TITLE:
Exploring Grammatical Errors in Teaching Materials
AUTHORS:
Peace Chinwendu Israel
KEYWORDS:
Nigerian English, English as a Second Language, Error Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.10 No.5,
October
30,
2020
ABSTRACT: This study examined lexico-syntactic errors in selected textbooks written by Nigerians. The focus was on textbooks published by Vanity Publishers/Press. Through the purposive sampling technique, six textbooks were selected and the design was content analysis. Lexico-syntactic errors were identified, classified and analysed. The findings revealed the following error types: modification problems, prepositional and verb particles usage problems, concord errors, lexical problems, alteration of grammatical property of collocational items and restructuring of parallel sentences. These errors were not different from those identified over the years in students’ essays and exam scripts. Therefore, the findings buttressed my argument that students are merely the conveyor belt of errors contained in teaching materials and that one can analyse students’ errors in tandem with errors contained in the very materials they use in learning.