TTLV: Analysis of lexical errors in essays of students of the University of Foreign Languages ​​- Vietnam National University, Hanoi using the method of Corpus Linguistics

1. Student's name: Tran Kieu Hanh

2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: February 1, 1990

4. Place of birth: Thanh Hoa

5. Student recognition decision No. 2811/2016/QD-XHNV, dated August 18, 2016 of the President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

6. Changes in training process: none

7.Thesis topic name:Analysis of lexical errors in essays of students of Foreign Language University - Vietnam National University, Hanoi using the method of corpus linguistics.

8. Major: Linguistics Code: 60220240

9. Scientific advisor: Dr. Pham Hien - Institute of Languages ​​- Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences

10. Summary of thesis results:

The thesis summarizes the theoretical research directions on fixed word collocation in English of international scholars, thereby determining the theoretical basis of the thesis. The thesis uses the method of error analysis combined with the method of Corpus Linguistics to survey more than 130 written products (over 66,828 words) of 3rd and 4th year students of the Faculty of English Pedagogy, University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The analysis results show that (1) considering fixed word collocation according to grammar, errors in fixed word collocation focus on confusion between Noun and Preposition combinations (“about, on, for”), (2) considering fixed word collocation according to vocabulary, errors focus on 2 sub-categories of Nouns combined with Adjectives and Verbs combined with Nouns. The cause of the error is predicted to be due to the negative linguistic shift of Vietnamese to English, causing confusion about meaning. Additionally, at advanced levels, students tend to choose to paraphrase words, however, choosing synonyms is not appropriate in some cases.

11. Practical applicability: From these results, the pedagogical conclusion recommends that learners and teachers make adjustments focusing on some common errors as shown in the study.

12. Further research directions: research on fixed word combinations used by Vietnamese students in general, with a particular focus on more proficiency groups.

13. Published works related to the thesis:

Tran Kieu Hanh, Comparing the English - Vietnamese phonetic systems and applying them to teaching pronunciation for Vietnamese students who are not majoring in English. NewspaperLanguage & Life, No. 4, 2019, pp. 83-92.

INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS

1. Full name: TRAN KIEU HANH

2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: February 1^st, 1990

4. Place of birth: Thanh Hoa

5. Admission decision number: 2811/2016/QD-XHNV Dated: August 18^th, 2016

6. Changes in academic process: No

7. Official thesis title: An analysis of collocational errors in essays of students in University of Languages ​​and International Studies, VNU with methods of Corpus Linguistics

8. Major: Linguistics Code: 60220240

9. Academic supervisor: Pham Hien Ph.D, Institute of Linguistics, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences

10. Summary of the findings of the thesis:

The thesis provides a theoretical basis of English collocations with the definitions and classifications under many perspectives of world scholars. The error analysis associated with the method of corpus linguistics is employed to investigate in more than 130 writing products of 3rd and 4th year students in Faculty of English Teacher Training and Education, University of Languages ​​and International Studies, VNU. After analysis, the results show that collocational errors occur in the essays, especially in collocations of noun and preposition "about, on, for” in grammatical collocation group. In lexical collocations, errors are identified in two sub-categories of Nouns - Adjectives and Verbs - Nouns. The main predicted reason is the negative language transfer of Vietnamese into English, causing confusion about meaning. In addition, at a high level, students tend to paraphrase in writing, however, in some cases make wrong word choices.

11. Practical applicability: Based on these results, pedagogical implications suggest that learners and teachers should focus on those main errors which are shown in the study.

12. Further research directions: Collocations used by students of multi levels in English.

13. Thesis-related publications:

A comparison of English-Vietnamese phonetic systems and application in teaching pronunciation for non-English majored students. Language & Life, Vol.4, 2019, pp.83-92