Mother tongue interference in learning english writing of first year english majors students at vinh uiniversity

VINH UNIVERSITY
FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT
**********

L£ THÞ MAI HOA

MOTHER- TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN LEARNING
ENGLISH WRITING OF FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH
MAJORS STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY
(¶nh hởng của tiếng mẹ đẻ trong việc học viết tiếng
anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngữ
trờng đại học vinh)

GRADUATION THESIS
Field: Linguistics

Vinh 2009
1


VINH UNIVERSITY
FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT
**********

MOTHER- TONGUE INTERFERENCE IN
LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING OF FIRST- YEAR
ENGLISH MAJORS STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY
(¶nh hëng cđa tiÕng mẹ đẻ trong việc học viết
tiếng anh của sinh viên CHUYÊN NGữ năm THứ nhất
trờng đại học vinh)

GRADUATION THESIS
Field: Linguistics

Student: Lê Thi Mai Hoa, K46B
Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Tờng, M.A

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Vinh 2009
ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

For the completion of this work, I have been fortunate to receive
invaluable contributions from many people. First of all, I should like to
express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyen Thi Tuong, M.A
for her absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, useful
advice and detailed critical comments, without which the work would not
have been complete.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all my lectures of Foreign
Languages Department at Vinh University for their constant support and
encouragements.
I repeat my thanks to all the first-year students of Foreign Languages
Department at Vinh University in the academic year: 2008- 2009 for their
enthusiastic participation in answering the questionnaires and, to all my
friends for their various kinds of help and encouragement.
My warmest thanks are due to my loving parents, my older brother
and my older sister for their love, support and encouragement.
Vinh, May 6, 2009
Le Thi Mai Hoa

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ABBREVIATIONS & SYMBOLS

ESL:

English as Second Language

L1:

first language / language 1

L2:

second language / language 2

MT:

mother tongue

TL:

the target language

:

correct answer

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................... i
ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..........................................................................iii
LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................v
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1.Justification of the Study ……………………………..............1
2. Aims of the Study …………………………………………….2
3. Methods of the Study………………………………….………2
4. Scope of the Study………………………………….…………2
5. Design of the Study …………………………………….…… .2
PART II: CONTENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1 Error and Error Analysis………………………………….…. 4
1.1.1 Definition of Error…………………………………..4
1.1.2 Error Analysis…………………………………….....4
1.2 Mother- Tongue Interference………………………………...5
1.3 Classification of Mother- Tongue Interference…………….....6
1.3.1 Morphological Mother- Tongue Interference…….…6
1.3.2 Semantic Mother- Tongue Interference………….….7
1.3.3 Syntactic Mother- Tongue Interference ………….... 8
CHAPTER 2: MOTHER- TONGUE INTERFERENCE ERRORS
2.1 Morphological Interference Errors ……………………….…..9
2.1.1 Tense- Marker Omission …………………………... 9
2.1.2 Plural-Marker Omission …………………………..10
2.1.3 Suffix Problems…………………………………….11
5

2.1.4 Incorrect Use of Pronoun Forms ……………….….12
2.1.5 Omission of the- ER Comparative Adjective/
Adverb Ending………………………………………….. 13
2.1.6 Omission of the -ING Verb Ending………………..14
2.2 Semantic Interference Errors…………………………….…..14
2.2.1 Incorrect Use of Preposition ……………………..14
2.2.2 Incorrect Use of Pronoun…………………………..20
2.2.3 Incorrect Use of Verbs ……………………………22
2.2.4 The Countable/ Uncountable Non- Distinction…....24
2.2.5 Omission of Articles……………………………….25
2.2.6 Tense Problems ……………………………….…. 26
2.2.7 Faulty Passivization………………………………. 27
2.3 Syntactic Interference Errors………………………………...28
2.3.1 Word- Order Problems …………………………… 28
2.3.2 “Be” Omission ………………………………….. 32
2.3.3 Infinitive “To” Deletion…………………………....33
2.3.4 Confused Expressions: “There be” versus “Have”...34
2.3.5 Relative Pronoun Omission……………………..….35
2.3.6 Subject Ellipsis ……………………………….…..36
2.3.7 Impersonal “It” Problems ……………………….…37
2.3.8 Misuse of Conjunctions……………………………38
2.3.9 Incorrect Use of Subject Clauses…………………..39
2.3.10 Other “VietEnglish” Structures……………….…..40
CHAPTER 3: RESULTS, FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS
3.1 Results…………………………..……………………45
3.2 Major Findings………………………..…………..….48
3.3 Suggestions ………………………..………………...53
3.4 Suggested Exercises………………………..………...56

PART III: CONCLUSION………………………..…………………….60
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REFERENCES
APPENDIX: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE

LIST OF TABLES
Chapter 3

Page

Table 1.3: First year students’ ideas about learning ESL writing………..46
Table 2.3: First- year students’ ideas about the level of difficulty of some
problems in writing…………………………………………....48
Table 3.3: First year students’ ideas about the difficulty of writing task…52

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Part I: INTRODUCTION
1. Justification of the Study
We all know that writing is a basic skill in four skills (listening,
speaking, reading, and writing) of ESL learning. The better you learn
writing, the better you learn other skills. According to Raimes (1983:
03); Bello (1999: 01); Phu (1993: 05), “Writing helps to foster the other
skills.”
However, it is not easy for Vietnamese learners of English to learn
writing skill well due to a lot of the grammatical dissimilarities between
the MT (Vietnamese) and the TL (English). That is the reason why

there can be found a lot of errors in their English writings. One of the
most popular errors is MT interference error. As a matter of fact, the
negative effects of MT in learning a second language is an undeniable
problem, especially in writing skill. Brown (1994: 90) maintains, “It is
clear from learning theory that a person will use whatever pervious
experience he or she has had with language in order to facilitate the
second language learning process”.
Besides, the first- year students had little chance of practicing
English writing skill before studying in university. In addition, writing
skill is especially important to the first year students of English because
writing is a key skill which may lead to success or failure in the second ,
third and fourth year when they are expected to write more and more in
English.
More importantly, the thesis is made in order to help the learners
realize the negative effects of the MT interference in L2 acquisition
then avoid errors and improve their writing skill.
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All above-mentioned reasons have inspired the author to choose
the topic: “Mother - Tongue Interference in Learning English Writing of
First- Year English Majors Students at Vinh University”.

2. Aims of the Study
With the ambition of helping the learners overcome the MT
interference problems when learning English writing, the study aims at:
- Identifying possible causes of Vietnamese learners’ MT interference
in learning English writing.
- Pointing out particular interference errors in three grammatical
categories: morphology, semantics and syntax; and explaining why

and how the errors are made
- Suggesting ways limit the negative effects of MT, correct
interference errors and improve the learning of ESL writing in
English.

3. Methods of the Study
-

Descriptive method

- Statistic and classifying
- Analytic and synthetic method
- Qualifying the materials

4. Scope of the Study
The study deals with particular interference errors in three
grammatical categories: morphology, semantics and syntax.

5. Design of the Study
The thesis consists of three parts:
Part I: Introduction

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This deals with the Justification, Aims, Methods, Scope and the Design
of the Study
Part II: Content
This part consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

Chapter 2: The Mother- Tongue Interference Errors
Chapter 3: Results, Findings and Suggestions
Part III: Conclusion
References
Appendix : Student Questionnaire

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PART II: CONTENT
Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1

Error and Error Analysis

1.1.1 Definition of Error
The use of a linguistic item (e.g. a word, a grammatical item, a
speech act, etc.) in a way, which a fluent or native speaker of the language
regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning (in the speech or writing
of a second or foreign language learner) (, Platt, J. & Platt, H. 1992).
A distinction is sometimes made between an error, which results from
incomplete knowledge, and a mistakes made by a learner when writing or
speaking and which is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or
some other aspect of performance (Richards, et. al. 1995)
Errors are sometimes classified according to vocabulary (lexical
error), pronunciation (phonological error), grammar (syntactic error),
misunderstanding of a speaker’s intention or meaning (interpretive error),
production of the wrong communicative effect e.g. through the faulty use
of a speech act or one of the rule of speaking (pragmatics).
In the study of second and foreign language learning, errors have

been studied to discover the processes learners make use of in learning and
using a language.
1.1.1. Error Analysis
According to (Richards, et. al. 1995), error analysis is the study and
analysis of the errors made by L2 learner.
Error analysis may be carried out in order to:
a. identify strategies which learners use in language learning.
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b. try to identify the causes of learner errors.
c. Obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as
an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials.
Error analysis developed as a branch of applied linguistics in the
1960s, and set out to demonstrate that many learner errors were not due to
the learners’ MT but reflect universal learning strategies. Error analysis
was therefore offered as an alternative to contrastive analysis. Attempts
were made to develop classifications for different types of errors on the
basis of the different processes that were assumed to account for them
(Richards, et. al. 1995)
A basic distinction was drawn between intralingual and interlingual
errors. Intralingual errors were classified as overgeneralizations (errors
caused by extension of TL rules to inappropriate contexts). Interlingual
error results from language transfer, that is, which is caused by the
learner’s native language (Richards, et. al. 1995)

1.2. Mother- Tongue Interference
The interference or language transfer means the effect of one
language on the learning of another. Thus, the mother- tongue interference
means the effect of MT on the learning of the TL (the second language).

There are two kinds of language transfers: negative and positive
transfer. Negative transfer is the use of a native- language pattern or rule
which leads to an error or inappropriate form in the TL. In other word, it is
MT Interference error. Brown (1994: 90) maintains, “It is clear from
learning theory that a person will use whatever previous experience he or
she has had with language in order to facilitate the second language
learning process.” According to him, when parallel features of the two
languages do not correspond exactly, there is a negative transfer from L1 to
L2, i.e. interference.
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There are different categories of MT interference errors that the
learners often cause when writing especially the first-year students.
Within the limit of this thesis, the author only examines the
interference errors in these three grammatical categories: morphological,
syntactic and semantic.

1.3. Classification of Mother- Tongue Interference
1.3.1 Morphological Interference Errors
The errors in this category are about the incorrect use of inflectional
suffixes and derivational affixes. These errors result from the considerable
differences between the MT (Vietnamese) and the TL (English), because
Vietnamese is an isolating language whereas English is an inflecting
language. Byleen (1986: 02) writes: “their first language may have
predisposed them (i.e., Vietnamese writer- notes mine) to certain
interference errors in English.”
English has a clearer distinction among nouns, verbs, adjectives and
adverbs. As we saw with Vietnamese, the same words can function both as
adverbs and adjectives, verbs can function as nouns and adjectives, all

without change in form. Word order within the sentence indicates the
relationship between words.
Inflectional suffix and derivational affix cause problems to
Vietnamese writers of English because the writers’ MT has no inflectional
suffix and derivational affix.
According to Ngoc (1997: 179), “English morphemes, such as the
plural morpheme, the possessive morpheme and so on present serious
problems for the Vietnamese learner of English, because they are nonexistent in the structure of Vietnamese words.”

13


According to J. P. Kaplan (1989: 77), there are eight inflectional
suffixes in English:
- plural (-s and its irregular variants, e.g., as in men)
- past tense (-ed and its irregular variants, as in went and slept)
- ’s (possessive)
- s (verb suffix for third person singular present tense)
- ing (verb suffix meaning “in process”)
- er (comparative)
- est (superlative suffix)
- past participle (“perfect” suffix on verbs)
The derivational affix is a bound morpheme added to a base or stem
and makes it change the meaning or/ and the part of speech, such as:
- “ness” in “happiness, kindness, goodness …”
- “er” in “worker, teacher, learner …”
1.3.2. Semantic Interference Error
The interference errors in this category result from the dissimilarity
between the two languages, in the way the speaker view the world around
them. In other word, the semantic interference error is caused by the

differences between the two cultures. Ways of thinking in different
languages are not the same across languages. In Ellis (1996, p.69),
“Speakers of different languages, he says, views the world in different
ways”.
Bloomfield, in Smolinski (1984: 40), “the words of different
languages are not just externally different labels for the same things; they
apply to different ranges of objects and events. The differences are subtle
and extend to flavor and connotation.” Bloomfield’s opinion is totally
agreed upon by 100% of the teachers when the question what semantic

14


differences between the two languages may cause L1 (MT) interference is
posed to them.
Not only words but also sentence structures are systematically related
to meanings, uses and situations. Therefore, a meaning difference
underlying a certain structure makes it impossible to use the same structure
in both languages in some cases.
1.3.3. Syntactic Interference Errors
The interference error in this category is about structural problems.
When writing, Vietnamese students might be confused with sentence
patterns, word order, and the information structure of English sentences
which differ from those in their MT because according to Dyvik (1984),
“Vietnamese is topic-prominent, English is subject-prominent language”. It
is the differences in syntactic structures that may lead to syntactic
interference errors. That is the reason why there are many “VietEnglish”
sentences. In other words, they apply their mother tongue’s syntactic rules
to the target structure, consequently, their English sentences sound very
Vietnamese.

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Chapter 2: MOTHER- TONGUE INTERFERENCE
ERRORS
2.1 Morphological Interference Errors
2.1.1 Tense- Marker Omission
The basic difference between Vietnamese and English is the
existence of tense. In English, we can understand the time of action basing
on tenses and tenses are signaled in the verbs themselves with the
inflectional endings such as: -s (present third- person singular), -ed (past),
-ing (progressive). Meanwhile, in 1997, Nguyễn Đức Dân states that the
Vietnamese language has no tense. Actually, we can see easily that verb
form always remains the same in Vietnamese. According to Honey (1991:
244), “the language – the Vietnamese (notes mine) - is without the often
complex structure of tenses and moods”. Thuy (1975, in Byleen 1986: 05)
points out that the English language does have tense while “nothing in the
Vietnamese language corresponds directly to the system of tense.” Byleen
has a further comment on the absence of tense in Vietnamese:
The complex interactions of the auxiliaries and suffixes which comprise
these tenses are extremely difficult to master for students whose native
language does not have an even vaguely related system. In most Vietnamese
sentences, it is not necessary to indicate tense. You can understand by
context whether you are referring to an event in the present, past or future.
When it is necessary to indicate tense, the form of the verb stays constant
and expressions meaning yesterday, last night, tomorrow, etc. are used.
(Byleen 1986: 05)

16

Clearly, these differences between the two languages lead to tensemarker omission of the Vietnamese learners because they are accustomed
to the simplicity of the Vietnamese expression of time, they often use the
present tense in English, translating literally from Vietnamese.
[

VIETNAMESE

ENGLISH

C« ta sèng ë Pari.

She live in Paris.

MĐ t«i viÕt th cho t«i ba lÇn mét tuÇn..

 She lives in Paris.
My mother write to me three times a week.
 My mother writes to me three times a

Chồng tôi xem tivi mỗi tối.

week.
My husband watch television every night.
 My husband watches television every

Sao anh lại cời?

night.

Why do you laugh?

Nớc sôi rồi !

Why are you laughing?
Water boils.

Water is boiling.
Anh trông bận rộn quá, thế anh đang You look busy. What do you do?
làm gì vậy?
You look busy. What are you doing?
Ngôi trờng đó đà đổi tên vào năm In 1956 the school change its name.
1956.
 In 1956 the school changed its name.
ThÇy giáo môn khoa học có vẻ nh đà The science teacher seem to think we were
nghÜ r»ng chóng ta häc hµnh lêi biÕng.

lazy.
 The science teacher seemed to think we
were lazy.

2.1.2 Plural-Marker Omission
Another interference error is to omit the plural marker -s at the end of
English nouns, (here, there is no mention of irregular plural forms), which
can be accounted by the fact that in Vietnamese, according to Byleen
(1986: 02) “Number is not expressed in the noun but by other words in the
sentence. From this perspective, Vietnamese writers may see the plural
ending as a redundant form”.
17

The reason is that there is no distinction between the singular and
plural nouns in the Vietnamese language. The fact is that in Vietnamese,
there is no plural marker; plurality is implied in the quantity expression
such as “hai” (two), “ba” (three), “vµi” (several), nhiều (many), etc.
VIETNAMESE
Cây xanh giúp môi trờng xung quanh

ENGLISH
Trees help to create a peaceful surrounding.

trong lành.



Trees

help

to

create

a

peaceful

surroundings
Những cái quần mới của tôi bị đổ đầy My new trouser was covered in white paint.
sơn trắng.

My new trousers were covered in white

paint.
Vào những đêm trăng sáng, tôi thờng I usually gaze at star on moonlit night.
ngắm nhìn các vì sao.
I usually gaze at stars on moonlit nights.
Ông Smith phản đối lời đề nghị vì một Mr. Smith opposed the proposal for a number
sè lÝ do.

of reason.
 Smith opposed the proposal for a number
of reasons.

2.1.3 Suffix Problems
In Vietnamese, a word or word form is used as different parts of
speech; its grammatical function in a sentence is shown through the context
and the word order. In contrast, in English, the suffixes are especially
important to distinguish among nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. Because
of this, the Vietnamese learners use the word “sỵ h·i” into English in the
same way for all cases. It is wrong to use “lazy” as a noun (without “ness”)
in the sentence: “Laziness is the cause of his failure” and as an adverb
(without “ly”) in the sentence: “Tom works lazily”. The use of unmarked
adverbial forms occurs very often in the Vietnamese learner’s sentences. In
fact, English derivational suffixes with certain grammatical properties pose
a problem to the English Vietnamese learners.
VIETNAMESE

ENGLISH

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Lời biếng là nguyên nhân dẫn đến sự thất Lazy is the cause of his failure.
b¹i cđa anh Êy.

 Laziness is the cause of his failure.

Tom lµm viƯc lêi biÕng.

Tom works lazy.

Tom works lazily.
Tôi không thể tởng tợng cô ta cã thĨ ®èi I don’t understand how she could treat him
xử với anh ấy tồi tệ đến mức nào.

so bad.
 I don’t understand how she could treat
him so badly.

Hµng hoá đợc trng bày hấp dẫn trong tủ Goods are attractive displayed in the
kÝnh.

window.
 Goods are attractively displayed in the

T«i sợ hÃi đến nỗi không bớc đi đợc.

window.
I was too frighten to move.

 I was too frightened to move.

2.1.4 Incorrect Use of Pronoun Forms
The inexperienced learners are often at a loss to learn which correct
form of an English personal pronoun to use. In English, there is a clear
different in pronoun form based on how a pronoun functions in a sentence.
The following examples show typical errors in this area.
VIETNAMESE
ENGLISH
Ngoài tôi ra không ai đợc phép sử dụng Nobody is allowed to use the computer but I.
m¸y vi tÝnh.

 Nobody is allowed to use the computer
but me.

Đừng nói với tôi nh thế.

Dont talk to I like that.
 Don’t talk to me like that.

Tôi thờng tự hỏi mình sao tôi lại làm I often ask me why I work so hard.
viƯc vÊt v¶ nh vậy.
Tôi liếc nhìn tôi (mình) trong gơng.

I often ask myself why I work so hard.
I glanced at I (me) in the mirror.

Nàng chấp nhận lời mời của tôi.

I glanced at myself in the mirror.

The girl accepted the invitation of I.
 The girl accepted my invitation.

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Quyển sách này của tôi.

This book is of I.
This book is mine.

The Vietnamese pronoun “t«i” is respectively equivalent to “I” or
“me” in English, depending on whether it is in the subjective or objective
case in the sentence. Especially the reflexive pronoun “myself” is used to
show that the action of the verb is performed on its subject. As for the
possessive pronoun, “cđa t«i” is sometimes rendered in English by “my”,
sometimes by “mine”; as illustrated in the last two examples. Similarly, the
Vietnamese learners have difficulties with the usage of other pronouns:
“he”, “him”, “his”, “she”, “hers”, “them”, “their” and so on. The choice of
English pronoun forms makes the Vietnamese learners quite confused.
[

2.1.5 Omission of the -ER Comparative Adjective/Adverb Ending
In Vietnamese, there is no inflection for comparative forms, which
are signaled by the word “h¬n” (= than) after adjectives and adverbs.
Meanwhile, comparative in English is formed with the suffix “er” after
adjective and adverb. Therefore, the Vietnamese learners are likely to
ignore the -ER ending in English sentences.
VIETNAMESE
Em tôi cao hơn tôi.

ENGLISH
My sister is tall than me.

Anh ta làm việc siêng năng hơn tôi nghĩ.

My sister is taller than me.
He works hard than I think.

C« ta dạy muộn hơn thờng lệ

He works harder than I think.
She got up late than usual.
 She got up later than usual.

2.1.6 Omission of the -ING Verb Ending
Still more confusing for the Vietnamese learners is the use of the
gerund, which has no equivalent in their own language. The learners tend

20


to use infinitive instead of the -ing verb ending in the sentences which
require a gerund.
VIETNAMESE
Ngồi phía sau tôi là hai cô gái ngời Đức.

ENGLISH
Sit behind me were two German girls.
Sitting behind me were two German

Đánh răng hàng ngày là rÊt cÇn thiÕt.

girls.
Clean

your

teeth

regularly

is

very

important.
 Cleaning your teeth regularly is very
important.
Anh ta đột nhiên thấy hối hận vì đà bỏ He suddenly regretted (to) have run away
nhà ra đi.

from home.
He suddenly regretted having run away

Anh ®· viÕt th xong cha?

from home.
Have you finished (to) write the letters yet?
 Have you finished writing the letters

yet?
Mình xin lỗi vì cha trả lời bức th gÇn I’m sorry that I delayed to answer your last
đây của bạn.

letter.
Im sorry that I delayed answering your
last letter.

2.2 Semantic Interference Errors
2.2.1 Incorrect Use of Preposition
Errors in preposition usage form the largest group in this semantic
category. Though it is possible to indicate equivalences between
Vietnamese and English prepositions, there are so many instances where
there is no match.
2.2.1.1 The most common error is incorrect use of prepositions as
shown in the following typical examples:
VIETNAMESE

ENGLISH

21


Nàng ngồi dới bóng một gốc cây to.

She sits under the shape of a big tree.
 She sits in the shape of a big tree.

Anh Êy ®i bé díi ma.

He walked under the rain.

Thuyền chạy dới sông.

He walked in the rain.
The boat sailed under the river.
 The boat sailed on the river.

Cã nhiỊu sao trªn trêi.

There are a lot of stars on the sky.

Đứa bé nằm trên giờng.

There are a lot of stars in the sky.
The baby is on bed.
 The baby is in bed.

The explanation for such a wrong choice of place preposition is the
Vietnamese learner simply translates “díi” and “trªn” from Vietnamese
into English with no consideration of the concept underlying the English
prepositions “under” and “on”. How can the two persons in the two
examples: “she sits under the shape of a big tree” and “He walks under the
rain” be under the “rain” and the “shade” unless they are underneath the
earth? They must be inside the rain and the “shade”. In the example: “the
baby is on the bed”, the learners use the preposition “on” because they
conceptualize the “bed” as a flat and level surface or a plane. The English,
on the contrary, do not have the same concept of the bed; in their view of
geometrical conceptualization, the bed is a confined area, so “in bed” is

reasonable. The reason why the Vietnamese learners wrongly use “on the
sky” is the same. The English do not think of the “sky” as a surface, but
space or continuous expanse in which all things including stars exist. This
problem is clarified in the following pair of examples:
He sits on a chair. (A surface)
He sits in an armchair (a confined area with two arms at two sides)
As for the usage of Vietnamese preposition with that of English
prepositions, professor Nguyễn Đức Dân, in his article Tiếng Việt Lý Thó”
(KiÕn Thøc Ngµy Nay, 1997, 265:5) presents a clear analysis of the
22


Vietnamese expressions dới sông and trên sông. The Vietnamese
sentence Thuyền chạy dới sông- literally rendered The boat sailed under
the river- sounds incomprehensible to the English, who think it right to
say, “The boat sailed on the river”. The Vietnamese speakers also say
Thuyền chạy trên sông (=the boat sails on the river) when they consider
the position relationship of the boat and the river. As customary practice,
however, the Vietnamese usually regard themselves the speakers as center
or starting point of vision. From their position on the mountain top, for
instance, the speakers look down to the boat and the river below and say,
“thun ch¹y díi s«ng”(= The boat sailed under the river). Similarly, the
Vietnamese speakers can say either bọn trẻ chơi trong sân, or bọn trẻ
chơi ngoài sân, anh ấy đi vào vờnor anh ấy ®i ra vên”, depending on the
point of vision in making an utterance. The two sentences in each case will
be, however, the same in English “the children are playing in the yard” and
“He went into the garden” respectively.
About time relations, the English language has made the Vietnamese
learners confused a lot. While the Vietnamese have only one word “vµo”,
the English use some words “at”, “on”, “in”, depending on whether the

speakers indicate a point of time or a period of time, short or long.
Therefore, the Vietnamese speakers have difficulties in making clear
distinction of time length in their expressions, and may lead to frequent
mistakes:
VIETNAMESE
Hä gặp nhau vào các buổi sáng thứ hai.

ENGLISH
They meet in Monday morning.
 They meet on Monday morning.

hä thêng gỈp nhau vào 8h sáng.

They usually meet in 8 a.m.

They usually meet at 8 a.m.
Cuộc họp vào ngày mồng 1 tháng giªng The meeting in January 1 was very
rÊt quan träng.

important.
 The meeting on January 1 was very
important.

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The Vietnamese learners often failed in using proper English
preposition of time and place because they do not aware the English
concept of position, space and time is quite different from their own.
Moreover, the Vietnamese learners also tend to misuse some other

common prepositions in English, especially “with”, “for” and “about”, for
they expect these English words to have the same coverage of meaning as
the Vietnamese ones: với, cho, về.
VIETNAMESE
ENGLISH
Đó là quÃng thời gian h¹nh phóc nhÊt It was the happiest time in my life.
trong cuộc đời tôi.
It was the happiest time of my life.
Bạn có thể ngửi thấy mùi sơn trong khắp You could smell the paint in the whole
toµ nhµ.

building.
 You could smell the paint all over the

Nµng tõ chèi nãi chun víi t«i.

whole building.
She refuses to talk with me.

 She refuses to talk to me.
Cô ấy mù quáng với những lỗi lầm của She is blind with her own faults.
mình.
John lái xe với tốc độ rất chậm.

She is blind to her own faults.
John drove with a very slow speed

 John drove at a very slow speed
Khi anh Êy trë vỊ nhµ. mĐ anh Êy ra më When he arrived home, his mother opened
cưa råi mØm cêi víi anh Êy.

the door and smiled with him.
 When he arrived home, his mother

Cái đó không ích lợi gì cho cô ta.

opened the door and smiled at him.
It’s no good for her.
 It’s no good to her.

Ông ta hiến mình cho một sự nghiƯp cao He devoted himself for a noble cause.
c¶.
Cã nhiỊu câu giải đáp cho vấn đề đó

He devoted himself to a noble cause.
There are a lot of answers for the matter.

Tôi chịu trách nhiệm về sự lầm lẫn đó

There are a lot of answers to the matter.
I am responsible about the confusion
 I am responsible for the confusion.

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Họ ngạc nhiên về tin đó

They were surprise about the news.
 They were surprise at the news.

Bµ ta h·nh diƯn vỊ con trai m×nh.

She is proud about her son.
 She is proud of her son.

2.2.1.2 The Vietnamese frequently use redundant prepositions after
certain English verbs. In their MT, these verbs always require prepositions
while they do not in English because the meaning of prepositions is
implied in that of English transitive verbs. Errors like these are common in
the Vietnamese learners’ writing.
VIETNAMESE
ENGLISH
Chóng ta h·y cùng nỗ lực giúp đỡ cảnh We should all try to help the police in their
sát chiến đấu chống lại téi ph¹m.

efforts to combat against crime.
 We should all try to help the police in

their efforts to combat crime.
Ngay khi lịch kì nghỉ đợc ấn định, tôi I shall contact with you again as soon as the
sẽ liên lạc với anh.

dates of the trip have been confirmed.
 I shall contact you again as soon as the
dates of the trip have been confirmed.

Chúng ta sẽ bàn về vai trò của truyền We will be discussing about the role of
hình trong giáo dôc.

television in education.
 We will be discussing the role of
television in education.

Khi thầy giáo đến gần lớp học, bọn trẻ As the teacher approached near the class,
im hơi lặng tiếng.

the children were silent.
 As the teacher approached the class, the

Sau bữa ăn tối cô ta vào trong phòng.

children were silent.
After dinner, she entered into the room.
 After dinner, she entered the room

2.2.1.3 Contrast to the above problems is the lack of necessary
prepositions, especially in end- position, after certain English verbs. To the

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