Possible causes of common English written
errors made by 12th- form students at Thanh Ha
High School, Hai Duong and some possible
solutions

Nguyễn Thị Hương

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10
Người hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Thị Thơm Thơm, MA.
Năm bảo vệ: 2011 Abstract: This minor thesis was carried out with an attempt to improve the teaching and
learning of writing skill of the teachers and the 12th form students at Thanh Ha High
School, Hai Duong province. The purposes of the thesis were to investigate the types of
errors that 12th form students at Thanh Ha High School often make in learning English,
possible causes of common English written errors made by 12th form students and to
offer some possible solutions to overcome these common English written errors. The
subjects involved in the study were 130 students' actual writings in class and 8 teachers
who are currently teaching and have taught writing skill before. Teachers were invited to
answer the survey questionnaire and to participate in the interview. The study reveals that
in lexical and grammatical errors, students often commit errors in spelling, noun number,
word choice/ wrong word, wrong conjunction/ connective, article and verb form
mistakes. The common causes for these kinds of errors are mainly their carelessness,
mother tongue interference, incomplete application of rules, overgeneralization and
ignorance of rule restrictions. The study suggests that teacher should use some techniques
in pre-writing stage and post- writing stage to reduce and prevent students' written
common errors . In pre-writing stage, teacher can elicit students' vocabulary and
structures, give students samples of the topic which students are required to write, and
sometimes teach them grammar rules. In post-writing stage, teachers can ask student to

errors before they appear. Nevertheless, they pay much more concern to why Vietnamese
learners commit errors and how to prevent or reduce these errors, not students at high schools.
Therefore, the situation encouraged the author to do the research on "Possible causes of common
English written errors made by 12th- form students at Thanh Ha High School, Hai Duong and
some possible solutions". This study will be really useful for both teachers and students in
teaching and learning writing skill.
2. Aims of the study
The researcher defines the major objectives of the study as:
 to investigate the types of written errors that 12th-form students at Thanh Ha High
School often make in learning English.
 to investigate possible causes of common English written errors made by 12th-
form students.
 to offer some possible solutions to overcome these common English written
errors.
This study is carried out with the hope that teachers can improve their writing teaching
methods and students can define their common errors and adjust their way of learning this skill
to obtain better results.
3. Research questions
In order to achieve the above aims, three research questions are raised:
3.1. What are the types of written errors that 12th- form students make in writing skills?
3.2. What are the major causes of these errors?
3.3. What recommendations should be given to reduce and prevent these errors?
4. Methods of the study
With the aim of finding out the causes of common written errors made by 12th-form
students at Thanh Ha High School, Hai Duong, this study adopts quantitative and qualitative
methods.
To identify the problems, the study has been carried out with the data collected from
different instruments:
- Consulting related materials: For the sake of getting knowledge and useful ideas,
I read many books and other materials in addition to earlier researchers about errors and causes

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