ABSTRACT: The study examined concord errors in written English of junior secondary schools students: an examination. The study used survey research design. Sample population was one hundred students of junior secondary schools in Eket Local Government which was randomly selected. Three research questions were formulated. Ten objectives questions were set on different area of concord. Simple percentage computation was used in analyzing the collected data. Consequently, findings observed that the students are unable to construct sentences and dictate the concord error that is caused by shift in the construction of elements of sentences.
Concord Errors in Written English of Junior Secondary Schools Students: An Examination
The study also observed that the causes of concord errors were more intralingua them interlingual. The study therefore recommended that teachers should ensure in intensive language teaching right from the lower level so as to instill in the students with correct use of subject verb agreement.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
English language in Nigeria serves as the official language, second language as well as the medium of instruction and communication in education institutions. The desire to improve the use of spoken and written English in Junior Secondary school Two (JSS2) students in Eket metropolis is the motivation behind this research.
In the study, the researcher look at the effect of concord errors in the continuous writing of Junior Secondary School students and it is observed that many students are either confused or ignorant of the use of concord. A number of concord errors are made by students when writing essays. Most students construct sentences that lack agreement between subject and verb, pronoun antecedent, complementation in tenses. And the poor performance of students in English Language is attributed to the poor knowledge of the basic grammar.
The knowledge of the rules of concord in English grammar is very necessary if one is to speak and write good English. The study of this aspect of grammar doest not only highlight subject verb relationship, but equally brings to the fire the acceptable relation of some element in a sentence.
The assumption, therefore, is that students at Junior Secondary School level should be conversant with the agreement of sentence element, having been exposed to the rule of concord enough. So, there is a need to streamline and study the specific errors patterns for more effective teaching and learning. And it is obvious, that teaching of grammatical structure happen to be the most fundamental aspect of language study and especially that of English. That is why, it is important to examine all aspect of concord errors in English.
Concord Errors in Written English of Junior Secondary Schools Students: An Examination
1.2 Statement of the Study
This study, attempts to explore the problematic area of concord errors in written English; most second language users, including students have often been found waiting when it comes to case of observing concord rules in English. This is as a result of the fact that there are always dear distinctions between linguistic features of the learner’s mother tongue (Li) and those of English language. (L2).
The wrong application of concord in students essay is a common feature in the spoken and written English in Junior Secondary School . Concord errors affect the students overall ability to communicate and thereby, militate on their performance in public examination. There is this general contention that the student’s failure to correctly use concord is due to insufficient knowledge of its functions. Various studies on concord have been largely at the tertiary level, but not much work has been done on its usage in the expressions of Junior Secondary School students in Eket. This implies that the junior student’s knowledge of this grammatical category is limited or it is not properly handled at this level.
Therefore, wrong use of concord leads to lack of fluency in the expression in essays and causes distortion and wrong interpretation of message in any written and spoken discourse.
