Linguistic errors in writing a paragraph of 10th form students at Nguyen Trai high school in Hai Phong and some solutions

Linguistic errors in writing a paragraph of 10th
form students at Nguyen Trai high school in Hai
Phong and some solutions


Phạm Thị Bích Ngọc


Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English teaching methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10
Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Cao Thúy Hồng
Năm bảo vệ: 2012


Abstract. This thesis investigates the linguistic difficulties in writing a paragraph of
10th form students at Nguyen Trai High School (N.T.H.S). The result of the
questionnaire and the analysis students’ writings reveal that 10th form students at
N.T.H.S made many linguistic errors when writing a paragraph, and the most common
errors are in verb tenses, spelling, meaning of linking words. Also, the study results
show that students were aware of the errors they made, but with some specific types of
linguistic errors, there was a conflict between students’ perceptions and the errors they
made in writing. Based on the findings, the researcher provides some suggestions to
help students to overcome their difficulties. With the findings and the suggestions, the
researcher hopes that the teachers of English at N.T.H.S will apply a suitable way of
teaching in order help students to improve their paragraph writing.

Keywords. Kỹ năng viết; Lỗi; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Tiếng Anh; Kỹ năng viết văn

Content
1. Rationale
Teaching and learning a foreign language aims at providing the learners with means of

communication. To acquire the communicative competence, four language skills (reading,
speaking, listening and writing) are taught regularly at schools and universities, among which
writing skill is very important because it helps learners to learn other skills better.
“First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that
we have been teaching our students. Second, when they write, they have a chance to be
adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take
risks. Third, when students write, they necessarily become very involved with the new
language; the effort to express ideas and constant use of eye, hand and brain is the unique
way of expressing their idea. They discover a real need for finding the right word and the
right sentence. The close relationship between writing and thinking makes writing a
valuable part of any language courses” (Raimes, 1938: 3).
Due to the importance of writing skill, it is part of the English syllabus at high school. However,
from the writer’s teaching-experience at Nguyen Trai high school, not enough attention has been
paid to the teaching and learning of writing skill at high school. Writing is both dismal and
neglected: many students never get a writing assignment, and many writing exercises in the
textbook are abandoned. Besides that, teachers are also afraid of teaching writing skill. They
think that teaching writing is really a challenge.
The ignorance of writing skill at high school has resulted in students’ poor writing skill:
they have a lot of mistakes and many of them are unable to write an understandable paragraph.
One of the most serious problems that the writer has identified from her experience teaching
paragraph writing to students is linguistic difficulties. For example students often use wrong verb
tenses in a paragraph, they confuse the meaning of the words or they can’t create the coherence
in the paragraph by linking words. Therefore, the researcher would like to do this research to find
out common linguistic difficulties in writing a paragraph of 10th form students and suggest some
solutions to help students to avoid the linguistic errors and improve their paragraph writing.
2. Objectives of the study
As just mentioned, students at Nguyen Trai high school face many linguistic difficulties
in writing a paragraph. Therefore, the ultimate goal of the research is to find out the real situation
of students’ linguistic difficulties in writing.
3. Research questions

Specifically, the research aims at finding out the answers to the following questions :
- What are students’ perceptions of their linguistic errors in writing paragraph?
- What are common linguistic errors (in terms of grammar, vocabulary and linking
words) made by students in writing a paragraph?
4. Scope of the study
The study is about paragraph writing of 10th form students at Nguyen Trai high school.
However, due to the limited scope and time, it is confined to finding out the students’ linguistic
errors in paragraph writing. Specifically, only mistakes in grammar, vocabulary and linking
words will be taken into consideration.
5. Method of the study
In this study, the writer adopted the quantitative research approach. Specifically, survey
questionnaires and model analysis were two methods employed to collect data for the research
study.
Questionnaires were conducted among 60 students to find out students’ perceptions of
their linguistic difficulties in writing a paragraph.
Sixty paragraphs on three different topics from 60 students were collected. Mistakes were
identified and classified into different categories. Statistical counting was carried out to bring
about the real picture of students’ linguistic difficulties.
6. Organization of the study
In order to achieve the above mentioned aims, this paper is divided into three parts:
The first part is the Introduction, which points out the rationale, aims, and scope of the
study. Research questions are also specifically defined to serve as guidelines for the whole paper.
The second part is the Development. In this part, three chapters are presented. In chapter
one, literature related to teaching writing, paragraph writing and writing errors is reviewed. In
chapter two, the method of the study is presented. It includes careful descriptions of the subjects,
sampling method, instrument and method of data collection and analysis. The last chapter
presents data analysis and discussion. In this part, questionnaires and writing samples collected
from 10
th
form students at Nguyen Trai high school are analyzed to find out students’ typical

errors in order to recommend effective strategies for teaching paragraph writing.
The last part of the study is the Conclusion, which points out what has been addressed as
well as what has not been completed and offers recommendations for further study.


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