HCMC UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
Instructor: Nguyen Ngoc Vu, Ph.D
Student: Tran Thi Mai
Class: 4A08
Student ID: K34.701039
HO CHI MINH CITY, DECEMBER 2011
Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Index
Index ................................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 4
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS ........................................................................................ 6
COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN VIETNAMESE WRITING ........................ 7
Errors in Sentence Structure ........................................................................................... 7
Sentence components missing .................................................................................... 7
Subject missing ....................................................................................................... 7
Predicate missing .................................................................................................... 8
Subject and predicate missing ................................................................................. 9
Complex sentence’s clause missing ...................................................................... 10
Overlapping sentence components ........................................................................... 11
Overlapping adverb and subject............................................................................ 11
Overlapping modifier and the noun ...................................................................... 12
Sentence components wrongly ordering ................................................................... 13
Errors in Punctuations Using ........................................................................................ 13
Punctuation missing .................................................................................................. 14
Punctuation misusing ................................................................................................ 16
Between comma and full stop ............................................................................... 16
Between comma and semicolon............................................................................ 16
COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN ENGLISH WRITING ............................... 17
Errors in Sentence Structure ......................................................................................... 18
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Subject missing ......................................................................................................... 18
Predicate missing ...................................................................................................... 19
Errors in Punctuations Using ........................................................................................ 20
Punctuation missing .................................................................................................. 20
Punctuation misusing ................................................................................................ 21
Between comma and full stop ............................................................................... 21
Between comma and semicolon............................................................................ 22
Errors in Tense .............................................................................................................. 23
Simple present and simple past tense misusing ........................................................ 23
Simple present and simple future tense misusing ..................................................... 24
Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement ............................................................................... 25
Errors in Plural- Singular Noun Forms ......................................................................... 26
Irregular plurals ......................................................................................................... 26
Foreign plurals .......................................................................................................... 27
COMPARISON BETWEEN COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN
VIETNAMESE WRITING AND ENGLISH WRITING OF VIETNAMESE LEARNERS ...... 28
Similarity....................................................................................................................... 28
Most common types of errors ................................................................................... 28
Causes of errors......................................................................................................... 28
Differences .................................................................................................................... 30
Most common types of errors ................................................................................... 30
Causes of errors......................................................................................................... 31
RECOMMENDATION .................................................................................................... 32
In Language Teaching................................................................................................... 32
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
In Language Learning ................................................................................................... 35
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 36
Reference .......................................................................................................................... 37
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
INTRODUCTION
Under the influence of globalization, there is a growing need for individuals to be
competent at foreign language(s). It is not an exaggerated statement that everyone must
have this qualification not only to distinguish themselves from other people in terms of
knowledge, skills and social status but also to survive the increasing requirement of work.
In this era, it is undeniable that English has been the most common language. People
estimate that more than 40 countries around the world use this language as an official
language, and most of the others use it as foreign language. Thus, teaching and learning
English become significantly important in most countries’ education systems and
Vietnam is not an exception.
However, because of several reasons, both language and communication
competence of Vietnamese learners is still at low level. Their English communication
skills, speaking and writing, are not good enough. This can leave an impact on the
effectiveness of their daily communication. Moreover, from academic view, they may not
able to pursue higher education if they lack these vital skills, especially writing because
written skill encompasses internal speech (La Brant, 1946). In order to tackle this
problem, there are several factors that must be taken into serious consideration. One of
them is figuring out the causes and nature of errors in Vietnamese learners’ writing.
Recognizing and analyzing the errors are important because learners can learn
from the errors and to some extent, can avoid making errors again (Littlewood, 1998).
Among the causes, the interference of mother tongue is a noticeable factor. Once learners
get familiar with rules in their first language, the fossilization may occur. Although it is
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
controversial that whether age is a factor affecting the chance for fossilization to occur,
many scientists believe that this phenomenon can occur regardless of learners’ age, and
the most influential factor is not age but the typology of their first language. From either
view above, the studying of interference of Vietnamese in English writing of Vietnamese
learners is worth doing. The first reason is that subjects of this essay are students in high
school and adult learners. The second reason is that Vietnamese and English belong to
quite different language typologies with considerable different characteristics. Therefore,
these factors lead to the fact that errors Vietnamese learners tend to make as a habit in
Vietnamese writing likely to occur in their English writing.
However, it is impossible to cover all types of errors in writing of these two
compared languages in a limited time. That is the reason why this essay only focuses on
some most common grammatical errors in Vietnamese and English writing of
Vietnamese learners. Most of the examples given in this essay are from high school
students and other adult learners. The aim of this is to figure out whether the so-called
interference of L1 in L2 is likely to occur in English writing learning process. From that,
some suggestions may be presented to contribute to writing learning and teaching
process.
This essay includes eight main parts: Introduction, Definition of key terms,
Common grammatical errors in Vietnamese writing, Common grammatical errors in
English writing, Comparison between common grammatical errors in Vietnamese writing
and English writing of Vietnamese learners, Recommendation, Conclusion and finally,
Reference.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

Error:
As Lennon (1991) said in his work, an error is "a linguistic form or combination
of forms which in the same context and under similar conditions of production would, in
all likelihood, not be produced by the speakers' native counterparts".
An error is different from mistake, so we have to be careful to differentiate.
According to Yulianti (2007):
A mistake is a performance error, which is either a random guess or a “slip”, i.e a
failure to utilize a known system correctly.
An error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker,
reflecting the inter language competence of the learner.

Grammatical error
A term used in descriptive grammar for an instance of faulty, unconventional, or
controversial usage, such as a comma splice or misplaced modifier.

Error analysis
Error analysis is identifying, classifying errors of a foreign language and giving
solution.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN VIETNAMESE WRITING
Errors in Sentence Structure
Sentence components missing
In spoken and written Vietnamese, there is a great deal of reduced sentences
which have only one main element such as subject or predicate. People can easily
understand these utterances thanks to the context of communication. However, we should
clearly distinguish between reduced forms of sentence and those which are wrong in
terms of sentence structure. With reduced sentences, readers can recognize which
sentence component(s) is the unwritten one(s), base on other components which are
completely correct. However, things are different with a wrong sentence. If it lacks one
of more than one main sentence element, it can make the meaning ambiguous. In
Vietnamese writing, because learners have a habit of using spoken language in written
one, they tend to make error of missing sentence components, namely subject, predicate,
both subject and predicate or clauses in complex sentence.
Subject missing
It is very easy for learners to make this type of error if they can not distinguish
between subject and adverb.
Ex1: Qua truyện Kiều cho ta thấy được số phận của những người phụ nữ trong
chế độ phong kiến.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Ex2: Qua bản báo cáo cho ta thấy được thực trạng giáo dục hiện nay còn nhiều
bất cập.
In the second sentence, “Qua bản báo cáo” is adverb, “cho ta thấy được thực
trạng giáo dục hiện nay còn nhiều bất cập” is predicate. Hence, it lacks subject. It should
be corrected like this:
Qua bản báo cáo, vị đại biểu này cho ta thấy được thực trạng giáo dục hiện nay
còn nhiều bất cập.
Or: Bản báo cáo cho ta thấy được thực trạng giáo dục hiện nay còn nhiều bất
cập.
Predicate missing
If the sentence has a long and complicated subject, Vietnamese learners may
assume that it is a complete sentence. This often occurs in descriptive writing in which
learners have to use a lot of details to talk about someone or something.
Ex1: Hình ảnh người nông dân trong bước đường cùng vùng lên đấu tranh với
những kẻ cường hào địa chủ bóc lột, đôi tay nắm chặt và đôi mắt hừng hực lửa căm thù.
Ex2: Niềm hy vọng của người chiến sĩ trẻ vào khả năng thắng lợi của một dân tộc
kiên cường bất khuất trước quân thù.
Actually, these are the noun phrases of the subject, not sentences. The learners
should write:
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Ex1: Hình ảnh người nông dân trong bước đường cùng vùng lên đấu tranh với
những kẻ cường hào địa chủ bóc lột, đôi tay nắm chặt và đôi mắt hừng hực lửa căm thù
được Nguyễn Công Hoan khắc họa rõ nét trong tác phẩm của mình.
Ex2: Niềm hy vọng của người chiến sĩ trẻ vào khả năng thắng lợi của một dân tộc
kiên cường bất khuất trước quân thù trở thành động lực cho anh vượt qua tất cả mọi khó
khăn gian khổ.
Or: Người chiến sĩ trẻ hy vọng vào khả năng thắng lợi của một dân tộc kiên
cường bất khuất trước quân thù.
Subject and predicate missing
It is hard to believe that Vietnamese learners can make this dramatic error.
However, it is possible for them to miss both vitally important elements if the adverb they
use is quite long and complicated.
Ex: Từ những người nông dân một nắng hai sương làm ra hạt gạo, những cô chú
công nhân miệt mài bên xưởng máy, đến những anh bộ đội ngày đêm canh giữ cho biển
trời của Tổ quốc.
The correct sentence could be:
Từ những người nông dân một nắng hai sương làm ra hạt gạo, những cô chú
công nhân miệt mài bên xưởng máy, đến những anh bộ đội ngày đêm canh giữ cho biển
trời của Tổ quốc, tất cả đều biểu lộ một tinh thần yêu nước sâu sắc.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Complex sentence’s clause missing
Similarly to the case of missing main sentence component, if learners miss
clause(s) in complex sentence, it is very hard for the readers to recognize what the writing
is about. It is true that Vietnamese learners pay more attention to the conjunctions than
the clauses themselves in complex sentence. They probably think that if a sentence
contains necessary conjunctions such as “vì / bởi…..nên”, “tuy…nhưng”, it is a
completely correct complex sentence. However, the sentence may lack clause(s), and this
leads to the errors in grammatical structures as well as meaning of the sentence. Here are
some examples for this case:
Ex1: Tuy trong quá trình bị bắt giam, anh phải chịu đựng biết bao cực hình tra
tấn của kẻ thù, gặp biết bao thủ đoạn mua chuộc của chúng nhằm làm anh khai ra những
thành viên còn lại của tổ chức cộng sản bí mật.
Ex2: Cũng chính vì những do dự ấy gây cho chúng ta một số trở ngại.
It is the conjunctions signaling a complex sentence that make the learners think
that these sentences are correct ones. Actually, they lack main clause. Here are some
suggestions:
Ex1: : Tuy trong quá trình bị bắt giam, anh phải chịu đựng biết bao cực hình tra
tấn của kẻ thù, gặp biết bao thủ đoạn mua chuộc của chúng nhằm làm anh khai ra những
thành viên còn lại của tổ chức cộng sản bí mật, nhưng anh vẫn không hé nửa lời.
Ex2: Cũng chính vì những do dự ấy nên chúng ta gặp phải một số trở ngại.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Overlapping sentence components
Tracing to the root of this error, we can put the blame on the unclear ideas of
learners when they write such sentences or the language competence of them is limited.
It is quite challenging even for teachers to distinguish between the error of
missing sentence component and the error of overlapping sentence component. It is
undoubted that these two kinds of errors are just slightly different. However, if we pay
more attention to these following examples, we can recognize that they are not the same.
Overlapping adverb and subject
Ex: Sống trong cái xã hội đầy bất công như vậy đã giúp cho ông thấu hiểu được
sự đau khổ của quần chúng nhân dân.
(Bui & Nguyen, 2008, p.137)
In this example, it is ambiguous to see whether “Sống trong cái xã hội đầy bất
công như vậy” is the adverb or the subject.
To correct this sentence, there are two possible solutions:
The first way, it is better to eliminate “đã giúp cho” to make the phrase “Sống
trong cái xã hội đầy bất công như vậy” become the adverb and “ông” become the
subject.
Ex: Sống trong cái xã hội đầy bất công như vậy, ông thấu hiểu được sự đau khổ
của quần chúng nhân dân.
The second way, we can create a clear subject like this:
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Cuộc sống trong cái xã hội đầy bất công như vậy đã giúp cho ông thấu hiểu được
sự đau khổ của quần chúng nhân dân.
Overlapping modifier and the noun
As Bui and Nguyen (2008) write in their book, there is the case in which learners
can not distinguish between the modifier and the noun that needs to be modified. This is a
very common error that Vietnamese learners tend to make because it seems to be correct
sentence.
Take a look at the following example:
Ex: Thúy Kiều là nhân vật tiêu biểu nhất cho Truyện Kiều của Nguyễn Du đã mô
tả một cách sâu sắc xã hội phong kiến thối nát, đã tố cáo, phản kháng và phê phán những
thủ đoạn tàn nhẫn, bất công chà đạp lên vận mệnh của những con người lương thiện.
In this sentence, the learner wants to add information (đã mô tả một cách sâu sắc
xã hội phong kiến thối nát, đã tố cáo, phản kháng và phê phán những thủ đoạn tàn nhẫn,
bất công chà đạp lên vận mệnh của những con người lương thiện) to modify Truyen
Kieu. However, it is very hard to recognize what is the main noun and what is the
modifier.
The correct sentence can be:
Thúy Kiều là nhân vật tiêu biểu nhất cho Truyện Kiều của Nguyễn Du, một tác
phẩm đã mô tả một cách sâu sắc xã hội phong kiến thối nát, đã tố cáo, phản kháng và
phê phán những thủ đoạn tàn nhẫn, bất công chà đạp lên vận mệnh của những con người
lương thiện.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Sentence components wrongly ordering
Unlike English, there is no change in the form of the word in a sentence to
indicate the meaning. To do this, people have to make use of the order of the words and
phrases to. This is the reason why the order of the sentence components is dramatically
important in Vietnamese. Once learners make this type of error, they may create
meaningless sentences or ambiguous sentences.
Ex1: Cuộc sống mới vừa chấm dứt những ngày đau khổ dưới lưỡi gươm che chở
của Từ Hải thì không may Thúy Kiều lại mắc lừa Hồ Tôn Hiến.
This sentence should be corrected like this:
Dưới lưỡi gươm che chở của Từ Hải, cuộc sống mới tạm chấm dứt những ngày
đau khổ, thì sau đó không may Thúy Kiều lại mắc lừa Hồ Tôn Hiến.
Ex2: Nhằm tăng cường các hoạt động giáo dục về bảo vệ thiên nhiên trong nhà
trường, ngày 8/5/93 đã tiến hành đại hội thành lập chi hội bảo vệ thiên nhiên.
Here is the suggestion:
Nhằm tăng cường các hoạt động giáo dục trong nhà trường về bảo vệ thiên nhiên,
ngày 8/5/93 đã tiến hành đại hội thành lập chi hội bảo vệ thiên nhiên.
(Bui & Nguyen, 2008, p.139)
Errors in Punctuations Using
No one can deny the importance of punctuation in writing, especially in
Vietnamese writing because it is one of the means to indicate the grammatical structure,
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
and at the same time, express the meaning of the sentence. Hence, errors in using
punctuation can cause several problems that negatively affect the learners’ purposes
expressing.
Punctuation missing
It is not unusual to see the case in which learners do not use punctuation although
it is necessary. This can lead to serious misunderstanding.
There are several examples that can be taken but I would like to give a very wellknown example:
Ex: Bò cày không được giết.
This sentence can be understood in two totally different ways:
- Bò cày không được, giết.
- Bò cày, không được giết.
Learners also have the tendency not to use the punctuation in a long sentence.
This makes people exhausted when they try to finish reading it. It also makes the
sentence extremely complicated.
Ex: Trong nền kinh tế thị trường nhiều quyết định do các nhân vật khác nhau đưa
ra có liên quan đến những chi phí cơ hội có thể biểu thị bằng giá cả của một nhân tố xác
định tỉ lệ thay thế lẫn nhau của các nguyên liệu hay đầu vào thông qua một giao dịch
diễn ra trên thị trường.
(Bui & Nguyen, 2008, p.139)
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
This sentence needs punctuation to help the readers understand it more easily:
Trong nền kinh tế thị trường, nhiều quyết định do các nhân vật khác nhau đưa ra
có liên quan đến những chi phí cơ hội có thể biểu thị bằng giá cả, của một nhân tố xác
định tỉ lệ thay thế lẫn nhau của các nguyên liệu (hay đầu vào), thông qua một giao dịch
diễn ra trên thị trường.
The other case of punctuation missing is that learners write several sentences in a
paragraph without punctuation, especially full stop.
Ex: Trong cả nhóm Tự lực văn đoàn thì Thạch Lam dường như khác biệt hẳn với
những thành viên còn lại về cả suy nghĩ hành xử và văn phong, ông sống giàu lòng
thương người, văn ông giản dị dường như không có cốt truyện nhưng vẫn đi sâu vào lòng
người bởi giọng điệu nhẹ nhàng nhưng mang những triết lí sâu xa qua đó người đọc có
thể tự cảm nhận được rằng trong cuộc sống này dù có tăm tối đến đâu thì đâu đó vẫn còn
có một ánh sáng của niềm tin, sức mạnh của nó có thể làm cho con người ta cảm thấy
cuộc sống này đáng sống hơn, đó chính là nét đẹp nhân văn của văn Thạch Lam.
This type of error forces the readers to sweat over the paragraph in order to figure
out where one sentence is complete and what the main idea of the paragraph is. The
solution for this is using full stop appropriately to make the paragraph “reader-friendly”.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Punctuation misusing
Between comma and full stop
It is a truth that Vietnamese learners often use full stop instead of comma,
especially in complex sentence. They tend to put a full stop although the sentence is
incomplete, and begin a new sentence that should be a clause of the complex sentence.
Ex1: Nhà Lan ở rất xa trường học. Nhưng Lan luôn đi học đúng giờ.
Suggested sentence: Nhà Lan ở rất xa trường học nhưng Lan luôn đi học đúng
giờ.
Ex2: Hôm nay trong giờ Sinh học, tôi được cô giáo cho mười điểm. Bởi vì tôi là
học sinh duy nhất trong lớp trả lời được câu hỏi khó của cô giáo về đột biến gen.
Suggested sentence: Hôm nay trong giờ Sinh học, tôi được cô giáo cho mười
điểm bởi vì tôi là học sinh duy nhất trong lớp trả lời được câu hỏi khó của cô giáo về đột
biến gen.
Ex3: Văn Thạch Lam là lối văn giản dị. Và con người ông cũng giản dị như chính
văn của ông.
Suggested sentence: Văn Thạch Lam là lối văn giản dị và con người ông cũng
giản dị như chính văn của ông.
Between comma and semicolon
It comes as no surprise for us to know that a great deal of Vietnamese learners
make this error because this is a challenging grammatical point. As not many learners,
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
even teachers, have profound knowledge about this, they do not know how to fix this
problem. It is likely for them to use comma instead of semicolon or vise versa.
Both these two types of punctuation are used to link two independent clauses of a
compound sentence. However, comma is only used when it is followed by one
coordinating conjunction such as “và”, “nhưng”, “hoặc”…If we want to use adverb such
as “tuy nhiên”, “mặc dù vậy”, “hơn thế nữa”, these adverbs need to be preceded by a
semicolon, not a comma…Once learners use comma in this situation, it is considered as
punctuation using error.
Ex: Cậu ấy hiện đang là học sinh giỏi trong lớp, tuy nhiên, cậu ấy không được
nhiều bạn bè yêu mến.
Correct sentence: Cậu ấy hiện đang là học sinh giỏi trong lớp; tuy nhiên, cậu ấy
không được nhiều bạn bè yêu mến.
Another case is that learners use a lot of comma while they need to use a
semicolon. Take a look at this example:
Ex: Lan muốn được đến thăm bốn thành phố lớn trên thế giới: Paris, Pháp, Luân
Đôn, Anh, New York, Mỹ và Sydney, Úc.
Suggested sentence: Lan muốn được đến thăm bốn thành phố lớn trên thế giới:
Paris, Pháp; Luân Đôn, Anh; New York, Mỹ và Sydney, Úc.
COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN ENGLISH WRITING
From what has been discussed so far, it is clear that even with mother tongue,
learners make a vast number of errors. Hence, when it comes to a foreign language,
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
especially the one belonging to a different typology like English, learners easily make
more errors in this second language than in their first language. Here are some errors that
majority of Vietnamese learners often encounter:
Errors in Sentence Structure
This type of error is called “sentence fragment” which means that the sentence
lacks one main component such as subject or predicate. In Vietnamese, using reduced
sentence is acceptable if the previous sentences already mentioned the needed
information. However, it is completely wrong in English if a sentence does not have
enough required components.
Subject missing
Here are some examples:
Ex1: From the essay, can conclude that environment preservation is extremely
important.
The learners should correct this sentence like this:
From the essay, we can conclude that environment preservation is extremely
important.
Or: From the essay, it can be concluded that environment preservation is
extremely important.
Ex2: I was exhausted. Having studied for forty-eight hours straight.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
The second sentence does not have subject. What learners should do is adding a
subject to the second sentence or combine two sentences into one:
I was exhausted, having studied for forty-eight hours straight.
Similarly with the following example:
Ex3: I had pushed these fears into one of those quiet places in my mind. Hoping
they would stay there asleep.
Correct sentence: I had pushed these fears into one of those quiet places in my
mind, hoping they would stay there asleep.
Predicate missing
It is shown that Vietnamese learners probably miss predicate in writing. To be
more specific, they miss ‘to be” in the predicate. This is an example from a high school
student:
Ex: Eating fruits very good for our health.
Correct sentence should be: Eating fruits is very good for our health.
Another case of predicate missing is that learners write a subject which is a long
noun phrase and they assume that this noun phrase is already a complete sentence.
Ex1: A story with deep thoughts and emotions.
Ex2: The belief that because she is young, she cannot teach well.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Ex3: To give my family a comfortable, secure home life. That is the most
important goal to me.
In the first and second examples, adding predicate can make the sentences correct.
However, in the third example, learners had better combine two sentences into one:
To give my family a comfortable, secure home life is the most important goal to
me.
Errors in Punctuations Using
This seems to be the most typical error of Vietnamese learners in English writing.
Because most of them do not have fundamental knowledge about this aspect, they use
punctuation in English instinctively. Obviously, there is a wide range of punctuation
errors of learners. However, it is better to focus on these most common types:
Punctuation missing
This error leads to run-on sentences which are too long and complicated. In most
of the cases, learners do not use full stop but comma which makes the sentence too
wordy, and consequently, hard to understand. To fix this error, learners should change
one long sentence into two sentences. Another suggestion is that they should use
semicolon instead of comma, or they can change the sentence into a complex sentence
which main and subordinate clauses.
Ex1: I apply to this University as my other wants me to, however, I do not like to
become a teacher but a graphic designer.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Suggestion 1: I apply to this University as my other wants me to. However, I do
not like to become a teacher but a graphic designer.
Suggestion 2: I apply to this University as my other wants me to; however, I do
not like to become a teacher but a graphic designer.
Ex2: I really admire my English teacher, he is always willing to help us whenever
we have difficulties in study as well as in daily life.
Suggestion 1: I really admire my English teacher who is always willing to help us
whenever we have difficulties in study as well as in daily life.
Suggestion 2: I really admire my English teacher because he is always willing to
help us whenever we have difficulties in study as well as in daily life.
Punctuation misusing
Between comma and full stop
Actually, sometimes this type of error and the error of missing punctuation
overlaps each other. In run-on sentence, there may be two reasons for that, one, learners
do not use full stop to end a complete sentence; two, learners use comma instead of full
stop. Hence, if it falls into the second reason, learners commit this type of error, misusing
comma and full stop.
When a sentence is complete in terms of meaning and grammar, it is a good idea
to end it with a full stop. However, learners tend to use comma to link different simple
sentences.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Ex: I have been waiting under the rain, he has not come yet.
Suggested sentence: I have been waiting under the rain. He has not come yet.
Interestingly, sometimes it is correct to use comma, but they use full stop:
Ex1: He is very intelligent. But he is not successful in his career.
Correct sentence: He is very intelligent, but he is not successful in his career.
Ex2: I do not know how to answer her question. So I stand there, silent.
Correct sentence: I do not know how to answer her question, so I stand there,
silent.
These two above examples are among several cases in which students separate
two independent clauses of a compound sentence into two simple sentences. They are
wrong when starting a new sentence with the coordinators such as for, and, nor, but, or,
yet, so (that we often call FANBOYS).
Between comma and semicolon
There is no doubt that this point is very difficult for learners to remember and
apply into their writing. In compound sentence, two independents clauses link together by
a coordinator (as mentioned above in D.II.2.a) with a comma preceding it. If students do
not use a coordinator but an adverb such as however, additionally, moreover,
consequently… to join clauses, they must use semicolon preceding these adverbs. If they
use comma, the sentence is completely wrong. (Sometimes we call the error of overuse
comma “comma splices”)
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Ex1: I think that carrying out this project is worth doing, however, thousands of
unemployed people should be taken into consideration.
Correct sentence: I think that carrying out this project is worth doing; however,
thousands of unemployed people should be taken into consideration.
Ex2: Taking this job brings me a lot of opportunities of promotion, moreover, I
can support the whole family with my salary.
Correct sentence: Taking this job brings me a lot of opportunities of promotion;
moreover, I can support the whole family with my salary.
Errors in Tense
This is the basic type of error among learners, especially with elementary and preintermediate students. They may use wrong form of verb for a specific tense. However, in
this part of my essay, I would like to focus on two cases of misusing tense, namely
simple present versus simple past tense; and simple present versus simple future tense.
Simple present and simple past tense misusing
It is very rare to find a case in which students use past tense when they want to
write about the present. Nevertheless, many learners “forget” to use past tense when
mentioning something in the past. For example, a student when being asked about an
event in the past, he/ she may write:
That is an unforgettable memory to me. It is the first time I come to Hanoi. When I
get there, it is in the middle of summer so it is extremely hot. I feel very uncomfortable.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
However, a friend take me to some historical sites and it is so interesting. I also have
chance to try many famous dishes in Hanoi.
It is easy to realize that in the above example, the student commits several errors
with form of verb. He should correct his writing like this:
That is an unforgettable memory to me. It was the first time I came to Hanoi.
When I got there, it was in the middle of summer so it was extremely hot. I felt very
uncomfortable. However, a friend took me to some historical sites and it was so
interesting. I also had chance to try many famous dishes in Hanoi.
Simple present and simple future tense misusing
This error is very hard for Vietnamese people to recognize, even for teachers. It
sounds right but actually, no native person would use simple future in the case that simple
present is necessary. To be more specific, when referring to a fact or a truth, it is better to
use simple present.
These are some wrong sentences of students:
Ex1: Sedentary lifestyle will be very harmful to our health.
Suggested sentence: Sedentary lifestyle is very harmful to our health.
Ex2: It will be a disadvantage for anyone who does not have soft skills in this
modern time.
Using simple future to talk about a fact is not appropriate. This sentence should be
rewritten:
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
It is a disadvantage for anyone who does not have soft skills in this modern time.
Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement
Unlike Vietnamese, English contains several grammatical rules. One of them is
subject-verb agreement which means that the form of verb depends not only on tense but
also the subject. If subject is singular, verb has to be singular. If subject is plural, verb has
to be plural. Learners do not pay attention to this rule and consequently, they commit
error. Even when they keep this rule in their minds, they may still make error just
because they are misled by something else but not the real subject. In other words,
learners make error because they can not identify the real subject and hence, use wrong
verb form.
Ex1: The bed of tulips are stunning this year.
In this example, students assume that the subject of this sentence must be “tulips”.
However, the subject is “bed”, and the correct sentence should be:
The bed of tulips is stunning this year.
Ex2: Surprisingly neither my cousin nor his rowdy friends was accused of the
prank.
In a sentence, if subject has the structure “neither S1 nor S2” or “either S1 or S2”,
the form of verb depends on S2. In this case, the verb “be” is decided based on “his
rowdy friends”. Hence, learners should write:
Surprisingly neither my cousin nor his rowdy friends were accused of the prank.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Ex3: There is a checkered tablecloth, red candles, and flowers on the table.
It is no doubt that learners are misled by “a” in this sentence. Correct sentence
must be:
There are a checkered tablecloth, red candles, and flowers on the table.
Errors in Plural- Singular Noun Forms
If in speaking, learners may not use plural form of nouns, especially with plural
nouns that ending with “s” or “es”, in writing, this is not the common error that they
make. They tend to use wrong form of nouns that are quite unusual. Let’s take a look at
two kinds of noun plurals namely irregular plurals and foreign plurals.
Irregular plurals
Here is the list of nouns that learners may find difficult to use correctly:
Singular
Plural
ox
oxen
child
children
sheep
sheep
man
men
woman
women
tooth
teeth
foot
feet
mouse
mice
shelf
shelves
knife
knives
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Foreign plurals
Similarly, this is the list of some nouns originated from Greek, Latin, Italian and
Spanish that learners might find challenging:
Singular
Plural
criterion
criteria
phenomenon
phenomena
hypothesis
hypotheses
bacterium
bacteria
medium
media
genius
genera
syllabus
syllabi/ syllabuses
soprano
soprani/ sopranos
mosquito
mosquitoes
In English writing, learners encounter overgeneralization which means they
perceive that one rule can be applied to all circumstances. For instance, in elementary
level, they were taught to add “s” or “es” to the end of a noun to make a noun plural.
Later on, when they need the plural form of, for example, one noun in the lists above,
perhaps they add “s” or “es” to the noun. Consequently, they commit a grammatical
error.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
COMPARISON BETWEEN COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN
VIETNAMESE WRITING AND ENGLISH WRITING OF VIETNAMESE
LEARNERS
Similarity
Most common types of errors
From what has been analyzed, we can see that the errors that Vietnamese learners
tend to commit in both English and Vietnamese writing belong to sentence structure and
punctuation.
They often encounter the problem in dealing with sentence components like
subject, predicate or clause. They can either miss one or more than one of these
components in a sentence. The consequence is quite clear: they create the incomplete
sentence (sentence fragment), ambiguous or meaningless sentence.
With punctuation using, learners may overuse comma that lead to comma splices
error, or run-on sentence. They also probably use full stop while comma is necessary
(sentence fragment). The others may find it very hard to distinguish the usage of comma
and semicolon. Contrasting to this, many learners do not utilize punctuation in their
writing; as a result, they make readers feel confusing and tired when they try to
understand what the long and complicated writing is about.
Causes of errors
It can be traced to the root of the errors in both languages to find out what the
causes are. Learners commit the same errors in their mother tongue; this proves that the
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
chance of interference of L1 into L2 is quite slight with the errors mentioned in the
previous part (E.I.1). Thus, the causes could possibly lie in writing teaching and learning
process.
First, writing teaching method does not highlight the importance of sentence
pattern. Teachers do not provide students with enough knowledge about sentence
structure, punctuation using etc. Both teachers and learners go through sentence patterns
very quickly and carelessly. Immediately after that, they learn how to write a paragraph
and essay. It is a truth that these parts are taught in just 3 to 4 periods in the syllabus.
There is no doubt that in such a short time, both teachers and students can not cover all of
the sophisticated knowledge that should have been covered in a much longer time.
In addition to this, students do not have enough time in class to practice these
writing skills under the supervision of teachers. Hence, it turns out that what they have
learned is completely theoretical. They do not have chance to put the knowledge they
have gathered into practice in order to sharpen their skills. When it comes to real life,
they even do not know how to write a simple paragraph. To put it in another way,
Vietnamese students have knowledge but do not have skills.
The last reason is an objective one. It is the influence of spoken English and
Vietnamese on writing. In both languages, learners have habit of using spoken language
in written language. It is clear to see that in daily conversation, learners use reduced form,
pause in the middle of the utterance etc. Because of this, learners may use sentence
fragments, or run-on sentences in writing.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
To conclude, both in Vietnamese and English, the errors come from subjective
and objective causes. May be it is the style of teaching and learning writing in
Vietnamese education that makes students have only superficial knowledge and no skills
in sentence structure and punctuation, or may be it is the impact of spoken language on
writing.
Differences
Most common types of errors
Although there are some similarities in common types of errors in English and
Vietnamese, there are, obviously, several typical errors in Vietnamese but rare in English
or vise versa. Generally, tense, plurals-singulars and subject-verb agreement seem to be
common errors in English but in Vietnamese, they are not the cases.
The first type of error, tense, is the most noticeable difference between the two
compared languages. Most of Vietnamese learners commit this error, even when they are
intermediate; or sometimes, advanced learners. When they focus on fluency and forget
accuracy, they easily use wrong form of verb (e.g use simple present to tell about
something in the past). The error even worse with the case using simple present when
mentioning some facts or truth. With the fist situation, misusing simple past and simple
present, the learners can recognize the errors themselves when they reread their writing.
However, with the second situation, not many Vietnamese learners and even teachers
hardly identify what is wrong with the writing.
The next one is plurals-singulars. In Vietnamese, students find no difficulty when
they refer to plurals or singulars, but in English, it is a big challenge. In writing, they
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
often use singular noun instead of plural noun. The others may assume that they just need
to add “s” or “es” to the noun to make it plural. This is wrong if the noun is irregular or
foreign one.
Lastly, the error of subject-verb agreement is also a hard nut to crack. Several
students forget this rule when they use English. However, it does not exist the error of
“subject-verb agreement”.
Causes of errors
It is undeniable that because the concepts such as “tense”, “plurals-singulars” and
“subject-verb agreement” do not exist in Vietnamese, they are not the errors in
Vietnamese writing but common errors in English.
To begin with, “tense” is a big gap between English and Vietnamese. In
Vietnamese, there is no change in word form to indicate the period of time. When
referring to the so called “present”, “past” or “future”, people may use “đã”, “đang” or
“sẽ”. However, they are completely not grammatical devices to indicate the change in
time. Moreover, it is not common to write like that in Vietnamese because it is quite
mechanical, and people tend to use adverb of time which is enough to express what they
want. Additionally, when implying that something is likely to happen, Vietnamese use
“simple present”. For example, they may say: “Ăn nhiều trái cây sẽ rất tốt cho sức khỏe”,
“Tiết kiệm điện sẽ là một hành động bảo vệ môi trường”. When they write in English,
they tend to translate their ideas into English. Hence, it is the interference of Vietnamese
that makes learners confused when they encounter the aspect of tense in English.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Similarly, the root of “singulars- plurals” error is that in Vietnamese, noun form
does not change when we talk about singular or plural. Alternatively, people use
“những”, “các” before the noun to indicate the plural. Because of this, when students
have to obey many rules with singular-plural in English, they easily make error.
As mentioned previously, since in learners’ mother tongue, there is no concept of
“subject-verb agreement”. Learners do not have to worry about this when they use
Vietnamese. This becomes a negative habit in English. They may write a sentence
without thinking about the agreement between subject and verb. Consequently, they
commit error.
In brief, “tense”, “singulars-plurals” and “subject-verb agreement” are three types
of errors that common in English but uncommon in Vietnamese. These errors have the
same cause: These concepts do not exist in Vietnamese, so learners use English like the
way they use their first language. As a result, they commit errors.
RECOMMENDATION
In Language Teaching
After identifying and analyzing learners’ errors in Vietnamese and English
writing, there are some teaching implications that teachers should bear in their minds.
Firstly, as stated in the very beginning of the essay, making errors is not learners’
failure but a natural phenomenon in their learning process. Contrastingly, their errors may
even signal the progress that they are making. Hence, teachers should change their
attitudes toward learners’ errors. Teachers should stop assess learners’ errors from
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
behavioral view which considers making errors can become a bad habit. Instead, teachers
should not criticize learners for every error they make but encourage them for doing
something well. Attitudes of teachers are so important that learners can be motivated or
demotivated by these attitudes. Thus, teachers should avoid blaming students for their
errors.
Turning to the next key point, teachers should think about the causes of errors of
individual student in class. Although in the previous part, we have discussed some
possible causes of the errors, they are not everything. There are thousands of causes of
errors and each student has his/her own reason for making errors. Maybe he/she makes
errors because he/she is too lazy; or maybe he/she makes errors because he/she suffers
from dyslexia. That is the reason why teachers should differentiate these causes of errors
in order to treat them accordingly. If teachers manage to do so, the correction will be
more effective.
Thirdly, an appropriate amount of correction works. Teachers should not correct
all of students’ errors but necessary ones. When evaluating learners’ papers, teachers had
better indicate the main errors by underlying or using simple; then, let learners recognize
what types of errors they made and correct by themselves. A paper full of red marks
undoubtedly discourages learners. Perhaps they think that their writings are so terrible
and there is no way for them to be good at this second language. Additionally, with the
errors that most of learners make in class, it is a good idea to correct them in front of
class so as to get students’ attentions. They can remember these errors and try to avoid
making them later on.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
Another recommendation is that teachers should explain to learners the nature of
their errors. The explanation help students understand where their errors come from and
consequently, they may know how to tackle the problem on their own. Sometimes
learners still make errors because making errors, as said previously, is a natural
phenomenon of language learning. However, understanding their own errors can be
psychological effect, like placebo, which helps learners feel more confident on their own.
Hence, explanation of errors is necessary.
In addition to these above points, teachers should try to correct themselves when
they make errors, do not contribute to students’ errors. If teachers feel ashamed when
they have to admit that they are wrong, the errors of teachers can become students’ input.
Students can assume that everything from teachers are completely right, they can imitate
these errors without being aware of it. Hence, teachers should familiarize themselves with
self-correction.
Last but not least, syllabus is also a significant important part in effective writing
teaching. Because some errors of learners come from insufficient time for sentence
patterns in the whole course, educators should think about rewriting the syllabus for
writing. It is better to spend more time for teaching sentence pattern including sentence
components, punctuation using, etc. Only when learners get this basic knowledge and
have skill of writing a correct sentence, they are able to write a paragraph and then the
whole essay. In short, Vietnamese education should reconstruct a curriculum in order to
help students have the most basic skills in writing, then develop them gradually.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
In Language Learning
Today, in every country, education has changed from “teacher-centered” into
“learners-centered”. Learners no longer play the passive part in learning process but play
more active role. Teachers become the instructors and facilitators. That is the reason why
teachers can not be expected to shoulder all of the errors of learners. Above all, learners
have to lean on themselves in their learning process.
The first important thing is that learners must create themselves the motivation of
learning writing. They should know that this is an essential skill for their survival.
Moreover, if they want to pursue higher education, they must be competent at writing.
Learners can study better if they have inside motivation, if not, they will not try their best
during the process. Consequently, they can not keep up with the increasing requirement
of the subject.
The next recommendation is that learners should spend more time learning
writing. It is a fact that Vietnamese learners do not spend enough time on writing. To be
more specific, learners should sharpen their skills at sentence level first. They have to
have firm knowledge about sentence components, subject-verb agreement, punctuation,
and so on. Only when they have the basic skills, they can build up skills for writing an
essay.
Another thing that learners should keep in their minds is that they should never
use spoken language in written language. It is undeniable that most of the errors come
from the habit of using spoken language in writing. Learners have to remember that
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
unlike speaking, writing requires more accuracy and formality. Thus, they have to be
much more careful when they deal with writing.
Besides to these recommendations, learners had better not translate Vietnamese
into English. Because there are several grammatical gaps between these two languages,
they can not apply the rules in this language in the other one and vise versa.
Lastly, learners must learn the errors. Whenever they are corrected by teachers or
friends, they have to bear in mind what their errors are. They must take these errors as
unforgettable lessons so that they will not commit them again.
CONCLUSION
Making errors is a natural phenomenon in language learning and making errors in
learning writing is not the exception. Several reasons have been taken into consideration,
and the interference of Vietnamese into English is one of the causes. The most important
point is that teachers should differentiate learners’ errors and treat them differently.
Teachers should not blame learners for committing errors but have encouraging attitudes
toward their errors. As for learners, they should play active role in their own study and
invest more time practicing writing. Their writing skills will be better when the time goes
by.
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Common grammatical in English writing and Vietnamese writing of Vietnamese learners
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Sư Phạm.
La Brant, L. (1946).Teaching high-school students to write. The English Journal, 35,
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Lennon, P. (1991). "Error: some problems of definition and identification", in Applied
Linguistic, vol. 12, num. 2, Oxford, pp. 180-195.
Littlewood, W. (1998). Foreign and second language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge
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Yulianty. (2007). A Descriptive Study of Grammatical Errors Made by Students of Writing
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http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/grammaticalerrorterm.htm
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