AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROBLEM OF AUXILIARY VERBS ACQUISITION AND USAGE BY N.C.E. STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN KANO

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROBLEM OF AUXILIARY VERBS ACQUISITION AND USAGE BY N.C.E. STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN KANO

Abstract:

The study titled: “An Investigation into the Problem of Auxiliary Verbs Acquisition and Usage by NCE Students: A Case Study of Selected Colleges of Education in Kano” sets out to investigate the possible causes of the misuse of English auxiliary verbs by NCE students. The study also investigates the problem of acquiring auxiliary verbs as part of English Grammar by NCE students. It as well reviews some relevant available literature on auxiliary verbs usage, second language acquisition (SLA), second language (L2) errors and language teaching methodologies. The study is anchored on acculturation theory of SLA propounded by Schumann (1978).Survey and experimental research methods/designs were adopted in gathering data for the study. An objective test and a questionnaire based on the subject matter of the research were the instruments used in collecting data from the respondents. A total population of twelve thousand subjects was considered for the study. This comprises of NCE I and NCE III students only. However, a sampling population of one thousand, two hundred NCE students was randomly selected for the study. Out of this number, six hundred were NCE I, while the remaining six hundred were NCE III. Also thirty lecturers of Developmental English were randomly selected and used in order to balance the information. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study. Simple percentages were used in analyzing and interpreting the data collected. The findings of the study reveal that a number of factors accounted for the misuse of auxiliary verbs by the subjects of the study. These include: faulty teaching of these verbs, inadequate exposure of the respondents to L2, poor learning strategies by the respondents, unconducive teaching and learning environment, inadequate knowledge of the rules of usage, poor reading habit, negative attitudinal disposition towards the target language by the respondents, poor motivation strategies employed by the General English teachers and most importantly difficulties inherent in L2 learning among others. The findings further reveal that second language (auxiliary verbs) acquisition by NCE students in Colleges of Education is hindered by a combination of factors, such as overcrowded classrooms, lack of optimal input in most of the classrooms, adoption of pure lecture method by lecturers, inability to structure the classroom environments into naturalistic form, focusing of teaching on linguistic form rather than on meaning by lecturers among others. Based on the above findings, the study recommends that General English lecturers in Colleges of Education should modify their teaching methods by adopting Communicative Language Teaching Approach propounded by Littlewood (1981), Brumfit (1992), Richards (2002) which emphasizes the teaching of language in a natural setting as obtains in a real-life situation. This will no doubt facilitate L2 acquisition. Also a more conducive teaching and learning environment should be provided as well as provision of functional language laboratory among others. The study concludes that almost all types of auxiliary verbs are problematic to our subjects as they viii scored an average mark of 52.7% only and misused as much as 47.2% of these verbs in the test administered to them. General English lecturers in Colleges of Education are therefore admonished to employ more realistic and more functional approach to the teaching of auxiliary verbs (as part of English Grammar) in order to minimize their misuse drastically.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROBLEM OF AUXILIARY VERBS ACQUISITION AND USAGE BY N.C.E. STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN KANO