CONCORD PROBLEMS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT: The study was conducted to investigate the effects of Concord Problems on English Language in Selected Secondary Schools in Ika Local Government Area. Two (2) research questions were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted survey research design. A sample size of 150 SS2 students were randomly selected from five (5) public secondary schools using simple random sampling techniques. The study made use of structural questionnaire for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using simple percentage method and the results revealed that concord problems affect student’s academic performance and effective teaching and learning of English Language negatively. Some recommendations are made among others that Government should organize seminar and workshop to newly employed teachers on how to teach the concept of concord effectively.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

The problem of concord agreement among English speakers is becoming more obvious and rampant, cutting across various educational levels, right from primary to the university level. Many students speak and write without obeying the rules of concord agreement. The most worrisome dimension of the problems is that it extends beyond school level to advanced speakers of English Language such as lecturers at various levels, some honourable members of the state and national assemblies and the interest (McGrath, 2014). In the past ten years, a burgeoning research based has increasingly shown that proper use of concord rules are among the most important players influencing students’ achievement outcome (Goldhaber and Sanders, 2012). For example state that the single largest factor affecting students’ achievement is improper use of concord in grammar.

Wright and Hon (2007) also believe that more can be done by improving the quality of teachers training education in English Language (who are experts in phonology, detection of poor grammatical structures both in written and spoken English). Concord refers to the agreement between the subject and the verb. The idea of concord agreement is an important aspect of language which many students commit (Shyer and Adey, 2001). The author stated that some researchers complained that they have read and heard expressions such as “they does”, “I does”, which was written and spoken by students from tertiary institutions. These sentences look mature and contain clear message but they are wrong because they violate the rule of concord agreement.

According to Otavio (2003), if you want to assess the extent to which your students have truly internalized concord agreement rules, you must test low consistent they are getting the third person’s right in spontaneous communication across a range of problems, as isolated instance probably will not tell much. Errors in concord problems is becoming widely spread and it seems as if many people are either not aware of it or they consider it as less important as it does not affect the message being conveyed. But it violates the rule, just as in the human society, any violation of an important rule becomes a problem to worst mistakes, one can make mistakes in oral and written performance in English language is caused by lack of agreement between word in the sentence and coherent writing can never fulfill it good condition without concord problems.

Anyone who speaks English language fluently and does not violate the rules of concord is respected as good users of the language as one who has good control of the language. Therefore this seeks to address the ugly trend of concord problems which spreads among secondary students in Ika Local Government Area.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

The issue of concord in English has become an albatross hanging around the neck of both teachers and students in Nigeria and elsewhere. So endemic is the problem of concord to the extent that Udofot and Ekpenyong (2000) have argued that concord problems are damaging to ones reputation than other problem regard to use of concord, problem is relevant to this relevant to this study in that, issues about concord in Language have become age long challenges, which need to be tackled and students of English language.

It is sad to mention that although issue about concord continue to ‘torment’ both teachers and students, adequate measures have not been put in place by teachers and students, this aspect of English should be taught, especially in Nigerian schools, colleges and even universities indeed, whenever it comes to grammatical concord, teachers and students narrow their thought to mere concord agreement, forgetting that other important issues such as concord within tenses, national concord, proximity concord, concord with relative pronouns such as who, which, whose, that, among, other remain insurmountable to all stake holders (Quagie, 2011).

In the 20th and 21st centuries, English has become an indispensable part of educational curriculum in Nigerian schools. Despite all the effects and investments devoted to cultivate and popularize English among Nigerian Language learners the resultant outcome could not live up to the authorities’ expectations. Generally speaking, the process of teaching and learning English as a second language in Nigeria is not satisfactory. A great body of research has proved that different factors are involved in this process. The researcher made an attempt to examine all the possible existing researches which investigated the problems of teaching and learning English in Nigeria to elicit. These factors and to scrutinize the existing problems and also highlight what can be done to improve the situation significantly.

1.3       Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of concord problems on English Language in Selected secondary schools in Ika Local Government Area. Specifically the study sought;

1. To ascertain the effects of concord problems in English Language in Secondary schools in Ika Local Government Area.
2. To investigate the causes of concord problems in English Language in secondary schools in Ika Local Government Area.

Originally posted on May 11, 2021 @ 5:08 pm