VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
***************** Phan thỊ Thu HIỀn The Present progressive tense
and Errors made by pupils at Hanoi
Technical and professional skills training school
( Thì Hiện tại tiếp diễn và những lỗi học sinh trường trung học
Kỹ thuật và nghiệp vụ Hà Nội mắc. )

MA Minor Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

HANOI – 2011

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Table of contents

Declaration
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Table contents

Part A: Introduction
1. Rationale
2. Aims of the study
3. Scope of the study
4. Methodology of the study
5. Significance of the study

Part B: Development
Chapter 1 - Literature review
1.1. Time - tense - aspect relationship
1.2. Present Progressive tense
1.2.1. Forms
1.2.2. Uses
1.2.3. Signal words
1.2.4. Stative and Dynamic verbs
1.3. Present Progressive tense vs. Present Simple tense

v
2.2. Research questions
2.3. Subjects
2.4. Data collection instrument
2.5. Data analysis procedure
2.6. Results & Discussion
2.6.1. Question 1
2.6.2. Question 2
2.6.3. Question 3
2.7. Summary and Recommendations
2.7.1. Summary
2.7.2. Recommendations

Part c: conclusion

References

Appendices
Appendix 1. Test
Appendix 2. Key
Appendix 3. Procedures to present the PP tense
Appendix 4. Video tasks to practise the PP tense
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still considered a minor subject, and the pupils‟ general level of English is rather limited.
Here, teaching English mainly focuses on grammar, which occupies most of teachers and
pupils‟ study time and takes the considerable percentage in tests and exams. Nevertheless,
the result of this investment is not much optimistic.
Although the Present Progressive tense is a common tense which is often taught
carefully, pupils still make quite a lot of errors in terms of form and use. For example,
instead of speaking or writing He is studying English, these pupils produced sentences like
He studying English or He is studing English, etc. In addition, not few of them have
difficulty in distinguishing between this tense and the Present Simple tense, so they often
make errors such as I live with my friends right now. This is mostly evident through their
practice and test results, as observed by the researcher before this study was carried out.
In this circumstance, although documents on the Present Progressive tense are
available, most of them are not full and detailed. Besides, errors on this tense are rarely
mentioned except for in the Master thesis of Pham Viet Huong (2003) named The English
present tenses in comparison and contrast with Vietnamese equivalent expressions. In her
study, common errors and solutions are given but in such a general way. In addition,
studies conducted at vocational schools are rather spare.

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For the above mentioned reasons, the study entitled The Present Progressive tense
and errors made by pupils at Hanoi technical and professional skills training school has
been carried out.
2. Aims of the study
This writing provides knowledge of the Present Progressive tense fully and
systematically as the theoretical framework to investigate common errors made by pupils
at Hanoi technical and professional skills training school, through which offers
recommendations for teaching the tense.
3. Scope of the study
This study is limited to the investigating of written errors which are common on the
forms and uses of the Present Progressive tense plus some distinctions with the Present

1.2. present progressive tense
1.2.1. Forms
a) To be
b) Present participle
(Source:
c) Structures
The Present Progressive tense is formed with present tense of auxiliary “be” and
present participle.
am/ is/ are + V-ing
 Positive structure
S+
am/ is/ are
+V-ing.
‟m/ ‟s/ ‟re
 Negative structure
We add the word not after Am/ Is/ Are to form the Negative.
S+
am/ is/ are + not
+V-ing.
‟m/ ‟s/ ‟re + not
isn‟t/ aren‟t
 Interrogative structure
We invert Am/ Is/ Are before “S” to form the Interrogative.

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 Yes/ No questions:
Am/ Is/ Are + S + V-ing?
- Yes, S + am/ is/ are.
- No, S + am/ is/ are + not.
The contraction is not included in the structure above.

Signal words used with the PP tense are divided into two groups.
a) Signal words describing actions happening now
 now, right now, just now, for now, for a little while, at the moment, at present,
presently (= now)
 After imperative
 While + present situations
b) Signal words describing actions in the future.
 today, tonight, this week/ month/ year/ summer, etc.
 tomorrow, next week, etc.
These signal words are quite useful in identifying the PP tense. However, “Tagging
the adverbs and the expressions which use the present continuous can also be counter-
productive. Many languages rely entirely on adverbs to express that an action is temporary,
and it is a problem for many learners to get used to verb form (i.e. continuous aspect) to
express this in English.” (Parrott, 1999: 159)

1.2.4. Stative and Dynamic verbs
a) In English language, there are verbs that are not normally used in Progressive tenses,
because they describe states rather than actions. They are called stative verbs, including:
b) The verbs that can be used in Progressive tenses are called dynamic verbs, including:
c) Some verbs can be both stative and dynamic verbs depending on their meanings.
1.3. Present Progressive tense vs. Present Simple tense
Because the PP tense is sometimes mistaken with the PS, some comparisons
between two tenses are discussed here. Nevertheless, first of all an overview of the PS
tense may be useful.
( Source:

Now, let us compare the PS with PP tense, mainly to point out differences between
the two tenses.

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More than three-fourths of the subjects scored the average marks (from 5 to 7) in
the Exam 1 of English, so the results can reflect the general performance of all. Since these
pupils were in moderate proficiency categories, it could be assumed that the degree of
diversity was reasonably low and that a sample of data elicited from 50 subjects would be
sufficient. Prior to collecting the sample, the researcher was aware that certain variables,
particularly previous training in the language and intelligence quotients, might have
affected their performance on the grammar test. However, this study did not aim at
investigating the correlation between their performance on a grammar test and other
possible independent variables such as proficiency levels or intelligence quotients.
2.4. Data collection Instrument
According to Bachman (1990: 68), “Language tests can also be used in research”
and “Responses to language tests can provide a rich body of data for the identification of
processing errors and their explanation”. Consequently, this study was based on a grammar
test consisting of three questions aiming at investigating pupils‟ errors on the Present
Progressive. The questions in the design of multiple-choice items were useful in measuring
the subjects‟ errors on forms and uses, and on distinctions between PP and PS.
The test was administered to the subjects after they had learnt the lessons about PP
and comparisons between PP and PS.
2.5. Data analysis procedure
In this study, a simple descriptive statistical procedure was used when considering
the data in terms of percentages of subjects' errors which were grouped into types. Then
these percentages were compared with those in items testing the same problems in order to
identify the average percentage of each error type made by the subjects. Besides, possible
causes were also pointed out as explanation for their errors.
2.6. Results and Discussion
2.6.1. Question 1
Table 1. The result for Question 1 in terms of percentages of the subjects‟ choices.
Choice
Item

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6.
20
62
14
4
From the table above, detailed discussion is made to make out the percentages of
the subjects making the same types of errors and their possible causes. In order to make
comparisons, items testing the same problems are paired as follows:
2.6.2. Question 2
Table 2. The result for Question 2 in terms of percentages of the subjects‟ choices.
Choice
Item
A
B
C
D
1.
28
8
48
16
2.
38
46
6
6
3.
14
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2.6.3. Question 3
Table 3. The result for Question 3 in terms of percentages of the subjects‟ choice of
Present Progressive.
Verb
Item
1
2
1.
10
86
2.
4
66
3.
70
20
4.
76
22
5.
22
62

9
6.
18
78
7.
70
6

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a) Forms
 To Be
 Present participle
b) Uses
c) Distinctions with the PS tense
Moreover, teachers can find specific practice on the distinctions in Bourke (1999:
81-87).
Finally, a variety of interesting exercises on the PP tense can be found in
Ryazanova and Simolina (1983: 28-57) and Swan & Walter (2001: 21-30) as the teaching
materials. In addition, simple and effective procedures to present and fun video tasks to
practise the PP tense are introduced as reference materials in the Appendix 3 and 4
respectively.
Part c: conclusion

At first, in chapter 1, knowledge of the Present Progressive tense, including forms,
uses, signal words, stative and dynamic verbs as well as comparisons with Present Simple
tense is provided in a detailed and systematical way.
Next, in the chapter about pupils‟ errors, common errors made by pupils at Hanoi
technical and professional skills training school are investigated and identified as follows:
On forms: about one-third of the subjects made errors with the formation of present
participle; one-fifth with the inversion of auxiliary, and about one-fourth made errors like
the omission of Be or –Ing, the misuse of Not, or the mistake with PS tense respectively .
On uses: around half of the subjects had difficulty with the use of PP tense to
express either actions happening around the time of speaking or changing situations. The
use of PP for definite future arrangements was the problem of around one-fourth of all.
Only one-fifth had problems with the use of PP to express actions happening at the time of
speaking.
On distinctions with PS tense: the imperative or the exclamatory sentence was not
helpful to one-fifth in choosing the PP; frequency adverbs together with PP seemed strange

9. Quirk R. & Greenbaum S. (1972), A Grammar of Contemporary English,
Longman, England.
10. Quirk R. & Greenbaum S. (1993), A University Grammar of English, Longman,
England.

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11. Swan M. & Walter C. (2001), The good grammar book : with answers, Oxford,
NY.
12. Turton N.D. & Heaton J.B. (1996), Longman dictionary of common errors,
Longman, England.
Websites:
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20. />to-practise-present-simple-and-present-continuous.286.html
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