is normally
positive; or if the previous clause is positive, the question tag is normally negative.
However, he does not note about the negative meaning in the first clause.

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INCOMPLETE APPLICATION OF RULES
From Richard’s view (1984:177), when the second language learners are more interested in
exchanging information for communication than producing grammatically correct
sentences, they may fall into application of incomplete rules. He gives an example of
systematic difficulty in the use of questions: ‘What’s he doing?’ ‘He opening the door’.
Obviously, the answerer just pays attention to the information he is giving, not the right
grammatical form of the utterance he is using.
FALSE CONCEPT HYPOTHESIS
Besides a wide range of errors originated from learners’ part, there is a class of
developmental errors which derive from faulty comprehension of distinctions in the target
language due to poor gradation of teaching items (teaching methods, materials, etc.). The
confusion between too, very and so is taken as an example. Let us look at the story: ‘The
house empty because it’s cold….I’m very cold. England is too cold…..The fire is very
big…..It’s very big. It’s a very big fire. The firemen are going to put water on the fire
because it’s too big.’ (Richard, 1973: 180). In the story, the contrast between too and very
is intentionally presented. However, the presentation naturally gives confusion of
meanings of these two words. How can we avoid saying this is a too big house. (Richard,
1974:180) or I am very tired that I cannot go (Richard, 1974:185).
1.4. Summary
In this chapter, the researcher has defined the notion of mistake, distinguished between
error and mistake, listed basic negative structures, common mistakes of negative patterns
without not and explained causes of these mistakes. This theoretical background has
formed a theoretical framework supporting the researcher in carrying out her investigation
into common mistakes in using English negative patterns made by APA students.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
This chapter will present the research setting and subjects of the study. After that, the
instruments and procedure of data collection will be described.
2.1. Research setting
The study is conducted at the Academy of Public Administration (APA). At APA, English
is taught as a foreign language to the first and second year students of all departments with
the total number of 215 periods. In the first three terms, students learn and practice
communicative skills in English within 150 periods. Other 75 periods are spent on English
for Public Administration. English is arranged in APA students’ learning schedule
logically, continuously and regularly for their first two years, normally 2 days per week
and 3 periods per day. Each period lasts 45 minutes. For each term of fifty - periods, there
is a conditional test given after the fifteenth period. For the term of seventy – five periods,
there are two conditional tests given after the fifteenth period and the thirtieth period.
Based on the results of conditional tests, teachers know the students’ progress as well as
their difficulties in learning so that they could have suitable changes in their teaching
strategies. In addition, these tests are designed to require serious learning from the students
because marks scored for conditional tests account for 20% of the final assessment. The
curriculum is designed with hope that, after 2 years, their English could be well –
developed both in daily communication and in their special field. This is expected to be
useful for students’ future jobs.
The English textbook taught at APA now is Lifeline II designed for pre – intermediate
students by Tom Hutchinson, (1999), Oxford University Press. This book is taught within
the first three terms during 150 periods. Besides, a textbook for the last term is English for
Public Administration by Nicolas Geoffrey Stedman, Nguyen Khac Hung & Nguyen Quoc
Hung (Ed.), (2011), APA Publisher which accounts for the last 75 periods.
2.2. Subjects
To guarantee the validity and reliability of the research results, the subjects of the study
come from three classes at APA. The total population is 97 second – year students at APA
from different departments, both male and female, homogeneous in age. All students are at

the fourth term of English course at APA. They have already finished their English for
communicative skills at pre – intermediate level as scheduled.

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2.3. Data collection instruments
To collect data for the study, the following research tools are deployed:
2.3.1. Questionnaires
Questionnaires are given to students to get their attitudes towards their understanding of
English negative patterns. At the same time, their difficulties and causes are investigated.
There are 7 questions in the questionnaires. From question 1 to question 2, the researcher
would like to start up the respondents with the focused negative patterns in the study. In
question 3, the respondents are asked to list negative patterns causing them much
confusion and difficulties in use. The fourth and fifth questions seem to be the most
important one in the questionnaires. The researcher encourages the respondents to present
all causes to their troubles in learning and using the negative patterns. Some causes have
been already suggested. Besides, there are blanks for other causes from the students’ ideas.
Question 6 refers to students’ opinion of solutions to avoid mistakes when they use the
negative patterns. The last question is an open question seeking for students’ suggestions
to their teachers of English for improvement of teaching and learning the English negative
patterns.
2.3.2. Students’ test
The students’ test is designed in order to examine the students’ knowledge and evoke their
typical mistakes in using English negative patterns.
The test includes four exercises focusing on negative patterns in English with no-, with
neither, with little and few and with semi – negative adverbs (hardly, scarcely, rarely,
etc.). There are two parts in the first exercise. In part A, the students are asked to fill in

gaps with available negative words which belong to no- group and neither … nor. The
purpose here is to check how far these students are well – known with and there is any
confusion within those negative words. Part B of the first exercise is designed to examine
how correctly the students use the finite verbs with subjects as neither or negative words of
no- group. To check how the students can distinguish little and few from a little and a few
is the aim of the second exercise. Meanings and usages of semi - negative adverbs such as
hardly, seldom, scarcely, etc. usually cause students many difficulties in their learning
process. Hence, the researcher designs the third exercise mainly interesting in appropriate

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positions of these semi - negative adverbs in sentences. The last exercise is a synthetic task
which requires APA students to translate Vietnamese sentences into English by using the
four types of the above – mentioned negative patterns. This task is to measure the students’
application of their English negative knowledge to practical communication.
Necessarily, mistake analysis and contrastive analysis are considered to be important to
figure out related causes.
2.4. Procedure
There are three stages in the data collection:
Stage 1: The questionnaires and exercises are designed in separated papers. The exercises
are written in English, but the questionnaires are written in Vietnamese so that the
respondents could present their ideas exactly.
Stage 2: 97 students are from 3 classes; therefore, the researcher have to give the exercises
and questionnaires into three times. To each class, the following procedure is carried out:
the students are asked to finish the questionnaires first, and exercises later. The
questionnaires are answered within 30 minutes meanwhile the test is done within 60
minutes. The respondents in each group are gathered into a classroom, under control of the

researcher. Before giving the test and questionnaires, all information is explained carefully
by the researcher. The respondents are encouraged to give their true answers to all
questions. No name is written down on the papers. No judgment and evaluation of their
answers are made. By this way, the collected data can be considered more reliable, valid
and convincing.
Stage 3: The data is analyzed and contrasted to draw answers to the research questions.
2.5. Summary
In this chapter, questionnaires and students’ test are used to collect the necessary data for
the study. The data collection procedures have been described specifically through three
stages. The results will be explained carefully in next chapter after the data analysis.

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CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results of the study will be presented through tables and charts in this chapter. There will
be an interpretation of the results and exploration of the mistakes made by APA students.
3.1. Results collected from questionnaires
The results of the first three questions are shown in charts because data of close questions
can be straightforwardly analyzed. The last four questions are open and they are discussed
separately.
The total numbers of students who finished the questionnaires are 92 out of 97 students.
Five students were late or absent so they could not attend the part.
In the first question, the students were asked to recognize words carrying negative
meanings. The writer chose 7 words considered to be rather popular to APA students in
their learning of English. The results are shown in chart 1:

Chart 1: Students’ recognition of negative words

As can be seen from the table, there are remarkable differences in the results of the first
question. For little, scarcely, few, rarely, seldom, at least 33% or averagely from 43% to
51% of these students have learned these words. It is notable that 96% and 89% of these
students consider neither & none as ever - known negative words. It seems that these two
negative words are easiest to recognize.
In terms of quality of APA students’ knowledge, the data collected from the second and
the third questions is clear evidence presented in the following table:

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Negative words

none

neither

little

few

scarcely

rarely

seldom

Ss’ frequencies of using

33%

48%

16%

16%

3%

7%

5%

Ss’ rates of confusion

27%

40%

23%

23%

7%

4%

1%

Table 5: Rate of frequencies and confusion of using negative words
In this question, the students are required to list negative words they have used most
frequently. The results of the second question show that the students’ frequencies of using
those words arranged from higher to lower as follow: neither (48%), none (33%), little/
few (16%), rarely (7%), seldom (5%), and scarcely (3%). Relevant to the data collected
from the first question, it can be seen that none and neither are the most popular negative
meaning words to APA students because more than 80% of them have ever used the words
in their learning; hence, the frequencies of using the words are highest in comparison with
the given negative words. Meanwhile, for other words such as little, few, rarely, seldom
and scarcely, less than 50% of APA students have considered these negative meaning
words; so, only from 3% to 7% of students point out that they use them at the highest
frequencies. The result partly proves quality of the students’ knowledge of the negative
patterns without not in English is quite limited.
The third question provides more evidence of limitation in APA students’ knowledge of
negative patterns without not, especially with semi – negative adverbs. When being asked
which negative word causes most confusion in usage, 46% of APA students choose
neither, 27% of them choose none. Meanwhile, only 23% of them vote for little and few,
7% for scarcely, 4% for rarely, and 1% for seldom. The explanation of this phenomenon is
that little, few, rarely, seldom and scarcely have ever been used just by from 30% to 50%
of the students. This means not many students know about those words, so they cannot say
that those words are difficulty or easy to learn. The preferred choices are to neither and
none, the most familiar negative words to them. The fact is that neither and none have
been practiced by approximately 90% of these students (see chart 1); however, more than
half of the students choosing neither (46%) and one - third of them choosing none (27%)

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still claim that those words confuse them. It is wondered that whether the knowledge of the
two words, which the students have learned about, could ensure them correct uses.
The questions from number 1 to 3 are logic to seek in quantity and quality of the students’
knowledge of the negative patterns without not. The result releases that APA students’
knowledge of English negative patterns without not is limited in both quality and quantity.
In addition, the discovery is the first step to define the mixed level among APA students
that leads to difficulty in naming their wrong answers mistakes or errors.
In the fourth question, the researcher would like to investigate reasons which cause
difficulties to APA students in learning and using these negative patterns. There are four
reasons given in this question. They are little paying attention to lesson, not have learned
yet, forgotten due to little practice and other reasons. For each chosen reason, the students
are asked to give detail explanations. 74% of the students prefer the first reason, 47% of
them consider the second reason, 71% of them choose the third reason and 30% of them
contribute additional opinions. There are several explanations why the students have not
paid attention to their lessons. Almost of them admit that English was not the major subject
for their entrance examinations into universities, so they spent little time on learning it. At
high school, they learned English only to pass their final exams. Some of them blame for
teachers’ uninteresting teaching methods which make them feel sleepy in classroom. Some
students explain the knowledge of negative pattern is poor in English; hence, they have
little concentration on it. Others confess that they do not like English or they are lazy
students; or because they are not good at English and they feel it difficult to learn and
ignore it.
The reason of not having learned yet comes up from differences in education programs in
different provinces.
Three – fourth of the students admit that because they do not use English negative patterns
for a long time, they are easy to forget how to use them correctly or confuse this negative
word with another.
The students add some different reasons; for example, they get trouble with some negative
words, especially words in no group which rather similar in form and meaning. Another

idea is that syntactic features of negative patterns are various; therefore, they find hard to
remember them exactly.

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