Luận văn An investigation into common errors related to collocations with “make” and “do” by EFL students at Van Lam high school in Hung Yen province

ss than the incorrect ones (54%). The students not only got mistakes in differentiate the two verbs and their noun constituents but also misused the forms of words. The question 8 is an example, only 9 out of 38 students (24%) could do it correctly: “She tried to make amends by inviting him out to dinner”while most of the others chose “amendment”. 4.1.2. Redundant article and Missing article errors In English language, collocations sound natural to native English speakers. However, learning collocations is such a challenging aspect to EFL students. Because collocations are loosely fixed combinations of words, EFL students find it difficult to avoid making errors, including redundant word and missing word ones when they use collocations in productive skills. The results collected from the test 2 with the exercises 5, 6, 7 show that students commonly add or miss the words “a” or “the” before the noun 48 constituents of “make” and “do” combinations. For instance they fill in the gap with “do me favour” in stead of “do me a favour”. This type of errors repeatedly occur in exercises on writing skill which require students’ ability to perform well their knowledge of both grammar and vocabulary. TABLE 5 Data on the results of exercise 5 Redundant article and Missing article errors Item no Correct answers Incorrect answers number percentage number percentage 1 9 24% 29 76% 2 16 42% 22 58% 3 20 53% 18 47% 4 24 63% 14 37% 5 11 29% 27 71% 6 10 26% 28 74% 7 19 50% 19 50% 8 12 32% 26 68% 9 21 55% 17 45% Total 142 42% 200 58% The table 5 illustrates the results of exercise 5 in the test 2. Although it is a listening task, the students had difficulty getting good marks because they missed the articles which are usually unstressed when they wrote down the answers. The combinations “make a contribution” in item 5 and “make a mistake” in item 6 are examples. Over 70% of the students gave wrong answers most of which are without article while some students use “make a progress”or even“make the progress” instead of “make progrress” for the question 1. As it can be seen from the table 6, a very small number of the students could complete the exercises 6 with high scores. There were more correct answers to the exercise 4 (42%) than to the exercise 5 (37%), which is probably because that the students wrote their answers after they practiced listening skill 49 while the exercise 5 was their writing task. Only 8 among 38 students did the questions 1 and 7 correctly. Whereas over 50% could get score for questions 2 and 3 with the phrases “make a mess” and “do your best”. TABLE 6 Data on the results of exercise 6 Redundant article and Missing article errors Item no Correct answers Incorrect answers number percentage number percentage 1 8 21% 30 79% 2 21 55% 17 45% 3 20 53% 18 47% 4 11 29% 27 71% 5 17 45% 21 55% 6 9 24% 29 76% 7 8 21% 30 79% 8 17 45% 21 55% 9 16 42% 22 58% 10 14 37% 24 63% Total 141 37% 239 63% The students’ responses to the exercise 7 are described in the table 7 below. The exercise requires learners to write complete sentences with the given words. This is a popular type of writing exercise used for testing learners’ ability to perform their knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, as well as language skills. In spite of this, the assessment of the students’ competence in this exercise mainly focuses on their using the collocations with “make” and “do”, involving the errors of redundant article and missing article. Most of the students (57%) failed to write complete sentences due to redundant and missing error although some combinations, such as “make an effort”, “make noise”, “make a choice”, already appeared in the exercises 6 and 6. Additionally, the students still added incorrectly, missed, or misused articles when they did the exercise. The most incorrect answers are to the item 14, instead of “I'm afraid I can't make a deal on this car. It's the lowest price”, 26 50 among 38 students wrote ““I'm afraid I can't make deal/ make the deal on this car. It's the lowest price”. Some other combinations such as “make a fortune” in question 11 and “make an exception” in question 13 also seem more challenging than others. TABLE 7 Data on the results of exercise 7 Redundant article and Missing article errors Item no Correct answers Incorrect answers number percentage number percentage 1 19 50% 19 50% 2 17 45% 21 55% 3 18 47% 20 53% 4 16 42% 22 58% 5 16 42% 22 58% 6 21 55% 17 45% 7 15 39% 23 61% 8 19 50% 19 50% 9 15 39% 23 61% 10 15 39% 23 61% 11 13 34% 25 66% 12 19 50% 19 50% 13 13 34% 25 66% 14 12 32% 26 68% 15 16 42% 22 58% Total 244 43% 326 57% 4.1.4. Contextual errors Another type of collocational error found is contextual error. The students use combinations with “make” and “do” which may be linguistically correct but contextually incorrect. There are some nouns that can go with different verbs to make various combinations. Those combinations have different meanings and the problem is that learners must be able to distinguish them based on the context in order to make good choices. However, this is not always easy for EFL students although it may be a piece of cake to native English speakers. 51 The exercises in the test 3 were designed on purpose of examining the contextual errors of collocations made by the students in the class 11A9. Beside the combinations with the verbs “make” and “do”, a number of the collocations with other verbs such as “have”, “take”, “give”, “get”, “perform”were introduced in the test because some noun constituents can collocate with many verbs. For instant, the noun “opportunity” can be combined with the verbs “make”, “have”, “take”, “give”. The number of questions in the test was small, yet the quality of the learners’ paper was not high. That means the proportion of their correct answers was low. To complete the passage in the exercise 8, the students had to choose the right phrase among 6 ones to fill in each of the blank. In general, nearly one- third of the answers (32%) were right. TABLE 8 Data on the results of exercise 8 - Contextual error Item no Correct answers Incorrect answers number percentage number percentage 1 21 55% 17 45% 2 15 39% 23 61% 3 13 34% 25 66% 4 7 18% 31 82% 5 8 21% 30 79% 6 10 26% 28 74% Total 74 32% 154 68% The exercise 9 which consists of 25 multiple choice questions may be the most difficult for the students. Almost 70% of the answers were incorrect. All the options are right collocations; however, the students had to put the phrases in context so that they could have right options. For example the four phrases “made good, did good; took good advice; gave the best of himself” in the item 20 are all linguistically correct, but in the sentence “He’s a boy from a poor background who _____ on Wall Street”, the option “made good” is the 52 best. Only 5 out of 38 students gave correct answer to this one. The phrase “did good” which means “had possitive effect on” is much more commonly used than “made good” which means “succeeded”, so most of the students chose “did good”. TABLE 9 Data on the results of exercise 9 - Contextual error Item no Correct answers Incorrect answers number percentage number percentage 1 12 32% 26 68% 2 9 24% 29 76% 3 15 39% 23 61% 4 16 42% 22 58% 5 17 45% 21 55% 6 10 26% 28 74% 7 16 42% 22 58% 8 16 42% 22 58% 9 17 45% 21 55% 10 17 45% 21 55% 11 10 26% 28 74% 12 18 47% 20 53% 13 7 18% 31 82% 14 6 16% 32 84% 15 16 42% 22 58% 16 15 39% 23 61% 17 16 42% 22 58% 18 7 18% 31 82% 19 10 26% 28 74% 20 5 13% 33 87% 21 6 16% 32 84% 22 7 18% 31 82% 23 8 21% 30 79% 24 6 16% 32 84% 25 11 29% 27 71% Total 293 31% 657 69% 53 The data in the table above shows that more than 80% of the students could not decide the correct answers to questions 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 24. In questtion 13, for instance, “I _________ to show that water contains oxygen and hydrogen. Hope this helps!!”, there are 4 choices: “made an experiment, do the experiment, had a test, did a test” most of the students chose “do the experiment” because may thought that “experiment” usually goes with “do”, some others used “had a test, did a test”, only 7 out of 38 gave the right answer “make an experiment” which means “try out an idea to see if it works”. 4.2. Possible causes of “make” and “do” collocation errors Before the students did the tests, they had been asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of six items. The data picked up from the questionnaire helps to indicate some possible causes of common errors related to “make” and “do” cololocations. 4.2.1. Shortage of collocational knowledge The collocation errors resulting from the students' lack of knowledge of collocations reveal that the students tend to transfer collocations used in their native language to English language. They do not seem to be aware that different languages have their specific collocations. Since they have learnt English through the Grammar Translation Method and the Audiolingualism, they are not familiar with collocations, and they have gained no mastery over word combinations. The fact is that most of the teachers seem to underrate the importance of collocations, so even there are students who have no idea about collocation concept. The students, consequently, use wrong collocations in their translations from English language to Vietnamese language for they have not recognized the miracle of collocations in translation. Additionally, there are not many lessons on collocation knowledge in their textbooks. It can be seen from the table 10 that almost students, accounting for 82% rarely have lessons on collocations. Also they do not have many chances to practice using collocations in their class. The very small number of 7 54 students (18%) said that they themselves get knowledge of collocation through the internet or extra learning. It is the fact that 45 minutes for each period of English at high school is just enough for teachers to convey the contents of each lesson in the textbook. Therefore, teachers can hardly help widen students vocabulary beyond the textbook during class. As a result, students rarely learn and do exercises on collocations. If they want to improve their knowledge of collocation, they have to find sources in the internet or by extra learning. TABLE 10 Lack of collocational knowledge - Contextual error No items options figure percentage 1 Do you usually have Yes 7 18% lessons on collocations? No 31 82% Total 38 100% 4.2.2. Habit of learning individual word Many learners think that learning vocabulary means learning individual words. It is undeniable that individual words play a key part in learning English because when learners get to know a word, they understand its meanings, part of speech, and pronunciation. Even they can use it in sentences with right grammatical principles. On the other hand, the students’ habit of learning individual words has negative effects on their understading collocations. When asked about the frequency of learning words in their combinations, 26% of students answered that they sometimes do this, 34% responded that they are rarely taught new words in combinations . It is notable from the survey that the students often learn individual words, so they have difficuly understanding what native speakers say or write and performing speaking as well as writing skills. 55 TABLE 11 Habit of learning individual words No items options figure percentage 2 How often do you Always 2 5% learn words in their Often 4 11% combinations Sometimes 10 26% with others? Rarely 13 34% Never 9 24% Total 38 100% The results shown in table above indicates a large number of students have a habit of learning individual words. Additionally, translating collocations is also problematic on account of the way to learn and translate individual words. Students who are unfamiliar with the concept of collocations most likely attempt to translate literally from their native language, which results in the common errors that English teachers hear over and over again. Therefore, after along period of learning English, the students still cannot express themselves properly in English by using fixed phrases instead of translating word for word. 4.2.3 Misunderstanding the meanings of “make” and “do” The two verbs “make” and “do” are the most commonly used in English. They are repeatedly found in passages in students’ textbooks, articles, tests ect. For many people who do not learn English the phrases such as “do it yourself” or “made in China”have become easy to understand; even they can use those phrases in their daily lives instead of equivalent phrases in their mother tongues. Furthermore, the two verbs themselves can be combined with so many words and the students find them familiar. Most of the students (58%) affirmed that they often or very often see the two verbs with their combinations as it is shown in the table below when they were asked “How often do you find the verbs “make” and “do” used with collocations?” 56 TABLE 12 Frequency of “make” and “do” used with collocations No items options figure percentage 3 How often do you find Very often 6 16% the two verbs "make" Often 16 42% and "do" used with Sometimes 12 32% collocations? Rarely 3 8% Never 1 3% Total 38 100% However, these two short words are famous for confusing learners of English. When asked the question “Do you find it difficult to learn “make” and “do” collocations?”, over 80% of the students gave “Yes” answer. TABLE 13 Difficulty of learning “make” and “do” collocations No items options figure percentage 4 Do you find it difficult Yes 31 82% to learn "make" and "do" colloctions? No 7 18% Total 38 100% Most errors appear where there are differences in how and when “make” and “do” are used in English and Vietnamese. There are some reasons why they are confusing words. Firstly, both of the two verbs can be followed by noun phrases in their collocations such as “make a list, make progress” and “do exercises, do research”. Secondly, one of their meanings - làm - is homonymous in Vietnamese. For instance, the phrase “make bread” means “làm bánh”, or “make noise” means “làm ồn” As a result, avoiding all the errors related to the combinations of the two verbs is impossible to students. 57 TABLE 14 Factors making “make” and “do” collocations confusing No items options figure percentage 5 What makes the two Meanings of the two verbs 10 26% verbs "make" and Forms of the two verbs 3 8% “do” confusing to you Structures 4 11% the most? The combinations of 21 55% each verb with other words Total 38 100% As can be seen in the table 14, the figures show exactly that factors relating meanings of the two verbs rank second demotivating factor. The largest number of students (55%) agreed that the combinations of each verb with other words confuse them most. TABLE 15 Causes of errors ralated to “make” and “do” collocations No items options figure percentage 6 What may cause Misunderstading the 12 32% errors when you meanings of the two verbs use "make" and "do" The meanings of their 3 8% collocations? component parts Learning individual words 10 26% No rules for colloctions 2 5% Lack of collocational 11 29% knowledge Total 38 100% 58 The table 15 shows the students’ opinion about causes of common errors related to collocations with “make” and “do”. It is clear that there are three main causes: learning individual words, lack of collocational knowledge, and misunderstading the meanings of the two verbs. The highest number of students (32%) agreed that misunderstanding the meanings of the two verbs is the key reasons why they could not avoid the collocational errors with “make” and “do” . 4.3. Summary This chapter has displayed a detailed analysis of the data collected from the survey questionnaire and the tests. In addition, a discussion of the findings with the regard to the research questions has also been mentioned. To sum up, four types of common errors related to “make” and “do” colloctions have been listed based on data collected from the tests. Among the four types of errors, the ones in word form and context seem to occur more frequently than the others. Besides, the possible causes of those errors have been also pointed out. The errors and the possible causes above are related to not only “make” and “do” collocations in particular but also all kinds of collocaions in general. 59 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1. Recapitulation The research was done with a view to investigating the errors related to “make” and “do” collocations commonly made by EFL students in a high school in Hung Yen province. The investigation aims at helping the EFL students gain an insight into “make” and “do” collocations and improving the researcher’s teaching of English at Van Lam high school. The data collected from 38 students’ responses to the tests and the questionnaire has helped to answer the research questions. The common errors related to “make” and “do” collocations involving word choice, redundant word and missing word, word form, and context have been found out and discussed. It has also been shown that the contextual errors are the most frequently and repeatedly committed by the EFL students. In addition, the major causes of those errors have been discovered. Beside the students’ habit of learning individual word and lack of collocational knowledge, their confusion of the meanings of “make” and “do” is the main cause of the errors. Through the exercises and the questionnaire, the students had chances to get more knowledge of collocations in general as well as collocations with “make” and “do” in particular. During the survey, the researcher helped her students know the importance of teaching and learning vocabulary in word combinations. Expanding collocational knowledge benefits students not only in communicative skills but also in their exams. Therefore, teacher can step by step introduce new collocations to her students during English lessons of languge skills such as reading, speaking, listening, and writing in order to equip learners with the awareness of collocations, and with appropriate strategies to expand collocational knowledge. 60 5.2. Concluding Remarks The research reported in this thesis has investigated the common errors related to collocations with “make” and “do” committed by EFL students at a high school. In order to collect the data from a number of the EFL students, four tests including ten exercises and a survey questionnaire and interviews were used for the purpose of this thesis. It was conducted at Van Lam high school in Hung Yen. By analyzing the data collected from the studenhts’ responses, it comes to two concluding remarks. Firstly, three types of errors have been found out. The students frequently and repeatedly produced errors when they did the tests on “make” and “do” collocations. The contextual error is considered the most difficult to avoid; and a large proportion of the students gave wrong answers because the exercises used to test the students on this type of error require their wide knowledge of collocations. To follow it is word form error. Not only the forms of noun constituents but also forms and tenses of the two verbs make the students much confused. The others are word choice and redundant word and missing word errors, which may be unavoidable by most of the students because collocations are loosely fixed combinations of words. Secondly, the research has pointed out some possible causes of the common errors mentioned above. Misunderstanding the meanings of the two verbs “make” and “do” is thought to be the leading cause. The EFL students use English-Vietnamese dictionaries very often, and possibly they feel confused to differentiate the two verbs because their meanings are homonymous in Vietnamese. Also the students’ attitude and ways of learning English vocabulary may have negative effect on using collocations. In other words, other causes of the errors lie in their habit of learning individual words and shortage of collocational knowledge. Many of the students become used to translating word to word, and then they put the words together based on the rules of their mother tongue. What is more, there are not many English lessons on collocations in 61 their class, so they find it hard to widen their knowledge of word combinations; even some of the students do not have concepts of collocations. The findings of this study contribute to realization of the importance of teaching and learning collocations. It has been showed that collocations which are instantly recognizable to native speakers of a language, remain difficult for foreign language learners to acquire and use properly. Therefore, teaching and learning words in their combinations should be carefully noticed in high school. In conclusion, I would like to state that investigating the common errors related to “make” and “do” collocations in this thesis has made great contributions to my professional development as a teacher of English in a high school. It has also helped me to improve my teaching methods, especially in teaching vocabulary. I hope that this study will also be useful for other teachers in teaching English vocbulary more and more effectively. 5.3. Implications This part will discuss the implications relating to teaching and learning English collocations in high school. In order to better students’ communicative skills as well as their results in exams , some suggestions are given as follows: Firstly, teachers of English at high school should give more importance to teaching vocabulry in word combinations. The study showed that teaching vocabulary through collocations can help students improve the vocabulary learning effectively. Therefore, teachers of English could be encouraged to spare some more classroom time for this type of training in their classes and to assign more importance to the application of certain learning strategies in vocabulary development in order to make vocabulary learning process more effective and more meaningful for the students. Similarly Deveci (2004) states that in recent years, English teachers and theorists attach more importance to vocabulary teaching in the sense that grammar could help learners sufficiently only with a wide range of vocabulary. Also he argues that a wide range of vocabulary without sufficient grammar knowledge does not help learners too because a 62 single word rarely stands alone. Therefore, language teachers need to teach collocations in order to help learners acquire the language more quickly and efficiently. Based on the results, it might be suggested that language teachers should keep in mind the fact that students have to be aware of what “knowing a word” means. They should know that just knowing the definition or mother tongue equivalent of a word does not mean that they know that word. For using a word in a context, they should know the collocations of that word. Students should be encouraged to develop a system of vocabulary learning which will lead them to be independent vocabulary learners. Also it might be said that teachers should be open to innovations in the field and encourage students to develop strategies for handling new vocabulary. They should tolerate any type of prejudgments towards vocabulary learning and try to make the students like vocabulary learning and vocabulary studies. Secondly, it is recommended that students should take collocational knowledge into account so that they can effectively expand their English vocabulary. EFL students’ ability to speak and write English both accurately and fluently is related to a large extent to their mastery of vocabulary, especially of collocation, which is one of the most difficult areas of language learning at all levels. Most language mistakes arise from the wrong association between words or word combinations. While native speakers collocate naturally and automatically, non- native speakers have to learn and practice word association systematically before they are able to sense what sounds right and what does not. What they need is awareness-raising exercises, which set them thinking about correct collocations when they do reading or listening activities or when they look up words in the dictionary, intensive classroom practice and extensive reading (outside the classroom). In other words, they need sustained exposure to collocation.Collocation errors are sometimes caused by interference from their own language, when students collocate according to the rules of their mother tongue. Knowing a word in a foreign language means knowing how and when to use it and which words it associates with. That is why collocation 63 exposure and practice are at a premium, and the students should take any opportunities to practice. 5.4. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies In spite of having significant findings, the present study contains some limitations. First of all, the research was carried out with a small number of EFL students at a high school; therefore, the results could not represent for all students. It would be necessary to increase the investigated sample size and the diversity of the participants. The second limitation of this study relates to the data collection instruments. That is the study used only some types of tests and questionnaire for students to examine errors made by the participants when studying collocation with verb and noun combination, which may not be enough to measure the collocation knowledge of the learners. it would be better to conduct an interview with the teachers who were teaching basic English for the first-year students to add more validity to the study. Additionlly, the resercher should have used more tests, which focus on more collocations, in order to offer a clearer picture of the participants’ reception and production of collocations. Finally, the study was limited in the number of the selected collocations used in the study. Due to the time constraints, this study made use of only some common collocations to measure both the reception and production of the participants’ knowledge of collocations. However, the use of more collocations would be better to give a comprehensive measurement of learners’ collocational competence. Due to the scope of the study and the limited time, the research only focused on the common errors related to “make” and “do” colloctions. Consequently, the coming research should focus on finding out the solutions that would motivate students to learn English colloctions in particular and English vocbulary in general. On the other hand, the researchers should also get more information from other students from grades 10 and 12 as well as invite more 64 teachers to participate in the interview to obtain more reliable results and points of view of the issue. It is believed that the broad population or participants would provide more precise findings. I REFERENCES Foreign Authors Aston, G. (1995). Principle and practice in Applied Linguistics: Studies in honour of H.G. Widdowson. Oxford: Oxford University Press Bahns, J. & Eldaw, M. (1993). Should we teach EFL students collocations? System, 21(1), 101-114. Benson, M., et al. (1986). 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Đào Thị Ngọc Nguyên (2007), Collocations of HARD and HAPPY in English, Unpublished M.A thesis, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Lê Thanh Hà (2007). A study on lexical collocations and their implications for English – Vietnamese translation. Unpublished M.A thesis, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Phạm Thị Ngà (2012). A study on common errors related to the usage of do and make collocations by English non-major students at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration. Unpublished M.A thesis, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. V APPENDIX 1: Test 1- Word choice error Exercise 1: Put in the correct form of ‘make’ or ‘do’: 1. John worked hard and ____________ his best at his job, but he still wasn’t promoted. 2. The teenagers were ____________ such a noise that the neighbour called the police. 3. She ____________ a payment on her debt every month. Soon she’ll have finished paying it off. 4. So many chores to ____________! I need to clean the bathroom and the kitchen, hoover and change all the beds. 5. Sorry, I ____________ a mistake. The restaurant isn’t here, but on another street. 6. I called the hotel and ____________ a reservation for two people for Saturday the 16th. 7. Unfortunately his business ____________ a huge loss last year and had to close down. 8. If you don’t speak English, you’ll find it hard to ____________ business in the UK. 9. He ____________ a promise to his grandmother that he’d never fight anyone ever again. 10. It’s late, and we should go home. Let’s ____________ a move. 11. The washing machine flooded and the water ____________ a lot of damage. All the carpets had to be replaced. 12. She ____________ a lot of lists of things to do, but she never does any of the things! 13. Unfortunately, all the students ____________ very badly on the test. 14. Children ____________ such a mess! I spend my whole life tidying up 15. The car was ____________ 90 miles per hour on the motorway when it was stopped by the police. 16. John went outside to ____________ a phone call. VI 17. Lucy has decided to ____________ a course this autumn. She’s going to study Spanish. 18. My grandmother loves ____________ crosswords. 19. Anne ____________ a good point. She said that it’s often cheaper to fly in the UK than take the train. 20. If I were to ____________ a prediction, I’d say that it’ll rain this afternoon Exercise 2: Which phrases below can collocate with the verb “MAKE” 1. an inquiry 2. a favour 3. good 4. a journey 5. the ironing 6. the laundry 7. love 8. a mess 9. a mistake 10. money 11. a crossword 12. a confession 13. a fortune 14. friends 15. the washing up 16. amends 17. business 18. a fuss 19. the dishes 20. harm Exercise 3: Which phrases below can collocate with the verb “DO” 1. damage 2. an excuse 3. money 4. a move 5. a noise 6. your hair 7. your nails 8. time - (to go to prison) 9. a talk 10. a number 11. things right / badly / well 12. a course 13. harm 14. exception 15. your best / worst 16. an offer 17. peace 18. a report 19. a plan 20. a point VII Exercise 4: Choose the best answer to complete the following sentences 1. She (makes/ does/ made/ did) a lot of lists of things to do, but she never does any of the things!. 2. Unfortunately, all the students (made/ did/ make/ do) very badly on the test. 3. My grandmother loves (do/ doing/ make/ making) crosswords. 4. The teenagers were (do/ make/ doing/ making) such a noise that the neighbour called the police. 5. Traditionally, three people (make/ do/ made/ did) speeches at weddings in the UK; the groom, the father of the bride, and the best man. 6. I enjoy going to new places and make new (friend/ friends/ a friend/ friendly). 7. (Doing/ Making/ Do/ Make) gymnastics helps you have good health and keep fit. 8. She tried to make (amend/ amends/ amending/ amendment) by inviting him out to dinner. 9. I haven’t eaten chocolate for three weeks, but it hasn’t made any (difference/ different/ differently/ differences) to my weight! 10. Robert spent the weekend doing the (garden/gardens/ gardening/ gardened). He mowed the lawn and planted a lot of new plants. VIII APPENDIX 2: Test 2 - Redundant article and missing article errors Exercise 5: Listen and fill in each blank with suitable words. Dear class, You know, it was ‘Teachers’ Day’ on Monday. When you celebrated my ‘Teachers’ Day’ I thought how lucky I am as a teacher because I have such great students. It is obvious that you are (1)_________________________ with your English, and I feel really happy. Do you remember that we talked about the factors that lead to success? It was self-discipline and self-motivation. I’m happy to see that you are all responsible students because you (2)_________________________ on time, you (3)_________________________ in your workbook and submit your assignments before the deadlines. You also (4)_________________________ to improve your paragraphs after you get the feedback for your first drafts. As another good habit, you keep vocabulary journals and (5)_________________________ your improvement. When you (6)_________________________, you don’t give up; instead, you try harder. So you (7)_________________________. I love your energy. I love the positive attitude you have towards learning. One can easily feel the sense of togetherness you have; you always help each other. Remember your positive comments about Emre A. in the second speaking task. You can be very inspiring to each other at times. I will always remember this class, every one of you And I think you will also remember each other, too. For example, we will always remember that Emre cannot (8)_________________________ Russian girls. Cagla is very good at cooking. (By the way, she promised to (9)_________________________ for us). Seray needs her mother to tidy her room; but I’m sure she is getting better each day. Kadir is the earliest to get engaged. Damla is the most unlucky while dancing. I’m sure Sedef will remain as ‘the teacher’s pet’ in your memories. We’ll say “There was a Ray Charles in our class” when we remember Doğukan; and we’ll never forget those big sun glasses. All in all, it was a pleasure to have IX such students. Thank you for being good students. And I know that you will be very successful in the future. Lots of Love, Exercise 6: Fill in each of the blanks with suitable collocations. 1. Can you_________________ ? Will you give me a lift into town ? (do/ favour) 2. Little Johnny has been painting at the kitchen table. I'm afraid he's_________________. There's paint everywhere. (make/ mess) 3. It doesn't matter if you don't pass the test. Just_________________ ! (do/ best) 4. We can't go on discussing this problem all day. We need to _________________ now and stick to it. (make/ decision) 5. My brother is a scientist. He's currently _________________ into the causes of global warming. (do/ research) 6. I've been learning Chinese for three years but I_________________ much_________________. It's such a difficult language ! (not/ make/ progress) 7. Chris_________________ . He said we could all go out tonight. (make/ suggestion) 8. The party was really boring so I_________________and left. I said that I had to finish some homework. (make/ excuse) 9. I spend far too much time ___________________! I wish I had a cleaner! (do/ dish) 10. It's freezing! Let's turn on the heating and ____________________ in the fireplace. (make/ fire) Exercise 7: Complete the sentence below with the given words. 1. She/ effort/ promise/ get/ higher grades. X 2. All/ her teachers/ pleased/ my little niece/ because/ she/ make/ progress/ all her schoolwork. 3. All the food/ the menu/ look delicious;/ I/ can’t/ make/ choice. 4. She/ make/ contribution/ the discussion/ with her interesting ideas. 5. I'll need/ you/ make/ decision/ before the end of the day. 6. Don't worry,/ you'll not/ do/ harm/ if you give/ peace/ chance. 7. Businesses primary focus/ is/ make/ profit for/ shareholders. 8. The children don't / make/ noise./ They're/ quiet and well-behaved. 9. If you ask him,/ he/ just/ make/ excuse/ and/ not/ take/ any responsibility. 10. She'll mow/ the lawn/ while/ I/ do/ dishes,/ so you/ can do/ homework! 11. My uncle Frank/ will/ make/ fortune/ with his new invention. 12. I'd like/ everyone in this class/ make/ effort/ their homework this week. 13. Today, we'll/ make/ exception/ and let you/ play/ on our team. 14. I'm afraid/ I can't/ make/ deal/ on this car./ It's the lowest price. 15. I'll/ make/ arrangement/the meeting/ tomorrow. XI APPENDIX 3: Test 3 - Contextual error Exercise 8: Fill in each of the blanks with a suitable phrase. tell you the truth go sightseeing taking such a long time make an effort do some revision get the chance I'm sorry for (1) _________ to write back. I've been so busy at work lately. I've also not been studying very hard and my French exam is next month! To (2) _________, I'm getting a bit nervous and will have to (3) _________! The good news is I'm going on holiday with my parents before the exam, so if I (4) _________ I'm going to try to (5) _________ and work on my French. Anyway, the reason I'm writing is to ask you if you would like to come to the UK. I know you haven't been here before and we could (6) _________. Let me know what you think. Exercise 9: Choose the best answer to complete the sentences below. 1. The company _________ of three million dollars so far. A. has done well B. has made a profit C. has gained ground D. has earned livings 2. Tomorrow, I’m _________ to his sales staff on our new products. A. having an argument B. making a presentation C. doing an operation D. performing an operation 3. The teacher asked her students to _________ practically in the lab. A. to do the experiment B. to make experiment C. to have a suggestion D. to conduct a survey 4. Before opening a new web store, no one liked this idea and she couldn’t _________ enough money. A. make B. have C. earn D. raise 5. We _________ business with companies all over the world. A. take B. make C. do D. have XII 6. I would like to_________ about the quality of service at your restaurant. A. make a complaint B. take a complaint C. do a deal D. have an argument 7. Stop _________ me laugh! I can't breathe! A. making B. helping C. letting D. seeing 8. I need to _________, please excuse me. A. take my point B. take a phone call C. make a phone call D. make a point 9. Could you _________ of my friend and me, please? A. make full use B. take a picture C. do good D. get the best 10. I made _________in that test yesterday, I'm sure of it. A. a lot of mistakes B. a noise C. a complaint D. a presentation 11. I'm going to do_________ this afternoon. There’s nothing in the fridge. A. good B. business C. the food shopping D. my best 12. I don't want to _________ again! A. make much money B. take the lead C. do the washing up D. have a good laugh 13. I _________ to show that water contains oxygen and hydrogen. Hope this helps!! A. made experiment B. do experiment C. had a test D. did a test 14. I _________ and it was really high, she was so tired so I called the doctor. A. took her temperature B. have a point C. had a temperature D. take my point 15. I _________trouble. I think my boyfriend is cheating on me. A. give you B. take C. make D. have 16. We normally _________ on Saturday mornings. XIII A. go on business B. do the cleaning C. make a loss D. take a loss 17. He really needs to _________. A. do his nails B. take her promise C. make up D. have a haircut 18. We can’t get everything we want from life. We must just _________ the best of it. A. give B. take C. make D. have 19. If they ask any awkward questions, just let me _________. A. do the talking B. make an operation C. do the massages D. have an argument 20. He’s a boy from a poor background who _________ on Wall Street. A. made good B. did good C. took good advice D. gave the best of himself 21. I would like to_________ to just say one thing. A. take this opportunity B. make an opportunity C. have an opportunity D. give an opportunity 22. He usually _________ time for walking in the evening A. makes B. does C. has D. takes 23. I am _________ for cost reductions. A. having an argument B. have an appointment C. make an appointment D. making an argument 24. When she was 40 she sold her business and _________. She now spends most of her time at the beach. A. made profit B. made a fortune C. earned livings D. saved a lot of money 25. I’m fine mum! There’s no need to call the doctor! Don’t _________. A. make a mess B. make a noise C. make a fuss D. make an effort XIV APPENDIX 4 A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS QUESTIONNAIRE Dear students! This survey questionnaire is designed with the hope of fiding out possible errors related to “make” and “do” collocations committed by the students at Van Lam high school. Your assistance in completing the following items is highly appreciated. Data collected will remain confidential and be used for the study purpose only. Thank you very much for your cooperation! Part 1. Personal Background Information - Your gender: Male Female - Your age: - How long have you been learning English? ............. year(s) - Did you have to do English test for the entrance examination to high school? Yes: No: - What are the purposes of your learning English? The requirements of the curriculum Exams Interests XV Part 2. Put a tick in the appropriate column No items options your choice 1 Do you often have Yes lessons on collocations in your textbooks? No 2 How often do you Always present or learn words Often in their combinations Sometimes with others? Rarely Never 3 How often do you find Very often the two verbs "make" Often and "do" used with Sometimes collocations? Rarely Never 4 Do you find it difficult Yes to learn "make" and "do" collocations? No 5 What makes the two Meanings of the two verbs verbs "make" and "do" Forms of the two verbs confusing to you the Structures most? The combinations of each verb with other words 6 What may cause Misunderstading the errors when you meanings of the two verbs use "make" and "do" The meanings of their collocations? component parts Learning individual words No rules for collocations Poor knowledge of collocations THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION! XVI Phiếu điều tra này nhằm mục đích tìm ra những nguyên nhân dẫn đến các lỗi thường gặp khi các em học sinh trường THPT Văn Lâm sử dùng các kết hợp từ với động từ “make” và “do”trong tiếng Anh. Những ý kiến của các em rất quan trọng với nghiên cứu này. Các dữ liệu điều tra sẽ chỉ được phục vụ cho mục đích nghiên cứu. Xin chân thành cảm ơn sự cộng tác của các em! Phần 1. Thông tin cá nhân - Giới tính: Nam / Nữ - Tuổi: - Em đã học tiếng Anh được bao lâu rồi?..................năm - Em có phải làm bài thi tiếng Anh trong kỳ thi tuyển sinh vào lớp 10 hay không? Có Không.. - Mục đích việc học tiếng Anh của em là gì? - vì yêu cầu của chương trình học - vì mục đích thi cử - vì yêu thích môn học XVII Phần 2. Em hãy đánh dấu () vào ô tương ứng với lựa chọn của mình: Stt Câu hỏi Các phương án lựa chọn Lựa chọn của em 1 Em có thường xuyên Có được học về các kết hợp từ trong sách giáo Không khoa không? 2 Mức độ thường xuyên Rất thường xuyên em sử dụng hoặc học Thường xuyên từ vựng qua các kết Thỉnh thoảng hợp từ? Hiếm khi Không bao giờ 3 Mức độ thường xuyên Rất thường xuyên em thấy từ "make" Thường xuyên và "do" được sử dụng Thỉnh thoảng trong các kết hợp từ? Hiếm khi Không bao giờ 4 Em có thấy khó khi Có học các kết hợp từ với “make và "do" không? Không 5 Điều gì làm em thấy Nghĩa của hai động từ động từ "make" và Dạng thức của hai động từ “do” gây khó hiểu Cấu trúc nhất? Các kết hợp từ với mỗi động từ 6 Những yếu tố nào có Nhầm lẫn nghĩa của hai thể làm em mắc lỗi động từ khó khắc phục khi sử Nghĩa của các danh từ dụng các kết hợp từ theo sau với “make” và “do”? Thói quen học từ riêng lẻ Các kết hợp từ không có qui tắc Thiếu kiến thức về các kết hợp từ Cảm ơn rất nhiều về sự hợp tác của em! XVIII