Analysis of concord errors in the written essays and objective tests of JHS two(2) pupils of Ayetepa DA Basic A and B schools

Abstract

Studies have shown that the major English writing problem area of students is the violation of English concord rules. The pupils of Ayetepa Basic Schools are no exception of this problem. Although concord rules are taught at the primary level and even in JHS 1, the JHS 2 pupils of Ayetepa D/A Basic „A‟ and „B‟ still have challenges making the words in their sentences agree with one another. This study therefore examined the specific concord errors that JHS 2 pupils of Ayetepa D/A Basic „A‟ and „B‟ schools have challenges in and also to find out the possible causes of these errors. A qualitative research design was adopted to randomly sample 60 pupils from the two schools. Both written essays and objective test items were employed to gather the data for analysis. Different concord errors identified in the data are grammatical concord errors, determiner-noun concord errors, verb tense concord errors, indefinite pronoun concord errors, and proximity concord errors. From these types, the errors were seen to have been caused by L1 interference, ignorance of rule restrictions, and incomplete application of rules, overgeneralization, and false analogy. Based on the results, it is argued that teachers need to use variety of techniques in lesson delivery in order for the pupils to produce English sentences without concord errors.