An Adjectival Errors In The Descriptive Essays Of Remedial Students Of The School Of Remedial And Basic Studies, Adamawa State University, Mubi.

Adjectival Errors In The Descriptive Essays Of Remedial Students Of The School Of Remedial And Basic Studies, Adamawa State University, Mubi.

Abstract

Generally, the quality of English language use by students in Nigeria has continued to deteriorate over the years. This is attributable to the poor background of the students in the formative years of primary and secondary education. As a result, this study investigates adjectival errors in the descriptive essays of remedial students of School of Remedial and Basic Studies, Adamawa State University, Mubi. Fifty (50) randomly selected students wrote a descriptive essay on a given task. The essays were marked and the identified errors were sorted out and classified into seven categories, namely; Position of Adjectives, Comparison of Adjectives, Order of Adjectives, Participial Adjectives, Wrong Forms of Adjectives, Wrongly Spelt Adjectives and Repetition of Adjectives. There were a total of 159 adjectival words used in the students?EUR(TM) essays. Out of this number, 92, representing 58 percent were erroneous. Based on Ellis and Barkhuizen?EUR(TM)s (2005) Surface Structure Taxonomy of error categorization, most of the errors can be categorized into those of omission, addition, misformation and misordering. Furthermore, following from the underlying assumptions of Error Analysis (EA) as it relates to errors in second language learning, the identified errors can be said to have been the results of overgeneralization of rules, ignorance of rule restriction, interference from the mother tongue and extralingual factors such as textbooks and inadequate learning. Among other things, it is recommended that given an enabling environment, functional teaching of the English language should be encouraged to improve the communicative competence of the learners.