unmarked plural nouns in english and theis difficulties for the 1st year students at the faculty of tourism, honoi university of culture = danh từ số nhiều không có dấu hiệu nhận dạng trong tiếng anh tt

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT
===================





NGUYỄN THANH TÂM





UNMARKED PLURAL NOUNS IN ENGLISH AND
THEIR DIFFICULTIES FOR THE 1
ST
YEAR STUDENTS
AT THE FACULTY OF TOURISM, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE

(Danh từ số nhiều không có dấu hiệu nhận dạng trong tiếng Anh và
những khó khăn của sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Du Lịch
Đại học Văn hóa Hà Nội)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
CODE: 60.22.15





H NI- 2011


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT
===================




NGUYỄN THANH TÂM






UNMARKED PLURAL NOUNS IN ENGLISH AND
THEIR DIFFICULTIES FOR THE 1
ST
YEAR
STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF TOURISM,

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE

(Danh từ số nhiều không có dấu hiệu nhận dạng trong tiếng Anh và
những khó khăn của sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Du Lịch
Đại học Văn hóa Hà Nội)

M.A. MINOR THESIS


FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
CODE: 60.22.15
SUPERVISOR: DAO THI THU TRANG, M.A






H NI- 2011


iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality of study project report………………………………………… i
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………… ii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………… ………… iii
Table of contents……………………………………………………………………….….iv
List of tables and charts……………………………………………………………… .vii

PART I- INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………… 1
1. Rationale…………………………………………………………………… ….1
2. Aims of the study…………………………………………………………… 1
3. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………… 2
4. Methodology……………………………………………………………… … 2
The subjects……………………………………………………….…… …2
The instruments……………………………………………….…… 3
The procedures…………………………………………….……………….3
Data analysis…………………………………………………………… …4
5. Design of the study…………………………………………………………… 4

PART II- DEVELOPMENT………………………………………………………….… 5
Chapter 1- Literature Review………………………………………….…………….… 5
1.1. Definition of English nouns………………………………….…………….… 5
1.2. Classification of nouns…………………………………………………… … 5
1.2.2. Proper nouns……………………………………………………… 6
1.2.2.1. Definition……………………………… ………………… 6
1.2.2.2. Classification……………………………….…………… 6
1.2.3. Common nouns…………………………………………………… 7
1.2.3.1. Definition…………………………………………………….7
1.2.3.2. Classification…………………………………………… 7
1.3. Grammatical categories…………………………………………………… ….7
1.3.1. Number…………………………………………………………… 7
1.3.1.1. Definition……………………………………………… …. 7

v
1.3.1.2. Classification of nouns in terms of number…………….……8
1.3.2. Case………………………………………………………………… 8
1.3.2.1. Kinds and choice of genitives…………………………… . 8
1.3.2.3. Genitive meanings……………………………………….… 8

1.3.3. Gender………………………………………………………… ……9
Chapter 2- Grammatical features of plural nouns in English…………………… ….10
2.1. Definition……………………………………………………………….…….10
2.2. Classification…………………………………………………………… … 10
2.2.1. Marked plural nouns…………………………………………… ….11
2.2.1.1. Definition……………………………………….………… 11
2.2.1.2. Classification……………………………….…………… ….11
(a) Invariables…………………………………….…………… …….11
(b) Variables……………………………………….…………… … 12
2.2.2. Unmarked plural nouns……………………………………… ……13
2.2.2.1. Definition……………………………… ……………… … 13
2.2.2.2. Classification…………………………………………… …. 14
(a) Unmarked plural nouns which are always used with plural verbs 14
(b) Unmarked plural nouns which refer to groups of people or
things………………………………………………………………….15
(c) Unmarked plural nouns which are formed by ‘the + adjective’… 18
(d) Invariable nouns which can be singular or plurals…………….… 19
2.2.2.3. Subject-Verb agreement………………………………… … 20
Chapter 3- Findings 21
3.1. Data analysis results…………………………………………………… ……21
3.1.1. The mid-term test……………………………………………….… 21
3.1.2. The students’ questionnaires…………………………………… …22
3.1.3. The teachers’ interview……………………………………… ……27
3.2. Findings……………………………………………………….………… … 30
3.2.1. No inflectional distinction with singular form… …………… … 30
3.2.2. Subject-Verb agreement…………………………………… …… 30
Chapter 4- Some suggested solutions…………………………………………… …… 32
4.1. Towards the students…………………………………………………… … 32

vi

4.1.1. Using dictionary……………………………………………… … 32
4.1.2. Self-access materials…………………………………………….… 33
4.1.3. Making a vocabulary notebook………………………………… …34
4.1.4. Group work…………………………………………………… … 34
4.2. Towards the teachers………………………………………………………….34
4.2.1. Using effective teaching techniques………………………… …….35
4.2.2. Using vocabulary consolidation as warm-up activities……… ……35
4.2.3. Guiding students’ home revision and give them feedback…… … 36

PART III- CONCLUSION………………………………………………………… … 38
1. Summary of the study……………………………………………………… 38
2. Limitation of the study……………………………………………………… 39
3. Suggestion for further study………………………………………………… 39
References…………………………………………………………………………………41
Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………… I

1
PART I- INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Learning to master a language is a lengthy and effortful process including both learning the
language knowledge: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. and language skills:
reading, speaking, writing and listening. As the final aim of learning language in general
and learning English in particular is communicative, vocabulary is one of the most
essential goals to achieve.
However, how to learn a language, especially its vocabulary effectively is really a problem.
At Hanoi University of Culture (HUC), the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism
often report to have a lot of difficulties in learning vocabulary, especially the number
category. Surprisingly, a number of plural nouns in English have no plural endings
(unmarked plural nouns). This is a big problem for students because they cannot realize
these nouns as plural by their forms. It arises even more challenges for students when they
often make mistakes in making the subject and the verb of the sentence agree.
Up to now, no study on this matter has been carried out at HUC. Therefore, the situation
encouraged the author to do a research on ‘Unmarked plural nouns in English and their
difficulties for the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of
Culture’. It is the author’s hope that this study will be really useful for both teachers and
students in teaching and learning vocabulary in general and unmarked plural nouns in
particular.
2. Aims of the study
- to provide learners with grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English
- to specify difficulties which unmarked plural nouns in English cause to the 1

st
year
students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC
- to suggest some solutions for students to overcome the difficulties in their using
unmarked plural nouns in English
3. Scope of the study
This study is limited to provide learners with grammatical features of unmarked plural
nouns in English such as definition, classification, agreement with verbs, some usage
notes, etc. More importantly, it tries to serve the purpose of finding out the difficulties in
using unmarked plural nouns in English faced by the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of
Tourism, HUC and seeking for possible solutions to the problems.
4. Methodology

2
The theoretical background in this study is based on the theoretical frameworks by
different linguists. The presentation of these linguists’ theory is to give the readers features
of plural nouns and especially grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English.
Additionally, in order to find out the difficulties of unmarked plural nouns in English for
the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC, this study adopts quantitative and
qualitative methods. Below is a description of the subjects, the instruments, and procedures
for the study.
4.1. The subjects
There are two types of subjects participating in the study. The first type is the 1
st
year
students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC, and the later is the teachers who have been

working with these students for years.
4.2. The instruments
In order to ensure the validity and reliability of the study, different tools were used, namely
written test, questionnaires, and interview.
Instrument 1: The mid-term test was used as a tool to investigate the difficulties of
unmarked plural nouns in English which the 1
st
year students have to encounter in their
vocabulary learning.
Instrument 2: Survey questionnaires on the 1
st
year students were employed to find out
what difficulties unmarked plural nouns in English cause to them in their vocabulary
learning, what teaching methods used by their teachers they would enjoy, and what they
have done to improve their knowledge of unmarked plural nouns in English. (see appendix
1)
Instrument 3: An interview was organized with 10 teachers who are teaching English to
the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism at HUC to find out what teaching methods
they are using when dealing with unmarked plural nouns in English, what difficulties they
find from their students in their learning unmarked plural nouns in English, and some
recommendations made by them. (see appendix 2)
4.3. The procedures
4.3.1. The mid-term test
4.3.2. Questionnaires
4.3.3. Interviews
4.4. Data analysis
As above mentioned, the data for this study is collected by the mid-term tests, students’
questionnaires, and teachers’ interview. With the mid-term tests, students’ acquisition of

3
unmarked plural nouns in English can be accurately assessed. Information provided from
students’ questionnaires will be categorized, tabulated and converted to percentages for the
convenience of analysis. Moreover, information collected during teachers’ interview is
added to assist interpretation.
5. Design of the study
This study is divided into three main parts:
Part I: Introduction
Part II: Development
Part III: Conclusion




4
PART II- DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1 – LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, an overview of English nouns is examined to help learners get general ideas
about the matter studied. This part consists of 3 sections: (1) definition of English nouns,
(2) classification of English nouns, and (3) grammatical categories of English nouns.
1.1. Definition of English nouns
In Gerald’s view (2001), nouns denote both concrete objects and abstract entities.
Tran (2008:15) defines a noun as ‘a word used to name person, thing, animal or abstract
concept’.
From my point of view, Tran’s concept of English nouns is more concrete. Therefore, the
definition of English nouns by Tran (2008) is mentioned in this paper.
1.2. Classification of English nouns
Let’s look at the diagram to see the classification of English nouns in Tran’s point of view.
Nouns

Proper nouns Common nouns
(unique reference) (generic/specific reference)
Tom, John, Mr. Smith, etc.


Count noun Non-count noun
man, boy, people water, oil, independence

Concrete Abstract
man, boy, water peace, war, independence
The two types of nouns (proper nouns and common nouns) will be discussed hereafter.
1.2.1. Proper nouns
1.2.1.1. Definition of proper nouns
According to Collins (1992:448), names of people, places, organizations, institutions,
ships, magazines, books, plays, paintings, and other unique things are proper nouns. For
example: Mozart, Romeo and Juliet, the President of the United States, the Seine, etc.
1.2.1.2. Classification of proper nouns
(a) Personal names: Tom, John, Mr. Smith, Bill Clinton, Sir Jones, etc.
(b) Geographical names (including names of continents, countries, counties, states, cities,
towns, lakes and mountains): America, Brazil, Arkansas, Boston, Silver Lake, Mount
Everest, the Nile, etc.
(c) Names of institutions or organizations: London University, FAO, UNICEF, etc.

5
(d) Name + common noun: Park Lane, Kennedy Airport, etc.
(e) Calendar items: January, Monday, Christmas, etc.
1.2.2. Common nouns
1.2.2.1. Definition of common nouns

If proper nouns usually refer to unique individuals, places or events in the calendar, all
other nouns are common nouns.
1.2.2.2. Classification of common nouns
According to Tran (2008:16), the most important classification of common nouns is the
distinction between (a) count and (b) non-count nouns.
1.3. Grammatical categories
Grammatical categories of nouns can be another aspect which needs to be mentioned when
dealing with nouns. Accordingly, grammatical categories of nouns consist of number, case
and gender.
1.3.1. Number
1.3.1.1. Definition
Regarding Tran’s view (2008), number is the grammatical category that divides count
nouns into singular and plural.
1.3.1.2. Classification of nouns in terms of number
Tran (2008:17) classifies nouns in terms of number into invariables and variables which
can be seen clearly through the below diagrams.
1.3.2. Case
1.3.2.1. Kinds and choice of genitives
Quirk (1987) and Tran (2008) state that there are 2 genitives: ‘s genitives and of - genitives.
1.3.2.2. Genitive meanings
1.3.3. Gender
Gerald (2001:38) states that nouns in English are not in themselves either masculine or
feminine. They do not have grammatical gender, though they may refer to male or female
people or animals.
CHAPTER 2- GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF PLURAL NOUNS IN ENGLISH
This chapter covers the following issues of English plural nouns: (1) definition, (2)
classification. For the purpose of this study which focuses on grammatical features of
unmarked plural nouns in English, the other grammatical features of plural nouns, such as
spelling rules, pronunciation, rules of plurality making, agreement with verbs, etc. will be
discussed in other studies.

6
2.1. Definition
Naturally, the concept of plural nouns is based on that of plural. That is ‘plural nouns refer
to more than one person or thing or consist of different kinds of people or things.’
(English Language Dictionary)
2.2. Classification
From the author’s point of view, plural nouns in English can be classified into 2 major
groups: marked plural nouns and unmarked plural nouns. The first group consists of
regular plural nouns (have –s ending) and irregular plural nouns which have markers to be
realized, such as voicing, -en ending, vowel change, etc. The later consists of nouns which
have no plural endings or have same forms with singular nouns or in other words, they are
not realized as plural by their forms.
2.2.1. Marked plural nouns
2.2.1.1. Definition
As aforementioned, marked plural nouns can be understood as nouns which have
characteristics to be easily noticed, such as –s endings, -en endings, voicing, vowel
changes or markers of foreign plural. In other words, people can notice marked plural
nouns based on their forms.
2.2.1.2. Classification
(a) Invariables
(i) Summation plurals
(ii) Pluralia tantums
(b) Variables
(i) Regular
(ii) Irregular
+voicing (/f/

/vz/)
+ mutation

+ en ending
+ foreign plural
2.2.2. Unmarked plural nouns
2.2.2.1. Definition
Unmarked plural nouns can be understood as nouns that have no plural endings (-s
ending,-en ending). They also have no voicing, no vowel changes or no rules to change
into plural like foreign nouns.

7
In other words, unmarked plural nouns are nouns that cannot be realized as plural by their
forms.
2.2.2.2. Classification
(a) Unmarked plural nouns which are always used with plural verbs
Cattle, people and police are plural words with no singular. They are invariable plural
ones.
(b) Unmarked plural nouns which refer to groups of people or things
These nouns are variable ones (e.g: family, team, crew). They can be changed into plural
by just adding ‘s’ to the end. (e.g: families, teams, crews).
(c) Unmarked plural nouns which are formed by ‘the + adjective’
(i) the + adjective
Adjectives like the following are used after ‘the’ to represent a group as a whole such as
the blind, the deaf, the dead, the rich, the poor, the young, the old, the unemployed, etc.
(ii) the + adjectives of nationality
We use ‘the’ with adjectives of nationality to mean ‘the people of that country’.
(d) Invariable nouns which can be singular or plural
These nouns are names of certain creatures like fish, sheep, deer, etc. They have the same
spoken and written form in both singular and plural. Thus, we can say ‘a fish’ or ‘those
fish’.

8

CHAPTER 3- FINDINGS
The issues mentioned in the previous chapters only belong to the theoretical category. To
seek for an insight into the difficulties of unmarked plural nouns for the 1
st
year students at
the Faculty of Tourism, HUC both theoretically and practically, this chapter presents the
results derived from analyzing the data collected, thus findings are identified.
3.1. Presentation of data analysis results
3.1.1. Mid-term test
3.1.2. The students’ questionnaires
1. How do you think of the role of vocabulary in learning a foreign language?
2. What is the most difficult for you when you learn English plural nouns?
As shown in the chart, what students find the most difficult in learning English plural
nouns is unmarked plural nouns
3. How do you usually practice unmarked plural nouns at home?
4. Which way of presenting unmarked plural nouns do you like?
5. What difficulties unmarked plural nouns in English cause to you?
6. What kinds of vocabulary consolidation are you most interested in when learning
unmarked plural nouns?
7. Which way of practicing unmarked plural nouns do you like most?

8. What kind of task do you find most difficult in you last examination?

3.1.3. Teachers’ interview
1. What difficulties do you find from your students in their learning unmarked plural
nouns in English?
2. What techniques and activities do you often use to present unmarked plural nouns
in English?
3. Specifically what kinds of exercises on unmarked plural nouns do you think
interesting and effective for students to remember the taught words?

4. What techniques and activities do you often use to help students to consolidate and
remember the taught words?
5. What recommendations should be made to improve your students’ learning
unmarked plural nouns?
3.2. Findings

9
Having analyzed the data from the above mentioned sources, the researcher notices that
there is a high level of agreement on the results from students’ responses and teachers’.
That is, the difficulties which unmarked plural nouns cause to the 1
st
year students at the
Faculty of Tourism, HUC belong to 2 main categories:
1. No inflectional distinction between singular and plural
2. Subject-Verb agreement
3.2.1. No inflectional distinction between singular and plural
As mentioned in the Introduction part, according to Bache (1997), a noun is marked
inflectionally as singular or plural by means of –s (and other markers such as voicing, -en
endings, vowel changes or foreign plural) or Ø respectively. Unfortunately, a great number
of nouns in English have no plural markers. To put it in another way, they have the same
form as singular. This causes so many difficulties for students since students cannot realize
these nouns as plural by their forms. Consequently, they make mistakes in word use and in
communication.
3.2.2. Subject-Verb agreement
Subject-Verb agreement and plurality making are complex phenomena and vary in
different languages, depending on the morphological possibilities of these languages
(Gazdar et al, 1983).
To some extent, this second difficulty can be considered as a consequence of the first one.
Since students do not know unmarked plural nouns as plural, they often make mistakes in
making the subject and the verb of the sentence agree. It arises even more difficulties for

students in the case of collective nouns which can be either singular or plural. Therefore,
students have to consider whether the noun refers to singular undivided body or a
collection of individuals to make the right concord between subject and verb.







CHAPTER 4- SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
Based on the results obtained from the study, herein after are some solutions suggested by
the researcher, with a hope to partly overcome the difficulties of unmarked plural nouns in

10
English for the 1
st
years at the Faculty of Tourism at her university in particular, and to
improve the English learning and teaching at the university in general.
4.1. Toward students
4.1.1. Using dictionary
4.1.2. Self-access materials
4.1.3. Making a vocabulary notebook
4.1.4. Group work
4.2. Towards the teachers
According to Dudley-Evans & John (1998), teachers are both good teachers and good
designers of course materials. To be a good provider of materials, one of their roles is to
modify activities to suit their learners’ need. In the case of HUC, the teachers should be
encouraged to help students to reduce their difficulties by the following ways.
4.2.1. Presenting unmarked plural nouns by using effective teaching techniques

4.2.2. Using vocabulary consolidation as warm-up activities
4.2.3. Guiding students’ home revision and give them feedback








11
PART 3- CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the study
To begin with, the study reviews theoretical issues related to concepts, classification,
grammatical categories of nouns in English, and grammatical features of plural nouns in
general and unmarked plural nouns in particular. Findings from the study urge the
researcher to seek some suggested solutions to the discovered difficulties in order to reduce
them, and to promote the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning at the
university.
The statistics from the students’ tests and the questionnaires indicates that unmarked plural
nouns in English cause some difficulties to a considerable number of the 1
st
year students
at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC. The difficulties are identified in two categories: no
inflectional distinction between singular and plural, and Subject-Verb agreement. For the
first one, unmarked plural nouns have the same form as singular, which causes so many
difficulties for students since students cannot realize these nouns as plural by their forms.
As a consequence, they make mistakes in word use and in context. The second difficulty
may be considered as a consequence of the first one. Students often make mistakes in
making the right concord between the subject and the verb because they cannot realize the

plural forms of unmarked plural nouns. It arises even more difficulties for students in
dealing with collective nouns which can be either singular or plural.
The results from the teachers’ interview backs up the above-mentioned difficulties found
from students’ questionnaires. Moreover, the interview reveals that the Grammar-
Translation method which is overused compared with other methods in vocabulary
teaching is considered one of the reasons to cause difficulties in learning unmarked plural
nouns, especially in word use and in communication. Also, some recommendations are
made by the teachers which focus on diversifying the teachers’ presentation and
consolidation of unmarked plural nouns, designing exercises, and regularly checking to
increase effectiveness in students’ learning unmarked plural nouns.
Finally, based on the study’s findings, and to the best understanding of the researcher,
some solutions are suggested for both students and teachers at the Faculty of Tourism at
HUC with a hope to partly improve the situation. To the students, it is necessary for them
to be more aware of the importance of their self-learning combined with dictionary use,
learning on Internet, vocabulary notebook, and group work. To the teachers, they are
encouraged to look for more interesting and effective techniques and activities in

12
presenting and consolidating unmarked plural nouns with a range of exercises to their
students.
2. Limitations of the study
Although the study is done to the best understanding of the researcher, it is impossible to
avoid some limitations of the study. Firstly, if the study was conducted in the light of an
experimental research, the researcher could make the best choice of what techniques
should be used by both teachers and students in their teaching and learning unmarked
plural nouns. Secondly, if the researcher conducted an interview with some of the surveyed
students in students’ questionnaires, the study could touch upon deeper insights to explore
their opinions freely about the difficulties which unmarked plural nouns in English cause
to them and their needs as well.
3. Suggestions for further study

This study only explored the difficulties caused by internal factors of unmarked plural
nouns for the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC. Future researcher can
further investigate problems and causes on learning English unmarked plural nouns in
particular and English plural nouns in general by looking at learners’ internal factors like
learners’ intelligence, aptitude, personality, motivation and attitudes, preferences, belief,
age, acquisition, or external factors like learners’ FL environment, or learners’ cultural
background, and what should be done to treat the would-be found problems.