High school students’ errors in using English Articles as shown in their written exercises = \b Những lỗi trong việc sử dụng mạo từ Tiếng Anh trong các bài viết của học sinh Trung học phổ thông .M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 10

Abstract

In the process of learning English as a foreign language, Vietnamese high school students do have to face a lot of problems. English article is considered as one of the most troublesome problems for every learner because of its complex uses. This MA minor thesis is an attempt to point out some problems in using English articles of students in writing. It is hoped that the study would be useful for teachers and students in teaching and learning English at high schools. In order to achieve the goal, two data collection instruments were used including exercises and interviews. While the exercises were designed to collect information reflecting real problems in using English articles, the interviews following that were developed to find out the problems in using articles and some possible causes as well. Results of the study show that Articles in English are complicated words which cause a lot of difficulties for Vietnamese students. Seven problems: substitution errors, indefinite article forms, deletion of the articles, problems in using indefinite article with marked and unmarked plurals, problems in using indefinite article with uncountable nouns, problems in covering the uses of definite articles and overusing articles were committed in the process of learning and using Articles. Besides, this research also found out that it is the interference of mother tongue, avoidance, overgeneralization and the conditions of learning / training that have great influence on students’ foreign-language learning. It is hoped that from this study, teachers and students would be more aware of the problems to be solved and from the identified problems, they would develop teaching and learning methods accordingly.