A Study on Sentence Errors of the English Compositions of the Second Year Students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam = Nghiên cứu lỗi về câu trong các bài viết c

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
***


NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG



A STUDY ON SENTENCE ERRORS IN THE ENGLISH
COMPOSITIONS OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT
DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

(NGHIÊN CỨU LỖI VỀ CÂU TRONG CÁC BÀI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN
NĂM THỨ HAI HỌC VIỆN NGOẠI GIAO VIỆT NAM)



M.A. Minor ProgrammeThesis

Supervisor : Prof. Dr Hoàng Văn Vân
Field : English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60 14 10

Hanoi, 2013


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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
***


NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG


A STUDY ON SENTENCE ERRORS IN THE ENGLISH
COMPOSITIONS OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT
DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

(NGHIÊN CỨU LỖI VỀ CÂU TRONG CÁC BÀI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN
NĂM THỨ HAI HỌC VIỆN NGOẠI GIAO VIỆT NAM)


M.A. Minor ProgrammeThesis

Supervisor : Prof. Dr Hoàng Văn Vân
Field : English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60 14 10
Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi, 2013

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. The frequency of sentence structure errors
Table 2. The frequency of fragments
Table 3. The frequency of run-on sentences
Table 4. The frequency of stringy sentences
Table 5. The frequency of “the sentence structure errors of the other types”
Table 6. The sources of errors


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages
Statement of authorship i
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract iii
List of tables iv
Table of content v
Part A: Introduction 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims 2
3. Methods 3
4. Research questions 4
5. Significance 4
Part B: Development 5
Chapter 1: Literature review 5

1.1 What is an error? 5
1.2 Errors and mistakes 5
1.3 Error analysis 6
1.4 Causes of errors in language learning 7
1.4.1 Mother tongue interference 7
1.4.2 Overgeneralization 7
1.4.3 Fossilization 8
1.4.4 Errors due to the effect of teaching 8
1.4.5 Errors due to carelessness 8
1.4.6 Inadequate learning 9
1.5 Sentence errors 9
Chapter 2: Findings and discussion 12
2.1 Subjects 12
2.2 Procedures 13

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2.3 Report on the results about the kinds of sentence errors 13
2.3.1 Stringy sentences 14
2.3.2 Fragments 15
2.3.3 Run-on sentences 16
2.3.4 “The sentence errors of other types” 17
2.4 Report on the results about the frequency of the sentence errors 19
2.4.1 Frequency of fragments 20
2.4.2 Frequency of run-on sentences 20
2.4.3 Frequency of stringy sentences 21
2.4.4 Frequency of the other sentences 21
2.5 The explanation of the errors 22
2.5.1 The explanation of fragments 22
2.5.2 The explanation of stringy sentences 24
2.5.3 The explanation of the “sentence errors of other types” 25

2.5.4 The explanation of run-on sentences 26
2.6 Discussion 28
2.6.1 Research question 1 28
2.6.2 Research question 2 31
Part C: Conclusion 34
1 Recapitulation 34
2 The major findings of the research 34
3 Pedagogical implications and recommendations 35
3.1 To the syllabus 36
3.2 To the learners 36
3.3 To the teachers 37
3.4 Limitations and suggestions for further study 42
References 43
Appendices 44

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale

In this part of the study, the research background and the motivation for the
study implementation would be presented.
As for the research background, this study is one among the studies in the
field of error analysis which has been a part of language pedagogy for a long time.
In Vietnam in general and in University of Language and International Study-
National University of Vietnam in particular, there have been many studies on the
field of error analysis in English language teaching. Some of the studies have tried
to investigate errors in writing skills such as Nguyễn Thị Hương, (2007), Nguyễn
Văn Lợi, (2007), Nguyễn Thị Duyên, (2007). Some others have also examined the
writing errors but in the specific terms such as articles Mai Thị Ngân, (2011) or

errors in using cohesive devices Trần Thị Hải Bình, (2007) and errors in many other
word classes of English language such as prepositions, two-word verbs, auxiliary
verbs and so on. There have been the studies which investigated the errors in
speaking such as Lê Thu Hương, (2011), An Thị Ngà, (2011). Thus, the errors in
both types of learning outputs – writing and speaking have been investigated.
Together with the investigation into the errors sentence constituents such as
prepositions, kinds of verbs, articles and so forth. This research is intended to gain
insights into the errors in term of sentence structure with the hope to contribute to
the findings of grammatical errors in writing by Vietnamese students.
As for the motivation of carrying out this research, there are three elements
inspiring the author to implement this study. First, it was observed that there have
been many sentence errors especially the errors in sentence structures in the
writings of the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV). In
the process of checking the writings, the author saw that almost all the students
made the errors. This actually exerted a bad influence on their writing performance.
Secondly, the students‟ demand of limiting the errors they make in writing is
another reason for doing this research. After writing tasks, some students ask the

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author “How can I limit my errors? Could you please give us some ways to do so?”
Actually, the students knew they were making errors. They have tried to get rid of
doing this. They however, have tried in vain because there were still a lot of errors
in their writings. Lastly, one more motivation for carrying out this study is the
demand of effective and interesting writing teaching. It can be said that writing is
one of the most difficult skills in English learning. It is either boring or exhausting.
Analyzing the errors to prevent making them is assumed one of the good ways to
make the teaching more efficient. This is because good writing performance with no
error will give students interest to learn and learn effectively.

2. Aims

The present study has two main goals. The first one is to find out the
sentence errors made by the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of
Vietnam. There is a wide range of sentence errors in the students‟ writings. To get
an insight into the errors, the author should know what kinds of sentence errors they
are. Actually, there are a number of sentence errors which have been found by many
other scholars and researchers. This study needs to find out if the participants of this
institution made the entire sentence errors mentioned in the literature review.
Beside, this minor thesis also needs to find out if there are any other sentence errors
only made by these students. One more question concerning sentence errors this
study need to clarify is how frequent these errors are.
The second aim of this minor thesis is to find out the causes of the sentence
errors made by the students. There must be reasons why the errors came into
existence. Actually, in the field of error analysis, many causes of errors have been
offered. This research should also consider if all the causes for the errors the
students made are the same as the causes which have been reviewed. Finally yet
importantly, the present study is also aimed to see if there are any other causes else
leading to sentence error existence.
In deed, the overall goal of this study is to improve the students‟ academic
writing skill. The specific ways to help may vary depending on the errors and the

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causes which were found out. There may be some changes in the teaching process
or in the design of the writing syllabus. By doing so, the students‟ academic writing
skill will be improved in more than one ways. The first way is that they will not
make such kinds of sentence errors. The second one is that the students will be able
to put more ideas into their writing. This, in turn, will make students to organize
better their essays and thus the coherence and cohesion are all improved then.

3. Methods

In order to achieve the aim of the study, the researcher applied both
descriptive and analytic research methods as follows:
As for the data collection, the author collected the primary data which was
the participants‟ writings. Firstly, the students were given the writing tasks in their
class-time learning. After that, the researcher randomly selected a certain number of
the writings (More details would be presented in the next part). Thirdly, the
sentence errors were found and marked to stand out on the writings.
As for data analysis, basing on the types of sentence errors which were
reviewed in the literature review and the features of the sentence errors the author
then classified them into small types. Next, the author analyzed the features of the
errors in term of sentence structures. After that by employing quantitative analysis,
the author did the calculating to see the frequency of the errors. Then, basing on the
social and linguistic contexts, the sources of these errors were explained. Finally,
some suggestions for preventing the sentence errors were made. Actually, this error
analysis research was carried out according to the procedure of an error analysis
which consists of the steps as being suggested by Corder (1981: 36): 1)
identification of errors, 2) description of errors, and 3) explanation of errors.

4. Research questions

1. What are sentence errors made by the second year students at Diplomatic
Academy of Vietnam?

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2. What are the causes of the sentence errors made by the second year
students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam?

5. The significance

The study was supposed to have a great deal of significance. The first one is
for the students. This research will help to improve one of the most significant
English skills for the students. That is because the students will be noticed what
mistakes, errors they are likely to make. They are also given more knowledge about
English and then they will not write the sentence errors causing by their lack of
knowledge about English. To the teachers, the research also helps them in their
writing teaching. With the results found out, their academic writing teaching will be
more effective and more straightforward. That is because the teachers at the
Academy would know what their students know already and what they do not.
Beside, the teachers would not try many ways in vain to prevent the errors because
they have known the causes already. The present study also contributes its findings
to the field of error analysis to confirm the already found findings. Furthermore, the
study affirms that error analysis is crucial in writing teaching.


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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

As the title suggests, this study is concerned with the sentence errors made
by the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. In order to carry
out this research, this chapter attempts to provide the background related to error
analysis terms and studies which have been stated and done by various scholars. It
will first examine the notion of error and its characteristics. Then it will reexamine
the notion of error analysis. This will be followed by another part in which the
author presents the causes of errors in language learning. The final section is
devoted to sentence errors found out by previous researchers.

1.1 What is an error?

First, the author would like to find out what is an error. To answer the
question, the author is going to look at some definitions of errors by some scholars.
For Halliday, McIntosh and Strevens (1964:119), a mistake or an error in English
can be described as complete inaccuracy being reference solely to the description of
English without taking any account of the students‟ native language. For them each
mistake stated is also a specific deviation from described English feature. This is
because; it deals with how language is grammatically structured. According to
Richards (1974), “the only sentences in anyone‟s speech which could be called
erroneous are those which result from some failure of performance. These may
contain what often called slips of the tongue, false starts, mind changes and so on”
(p.162). He also says, “Mistakes are by-products of the process of learning a
language about which a teacher should make as little fuss as possible.”

1.2 Errors and mistakes

Many scholars have stated the distinction between errors and mistakes,
though it is still hard to indicate a sharp differentiation. According to Chomsky
(1965), there were two types of errors: one resulting from verbal performance
factors, the other from inadequate language competence. Later, Corder (1967)

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named the former mistakes and the later errors. Mistakes are said to be unsystematic
in nature and correctable when attention is drawn to its producers. Errors on the
other hand, refer to any systematic deviations from the rules of the target language
system. In short, errors are caused by the lack of knowledge about the target
language or by incorrect hypothesis about it; mistakes are caused by temporary
lapses of memory, confusion, and carelessness and so on. If we are uncertain of
whether one of the learners has made an error or a mistake, the crucial test must be
like "can he correct himself when challenged?" If he can, probably it is a mistake; if
not it is an error. However, in this thesis, the author call the two above terms with a

name error. We would like to discuss the problematic sentences are errors or
mistakes in the part error explanation.

1.3 Error analysis

Error Analysis (EA) as a method of the study of errors played a new role in
second language (L2) acquisition research in the 1970s. EA became the principal
methodology used for investigating learner language and L2 acquisition (Corder,
1975). EA is concerned with the learner language and the process of language
learning. Corder (1981: 36) suggests three key steps of EA research: 1)
identification of errors, 2) description of errors, and 3) explanation of errors.
Among the steps, explanation for cause of errors is regarded as the most important
stage as it deals with how and why errors are made, which will then give insights
into what and how a learner learns. Choon (1993) gives some suggestions on
carrying out an error analysis research. According to her, one has to identify the
errors first, and then the errors are classified according to different categories. She
suggested that the system of error classification should be flexible. The last step is
to determine how much they deviate from the target language norm, to what extent
they affect communication. Error analysis can help a language teacher deal with the
specific and common language problems students have so that he or she can know
what should be focused more in a syllabus.


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1.4 Causes of errors in language learning

There are many views about the causes of errors in second language
learning. These views are the interlinguistic causes, intralinguistic causes and
teaching-induced causes, which can be subdivided as follows:

1.4.1 Mother tongue interference

According to the behaviourist theory: “Foreign language learning is basically
a mechanical process of habit formation” River, (1987:50) Moreover, individuals
tend to transfer the forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the
foreign language and culture. According to Lado (1957) “the prime cause or even
the sole cause of difficulty or error in foreign language learning is interference
coming from the learner‟s native language.” (p.21) On the face of it, interference
would be the biggest cause of errors. Interference will be of two ways: it may be
negative when there are differences between the first and the second language
habits, and positive when the first and the second language habits are the same.

1.4.2 Overgeneralization

Apart from the main causes of errors in second language learning above,
there is another cause called overgeneralization. This is simply the expansion of the
foreign language patterns into areas in which they do not apply. Overgeneralization
is the consequence of insufficient exposure to the target language - a lack of data
from which more complex rules can be derived. Another reason for
overgeneralization is that having learnt a rule, which appears to work well, the
learner, is not inclined to look for exceptions which can make them confused. In
other words, the learners possess new data in their mind and produce rules for its
production based on evidence. Richards explained overgeneralization as follows:
"Overgeneralization covers instances where the learner creates a deviant structure
on the basis of his experience of other structures in the target language." (p. 174)
This is his example. After having read or heard sentences such as He reached the
house at 10.00 p.m. a student may produce, He leaved the house at 6.00 a.m. A

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learner may write She walked fastly to catch the bus because he already knows He

walked quickly to catch the train.

1.4.3 Fossilization

Normally, it is expected that a learner progresses further along the learning
continuum, so that his “inter-language” moves closer and closer to the target
language system and contains fewer and fewer mistakes. However, learners may
produce errors or mistakes many times and they never disappear entirely. Such
errors are often described as being fossilized, which means that they have become
permanent features of the learner‟s output. Touchie (1986:78) confirmed this as
“Some errors, specially errors in pronunciation, persist for long periods and
become quite difficult to get rid of.”

1.4.4 Errors due to the effect of teaching

Most foreign language learners acquire the target language by constantly
exposing to materials and certain teaching methods. Therefore, second language
acquisition is affected by the way the target language is presented. In the case when
there is an over-emphasis on some certain language knowledge, learners may also
overuse the language knowledge. Sometimes, there are also the faulty rules given
by teachers, according to Hubbard (1983) “the teacher can also induce mistakes by
indulging in some overgeneralization himself, indicating that students are
sometimes given inadequate rules which cause mistakes when they follow them.”
(p.61)

1.4.5 Errors due to carelessness

Carelessness is one of the major causes leading to errors. The carelessness
may result from learners‟ tense, excitement, or lack of motivation. Furthermore, this
is also the consequence of learners‟ failure to follow a known rule. According to

(Edge, 1989:7) Mistakes can happen because someone is in a hurry, tired, or
thinking of something else.”


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1.4.6 Inadequate learning

Touchie explained this cause as follows: “The errors are sometimes caused
by ignorance of rule restrictions or under differentiation and incomplete
learning. An example is omission of the third person singular „s‟ as in: He want.”
(p.79). Thus, if students do not study enough language forms and structures, they
may not know how to make them correct.
To sum up, errors can be caused by many factors which sometimes overlap
each other. Any particular mistakes or errors may be the result of one factor on one
occasion and the other factor on another.

1.5 Sentence errors

There are quite a lot of errors within sentence level. Various kinds of
sentence errors have been classified. For Dr. Doug Dangler in The website of Ohio
State University, he divided this kind of error into 3 common types: comma splices,
sentence fragments and run-ons. The authors of this article talk about the
characteristics of comma splices as follows: “Comma splices entail the incorrect use
of a comma (hence: comma splice) to join two (or more) independent clauses
together in a single sentence.” (par.2). For them, “A sentence fragment is a group of
words masquerading as a complete sentence. Sentence fragments, as incomplete
sentences, can confuse your reader or make your meaning unclear.” (par.4) They
define run-on sentences as follows: “A run-on sentence is a sentence in which
several main clauses are strung together without proper punctuation and so run
together as if they were one sentence. Run-on sentences make your reader's job

difficult; they interrupt the rhythm of your writing and condense too much
information into a small space.” (par.9) Thus, these three sentence errors mentioned
above are defined through their obstacles to the writing performance. A comma
splice is a sentence with the wrong use of a comma, while a fragment is an
incomplete sentence or only a group of words. A run-on is a sentence with more
than two clauses together with the incorrect use of punctuation.

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Nicolette Amann from the university of Humboldt State University also has
the same ideas about the common types of errors at the sentence level as the above
authors. Here is her definition about fragments: “A sentence fragment is a word, a
phrase, or a dependent clause presented with the capitalization and punctuation
appropriate to a complete sentence. Although sentence fragments are sometimes
acceptable, they should be usually avoided. (par.3). Her definition about a run-on
sentence is a bit different from the one cited above. For them, “A run-on sentence
consists of two independent clauses run together and is punctuated as one
sentence.” (par.5). As for a comma splice, they say that it occurs when only a
comma separates two independent clauses.
The authors of the book, Academic writing English - Level fourth classify
and define the sentence-boundary errors as follows: “A run-on sentence is a
sentence in which two or more independent clauses are written one after another
with no punctuation. The author would like to cite here another opinion about run-
on sentences by (Heffernan & Lincoln, 1986:279). For them, a run-on sentence is
defined as “a sentence which joins two independent clauses or sentences with no
punctuation or conjunction between them.” Together with this, the authors of
the book Academic Writing English, say, “A similar error happens when two
independent clauses are incorrectly joined by a comma without a coordinating
conjunction. This kind of error is called a comma splice.” (p. 184) For them,
sentence fragments are the incomplete sentences or parts of the sentences because a
complete sentence must contain at least one independent clause. For example,

“Because students work part time while taking a full load of classes.” (p.184) For
the authors of this book, this incomplete sentence is a dependent clause beginning
with a subordinator „because‟. It does not express a complete thought because there
is no independent clause. Choppy sentences for them are too short sentences. For
examples, „wind is an enduring source of power. Water is also an unlimited energy
source. Dams produce hydraulic power. They have existed for a long time.
Windmills are relatively new.‟ Beside from the three kinds of errors, they also name

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another kind as a stringy sentence which is defined as a sentence with too many
clauses usually connected with „and‟, „but‟ and „so‟ sometimes „because‟. It often
results from writing the way you speak going on and on little a string without an
end. For example, „many students attend classes all morning, and then they work all
afternoon, and they also have to study at night, so they are usually exhausted by the
weekend.‟ Another author-(Demirezen, 1993:158) talked about stringy sentences as
follows: “In a stringy sentence many independent clauses are joined
together with coordinating conjunctions (often „and‟, „but‟ „for‟, „or‟, „so‟). They
are longer then they should be.
Thus, commonly there are three types of sentence errors: run-ons, fragments
and comma splices. Apart from these, there are the others such as stringy sentences
and choppy sentences. Various authors defined the mentioned sentence errors a bit
differently. They, however, have the same characteristics. For the fragments, they
are the incomplete sentences which lack at least one of the constituents such as
subject, predicate, and so on. For the run-ons, they are the sentences in which the
punctuation is wrongly put or no punctuation or no conjunction between the
independent clauses. Whereas, the comma splices are the ones with the wrong use
of a comma. Another kind among these-stringy sentences is the one with too many
clauses together with the incorrect use of linking words. The other kind is choppy
sentences which are too short sentences put right next to each other.
Thus, in this chapter, the author has reviewed some of the important concepts

in the area of error analysis in foreign language teaching. The first parts show that
errors and error analysis are of certain significance in foreign language teaching.
The later parts deal with the sources of the errors which are supposed to help
teachers see where their students are. The final part presents us the fact that
sentence errors are of a large number of types and should be paid attention to
because of their obstacles to language proficiency. With the background above, this
research was implemented as in the following chapter.

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CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this part, the information of the subjects would be presented. This consists
of the subjects‟ physical background and their writing levels. After that, the data
and data collection procedure are described.

2.1 Subjects

As for the subjects physical background, the subjects of the present study are
10 non-English major classes of the second year students at Diplomatic Academy of
Vietnam. The total number of the students is 328 students whose ages are around
20. However, the real subjects are only 50 students – 5 from each of 10 classes.
As for the writing levels, the second years students are of different English
levels because a part of them were students who took English as a subject for their
university entrance examination and the other did not. These students also come
from different regions of Vietnam which also contributes to the variety of their
English levels. The students have been working with the same syllabus in their
university time so far. In the first semester, they studied to write sentences. In the
second semester, they were taught to master paragraphs writing skills. In third
semester when this present study was carried out-the second semester of the study
year 2012, they worked with the ways to write academic essays of various types

such as argumentative, process, compare and contrast, and cause and effect essays.
Beside, in this semester the learning of sentence - the consolidating part was the
homework for self-study at home.
As for the data, this is primary data which were randomly selected from the
subjects‟ in-class-time writings. The total number of the writings is 50 which were
the products by the 50 subjects. The data for analyzing is actually the erroneous
sentences in the writings whose number is 129. This accounts for 15 % of 864 total
sentences in 50 writings.

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2.2 Procedures

As mentioned above, this error analysis was carried out basing on the steps
suggested by Corder (1981: 36) which consist of three stages as follows. The first is
to identify errors. The second stage is to describe these errors, and then the last is to
explain them.
The first step was implemented as follows. The author found the sentence
errors in terms of structure (As mentioned in the literature review). Concurrently,
the errors were underlined and marked with the symbols (See appendix 5) For each
piece of writing, the total number of sentences as well as their names were written
on the corner of the paper. Next, the errors were put into distinguishing categories
for easy analysis later (See appendices 1, 2, 3, 4).
By looking at the errors which were classified, the describing in the second
step was done as follows. The author again divided the errors into the sub-types
according to their features. For the sub-types which still had the various features,
they then were again classified. Thus, after doing so, it was easy to see the errors‟
characteristics. The author then pointed out what the errors were and what in their
structures were problematic. Beside, in order to see the frequency of the errors, the
quantitative analysis was deployed. (See tables 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Finally, basing on the theoretical background about errors, linguistic and

social contexts, and the author suggested the specific reasons why the students
made the kinds of sentence error. The sub-types of sentence errors were again
examined one by one to see what elements lead them come into existence.

2.3 Report on the results about the kinds of sentence errors

In this part of the thesis, the author would like to present the results that were
found about the kinds of sentence errors the students at DAV made.
In the students‟ writings, there were all kinds of sentence errors which are
reviewed in chapter II. These types of error are run-on sentences, comma splices,
fragments, stringy sentences. There are some sentence errors which cannot be

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classified into the above errors. The author would like to call them as “the sentence
errors of other types.”

2.3.1 Stringy sentences

Of all the stringy sentences found out in the pieces of writing, the writer
again classified them into different types according to their various characteristics.
There are a number of them, which are named as follows.
 Stringy sentences with linking word: „and‟
 Stringy sentences with more than one linking words
 Stringy sentences with „if‟
Stringy sentences with linking word „and‟: In this kind of error, „and‟ is
the main connector used to link all of the other clauses to make the stringy. Here is
an example: „It is clear that in the last 10 years the climate is warmer and El Nino
phenomenon happens unpredictable and it causes a lot of challenges for pp in the
future.‟ Two „ands‟ were used to connect three dependent clauses into one stringy
sentence.

Stringy sentences with more than one linking word: In these cases, many
linking words were used to put too many clauses into one string. By looking at the
strings, it can be seen that there are many kinds of conjunctions which should be
present only in separate sentences. Here is a good example: „After retirement,
people can go to visit anywhere they desire that they don‟t have time to visit while
young time or they can help their children take care of their grandchild so that their
children would spend more time on working.‟ In the sentence, there are several
linking words such as „after‟, „that‟, „while‟, and „so that‟.
Stringy sentences with „if‟: There was also a string made with more than
necessary „if‟ in one sentence. Here is a string: „For example, if one old person has
some serious diseases like cancer, if we were in the past, there were no modern
machine to prevent and cure these diseases.‟

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There are also several stringy sentences which are the same as the examples
having been cited. (See appendix 2)

2.3.2 Fragments

Among the total number of the fragments found (see appendix 1), the author
classified them into different types according to their different characteristics. They
are named as follows.
 Main verb lacking fragments:
- Main verb lacking fragments as questions
- Main verb lacking fragments as statements
 Subject lacking fragments
 Main clause lacking fragments:
 Complement lacking fragments
 Fragments of a group of words
Main verb lacking fragments: This error can be divided into the sub-types

as follows.
- Main verb lacking fragments as questions: These are interrogative
fragments without auxiliary „to be‟. These are some of the errors: „What effects and
causes of inflation in the world?‟, „So, what benefits and effects of globalization?‟,
„Do you know how much your country‟s average life expectancy now and 20 years
ago? In these sentences, the auxiliary of an English question is omitted.
- Main verb lacking fragments as statements: In these sentences, there is a
lack of a main verb which should be „be‟. By looking at the sentences, it is visible
that right after their subjects are the nouns or the adjectives considered as the verbs.
These errors are cited as „Every people want to live as long as they can, but some
dead because of illness.‟ Or „However that culture can‟t instead of our culture.‟
Among these fragments, there is also a type of fragment which lacks the auxiliary
„to be‟ in the present continuous tense. Here it is „Ice melting doing rise level sea,

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so square area decline.‟ This is a mistake because with the students‟ English level,
they at least know how to make a sentence with this tense.
Subject lacking fragments: Here is an example, „Should clearly distinguish
economic globalization with the broader concept of globalization in general.‟ The
subject of this fragment must be in the places around it. The other cases are as
follows: „Conclusion, have some causes and factors make inflation.‟ and „And take
advantage of it‟.
Main clause lacking fragments: For this error, the main clause is the other
sentence which is right next to it. Here is a good example: „Because increase life
expectancy means we have more labor resources‟ or „Such as, import or non-toxic
product‟. This is only an adverbial clause or a complement which should
accompany main clauses to make complete sentences.
Complement lacking fragments: Beside from the fragments the author
mentioned above, the other kind is predicate lacking fragments. This is an example:
„The reasons of this phenomenon are:‟ In the writing paper, there are many

paragraphs following this sentence. Thus, instead of the nouns standing right after
to be „are‟ to make a complete sentence there were the presence of paragraphs. (See
appendix 5)
The fragments of groups of words: For these fragments, the author does
not see any typical characteristics to classify them except for the fact that they are
the group of words. Actually, this group of words should have been added to the
sentences around them. They are the nouns such as „Political system, culture,
human well being.‟ the adverbial clause such as „Especial to macro economy.‟ The
other case is that the fragment is just a jumbled words such as „Rise in sea levels
worldwide‟ or „Management class easier and the can feel less pressure.‟

2.3.3 Run-on sentences

There are a few small types of this sentence error found in the students‟
writing. (See appendix 4) These are named as follows:
 Run-on sentences with no or wrong punctuation

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 Comma splices
Run-on sentences with no or wrong punctuation: These are the sentences
in which there is no punctuation or its misuse. Here is an example of a run-on
sentence with no punctuation: „Burning fuel can make N2O, CO2, SO2 and acid
rain it can destroy environment and cause global warming.‟ Here is the other one
with wrong punctuation: „However, there are 2 faces: one face is improving
economic and other face lead to inflation.‟ Actually, in the sentence, three
independent clauses were linked into one sentence with a colon which should be
followed by the linking words such as „such as‟ or „as follows‟ and nouns.
Comma splices: These are the sentences, as being defined in the literature
review, having the presence of commas but without the linking words to connect the
independent clauses. This fact is shown at this splice: „In Vietnam, every year, there

are many national to return to country, they bring many foreign culture,
information and agree with domestic culture.‟ or „Increase life expectation but rate
of born is low can lead old population, there is 1 amount of population is out of
labor.‟. Actually, in the sentences, there are other types of error, however; the fact
that the sentences are the run-on ones is the most visible.

2.3.4 “The sentence errors of other types”

This is a new type of sentence error the author found in the present study. It
contains many small types. They are the new sentence errors which the researcher
could not put into any of the above mentioned sentence structure errors. The author
of the present study would like to call them “the sentence errors of other types.”
However, these ones for us are the important elements among the findings of the
present study. By looking at “the sentence errors of other types” (Appendix 3), we
can see that there are a large number of “sentence errors of other types” which can
be named according to their various characteristics as follows:
 Sentences with the incorrect use of linking words
 Sentence with the incorrect use of relative pronouns

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 Sentences with subject abundance
 Sentences with verb abundance
Sentences with the incorrect use of linking words: This is an example:
„Reducing class size has many positive effects thanks to it help student to develop a
better comprehension and to allow the development of friendship between all
classmates.‟ It could be said that this sentence is neither a fragment, a run-on
sentence nor a stringy one. It is certainly not a fragment because of the presence of
subjects and predicates. Besides, it is not a run-on sentence either as there is only
one independent clause. In addition, it is not a stringy one at all for there is only one
linking word „thanks to‟ to connect the main clause with the dependent clause.

However, the problem here is the use of the linking word „thanks to‟. After „thank
to‟, it should be a noun or a gerund. In this sentence, though it is a dependent
clause. The structure of the sentence is problematic indeed.
Sentences with verb abundance: These are sentences which contain more
than one main verb. There are so many of these sentences in the present study. The
author would like to cite here some of them as follow: „Globalization helps people
can choice education environment that best way. „So, medical technology develops
help to diagnosis and treatment favorable than.‟ or „It leads the life expectancy also
increases.‟ There should be the non-finite verbs in the above sentences such as
infinitive without „to‟ - „help people choose‟, - gerund – „the increasing of‟ …
Sentences with the incorrect use of relative pronouns: After the relative
pronoun, the use of verbs is wrong. Here is an example: „From this cause, global
warming have many negative effect such as accelerating see level rise, drought,
floots, storms, melting ice which threatening to life‟s people and animals.‟ In the
other case, the relative pronoun was not used to make a correct dependent clause.
Here is the sentence: „I think it mean that machines choose good coffee beans and
reject beans not good quality.‟
Sentences with subject abundance: In this case, the pronouns such as 'this',
'it', and 'that' were often put right after another subject in a sentence. These are some

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of the errors: „If we want to have better education for ours, reducing class this is the
best way to do.‟ and „The labor resources are the element that it is very important.‟
In short, there is the presence of the common sentence errors which have
been defined by many other scholars in the present study. The characteristics of
these errors made by the students in the institution though have their own typical
features. However, several other sentence errors were also pointed out and
classified by the author according to their specific traits.

2.4 Report on the results about the frequency of the sentence errors

In this part of the study, their frequency of sentence errors by the participants
would be presented basing on the deployment of quantitative analysis.
The total sentences of the 50 pieces of writing are 864 in which there are 129
sentence structure errors. Thus, the average number of sentences in a piece of
writing is 17 sentences. The average number of sentence structure errors in each
writing paper is 3 sentence errors. Among the total number of the errors, the most
problematic sentences are fragments which consist of 40%. The number of
“sentence errors of other types” is a bit lower than the above accounting for 33%.
The remaining problematic sentences are run-on sentences (20%), and stringy
sentences (7%). The frequency of the sentence errors is shown in the table below.

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Table 1. The frequency of the types of sentence structure errors

Sentence errors
Numbers
Average percent
(%)
Rank
Sentence fragments
52/129
40
1
Run-ons
26/129
20
3
Stringy sentences
9/129

7
4
“The sentence errors of other types”
- sentences with verb abundance
- sentences with subject abundance
- sentences with the incorrect use of
relative pronouns
- Sentences with the incorrect use of
linking words
42/129


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