Graduation thesis of English Major

i
DECLARATION
I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of this
thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution.
Hung Yen, May 2016
Nguyen Thi Nhan

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To complete this graduation paper, I am deeply indebted to many people for their
valuable advices and suggestions. First of all, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude to
my supervisor, Ms. Pham Thi Duong, M.A, for her enthusiastic support, helpful advice,
and considerable encouragements in the completion of the thesis. Besides, my words of
thanks are also send to the major first year English in class TAK13.1 and TAK13.2 at
Faculty of Foreign Languages UTEHY for their enthusiastic cooperation, without their
support, I would not have been able to complete this paper. I also owe a great debt of
gratitude to my family and my friends, especially my classmates in group TAK10, who
always encouraged me for such a long and hard time. Last but not least, I am very grateful
for any comments from my readers who are interested in this thesis.

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ABSTRACT
The study deals with finding the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of major
first–year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hung Yen University of
Technology and Education. In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, the study
presents the key theories related to rewriting English sentences. The researcher carried out
survey questionnaires among 77 major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages,
UTEHY to get their opinions. The definition,the formation, the seating arrangement, and
the role of the learners in rewriting English sentence lessons are also mentioned. A survey
on the use of rewriting English sentence exercises at Hung Yen University of Technology
and Education are conducted in the process of doing this study. The results of such
research showed that the data analysis as well as the interpretation of the results obtained
from the questionnaires is also given. Last but not least, the study gives some difficulties
and solutions to improve students ‘ability in rewriting English sentences at Hung Yen
University of Technology and Education.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education
FFL: Faculty of Foreign Language
MA: Master of Arts
Ss: Students
S: Student
No.1: Number
p.25: page 25

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LIST OF TABLE
Table.1: The interview results of students’ assessment in rewriting English sentences .....18
Table 2: Students and lecturers’ opinions on the importance of rewriting English sentences
..............................................................................................................................................19
Table 3: Students’ foundation and lecturers’ advice of learning rewriting English............19
Table 4: Students and teachers’ inspiration of (teaching) rewriting English sentences ......20
Table 5 Students’ difficulties in rewriting English sentences. ............................................22
Table 6: Students’ basic mistakes .......................................................................................24
Table 7: Students’ techniques before rewriting English sentences. ....................................26

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LIST OF CHART
Chart 1: Students’ assessment on the difficulties in rewriting English sentences ..............18
Chart 2 : Students’ frequency of rewriting English sentences............................................21
Chart 3: Lecturers and students’ opinions about the suitableness of The Effective
Academic Writing 1 textbook..............................................................................................21
Chart 4: Students’ opinions about the assessment of pre-rewriting English sentences......23
Chart 5: The frequency degree of students’ and their teachers’ advice at practicing
rewriting English sentences at home....................................................................................25
Chart 6: Students’ techniques after rewriting English sentences and their teachers’ advice
..............................................................................................................................................27
Chart 7: Students’ opinions and teachers’ advice about the activities for improving
rewriting English sentences. ................................................................................................28

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION...................................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLE .................................................................................................................v
LIST OF CHART ...............................................................................................................vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................vii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................1
1.1 Rationale ..........................................................................................................................1
1.2 Aims of the study.............................................................................................................2
1.3 Scope of study..................................................................................................................2
1.4 Research question ............................................................................................................2
1.5 Methods of study..............................................................................................................3
1.5.1 Questionnaires...............................................................................................................3
1.5.2 Interviews......................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................................4
2.1 Overview of teaching English grammar ..........................................................................4
2.1.1 Overview of writing......................................................................................................4
2.1.1.1 Definitions of writing.................................................................................................4
2.1.1.2 The importance of writing..........................................................................................5
2.1.1.3 Writing errors.............................................................................................................6
2.1.2 Overview of teaching English grammar .......................................................................7
2.1.2 .1 Definition of Grammar..............................................................................................7
2.1.2.2 The importance of teaching grammar ........................................................................9
2.1.2.3 Grammatical Error ...................................................................................................10
2.1.2.4 Grammar Rules ........................................................................................................10
2.2.2 Run-on sentences ........................................................................................................11
2.2.3 Parallel sentence structures .........................................................................................12
CHAPTER III: THE STUDY...........................................................................................15
3.1 Methodology and data....................................................................................................15
3.2 Participants of the study.................................................................................................15

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3.2.1 Students.......................................................................................................................15
3.2.2 Lectures.......................................................................................................................15
3.3 Research questions.........................................................................................................16
3.4 Procedures of data collection ........................................................................................16
3.5 Data collection instrument .............................................................................................16
3.5.1 Questionnaire ..............................................................................................................16
3.5.2 The interviews.............................................................................................................17
3.6 Data analysis, main findings and discussion..................................................................17
3.6.1 The opinion of students in rewriting English sentences .............................................17
3.6.1.1 The difficulty............................................................................................................17
3.6.1.2 The importance ........................................................................................................19
3.6.1.4 The inspiration .........................................................................................................20
3.6.1.5 The frequency ..........................................................................................................21
3.6.1.6 The Effective Academic Writing 1 textbook ...........................................................21
3.6.2 Current situation of learning in rewriting English sentences at FFL, UTEHY ..........22
3.6.2.1 Students’ difficulties in rewriting English sentences ...............................................22
3.6.2.2 The assessment of pre-rewriting English sentences.................................................23
3.2.6.3 Students’ mistakes in rewriting English sentences ..................................................24
3.7 Students’ activities to improve rewriting English sentences .........................................25
3.7.1 Students’ practice........................................................................................................25
3.7.2 Techniques before rewriting English sentences..........................................................25
3.7.3. Techniques after rewriting English sentences............................................................27
3.8 Main findings and discussion.........................................................................................29
3.8.1 Opinions of students about rewriting English sentences ............................................29
3.8.2 Current situation in studying the rewrite English sentences .......................................29
3.9 Recommendations for improving rewriting English sentences .....................................30
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION .......................................................................................32
4.2Limitation and suggestions for further study ..................................................................32
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 1.......................................................................................................................II
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS............................................................II
APPENDIX 2.......................................................................................................................V

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SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS...........................................................V
APPENDIX 3...................................................................................................................VIII
COLLECTED DATA FROM INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (for students)...............VIII

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
Nowadays, English has become an international language which is used officially in
more than many different countries because it is considered as an effective means of
international communication in various fields such as education and training, business and
commerce, internal relationship and diplomacy... People have different purposes to learn
English, some learn to go overseas, to satisfy their curiosity about the world outside, others
learn as their major at work. As well as, English is regarded as the key to the innovation,
development and global integration.
Because of the importance of learning English, in Vietnam, it began to be used
widely in education and in daily-life activities. As a result, English has been a compulsory
subject at schools, colleges and universities. Moreover,it would know about the importance
of English teaching and learning if we understand the relations among language, grammar
and vocabulary. Therefore, the goals of English language teaching are not only to help the
students learn language, but also more importantly to use language fluently. Besides,
English began to be used widely in education and in daily-life activities. It is obviously
seen that many Vietnamese students have a little experience of writing since leaving
secondary schools or colleges when they presenting written work in a daily life. Moreover,
they may be very anxious about having to write essays, letters and curriculum vitae.
Therefore, using the four language skills: listening, reading, speaking,writing, is
essential to English major students at Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) at Hung Yen
University of Technology and Education (UTEHY).Most writing programs are still taught
using the traditional model, emphasizing accuracy of grammatical structure and
vocabulary. In addition, the formative tests in most writing programs stress on objective-
type questions, which require sentence completion, reordering sentences, reordering words
and error correction. Students have very few actual opportunities to represent their ideas
and knowledge through the written mode.
Because the students must take the test including the four language skills, writing seems to
be the most difficult but really important skill among the four skills. Moreover, writing
skill access student on writing English sentences and writing in topics; separately writing
English sentences accounts for about ten marks with five rewriting sentence. Then students

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pass the writing exam, all students find that they had more difficulties in rewriting English
sentences with grammar structures and vocabulary because this course require students to
write letter and rewrite English sentences . Thus, it is very important to find out the
effective methods in rewriting English sentences for all English major students.
In conclusion, in order to find appropriate methods, techniques to rewrite English
sentences better, a study entitled: “The difficulties of first-year students at Faculty of
Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting
English sentences” is conducted.
1.2 Aims of the study
The biggest aim of the study is to investigate the reality of difficulties and solution in
rewriting English sentences of the major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign
Languages, UTEHY. To be specific, the aims of the study are:
+ To find the factors causing the difficulties in the rewriting English sentence
exercises of the major first year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY.
+ To improve the inspiration of the major first year students in rewriting English
sentences.
+ To recommend practical suggestions for improving rewriting English sentences of
the major first year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY.
1.3 Scope of study
To improve the effectiveness in rewriting English sentences of the first major year
students at UTEHY, the researcher intends to find out the difficulties in rewriting English
sentences of the first year students at UTEHY then to give some methods for improving
it.Because of the limitation of time and knowledge, the shortage of reference materials, this
study cannot cover the whole issue of writing skill.
Moreover, the study could not touch upon all the students at UTEHY. It is confined
to the first year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY only.
1.4 Research question
The above aims of the study are to answer the three following research questions:
1. What are the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of the first-year English
major students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY ?
2. What are major first year students’ inspiration towards rewriting English sentence
exercises Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY?

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3. How to motivate for major first year students in rewriting English sentence
lessons at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY?
1.5 Methods of study
To collect the data for researching, the author used both qualitative and
quantitativemethods including questionnaires for students,teachers and interview questions
for students.The interview questions and the questionnaires were designed based on the
main aims of the study. After getting the results, the author used the tables and charts for
presenting the collected data. The interview results which were recorded carefully and the
tape script used as another data for the analysis, discussion and recommendation.
1.5.1 Questionnaires
Quantitative method is used and considered the most suitable to obtain the aim. The
study targets at analyzing the outcome with numbers and figures. Therefore, the data were
collected by means of questionnaires which were designed and handled to a defined
population. The answers are completely objective, not controlled by the researcher.
1.5.2 Interviews
Interview has long been accepted as an important feature in language teacher
education and supervision. By interviewing in different writing classes in the department
of foreign language, UTEHY, some interviewing data are collected and analyzed to
support the process of interpreting data.

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CHAPTER II:LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Overview of teaching English grammar
2.1.1 Overview of writing
2.1.1.1 Definitions of writing
Writing has been defined in various ways by different following researchers.
Firstly, according to Brannon (1982, p.2) defines writing as a creative art, not as an
assembly line operation of locking words together into sentences and bolting sentences
together into paragraph in accordance with a predefined plan. Moreover, Byrne, (1988,
p.1), writing can be considered as an art of forming graphic symbols, that is, letters or the
combination of letters on one level, writing can be said to be the act of forming these
symbols, or more clearly the act of making marks on the flat surface of some kinds.
However, in language teaching and learning process, Tribble (1996, p.3) defines
writing as a language skill that involves “not frusta graphic representation of speech, but
the development and presentation of thought in a structured way”. According to Murray,
(1987, p.29) and Perl (1979, p.43), writing as a creative discovery procedure characterized
by the dynamic interplay of content and language: the use of language to explore beyond
the known content.
From another point of view, writing is a language skill which is difficult to acquire
(Tribble, 1996, p.3). Tribble also impresses that writing normally requires some form of
instruction and that it is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure (1996,p.11). Tayor
( 1984, p.4) expressed that the act of writing, upon examination ,and turn out to be a
complex process where in writers use language as a tool to discover and clarifying
meaning on experience in order to say exactly what they mean.
In short, in most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language.
Writing is not a language but a form of technology. Within a language system, writing
relies on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and
semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols, usually in the form
of a formal alphabet; an art that writers want to communicate with certain groups of
audience to express oneself efficiently. Through the mastery of writing, individuals come
to be fully effective in intellectual organization, in the management of everyday affairs, in
the expression of ideas and arguments. Therefore, academic writing requires conscious
effort and much practice in composing, developing and analyzing ideas.

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2.1.1.2 The importance of writing
Both in studying and working in our modern life, writing brings a lot of function, it
can be considered as an instrument for communication. When someone wants to imply a
message or a purpose, he or she can make a piece of writing. According to Nunan, 1991,
p.84), writing is:
Primarily for action: public signs (on roads and station), products labels and
instructions (on food, tool, or toy purchased), recipes, maps, television and radio guides,
bill, menus, telephone directories, etc. For social contact: personal correspondence, letters,
postcards, greeting cards.
Primarily for information: newspapers and magazines, non-fiction books including
textbooks, public notices, advertisements, guidebooks and travel literatures, etc.
Primarily for entertainment: light magazines, comic strips, fiction books, poetry
and drama, film subtitles, game including computer games. - Nunan (1991, p.84)
Besides, writing also plays an important role in school. We are able to share ideas,
arouse feelings, persuade and convince other people. White (1981, p.1) gives some reasons
why writing merits a place in the language syllabus:
Writing remains the commonest way of examining students performance in English
(all public examinations include a composition). Consequently, ability to write remains a
key to examination success.
In the eyes of both parents and students, ability to write may be associated with
evidence of having learnt the language. Writing is tangible- parents and students can see
what have been done and what have been achieved. So it has high “face validity”.
In the classroom, writing may be used as one of a number of techniques to help add variety
and interest to lesson.
Teachers may use writing as a testing device to provide feedback on what students
have learnt. Students’ writing can provide useful evidence of success of failures in
learning, of confusions and errors.
Writing requires thought, discipline and concentration. It is relatively a permanent
form and readers judgeus by our style, contents and logics. So writing English demands
care and thought .White (1981, p.1) said.
Moreover, Raimesdiscussed about this issue with some opinions:

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Firstly, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that
we have been teaching our students.
Secondly, when our students write, they also have chance to be adventurous with
the language, to go beyond what they have just learnt to say, to take risks.
Lastly, when they write, they necessarily become very involved in the new
language, the effort to express ideas and the constant used of eyes, hands and brain are a
unique way to reinforce learning.
Moreover, Khoii (2011, p.493) emphasizes on the importance of writing skill in the
field of second and foreign language learning and teaching, learning to write fluently and
correctly seems to be of prime importance as a gate-keeping activity. Therefore, writing
has many important roles not only in studying but also in many fields in life.
2.1.1.3 Writing errors
According to Bartholomew(1980, p.255) “errors can be only understood as
evidence of intention”. In addition to that, he views errors as “one of the most marked
characteristics of sentences or utterances, which deviate from the norm of language”.
Richards (1984, p.4) find that errors can be seen as evidence of language transfer; they are
“inter-systemic interference”. In addition, Choon (1993) has the opinion that: there are
some categories of errors such as semantic error (wrong words, wrong forms, etc),
grammatical errors (tense, preposition, etc) global and local error. She suggests that “the
system of classifying errors should be flexible” (p.2) and adds that teacher can learn and
decide what should be focused more in the syllabus after analyzing the specific and
common language problem their students have; she advised teacher to conduct Error
Analysis at the beginning of the course when the items have not been fully learnt and
remedy these first.
In addition, Gower and Walters (1983, p.147) suggested about a distinction
between an error and a mistake. A mistake is really a slip of the tongue or the pen. The
student is able to correct it himself, either completely unprompted or with the guidance of
the teacher and other students. An error is much more ingrained. The student might believe
what he is saying is correct, not know what the correct form should be and know what the
correct form should be but cannot get it right. There are many kinds of errors: semantics
errors, grammatical errors, global and local errors. Therefore, Hence that is why

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correctionis paid so much attention to in the process of teaching writing. Generally, the
definition of error is always given in connection with that of mistake.
2.1.2 Overview of teaching English grammar
2.1.2 .1 Definition of Grammar
Throughout history, Grammar is simply defined by the linguists. David Crystal
defined Grammar as “Grammar is the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how it
works”. Linguistics tries to codify or describe Grammar in term of Language Branches.
They define Grammar in term of phonology as sounds of language. In Morphology, they
describe Grammar as structure and forms of words. In syntax, they define it as an
Arrangement of words into larger units. In Semantics, they describe it as Meaning of
language. In Pragmatics, they define it as Functions of language and its use in context.
Chomsky in “On Nature and Language” defines grammar as the grammar of a
natural Language is a systematic description of Linguistics abilities of its native speaker,
and those abilities would enable any native speaker to speak and understand his/her
language fluently. Part of these linguistics abilities could be characterized as a native
intuition or Grammatical Competence about the sentence well sentence structure of his/ her
mother tongue. A native speaker of a natural language is able to tell whether a given
sentence in his/ her mother tongue is well formed or not, and whether a given sentence in
his/ her mother tongue can be well formed in different senses, we are concerned with its
syntactic. He also points out that a native speaker grammatical judgment not only holds for
the sentence that he or she has never said or heard before, but also holds for those that he
or she has never said or heard before.. (Chomsky, 1972)
Contemporary work in comparative grammar is concerned with “a faculty of
language that provides an explanatory basic for how a human being can acquire a first
language... In this way, the theory of grammar is a theory of human language and hence
establishes the relationship among all languages(R. Freidin, 1991). The generative
grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language that other speakers
can understand. “All humans are born with the capacity for constructing a Mental
Grammar, given linguistic experience; this capacity for language is called the Language
Faculty (Chomsky, 1965) - Grammar is the mental system of rules and categories that
allows humans to form and interpret the words and sentences of their language. “A

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grammar formulated by a linguist is an idealized description of this Mental
Grammar.”(P.W. Culicover and A. Nowak ,2003).
According to M.Ángeles Ecobar Álvarez, (2011, p.14), “Grammar is the system of a
language. People sometimes describe grammar as the “rule” of a language; but in fact no
language has rules. If we use the word “rule”, we suggest that somebody created the rules
first then spoke the language, like a new game. Nevertheless languages did not start like
that. Language started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and
sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What
we call “grammar” is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.”
According to Thombury, (1999, p.13), grammar is:
A description of the rules for forming sentences, including an account of the meanings that
these forms convey; and Grammar adds meanings that are not easily inferable from the
immediate context. While Swan (P2005, p.xix), defines grammar as the rules that show
how words are combined, arranged and changed to show certain kinds of meaning.
It is probably a correct saying that there are very few inflexions in English
grammar. Ithas grown up as an easy and simplified language. Thus, Sir Philip Sidney
towards the end of his essay The Apologyie for Poetrie states that “Nay, truly, it hath that
praise, that it wants not grammar; for grammar it might have, but needs it not; being so
easy in itself, and so void of those cumbersome differences of cases, genders, moods, and
tenses; which, I think, was a piece of the tower of Babylon's curse, that a man should be
put to school to learn his mother tongue” (Sidney). And he has accepted the criticism that
English has little grammar. On such an issue, George Perkins Marsh, American
philologist, in his Lectures on the English Language (1866) which was published more
than a century ago is of the opinion that English language as “having no grammar” (Marsh,
p.73 ).
Grammar challenges but brings more benefit such as: for teaching concepts on
subject, verb, clause and phrases, for teaching the translation method, for teaching
bilingual method, and for teaching structural approach and traditional Methods.
It is said that knowing a language is not the same thing as knowing about it.
Knowing a language means to master four basic skills, “(a) Listening, (b) Speaking, (c)
Reading and (d) Writing” (Kohli, p.32). Here, the listening and the reading are passive
skills whereas the speaking and the writing are active skills. The Knowledge of the

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language makes us to know the meaning of isolated words or sentences or the rules of
grammar. Talking about the language does not mean knowing language and using it. If we
consider language as speech, as the linguists do, then knowing a language means to use its
grammatical patterns as well as proper usage.
2.1.2.2 The importance of teaching grammar
Raimes A. (1983, p.167), Grammar is important because it is the language that makes it
possible for us to talk about language. Grammar names the types of words and word
groups that make up sentences not only in Englishbut in any language. As human beings,
we can put sentences together even as children-we can all do grammar. But to be able to
talk about how sentences are built, about the types of words and word groups that make up
sentences - that is to know about grammar. And knowing about grammar offers a window
into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity. People associate
grammar with errors and correctness. But knowing about grammar also helps us
understand what makes sentences and paragraphs clear and interesting and precise.
Grammar can be part of literature discussions, when we and our students closely read the
sentences in poetry and stories. Knowing about grammar means finding out that all
languages and all dialects follow grammatical patterns.
Grammar rules facilitate clear and concise communication. Errors in verb tense,
sentence structure, contractions, punctuation, spelling and word usage detract from your
intended message. Being an effective communicator helps the students make a positive
impression on others, which impacts your overall happiness, social life and employment
opportunities.. In fact, the American Psychological Association suggests that the first few
minutes of meeting someone shapes the course of the relationship such as: carrier success,
professional communication, personal communication, academic achievement.
Therefore, the value of grammar teaching is important in English language teaching
field. Grammar is the base of English language. It is not acquired naturally, but learning, it
needs be instructed. Grammar operates at the sentence level and governs the syntax or
word orders that are permissible in the language. It also works at the sub sentence level to
govern such things as number and person agreement between subject and verb in a
sentence. To grammar learning, some students may have a more analytical learning style
than others, but if one hopes to use English language accurately and fluently, it is

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necessary for him to receive grammar rules instruction. In a short word, grammar teaching
is necessary in English language teaching.
2.1.2.3 Grammatical Error
Grammatical error is a term used in prescriptive grammar for an instance of faulty,
unconventional, or controversial usage, such as a comma splice or misplaced modifier.
“The expression ‘grammatical error’ sounds, and is, in a sense, paradoxical, for the reason
that a form cannot be grammatical and erroneous at the same time. One would not say
musical discord. Because of the apparent contradiction of terms, the form grammatical
error should be avoided and ‘error in construction,’ or ‘error in English,’ etc., be used in its
stead. Of course one should never say, good grammar’ or ‘bad grammar.”’
(J. T. Baker, 1901)
2.1.2.4 Grammar Rules
In the Longman Active Study Dictionary ‘rule’ is defined as:
- A principle order which guides behavior, says how things are to be done etc, or
- The usual way that something happens
- With regard to grammar, the first type of rule is often called precriptive rule and the
second a descriptive rule. For many people, grammar instruction is traditionally associated
with the first type of rules – that is, prescriptions as to what should be said or written:
+ Do not use different to and never use different than. Always use different from.
+ Never use the passive when you can use the active.
+ Use shall for the first person and will for second and third persons.
- Second and foreign language is primarily concerned with descriptive rules, that is,
with generalizations about what speakers of the language actually do say rather than with
what they should do. Thus:
+ Do not normally use ‘the’ with proper nouns referring to people.
2.2 Overview of the feature forms in rewriting English sentence exercises
Rewrite sentences without changing the meaning
2.2.1 Phrase structure rules
In generative-transformational grammar theory, phrase structure rules illustrate
mathematically our knowledge of how the basic units of a sentence are assembled. The
theory of phrase structure rules states that there is a limited number of rules that are
carefully ordered:

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+ There is a limited number of rules which serve to reflect the linguistic competence
and knowledge of a native speaker.
+ These rules are arranged in an order: the first rule must precededthe second rule,
which must precede the third rule, etc.
+ The rules can be illustrated in phrase structure trees
+ These rules can be equated mathematically in phrase structure rules.
According to this theory, the learners can take a sentence and mathematically divide
it into parts. Chomsky explains that phrase structure rules are basically "rewriting" rules.
For instance, a sentence can be rewritten as a noun phrase plus a verb phrase. In the
notation of transformational grammar, this rule is written as:
S --> NP + VP "a sentence consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase"
A sentence can be further illustrated by a phrase structure tree, like this:
Starting with this base, we can begin to build rules which will allow us to generate an
infinite number of sentences.
2.2.2 Run-on sentences
A run-on sentence (sometimes called a "fused sentence") has at least two parts, either
one of which can stand by itself (in other words, two independent clauses), but the two
parts have been smoothed together instead of being properly connected. Review, also, the
section which describes things that can happen between two independent clauses.It is
important to realize that the length of a sentence really has nothing to do with whether a
sentence is a run-on or not; being a run-on is a structural flaw that can plague even a very
short sentence: “The sun is high, put on some sunblock”. An extremely long sentence, on
the other hand, might be a "run-off-at-the-mouth" sentence, but it can be otherwise sound,
structurally. When two independent clauses are connected by only a comma, they
constitute a run-on sentence that is called a comma-splice. The example just above (about
the sunscreen) is a comma-splice. When students use a comma to connect two independent
clauses, it must be accompanied by a little conjunction (and, but, for, nor, yet, or, so) “The
sun is high, soput on some sunscreen”.
Run-on sentences happen typically under the following circumstances:

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When an independent clause gives an order or directive based on what was said in
the prior independent clause.
Two independent clauses are connected by a transitional expression (conjunctive
adverb) such as however, moreover, nevertheless.
The second of two independent clauses contains a pronoun that connects it to the first
independent clause.
2.2.3 Parallel sentence structures
Parallelism in sentences refers to matching grammatical structures. Elements in a
sentence that have the same function or express similar ideas should be grammatically
parallel, or grammatically matched. Parallelism is used as a rhetorical and stylistic device
in literature, speeches, advertising, and popular songs.
“I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son” – Edward Gibbon
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Joseph Addison
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” –
John F. Kennedy
Parallelism lends balance and grace to writing. It can make a sentence memorable.
Even in prose not destined for greatness, parallelism is important.
+ Faulty parallelism
A failure to create grammatically parallel structures when they are appropriate is
referred to as faulty parallelism. In the following examples, note the difference between
correct parallel structure and faulty parallelism.
What counts is not how to look but how you behave.
Not What counts is not how you look but your behavior.
+ Parallel structure in a series
When a sentence includes a series, make sure it has not used different grammatical
structures for the items. The elements would remain parallel even if the phrases following
the gerunds were changed or omitted. The length of the items in the series does not affect
the parallel structure. It does not matter what grammatical structure chosen for the series as
long as the students keep it consistent.
When the learners use words such as to, a, an, his, her, or their with items in a series,
they can use the word with the first item, thus having it apply to all the items; or they can
repeat it with each item. If they choose to repeat it, they must do so with all the items, not

13
just some of them. When the learners are comparing items in a sentence, obviously
parallelism will be important. In antithetical constructions, something is true of one thing
but not another. But not and rather than are used to set up these constructions. As with
comparisons, both parts of an antithetical construction should be parallel.
+ Parallel structure with correlative conjunctions
Errors in parallel structure often occur with correlative conjunctions: either …or;
neither …nor; both …and; not only …but also; whether …or. The sentence structure
following the second half of the correlative conjunction should mirror the sentence
structure following the first half.
The scientists disputed not only the newspaper article but also the university's
official statement. (parallel: phrase with phrase). The scientists disputed not only the
newspaper article but also they disputed the university's official statement. (faulty
parallelism: phrase with clause). Be sure that any element they want to repeat
appears after the first half of the correlative conjunction. Look at the position of as in the
following examples. In the second sentence, as appears before either and is repeated
after or, which makes the construction not parallel.
They acted either as individual citizens or as members of the committee.
NOT They acted as either individual citizens or as members of the committee.
In the following example, the last sentence, we expected appears before the first half of the
correlative conjunction and should not be repeated after the second half.
We expected not only to be late but also to be exhausted.
OR We expected to be not only late but also exhausted. (better)
BUT NOT We expected not only to be late but also we expected to be exhausted.
+ Parallel structure with verbs
When the learners have more than one verb in a sentence, be sure to make the verbs
parallel by not shifting tenses unnecessarily. Also, don't shift from an active to a passive
verb.Choon (1993, p 88)
Kate prepared the speech on the plane and delivered it at the conference. (parallel:
both verbs are active)
Kate prepared the speech on the plane, and it was delivered by her at the conference.
(faulty parallelism: active verb followed by passive verb)

14
Sometimes sentences use a single verb form with two helping verbs. Look at the
following example.
Robert has in the past and will in the future continue to support the measure.
(incorrect)
To support belongs with will continue, but not with has. If the students read the
sentence without and will in the future continue, theywill see this: Robert has in the past to
support the measure. Rewrite the sentence to include a participial form for has.
Robert has in the past supported, and will in the future continue to support, the
measure.
OR Robert has supported the measure in the past, and he will continue to support it in the
future.

15
CHAPTER III:THE STUDY
3.1 Methodology and data
To collect the data for researching, the author used both qualitative and quantitative
methods including questionnaires for students,teachers and interview questions for
students.The interview questions and the questionnaires were designed based on the main
aims of the study. After getting the results, the author used the tables and charts for
presenting the collected data. The interview result which were recorded carefully and the
tape script used as another data for the analysis, discussion and recommendation.
3.2 Participants of the study
Subject of this study are teachers and students from Faculty of Foreign Languages-
Hung Yen University of Technology and Education. Teaching and learning English at this
university is taken into great consideration. English is learned not as major but it is very
necessary for all students in this University as instrument; however English still plays an
important role because the relation is close to students’ major.
3.2.1 Students
Because of limited time for the graduation paper, it is impossible to implement the
study with all major students of English at UTEHY. Therefore, the data collection in the
study is derived from students who are in the first year at Faculty of Foreign Languages.
There are 77 English major students. The proportion of school boys to girls is 8/77
(the number of male students accounted for 10% of the student population). They are at the
age between 18 and 22. At present, they are on the first year at FFL, UTEHY and their
major subject is English. In addition, they come from different parts of Vietnam, but most
of them are from Northern Vietnam. At last, all of the students are studying the same
course book named after “Effective Academic Writing 1”.
3.2.2 Lectures
The second group is composed of 5 lecturers of English teaching writing skills for
students at FFL, UTEHY. These lecturers, whose ages ranged from thirties to over forties,
were invited to join this study. Their level of English proficiency is rather good. All of
them are titled MA. This is one of many advantages for English major students at UTEHY.
In addition, the reason for choosing these 5 lecturers is that they have experience in
teaching English major students, especially teaching rewriting skills.
Both students and lectures are willing and enthusiastic to take part in this study.

16
3.3 Research questions
The study has to answer the following questions to achieve its aims:
1. What are the difficulties in rewriting English sentences for the major first-year
English students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY ?
2. What are students’inspirations towards rewriting English sentence exercises at
Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY?
3. How to motivate for students in rewriting English sentence lessons at Faculty of
Foreign Languages, UTEHY?
3.4 Procedures of data collection
The data collection in the study is derived from students who are in the major first
year at Faculty of Foreign Languages. To collect information about the issues of learning
rewriting skill of first year English major students at UTEHY, first of all, 77 copies of
survey questionnaires were handed out to major first year students and 5 copies of survey
questionnaires were sent to the lecturers in FFL by email. In addition, 5 other students
were also invited for the interview.
When the data collection was accomplished, the data analysis was initiated. The
results of survey questionnaires revealed students’ techniques they use in rewriting skill.
3.5 Data collection instrument
3.5.1 Questionnaire
The questionnaires were designed both for students because the researcher finds
them easy to summarize and analyze the collected data. Questionnaires for students consist
of 15 questions which are specified in the three research questions. Therefore, the survey
questionnaires are in the appendices.Questionnaire for students was delivered to 77 major
first-year students of K13 at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY to find information
for the three research questions. Among the 15 questions, the first part are designed for
collecting general information of students, questions of part II aim at finding out the
students’ attitudes towards rewriting English sentences; questions from part III mainly seek
for the current techniques of teaching and learning in rewriting English sentences for first
– year students of K13 at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY.
To guarantee the reliability and the validity of the samples, the questionnaires for
learners were directly distributed for learners of K13 during their break time in the class
and collected right away. That meant these learners could pay most attention to answer the

17
questions related to what they had just experienced. Before asking the learners to do the
survey questionnaire, the researcher briefly stated the purpose and significance of the study
and clarified any misunderstanding about the survey questions. Beside the written
instructions on the handout, oral the instructions and explanations in Vietnamese were
presented to avoid any ambiguity. In the end, there were 77 students participating in giving
responses to the survey questionnaire.
3.5.2 The interviews
An interview is carried out with 5 students in 2 classes of K13 in Faculty of Foreign
Languages at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education. There are opened
questions designed according to the aims of the study. The data collection supplies the
information about the fact of teaching and learning in rewriting English sentences of first -
year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages this university:
+ The feelings of students about rewriting English sentences
+ The difficulties in rewriting English sentences
+ The effects of mentioned techniques
+ The recommendation techniques from students.
After the interview, the researcher based on the interview results to analyze the data.
The interview results will be recorded carefully. The interview data analysis will be
presented with the collected data from the questionnaire in each part.
3.5.3 Summary
This part presented the overview on objectives of the course, the subjects of the
study, the research questions, and instruments of data collection. The author used two
different instruments: the survey questionnaires, and interviews with the purpose of
achieving more reliable, valid data. In the next part, the author presented the data analysis
and discussion for teaching and learning in rewriting English sentences.
3.6 Data analysis, main findings and discussion
This study, as indicated in Chapter one, was intended to find out the difficulties in
rewriting English sentences of major first – year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages
at UTEHY. In this section, the data collected from the questionnaires and interviews were
presented and interpreted.
3.6.1 The opinion of students in rewriting English sentences
3.6.1.1 The difficulty

18
The 77 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the learners. The data are analyzed
in this part of the study in the below tables and charts which show the responses for the
questions in the questionnaires. Besides, the first question the questionnaires bring a result
that according to students’ opinion, writing skill is quite difficult.
Chart 1: Students’ assessment on the difficulties in rewriting English sentences
Statistics collected from Chart 1 shows that the most students polled (56%) admit
that writing skill is difficult, besides 19% of them think that the rewriting English
sentences is normal. But only 22% considered that the rewriting English sentenceis very
difficult. Moreover, 1%say that the rewriting English sentences is easy. Based on the
collected data from Chart 1, most of students of K13 at FFL, UTEHY state that writing
sentences is difficult but not very difficult.
Below is the result when the author asks five students the same question in the interview
Question 1: What do you think of
rewriting English sentences?
A B C B D
A. Very Difficult
B. Difficult
C. Normal
D. Easy
E. Very Easy
3Ss
60%
1S
20%
1S
20%
0S
0%
0S
0%
Table.1: The interview results of students’ assessment in rewriting English sentences
Statistics provided in Table 1 show that the interview result of students’ assessment
in rewriting English sentences, one student thinks that the rewriting English sentences is
difficult, 3 students (60%) claim that the rewriting English sentences is very difficult, and
only 1 students (20%) say that rewriting English sentences is normal. Almost students
think that the rewriting English sentence is a challenged subject to them.
22%
56%
19%
3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Very Difficult Difficult Normal Easy Very Easy

19
3.6.1.2 The importance
To research more clearly the opinion of major first-year students at Faculty of
Foreign Languages, UTEHY, the second question in the questionnaire is designed to find
out their assessment on the importance of writing.
Table 2: Studentsand lecturers’ opinions on the importance of rewriting English
sentences
It can be seen clearly from the table 2,the total of students agree that learning
rewriting English sentences is important as well as important is 83%. Meanwhile, there
are only 5% of them reckon that it is not important. This table shows that most of major
firstyear students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY claim that rewriting English
sentences have an important role in learning English with a lot of fields in
life.Furthermore, there are four lecturers accounting for 80% of them agree that learning
rewriting English sentences is important for the students.
3.6.1.3 The foundation of studying rewriting English
Table 3: Students’ foundation andlecturers’ advice of learning rewriting English
Table 3 shows the period of students at FFL, UTEHY in starting rewriting English
sentences, there are 47% students say that they begin to rewrite English sentences at
primary school , 38% of them start at secondary school. Besides,there is a minority
students start at the higher education. Meanwhile, there are 3 teachers(account for
60%)advise that students should learn rewriting English sentences at primary school, the
others said secondary school is better stage to learn this skill. Overall, the figure 3 shows
that almost students of Faculty of Foreign Languages start to learn rewriting English
Level of
importance
Very importance Importance Normal Not importance
No.1 Rate No.1 Rate No.1 Rate No.1 Rate
Students 24 31% 40 52% 9 12% 4 5%
Lecturers 1 20% 4 80% 0 0% 0 0%
Foundation Primary school Secondaryschool High school University
No.1 Rate No.1 Rate No.1 Rate No.1 Rate
Students 36 47% 29 38% 10 13% 2 3%
Lecturers’advice 3 60% 2 40% 0 0% 0 0%

20
sentences when they were at primary school and secondary school, in addition, they are
educated basic knowledge about rewriting English.
3.6.1.4 The inspiration
Table 4: Students and teachers’ inspiration of (teaching) rewriting English sentences
Table4 shows that the inspiration on rewriting English sentences. There are 62% of
students agree that rewriting English sentences is normal. Other students (23%) strongly
agree that rewriting English sentences is interesting. There are also at the inconsideration
of the last point, 6% students feel boring and 3% of them are very bored with learning
rewriting English sentences. While there are 60 percentage of teachers feel normal with
their teaching rewriting sentences, the last 40 percentage of them are interested in guiding
their students in the rewriting lessons.The conclusion for students’ inspiration of rewriting
English sentences is that the major studentsand their teachers do not have high interest in
this subject.
Level of
inspiration
Very
interesting
Interesting Normal Boring Very boring
No.1 Rate No.1 Rate No.1 Rate No.1 Rate No.1 Rate
Students 8 10% 18 23% 4 61% 2 3% 2 3%
Lecturers 0 0% 2 40% 3 60% 0 0% 0 0%

21
3.6.1.5 The frequency
Chart 2: Students’ frequency of rewriting English sentences
The statistics from the chart 2 point out that the students at FFL, UTEHY neither do
always rewrite English sentences nor do spend much time for this important skill. In detail,
there is nobody who always rewrite English sentences.As well as, there are 3%(2 students)
never practice this subject at home. However, there are 55 studentsaccounting for 71%
students sometimes rewrite English sentences. The number of students who have frequency
in rewriting is 12% (9 students), in addition, there are 14% of them rarely revise this
subject.Overall, they just do their exercises when teachers assign them to do. They learn
and complete exercises because their compulsory duty.
3.6.1.6 The Effective Academic Writing 1 textbook
Chart 3: Lecturers and students’ opinions about the suitableness of The Effective
Academic Writing 1 textbook
From the raw and percentage result of the questionnaires, Itcan be seen that most of
the teachers (80%) and students (74%) agree that techniques used in this stage are
effective. There is only 10% of students think that it is not effective and there is only one
lecturer claims that it depends on her schedule. It means techniques applied in this stage
bring some advantages for English writing teaching and learning rewrite English sentences.
0
12
71
14
3
0
50
100
Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never
10%
74%
45%
Students
80%
20%
Lecturers
Very suitable
Suitable
Normal
Not suitable

22
All of major first- year students at FFL, UTEHY are studying the same course book
compiled by Alice Savage from North Harris College,Houston,Texas and MasoudShafiel
from Kingwood College Kingwood, Texas. The sixth question of the questionnaires asked
about the suitableness of The Effective Academic Writing 1 textbook. 57% students say
that it is suitable, 35% of them consider it is a normal textbook. Besides, 8% students think
that the textbook is very suitable. Nobody thinks that it is very not suitable. Overall, the
figure 6 shows that the Effective Academic Writing 1 textbook for major first-year
students at Faculty of Foreign Languages is suitable with the students’ level.
3.6.2 Current situation of learning in rewriting English sentences at FFL, UTEHY
3.6.2.1 Students’ difficulties in rewriting English sentences
To find the techniques to improve writing skill for first-year English major students
at UTEHY, the author wants to find out the difficulties in their rewriting sentences. The
ninthquestion(part II) in the questionnaires is designed for researching the difficulties in
writing. Below is the table of the difficulties in students’ rewriting.
No. Difficulties Students Percentage
1 Limited vocabulary 47 61%
2 Lack of structures 56 72%
3 Poor ideas 36 46%
4 Illogical ideas organization 45 58%
5 Spelling mistakes 33 42%
6 Grammatical mistakes 45 58%
7 Others:… 47 61%
Table 5: Students’ difficulties in rewriting English sentences.
Based on the data of the Table 5, the major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign
Languages, UTEHY have many difficulties in rewriting English sentences: The first is
limited vocabulary with 47 students about 61% of them. The second problem is lack of
knowledge with 56 students agree about 72% of them. The third difficulty is poor ideas
with 36 students agree for about 46% of them. The next attended problem is grammatical
mistakes with 77 students agree for about 58%.The saying number of difficulties in
rewriting reflex the basic mistake of the major first year student at FFL,UTEHY that needs
to let them understand how to rewrite English sentences correctly and remember all
structure sentences.

23
According to the collected information from the interview, four students said that
they have difficulties in structures, three students make the poor of grammar structures and
five students have difficulty with vocabulary. Therefore, all students say that the poor of
grammar structures is the main difficulty. Looking at cite as follow:
“My main difficulty is grammatical mistakes. I do not know how to express my
opinion in English and rewrite English sentences correctly. Moreover, I do not apply all
grammatical structures with each exercise.”
3 students point out that
“When my teachers give the rewriting English sentence exercises, I could not find
out the ways to change it to another sentence that has the same meaning. Because I am not
sure about the correct structures for each kind of rewriting exercises.
3.6.2.2 The assessment of pre-rewriting English sentences
The tenth question in the questionnaire for students is designed to ask “What do you
often do to rewrite English sentences?” to explore more clearly about the opinion of
students about rewriting English sentences.
Chart 4: Students’ opinions about the assessment of pre-rewriting English sentences.
Chart 4describes students’ opinions about the assessment of pre-rewriting English
sentences. According to the collected data, only 31% of them say that preparing structures
and vocabulary which they often do before rewriting English sentences. 54% of them
reveal that they often review the important grammatical structures before rewriting English
sentences. Besides, 70% of the students think that they look for information on the internet,
textbooks and newspapers.
According to the interview results, when asked “How often do you rewrite English
sentences?” one student say that she often finds means of new words in dictionaries and
some structure sentences, two students think that they should only review the important
31%
55% 49%
70%
57%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Preparing
structures and
vocabulary
Reviewing the
important
grammatical
structures
Working in group
to understand
more the difficult
sentence structures
Looking for
information on the
internet, textbooks
and newspapers
Disscussing with
friends to divide
the form exercises

24
grammatical structures, and four students ask friends to understand more the difficult
sentence structures. In conclusion, the major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign
Languages, UTEHY they ask friends to understand more the difficult sentence structures.
They hardly prepare grammatical structures and vocabulary, so that they have a lot of
difficulties in rewriting English sentence exercises.
3.2.6.3 Students’ mistakes in rewriting English sentences
To have more details about the students’ real situation in rewriting English sentences,
the author would like to explore the mistake students often make in rewriting English
sentences. To collect the data, the twelfth question of the questionnaire is designed to find
out the mistake of students’ rewriting English sentences.
No Mistakes
Very
often
Often Sometimes Rarely Never
1 Grammar and structures 19 Ss
(25%)
29Ss
(37%)
24Ss
(31%)
3 Ss
(4%)
2 Ss
(3%)
2 Spelling 27 Ss
(35%)
21Ss
(27%)
24Ss
(31%)
3 Ss
(4%)
2 Ss
(3%)
3 Lack of logical thinking 22 Ss
(29%)
22Ss
(29%)
29Ss
(38%)
4 Ss
(5%)
1 Ss
(1%)
4 Lack of vocabulary 18Ss
(23%)
23Ss
(30%)
32Ss
(42%)
3 Ss
(4%)
2 Ss
(3%)
Table 6: Students’ basic mistakes
Statistics provided in Table 3 shows the frequency of students’ mistakes. According
to the collected data, more than 24% students who are very often and 33% of them often
make grammatical mistakes; in addition, 31% sometimes make this mistake, 4% rarely
and 3% never make grammar and structures mistakes. There is minority of students rarely
have good English rewriting sentences. Students frequently make the mistake with lack of
logical thinking. Just 5% of them rarely and 1% of them are not certainly in mentioned
mistake. In addition, 42% of them sometimes make lack of vocabulary. But only, 4% of
students rarely and 3% of them make this mistake.
According to the interview results,it also indicates that major first-year students at
Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY have mistakes in grammar and structures (3

25
students), one student say that she often makes lack of vocabulary and one student
rewrites English sentences when she is lack of logical thinking.
In conclusion, major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY
often have some mistakes in rewriting English sentences are: grammar and structures,
vocabulary and lack of logical thinking. But the main mistake in students’ rewriting
English sentences is grammar and structures.
3.7 Students’ activities to improve rewriting English sentences
3.7.1 Students’ practice
When answering the question: “rewriting sentences frequently are necessary to
improve rewriting English sentences”, 90% students said “yes”, just 10% of them said
“no”.
Chart 5: The frequency degree of students’ and their teachers’ advice at practicing
rewriting English sentences at home
According to chart 5, it can be easily realized that most of students (43%) chose
rewrite twice in a week. Just 30% students rewrite once a week and none of students
rewrite every day. Based on the collected data from the interview, two students said they
write twice a week, 2 students said they rewrite once week just one student said she writes
three times a week.
Overall, students at UTEHY are quite lazy in practicing writing at home. Most of
them rewrite sentences twice a week because they have two home assignments a week.
They write because of their responsibilities in spite of their teachers ‘advice for learning
harder
3.7.2 Techniques before rewriting English sentences
80%
20%
Teachers
30%
43%
16%
6%
0%
5%
Once a week
Twice times a
week
Three times a
week
Four times a
week
Students

26
The following question in the questionnaire for students is designed to find out the
frequency of using the activities before rewriting English sentences.
Techniques Very often Often Occasionally Rarely Never
Books 17 Ss
22%
23 Ss
30%
19 Ss
25%
11 Ss
14%
8 Ss
(10%)
Model essays 21 Ss
27%
17 Ss
22%
22Ss
(29%)
15 Ss
(19%)
2 Ss
(3%)
Newspapers 12 Ss
(16%)
22 Ss
(29%)
23 Ss
(30%)
15 Ss
(19%)
5 Ss
(6%)
Magazine 12 Ss
(16%)
23 Ss
(30%)
21 Ss
(27%)
13 Ss
(17%)
7 Ss
(9%)
Table 7: Students’ techniques before rewriting English sentences.
It can be seen clearly from the Table 7 that most of major first-year students of
Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY occasionally use the author’s given techniques:
books, model essays, newspapers and magazine. The number of students never use model
essays and newspapers books is the highest. Besides, the number of students, who often
find various sentences in model essays and newspapers, are very low.Although this media
is an important and useful resources for students in rewriting English sentences.
To rewrite English sentences well, before rewriting English sentences, using
available applications on the Internet is important. Students should prepare grammatical
structures and vocabulary. For example, proper sentence structure makes the flow of
information more logical and easy to read. It will help the readers understand what the
writer is trying to express in the paragraph.
Collected data from the interview, five students said that books are the main ideas
aids such as games, music, pictures, and maps, reading text could help to reduce stress in
the classroom and create a better learning environment. Students will feel more interesting
in the lesson. Moreover, the model sentences is also a good instrument to help students
have a clear structures, students can learn a lot of grammatical difficulties and sentence
structures to rewrite sentences perfectly.
Based on the rewriting English sentences, three students said that they brainstorm in
model sentences; two other students said they use newspaper to rewrite English sentences.

27
In general, the major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY
also use some techniques before rewriting English sentences; however the frequency is still
low although those techniques are very useful for students todevelop further rewriting
sentences skill.
3.7.3. Techniques after rewriting English sentences
The next question inthe questionnaire for students is about the activities students
often do after rewriting English sentences. The collected data are shown in the below chart:
Chart 6: Students’ techniques after rewriting English sentences and their teachers’
advice
Chart 6 shows the frequently of using techniques after rewriting English sentences,
overall, major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY use almost
these techniques. “Asking your teachers to correct for you” is the highest selected
technique with 40% in total. Besides, “do nothing after rewriting sentences” accounts for
7% of them, and “reading again to find mistakes and correct it by yourself” is the
technique which students at UTEHY often use after rewriting English sentences.
According to the collected data from the interview, three students said that they read
again to find mistakes and correct it themselves, one student said she asks their teacher for
correction.” In the interview, the researcher also asked students about the activities they
often did after rewriting English sentences, all students said that they correct by themselves
and sometimes they ask the others such as friends and teachers to correct for them. In
general, based on the collected data, most of first-year students at FFL, UTEHY use
mentioned techniques.
3.7.4 Activities for improving rewriting English sentences
16%
11%
40%
7%
3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Reading again to
find out mistakes
and correct it
yourself
Asking your friends
in class to correct
for you
Asking your
teachers to correct
for you
Do nothing Others

28
To improve rewriting English sentences, the author gives 6 activities such as:
Enriching vocabulary, enlarging grammar, learning English structures, writing everyday,
writing diary and others.
Chart 7: Students’ opinions and teachers’ advice about the activities for improving
rewriting English sentences.
Chart 7shows that students’ opinions about the activities to improve rewriting
English sentences. According to the collected data, most of students say that they should
enrich their grammar (79%) and learn English structures with 73% of them. Nearly 50% of
students agree that they should enrich vocabulary and write everyday to improve rewriting
English sentences. Just 44% of students suggest that they should write diary and 38% of
them have other opinions: “Ensure the information within the sentence is clear. The
learners would like to ensure that new information follows old, words are defined for the
reader and context is clear.”
Lecturers, who come from Faculty of Foreign Languages, have advice to their
students that they should develop all four methods: enrich vocabulary, enlarging grammar,
learning English structures and writing everyday.
According to the collected information of the interview, when asked “What should
be changed to make rewrite English sentence lesson more interesting?”, All five students
say that to improve rewriting English sentences they should learn English sentences and
develop their grammar, four students think that enriching vocabulary should be done
everyday and one student say that she should write everyday.
In short, the major first -year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY
have the different ideas about activities for improving rewriting English sentences.
73%
62%
79%
56%
44%
38
100%
80%
60% 60%
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Enriching
vocabulary
Enlarging
your
grammar
Learning
English
structures
Writing
everyday
Writing
diary
Others
Students
Teachers

29
Enlarging grammatical structures and enrich vocabulary is an activity which students agree
most to improve rewriting English sentences.
3.8 Main findings and discussion
3.8.1 Opinions of students about rewriting English sentences
The survey result indicates that most of students at FFL, UTEHY consider
importance of rewriting English sentences in their study. Almost students agree that it is a
good way to improve rewriting English sentences. Besides, most of them are interested in
this skill compared to other skills such as listening, speaking and reading. They also know
good rewriting English sentences skill can help them to improve knowledge about
grammar and vocabulary. All students have been trying to make use of the advantages of
rewriting English sentences skill.
3.8.2 Current situation in studying the rewrite English sentences
For the major first-year students at FFL, UTEHY, they have a lot of difficulties in
rewriting English sentences such as lack of vocabulary, grammar mistakes, spelling
English sentence structures... However, the number of students lack of grammar rewriting
English sentences mistakes are the highest. In addition, the major first-year students at
FFL, UTEHY often have some basic mistakes in rewriting English sentences in grammar,
structures and vocabulary. They often ask friends to understand the difficult sentence
structures and they hardly prepare grammatical structures and vocabulary, so that they
have a lot of difficulties in rewriting English sentence exercises. Lacking of English
structures is also the mistake of first-year students at FFL, UTEHY. Besides, students at
UTEHY are quite lazy in practicing rewrite sentences at home. Most of them write twice a
week because they have two home assignments a week. Therefore, their vocabulary and
grammar are limited, rewriting English sentences is poor, and the sentences are not logical.
Furthermore, they are lack of confidence to rewrite English sentences fluently.
Furthermore, the major first-year students at FFL, UTEHY also use some techniques
before rewriting English sentences such as summarizing structures and vocabulary,
reviewing the important grammatical structures, working in group to understand more the
difficulty sentences structures, looking for information on the internet, textbooks and
newspapers, discussing with friends to divide the form exercises. Moreover, some good
students also give more activities: reading again to find out the mistakes and self-correct it,
asking friends in class to correct, especially, asking teacher to correct best answer.

30
Furthermore, perfecting grammar and learning English structures are two activities which
students agree most to improve rewriting English sentence skill but the frequency is still
low.
In conclusion, in order to get the maximum benefits of offered technique, some
recommendations are proposed to the major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign
Languages.
3.9 Recommendations for improving rewriting English sentences
The following suggestions are to students and teachers of writing in Faculty of
Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education.
First of all, enhancing vocabulary is an important method to rewrite English well. If
students want to improve their vocabulary more quickly, they have to make at least a small
commitment and decide to learn one new word every day or two. The starter learning
where they are if they come across an interesting word that they do not understand, they
should take time to look it up in a dictionary.
Secondly, improving grammar is an essential part of rewriting, as it helps students to
convey the message or idea they are trying to get across. Students should write good, clear
and interesting sentences to ensure that their rewriting well and flow. Instead of avoiding
grammar mistakes, students should learn from it to make it become their advantages.
Another recommendation is practicing rewriting in English daily to create a new habit.
Rewriting everyday in English will soon become natural and something students look
forward to. They will not see a significant improvement if they are not dedicated to
becoming a better writer in English.
In the rewriting, students should use self-correction regularly to discover the problems
make their own corrections and return their work to the teacher. This gives students the
opportunity to reflect on their errors and make improvements to their writing. It also shows
teachers that students are able to do and what still remains difficult. Teachers have to check
the corrections, and give students feedback on anything that is still wrong or students are
been unable to improve.
Peer-correction, which students work in pairs, or in small groups. They exchange their
exercises and attempt to correct each other’s work. Teachers have to build in an extra
checking stage, as students will often not be able to provide appropriate corrections.

31
Equally important,teachers’ feedback is very necessary for all students in rewriting. Once
students have corrected as much as they can, then teachers concentrate on the remaining
problems. Rather than just correction, students need to understand why they have made
errors and how to put in right. At this stage, students need feedback from teachers – some
kind of explanation of the particular language point and perhaps one or two examples to
show them how to the language should work. Feedback can take the form of written notes
at the end of the students’ work.
In addition, advices from teachers are very useful to motivate students’ effort from
learning. Teachers should play an active role as a facilitator to encourage students to
sustain long-term in learning this subject. A constructive criticism will help students
recognize their weaknesses in the rewriting sentences.
Moreover, most of students need a place to find books or materials, so the researcher
hopes that our school will build a library and invest many modern facilities to serve for all
students at UTEHY.

32
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION
This chapter will deal with a summary of the major findings, limitations of the
study and some suggestions for further studies.
4.1 Summary of the study
As mentioned in the Introduction, the number of people desiring to know and master
English with the hope to get a good job or integrate in the world are multiplied. As a result,
English is widely taught mot only at universities, at schools, but also at language centers.
Being a student carrying out the study on “The difficulties of first-year students at Faculty
of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting
English sentences”, I identified the current learning and teaching in rewriting English
sentences. From that, I pointed out some techniques and activities for improving students’
at FFL, UTEHY.
With regard to theoretical background, in chapter one, the Literature Review presents
the understanding of overview of teaching English grammar, overview of writing, the
importance of writing, writing errors, definition of grammar, the importance of teaching
grammar, grammatical error, grammar rules, overview of the feature forms in rewriting
English sentences exercises. Based on the survey findings, the researcher find out some
techniques suggested enhancing the first-year studentsat FFL, UTEHY in rewriting English
sentences including the improving grammar and sentence structures. These mentioned
techniques have also been presented with the hope to give some contributions to improve
the current in rewriting English sentences at FFL, UTEHY.
4.2 Limitation and suggestions for further study
Although the study has certain strengths such as collection methods, namely
interviews, survey questionnaires for students,teachers due to limited time, lack of sources,
the researcher’s ability, it is obvious that the study has got a number of drawbacks. The
last, the techniques suggested in this research are selected from different reliable but
limited sources. Thus, there should be technique appropriate to students of FFL, UTEHY
to help them improve their rewriting English sentence skill. To get a better and more
efficient study, surely the research in coming time with my further research should invite
more students to participate in the study.

I
REFERENCES
1. Byrne D. (1988),Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers, Longman, London.
2. Byrne D. (1989),Teaching English as a Foreign language, Routledge, London.
3. Choon (1993) “Error analysis and correction of written work in the classroom”,
Retrieved March 15th 2013
4.Perl S. (1979), The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers, National Council
of Teachers of English.
5. Tribble C. (1996), Writing, Oxford University Press, Oxford
6. Murray (1980), Writing as a process: How writing finds its own Meaning, IL. National
Council of Teachers of English,Urbana.
7. Khoii R. (2011) A Solution to the Dilemma of Writing in a Foreign Language: Adaptive
Mentorship,Retrieved March 15th 2013.
8. Choon (1993) “Error analysis and correction of written work in the
classroom”,Retrieved March 15th 2013.
9. David Crystal, The Fight for English. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006.
10. Noam Chomsky (1972), Massachusetts Institute 01 Technology, Cambridge,
Mussachusetts, U.S.A.
11. R. Freidin, Principles and Parameters in Comparative Grammar.MIT Press, 1991.
12. P.W. Culicover and A. Nowak, Dynamical Grammar: Foundations of Syntax II. Oxford
Univ, Press, 2003
13. M.” Ángeles Escobar Álvarez (2011), English Grammar and Learning Tasks for
Tourism Studies, Universidad Nacional de Education a Distancia Madrid.
14. Scott Thornbury (1999), How to teach grammar, Pearson Education Limited 1999.
15. George Perkins Marsh (1866), American philologist, Lectures on the English
Language.
16. Raimes A. (1983), Techniques in Teaching Writing, Oxford University Press, Oxford
From websites:
http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/tengrammartypes.htm
http://www.cliffsnotes.com
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/runons.htm

II
APPENDIX 1
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS
This questionnaire is conducted in order to find the difficulties in rewriting English
sentences of major first year students at Faculty of Foreign Language at Hung Yen
University of Technology and Education. It is designed for my research on “The
difficulties of first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of
Technology and Education in rewriting English sentences”. I would be very grateful if you
take a few minutes to complete this survey.
All of your information will be used for the study purpose, and your identification will not
be revealed in any discussion of the data.
Thank you for your cooperation!
Please tick(X) for each response that you choose.
I. Personal information
1. Your gender: Male Female
2. How long have you been learning English? …………………….. year(s)
II. Your opinions on studying English
1. What do you think of rewriting English sentences?
Very difficult Difficulty Normal Easy Very easy
2. What do you think of the importance of rewriting English sentences?
Very important Important Normal Not important
3. When do you start learning the rewriting English sentences?
Primary school Secondary school High school University
4. How do you feel when you learn the rewriting English sentences?
Very interesting Interesting Normal Boring Very boring
5. How often do you rewrite English sentences?
Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never
6. What do you think of the Writing text book or the 1st year students at Faculty of Foreign
Language?
Very suitable Suitable Normal Not suitable
7. How often do you practice rewriting English sentences at home?
Once a week Twice a week Three times a week
Four times a week Everyday Others…

III
8. What are your difficulties in rewriting English sentences?
Limited vocabulary Poor ideas Others:…
Lack of structures Illogical ideas organization
Spelling mistakes Grammatical mistakes
III. Techniques for improving rewriting English sentences
9. What do you often do to rewrite English sentences?
( You can choose more than one option )
Preparing topic and vocabulary
Reviewing the important grammatical structure
Working in group to understand more the difficult sentence structures
Looking for information on the internet, textbooks and newspapers
Discussing with friends to divide the word form exercises
10. How often do you make the following mistakes during rewriting English sentences?
Mistakes Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never
Grammar and structure
Spelling
Lack of logical thinking
Lack of vocabulary
11. When do you want your teachers to check your answers in rewriting English
sentences?
During the lesson
At the beginning of the lesson
Right after you finish each sentence
At the end of the lesson
12. How often do you use the following media before rewriting English sentences?
Media Very often Often Occasionally Rarely Never
Books
Model rewriting sentences
Newspaper
Magazine

IV
13. What do you do after rewriting English sentences?
Reading again to find out the mistakes and correct it yourself
Asking your friends in class to correct for you
Asking your teacher to correct for you
Do nothing
Others:…
14. In your opinion, what should we do to rewrite English sentences better?
Enriching vocabulary
Perfecting your grammar
Learning English structures
Writing everyday
Writing diary
….
Thank you for your kind cooperation!

V
APPENDIX 2
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS
This online questionnaire is conducted in order to find the difficulties in rewriting
English sentences of major first year students at Faculty of Foreign Language at Hung Yen
University of Technology and Education. It is designed for my research on “The
difficulties of first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of
Technology and Education in rewriting English sentences”. I would be very grateful if you
spend few minutes to completing this survey.
All of your information will be used for the study purpose, and your identification will not
be revealed in any discussion of the data.
Thank you for your cooperation!
r each response that you choose and complete all these question.
I. Personal information
Male Female
2. How long have you been teaching English at at Faculty of Foreign Language UTEHY?
…………………….. year(s)
II. Your opinions on teaching English
1. What do you think of teaching rewriting English sentences?
Very difficult Difficulty Normal Easy Very easy
2. What do you think of the importance of rewriting English sentences for students?
Very important Important Normal Not important
3. When should students start learning rewriting English sentences?
Primary school Secondary school High school University
4. How do you feel when you teach the rewriting English sentences?
Very interesting Interesting Normal Boring Very boring
5. How often do you teach rewrite English sentences on class?
1 period per week 2 periods per week 3 periods per week
4 periods per week More than 4 periods per week
6. What do you think of the Writing text book of the 1st year students at Faculty of Foreign
Language?
Very suitable Suitable Normal Not suitable
7. How often do you assignEnglish sentences exercise for student?

VI
Once a week Twice a week Three times a week
Four times a week Others…
8. What are student’s difficulties in rewriting English sentences?
Limited vocabulary Poor ideas Others:…
Lack of structures Illogical ideas organization
Spelling mistakes Grammatical mistakes
III. Techniques for improving rewriting English sentences
9. What do you often guide to rewrite English sentences for students?
( You can choose more than one option )
Preparing topic and vocabulary
Reviewing the important grammatical structure
Working in group to understand more the difficult sentence structures
Looking for information on the internet, textbooks and newspapers
Discussing with friends to divide the word form exercises
10. How often do students take the following mistakes during rewriting English sentences?
Mistakes Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never
Grammar and
structure
Spelling
Lack of logical
thinking
Lack of
vocabulary
11. When do you check student’s answer in rewriting English sentences?
During the lesson
At the beginning of the lesson
Right after you finish each sentence
At the end of the lesson
12. How often do you suggest the following media before teaching rewriting English
sentences?

VII
Media Very
often
Often Occasionally Rarely Never
Books
Model essays
Newspaper
Magazine
13. What do you do after teaching rewriting English sentences?
Reading again to find out the mistakes and correct it for each student in class
Asking other student in class to correct for their friend
Asking student to correct it by themselves
Doing nothing
Others:… ………………………………………………………………………
14. In your opinion, what should a student do to rewrite English sentences better?
Enriching vocabulary
Perfecting their grammar
Learning English structures
Writing everyday
Writing diary
Thank you for your kind cooperation!

VIII
APPENDIX 3
COLLECTED DATA FROM INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (for students)
1. What do you think of the difficulty of writing essay?
Three students said: very difficult
Two students said: normal
2. What do you think of the importance of rewriting?
Three students said: very important
One student said: important
One student said: normal
3. What do you think of the writing textbook for first-year students at FFL,UTEHY?
One student said: very suitable
Four students said: suitable .
4 How many periods per week do you study writing skills to the major first year
students?
Five students said: three periods
5. What are your difficulties in writing?
Four students said: difficult in structures and grammar
Five students said: Vocabulary
6. What mistakes do you often make when rewriting?
Three students said:Spelling mistake
One student: Lack of vocabulary
One student: Logical thinking
7. Do you think that rewriting everyday is necessary?
Five students said: yes
8. How often do you practice writing per week?
Two students said: once a week
Three students said: twice a week
9. What techniques do you often do after rewriting English sentences?
One student said: Teacher will correct it after coming home
Three: I will correct it by myself after reading some document on the Internet.
One student said: Discussing with friends (roommate) to get ideas about the
equivalentstructure sentences.

Graduation thesis of English Major

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