Today English is the language widely used in the world. English is not only the
national or official language of some countries, which have different cultures, but it is
also the international language of communication in many fields including science,
technology, business, entertainment and so on. Since Viet Nam joined World Trade
Organization (WTO), the need for learning English has been considerably increasing
among Vietnamese because their proficiency in English can help them get good jobs.
Therefore, learning English is very necessary.
However, it is not easy to master this language. In order to become good
English learners, besides proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing skills,
they must use grammar properly although English grammar can be difficult. Numerous
studies show that the use of poor grammar in spoken and written statements reflects
negatively on the speaker or author, and that people who use bad grammar are instantly
perceived as being less intelligent, less reliable or less trustworthy than people who use
proper grammar. Consequently, it is essential for English learners to master grammar.
English grammar includes a lot of points. One of them is reported speech.
Reported speech is important but rather difficult because it involves a lot of elements
which causes students to feel confused and make many errors. Making so many errors
of reported speech is not good because when someone reports incorrectly what
someone else has said, it is difficult for listeners to understand or it is even easy for
them to misunderstand, causing serious consequences. In addition, reported speech
often appears on tests in class, final tests and tests in the entrance exams to universities
and colleges. If students do not master this grammar point, they may lose marks
relating to reported speech easily. For those reasons, the researcher decided to study the
topic “Common Errors of Reported Speech Made by Grade 11 Students at Doc Binh
Kieu High School, Tien Giang Province”.
