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OBI, EDITH IFEYINWA

PG/MA/03/34558

AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH CONCORD OF

STUDENTS IN ONITSHA URBAN

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES,

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA.

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY

STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA

Webmaster

Digitally Signed by Webmaster‟s Name

DN : CN = Webmaster‟s name O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka

OU = Innovation Centre

NOVEMBER 2009

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AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH CONCORD OF

STUDENTS IN ONITSHA URBAN

BY

OBI, EDITH IFEYINWA

PG/MA/03/34558

A PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF

ARTS (M.A. ESL) IN ENGLISH

SUPERVISOR: PROF. SAM ONUIGBO

NOVEMBER, 2009

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APPROVAL PAGE

I, Professor Samuel Onuigbo, of the Department of English and Literary Studies,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka, do approve this project as having fulfilled the

requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts (English as a Second

Language) in the Department of English and Literary Studies of the University of

Nigeria, Nsukka.

………………………

Prof. Sam Onuigbo

Supervisor

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CERTIFICATION

This is to certify that this project is an independent study carried out by Obi, Edith

Ifeyinwa with the registration number: PG/MA/03/34558 of the Department of

English, Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

……………………… …………………………

Prof. Sam Onuigbo Prof. Sam Onuigbo

Supervisor Head of Department

……………………….

External Examiner

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DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to God Almighty and to my husband, Mr. Eric Obi.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe a special debt of gratitude to my supervisor and academic adviser, Professor

Sam Onuigbo for his guidance.

My indebtedness also goes to all the lecturers in the Department of English,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for their contributions in my academic pursuit.

My profound gratitude goes to my husband, Mr. Eric Obi, my children, my

siblings and my parents. I highly appreciate your patience, financial and moral support.

I equally appreciate the help of my friends, - Ngozi, Kevin, Patience, Uche,

Chinelo, Susan, Nneka and Mabel.

I humbly acknowledge the help of my mentors – Lady Chinyere Nwabueze,

Professor Franca Okeke, Professor Onukwuli, Professor Joy Eyisi, Dr. J. J. Okeke, Dr.

Ngozi Okeke, Dr. Ebele Onwuka, Engr. Edwin Okoye Ejenike and Lady Ebele Erojikwe.

Finally, I thank God Almighty for making this work a reality. I also thank my

blessed Mother, Mary Immaculetta for her assistance and intercession.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page - - - - - - - - - i

Certification - - - - - - - - - ii

Dedication - - - - - - - - iii

Acknowledgments - - - - - - - - iv

Table of contents - - - - - - - - v

Abstract - - - - - - - - - vii

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Background of the Study - - - - - - 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem - - - - - - 11

1.3 Aims and Objectives - - - - - - - 12

1.4 Relevance of the Study - - - - - - 14

1.5 The Scope of the Study - - - - - - 15

1.6 Research Methodology - - - - - - 15

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 The Concept of Grammar - - - - - - 17

2.2 The Concept and Components of Syntax - - - - 22

2.3 The Concept of Error - - - - - - - 27

2.4 Categories of Errors - - - - - - - 33

2.5 Sources of Error -- - - - - - - 36

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE

Introduction - - - - - - - - 46

3.1 Research Design - - - - - - - 46

3.2 Area of Study - - - - - - - - 47

3.3 Population of the Study - - - - - - 48

3.4 Sampling Technique - - - - - - - 48

3.5 Research Instrument - - - - - - - 49

3.6 Method of Data Analysis - - - - - - 50

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CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND

INTERPRETATION

4.1 Analysis of Sampled Questions - - - - - 51

4.2 Statistical Analysis of the Subjects‟ Overall Competence on Concord

in English - - - - - - - - 63

4.3 The Subjects‟ Competence on Different types of Concord - - 64

4.3.1 Subject-Verb Agreement - - - - - - 64

4.3.2 Concord with the Correlatives - - - - - 67

4.3.3 Subject-Complement Concord - - - - - 67

4.3.4 The Concord of Subject and Object - - - - - 68

4.3.5 Pronoun/Antecedent Concord - - - - - 70

4.3.6 Shift in Construction - - - - - - - 71

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, SUGGESTION AND CONCLUSION 72

Works Cited - - - - - - - - - 77

Appendix I - - - - - - - - - 82

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ABSTRACT

The English sentence has a fairly strict word order and the elements that make up

a sentence must be in concord, otherwise, the linear sequence becomes ungrammatical.

This study investigated the degree of competence on concord in English attained by the

senior secondary class three students in Onitsha North Local Government Area of

Anambra State. The need for the work was underscored by the crucial role played by the

English language in Nigerian education. The finding of the study would be relevant in

English language learning and pedagogy. A simple survey research design was adopted

for the study and the subjects of the study comprised five hundred students from five

secondary schools in Onitsha North Local Government Area of Anambra State. One

hundred objective questions set on different types of concord were used as test

instrument. The subjects‟ errors were classified and analysed using a simple percentage

and arithmetic mean. Standard mean of 75 and above was used as an indication of the

mastery of the rules of concord. The finding of the research revealed that the subjects

have not mastered the rules guiding different types of concord. They were unable to

dictate concord errors caused by shift in the construction of elements of sentences. The

causes of concord errors were more intralingual than interlingual. The implications of the

finding in the teaching and learning of English were discussed and suggestions for

improvement made.

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CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Background of the Study

Nigeria is a multilingual country with the English language as the key medium of

communication. The language is used in politics, government administration, law, mass

media, commerce and education. Consequently, every facet of the country‟s life depends

largely on the English language. To the majority of Nigerians, the yardstick for

measuring the degree of one‟s level of educational attainment is one‟s performance in the

English language.

The first education ordinance of 1882 recognized only the English language as

language of instruction. Since then, the language has been „the barometer with which the

quality, efficiency and effectiveness of our school curricular are measured‟ (Eyisi 3).

Poor performance in the language leads to poor performance in other subjects.

The new National Policy on Education, sections four and five, does not only

recommend the English language as the language of instruction from the fourth year of

primary education, it is also a compulsory subject in secondary and tertiary levels of

education in Nigeria. Hence, a credit pass in English at senior secondary school

certificate or general certificate O‟ level examination is a prerequisite for admission into

various tertiary institutions in the country.

Regrettably, the mastery of this very important language is confronted with a lot

of challenges, such as dearth of sufficiently qualified teachers of English, lack of role

models, negative attitude to the learning of the language, poor reading culture and above

all, inadequate exposure to the intricacy of the grammar of the language as well as faulty

application of grammatical rules. Eyisi affirms that:

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… although the available position of English in the national life is waxing

stronger than it has been, the spoken and written quality of the language in

Nigeria, as perceived by the expert judges have deteriorated to a drastic

level (10).

To buttress this assertion, the WAEC Chief Examiners Reports of 2000, 2002 and 2004

respectively, revealed that candidates‟ responses to the examination questions were rather

disappointing, in spite of the fact that the questions were clear. They stated that the

candidates‟ short-comings were their inability to express ideas correctly in English and

abuse of basic rules of grammar. It is also an incontestable fact that good writing stems

from adequate familiarity with the grammatical components of a language.

Grammar in its simplest sense is „the study of how a language works‟ (Charpman

155). What this means specifically is that grammar is the study of the systems and

patterns which operate in a language to give meaning to an utterance. These acceptable

systems and patterns are believed to constitute the rules of language. These rules govern

the sounds, words, sentences and other elements, as well as their combination and

interpretation. (Encyclopedia Britannica 410) Chomsky confirms „…that a fully adequate

grammar must assign to each of an infinite range of sentences, a structural pattern

indicating how this sentence is to be understood by the ideal speaker-hearer‟ (4 – 5).

In English grammar, there are rules, which govern variations in the form of

words, variation in the word order and combination of phonemes. The phonology of

English, for instance, permits the combination of certain phonemes in a particular

sequence to form acceptable patterns. Let us consider the letters „p‟, „a‟, „t‟, when in

combination English words such as „pat‟, „tap‟ and „apt‟ are realized but „atp‟ on possible

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combination is not permissible in the language. In the same vein, „books‟ is the plural of

„book‟, but „mans‟ is not accepted as the plural of „man‟.

The same holds for word order, which accounts for acceptability and

unacceptability of the following utterances:

I want oranges.

* Want oranges I.

Ngozi has a pen.

* Ngozi have a pen.

Evidently, any deviation from the established and acceptable norm is termed deviant or

ungrammatical represented with asterisks in the above utterances.

The rules of grammar derive from and encompass the various parts of speech that

constitute the elements of a sentence. In the English language, the parts of speech,

according to Quirk and Greenbaum (18) can be exemplified as follows:

(a) noun – John, room, answer, play

adjective – happy, steady, new, large, round

adverb – steadily, completely, really, very, then

verb – search, grow, play, be, have, do

(b) article – the, a, an

demonstrative – that, this

prepositions – of, at, in, without, in spite of

conjunction – and, that, when, although

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These units of speech are not arranged haphazardly in a sentence. Their occurrence and

positions in a sentence must be guided by the syntax of the language. A particular part of

speech must be in agreement with another part of speech for them to co-occur in a

sentence. This is known as concord. Quirk et al in Onuigbo defines concord as „a

relationship between two grammatical elements such that if one of them selects a given

feature, the other has to have the same feature‟. (96) This kind of relationship exists

between the subject and the verb in a sentence so that if the subject contains a plural

feature, the verb must have the same feature in order to make the sentence grammatically

acceptable. This kind of concord between the subject and the verb on the basis of number

is technically referred to as grammatical concord as exemplified in the following

sentences:

My brother is here.

My brothers are here.

In the first sentence, the singular subject, „my brother‟ selects the singular verb, „is‟ while

in the second sentence, the plural verb, „are‟ must co-occur with a plural subject, „My

brothers‟ for acceptability of the sentence. Quirk and Greenbaum (176) explain that

grammatical concord is the most important concord in English. Other patterns of

agreement or concord are subject-Complement Concord; Pronoun-Antecedent Concord,

Concord of Person, Subject-Object Concord, Concord with Correlatives, Law of

Proximity and Notional Concord.

The following sentences illustrate the different types of concord:

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Subject-Verb Concord or Grammatical Concord

Adaeze eats food every day.

Singular subject Singular verb.

Eze and Adaeze eat food every day.

Plural subject Plural verb.

Subject-Complement Concord

Here, the subject of a sentence must agree with the complement in relation to

number.

Dr. and Mrs. Okoye are my sponsors.

Plural subject Plural complement

This lady is an actress

Singular subject Singular complement

Pronoun-Antecedent Concord

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, case and gender.

Nnanna and Obi wash their clothes every day.

S

Nnanna washes his clothes every day.

S

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„his‟ and „their‟ are pronouns in agreement with their antecedents (the subjects).

I invited the students and told them to play in the field.

„them‟ is a pronoun in the objective case. It agrees with its antecedent, the students, the

object of the first clause.

Chinyere visited her husband.

„Chinyere‟ is a feminine subject in agreement with „her‟, a feminine pronoun.

Concord of Person

There is always concord of person between subject and verb.

I am ready. (1st person singular concord)

s v

You are wise. (2nd person singular/plural concord)

s v

She is clever. (3rd person singular concord)

s v

They are sleeping. (3rd person plural concord)

s v

Subject-Object Concord

The rule here is that in any expression where the objective element is a reflexive pronoun,

there is usually a concord of person, number and gender between it and the subject. This

means there should be no shift in person, number and gender. The following examples

illustrate this:

The girls enjoyed themselves at the party.

She told me about the robbery herself.

I can do the work myself.

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Ekene blamed himself for being so flippant.

Concord with the Correlatives

The correlative conjunctions often used to join subjects are: as well as, together with,

along with, either… or, neither … nor, not … only but and others. In the use of

correlatives, the choice of the verb that co-occurs with the co-ordinate subject is

determined by either the first or the second of the subject. The illustrations are given

below.

a. Azuka as well as her sisters is here.

b. Her sisters as well as Azuka are here.

c. Either you or I am to do it.

d. Either I or you are to do it.

e. Neither you nor I am to do it.

f. Neither I nor you are to do it.

g. Okafor together with his wife and children was there.

h. The wife and children together with Okafor were there.

In sentences c, d, e, f, the verbs agree with the second of the subjects but in sentences a,

b, g and h the verbs agree with the first of the subjects.

Concord by Proximity

Concord by proximity otherwise known as concord by attraction simply means that the

number of the verb should be determined by the noun or pronoun closest to it.

See the following examples.

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Either the woman or her daughters are present.

Either her daughters or the woman is present.

Notional Concord

It is the agreement of the verb with the subject according to the idea of number rather

than the actual presence of the grammatical marker of the idea. Notional concord stands

in contrast to grammatical concord. This makes it possible for a singular subject to agree

with a plural verb without the sentence being considered grammatically incorrect. The

following examples illustrate this.

The government are doing their best to develop the rural areas.

Everybody cast their votes on the election day.

With the exception of the notional concord and law of proximity, a leaner has to

apply the stable rules that govern the other types of concord in order to make

grammatically acceptable sentences. Violation of the rules on the other hand, results in

production of unacceptable linear sequence.

The norms of a language may be learnt through either of two approaches. On the

one hand, one may use the rules that one has known to meet one‟s communicative need.

In this case, the person always restricts his usage to the few rules he is familiar with and

avoids those rules he is unfamiliar with. On the other hand, the language user may use his

communicative needs and situations which arise spontaneously to experiment on the rules

whether he knows them or not. Hence, occurrence of errors in language learning is

inevitable.

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French (1949) in Aiyewumi et al explains that „errors are not evidence of

carelessness or unwillingness but of growing pains and desire to learn.‟ (7) Corder (1967)

believes that learners‟ errors are of particular importance because the making of errors

can be regarded as a device that learners use in order to learn (see Agamah et al 8).

Headbloom (1979) in Ubahakwe defines errors as „a systematic deviation from the target

language by a non-native speaker(s)‟ (27) He explains that a learner‟s error exhibits his

incompetence in a particular aspect of language. Headbloom further distinguishes errors

from mistakes. Mistakes could be caused by slip of the tongue, oversight in writing,

distractions and so on. Mistakes could easily be corrected by the person who made them;

but a person who has committed an error is incapable of correcting it unless he is taught

the correct form.

Errors could be interlingual or intralingual in nature. „Interlingual errors are

caused by analogy with the native language while intralingual errors imply general

characteristics of rule learning such as overgeneralization or faulty application of rules or

conditions‟ (See Ubahakwe 32).

Most Nigerian learners of English have acquired their first language to an

appreciable degree before they are introduced to the English language. Consequently, the

contact between the English language and their indigenous or first language has its

implications-the sound system and grammar of the first language interfering with those of

English. This usually leads to interlingual errors. In every English sentence, for instance,

the verb must agree in number and person with its subject. This rule runs contrary to Igbo

syntax. There is no lexical distinction between a singular and plural verb as illustrated

below:

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Igbo English

Ọ na-abia. He is coming.

s v s v

Ha na-abia. They are coming.

s v s v

The verbal element „na-abia‟ goes with both singular and plural subjects. Therefore,

„there is no grammatical agreement between the subject and the verb‟ (Oluikpe 110).

Again, there is no gender distinction between a masculine and feminine pronoun. „Ọ na-

abia‟ could mean He is coming or She is coming. Other examples of discrepancies

between the two languages abound.

The complex nature of the English language often creates problem for a second

language learner in his effort to internalize and apply the rules of the language. For

instance, though there are rules governing the English concord, the flexibility of the

language and its inherent irregular forms could result in construction of deviant sentences

by learners. For instance, there are irregular ways of forming the plurals of certain nouns.

Differentiating between the singular and plural forms of words of foreign origin is

sometimes difficult to learners. Some English words, though have plural marker(s) are

obligatorily singular while some nouns are never singular. See the following examples:

Singular Plural

hat hats

book books

mouse mice

ox oxen

Regular nouns

Irregular nouns

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focus focuses/foci

syllabus syllabuses/syllabi

synopsis synopses

Some of the singular words that end in plural markers but must obligatorily co-occur with

singular verbs are headquarters, alms, gallows and others.

Nouns like trousers, scissors, glasses, arrears, amends, minutes, particulars are always

plural and must select plural verbs. An ESL learner who is not quite conversant with

these irregular forms in the language is bound to commit grammatical errors, unless he is

well grounded in these exceptional cases.

Therefore, considering the interlingual and intralingual problems confronting the

learner of English as a second language, there is an urgent need to make the learners

internalize and make use of the appropriate grammar rules, which generate the correct

form of the English language. Analysis of students‟ concord errors will expose the

students‟ transitional competence in this aspect of the language.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The poor performance of Nigerian students in the English language is a matter

that calls for concern. The failure in English is mainly attributable to their poor

knowledge of the basic rules of 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 does not

only highlight subject-verb relationship, but equally brings to the fore, the acceptable

relationship of some other elements in a sentence. Perhaps, this informs its regular

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appearance in the scheme of work at primary and secondary school levels of education. It

is also a common feature in virtually every grammar textbook. The assumption, therefore,

is that students at senior secondary school level should be conversant with the agreement

of sentence elements, having been exposed to the rules of concord early enough.

However, the reverse is the case. Previous studies in error analysis revealed that

errors of concord are one of the commonest errors made by learners of English as a

second language. This revelation calls for more serious attention to error analysis.

It is pertinent to note that a lot of work has been done on error analysis but these

are general investigation into the English language error patterns. Much work has not

been done on the specific areas of the language such as concord errors. There is a need to

streamline and study these specific error patterns for more effective teaching and

learning.

The problem of this study therefore is to ascertain the senior secondary school

class 3 students‟ competence on concord in the English language.

1.3 Aims and Objectives

The importance of grammar in the learning of any language can never be over-

emphasized. The grammar of a language must be thoroughly mastered before one can use

it with some degree of accuracy and confidence. A lucid, and convincing piece of writing

as a matter of necessity, must be grammatical for complete acceptability of such writing

as a standard form. „To develop the needed competence and to ensure a high level of

performance, one has to internalize the structure of the language to the point of

automaticity‟ (Ubahakwe 46).

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The specific topic of this study is to find out, through multiple choice objective

testing, the degree of competence in concord attained by the subjects of the study. It is a

cognitive test of language competence. This is premised on the fact that competence is

the sole aim of language learning and teaching. Corder explained that competence could

be tested by the learner‟s ability to distinguish between grammatically acceptable or non–

acceptable sentences, recognize sentence relationships and also paraphrase sentences

(91 – 97).

The choice of the top class of the secondary education, that is, SS3 is appropriate

since the students are expected to have attained a level of competence in the English

language. The specific competence sought in the test is the knowledge of the rules of

grammatical concord, subject complement concord, pronoun–antecedent concord,

concord of person, subject–object concord and concord with correlatives. Concord of

proximity and notional concord are excluded in the study because they do not provide

reliable guidance as well as stable grammatical rules.

To achieve the objective of the study, the researcher adopts error analysis which

Candaline calls „a chief means of both assessing the pupil‟s learning in general and of the

degree of match between his learning „syllabus‟ and the teacher‟s teaching one‟ (Agamah

et al 6). Error analysis therefore, provides „corrective feedback to general linguistics and

to language learners theory‟ (Jain 8). Consequently, error analysis of the selected

subjects‟ performance will give an insight into the students‟ weaknesses and strengths in

the rules of concord. This will be of great help in remedial teaching and curriculum

designing.

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The choice of the area of study is conditioned by the fact that language studies

and pedagogy seem to point at the verb as the most difficult area in language study and

English concord has a lot to do with the agreement of verb and other elements in a

sentence. It is therefore, the aim of the researcher to characterize these verb errors in the

English concord through the subjects‟ performance.

The subjects of the study are SS3 students. These students are at the threshold of

tertiary institutions, which demand a lot of essays. This study will expose their

transitional competence in the rudiments of English concord. The students will also be

acquainted with the rules of concord. This knowledge will help them to improve on their

English language performance.

1.4 Relevance of the Study

This study will contribute to the existing literature on the efforts that have been

made by scholars to promote acquisition of proficiency in English language by second

language learners.

The study will help to evaluate the students‟ knowledge of the rules of concord

and their application of those rules in their language performance. The analysis of the

concord errors will also expose the common cause(s) of concord errors that are made by

students, which may be intralingual or interlingual in nature. This knowledge will help

the language teachers and textbook writers to know the areas they will emphasize in this

aspect of grammar as well as the best teaching method to adopt in order to help students

overcome their difficulties.

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It is also hoped that the findings of the work will serve as a useful guide for the

formulation of improved English curriculum by curriculum designers.

The researcher believes, therefore, that the findings of this study will constitute an

important resource material for the English language teachers, the curriculum planners,

the textbook designers, students, and future researchers.

1.5 The Scope of the Study

This study is limited to Senior Secondary School class three (SS3) students in

Onitsha North Local Government Area of Anambra State. There are ten public secondary

schools in the area but the subjects of the study will be drawn from five schools. Our

focus in the study is on the English concord. Thus, the goal of this research is to find out

the level of competence attained in the use of concord by the subjects through error

analysis.

1.6 Research Methodology

The data for this research will be generated from multiple choice objective test

items, set on the different types of concord under investigation. A total of hundred

objective questions will be administered to five hundred students. These students will be

selected from five out of ten public secondary schools in Onitsha North Local

Government Area of Anambra State. The testing instrument will be constructed in such a

manner that the testees will choose only one correct answer for each test item.

The test would be conducted at the schools by the researcher under examination

conditions. Every contact with the different groups of student will last for an hour. The

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preference of the multiple-choice objective questions to essay question is because such

questions are concise and contain no structural ambiguities.

The students‟ response would be scored and analyzed. In the analysis, the

arithmetic mean will be used to determine the actual performance of the groups, and their

overall achievement will be based on a competence mean of 75. Simple percentage will

also be used to discover the students‟ performance on each item in the question paper.

Students‟ errors on the different types of concord will be classified to know the

frequency of their occurrence. Samples of the students‟ errors will also be presented and

discussed.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Some earlier works and studies related to the concept of grammatical and concord

errors, their causes, types, analyses as well as their implication in the teaching and

learning of English as a second language are reviewed in this chapter. These are

presented under the following sub-headings:

2.1 The Concept of Grammar

2.2 The Concept and Components of Syntax

2.3 The Concept of Error

2.4 Categories of Errors

2.5 Sources of Errors

2.1 The Concept of Grammar

The term „grammar‟ is broad and as such, it is difficult to arrive at an all-

embracing definition of the concept. Many linguists have defined grammar in different

ways. These various and diverse definitions evidently account for the different senses in

which the word, grammar is used. One established fact is that „every language has its

distinct grammar‟. „No language can exist without a grammar and no one can make

appropriate use of a language without the knowledge of its grammar‟ (Eyisi 1). Tomori

shares this view and defines grammar as „…the art of speaking and writing correctly. To

speak is to explain one‟s thoughts by signs that man have invented for this purpose‟ (5)

To Lancelot and Arnuld, the term, grammar, is synonymous with language. Grammar is

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therefore, defined in the Encyclopedia Britannica as „the study of how a language works‟

(Charpman 151) Frisby explains this and sees grammar as:

…the study of the behaviour of words, word group and changes in the

meanings of words, which are a reflection of changes in the appearance

and sound of words. The study of the language as we hear it, and see it and

say it, of its analysis into its several parts and our ability to put it together

again and to follow patterns already learnt – this is grammar and this is

language. (72)

Lyons (24) explains that Chomsky uses the word, grammar in his more recent

writing as: the whole of the systematic description of language including both phonology

and semantics. This view is also shared in the New International Webster‟s

Comprehensive Dictionary of English thus:

Grammar is the systematic analysis of the classes and structure of words

(morphology) and of their arrangements and interrelation (syntax), the

study of all aspects of language as phonology, orthography, syntax,

etymology, semantics and prosody. (318)

This definition sees grammar as an „all-embracing‟ term for all linguistic studies.

Everything that needs to be known in a language comes under grammar.

McGregor in Azikiwe states that „grammar is the rules and observations drawn

from common speech of mankind which teaches us to speak and pronounce, to spell and

write with propriety and exactness according to the custom of the native speakers.‟ (179)

What this means specifically is that grammar is the study of the systems and patterns

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which operate in a language to give meaning to an utterance. These acceptable systems

and patterns are believed to constitute the rules of language.

To buttress this assertion, grammar is defined in Encyclopedia Britannica as „the

rules of language governing the sounds, words, sentences and other elements, as well as

their combination and interpretation.‟ (410) Eyisi throws more light on this and states that

grammar in this sense is seen as a set of normative rules that determine correctness in the

use of language; that is, all those rules which when mechanically applied, will produce all

the well-constructed sentences that are found in a language. A sentence is, therefore,

incorrect if it breaks any of these rules. She explains that grammar when used in this

sense, includes three different parts, namely phonological part, morphological part and

syntactic part. (3) Anizoba and Anizoba add that grammar does not only involve the

application of basic rules of a language to form acceptable sentences. These sentences

must be used in appropriate context. To them therefore, „Good English‟ involves both

grammatically correct sentences and their usage in suitable context. (43)

Grammar is also understood as „the study of established usage of what is

preferred among educated or cultivated speakers and writers … and what is condemned‟

(Charpman 151). Hence, some utterances are said to be „good‟ or „correct‟ grammar of

English while some are considered „bad‟ or incorrect grammar‟. Sometimes, we pass

judgment on the quality of language used by people when we describe their usage as

good or bad grammar. This judgment is usually arrived at when we duly consider

people‟s pronunciation and fluency, construction of words and sentences and even their

comprehension of complex lexical and syntactic usage. In the light of this, Yule sees

grammar as „what might be considered linguistic etiquette‟. That is, the identification of

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the proper and best structures to be used in a language (Yule 87). This implies that there

are bound to be prescriptive statements about usages that are considered acceptable and

those that are considered unacceptable in a particular language.

Grammar also represents the intuitive knowledge of the native speakers of their

language. That is, the actual knowledge which the native speakers posses of their

language which enables them to construct sentences including those they have not heard

before. Yule calls this „mental grammar … which operates in the production and

recognition of appropriately structured expression in [a] language‟. (87) Yule explains

that this grammar is subconscious and is not the result of any teaching. Noam Chomsky is

a notable proponent of this concept of grammar. A native speaker‟s intuitive knowledge

of the grammar of his language is technically known as his linguistic competence while

his actual language usage is known as performance.

Grammar also denotes a book presenting the rules and conventions that are

observable in a language. Thus a book which describes the rules and structures of

language is entitled „grammar‟. One can pick any of them, for instance, and say: this is

grammar of Igbo or English as the case may be. The first grammar ever written was „The

Art of Grammar‟ written by Dionysius Thrax, an Alxandrian Greek of the first century

BC. This first formal grammar was only about four hundred lines, but it has influenced

the work of countless grammarians in the formulation of grammar for virtually all the

languages of the world.

Grammar could represent the study and analysis of the structures found in a

language usually with the aim of establishing a description of the grammar of English, for

example as distinct from the grammar of Russian, or French or any other language.

30

(See Yule 21) Eyisi sees this concept of grammar as „the subject matter of a study‟. She

explains that:

When one says, for instance, that the grammar of English is different from

the grammar of Igbo, one has at the back of one‟s mind not the meaning as

a branch of study but the meaning as the subject matter of the study (4).

This sense of grammar highlights the importance of contrastive analysis of a second

language learner‟s first language and the target language. The description of the structural

patterns of the two languages will expose the similarities and dissimilarities of the

languages as well as the possible difficulties a second language leaner will encounter in

the process of learning the grammar of the second or target language.

Grammar in another sense denotes „a particular branch of the study of linguistics

which is distinct from but allied to the study of phonemics on the one had and study of

meaning (semantics) on the other‟ (Eyisi 2) Nwankwo explains that grammar in this

sense is an abstract and theoretical field of study for teachers and students particularly

those who teach and study languages and linguistics. Their main preoccupation in this

field is to x-ray the body of descriptive statements about the morphological and syntactic

structures of a language with a view to acquiring knowledge about the correct uses of the

language.

In all the cases above, grammar could mean a set of normative rules that

determine correctness in the use of a language; a book embodying the morphological and

syntactic rules of a language; a branch of the study of linguistics; the subject matter of

that study; a body of prescriptive statements about the usage that are considered

acceptable and those that are considered unacceptable in a particular language; and the

31

intuitive knowledge of the native speakers about their language. Depending on the

approach adopted by a grammarian therefore, grammar maybe prescriptive (that which

provides rules for correct usage), descriptive (which describes how a language is actually

used), or generative, (which provides instruction for the production of an infinite number

of sentences)

2.2 The Concept and Components of Syntax

The word „syntax‟ came originally from Greek and meant „a setting out together‟

or „arrangement‟. (Yule 100) As a linguistic concept, syntax basically deals with the

arrangement and relationship of words in a grammatical linear sequence or sentence. That

is, it is the principles and processes that guide the combination of words to construct

sentences in a particular language.

Syntax is therefore, defined in the Webster‟s Encyclopedia Unbridged Dictionary

of the English language as „the study of the rules for the formation of grammatical

sentences in a language or the rules that govern the interrelationship of words in

sentences. There are several grammatical categories that affect this relationship between

the words in a sentence and these are tense, number, gender, person and others. There has

to be agreement or concord between the major elements in a sentence in terms of these

grammatical categories. The verb also agrees with its subject in the same category. For

example, the singular subject „He‟ is made to agree with the singular form of the verb to

be in the sentence, „He is a good boy‟; and the plural subject „they‟ must select a plural

verb „are‟ in the sentence, „They are good boys‟. Otherwise, the sentences would not be

acceptable in the English language.

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In line with this, the World Book Encyclopedia vol. 8 (518) creates a clearer as

well as broader picture of syntax as:

…the rules that govern the positioning of words in phrases, clauses and

sentences; Rules on concord, punctuation, co-occurrence, tenses, phrases

and clauses; the entire phrase structure rules, transformation, deletion,

insertion etc.

The dictionary further explains that syntax and morphology make up grammar though

syntax accounts for greater percentage of the components of grammar. Tomori shares this

view and says that „syntax is the study of the rules governing the formation of linguistic

units larger than words‟; [while] morphology is the study of the rules governing the

formation of words in a language (Tomori 21).

The operational words in the above definitions are still „the rules‟ and

words/group arrangement‟. The definitions also stress the importance of strict adherence

to the norms that guide the intricacies of a language. If one is to use a language correctly,

one should not take anything for granted. A second language learner should be mindful of

the fact that word order is not the same in all languages. In English we say, „I gave Jim

the ball‟. In another language, the order might be „the ball I gave Jim‟.

Bloomfield (see Tomori 21) and Jowit agree that syntax and morphology are

closely linked grammatical components. Jowit, for instance, explains that „syntax often

deals with the structure, use and meaning as well as with the combinatorial properties of

such words and so trespasses upon the territory of morphology, lexis and semantics‟.

(107) This definition sees morphology as an integral part of syntax; and equally stresses

that arrangement of words in a sentence could also determine the meaning of that

33

sentence. The World Book Encyclopedia vol. 8 (518) buttresses this assertion and

explains that „when we put words together in proper order, we are able to express the

meaning we intend. The sentence, „I was shown a book in black leather by the Clerk‟ has

a different meaning from the sentence, „I was shown a book by the Clerk in black

leather‟. The meaning has changed because the syntax has changed. A verb for instance,

could be nominalized. When this happens, its position in a grammatical unit is altered in

order to ensure the acceptability of such a unit in the English language. The following

examples illustrate this:

(i) Mothers educate their children on how to behave well.

(verb)

(ii) Children receive their early education from their mothers.

(noun)

(iii) The educated children are here.

(adjective)

Anagbogu et al (32) say that syntax is often referred to as grammar while

grammar is sometimes used to refer to morphology and syntax, or the whole of language

description of phonetics and syntax.

Eyisi on the other hand states that syntax is an aspect of grammar, and this

syntactic aspect of grammar comprises two subsets of rules called basic and non-basic

rules. She explains that when we apply a sequence of basic rules, we will produce a

well-defined sentence type that we can call a basic sentence or kernel sentence or a

simple sentence. On the other hand, when we apply the non-basic rules, we realize other

sentence types called non-basic sentences. (4) A basic sentence is that which comprises

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only the obligatory parts of a sentence. These parts are subject, verb, object, complement.

„Each basic simple sentence pattern is made up of parts that are arranged in a definite

order (a particular part before another, and not the other way round)‟ (Aremo 1) A non-

basic sentence is a sentence whose obligatory elements may be extended through the

process of modification. The presence of modifiers is optional in non-basic sentences.

The essence of this modification is to add more information to the basic sentence for

more effective communication as well as lucid presentation of ideas. Aremo added that

the following operations: movement, deletion and insertion are also involved in the

formation of non-basic sentences (5). The following are examples of basic and non-basic

simple sentences:

1. Dogs barked. (a basic simple sentence)

2. The fierce looking dogs barked (a non-basic simple sentence premodified by the

adjectival phrase – „the fierce looking‟)

3. The boy is wise (a basic simple sentence)

The boy on the bus is wise. (a non-basic simple sentence post-modified by the

adverbial phrase – „on the bus‟)

Chomsky contends that syntax is deeply concerned with the relationship between

finite and infinite. Most languages have finite number of basic words, but these words

can be put together to make an infinite number of sentences. He also affirms that there

are rules and patterns that can be used in a dynamic way to create and understand new

English sentences. However, he warns that these rules should be stated explicitly and

precisely with nothing being taken for granted. Chomsky‟s argument lays bare, the

importance of observing strictly, the norms that govern a language if one wants to speak

35

or write the language correctly. It also exposes the elasticity of a man‟s mind which

enables him to create unpredictable number of novel sentences in order to fulfill his

language need at any given time. Once a language user is equipped with the grammatical

rules of that language, he manipulates that language to suit his purpose. His proficiency

in the language is guaranteed.

Furthermore, Chomsky believes that a native speaker of a language has the rules

of his language embedded in his language faculty. He, therefore, has intuitive knowledge

of his language. This natural endowment enables him to make an infinite number of

sentences from a finite number of words. This ability is known as linguistic competence

and his actual usage of the language is his performance. In confirmation of this assertion,

Yule states that; „Each adult speaker of a language clearly has a form of internal

linguistic knowledge which operates in the production and recognition of appropriately

structured expression in that language‟. (87)

Banjo argues that „the most revolutionary aspect of Chomskyn linguistics was the

distinction, made between surface and deep structure‟ (see Tomori 105) Tomori defines

deep and surface structure thus:

The deep structure of a sentence is the underlying syntactico-semantic

component of a sentence; and the surface structure is the form in which

the sentence appears, phonologically or orthographically. (83)

He further illustrates the above definition with the following sentences:

(i) Your shoes need cleaning.

(ii) Your friends keep coming.

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Tomori explains that the two sentences appear to have the same surface structure, but the

deep structures of the two sentences are different in that they are derived in different

syntactic ways. Sentence (i) is derived from two underlying basic sentences: Your shoes

are dirty; someone must clean them. Sentence (ii) has only one sentence as its basis. It is

the underlying sentence.

The views of linguistics discussed above have one focal point – that syntax is the

study of the arrangement of words or other linguistic units in a sentence. This study is

done in line with the syntactic rules that govern the language that is being studied, in

order to ensure the acceptability or grammaticality of the linear sequence. The study is

done along the horizontal axis. Brooks (12) opines that „knowledge of the grammar of a

language borne out of thorough linguistic study is a prerequisite to proficiency in

language; and syntax is the heart of the study of grammar. A speaker of the English

language whose syntax is faulty will either fail to communicate meaningfully or irritate

his audience who has sound knowledge of English grammar.

Conscious effort should be made to avoid errors in the area of syntax because of

its pivotal position in language study.

2.3 The Concept of Error

The word, error („errare‟ in Latin) is defined in the Webster‟s New International

Dictionary of the English language as „a departure or deviation from that which is right or

correct‟. (1869) In relation to language study, Corder defines errors as „breaches of the

code of a language‟. (76) He states that errors are deviant structures or unacceptable

utterances which are signs of „imperfect knowledge‟ of the linguistic code. To him

37

therefore, errors are committed by those who are not grounded in the structure of a

language. Headbloom shares this view and comments that „errors are goof or deviant

productions, they are a systematic deviation from the target language by a non–native

speaker‟. (See Ubahakwe 30) Ellis agrees with Headbloom that language error is peculiar

to a second language learner. Hence, he defines errors „as deviations from the target

language by a non-native speaker‟. (32) He added that these errors are committed out of

socio-linguistic and socio-cultural factors. Headblooms and Ellis‟ definitions point out

that errors are exclusive to second language learners.

Richards believes that an error is not just the outcome of carelessness or

forgetfulness. An error is characterized by systematic deviancy. (See Aiyewumi et al 4)

In the same vain, French in Aiyewumi describes errors in language learning as „those

oddities that are not evidence of carelessness or of unwillingness but of growing pains

and desire to learn‟. (4)

Brooks asserts that errors are inevitable in language learning. He argues that „it is

just as unrealistic to reckon on language learning without errors as to reckon on existence

without sin‟ (See Ubahakwe 27) Krashen (64) accepts that errors are deviations from the

norms of a language. Lengo equally agrees that errors are deviations from the norms of a

language and that their investigation could simultaneously be diagnostic and prognostic.

(81) Diagnostic in the sense that it can tell the learner‟s level of language acquisition and

prognostic in the sense that it can tell a course organizer to re-arrange language learning

material on the basis of the learner‟s current problems. Myles says that errors are

something that might happen from time to time until the second language learner

internalizes the language entirely. He defines an error as „a derailment in the speech or

38

writing of a second language learner by the use of inappropriate words and language

structures‟. (5) Myles also explains that a second language teacher can only assess the

learners‟ ability from the range or type of errors they make. Krashen added that „errors

must occur before correct grammar rules are completely internalized‟ (66)

Lengo opines that foreign language learners tend to commit relatively more errors

in spontaneous speech than in written discourse. Adejare (58) sees the learner of English

as a second language as prone to errors, both in speech and writing. This is because such

a learner is faced with both interlingual and intralingual problems of learning English as a

second language. Jain in Aiyewumi et al considers errors as an essential condition of

learning. (5) Corder equally has a positive attitude to errors. He believes that errors are

facilitative rather than inhibitory in language learning process. He stresses that learner‟s

errors are of particular importance because the making of errors can be regarded as a

device the learner uses in order to learn. (5) Yankson therefore, urges teachers of English

to have „a humane and tolerant attitude to error because the error is a natural inevitable

outcome of the second language learning process‟. (8)

The above views still suggest that native speakers of a language are immune to

error in their languages. Error making is inevitable in the learning of a foreign language.

Lenon strongly believes that a first language speaker is immune to errors in his language.

He defines errors as:

… a linguistic form or combination of forms which in the same context

and under the same similar condition of production, would in all

likelihood not be produced by the speaker‟s native speaker‟s counterpart

(82)

39

In line with Lenon‟s view, Krashen states that linguistic error is „a form or structure that

native speakers deem unacceptable because of its inappropriate use‟. (64) Krashen‟s

definition rhymes with Chomsky‟s postulation that a native speaker knows his grammar

intuitively. Therefore, it goes without saying that irrespective of a native speaker‟s level

of education, he can easily recognize a deviance in the grammar of his language. He is a

competent judge over the correct usage of his language. This is quite a controversial

issue. Consequently, Banjo suggests that errors should be measured against an

indominative model instead of being seen from the perspective of a native speaker of a

language (7).

Lott looks at errors from the concept of linguistic interference. Thus, he defines

linguistic errors as „errors in the learner‟s use of the foreign language that can be traced

back to the mother tongue‟. (15) Dulay and Burts share this view and state that „linguistic

interference spawns errors‟ Headbloom affirms this and says that „it is obvious that

interference from a learner‟s native language is a source of error in the new language‟

(31). He equally explains that a second language learner is not a passive recipient of

language but rather:

… he is constantly testing the new language, making rules and then

altering and refining these rules. A second language learner in this

framework is often compared to the first language learner by their

similarity of errors. (31)

The above explanation does not only highlight a second language learner‟s ability to

acquire proficiency in the target language through vigorous experimentation with the

language, it equally contradicts the earlier impression given by some scholars that

40

making of errors is peculiar to second language learners. First language learners are

sometimes guilty of such aberration. To buttress this assertion, Adejare postulates that

„error is a universal feature of usage and that mother tongue users of a language are also

error prone‟ (58). Brown supports Adejare‟s assertion and defines error as „a noticeable

deviation from adult grammar of a native speaker.‟ (65)

Headbloom, who associates error making with non-native speakers of a language,

argues that native speakers are susceptible to mistakes in performance rather than making

errors in their spoken and written language despite the fact that they have complete

language competence (30). Corder (52) makes a distinction between errors of competence

and errors of performance. He says that errors of competence are the result of the

application of rules by the second language learner which do not correspond to the first

language norms. Errors of performance on the other hand are the result of mistake in

language use. They manifest themselves as repeats, false starts or slip of the tongue.

Yankson defines mistakes as „a type of linguistic deviance that is a slip and the result of

tiredness, emotional stress, memory lapse or pre–occupation with a subject‟. (51) He also

shares Corder‟s view that mistakes could be called performance errors which are

haphazard and unsystematic. They do not reflect the learner‟s competence but errors do.

In an effort to distinguish „mistakes‟ clearly from „errors‟, Brown says that:

…mistakes‟ is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. All people

make mistakes in both native and second language situations [They] are

normally capable of recognizing and correcting such „lapses or mistakes‟

which are not the result of some breakdown imperfection in the process of

producing speech. (65)

41

In other words, mistakes do not reflect a speaker‟s linguistic competence like errors.

Second language learners‟ errors reflect their transitional linguistic competence. The

learners‟ derailment from the structural patterns of the target language are caused by

ignorance, faulty application of rules, formulation of faulty hypothesis,

overgeneralization among others.

Throwing more light on the notion that native speakers are capable of committing

errors of competence despite the fact that the language in question is their first language,

Liski and Puntanen argue that „an error occurs, where the speaker fails to follow the

pattern or manner of speech of educated people in English speaking countries today.‟

(181) This view suggests that the variety of English that should be accepted as the

standard form is the one spoken by the educated native speakers. Therefore, any

deviation from this variety in either written or spoken medium is erroneous, irrespective

of the linguistic background of the user. Liski and Puntanen‟s definition equally implies

that educated people in English speaking countries are immune to errors in the English

language. Some people might question the appropriateness of this definition. This is

because it is generally believed that every speaker of a language has an idiosyncratic way

of using a language, which may likely not follow the standard pattern. On the basis of

these arguments, Oji declares that „…errors are errors, on whose lips or from whose pens

they occur notwithstanding‟… (123)

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2.4 Categories of Errors

Errors according to Jowit „might be classified according to their possible and

presumed causes; …the frequency of occurrence or the attitude displayed to them by the

language community or different sections of it‟ (59).

Corder (168) believes that satisfactory classification of errors begins with

analysis, which assigns errors to levels of language description, that is, error of

orthography or phonology, or morphology or syntax, of vocabulary and within each level

according to systems, vowel or consonant systems, tense, aspect, number, gender or case.

He further groups errors into three different categories and these are pre–systemic errors,

systemic errors and post-systemic errors.

Pre-systemic errors are made by the second language learner while he is still

groping, trying to understand the system of the language. Systemic errors are those made,

when the second language learner has formed some conception of the language system.

However, in making use of the language in question, the learner uses an inaccurate

hypothesis to express his thoughts. This faulty hypothesis generates error. Post-systemic

errors refer to deviant language forms, which occur where previously systemic errors

have been corrected. At this stage, it is believed that a point has been correctly

understood and performance has been mainly accurate but the learner has temporarily

forgotten what he has learnt and consequently uses a deviant form.

Brown (79) categorizes errors into two, namely covert and overt errors. Convert

errors are grammatically meaningful and semantically comprehensible. They are subtle

and not easily detectable. Overt errors, on the other hand, are patently ungrammatical and

may impede effective communication.

43

Jowit (60) states that errors are of two different types – idiosyncratic and common

errors. He says that common errors might be further subdivided into vulgar and

institutionalized errors.

Idiosyncratic errors are those peculiar to an individual by characterizing his

idiosyncratic dialect. They are the ones most likely to be identified and corrected by

teachers, peers, older children, parents etc. Jowit goes further to explain that idiosyncratic

errors are stigmatized by the educated ones. This is because they impede communication.

They tend to be eliminated at relatively early stages of the learning process, and have less

chance of being fossilized. He gave the following as examples of idiosyncratic errors:

(1) You seem to have taken on a lot of teaching load.

(2) I have no doubt in mine mind that things are going on well with you.

(3) Please progress your help.

Common errors, on the other hand, according to Jowit are those occurring in the

written and spoken English of large numbers of learners. Rarely impeding

communication, they are fossilized errors and their fossilization is reinforced by their

widespread use. They appear to be attributed to the same psycholinguistic causes as

idiosyncratic errors and this suggests that what is now a common error began at some

stage in the past as idiosyncratic error.

Vulgar errors, a subset of common errors, according to Jowit, are those errors that

show ignorance of fairly elementary rules, and typical of them are syntactic,

morphological and spelling errors. He gives the following as examples of vulgar errors.

(1) Wrong use or omission of –s as in verb forms. (she doesn‟t feels sleepy; He need

a book);

44

(2) Category shift (she jealoused me);

(3) Wrong addition of –ed to past tense forms (He hitted me);

(4) Wrong addition of –ly to certain adverbs (He talks fastly);

(5) Cross – association of too and so (His words were too insulting that they reported

him);

(6) Wrong spelling due to false analogy (occasion, dinning).

(7) Wrong spelling due to confusion of / i: / and / i / (Isaac has been leaving at

Kaduna).

In contrast to vulgar errors, institutionalized errors are common errors which are

not identified as errors except by native users or by the most highly educated and

experienced users of English as a second language. Such errors occur with the breaking

of the rules of more advanced syntax. (e.g. the pluralization of uncountable nouns, the

misuse of the past perfect tense) or in phonology, the wrong primary accent or wrong

nuclear accent placement), the non–learning of the proper complementation of verbs as in

the use of for after demand and advocate used as verb, and so on. (See Jowit 61)

Lekki (24) categorizes errors into three types. These are productive, receptive and

pragmatic errors. Productive errors, he explains, occur in the utterances of the second

language learner, receptive ones occur from the listener‟s misunderstanding of the

speaker‟s intention or semantics while pragmatic errors arise from socio-linguistic

context of the second language in use.

Shaughnessy (32) dictates three categories of errors as those that can be detected

and corrected by the user; those that can be detected but cannot be corrected by the user

of the language, and those that can neither be detected nor corrected.

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2.5 Sources of Error

Errors indicate poor knowledge of the code of a language. Myles observes that

students generally produce texts that contain varying degrees of grammatical and

rhetorical errors when they write a second language. He asserts that the more content-rich

and creative the text, the greater the possibility there is for errors at the morphosyntactic

level depending on the proficiency level of the second language learner. (3) A leaner

gains proficiency in a language if such a leaner is adequately exposed to the rudiments of

the language; and if he makes conscious effort to apply the rudiments correctly. Perhaps,

this informs Jowits declaration that „errors are caused by wrong learning‟. (59) He also

comments on the general causes of users‟ errors in the English language thus;

... we might attribute some errors to mother tongue transfer (I hear the

smell of gas) or transfer from pidgin (I for tell you that…) others to false

hypothezination or overgeneralization (I am go) or the articulation of –b in

words ending in –mb, others to failure to learn the special phonic or

syntactic features of certain words (she deals on cloth). (59)

Carson (195), Connor and Kaplan (45), Kutz, Groden and Zamel (249 – 264), and

Raimes (439 – 468), elaborate further on the general causes of errors. They explain that

errors occur in language usage because of the following reasons:

(a) learners trying to translate from the first language;

(b) lack of familiarity with new rhetorical structures and the organization of ideas;

(c) trying out what they assume is a legitimate structure of the target language which

may be hindered by insufficient knowledge of correct usage;

46

(d) native language interference from developmental stage of interlanguage or from

non standard elements in spoken dialects;

(e) overgeneralization of the rules for stylistics features when acquiring new

discourse structures; and

(f) learners are often unsure of what they want to express.

Taylor (56) identifies six major sources of grammatical errors. He calls them

immediate cause of deviance. They are:

(a) General muscular activities;

(b) L1 Habits;

(c) Psychological states;

(d) Teaching methods;

(e) Style of course materials;

(f) Introduction of written language.

Taylor‟s view of the sources of error is quite elaborate. It embraces psychological,

physiological, linguistic and pedagogical issues. However, he says that all the factors

need not be present for errors to occur in language learning.

Myles (3) identifies both social and cognitive factors as sources of errors in

second language learning. He explains that learners in the second language may continue

to exhibit errors in their writing for the following social reasons:

(a) negative attitude towards the target language;

(b) continued lack of progress in the second language;

(c) a wide social and psychological distance between them and the target culture; and

47

(d) lack of integrative and instrument motivation for learning. He also states that

learners equally exhibit errors for these cognitive reasons:

a. difficulty in acquiring academic and discourse style;

b. lack of coherence in organizing information both at the sentence and text

level;

c. the complex process of writing in a second language;

d. language transfer due to learners‟ lack of the necessary information in the

second language or the attentional capacity to activate the appropriate

second language routine.

Bamgbose, like Taylor and Myles, acknowledges the fact that a second language

learner of English is confronted with a lot of problems. He explains that:

… there are difficulties inherent in the language itself, such as irregular

patterns. The plural of „man‟ is „men‟ but the plural of „pan‟ is not „pen‟;

there is the difficulty of inadequate exposure to good models, and above

all, the problem of bad teaching…; the interference of the first language

poses the greatest difficulty for learners of a second language. (17)

The above submission exposes interlingual and intralingual problems as the key

sources of errors in second language learning. Bamgbose believes that interlingual or

interference problem is more problematic. Interference problem, according to

Headbloom, is „the influence of learner‟s previous language on his present [language].

Bamgbose points out that interference of the first language with the target language may

be at phonological, grammatical, or lexical levels. The grammatical interference involves

48

lack of comparative grammars of English and the first language. Another is lack of

correspondence between systems (pronoun, tense, concord) etc.

Eyisi agrees that the interference of the first language with the second language is

a factor capable of generating errors. She laments that:

Unfortunately in a second language situation such as the status of English

in Nigeria, the errors become multifarious because students study the

target language against the background of their mother tongue in which

they have attained a reasonable degree of competence (xii).

Headbloom, on the other hand, states that many proponents of error analysis argue

that majority of language errors occur intralinguall. (See Ubahakwe 31). Lott (63) states

that intralingual problems are created by the complexities and irregular forms inherent in

the target language. A learner in the bid to acquire the new language could produce

grammatical errors by faulty application of rules, improper learning and over-

generalization among others. Headbloom (31) advances this argument and explains that a

„learner is not a passive recipient of a language, but rather that he is constantly testing the

new language, making rules and then altering and refining these rules. In the process of

this, he is bound to commit errors. Such errors are inherent within the language system

and not native language induced. He observes that intralingual errors affect both native

and non-native learners.

Bamgbose also gives a more elaborate explanation on intralingual problems as

sources of errors. He says that there are irregular forms in the grammatical pattern of the

English language. Irregular forms in the English language are evident in the formation of

nouns, verbs, aspects, degree of comparison etc. One discovers that a second language

49

learner who comes to believe that the plural of „chief‟ is „chiefs‟ will definitely be

confused to hear again that the plural of „thief‟ is „thieves‟, or the plural of „ox‟ is „oxen‟.

The same is applicable to one who is made to believe that the superlative of „good‟ is

„best‟ such a person will find it contradictory to realize that the superlative of „big‟ is

„biggest‟. Again, when he knows that the comparative of „beautiful‟ is „more beautiful‟,

he tends to be confused that the comparative of „little‟ is „less‟ instead of „more little‟.

Omojubola (70) commenting on the irregular forms inherent in the grammatical pattern

of English says that at times, the learner is ignorant of rule restrictions and may not

remember that for rules, there are several exceptions. In some cases, there is incomplete

application of rules and this could result in erroneous usage. Faulty categorization of the

lexis and structure of English may make this learner commit grammatical errors. Also an

obsession to eliminate grammatical errors in speech and writing may ironically produce

errors because it could result in what may be termed „hyper correction‟. Headbloom (38)

concludes that given the intralingual complexities of the English language; it is highly

impossible for the leaner and user not to be caught in the maze of grammatical errors.

Apart from interlingual and intralingual problems as sources of errors, Bamgbose

(40) and Eyisi (7) contend that poor teaching engenders grammatical error. They point

out that most teachers of English are also second language learners. They, as a result,

might not have achieved the necessary proficiency and are therefore, prone to errors. In a

situation like this, there is bound to be negative transference to the learners. Folarin adds

that „Learners‟ errors become fossilized and entrenched if the teacher shares the same

error with his students‟ (See Eyisi 7). Eyisi (7) says that this lapse is called „pedagogical

ineptitude‟. She stresses that „the teacher has to be able to serve at least as a passable

50

model‟ if he is to tackle effectively problems of grammatical errors. Odlin explains that

fossilized errors are problematic because the errors become internalized like bad habits in

a learner‟s repertoire, and they occur despite remediation and correction (1 – 2). Jowit

(59) describes fossilization as a situation in which a learner‟s interlanguage errors

become permanent and certain registers remain static. Interlanguage is all the knowledge

an L2 learner has accepted and internalized about the target language, both valid and

erroneous (Ubahakwe 23).

Labov believes that peer group influence could engender error in language

learning and usage. He comments:

… in language learning and usage, the peer group plays an important role

and if the peer group‟s language is deficient, a member of the group would

all the same still use it (64).

In further explanation, he states that from infancy to puberty, children‟s language is

restructured to fit the rule used by their peer group. It is certainly a more powerful

influence than the family. Labov‟s observation highlights the role of peer group in the

speech habit of adolescents. An adolescent‟s peers‟ opinions matter very much to him.

Therefore, he must speak the way they do if he is to be accepted in their group, the

deviance of his language from the acceptable standard notwithstanding.

Meare (122) focuses on improper use of vocabulary as “source of error”. He states

that vocabulary is a neglected aspect of language learning. This neglect, he explains,

gives rise to two major errors in the writing of the users of English as a second language.

These are errors by contextual meaning and spelling errors. Baugh and Cable (36)

maintain that English spelling is as difficult as it is erratic, not only for second language

51

learners but also for those whose native language it is. They draw attention to the

inconsistency of English spelling and say that one cannot tell how to spell an English

word by its pronunciation and how to pronounce it by its spelling. Okoh (15) agrees with

Baugh and Cables and says that it is clear that pronunciation is quite unreliable as a clue

to spelling and vice versa. They say that spelling errors occur more in writing then in

speech. Obemata (31) and Robins (63) believe that mother tongue interference is a major

contributor to spelling errors. Another source of spelling errors according to Norish (281)

is creativity and the spirit of adventure in students. This is a situation where rules are

misplaced to produce deviant forms. He also says that homophones and homonyms are

sources of spelling errors because students often confuse one spelling with another. Jowit

and Nnamonu (38) illustrate this with words like advice and advise; border and boarder;

cease and seize; match and March, stationery and stationary and a host of others. Spelling

errors may also occur when the spelling symbols fail to rhyme with the sounds of the

words. Examples of such words are choir, massacre, write, bomb, maneuver, lieutenant,

bizarre etc (see Otagburuagu 127).

Yakubu (108) says that joining and splitting of words could produce errors in

students‟ writing. He explains that joining and splitting of words are important features of

writing for an effective communication. This is because they contribute to the meaning of

words as well as flow of ideas. He identifies some errors that arise from joining and

splitting of words as: (a) single words that are separated by some users of English.

Examples of such words are: „moreso‟, „whenever‟, „indeed‟, „handbag‟ „classroom‟; etc

(b) some separated words that are joined by some users of English. Such expressions are:

„in fact‟, „in order to‟, „in addition to‟, „carry over‟, medium wave‟, „in front of‟ etc.

52

Scheider and McCoy (3) point out omission of words in sentences as sources of

errors. They explain that learners of English as a second language omit constituents of the

language for a variety of reasons. One of these reasons is the dropping of the determiners,

which may be caused by non-existence of determiner system in the first language of the

learner. They equally noted that obligatory word classes like prepositions, verbs, relative

pronouns are sometimes erroneously omitted in sentences. Eyisi (XIII) and Ozioko added

to the list. They state that the following can also cause grammatical errors. Omission or

wrong use of adjectives, adverbs, idiomatic expressions, punctuations, especially the

comma and semicolon, misconceptions, wrong use of concord, pronoun agreements,

making bare infinitive have „to‟ and vice versa, use of non-standard English, L2 learners

forcing English into the mould of their native languages, poor changing of direct to

indirect speech and spoiling of fixed expressions, misuse of the English articles etc.

Ozioko also (23) observes that errors of concord and tense are quite common on

the pages of Nigerian newspapers. She says that error of concord is particularly

noticeable where the subject is widely separated from the verb. Oluikpe (86) shares

Ozioko‟s view by saying that concord incongruity is the most common grammatical error

that mars one‟s effort in writing effectively. He stresses that mistakes in agreement are

caused by inconsistency in the use of:

(a) number, as (i) it involves: subject and verb of a sentence;

(ii) pronoun and its antecedent;

(b) persons, in terms of: (i) pronoun and its antecedent;

(ii) shifts from one person to another;

(c) gender, as it relates to pronoun and its antecedent;

53

(d) tense, as it involves shifts from one tense to the other;

(e) voice, as it applies to shifts from active to passive voice.

Oluikpe concludes by saying that since concord is essential in producing standard

English sentences, it is important that one should learn how to use number, person,

gender, tense and voice consistently. His opinion highlights the fact that a well-

constructed sentence must obey the rules of concord.

Onuigbo (96) explains that errors of grammatical concord can stem from inherent

irregular patterns in the grammar of the English language. He makes special reference to

nouns and observes that some language users find it difficult to associate the irregular

nouns with the appropriate verb forms. Apart from the problem with the irregular nouns,

greater difficulties may be experienced with the nouns that end in plural markers even

when they are used as singular nouns. He explains that such words as alms, gallows,

headquarters, means, will always select a singular verb even though they end apparently

in plural markers. The above observation calls for adequate attention for the teaching of

concord to students. Special attention should be paid to irregular nouns and their

matching verbs.

Eka (181) also reflects on the importance of concord in the syntax of English. He

says that concord in English is one of the structural problems which deserves adequate

attention for „proper functioning of the language‟. He mentions parallelism, modification

and fragmentation as other structural problems which deserve equal attention as concord.

He draws analogy with machine operation and says that the above grammar related-issues

are like „nuts‟ and „bolts‟ which deserve to be fitted properly for an efficient operation of

a machine (language). In line with this, Ozioko argues that if conscious efforts are made

54

in producing interesting stores, the same should be expended in the correct use of the

language, especially, those aspects of grammar that appear minor‟ (23).

Baldah observes that wrong use of tenses, spelling, concord and prepositions are

common errors whose persistent difficulty has been a source of serious concern to

language experts. He laments that „the language efficacy of the products of our education

is so weak that one is bound to question the effectiveness of our English language

teaching materials and strategies (1). He says that grammatical and concord errors are

common in books, newspapers, magazines, on the radio and television etc. He suggests

that it is only through constant exposure to good reading material and systematic teaching

that learners of English as a second language become aware of „the many conspicuous

solecisms‟ (1).

55

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE

Introduction

The methodology adopted to achieve the objectives of the study is discussed in

this chapter. The discussion is done under the following sub-headings.

3.1 Research Design

3.2 Area of Study

3.3 Population of the Study

3.4 Sampling Technique

3.5 Research Instrument

3.6 Method of Data Analysis

3.1 Research Design

Research design is the plan, structure and strategy of investigation conceived to

obtain answers to research questions and to control variance (Kelinger 300). For the

purpose of this study, the researcher chose a sample survey research design.

Survey research is „a form of descriptive research that is aimed at collecting large

and small samples from the populations in order to examine the distribution, incidence

and interaction of educational and sociological phenomena (Denga and Ali 208). Survey

research was therefore, suitable in this context because the data for the study was

collected and analysed from a substantial representative of the entire population of the

study, five out of ten secondary schools in Onitsha North Local Government Area of

56

Anambra State. The result of the study would be generalized to represent the performance

of the entire population.

The researcher believed that since the subjects of the study were drawn from fifty

percent of the entire sample population, their (the subjects‟) performance would give an

insight into the general performance of the Senior Secondary 3 School students of the

area in the English concord.

3.2 Area of Study

Onitsha urban is made up of two Local Government Areas, Onitsha North Local

Government Area and Onitsha South Local Government Area respectively. The choice of

the former as the area of the study stems from the fact that the majority of the public

secondary schools in Onitsha urban are cited in this area. The schools are densely

populated and each of them has at least, eight graduate teachers of English language. The

assumption, therefore, is that the senior students in these schools have been adequately

exposed to the rudiments of the English grammar, with special reference to concord in

the English language.

The students also come from parents/guardians of different social strata – high,

middle and low income earners. As such, their academic performance is representative of

what is obtainable in most urban areas in Nigeria.

Finally, English is a second language spoken in the Local Government by the

majority of the students. Consequently, the students are faced with the interlingual and

intralingual challenges of learning English as a second language.

57

3.3 Population of the Study

The sample population of the study comprised five hundred SS3 students of five

secondary schools in Onitsha North Local Government Area of Anambra State. These

schools were randomly selected from ten senior secondary schools in the Area. The tools

used were further stratified in the context of their unique status thus: boys, girls and co-

institutions. Hundred students were selected from each of the schools. The schools used

as samples were:

1. St. Charles‟ Secondary School, Onitsha (Boys)

2. St. Charles‟ Special Science School, Onitsha (Boys)

3. Ado Girls‟ Secondary School, Onitsha

4. Inland Girls‟ Secondary School, Onitsha

5. Prince Memorial High School, Onitsha (Boys and Girls)

The choice of the population of the study was deemed appropriate because the

students were at the final stage of secondary education, and consequently, preparing for

Senior School Certificate Examination. A success in English remains a prerequisite for

admission into any course of study in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Therefore, a sound

knowledge of the rules of concord would make students improve on their English

language performance. This would invariably lead to success in English as well as other

subjects taught through the medium of the English language.

3.4 Sampling Technique

Simple random sampling was used to get the population of the study. Each of the

five schools used had at least a stream of five physical classes of SS3 students. Each of

58

the classes had a nominal roll of not less than fifty students. For fair distribution of the

subjects of the study, fifteen to twenty students were selected from every class of SS3 in

each school. Through this way, a hundred SS3 students were selected from every school

used for the study. Finally, a total of five hundred students from the five different schools

were used for the investigation. They were tested on different types of concord.

3.5 Research Instrument

The instrument used in this study was multiple objective test. A total of 100 test

items were administered on the population. The test was conducted by the researcher

under examination conditions. It lasted for one hour in each case.

The need to test competence informed our choice of the testing instrument.

Through objective testing strategy, we were able to cover different types of concord.

Testing instrument was made in such a manner that the testees were pinned down to one

correct answer for each item of the test.

The multiple choice objective testing is considered suitable in most language

studies, since generally, each question tests a particular point at a time and measures the

learner‟s specific knowledge of the aspect of the language that is being studied.

Therefore, the answers to the multiple objective test items adopted in this study would

give a reliable information of the students‟ knowledge of concord in the English

language.

59

3.6 Method of Data Analysis

To achieve the objective of the study, a total of hundred test items were

administered to 500 subjects. The arithmetic mean was used to determine the actual

performance of all the groups. Since the test on hand was of competence, the researcher

expected on ideal situation whereby every member of the population would score the

entire items of the test. However, where this was not possible, she had fixed a

competence mean of 75 and above, which could make a claim of competence about the

group. Thus, the farther away the group‟s mean was from the standard mean, the poorer

their performance and the nearer their average score was to the target mean (75), the

fairer their performance.

The arithmetic mean was employed in the analysis because „the mean tells at a

glance the level of achievement of the average member of a group.‟ (Nwana 260)

Simple percentage was also used to discover the subjects‟ overall performance on

the different types of concord that were tested.

60

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

In this chapter, the researcher presents and analyses the subjects‟ concord errors

in English. Their response to 100 objective questions set on the types of concord under

investigation is used for the analysis. Samples of the subjects‟ errors are presented and

discussed. Their overall performance and their competence on each type of concord are

also analysed. The information obtained is presented below.

4.1 Analysis of Sampled Questions

Table 1: Question No. 5

Her remains (a. was b. were c. has been) buried in the church yard.

St. Charles Special

Science School

(SCSS)

St. Charles

College

(SCC)

Inland

Girls

Ado Girls‟

Secondary

School

Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

22% 50% 12% 22% 33% 27%

The above table shows that 73% of the students failed the number by choosing a wrong

verb, „was‟ or „has been‟. Although the noun, „remains‟ is semantically singular, since it

refers to the dead body of one person, it always goes with a plural verb. Consequently,

the correct verb to co-occur with the subject, „remains‟ is the verb, „were‟. The

acceptable sentence is:

Her remains were buried in the church yard.

61

Table 2: Question 7

You, Obinna (am, are, is) in charge of this house.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

22% 23% 50% 34% 38% 33%

The above table shows that 67% of the students failed the question by choosing the verb

„is‟. The correct form of the verb to be used is „are‟. The rule of concord demands that the

verb should agree with the second person pronoun, „you‟. The appositive word, „Obinna‟

is merely for emphasis.

Table 3: Question 27

What you are (do, does, doing) not matter.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls‟

Ado Girls‟ Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

51% 59% 54% 58% 46% 54%

The above table shows that 46% of the students failed the question by selecting the verb

(s) „do‟,/‟doing‟. The right verb that matches the subject is „does‟. The rule is that if a

clause serves as a subject, it selects a singular verb unless it is a relative nominal clause,

which could select either a singular or plural verb, depending on the context. The

acceptable sentence is:

What you are does not matter.

62

Table 4: Question 9

He who works hard at his studies (make, makes, are making) good grades.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls‟

Ado Girls‟ Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

58% 44% 33% 38% 30% 41%

59% of the population failed the question. They selected either „make‟ or „making‟ as the

answer to the question. The non-abberent use requires the verb, „makes‟, to correctly fill

the gap.

The nominal relative clause that functions as the subject of the sentence is

singular and should select a singular verb. The grammatical sentence is:

He who works hard at his studies makes good grades.

Table 5: Question 11

The news that reached us shortly after the accident (was, were, were being) shocking.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls‟

Ado Girls‟ Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

66% 66% 71% 60% 61% 64%

The above table shows that 36% of the entire students failed the above question. They

chose „were‟ instead of „was‟, which is the verb that agrees with the subject, „news‟. The

noun, „news‟ seems plural morphologically but is semantically singular and must select a

63

singular verb. Other examples of such nouns are linguistics, mathematics, hypothesis,

thesis, stimulus, syllabus etc. The acceptable grammatical sentence is:

The news that reached us shortly after the accident was shocking.

Table 6: Question 17

The outstanding arrears of salaries (was, were, has been) paid last, month.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

17% 13% 11% 18% 06% 15%

The above table shows that 85% of the entire students failed the question by filling the

gap with a singular verb „was‟. The headword, „arrears‟ (subject of the sentence) always

occurs in plural form and must select a plural verb. Examples of other nouns among this

group are funds, amends, minutes, particulars etc. The grammatical sentence is:

The outstanding arrears of salaries were paid last month.

Table 7: Question 20

My thanks (go, goes) to my parents.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

15% 10% 8% 11% 10% 11%

64

The above table shows that 89% of the students got the answer wrong. They chose „goes‟

as the verbal element of the sentence. Their answer is erroneous because of concord

incongruity between „thanks‟ and „goes‟. The rule of subject/verb agreement requires that

if the subject contains a plural feature, the verb must have the same feature and vice

versa. The subject, „thanks‟ is plural and must agree with the plural verb „go‟.

My thanks go to my parents is the acceptable expression.

Table 8: Question 29

The chairman and secretary of the association (is, are, been) here.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

10% 15% 32% 24% 20% 20%

The above table shows that 80% of the entire students failed the question. They chose

„are‟ as the matching verb for the subject, “the chairman and secretary”. The testees are

ignorant of the exceptional rule of concord of coordinate subjects. Though it is known

that when two subjects are joined together by a coordinating conjunction, the verb that

follows is generally indicative of plural, in this case, the two subjects refer to the same

person, and therefore, must accept a singular verb.

The chairman and secretary is here; is the acceptable sentence.

65

Table 9: Question 32

I wish to dedicate this book to the poor and needy whose anguish (ensure, ensures) my

continuing protest.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

11% 44% 12% 12% 10% 18%

82% of the students failed the above number. They filled the gap with ensures. The

correct verb that agrees with the subject of the sentence, „The poor and needy‟ is ensure.

This is because normalized adjectives obligatorily select plural verbs. The definite article,

as a rule, precedes such adjectives. Secondly, though the poor and needy have a singular

reference, the above rule supersedes it. The non-aberrent sentence is:

I wish to dedicate this book to the poor and needy whose anguish ensure my

continuing protest.

Table 10: Question 38

Twenty thousand naira (has, have, were) been spent only on clothes.

SCSS SCC Ado Girls Prince Memorial High

School

Inland

Girls

Overall

%

52% 44% 41% 46% 21% 41%

The above table shows that 59% of the students failed the question. They chose either

„have‟ or „were‟ as the correct form of the verb to be used. The subject, „twenty thousand

66

naira‟ is singular and requires a singular verb. The students are ignorant of the fact that

when a phrase indicates a sum or a unit, a singular verb is always used. The correct

sentence is:

Twenty thousand naira has been spent only on clothes.

Table 11: Question No. 40

Every student and every lecturer (is, are, am) expected at the pavilion.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

50% 20% 36% 33% 25% 33%

67% of the students failed the question. They selected „are‟ as the verbal element of the

sentence. The rule of concord is that when the indefinite determines, „every‟ and „each‟

introduce nouns, such nouns select the singular verb forms even if the nouns are joined

by conjunctions.

Their selection of a singular verb is justified by the fact that they single out

individual persons or things from a group of individuals or things. The grammatical

sentence is:

Every student and every lecturer is expected at the pavilion.

67

Table 12: Question No. 42

Even the waste matter from our cows (is, are, been) useful.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

35% 13% 33% 16% 30% 25%

75% of the entire students failed the above number. They chose either „are‟ or „been‟ as

the correct verb(s) that matched the subject. The subject of the sentence is the „waste

matter‟ (the headword) and not cows. It has a singular feature and must select a singular

verb. It has been observed that students often get confused on the verb to select for the

subject when the headword in the subject operates far away from the verb. The correct

sentence reads:

Even the waste matter from our cows is useful.

Table 13: Question No. 44

Neither the lecturer nor the students (were, was) dismissed.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

44% 36% 54% 50% 57% 48%

52% of the subjects selected „was‟ as the correct verb for the subject. The correct form of

the verb to be used is „were‟. The linguistic convention is that if the nouns in the

compound subject are joined by the correlatives – or, either… or, neither … nor, not

68

only… but; the verb has to agree with the second of the subject. In other words, the law

of proximity over-rules here. In the above sentence, the second of the subject is in plural

form and must select a plural verb. The acceptable version of the sentence is:

Neither the lecturer nor the students were dismissed.

Table 14: Question 51

The secretary along with his chairman (were, was) absent.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

76% 50% 22% 40% 36% 45%

The above number was answered wrongly by 55% of the entire students. They chose

„were‟ instead of „was‟ as the correct verb to fill the gap. The rule of concord is that

whenever the correlative conjunction such as along with is used to join subjects, the verb

will agree with the first of the subject. Other correlative conjunctions that are guided by

the rule are: as well as, together with, in addition to, in collaboration with, no less than

etc. The grammatical sentence is therefore;

The secretary along with his chairmen was absent.

69

Table 15: Question No. 60

You should give __________ another chance.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

10% 54% 50% 51% 44% 42%

The students were given the above as an open-ended question. They were asked to fill the

gap with a reflexive pronoun that matched the subject. 58% of the students were unable

to choose the appropriate pronoun. In adherence to the rule of subject/object concord, the

correct reflexive pronoun (the object) to match the second person pronoun „you‟, is

yourself. The acceptable sentence is.

You should give yourself another chance.

The rule of subject/object concord is that in any expression where the object element is a

reflexive pronoun, there is usually a concord of person, number and gender between it

and the subject.

Table 16: Question 86

He bought a dress for his fiancé.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

23% 30% 40% 33% 41% 33%

70

The above table shows that 67% of the students were unable to dictate the error in the

sentence. They were asked to write the correct form of the sentence. The expression is

wrong because there is no harmony between the subject, „He‟ (a masculine gender) and

the object, „his fiancé‟ (a reference to a male suitor). The non-aberrant sentence is:

He bought a dress for his fiancée.

Table 17: Question 85

Mary is the hero of the novel.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

50% 49% 40% 19% 15% 35%

65% of the students were unable to correct the above sentence. There is no agreement

between the subject, „Mary‟ and its complement, „the hero‟. The feminine subject of the

verb, „Mary‟ must select a feminine complement. The correct sentence is:

Mary is the heroine of the novel.

Table 18: Question 91

We came, we saw, we conquer.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

40% 31% 32% 40% 41% 38%

71

The above table shows that 62% of the students failed the question. The concord

incongruity arose from a shift in the construction of the last clause of the sentence. The

verbs in the first two clauses of the sentence are in the past, and the sentence, therefore,

requires a corresponding past form of the verb in the third clause for it to be acceptable.

In other words, there is no consistency in the time reference of the clauses.

The correct sentence is:

We came, we saw, we conquered.

Table 19: Question 94

Monday bought a wrist watch and it was stolen by Uche.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

23% 25% 20% 29% 29% 25%

The above table shows that 75% of the students were unable to correct the wrong

sentence. The sentence is marred by the inconsistency in the structure of the clauses. The

first clause of the sentence is an active construction and needs a corresponding active

voice in the second clause. The correct sentence is:

Monday bought a wrist watch and Uche stole it.

72

Table 20: Question 98

When one is confronted with a problem he prays.

SCSS SCC Inland

Girls

Ado Girls Prince Memorial

High School

Overall

%

20% 17% 16% 27% 12% 18%

82% of the students accepted the sentence as a correct one. The sentence is incorrect

because there is no harmony between the pronoun and its antecedent. The rule of concord

is that when the pronoun, „one‟, features as the antecedent, the next pronoun (referring to

it) is „one‟. The acceptable sentence is:

When one is confronted with a problem, one prays.

4.2 Statistical Analysis of the Subjects’ Overall Competence on Concord in

English

St. Charles Special

Science School

(SCSS)

St. Charles

Secondary

School

Inland

Girls‟

Sec.

School

Prince

Memorial

High School

Ado Girls‟

Secondary

School

Overall

Mean

57.7 53.2 42 50 40.1 48.6

The above table shows that the entire population‟s performance on concord in the

English language is not impressive. Their overall mean, 48.6 is less than the target mean

of 75 and above which the researcher sets out as an indication of the mastery of the rules

73

of concord. The implication of the result is that the students have not gained proficiency

in this aspect of the English grammar.

4.3 The Subjects’ Competence on Different types of Concord

The entire subjects‟ competence on the different types of concord under

investigation are analysed below.

4.3.1 Subject-Verb Agreement

St. Charles

Special Science

School

St. Charles

Secondary

School

Inland

Girls‟

Sec.

School

Ado

Girls‟

Sec. School

Prince

Memorial

High

School

Overall

Mean

54 48.1 38 47 44 46.2

The above table shows the subjects‟ overall performance on subject-verb

agreement. Their competence mean is 46.2. In contrast with the target mean of 75 and

above, mapped out as an indication of the subjects‟ mastery of the rules of concord, their

performance is poor and therefore calls for improvement.

It is discovered that the students have no problems in matching regular nouns with

either singular or plural verbs as the context demands. Their challenges lie with irregular

nouns, especially those that have the morphological shape of plural nouns but are singular

semantically. Examples of such nouns are news, measles, thesis etc; or those that are

74

always plural but are suggestive of singular meaning such as remains, police, arrears,

minutes etc.

The students‟ response to some of the numbers shows that they see „–s‟

morpheme as an indication of plurality in all cases. To them, both plural nouns and plural

verbs take „– s‟ morpheme. Thus, we have erroneous expressions like:

My thanks goes to my parents.

Make sure you submits your script after marking.

The students also experience difficulties with the selection of the appropriate

verbs to agree with the subjects of sentences, if such subjects are phrases and clauses.

The errors they commit here stem from the students‟ inability to identity the headwords

in the phrases. They are also ignorant of the fact that clauses that function as subjects

generally select singular verbs, with the exception of nominal relative clauses which

select either singular or plural verb, depending on the context of the sentence.

Consequently, we have ungrammatical expressions like:

Even the waste matter from our cows are useful.

Exchanging gifts between friends are always encouraging.

The news that reached us shortly after the accidents were shocking.

The verbs to agree with the subjects of the above sentences are „is‟ and „was‟

respectively.

The above findings confirm Oluikpe‟s observation. (110) He notes that the

agreement of subject and verb in English forms a major learning problem. One of the

reasons for this includes what he terms „the illogical premise‟ upon which basis the

English (–s) morpheme operates for the singular noun and a singular verb. Second

75

language learners, he observes, do not fully appreciate why on one hand, an apparently

plural (–s) morpheme is used for a plural noun, when on the other hand, the same

morpheme is to signify singularity in verbs. Other problems stem from the modified verb

of which the learner does not know whether the verb or the modifier should carry the

agreement rule. Moreso, the exception rules of concord have merely heightened the

learners‟ problems instead of reducing them. This happens when a learner who has

managed to learn that two singular nouns when conjoined select a plural verb, turns

around to be confronted with some cases where this rule is not always true if the sense of

the sentence dictates otherwise. Oluikpe concludes that all these happen because there is

no grammatical agreement between the subject and the verb in Igbo.

Opata (66) intimates that his interaction with students on an investigation he

carries out reveals that one of the causes of concord errors is wrong teaching at secondary

school level. Some of the students tell him that the presence of an „s‟ at the end of a word

is always an indication of plurality, irrespective of the word class. The students are

unaware that a singular verb always ends with the morpheme (–s) and must co-occur with

a singular subject and not a plural one. Consequently, the students make ungrammatical

utterances like:

* They does their assignment.

* We goes to work.

The above findings demand that a serious attention should be given to the

teaching of subject/verb concord. Other intricacies of English grammar caused by the

irregular forms in the language need to be given special attention.

76

4.3.2 Concord with the Correlatives

St. Charles

Special Science

School, Onitsha

St. Charles

Secondary

School,

Onitsha

Inland

Girls‟ Sec.

School

Onitsha

Ado

Girls‟

Sec. School

Onitsha

Prince

Memorial

High Sch.

Onitsha

Overall

Mean

52 48 41 47 46 47

A study of the preceding table shows that the subjects have not mastered the rules

of concord with the correlatives. Their grand mean performance is 47. The students seem

confused with the contradictory rules of concord with the correlatives. This is because the

use of some of the correlatives demands that the verb should agree with the first of the

subject while on the other hand, another set of the correlatives makes the verbs agree with

the second of the subject. The maze of the confusion could be cleared in the minds of the

learners if they are drilled on the rules of concord with the correlatives. The main cause

of errors of concord with the correlatives is intralingual.

4.3.3 Subject/Complement Concord

St. Charles

Special Science

School

St. Charles

Secondary

School

Inland

Girls‟

Sec.

School

Ado

Girls‟

Sec. School

Prince

Memorial

High

School

Overall

Mean

61.3 42 53 50 50.2 51.3

77

The above table shows that 51.3 is the overall mean performance of the students.

The students are yet to have a complete mastery of the rules of subject/complement

concord. They have not acquainted themselves with gender distinction in English.

Consequently, a good number of them were unable to dictate the errors in the following

sentences:

She is a porter.

Mary is the hero of the novel.

Okafor is a seamstress.

However, the students are conversant with the rule of subject complement

concord in terms of number. They were able to match plural subjects with plural

complements and singular subjects with singular complements. They easily dictated

the errors in the following sentences and corrected them.

Dr. and Mrs. Okoye are my sponsor.

The ladies in black suits are our aunt.

4.3.4 The Concord of Subject and Object

St. Charles

Special Science

School

St. Charles

Secondary

School

Inland

Girls‟

Sec.

School

Ado

Girls‟

Sec. School

Prince

Memorial

High

School

Overall

Mean

40 40 38 36 33 38

78

The students overall performance mean of 38 in this aspect of concord in English

is the farthest from the target mean of 75. The analysis shows that some of the students

are yet to be conversant with the choice of pronouns to go with certain subjects which

serve as their antecedents. Their erroneous response to some of the questions on

subject/object agreement showed that distinguishing between a masculine and feminine

reflexive pronouns posed a challenge to them.

The students failure to choose the appropriate reflexive pronouns as the suitable

objects to the subjects of the verbs is attributable to mother tongue transfer; that is, from

the students‟ first language (Igbo) to their second language (English). There is no gender

distinction in Igbo language. Consequently, they wrote unacceptable utterances like:

He injured herself in the leg.

The dog fed himself yesterday.

Instead of:

He injured himself yesterday.

The dog fed itself yesterday.

It was also noticed that some of the reflexive pronouns were wrongly spelt or

written.

themselves was written as theirselves

herself was written as hersself

himself was written as hisself

itself was written as its‟ self

myself was written as my self/mineself

79

4.3.5 Pronoun/Antecedent Concord

St. Charles

Special Science

School

St. Charles

Secondary

School

Inland

Girls‟

Sec.

School

Ado

Girls‟

Sec. School

Prince

Memorial

High

School

Overall

Mean

60 58.3 44.4 71 62 59.1

The students overall performance, a mean of 59.1 in the pronoun- antecedent concord is

the nearest to the target mean which is 75. This is an indication that an appreciable

number of the students have internalized the rules of Pronoun/Antecedent Concord.

However, some of the students failed the questions set on this aspect of concord because

they were unable to make gender distinctions in their selection of pronouns to suit the

subjects (the antecedents) they replace. In other words, they failed to observe the rule of

pronoun- antecedent concord which states that a pronoun replacing a noun must be

masculine if the noun is masculine, feminine if the noun is feminine and neuter if the

noun is neuter. Hence, we have unacceptable sentences like

The man enjoyed her stay at Abuja.

He came back to the class to search for her supervisor.

80

4.3.6 Shift in Construction

St. Charles

Special Science

School

St. Charles

Secondary

School

Inland

Girls‟

Sec.

School

Ado

Girls‟

Sec. School

Prince Memorial

High

School

Overall

Mean

26 12 14 08 11 14.2

The subjects‟ performances on questions that deal with shift in construction of the

elements/units of sentences are analysed above. The rule of concord in English states that

sentences must be the same in person, number, gender, voice and tense. If shifts occur in

any of these, the result is usually an awkward, inconsistent and ungrammatical structure.

The result of the analysis, a mean of 14.2 shows that most of the testees are

ignorant of the above rule. Hence, they are unable to dictate and correct the anomaly in

structures like:

The principal caught him in the act, interrogated him, found him guilty and he

was expelled. (Shift in voice)

We came, we saw, we conquer. (Shift in tense)

Please, leave him to enjoy herself (Shift in gender)

These ladies are actress (Shift in number)

The correct forms of the above sentences are:

The Principal caught him in the act, interrogated him, and expelled him.

We came, we saw, we conquered.

Please leave him to enjoy himself.

These ladies are actresses.

81

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION, SUGGESTION AND CONCLUSION

The analysis in chapter 4 revealed that mastering the rules of concord in English

poses a great challenge to final year students of the Senior Secondary Schools in Onitsha

North Local Government Area of Anambra State. Arnold (59) believes that errors of

concord are intralingual and that such errors occur because the learners have not

internalized the rules guiding the agreement of words in a sentence. He equally adds that

grammatical errors could also be caused by overgeneralization of rules. Adejeare (58)

argues that error is a universal feature of any usage and that mother tongue users of a

language are also error prone. Bamgbose (17) shares Arnolds and Adejeare‟s opinion but

states that much of the grammatical errors committed by learners of English as a second

language come from intralingual problems. Ozioko (61) states that errors could also be

caused by carelessness and thoughtlessness. Whatever is the case, linguistic errors are a

welcome development because they portray a learner‟s competence at a particular stage

of learning process and could be remedied by learning the correct forms.

The finding of our research is an evidence that English language learnt up to the

end of the secondary school does not adequately prepare students for the demands of

tertiary education. Anasiudu‟s (125) and Ofuokwu‟s (77) investigations into the quality

of undergraduate and graduate English of the university of Nigeria, Nsukka and

Ahamadu Bello University, Zaria confirm the above assertion. Their findings portray

concord errors as the commonest grammatical errors committed by the students. This is a

regular report made by researchers on error analysis in English. Suffice it to say that

students‟ development of communicative skills in English depends solely on their

82

mastery of word relations in English. In other words, the mastery of the rules of concord

in English as well as the general principles that guide the co-occurrence of certain

linguistic elements for an acceptable linear sequence, is crucial for correct English usage.

To help students achieve the desired competence, all the users of English must be

fully in the pursuit. Users here refer to teachers, learners, curriculum designers and

coordinators of education and parents.

The role of secondary school teachers in laying a strong foundation for the

acquisition of proficiency in English cannot be undermined. There must be a deliberate

effort to improve on the standard of teachers of English language. They should be sent for

regular in-service training, seminars and conferences. The syllabai for such programmes

must be structured in such a way that all the aspects of the language which pose great

difficulty to students be given detailed attention. The training will keep the teachers

abreast with the language. The teachers ought to subject themselves to frequent linguistic

test on the general principles of English grammar. They should listen to and read good

literature. This is because in a language learning situation, adequate exposure to the

language leads to efficient and effective use. Teachers must, therefore, be adequately

equipped to face the challenges of teaching a dynamic language such as English. Azikiwe

(183) advises the English teacher to have a knowledge about the structure of the students‟

mother tongue to be able to identity its structural qualities which might be different from

those of the English language. The implication of the above suggestion is that the teacher

should have a knowledge of the dominant first language spoken in the area where he

teaches English to the extent that he would be able to do a simple comparative analysis of

83

the two languages and dictate the possible areas of difficulty and ease in learning the

target language.

The learner of English as a second language is at the centre of the learning

activities. The role of the language teacher is to guide the learner to inculcate the basic

language skills and acquire communicative competence under formal linguistic

instruction. Corder (1973) explains:

The goal of language teaching is to develop in the learners the knowledge

and skills which enable him to play certain roles in another language

community, to turn him into a performer in the target language and to give

him a communicative competence.

To achieve the above, teachers must make effort to be flexible in delivering their lessons.

They should give sufficient attention to the teaching of the rules of concord in every class

of secondary school. Structural drills are recommended if students are to master the

compatibility of words in sentences. The different types of concord should not be taught

in one lesson. The topics should be spread to different lesson periods except where they

interlock. Teachers can assess the students competence by giving a lot of exercises on

lexis and structure, as well as essay writing. Essay writing would help students apply the

rules of concord which they learnt in isolation. The result of the assessment would guide

the teachers in the course of remedial teaching.

Teachers of developmental English in tertiary institutions ought to give adequate

attention to the teaching of concord and other difficult areas in the language. When this is

successfully done, it will not only bridge the gap created by inadequate teaching and

learning in secondary schools, it raises the students sophistication in the language to a

84

level where they can engage gainfully in the activities of attending lectures, write essays

and the other subjects in the medium of English.

Bearing in mind that the success of any learning depends largely on the learner‟s

attitude towards what is learnt, a learner of English as a second language should be

encouraged to develop a positive attitude toward the language. A positive attitude would

raise a learner‟s level of motivation and consequently, his attainment of proficiency in the

English language. Motivation could come through extensive reading. The onus of making

the students voracious readers lie with parents and teachers. However, teachers should be

wary of the recommended texts because some of them are replete with grammatical

errors. By reading books written by English language experts, students would gradually

acquire the rules that guide the syntax of the language. This, would eventually enhance

their communicative competence.

Learners should be made to recognize their incompetence on concord as a

reflection of the general problem facing the use of English in the Nigerian society with

particular reference to secondary schools.

The curriculum designers ought to review their selection of ESL learning task and

give enough attention to concord. The researcher recommends the inclusion of concord in

the syllabi right from primary schools to tertiary institutions. Other difficult areas of the

grammar of English caused by the inherent irregular patterns of the language must be

given equal attention. This would help to minimize overgeneralization of rules by

learners, learning by analogy and wrong hypothization which induce errors.

The essence of error analysis is to apply the knowledge gained from the analysis

to the teaching and learning process. A good number of the previous research carried out

on error analysis tend to analyse the learners‟ errors in all the skills simultaneously. This

85

method of error analysis has a shortfall in giving detailed attention to different types of

errors committed by users of English and the causes of such errors. We, therefore,

recommend that distinct linguistic errors committed by learners such as dangling

modifiers, confusion in the use of homonyms, use of colloquial expressions in formal

writing, wrong use of tenses, wrong use of adverbials, structural ambiguity and other

related aberrations be singled out and given detailed attention in further research on error

analysis. The exposure given to them would be of immense help in the English language

pedagogy.

Further research work is also recommended on concord errors in English on a

wider scope. It could be done by covering all the secondary schools in Anambra State and

beyond. The research would create room for more discoveries of challenges faced by

students on areas of concord and proffer possible remedy to the problem.

All in all, the position occupied by English in Nigeria and the pivotal role it plays

in every facet of the life of the country can never be underplayed. To speak and write

good English is rooted on the ability of the user to avoid derailment from the norms of

the language. The mastery of the syntax of English demands close attention to the

minutest details of the language. Nothing should be taken for granted. Every effort must

be geared towards the promotion of standard English. Errors are not to be regarded as

signs of failure but as an evidence that the learner is working his way towards the correct

usage. An error in the use of English is an integral part of language learning process and a

key to competence development in the language. Users of English must have positive

attitude to errors and work towards the improvement of their performance in the

language.

86

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91

APPENDIX I

Subject – English Language

School –

Class – SS 3

Test on Concord

Duration – 1 hour

Instruction – Answer All

Select the appropriate alternative in the bracket to complete each sentence below.

1. She __________ food everyday.

(a) eat (b) eats (c) eating

2. Human beings ___________ in air.

(a) breathe (b) breathes (c) breathing

3. The prefect and I ___________ friends.

(a) am (b) are (c) are being

4. The particulars of the vehicle ________ expired

(a) have (b) has (c) having

5. Her remains ___________ buried in the church yard.

(a) was (b) were (c) has been

6. His only companion and friend _____________ the speaker of the State House of

Assembly

(a) is (b) are (c) am

7. You, Obinna, ____________ incharge of this house.

92

(a) am (b) is (c) are

8. The headquarters of our Local Government ________ Onitsha.

(a) is (b) are (c) were

9. He who works hard at his studies __________ good grades.

(a) make (b) makes (c) are making

10. His aim in making all those efforts ___ to pass the examination.

(a) was (b) were (c) have been

11. The news that reached us shortly after the accident _________ shocking.

(a) were (b) was (c) were being

12. Your brother loves me, __________ he?

(a) don‟t he (b) didn‟t (c) doesn‟t

13. Three plus seven __________ ten.

(a) equals (b) equal (c) equaling

14. Lack of books ________ the teacher great concern.

(a) gives (b) give (c) have given

15. Rice and beans ___________ my favourite meal.

(a) is (b) are (c) are being

16. Extra police __________ drafted into the scene of the violence.

(a) were (b) was (c) has been

17. The outstanding arrears of salaries ________ paid last month.

(a) was (b) were (c) have been

18. Tales of two cities __________ an interesting novel.

(a) is (b) are (c) have been

93

19. The chief and his wife ________ arrived.

(a) have (b) has (c) has been

20. My thanks __________ to my parents.

(a) go (b) goes (c) are going

21. Twenty kilometres _________ a short distance to cover.

(a) are (b) is (c) are being

22. Three years _________ a short period to be away.

(a) are (b) is (c) have been

23. My trousers ________ torn.

(a) are (b) is (c) has

24. The cause of all these social evils _______ improper discipline.

(a) is (b) are (c) were

25. Five percent of the teachers ________ truants.

(a) are (b) is (c) has been

26. I ________ my parents weekly.

(a) visit (b) visits (c) visiting

27. What you are _________ not matter.

(a) do (b) does (c) doing

28. What I say and what I think _________ my own affair.

(a) are (b) is (c) has been

29. The chairman and secretary of the association _______ here.

(is, are, have been)

30. The governor and his aides __________ arrived.

94

(a) have (b) has (c) has been

31. The Indomitable Lions _________ a strong team in Africa.

(a) are (b) is (c) have been

32. I wish to dedicate this book to the poor and needy whose anguish __________ my

continuing protest.

(a) ensure (b) ensures (c) are ensuring

33. A great deal of onions __________ grown in the North.

(a) is (b) are (c) am

34. Exchanging gifts between friends _______ always encouraging.

(a) are being (b) are (c) is

35. The major problem with the restraint _________ the flies.

(a) was (b) have been (c) were

36. Make sure you ________ your scripts after writing.

(a) submits (b) submit (c) has submitted

37. To qualify for the award of an honours degree in English ______ not easy.

(a) is (b) are (c) am

38. Twenty thousand naira _________ has spent only on clothes.

(a) has (b) have (c) were

39. Each of the players __________ a prize after every match.

(a) gets (b) get (c) are getting

40. Every student and every lecturer _________ expected at the pavilion.

(a) is (b) are (c) am

41. The couple _________ moved into their new house.

95

(a) has (b) have (c) having

42. Even the waste matter from our cows ________ useful.

(a) are (b) is (c) are being

From the brackets below, underline the verbs that agree with the subjects of the

following sentences.

43. Neither Ikenna nor I (am are) is to blame.

44. Neither the lecturer nor the students (were was) dismissed.

45. Either Bibian or her brothers (are is) guilty.

46. Either his brothers or Bibian (is are) guilty.

47. The man as well as his wives (are is) here.

48. The men as well as their wives (are is) here.

49. The president accompanied by his aides (was were) late.

50. The president accompanied by their aides (were was) late.

51. The secretary along with his chairman (was were) absent.

52. The secretaries along with their chairmen (were was) absent.

53. The participants together with the resource person (are is) in the hall.

54. The resource person together with the participants (is are) in the hall.

55. Not only the president but also the members of the club (are is) to go for the

conference.

56. Not only the members of the club but also the president (are is) to go for the

conference.

57. The friends in collaboration with Bright (steal steals) from his parents.

96

58. Bright in collaboration with his friends (steal steals) from his parents.

Fill the gaps in the following sentences with suitable pronouns.

Example:

She enjoyed herself.

59. He injured __________ in the leg.

60. You should give ________ another chance.

61. The ladies blamed __________ for being very flippant.

62. They are ruining __________ own chances.

63. The warriors are killing ____________.

64. I blamed ________ for his misfortune.

65. The dog fed ______________ yesterday.

66. I can do the work ______________.

From the brackets below, choose the pronouns that will agree with the subjects/objects in

the following sentences. (she, his, her, him, one, it, their, they, them, theirs, hers, himself)

67. Chike gave ___________ a slap.

68. The man enjoyed ___________ stay at Abuja.

69. Uche and Emeka have finished ___________ work.

70. Some teachers are lazy. They hardly prepare _______ lessons.

71. I play tennis because _________ makes me happy.

72. I invited the students and told _______ to play in the field.

73. That girl is Ngozi. I want to talk to ___________.

74. Music is an aspect of culture. _________ should be handled with care.

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75. She worked very hard. __________ deserved a prize.

76. When one works hard __________ will succeed.

77. He came back to the class to search for _________ supervisor.

78. Mrs. Agu is always early to work because __________ cleans the office.

79. Mrs. Agu and Uche are usually early to work because ________ clean the office.

Identify the errors in the following sentences and correct them.

80. Dr. and Mrs. Okoye are my sponsor.

81. The ladies in black suits are our aunty.

82. One of my sisters have arrived.

83. These ladies are actress.

84. Okafor is a seamstress.

85. Mary is the hero of the novel.

86. He bought a dress for his fiancé.

87. She is a porter.

88. The couple are teacher.

89. She is a king.

90. My father visit me last week.

91. We came, we saw, we conquer.

92. Monday bought a wrist watch and it was stolen by Uche.

93. The principal caught him in the act, interrogated him, found him guilty and he

was expelled.

94. They broke the door and carter away the property themselves.

98

95. Everybody is ready to go, isn‟t it?

96. Cooking of delicious meals are the duty of a wife.

97. Please leave him to enjoy herself.

98. When one is confronted with a problem, he prays.

99. The rich also cries.

100. Cattle is not allowed to graze in this field.

99

THE SUBJECTS’ GENERAL PERFORMANCE ON THE 100 QUESTIONS SET

ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONCORD

S/N

St. Charles

Special

Science

School

St. Charles

Sec. School

Inland

Girls’

Sec.

School

Ado

Girls’

Sec.

School

Prince

Memorial

High

School

Overall Mean

Performance

1 71 68 61 63 54 63

2 52 43 44 50 52 48

3 44 41 43 49 40 42

4 50 50 20 20 22 32

5 22 50 12 22 33 27

6 78 70 16 62 74 52

7 22 23 50 34 38 33

8 48 43 31 28 32 36

9 58 44 33 38 30 41

10 60 54 43 21 30 42

11 66 66 71 60 61 64

12 58 60 43 45 38 49

13 58 53 52 51 49 53

14 32 24 26 18 21 24

15 44 22 10 33 28 27

16 15 10 8 11 10 11

17 17 13 11 18 6 15

18 43 33 26 31 21 31

19 46 42 44 48 40 44

100

20 15 10 8 11 10 11

21 68 61 63 54 54 60

22 61 63 53 51 56 57

23 40 38 23 22 21 29

24 49 42 44 47 32 43

25 54 53 57 51 42 51

26 54 51 59 56 51 54

27 51 59 54 58 46 54

28 61 43 13 21 28 33

29 10 15 32 24 20 20

30 64 60 33 24 21 36

31 58 52 60 54 36 52

32 32 11 44 12 12 18

33 15 12 13 11 9 14

34 26 22 18 24 17 21

35 50 53 51 56 38 50

101

THE SUBJECTS GENERAL PERFORMANCE ON THE 100 QUESTIONS SET

ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONCORD

S/N

St. Charles

Special

Science

School

St. Charles

Sec. School

Inland

Girls’

Sec.

School

Ado

Girls’

Sec.

School

Prince

Memorial

High

School

Overall Mean

Performance

36 64 61 64 60 51 60

37 51 53 52 29 30 43

38 52 44 41 46 27 41

39 53 41 47 43 52 47

40 51 44 42 47 31 43

41 57 31 32 28 17 37

42 35 13 33 16 30 25

43 13 11 14 8 12 12

44 44 36 54 50 37 48

45 56 31 72 40 18 43

46 44 36 31 29 43 37

47 22 18 16 14 14 17

48 24 19 26 24 17 22

49 67 66 45 61 59 60

50 62 61 38 40 29 46

51 76 50 22 40 36 43

52 71 23 22 21 23 32

53 28 33 14 21 27 25

54 67 40 38 38 44 45

102

55 78 69 63 62 60 70

56 58 77 30 34 40 48

57 48 44 49 52 54 49

58 46 61 41 47 23 55

59 57 51 57 54 53 54

60 10 54 50 51 44 42

61 13 12 17 16 12 14

62 41 12 22 17 8 20

63 67 62 64 19 40 50

64 50 58 41 43 36 59

65 33 63 40 66 51 49

66 40 41 43 47 40 42

67 52 52 53 56 59 54

68 38 41 52 53 41 45

69 73 41 46 49 42 50

70 64 61 63 64 39 58

103

THE SUBJECTS GENERAL PERFORMANCE ON THE 100 QUESTIONS SET

ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONCORD

S/N

St. Charles

Special

Science

School

St. Charles

Sec. School

Inland

Girls’

Sec.

School

Ado

Girls’

Sec.

School

Prince

Memorial

High

School

Overall Mean

Performance

71 68 65 44 41 43 52

72 49 43 32 21 26 54

73 59 57 53 52 53 55

74 60 40 38 32 61 46

75 54 51 38 44 17 41

76 66 37 64 34 60 52

77 17 28 19 13 15 18

78 46 28 17 13 19 25

79 39 41 42 49 32 41

80 44 42 44 46 31 41

81 38 31 32 34 31 33

82 41 38 37 42 29 37

83 46 47 28 18 20 32

84 38 14 29 17 23 24

85 50 49 40 19 15 35

86 23 30 40 33 41 33

87 26 28 21 14 29 23

88 47 46 43 41 39 43

89 52 30 51 56 46 47

104

90 48 47 51 28 35 42

91 44 31 32 40 41 38

92 23 25 20 29 29 25

93 11 12 9 7 14 11

94 29 21 17 33 14 23

95 31 44 42 46 38 40

96 68 44 51 40 60 53

97 59 43 42 58 56 52

98 20 17 16 27 12 18

99 40 51 50 34 38 33

100 60 20 40 40 20 36