Concord problems in the writings of students a case study of basic 7 students of Bulinga junior high school in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region of Ghana.

Abstract

This is a qualitative study that analyzed common concord errors in the written essays of Basic 7 pupils of Bulinga Basic School in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region of Ghana. The data used for the analysis comprised pupils’ written essays. From this, a total of 153 errors were identified. Seven error types were identified and they include: Subject verb concord errors, Determiner nouns concord errors, coordinated subject concord errors, Noun pronoun concord errors, Inverted subject concord errors, Verb-verb concord errors and Construction with more than one concord errors. From this, subject verb concord errors had the highest frequency with errors on coordinated subject concord and inverted subject concord being the lowest. Based on the findings of the study, causes of errors in learners’ writing could be traced to lots of concord rules, overgeneralization, hypercorrection, context of learning, Lack of practice, Inappropriate teaching methods used by some teachers, Language transfer- interlingual and intralingual, ignorance of rule restrictions. Some suggestions are made to various stakeholders to ensure effective teaching and learning of the English Language in basic schools.