Contraintes d’emploi des flexions verbales du Temps présent des verbes du premier groupe dans les écrits en classe de fle le cas des apprenants de St. Anthony of Padua catholic jhs

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.