Vinh university Foreign language department ========== Nguyen Thi Van english coordinators: and, but, or as cohesive devices: an analysis of errors made by secondary students (Sự phân tích lỗi ở học sinh ptth trong việc sử dụng các từ nối tiếng anh: and, but, or nh những phơng tiện liên kết) graduation thesis field: error analysis Vinh, 2005 Vinh university Foreign language department ========== english coordinators: and, but, or as cohesive devices: an analysis of errors made by secondary students (Sự phân tích lỗi ở học sinh ptth trong việc sử dụng các từ nối tiếng anh: and, but, or nh những phơng tiện liên kết) graduation thesis field: error analysis Supervisor: Vũ Thị Việt Hơng Student : Nguyễn Thị Vân Class : 42A 1 - English Vinh, 2005 Acknowled ge ment s I should like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor. Vò ThÞ ViÖt H¬ng M.A who gave me valuable advice and helped me with source of materials during the writing of this thesis. Also, I should like to thank all my teachers at the foreign language department of Vinh university for their lectures on the area of valuable knowledge which enlightened the arguments in the study. I am appreciative of all those who kindly given me advice and help during the period of my study at Vinh university for Foreign studies. Finally, I wish to express my deep thanks to my parents and friends for their encouragement and support to my doing this thesis. Vinh, summer, 2005 Nguyen Thi Van table content Part I. Introduction 1 1.1. Rational of The study 1 1.2. Aims of the study 2 1.3. Scope of the study 2 1.4. Method of the study 2 1.5. Design of the study 2 Part II. content 4 Chapter 1. Theoretical background 4 1.1. The coordinators meaning function and position 4 1.1.1. The meaning of coordination 4 1.1.2. The function of coordinators 4 1.1.3. The position of coordinators 5 1.2. Conjunction, cohesion and discourse 8 1.3. Coordinators as cohesive devices in sentence connection 8 1.3.1. Semantic implications for coordinators AND 9 1.3.2. Semantic implications for coordination by But 11 1.3.3. Semantic implications for coordination by OR 13 1.4. Errors in language learning process 15 1.4.1. The notion of errors 16 1.4.2. Errors and mistakes 16 1.4.3. Error analysis 19 1.4.3.1. The concept of error analysis 19 1.4.3.2. Significance of error analysis 19 1.4.3.3. Error analysis and contrastive analysis 20 1.4.4. Causes of errors in second language learning 21 2.4.4.1. Interlingual errors and mother tongue interference 21 2.4.4.2. Intralingual errors 23 Chapter 2. The study 26 2.1. Research questions 26 2.2. Research setting 28 2.3. The subjects 28 2.4. Data collection 28 2.5. Procedure 29 2.6. Preliminary results and data analysis 30 2.6.1. Results of part 1 multiple choice question 30 2.6.2. Results of part 2 guided sentence production 31 2.6.3. Results of part 3 guided sentence production 34 2.6.4. Results of part 4 full production 35 2.7. Errors and their causes 35 2.7.1. Errors and their causes in part 1 36 2.7.2. Errors and their causes in part 2 37 2.7.3. Errors and their causes in part 3 40 2.7.4. Errors and their causes in part 4 42 Part IIi. conclusion and implication 45 3.1. Conclusion 45 3.2. Implication for teaching coordinators to Vietnamese pupils [[ 45 3.2.1. Implications for presentation 46 3.2.2. Implications for practice 47 3.2.3. Implications for production: 49 List of abbreviations Etc : et cetera p. : page N : number P : page ∗ : unacceptable list of figures and tables Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Table 2.1 a. Results of multiple choice on the function of coordinators AND, BUT, OR. Table 2.1.b. Results of multiple choice on the different meaning functions of coordinators . Table 2.2. Results of guided sentence production on the difference meaning functions of coordinators AND, BUT, OR. Table 2.3. Results of guided sentence production on the difference meaning functions of coordinators AND, BUT, OR. Tables 2.4. Number of ERRORS and their causes in part 1. Tables 2.5. Number of ERRORS and their causes in part 2. Table 2.6. Number of ERRORS and their causes in part 3. Table 2.7. Number of ERRORS and their causes in part 4. PART I : INTRODUCTION 1.1.Rational of The study In recent years, together with the increasing need for English learning, great efforts have been made in order to improve the quality of English teaching and learning. These include the search for and implication of new and more effective teaching methods. Special attention has also been paid to research in different areas of the teaching and learning English . In the process of learning language in general, and of learning English in particular, making errors is not easy to avoid. As well making errors is a part of learning, finding errors is a part of teaching, this helps the process of learning quicker and more effective, given the fact that description and analysis of students’ errors play a crucial role in the improvement of the teaching and learning. Error analysis has been an interesting area which has attracted the attention of an increasing number of researchers. Since the Vietnamese and English languages have very distinct grammar systems, Vietnamese learners of English tend to encounter a lot of difficulties in their acquisition of the target language. Among these difficulties is the use of coordinators AND, BUT, OR as cohesive devices which plays an important role in the making of discourse. Until now, concerning English discourse, the use of coordinator AND, BUT, OR as cohesive devices seems to have been given a great deal of attention. This is revealed in the works of “ Linking words ” by Collin Cobuild, 1996; “ A university grammar of English ” by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Green Bacon, 1973; “ A study on coordinators AND, BUT, OR ” by Vo Thi Thao Ly, 1999. However, to the best of my knowledge, no research so far has been done on error analysis in area of using coordinators AND, BUT, OR as cohesive devices .It is obvious that learning language is for communication rather than for acknowledgement of language. Therefore, based on the outcomes of the previous contrastive analysis studies concerning cohesive devices, an analysis of errors in using AND, BUT, OR is tended to be an effort contributing to filling the gap. For the reasons as above, I have decided to choose the topic “ ENGLISH COORDINATORS : AND, BUT, OR AS COHESIVE DEVICES: AN ERROR ANALYSIS MADE BY SECONDARY STUDENTS.” 1.2. Aim of the study The study reported in this thesis aims to : - Identify the errors in using AND, BUT, OR as cohesive devices faced by Vietnamese learners at high school. - Find the major causes and sources of error committed by high school students in the area of using AND, BUT, OR as cohesive devices - Make some suggestions for teaching and learning these cohesive devices 1.3.Scope of the study - Analyze errors through the tests - Collect in to typical type - Find related reasons 1.4.Method of the study This study uses methods: - Investigating and analyzing method - Explanation - systematic method 1.5. Design of the study This thesis consists of three parts ∗ Part I: Introduction In this introductory chapter, justifications are made for the conducting of the present research. The aim, scope and method of the study are then identified. The design of the study is also provide