A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GRAMMATICAL AND DISCOURSE ERRORS OF SENIOR SECONDARY THREE AND FIRST YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GRAMMATICAL AND DISCOURSE ERRORS OF SENIOR SECONDARY THREE AND FIRST YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
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Date
1992
Authors
Adogwa, Theresa Onyaidu
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Abstract
This is a comparative study of SS 3 and 100 level students'
grammatical and discourse errors. It attempts to find out the
similarity and the differences in the performances of these
students at both grammatical and discourse levels, the possible
sources of the errors and to suggest remedial programmes that
could help to minimise them.
The data used were obtained from free essay writing and
responses to a questionnaire by a randomly selected sample of
two hundred and sixty-five senior secondary school three (SS 3)
students in Kaduna State and one hundred and forty-one 100 L
undergraduate students from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The findings revealed persistence of three broad categories
of grammatical errors namely structural, lexical and mechanical
in the study sample. Both groups of students were seen to
produce similar grammatical errors. This implies that the one
year of formal English instruction (Comskip) at the 100 level had not significantly improved the students' performance in
grammar. For instance, tense errors, concord errors and wrong
choice of words were seen to occur most frequently among the
grammatical errors of these two groups.
At the level of discourse, the result showed a significant
difference between their performance, suggesting that the one
year of formal English instruction and further exposure to the
use of English in the University had improved the students'
discourse.
Description
A Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Master of Education in Teaching English as a
Second Language (TESL).
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
1992
Keywords
COMPARATIVE,, STUDY,, GRAMMATICAL,, DISCOURSE,, ERRORS,, SENIOR,, SECONDARY,, THREE,, FIRST,, YEAR,, A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF UNDERGRADUATE,, STUDENTS,