Abstract:
This study investigates the writing errors of teacher trainees of Ada College of
Education in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, identifies the causes of these errors
and assesses the impact of these errors on teaching and learning. To help guide this
study, two theoretical frameworks were adopted- the Error Analysis theory and the
Input Hypothesis Model. A qualitative research approach was used and the design
adopted was case study. A population sample of 35 final year teacher trainees on
practicum out of a student population 345 was used for the studies. In addition, 14
mentors of the trainees and 4 language tutors participated in the research. The purposive
sampling technique was used. In order to unearth the writing errors of the trainees, two
sets of exercises were given- a take-home essay and an error identification test. The
pupils’ exercise books were also scrutinised to find out if there were any slippages of
the trainees’ errors in the pupils’ output. These tools were further supported by
observation of trainees and pupils in the classroom during lesson delivery and an
interview with mentors and tutors. The results confirmed the existence of trainee errors
relating to tense, concord, expression, spelling, pronoun, preposition and letter case. It
also came out that the errors emanated from interlingual, intralingual and other sources.
The similarities between the trainees’ errors and those of the pupils gave a strong
indication that the trainees’ errors might have influenced those of the pupils.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Foreign
Language Education and Communication, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Teaching English as a Second Language)
in the University of Education, Winneba
AUGUST, 2020
