An analysis of tense errors in students’ written essays- a case study of Diabene Secondary Technical School.

Abstract

There is the general perception that the standard of English among students in Ghana at all levels of education is falling in recent times. Chief examiner’s reports received from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) from 2005 to 2016 have regularly indicated that most students in the senior high school who fail in English lack in-depth knowledge of the rudiments of the English language. Students’ lackadaisical attitude to the teaching and learning of the language may be a contributory factor. They think that English, like all other languages should not be learnt, but rather it should be spoken. This is of great concern to stakeholders of education in the country, as English is emerging as the lingua franca of the world and it is essential that students graduating from our secondary schools demonstrate solid knowledge of both formal and conversational properties of the English language. This study seeks to investigate the tense errors that students of Diabene Secondary Technical School make in essay writing in order to establish the actual problem areas for attention and redress. The researcher used qualitative method to analyse the data collected from the 115 essays written by the students and also the information obtained from teachers of English during his interaction with them. The findings of the study disclosed that students of Diabene Secondary Technical School have insufficient knowledge of the English language and therefore, they will not be able to communicate effectively and efficiently with other users of English and this will be a barrier to their interaction with other students and friends. It is hoped that if the recommendations in the study are carefully considered, standard of English will improve.