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ERROR ANALYSIS of GRADE 12 PUPILS' in ENGLISH EXPOSITORY by SIMBEYE RACHEAL MWAKA a Dissertation Submitted to the Universit ERROR ANALYSIS OF GRADE 12 PUPILS’ IN ENGLISH EXPOSITORY COMPOSITIONS: A CASE OF SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NAKONDE DISTRICT ZAMBIA BY SIMBEYE RACHEAL MWAKA A Dissertation Submitted to the University of Zambia in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Award of a Degree of Masters of Education (Applied Linguistics) The University of Zambia Lusaka 2016 i DECLARATION I, Racheal Mwaka Simbeye, hereby declare that this dissertation represents my own work and that it has not been previously submitted for a degree at this or any other University. Signed: ………………………………………………….. Date : …………………………………………………… i DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to , my children Wila Maimbo Sikanyika and Alinani Sikanyika. My brother in-law Mr. George Siziya .My sisters; Rose, Mwiche and Maimbo. They exercised patience and rendered encouragement during the course of my study. My sister Maimbo for sending me a laptop which has made my study more effective. ii APPROVAL This Dissertation of Simbeye Racheal Mwaka is approved as fulfilling part of the requirement for the award of Master of Education (Applied Linguistics) at the University of Zambia. EXAMINERS 1. Date: ……………………………….. 2. Date: ………………………………… 3. Date:…………………………………. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the valued contributions of many people without whom the strains of this research would not have been achieved. I key tribute to my academic supervisors Dr J. Simwinga and Dr .D. Banda, for their valuable contribution in shaping up the research. Indeed they need to be thanked for their continual support and guidance, without which my task would not have been accomplished. I greatly appreciate their words of encouragement. These two scholars have been an inspiration to me and if I have researched these heights, they deserve the commendation more than I do. I further recognize the noble determination of men and women who took profound attention in the research and offered assistance and encouragement. In this research, special thanks are due to Mr. J. Mwanza and Mr. Shipolo for their willingness to help whenever called upon. I valued their efforts, which combined very well with my input. To my family, many thanks for understanding and a positive attitude towards this study. I want to thank my children Maimbo and Alinani for their encouragement and support. To my son Maimbo, I say many thanks for his endurance and loyalty during my absence from home. I also thank my son Alinani, for his reassurance even when he was away pursuing his own studies in Russia. To my sisters, Rose, Mwiche and Maimbo for their support and encouragement, I say words are completely inadequate to qualify your support. My work would not have been easy without their support. I would also like to thank the offices of the Provincial Education Officer, Muchinga Province and the District Board Secretary and the head teachers in respective schools for allowing me to do my research and for their support. I also thank the teachers for their eagerness and collaboration during the research. Special thanks go to the participants in Nakonde District who made it possible for me to undertake the study. My gratitude will be inadequate without expressing my gratefulness to my son for tolerating my academic desire and for his sustained understanding support and perseverance and remaining a pillar in our home during my long period of absence. Finally, I am grateful to my employers for granting me paid study leave, yet again without which it would have been impossible to pursue my Masters‘program me iv ABSTRACT There has been a tremendous decline in the writing skills of Grade 12s. It has been noted that compositions produced by these learners are usually full of errors. As a language teacher for nineteen years, I have observed that despite measures put in place to improve writing, it is not known what causes pupils to make numerous errors when writing compositions in English. The Study sought to find out some of the causes. English is the world‘s widely studied language and Is critical to the social and economic advancement of any learner or person here in Zambia. The study employed a descriptive survey design. The sample of the study included teachers, pupils and administrators. Lesson observations were done and semi-structured interviews questionnaires and focus groups discussions were done. The data was analyzed qualitatively into themes and Subthemes. The study did an analysis of the sample scripts from the pupils by looking at the types of pupils ‘errors, the views of the pupils as regards to the teachers effectiveness in their delivering of lessons and learning material and the attitudes of both the teachers and the pupils towards teaching and learning English composition. The study has shown, among other things that the pupils enter Grade 12 with a faulty background of English language and do not have the basic writing skills either. Lack of a reading culture among teachers and learners was also identified as one contributing factor to the challenges observed in the writing of English composition by Grade 12 learners. The fact that pupils are not taught the necessary composition skills and theories in the observed schools makes it difficult for them to acquire the required writing skills in writing English language composition. Other contributing factors were negative attitudes of teachers towards the teaching of English composition as they often appear to be testing other than teaching and the lack of teaching and learning material in English language. The findings were that Grade 12 pupil‘s make numerous errors in their compositions. The recommendations were that the pupils needed to be provided with a Language rich environment which among others should include: libraries and enough teaching and learning materials. Furthermore, the Standards officers whose job is to supervise teachers should take seriously the monitoring of what goes on in classrooms, especially schools in rural areas. It is important to find ways of improving learner‘s writing skills to ensure that we have citizens who write properly. v LIST OF ACRONYMS DEBS – District Education Board Secretary ESL – English as a Second Language EFL – English as a First Language EFL – English as a Foreign Language ELT – English Language Teaching EA – Error Analysis GCE – General Certificate of Examinations IAWE – international Association for World Englishes ICWE – International Committee of the study of World Englishes L1 - First Language L2 - Second Language L3 - Third Language MT – Mother Tongue MTL – Mother Tongue Language NL – Native Language SLA – Second Language Acquisition TL – Target Language TESOL – Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages TOEIC – Test for English for International Communication vi Table of Contents DECLARATION ..................................................................................................................................... i APPROVAL ......................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................... vi 1.1 OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ............................................................................................. 8 1.5 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................................. 9 THE STUDY AIMED AT ESTABLISHING: .................................................................................... 9 1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................ 9 1.8 LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................................ 10 1.10 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................. 15 10 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION ................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................... 21 2.0.1 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................... 21 2.1 CONCEPT OF ERROR ANALYSIS .......................................................................................... 21 2.2 ESTABLISHING THE CAUSES OF ERRORS ......................................................................... 28 2.3 TEACHERS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IN TEACHING COMPOSITIONS ................. 30 2.4 THE VIEWS OF THE PUPILS ON THE TEACHING AND THE TEACHING PROCESS .... 32 2.5 TEACHING AND LEARNING MATERIALS .......................................................................... 32 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................................................
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