ANALYSIS OF TENSE ERRORS IN STUDENTS’ WRITTEN ESSAYS: A CASE STUDY OF WOBIL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

ABSTRACT Education is key to the development of every nation and to deepen the benefits of education communication is necessary to aid the expression of ideas, opinions, thoughts and feelings either written or orally. There is however evidence that students in Junior High Schools lack the required depth of knowledge in English language. Students of Wobil Junior High School tend to make errors that suggest they do not have a full grasp of the rules of grammar; however, no comprehensive study has been done to ascertain the kind of errors these students make and what the causes are. This study sought to use a qualitative design with a case study method to analyse the written essays of 245 students of Wobil Junior High School and also interviewed the 2 English language teachers of the school. The study revealed that the errors students committed were the present and past tense errors. The categories of the present tense errors included the present tense, present perfect tense and past progressive tense. Those of the past tense included the simple past, past perfect and past progressive tense. Omission of the plural marker –s was also part. It was also revealed that these tenses were as a result of ineffective teaching methods used by teachers as well as students’ inability to apply the rules of the English language. The study revealed that tense errors have an impact on the speaking and writing of students.