THE USE OF THE HIGH FREQUENCY VERB MAKE IN OPINION ESSAYS BY VIETNAMESE EFL STUDENTS
Vol. 131 No. 6C (2022), Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
Vol. 131 No. 6C (2022)

THE USE OF THE HIGH FREQUENCY VERB MAKE IN OPINION ESSAYS BY VIETNAMESE EFL STUDENTS

Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
https://doi.org/10.26459/hueunijssh.v131i6C.6717
Published 2022-09-06
  • Nguyen Thi Bao Trang
  • Phan Quynh Nhu
  • Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh
  • Thai Ton Phung Diem
Nguyen Thi Bao Trang
Phan Quynh Nhu
Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh
Thai Ton Phung Diem
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Keywords

the high frequency verb MAKE, opinion essays, patterns of use, errors

Abstract

Much research has been devoted to how learners use diverse and sophisticated or low frequency words in their English as a foreign language (EFL) written language production. However, the question of how EFL students use high frequency words, especially common verbs such as  have, get, make, etc., in EFL writing has remained underexplored, despite the fact that they occur frequently and constitute a large proportion of words in written texts (Nation, 2013). The present study therefore examined how Vietnamese EFL students used the high frequency verb MAKE in their written opinion essays. The freeware AntConc (Anthony, 2020) was used to identify the different forms of the target MAKE and their frequency in 200 opinion essays written by Vietnamese EFL university students in three English writing classes as progress tests. Each concordance line in the AntConc output was subsequently examined to discover patterns of uses of MAKE according to Altenberg and Granger’s (2001) framework. The results show that causative and delexical uses of MAKE were most common and students still committed errors with MAKE. The findings have important pedagogical implications for feedback giving and writing instruction.

https://doi.org/10.26459/hueunijssh.v131i6C.6717
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