ENGLISH ADVERBS OF MANNER AND TYPICAL ERRORS MADE BY THE STUDENTS AT LE HONG PHONG SPECIALISED SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH CITY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT PHẠM KIM ANH ENGLISH ADVERBS OF MANNER AND TYPICAL ERRORS MADE BY THE STUDENTS AT LE HONG PHONG SPECIALISED SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH CITY (Trạng từ chỉ cách thức trong Tiếng Anh và những lỗi thường gặp của học sinh trường Trung học phổ thông chuyên Lê Hồng Phong, Nam Định) MA thesis Field : English Linguistics Code : 602215 Hanoi - August, 2008 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT PHẠM KIM ANH ENGLISH ADVERBS OF MANNER AND TYPICAL ERRORS MADE BY THE STUDENTS AT LE HONG PHONG SPECIALISED SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH CITY (Trạng từ chỉ cách thức trong Tiếng Anh và những lỗi thường gặp của học sinh trường Trung học phổ thông chuyên Lê Hồng Phong, Nam Định) MA thesis Field : English Linguistics Code : 602215 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr.Trần Hữu Mạnh Hanoi - August, 2008 Declaration I hereby certify that this thesis is the result of my own study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts, and that the thesis in whole or in part has not been submitted for a higher degree in any other tertiary institution. Acknowledgements It is the fact that this study cannot be accomplished without the assistance from many people. First of all, I would like to express my great gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Trần Hữu Mạnh for his enthusiastic assistance and useful and constructive comments on the content and organization of the study, which I consider as a great contribution to the fulfillment of the study. My thanks go to all the teachers of the Post graduate course 14 at Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi for their useful lectures. Next, I also thank all the students at Le Hong Phong specialised secondary school, Nam Dinh city for their cooperation. Without their help I could not collect the necessary and sufficient data for the study. Last, let me thank all the members of my family, especially my parents for their help and encouragement throughout my research. Abstract This study aims at analyzing typical errors made by the students at Lê Hồng Phong specialised secondary school, Nam Dinh city in using English adverbs of manner with the hope to improve teaching and learning this grammatical item at the school. Also, the author wished that it would encourage teachers and learners to pay more attention to English grammar. The study consists of three main parts. The first part presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methods and the organization of the study. The second part with two chapters reviews the literature related to English adverbs of manner and analyze actual errors made by the subjects. This part also suggests some solutions to the improvement of teaching this grammatical item. The third part summarizes what has been done in the study and gives suggestions for further research. Table of contents Acknowledgements Abstract Table of contents List of tables, figure and chart Abbreviations Page PART I - INTRODUCTION 1 I. Rationale of the study 1 II. Aims of the study 2 III. Scope of the study 2 IV. Methods of the study 2 V. Organization of the study 3 PART II – DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER I – LITERATURE REVIEW 4 I.1. An overview of adverbs of manner in English 4 I.1.1. What are adverbs of manner? 4 I.1.2. Formation of adverbs of manner 5 I.1.3. Position of adverbs of manner. 11 I.1.4. Classification of adverbs of manner. 13 I.1.5. The differing functions of adverbs of manner  and corresponding adjectives. 14 I.1.6. English adverbs of manner compared with Vietnamese adverbs of manner. 15 I.1.7. Adverbs of manner used in comparison. 16 I.2. Error and error analysis. 19 I.2.1. Definition of error. 19 I.2.2. Error analysis. 20 I.2.3. Causes of errors. 21 I.2.3.1. Interference errors 21 I.2.3.2. Intralingual errors 22 I.2.3.3. Developmental errors 23 CHAPTER II-THE STUDY 25 II.1. Methodology. 25 II.1.1. The methods used in the study. 25 II.1.2. The subjects of the study 25 II.1.3. The instrument for collecting data. 26 II.1.4. Data collection and data analysis. 27 II.2. Findings and solutions. 30 II.2.1. Types of errors. 30 II.2.2. Probable causes of errors. 32 II.2.2.1. Interlingual errors. 33 II.2.2.2. Intralingual errors. 33 II.2.2.3. Developmental errors. 35 II.2.3. Suggested solutions to teaching adverbs of manner effectively. 36 II.2.3.1. For the presentation stage. 36 II.2.3.2. For the practice stage. 37 PART III – CONCLUSION 41 III.1. Summary of the thesis 41 III.2. Suggestions for further study 41 References i Appendix 1 iii Appendix 2 v List of tables, figure and chart Table 1. Results of the students’ performance in doing the tasks Table 2. Types of errors found in the study Table 3. Probable causes of errors Figure 1. Psycholinguistic sources of errors Chart 1. Results of the subjects’ performance in doing the six tasks Abbreviations C.A: Contrastive analysis E.A: Error analysis E.g: Example Qty: Quantity SLA: Second language acquisition Part I – INTRODUCTION I. Rationale Nowadays, English is becoming more and more important and necessary in all fields of social life. Especially in the international integration trend, English has become more necessary for everybody than ever before. At upper secondary schools in the whole country, English is now a compulsory subject for all students. Due to its importance, English has received a lot of attention from students. Many students find English very interesting while many others say that this subject is very difficult. One of the most difficult things for them to master is English grammar. English grammar is considered as a very important part in learning English because of some reasons. First, grammar is a part included in each unit of the textbooks so students are required to master one or two grammar points after learning each unit. If they are not good at grammar, they will find it very difficult to do grammar exercises at the end of each unit in their textbooks and those in reference books. Consequently, it is hard for them to get good marks for tests because questions on grammar are always found in tests. Second, having good knowledge in grammar makes it easier for students to practise such skills as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Therefore, learning English grammar plays a very important role in learning English at upper secondary schools. As we all know, English grammar consists of so many items, one of which is adverbs of manner, which often causes difficulties to students. Adverbs of manner are used very often in discourse. They are usually found in tests for students. However, how to use them correctly is not easy for many students. It is confusing to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs. Formation of adverbs from equivalent adjective consists of so many exceptions. Some uses of adverbs of manner are not familiar to students. In my experience in teaching English at Lê Hồng Phong specialised secondary school in Namdinh city, students often make common errors in using these adverbs and causes of these errors have not been found yet. The analysis of students’ errors is significant in English language teaching. It helps teachers identify students’ strategies of language learning and their level of proficiency so that teachers can find out suitable ways to improve current situations. For the reasons mentioned above, I have decided to carry out a small study on English adverbs of manner and common errors made by the students at Lê Hồng Phong specialised secondary school. II. Aims of the study: The study is aimed at: getting a full understanding of English adverbs of manner finding out typical errors made by students at Lê Hồng Phong specialised secondary school in using adverbs of manner. finding out causes of the typical errors in using adverbs of manner. finding out solutions to teaching students adverbs of manner effectively III. Scope of the study: Adverbs of manner form one of the biggest areas in English adverbs. It is to say there are various adverbs of manner in English. So it is too ambitious to cover so many adverbs in the study. Therefore the study will focus on only the adverbs which are commonly used in students’ textbooks and reference books. The study also concentrates on formation and use of adverbs of manner. Moreover, second language learners are various and different in the way of making errors. However, because of limited size, the study will focus on a limited number of 50 students from class 10C, an English non-major class at Lê Hồng Phong specialised secondary school. The thesis focuses on getting a full view of English adverbs of manner and analyzing typical errors made by students at Lê Hồng Phong specialised secondary school so four following questions are raised to be answered here. 1. What are the formation and uses of English adverbs of manner? 2. What are the typical errors in using adverbs of manner made by students at Lê Hồng Phong specialised secondary school? 3. What are the causes of these errors? 4. What are the solutions to teaching English adverbs of manner effectively? IV. Methods of the study: In order for the aims to be reached, the study use two methods: statistical method: to find out and classify the errors in the study. error analysis: to analyze the errors collected and find out their causes. V. Organization of the study: The study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. Part I (Introduction) shows the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methods and the organization of the study. Part II (Development) includes two chapters. Chapter I reviews the literature related to English adverbs of manner and error analysis. Chapter II is the analysis of the errors made by the students at Lê Hồng Phong specialised secondary school. This chapter also discusses the causes of these errors. Finally, this chapter presents some suggested solutions to teaching English adverbs of manner effectively. Part III (Conclusion) summarizes the content of the research and gives some suggestions for further study. Part II – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I – LITERATURE REVIEW I.1. An overview of adverbs of manner in English. In general, adverbs in English are numerous, various and they form a big area in English grammar. Adverbs belong to many kinds. According to Sinclair, J et al(1990), there are following kinds of adverbs: adverbs of time, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of duration, adverbs of place, adverbs of manner, adverbs of degree, linking adverbs, broad negative adverbs and focusing adverbs. It is helpful for learners to tell these kinds apart because sometimes the same adverb may belong to more than one group. For example, the adverb well may belong to both adverb of manner and adverb of degree. In another case, while most adverbs ending in -ly are adverbs of manner, (e.g. carefully), some belong to adverbs of degree (e.g. terribly), some other adverbs are those of sentence adverbs (e.g. interestingly), etc. Therefore, this part is going to make it clear what adverbs of manner are, how they are recognized, where they are in a clause and how they are used. I.1.1. What are adverbs of manner? Seemingly, there have not been so-called definitions of adverbs of manner. Instead, we can recognise them by looking at what they function. According to Sinclair, J(1990) , adverbs of manner are seen as follows: “Adverbs of manner give more information about the way in which an event or an action takes place” E.g. He nodded and smiled warmly. In the example above, the adverb of manner warmly lets us know the way in which the action smiled happened. Alexander, L.G.(1990) states that an adverb adds to the meaning of a verb. Adverbs of manner tells us how something happens. E.g. He swims well She plays the flute beautifully. In the first example, the adverb of manner well tells us about the manner of the action swim. In the second one, we know how the action play the flute happens due to the adverb beautifully. Another way to recognise what adverbs of manner are is provided by the website www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramch24.html: “Adverbs of manner answer the question How”. E.g. How does John drive? He drives carefully. In the example given, the adverb carefully is the answer to the question preceding it which begins with the word How. Similarly, another website, www.esl.about.com/cs/intermediate/f/f_adverbs.htm, gives a definition of adverbs of manner as follows: “ Adverbs of manner provide information on how someone does something”. E.g. Jack drives very carefully. In this example, due to the adverb carefully, we can know how Jack drives. This adverb provides us with the information about the way of Jack’s driving. In brief, all the above definitions show us what adverbs of manner do. However, of all the four definitions, I find the first one given by Sinclair, J et al (1990) the most perfect. I.1.2. Formation of adverbs of manner. I.1.2.1. Adverbs ending in -ly. In English, most adverbs of manner are formed by adding ly to the corresponding adjectives. However, the spelling rules for adding ly need to be taken into account because some ly adverbs have slightly different spellings from the adjectives they are related to. * In most cases, -ly is simply added to the corresponding adjective. For example, the adverb quietly and badly are formed by adding ly to the adjective quiet and bad. E.g. Sit there quietly, and listen to music. ( Sinclair, J et al,1990) Some other examples of adverbs of manner which are formed in this way are: Adjective Adverb of manner careful carefully dangerous dangerously quick quickly * Adjectives ending in –ic: When the adjective ends in -ic, the syllable -al is usually added before the -ly ending. Adjective Adverb of manner dramatic dramatically scientific scientifically specific specifically It should be noted here that the adjective “public” has the related adverb “publicly”. * Adjectives ending in –le: When the adjective ends in -le preceded by a consonant, the final -e is usually changed to -y to form the -ly ending. For example: Adjective Adverb of manner favorable favorably gentle gently simple simply When the adjective ends in -le preceded by a vowel, in most cases, -ly is simply added to the corresponding adjective to form the adverb of manner. For example: Adjective Adverb of manner agile agilely sole solely However, in the case of the adjective whole, the final -e is removed before the ending ly is added. Adjective Adverb of manner whole wholly *Adjectives ending in -ll: When the adjective ends in -ll, only -y is added. For example: Adjective Adverb of manner dull dully full fully shrill shrilly * Adjectives ending in -ue: When the adjective ending in -ue, the final -e is usually omitted before the ending -ly is added. For example: Adjective Adverb of manner due duly true truly undue unduly * Adjective ending in -y:When the adjective ending in y preceded by a consonant, the -y is changed into -i before the ending -ly is added. For example: Adjective Adverb of manner busy busily easy easily happy happily However, one-syllable adjectives ending in -y usually have -ly added in the normal way. Adjective Adverb of manner shy shyly sly slyly wry wryly An exception should be noted here that the adverb related to dry can be spelled drily or dryly. When the adjective ends in -y preceded by a vowel, in most cases, -ly is simply added to the corresponding adjective. For example: Adjective Adverb of manner coy coyly grey greyly However, in the case of the adjective gay, -y is changed into -i before the ending -ly is added. Adjective Adverb of manner gay gaily It is not usual to add -ly to adjectives ending in ed to form adverbs. However, there are still some adverbs which are formed in this way. For example: Adjective Adverb of manner hearted heartedly hurried hurriedly unexpected unexpectedly wholehearted wholeheartedly Some adverbs of manner are not related to adjectives at all. They are related to nouns. For example: Noun Adverb of manner purpose purposely body bodily It should be noted that while most adverbs which end in -ly are adverbs of manner, some adverbs of other types also take the ending -ly. They can be linking adverbs, adverbs of time, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of degree, adverbs of duration, adverbs of place. The following are some examples of -ly adverbs which are not adverbs of manner. - Linking adverbs: consequently, alternatively, etc. Linking adverbs are used to show what sort of connection there is between one sentence and another. E.g. The company is now considering an appeal. Alternatively, they may submit a new application. (Sinclair et al, 1990) - Adverb of frequency: frequently, rarely, usually, etc. Adverbs of frequency are used when we want to indicate approximately how many times something happens. E.g. I rarely go to school on foot. - Adverb of degree: absolutely, greatly, reasonably, etc. The adverbs of this type are used to give more information about the extent of an action or the degree to which an action is performed. E.g. I admired him greatly. - Adverb of duration: briefly, permanently, etc. These adverbs are used to express how long something lasts or takes. E.g. She glanced briefly at Lucas Simmonds. - Adverb of place: locally, internationally, etc. These adverbs indicate the area in which a situation exists. E.g. Everything we used was bought locally. - Sentence adverb : apparently, luckily, etc. These adverbs are used for the whole sentence they are in. Sometimes, they indicate the speaker’s reaction to, opinion of the fact or event he is taking about. E.g. Luckily, I had seen the play before so I knew what it was about. - Focusing adverb: especially, particularly, etc. These adverbs are used to indicate the most relevant thing involved in what we are saying. E.g. I’m particularly interested in classical music. (Sinclair et al, 1990) I.1.2.2. Adverbs of manner with other endings. Some adverbs of manner are formed by adding a few other suffixes such as: -fashion, style, -wards, -ways, -wise. E.g. Americanstyle backwards Crossways clockwise I.1.2.3. Adverbs of the same form as adjectives. In English, some adverbs of manner have the same form as the corresponding adjectives. The following are examples of such adverbs of manner. Adjective Adverbs of manner fast fast hard hard little little much much straight straight I.1.2.4. Adverbs with two forms from adjectives. *Two forms used in the same ways: Some adjectives can form adverbs of manner in two ways with the same usage and meaning. In one way, adverbs of manner have the same form as adjectives. In the other way, adverbs are formed by adding -ly to the corresponding adjectives. Here are some examples: Adjective Adverb cheap cheap/cheaply clear clear/clearly fair fair/fairly loud loud/loudly E.g. He stood up and spoke very loud/loudly. *Two forms used in different ways: Some pairs of adverbs can be formed in two ways like the ones above but with different meanings. The following are some examples of pairs of adverbs which are closely related, but have different meanings. Adverb Meaning Adverb Meaning hard with effort hardly scarcely high opposite of low highly very, very well late opposite of early lately recently near opposite of far nearly almost wide opposite of narrow widely commonly The meanings of these adverbs are illustrated in the examples below: I worked hard. I hardly have enough time to finish. I opened the door wide. That theory is widely believed. I.1.2.5. Adverb of irregular form. The adverb