ABSTRACT
One of the basic grammatical rules often abused by basic
school students is that regarding the use of grammatical concord. Thus, many
JHS learners are challenged in the appropriate use of grammatical concord which
obstructs communication. In this regard, the study explored students’ use of
grammatical concord and the associated semantic effects among JHS students in
the Cape Coast Metropolis. The theoretical arguments of this study are grounded
in the syntactic theory, the referential theory of meaning and the attribution
theory. The qualitative research approach was used in the study. In all, 18
students and six teachers participated in the study. Data collection for the
study was done using in-depth interviews, classroom observations and content
analysis of the essays of students. Data analysis was done using thematic
analysis. The students had very poor knowledge of general basic grammar,
especially in the area of agreement (concord). Tenses used were particularly
chaotic. The pedagogical treatment of grammatical structures by the teachers
has been ineffective. The inappropriate use of grammatical concord among the
students has resulted in several semantic effects including expressions that
are difficult to make meaning out of. The Ministry of Education in
collaboration with the Ghana Education Service and the Metropolitan Director of
Education are advised to frequently organise workshops, seminars and refresher
courses that will help enhance the professional skills and knowledge of the
teachers. Teachers are advised to use a more creative and simulative approach
to the teaching of grammatical concord to build students’ confidence in
grammar.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
History has it that early medieval England is where English
Language was first spoken; however, it is now a global Lingua Franca
(Wardhaugh, 2010). Several persons globally speak English since being
proficient in the Language is required in most professions and occupations.
Like most sub-Saharan Africa countries, Ghana is blessed with many indigenous
languages; however the English language continues to play a pivotal role in the
daily communications of Ghanaians. Aside the English Language being a Lingua
Franca in Ghana, it is an important means of inter-ethnic communication
internally and a source for communication with the international community (Afful,
2007).
In view of the linguistic imperialism in Ghana coupled with
the country’s colonial history, English has been adopted as Ghana’s official
language. As such, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in the 1950s instituted a
policy that the English language be taught from kindergarten to the university
level. It has become the language of instruction in the teaching of many
subjects from primary four, while it is also a subject on its own. It is also
compulsory for students to have a credit in the Basic Education Examination
Certificate (BECE) in the English language before entering either the senior
high school or the university.
Yeboah (2014) argues that a student’s performance in many
other subjects could be closely linked to his/her command over the English
language either in writing or speech. The teaching of the English language at
the basic school helps students to be able to communicate effectively.
Considering the position of English language in the curriculum, the teaching
syllabus for the basic schools demands that teachers teach students how to
speak and write English well enough for their social, economic and occupational
development.
The English language is full of rules and principles. One of
such rules is the use of concords where the subject and the verb have to agree
grammatically. According to Woods (2010, p.125) "the verb is considered to
be the heart of the sentence and it has to take the same grammatical form as
its controller, the subject".
Conceptually, grammatical concord is a grammatical
relationship between two syntactic constituents of a sentence where the subject
must agree with the verb (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svarvik, 2005).
Fundamentally, the use of grammatical concord has become an important
communicative concept since it provides the rules for putting words into the
right order to make the meaning clear. Therefore, the pedagogy of its teaching
should offer practical discussions to students. Thus, for English language to
be taught and learnt properly, the basic grammatical rules should not be
violated; and since concord is an aspect of English grammar, it is essential
that English language teachers and students adhere to the rules governing it in
order to achieve effective communication (Klu, 2014).
The use of accurate grammatical concord reflects the
efficient use of semantics. In other words, contextualisation is crucial for
semantic information. Conceptually, semantics relates to meanings of
words.In relating semantics to grammatical concords, Chomsky (2014) indicates
that the semantic component of a sentence relates a structure generated by the
syntactic component. In this regard, the use of poor grammatical concord
obstructs communication and therefore meaning.
Although Ghana is blessed with many indigenous languages, a
dominant linguistic imperialism exists where the English language continues to
play a pivotal role in the day-to-day transactions of Ghanaians. Against this
background, teaching English language from kindergarten to the university level
is compulsory since the language is the medium of instruction in almost all
subjects (Afful, 2007). The teaching of grammatical concord in basic schools in
Ghana starts from the Upper Primary to Junior High School (JHS).
In spite of the importance of the English language locally
and internationally, there has generally been poor quality of the language in
Ghana among basic school pupils both in terms of speech and writing. The 2013
National Education Assessment (NEA) report notes that at least 50 percent of
pupils could not pronounce a single English word correctly. The poor quality of
the use of the English Language has been attributed to several factors
including teachers’ lack of the relevant pedagogical skills (Quagie, 2014).
Nevertheless, the language is used so extensively that teachers and students
ought to be appreciably competent in it.
Statement of the Problem
In accordance with the Ministry of Education, Ghana (2013),
there has been improvement in enrolment indicators for 2012/2013 academic year
showing that progress has been made to increase access to basic education.
Current statistics from the West Africa Examination Council, WAEC (2017) shows
that, a total of 468,053 students sat for the BECE this year. In 2014, there
were 242,157 students while in 2013, 150,000 students sat for the exams. In
2012, there were 377,000 students while in 2011, close to 288,000 students sat
for the exams. These statistics suggest an increase in enrolment of students at
the basic school level in Ghana.
In spite of the tremendous increase in numbers and the
recognition attached to the English language in Ghana by the Government,
standards are still falling (Yeboah, 2014). The West Africa Examination Council
(WAEC), the main examination body in Ghana in charge of BECE, had severally
complained about the poor use of English by students. In 2016, the Chief
Examiner reported that the inability of the candidates to express themselves
well in the English language was evident in other subjects. Specifically,
expressions of students were inconsistent with what they were describing, while
there were wrong uses of sequence of tense making expressions clumsy (WAEC,
2016).
One of the basic grammatical rules often abused is that
regarding the use of grammatical concord. Available statistics from the Cape
Coast Metropolitan Education Office shows that less than half of the students
passed in the English language in 2013 (43.9%), 2014 (47.2%) and 2015 (36.8%)
respectively. Specifically, observation and experience in the teaching profession in the Metropolis shows that many Junior High
School (JHS) learners are challenged in the appropriate use of grammatical
concord.
Basically, students seem to have problems with subject-verb
concord when they occur in different clauses, in the same clauses when the
normal word order is changed, and even when there are no intervening words
between the subject and the verb. These violations of the rules of concord have
resulted in students communicating sentences that present different shades of meanings.
In this instance, the recipient is much affected since the sentences show
distinctive shades of meaning as a result of wrong tense concord.The
inappropriate use of grammatical concord by students obstructs communication
and therefore meaning by the recipients. Therefore, inability of the students
to apply the exceptions to grammatical concord rules leads to errors in the
formation of plural and the past tense pattern.
The inappropriate use of grammatical concord remains
insurmountable to all stakeholders involved in the communication link.
According to Quagie (2011), when teachers, students and other stakeholders are
involved in the inappropriate use of grammatical concord, there is a loss of
attention and concentration as well as interest from the recipients. Therefore,
since grammar has become an essential communicative tool, its tutoring should
give way to practical discussion on how students can use it to communicate
essential information.
Johansson (2012) argues that there are several factors which
could create concord-related problems for learners of English, and that such
factors may be connected to inter- or intra-lingual factors. Quagie (2014)
noted that generally, concord still bothers students, because some teachers do
not possess the requisite qualification to teach the concept. However, the
misapplication of the rules governing the use of grammatical concord often
leads to intra-lingual errors.
This study seeks to explore the inter- or intra-lingual
factors associated with the wrong use of grammatical concord among JHS students
in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Additionally, the study seeks to explore the
different types of grammatical concord errors most common among the students.
For more Education Projects Click here
===================================================================Item Type: Ghanaian Topic | Size: 164 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
===================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.