Morphological Errors in Written English of Primary School Students of Class Four and Five an Empirical Educational Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines morphological mistakes in written English of students in Class Four and Class Five of primary school via an empirical study of the education field. Morphology, which is an important aspect of linguistic competence, is very essential in shaping writing skills of students but learners in primary level tend to have a problem with correct word form and structure. Basing on the theoretical framework of morphological awareness and error analysis, the research would determine the types of errors, how common they are, and the factors of education that led to such errors. The mixed methods design was followed by analyzing documents that were prepared as test papers and then handing them over to a purposive sample of 100 students comprising of 50 in Class Four and 50 in Class Five. The analysis of data was done in terms of frequency counts, percentage analysis, and thematic interpretation. The results have shown that the inflectional, tense, and derivational errors are the most frequent and Class Four students made more mistakes compared to Class Five. The findings reveal the effect of instructional policies, inadequate morphological awareness and first language interference on the performance of the students. The paper indicates that there should be clear morphological teaching to enhance writing skills.