Nature And Treatment Of Secondary School Students’ Morpho-Syntactic Errors In English Language Classrooms: The Case Of Dodoma Region

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to examine issues related to morpho-syntactic errors among secondary school students in Tanzanian English Language Classrooms. Specifically, the study aimed at: identifying common morpho-syntactic errors committed by students in English language classrooms, finding out possible factors for students‟ errors and assessing the corrective feedback techniques that teachers use to correct their students‟ errors (both written and spoken errors). The study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection and analysis. A sample of eighty four respondents was selected; among them were fifty four secondary school students, nine secondary school teachers and twenty diploma in education second year students. Three types of data collection methods were used and these are questionnaire, observation and documentation. The study revealed seven common morpho-syntactic errors among the students. The revealed morpho-syntactic errors include; errors related to wrong use of verbs, subordination and coordination errors, pronoun errors, preposition errors, double subject marking errors, determiner errors and plural formation errors. Moreover, the study identified seven factors which facilitate learners to commit such errors. These factors are interference of Kiswahili, inheritance difficulty of English, inadequate exposure to the language use, incompetent models, poor implementation of the syllabus, neglecting students‟ affective domain and disvaluing and maltreatment of learners‟ errors. On top of that, it was discovered that teachers prefer the use of indirect corrective feedback when they mark written assignments while explicit and recast are the most applied techniques in handling students‟ oral errors.