INVESTIGATING GRAMMATICAL ERRORS USING TENSE AND ASPECT IN WRITTEN ENGLISH BY HOMOGENOUS SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS STUDENTS

Grammar refers to the rules we must follow if we want to use a language correctly. Violation of the adequate use of these rules leads to the commission of errors. However, the terms ‘Tense’ and ‘Aspect’ are two interrelated grammatical elements which are closely connected. Tense denotes the direction of an action or an event in time. However, Aspect indicates how an action is to be viewed with respect to time rather than to its real direction in time. The distinction between the two categories is, ‘tense’ shows the direction of an action in time whereas ‘aspect’ shows how the action is to be perceived with time. Therefore, ‘Tense’ and ‘Aspect’ as relevant grammatical elements in English language imposed lots of problems to both teachers and /learners of English as a Second Language. The study explored the nature of such errors, the frequency of their occurrences, their underlying causes as well as proffered some pedagogical solutions. The main aim was to investigate and analyse the Grammatical Errors using tense and aspect in Written English of Senior Secondary Schools Students. Some other objectives included to identify the types of grammatical errors of tense and aspect in both written and spoken forms. It would also provide corrective measures and proffered remedies to the errors in the students’ written English. The importance of this study would be to expose how the proficiency of the students could be improved, the impacts of all the stake holders and how they could help in alleviating the causes of their children’s weaknesses in written English so that they could contribute their quota at home, within the school environment to overcome the deficiencies in their daily communication. This also exposes students to English grammar and provides them with the necessary tools for self-evaluation and correction. The curriculum designers and Language Teachers would also be acquainted with the areas that need attention in terms of course content, resource materials, instructional periods and other pedagogical relationships in the curriculum. The methodology adopted were questions (essay types) to collect data. Also, SSPS model was adopted to facilitate correct data analysis.