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Title:
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Collocational Errors in the Written English of Senior Secondary School Pupils in Six Yoruba-Speaking States in Nigeria
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Author:
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Rotimi Taiwo
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
, PhD English Language
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Degree Date:
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2003
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Applied Linguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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English
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Director(s):
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Ralph Atoye
Williams Aremo
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Abstract:
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The thesis had three specific objectives: (i) to identify the collocational
errors in the written English of SSS I pupils in six Yoruba-speaking states
in Nigeria (ii) to classify and discuss the identified deviant
collocations; and (iii) to offer suggestions on how to improve the teaching
and learning of English lexis in Nigerian secondary schools.
The data for the study were drawn from answer scripts to a series of
composition tests written by the pupils randomly selected from 60 local
government areas – 10 from each of the six states. And from each of the 10
LGAs, three were selected by stratified random sampling.
Guided by neo-Firthian literature on lexical collocation, a
lexeme-by-lexeme error analysis of the answer scripts was carried out to
identify the deviant collocational forms, which were later classified under
10 collocational error types. The distribution of each type of
collocational error in each school type (Relative Frequency Percentages
(RFPs)) and the distribution of the three school types (Relative Frequency
Percentage Averages (RFPAs)) were calculated. The error with the highest
RFPA was the one that deals with the syntagmatic pairing of incompatible
items (11.07%), while the error with the least RFPA was the one that deals
with the juxtaposition of several items which do not collocate (1.22%).
The findings revealed that the subjects had both remedial and developmental
problems with the mastery of English collocations. The remedial problems
manifested in the subjects' inability to use particular collocations
correctly, while their developmental problems manifested in their non-use
of the collocations needed to convey their ideas in the compositions that
they wrote.
On the basis of the findings, it is suggested that efforts should always be
made to draw attention to collocations in the teaching of English
registers. Moreover, extensive reading of English medium texts by learners
and their participation through the extensive use of aids to vocabulary
learning (e.g., lexical matrices, lexical forks, lexical network and
lexical matching) should be encouraged. Lastly, it is suggested that the
learners be taught and encouraged to use English dictionaries.
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