A TRANSFORMATIONAL GENERATIVE APPROACH TO PASSIVISATION PROBLEMS EXHIBITED BY SELECTED STUDENTS OF POLYTECHNICS
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Languages and Communication Studies, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai.
Abstract
In this paper, the author reported an investigation into the difficulties encountered by some Nigerian polytechnic students in the construction of passive sentences. The researcher constructed twelve (12) questions which were administered to test the competence of one hundred respondentsrandomly selected from the four colleges of Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic (WUFED), Birnin Kebbi. The errors identified were analysed and classified using the Descriptive Method of error analysis within the frameworks of Chomsky's Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG). The study revealed that the respondents exhibited the following errors: random selection between the auxiliary verb "been" and "being", dropping of tense marker or using improper form of tense, omission of plural marker in the process of swooping of linguistic items, insertion of extraneous items, derivation of unrelated conversion, and wrong assignment of semantic interpretation to noun phrases contained in passive sentence. Stemming from these findings, the author calls the attention of stakeholders to curriculum design, production of language materials, and creation of teaching learning environment. Considering the fact that our respondents are users of English as a Second Language (ESL), it is believed that if attention is given such issues that are germane to the exhibition of relevant language skills, improvement in learners' performance would be remarkable.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Olaleye, J. I. (2017). A Transformational Generative Approach to Passivization Problems Exhibited by Students of Polytechnic Lapai Research in Humanities, 4. 133-147.