Abstract:
There is the general perception that the standard of English among students in Ghana at all
levels of education is falling in recent times. Chief examiner’s reports received from the West
African Examinations Council (WAEC) from 2005 to 2016 have regularly indicated that most
students in the senior high school who fail in English lack in-depth knowledge of the rudiments
of the English language. Students’ lackadaisical attitude to the teaching and learning of the
language may be a contributory factor. They think that English, like all other languages should
not be learnt, but rather it should be spoken. This is of great concern to stakeholders of
education in the country, as English is emerging as the lingua franca of the world and it is
essential that students graduating from our secondary schools demonstrate solid knowledge of
both formal and conversational properties of the English language. This study seeks to
investigate the tense errors that students of Diabene Secondary Technical School make in essay
writing in order to establish the actual problem areas for attention and redress. The researcher
used qualitative method to analyse the data collected from the 115 essays written by the
students and also the information obtained from teachers of English during his interaction with
them. The findings of the study disclosed that students of Diabene Secondary Technical School
have insufficient knowledge of the English language and therefore, they will not be able to
communicate effectively and efficiently with other users of English and this will be a barrier
to their interaction with other students and friends. It is hoped that if the recommendations in
the study are carefully considered, standard of English will improve.
Description:
A DISSERTATION IN THE DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, FACULTY
OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION, SUBMITTED
TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION,
WINNEBA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
AWARD OF MASTER OF EDUCATION (TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND
LANGUAGE) DEGREE.
AUGUST, 2018