Abstract:
This study sought to investigate the tense errors in the writings of students of St.
Bernadette’s Technical Institute in order to establish the exact problems for redress.
The researcher used the qualitative approach for the data collection and analysis.
Questionnaire, observation and class exercises and test formed the instruments mainly
used for the study. The respondents for the study were fifty (50) students and six (6)
English Language teachers in St. Bernadette’s Technical Institute whose data were
collected, interpreted and analyzed. The study revealed that students make errors in all
the tense forms even though the progressive forms recorded the least. They mostly
used the suffixes “-ed”or “-d” as a past tense marker for all verbs as well as for their
participles and the third person singular present form marker “-s” as a plural marker.
These errors are caused by many factors which include; interlingual and intralingual
factors as well as inappropriate teaching methods and approaches by the teachers. The
use of student centered approach and variety of teaching methods, applying tense
usage in all aspects of the language, deductive approach and improved knowledge and
techniques of teaching are some of the activities to help students overcome tense
errors. It is hoped that if the recommendations that this study came out with are given
the needed attention, it will go a long way to improve the performance of students in
the use of tenses and the English Language as a whole.
Description:
A dissertation in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Foreign
Languages Education and Communication submitted to the School of Graduate
Studies, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Education
(Teaching English as a Second Language)
in the University of Education, Winneba
SEPTEMBER, 2020
