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HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE

NGUYEN MINH PHUONG

A STUDY ON COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN
SPEAKING SKILL OF 11th GRADE STUDENTS
AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ LỖI NGỮ PHÁP PHỔ BIẾN TRONG KĨ NĂNG NÓI CỦA
HỌC SINH KHỐI 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG CẤP 3, VIỆT NAM)

(Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor of
Arts in English)

Major: English Language Teaching Method

Hanoi, 2019

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HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN MINH PHUONG

A STUDY ON COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN SPEAKING

Finally, I would like to thank to my family, friends and relatives, who have always
paid attention, encouraged me and supported me throughout the process of studying,
conducting and completing the topic.

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ABSTRACT
This paper studied on common grammatical errors in speaking skill of 11th grade
students at Yen Khanh A High school. In the research, the author combined the use of
quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve the desired results. The participants of
the study is a hundred and twenty students of the 11th grade and ten English teachers at
Yen Khanh A High school.
Research results illustrates that most of the 11th grade students in Yen Khanh A High
school suffer from errors related verb form, prepositions, articles, subject-verb
agreement as well. Besides, from teacher's point of view at Yen Khanh A High school,
the main cause of these errors is the direct impact on students 'psychology; the students'
grammatical knowledge is not really deep; the influence of Vietnamese grammar while
speaking. Specially, they strongly emphasize on performance pressure factor, which is
the most common ones. In order to minimize these errors, teachers should apply
suitable and flexible techniques and create opportunities for students to talk as much as
possible. Meanwhile, students should communicate regularly with teachers and friends,
as well as having suitable methods for self-study.
Key words: grammatical errors, speaking skill, 11th grade, Yen Khanh A High School.

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure1: The role of speaking skill..................................................................................37
Figure 2: Students‘ interest in English grammar ..........................................................38
Figure 3: The role of grammar in speaking skill ...........................................................39
Figure 4: Causes of errors ................................................................................................42

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TABLE CONTENT

PART A: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1
I.Rationale of the study .............................................................................................................. 1
II.The significance of the study ........................................................................................ 4
III.Aims of the study ................................................................................................................... 4
IV.Research question .................................................................................................................. 4
V.Scope of the study .................................................................................................................... 4
VI.Method of study ..................................................................................................................... 5
`VII.Main contents....................................................................................................................... 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................................... 6

3.2.2.Description of questionnaire ........................................................................................ 31
3.3.Recording............................................................................................................................... 31
3.3.1. Reasons for recording ................................................................................................... 31
3.3.2. Description of recording ............................................................................................... 31
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .............................................................. 33
1.Findings and discussion ........................................................................................................ 33
1.1. Data analysis of observation and recording .............................................................. 33
1.2 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire ................................................................... 36
2. Suggested solution ................................................................................................................. 44
2.1. Suggested solutions ........................................................................................................... 44
PART III.CONCUSION ......................................................................................................... 47
1.Summary of the study ........................................................................................................... 47
2.Limitations of the study ........................................................................................................ 48
3.Suggestions for further studies ........................................................................................... 48
4.Recommendations .................................................................................................................. 49
REFERENCE ............................................................................................................................. 51
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 54

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
I.Rationale of the study
As we all know, language plays a very important role in human life, which is the
characteristic of human. In daily life, we use language to communicate, also to
exchange cultural, economic, political expansion and cooperation in many other
aspects of life. For international communication, English is used as a bridge between


meaning. Brumfit (1984) as well refers to the accuracy of the language content:
grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.
Also, in any language, grammar makes significant contribution to speaking skill. This
implies linguistic use this rules can offer assistance learners think logically, clearly and
accuracy when speaking. The fact that each person has a different perspective on
teaching and learning grammar. For those who are just beginning to learn English or
have a short-term goal in this subject, grammar may not be important. Sellers or drivers
still could speak English simply for sales. They only need to grasp basic vocabulary
related to the item and the price is enough for customers to listen and understand
without much grammar. However, when passing the first stage of learning English,
people focused more on accuracy. It is clear that when evaluating someone's speaking
ability, we cannot ignore grammar factor. According to Mr Nguyen Xuan Quang (the
co-founder and trainer of English pronunciation at Moon ESL) it is extremely difficult
to assess students through their pronunciation. If focusing on pronunciation only
instead of grammar will put great challenges for the whole system: how to evaluate?
In addition, using the right grammar when speaking also shows respect of speakers to
the listeners. Obviously, when you are good at grammar, you will hear and understand
others more easily. Without grammar, you will not be able to understand or
misunderstand the meaning of the speaker. Compare the two following sentences:
- I am in love with Tien Dung.
- I was in love with Tien Dung.
The difference is unremarkable (am - was), but the relationship between the speaker
and "Tien Dung" is very different in two cases.
Or another example, the listener may misunderstand the meaning of the speaker
- Can you take me a pen on my bag ?
-OK….I can’t see it. On where?
-On my bag, oh I’m sorry in my bag.
As you can see in the above case, the speaker asks to mistake the position of the pen
due to misusing preposition on and in, so the listener misunderstand his meaning and

research on ―A study on grammatical errors in speaking skill of the11th grade students
at a high school in Vietnam”
II. The significance of the study
Making mistakes in speaking is unavoidable, and it is also as one of the underresearched issues in speaking skill for students in Vietnam. Hopefully, this research
will be helpful for students, teachers and as well as researchers in the related fields:

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Firstly, for students, this study can help them recognize some common types of
grammatical errors in speaking and employ effective learning methods in studying
English speaking skill.
Moreover, it will be very useful for teachers in teaching speaking skill since they can
understand the common mistakes of students.
Last but not least, this paper may be laid foundation for researchers to find out more
about their related areas.
III.Aims of the study
The minor purpose of the study focuses on investigating some common grammatical
errors in speaking skill by students of grade 11 at Yen Khanh A High School. Also,
the reasons that students often make grammatical errors when speaking and then
suggest some solutions for teachers could find out the common mistakes students
make.
IV. Research question
As the aims mentioned above, the researcher contains the research question as
follows:
1. What are the common grammatical errors committed by 11th grade students at Yen
Khanh A school?

questions, Scope of the study, Methods of the study and Significance of the study.
Part B, Development, gives information on Literature Review, Methodology, Finding
and Discussion, Implications of the study.
Chapter I, Literature review, presents language acquisition, theoretical frameworks of
language learning factors and research framework.
Chapter II, Methodology, describes in detail the Participants, Research instruments
employed and Procedure of data collection analysis.
Chapter III, Findings and discussion, analyzes gathered data and presents the
discussion of research findings. And then give suggested solution for teachers.
Part C, Conclusion, summary of the study, limitations and suggestion for further study.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.LITERATURE IN BRIEF
Studying on grammatical errors when speaking is always a topic that attracted many
previous researchers, including Clark and Clark (1977), Ellis (1997), Burt and Krashen
(1982) and so on. They all have different ways of analyzing and classifying errors. In
general, they stated that speech error and error analysis are closely related.
In August 2016, Safrida, Usman Kasim conducted a research on "Grammatical
Errors: An Analysis in Speaking Produced by EFL Undergraduate" taken on the third
semester students of Syiah Kuala University on their speaking in Indonesia. The
researcher gave a speaking test to the eight of the third semester English Education
students of Syiah Kuala University. He used convenience sampling technique to limit
the subject chosen. The writer asked students to talk about their most memorable

confused in making the agreement between subject and verb. In addition, prepositions
were one of the obstacles for students when speaking English.
In brief, each of type of error has source of error. Depending on different contexts as
well as different conditions, learners may make different grammatical errors. Thus, it is
essential to have a study on common grammatical errors in speaking English of
students at Yen Khanh A High School.
2.Theories of Speaking
2.1.Definition of speaking
Oxford dictionaries defied speaking is the action of conveying information or
expressing one's feelings in speech or the activity of delivering speeches.
According to Burns & Joyce, 1997, speaking is stated as an intelligent procedure of
developing implying that includes delivering, getting and handling information. Its
form and meaning is based on different factors in different contexts such as
participants, including speakers and listeners, physical environment and goals for
speaking. As Hybel (2001) declared that speaking is any procedure in which
individuals share information, thoughts, and feeling, it includes all of non-verbal
communication and style whatever adds significance to a message. Specially, speaking
is to express our thought to others in oral communication, additionally a handle in
which a speaker passes on data or messages to listeners.
Furthermore, it is generally believed that speaking skill is one of the important skills
that must be mastered by a language learner (according to Goh & Burn, 2012). Indeed,
to become a good language learner, we cannot ignore speaking skill because it is the

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main part of communication, which can affect others‘life. Also, Thornbury (2005)


3.Theories of Grammar
3.1.Definition of grammar
Grammar is the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general,
usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and
sometimes also phonology and semantics.
(www.oxforddictionaries.com)
Grammar is the system of a language. Sometimes it is described as the "rules" of a
language; but in fact no language has rules.
Different experts define the term grammar differently and there is no fixed definition of
grammar. Harmer (2004) defined grammar as the description of the ways in which
words can change their forms and can be combined into sentence in that language. As
him stated in communication, it was rules or regulations when building a language and
using that language. Besides, Ur mentioned grammar as the manner in which language
controls and consolidate words or bits of words so as to frame longer units of
implications.
Grammar is the foundation of our own ability. The more we grasp how it works, the
more progress we have and the mastery of that language. It can help encourage
exactness, distinguish equivocalness, and endeavor the lavishness of articulation
accessible in English. What's more, it can support everybody, instructors of English,
yet educators of anything, for all instructing is eventually a matter of getting to grasps
with significance
(David Crystal, ―In World and Deed‖, TES Teacher, April 30, 2004).
3.2.Roles of grammar in speaking
Grammar plays a very important and diverse role, especially in everyday
communication. The role of grammar can take many dimensions and varies according
to the situation and context in which it is used (according to Zakaria Dalil, June 2013)
.One of the upper most traits of grammar is that it enables learners to make correct
sentences, be they spoken or written.


According to collins dictionary An error is something you have done which is
considered to be incorrect or wrong, or which should not have been done.
Different researchers defined different views. J. Richard et al (2002) described the
error may be the wrong way to use a word, speech act or a grammatical structure in
such a way it seems imperfect and significant of an incomplete learning.

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Meanwhile, Norrish (1983, p.7) considered errors occur according to a system,
learners may not understand or understand but apply wrongly when practicing. This is
really problematic because if it is not edited from the beginning, it can become a habit
and very difficult to overcome later.
As James (1998) considered

an

error

as grammatical correctness and

acceptance. He judges errors according to ignorance, it is the research on linguistic
ignorance, surveys about those mistakes and how people face such ignorance. He
stated that the ignorance of learners of the target language can be shown following as
four categories: grammaticality, acceptability, correctness and strangeness

and


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because learners are at the beginning stage or their knowledge are not good.
In addition, the cause of making mistakes is due to the difficulty and complexity
language itself. ( Heydari and Bagheri ,2012,p.10)
Heydari and Bagheri (2012; as cited in Brown, 1994) classified sources of errors into
the following categories: Interference transfer, which is the negative influence of the
learner‘s mother tongue. Secondly is intralingual transfer, the negative transfer of items
within the target language. In other words, the incorrect generalisation of the rules
within the target language. Besides, context of learning, which overlaps both types of
transfers. For example, the context around the classroom includes references to
materials, or teachers themselves may be false models. In a classroom context, the
teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to make a wrong generalisation about the
language. Last but not least, communication strategies, which are the conscious
employment of verbal mechanisms for communicating an idea when linguistic forms
are not available to the learner for various reasons.
Burt and Kiparsky (1972) showed there are four main types of errors based on
surface structure descriptions , including omissions (This is book); additions such as
regularizations (two deers) and double markings (I didn't ate it); misinformation errors
subcategorized into regularization errors (two childs), archi-forms (this dog here, this
dogs here, this dog there, this dogs there), and alternating forms (this dogs, those dog),
and misordering errors (Always I go / Where you are going). These examples can be
found in Burt and Kiparsky (1972).
Furthermore, one of the classification is to base on the type of linguistic
categories. They are phonology /pronunciation, syntax and morphology/grammar,

procedures which learners utilize in language learning, to track the causes of
learner‘s mistakes, get data on common troubles in language learning or on how to get
ready instructing materials.
Brown (1980) defined error analysis as the procedure to observe, analyze, and
classify the deviations of the standards of the second language and afterward to
uncover the frameworks worked by student. It is the way for the teaching-oriented and
grasp how their receiving student, helps detect errors that students have, since then
supports methods for students to overcome.
Crystal (1987) pointed out error analysis is a method for distinguishing, classifying
and deliberately interpreting

the unsatisfactory structures created by somebody

learning a foreign language , using any of the standards and methodology given by
linguistics

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By general, error analysis is a term used by researchers for studying learners‘ errors
in learning a new language.
5.2.Significance of error analysis
Error analysis is principally important and necessary because, as Jack Richards refers
to Corder‘s observation that Error analysis is only done when the learner makes a
mistake, this is really necessary because it is the basis for the teacher to approach the
mistakes that the learner has made. Therefore, both errors and error analysis are
inescapable portion of teaching and learning

errors, and faulty punctuation
()
Burt and Kiparsky (1972) supposed grammatical errors belong to ―local errors‖
which including linguistically morphological, vocabulary, syntactic, and orthographic
errors, while worldwide errors implies informative mistakes which show students
misconstrue conversational messages. It is clear that there are 2 cases of misuse of
grammar: in writing, errors related to vocabulary, syntax, spelling…and when
speaking, the person involved in communication misunderstands the meaning of the
other. In addition, Hsu (2013,p.514) highlighted these categories of grammatical errors
thus means inaccurate form, semantics meanings, and use. L2 learners will use L2
accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately after mastering these three dimensions,
these errors belong to local errors which are linguistically morphological, lexical,
syntax, and orthographic errors, while global errors means communicative errors which
shows that language learners misunderstand the message in communication
6.2.Grammatical errors classification
a.Preposition
According to oxford dictionary, preposition is a word governing, and usually
preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in
the clause, as in ‗the man on the platform‘, ‗she arrived after dinner‘, ‗what did you do
it for?‘.
Wishon and Burks (1980, p.288) preposition indicates the connection such as
position, place, direction, time, manner, agent, possession, and condition between their
objects and other parts of the sentence. Prepositions are connective words that
demonstrate the connections between the nouns following them and one of the basic
sentence elements S, V, O, C. Below is a list of common prepositions according to
Langen (415).

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Across

below

Among

beneath

for

of

toward

Around

beside

from

off

under

At

between

in