1 Part I: introduction 1.rationale for the study Since Vietnam started its “open door” policy, English has gained national significance And as the government has stressed the importance of English, it will play a crucial role in the country’s drive to modernize As a result, English has rapidly become the most popular foreign language among Vietnamese people Foreign language schools and centers have mushroomed and provided English classes at all hour of days, catering to all kinds of learners with a variety of learning purposes Nowadays, English becomes one of the main subjects taught in most of schools and universities However, learning English well is not easy, especially its writing aspect A majority of students have been aware of the importance of writing skill To them, writing is useful not only in reference to their future job, but also because it helps them improve the other skills and grammar and enriches their vocabulary Writing has been supposed an important key to exploring English culture, customs and lifestyles Nevertheless, writing has long been considered as a difficult and boring subject by many second language learners It takes much time and energy to make progress in this skill In fact, many students find it very difficult to be good at written English and make a lot of mistakes and errors in this aspect We want to something to help them overcome this problem and avoid a habit of making common written English errors That is why, what we want to in this thesis is that Firstly, we give some ideas about students’ errors in learning written English Secondly, we would like to look at the fact of errors in this aspect in order to have a clear knowledge of the rate of errors in each category Thirdly, we give out some suggestions to reduce and prevent these errors, with the hope that they will be useful to the teachers and students of English to deal with this problem Finally, we consider this study as a good chance to improve written English and get some useful experiences for our teaching job in the future aims and subjects of the study The study reported in this thesis aimed to: - help students see clearly their errors in written English From this, they can overcome their problem - help teachers of English aware of and have positive attitudes toward students’ errors in written English - show a range of suggestions to reduce, prevent and correct written work for students in general, and especially for students of English at the intermediate level in particular - help us widen our knowledge of English Subjects of the study are a group of eighty students of English at the intermediate level of Foreign Language Department at Vinh University scopes of the study Within the limitation of a graduation thesis, we would like to deal with common written English errors, mostly about the errors in writing sentence that students of English at the intermediate level usually make The survey is carried out at Foreign Language Department in Vinh University methods of the study - Collecting materials and information - Analytic and synthetic method - Descriptive method - Statisting and classifying design of the study Except the acknowledgements, the table of contents and the references as well as the appendix, this thesis consists of main parts Part I: Introduction This is an introductory part in which we present the rationale, aims, scopes, methods and design of the study Part II: Content This part consists of chapters Chapter deals with the theoretical background Chapter is about the study and presentation of common written English errors of students of English at the intermediate level The description of research and subjects will be presented in this chapter Then, the results and findings of the study will be also presented and discussed Chapter gives out the suggestions and implications Part III: Conclusion The final part will conclude what has been discussed in the contents of the thesis, point out the limitations of the study and give some suggestions for further research Part II: content Chapter theoretical background 1.1.the overview of writing 1.1.1 The nature of writing As the language instruction progresses, writing is generally the last skill to receive intensive attention after listening, speaking and reading The purpose of writing, in principle, is the expression of ideas and the conveying of a message to the reader That is why, writing is considered as a means of communication So, we cannot neglect the important role of writing in learning a language According to Halliday (1989: 39), “ writing evolves in response to needs that arise as a result of cultural change The particular circumstance led to the development of writing” He speculates that with the emergence of culture based on agriculture rather than hunting and gathering, a spoken language was no longer enough So, language had to be reduced to a form which could be referred to over and over again This was an initial stimulus for emergence of a new form of language: Writing Obviously, the development of writing is original from the factual needs It naturally appears as a form to meet people’s communicative demands Halliday also divided writing into primary types: For activities: This type including the writings such as public signs on roads and stations, product label and instructions and personal correspondences: letters, postcards …ect This one is used to serve theect This one is used to serve the practical daily life, materials, machinery …ect This one is used to serve theect For information: People can get information from this type of writing It is involved in newspapers and current affairs magazines; non-fiction books; public notices…ect This one is used to serve the For entertainment: we can see this type in light magazines, comic strips, fiction books, poetry and drama, newspaper features, film subtitles, games…ect This one is used to serve theThrough this one we can entertain ourselves Basing on those types mentioned above, we can classify the writing into two trends: functional and unfunctional Functional writing may be a business technical, scientific or administrative writing While essay, fiction and short composition are not functional because the users not really know the reason why the author creates his works However, both of them, functional or unfunctional writing, are very popular in daily life and serve certain purposes Nowadays, we are so surrounded by written language that we can hardly conceive of life without it This means the need for communication through written language is very high And we think that when learning in an innovative way, we can feel writing communicative and interesting Successful writing involves developing: - the ability to identify and write accurately the alphabet - mastery of doing many kinds of writing exercises - skill in expressing ideas smoothly - skill in management of writing activities - skill to use words, phrases and structures - skill in knowing about and negotiating for writing task ( Halliday, 1989: 40) 1.1.2 The relationship between writing skill and other skills As we know that a child first learns to practise language through the skill of listening Later he uses language by speaking combined with listening When school begins, he learns skills of reading and writing Thus, to achieve a language, we cannot separate the major and necessary skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing Rod and Carol Forseth (34) presents a diagram: Receptive skills Productive skills Oral skills Listening Speaking Literacy skills Reading Writing According to this view, the first two skills, listening and speaking are called the oral skills The last two skills, reading and writing are called the literacy skills We also can say that writing and speaking are said to be the productive skills whereas listening and reading are said to be the receptive ones In conversation, when one person is speaking, another is listening After listening, the hearer responds by speaking While they are listening, they may also be writing notes or reading a handout Obviously, all of these skills are related to each other and used in coordination in language use Reading and writing can integrate each other Through reading, learners not only get a lot of background information but also learn stock of vocabulary, structure and grammar …ect This one is used to serve theect And like a nature matter, he gradually produces the language with the help of these appeared in his mind As for speaking and writing, speaking ability can be transferred to writing ability basing on process of selecting the content, choosing the right words and sentences of learners to express their ideas, opinions and feeling on the contrary, writing ability can improve and boost speaking ability The purpose of listening is to comprehend The ability to understand the content of spoken form could therefore be transferred to an understanding of the content of written form and vise versa After all, the skills of listening, speaking and reading will help learners a lot in writing and make their writing more correct and fluent Thus, to be master of a language, we should pay attention to skills of language 1.2 Factors affecting second language learning There have been many books discussing about factors which affect second language learning And basing on the collection from these books’ ideas, we can see that these factors consist of both internal and external ones 1.2.1 External factors 1.2.1.1 First language All second language learners have already acquired their first language This helps them have ideas of how language works and form the habit of learning it Learners start off with the habits associated with the first language These habits interfere with those needed for second one In learning process, the learners can base on what they have learnt in their first language to learn a second language Where there are similarities between two languages, they will acquire target language structures with ease However, where there are differences, the learners will have difficulty and errors may happen For instance: In English, pronoun direct objects come after the verb so people write “The dog eats it” However, in French, pronoun direct objects precede the verb so people write “ Le chien le mange” As a result, a native speaker of English might produce the sentence “ Le chien mange le” when learning French And a native speaker of French might write “ The dog it eats” when learning English This shows that first language actually influences to second language acquisition of the learners 1.2.1.2 The language environment No one can deny the great effect of language environment on foreign language learning Adrian Doff (1989: 222) emphasized that “ if the teacher uses English most of the time, it will give students practice in listening and responding to spoken English This will help them “ pick up” words and expressions beyond the language of the textbook Besides, if the teacher uses English to say real things to the class, it will give students the feeling that English is a real language which is used for communication, and not just a language that belongs to the textbook” Clearly, using second language frequently in class not only forces learners to learn it but also forms their habit of using their second language Moreover, the popular using of foreign language as English in many aspects of life such as internet, job interviews, workshops, traveling and economy…ect This one is used to serve theect, helps the learners identify the importance of foreign language From this, they are motivated to learn it so that they can take part in those aspects in the future To sum up, language environment, inside classroom or outside classroom, plays an important role in encouraging the learners to learn language It helps the learners practise their second language frequently and motivates them to acquire it as well 1.2.2 Internal factors Internal factors affecting second language learning here are the learners’ personal characteristics which lead to more or less successful language learning According to Pasty Lightbown and Spada (1999: 52), these characteristics can be classified into: intelligence, aptitude, personality, motivation and attitudes, learning style, and age of acquisition 1.2.2.1 Intelligence According to Rod Ellis (1994: 23)“ Intelligence refers to abilities to master and use a whole range of academic skills” Over the years, many studies using a variety of IQ tests and different methods of assessing language learning have found that intelligence levels were a good means of predicting how successful a learner would be at language learning Furthermore, some recent studies have shown that intelligence may be more strongly related to certain kinds of second language abilities than others For example, in a study with French immersion children in Canada, it was found that while intelligence was related to the development French second language reading, grammar and vocabulary, it was unrelated to oral productive skills ( Genesse, 1976) Similar findings have been reported in other studies where intelligence was highly related to performance in reading, dictation, and writing tasks, but not on listening comprehension and free oral production skills Intelligence seems to be a strong factor when it comes to learning second language in classroom, particularly, if the construction is formal However, intelligence may play a less important role when the classroom instruction is less formal 1.2.2.2 Aptitude Aptitude is innate or inborn ability to learn a language As for Long man dictationary of Applied linguistic by Richard (1992: 57), “ language aptitude is thought to be a combination of various abilities such as the ability to identify sound patterns in a new language, the ability to recognize the different grammatical functions of words in sentences, ROTE- LEARNING ability, and the ability to infer language rules A person with high language aptitude can learn more quickly and easily than a person with low language aptitude, all other factors being equal ” It is thought that learners will be more successful if they have these abilities Lorraine Obler (1989) reported that a man, a native speaker of English, called CJ has such a specialized ability in learning language He can learn quickly and easily many languages such as German, Spanish, Latin, Italian and French in a short time Aptitude is easily shown in formal setting where learners express and share their opinions 1.2.2.3 Personality Two aspects of personality which have been studied are extroversion and inhibition Success in learning language is highly related to extroversion And inhibition is considered as a negative force in language learning process because it discourages risk- taking which is necessary for this process Besides, some other characteristics such as self – esteem, sympathy, dominance, talkativeness and responsiveness also have great effect on second language acquisition These characteristics seem to be a major factor only in acquisition of communicative competence However, many researchers believe that personality will be shown to have an important influence on success in language learning when it combines with other factors 1.2.2.4 Motivation and attitudes Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon, which can be defined in term of two factors: learners’ communicative needs and the attitudes towards the second language community If learners want to fulfill their purpose, they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it What is more, when learners are highly motivated, they will form positive attitudes toward second language learning This shows that motivation and positive attitudes is a key to success in second language learning Gardner (1985) also defined motivation in terms of L2 learners’ overall goal or orientation, and attitude as the persistence shown by the learners in striving for a goal Attitudes are related to motivation by serving as supports of the learners’ overall orientation Motivation can be classified into instrumental motivation and integrative motivation Learners with instrumental motivation is more interested in how second language can be a useful instrument toward furthering other goals, such as gaining a necessary qualification or improving employment prospects And learners with integrative motivation are more active in class and less likely drop out 1.2.2.5 Learning style Learning style means how people learn There are many different ways to lean a language For visual learners, they learn something by seeing it For aural learners, they need to hear something And for the others, some need to practise and some need to add physical action in their learning process Of course, all of learners learn in all these ways They can all benefit from a variety of learning experiences And each way brings certain advantage However, a good learning style will help learners study their language more effectively It is believed that learners will be more successful if they are given freedom to choose their preferred way of learning and they will better than those who find themselves forced to learn in environments where a learning style which does not suit them is imposed as the only way to learn 1.2.2.6 Age of acquisition Another internal factor affecting second language learning is age Many studies have shown that there are differences between adult learners 10 and young learners That is, adult learners recognize similarities and differences as well They think flexibly and have experience of the world and cognitive skill…ect This one is used to serve theThus, they learn a new language with clear purposes On the contrary, children see only similarities, lack flexible thinking, and have no experience and no linguistic knowledge So, for them, language is a tool for expressing meaning As Halliday (1973: 98) pointed out: the young child responds not so much to what language is as to what it does It is possible that age different in second language acquisition can be explained in terms of the different orientation to language of children and older learners Besides, children and adult learners also differ from learning conditions The fact shows that children have more time and more opportunities to learn language than adults ( D A Wilkins, 1975: 185) 1.3 Errors in language learning process 1.3.1.The notion of error According to Richard (1992: 95), error is the use of a linguistic item in the speech or writing of a second or foreign language learner, such as a grammatical item, a speech act…ect This one is used to serve theect in a way which a fluent or native speaker of language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning Error is the results of incomplete knowledge For Dulay et Al (1982: 138), errors are understood as “ the flawed side of learner speech and writing, those parts of conversation or composition that deviate from some selected norms” ( James Carl, Errors in Language learning and use, 1998) Or for Corder (1967: 122), error is either superficially deviant or inappropriate in items of the target language 1.3.2 Error versus mistake Error and mistake are two terms that we usually use to identify the faulty of students in learning a foreign language However, there is a distinction between them, and there are many different ideas about this Corder (1967: 167) associates errors with failures in competence and mistakes with failures in performance Mistakes are of no significance to the process of language learning since they not reflect a defect in our knowledge, but are traceable to performance failure The learner is normally immediately aware of them (P Hubbard, 1987: 46) Or for Ellis (1994: 51), “ Errors reflect gaps in a learner’ s knowledge, they occur because the learner does not know what is correct Mistakes reflect ... for students of English at the intermediate level in particular - help us widen our knowledge of English Subjects of the study are a group of eighty students of English at the intermediate level. .. dictionary 2.4 Result of the study and presentation of common errors in written English of students of English at the intermediate level The data obtained from 20 questions that 80 junior students were... errors that they usually make in their writing Since the students were conscious of the importance of doing well in the tests, they tried their best to finish them However, the limitation of time