1 Graduation Thesis Vinh university Foreign language department ************ NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ English prepositions of place At, on, in: An analysis of errors made by Secondary school students (ph©n tÝch lçi sö dông giíi tõ chØ ®Þa ®iÓm at, on, in ë häc sinh thpt) graduation thesis pield: Linguistics by: NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ supervisor: Vò ThÞ ViÖt H¬ng Vinh, 2005 Acknowledgements I could not have completed my graduation thesis without the enthusiastic help and encouragement of my teachers, my family as well as my friends I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor: Ms Vu Thi Viet Huong, M.A whose useful ideas and advice, enlightening guidance and encouragement have helped me shape and complete my thesis NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 2 Graduation Thesis I would also like to express my thanks to all teachers in the foreign language department, particularly Mr Tran Ba Tien who gave me some useful opinions and materials for my thesis I would also wish to acknowledge the support of the teachers and students at secondary schools of Nghi Loc 2 and Cua Lo for giving me a chance to carry out the research design I would like to express my special thanks to my parents and my brother whose encouragements has helped me overcome the difficulty during the time of doing the thesis Finally, my sincere thanks are due to my friends, specifically Ms Dang Thi Manh with her disinterested help NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 3 Graduation Thesis Abstract English and Vietnamese are the two different language systems; therefore, errors in the learning process of English are inevitable The errors in using prepositions, especially the prepositions of place AT, ON, IN are not exceptional The teaching and learning of prepositions have not yet received adequate attention since prepositions are the small part of speech in English However, it is obvious that they create trouble and confusion for learners most of the time A misuse of prepositions is acceptable where communication is advocated, but it should be considered a big problem where a formal and standard English is in demands An analysis of errors in using prepositions of place AT, ON, IN is carried out to give the answer to the wondering question That whether the errors in using these prepositions is not in their structure, position or function in sentences but it is due to their idiomatic usage and the culture differences of two nations, England and Vietnam A test-based study is carried out on a group of eighty students in two secondary schools of Nghi Loc 2 and Cua Lo to get data for the research Then an error analysis was made, followed by a discussion of the types and causes of the errors collected On the basis of this analysis, some recommendations are put forward to make teaching and learning of prepositions of place AT, ON, IN more effectively NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 4 Graduation Thesis Table of contents Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Table of contents iii Symbols and abbreviations v List of Tables vi Part I: Introduction 1 1 Rationale for the study 1 2 Aims and subjects of the study 2 3 Scopes of the study 2 4 Methods of the study 2 5 Overview of the thesis 3 Part II: Content 4 Chapter 1: Literature review 4 1.1 The overview of the prepositions At, On, In 4 1.1.1 The concept of prepositions 4 1.1.2 Classification of prepositions 4 1.1.3 General introduction about the prepositions of place 5 1.1.4 Prepositions of place At, On, In 6 1.1.4.1 The uses of prepositions At and In 8 1.1.4.2 The uses of prepositions In and On 10 1 1.2 Errors in language learning process 11 1.2.1 The notion of error 12 1.2.2 Errors and mistakes 12 1.2.2 Error Analysis 13 1.2.4.Causes of errors 14 1.2.4.1 Interlingual errors and mother tongue interference 15 1.2.4.2 Intralingual errors and developmental errors 17 (1) over-generalization 17 (2) ignorance of rule restrictions 18 (3) incomplete application of rules 18 (4) false concept hypothesized 19 Chapter 2: The study 20 2.1.Research questions 20 2.2.Research setting 20 2.3.Description of subjects 20 2.4.Description of Data collection 21 2.5.Procedure 21 2.6.Result of the study, findings and discussions 22 2.6.1 Errors in section 1- test 1 22 2.6.2 Errors in section 2- test 1 24 2.6.3 Errors in section 3- test 1 26 2.6.4 Errors in section 4- test 1 27 2.6.5 General tendencies 29 2.6.6 Errors in translation test 30 Chapter 3: Implications and suggestions 32 3.1 Major findings 32 NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 5 Graduation Thesis 3.2 Implications for teaching English prepositions of place AT, On, In to Vietnamese secondary students 33 3.2.1 Suggestions for presentation 33 3.2.2 Suggestions for practice 35 3.3 Implications for translation 38 3.3.1 For translating from English into Vietnamese 38 3.3.2 For translating from Vietnamese into English 39 Part III: Conclusion 40 References 42 Appendix 1 43 Appendix 2 45 NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 6 Graduation Thesis List of tables Table 2.1 Table 2.2 Table 2.3 Table 2.4 Table 2.5 NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 7 Graduation Thesis part I: introduction 1 rationale for the study English is used widely in the world It is the first language in Great Britain, the United States, Australia, etc and is the second or foreign language in the rest of the world It is preferred as the official language in many organizations worldwide Moreover, English has confirmed its top position since the Internet appeared and grows mushroomly in every corner of the Earth In Vietnam, English has been the most update foreign language in comparison with the other ones Everyone who desires to have a large stock of knowledge, get opportunities with jobs, have success in their career or even just to communicate with foreigners needs to learn and master English The trends of learning English grow bigger than ever before since Vietnam is joining WTO in the near future Nowadays, English is one of the 3 most important subjects after mathematics and literature in most of the secondary schools in Vietnam Textbooks have been renovated, new methods have been adapted in teaching English so as to make it an active and interesting subject However, since English is far different from Vietnamese, it is not easy for learners to have fully understanding about parts of speech in English at the beginning Prepositions, as well as other parts of speech such as nouns, adjectives, and verbs are introduced to students in the early classes at the secondary schools Students need prepositions in order to build up simple sentences Is it any wonder that prepositions- the small part of speech- create troubles for most of the learners of English? It is said ' we are AT the hospital to visit a friend who is IN hospital', 'we lie IN bed but sit ON the bed', 'we watch a film AT the theater but ON television' The little words 'AT, ON, IN' present little difficulty for native speakers but they appear to be troublesome and confusing for the learners of English Errors in the learning process are inevitable A wrongly use of any prepositions above is acceptable where communication is advocated However, it should be considered a big problem in the case that it happens continuously regardless of the need of a formal and standard English Is it doubtful that the difficulty and errors in acquiring and using prepositions of place AT, ON, IN of Vietnamese students is not in their structures, positions or functions in sentences but it is due to their idiomatic usage and the culture differences of two countries, England and Vietnam? Therefore, an analysis of errors in using prepositions of place AT, ON, IN is carried out to help answer these questions In addition, it also a practical and applicable study, which provide some suggestions for the improvement of teaching and learning English prepositions of place AT, ON, IN NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 8 Graduation Thesis 2 Aims and Subjects of the study The study reported in this thesis aimed to - Identify the errors in using preposition of place at, on, in by Vietnamese students at the secondary schools - Find the sources and causes of their errors - Suggest pedagogic solutions for teaching and learning prepositions of place at, on, in at secondary schools Subjects of the study is a group of one hundred students at Nghi Loc 2 and Cua Lo upper- secondary schools 3 Scopes of the study Within the limitation of a graduation thesis, I would like to deal with three prepositions of place AT, ON, IN The survey is carried out at two upper-secondary schools of Nghi Loc 2 and Cua Lo 4 Methods of the study -Collecting references -Contrastive analysis -Collective -Analytic and synthetic -Descriptive method 5 Overview of the thesis Except the acknowledgements, the table of contents and the references as well as the appendix, this thesis consists of three main parts Part I Introduction In this introductory part, the rationale of the study is presented The aims, scopes and methods of the study are then identified An overview of the thesis is also provided Part II: Content The second part is the content of the thesis, which consists of three chapters Chapter I Literature review This chapter will provide an in-depth review of the relevant literature related to the issue under investigation Specifically, a review of English prepositions of place AT, ON, IN will provide the theoretical framework for the identification of the errors that students made In addition, theories about NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 9 Graduation Thesis the sources of errors will help explore what factors caused errors committed by students in using English prepositions of place AT, ON, IN Errors Analysis as the main theoretical tool for analysing data will also be reviewed Chapter II The study The methodology adopted to collect data for the research will be presented in this chapter It includes the description of research site, participants, data collection techniques and data analysis methods Then, the results and findings of the study will be presented and discussed Chapter III Implications and Suggestions This chapter will summarize major findings, suggest some solutions for teaching and learning prepositions of place AT, ON, IN and suggest some types of exercises Part III Conclusion The final part of the thesis will conclude what has been discussed in the content of the thesis, point out the limitations of the study and give some suggestion for further research part II: content Chapter 1: literature review 1.1 The overview of prepositions of place AT, ON, IN 1.1.1.The concept of prepositions Preposition is one of eight parts of speech It indicates the relationship between words in a sentence Specifically, a preposition is a connector: it connects a noun/pronoun (its objects) to another word in a sentence It also shows how that noun/pronoun is related to the other word Consequently, a preposition can never stand alone, it must be contained with a phrase called a prepositional phrase A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition followed by a prepositional complement, which is characteriscally by a noun phrase or a Wh-clause or V-ing clause Preposition prepositional complement at the station from what I have read by attending a methodology course NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University 10 Graduation Thesis Most often, prepositions show relationships of direction, place and time, but they can also express other relationship as well, for instances, the prepositions but, except, without, show a relationship of exclusion 1.1.2 Classification of prepositions a Prepositions are classified as simple and complex -Simple prepositions are single word prepositions e.g : across, after, at, before, between, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to, under, with, without, etc -Complex prepositions are prepositions which consist of more than one word Most of these are in one of the following categories + adverb of PREP + PREP e.g : along with, as for, away from, out of, up to, etc + verb/adjective/conjunction/etc + preposition e.g : owing to, due to, because of, etc + preposition + noun + preposition e.g : by means of, in comparison with, in front of b Depending on the relational meaning, prepositions can be devided into many types Some popular ones are: - preposition of place/location e.g: at, above, in, on, by, off, etc - preposition of time eg: before, after, during, at, in, on, etc - preposition of cause/reason e.g: because of, for, of, thanks to, through, etc - preposition of purpose e.g: for, in order to, to, etc - preposition of manner e.g: with, without, like, etc - preposition of means e.g: by, on, in, through, with, etc - preposition of direction e.g: into, onto, to, toward, etc 1.1.3 General introduction about the prepositions of place NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Trµ - 42A1 FLD - Vinh University ... English is in demands An analysis of errors in using prepositions of place AT, ON, IN is carried out to give the answer to the wondering question That whether the errors in using these prepositions. .. place 1.1.4 Prepositions of place At, On, In 1.1.4.1 The uses of prepositions At and In 1.1.4.2 The uses of prepositions In and On 10 1.2 Errors in language learning process... countries, England and Vietnam? Therefore, an analysis of errors in using prepositions of place AT, ON, IN is carried out to help answer these questions In addition, it also a practical and applicable