Abstract:
At the University of Namibia Southern Campus, students commit recurrent written errors in daily tasks as well as examinations. This poor writing proficiency has been a great concern to the University of Namibia as the University is held accountable if it produces graduates who lack proficiency in writing. Writing is an integral part of any profession and an acceptable standard of writing in the official language is essential.
Therefore, it is against this background that this study aims to investigate linguistic errors made in the English Language and Literacy (LEP 2500) examination answer scripts of the year 2018 by students at the University of Namibia, Southern Campus. The researcher used a combination of error analysis and document analysis as this study’s theoretical framework. The qualitative method was used to identify the students’ written errors from the examination scripts. A total of 72 students’ answer scripts comprised the population of this study and 56 samples formed the sample size of this study. The 56 research samples were then analysed based on Corder’s (1974) five steps in error analysis research, namely: (1) collection of a sample of learners’ language; (2) identification of errors; (3) description of errors; (4) explanation of errors; and (5) evaluation of errors. The findings revealed that a total number of 17 categories of different types of errors were analysed from the students’ examination scripts in the LEP 2500 module for the 2018 academic year.
These errors were classified into three major categories, namely: morphology, syntax and semantics. The observed errors in students’ examination scripts were: errors in verb tense, subject verb agreement, use of pronouns, capitalisation, punctuation, articles, singular and plural linkage, use of inflections, use of auxiliary verbs, spelling, use of colloquialism, use of compounds, omission of letters, mis-selection of letters, mis-ordering of letters, and errors in sentences and paragraphs.
The study further revealed that these errors are attributed to: inter-lingual transfer, intra-lingual transfer; over-generalisation, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, and technological interference. On the strength of the findings, the study recommends that English language instructions be emphasised across all the field of studies, provision of extensive online end of the semester examination reports, consider the process approach to teaching grammar and spelling, and a consideration of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in all courses.
