The
aim of this study is to examine how National Diploma (ND) II students of Kogi
State Polytechnic, Lokoja use concord. The Study adopts the systemic approach
to be able to give account of concord relationships in detail. The main
instrument used for the collection of the data analysed in the study is test
administration in classroom. A total of sixty objective questions and two essay
questions were administered to the one hundred and twenty students selected
randomly from four departments. The results of the four departments based on
the overall average scores of the categories of concord tested were shown. The
results were presented through percentage rating. The results showed that
Business Administration department scored 50.5% in subject-verb agreement,
Electrical Engineering department got 48.1%, Maths/Computer Science department
made 42.9% and department of Urban and Regional planning scored 57.2%. On
PronounAntecedent Concord, Business Administration scored 62.4%. On Electrical
Engineering department got 66.5%, Maths/Computer Science department made 59.7%
while Urban and Regional Planning department got 58.9% equally, on tense
concord, Business Administration department had 55.7%, Electrical Engineering
department scored 60.5%, Maths/Computer Science department made 59.7% and Urban and Regional Planning
department scored 61.6%. The study discovers that students in this polytechnic
lack the basic knowledge of the correct use of concord. It reveals that the
subjects did not have enough knowledge of the rules of concord that can aid
them to use English Language appropriately. It also reveals that the subjects did
not have adequate knowledge of tense as regards using the present and past
tense. Finally, the study shows that all types of concord in English,
especially subject-verb, pronoun-antecedent and tense concords considered in
this work are problematic to our subjects.
4.2. Overall Analysis
of the Results Item by Item- - -
-
45
4.3
Findings - - - -
- -
- -
- 71
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0
Preamble - - -
- -
- -
- - 73
5.1
Summary - - - -
- -
- -
- 73
5.2
Conclusion - - - - -
- -
- - 74
5.3
recommendations - -
- -
- -
- - 75
Bibliography
- - - - -
- -
- 77
Appendix
A - - - - - -
- -
- 81
Appendix
B - - - - - -
- -
- 88
Appendix
C - - - - - -
- -
- 89
Pr. - Present Tense
Pt. - Past Tense
Pr. s. - Present Singular
Pt. s. - Past Singular
Sub. sg. - SubjectSingular
Sub. pl. – Subject Plural
V. sg. – Verb Singular
V. pl – Verb Plural
Pr. cont. - Present Continuous
PT. cont. - Past continuous
1st; per. sg. - First Person Singular
1st; per. pl. - First Person Plural
2nd per. sg. - Second Person singular
2nd per. pl.–Second Person Plural
3rd. pers. sg.- Third Person Singular
3rd. pers. pl.- Third Person Plural
3rd; per. sg.femn. - Third Person Singular Feminine Ind. pron.sub. – Indefinite Pronoun Subject
Ant; sg; - Antecedent Singular
Ant; pl; - Antecedent Plural
HN – Head Noun
SPCA – Subject, Predicator, Complement and Adjunct
M. CL. – Main Clause
Cond. CL. – Conditional Clause
ESL – English as a Second Language
ND: National Diploma
NBTE: National Board for Technical Education
- Words above the arrow stand for the abbreviated word under it.
CHAPTER
ONE
Introduction
1.0. Preamble
Several studies
on the use of English have been carried out by researchers to determine how
students at the secondary school and tertiary levels of education use certain
aspects of the language. In addition, Scholars have expressed concerns over the
mass failure in English by students at all levels of education and the
inability ofothers to use English language to communicate and write
effectively.scholars include Adeyanju (4984 :23) where he says
However,many students of secondary and tertiary levels,as
well as others in various professions, have not mastered the English language
structure, usage and mechanics, and therefore communicate
ineffectively---. Adeyanju is not alone
in this lamentation. Ibileye (2003: 155) says
Recent failure rates in public examinations in
Nigeria underscore the declining fortunes of the English language in Nigeria
and indeed of education in general. This is an issue to which scholars --- have
continually drawn critical attention to.
The most
disturbing thing is that these students that fail English in public
examinations or cannot use English effectively or misuse grammatical categories
are taught and handled at their various levels by lecturers and teachers. Then,
what are the reasons for this mass failure rates?. In response to this
question, Ibileye (2003 :155) says
Studies have shown, unfortunately, however, that the
quality of the teachers employed to teach English at the secondary school level
particularly calls into question the
seriousness of the nation‟s educational policy
especially with specific emphasis on the English language component.
This tells us the quality of teachers of
English language at secondary school level and why students at that level fail
in examination. But what of students at the tertiary education level?
It is true that
English, like any other language, is rule
governed. That is, there is a set of structural rules that govern the
composition of words, phrases,clauses and sentences in English.It is these
rules that students both at the secondary and tertiary institutions have not
been able to observe that always lead to misuse of certain grammatical
categories like concord,auxiliary verbs, preposition, articles, phrasal verbs
of different kinds and other categories.
Scholars like
Anasiudu (1983), Olaofe (1988), Digga (1970), Alagbe (2001), Ibileye(2003), and
Lawal (2006) are of the view that there is ineffective use of English among
students at both the secondary and tertiary levels of education in Nigeria. If
these sets of students, especially students of tertiary institutions such as
university, polytechnics and colleges of education who are supposed to use
thelanguage effectively, but they cannot, then there is a serious problem on ground that needs
solutions. The importance of
English language cannot
beoveremphasisedbecause it remains the official language in Nigeria. Acknowledging
the relevance of English as a language of communication in Nigeria,
Bamgbose(1971) says„„of all the heritage left behind in Nigeria by the British
at the end of the colonial administration, probably none is more important than
the English language.‟‟ Bamgbose is not alone in this acknowledgement of the relevance of English language just as Ibileye (2003) tries
to capture the global acceptability of English language when he says
English also ensures international mobility as much
of the communication that takes place in the world today is substantially
through the English language which is spoken by the largest population of the
world. The centrality of English in Nigeria as a language of government,
business, education, the mass media and
as a means of external communication is not in doubt. It is for this reason
that this researcher deems it necessary to carry out this study to enlarge the scope of similar studies ealier
carried out in order to bring about possible and concrete solutions to poor performance
by students of tertiary institutions in particular and users of English
language in general.
1.1 Statement of Research Problem
The rate of
failure among students of tertiary institutions in English language examinations has become a thing of serious
concern to both linguists, language teachers, lecturers, examiners and the
general public. Many experts, researchers and scholars, as earlier stated, have
lamented over the rate of failure and
low performance of students in English language examinations. In the use of
English, areas that students and other users of English are prone to committing
errors include wrong use of tenses, prepositions, adjectives, faulty passive
forms, including wrong application of
concord.
Example:
The above expressions show that some students and some other users of
English lack the knowledge of subject verb agreement in their spoken and
written English.
The sentences above show that the writers lack the knowledge of pronoun –antecedent in their use of English.
From the above, it is glaring that some
students and users of English use sentences that lack concord.
1.2 Research Questions
In order to carryout the analysis of the use
of concord among NDII students of Kogi State Polytechnic, the study was guided
by the following questions:
i. What
are the factors responsible for students‟ wrong application of concord rules in
sentence construction? ii. Which of the aspects of concord pose
more problem to the users of
English at the place of research?
iii. What
are the corrective measures for solving the problems that the NDII students of
Kogi State Polytechnic face in using
English Concord ?
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study
This study
aims at presenting concord errors of National Diploma (ND) II students of Kogi
State Polytechnic, Lokoja.This is due to the fact that students misuse concord
in their written and spoken form of English. Hence, this work hopes to :
i.
Show the magnitude of
errors committed by the National Diploma (ND) II students of Kogi State
Polytechnic in the course of using concord.
ii.
Find out the factors
responsible for the problems National
Diploma
(ND)II
students of Kogi State Polytechnic face in using concord.
iii.
To suggest some possible
solutions which can help the students
master the rules guiding the use of concord in English.
1.4 Justification For The Study
The need for this
study arose when it was observed that the rate of grammatical errors,
especially, concord errors being committed by ND II students of Kogi State
Polytechnic were described as alarming. It
was also observed that much work on grammatical errors has been carried
out at unversity level. Therefore, there is the need for this study on concord
errors to be carried out in a tertiary institution like a polytechnic,
particularly among the NDII students.
This is because as theygraduate and join the society, they would be expected to
speak and write good English.
It is hoped
that this study willdraw the attention of the target population to errors that
have to do with the use of concord among National Diploma (ND) II students of
Kogi State Polytechnic and other tertiary institutions in the country.
1.5 Scope and Delimitation of the Study
This study will
focus on how students use and misuse concord especially in their writings.
Particularly, aspects of concord such as subjectverb agreement, tense agreement
and pronoun-antecedent are looked at.
A total of four
(4) schools (departments) are used with 30 students selected randomly from each
department.
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