English errors among students of the department of literature , english and communication, school of language literature and communication and college of humanities and social sciences

Abstract

This study was carried out to try and establish the causes of English Errors among undergraduate Students of DLEC, SLLC and CHUSS Makerere University. Two hypotheses were examined: 1. In English, there is no relationship between Spelling and sound and that is the cause for English Errors. 2. English borrows words from other languages, which is cause of spelling errors. Coursework and test-scripts of individuals were analysed in detail and spelling errors were observed. Cluster sampling was used to select the people whose scripts were analysed. These included average students, very bright students, and those who had few marks. Informal interviews and a small impromptu test were conducted. An analysis of the students' errors revealed that the parts of speech in which most errors were committed we're nouns and verbs. The types of errors that occurred, most were confused words due to sound and spelling namely: missing letters, doubled consonants and Letter Reversal. Some spelling errors were due to the English habit of borrowing words such as lieutenant. The results of the informal interviews and the impromptu tests revealed that although most of the respondents were of literature in English and English language studies, who were exposed to novels in their libraries and courses they had problems with spelling in their writing.