A Critique of Undergraduate Students’ Writing Skill in an ESL Setting: Samples from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria  

Oleh:

Bodunde, Helen A. ; Sotiloye, Bosede S.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: World Journal of English Language vol. 3 no. 2 (2013), page 10-21.
Topik: writing skill; first language; second language; negative transfer; English and Communication Skills; teaching and learning processes
Fulltext: 2900-9300-1-SM.pdf (142.93KB)

Isi artikel

The importance of writing cuts across all levels of education. Its effectiveness hinges on the ability to use the grammar of language appropriately especially in a second language (SL) situation. This paper compares the writing skill in English Language of eighty 100 level students and forty of those in 500 level core Agriculture colleges who were randomly selected for grammatical assessment in a Nigerian University. The research was carried out after both groups had gone through English and Communication Skills courses. The results show that students have problems with almost all aspects of grammar – tense, punctuation, spelling, concord, abbreviation, preposition, and word amalgamation. At the 100 level, tense and spelling errors were the most frequent while punctuation and tense errors were most prominent in 500 level scripts. Tense errors were common to both groups as a result of negative transfer from the first language (L1), though the environment in which they occurred differ. The study also reveals an important relationship between a mastery of the speaking skill and effective writing. The implications of the findings on the teaching and learning processes were discussed and suggestions were made on how to improve students’ writing capability.

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