Common Errors Made by Non-English Majored Students in Speaking Skills: A Case Study at a University in Vietnam

Abstract

The scientific research has made a rigorous effort to examine common grammatical errors in spoken English which are committed by non- English majored undergraduates who are less proficient in the international language. Accordingly, our paper aims to vividly identify errors types based on their incidence levels, as well as to uncover possible causes of such grammatical underperformance, thereby putting forward feasible solutions to well deal with the phenomenon on both sides of in-charge teachers and students. The research and language data were gained from the survey questionnaire and the simulated oral interview of 80 designated students getting involved in a set of optional oral topics. Error analysis of 40 topic-based oral performances depicted that the five most common grammatical errors committed by the students are verb form, word form, pronoun, plural form, and article, respectively, in accordance with linguistic description of errors. On the basis of Dulay et al (1982) surface structure taxonomy, the most incidental types of error involve omission and misinformation, correspondingly, while elements addition and misordering being less frequent. In addition, study outcomes illustrated a fact that a number of students failed to assure essential constituents of a full utterance to a fairly large extent during their oral performance.