A STUDY OF THE MISUSE OF ADVERBS IN THE WRITTEN ENGLISH OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
ABSTRACT
The study “A Study of the Misuse of Adverbs in The Written English of the Undergraduate of the Kogi State University, Ayingba” was carried out to determine the major areas of difficulty experienced by the one hundred (100) level students of the Kogi State University. One hundred samples of composition written by the one hundred (100) level students of the Kogi State University were analysed. These samples were selected from the Departments of English Language, Biochemistry and Business Administration. Four questions were raised and the simple percentage formula was used to answer the four questions. The findings show the following grammatical errors as common: omission of the –ly suffixes, wrong syntactic usage, wrong order of adverbs, misuse of preposition of place and time, wrong use of pronouns for adverbs e.t.c. The study suggests that Students should read standard books in the target language after normal classroom teaching in order to improve their writing skills. Teachers should try and use adequate and suitable learning materials. This will help students have a better understanding and good mastery of the language.
| TABLE OF CONTENTS | |||||||||||
| Pages | |||||||||||
| Title – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | i |
| Cover Page | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ii |
| Declaration | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | iii |
| Certification | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | iv |
| Dedication | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | v |
| Acknowledgements | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | vi | |
| Abstract | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | vii |
| Table of Contents | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | viii | |
| CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION | ||||||||||
| 1.1 | Background of the Study – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | |
| 1.2 | Statement of the Research Problem | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | ||
| 1.3 | Research Questions | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 5 |
| 1.4 | Aim and Objectives | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 5 |
| 1.5 | Justification of the Study – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | |
| 1.6 | Scope and Delimitation | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6 |
| CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE | ||||||||||||
| 2.0 Introduction | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 8 | ||
| 2.1 | Previous Studies | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 8 | |
| 2.2 | Conceptual Review | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 14 | ||
| 2.2.1 | Classification of Adverbs | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 16 | |||
| 2.2.2 | Adverb Placement | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 18 | ||
| 2.2.3 | How to Recognise Adverb | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 21 | |||
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| 2.2.4 | How to Recognise Misused Modifiers | – | – | – | – | – | – | 24 | ||||
| 2.3 Theory of Errors | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 26 | ||
| 2.3.1 | Contrastive Analysis | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 26 | ||
| 2.3.2 | Error Analysis | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 28 | |
| 2.3.3 | Causes of Errors | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 29 | |||
| 2.3.4 | L1 Interference | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 29 | |
| 2.4 | Types of Error | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 32 | |
| 2.4.1 | Inter-Lingual/Transfer Errors | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 32 | |||
| 2.4.2 | Intra-Lingual/Developmental Errors | – | – | – | – | – | – | 33 | ||||
| 2.4.3 | Over-generalization | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 33 | ||
| 2.4.4 | Ignorance of Rules Restriction | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 34 | |||
| 2.4.5 | Incomplete Application of Rules | – | – | – | – | – | – | 35 | ||||
| 2.4.6 | False Concept Hypothesized | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 35 | |||
| 2.5 | Gross Errors | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 36 | |
| 2.5.1 | Delicate Errors | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 36 | |
| 2.5.2 | Break down Errors | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 36 | ||
| 2.5.3 | Non Break down Errors – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 37 | |||
| 2.5.4 | Critical Errors | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 37 | |
| 2.5.5 | Persistent Errors – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 37 | ||
| 2.5.6 | Transient Errors – | – | – | – | – | — | – | – | – | 37 | ||
| 2.6 | Teacher‟s Attitude towards Correcting Students Written Errors and Mistakes | – | 39 | |||||||||
| 2.7 | Techniques for Correcting Errors and Mistakes | – | – | – | – | – | 42 | |||||
| 2.8 | Theoretical Framework | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 45 | ||
| CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY | ||||||||||||
| 3.0 | Introduction | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 46 | |
| 3.1Sources of Data Collection | – | – | – | – | – | — | – | 46 | ||||
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| 3.2 | Method of Data Collection | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 46 | |||
| 3.3 | Sampling Procedure | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 47 | ||
| 3.4 | Method of Data Analysis – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 47 | |||
| CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS | ||||||||||||
| 4.0 | Introduction | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 48 | ||
| 4.1Discussions | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 64 | ||
| 4.2Findings | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 66 | |
| CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION | ||||||||||||
| 5.0 Introduction | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 69 | ||
| 5.1 | Summary | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 69 |
| 5.2 | Conclusion | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 70 | |
| 5.3 | Recommendation – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 71 | ||
| References | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 72 | ||
| Appendix | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 75 | ||
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| List of Tables | ||||||||
| Table 1.0: Adverb of Manner – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 49 | |
| Table 2.0: Adverb of Time | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 51 |
| Table 3.0: Adverb of Place | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 53 |
| Table 4.0: Adverb of Frequency | – | – | – | – | – | – | 55 | |
| Table 5.0: Conjunctive Adverb | – | – | – | – | – | – | 57 | |
| Table 6.0: Type of Adverbs usually Misused – | – | – | – | 59 | ||||
| Table 7.0: Extend of Errors Committed by the Students | – | – | – | 61 | ||||
| Table 8.0: Comparism of Errors by the Students | – | – | – | – | 63 | |||