The thesis some problems of using infinitive and gerund

THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING SERVICE
LE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL
THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE
THE THESIS
SOME PROBLEMS OF USING INFINITIVE AND GERUND
Author: Le Thi Hoe
Occupation: Teacher
Field (Subject): Foreign language
THANH HOA YEAR 2017 
CONTENT
PART I. INTRODUCTION
I.1. The reason for choosing the thesis
3
I.2. Objectives
4
I.3. Participants
4
I.4. Methods of study
4
I.5. New idea of this thesis
5
PART II. CONTENT
II.1. The theoritical matters
5
II.2. The realities of matter before applying this method
Some problems of using infinitive and gerund
5
. The confusion between the infinitive and gerund
6
2.2. The confusion between the bare infinitive and full infinitive with to
7
2.3. Choosing the gerund or the infinitive after “to”
8
2.4. The confusion of using the pro(noun) between two verbs
8
II.3. Suggested ways of solving pupils’ errors
10
3. 1. Present the use of infinitive and gerund
10
A. Infinitive: full infinitive and bare infinitive
10
B. Gerund
12
C. Some verbs can be used both to-verb and verb-ing
13
3.2 Give some types of exercise
14
II.4. Result
15
PART III. CONCLUSION AND REQUEST
1. Conclusion
17
2. Request 
18
 References
19
PART I- INTRODUCTION
I.1. The reason for choosing the thesis:
As you know, English language has become an international language by virtue of the political and economic progress made by English speaking countries in the past 200 years. It is now mainly used in communicating in most of aspects such as: airports, international business, international conferences, science, technology, medicine, international competitions, email, mass of media.......in the world.
With the trend of integrating, Vietnam has been promoting their abilities in all aspects. Therefore, in education, Vietnam really pays attention to teaching and learning English all schools in Vietnamese education system. English is also becomes a chore subject in national educational system. From those, we see the importance of teaching and learning English in the development and integration of our country.
 	In Vietnam, nowadays, students begin to learn English at primary school. In high school, they continue the teaching program from primary school to secondary school. They learn English with different skills to continue improving their skills and knowledge. Furthermore, they also prepare the best knowledge for their most examination of graduating or use the knowledge for higher education.
Being an English teacher, I know the importance of English with my students, so I try to find out the best methods in teaching English for them, In our school system, English is both different and characteristic subject. It makes students curious and passionate. For many learners, English as a foreign language, they have to face up with many problems. That is because each language has its own characteristic features (especially on grammar). Moreover, their first language easily influences learners.
For vietnamese pupils, because English is an inflectional language, whereas Vietnamese is an isolating and analytic one. That causes problems for Vietnamese pupils to use the language, due to constructions which do not have the exact equivalents to the ones in Vietnamese. That makes them to choose which to use.
Example:	He wants her go out for a walk.
 	He enjoys to play football.
These sentences seem correct, but in fact, they are wrong we can rewrite correct form of them:
 	He wants her to go out for a walk.
 	He enjoys playing football.
In English grammar, it is a big problem which forms of verbs. We should choose to use in order to be appropriate to each circumstance. The most complicated problem that pupils usually face up with is the confusion between the basic form of verb (to- verb) and the participle form (v-ing). Because, many verbs, adjectives and some nouns can be followed by one or other of these forms.
My above simple analyses has shown complexity in using the infinitive or gerund. Of course there is still more complexity about this. I myself have made a survey of ideas of the difficult parts in English grammar.
As an English teacher, I find it necessary and interesting to gain a better understanding of the infinitive and the ing-participle in English grammar.
 	For all the reasons above. I have decided to concentrate on doing this subject.
With the thesis I hope that I will cotribute my little experience to help my students like and improve the grammar in the next courses.
I.2. Objectives:
When teaching English to students in the grade 10 a5 at Le Hoan high school. I found out that grammar stage is important and it also effects students' results, so I decided to carry out this thesis.
The above reasons show that the uses of the infinitive and gerund need more detailed study with this trend: It is aimed at: Firstly, I want to helpVietnamese learners understand the usages of the infinitive and gerund when they are used in communication and its equivalents in Vietnamese. Secondly, I want to give some suggestions for teaching the infinitive and gerund at high school to help learners leave out their errors in the process of learning English. Besides, I want to create my own experiences which are useful and necessary for my teaching. The experiences will be used in next courses and bring out the good results in my job. Moreover, I also want to cotribute my own experiences in teaching English grammar at Le Hoan high school. Last but not least, Based on the results of this action research, some changes and new methods could be applied in teaching.
I.3. Participants:
The subjects chosen for the research include 45 students in the class 10A5 at Le Hoan High School with the survey questionnaires. The research was carried out in the first term of the academic year 2016-2017 at Le Hoan High School.
I.4. Methods of the study.
The study bases on teacher's main activities: teaching time in the class, analysis and presenting.
The data is collected by sets of questionnaires. Some were set before using the methods and others were set after using the ones.
Other sources of data come from grammar tasks from the textbooks. The analysis of data hopefully will bring about reliable findings useful for the teaching grammar to students at Le Hoan High School.
I.5. New idea of this thesis: 
Discovered the problems of using to verb and verb-ing of students in grade 10 a5 at Le Hoan high school.
PART II - COTENTS OF STUDY
II.1. The theoretical matters:
In every language, the verb (V) plays the most important role among the units: S, V, O, C and A in forming the construction of sentences. The verb is considered as a part of speech denoting an action, a process, a state or expressing an idea or emotion, the being of person or thing in the universe.
Vietnamese learners usually face to the interference and influence of mother tongue when learning English, especially they are often influenced Vietnamese grammar. So, when translating a sentence from Vietnamese into English, they use their previous mother tongue experience as a means of organizing the second language data. They do not master the nature of matter, but only translate word by word. As a result, they make mistakes easily. Moreover, mistakes are often caused by lack of intention, carelessness of learners even they knew the rules of grammar what they are doing.
II.2. The realities of problems before applying this method
For students at Le Hoan High School, most of them are students living in the countryside. When they were small, they were lack of knowledge of English language because in their family, few people know about this language .This has a great influence on the children. Students are not aware of the importance of it. Even if, most of students are short of the basic knowledge of English.
After that, when entering high schools, students have to learn English with giving tests and marks, many of them are afraid. And many students usually cope with. Students have some problems in using the infinitive and gerund such as:
 **. Some problems of using the infinitive and gerund to Vietnamese pupils.
Vietnamese is an isolating and analytic language, whereas English is an inflectional one .Vietnamese verbs remain unchanged in any cases whereas English verbs forms are various.
 	Ex: For Vietnamese:
 	 + Tôi muốn ra ngoài
 	 (Similar to: I want to go out )
 	 + Anh ấy thích hát
 	 (Similar to: He enjoys singing )
In Vietnamese, we only use one form of verb analogous to the English to verb both in the contexts in which English use the infinitive and in other contexts in which English would use a gerund. It is difficult for Vietnamese pupils to predict which form is likely to follow which verb. That is why it is not surprising that learners sometimes make mistakes. The following are some errors that they often commit.
2.1.The confusion between the infinitive and the gerund
It is a big problem that Vietnamese pupils may meet because many reasons: one form is grammatically correct. Both of these forms are grammatically correct.
a. Verbs taking only one form:
- There are many verbs that make pupils confuse because they are the same meaning, but not follow the same partner.
Ex: Pupils usually use the verb: "advise" with a pronoun/noun and a to - infinitive after it.
- When they take the verb "suggest" which is similar in meaning to "advise". They also use "to - infinitive" construction, as in the following sentence:
 	+ He suggests us to get up early in the morning.
This sentence is grammatically wrong
 It must be:
 	+ He suggests us getting up early in the morning
Or He suggests that we should get up early in the morning.
*Some verbs when they are used without a pronoun or noun, they must be followed by a gerund, whereas when they are used with a pronoun or noun, the infinitive must be used here with the same meaning.(ex: intend, advise, encourage, allow, forbid, permit, recommend...)
Ex: 	 + She advised waiting until tomorrow.
 + She advised him to wait until tomorrow.
* Some verbs such as: like, love, hate, prefer can be followed by either: infinitive or gerund. In fact, they are often used with the gerund, whereas would like, would love, would prefer, would hate normally takes a to infinitive. Many pupils do not recognize the difference between "like" and "would like". They use the gerund after "would like" in such a sentence:
 Ex: + I would like eating sweets
This sentence is grammatically incorrect. The correct sentence is:
 + I would like to eat sweets.
Some students make mistakes with these verbs: "would like" and" would mind" in the structure:
 Would you like + gerund....? And would you mind + to infinitive...?
It must be: 
 Would you like + to infinitive...? And would you mind + gerund...?
b. With verbs taking both of the two forms:
Any of English verbs can be followed by either gerund or infinitive. With some verbs, the choice of which of these forms is not a problem. However, the choice of the gerund or infinitive may be difference in meaning.
Pupils, who are not aware of the difference between the two cases, may be easy to make mistakes
 Ex: A student promised his friend that he would call his last night, but in fact, he did not call her: He says:
 + I forgot ringing you last night.
This sentence is grammatically correct. However, in this situation he can not use "ringing", instead, he must use "to ring"
It must be:
+ I forgot to ring you last night
Because he did not call her last night, he must use the second sentence. If he uses the first sentence, it means that: last night he called her.
* Some adjectives and nouns can be followed a to infinitive:
 Ex: She is afraid to swim
But when these adjectives and nouns are followed by prepositions, they must be followed by a gerund not to infinitive.
Ex: she is afraid of swimming.
Usually, the meaning in this case will be changed. Many pupils are not aware of the difference so that they fail to use the correct form that suits to their intention.
2.2. The confusion between the bare infinitive and to infinitive.
* Some verbs as: would like, would prefer...take to infinitive. While would rather, rather than....take a bare infinitive.
They may create a sentence:
+ I would prefer to stay at home rather than go out with them
 Someone may produce a wrong sentence:
 	+ I would rather to stay at home than go out with them.
The use of "to stay" here is grammatically incorrect.
It must be:
 + I would rather stay at home than go out with them.
* Some verbs, in active sentences, they are followed by the bare infinitive while in passive ones, they are followed by to infinitive.
Ex: To make:
Active sentence: The teacher makes me do all the homework again.
Passive sentence: I am made do all the homework again.
It is wrong. It must be:
 	I am made to do all the home work again. 
* Pupils tend to use the bare infinitive after pronoun or nouns of verbs of which they require to infinitive. Some verbs as: ask, want, promise, need, intend.....
Ex: Instead of creating such sentences:
+ I promise her to give her a gift.
+ She reminds me to do morning exercises
They may produce such wrong sentences.
+ I promise her give her a gift.
+ She reminds me do morning exercises.
* One minor problem is that although the modal verbs like: can, may, must, will, shall...are followed by a bare infinitive (not to infinitive). Many pupils use them as ordinary verbs. This is to say: They use to infinitive verbs after these modal verbs.
Ex: + I can not to sing well
This sentence is grammatically wrong.
It must be:
+ I can not sing well
2.3. Choosing the gerund or the infinitive after "to"
"To" is either a preposition or a part of to infinitive. It is a part of to infinitive in: I afford to buy a new car.
When being used a preposition, It precedes as (pro)noun or a gerund.
Some of expressions that "to" plays as a preposition: look forward to, face up to, resort to, be used to close to, be accustomed to... Pupils tend to consider "to" as a part of the to infinitive so that they use the infinitive after the word "to". This is the mistake that the pupils often make sentences:
Ex: + I am looking forward to hear from you.
This sentence is grammatically wrong, because "to" in this case is a preposition so we must use the gerund after it.
It must be: 
 + I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Some pupils may create wrong sentence:
 + I prefer riding to walk
In this case, we must also use the gerund
It must be:
 	 + I prefer riding to walking.
2.4. The confusion of using the (pro)nouns between two verbs:
Some verbs when used with the to- infinitive can take the optional (pro)nouns. They often cause problems. However, there are verbs which require a compulsory (pro)noun before an infinitive.
The facts that pupils tend to use these verbs without a (pro)noun
Ex: +They invite to go out for lunch.
This sentence is grammatically incorrect.
It must be:
+They invite me to go out for lunch.
There are some errors that pupils often commit when learning English, especially pupils in high schools. It is better to find out some ways of overcoming this problem.
Through teaching in class 10 A5, I gave them a fifteen minutes test and forty minutes at the end of October, school year 2016-2017 with result:
In a fifteen minutes test consists of 6 sentences about infinitive and gerund with total mark of 6 sentences is 3 marks.
Test 15 minutes about infinitive and gerund
Number
Full name
Mark
1.
Trinh Thi Ngoc Anh
1,5
2.
Le Thi Ha
0,5
3.
Mai Khanh Huyen
1,0
4.
Trinh Huu Quan
0,5
5.
Do Van Tan
0,0
6.
Nguyen Thu Trang
1,5
....
Test 45 minutes about infinitive and gerund.
In a forty minutes test consists of 10 sentences about infinitive and gerund with total mark of 12 sentences is 4 marks
Number
Full name
Mark
1.
Trịnh Thi Ngọc Anh 
2,5
2.
Le Thi Ha 
0,5
3.
Mai Khanh Huyen
2,0
4.
Trinh Huu Quan
1,5
5.
Do van Tan 
1,0
6.
Nguyen Thu Trang
2,0
....
With low results above, I always give students tests about infinitive and gerund below multiple choice, correct mistakes, supply the correct form of verbs... and then explain carefully for each choice in order that students can understand and use correctly.
Besides that, I always look for the methods to teach students the basic ways to recognize, classify and remember.
II.3. Suggested ways of solving pupils' errors
We make mistakes because we have not understood that problem clearly or we misunderstand that problem. So that mistake should not occur if we make out the problem correctly and clearly and we make the correct instructions become automatic and habitual.
 	To help pupils use the infinitive or gerund correctly, the teacher should implement the following activities.
3.1. Presents the uses of the infinitive and gerund correctly, points out and explains the differences between full infinitive with to, bare infinitive and the gerund in order to help pupils distinguish them.
A. INFINITIVE
A1. Full infinitive: with "to":
* * Function is a subject and set at the beginning of the sentence.
 Ex: To go by train is not dangerous
* * Function is an objective set the following positions.
- Follow to be.
Ex: My greatest dream is to become a good doctor.
- Follow adjectives + to + verb
Adjectives are: afraid, anxious, ashamed, dangerous, difficult, good, pleased....
 Ex: + John is anxious to see his family.
 Or + It is dangerous to drive in this weather.
- Follow wh-questions: verb +how/what/when/where/which/why + to verb
Ex: + He discovered how to open the safe.
Or + She could not think what to say
- Follow the following verbs: 
* S + Verbs + To-infinitive.
Verbs are: agree, aim, determine, pretend, proceed, fail, promise, arrange, prove, refuse, attempt, hesitate, tend, demand, manage, threaten, afford, plan, vow, neglect, choose, bother, hope, desire, expect, trouble, want, wish....or be about, do one's best, make up one's mind....
Ex: + He did not bother to answer personally.
Or + He is just about to leave
* S + Verbs + object + to -infinitive
Verbs are: advise, allow, command, encourage, invite, permit, persuade, remind, teach, urge....
Ex: + He advised me to see the doctor
Or + My mother does not allow me to stay up late at night.
- In the sentence which has the word: the first, the last, or the only....we use to-verb.
Ex: He was the first man to leave the burning house.
Follow structures:
It + adjectives + (of/ for + object) + to - verb
Ex: + It was kind of you to help him.
Or + It is only fair for him to have a chance.
Pronoun + be + adjective + noun + to- verb
Ex: It was a sensible precaution to take.
Subject + feel/find/consider + it + adjective + to- verb
Ex: I find it difficult to use the computer.
It takes somebody + time + to- verb.
Ex: It takes me an hour to do homework.
- To be demonstration, purpose, results: enough/ save money/....
Ex: The house, to be demolished, is very old. She has nothing to eat
- To form absolute phrases: To tell the truth; to cut a long short hair...
Ex: To tell the truth, she was a real liar.
- To form exclamation:
Ex: To think she met with such a death! Oh! To be young again!
A2. Bare infinitive without "to"
- Follow ordinary verbs (do/does/did) and modal verbs (can/ could/ may/ might/ must/ will/ would/....)
Ex: + She does not go to school
Or + Peter can sing well.
- Follow the following verbs: see, hear, touch, listen, watch, look, taste, notice...
Ex: + we saw him leave the house. (Mean that: I saw the whole action).
Or + I saw him changing their wheel.(Could mean that: I saw only a part of action).
- Follow especially verbs: make, let, help, bid....
Ex: Let me do it for you.
Or: S + do/ does +anything/ nothing/ ...+ but/ except + bare infinitive.
Ex: There is nothing to do except wait.
Or: My dog does anything but speak.
- Follow phrases: would rather/ sooner,