ERRORS IN ORAL EXPRESSION OF
ENGLISH LANGUAGE BY SECONDARY STUDENTS
D. Vinodh Kumar
INTRODUCTION
One
very common problem the teacher of English faces today is a large number of
errors made by the learners at all levels. This is mainly observed in the
oral expression. The four important basic skills necessary for
communication are: listening, speaking, reading and writing. When a person
learns the mother tongue, he/ she masters speech first. It is later, at
the age of six or seven; he/she begins to learn reading and writing. In
learning a second language, a learner should start with speech and then learn
reading and writing. Language is primarily a spoken thing, the written
representation is secondary. Teachers are often annoyed at the number of errors
committed by their learners, especially in the spoken area. A study of
error analysis can make it clear to the teachers that no one can learn a
language without committing errors. They would realize that errors are a
part of learner’s learning process. The significance of the errors as
revealed by error analysis would change the attitude of the teachers.
They would look at the errors as something, as a part of language learning, and
not something which hinders the process of language learning.
OBJECTIVES
1. To
collect errors in terms of deviance of randomly selected secondary school
students of classes VIII, X and XII;
2.
To study the efforts of the teachers to improve the oral expression of the
learners;
3.
To analyse and find out the sources of these errors;
4.
To suggest remedial measures to improve the oral expression of the learners.
METHOD
Tools
1.
Paragraphs (oral reading texts): In the all three classes i.e. Standard VIII, X
and XII learners were asked to read a couple of paragraphs from their texts;
2.
List of words (oral reading): A list of words was prepared for each of the
three classes: std VIII, X and XII. These
words were taken from their texts. Care was taken in selection of the
words. Difficulty level was also maintained;
3.
Interview: A number of simple questions were asked to the learners of std VIII. This was in form of an interview;
4.
5.
Elocution: Since the learners of std XII were older
and more advanced than learners of std VIII and X, they were asked to say a few
sentences on the given topics;
With
the help of above tools and techniques the learners were made to speak. This
oral expression of the learners was recorded on a cassette-tape.
Sample
A sample of 60 students were taken randomly from std VIII,
X and XII (form each class, 20 students).
Procedure
The
researcher carefully listened to the available data of each learner of class
VIII, X and XII. Learners’ responses were transcribed. It is to be noted
that only a deviance response was singled out and was transcribed separately.
This deviance was given a frequency counts. The frequency counts deviance was
counted of each of the following areas:
1.
Deviance in consonants;
2. Deviance
in vowels;
3.
Unnecessary repetition;
4.
Clusters of sounds;
5.
Unnecessary deletion;
6.
Unnecessary replacement;
7.
Not clear sound;
8.
Unnecessary repetition and hesitation;
9.
Hesitation and unclassified deviance;
10. Deviance
in sound consonants and sound vowels;
11.
Unnecessary replacement and unclassified deviance;
12.
Unnecessary addition;
13.
Missing; and
14. Unclassified
deviance.
FINDINGS
Deviance in different fourteen areas was found. The learners of the school
under study committed 535 (40%), 456 (35%) and 396 (25%) deviance in the class
VIII, X and XII, respectively. The highest rate of deviance was found in
pronunciation of vowel sounds 395(28.4%). The second highest rate of deviance
was found in pronunciation of consonant sound 316 (22.7). Learners rate of deviance in terms of not clear
pronunciation was 145 (10.4%). The least rate of deviance in terms of
replacement and unclassified deviance was 11(0.79%). The deviance in terms of
deletion, repetition, hesitation and missing were 14 (1.00%), 15 (1.08%) and 15
(1.08%) respectively.
SUGGESTIONS
In
order to improve the
oral expression of the learners, consonant sound must be practised
well. The vowels and diphthongs present difficulty to the students.
Teachers should take care of them. Clusters such as/st.
lm/. ksts / must be practised so that students can pronounce them well. The
reading should be done carefully with proper grouping of words and avoiding
substitutions and omissions. The pronouncing dictionary should be regularly utilised. The dissimilarities between English and the
mother tongue need to be highlighted. There has to be correct length in
pronouncing long and short letters. Use of audio-visual aids be
profitably made. Charts with phonetic symbols be
used. Oral drills can help a lot to improve learners’ pronunciation.