An Investigation into common written errors committed by first year students at Nghe An Economics and Technology College = Khảo sát lỗi viết sinh viên năm thứ n

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


NGỤY VÂN THÙY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON WRITTEN
ERRORS COMMITTED BY FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT
NGHE AN ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

Khảo sát lỗi viết sinh viên năm thứ nhất trường cao đẳng
Kinh tế – Kỹ thuật Nghệ An thường mắc phải

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10


HANOI – 2010



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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


NGỤY VÂN THÙY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON WRITTEN ERRORS
COMMITTED BY FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT NGHE AN
ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

Khảo sát lỗi viết sinh viên năm thứ nhất trường cao đẳng
Kinh tế – Kỹ thuật Nghệ An thường mắc phải

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: Phạm Thị Hạnh, M.A

HANOI - 2010


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii

Table of contents iv
List of Abbreviations vii
List of tables viii
Part A: Introduction 1
1. Rationale of the study. 1
2. Aim of the study 2
3. Scope of the study 2
4. Research questions 3
5. Structure of the study 3
Part B: Development 4
Chapter I: Liturature review 4
1.1 Writing 4
1.2 Paragraph 5
1.3 Errors and Mistakes 5
1.4 Classification of errors 6
1.4.1 Interlingual Errors 7
1.4.2 Intralingual Errors 8
1.5 Sources of errors 8
1.5.1 Interlingual interference 9
1.5.2 Intralingual Interference 10
1.5.2.1 Overgeneralization 10
1.5.2.2 Ignorance of rule restriction 10
1.5.2.3 Incomplete application of rules 11
1.5.2.4 False concepts hypothesized 11
1.6 Error analysis 11
1.7 Significance of error analysis 12
1.8 Error Frequency 13


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Chapter II: Research Method 16
2.1 Research questions 16
2.2 Research methodology 16
2.3 Participants and context of the study 16
2.3.1 Context of teaching and learning at NgheAn Economics and
Technology college 17
2.3.2 Participants and their background 17
2.4 Research Instrument 18
2.5 Procedure of data collection 19
2.5.1 Collection of samples 19
2.5.2 Identification of errors 19
2.5.3 Classification of errors 19
2.5.4 Explanation of errors 20
2.5.5 Evaluation of errors 20
Chapter III: Findings And Discussion 21
3.1 Findings 21
3.2 Discussion 24
3.2.1 The most common errors 24
3.2.1.1 Preposition errors 24
3.2.1.2 Errors in Verb Tense 26
3.2.1.3 Errors in using Articles 27
3.2.1.4 Subject-Verb agreement errors 28
3.2.1.5 Errors in Verb form 29
3.2.1.6 Errors in pluralization 29
3.2.2 The cause of those errors. 29
3.2.2.1 Mother tongue interference 30
3.2.2.2 Overgeneralization 31
3.2.2.3 Ignorance of rule restrictions: 32
3.2.2.4 Incomplete application of rules: 33
3.2.2.5 False concepts hypothesized 34

Chapter IV: Pedagogical Implications and recommendations 35
4.1 Pedagogical Implications 35
4.1.1 Implications for teachers 35


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4.1.2 Implications for syllabus designers 35
4.2 Recommendations 36
4.2.1 Peer-correction 37
4.2.2 Teacher correction 37
Part C: Conclusions 38
1. Conclusions 38
2. Limitations of the study 38
3. Suggestions for further study 39
References 40

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List of Abbreviations

EA: Error Analysis
L1: The first language
L2: The second language

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List of tables

Table 1: Collected data about errors made by students in their free writings 21
Table 2: Collected data about errors made by students in their final writing tests 22
Table 3: Comparative data about errors made by students 22
Table 4: Frequency of each types of errors 23

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Part A: Introduction
1. Rationale of the study.
English has recently been used in many fields of life in Vietnam. It has entered into
politics, economics, tourism, electronics, telecommunication, culture and science and
technology. It is not only a means but also a key to accessing the latest achievements of
science and technology. Further more, it‟s English that brings Vietnam closer to many
other countries in the World. Therefore, it is necessary for many Vietnamese to have a
good command of English to satisfy the growing needs in a developing country like
Vietnam.
Learning a language is a lifelong process. And whenever a language is learnt or
acquired, one is faced with the problem of errors. As a famous saying goes “to err is
human”. In the process of language development, this is also the case. When the utterances
produced by learners are examined and compared with the target language norm, they are
often found to be full of errors. Errors are an inevitable feature of learning process.
As it is known in 1950s, behaviourist learning theory described language learning as
habit formation and explained why learners made errors. According to based language
teaching, old habits hinder or facilitate forming new habits. That is why errors are
unwanted. Since the errors were result of non-learning rather than wrong learning, there
was a danger of errors becoming habits if they were tolerated, so like sin, error should be
avoided. However, in recent years, many experts on Communicative language teaching

have emphasized the significance of EFL/ESL learners‟ errors which have been considered
as “a way of learning” (Olsson,1974), as “strategy the learner uses in order to learn”
(Corder,1981), as “a natural and unavoidable part” of their language learning process
(Doff, 1988), and as the learners‟ “learning steps” (Edge,1989). Nunan (2001) believed
that “linguists and educators began studying the specific language learners used as they
attempted to communicate in the target language” and that “errors were seen not as
evidence of pathology on the part of learners, but as normal and healthy part of learning
process ”.They are not problems to be overcome or evils to be eradicated. They, in fact, are
part of learning and reveal the strategies that learners use to learn a language. They provide
valuable insight into the language learning process.


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Being a teacher of English at Nghe An Economics and Technology college for five
years, I have marked many students‟ final written tests. I found that, students made a lot of
mistakes and errors in their writings. The errors they have made were grammatical errors,
vocabulary errors, semantics errors, or errors of coherence and cohesion ect… As teachers,
how should we treat those errors? how to make their writing better? Having realized the
significance of focusing on learners‟ errors in learning and teaching a language, I do this
research to investigate into the most common errors committed in the process of foreign
language acquisition by first year students at Nghe An Economics and Technology college
to find and draw out the best possible solutions to solve the problems mentioned above.
This research attempts to overview the background theories of learners‟ errors
analysis, investigate and find out the causes of those errors. More importantly, this study
tries to give some suggestions on how to treat students‟ errors in the process of foreign
language acquisition.
2. Aims of the study
This study tries to:
- investigate the errors made by first year students of Nghe An Economics and
Technology college in their written work.

- identify and classify the errors into various categorizations.
- draw out the most common errors that committed by first year students of
Nghe An Economics and Technology college in their written work; and
- recommend methods of treating errors for teachers and students of English at
Nghe An Economics and Technology college.
3. Scope of the study
Learning a foreign language is a step by step process, during which errors or mistakes
are to be expected. These errors and mistakes are now considered a part of language
learning process. Therefore, instead of seeing errors negatively as a sign of failure, we can
see them positively as an indication of what still needs teaching. However, due to the
limitation of time, and more importantly, the requirements of academic thesis, this study
could not cover all types of errors of all four language skills. I just focus on the analysis of
written errors, especially the grammatical errors which are committed by first year students
at Nghe An Economics and Technology college under the study of their writings, thereby


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making some pedagogical suggestions for error treatment that I believe may be appropriate
to the context of Nghe An Economics and Technology college.
4. Research questions
For the achievement of the above objectives, this study was designed to seek the
answers to the following questions:
1. What are the most common written errors committed by first year students at Nghe An
college of Economics and Technology?
2. What are the main sources of those errors?

5. Structure of the study
The study was structured into 3 main parts
Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the
scope and the structure of the study are presented.

Part B is the development of the study in which 3 three chapters are presented.
Chapter I consists of the literature review in which various perspectives on error and error
analysis which have been documented in the literature are reviewed to provide a theoretical
background of the study. Chapter II is about the research methods in which the research
questions, research approach, research instrument, data collection, participants and context
of the study and procedure of investigation are given. Chapter III is about findings and
discussion. Some pedagogical implications and recommendation are included in chapter IV
of this part.
Part C is the conclusions which deal with the main summary of the study. Limitations
and suggestions for further study are presented in this part as well.











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Part B: Development
Chapter I: Literature Review
This chapter, Literature Review, will present the previous studies related to the
errors analysis in the context of second language teaching. The pertinent literature will be
reviewed and analyzed with the intention of providing a theoretical foundation to the
current study. The literature review will initially look at the terms concerned in the study.
It will then concentrate on the issues related to errors analysis in second language
acquisition. Classification and sources of errors are two main issues which will be carefully

discussed in the review. Finally, a summary of the chapter will conclude the literature
review.
1.1 Writing
There is no particular definition about writing stated by an author or a linguist. L.
Strauss in J. Hartley, et al (1962: 66) stated that “writing might, that is to say, be regarded
as a form of artificial memory, whose development should be accompanied by a deeper
knowledge of the past and, therefore, by a greater ability to organize the present and the
future.”
In fact, there are some acts of writing which can be used as the basis for conceiving
the meaning of writing. Those acts of writing are in line with the development of learning
to write through which a student should pass.
Writing involves more than just producing words and sentences. To be able to
produce a piece of writing, we should be able to write a connected series of words and
sentences which are grammatically and logically linked, so that the purpose we have in our
mind will suit the intended readers. In this way, it is meant that the style of language used
in a piece of writing designed for layman and people living in the village, for example,
should be different from the one designed for educated people such as students, teachers,
doctors, professors, etc. Therefore, in presenting a piece of discourse we should consider
the correctness of form, the appropriateness of style, and the unity of topic (Harmer, 2004)
Just like speaking, writing is a way of communicating a message with an intended
audience. It is a means of expressing thoughts, ideas, and feelings. By writing we may flow
out a burden occupying our mind offer our ideas and concepts to others, and share our
knowledge and experiences.


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Writing as one of the four language skills, in real world contexts, is not a solitary
enterprise. It has a relation with grammar, reading, listening, and speaking. Most students
find foreign language writing is difficult; they will rarely need to write in adult life, so they
will decrease the amount of writing. Rivers as quoted by Swarbick (1994: 142) describes

five stages of development which students need to go through in acquiring competence in
writing, i.e.: copying, reproduction, recombination, guided writing, and free writing.
In short, writing is the most complex skill to show the relationship of ideas which
needs the willingness to write and some practices done step by step to pass on knowledge
or messages. So, writing is one way to speak what is on our mind. It involves more than
just producing words and sentences. To produce a piece of writing, we should be able to
write a connected series of words and sentences which are grammatically and logically
linked.
1.2 Paragraph
According to Hornby (1989:895), paragraph is distinct section of a written or
printed text, usually consisting of several sentences dealing with a single theme and
starting on a new line. In tone with it, Tidyman (1987:10) says that a paragraph is a group
of sentences that develop a point on an idea. Further he explains that the important feature
of paragraph is that it has unity when all of its sentences are related to the main point. So, a
paragraph is a group of sentences dealing with a single theme that develop the main point
on an idea.
The form of paragraph can be written into 12 kinds of genre. Those genres are
recount, report, discussion, explanation, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, news
item, anecdote, narrative, procedure, description, and review. Each of them has different
social function and characteristics.
1.3 Errors and Mistakes
Making errors is the most natural thing in the world and it is evidently attached to
the human being. But, how do we define error? A number of experts in linguistics have
presented various definitions of error. Among them, Norrish (1987) considers error a
systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it
wrong. Cunning Worth (1987) defines error as systematic deviations from the norms of
language being learned. It seems that the phrase “systematic deviation” in these two
definitions is a key word which can be interpreted as the deviation which happens

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repeatedly. Chaudron (1986) reviews error as (1) “linguistic forms or content that differed
from native speaker norms or facts, and (2) any other behaviour signaled by the teacher as
needing improvement”. George (1972) defines error as “an unwanted form, specifically, a
form which a particular course designer or teacher does not want”. Johansson (1975)
believes that “If native speakers hesitate about the acceptability of a word or construction it
should not be considered an error”. However, it is necessary to differentiate between error
and mistake. Corder introduced the distinction between systematic and non-systematic
errors. Unsystematic errors occur in one‟s native language; Corder calls these "mistakes"
and states that they are not significant to the process of language learning. He keeps the
term "errors" for the systematic ones, which occur in a second language. According to him,
errors are typically produced by people who do not yet fully command some
institutionalized language system (Corder, 1974: 29). A mistake is also a deviation of the
norms of the language but is not systematic. It means that the use of the norm of the
language in the sentences is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Norrish (1983) says
that a mistake is an inconsistent deviation that is sometimes the learner „gets it right‟ but
sometimes wrong. Richards et.al (1985) states that mistake is made by a learner when
writing or speaking which is caused by the lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or other
aspects of performance.
From the linguists‟ opinion above, it can be concluded that a mistake is a non
systematic deviation from the norms of language. A mistake refers to the failures to use the
language system correctly caused by some factors such as carelessness, memory lapses,
and physical condition while error refers to the failure to use the system correctly caused
by the lack of the learners‟ competence, ignorance of appropriate rule and interference of
the learners‟ mother tongue and the general characteristics of the rule learning
Error is a complicated concept by nature. However, for the purpose of this research,
I adopt the definitions by Norrish and Cunning Worth because these two definitions are
adequate to reveal the errors showing up in the written texts.

1.4 Classification of errors

When a learner develops his second or foreign language system, he makes errors.
In first language learning, these errors are “lapses” or “slips of the tongue” due to physical
or psychological reasons (Brown, 1980). However, in second language and foreign


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language learning, these errors are reviewed carefully. Corder (1973) introduces the
distinction between systematic and non-systematic errors. Non-systematic errors occur in
one‟s native language, Corder calls these "mistakes" and states that they are not significant
to the process of language learning. They can be self-corrected when attention is called. He
keeps the term "errors" for the systematic ones, which occur in a second language. He
believes that errors are the evidence of the language system that the learner is using at a
particular point in the course. Corder (1973) refers to three types of errors. These are : 1)
transfer errors; 2) analogical errors and 3) teaching-induced errors. Chomsky classifies
learners‟ errors into: 1) performance error and 2) competence error. Competence is the
„speaker-hearer‟s knowledge of his language‟, while performance is the actual use of
language in concrete situations. Heaton (1998) and Littlewood (1984) divide errors into
two main types: global and local errors. Richard (1974) and some other researchers
distinguish between interlingual errors and intralingual errors.
Obviously, errors are classified differently according to perspectives. On the whole,
the most popular classification of written errors that earns scholars' consensus prevailingly
is the division of errors into interlingual errors and intralingual errors. Because, two major
factors that contributed to the presence of errors in students‟ written work are interlingual
transfer and intralingual transfer. The elaboration of these categories is illustrated as
below:
1.4.1. Interlingual Errors
According to Brown (1980:173) the beginning stages of learning a second language
are characterized by a good deal of interlingual transfer from the native language. Richard
(1974:35) says that interlingual errors are errors due to transferring rules from the mother
tongue. They are the incorrect elements under the influence of learners' native language.

Therefore, interlingual errors are errors which are caused by interference from native
language to the target language they learn. So, before someone really master the concept of
their target language they will always use the concept of their native language. When it
happens all the time and they do not realize it, it can be called interlingual errors.
Obviously, the understanding of intralingual and interlingual error enables teacher
to perceive language teaching form a two-way perspective, which is different from
traditional teaching which only emphasizes target language. This classification could help


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the teacher deal with the relationship between L1 and L2 in teaching practice, to trace the
origin of errors, and to decide what language points need more attention.
1.4.2. Intralingual Errors
After learning second language or foreign language for some time, learners‟
previous experience and their existing subsumes begin to include structures within the
target language itself. According to James (1998:183), the less the learner knows about the
target language, the more he is forced to draw upon any other prior knowledge he
possesses. While Brown (1980:173) says that it is clear that intralingual errors or
intralingual interference-the negative transfer of items within the target language, or put
another way, the incorrect generalization of rules within the target language is a major
factor in second language learning. Intralingual errors refer to those out of the influence
within the developmental system of target language, such as faulty generalization,
incomplete application of rules, and so on (Ellis, 1999:58).
1.5 Sources of errors
We all know that errors are unavoidable in language learning process. These errors
occur because of many reasons. By identifying the sources of error, the teacher begins to
know how learner‟s cognitive and affective self relates to the linguistic system and also to
formulate his process of learning a foreign language.
However, it is by no means easy to identify the actual sources of written errors in the
field of English Language Teaching. Different classifications of errors provide us with

different perspectives to analyze the causes of errors. Brown (1980:156) states that errors
are caused by the lack of knowledge about the target language. Edge (1989:7) claims that
the source of learner‟s errors is the interference from the speaker‟s first language. In tone
with it, Richards (1974:174) says that the source of errors in studying a language might be
derived from the interference of the learners‟ mother tongue and the general characteristics
of the rule learning.
In summary, errors can be ascribed to many factors. Some of learners' errors are due
to learners' language competence, some due to cultural interference; some are results of
learners' learning strategies, while others are the products of communicative strategies;
some are classroom induced errors, while others are the results of individual variables , and
so on. Diverse as these viewpoints are, there should be an intersection among different
schools of thoughts or a clear-cut justification among them so that these causes are figured


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out and proper error correction is offered. In general, the very causes of written errors can
be summed up as below:
1.5.1 Interlingual interference
Interlingual interference is the interference of the learner‟s first language or mother
tongue onto the process of learning a second language. Mother tongue interference is one
of the major causes leading to learner‟s committing errors. Norrish (1987) states that
learning a language (a mother tongue or a foreign language) is a matter of habit formation.
When learner strives to learn a new habit, the old ones will interfere with the new ones. In
other words, the term "first language interference" best summarizes this phenomenon.
Besides, being able to express fully one's ideas in another language is always a demanding
task. Thus, when learners' second language is not sufficient in expressing themselves, it is
likely that they will rely on their first language to express their ideas. Edge (1989: 7) is in
line with this thought: "when people do not know how to say something in a foreign
language, one possibility is to use words and structures from their own language and try to
make them fit into the foreign language." Moreover, the interference of mother tongue may

result from the complication of the structure of the target language as Abbort et al (1981:
230) argues that "wherever the structures of the first language and target language differed,
there would be problems in learning and difficulty in performance, and that the greater the
differences were, the greater the difficulties would be."
Undoubtedly, differences and similarities between L1 and L2 will affect the
learning of the target language greatly. The consideration of the contrast and comparison
between the two languages will for sure contribute to the analysis of learner' errors. The
differences between Vietnamese and English are manifested in pronunciation, grammatical
rules, lexical meaning, and word order is considered another factor of the interlingual
interference as well.
1.5.2 Intralingual Interference
Interferences from the students‟ own language is not the only reason for
committing errors. During the process of analyzing the causes of errors, a large number of
errors are found to be the result of intralingual interference within the target language. As
soon as the learner has begun to acquire some parts of the new language system, more and
more intralingual interference will occur. The errors from intralingual interference
normally follow a natural route. As the learner progresses in the second language, his


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previous experience and his existing knowledge begin to permeate for producing new
progress, at the same time arousing new errors. Intralingual interference is the negative
transfer of items within the target language such as the overgeneralization, the wrong
application of rules and results in false conceptualization on the part of the learner.
(Richards 1974:96).
According to James (1998), intralingual errors can be divided into 4 items:
1.5.2.1 Overgeneralization
Another possible cause of written errors to be mentioned is overgeneralization. It
occurs when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other structures in the
target language. It generally involves the creation of one deviant structure in place of two

target language structures. Consequently, students automatically apply rules wherein they
are not allowed to. For example:
She will cries aloud.
He can speaks English well.
We are hope to see you.
In the examples, the learners overgeneralize that the simple present tense „s‟ ending
is required by the third person singular. Whereas, the form of English sentences are not
fully the same as they expect. In addition, they may reduce their linguistic burden. To
know their mistakes in constructing sentences, I give the correct sentences as follows:
She will cry aloud.
He can speak English well.
We hope to see you.
1.5.2.2. Ignorance of rule restriction
This types of errors involves the application of rules to contexts where the learner
does not apply. Here the learner fails to observe the restrictions of existing structures. For
example:
He asked to me about my family.
She told to me her big problem yesterday.
He showed to me his new cars.
In this case, they should reduce „to‟ in the sentence “He asked to me” because he
applied the same preposition to different verbs. The following sentences are the correct
forms of the sentences above:
He asked me about my family.


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She told me her big problem yesterday.
She showed me his new cars
1.5.2.3. Incomplete application of rules
This kind of intralingual error is converse of overgeneralization and represents the

degree of development of the rule required to produce acceptable sentences. It is typically
related to analogy. It involves a failure to fully develop a structure. Thus learners of L2
English have been observed to use declarative word order in questions (for example, “You
like to sing?”) in place of interrogative word order (for example, “Do you like to sing?”).
This type of intralingual error corresponds to what is often referred to as an error of
transitional competence (Richards, 1971).
1.5.2.4. False concepts hypothesized
The last category of intralanguage error, that is sometimes called semantic error is
false concepts hypothesized. It derives from incorrect comprehending of distinction in the
target language. These particular errors are the result of poor gradation of teaching items.
The form „was‟ for example, may be interpreted as the marker of the past tense, as in “one
day it was happened”.
1.6 Error analysis
It is to S.P. Corder that Error Analysis (EA) owes its place as a scientific method in
linguistics. As Rod Ellis cites (p. 48), "it was not until the 1970s that EA became a
recognized part of applied linguistics, a development that owed much to the work of
Corder". According to James (1998:7) error analysis is a methodology for dealing with
data rather than a theory of acquisition. The data can be taken by conducting a test with the
students as the respondents. Further he (James 1998:1) says that the process of determining
the incidence, nature, causes, and consequences of unsuccessful language learning. While
Brown (1980:166) states that error analysis is the fact that learner do make errors and that
these errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system
operating within the learners. The purpose is to show some problems faced by the students.
It is a key to understand the process of foreign language acquisition.
Richards et.al (1985:96) states that error analysis is the study of errors made by the
second and foreign language learners. Error analysis may be carried out in order to (a) find
out how well someone knows a language, (b) find out how a person learns a language, and
(c) obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid in teaching or

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in the preparation of teaching materials. This definition stresses the functions of error
analysis.
Another concept of error analysis is given by Crystal (1987:112). He considers
error analysis a technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the
unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any of the
principles and procedures provided by linguistics.
From those explanations it can be concluded that error analysis is a methodology
for dealing with data which can be observed, analyzed and classified to reveal or determine
the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language learning within
the learners. In other words, error analysis is an activity to identify, classify and interpreted
or describe the errors made by someone in speaking or in writing and it is carried out to
obtain information on common difficulties faced by someone in speaking or in writing
English sentences.
1.7 Significance of error analysis
Many scholars in the field of error analysis have stressed the significance of second
language learners' errors. According to Corder as cited by Richards (1974) noted that errors
“could be significant in three ways: (1) they provided the teacher with information about
how much the learner had learnt. By error analysis, teachers will get an overall knowledge
about the students‟ errors. Foreign language learning is a process of hypothesis and trial
and error occurrence is inevitable. So the teacher should learn to tolerate some errors,
especially some local errors; (2) they provided the researcher with of evidence of how
language was learnt. Errors can tell the teacher how far towards the goal the learner has
progressed and consequently, what remains for him or her to learn. So students‟ errors are
valuable feedbacks. We can do some remedial teaching based on their errors; and (3) they
served as devices by which the learner discovered the rules of the target language. Errors
are indispensable to the learners themselves, for we can regard the making of mistakes as a
device the learner employs in order to learn.
In conclusion, error analysis theory together with other theories have enriched the
second language learning theory in that learning involves in a process in which success

comes by profiting from mistakes and by using mistakes to obtain feedback from the
environment. With the feedback they make new attempts to achieve the more closely


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approximate desired goals. However, some errors need to be handled, otherwise, they will
become fossilized.

1.8 Error Frequency

High-frequency errors, has been suggested for language teachers when they respond
to written products (Allwright, 1975, Mings, 1993). Walz (1982) defines frequent errors as
meaning those that are frequently committed by individual students and by many students
in a class, and they are normally produced on common features of grammar. Thus, learning
the right forms has more value for students than learning the right forms of minor errors.
Hendrickson (1980, p.161) claims that the examination to find out the frequently
committed errors at various stage of SLA is necessary, because it could provide the
information to build “hierarchies of language learning features”. In fact, some researchers
have found errors that are frequently produced by ESL learners. As an illustration, the
following shows the most common errors made by ESL learners introduced by Dulay, et
al. in 1982.
(1) Omitting grammatical morphemes, which are items that do not
contribute much to the meaning of sentences, as in He hit car.
(2) Double marking, a semantic feature (e.g. past tense) when only one
marker is required, as in She didn’t went back.
(3) Regularizing rules, as in womans for women.
(4) Using archiforms – one form in place of several – such as the use of her
for both she and her, as in I see her yesterday. Her dance with my
brother.
(5) Using two or more forms in random alternation even though the

language requires the use of each only under certain conditions, as in the
random use of he and she regardless of the gender of the person of
interest.
(6) Misordering items in constructions that require a reversal of word-order
rules that had been previously acquired, as in What you are doing?, or
misplacing items that may be correctly placed in more than one place in
the sentence, as in They are all the time late.
(Extracted from Dulay et al., 1982, pp.138-139)


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In Vann et al.‟s 1984 study that examined university faculty‟s opinion of ESL errors,
they chose the following as common ESL writing errors:
Spelling Tense
Subject-verb Prepositions
Article It-deletion
Relative clauses Pronoun agreement
Comma splice Word order
(Vann et al., 1984, p.431)
There is also a useful checklist developed by Robinett in 1972, which contains the
frequent errors of ESL learners. This checklist consists of 18 areas, and the types of
frequent errors in each area are described in detail, so that the teachers can use them to
evaluate compositions in a more objective way (for more detail, see Walz, 1982).
Agreement Capitalization Article / Determiners
Verbs Punctuation Format
Word division Sentence Paraphrase
Penmanship Vocabulary Nouns
Comparison Content Spelling
Prepositions Double negative Word order
(Robinett, 1972, extracted fromWalz, 1982, p.35)

In addition to the above studies, Ferris and Roberts‟s (2001) recent article
introduces the following five categories that represent the five most frequent errors found
by Chaney‟s analysis of learner errors in 1999.

Description of Error Categories

Verb errors
All errors in verb tense or form,
including relevant subject-verb
agreement errors.
Noun ending errors
Plural or possessive ending
incorrect, omitted, or unnecessary;
includes relevant subject-verb
agreement errors.
Article errors
Article or other determiner
incorrect, omitted, or unnecessary.
Wrong word
All specific lexical errors in word
choice or word form, including
preposition and pronoun errors.


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Spelling errors only included if the
(apparent) misspelling resulted in
an actual English word.
Sentence structure
Errors in sentence/clause

boundaries (run-on, fragments,
comma splices), word order,
omitted words, or phrases,
unnecessary words or phrases, other
unidiomatic sentence construction.

It‟s obvious that common ESL writing errors are identified and classified
differently according to the reseachers‟ perspectives. However, in order to achieve the
study‟s objective of finding 5 most frequent errors made by students of Nghe An
Economics and Technology college, I have adapted the way Chaney (1999) analyzed
learner‟s errors. This will be discussed carefully in chapter 4 of this current study.
In summary, the literature relevant to the issue of learners‟ errors has been
reviewed carefully by the researcher in this chapter. Learner‟s error is a complicated issue
which is viewed differently from different perspectives. Due to the complexity of the
question under discussion, I have adopted Norrish‟s and Cunning Worth‟s definition of
errors as an operational definition for this study. For the purpose of the study, the term
error is used to refer to the linguistic deviants made within the learners‟ underlying system.











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Chapter II: Research method

In the previous chapter, some theoretical backgrounds related to the subject of the
study have been thoroughly analyzed. This chapter is covered with research questions,
research methodology, participants and context of the study, research instruments and
procedure of data collection in which introduced five steps of analyzing students‟ errors in
their writings.
2.1 Research questions
As stated in 1.4, I set the aim to seek answers to the following research questions:
1. What are the most common written errors committed by first year students at
Nghe An Economics and Technology college?
2. What are the main sources of those errors?
2.2 Research method
In order to meet the aims set in this current study, the researcher has used the
quantitative approach in which the data were obtained from the students‟ written work
under the form of paragraphs. These writings were then analyzed. In analyzing these
writings, the researcher has employed the method which Corder as quoted by Ellis
(1994:48) suggests to conduct an error analysis research. This method consists of five steps
as following:
No
Steps
Explanations
1.
Collection of samples of learner
language
Deciding what samples of learner language to use for
the analysis and how to collect these samples
2.
Identification of errors
Identifying the errors by underlying the errors the
learner made
3.

Classification of errors
Grouping the errors that have been found and stating
the classes of the errors
4.
Explanation of errors
Explaining the errors by establishing the source of
the errors and calculating how often the errors appear
5.
Evaluation of errors
Evaluating the errors step involves tabelizing the
errors and drawing conclusion



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2.3 Context and participants of the study
2.3.1 Context of teaching and learning at Nghe An Economics and
Technology college.
In the context of Nghe An Economics and Technology college, English is a non-
major but a compulsory subject with two sections: 75 periods for General English which is
taught in the first year and another 75 periods for English for Specific Purposes which is
taught in the second year. New Headway Pre-intermediate has been used for General
English. This book consists of fourteen lessons and is designed for a development of four
language skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. However, the limitation of the
time and the pressures of the College English Test and the College English curriculum
have prevented teachers from covering all language skills carefully. Only speaking and
reading are introduced and practised at the classroom. Listening and writing are often
practised at home by the students themselves
2.3.2 . Participants and their background
The participants of the study are forty first-year students in the academic year of 2009

- 2010 who I took randomly as sample to my study. They are from classes K5- 05, K5- 06,
K5- 07, K5- 08 Business Accounting of Nghe An Economics and Technology college.
They are at elementary level and all major in Business Accounting.
They all have studied English as a compulsory subject at high school for at least
three years and they have passed the entrance examination to the college. Therefore, they
all know how to write a paragraph. The age of the participants varies from 18 to 22. Four
of them were male. They come from different parts of the province. Some of them are from
Vinh city and districts around the city. And some of them are from rural or remote areas,
where they have no good opportunities for studying English.
The other participation in the research paper were 40 first-semester final writing
tests which I was allowed to copy from the Training Department of Nghe An Economics
and Technology college. In order to get the allowance of copying those tests, the researcher
had consulted with the Head of the Training Department about the needed samples and
explained to him what the researcher was doing. The samples were taken randomly as well.
There was no written work of the same students. These samples were collected from
official tests, so there is a low risk that students may copy down from the others, the


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internet or reference books. This ensures that the writing samples collected are students'
own products and it would contribute greatly to the reliability of the study.

2.4 Research Instrument
An instrument plays an important role in research. It influences the data which are
collected. In order to conduct this study, the researcher would like to employ document
analysis as a feasible method to gain insights into the research problems. This data
collection method is “considered a research technique that provides objective, systematic
and qualitative data” (Verma and Mallick, 1999). This method allows the researcher to
make inferences from data collected.
In order to conduct this document analysis, the researcher employed the participation

of two groups The first one was the participation of 40 final writing tests whose topic was
about their past holiday. These tests were chosen randomly among 400 other writing tests.
The second one was the participation of 40 students in classes K5- 05, K5- 06, K5- 07, K5-
Business Accounting who were chosen randomly by the researcher. In order to get the data
as objectively as possible, the researcher had the teacher of those classes get her students
write free essays in the form of paragraphs. They had already learned English at the high
schools only therefore they were able to write some genres such as: recount, report, letter,
postcard, descriptive and procedure.
The students were asked to write paragraphs choosing one of the following topics:
- a favourite room;
- a person he/she likes best;
- the best holiday;
- living in the city and in the country;
- a letter to the dearest friend
The paragraphs were written in pieces of paper. It was not an exam so students were
allowed to use dictionaries. The paragraphs had to be at least 100 words long. It could be
done in maximum of 60 minutes. The total respondents were 40 students who were chosen
as samples of the study.
These essays were written in the form of paragraphs. These students wrote everything
they wanted using suggested topics, but it must be at least 100 words long. The subject
matter of this research was which types of errors the students made inside their written