Abstract:

The study assessed the errors in English comprehension by Junior Secondary School Students. Errors in English comprehension in this study were categorized as mechanical errors in written comprehension with particular emphasis on punctuation and spelling. This study adopted an ex-post-facto design approach. The target groups for the study were Ogun State Junior Secondary Schools in Nigeria. The samples were drawn from four (4) geo- political areas in Ogun State of Nigeria (Ijebu, Remo, Yewa and Egba). Multi-stage stratified sampling technique was used to select five co-educational Public Secondary Schools from the four geo – political zone. Five schools were selected with fifty (50) Junior Secondary Students per school totaling two hundred and fifty (250) male and female students in each of the zone. Two instruments, Errors in English Language Written Comprehension (EEWC), and an achievement test in English Language Punctuation and Capitals (EPC) were used to collect data from the one thousand (1000) students who were randomly sampled as participants. The instrument (EEWC) has two sections – Section A of the instrument focuses on demographic information of the Students while Section B of the instrument contains items eliciting information from the students on the theme of the study. The achievement test was based on errors made in punctuation and spellings. The validity and reliability of the instrument were determined by trial testing the instrument on the similar set of the sample in some other schools that were not part of sample population and the Kurder-Richardson 21 formula was used to obtain the inter-item reliability coefficient of 0.85 and 0.80 respectively. The data were subjected to Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Data were tested for significance at the 0.05 level. Based on the findings, it was detected that students made more errors in punctuation than in spellings. This could be attributed to the lack of knowledge and understanding of common mistakes made in English. Part of the recommendations made was that the teachers should concentrate on areas that seem to be problematic for the students.

Keywords:

Errors, Mechanical Errors, Mother Tongue, Punctuation, Capitalization, English comprehension.