Common syntactic errors in the writing skills of the 3rd year students at Van Lang University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54855/ijte.24427Keywords:
syntax, error, sentence structure, argumentative essayAbstract
This study aimed to analyze common syntactic errors found in the argumentative essays of third-year English major students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Van Lang University, Vietnam. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to obtain data in this study. The quantitative approach involved counting and calculating the frequency, percentage, and ranking of syntactic errors, while the qualitative method was adopted to explain these errors. The instrument for collecting data was argumentative essays written by 37 third-year English majors enrolling in Writing-5 at Van Lang University. Microsoft Word was used to collect and analyze syntactic errors and sentence structures, while Microsoft Excel was employed to calculate the frequency and rank of these errors and structures. The results found that the five most frequent errors in their essays were at the noun phrase and sentence levels. These errors included run-on sentences, preposition errors, article errors, sentence fragments, and pronoun errors. Through error analysis, it was indicated that the majority of errors made by students were due to the negative transfer from their first language and the literal translation. Based on the findings, language teachers and syllabus designers could use these results as guidance to design appropriate teaching methods and materials.References
Andrian, A. (2015). An error analysis of EFL students’ English writing. English Education Journal, 6(4), 511-523.
Chi, P. K. (2020). Error analysis on English compositions and paragraphs of Vietnamese students. TNU Journal of Science and Technology, 225(11), 55 - 63. doi: https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.3183
Currie, M., Sinwongsuwat, K., & Nicoletti, K. (2019). The Influence of word-type frequency and mother tongue effects on non-conventional English-structure usage in Thai Academic ‘s writing. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 36(1), 356-377.
Dang, T. H., Chau, T. H., & Tra, T. Q. (2020). A study on the difficulties in writing argumentative essays of English-majored sophomores at Tay Do university, Vietnam. European Journal of English Language Teaching, 6(1), 201-240. doi: http://doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v6i1.3389
Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. (1982). Language Two. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. (1997). Second language acquisition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Emmaryana, F. (2010). An analysis on the grammatical errors in the students' writing. Jakarta, Indonesia: Unpublished Thesis from UIN Jakarta.
Gass, M. & Selinker, R. (2008). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York, NY: Routledge.
Hafiz, S. M., Omar, A. M. A., & Sher, K. M. (2018). Analysis of syntactic errors in English writing: A case study of Jazan University preparatory year students. Journal of Education and Practice, 9(11), 113-120.
Hamzaa, M. H., & Abboodb, H. A. (2020). Polysyndeton in Shakespeare’s Othello: a case of grammatical deviation. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 11(7), 104-116.
Hamzah, H. (2012). An analysis of the written grammatical errors produced by freshment students in english writing. Lingua Didaktika: Jurnal Bahasa dan Pembelajaran Bahasa, 6(1), 17-25.
Ho, P. V. P., & Duong, P. N. T. (2015). Common errors in writing journals of the English major students at Ho Chi Minh City Open University. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal Of Science-Social Sciences, 5(1), 13-22.
Iamsiu, C. (2014). An analysis of grammatical errors in Srinakharinwirot University students' writing (Doctoral dissertation, Srinakharinwirot University).
Ilyosovna, N. A. (2020). The importance of English language. International Journal on Orange Technologies, 2(1), 22-24.
Izzo, J. (2000). Sentence Structure Aberrations in English Writings of Japanese University Students. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED442290.pdf
Jumriana, J. (2014). Syntactical Errors Made by the Students in Writing Thesis at English and Literature Department of Adab and Humanities Faculty of Alauddin State Islamic University of Makassar (Undergraduate Thesis, Alauddin Islamic State University of Makassar, Makassar).
Karahan, P. (2011). An analysis of syntactic errors in the compositions of students taking the proficiency exam at an elt department (Master's thesis).
Khan, S. R., & Khan, M. R. (2016). Error analysis in English writing. International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 4(2), 232-243.
Khansir, A. A., Ahrami, M., & Hajivandi, A. (2013). The study of errors in paragraph writing on Iranian EFL students. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 16(2), 221-228. doi: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2013.16.02.1222
Khatter, S. (2019). An analysis of the most common essay writing errors among EFL Saudi female learners (Majmaah University). Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume, 10(3), 364-381. doi: https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol10no3.26
Khumphee, S. (2015). Grammatical errors in English essays written by Thai EFL undergraduate students (Doctoral dissertation, School of Foreign Languages Institute of Social Technology Suranaree University of Technology).
Krismanti, N. (2014). Fragment and Run-On Sentences Analysis on Students’ Essay. In 2nd NEDS Proceeding (pp.161-169).
Lamb, M. (1977). An Application of Error Analysis to Comma Splices and Fused Sentences. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED146595
Le, T. T. D. (2023). Grammatical Error Analysis of EFL Learners’ English Writing Samples: The Case of Vietnamese Pre-intermediate Students. International Journal of TESOL & Education, 3(4), 1-14. doi: https://doi.org/10.54855/ijte.23341
Ma’mun, N. (2016). The grammatical errors on the paragraph writings. Vision: Journal for Language and Foreign Language Learning, 5(1), 95-131. Macmillan Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.21580/vjv5i1862
Mireku-Gyimah, P. B. (2014). Analysis of errors in the English of final year university students: A case study at the university of mines and technology. Journal of elt and Applied Linguistics (jeltal), 2(4), 23-46.
Nasser, S. M. (2018). Iraqi EFL students’ difficulties in writing composition: An experimental study (University of Baghdad). International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(1), 178-184. doi: http://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n1p178
Ngangbam, H. (2016). An analysis of syntactic errors committed by students of English language class in the written composition of Mutah University: A case study. European Journal of English Language, Linguistics and Literature, 3(1), 1-13.
Nguyen, H. H. T. (2009). Teaching efl writing in Vietnam: Problems and solutions-a discussion from the outlook of applied linguistics. VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 25(1), 61-66.
Nguyen, T. H. (2020). Common grammartical errors in English writing-A case study with second-year students of information technology at HAUI. CTU Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 12(1), 37-44. doi: https://doi.org/10.22144/ctu.jen.2020.005
Phoocharoensil, S., Moore, B., Gampper, C., Geerson, E. B., Chaturongakul, P., Sutharoj, S., & Carlon, W. T. (2016). Grammatical and Lexical Errors in Low-Proficiency Thai Graduate Students' Writing. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network, 9(1), 11-24.
Phuket, P. R. N., & Othman, N. B. (2015). Understanding EFL Students' Errors in Writing. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(32), 99-106.
Politzer, R. L., & Ramirez, A. G. (1973). An Error Analysis of The Spoken English of Mexican‐American Pupils in A Bilingual School and A Monolingual School 1. Language Learning, 23(1), 39-61.
Pratiwi, K. D. (2016). Students’ difficulties in writing English (A study at the third semester students of English education program at University of Bengkulu Academic Year 2011-2012). Linguists: Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching, 3(1), 1-13.
Promsupa, P., Varasarin, P., & Brudhiprabha, P. (2017). An analysis of grammatical errors in English writing of Thai university students. Hrd Journal, 8(1), 93-104.
Purnamasari, D., Hidayat, D. N., & Kurniawati, L. (2021). An analysis of students’ writing skill on English descriptive text. English Education: Jurnal Tadris Bahasa Inggris, 14(1), 101-114. doi: https://doi.org/10.24042/ee-jtbi.v14i1.7943
Rao, P. S. (2019). The role of English as a global language. Research Journal of English, 4(1), 65-79.
Sattayatham, A., & Ratanapinyowong, P. (2008). Analysis of errors in paragraph writing in English by first year medical students from the four medical schools at Mahidol University. Silpakorn University International Journal, 8(3), 17-38.
Sermsook, K., Liamnimit, J., & Pochakorn, R. (2017). An Analysis of Errors in Written English Sentences: A Case Study of Thai EFL Students. English Language Teaching, 10(3), 101-110. doi: http://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n3p101
Singh, C. K. S., Singh, A. K. J., Razak, N. Q. A., & Ravinthar, T. (2017). Grammar Errors Made by ESL Tertiary Students in Writing. English Language Teaching, 10(5), 16- 27. doi: https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n5p16
Sriyatni, S. (2019). An analysis of sentence fragments found in students’ writing on essay (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Mercu Buana Yogyakarta).
Sullivan, M. H. (2021). Analysis and treatment of comma splices in Chinese L2 English compositions (Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Los Angeles).
Sultan, S. (2015). Syntactic Errors in Pakistani Undergraduate Students’ Written English. Journal of Education & Social Sciences, 3(2), 245-259.
Suwangard, N. (2014). Grammatical error correction and retention in EFL students: A case study of EFL students in Thailand. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(12), 51-58. doi: http://doi.org/10.9790/0837-191245158
Tahaineh, Y. S. (2010). Arab EFL university students’ errors in the use of prepositions. Modern Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(6), 76-112.
Tati, J. S. (2016). A Syntactic Errors Analysis in the Malaysian ESL Learners' Written Composition. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 3(6), 96-104.
Tran, L. (2001). Using pair work and group work in teaching writing. Teacher’s Edition, 5, 22-28.
Tran, T. T. M. (2021). Use of self-regulated learning strategies in paragraph writing at Van Lang University. International Journal of TESOL & Education, 1(3), 1-13. Retrieved from http://eoi.citefactor.org/10.11250/ijte.01.03.001
Tuan, L. T. (2010). Enhancing EFL Learners' Writing Skill via Journal Writing. English Language Teaching, 3(3), 81-88. doi: http://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v3n3p81
Yu, X. (2009). The Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Non-English Majors’ Compositions from the Perspective of Syntax. Asian Social Science, 5(9), 137-141.
Zheng, J., Napoles, C., Tetreault, J., & Omelianchuk, K. (2018). How do you correct run- on sentences it's not as easy as it seems. In Proceedings of the 2018 EMNLP Workshop W-NUT: The 4th Workshop on Noisy User-generated Text (pp.33–38). doi: https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/W18-6105
Zughoul, M. R. (2002). Interlanguage Syntax of Arabic-Speaking Learners of English: The Noun Phrase. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED479649.pdf
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Pham Quynh Nhu, Pham Vu Phi Ho
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The copyright of all articles published in the International Journal of TESOL & Education (ijte) remains with the Authors, i.e. Authors retain full ownership of their article. Permitted third-party reuse of the open access articles is defined by the applicable Creative Commons (CC) end-user license which is accepted by the Authors upon submission of their paper. All articles in the ijte are published under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, meaning that end users can freely share an article (i.e. copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt it (i.e. remix, transform and build upon the material) on the condition that proper attribution is given (i.e. appropriate credit, a link to the applicable license and an indication if any changes were made; all in such a way that does not suggest that the licensor endorses the user or the use) and the material is only used for non-commercial purposes.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, in a journal or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
How to Cite
