An Analysis of Writing Errors in First Draft Essays of Northern Nigerian College Freshmen

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue IV, April 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

An Analysis of Writing Errors in First Draft Essays of Northern Nigerian College Freshmen

Dr. Hannah Mweru Mugambi, Dr. Achoda Nicholas Achoda
English Language and Literature Department, American University of Nigeria

Abstract-This research paper is a concise analysis of writing errors in first draft essays of Northern Nigeria college freshmen. Data is drawn from 70 first draft freshman composition corpus which is presented and analyzed. Among the most frequent errors found are in the use of they, their, and there, the use of been and being, and the plural/ singular ‘s’ endings among others. Causative factors of errors are attributed to either careless mistakes, interlanguage development, L1 interference, overgeneralization, or language difficulty. Students come into college already using a non-standard variety of the English language, yet the form of standard English that is prescribed for use at college level in Nigeria is significantly different from those varieties that students already speak and are familiar with. This study reveals certain “errors” that emanates from students’ essay which arises out of the transfer of the lingua franca forms into academic writing work. There is also the dialectical component, as majority of the study population speak Hausa/Fulfulde language. The main objective of this study is to identify those “errors” that students in north-east Nigeria make in college level writing in order to help improve pedagogy in English language at this level. This study focuses on grammatical error analysis, while keeping in mind the importance of analysis at the levels of semantics, and overall discourse. Although students’ writing errors can be classified into various linguistic categories such as graphological, morphological, syntactical, lexicological and discoursal and semantic levels, this study focuses on the morpho-syntactic level errors only. A total of 70 student essays were read, graded and analyzed for morphological and syntactic level errors which are identified and marked in red and then categorized accordingly. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and strategic random sampling method was used to select the study population. Findings from the study revealed that errors are caused by a number of overarching factors which may include group work, L1 interference, TL difficulty as well as other cognitive factors like learner’s communicative strategies, leaner grammar inability, learner’s lexical deficit in coining word and learners’ inability to use synonyms. The study also provides suggestions and strategies for helping students to self-correct. The study recommends a fair balance between correcting errors whilst allowing natural stages of language learning to take place. When educators have a comprehensive understanding of students’ challenges it will help them in guiding the students better. This will boost the students’ morale and also help in the improving their overall academic performances.

Keywords: Errors, Composition, Linguistics, Dialect, Standard English, College, Lingua Franca.

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Background to the Study

Students gain admission into college with an already existing non-standard variety of the English language, yet the form of standard English that is acceptable and generally prescribed for use at college level in Nigeria is significantly different from those varieties that students already speak and are familiar with. Consequently, students’ essays contain certain “errors” which arises out of the transfer of the lingua franca forms into academic writing work. Records shows that most students use English as a second language in their various homes. However, there is a significant difference between standard English as prescribed by formal educational institutions, and those dialects that students use informally. The major crux of this research paper is to therefore investigate this significant difference in variations across dialects and standard English use as prescribed in college. This paper will also investigate what linguistic features of informal English tend to occur in ¬¬the writings of students in a West African college.

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