ERRORS IN ESSAY WRITING AMONG SOME SELECTED
SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN IKERE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EKITI STATE
BY
FOR COMPLETE PROJECT CALL 07064961026
BEING AN ESSAY SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
CURRICULUM STUDIES/ ENGLISH, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ADO-EKITI,
EKITI STATE NIGERIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE
AWARD OF BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE IN EDUCATION B.A (ED) IN ENGLISH
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to investigate the
errors in essay writing among secondary school learners of English language in Ekiti State.
The sample of the study consisted of 60 students of both sexes from randomly
selected secondary schools in Ikere Ekiti. It adopted the analytical method of
investigation by using a comparative critique to gather information and find
out causes, sources and occurrences of errors in essay writing among students.
A self-designed test on English language was used for the study. Sixty respondents were randomly selected from
six schools for the test.
The Data
collected were analyzed using Simple Frequency Counts and percentage scores.
Findings
show that;
Learners of English used tenses with a lot of
inconsistency i.e. present tense were used in place of past tense and
vice-versa, there was no logical link between one paragraph and another in the
essays, learners of English as a second language were faced with the problems
of spelling English words as a result of interference of the mother tongue
language with the target language or lingua franca, punctuation marks were used
arbitrarily.
Lastly, illegibility of writings by the learners
of English Language also contributes to errors in essay writing.
Based on
this finding, it is recommended that;
Teachers should see errors as friends and not
enemies to be conquered. Students should be given time and opportunity to
correct errors before the teachers do (that is, teachers should find out if the
students can correct the errors themselves).
Errors should be used to plan ahead; (teachers
should find out what the students need
to work on next) Teachers should find out if the errors are due to
carelessness, lack of application of a learned rule or lack of knowledge of a structure
In view of these, English language teachers should
embark on practical teachings with a lot of emphasis on the areas of difficulty
in the usage of English language as a second language.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE I
CERTIFICATION II
DEDICATION III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IV
ABSTRACT VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS VIII
CHAPTER ONE 1
INTRODUCTION 1
Background
to the Study 1
Statement
of the Problem 10
Research
Questions 11
Purpose
of the Study 12
Delimitations
of the Research 12
Significance
of the Study 13
Definitions
of Terms 14
CHAPTER TWO 16
LITERATURE REVIEW 16
Introduction 16
Concept
of Error 16
Concept
and Process of Error Analysis 19
Uses
of Error Analysis 31
Explanation
of Causes 33
Summary 38
CHAPTER THREE 40
RESEARCH METHOD 40
Research
Design 40
Population
of the Study 41
Sample
and sampling Techniques 42
Research
Instrument 42
Validity
of Instrument 43
Administration
of Instrument 44
Data
Analysis 45
CHAPTER FOUR 46
RESULT AND DISCUSSION 46
Error
of Grammatical Structure and Findings 47
Analysis
of Errors in Written Essays 55
CHAPTER FIVE 61
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS 61
Summary 61
Conclusion 62
Recommendations 63
REFERENCES 66
APPENDIX 68
0 Comments