Cite this article as: Nasir Y. M. & Badaru A., (2026). Investigating Tense and aspect Errors in Homogenous Senior Secondary Schools Students in English Language: A Case Study of Zamfara North Senatorial District. Zamfara International Journal of Humanities, 4(2), 16-29. www.doi.org/10.36349/zamijoh.2026.v04i02.002.
By
Yusuf Muhammad Nasir1
Abdulwahab Badaru2
1Department of Liberal Studies Federal
Polytechnic, Kaura Namoda
Abstract: The terms
‘Tense’ and ‘Aspect’ are two interrelated grammatical elements which are
closely connected. Tense denotes the direction of an action or an event in
time. However, Aspect indicates how an action is to be viewed with respect to
time rather than to its real direction in time. The distinction between the two
categories is, ‘tense’ shows the direction of an action in time whereas
‘aspect’ shows how the action is to be perceived with time. Therefore, ‘Tense’
and ‘Aspect’ as relevant grammatical elements in English language imposed lots
of problems to both teachers and learners of English language as a Second
Language. This is one of the commonest areas in which many Nigerian Students
commit lots of errors, or experience numerous problems which many teachers of
English find very difficult to remedy. This Study therefore, investigated Tense
and Aspect problems found in Zamfara North Senatorial District; which include
Birnin Magaji, Kaura Namoda, Shinkafi and Zurmi Local Government Areas. The study
explores the nature of such errors, the frequency of their occurrences, their
underlying causes as well as proffers some pedagogical solutions. The main aim
is to investigate and analyse the tense and aspect problems of some selected
Secondary Schools in Zamfara North Senatorial District. The objectives,
however, included the types of grammatical errors of tense and aspect in both
written and spoken forms. It also provided corrective measures and proffered
solutions or remedies to the errors in the students’ writing. Also, SSPS model
was adopted to facilitate correct data analysis. The outcomes of this research
included; difficulties in the use of appropriate tenses and aspect by both
teachers and learners, problems of second language interference, poor models
usage e.t.c. The research recommended that students at SSS levels should be
introduced to numerous exercises in English such as reading,
storytelling/writing, literary and debating competitions within the schools, at
local government and state levels, all for the students to have good command of
the Language in both written and spoken mode.
Keywords: Tenses,
Aspect, Errors, Homogenous Senior Secondary Schools Students
Introduction
Tense and Aspect)’ are very
important topic in English language. These topics are taught at almost every
level of education (i e from primary school to tertiary institutions of
learning) in Nigeria. Garba (2010) notes that “English is the only subject that
has comfortably found a more prestigious place in the Nigerian school
curriculum, and that the grammatical feature of tense and aspect appears to be
one of the key topics whose aspects are taught and built upon almost every year
at every level of education”. However, these grammatical topics are said to be
among the commonest areas in which many Nigerian students commit lots of errors
or experience problems and which many teachers of English find most difficult
to remedy. Aje, (2002) attests that, this could, “probably because of shortage
of empirical studies on the phenomenon or issue, especially at the polytechnic
level”
Personal observation in
the secondary school system over the years confirms Aje’s (2002) remark that
tense and aspect errors are the commonest errors that many Nigerian students
make. Furthermore, various reports from different examination bodies like West
African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO), Joint
Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and other Examination agencies over
the years show that students’ performance in English has been disappointedly
low.
This paper, therefore,
seeks to investigate tense and aspect problems in Senior Secondary Students in
Zamfara North Senatorial District. It is set to find out the nature of the
errors, the frequency of their occurrence, the underlying causes and pedagogical
solutions to the problems. This is important because…. “Without adequate
knowledge of what precisely students’ difficulties are, years of precious
remedial teaching and learning can be wasted,” (Yakson, 1989:1).
Over the years,
students’ performance in English language in Nigerian Schools has been
disappointingly low. The situation is more apparently worrisome at the Senior
Secondary Schools. In the face of recent revelation by the examination bodies
such as WAEC and NECO, it has been observed that the poor performance of the
students of Nigerian Secondary Schools is mostly evident in two areas: poor
mastery in the English language and lack of requisite technical skills. Cool
(1996) notes that, mastery of a language depends largely on the understanding
of its grammatical structures and rules. So, for one to function effectively in
the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, the
knowledge of the language structure to one is most essential. Thus, the
students’ poor mastery of English, which appears to manifest more glaringly on
the topics of Tense and Aspect; with particular reference to Students in
Zamfara North Senatorial District form the issues to be investigated by this
paper. The aim is to investigate and analyse the use of Tense and Aspect
problems by Senior Secondary School Students in Zamfara North Senatorial
District and it will be useful to government agencies that are entrusted with
educational policy formulation and implementation as it will provide baseline
information that help to shape certain policy formulations in relation to
English language and teaching in the Nigerian schools. It will also generate
further interest in research on students’ grammatical deficiencies in our
technologically based institution, especially in the educationally
disadvantaged Northern part of Nigeria where attitudes to English language
learning appeared generally discouraging.
According to Frith
(1979), although work in this area has increased in recent years, the scope of
the research is still very limited and it is right to pay attention to the
timely warning of Tarone, swain and Fathman (1976) that hasty pedagogical
applications should not be made on the basis of its findings. The following are
the reasons they advanced.
First, Dulay and Burt
(1975:53-63) conducted the error analysis in the early part of this decade
which has shown that only an insignificant number of the errors made by L2
learners are due to interference from their native language. Structural
linguists of the fifties put their contrastive Analysis hypothesis contrary to
this. They maintained that negative transfer, or interference from the native
language is the cause of the majority of the errors made by L2 learners. This
is shared by Dulay and Burt (opcit).
Buteau (1970) and
Brudhiprabha (1972) experimented on this using written composition of French
and Thai respectively. They investigated the significance and sources of the
errors made by these students. Both found that errors due to negative transfer
were not statistically significant. Taylor (1974) found that adult elementary
level EFL students used transfer learning strategies more often than those at
the immediate level at the University of Michigan’s English Language Institute.
He also shared the same view with Brudhiprabha, that is, as L2 learners move
closer to TL performance; their problems will indicate hypothesis testing type
errors such as over generalisation and violation of rule restrictions rather
than native language transfer.
Scott and Tucker (1974)
give the following as an interesting description of error analysis of oral and
written samples of 22 Arabic-speaking EFL Students at the American University
of Beirut. They offer the following points: (1) for some students, native
language interference was a persistent problem in the use of prepositions and
articles. (Here one must question the validity of even a tentative conclusion
of this type, since no attempt was made to determine what percentage of this
problem was due to native language interference and what was due to the
semantic complexities of these elements in TL- a formidable task indeed.) (2)
English word order was an early acquisition whereas object deletion was late.
This transformation was actually learned during the term in which the
experiment was carried out. (3) Relative clauses in which the relative pronoun
was the object of a preposition were attempted infrequently and only in
writing-- apparently the students had not yet acquired this structure.
The nature of corpus led
the researchers to posit a rule-governed interlanguage system which was changed
and reorganized during the term. They state: “We may say that we were dealing
with two approximate systems, the second at Time 2 being a closer approximation
than the first to adult native English”.
However, Frith is of the
opinion that it is not easy to establish unequivocally different stages or
approximate systems in a learner’s L2 grammar. So, the above finding has to be
interpreted with a great deal of caution. The above hypotheses could also be
applicable to Nigerian students, who, by virtue of multilingual country, are
also multi-lingual students with the English language as their L2. This could
also affect their grammatical structure particularly in both written and spoken
English.
Error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that
focuses on the errors learners make. It consists of a comparison between the
errors made in the target language (TL) and that TL itself. Pit Corder (1967)
is the ‘Father’ of Error Analysis. It was in his article entitled ‘The
significance of Learner Errors’ that Error Analysis took a new turn. Errors
used to be ‘flaws’ that needed to be eradicated. Systematically analysing
errors made by language learners makes it possible to determine areas that need
reinforcement in teaching (Corder, 1967).
Error Analysis (hereafter EA) is the examination of those
errors committed by students in both the spoken and written medium. Corder,
(1967: 125) who has contributed enormously to EA writes thus:
“The study of error is part of the investigation of the
process of language learning. In this respect it resembles methodologically the
study of the acquisition of the mother tongue. It provides us with a picture of
the linguistic development of a learner and may give us indications as to the
learning process”. It is essential here to make a distinction between mistake
and error. Both Corder, (1967, 1971) and James, (1998) reveal a criterion that
helps us to do so: it is the “self-correctability criterion”. A mistake can be
self-corrected, but an Error cannot. Errors are ‘systematic,’ i.e. likely to
occur repeatedly and not recognised by the learner. Hence, only the teacher or
researcher would locate them, the learner would not (Gass and Selinker, 1994).
And it is in this light that the researcher chose to focus on students’ errors
and not mistakes.
Corder introduced the
distinction between systematic and non-systematic errors. Nonsystematic errors
occur in one’s native language. Corder calls these ‘mistakes’ and states that
they are not significant to the process of language learning. He keeps the term
‘errors’ for the systematic ones, which occur in a second language. According
to Corder (ibid), errors are significant in three ways. They show a student’s progress
to the teacher. To the researcher they show how a language is acquired and what
strategies the learner uses. The learner can learn from these errors.
CONCEPTUALISING TENSE
As pointed out by Klein
(1995:141), 2500 years of research have not led to any precise or universal
acknowledged definition of the category ‘Tense’. There is wide spread of
understanding of what ‘Tense’ basically means. Such an understood definition
is, for instance, given in the international encyclopedia of linguistics,
(Bybee, 1992:223). “Tense” refers to the grammatical expression of the time of
the situation described in the proposition, relative to some other time. Other
time may be the moment of speech, e.g. the past and future designate time
before and after the moment of speech. Respectively, tense is expressed by
reflections, by particles or by auxiliaries in construction with the verb.
“Verbs” as grammatical elements, have several branches. Parts of these are
identified as Tense, Aspect and Mood. These elements are very essential in
giving meaning to a sentence. Verbs are also action words that describe events
or establish a state of being. As earlier stated, they are influenced by Tense,
Aspect and Mood.
Tense,,therefore,, refers to when an action occurs. This could happen in the
Past, Present or Future. It distinguishes when an action or state of being
occurs or exits. The commonest forms of tenses
are: Present Past and Future. Aspect signals the flow of
time. It addresses whether or not the action takes place in a single block
of time or if the action is continuous or repeated. It describes the degree of
action, its progress or completion. However, Mood refers to the “Attitude”
of the action; is the verb actually
happening, possibly happening, or being commanded to happen?
CONCEPT OF INTERLANGUAGE
According to
Frith,(1979), the issue of the interlanguage hypothesis has to do with
Selinker’s main aim which is the precise identification of the phenomena to be
studied when dealing with what he refers to as “the linguistic aspects of the
Psychology of second language learning.” Following Lenneberg, he hypothesizes a
“latent Psychological Structure” in the brain which is activated when one tries
to learn second language after having acquired “meanings” in a first language.
The utterances which will be produced will not be identical to those produced
by native speakers of the Target Language (TL) nor will they be exact
“translations” from the native language of the learners. Rather, a new,
separate system will develop. This is what is called “interlanguage”.
Selinker(1972) is also
of the view that the evidence of interlanguage can be found in what he calls
“fossilizations’’, that is phonological, morphological and syntactic features
in the speech of L2 speakers that are different from the TL rules even after
years of instruction in, and exposure to the TL. Selinker further states that,
this kind of regression is seen as systematic, and he uses it as evidence for
the psychological reality of fossilization and interlanguage. Consequently,
this indicates that the interlanguage of a speaker who displays this kind of regression
is still limited to relatively simple acts of communication.
The term “approximate
system,” was introduced by Nemser (1969) with the aim to describe the language
systems used by learners. He is of the view that language of the L2 learner is
as a self-contained language with a systematic grammar. Like corder (1967), he
sees the learners’ interlanguage developing through successive stages of
acquisition during the learning process. However, Frith is of the view that
this hypothesis can only be adequately tested by longitudinal L2
cross-linguistic studies.
Richards (1970) as we
have seen, within the interlanguage framework errors represent the L2 learner’s
“transitional competence” and are themselves systematic. Even though he does
not deny the role of the mother tongue as a source of difficulty in language
learning, but is of the view that there are other types of errors involved. He
uses the terms “intralingua errors” and “developmental errors”. Intralingua
errors reflect general characteristics of rule learning such as
overgeneralization and incomplete application of the TL rules. Based on this,
learners who over generalize the use of grammatical rules; create deviant
structures on the basis of their limited exposure to these TL rules.
The following examples
are given, thus: Errors such as;
v She must goes to
school every day.
v She did not found
it.
v The student does
not walks to school.
This indicates that the
learners are making false analogies with previously learned structures such as;
She goes to school every
day.
She did not find it.
The Student walks to school.
Errors which omit the
third person singular morpheme (-s) remove the necessity for concord, thus
reducing the learner’s linguistic problems (burdens).
On the other
perspective, developmental errors illustrate the attempt of learners to build
up hypotheses about the TL from their limited exposure to it. For instance:
v Iam not liking
it.
v In French we are
not having a present continuous tense and we do not know how to use it.
The above sentences show
that the learners have not yet learnt the constraints on the use of the present
progressive form in English, they are operating on the false assumption that
the morpheme /-ing/ can be added to any verb in any context.
Hatch (1976) is of the
view that it is very difficult to assign specific sources to errors as they
often have numerous sources. He opines that “only a better understanding of
learners and the many variables involved in the process of learning a second language
will help us to identify more according to all the possible sources of
variation in L2 data.
In summary all what have
been discussed above centred on three points. Firstly, the inter language
hypothesis sees errors as evidence of L2 learners strategies of learning rather
than a sign of interference or as the persistence of “bad habits” which should
be eradicated as quickly as possible through practice, drill and over learning
of the correct forms.
Secondly, the making of
errors helps the learner to test hypotheses about the TL system.
Thirdly, the making of
errors should help to uncover the learner’s built-in syllabus and his learning
strategies. These would facilitate learning the TL even though the learner
could not be as competent as he could be in the L1.
Error Analysis on Language learning and
Acquisition
Error Analysis is useful in second language learning
because it reveals to us -teachers, syllabus designers and textbook writers of
what the problem areas are. We could design remedial exercises and focus more
attention on the ‘trouble shooting’ areas, as it were. Corder,(1967) states
that errors are visible proof that learning is taking place. He has emphasised
that errors, if studied systematically, can provide significant insights into
how a language is actually learned by a foreigner. He also agrees that studying
students’ errors of usage has immediate practical application for language
teachers. In his view, errors provide feedback; they tell the teachers
something about the effectiveness of their teaching. According to Ancker,
(2000), making mistakes or errors is a natural process of learning and must be
considered as part of cognition.
METHODOLOGY
ADOPTED
This Section centred on
methodology adopted in the collection of data. It also highlighted on the
participants of the study, the instruments deployed and the Data Analysis
Techniques. PARTICIPANTS
OF STUDY
The participants of the
study are Senior Secondary School Students selected from the four local
Government areas of Birnin Magaji, Kaura Namoda, Shinkafi and Zurmi. Twenty
(20) Students selected from three (3) Secondary Schools from each of these
local Governments in Zamfara North Senatorial District were randomly selected.
That is, sixty (60) students would be used from each Local Government. In all,
the study would involve two hundred and forty (240) students from twelve (12)
selected Secondary Schools within Zamfara North Senatorial District. Also, the sample of Instruments is in form
of multiple choice questions and answers. Some of these samples are:
Fill in the Blanks
with the Appropriate Options
1) The case…….been
adjourned to January 2023
(a)Has (b) have (c) was (d) is
2) We….to school on
Wednesday
(a)Comes
(b) came (c) coming (d) come
3) The man…..left
before she arrived
4) Our new
principal……Reporting for duties next week
(a) Has (b) is (c) was (d) will
5) We have….. all
the mangoes
(a)Ate (b) eating (c) eaten (d) eats
6) I have…….editing
your notes since yesterday
(a) Been (b) being (c) was (d) is
7) Ahmad……clocking
two years next month
(a) Is (b) has (c)
have (d) was
8) People……been
calling her names
(a) Has (b) have (C)
was (d) were
9) The girl…..been
reported killed
(a) Have (b) has (C)
was (d) is
10) The principal
will be………tomorrow
(a) come (b) comes
(c) came (d) coming
Essay Writing
Write an Essay on any of the Following
1) Write an essay on
the topic ‘My first day in school’
2) Write an essay on
the topic ‘The dangers of armed banditry in Zamfara State’
3) Day school is
better than Boarding School
4) Describe how many
traditional meal is prepared in your community
DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
Data collected on the
research was analysed using SPSS Software Package Version 20.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The paper centres on
presentation and analysis of English Tense
and Aspects Errors on students in Homogenous Senior Secondary Schools
Students of Government Day Secondary School Kaura Namoda, Government Girls Day
Secondary School Kaura Namoda, Progressive Girls Secondary School Kaura Namoda,
from Kaura Namoda: Government Day Secondary School Birnin Magaji, Government
Day Girls Secondary School Birnin Magaji and Government Science Secondary
School Birnin Magaji. From Birnin Magaji; while from Shinkafi there are Government
Science Secondary School, Government Day Secondary School and Good News
Secondary School. Also from Zurmi there are Government Arabic Secondary School
and Halimatu International Secondary School and Government Girls Day Secondary
School Zurmi.
Two hundred and forty
(240) Senior Secondary Students ranging from SSI to SSIII were randomly
selected from these schools. These students were examined in both Essay writing
and fill in the blank spaces using appropriate alternatives. As it has been
mentioned, the statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) model was used in
the analysis of Data collected.
The Data collected
centred on Tense, such as present, past and future. These tenses were further
categorised and analysed as:
Under present tense,
there are:
® Present Simple or
indefinite present tense
® Present
Continuous
® present perfect
® Perfect
continuous
Under Past Tense, there
are:
·
Simple past
·
Past continuous
·
Past perfect
·
Past perfect continuous
Future Tense was split
in to
·
Simple future
·
Future continuous
·
Future perfect
·
Future perfect continuous
In each of the above
tenses, errors committed were identified and tabulated in the following order.
It began with how students wrongly use simple present tense in their written
English.
Table 1.0 Frequency
of Error in Present Tense
|
Tense |
Simple present tense |
Present progressive
tense |
Perfect present |
Perfect present
progressive |
|
Frequency of errors |
201 |
199 |
211 |
203 |
|
Frequency of correct option |
37 |
38 |
27 |
37 |
|
Number of papers marked |
238 |
238 |
238 |
238 |
|
Percentage of error occurrences |
84.45 |
83.61 |
88.66 |
85.29 |
Figure 1.0 Simple bar
Chart of Frequency of Error in Present Tense
A SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE
In the table above
(Table 1.0) Simple Present Tense was used in error by students in 201
instances. This was detected from the 238 answer sheets marked in both essay
and fill in the blank spaces with the appropriate alternatives.
Some examples of these
errors are: :
1) Our parents is
happenened to come to school everyday
Instead of
Our parents come to
school every day or visit our school every day.
2) Anywhere you go
kidnappers is here
Instead of
You meet kidnappers
where ever you go or
Anywhere you go,
kidnappers are there.
So, the students could
not use correct adverb “there” as against ”here” and had poor understanding of
subject +verb agreement, for instance, ‘kidnappers is’, instead of
‘kidnappers are’
B.
Present Progressive
Tense
Examples of errors under
this:
3)’we
going to school management’ instead of
We are going to
school management
The student could not
use the tense marker (are)
4) ‘Me and my father we
going to school’, instead of
I and my father are
going to school (present progressive tense)
Or I and my father were
going to school. (past progressive tense)
C. Present Perfect Tense
This tense refers to an
action that is completed but not continuous. The errors committed by students
reflected in their responses to the alternatives test. There were ten (10)
questions to be answered. Out of the ten questions, three questions were set on
present perfect tense, to be précised; questions 1, 5 and 9 were all on present
perfect tense. Some answers given by students included the following:
5) The case have been
adjourned
6) We have ate all the
mangoes
7) The girl was been
reported killed
In the first sentence,
the error is ‘have’, used instead of ‘has’.
‘has’ is used with a
singular noun (case), , that is,:
The case has been
adjourned.
In the second sentence,
‘ate’ is used in a simple past as against ‘eaten’ which is more appropriate to
be used in present perfect tense, So, the sentence should read
We have eaten all
the mangoes
In the third sentence,
‘was been’ was used in error instead of ‘has been’ which means present perfect
tense. ‘Was’ is a past continuous tense marker. So, the correct sentence is:
The girl has been
reported killed.
D.
Present Perfect
Progressive
This tense refers to
actions that are both continuous and completed. Majority of the students in
this research could not demonstrate the examples of this tense. However, the
few that answered objective questions committed errors in their answers. For
instance, questions 6 and 8 were answered as below
8) I have had editing your notes since yesterday
9) People was been calling her names
Fifty percent of the answers revealed that some students
chose ‘had, was, or ‘have’ as the correct alternatives instead ‘been’ for
question 6 above. The correct alternative is ‘been,’ to exemplify correct
sentences. That is “I have been editing your notes since yesterday”.
The 5th
question above was also answered in error by fifty percent of the students.
Some of their answers were:
10) People has been calling her names
11) People was been calling her names
12) People were been calling her names
The correct answer would
had been, ‘People have been calling her names,’
Some few scripts
indicated that some students re-wrote the answer as: ‘People have being calling
her names’. They were of the view that since the verb ‘calling’ has –ing as the
tense marker, which also marks the aspects, the tense must also have –ing, hence
to be marked by ‘being’. This shows an extension of rule; it is an error.
Table 2.0 Frequency
of Error in Past Tense Aspect
|
Tense |
Simple Past Tense |
Past Continuous Tense |
Past Perfect Tense |
Past Perfect
Continuous |
|
Frequency of error |
150 |
188 |
211 |
|
|
Frequency of correct responses |
88 |
50 |
27 |
|
|
Number of papers marked |
238 |
238 |
238 |
|
|
Percentage of error occurrence |
63.02 |
78.99 |
88.65% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Figure 2.0 Simple bar
Chart of Frequency of Error in Past Tense
A) Simple Past Tense
In Table 2.0 above,
Simple Past Tense is one of the commonest tenses students at Senior Secondary
Schools commit errors in the course of construction. It is also used often by
both students and their teachers. Sixty three point zero two (63.02%) percent of
the marked scripts carried different errors committed in simple past tense.
Some examples are:
13) We arrive in school
14) I meet our teacher
15) The students we
understand the question
16) The teacher did not
came
In the 10th
sentence, the student was trying to write: ‘We arrived in the school’.
The 13th
sentence, ‘I met our teacher’.
The 14th
sentence, either’ ‘The student understood the question,’ or ‘We understood the question’.
So, the use of ‘students
we’, occurred as a result of first language structural pattern influence.
In the 15th
sentence, the student over extended the rule of grammar by double marking ‘did’
and ‘came’.
The student could not
realise that when an auxiliary ‘do’ or ‘did’ appears before a main verb, the
preceding verb remains in its base.
So, the correct sentence
would had been:
The Teacher did not
come.
B. Past Continuous Tense
This tense shows a
progressive or continuous action of the past. However, some students find it
difficult to use this tense correctly. some sentences were used as identified
below:
17) We going to school
18) I going to class
19) When I am going to
school
The student attempted to
use past progressive or continuous tense in the three above sentences. However,
in 17 and 18 tense markers (were, was) were omitted. In sentence 19, ‘am’ was
used in error as against ‘was’. So the sentences would had been written as:
We were going to school
I was going to school
When I was going to
school
This shows that the
students lack basic knowledge in identifying tense markers, especially for past
continuous.
C) Past Perfect Tense
It can also be used
along with simple past tense to indicate the action that took place first in
the series. For example:
Musa had left before
Umar received the letter.
Though the question on
this tense was constructed in form of Multiple Choice Questions, fifty percent
of the respondents answered the question in error. The responses read as:
20) The man has left
before she arrived
21) The man have left
before she arrived
22) The man was left
before she arrived
The correct sentence
would had been, ‘The man had left before she arrived’.
In addition to that,
more than ninety (90%) of the students could not use this tense in their essay
writing. This shows lack of knowledge of this particular tense.
D. Past Perfect Continuous Tense
This tense indicates
that an action started in the past and continued up to a point in the past. For
example:
23) When Hassan started
teaching in community science, Halima had been selling fruits in the school for
two years.
In the students’
responses, there was no evidence to show the construction of this tense. This
shows that the students were not exposed to series examples of all tenses,
especially the past perfect tense.
Table 3.0 Frequency
of Error in Future Tense
|
Tense |
Simple future tense |
Future continuous
tense |
Future perfect tense |
future perfect
continuous |
|
Frequency of error |
78 |
180 |
203 |
224 |
|
Frequency of correct responses |
160 |
58 |
35 |
14 |
|
Number of papers marked |
238 |
238 |
238 |
238 |
|
Percentage of occurrence |
32.77 |
75.63 |
85.29 |
94.11 |
|
Total |
|
|
|
|
Figure 3.0 Simple bar
Chart of Frequency of Error in Future Tense Aspect
A. SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE
This tense refers to
events that are to happen in the future or it predicts future events.
In the students’
responses, more than 32% errors were identified. For example; the students were
trying to explain that their new principal will be reporting next week, they
committed the following errors: thus:
24) Our new principal has reporting for duties
next week
25) Our new principal was reporting for duties
next week
26) Our new principal will reporting for
duties next week
The errors identified in
the above sentences are:
Has, was, will
The correct sentence is:
Our new principal is
reporting for duties next week
Some students attempted
to use the structure, subject+will+v+object but ended up in mixing up of
tenses. Other errors identified include the following:
27) They will beating
the students
28) You shall go your
house tomorrow
29) I speaked to them
tomorrow
30) I will know how to
business
In the above sentence –
by using the modal verb ‘will’ the verb beating should not take the –ing. The
‘will’ marks future tense. The sentence should read:
They will beat the
students
Sentence 27 ‘Shall’,
should be substituted with ”will” and the verb “go” to be followed by “to”, the
sentence should read:
You will go to your
house tomorrow
In sentence 29-, the
verb ”speaked” was written in error, the student over generalised or over
extended the rule of grammar, particularly in giving past form of a regular
verb, that is, verbs whose simple past forms end in ed such as looked, cooked,
asked, danced etc. However, the student probably was trying to say, ‘I speak to
you tomorrow’. This could also be due to difference in language structure,the
learner’s first language (Hausa) and Second language (English).
In sentence 30- the
student was trying to say
I will learn how to run
a business. The student was considering the noun “business” as a verb, which
was used in error. This could also be due to difference in language pattern-
Hausa to English.
This tense is rather
more complicated as it indicates the completion of an action before a certain
time in the future. That is why it has lesser frequency of error as might have
been observed in the analyses.
B. FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
This Tense shows that an
action will be completed by that certain point in time in the future , for
instance next week, next month e.t.c. Some examples could be:
Umar will have written
the letter.
They will have fallen
the trees.
C. FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE
This tense refers to
progressive action in the future. It shows that the action will continue to be
real at that point in time. For instance, at this time next month we will be
flying to London
31) My father will been
taken me to school next month
32) Umar he will caming
to school from the Kasuwar Daji
33) I will starting
reading my book to exam next month
The above sentences from
31 to 33 were written in error by some students. In sentences- ‘been, taken’
were used in error in the students attempt to construct present future
progressive tense. For instance, ‘been’ would have been substituted with ‘be’,
‘taken’ would have been substituted with ‘taking’. So the sentence should read:
My father will be taking
me to school next month
In sentence- ‘Umar’ and
‘he’ were used in error. Both ‘Umar’ and ‘he’ stand as subject (doers) in the
sentence. Only one of them should be used. Also (caming) was used in error. The
word ‘came’ is in the simple past and does not require -ing. It should be
changed to ‘coming’ to demonstrate present future progressive tense.
So the sentence should
read, either:
Umar will be coming to
school from Kasuwar Daji or
He will be coming to
school from Kasuwar Daji
The sentence –“I will
starting” should be written as ”I will start”, while reading should be
maintained. ‘To’ should be changed to ‘for’. The sentence should be re-written
as:
I will start reading my
book for exam next month
D, FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
This tense was not used
by students. No evidence of its usage identified from the number of papers
marked.
5) ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION
This part of the
research discussed and analysed the data so far gathered on the topic as
explained below.
Figure 4.0: Simple
bar Chart of Frequency of Error in Tense Aspect
Based on the data
tabulated in the above table, it can be realized that out of 238 papers marked
from 12 senior secondary schools within Zamfara North Senatorial District, 203
errors on the use of present tense were identified, representing (85.3%). This
tense included simple progressive. This is followed by the past tense with the
frequency of the errors of 186 representing 78.2%. This also include past
progressive tense. This also takes us to future tense. There are 153
frequencies of errors shown in the table above, 64.3%, ranging from simple
future to future progressive tense. The last tense considered in the above is
the perfect tense. However, past perfect tense was excluded as no example of
such tense demonstrated in all the 238 papers marked. Therefore, 47 frequency
of errors were identified from, particularly the objective types of questions.
This also shows that students have performed fairly well in this tense.
However, present tense, being the most frequently used by students, takes the
highest percentage of 85. This shows that students need more training, constant
exercise on this tense, especially on subject/verb agreement to mention a few.
This is followed by simple past tense with 78.2 percent. This also requires
demonstration exercises; construction of sentences and several exercises to
overcome the errors of over extension of grammatical rules and other errors
such as double marking- where a student says. ‘He did not came’ or ‘ I did not
saw him yesterday’.
Furthermore, the errors
so far identified, manifested the common errors of Tense and Aspect. It shows
that the students could not use correctly the flow of time. That is, whether
what is being said is taking place in a single block of time, or is continuous
or repeated. The student’s responses could not explicitly show the degree of the
action demonstrated, is it in progress?Future? past? or completed?. All these
show errors in the use of the above tenses as a result of errors in the use of
the above tenses as shown in the above table.
5,1 OTHER ERRORS DETECTED
Some sentences
demonstrated intralingua errors for example, over generalisation and incomplete
application of the target language (English) rules. For example:
(34) He does not plays football
(35) She did not wrote the letter
There are also
Developmental errors. These are errors that occur in situation where second
language learners, that is, the students of senior secondary schools within
Zamfara North Senatorial District demonstrated in their essay writing . They
attempted to add morpheme-ing to any verb (past form) or adjective in any
contest. Sentences such as:
(36) I afraiding my father
(37) The meeting helding
The two sentences have shown some errors as identified
below:
In the first sentence,
the word ‘afraid’ is an adjective and does not take the morphine-ing. So, the
sentence should read as:
I am being afraid of my
father or
I am afraid of my
father. etc
Students need to be
taught that an adjective does not take-ing,They also need to realize that
‘being’ should be used as a marker (progressive) in constructing such tenses.
In sentence ‘37’
students should be taught that the past tense, e.g ‘held’, which is a past form
of the verb ‘hold does not take the morphine-ing. However,‘being’ could be used
in participial tense. For example,
The meeting is being
held at lugard hall
The above errors could
be alleviated by involving students in various exercise both oral and written
forms.
Teachers of English
Language should not hesitate to initiate storytelling, short dramatization,
Dialogue and encouraging students to express themselves in English within the
school environment. Literary and Debating clubs should be introduced to instill
confidence in the expressions of the students.
CONCLUSION
The paper examines the
implications of English language teaching and learning in Nigeria. In other
words, the significance of the study is that it could positively impact on the
major stakeholders in the business of teaching and learning English. Parents
and guardians for example, who have over the years been complaining over the
declining proficiency of their wards in English language will have a glimpse at
some of the psycholinguistic causes of their children’s weaknesses in the use
of Tenses so that they can contribute their quota at home helping their
children overcome the identified deficiencies by encouraging good reading
habits and promoting the use of Tenses in communication at home and other
informal contexts of written or spoken English.
To students, this paper
will open their eyes to their shortcomings in identifying the errors being
committed in English grammar and provide them with the necessary tools for
self-evaluation and correction.. As error analysts claim (Head bloom, 1979:
Mackeating, 1981), ‘learners’ errors are neither inhibitory nor dangerous since
learners can learn from their errors if given proper direction’.
Teachers of second
language (L2) teaching always frown at the frequency of errors in their
students spoken and written works and anything that will positively redress the
situation is a welcome development. Through studies of this nature, English
language teachers will be in a better position to know the grammatical needs of
their students in tense and aspect and thus devise and refine their teaching
methods and contents to address these needs.
To syllabus designers
and textbook writers for students in the polytechnic system where English is
taught for specific and academic purposes, the findings will reveal areas that
need attention in terms of course content, resource materials, instructional
periods and other pedagogy related issues in the curriculum.
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