Analysis of Linguistic Errors in the Narrative Essays of Selected Public Senior Secondary Schools in Ikorodu Local Government Area, Lagos State, Nigeria

This study explored and analysed the predominant errors in the narrative essays of selected senior secondary schools in Ikorodu Local Government Area, Ikorodu, Lagos state. To analyse the linguistic errors in the said students’ narrative essays, Corder’s Error Analysis Model of analysing errors was used as a standpoint to analyse the errors. Descriptive method which employed analysis of written test of 300 essays from the selected schools was used for the methodology. Findings showed that the predominant errors made by the participants are: tense errors, punctuation errors, spellings errors, and then expression errors. From the findings, it was also discovered that gender differences and course orientation difference can be a clog in the wheels of achieving error-free writing. The science students recorded fewer errors in the categories of errors compared to their Arts and commercial counterparts. It is important to integrate writing task with other skills to help the learners with useful writing strategies and techniques that could help improve their writing skills. The vocabulary of the students should be improved by providing them with extensive writing assignments on different topics and immediate oral and written feedback to the student’s performance.