Writing errors of the teacher trainee and their impact on pedagogy, a case study of Ada College of Education

Abstract

This study investigates the writing errors of teacher trainees of Ada College of Education in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, identifies the causes of these errors and assesses the impact of these errors on teaching and learning. To help guide this study, two theoretical frameworks were adopted- the Error Analysis theory and the Input Hypothesis Model. A qualitative research approach was used and the design adopted was case study. A population sample of 35 final year teacher trainees on practicum out of a student population 345 was used for the studies. In addition, 14 mentors of the trainees and 4 language tutors participated in the research. The purposive sampling technique was used. In order to unearth the writing errors of the trainees, two sets of exercises were given- a take-home essay and an error identification test. The pupils’ exercise books were also scrutinised to find out if there were any slippages of the trainees’ errors in the pupils’ output. These tools were further supported by observation of trainees and pupils in the classroom during lesson delivery and an interview with mentors and tutors. The results confirmed the existence of trainee errors relating to tense, concord, expression, spelling, pronoun, preposition and letter case. It also came out that the errors emanated from interlingual, intralingual and other sources. The similarities between the trainees’ errors and those of the pupils gave a strong indication that the trainees’ errors might have influenced those of the pupils.