Unmarked plural nouns in English and their
difficulties for the 1
st
year students at the
Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of Culture

Nguyễn Thanh Tâm

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: Đào Thị Thu Trang, MA.
Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: This paper reports on unmarked plural nouns in English and the difficulties
which unmarked plural nouns cause to the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism at
HUC. The purpose of this study was: (1) to provide learners with grammatical features of
unmarked plural nouns in English; (2) to specify difficulties which unmarked plural
nouns in English cause to the 1st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC; (3) to
suggest some solutions to reduce the found problems so as to improve students’ English
learning at the university. The research was carried out by employing a midterm-test,
questionnaire and interview as tools to collect data, from which major findings were
drawn. Statistical analysis revealed that the difficulties which unmarked plural nouns in
English cause to the 1st year students occurred in two main categories: no inflectional
distinction with singular form and Subject-Verb agreement. These may demotivate
students’ and lead to difficulties in students’ learning unmarked plural nouns in particular
and their English learning in general. Based on the analysis from students’ and teachers’
responses, some solutions are suggested to deal with the difficulties. For students, they
should be encouraged to develop their self-learning with the help of dictionary, learn on
the internet, make a vocabulary notebook, and work in team. For teachers, they should be
more devoted to their teaching by seeking more effective teaching techniques and a range
of exercises to help students overcome the difficulties. It is hoped that this research will

encouraged the author to do a research on ‘Unmarked plural nouns in English and their
difficulties for the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism, Hanoi University of Culture’. It
is the author’s hope that this study will be really useful for both teachers and students in teaching
and learning vocabulary in general and unmarked plural nouns in particular.
2. Aims of the study
- to provide learners with grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English
- to specify difficulties which unmarked plural nouns in English cause to the 1
st
year students at
the Faculty of Tourism, HUC
- to suggest some solutions for students to overcome the difficulties in their using unmarked
plural nouns in English
3. Scope of the study
This study is limited to provide learners with grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in
English such as definition, classification, agreement with verbs, some usage notes, etc. More
importantly, it tries to serve the purpose of finding out the difficulties in using unmarked plural
nouns in English faced by the 1
st
year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC and seeking for
possible solutions to the problems.
4. Methodology
The theoretical background in this study is based on the theoretical frameworks by different
linguists. Quirk (1973, 1990, 1987), Greenbaum (1990, 1996), John (1996), Swan (1995, 1984),
Murphy (1994), Collins Publishers (1987, 1990, 1992), Maclin (1994), Sons (1990), etc. propose
such well known and convincing researches on which we will rely for the theory of plural nouns
in general, and unmarked plural nouns in particular. The presentation of these linguists’ theory is
to give the readers features of plural nouns and especially grammatical features of unmarked
plural nouns in English.

st
year students were employed to find out what
difficulties unmarked plural nouns in English cause to them in their vocabulary learning, what
teaching methods used by their teachers they would enjoy, and what they have done to improve
their knowledge of unmarked plural nouns in English. (see appendix 1)
Instrument 3: An interview was organized with 10 teachers who are teaching English to the 1
st

year students at the Faculty of Tourism at HUC to find out what teaching methods they are using
when dealing with unmarked plural nouns in English, what difficulties they find from their
students in their learning unmarked plural nouns in English, and some recommendations made
by them. (see appendix 2)
4.3. The procedures
4.3.1. The mid-term test
90 written tests done by the 1
st
year students who came from the Faculty of Tourism, HUC at the
middle of the 2
nd
term were chosen to mark for statistical data. The test is scaled by the
researcher as follows:
Very bad: 0 – 2; Bad: 3 – 4; Good: 5 – 6; Very good: 7 – 8; Excellent: 9 – 10
4.3.2. Questionnaires
90 questionnaires were delivered to 90 chosen students. Each questionnaire consists of 8 items
designed with both close-ended and open-ended questions which are to help respondents feel
free to express their own ideas.
4.3.3. Interviews
An interview was organized between the researcher and 10 teachers mentioned above. The
interview was a semi-structured kind with 5 items focusing on their teaching methods and
difficulties they find from their 1

and suggestions for further study.

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