THE PROBLEM OF UNDERSTANDING AND USING ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS AMONG FINAL-YEAR UNDERGRADUATES IN SELECTED NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES OF EDUCATION
THE PROBLEM OF UNDERSTANDING AND USING ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS AMONG FINAL-YEAR UNDERGRADUATES IN SELECTED NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES OF EDUCATION
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Date
1998-05
Authors
YAKUBU, GARBA SADIQ
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
Several studies have been conducted to investigate and describe the
phenomenon called "Nigerian English." These have been in the areas of phonology,
morphology, syntax and semantics. Unfortunately, however, scholarly papers or any
rigorous studies aimed mainly at elaborating the complex nature of English idioms
and phrasal verbs as it applies to the Nigerian local context have been very few and
far between. On the face of such an orientation, the present researcher felt very
strongly that some aspects of idiomaticity require more indepth investigation than
being treated superficially.
This study, therefore, sought to complement what other researchers have
done. It aimed primarily at describing as adequately and objectively as possible how
final-year undergraduates in selected Nigerian higher institutions of learning
interpreted and used English phrasal verbs. It isolated only one of the six levels of
idiomaticity (the fourth level) postulated by Fraser in order to call the attention of
Nigerians to this indispensable but under-rated and neglected aspect of English. This
(fourth) level entailed the extraction of some constituent of an idiom to some extraidiom
position in a sentence. This is indicated by a number of transformations such
as the particle movement transformation where the particle is extracted from the
idiom.
A total of 849 subjects were drawn randomly from three selected Nigerian
universities and two Federal Colleges of Education and subjected to a one-shot test
designed by the researcher. Some of the items required the subjects to construct
pairs of sentences to distinguish the use of such phrasal verbs as, go under, kick off
or cook up used first literally and then idiomatically. Both criterion referenced and
norm referenced forms of testing were employed in this study. The subjects' scores
in the test constituted the primary data for the present study.
Descriptive statistics was used in presenting the data in the form of
frequency tables, polygons and histograms. Some statistics such as the means and
standard deviations were also employed for computing the findings. A group or
sector analysis was done so as to establish a typology of how final-year Nigerian
undergraduates interpreted and used English phrasal verbs. An abstraction of a
grammatical model was therefore provided for the Nigerian users of English as
regards phrasal verbs.
It was discovered that the general performance in each school was rather poor
as seen from their mean scores. Out of a total sample size of 849 subjects that were
drawn for the study, only 245 (28.85%) passed. The inability to use and understand
English phrasal verbs appropriately certainly hinders effective communication in both
formal and informal situations. Our study therefore has important implications for
students, teachers, authors, educational planners and course designers. Two major
avenues (the direct channel and the incipient avenue) have been recommended for
Nigerian users of English to improve their general proficiency especially the mastery
of phrasal verbs
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL,
AHMADUBELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH
LANGUAGE, IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, AHMADU
BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA.
Keywords
PROBLEM, UNDERSTANDING, ENGLISH, PHRASAL, VERBS, FINAL-YEAR, UNDERGRADUATES, SELECTED, NIGERIAN, UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES, EDUCATION