iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality of study project report………………………………………… i Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………… ………… iii Table of contents……………………………………………………………………….….iv List of tables and charts……………………………………………………………… .vii PART I- INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………… 1 1. Rationale…………………………………………………………………… ….1 2. Aims of the study…………………………………………………………… 1 3. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………… 2 4. Methodology……………………………………………………………… … 2 The subjects……………………………………………………….…… …2 The instruments……………………………………………….…… 3 The procedures…………………………………………….……………….3 Data analysis…………………………………………………………… …4 5. Design of the study…………………………………………………………… 4 PART II- DEVELOPMENT………………………………………………………….… 5 Chapter 1- Literature Review………………………………………….…………….… 5 1.1. Definition of English nouns………………………………….…………….… 5 1.2. Classification of nouns…………………………………………………… … 5 1.2.2. Proper nouns……………………………………………………… 6 1.2.2.1. Definition……………………………… ………………… 6 1.2.2.2. Classification……………………………….…………… 6 1.2.3. Common nouns…………………………………………………… 7 1.2.3.1. Definition…………………………………………………….7 1.2.3.2. Classification…………………………………………… 7 1.3. Grammatical categories…………………………………………………… ….7 1.3.1. Number…………………………………………………………… 7 1.3.1.1. Definition……………………………………………… …. 7 v 1.3.1.2. Classification of nouns in terms of number…………….……8 1.3.2. Case………………………………………………………………… 8 1.3.2.1. Kinds and choice of genitives…………………………… . 8 1.3.2.3. Genitive meanings……………………………………….… 8 1.3.3. Gender………………………………………………………… ……9 Chapter 2- Grammatical features of plural nouns in English…………………… ….10 2.1. Definition……………………………………………………………….…….10 2.2. Classification…………………………………………………………… … 10 2.2.1. Marked plural nouns…………………………………………… ….11 2.2.1.1. Definition……………………………………….………… 11 2.2.1.2. Classification……………………………….…………… ….11 (a) Invariables…………………………………….…………… …….11 (b) Variables……………………………………….…………… … 12 2.2.2. Unmarked plural nouns……………………………………… ……13 2.2.2.1. Definition……………………………… ……………… … 13 2.2.2.2. Classification…………………………………………… …. 14 (a) Unmarked plural nouns which are always used with plural verbs 14 (b) Unmarked plural nouns which refer to groups of people or things………………………………………………………………….15 (c) Unmarked plural nouns which are formed by ‘the + adjective’… 18 (d) Invariable nouns which can be singular or plurals…………….… 19 2.2.2.3. Subject-Verb agreement………………………………… … 20 Chapter 3- Findings 21 3.1. Data analysis results…………………………………………………… ……21 3.1.1. The mid-term test……………………………………………….… 21 3.1.2. The students’ questionnaires…………………………………… …22 3.1.3. The teachers’ interview……………………………………… ……27 3.2. Findings……………………………………………………….………… … 30 3.2.1. No inflectional distinction with singular form… …………… … 30 3.2.2. Subject-Verb agreement…………………………………… …… 30 Chapter 4- Some suggested solutions…………………………………………… …… 32 4.1. Towards the students…………………………………………………… … 32 vi 4.1.1. Using dictionary……………………………………………… … 32 4.1.2. Self-access materials…………………………………………….… 33 4.1.3. Making a vocabulary notebook………………………………… …34 4.1.4. Group work…………………………………………………… … 34 4.2. Towards the teachers………………………………………………………….34 4.2.1. Using effective teaching techniques………………………… …….35 4.2.2. Using vocabulary consolidation as warm-up activities……… ……35 4.2.3. Guiding students’ home revision and give them feedback…… … 36 PART III- CONCLUSION………………………………………………………… … 38 1. Summary of the study……………………………………………………… 38 2. Limitation of the study……………………………………………………… 39 3. Suggestion for further study………………………………………………… 39 References…………………………………………………………………………………41 Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………… I vii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1: The mid-term test Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards vocabulary learning Chart 2: Problems in learning English plural nouns Chart 3: Ways of practicing unmarked plural nouns Chart 4: Ways of presenting unmarked plural nouns students like Chart 5: Difficulties caused by unmarked plural nouns Chart 6: Consolidation of unmarked plural nouns students are most interested in Chart 7: Ways of practicing unmarked plural nouns students like most Chart 8: Parts students find most difficult in their last exams 1 PART I- INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In the age of information technology today, English is required as a basic need in any field of life. In our country, at present, learning English is not only a concern but also a practical need for many people. Therefore, more and more attention of both the general public and the government has been paid to English learning and teaching at schools, colleges and universities. Learning to master a language is a lengthy and effortful process including both learning the language knowledge: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. and language skills: reading, speaking, writing and listening. As the final aim of learning language in general and learning English in particular is communicative, vocabulary is one of the most essential goals to achieve. However, how to learn a language, especially its vocabulary effectively is really a problem. At Hanoi University of Culture (HUC), the 1 st year students at the Faculty of Tourism often report to have a lot of difficulties in learning vocabulary, especially the number category. Normally, a noun is marked inflectionally as singular or plural by means of –s (and other markers such as voicing, -en endings, vowel changes or foreign plural) or Ø respectively. In some nouns, however, there is no such inflectional distinction (Bache, 1997). Surprisingly, a number of plural nouns in English have no plural endings (unmarked plural nouns). This is a big problem for students because they cannot realize these nouns as plural by their forms. It arises even more challenges for students when they often make mistakes in making the subject and the verb of the sentence agree. Up to now, no study on this matter has been carried out at HUC. Therefore, the situation 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 2 - 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. Additionally, in order to find out the difficulties of unmarked plural nouns in English for the 1 st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC, this study adopts quantitative and qualitative methods. Below is a description of the subjects, the instruments, and procedures for the study. 4.1. The subjects There are two types of subjects participating in the study. The first type is the 1 st year students at the Faculty of Tourism, HUC, and the later is the teachers who have been working with these students for years. 90 of the 1 st year students were chosen to take part in a questionnaire survey. They came from 3 classes in the Faculty of Tourism at the university. They are both male and female, at the age from 19 to 20 and have learnt English for at least 3 years at high schools. In addition, 10 teachers who are working with these students were invited to participate in an interview held by the researcher. They are both male and female, aging from 29 to 50 and have taught at the university for at least 3 years. 4.2. The instruments In order to ensure the validity and reliability of the study, different tools were used, namely written test, questionnaires, and interview. 3 Instrument 1: The mid-term test was used as a tool to investigate the difficulties of unmarked plural nouns in English which the 1 st year students have to encounter in their vocabulary learning. This test has much to do with unmarked plural nouns, and includes 4 parts presented in the following order: Gap-filling (10 points); S-V agreement (10 points); Gap-filling combined with S-V agreement (10 points); and Translation (10 points). (see appendix 3) Instrument 2: Survey questionnaires on the 1 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 st year students in their learning unmarked plural nouns in English. The interview was recorded for later reference. 4.4. Data analysis As above mentioned, the data for this study is collected by the mid-term tests, students’ questionnaires, and teachers’ interview. With the mid-term tests, students’ acquisition of 4 unmarked plural nouns in English can be accurately assessed. Information provided from students’ questionnaires will be categorized, tabulated and converted to percentages for the convenience of analysis. Moreover, information collected during teachers’ interview is added to assist interpretation. 5. Design of the study This study is divided into three main parts: Part I: Introduction The Introduction presents the rationale for the study, states what the study is aimed at and what specific tasks it deals with, and gives the methods by which the study was conducted together with the organization of the study. Part II: Development The Development includes 4 chapters: Chapter 1 is concerned with the theoretical concepts, classification and grammatical categories of nouns in English. Chapter 2 deals with the grammatical features of plural nouns in general and unmarked plural nouns in particular. Chapter 3 analyses data collected from the subjects and instruments employed in the research along with some discussion. Chapter 4 suggests some solutions which are expected to improve the 1 st year students’ learning English unmarked plural nouns in HUC context. Part III: Conclusion The Conclusion reviews the major findings of the study, refers to some limitations of the study and suggestions for further study. 5 PART II- DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 – LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, an overview of English nouns is examined to help learners get general ideas about the matter studied. This part consists of 3 sections: (1) definition of English nouns, (2) classification of English nouns, and (3) grammatical categories of English nouns. 1.1. Definition of English nouns In Gerald’s view (2001), nouns denote both concrete objects and abstract entities. For example: Concrete Abstract book anger chair difficulty dog eagerness According to Collins (1992:444), a noun is used to identify a person or thing. Tran (2008:15) defines a noun as ‘a word used to name person, thing, animal or abstract concept’. For example: - Names of persons: Tom, John, people, man, boy, woman, etc. - Names of things: bed, chair, table, house, earth, etc. - Names of animals: cat, dog, tiger, lion, etc. - Names of abstract concepts: peace, war, independence, etc. From my point of view, Tran’s concept of English nouns is more concrete. Therefore, the definition of English nouns by Tran (2008) is mentioned in this paper. 1.2. Classification of English nouns Different linguists classify English nouns into different kinds. According to Collins (1992:444), English nouns can be classified into six main types: count nouns, uncount nouns, singular nouns, plural nouns, collective nouns, and proper nouns. In Thomson and Martinet’s view (1986), there are four kinds of nouns in English: common nouns, proper nouns, abstract nouns and collective nouns. Tran (2008) classifies English nouns into 2 main types: proper nouns and common nouns. For the purpose of this study that focuses on grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English of which collective nouns are consisted, the classification by Tran (2008) is more general and will be used in this paper. Let’s look at the diagram to see the classification of English nouns in Tran’s point of view. Nouns Proper nouns Common nouns 6 (unique reference) (generic/specific reference) Tom, John, Mr. Smith, etc. Count noun Non-count noun man, boy, people water, oil, independence Concrete Abstract man, boy, water peace, war, independence The two types of nouns (proper nouns and common nouns) will be discussed hereafter. 1.2.1. Proper nouns 1.2.1.1. Definition of proper nouns According to Collins (1992:448), names of people, places, organizations, institutions, ships, magazines, books, plays, paintings, and other unique things are proper nouns. For example: Mozart, Romeo and Juliet, the President of the United States, the Seine, etc. Gerald (2001:34) defines proper nouns as ‘the names of individual people and places, including geographical features such as roads, rivers, mountains and ocean’. He gives some examples of proper nouns as Patrick, China, Hong Kong, Atlantic Ocean, River Thames, Mount Everest, etc. In addition, he also states that the names of institutions, newspapers, buildings, and ships are proper nouns. Finally, he presents the days of the week, the months of the year and other periods of the calendar as proper nouns. Quirk (1987:76) states that proper nouns are names of specific people (Shakespeare), places (Milwaukee), countries (Australia), months (September), days (Thursday), holidays (Christmas), magazines (Vogue), and so forth. In short, proper nouns usually refer to unique individuals, places or events in the calendar. Proper nouns have unique reference (i.e. they refer to a unique person, country, organization or sometimes a group of these). 1.2.1.2. Classification of proper nouns According to Quirk (1987) and Gerald (2001), the following list exemplifies the main classes of proper nouns. (a) Personal names: Tom, John, Mr. Smith, Bill Clinton, Sir Jones, etc. (b) Geographical names (including names of continents, countries, counties, states, cities, towns, lakes and mountains): America, Brazil, Arkansas, Boston, Silver Lake, Mount Everest, the Nile, etc. (c) Names of institutions or organizations: London University, FAO, UNICEF, etc. (d) Name + common noun: Park Lane, Kennedy Airport, etc. (e) Calendar items: January, Monday, Christmas, etc. [...]... difficulties of unmarked plural nouns in English for the 1st years at the Faculty of Tourism at her university in particular, and to improve the English learning and teaching at the university in general 4.1 Toward students In the researcher’s opinion, individual learning and student autonomy have become increasingly significant in their learning process Student autonomy is a very valuable answer to the question... unmarked plural nouns is the agreement with verbs Unmarked plural nouns have no inflectional distinction with singular forms Therefore, students do not know unmarked plural nouns as plural by their form, and they often make mistakes in making the subject and the verb of the sentence agree It arises even more difficulties for students in the case of collective nouns which can be either singular or plural. .. to students difficulties in using them in contexts 4 Which way of presenting unmarked plural nouns do you like? It can be seen from the chart that the biggest choice is made by 63.3% of the students for presenting unmarked plural nouns by translating all the words into Vietnamese The next 23 choice falls into the way of saying the words clearly one by one and writing them on the board, counting for. .. necessary for teachers to take this problem into consideration 3.1.3 Teachers’ interview 1 What difficulties do you find from your students in their learning unmarked plural nouns in English? With regards to difficulties caused by unmarked plural nouns for the 1st students, most of the teachers stated that difficulties fall into 2 main categories: no inflectional distinction with singular form and Subject-Verb... That most of the interviewed teachers proposed a diversity of presenting and consolidating unmarked plural nouns and some of them required a regular check of students homework and that in fact they haven’t done these things in the university reveal the teachers’ motivation was not high enough to make a considerable improvement in their students learning unmarked plural nouns Therefore, there is no... can be inferred that when most students choose to learn unmarked plural nouns by writing the words in English many times, and reading them aloud, or writing both singular and plural forms of the words, they focus only on the spelling and pronunciation of the words rather than how to use the words in sentences or contexts Only a small number of students (16.7%) learn unmarked plural nouns by making sentences,... OF PLURAL NOUNS IN ENGLISH This chapter covers the following issues of English plural nouns: (1) definition, (2) classification For the purpose of this study which focuses on grammatical features of unmarked plural nouns in English, the other grammatical features of plural nouns, such as spelling rules, pronunciation, rules of plurality making, agreement with verbs, etc will be discussed in other studies... better and clearly indicate that the individuals are acting separately: The members of the jury have returned to their homes The people in the audience were waving their hands (Collins, 1990) (iv) In the cases where the names of many organizations are collective nouns, either a singular or a plural verb can be used The BBC is sending him to Tuscany for the summer The BBC are planning to use the new satellite... realized as plural when they learn English plural nouns As a consequence, 17.8% of the students find it hard to make the subject and the verb of the sentence agree These may due to the fact that the time allocated is not 22 enough for the teachers to give a careful explanation Problem s in learning English plural nouns of unmarked plural nouns such as rules, classification, Rules of plurality making 11%... collective nouns in English have both singular and plural forms According to the concord of Subject-Verb in number, collective nouns in plural forms always require plural verbs However, collective nouns in singular forms are not the same Since they are grammatically singular but notionally plural, they may take either a singular or plural verb For example: The public are tired of demonstrations (1) The audience . 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. 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. . 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