Morphosyntactic errors in the written and spoken english by middle level college students. a case study of Rift Valley Province

Abstract

This study analysed morphosyntactic errors made by students in the Middle Level Colleges in xsritten and spoken English. Morphosyntactie errors in the students’ written work and spoken English hamper their communicative competence as has been established through this study which analysed students‘ written and spoken utterances. The causes of these errors had not been investigated and established. and necessary remedial measures suggested for alleviating them. The objectives of this study were to identify and categorize morphosyntactic errors and establish the possible causes. The hypotheses of this study were that middle level college students make morphosyntactic errors. which have certain causes. overgeneralization of the target language rules being the main cause. The study is of benefit to students. teachers and curriculum developers because it has been able to identify the problem areas in the students" language. The theoretical framework is based on error analysis hypothesis in the construct of the interlanguage theory. The research method that has been used is content analysis. The population comprises students from three colleges in the Rift Valley Province. These colleges include Rifi Valley lnstitute of Science and Technology, Eldoret Polytechnic and Kenya Industrial Training lnstitute. The sample was drawn from students in the first year of study in the three colleges. Cluster random sampling was used. Data was collected through written tests and recording of students"oral discussions and was analyzed through the Error Analysis (EA) procedure. The outcomes of the study were the classification of the morphosyntactie errors. analysis and discussion. leading to the establishment ol‘ possible causes and ameliorative procedures. The studies findings were that the middle level college students make morphosyntactic errors whose main cause is the overgeneralization of the TL rules. lt was found out that the students’ greatest areas of difficulty in the use of English inflections arc in the use of tense and concordial agreement rules. The conclusion of the study is that the students‘ communicative competence is hampered by the morphosyntactie errors of various categories. The recommendation is that remedial measures should be applied.