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.
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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,
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