Student teachers’ awareness and use of auxiliary verbs: a case study of student teachers at the University of Zululand
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Date
2019
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
This study was conducted at a university based in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The purpose
of the study was to determine if the explicit instruction of selected grammar aspect, modal
auxiliary verbs, improved students’ ability to write English. The study was qualitative in nature
and a case study design was adopted. The focus was in relation to a sample of 80 student
teachers who were randomly selected in 2016 in the Faculty of Education. 40 participants
were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. For the experimental group,
training lasted six weeks. Both groups were made to write similar essays and those essays
were marked focusing on the students’ ability to use modal auxiliary verbs. The study’s
findings revealed that the experimental group performed better than those in the control group
in the use of modal auxiliary verbs. Based on the findings, the study recommended explicit
grammar instruction in all the students’ level of study in order to overcome the challenges they
have in writing English. Thus, time should be created to ascertain that adequate explicit
grammar lessons are offered to all pre-service teachers at the university.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2019
Keywords
Student teachers', Auxiliary verbs, language teaching