A corpus-based analysis of the adjectival group structural (mis)conceptions among Nigerian ESL learners

Abstract

This paper interrogates (mis)conceptions of the Adjectival Group (henceforth, AdjGrp/AdjPhr) structure by three ESL learner/user categories, namely pre-university, university, and postgraduate students. The paper argues that not all English language teaching websites are reliable regarding careful structural linguistic analysis, and that the AdjGrp structure has a distinct grammatical form. Out of a corpus of 1,540 AdjGrp samples generated from 352 respondents tested on their knowledge of the AdjGrp structure using the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) template, only 190 samples (12%) were found to be compliant with the correct AdjGrp structural configuration, signifying a very poor performance by respondents at all levels, in spite of being students of English, and implicating a very weak understanding of the unit. Findings also show a gradual fall in respondents' performance from SSS-3 (21%) to 100Level (16%), 200Level (11%) and 400Level (10%) only to pick up at the PG level (15%), perhaps due to relearning. The rest of the samples (88%) were marred with eighteen different misconceptions, including incomplete structures and various other word classes, groups and clauses cited as AdjGrps. In conclusion, most ESL learners/users do not have adequate understanding of this grammatical category, perhaps resulting from gradual degenerative engagement with, and inadequate pedagogical attention to it, on the one hand; and the confusing, inaccurate explication of the unit by some online and offline authors, on the other. The paper cautions ESL learners/users on the indiscriminate use of online/offline materials, while urging improved pedagogical attention to this grammatical unit in school curricular.

Keywords: Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), ESL learner/user, Adjectival Group, structural misconceptions