Grammatical error analysis, an investigation of the essays of pupils of three Junior High Schools of Effiduase Ashanti Region

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to unravel the mystery surrounding the errors committed by some JHS pupils in the Effijam-Sekyere District of the Ashanti region. It was necessary to find out why these errors: Tense, Spelling, Concord, Capitalization and Preposition errors which were identified were committed by pupils in most cases. This study adopted a qualitative approach in examining the grammatical errors in the written essays of 150 JHS pupils of three different schools in the district. The instruments used for the data collection were written essays, informal interviewing and observation. A total of 3463 errors were committed owing to the context of teaching, social networking sites complexity in the L2, differences in the structure of the L1 and L2 and lack of practice. Subsequently four recommendations were made; concerning how the respective stakeholders can effectively play their roles to minimise and eventually eliminate some of the errors and also embark on future research.