English Participle Problems in Written Essays as Global Challenges in Language: A Syntactic Assessment of the Students of Akwa Ibom State University in a Second Language Situation

This paper focused attention on English Participle Problems in written essays of the students of Akwa Ibom State University as global challenges in language education in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general in their Use of English course. It also tried to find out how teaching and learning of participle as a major close class item can be improved upon In order to check the constraints they face and the possible ways of helping them to overcome such difficulties. To achieve this goal, essays were administered on 200 students who were selected by simple stratified random sampling technique from five out of the seven faculties of the university. The participle problems are to be identified based on the assumption that in a second language situation, learners (the students) are bound to face difficulties in studying the grammatical units of the language. The theoretical framework used in this work is Error Analysis Approach because errors will always be made, in that, by their nature, they are systematic infringements on the normal rules of the language; and are important in learning process, being a pointer to the extent to which learning has taken place. Based on their performance, conclusions were drawn and generalisations made, Recommendations were also offered with a view to providing solutions to the problems posed by these aspect of grammatical elements through the application of open educational resources for development and expansion in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general in a second language situation.

Keywords: English Participles Problems Global Challenges Higher Education Second Language Situation Africa

Author

• Susanna T. Udoka
  Department Of English
  Akwa Ibom State University
  Obio Akpa Campus