Abstract:
This research work aims at finding out the difficulties encountered by JHS2 learners
of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic school in Kwesimintsim Kwesimintsim-Takoradi regarding the use
of inflectional affixes (flexions verbales) in written French as a Foreign Language . We
have observed that learners encounter difficulties in establishing and indicating the appropriate inflectional affixes when conjugating first group of verbs in the present
tense . This is because, they negatively transfer the English language structure and
sometimes, the structure of their native language into the French language. The
method used in teaching as well as the complexity of the French language are some
factors of the difficulties learners encounter in the use of flexions verbales verbales. Data were
collected through questionnaire for teachers to collect information on pedagogical
practices and opinions on the use of inflectional affixes. Again, a written test was
administered to learners to clearly establish the extent of the difficulty they encounter
in the use of inflectional affixes of first group of verbs in the present tense. The
analyses have shown that, majority of learners were confused in choosing the correct
form of inflectional affixes to complete certain given v erbs to establish the agreement
between the subject in gender and in number. The study recommends activity methods
as recommended by the communicative approac h, different types of exercises on
inflectional affixes in the form of drills, among others, be pr oposed to learners,
reading of text books taking into consideration meaning and the linguistic elements,
teaching with modern pedagogical approaches. It is expected that this research work
will help minimize learners’ errors in the domain of inflectional a ffixes.
Description:
A dissertation in the Department of French Education,
Faculty of Foreign Languages Education,
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the
Master of Education
(French Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba