ABSTRACT
This research is an ex-post facto aimed at establishing relationship between errors and some factors as a causative agent. The researcher looked at determinants of errors in written Igbo composition. The researcher work specifically went into identifying, analyzing and describing the mechanical and expressional errors primary school pupils make in written Igbo composition. The result of the study may direct the attention of Igbo teachers to the specific errors identified, thereby saving time on the teaching task and ensuring a greater level of understanding of the concept.
The data collected with written work was analysed with chi-square (x2) test statistics for the hypotheses that was tested.
- There was no significant difference in the kind of error made in written Igbo composition
- Rural pupils made more errors than the urban pupils
- Male pupils made more errors than their female counterparts.
Suggestions were made with regards to what can be done to minimize the pupils errors in their written work. The findings shows that the types of errors committed by pupils in written Igbo composition are
- Mechanical and expressional errors.
- Rural primary pupils commit more mechanical errors than their urban counterparts.
- Males recorded more mechanical errors than females.
The educational implications of the study were presented. The researcher based on the findings recommended that
- use error analysis as a teaching procedure
- Seminars, workshops, conferences should be organized for the pupils at classroom level to improve the learning and use of Igbo language.
- Use of teaching aids in classroom instruction
- Devotion of time to teaching Igbo mechanics
- Development of positive attitude to the study of Igbo language by parents among others. All the above should be taken cognizance of to avoid the occurrence of the problems as investigated.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The effectiveness of any educational system relies, upon the achievement of educational goals. Going by this, the educational system that operates in a given society is aimed at attaining proper development of the learner and the community where the school is located (Ogbonnaya, 2003). The primary medium of any educational programme is language. According to Hasen (2001), language is the vehicle for the implementation of the curriculum of a given society in the classroom setting. It is when the language used is known and understood by the learners and the teachers that the content of the educational programme can be made more meaningful, practicable and relevant.
One of the broad aims of the primary school education is to expose the pupils to all areas of studies, including the development of language and culture. The Igbo language is very vital to the mental development of the Igbo child. It helps the pupils to be fluent in speaking as well as writing the Igbo language. It makes for the ability to criticize oneself and also to look at things critically. It is important to note that pupils who read more, think better and argue more intelligently. Yule (2002) states that “one of the functions of language is to interact”. It is language that beings use to interact with each other socially or emotionally, indicate friendliness, cooperation, hostility, annoyance, pain, or pleasure. This means that if a child is acquainted with his language, he would be able to interact easily with his fellow human beings.Nwadike (2008) emphasizes that “a society without language is like that without culture”. Language and culture are inseparable and to separate a child from his language at the early stages of his school education is to make him have no regard for his culture. It is important to start at early stage to expose a child to his language in order to make him cope with the societal demands. In further recognition of this fact, the International Institute of Africa Languages and Culture (ILLAC) (1998) states that for the first three years in school, the medium of instruction should be principally the mother tongue. The rationale for this decision, according to ILLAC, is that language and mind work together and where a child cannot speak his mother tongue, such a child is bound to do most of his thinking in a foreign language. For the purpose of promoting unity and progress in Nigeria, the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) made it compulsory that every Nigerian should learn his or her mother tongue in addition to one other recognized language in Nigeria. This policy accorded Nigerian languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, important place in the school curriculum. In fact, there are reasonable speculations to the effect that if seriously taught in the school system, one of them will eventually emerge as a national language without government imposing it on the nation.
Though recognized and recommended, it is observed that Igbo language is neglected. Many people shun it and it does not receive the desired attention in our society and in schools. It is observed that the elites embrace English and treat their language with contempt. In schools, the language (Igbo) is not allotted enough time in the school timetable; instead, the English language is given more attention and is also used as a medium of instruction. No wonder the English language in Nigeria is taken as the yardstick for measuring literacy and even determining when the standard of education is rising or falling. English language enjoys the premier position of being the compulsory subject in the West African school certificate examination. For this reason, many educated Nigerians assume that there is nothing worthy of studying in Nigeria language, culture, history and art. The negative attitude of the people towards the Igbo language is not limited to the learners and teachers alone but it cuts across all segments of the society. Students of the language at higher institutions are called Igbo B. K. To compound the neglect, the parental negative attitude also affects the achievement level of the pupils in schools (Okoye, 2003). Another problem is that majority of the Igbo text books are written in the English language and this brings confusion to the pupils. At the primary school level, the teachers are expected to teach all the subjects in the school including the Igbo language. This particular policy does not take cognizance of the area of specialization of the teacher. For instance, a primary school teacher who studied physics in higher institution is expected to teach Igbo language in his/her school. Due to the fact that it is not his/her area of study, he will not impart to pupils the knowledge that is required of him.
Apart from this handicap, the importance of the Igbo language in the development of our culture cannot be over emphasized. The Igbo language studies in the primary school incorporate such areas as grammar of the language, written and oral literature, traditions and institutions. All these are taught and learnt as one subject in the primary school. The objective of this policy at this lower level of education is to expose them to all the realizations of the Igbo language necessary. The primary school pupils study their mother tongue in order to equip them to cope with the demands of their native language.
There are complex problems encountered by the Nigerian learner of Igbo. Ugwu (2004) observes that there is always deviance when there is a contact between the mother tongue and variety. This means that the learner has to grapple with both inter-language and intra language difficulties. Inter-language, is the contact of two different languages while intra-language, is the linguistics idiosyncrasies of a given language that can cause learning problems. Other problems associated with the study of the Igbo language are dialectal interference and the gender view of the subject. For example in central Igbo an elephant is called Ele but due to dialectal differences, some people call it Ene and some Ere. All the aforementioned problems depict the level of errors committed by pupils in the written Igbo composition hence, the low achievement level on pupils continuous assessment. Another problem of Nigerian learner of Igbo is the mixture of Igbo and English (code-switching); and the standard Igbo dialect (written Igbo). It does appear that the case or flexibility with which the Nigerian Igbo grapple with the language codes and levels in the same utterance or piece of writing is the root of Igbo language learning difficulties.
The report on the achievement of pupils in the Igbo composition in their continuous assessment shows that most of the pupils could not write in Standard Igbo. They wrote their dialect and this made it difficult for the examiners to understand what they have written. While some pupils wrote their essays in English instead of Igbo, others mixed up both English and Igbo. This shows that many of them have not yet mastered the use of Standard Igbo. It is pertinent at this juncture to know the determinants of errors in written Igbo composition in primary schools.
According to Corder (2004) errors are deviances caused by lack of competence. Errors are not mostly self-correctable instead further learning must take place before they are correctable. Errors in the written Igbo composition refer to deviances caused by lack of competence on the Igbo language generally. Odlin (2006) states that errors are important evidence for the strength and weakness of a particular native language influence. Written work is a particular weakness for primary school learners in Nigeria. One significant cause of the under achievement may possibly be the lack of knowledge in writing the Igbo language. Join (2005) in Chomsky (2007) defined error by differentiating between competence and performance. Mistakes are performance related deviances which can occur as a result of factors external to the competence of the speaker, such as tiredness or lack of concentration. These mistakes are due to a failure to utilize a known system correctly (Brown, 2001). By implication errors are deviances caused by a lack of competence systematic and noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker (Corder, 2004). This simply means that pupils commit errors due to lack of knowledge on the language but during the process of writing, the mistake that may occur is not due to lack of knowledge but as a result of external factors. These errors made by primary school pupils in the written Igbo composition may be overt or covert, which shows outright lack of competence. Some of the errors, usually made by primary school pupils may be spelling or punctuation error. Spelling errors include omission/wrong use of diacritic mark, omission/wrong use of pronoun etc. Errors according to Abonyi (2007) are those deviations that are systematic in nature. Errors are deviances resulting from ignorance and can be classified as grammatical errors, spelling, punctuation/structural, lexical and mechanical errors as earlier stated.
