Part A: Introduction
1. Reason for choosing the study
Writing is one of the important skills of language learners, particularly for people
who learn English. Just like the speaking skill, writing is a personal and creative
communication skill. When we learn the process of writing, we are learning to write as a
form of communication. In other words, we are learning to express the views, ideas, and
thoughts which the writer wants to share with the world by writing. Therefore, the final
product of the writing process is the product of successful communication. So, being
good at writing will help people a lot in their daily lives, in their studies, in their
communication and in their work. However, it is a difficult skill. It requires the learners to
learn to write through each stage: writing a word, writing a sentence, writing a paragraph,
writing an essay, etc. Therefore, the learners have to practise very much and identify an
appropriate method to improve the their level.
Besides being a part of the ordinary curriculum at a college in Vietnam, writing
an English paragraph is the main part of the program for the second year English-major
student at Nghean College of Education. Some kinds of writing are writing descriptions,
writing about people’s background, writing about the advantages and disadvantages of
something. Writing paragraphs is basic to students’ development of their writing skill
later. Writing a letter, writing a composition and writing an essay are based on writing a
paragraph because they are constituted from several paragraphs. Hence it is very
important for students to be taught how to write a paragraph.
However, there are many students who make mistakes in writing a paragraph. It is
easy to understand that in high school, they pay attention to grammar so much. They do
not have more opportunities to learn about writing a paragraph. Knowledge of how to
write an English paragraph is not presented in the English textbooks.
For this reason, I choose to do research on the topic: “An investigation into the
common errors in paragraph writing made by second year English major-students at
Nghean College of Education”.


This thesis is carried out with the hope that the research results will provide

• Analytic and synthetic methods.
• Comparative and contrastive methods.
• Descriptive methods.
Firstly, the author used analytic and synthetic methods to review the theories
related to the matter concerned to form a framework for the analysis, and then collected
books and materials to find and select necessary information.


Secondly, the data collected from the survey were analyzed and sorted to make a
clear distinction about the students’ attitudes towards writing skill and paragraph writing.
Besides, the results of collected data were also used to analyze the students’ common
errors of paragraph writing.
Finally, descriptive methods were used to make a description about some suitable
ways for improving the teaching and learning of paragraph writing.
5. Scope of the study
The focus of the study is to investigate common errors in paragraph writing made
by second year students at Nghean College of Education. So the scope is limited to the
teaching and learning of paragraph writing only. The subjects of the study are the 2 nd year
English – major students at Nghean College of Education.
6. Design of the study
Apart from acknowledgements, tables of contents and appendices, this paper is
structured in three main parts: introduction, investigation and conclusion.
The first part ‘Introduction’ presents the rationale, aims, objectives, research
questions, scope of the study and also its design.
The second part ‘Development’ includes three chapters. Chapter I reviews the
related literature which includes some discussions on paragraphs, errors and error
analysis.

Chapter II is the main part of the study (the survey) that includes the


describe a scene or narrate an action - all to entertain the readers. All paragraphs support
each other, leading the readers from the first idea to the final resolution of the written
work.
1.1.2. Parts of paragraph
According to Alice Savage and Masoud Shafiei (2007), a paragraph has three main
parts: the topic sentence, the supporting sentences and the concluding sentence.
1.1.2.1. The topic sentence


Every good paragraph has a topic sentence, which clearly states the topic and
controlling idea of the paragraph. It is a complete sentence. It is usually (not always) the
first sentence in the paragraph.
A topic sentence is the most important sentence in the paragraph. It briefly
indicates what the paragraph is going to discuss. For this reason, the topic sentence is a
helpful guide to both the writer and the reader. The writer can see what information to
include and what information to exclude. The reader can see what the paragraph is going
to be about and is, therefore, better prepared to understand it.
There are three important points to remember about the topic sentence:

(i)

A topic sentence is a complete sentence; that is, it contains a subject, a verb, and
complement.

Ex: There are many talented people . (not a complete sentence)
(ii) A topic sentence is the most general statement in the paragraph because it gives only
the main idea. It does not give both any specific details and too general ideas.
Ex: The person who I like the most is an actor. (too general)
(iii) A topic sentence has two essential parts: the topic and the controlling idea. The topic
names the subject or the main idea of the paragraph. The controlling idea makes a specific

introduces the topic to be discussed in the paragraph. The concluding sentence is also a
general statement, but is the last sentence and ends the paragraph.
A concluding sentence is not absolutely necessary; in fact, a concluding is not
customary for every paragraph in a multi-paragraph essay. However, in a single
paragraph, a concluding sentence is helpful to the reader because it signals the end of the
paragraph and because it is the reminder of the important points. In facts, the concluding
sentence can be written like the topic sentence but in different words.
In addition to restating the main idea, the concluding sentence may warn the
reader, make a prediction, or give an opinion about the topic.
The concluding sentence serves three purposes:
(i) It signals the end of the paragraph.
(ii) It summarizes the main points of the paragraph.
(iii) It gives a final comment on your topic and leaves the reader with the most
important ideas to think about.
The writer should begin the concluding sentence with a signal phrase that tells the
readers that the paragraph is completed such as: finally, in conclusion, in summary,
therefore, thus, as a result, indeed, so on.
1.1.3. How is the English Paragraph developing?


According to Carol Pemberton (2000), in English two types of paragraphs are
logical and direct: Inductive paragraph and deductive paragraph.
A deductive paragraph has three parts that provide direct logical development.
These three parts appear in the paragraph as shown in figure 1:
Paragraph
Topic sentence
- Supporting sentence
- Supporting sentence
- And so forth
Concluding sentence


Example paragraph: the writer gives examples so that the reader clearly
understands the writer’s idea about a topic. The effective example should be
specific and relate clearly to the controlling idea.

(iii)

Process paragraph: the writer explains how to do something step by step. The
reader should be able to follow the steps to get a desired result.

(iv)

Opinion paragraph: the writer presents an opinion and tries to persuade readers
that the opinion is a good one.

(v)

Narrative paragraph: the writer tells a story that sets the background for an
event, describes the event, and often comments on the event.

(vi)

Cause and effect paragraph: the writer attempts to show how events are
influenced by or caused by others factors.

(vii) Comparison and contrast paragraph: the writer develops a topic by examining its
similarities or differences to another thing, process, or state. Comparison
emphasizes the similarities, and contrasts the differences.
1.3. Errors in language learning process
1.3.1. Definitions of errors

carelessness not by the lack of knowledge of a language. In contrast, the learners
themselves can not correct errors and attempts since they are caused by the lack of
knowledge.
To distinguish errors and mistakes, H D Brown (1994:2000) defined that an error
is “noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner”. And mistake is defined as “a performance error
that is either a random guess or a “slip” in that it is failure to utilize a known system
correctly”.
Ellis Rod (1997) shares the same point of view: “errors reflect gaps between
learner’s knowledge”. They occur because the learner does not know what is correct.
Mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance. They occur because in a particular
instance, the learner is unable to perform what he or she knows”.
As stated in the definitions above, both errors and mistakes are deviations in the
usage. They are incorrect use in target language made by the second language learners.
However, errors and mistakes differ in the cause. If errors are caused by lack of
knowledge, mistakes are caused by lack of intention, fatigue, and carelessness. Thus
teachers do not usually need to correct mistakes, errors are more serious, especially errors
in language already learnt in class.
There are many ways of classifying the types of errors. In this study, errors are
categorized into six types:


(i)

Grammatical error: can be the learners’ wrong use of structures, tenses, articles,

nouns, and so on.
(ii)

Lexical error: (1) the student used wrong word or word choice in a paper, (2)


remains for him to learn. Second, they provide to the research evidence of how language
is learnt or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in his
discovery of the language. Thirdly (and in a sense this is their most important aspect) they
are indispensable to the learner himself, because we regard the making of errors as a
device the learner uses in order to learn. It is a way the learner has of testing his
hypotheses about the nature of the language he is learning. The making of errors then is a
strategy employed both by children acquiring their mother tongue and those learning a
second language.” (Corder, 1981:11)
Learners’ errors tell the teacher whether their students have progressed or not,
which level or stage their students at and learners’ errors are also helpful for the teacher to


decide what he should teach in the course. Moreover, to the learners, their own errors are
really useful for them to develop their target language as “making errors as a device the
learner uses in order to learner”. (Corder, 1981:11)
1.3.3 Errors analysis
Error analysis, a branch of applied linguistics, emerged in the sixties, is the study
and analysis of errors made by second language learners. Its primary focus is on the
evidence that learners’ errors provide with an understanding of underlying process of
second language study. Corder (1974) says, “By describing and clarifying his errors in
linguistics terms we build up the picture of the features of the language which are causing
him learning problems”. Therefore, error analysis plays an important part in improving
the learning and teaching quality.
Error analysis is carried out in five successive stages as mentioned by Corder
(1974). These are:
-

Identification: to recognize an error, one should first of all know what “error” and
“mistake”.


illustrate the learner attempting to build up hypotheses about the English language from
his limited experience of it in the classroom or textbooks. He claims that there are 5 main
causes of errors. They are mother tongue interference, over-generalization, ignorance of
rule restriction, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized, and error
correction.
1.3.4.1. Mother tongue interference
All second language learners have already acquired their language. This helps
them have ideas of how language works and form the habit of learning it. However,
mother tongue or first language not only has great effect on second language learning but
also is the major cause leading to errors.
Although young children seem to be able to learn a foreign language quite easily
and to produce new sounds very effectively, almost older learners experience
considerable difficulty. The sound system (phonology) and the grammar of the first
language impose themselves on the new language and this leads to the wrong choice of
vocabulary and grammatical patterns.
E.g: Thuy Tien is get married for four years.
These sentences were clearly translated from the learner’s own language. He used
the features of his previous mother tongue experience in his attempts to write in the
foreign language. Thus, the learner has committed errors since the correct sentences must
be:
-

Thuy Tien has got married for four years.
According to Lado (1957: 2), “Individual transfers the forms and meanings and

this distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to foreign
language and culture”. James Carl, (1998: 179) claim that in the case that both L1 and L2
are similar, the learners benefit from their positive transfer. However, if there are
differences between the two languages, he is encumbered by negative transfer or
interference. And errors are generated from negative transfer.

This cause derives from faulty comprehension of distinctions in the target
language. These are sometimes due to poor gradation of teaching items.
e.g.: He is speaks French.
‘is’ may be understood to be the responding marker of the present tense.


Richard (1974) has traced errors of errors of this sort to classroom presentation,
and to presentation which is based on contrastive analysis of English and another
language or on contrasts within English itself.
1.3.5. Error correction
Error correction is said to be an argumentative part in the process of teaching and
learning. The following questions posed by Hendrickson (1978) can be helpful for the
teachers when deciding how to treat to students’ oral errors:
1. Should learner errors be corrected?
2. If so, when should learner errors be corrected?
3. Which learner errors should be corrected?
4. How should learner errors be corrected?
5. Who should correct learner errors?
For the first question “should learner errors be corrected?” Some researchers say
that teachers should not make a point of error correction because it is considered to be a
kind of criticism or punishment, and errors would be self-corrected by learners.
On the contrary, discussing error correction, some famous error linguists such as
James (1998) and Edge (1989) suggest that it is necessary to correct errors because it is
useful for both teachers and learners. In his book “Mistakes and Correction”, Edge
(1989:20) argues that “teachers decide to correct our students and we have to be sure that
we are using correction positively to support learning”. Sharing Edge’s point of view,
James (1998) claims that learners want all their written errors corrected and correction
will help them improve. He also adds that correction is essential in the cases where the
language processing task is difficult, because in such cases learners will be unable to selfcorrect.
It is hoped that error correction will help learners be aware of their errors more

Allwright (1975) makes a conclusion that any error correction process includes
some of the following general features: indication that an error was committed;
identification of the type of error, location of the error, mention of who made the error,
selection of a remedy, provision of a correct model, the furnishing of an opportunity for a
new attempt, indication of improvement and the offering of praise.
One more question is “how should learner errors be corrected?” The teachers
should decide how to decide how to correct learners’ errors in order not to embarrass
learners. The techniques for correction are various. However, it seems to be impossible to
decide which one is the most effective technique.


James (1998) suggests some opinions and principles for error correction as
follows:
-

First, that is “correct effectively”, teachers’ correction techniques help

learners

to progress in accuracy and fluency.
-

Second, correction should be sensitive and non-threatening form.

-

Third, correction must be matched to student preferences.

-


The results of the study are presented followed by the discussion and analysis of the data.
The results are statistically presented in the forms of tables, or charts.
2.1. The overview of the survey
2.1.1. Aims of the survey
The data has been collected from the students’ questionnaire and
the analysis of the students’ written papers. These are used to answer the
following research questions:
1. What are students’ attitudes towards writing skill in general and paragraph
writing in particular?
2. What is the current situation of errors in paragraph writing made by the second
year students at Nghean College of Education?
The results from the survey questionnaire and the analysis of the students’ errors
helped the researcher make some implications and suggestions for improving the teaching
and learning of paragraph writing.
2.1.2. Research setting
The research was carried out in 1 class (K38-SPTA) of Foreign Language
Department at Nghean College of Education.
2.1.3. Description of subjects
The subjects are 22 second year students of English majors at Nghean College of
Education. These students are studying in their third term. They are aged from twenty to
twenty-two. Most of them are females. At the time the students had 3 periods of writing a
week. Most of them have been studying English for 5 or 6 years. They are almost at the
same level: intermediate.
2.1.4. Instrumentation


The procedure of the study is as follows: First, a survey questionnaire was
distributed to second year students to investigate their attitudes towards the teaching and
learning of writing skill in general and paragraph writing in particular. Second, 22 written
papers of the students were analyzed to find out the common errors in paragraph writing.

- Punctuation error.
- Spelling error.
- Content error.
- Style and form error.
2.2. Results and Data Analysis
2.2.1. Attitudes of students toward writing skill and paragraph writing
Attitude plays an important role in second language learning. The students who
have more positive attitudes are more likely to succeed in second language learning than
others. This part is the investigation into the students’ opinions about learning writing
skill and paragraph writing as well as the amount of their practicing time at home.
The following tables and charts are the summaries of the students’ responses to the
questions in the questionnaire.
Surprisingly, many of students are not interested in writing skill and paragraphs
writing.

Number of
Questions
1. How do you find writing skill?

students

%

A. Boring

17

77.3

B. Interesting


Table 1: Second year students’ attitudes towards writing skill and learning paragraph
writing


Although these students are students of English majors, many of them feel bored
with writing skill and paragraph writing lesson (77.3%) while a little of them think
writing skill (18.2%) and paragraph writing lesson (13.6%) are interesting. This is
because, in their opinions, writing skill and paragraph writing are very difficult.

Figure 3: Students’ opinions about degrees of difficulty of writing skill and paragraph
writing
As can be clearly seen from the chart, a majority of students find the writing skill
difficult (95%). Meanwhile, no one think that this skill is very easy and easy. Similarly,
73% of the students confirm that paragraph writing is difficult or very difficult (18%). It
is not easy for them to write a good paragraph. The reason why they find writing skill and
paragraph difficult is that there are six main difficulties causing the students to make
errors in their writing paragraphs such as: Vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, content,
cultural and style, other types.


Figure 4: The students’ difficulties in writing a paragraph

As shown in the bar chart, 86% of the students think that the choice of correct
words (i.e. the lack of sentence structures and vocabulary) is the most difficult aspect of
writing. The difficulty which is at the second rank is using grammar correctly. Therefore,
most of the students think that writing skill is very difficult and boring, they still consider
that it is not as important as other skills such as: speaking, listening, reading skill.

Figure 5: The students’ attitudes of importance of writing skill in comparison with

2.2.2. Current situation of errors in paragraph writing of the second year students
In this part, the results from the analysis of 22 students’ writing papers are used to
identify the frequency of errors in four types of paragraphs and to compare the errors
committed by students in these types of paragraphs.
2.2.2.1. The most frequent errors in four types of paragraph
In total, there are 223 errors collected from the students’ homework. They are
shown in the following table:
Types of errors

Number of

Number of

Grammar
Vocabulary
Punctuation
Spelling

errors
118
36
33
19

percentages (%)
52.91
16.14
14.81
8.52


Number of

Types of errors
Wrong structure
Word order
Wrong tense sequence

errors
47
32
20

percentages
39.83
27.12
16.95

Run-on sentence

9

7.63

Subject and verb agreement

7

5.93

3

“Uncle Ho was born in Nghe An province which is also my
home town”.
“His famous song is “Lac troi” which I am really interested”.

Lack of
preposition in
relative pronoun

“His famous song is “Lac troi” in which I am really
interested”.
“Mother Terexa visited many countries are the poor and the

Omission of
“that”

miserable present”.
“ Mother Terexa visited many contries that are the poor and
the miserable present”
“Uncle Ho who is the greatest leader of Vietnamese people, was

Lack of comma
in relative clause

born on May 19th 1890”.
“Uncle Ho, who is the greatest leader of Vietnamese people,
was born on May 19th 1890”

Table 4: Some examples of wrong structure errors from the survey
As can be seen from the table, it is important to choose the correct relative pronoun
in making a relative clause. However, many students had some problems with the use of